Gaming has been a male-dominated field. This is not only true of the gamer’s side of the story but also in finding a game with a female protagonist. While there are many games led by female characters, they are far fewer than those led by male characters.
But as time goes by, more developers are also embracing the fact that a villain does not necessarily have to be a male. Today we highlight five of the outstanding female characters leading from the front.
Ellie- The Last of Us
Ellie is the central character of The Last of Us series. She serves as the deuteragonist of The Last of Us, the playable protagonist of both the Left Behind DLC and The Last of Us Part II and the main character in Last of Us: American Dreams.
She is portrayed as a brave 14-year-old girl who has grown up in this harsh world, and it is all she has ever known. The orphan raised in a boarding school run by the military is obsessed with comic books, CDs, and pop culture. Ellie is wise beyond her years and highly capable of taking care of herself and those around her.
Jill Valentine - Resident Evil 3
Jill Valentine is a fictional character in Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan), a survival horror video game series created by Japanese company Capcom. She is an American Special Operations Agent of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, of which she is a co-founder and an original member. She is a respected high-ranking operator, owing to her commitment to eradicating bioterrorism and her survival amid the Biohazardous outbreaks.
She is the protagonist of several Resident Evil games and other game franchises including, Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom and Project X Zone.
Chun- Li – Street Fighter
Chun-Li is the main female protagonist of the Street Fighter series, originally debuting in Street Fighter II. The first female fighter in the series, she is an expert martial artiste and Interpol officer who relentlessly seeks revenge for the death of her father at the hands of M Bison.
Tifa Lochart- Final Fantasy
Tifa Lockhart is a playable character in Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII Remake. She has since appeared in the fighting game Ehrgeiz and made cameo appearances in several other titles, as well as the CGI film sequel to Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and related games and media in the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII series.
Tifa is a close friend of Cloud Strife and a member of the resistance group Avalanche. They grew up together but lost contact later. When she meets him again, she convinces him to join Avalanche to fight the Shinra Electric Power Company, whom she bears hatred for due to the destruction of their hometown.
Aloy- Horizon Zero Dawn
In the games’ post-apocalyptic tribal setting, Aloy is born in 3021, raised as an outcast, and trains as a warrior in order to win a ritual competition to discover her mother’s identity. After narrowly evading an assassination attempt, she embarks on a journey to stop a cult that worships an artificial intelligence bent on the world’s destruction, while also hunting machines that have grown hostile to humans. She has been critically praised for her design and characterisation.
bmithika @standardmedia.co.ke
