The evolution of female roles in video games.

[Sl1p]

Trashiest? Any Square girl from the past 2-3 years, Lara Croft, Tina from DoA...Eh, the usual suspects.

[mollipen]

Satsuki - How can you talk about female game characters and not have brought up Tron, having her in your avatar and all?!? She's by far one of my favorite Capcom girls... her and Jill.

And I wouldn't put Heather from SH3 up too far, because come on... at times in that game, she was dumb as a bag of rocks. I loved her come the second half, because she got interesting (and funny), but for the first half, I kept questioning why in the hell she kept going deeping into the hell with no motivation.

[Green]

Poison and Bridget deserve special mention

[Brisco Bold]

Thanks to Brisco Bold for the topic.

No problem.

[g0zen]

And I wouldn't put Heather from SH3 up too far, because come on... at times in that game, she was dumb as a bag of rocks.

There was NO noticable difference between her and either Harry or James. They all acted kinda dense at times. I dunno, maybe it was the scenes of GRUELING TERROR all around them. Maybe we could cut them some slack, eh shidoshi-sama?

I loved her come the second half, because she got interesting (and funny), but for the first half, I kept questioning why in the hell she kept going deeping into the hell with no motivation.

Funny? More like apathetic. And why did she keep going deeper? Maybe because she wanted to avenge her father's grisly murder? Yeesh. Did you even play the game?

Heather is one of the most positive female gaming characters in a long time. She killed GOD! What more do you fucking want!?

[Glass Joe]

Athena on the NES. Most people hate it, I loved it. It had really cheap hits and was brutally hard. When I got to the end I really felt like I accomplished something. What is a better lead female than a woman who goes out to kick ass for fun?

[Anthony]

Chux was right, terran and Celes had big roles in ff3, but i think they were both not very strong or independant.

[AstroBlue]

Did anyone mention Fear Effect, which had the first real lesbian leads.

I think Mona in Max Payne 2 was pretty significant as a female game character. One of the only representations of mature, adult-thinking females in games, and their relationship was also probably the best example of real love in a game, despite incredibly un-real situations.

But for every game designer that creates an emotionally "realistic" female, there's a Czech nerd that will make a nude skin.

[thumbnail]maxpayne2.chytrak.cz/sax/shot0125.jpg[/thumbnail]

[MechDeus]

April from The Longest Journey is defintely the best developed female videogame character i've witnessed.

I just felt this needed to be repeated and emphasized.

Also, Shenfua from Shenmue II was quite possibly the best part of that game. Walking with her talking has to be the most involved I have ever gotten with a game, even with Ryo's dumb ass repeating everything like he's just learning how to speak the language. They honestly never said that much in a grand scheme sort of scale that has anything to do with the story, it was basically just small talk. Yet somehow that was among the best character development in videogame history I've ever encountered.

[Sl1p]

Poison and Bridget deserve special mention

Har Har.

Oh, and the nude Mona Sax model was already built into the game. Remember the shower scene? Yeap. Using the same cheat command line from the first Max Payne you could be any character you wanted from nakie Mona to Baseball Bat Vinnie.