Favorite female characters in games?

[Sailears]

Got to agree with those saying FemShep in Mass Effect, thanks to Hale's excellent voice acting and aside from some very extreme paragon/renegade choices, comes across as a good balance between hard and soft.

I'm also going to say Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic 2. Well executed and gave the player a lot of food for thought in dialogue.

 

[MauricioMM]

I have seen many great female characters in lots of games but, curiosly enough, a sizeable amount of them are featured in The Witcher 3... yeah, I’m a fanboy, nothing I can control about it Most of them are phenomenal characters in their own special way: Cerys, Triss, Anna Henrietta, Syanna, Keira, Phillippa, Iris, and a long etc. However, the one who in my opinion takes the crown without a doubt is Yennefer of Vengerberg.

She’s a bit less mean-spirited and quite a bit more lovable than her book counterpart (after getting to her good side), so it was an easy romancable choice for my Geralt. Plus, I feel that not only she lost almost nothing of what made her book self special (apart of her relationship with Ciri, but that’s a sad tale for another occasion ) but also gained a lot of charm and personal quality thanks to the writing and to the stellar voice performance of Denise Gough. Easily the most memorable female videogame character ever for me

Yennefer’s portrayal is the superior one in the whole game but I love Ciri’s too: her design (although I wouldn’t have minded if they had let her facial scar be as large as in the books), her voice, and her peculiar balance between immaturity and levelheadedness are what made her memorable for me.

---

Some honorable mentions from other games: Alyx Vance (Half-Life saga), Alice Liddell (Alice: Madness Returns), Heather Mason (Silent Hill 3), Cassandra Pentaghast and Sera (Dragon Age series), Elaine Marley (Monkey Island series), Veronica Santangelo and Cass (Fallout: New Vegas), Elizabeth Comstock and Daisy Fitzroy (Bioshock Infinite), Maribel Mayde (Dragon Quest VII), Undyne (Undertale)... Yeah, with some exceptions I gravitate more towards the ones with “nerdier” and/or kinda playful personalities.

 

[Bloodartist]

This is a super loaded question, there are so many. So is this about playable characters? Or NPCs? I am not sure how long the list for NPCs would be, but out of playable characters two rise clearly above others:

1. Kassandra of Agiad - AC: Odyssey

(Voiced by Melissanthi Mahut)
Seems that my favorite type of protagonist is a strong, independent, assertive woman. Not only is Kassandra exactly that, her story also deeply resonated with me. I'm now at 160 hours and still not close to finishing the DLC stories.


2. Female Sith Warrior - Star wars the old republic

(Voiced by Natasha Little)
Sith, the ultimate badasses of the universe. Sith warrior was by far my favorite class story in SWTOR as they got to perform every Sith cliche there was, and I totally loved to be the one doing it. Little was also the superior voice actor of the two choices. She could win fights with sass alone. (other credits include: Morathi the hag sorceress - Total War: Warhammer; Warrior culture advisor voice - Stellaris)


These are clearly my two most favorite playable characters of all time. Next ones on my list I'd have think a little, but I think next goes to

3.Morrigan - Dragon age: origins
(voiced by Claudia Black)

Off the top of my head other great ones in no particular order:

Sadie Adler - Red Dead Redemption 2
(voiced by Alex McKenna)
"Nobody's taking anything from me - ever again."

Vette - Star wars the old republic
(voiced by Catherine Taber)
Never losing her spunk even when facing hopeless odds.

 

[McMicroDonalds]

For me it's Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark. One of my favorite FPS games. She was written like a normal everyday person which in my opinion only made her more bad ass. She also had a really striking visual design with futuristic body armor.

 

[Iszdope]

Sunny Funny (PaRappa The Rapper)

April Ryan (The Longest Journey)

Jesse Faden (Control)

 

[Sild]

I know i've already chosen but i can't forgive myself if i don't give Clementine (from TWD episodic game series) a mention.

Kass.

Kass.... Kassandra? From Odysey?

 

[Sailears]

I have to add Eudico from Warframe to this list.

Especially also after having played through the recent story quest.

The voice actor is outstanding, and the character has the perfect amount of humour/sass/authority. She's fantastic!

 

[Bracala]

Kassandra from AC Odyssey , she is very beautiful and I simply love the game .

 

[Cempunk]

Lara croft

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Jeanette

 

[Barracuda88]

Rachel Amber.

 

[Spockprime]

1. Aloy. Cool character, good story, excellent voice acting. Plus dinosaurs. Machine dinosaurs, but still dinosaurs.
2. Yennefer. Complex, good voice acting, most beautiful videogame character of all time. Lucky witcher.
3. Ciri. Same as Yen, but less beautiful (totally in the eyes of the beholder). Uber cool character.
4. FemShep, but only as a renegade. Jennifer Hale's voice acting is superb as a renegade, but less effective as a nice character.

 

[lelxrv]

Jeanette

View attachment 11046119

Jeanette, of course.

Spoiler

Do you kill Therese every time?

 

[Codecypher]

Morrigan from Dragon Age Origins
Kerrigan from Starcraft
Nova from Starcraft
Valeera from Warcraft
Lara Croft from Tomb Raider
Yennifer and Triss from Witcher

 

[BabalKabak]

Here's my 2 cents on the question.

For narrative-strong games, I like my chars (not just female, but all leading char) to be clever, true with their principles, doing their stuff right, "may" be attractive to my eyes if the other conditions are met, but not mandatory. I want to feel empathy and see them evolving, since it's the point of playing a narrative-strong game.

In more action-based games I am OK with whatever comes as long as they're "cool". This could mean one attitude, design, move set or arbitrary details (blood type, hair, date of birth...?) that pleases me in the moment, makes me chill and enjoy the game.

If the game is half narrative and half action-based, it's a mix of both.

Some female chars I like/remember most : Samus Aran (from Metroid Prime - she earns all the trophies : beautiful, talented, badass... sad that she's been spoiled in the late sequels) ; Meryl Silverburgh (from MGS - when Kojima made sexy AND interesting female chars) ; Clementine (one of my best narrative experience, ironically the game design was poor imo but that's for another thread) ; Shepard (easy one since it's a gender option but still liked the voice acting and story) ; Triss Merigold (came for the red hair, stayed for the personality) ; Ivy Valentine (from the first games - she's one arrogant [person] with two big arguments but she's also one of the most colorful, coolest Soul Calibur characters ever). Honorable mention given to Ine San because she was the loveliest character of all played games.

Some female chars I don't like/understand : Quiet (fan service in disguise, that applies for many other chars but I ain't gonna write a book lol) ; Lara Croft (from the reboot - when you wanna make some kind of realistic and emotional story but everything looks wrong, just like her) ; Annoying RPG char N°875 (insert every character who'd look like a poorly written anime girl : annoying attitude, or personality limited to being dumb).

 

[Skirlasvoud]

To me a proper female hero, is one who has to deal with being female.

It's way too easy just to create a hero and then slap a gender on him/her. Female Shephard from Mass Effect comes to mind. There's nothing that makes her stand out from her male counterpart if they both speak, act and think the same. I know equality is popular, but if a female hero is indistinguishable from a male hero, then what makes her different? Being a woman is about more than just being depicted with a pair of tits and an hourglass figure. That's reductive. Being a female hero is about having a different mindset and facing different adversities than a male hero.

There's enough heroes in this thread that just so happen to be female.

For a female who is a hero, my vote goes to Nariko from Heaven's Blade:

Heaven's Blade is set in a Conan-esque world, where a large cluster of independent, freedom loving villages are about to get swallowed up by your average evil empire. The independent villages put their fate in the prophecy that one day, a great male hero will rise to wield the Heaven's Blade and save them from the Empire. This male hero is set to be born as the heir of a great, legendary family.

When the day comes, Nariko, a girl is born instead.

She's given reluctant training while everyone waits for the true hero to be born, but no such hero arrives and when Nariko grows into adulthood and the empire invades, the Empire wins and everything goes to hell.

During the entire game, Nariko is reviled for her gender and not having had the potential to save everyone. She's given the Heaven's Blade to take care of until the true hero arrives. No matter how hard she tries to prove herself - she's already a failure since the empire won.

Her story is different than most because during her story in the game, it's not the quest for glory, revenge or the damn prophecy that drives her onward. She has a sisterly bond with her sibling and is out to protect her family and clan, which is mostly a thankless job right up to the very end.

It's that desire to protect that eventually pits her against the Emperor. She fulfills the prophecy after all, by sacrificing herself and single-handedly destroying the foul empire - even though it's the death of her.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Spoiler

Do you kill Therese every time?

Only once I didn’t. And regretted it.

 

[SigilFey]

Sera, from Dragon Age Inquisition:

"I hear all sorts of things here. Having a friend like you around is like having...great...big...huuuge ears!
...
Shut up."

Laughed my toofus off. Great character.

 

[MauricioMM]

Sera, from Dragon Age Inquisition:

View attachment 11046311

"I hear all sorts of things here. Having a friend like you around is like having...great...big...huuuge ears!
...
Shut up."

Laughed my toofus off. Great character.

She’s a divisive one. I get the people that dislike her, I kinda did at first, but she’s not one to take at face value, she’s more than her “pixieness”. Of course, there are better characters in the game but she’s still one of the memorable ones. Some amazing banter too

She’s not someone I’d ever romance in the game, though. Cassandra was the one I picked on my first (and currently only) run, one of the best characters of the game if a bit uptight for my romantic tastes. Next time, I’ll probably pick Josephine.

 

[CyberBrett]

She’s a divisive one. I get the people that dislike her, I kinda did at first, but she’s not one to take at face value, she’s more than her “pixieness”. Of course, there are better characters in the game but she’s still one of the memorable ones. Some amazing banter too

She’s not someone I’d ever romance in the game, though. Cassandra was the one I picked on my first (and currently only) run, one of the best characters of the game if a bit uptight for my romantic tastes. Next time, I’ll probably pick Josephine.

Her romance was one of the best in the game , a funny romance different than any other .