are there any non-sexualized/stereotypical female characters in games?

[Weaver]

It's time for the daily "female characters in games" thread!
As I always say, Faith from Mirror's Edge.

 

[RelexCryo]

Sigh....

Fallout 3: Almost every female character in Fallout 3 (Moira, Star Paladin Cross, etc, etc, a few exceptions, like Clover.)

Alan Wake: Every female character in Alan Wake. Including his wife. Even the scenes where she is in her underpants clearly aren't sexy.

InFamous: Every female character but Sasha from InFamous.

Fable/Fable 2: Amost any character that has any damn significance to the story at all meets these qualifications. Your mother in Fable 1 is the most powerful hero/heroine in the world, your sister is a powerful wizard, in Fable 2 Hammer is the Hero of Strength, and your sister from the original game is apparently still alive and doing high level magic.

Perfect Dark: Joana Dark. Any female character, actually.

Bioshock: Julie Langford.

Syphon Filter: Your partner, whatever the hell her name is.

Deus Ex, Invisible War: A lot. Let's just leave it at that.

Sigourney Weaver/ Ripley: In every Aliens game she appeans in, she isn't sexualized and she kicks a lot of ass.

F.E.A.R.: All female characters.

F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin: Same here, with one exception.

Recettear: The protagonist is not sexual, and she is an independent bussiness woman/monster slayer.

Oni: The main character of Oni, whatever the hell her name is.

Siberia: The main character.

Mirror's Edge: main character, whatever the hell her name is

Ben 10 Alien Force: Gwen

Front Mission: Most female characters.

Aliens Vs. Predator Extinction: Sniper Units

Wild Arms: Cecilia, Princess of Adelaide. Also pretty much every other female character, from the mad scientist and her assistant, to the gun slinging bounty hunter Calamity Jane.

Silent Hill 3: Heather. Actually, all female characters except Sybil and Lisa in the entire series. Sybil looks hot, and Lisa acts like a stereotype.

Half Life 2: Alyx.

Beyond Good and Evil: Jade

Psychonauts: Most girls. I think one of the councilor's might be sexualised though.

Portal: Chell

 

[Dfskelleton]

Heather from Silent Hill 3.
A perfect example. She actually has a personality, and doesn't look like a broom with watermelons arms and a head. I would say she's no different than James or Harry (except for better voice acting than Mr. Mason) because she's female. Good backstory, a sign of equal hope and weakness in a hellish world, but that's wrong. The developers can do more with a femal protagonist than just males. The psychological bit could only touch in on male problems significant to that protagonist, like James and the Nurse creatures. However, with Heather, they could touch in on female issues as well. Heather's relationship with Silent Hill combined with her standard issue list of problems as a teenage girl made for some truly bizzare, saddening, or weird moments.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Pretty much all the girls in Tales of Symphonia aren't sexualized (with the exception of Sheena), although some of them are slightly stereotypical.

That's why I object to the use of "stereotypical" in cases like these, especially when you can claim someone is "mildly" stereotypical.

I'm assuming you're referring to Colette, who acts rather girly a lot of the time...which since she's a very friendly, young, and somewhat sheltered girl, makes all the sense in the world. I know you're not probably not doing this, but I think she rather demonstrates the case against mistaking femininity (rather than insulting caricature) for stereotype. To say nothing of how genuinely deep she is.

...then again, I'd also object to saying Sheena is sexualized. Maybe in the eyes of Zelos or overzealous fanartists, but being poked fun at for having a large chest doesn't strike me as being the writers aiming for sexy. I might concede the outfit, I suppose, though it's still far more modest than most negative examples I can think of.

I was actually thinking of both Colette and Presea who are on different ends of the spectrum but neither are sexualized and neither are stereotypical. As for the stereotype, I was thinking of Raine, the big sister who knows everything and takes care of everybody.

...since when is that a stereotype?

<url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheSmartGuy>Let alone a gendered one?

I only think that Sheena is sexualized, not because she has a large chest but because she is the only girl in the party that has breasts at all. Not even Raine (who is older) has anything. Sheena, while being a vital character, also seemed to have the role of fan-service tacked onto her.

Raine's got them. They're just smaller and not obvious under her default outfit. I'll concede Sheena's outfit, though. It just doesn't seem all that obvious to me.

 

[lacktheknack]

Alyx from Half Life 2, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, all the girls in Psychonauts, Chell from Portal... shall I go on?

 

[yamitami]

The answer USED to be Samus but now they've taken her down to damsel in distress and hooker suits.

Actually Milla Vodello from Psychonauts fits the bill. She's the camp instructor for levitation and also a psychic agent of considerable power. Plus you can find a room in her mind where she keeps her nightmares, which are big nasty snarly beasts, locked up tight which would seem to take a considerable amount of will. Granted she has big hips, but I don't think that should count against her too much since her breasts aren't beach balls.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

^ EDIT: Lol at the post above me.



The Left 4 Dead women are actually pretty non-stereotypical. You have Zoey, a sort of loner-type who spent the majority of her time in her Dad's apartment watching horror films and Rochelle who's a journalist who got involved via being assigned there.

But they're not all that well characterized (especially Rochelle), because all four characters are meant to be interchangeable. They're not bad characters by any mean- certainly they have personalities and back-stories, but Alyx is much better defined and actually drives the narrative to some extent.

 

[yamitami]

Sigh....

Heavenly Sword: Main character, whatever the hell her name is.

Really? You think that NARIKO isn't stereotyped? Yes, she can slice and dice with her blades, but the long hair and the square inch of fabric she wears are not there to help in battle.

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

There's Chell, from Portal: strong, capable, and not sexualized to any real degree.

I hate to nit-pick, but does Chell have any characteristics at all? I don't think non-sexualization counts when you just give them the same amount of characterization as Gordon Freeman, but tell us he's a girl now.

 

[ninjajoeman]

There's Chell, from Portal: strong, capable, and not sexualized to any real degree.

but sadly she never talks.

 

[RelexCryo]

Sigh....

Heavenly Sword: Main character, whatever the hell her name is.

Really? You think that NARIKO isn't stereotyped? Yes, she can slice and dice with her blades, but the long hair and the square inch of fabric she wears are not there to help in battle.

There is a difference between having one or two stereotypical traits and being a stereotype. She defeats entire armies single handedly. She is a highly trained warrior. She is not a stereotype. Yes, she has long hair (women are genetically inclined to grow hair faster and longer than men, although men are actually inclined to grow fingernails faster than women, wierdly enough) and she does wear a skimpy outfit. She doesn't fit into any overall female stereotype however. I will remove her from the list if you like though.

 

[Drakane]

Can anyone say THE ORIGINAL... Samus, metroid prime...

 

[Blatherscythe]

Well Sentinal Lyons from Fallout 3 wasen't exactly a sterotyped girly girl, nor was she all that sexy. She was a middle aged, batte hardened commander of an "elite" (they pretty much all die near the end) squad of specialized shock troopers.

 

[Nouw]

Chell and Samus to an extent. You also can't forget Alyx.

 

[Something Amyss]

Your JRPG bias is showing.

I'd have to say Freya from Final Fantasy 9. Back in the year 2000.

Not very girly, or sexual. Unless you're appealing to the fetish market, that is.

Traffic Cone fetishists?

 

[Siuki]

the main character in portal

Not to be mean to Chell, but she's not that attractive when you first see "yourself" in the first portal.

OT: Theater pictures aside, Kat from Halo: Reach doesn't seem that stereotypical of a female character and certainly doesn't have as much "appeal" to Halo fanboys as Cortana.

 

[S-Unleashed]

The Boss, Lightning, Yuna(FFX)any Pokemon girl you play as, Sunny in MGS4.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Samus. Proving that men and women kick just as much ass as each other.

Jade, Samus...

THANK GOODNESS youre ignoring other M.
I like your depiction of reality.

anyway, I'll probably go with "Alyx Vance" as well.

I never played Other M. No time or money. I hear it sets the women's rights moment back a few decades though. That's kind of to be expected from Team Ninja though. Still The various other Metroid address Samus's gender in the way that games should learn to: It doesn't matter what you like under the armor, all that matters is how many aliens you blast.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Samus. Proving that men and women kick just as much ass as each other.

Samus? the character who removed an armor piece for every hour you shaved of your playthrogh in metroid 2?
The character that thus revealed herself in underwear for fast metroid 2 players?
The Samus that after dying still had the time to pose in her bikini every time in her most famous title Super metroid?
The Samus that could fight in a skintight suit in Super smash brothers brawl instead of her powerarmour, and then whip her enemies?
Yeah of course she isn't sexualized.
is this the fucking twilight zone?

Out, out damn troll. Seriously dude, calm yourself. I know Samus has flaws in her depiction such as the end game scenes and that whole stupid Zero suit business and I know a generic action hero is a poor role-model for men or women but the fact that her gender is downplayed enough during the course of the game enough that it is a non-issue is a positive in a sea of negative.