General News - 48 Amazing Women in RPGs

HiddenX

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RPGFan made a list of memorable women in RPGs:

FemPower Up: 48 Amazing Women in RPGs

A lot of us at RPGFan sometimes get fed up with how much male-centric narratives dominate the RPG landscape. All different types of people play RPGs, and we want the landscape to reflect that.

That isn't to say, of course, that there haven't been a ton of amazing women in RPGs over the years. At least 48 of them, in fact! Today, we're here to present our picks for the most amazing women in RPGs. This list is of course in no ways exhaustive. In fact, there was so much enthusiasm for this feature that we had to cut back on a few! Nonetheless, we're pleased with the variety and breadth of amazing female characters in the games we love.

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Part 1

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Part 4
More information.
 
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should i be ashamed? I only know two: CIRI, SHEPARD. The rest is unknown to me or i just cannot remember them..
 
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I know a lot more, but if you don't know Estelle Bright, Alicia Melchiott and Brigitte “Rosie” Stark please do yourself a favor and play The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky and Valkyria Chronicles.
 
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I know about 8. It's a very JRPG-centric list, so I'm surprised I know that many. I was surprised Yuffie (FFVII) doesn't have her own entry, but I guess if you've played a whole heap of JRPGs she's minor.
 
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Trails in the Sky, Cold Steel and the Valkyria Chronicles are all excellent games, and represent women quite well, both in party roles and featured in quests/civilians as well.
 
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The women I'm missing here are from Sirtech:

The Valkyrie Vi Domina from Wizardry 8 and
Mercenary Norma "Meltdown" Jessop from Jagged Alliance 2.
 
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I know about 8. It's a very JRPG-centric list, so I'm surprised I know that many. I was surprised Yuffie (FFVII) doesn't have her own entry, but I guess if you've played a whole heap of JRPGs she's minor.

Yuffie is not really a role model type character? She was potrayed as being somewhat silly and child-like.

The Valkyrie Vi Domina from Wizardry 8 and
Mercenary Norma "Meltdown" Jessop from Jagged Alliance 2.

Vi sounds like a good choice but Norma?!?! She is literally a psychopath!! She talks constantly about all the people she has killed and how she keeps a photo of the first person she killed!?
 
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I think there are very few western RPGs with women as really important characters.
I think that jRPGs are way ahead of wRPGs in that regard.

Even when there's a strong woman in wRPGs, she's usually dressed - well, not fully dressed is maybe the better way of putting it.

For example, Amiri in Pathfinder Kingmaker. (credit where it is due, Owlcat did better in WotR in this regard).
 
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I think that jRPGs are way ahead of wRPGs in that regard.

If you take out all the eye candy ones in jRPG's are they really much ahead?

I went through my list of cRPG's and I was suprised at how many actually had the ability to play as a woman or had a amazing/memorable female character.

Fallout 1-4
Torment
Ultima (pretty much all)
Elder scrolls
Mass Effect
PoE
Wasteland series
Wiz/M&M etc
ToW
Banner Saga
BG/IWD/BG2 etc
DOS1/2

What it came to european cRPG's it was much more male centric:

Elex 1/2/Risen - Male only and highly forgettable female characters
Witcher - While 3 let you play as Ciri basically the rest of the series sees females as bedmates and nothing more
KcD - Male only but DLC adds a playable woman - probably realistic given the setting.
 
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I think there are very few western RPGs with women as really important characters.
I think that jRPGs are way ahead of wRPGs in that regard.

Even when there's a strong woman in wRPGs, she's usually dressed - well, not fully dressed is maybe the better way of putting it.

For example, Amiri in Pathfinder Kingmaker. (credit where it is due, Owlcat did better in WotR in this regard).

Very few is exaggerated. You have very strong female characters for example in Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, Arcanum, ...
 
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Vi sounds like a good choice but Norma?!?! She is literally a psychopath!! She talks constantly about all the people she has killed and how she keeps a photo of the first person she killed!?

She's just as lunatic as every other mercenary in JA 2 - I like that.
I have playthroughs with just her, Grunty, Igor Dolvich, Fox, Barry and the main character - an unbeatable team.
 
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I know 28 of them, though I can't say I really remember a few (like the Breath of Fire or OG Suikoden characters). More like 20 that I actually recall.
 
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It's generally great in this day and age when games have at least the option for female protagonists or strong female characters that don't exist only to be a romantic option for the male protagonist. It does a lot for female players to be able to relate and get into games in this genre, in which empathising with the characters you play and seeing the world they live in through their own eyes is more important than any other type of game.

That list skips over a lot of actually great female characters, so I imagine it comes down to the writer's personal experience/memory, but some missed examples of great female characters in RPGs that I have found noteworthy would include:

Edelgard - Fire Emblem Three Houses
Cassia - Blackguards 2
Terra Brandford - Final Fantasy VI
Shionne - Tales of Arise
Velvet - Tales of Berseria
Miriam - Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night
Tali - Mass Effect
Morrigan - Dragon Age: Origins
Amicia - A Plague Tale: Innocence

Just off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some other awesome femmes out there in the world of RPGs.
 
It's generally great in this day and age when games have at least the option for female protagonists or strong female characters that don't exist only to be a romantic option for the male protagonist. It does a lot for female players to be able to relate and get into games in this genre, in which empathising with the characters you play and seeing the world they live in through their own eyes is more important than any other type of game.

That list skips over a lot of actually great female characters, so I imagine it comes down to the writer's personal experience/memory, but some missed examples of great female characters in RPGs that I have found noteworthy would include:

Edelgard - Fire Emblem Three Houses
Cassia - Blackguards 2
Terra Brandford - Final Fantasy VI
Shionne - Tales of Arise
Velvet - Tales of Berseria
Miriam - Bloodstained, Ritual of the Night
Tali - Mass Effect
Morrigan - Dragon Age: Origins
Amicia - A Plague Tale: Innocence

Just off the top of my head, I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some other awesome femmes out there in the world of RPGs.
I agree, I think it's incredible AAA games that don't.

It's like a f you to half the population...
 
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That's why games that allow you to customize your NPC are superior. I also agree with Pladio about JRPGs being ahead of western developers. Just my two cents on the topic.
 
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I think J-RPGs in general work with more pre-defined characters so that they can tell a more detailed story.

Going with full customizable characters means for the story:

be prepared for all customizations (= a lot of effort)
or
ignore the customizations (= a more shallow/simple story)
 
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KOS-MOS?? Hmmm, that was a fun character for sure, but "woman"? Don't let the casing fool you, she was very much a robot.

Let's see here.... I guess most folks won't count Control as an RPG.

Lohse from Divinity: Original Sin 2 was an excellent character. The elf gal (Sebille?) wasn't as interesting to me but was still a good bit better than average.

Grieving Mother in Pillers of Eternity was an interesting one, too.

Maybe Kreia from Knights of the Old Republic 2?
 
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Yeah I liked Grieving Mother too. Her backstory had some strong writing. That does remind me of my favourite though, Devil of Caroc.

DoC was a woman who was transplanted into a golem through Animancy. She is a convicted murderer but as you play the game you find out more about her history and you really start to feel for her. I won't post any spoilers but most people would find her actions justified and her story is quite sad. Not to mention DoC is probably the most powerful non-player created character in the game and can put out some massive damage numbers if built correctly!
 
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I found most PoE companions writing to be disappointing at best, especially Pallegina, who was written by Josh Sawyer himself, but I do agree that Grieving Mother was salvageable.

As for Lohse… skin deep, really. Not the issue of badly portraying a female character, just the game itself was pretty shallow when it came to the narrative, and it's well known I love DOS games, but the writing just wasn't their strongest suit.
 
The women I'm missing here are from Sirtech:
...
Mercenary Norma "Meltdown" Jessop from Jagged Alliance 2.

Haha, weird choice.

It's one of the characters I pretty much never hired.
Instead...
Flo - but I never played her. She was always just training guards
Fox - Always liked her. But she also is friends with Wolf and Grizzly. I like to have Friend-Group Mercs who comment on each other and those 2 are good ones as well.
Buns - Good sniper for cheap
Scope - Also great sniper. Though I have to say that I mostly hired her in JA Deadly Games. Not so much in JA2.
Sparky (JA 1+DG) - Great, cheap Mechanic
Beth (JA1+DG) - Cheapo starting character
Vicky is probably one of the more noticable ones. A jamaican merc, who is also one of the few main characters in JA Rage. Decent field mechanic

Raven, Buzz Spider I kind of never hired.
And well...Ira is more on the annoying side. :D (but you get her for free)
 
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