Mine is Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark N64)
Who's your favorite female protagonist in a video game? (Add pic of character in response)
Submitted 1 day ago by lunatique@lemmy.ml to games@lemmy.world
Comments
orochi02@feddit.org 3 hours ago
lunatique@lemmy.ml 1 hour ago
One of my favorite games
SavinDWhales@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
ivanafterall@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
lunatique@lemmy.ml 9 hours ago
She was the best part. It can slide
Zangoose@lemmy.world 1 day ago
TheV2@programming.dev 5 hours ago
goombakid@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 1 hour ago
I decided recently that the horizon series has overtaken Fallout in my estimations
Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 1 day ago
smeg@feddit.uk 23 hours ago
I played Metroid Prime for the first time recently and Samus Aran is an absolute badass. She crash lands on a planet and kills every single thing she encounters. If you read the logs of the space pirates you find scattered around they basically say “oh fuck the hunter is here, she’s coming for us next”.
The atmosphere is almost a little survival-horror-esque, but the experience is more like doom: you’re not locked in here with all these monsters, all these monsters are locked in here with you.
RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Shame about Other M though. Fun to play and watch others play, but held back by a bad control scheme and poor voice direction.
Mist101@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
…the BABY!
RaoulLeLapin@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Durandal@lemmy.today 1 day ago
She looks like she really knows how to use a microwave… >.>
hades@feddit.uk 1 day ago
CatZoomies@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Some of my favorites have already been mentioned.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice by Ninja Theory Image
This lady is a standout from recent games I played in the past several years. Senua is an incredible character, complex, driven, and felt very human. I and probably a million other gamers connected with her deeply. Won’t say any more to avoid spoilers, but she was in one of the greatest games I ever played. Her actress, Melina Juergens, was perfect for the role in many ways (which I won’t say why here to avoid spoilers for those who haven’t played this game). Haven’t played the sequel yet, but I remember Melina won an award at the recent Game Awards for her performance in Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
0li0li@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You beat me to it!! She wins in my book.
CatZoomies@lemmy.world 1 day ago
She’s an absolute badass. I cheered her on, suffered with her, and cried when I finished the game. I felt every emotion she had during the game, because I felt like I was on the journey with her by her side while she faced her trials. Beautiful and unforgettable experience.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 day ago
Great pick, she’s up there for me too. I also only played the first one but thought it was an amazing experience.
impudentmortal@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Protagonist has got to be Bayonetta (though it’s based only on the first game). Her character growth in the first game was so good, even if the plot was a little convoluted. Never finished the second one since I didn’t like playing on the Switch and never played the third one. Hope her character is still good though.
Honorable mentions are Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite, and Stelle from Honkai Star Rail (though this one is mostly for the absolutely ridiculous dialogue options we get to choose).
Favorite female antagonist is hands down GLaDOS. Such a fun, sarcastic, and likeable villain.
Quazatron@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“Oh. It’s you.”
Such a loveable heap of junk.
impudentmortal@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
She has to be the most quotable video game character ever.
How are you holding up? BECAUSE I’M A POTATO. clap clap clap Oh good. My slow clap processor made it into this thing. So we have that
If you become light headed from thirst, feel free to pass out.
Here come the test results: You are a horrible person. We weren’t even testing for tha
TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Honestly? Aloy from the Horizon games. She’s maybe not the most rounded character, but she is a very strong, determined, stubborn, and intelligent person. She knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it. I think it also helps that the games don’t really have many choices or multiple endings, which I think was a good design choice. The story belongs to Aloy, not the player.
Also she’s not a protag (sorta, you can play as her) but I would like to give a shoutout to Lae’zel from BG3. I suspect a lot of players haven’t explored her character questline much because of how prickly she is at the beginning, but her character development is extensive and, at times, heart-wrenching. A story of someone getting the entire fabric of their life and soul torn out from under them.
Goodeye8@piefed.social 1 day ago
My issue with Aloy is that she was such a Mary Sue in the first game. I can give some benefit of doubt to her on the account of the spoilers, but my god literally the only time she failed was at the beginning of the game during the trial and even then it was more a force majeure than anything she did wrong. She could thrust herself into any situation and come out on top with nothing dragging her down.
I’m found her more relatable in the second game because in the second get we at least get some hints of her mission being a burden on her and when she is caught off guard by a superior opponent she doesn’t magically beat them. But even in the second game she doesn’t have a lot of depth. There’s so much more depth Aloy could have but the writers never gave her the depth she deserves. And I don’t want people to think I’m dunking on Aloy, I think she could be a very interesting character if she had been properly fleshed out as a person. It’s an issue all Horizon series characters suffer, they all lack depth. Some of them are flatter than the Bonneville Salt Flats.
And I completely agree with Lae’zel. She’s my favorite characters from the BG3 party of character. She’s literally how you described Aloy: determined, stubborn and intelligent. If we ignore the zealotry (which stems from her upbringing) Lae’zel is very similar to Aloy because she thinks she exists solely for the sake of her mission, she is indominably determined to fulfill her mission and she will step on anyone who gets between her and her mission. I find it pretty weird how Aloy is almost universally liked while Lae’zel is one of the least liked companions. I guess it’s the difference of seeing the world through the eyes of the person vs seeing the person as they are within the world.
jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 23 hours ago
None of the guys at my old job liked lae’zel. I think because she’s kind of mean. I’m like that’s what I’m here for. I don’t want some pushover passive aggression like shadow heart, and karlach is fine I guess, but lae’zel making people lick her boots is the shit. I’m not even into being dominated but I do like women with agency.
JakenVeina@midwest.social 10 hours ago
Commander Shepard.
Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
pika@lemmy.today 1 day ago
Hi!!!
Lea.
Even she’s not one of many words, Lea still manages to be expressive and have a fantastic story.
Penta@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
This is the correct answer
Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Man, I need to play crosscode again. I think of all the games I have played in the last 40 years, that has been the best one. Feels like it was made specifically for me.
pika@lemmy.today 19 hours ago
I love the story, the characters, the combat, and the puzzles! The combat is multi-faceted, difficult and rewarding.
Two complaints I have are navigating through certain areas is a chore (you basically have to memorize the ‘puzzle-like’ pathways to get to some places), and sometimes I felt the dungeons were too puzzle-heavy. Just room after room of very difficult timing puzzles. Thankfully there are accessibility options to make those easier!
rikudou@lemmings.world 1 day ago
Jesse Faden, hands down the best.
CatZoomies@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Control is a very fun game, and Jesse was an intriguing character with ann unusual backstory. Enjoyed my time with it. I’m optimistic for Control 2 and hope we’ll get more lore! And of course, something that hits as hard as the Ash tray maze!
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 day ago
I love Control, I think the gameplay and level design is amazing, the world building is phenomenal and some of the side characters are great. Jesse herself wasn’t really that memorable to me though. I get that she’s supposed to act like a foil for all the craziness that’s happening, but as a result she ended up feeling kind of bland and forgettable. I always thought this was intentional, as the main focus of the game was the world building and lore and the Oldest House. Having a protagonist with a super strong colorful personality would be too much and just end up distracting from that.
Sidyctism2@discuss.tchncs.de 16 hours ago
Agreed. I mean she has cool powers, but she isnt even the most interesting female character in her own game
rikudou@lemmings.world 15 hours ago
That’s why she was so memorable to me, she was kinda relatable - a regular common person, you don’t get that much in protagonists.
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 1 day ago
photojournalist/caretaker Jade from Beyond Good & Evil.
CatZoomies@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Commenting to say I feel this also. Underrated cult classic game. Jade is one of my all time favorites, and Beyond Good & Evil is a unique game made by Ubisoft back when they took risks, innovated, and created wonderful games.
Zero interest in the sequel if it ever does release. Ubisoft is a shadow of what they once were, ever since their gradual downfall arguably starting around ~2013. Every few years though, I come back to this game and replay it. It left a profound impact on me and probably a million other gamers that played it.
lunatique@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Is that sequel ever coming out?
tal@olio.cafe 1 day ago
I don’t see any official announcement of cancellation, but honestly, between its development not going well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Good_and_Evil_2
The game was originally announced at Ubidays 2008, with almost a decade of silence before being re-revealed at Ubisoft’s E3 2017 conference, although no release window or target platforms have been mentioned.
Its development was characterized in the media by uncertainty, doubt, and rumors about the game’s future, and has been referred to as vaporware by industry figures such as Jason Schreier due to its lengthy development and lack of a release date.[1] In 2022, Beyond Good and Evil 2 broke the record held by Duke Nukem Forever (2011) for the longest development period of a AAA video game, at more than 15 years. In 2023, the creative director, Emile Morel, died suddenly at age 40.
And Ubisoft as a whole having problems recently:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft
Financial concerns and reorganization (2023–present)
Citing disappointing financial results in the previous quarter, Ubisoft cancelled another three previously unannounced games in January 2023.[86] In an email to staff, Yves Guillemot told employees to take responsibility for the company’s forthcoming projects, asking that “each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we’re being as efficient and lean as possible”, while also saying that “The ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving."[87][88] Union workers at Ubisoft Paris took issue with this message, calling for a strike and demanding higher salaries and improved working conditions.[89]
In August 2023, Ubisoft announced that it had reached a 15-year agreement with Microsoft to license the cloud gaming rights to Activision Blizzard titles; this came as part of efforts by Microsoft to receive approval from the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The agreement would allow Activision Blizzard games to appear on Ubisoft+, and allow Ubisoft to sublicense the cloud gaming rights for the games to third-parties.[90][91]
As part of a cost reduction plan, Ubisoft reduced its number of employees from 20,279 in 2022 to 19,410 in September 2023.[92] In November 2023, Ubisoft laid off 124 employees from its VFX and IT teams.[93] In March 2024, Ubisoft laid off 45 employees from its publishing teams.[94] Another 45 employees were cut between its San Francisco and Cary, North Carolina offices in August 2024.[95] By the end of September 2024, Ubisoft had reduced its number of employees to 18,666.[96]
In 2024, Ubisoft released multiple games that experienced underperforming sales and declining playerbases post-launch, which included Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Skull and Bones, XDefiant, and Star Wars Outlaws, causing its stock to fall to nearly its lowest levels in the previous decade.[97] As a result, the company announced they were launching an investigation of their development cycles to focus on a “player-centric approach”, and opted to delay its next major flagship game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, from November 2024 to February 2025.[98]
On 16 October 2024, over 700 Ubisoft employees in France began a three-day strike, protesting the company’s requirement to return to the office three days a week. The strike, organized by the STJV union, involved Ubisoft’s offices in Paris, Montpellier, Lyon, and Annecy. Workers expressed dissatisfaction over a lack of flexibility, salary increases, and profit-sharing, which they believe the company has ignored. Ubisoft has yet to address the union’s concerns.[99]
In December 2024, Ubisoft announced that their free-to-play game XDefiant would be shutting down in June 2025, less than a year after its initial release.[100] They also announced that its lead development studio Ubisoft San Francisco, and Ubisoft Osaka, were to close, resulting in up to 277 employees being laid off.[101]
In January 2025, Ubisoft closed the Ubisoft Leamington studio and downsized several other studios, resulting in up to 185 staff being laid off as part of ongoing cost-cutting measures.[102][103]
Around September 2024, one of Ubisoft’s shareholders, AJ Investments, stated they were seeking to have the company purchased by a private equity firm and would push out the Guillemot family and Tencent from ownership of the company.[104] Bloomberg News reported in October 2024 that the Guillemots and Tencent were considering this and other alternatives to shift ownership of the company in light of the recent poor financial performance.[105] Later reports in December 2024 suggested that Tencent was seeking to capture a majority stake in Ubisoft and take the company private, while still giving the Guillemot family control of Ubisoft.[106] In January 2025, it was reported that the Guillemots had also considered carving out certain Ubisoft assets into a new subsidiary, which would allow Tencent to make targeted investments to increase the company’s overall value.[107] Ubisoft announced this subsidiary on 27 March 2025, devoted to its flagship Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six franchises; the subsidiary will consist of the franchises’ assets and development teams, and have dedicated leadership. Tencent will make a €1.16 billion investment in the new subsidiary, giving it a 25% stake at a valuation of €4 billion; the value of this subsidiary is larger than the current valuation of Ubisoft, which is based on Tencent’s belief that these properties are undervalued. Ubisoft stated that the subsidiary would “focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform”.[108][109][110] The new subsidiary, Vantage Studios, was unveiled in October 2025,[111] with Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot to be co-CEOs.[112] With its financial quarterly report on July 2025, Ubisoft stated that it will reorganize into “creative houses” that will “enhance quality, focus, autonomy and accountability while fostering closer connections with players”, with the previously announced Tencent-backed subsidiary as an example of such a division.[113] At the end of August, Ubisoft sold the rights to five of their titles, including Grow Home and Cold Fear, to Atari SA.[114]
…my bet would be against it coming out. Or, even if it does…I mean, people who wanted the game want it because the original Beyond Good and Evil was a solid game. That first game came out in 2003, 22 years back. That’s a long gap in time, technology, and people. Someone could probably sit down and try to come up with a list of examples where you had one very successful game in a series and another that far down the road, and my guess is that in most cases, the next game doesn’t live up to the original.
tries to think of an example where someone’s managed something like this
I like Carrier Command 2. That came out 33 years after Carrier Command, though it certainly didn’t meet with the same level of relative success, and there was an (unsuccessful) remake of the original between the two releases.
hendu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I loved the original. Even if the sequel does eventually come out, Ubisoft won’t be getting any more of my money. They’ve burned me too many times.
TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 1 day ago
I don’t need one. But there has been talk a few years back. I’m fine with letting that one be a grand moment in my gaming memories. No need to top it off.
brsrklf@jlai.lu 1 day ago
Probably not. Even the thing that was shown several years ago, and that hasn’t been mentioned again since, wasn’t a sequel. It was a completely different style of game, and a prequel with different characters.
The first game ends on a sequel hook, and left a lot unresolved. People who asked for a sequel mostly wanted to know what happens next. They weren’t asking for a procedural multiplayer open world with different characters in another time frame.
BGE ends like the Empire Strikes Back. It’s a bittersweet ending in which main characters have evolved, but the conflict is not resolved at all… and there’s even a good guy still in deep shit. Obviously it needs the sequel to wrap everything up.
BGE2’s announcement is like we got nothing after Empire Strikes Back for a decade, so no Return of the Jedi, and George Lucas came back to tell us “we’re doing the prequel trilogy now, no plan on ever concluding the old storyline”.
phx@lemmy.world 1 day ago
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Nice choice, but personally I always found Terra a bit hard to relate to, very fey and even sort of creepy in her half-Esper form.
Celes, on the other hand, is a bonafide badass, and her storyline was among the better developed ones and more humanizing than most of the other characters in the game. Although romantically I think she could probably do better than Locke. That boy needs some help.
phx@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I kinda feel like Terra developed a bit more over the course of the game, from orphan half-fey under the control of the empire to joining a rebel group while finding herself and discovering her past. In the end she doesn’t get assigned a “love interest” and become mother to a bunch of war-orphans as she gets in touch with her humanity.
Celes comes in a bit more badass to start - as a super-soldier-serum (magic infused) general who turned against the same immoral empire - but a lot of her side story aside from the island is a bit… weird what with the whole Locke Ultros opera thing. It’s like the story writers couldn’t decide whether she was a superhero or damsel in distress.
Locke’s own backstory with the Phoenix quest is neat though.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 1 day ago
I agree. That scene on the island with Celes hit me like a ton of bricks the first time.
deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 1 day ago
Shepherd, Mass Effect.
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Aya Brea, from Parasite Eve
The perfect mix of unsuspecting hero, chosen one, and bad ass. The sequel also gives her an Ellen Riply in Aliens vibe as well. Shame about 3rd Birthday and the fact we will never get another one. For those who don’t know, the owner of the original IP didn’t want to renew the license for the games, which means the games can no longer use anything from the novel which includes all references to mitochondria and Eve. That’s why 3rd Birthday was seemingly a totally different game; they tried to make a sequel that couldn’t reference any of the main plot points of the previous games or novel.
lunatique@lemmy.ml 9 hours ago
I played this one PSP and didn’t even realize what it was for years lol. Good game as I remember. They are getting a remake as well
WindyRebel@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
hendu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 1 day ago
It’s a Toss up between Ayla and Lucca for me, because of Lucca’s little side quest of “Wait, we can time travel… Let me go fix something real quick…”
Ayla gets bonus points for “Magic? F that ‘new’ stuff… Imma just bite & kick!”
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Crono needs a legendary sword that requires a time-hopping fetch quest to get all the ingredients. Frog requires a sword that’s already legendary, and a whole episode devoted to getting it powered up further. Marle, Luca, and even Magus require triple techs and in the case of the former two, a deliberate power up by Spekkio to even be able to access them in the first place.
…Ayla can merely punch people for 9999 damage.
hendu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 hours ago
Lucca is great, too! Really can’t go wrong with either, but I give Ayla the edge for being such a powerful badass who knows what she wants and goes out to get it.
Krudler@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
janonymous@lemmy.world 1 day ago
ParadoxSeahorse@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 3 hours ago
(That’s 2A in the other picture)
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
That’s why they said !2B. He never it into a Shakespeare joke.
To be or not to be
tanisnikana@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Nefara@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Probably April Ryan from the Longest Journey. She was clever, empathetic, funny, and well grounded. She certainly had more than enough opportunity to get annoying over the many, many hours it takes to play that game but I think I could only call her somewhat bland at points. I found myself reading the journal that served as a story tracker just to see what she had to say about what had happened. I genuinely missed her during Dreamfall. Though I had a few other favorite games with female protagonists that I loved (like Rynn from Drakan), it says something that decades later I still remember April’s name, and major character traits.
RavuAlHemio@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Cate Archer from No One Lives Forever
46_and_2@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
Adding a pic of our favourite spy
lunatique@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
I like her character and I’ve only had the chance to watch gameplay videos online.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 19 hours ago
The games are available for free on NOLF revival if you want to play. Nobody knows who owns the IP so there is nobody enforcing the copyright.
The setting, theme and writing is really fun but the gameplay really hasn’t aged well.
Nefara@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
She got an honorable mention from me in my post. She was a lot of fun to play as and the game would not have been the same with any other MC.
chunes@lemmy.world 1 day ago
AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
Rivet from the latest Ratchet and Clank game.
Rivet
Why? Two words:
Big Hammer!
I swear it looks bigger in game, but I haven’t played in a long while, so I could be misremembering.