Changes: List of Women Characters in Video Games

Revision as of 23:24, 1 September 2014

Portal Chell — Chell, as she appears in the first Portal game.

Here is a list of female characters in video games. Feel free to add more characters and categories!

(Characters whose names are bolded are characters that were protagonists or were playable for most of the game in the first game that they were featured in.)

Iconic Characters

These are some of the pioneering female characters in iconic video games. Some are notable for their representation of women as engaging and capable characters, and others are known for their sexualization and/or reduction of women to damsels in distress.

(*) "Strong" as used in this article, is to be defined as either a character that feels real, but does not quite fit into the positively portrayed section for whatever reason, OR, the more typical definition of a Strong character (being, you know, strong/powerful). For a broader look at this category type, please refer to this wiki page --> [1]. Keep in mind that even on that wiki page and links you find there the definition of 'Strong Characters' are not always consistent.

Positively Portrayed Characters

There are some female characters that are strong, confident and capable, all while lacking any overt hypersexualization. These women are not reduced to a status of love interest, damsel in distress, or sexualized protagonist.

Chell from the Portal series (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Xbox 360 for the first episode, Windows, Mac OS X, PS3, Xbox.for the #2)
Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, Xbox 360) and its sequels XIII-2 (PS3, Xbox 360) and Lightning Returns
Alice from American McGee's Alice (Windows, Mac OS, Mac OS X, PS3, Xbox 360) and Alice: Madness Returns (Windows, PS3, Xbox 360)
Jade from Beyond Good and Evil (ps2,Windows, Xbox 360, GameCube)
Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2 (Linux, Windows, Mac OS X , Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3)
Lucca from Chrono Trigger (SNES, PlayStation, NDS, mobile phones, Android, iOS, Virtual Console (VC))
Samus Aran from the Metroid series (most Nintendo platforms)
Claudia from Legend Of Fae (Windows)
Tear Grants from Tales of the Abyss(PS2, 3DS)
Crystal from Dinosaur Planet (unreleased game designed for N64 that was later adapted into Star Fox Adventures on the Gamecube, where she became a sexualized damsel)
Nariko from Heavenly Sword (PS3)
Ellie, co-protagonist from The Last of Us
Jodie from Beyond: Two Souls (PS3)
Unknown name, co-hero from Gravity Ghost (indie game for GNU/Linux, Mac OS & Vindows)
Catherine from Halo: Reach (Xbox 360)
Bonnie MacFarlane from Red Dead Redemption
Xion from Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days (DS)
Milla Vodello from Psychonauts
Scarlet from Venetica (PC Windows, Wine, Xbox 360)
Zoey from Left 4 Dead series (PC Windows, Linux, Xbox 360)
Rochelle from Left 4 Dead 2 (PC Windows, Linux, Xbox 360)
Cynthia from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum (Nintendo DS)
Ashe from Mega Man ZX Advent (Nintendo DS)

Female Options for Lead Characters in Role-Playing Games

Nancy Drew in Nancy Drew series
Female Commander Shepard from Mass Effect series
Female Hawke from Dragon Age II
Female option of elven, human or dwarven background from Dragon Age: Origins
Female option of every race in the five-part Elder Scrolls series
Female option of every race in World of Warcraft
Female option of main character in all Fallout games.
Female option for Pokemon games after 1999
Female option for Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns
Female option in Saints Row series (starting with episode 2)
Female option in Fable II, and Fable III
Female option for Persona 3
Female option in Terraria
Female option of every clan race in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Female option in three characters of Jade Empire
Female option in Borderlands games
Tyris Flare in Golden Axeseries
Female option in Minecraft available only through customized character skins
Female option of every race in Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2

Miscellaneous

Eleys Mue from Galactic Civilizations 2
Jenna Casey from Galactic Civilizations 2
Wu Zetian from Sid Meiers Civilization V
Queen Elizabeth I from Sid Meiers Civilization V
Catherine the Great from Sid Meiers Civilization V
Isabella from Civilization V: Gods and Kings
Dido from Civilization V: Gods and Kings
Maria Theresa from Civilization V: Gods and Kings
Theodora from Civilization V: Gods and Kings
Boudica from Civilization V: Gods and Kings
Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite
Karrie 'Vandal' Norton from Dead Space iOS
a tough-minded leader - name that may contains spoilers from The last Of Us
Anya Stroud, Sam Byrne and Bernie Mataki from Gears of War 3
Robin, Lark & Kiwi, the three female characters out of 6 pilots from PilotWings 64 (Nintendo 64) and perhaps also for each of the two other installements of the franchise (Super NES / 3DS)
Selina Kyle/Catwoman, playable character in Batman: Arkham City.
Lilith from Borderlands

Anthropomorphic and other various human-like characters

several fully-playable female characters from Diddy Kong Racing (Nintendo 64, all playable characters are actually anthropomorphic animals, not human beings)
at least one teammate/co-pilot in games the StarFox franchise (Nintendo platforms)
Inspector Carmelita from the Sly Cooper games.
Amaterasu in Okami
Amy Rose, Cream the Rabbit, Blaze the Cat, Rouge the Bat, Wave the Swallow, Vanilla the Rabbit, Shade the Echidna, and Zeena from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. All but Vanilla and Zeena have been fully playable at some point.

Upcoming

Nilin (main/sole character) from Remember Me (PS3, Xbox, Windows)
Faith (unique character) from Mirror's Edge 2
Huang Shuyi (Support Character) From Battlefield 4 (PS3, PS4, Xbox, Xbox one, Windows)

Hope in upcoming games - to be checked

an unidentified woman soldier from Titanfall
an unnamed woman from Dragon Age: Inquisition (autumn 2014)

Reminder: Characters who's names are bolded are characters that were protagonists or were playable for most of the game in the first game that they were featured in.

Villains

GLaDOS from Portal

Sofia Lamb from Bioshock 2
Alexia Ashford from Resident Evil Code: Veronica
Excella Gionne from Resident Evil 5
Carla Radames from Resident Evil 6
Misstress (leader of the assasins) from Venetica
Princess Chiamaka from Venetica

@@ Line 48: / Line 48: @@
 ====Damsels in Distress====
-*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Peach Princess Peach] from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Games Mario] series
 *Unnamed princess from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Princess Fat Princess]
-*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Zelda Princess Zelda/Shiek] from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda The Legend of Zelda] series
 *[http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Kairi Kairi] from the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Hearts Kingdom Hearts] series
-*'''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuna_%28Final_Fantasy%29 Yuna]''' from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X Final Fantasy X] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_X-2 X-2]
 *[http://westward.wikia.com/wiki/Maureen_Fitzsimmons Maureen Fitzsimmons] from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westward_%28series%29 Westward]
 *All girls from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_Frame Fatal Frame Series]