Female Game Characters: The Good, The Bad, and The Sexist.

[Mnemophage]

Whoever mentioned Rose from the Legend of Dragoon stole what I was going to say. She's a badass on the same level of badass that Auron inhabits, a gender-neutral mesa of self-sacrificial, undying loyalty and blood. She was by far the most fleshed-out and interesting character of the game. If they made a prequel of the original Dragon War starring her I would buy every copy .

I also mention two ladies from Planescape: Torment: Annah and Ravel Puzzlewell. Torment is a funny game. Giant breasts are everywhere. Literally every female character has a distractingly enormous rack. Even the zombies. Annah not only has perfect, inhuman organs, she also trundles about in a leather bathing suit with her tail hanging out. She's also the most perfect self-interested guttersnipe I've seen represented. I love not only her accent and street sense, but how superstitious, ignorant and, at times, downright dumb she can be. She's not an oh-teehee-tied-to-the-traintracks kind of dumb, but a sincere low average that pads the lower classes everywhere. And Ravel was just crazy and clever in scarily equal proportions.

And as an actual woman with skirts and boobies and stuff, I must say that the most incendiary flare-up of bra-waving feminism as a direct result of gaming insult came from Fable, which had promised such a range of customization and interactivity, but would not let me play my gender. Even in the expansion. I'm planning on pirating the sequel.

 

[Pyro Paul]

there are believable female charicters which don't fall into those generic catagories as well as a few more generic catagories which most all women fall into.

the Tomboy complex as mentioned earlier, where the female is following the male and often has an intrest in either what the charicter is doing or in the chaircter themself. like Rikku from FFX and Tifa From FFVII


you have the Belivable female charicters which are not Super brave, nigh invunrable heroins of the world nor are they helpless in any way. capable of holding their own, but also able of holding genuine emotions. like Heather from Silent Hill 3 or Alyx from Half life 2.

 

[Simski]

Samus (gamecube and wii version) is to me much like Gordon Freeman, she's whoever you are.
She's not really any sterotypical female you see in games, she's YOU out on a mission.
I wouldn't say that she gave the impression of being very womanlike in the old games, however in the gamecube and wii version she really doesn't feel like any gender aside from the times you see her face.
She feels like a unknown person out doing its job, not neccesarily a man out doing his job.
For this I kind of likes Samus, she's a lone fighter on a mission. No bullshit.

I personally don't consider GlaDOS female, I consider her an 'It'.
She's an artificial intelligence, and thus she doesn't really have any actual gender.
I do however think of it as referring to her as a 'she' in the same way you refer a boat as a 'she'.

Chell?
She's also a bit like Freeman...
Although her looks make her look a bit like a nutjob, and the inviroment she's in kinda supports that.
Let me give you an example of what I mean:
The Aparture Science test chambers are:
1. A very light gray color, making the whole place very lit up.
2. Filled with odd drawings in small concealed rooms, drawings that quite possibly could have been written in blood. As well as pictures of the companion cube portrayed as a subject of love.
4. Filled with turrets with the purpose of killing you.
5. A vast ammount of mental tests.
6. Pools of highly toxic liquids as an obstacle.
7. A vicious Artificial Intelligence who constantly lie, tries to manipulate, and tests you morally as well as mentally.
(end of list) I kinda support the idea of Chell being a very descended clone, and the other clones have already tried (and failed) all the tests you go through.
The C. Johnson scribble inside one of the rooms support this, as well as when GlaDOS tells you "I have your brain scanned and permanently backed up in case something terrible happens to you".
The facts that Chell is often guided by the scribbles she finds in there, and the idea that she wrote them herself after finally figuring them out during her other tries would make sense.
The scribbles also indicate that she may have comletely lost her mind a couple of times.
All in all, it would take one fuck of a mental capacity to firstly survice all the tests, but even more so to stay sane while doing it.
I suspect that it took quite a while for her mind to handle that place.

 

[LewsTherin]

*snip* Farah, from Prince of Persia: Sands of Time,*snip*

Except when she SHOOTS YOU IN THE BACK AND YOU DIE!!!!!

Off topic, but did this happen to anyone else?

 

[beeper21]

I like cloud the girl from final fantasy, no wait thats a guy but you cant blame me.

 

[Ionait]

poof

 

[Skalman]

I really liked Mira in KotOR II and was really disappointed she wasn't a potential love interest. I also thought she didn't get nearly enough dialogue or screen time.

But one of my all time all time favorites is Xana from Dark Messiah M&M(she's sort of like the evil twin of Cortana from Halo). I really liked the idea of having a demon chick in the back of your head acting as the devil of the angel/devil-conscience (a devil and a angel sits on your opposite shoulders telling you what to do) and commenting on what you do.
She really made me laugh more than once at her seductive sex-related comments.

Apologizing for the geeky comment to follow:

Damn, that'd be cool in real life!

 

[afrophysics]

Until Metal Gear Solid 4, I thought the series had excellent depictions of non cliched female characters.

 

[A29inchbeefstick]

Wow,You can tell this is a flame war starting thread...

 

[babyblues]

Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft was awesome. I also really liked Mira from KOTOR2. She was a believable character since she was strong, but had a vulnerable side too.

 

[babyblues]

I think this is more about personality and believability as characters Indigo_Dingo. It doesn't have to do with women being all tough and invincible. I liked Rose in MGS4 but I thought the rest of the female leads were lousy.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Yukolaili from Bards Tale. A princess who actually knows how to get a man to set out on a massive life risking adventure. Anyone can tell some mute kid in a green hat to sail half way across the ocean for an unattainable love interest, but it takes a real mistress of persuasion to get a greedy, self absorbed dick to put himself on the line. "I can read your mind, now picture that three times a day"
"Where do i start?"

I forgot about her! Yeah, she was a great character. Hell, that was a great game.

 

[Hyzenthlay]

Anyone remember every single female (and most male) characters from Tekken.

 

[Blayze]

cause it actually shows that the best troops are female (the FROGS)

See, that's just gone from one extreme to the other. It's just another sexist trope that needs to die in a fire.

 

[frontier psychiatrist]

Realistically, the depictions in 4 are the most decent, cause it actually shows that the best troops are female (the FROGS)

Eh? How is that realistic?

 

[Flying-Emu]

My favorite female character?

The mother in pokemon.

No pretension, no unbelievable story or bullshit, she takes crap from nobody and her son has a lvl 100 Alakazam so powerful it practically violates the geneva convention.

She also likes to give you shoes that magically make you able to run. Since, y'know. Normal shoes aren't good enough.
(Also, I laughed several times from your comment)

 

[Dr.Doctor]

This is one I'm surprised nobody has mentioned yet.
Faith from Mirror's Edge.
She dosen't take shit from anybody,but isn't some kind of sadistic psycopath.
Her body is normally proportioned and she is dressed normally.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Where does Elena fisher fit into this?

And whats so bad about the Innocent Youth? They actually manage to be believable and whole. Here I'm talking mainly about Nariko, though.

Nariko. The one who dresses like an aisan themed stripper?

She IS an Asian themed stripper.