Your favourite female lead characters of the PS3/XBox360 generation

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I'm sure we've discussed it on here before but I read a while back a piece from some guy going on about the total lack of female leads in games and that women in games were generally rubbish or something.

Sure, if you look at the GTA series you could argue that women are there for little more than running over, fondling their breasts or laughing at how stupid they are, but I think the last generation had some top female lead characters.

Sure they tend to be lookers (but then male characters tend to be gruff, bulky and alpha-manly) but I think in recent years they've become tougher, deeper and more interesting to play. Indeed, some of my favourite lead protagonists on the PS3 have been female.

So I'll list mine and please, list yours.

In no order....

LARA CROFT (Tomb Raider)

Probably the best series reboot there's ever been in any media. A huge-breasted hangover from the '90s, Lara was thrown backwards a few years in age, experience and quipping-skills. Then went on an inner and outer voyage of self-discovery. Also had a top notch voice artist. Personal highlight was her emerging from the underground pool of blood, bow at the ready and totally reborn.

NILIN (Remember Me)

Remember Me was good. The fighting was better than reviewers gave it credit for and the storyline was interesting. Nilin has the power and ability to enter the minds of people, scramble and remove their memories. She wakes up in prison and (you guessed it) goes on a voyage of discovery about her past. Sarcastic and rebellious to start, her character deepens as she learns more about herself.

She's also mixed-race which is still an under-represented demographic in games.

FAITH CONNORS (Mirror's Edge)

Faith is a free-running postman in a shimmery futuristic totalitarian dystopia. She has an ongoing link with her sister throughout the game after her sister (a cop) is framed for a murder of a rather important individual. She's also mixed-race, so perhaps I was lying when talking about Nilin. Still, I find it very easy to side with her and understand her motivations as being extremely reasonable.

NARIKO (Heavenly Sword)

Nariko is probably my favourite actually. The daughter of a clan leader, under attack and subsequently destroyed by an evil tyrant, with the clan members captured. The evil tyrant is after the....well the Heavenly Sword of the title. Now, despite all the men in the clan and despite Nariko's father clearly upset that he has a daughter instead of a son, Nariko is the only one to step up and use the sword, allowing the weapon's curse to fall on her as she sacrifices her own future for the good of the clan. There are a few levels that really build that feeling, such as charging into a whole advancing army (which, as a release game for PS3 was crazy), and getting the sword back after having to fight without it for a while. The feeling of that return of power is immense.

Added to her charge, weapon in hand, to destroy the tyrant and his men, is the story of her relationship with her friend Kai. It really adds to the player's emotional involvement.

Nariko is clearly the most sexualised of these characters but she's probably also the toughest.

RUBI MALONE (Wet)

Well, maybe Rubi runs Nariko a close second with regards to sexualised. Rubi's a gun for hire who carries out "Wet Work", i.e. messy, dirty work to go get stuff that someone else needs, or get other "jobs" done. She's voiced by and based on Eliza Dushku and is a whirling dervish of gunplay and samurai sword. Clearly a little unhinged, clearly loves what she does. The game is flawed but enjoyable. It would probably work just as well with a man but I think having a female character allows it to "get away" with being so grindhouse style.

MADISON PAIGE (Heavy Rain)

I liked all the main playable characters in Heavy Rain. Or at least when I say liked I mean I enjoyed playing as them. Madison and Ethan were the most interesting to me though. Ethan because, well, you draw closer to him than anyone else of course, but Madison goes through her own hell in the game. I think in some scenes she nearly slips into a stereotypical support female, standing by the guy she's just met, helping him out almost unquestioningly at times...but overall I feel she's a strong character and interesting too.

As an aside, I REALLY need to play these games again.

[ViciousVixen]

I don't really play many games, but I'll go with Bayonetta. It was heaps of crazy fun.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

I'm with you on nariko. Kai from the same game. Just two well done characters.

I would imagine Samus appearing on many peoples lists. Not mine, as I have surprisingly never played a metroid game.

Laura Bow from the sierra series is great too. Strong mind in the 1920's era crime solving.

(I'm old)

I would say Lara croft is far more sexualized than nariko though, hammy.

[Your Mom]

Commander Shepard

[Sousa]

Does Sully from Fire Emblem count even though she's not the lead? Because Sully from Fire Emblem. She's awesome.

[Ruki]

Commander Shepard

I came to post exactly this.

[King Ellis]

I would imagine Samus appearing on many peoples lists. Not mine, as I have surprisingly never played a metroid game.

Probably not if we're being strict on this. I think it's a rare find to find an Other M defender out in the wild. "I wont put on my power armour on because daddy said not to! Oh no, it's Ridley! That thing I've beaten countless times before already! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

[Sousa]

Other M is what happens when you let the team behind Dead or Alive Xtreme Jiggle Physics Volleyball write for a feminist video game icon.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

Oh. Isabella from Civ.

[Your Mom]

Oh and "Sweet" Sara from WWE 2K14!

[OctoberRaven]

I'll echo the love for Rubi Malone... but well, Chris, I basically totally disagree with you on Madison. She was by far my least favorite of the protagonists, and she felt really tacked on and fanservicey. Not to mention the way she even meets Ethan felt kind of forced. She has amnesia, okay, but she can only sleep in a motel room? They could have at least tried to explain that.

Anyway, I'm going to add Female Voice 1 Boss in the last two Saints Row games, and, more importantly, Clementine.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

Uh...she doesn't have amnesia.

At all.

And her dlc add on was great, actually.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I think you mean insomnia.

[Paton]

Lilth from Borderlands.

[Benji]

Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII

Despite the criticism Lightning often gets. Light served as an interesting leader for FFXIII, serving as sister, mother, brother, father and everything inbetween to her allies. She wasn't a cliché female warrior, completely stoic to a fault, instead showing tenderness when needed, and generally serving as the perfect inbetween for the rest of the cast, keeping them together as one.

Rubi Malone from WET

Hammy pretty much covered bases here, and I'll be sad if WET never gets a sequel. The most under rated game of this generation.

Lara Croft from Tomb Raider

Lara broke the mould twice in this game - first proving that no franchise is truly dead, just waiting for the right people to fix it, and second that Lara Croft isn't just boobs and guns, she's a human being who's just as strong and just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Clementine from Walking Dead and Ellie from Last of Us

Okay, so they're deuteragonists, but they were still great characters, and the protectiveness the leads feel for the characters absolutely carries over to your own experience. Very different girls who both must survive in harsh worlds, they are probably the first pair of wards in a game that I've not only not got frustrated with, but empathised with almost entirely.

[GoGo Yubari]

Commander Shepard

The Grey Warden I played was also pretty rad.

[SeanDMan]

Claire Redfield?

[Your Mom]

Commander Shepard

The Grey Warden I played was also pretty rad.

Another good one. I think Bioware games are great like that because you kinda feel like it's you and your decisions.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

Lilth from Borderlands.

By the time she gets a personality she isnt really a lead character.