Most influencial female characters

[Jonluw]

Aside from the obvious ones... April Ryan perhaps? I haven't played the game, so please don't give me a lot of shit for this.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

FemShep, hands down. In my oppinion, she IS Commander Sheppard.

Then there's Zoe from Left 4 Dead, and her realism. Elena Fischer from Drake's fortune for the same reason.

And, dare I say, the Little Sisters.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

Aside from the obvious ones... April Ryan perhaps? I haven't played the game, so please don't give me a lot of shit for this.

No no, you're right.

Though the sequel was rather odd, Zoe from Dreamfall as well.

 

[warm slurm]

I know that the Resident Evil series is pretty ehhh in terms of storyline, but I think Jill and Claire are pretty damn badass. They're strong, they can hold their own, and they don't take any shit from nobody.

Final Fantasy has a couple of good female characters, too. Celes and Tifa are pretty cool, and Garnet/Dagger, too. Garnet is probably the best developed female character in the series. Yuna as well, actually, considering what she's willing to do to help the people of Spira.

Not feeling Female Shepard, though. Day-um. I think she might be the most overrated videogame character ever.

They're not as bad as Garnet/Dagger from FF9, who is supposed to go through a coming-of-age/discovering herself line throughout the game, but she is ultimately submissive to Zidane.

She's not submissive to Zidane at all. Have you ever played the game, or do you just not know what that word means? She's anything but submissive.

 

[s0nic_al]

Then there's Zoe from Left 4 Dead, and her realism.

Good choice. Right now I have her as my desktop. She became especially realistic after the comic came out and she was flushed out further.

I know that the Resident Evil series is pretty ehhh in terms of storyline, but I think Jill and Claire are pretty damn badass. They're strong, they can hold their own, and they don't take any shit from nobody.

Thank you.

 

[Au Naturel.]

Morrigan!!

Morrigan Aensland from Darkstalkers is one of, if not my top female character. She has a great, colourful character design that I love, and her fighting techniques are so unique and memorable that... they're unique and memorable (she has one technique where she will fly from her wings like a "jet" with green flame. So cool!). I recently started playing Darkstalkers after seeing Morrigan in MvsC3. Her character always interested me so I bought the Darkstalkers collection. It's a blast and she rocks! I feel like I played the game before, I recognize a lot of the characters, so maybe I played it when I was younger and I remembered subconsciously!! But really, she wins in my books!

Bulleta from Darkstalkers 3 is jazzy, too! She dresses like little red riding hood, basket and all, with butterflies tailing her and a cute little dog. But she carries an uzi in her basket, is incredibly aggressive and genuinely hilarious! She feigns a cute, innocent look but is a very powerful dark hunter! Darkstalkers has great characters!

 

[SimuLord]

I know that the Resident Evil series is pretty ehhh in terms of storyline, but I think Jill and Claire are pretty damn badass. They're strong, they can hold their own, and they don't take any shit from nobody.

Final Fantasy has a couple of good female characters, too. Celes and Tifa are pretty cool, and Garnet/Dagger, too. Garnet is probably the best developed female character in the series. Yuna as well, actually, considering what she's willing to do to help the people of Spira.

Not feeling Female Shepard, though. Day-um. I think she might be the most overrated videogame character ever.

They're not as bad as Garnet/Dagger from FF9, who is supposed to go through a coming-of-age/discovering herself line throughout the game, but she is ultimately submissive to Zidane.

She's not submissive to Zidane at all. Have you ever played the game, or do you just not know what that word means? She's anything but submissive.

I've played the game absolutely to death, and Dagger's character development is from about mid-game onward secondary to her relationship with Zidane.

 

[vrbtny]

OK, technically she's Halsey's brain running off of a computer. I've read the first few books, and recently wrapped up a Halo canon argument. I will not argue that again.

Nah Don't worry about that, I won't get into a halo Canon argument, just pointing that limiting influential characters to flesh and blood even when there is few of them will mean the list is made shorter.

Honestly, though, would Cortana's character really have had a much different role in the story if it were male? Some say there was a romantic interest. Chief was just too flat a character to have a romantic interest, in the games anyway (yeah, I know, the books, Linda). I think some people just liked the character design and voice, and wanted it that way. It would not have been the same Halo with a male Cortana, but it could have been done with the same lines.

Interesting Question, Honestly, Some of the dialogue would have to be changed, some of it has the female-ish lines to it that wouldn't work. However - yes Cortana could have been male, but I don't think it would have made a impact that cortana did.

Yes, she works as a character, but I'm still not sure if a computer, no matter where her programming (AI core matrix, whatever the hell) came from, can well-represent females in video games. Maybe I'm too skeptic, but the idea of a guy loving a computer with a holographic body is kind of creepy.

well technically, The Spartans basically got fixed to hell and back. They don't have sexual urges I guess, according to the books. Hmmm Super human strength/Spartan Abilities... or the being neutered and not have the urge to have sex... Decisions, Decisions. What pushes us past friendships and professional relationships is the need to mate which we're all usually programmed with. Hormones and all.

To be honest though I never saw the relationship proceed more than a professional relationship despite bungie trying to paint it that way (partly because I had read the novels). Chief was too... much of a soldier. Even in halo 3 - It felt more like that rescue mission in MW before the nuke hit. Just rescuing a comrade and preventing a enemy from getting intell. Flood was nothing to be trifle with either.

But I digress, getting back onto the main trunk of the topic... when you get down to it. Kind-of odd, but uh no, not really. I don't find it odd. I mean, we name ships and our computers whatever. So perhaps I'm a odd-ball, but I don't see it as odd.

Philosophically, we like to give inanimate objects human qualities. Cortana just represents the ultimate in-animate object. Much food for thought about this when you think about it. Assuming humanity somehow doesn't wipe itself out thru ignorance, some group of people being dicks and natural disasters... cortana is probably achievable. Now this is theory and all, but I believe it is entirely possible to make cortana so to speak.

We've been slowing making the foundation for the technology with video games believe it or not. The AI that controls everything will eventually be granted a personality. Lion Head's Kinect project is another foot step in that direction. Once you give something enough changeable variables that it can keep going on it's own (A personality), it's pretty much a living creature in a way.

I can't say you aren't wrong, because I don't know where computers will take us. However, in order to be an actual "smart" Cortana - like computer, it must have the ability to make its own decisions, which modern computers cannot and there's no reason to think that it will be able to. A computer can have ten million different variables, but throw something new at it and it will never be able to understand that until somebody tells it how.

So I guess Cortana could stand for some sort of hypothetical computer personality in gaming?

Shit guys, go and discuss this sort of screwed up relationship stuff on some other site. And quit with the threadjacking already.

Seriously, Halo Cannon is as straight as Graham Norton.

 

[warm slurm]

I've played the game absolutely to death, and Dagger's character development is from about mid-game onward secondary to her relationship with Zidane.

That doesn't mean she's submissive to him, though. And she's also mute for most of disk 3; there's a huge moment for her (not her and Zidane) at the end of the disk, with the symbolic cutting of the hair thing. Her relationship with Zidane isn't touched on that much after disk 2 until the end of the game, either.

 

[SimuLord]

I've played the game absolutely to death, and Dagger's character development is from about mid-game onward secondary to her relationship with Zidane.

That doesn't mean she's submissive to him, though. And she's also mute for most of disk 3; there's a huge moment for her (not her and Zidane) at the end of the disk, with the symbolic cutting of the hair thing. Her relationship with Zidane isn't touched on that much after disk 2 until the end of the game, either.

I'll grant that---a lot of it is context, since it's a JRPG, so the assumption of any female character should be "weak and submissive unless explicitly proven otherwise." The Japanese are really good at that kind of systemic misogyny in their games (Other M...)

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Alyx Fucking Vance of course.

With you there, now if only she could hold the damn gnome while I'm driving.

 

[warm slurm]

I'll grant that---a lot of it is context, since it's a JRPG, so the assumption of any female character should be "weak and submissive unless explicitly proven otherwise." The Japanese are really good at that kind of systemic misogyny in their games (Other M...)

Can you explain some of the context, then?

 

[SimuLord]

I'll grant that---a lot of it is context, since it's a JRPG, so the assumption of any female character should be "weak and submissive unless explicitly proven otherwise." The Japanese are really good at that kind of systemic misogyny in their games (Other M...)

Can you explain some of the context, then?

I could if it had been less than nine years since the last time I played the game. I'm going on old memories, mostly.

 

[ManInRed]

Lucca from Chrono Trigger is the first smart and capable girl I can recall seeing?the modern equivalent being Shion Uzuki in Xenosaga, who actually got written by a girl of basically the same personality this time (married to the producer, who I assume acts like Allen).

Heather from Silent Hill 3 is one of the strongest female characters, going from a scared girl to furious heroin that the monsters should fear over the course of the game, and taking the player on the ride.

Lucia from Lunar 2, a girl in a love story plotted RPG, but with the catch that you don't get to control Lucia like the rest of your party, allowing an actual affection for playing along side her the whole game to develop and make certain points of trying to be with her or loosing her have that much more of an impact. Ico would go on to repeat this tactic to the same effect.

Samus and Zelda get the obvious head nods. Zelda actually proving to be smart than Link in 'Link to the past' and 'Ocarina of time' it seems. Samus in Metroid Fusion actually gets the chance to talk and act like a woman without alter the personality traits we already know about her.

Aerith also gets a nod, if only for convincing Cloud to cross dress.

Millenia from Grandia II was a great female character, and why basically being the typical she-devil she is constantly trying to teach the lesson of "think for you self and do what you think is right, instead of being submissive to others" to the girl whose body she processes. Alfina [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/2/22/] from Grandia 3 could have used a demon roll model like her.

Marina Liteyears probably one most have forgotten about, but she was the coolest side scoller hero since Dixie Kong.

Another memorable female character is Bridget from Guilty Gear. . . oh wait. How about Birdo in Super Mario . . .no. Flea from Chrono Trigger? Taki from Soul Calibur? . . . Umm let's move.

 

[Andrew_Waltfeld]

Shit guys, go and discuss this sort of screwed up relationship stuff on some other site. And quit with the threadjacking already.

Seriously, Halo Cannon is as straight as Graham Norton.

Not really thread jacking in a sense since it was a discussion centered around whether computerized characters could be considered in this thread. My Apologizes anyway.

Then there's Zoe from Left 4 Dead, and her realism.

Good choice. Right now I have her as my desktop. She became especially realistic after the comic came out and she was flushed out further.

Good call as well, Zoey and Louis fighting zombies are my background. Comic was awesome.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

Besides Lara Croft, who else (females) would you say has an influence on gaming or heck, on YOUR gaming, memorable for some reason or another. There are plenty of males, but can you think of many females?

Aya Brea, from Parasite Eve


I have others, but they've been mentioned (repeatedly).

 

[TitanAtlas]

Jade from beyond good and evil, and alyx from half life....

Jade because she proves to be best than any action male hero, and along with her "uncle" she unmasked a governmental conspiracy, and defeated a alien hivemind and overlord....

Alyx, because its the only women i would have has an sidekick... reasons include not bitching, acctually doing something, being humorous, and when im in goddam trouble i know i can count on her.... besides shes a mean gunslinger and one hell of a women...

Also Lara Croft... i remember being a kid and playing the first games (and getting scared/ freaked out because of the tigers -__-), and lara proves that she can do the task just has good and even better than any man....

 

[Necrotech]

I say Arith from Final Fantasy 7, based mostly on the fact that she is not some sterotypical "Bad-ass chick" or the "Girl in Distress" character. She is more human then most and well writen enough to feel for her and her actions. She is simply a normal girl who knows that she has the power to help the world, and is willing to see it through. Yes, the character motivation has become very cliche but things only become cliche because at one point someone wrote them well enough to count. Good stories get re-told for a reason, and I believe Arith to be a prime example.

Jill and Claire would both have been much better characters if not stuck in a universe of terrible, terrible, bleeding-ear-causing dialouge. Mind you I LOVE the RE games and they were badass chicks, but come on.....Jill Sandwich?

 

[Tanki]

Sarah Kerrigan

 

[migo]

Well, my main issue is not the fact that she acts logical, my issue is that she is a generic voiceless (until other M) space marine who goes around killing things with guns, Make a character like that as a man and "IT'S BLAND AND GENERIC" but make on like Samus (aka female) and "IT'S NEW AND REFRESHING".

It is, some variation is nice, and an extra bonus is that she has some history as a female space marine.

Samus is in the same line of Gordon Freeman and Link, and even F.E.A.R Guy, the category of "no character but still having massive fanbase". None of these characters do anything redeeming, and yet people seem to think of them as great wonderful characters. Hell, even Master Chief has a better personality.

Link yes, but Gordon Freeman no. Samus comes from the same era as Link, back when actually naming a character was pretty significant, and going to the effort give gender even moreso.

Samus as a female character is influential simply because she made people think, "Hey, women can do this too."