sincere | Heroines where??

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Heroines where??

maladaptive and I were discussing a topic relevant to my last post, which has bothered me for a long time: female characters in video games. I'm extremely laid back as female gamers go. I don't complain much about feminism or character abuse. However, the driving reason The Last Dreamer game turned out the way it did (Maris never existed until we decided to make it a video game) is because of this question.

Now, there are many things to address on this topic -- like reasons why the bulk of females in RPGs are spellcasters and not fighters (take Final Fantasy IX or X for good examples of this, each game features three playable females and in each game two of those are set as exclusively casters, compared to one and ZERO male casters respectively.) Like reasons why the bulk of female characters are often one of the following and very little else: sweet saints (Aerith of FFVII), helpless kidnap-bait (Shirley, Tales Legendia), or superior bitches (Tetra, Zelda Windwaker)... or some horrible combination of all those things (Sophia, SO3).

Disclaimer: I like Tetra and Aerith a lot. Shut up.

My question is, how many female main characters are there, really?

Games that don't count:
-ones where you have choices between main characters and one of those is female (Star Ocean 2, Suikoden 3)
-ones with an ensemble cast where the central character is female (FFVI)
-ones where the main character is not the main playable character (FFX)
-ones where the female main character is female not intended to represent a female lead, but female in order to have a pleasing shape for male players (Tomb Raider, Red Ninja)

So far we've been able to come up with:

Valkyrie Profile's Lenneth - truly a hero among female leads, strong and smart and awesome.
Wild ARMs 3's Virginia Maxwell - naive, idealistic, but neither stupid nor helpless.
Super Princess Peach's... Princess Peach - she kicks ass wearing a poofy pink dress with a parasol and rescues her men? Go girl.
Parasite Eve's Aya Brea - okay FINE in the second game TOO.
Fatal Frame's heroines - because everything is scarier when you're a tiny Japanese girl.
Silent Hill 3's Heather Morris - "Mother of GOD." Not just for exasperation anymore.
Metroid's Samus Aran - so hardcore you wouldn't even know she's a chick.
Final Fantasy XII - no, he only looks like a girl
Final Fantasy XIII - ostensibly.
Shadow Hearts: Covenant's Karin - HAH I remembered before you all did!

Xenosaga series's Shion Uzuki - she's a science genius girl.
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment's Maya Amano - big sister journalist with... with... with hearts on her... her tie is cool!
Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica's Claire Redfield - a motorcycle enthusiast! she wins.
Pocky & Rocky's Pocky - Shinto priestess with pet raccoon OKAY GO
Final Fantasy X-2's Yuna - making a comeback as the leader of Charlie's Angels.
King's Quest 4 and 7's Rosella - when Dad's a hero, being a pampered princess only lasts as long as his enemies can't find you.
Rhapsody's Cornet - although most English voice actors should not attempt to sing. (YOU, HALEY JOEL OSMENT. PUT DOWN THE MIC. And the beer.)
Koudelka's Koudelka - ...you can never have enough games named after the main character.
Dino Crisis's Regina - for all your weapon-customizing, dinosaur-killing needs.
Clock Tower's heroines - because everything is scarier when you're -- wait, her family WHAT?
Deception & Trapt's heroines - demons are your friends! M- Maybe.
Popful Mail's Mail - CRACK. I mean. Nuts Cracker?
Valis's Yuko Ahso - can't argue with magic destiny. Also, tentacle porn. (Also old!)
Panzer Dragoon Orta's Orta - every girl wants a dragon to love.
MS. PACMAN - ...lawl

Can anyone think of any more main female characters?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Does Shion from Xenosaga counts? :)

Buut yeah, I can see how the video game industry is seriously lacking of female leads. We need Final Fantasy XIII already...

Yes! She does count. I forgot about her because I hardly played Xenosaga. *sweat, adds her ♥*

The heroine of FFXIII looks pretty kickass, I'm excited to see what she's all about. :3 Of course, I'm also excited for FFXII, since I've heard nothing but great things, even though Vaan makes me twitch a little. I mean, I'm glad that female-to-male transsexuals can be main characters too, but. D:

Fatal Frames 1-3 all have female leads! :D And they are excellent games. (Okay technically FF3 has 3 main charas, but the main one is a girl and only one of the 3 is a dude and he has the least playtime, you only get to use him a few times, which is tragic because he is hot. XD)

Lessee... are we counting games where you can unlock a female and play through again? XD Probably no, right? But RE4 and DMC2 would fall into this... oh, I am pretty sure that one or more Resident Evil games has a female protagonist. (they seem popular in Survival Horror genre... is it because things seem scarier if your character is a girl? XD XD)

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment has a female main character in Maya Amano (but the game is a sequel to P2: Innocent Sin where the main chara is a boy and Maya is a side character). Maya represents "big sister" (or almost a mother figure) to all the kids in P2:IS (they're all screwed up high school students, she is a journalist) and in P2:EP she's among her peers in the working world (party members are a cop, a hacker, and her best friend). She's sweet and big-hearted and slightly ditzy so you may be screaming "STEREOTYPES!!" but she is a really nice, fun person and all the characters in this game are very well done...

I can't believe you didn't mention Lara Croft. I mean she's not the greatest example but come on. XD CLASSIC

In SNES series "Pocky & Rocky" you could play the little shinto priestess Pocky or her raccoon buddy Rocky... does it count? XD

I think Eternal Darkness may have... well.. I'm not sure it HAS a "main" chara, may be more ensemble, I'll getr back to you when I've played more than an hour of it.

I heard that Fatal Frames are excellent, but I'm like a total wuss and am very easily made to flail at things that go bump in the dark, much less. D: Things that go "OMNOMNOM TASTY SOULS" in the dark. I'll check up on the Resident Evil ref, and definitely the Persona reference is good! Even if Maya's not the most original character in the book, she sounds a lot like Virginia. I don't cry stereotypes or feminism a lot, I can appreciate even huge blinding stereotypes if well-done. XD

I didn't mention Lara Croft on purpose. XD Lately, I think, she's become more of what I'm thinking of with Female Main Character, but originally she seemed like just, you know, Hot Polygons For Guys To Drool Over. *ded* CLASSIC JERK-OFF MATERIAL, YOU MEAN!!1

In SNES series "Pocky & Rocky" you could play the little shinto priestess Pocky or her raccoon buddy Rocky... does it count? XD
I've never heard of it, but I'm going to put it on the list anyway, because your description of it is total win.

okay here's some more:

* Resident Evil 3 (Jill Valentine) (you might want to check on who all you can play as in Resident Evil 2 as it might violate your excessive-dude-playtime rule or something)
* Parasite Eve & PE2 (CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT THESE, Aya Brea)
* FFX might not count, but what about FFX-2?! YOU CAN'T EVEN GET DUDES IN YOUR PARTY! No matter how badly you want to dress up Gippal!!! (VERY BADLY btw)
* Bloodrayne (as Bloodrayne)
* Rhapsody (it's a MUSICAL RPG!! also, its sequels Little Princess, Tenshi Present, La Pucelle)
* Atelier Iris & Atelier Marie (I'm told)
* SPACE CHANNEL 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (as Ulala)
* Phantom Brave (I'm told, I don't own this one)
* Athena (lolololololol as Athena, old SNK game)
* Um Jammer Lammy (as Lammy)
* Koudelka (as Koudelka)
* Clock Tower series (again with the survival horror!)
* Nightshade
* Dino Crisis (I believe)
* Maken X (I'm told)
* Threads of Fate, sort of (well, you have to pick either the boy or the girl at the beginning, but they have different storylines and paths through the game.)
* Deception 2 & 3 (I'm told)
* Trapt (as the princess, YET ANOTHER SURVIVAL HORROR GAME sort of)
* Popful Mail (as... I think her name was Mail XD)
* Valis series (oldschool!!)
* Panzer Dragoon Orta
* Alisia Dragoon
* El Viento (saturn game... I'm told)
* King's Quest 7 (I think it was 7... there's one where you play as the princess)
* Ms. Pacman. XD

okay that's all I can think of.

I'll let you know if more come to mind but it seems unlikely at the moment XD;;;

King's Quest 7!!1 omg, totally. (And what was it -- 4, I think you were also Rosella.) And FFX-2 was excluded solely because I'm retarded. (It's in my Playstation right now.) (WTB Gippal dress-spheres!)

Resident Evil games I am counting; it's less about not playing as card-carrying members of the Dick-Having Club and more about the lead role being exclusively played by a female -- that's why Threads of Fate wouldn't count, as fun as Mint is, because she shares the limelight with her male co-star.

I acquired Atelier Iris by accident... (GameStop reminded me that since I was buying two used games, I might as well get my free one!) I should, you know. Unwrap that.

OH MY GOD, King's Quest. I played that game when I was little!

TICKLE THE GODDAMN UVULA, ROSELLA

wah, why'd you leave off Lammy and Ulala when you updated? XD;; I mean okay, you look at Ulala and think eye-candy probably, and she sort of is... but what's wrong with that?! She's a space journalist who pwnz aliens with a combo of dancing and shooting!! Besides you should see the GUY characters. XD And I mean, okay, it's a music game, but so what? It has a (retarded) plot!!

Same for Lammy... I mean, the game's a sequel to Parappa the Rappa, and Lammy's a badass punk uh... cow... girl... who's trying to get to her rock band Milk Can's gig on time! XD The only other playable character is her "evil twin" Rammy and all the other members of her band are also girls. If I were a little girl I think this game would definitely break some stereotypes... girls can rock out with guitars too! :D

I did a little poking and I was under the impression that they were more games where you had an avatar more than a character -- since they both seemed like rhythm/dancer games. I sort of made a mental connection to DDR or something. XD If they're actual characters that'd be cool?

The comment about FF12 made me laugh out loud- thanks. ^^

*tsks* I wish I could add a new title to the list- but the idea in this post is all too true. Still, I can second the claim about Aya Brea- she kicks ass in a leather jacket, T shirt and jeans, and has lots of big guns. Also, yes- she becomes more 'motherly' in the second game, and her spells get amped.

So, even though she still has massive weapons in PE2, I see her as more of a 'leader' in the first game.

The game looks fantastic, the music is fantasic, I'm totally excited about it, but Vaan is totally a chick. XD Maybe a post-op chick, and probably a lesbian, but dude. He's girlier than Yuna.

Yeah, I've never actually played PE -- *fails* -- but my friend says that she got more girled up and less ass-kicking in the second one, so we like her better in PE1. *nodnod*

*love that goddamn icon*

PE1 was awesome, even if Aya runs like a dead snail. It's got such good atmosphere. *_* I wish they'd continue the series.

I'm only really posting to note that I've discovered a conspiracy!

Aya Brea is totally Larxene's Nobody! ~~I mean they're both blonde so they must be~~

_{*dies of sarcasm OD*}

It's actually a bit of a shame you don't count selectable female roles, because the Soul Calibur games have several strong female characters with interesting and well-developed back-stories, even if they ARE fighting games. Sofitia for the win, man! Gorgeous, untouchable, and supremely dedicated to saving the world by force of arms.

....hm. Well, if strategy games count, I have Age of Mythology, which has as members of your core Heros both Amanra (Queen of the Nile and a sassy bitch and wicked fighter) and Reginleif (the Valkyrie, chosen of Odin, healer AND awesome fighter FTW). (And let me tell you, Amanra and Reginleif are both a hell of a lot more useful than the goddamn dwarf brothers. >.<)

Strategy games do count, but that sounds like it might be an ensemble cast? I mean games with MAIN characters who are female. Final Fantasy Tactics would count if Ramza were a chick, for instance. XD

If I were doing strong females and not exclusively starring females, I would totally count SoulCal chicks. ♥

Well. There is a cast of several main heros. Since it's scenario-based, Amanra does have her own scenario, and Reginlief was the ONLY hero in the demo. I mean, the way Age of Mythology runs is kinda totally different than most of the types I play, so it's hard for me to really judge what you mean by 'starring female.'

What I mean is a game with an exclusive single main character who is female. What you're describing is similar to Suikoden 3, which I mentioned above: there are several options for who you play, and some of them happen to be female. If I were allowing women who co-star with other people to be on the list, I would be so happy to put Chris Lightfellow up there you have no idea, she's my hero.

It's sort of in-between, then; you don't have the OPTION to play as Amanra, you MUST play as Amanrah in several of the scenarios. ...you don't have a choice about who you play at all, really. But there ARE other main characters, so.

I'm having a hard time coming up with ANY games that I actually PLAY that have exclusive female leads, though.

There was a Rayearth game (never released Stateside). It wasn't a very good game, but the three main characters were female.

That's a good point! I remember Rayearth. *warmfuzzies*

if you're counting games made from anime there are also like 500 Sailor Moon games and the Ghost in the Shell game XD

I'm not actually counting video games that take advantage of a pre-existing franchise, so Rayearth doesn't go on the list. There are a lot a lot of anime with main female characters, but original video games don't do it as often. Or... really... often at all. XD That's what I want to think about.

Resident Evil 3's main character was Jill Valentine. :)

Noted ♥

La Pucelle. The female lead, and two of the main starting trio, are female, the third being Prier (the main's) little brother. Prier is brashest, rudest nun you ever met, and eagerly looks forward to hitting evil in the head with a stick. Or kicking it in the crotch. (That's one of her moves. No, I'm not kidding.) Yes, it's an SRPG, but she's required for too many fights. And she's on the box cover.

Oh, and Tron Bonne! She was the semi-comic relief villian in Mega Man Legends, but later got her own game. Nyohohoing air pirate in a giant robot with an armor of encephalitic yellow Servbots to steal everything that isn't nailed down.

Be on Gchat!

Perfect Dark. The main character's Joanna Dark. I'm not sure if this violates the pixelated eye candy rule, but I at least enjoyed the storyline and the graphics weren't exactly the game's selling point.

(Unfortunately I'm not much of a 1st-person shooter fan so I'm afraid to say my brother was actually the one who reminded me of this game.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Heroines where??

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