Your Princess just blew up another castle

[pkmin3033]

Bringing up the portrayal of women in video games tends to do one of two things: get people eagerly lighting torches and sharpening blades ready for riot, or turning away and rolling their eyes in disgust.

That said, we've come a lot further than the days when the only two real examples we had of strong and independent female protagonists were Samus Aran and Lara Croft. Where we're often too busy campaigning for more equal representation and treatment or telling one another to just deal with it, we rarely actually take the time to stop and examine what we have...and the truth is, we have many excellent female protagonists out there.

So, let's have a topic about that! A simple appreciation topic, for a change of pace.

With that said, who are your favourite female protagonists in video games? What makes them so appealing to you?

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

Wait... games can have male protagonists?

A...nyway. Because no one else will, I will mention Ateliers. And why? Because they do perfectly what ones expects from a female protagonists, they are...
CUTE!

 

[JJ Styles]

Note: Prepare for an image overload

I have been always a believer of female video game characters being legitimate stars in fictional media, especially in video games, and them not just being pieces of eye candy that some kid is going to fantasize about. It can't be helped that a lot of them still have to be eye candy material for everyone's visual pleasure but i think that's already a standard that we have been accustomed to since the dawn of time. I mean the character has to look very memorable in one way or the other.

So with that in mind, let me mention who are some of my favorite female protags right since then, and right now:

Sarah Kerrigan, Starcraft - Blizzard Entertainment

She starts out as a minor supporting character and ally unit in Starcraft 1's Terran campaign and eventually gets a larger role in the campaign. One significant plot device later, she would be later captured by the Zerg and would become The Queen of Blades.

What makes her so appealing? Simple. She's attractive in both her human forms and even her Zerg form. As a human, she has her tough psionic commando girl personality that makes even the toughest of guys think twice. As the Zerg's Queen of Blades, she was seductively ruthless and cunning, but still had the humor and wit of a typical human, but as one reads more in the game, this ruthless personality that she has as the QoB is something that isn't really her but a personality developed from her infestation.

Gameplay wise, Sarah is awesome, especially in her Infested Kerrigan form. SC2: Heart of the Swarm is one game i highly recommend everyone playing btw.

In a meta-analysis, she is one of those characters who i did not expect to have such a large role in the game's in-universe and lore. I thought she would just be some female hero unit added for audience appeal, but as time went on, Blizzard decided that Sarah needed to be a central character in Starcraft Lore for whatever reasons they were thinking. I wasn't against it though, since everything was worth it. Sarah managed to be a great heroine and a villainess AT THE SAME TIME and within the same lore, and her face-heel-then face again turns have been with great context and stuff.

Mei, Overwatch - Blizzard Entertainment

Mei from Overwatch represents Blizzard's ability to beautify all kinds of fictional body types and ethnicities. What makes Overwatch a very attractive game is that with its really diverse cast of characters, we also get to see a lot of female characters with different ethnic backgrounds and even body types, something that a lot of other devs find difficult to do. Mei may not have the typical body type of the typical attractive VG character the likes of her fellow heroes such as Tracer, Widowmaker, D.Va, and Mercy have, but Mei manages to look very attractive in her own little way. And before anyone tries to do something funny, MEI IS NOT FAT! oVo

Gameplay wise, Mei uses Ice/Frost based weaponry and her well built zoning kit makes her a strong countermeasure against the likes of short-medium ranged assassins such as Reaper (my main in the game), Tracer, and Soldier 76 (my other main). I find myself using Mei from time to time in order to provide something for the team if I can't use D.Va.

Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison - Bombshell, 3D Realms

She is 3D Realms attempted creation of a strong female protagonist. And i mention 3D realms specifically since these were the same guys who were responsible for Duke Nukem, the guy who thrives in the objectification of women. Anyway, she has the markings of a marketable tough female alpha girl with her guns, her tough personality, attractive face, nice hair style, and the like.

Team YRP - Final Fantasy X-2, Square-Enix

I specifically mention their collective trio rather than just Yuna since I think I've said so many good things about Yuna, and the fact that both Yuna and Rikku are my favorite party members back in FFX. I simply love their trio. They are basically the JPRG World's version of Charlie's Angels and I have a really biased love for FFX2 as a whole (Fite me and my murderc*ck). Also, Yuna as the gunslinger.. i really love Yuna's change from a magic based summoner to shooting people in the faces with her dual pistols.

Aya Brea - Parasite Eve series, Squaresoft/S-Enix

Aya to me represents one of the most "desireable" video game characters that I have the opportunity to play as. Those who have played Parasite Eve from the first game and up to 3rd Birthday may know what I am talking about. She may be the heroine of the series yet she never really does sell herself to be one, even with all of the traits that she has (intelligent, compassionate, honest, kind, etc). She also possesses that sardonic sense of humor, and I have a thing with sardonic senses of humor. When it comes to her choices of clothing, she's also very practical about it. Aside from her Black (and do i mention really sexy) Opera dress from the 1st game, she's usually just wearing practical attire since she knows that its impractical to dress fancy or way to stripperific in actual combat against monsters, demons, zombies, and the mitochondric hellspawn.

I find it really funny that despite her being a big dang heroine for most of the series, she's often depicted in fan art and even her official art as this really seductive looking female. Oh and it kinda helps that she has shower scenes in both PE2 and PE3BD. Then again, her perfect mix of Asian and Caucasian decent... oh yeah..

And Parasite Eve is a great series of games. If one has never played it, I RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO IT RIGHT NOW!

Lightning - Final Fantasy XIII

;))))))))))

nah I'm trolling at this point but here's some Lightning anyway. I liked Lightning for her looks but she's such a missed opportunity for me. OH WAIT I'D write about that in a thread i made. Ill be back.

If thread activity continues, I'll make a write up about a game and its heroine/s that some of you may not have heard about. I'm a lil dead tired at the moment. Now I need to play some Parasite Eve and kill some mitochondira hell spawn with Aya.

Spoiler:

Spoiler: its about Fear Effect, and boy oh boy I'd need some time to write about that one. Oh yeah, and its going to contain a lot of suggestive content too.

 

[Judge Mandolore Shepard]

Some of my favorite female video game protagonists in video games are as follows:
Samus Aran (Metroid series)
Shanoa (Castlevania Order of Ecclesia)
Mellka (Battleborn)
Kasumi (Dead or Alive series)
Taki (Soul Calibur series)
Evie Frye (Assassin's Creed Syndicate)
Tali'Zorah (Mass Effect series)

 

[L'Belle]

I'm a big fan of Lucina (Fire emblem Awakening) and Yandere (Yandere simulator)
Even though I'm not the biggest fan of FE13 I still think Lucina is a great fire emblem lord. She wants to live in a happy future with her mother and father, so she comes back into the time to alternate fate. Yandere from Yandere simulator is a whole different story. She needs to eliminate every one of her rivals, to get her precious senpai. She is not a nice person at all, and is a stalker and a yandere. These are prime examples of well flashed-out, strong female protagonists, which I really Like!

 

[pkmin3033]

Because no one else will, I will mention Ateliers.

That was low, dood. D:

Anyways, I have a small list which may or may not get bigger. But I'll mention my favourites for now...and I'll provide some images, for a change. So, awaaaay we go!

Kainé (NieR)

OK, so Kainé is actually a hermaphrodite, but...well, as she would say, "fuck the fucking details" and that's a long, convoluted story I won't go into. But before I knew who she was-- hell, before NieR was anything at all to me, I loved Kainé. The first trailer for NieR was literally just her swearing. It's not a one-off. She goes off on one a lot. Her outfit is stripperific, so one could be forgiven for thinking her a painfully stereotypical harlot-type character. But if you read the supplementary material - or play the Japanese version - you'll learn a lot more about Kainé. She's a woman by choice, she flaunts it, and anyone who has a problem with it can fuck off...and plenty of people have a problem with it. Never mind that the one person who doesn't gets turned into a giant shade and you have to kill her.

She also kicks serious arse on the battlefield, cleaving straight through a Shade that Nier himself was having trouble with. She's more than capable of compassion and self-sacrifice; as demonstrated multiple times through the game...especially in the later endings. She's beaten and hurt and utterly broken, but rather than lying down and giving up or taking it she's up and fighting. She's easily my favourite female protagonist to date for how utterly unexpected and constantly surprising she is in the game. Plus the Weiss banter. Both of her themes are absolutely stunning, too.

Neptune (Hyperdimension Neptunia)

I can't not mention Neptune. I'm fond of almost all of the CPUs (go away, Blanc) but Neptune is getting the first mention for being the best protagonist in the history of video gaming, no competition. Melissa Fahn absolutely nails her in the games - I have never found another character so unreservedly sassy. Neptune just oozes charm, and her painful self-awareness only makes her that much more entertaining. She's refreshing original despite her painfully unoriginal and blatantly plagiarised dialogue; she just rattles it off like it's nothing. That Fahn can actually carry her through the more serious moments in the games when she's cracking jokes and making references with every line of dialogue otherwise is nothing short of remarkable. That Neptune is quite capable of being serious but is just lazy by choice is a nice addendum to her character, too.

...plus that whole scene where she explains why PP was made and marketed in total serious mode - and lowering your affinity for it - was her Crowning Moment of Awesome.


Merurulince Rede Arls (Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland)

Only one Atelier girl worth mentioning, Satoshi. That is easily Meruru. Sure, Ayesha and Totori in particular have beautiful, heart-rending journeys with clearly-defined goals from the beginning, and Rorona is full of charm for her ditzy way of somehow making everything turn out in her favour, but Meruru is the best of them all.

Developing her from the lazy, scatterbrained Princess of a slowly declining kingdom is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done in a game, despite the high levels of stress involved in getting some of the endings of this game. Atelier Meruru is a great coming of age story done in an atypical way, and of all the Atelier girls thus far I think Meruru develops the most, because she literally has no reason for doing anything to start with. She has to find that reason, and the multiple endings typical to the franchise mean you can see her develop in several ways...or not at all, even. She never loses that optimistic spirit and enthusiasm that got her out of the door in the first place, though. By the end of the game she's twenty and into her chosen profession, and that you've charted her course over the five years of the game makes her, to me, a highly relatable and personalised character.

Meruru is the main reason I consider Atelier Meruru to be the best Atelier game in the franchise to date.

Serah Farron (Final Fantasy XIII-2)

Bet nobody saw THIS coming. As someone who is extremely critical of FFXIII, I rarely find myself saying anything positive about this series. Which is why, comparatively, I feel I have to mention Serah, because she was absolutely amazing in XIII-2 after her forgettable, minor role in the first game. From that moment that Lebreau smacks her across the face and tells her to grow the fuck up, Serah does exactly that. It amazes me that, given how absolutely awful everything else FFXIII is, Serah really shines as a protagonist, when her sister and useless love interest are taken from the picture and she's saddled with a worthless excuse for a man in Noel and left to traverse an absolute clusterfuck of a timestream for reasons only vaguely explored; I dunno, I stopped caring about the "plot" after the first paradox. But she grows beyond the people she clings to - her reunion with Snow wasn't as earth-shattering as one would expect, and she quickly focuses on the larger threat instead of her sister once it starts showing itself.

Turning Serah from a supporting cast member into a major player - hell, the best protagonist in the series, and second best character after Caius - is a major achievement. Due in no small part to her voice actress and letting her star in her own game largely unencumbered by what had come before it. If this had been the first FFXIII game, and Serah the protagonist, I think the series would have been substantially better.

Flonne (Disgaea)

Flonne! Before Neptune came along, Flonne was my favourite female protagonist. Her story is largely irrelevant and not particularly inspiring, even in the original Disgaea where she's a central character, but from the moment she snuck into Laharl's palace ninja-style (nin nin nin!) I have adored Flonne. She brightens every game she's in with her antics, and her obsession with being a video game character and making it big is frightening. Neptune likes to poke the fourth wall at every opportunity; Flonne just smashes right through it with a mechanical ship in her own image, which she laughs on top of it dressed in a pink dinosaur outfit screaming about love and justice. She's the anathema of characters like Laharl and Etna, but she fits right in. She even makes Disgaea D2 worth playing...especially because she gets a pure upgrade, making her even more the stereotypical magical girl. Here's hoping she continues to cameo in literally every NIS game ever in the future.

 

[Mawa]

She didn't talked, but I still really like her (well,... because of the game). She can bit a bit boring compare to the other females character, but the way that you play in first person really got me into this character.

And her, because I loved her attitude, her story, the way she changed all over the game.

SPOILER?

Spoiler: