Let's have/create an index/discussion of games staring female main characters.

[LilithSlave]

There aren't enough female main characters in video games. Even main teams of protagonists often lack a certain amount of females. And now, please don't find this too sexist, but it'd be nice to have a collection/celebration there where we think of and talk about all of the games we can find to index, that have female protagonists, especially if they're the main protagonist. Hopefully it will serve to help people find more video games with strong females/female main characters, and give them more publicity in a world where they honestly don't star often enough. I'd certainly like to see/find more. So if you wouldn't mind, a little bit of "girl power" over here.

All right, I'll start by adding all I can think of.
1. Tomb Raider
2. Parasite Eve
3. Magical Pop'n
4. Keio Flying Squadron
5. Portal
6. Final Fantasy VI
7. Final Fantasy XIII
8. Touhou Project
9. American McGee's Alice
10. Fatal Frame
11. Silent Hill 3
12. Xenosaga
13. Kuon
14. Clock Tower 3
15. Threads of Fate
16. Seiken Densetsu 3
17. Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle
18. Bayonetta
19. Koudelka
20. Persona 2
21. Valkyrie Profile
22. Odin Sphere
23. Rhapsody
24. Blood Rayne
25. Trapt
26. Ghost in the Shell
27. Metroid
28. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
29. Onechanbara
30. Rule of Rose
31. Velvet Assassin
32. Bullet Witch
33. Death by Degrees
34. Wet
35. Mushihimesama
36. Donkey Kong Country 3
37. Ms. Pac Man
38. Fushigi no Yume no Alice
39. Great Giana Sisters
40. Rupupu Cube: Lup Salad
41. Magic Knight Rayearth
42. Sailor Moon
43. Deathsmiles
44. Recettear
45. Chantelise
46. Bunny Girl Must Die
47. Mirror's Edge
48. Hydrophobia
49. Resonance of Fate
50. Muramasa: The Demon Blade
51. Izuna
52. The Path
53. Pocky and Rock/Kiki Kaikai
54. Okami
55. Mighty Jill Off
56. Eternal Sonata
57. GrimGrimoire
58. Drill Dozer
59. My Little Pony
60. Hello Kitty
61. Syberia
62. Final Fantasy X-2
63. The Powerpuff Girls
64. So Blonde
65. Cry On
66. Princess Minverva
67. Fortune Summoner
68. Popful Mail
69. Mischief Makers
70. Dino Crisis
71. Perfect Dark
72. Napple Tale
73. Harvest Moon(female versions)
74. Oni
75. Lady Sia
76. Shantae
77. Dinner Dash
78. Princess Debut
79. Espgaluda
80. Ginga Yukyou Densetsu RC Tobacker
81. Trouble Witches
82. King's Bounty: Armored Princess
83. Steal Princess
84. Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland
85. Jeanne d'Arc
86. Muchi Muchi Pork!
87. Touch Detective
88. Trace Memory
89. Malice
90. Beyond Good and Evil
91. P.N.03
92. The Longest Journey
93. Valis IV
94. NYAN-TECH
95. Guwange
96. Rozen Maiden
97. Cate West: The Vanishing Files
98. Folklore
99. Lise no Atelier: Ol'dor no Renkinjutsushi
100. Castleween

I hate to have mentioned some of these because of the insane amounts of sexualization. But hey, I said I was making a list. Not that I was making a list minus all of the crazy hyper-sexualized depictions of women. Also, some of them were kinda borderline, as you could chose a main character other than a female if you so wished(for instance, Seiken Densetsu 3), but it was close enough I thought. Dead or Alive games are not making it no matter how hard they try. You know why.

Also, among these, what are some of your favourites? Personally, I'm obviously a huge fan of Metroid. And of course I'm a huge, huge maniac of Touhou Project. I also think that Keio Flying Squadron and Magical Pop'n are some seriously underlooked classics. I really wish they would make a comeback and lament their passing. I also don't care what reviews the Alice games get, I think they're fantastic. Also, who, who in the world isn't an Okami fan? I don't want to meet them, I hope they don't exist.

Other favourites include Drill Dozer, Final Fantasy VI, Recettear, Izuna, and the Misadventures of Tron Bonne.

This is not a ranking! It may have 100 listed, but they're in no particular order and it only ended at that number because I got tired of thinking/searching.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Why doesn't DOA count? A full 3/4ths of the cast is female, including 2 of the 3 "main" characters. So they are sexualized, so is nearly every female video game hero, especially in Japanese games. If I was to make a list of male heroes from Japanese games who weren't sexualized in some way it'd be a pretty short list.

 

[Danceofmasks]

You gotta put No One Lives Forever in these lists.
'cos Cate Archer is rigut up there among the most awesome female protaganists of all time.

 

[LilithSlave]

Why doesn't DOA count? A full 3/4ths of the cast is female, including 2 of the 3 "main" characters.

It was a joke about those "Xtreme Volleyball" games. Because if we include those, we'd might as well include the many porn games out there starring females.

especially in Japanese games.

Wait, what? No. That's silly. If anything, it seems more common among Western female protagonists.

Japan loves it's cute a lot more than it loves it's sexy.

 

[shellshock3d]

Let's be honest here.
Final Fantasy X-2. It was a disaster yes but it had three main female characters.

 

[LilithSlave]

Chrono Trigger? You can use a few female characters in battle.

As do most jRPGs. That one thing I like about them.

Also, you could play as FemShep in Mass Effect 1 and 2.

I heard about that! That's a very nice feature that the game has.

 

[Puddleknock]

How about Resident Evil Code Veronica?

Ok the limelight is shared between Claire and Chris Redfield but still should count. Unless you already mentioned it and I missed it, twas a long list after.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

What about Drakan?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakan

 

[LilithSlave]

Yep, pretty much. That's one nice things RPGs of all varieties seem to have going for them.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Beyond Good and Evil and The Longest Journey have two of the best female protagonists of all time. Not sexualized, not masculinized...just cool, smart, capable women. Helped that they were great games, too.

 

[ABLb0y]

Final Fantasy XIII had Vanille, Fang and Lightning, three very strong women.

Dead Island has Purna and Xian Mei.

Call of Juarez the Cartel has Kimberly.

that's all I got.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Why doesn't DOA count? A full 3/4ths of the cast is female, including 2 of the 3 "main" characters.

It was a joke about those "Xtreme Volleyball" games. Because if we include those, we'd might as well include the many porn games out there starring females.

especially in Japanese games.

Wait, what? No. That's silly. If anything, it seems more common among Western female protagonists.

Japan loves it's cute a lot more than it loves it's sexy.

AHAHAHAHAHA

Seriously? Japan is pervy as all get out. Name a Japanese series, and there is a least 1 hyper sexualized female character, be they buxom, lolicon, slutty, whatever. Lets take a look at your list and figure out which ones of them are both Japanese and sexualized:

All right, I'll start by adding all I can think of.
2. Parasite Eve Fairly realistically so. However, DAT SHOWER SCENE
6. Final Fantasy VI Celes and Terra, Bondage extraordinaires
7. Final Fantasy XIII Sera and her schoolgirl outfit? Lightning and her "skirt".
8. Touhou Project LOLIS. LOLIS EVERYWHERE
12. Xenosaga Apparently super-powerful lifeforms don't have a need for humans things like modesty. Or clothes
14. Clock Tower 3 Again with the schoolgirls! Also, some great bonus costumes
16. Seiken Densetsu 3 I'll just leave this here http://static.zerochan.net/full/08/45/114758.jpg
18. Bayonetta Mmmmmm....Bayonetta.....come on, she's the poster child for this
19. Koudelka The heroine spends the entire game in lace thigh high stockings and a corset. And not much else
24. Blood Rayne The poster child before Bayonetta came along
25. Trapt Bondage. Bondage and Dominatrix fantasties as far as the eye can see.
26. Ghost in the Shell Who knew the military had such a lax dress code in the future?
27. Metroid Zero Suit
29. Onechanbara I think the fact that the game is called "Bikini Samurai Squad" is enough of a give away
30. Rule of Rose AGAIN WITH THE SCHOOLGIRLS. This time being quite...cruel to each other.

I actually stopped early because I got bored of stating the obvious. I'm sure you get the idea.

 

[Hides His Eyes]

Beyond Good and Evil and The Longest Journey have two of the best female protagonists of all time. Not sexualized, not masculinized...just cool, smart, capable women. Helped that they were great games, too.

Haven't played Beyond Good and Evil sadly, but yeah definitely both Dreamfall games. I remember reading a review of The Longest Journey in the magazine PC Zone and the writer said he was in love with the main character and found himself wanting to make cups of cocoa for her. I thought that was very touching (and hilarious), and I think it says something that developers should listen to: the most powerful female game protagonists are the ones who act, talk, dress and stand like real women, not the Soul Calibur tits-and-swords brigade.

My favourite female game protagonist is definitely Terra from FF6. She really had the "existential journey" thing going on (like all the FF protagonists before FF games started sucking).

 

[LilithSlave]

Touhou Project games are not sexualized. Almost all characters are completely covered in clothes and hats and no sexual situations exist in game.

Yes, Japan has plenty of porn and sexualization. So does the West. I didn't say that Japan didn't have sexualized. It just seems, from looking at video games, enough to make a list like that, that if anything, the West more frequently sexualized female protagonists than Japan.

And honestly you're jumping for straws with most of those points. Having school girls has nothing to do with being sexualized. Yes, it's certainly possible to sexualize school girls. But having school girls does not make something sexual by a long shot. A good portion of video games star children, because like animation, video games have for a long time been considered a children's toy.

And Blood Rayne is a Western title. It was developed by Terminal Reality, an American company out of Texas.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Touhou Project games are not sexualized. Almost all characters are completely covered in clothes and hats and no sexual situations exist in game.

Yes, Japan has plenty of porn and sexualization. So does the West. I didn't say that Japan didn't have sexualized. It just seems, from looking at video games, enough to make a list like that, that if anything, the West more frequently sexualized female protagonists than Japan.

And honestly you're jumping for straws with most of those points.

I see you don't quite grasp the concept of lolicon or lolita. Good for you, I suppose. But that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

And if by grasping for straws you mean limiting myself to costumes, yeah. I suppose I am. Going into specific instances in each game would be too much work. What exactly is an example of a western game with overt sexualization? At least, on a level that is so much worse than Japan?

 

[LilithSlave]

Neither do you. Since lolicon implies the sexualization of female youth. Not the mere presence of female youth.

 

[dimensional]

pretty nice list there, only other games I can think of off the top of my head would be the Ar Tonelico series oh and Darkstalkers maybe (morrigan).

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Neither do you. Since lolicon implies the sexualization of female youth. Not the mere presence of female youth.

Sigh. Have it your way, maybe Touhou is perfectly innocent. That still leaves plenty of examples. I'm not saying that these games are bad, and I'm not saying that sexualization makes a game bad. I freaking love Bayonetta. However, you can't in good conscience make a list of what you call "non-sexualized female protagonists" (including Bayonetta and Rayne, for shame!), and then slam Western games for being fetish focused.