Happy International Women's Day! Let's celebrate by talking about some awesome women in games.

[Neoxon]

Like I said in the title, happy International Women's Day! Full disclosure, I wish I could do a full-ass thread like I did for Black History Month. But given how much of a herculean task that thread was, I'd need to plan ahead for such a thread next year. With that said, I wanted to do something this year, so I decided to do an open thread for bringing up some awesome women in gaming. Who knows, maybe I'll refer back to this thread next year. Of course, we can also bring up pros & cons regarding gaming's handling of women in games in here as well. With that said, I'll start...

Twintelle & Chun-Li are probably two of my favorite women in fighting games right now. Granted, Chun-Li is kinda held back by the whole Interpol thing, but she's also such a long-standing character. Hell, Chun-Li is the literal First Lady of Fighting Games. As for Twintelle, she's probably the shining example of black women for Nintendo games & possibly fighting games in general so far. Hell, you all voted for her as this site's top black character from a fighting game. You can check that thread for my write-up on Twintelle, but I'll save my Chun-Li write-up for another time. So what about you all, what other women in games do you want to bring up? Though just a heads-up, please keep the thread focused on women who originated from a video game.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Jade

Alyx

 

[Protoman200X]

Giving a shout-out to No One Lives Forever's Cate Archer. Kotaku has a solid article that talks about her series and her as an underrated female protagonist set in a Cold War-era spy romp.

 

[BadWolf]

The Boss from MGS3.

Still the best.

 

[Dice]

The Goddess: Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile
Easily the best character in her own game, and utilizing pretty fun and tricky platforming to maneuver her was great. She is a stone cold warrior, and finding "love" in her life only emboldens to be stronger instead of weaken her. Just about the entire VP lady cast (and otherwise) is like this; featuring flawed characters with a lot of passion and strength in life (and death).

Special shoutout to the TWO leading ladies from Final Fantasy VI, Celes and Terra.... It was a biiiig deal to me as a kid that the main characters were ladies, and I think it helped turn gaming into more than "just" a hobby for me.
(Selfishly showing off my own art; because the passion lol)

 

[Oinone]

Alexandra Roivas from Eternal Darkness will always be a favourite of mine.

I'm not into Control itself, but I'm still digging Jesse Faden a lot.

 

[kodax_shc]

The female farmer from Bokujou Monogatari games.

 

[Mediking]

Mitsuru from Persona 3
Cynthia from Pokémon Platinum
Zelda from various Zelda games
Makoto from Persona 5
Lara Croft
Samus
Jill Valentine
Chie from Persona 4
Ciri from Witcher
Yennefer
Triss
Miranda from Mass Effect
Female Shepard

lol I can keep going

 

[zaxil456]

Lara <3

 

[Team_Feisar]

Samus!!

 

[Exist 2 Inspire]

Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. I really love her and can't wait to play her again in Forbidden West.

 

[ClickyCal']

Ellie and Abby. Between Ellie's entire arc from American Dreams through TLOU2, she has become the most realistically realized character across a set of games to me. I love her entire story.

Abby was such a shockingly amazing character that became an all time favorite of mine even in just one game.

Not going to get too deep because it gets into spoilers.

 

[bombermouse]

Though just a heads-up, please keep the thread focused on women who originated from a video game.

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Is there another thread to bring awareness to real women who work in game industry and their projects? Gaming has never been a paragon of good women design in the first place, so limiting this thread to "hey, remember these fictional women characters"' seems in poor taste on such an important day.

Sorry if this is considered thread derailing.

 

[Neoxon]

Is there another thread to bring awareness to real women who work in game industry and their projects? Gaming has never been a paragon of good women design in the first place, so limiting this thread to "hey, remember these fictional women characters"' seems in poor taste on such an important day.

Sorry if this is considered thread derailing.

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I'm mainly following the same rules as the Black History Month thread. That said, you do raise a good point about there not being a ton of great designs for women in games. But if anything, that's why it's important to highlight the positive examples in gaming.

 

[Dice]

Ellie and Abby.

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To have the game be so brutal yet manage to create such a sympathetic character to one otherwise established as such a monster.... IT's bold and incredible. Elie I knew I'd love (cuz we loved her already in game 1), but to pull a whole new narrative with Abby was jaw dropping.

Also ..

Spoiler: The epic moment

This shit made my jaw droooop. Certified 200% badass

 

[ciddative]

Hailey.

That's it, that's the post

 

[Canas Renvall]

The once and future queen.

 

[Morrigan]

(Selfishly showing off my own art; because the passion lol)

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Stunning. Love your art, Dice.

Ellie and Abby.

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Yes. Best recent examples for sure.

Some of my favourites that haven't been mentioned yet:

Lady Maria and Eileen the Crow, Bloodborne

Emily and Billie, Dishonored

 

[ClickyCal']

(Selfishly showing off my own art; because the passion lol)

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Wow, that's incredible!

 

[Deleted member 62769]

 

[Deleted member 13101]

Playstation 5 has a section up on their store with games fearuring many of the women characters mentioned here. It would have been cool to provide a deck of action cards to commemorate the day.

 

[taco543]

Don't forget Madeline from Celeste!

 

[Septimus]

Ooh great thread. One of my faves of all time is Chris from Suikoden 3. Especially in the non-armor outfit.

 

[Neoxon]

Don't forget Madeline from Celeste!

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Dammit, you beat me to her. I was actually gonna do another post for Madeline.

 

[taco543]

Dammit, you beat me to her. I was actually gonna do another post for Madeline.

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I was surprised it took her so long to get mentioned! Also where's senua?!

 

[Mat-triX]

Shameful lack of Elena Fisher. Favorite character in the Uncharted series.

 

[Menx64]

 

[BrickArts295]

Just want to give a shoutout to one my favorites:

The Pirate Governor, Elaine Marley from the Monkey Island Series

The Rancher Queen, Bonnie MacFarlane from the Red Dead Series

The 2 time GOTY winner, Ellie from The Last of Us Series

The GOAT zombie survivor, Clementine from Telltale's The Walking Dead

The GOAT narrator, GLaDOS from the Portal Series

The Boss, The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3

Élise de la Serre from Assassin's Creed Unity

 

[ARobotCalledV]

My favorite protagonist of last year, Lady Love Dies.

 

[Reformed Individual]

Estelle is a top-tier MC

 

[DaciaJC]

Granted, Chun-Li is kinda held back by the whole Interpol thing,

Click to shrink...

How's that?

 

[Angie]

I know Ubisoft is trash, and is hard to forgive them to not allow Kassandra to be the only main protagonist in Odyssey.
At least now they admit it, and say that Kassandra being the main is canon. And she deserves it, because she is awesome.

 

[ARobotCalledV]

Estelle is a top-tier MC

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One of my favorite protagonists ever, but I do not like that design at all. Much prefer her Sky FC outfit.

 

[SofNascimento]

Giving a shout-out to No One Lives Forever's Cate Archer. Kotaku has a solid article that talks about her series and her as an underrated female protagonist set in a Cold War-era spy romp.

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I'm glad to see that it didn't take long for someone to mention the goat.

I actually thought of this scene today:




I suspect a scene like that today would cause a lot of people to attack the game.

Edit: just read the article, amazing read! And they mentioned that same dialogue.

Please, someone bring Cate Archer back!

 

[Sameer Sedlar]

Echo from Killzone Shadow Fall remains to be one of my favorites. I was waiting for another Killzone with her as a lead character.

 

[Cerulean_skylark]

Stupid outfit, incredible woman

 

[Garlador]

The ones that always jump to the top for me are Chun-li, Samus, and Jill Valentine.

But let me also share one of my favorites from the PS1 era.

Aya Brea from Parasite Eve (one in particular) was such a breath of fresh air. Shame they never made a third game.

A REAL SHAME.

 

[XaviConcept]

Painted up a Cammy for the occasion. In a way I was lucky that my favorite games growing up had women I thought were awesome and some even were main characters. Terra and Celes in FFVI, Chun Li and Cammy in SF, Ayla in Chrono Trigger, etc

 

[spad3]

Lilac and Gooseberries

 

[Phoenixazure]

Vanessa from King of Fighters. She learns boxing after her husband dies and becomes a top agent in a mercenary group who have worked with the likes of K', Blue Mary, and coworker Ramon. She also has the distinct honor of being in a team with Iori and still being alive (noting that her and team members Ramon and Seth turn on him instead of typically the other way around)



Also considered one of the best boxers in all fighting games and arguably the fastest across 2D fighters.

 

[Angie]

This thread will be of great inspiration for my future avatars

 

[Jakartalado]

Hailey.

That's it, that's the post

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On point.... totally deserved and Insomniac did one hell of a job.

Not trying to derail the thread... but I thought this was going to be a Laura Bailey list, great to see such a diverse cast being chosen by Era.

 

[Yossarian]

Mona Sax from Max Payne 2:

Sadie Adler from Red Dead Redemption 2:

Billie Lurk from the Dishonored series:

 

[RROCKMAN]

Question! Do our picks have to be human?

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I know Jehuty isn't Ada per say... but they are inseparable regardless.

 

[ARobotCalledV]

Aurora from Child of Light, my favorite Ubisoft game.

 

[Garlador]

A few that tend to slip under the radar.

Fetch from Infamous: Second Son & First Light

Nilin from Remember Me

Senua from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark

Gris from Gris

 

[headspawn]

Looking forward to this, hopefully we get some updates soon:

 

[Angie]

Faith deserves all the love

 

[Deleted member 46948]

Ellie and Abby. Between Ellie's entire arc from American Dreams through TLOU2, she has become the most realistically realized character across a set of games to me. I love her entire story.

Abby was such a shockingly amazing character that became an all time favorite of mine even in just one game.

Not going to get too deep because it gets into spoilers.

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This is the real MVP answer.
And also Aloy, another video game woman that didn't need to be propped up by a man.

 

[ARobotCalledV]

One of my Apex Legends mains, Lifeline. As someone who always plays the healer character, I really appreciate how unique her design is by avoiding the generic white mage template.

Also has my favourite alternative outfit in the game, which I unfortunately missed out on.