12 Best Female Characters in Video Games

Male characters dominate video games. However, some of the best appearances are made by heroines. This article will present you some of the best female characters that appeared in video games.


Julie - Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.²

This was probably the only time when a movie Heavy Metal 2000 (also a sequel to popular 80’s animated movie Heavy Metal) got a video game sequel. The game heroine Julie was actually inspired by Julie Strain, actor and model who did the voice acting for the main character in the animation movie Heavy Metal 2000. She was usually wielding two weapons, including sword and Uzi, which was awesome combo.






Sonia Belmont - Castlevania Legends

Although introduced later in the Castelvania series, Sonia is actually the first Belmont that confronted Dracula. I mean, how many girls (and boys) would confront a vampire count?



Lightning - Final Fantasy XIII

FFXIII is still in development (announced for end of 2009), but main character called Lightning looks really awesome. Plus, as Julie from Heavy Metal she also wields a combination of a gun and a sword. She also has badass ability – she can manipulate gravity with a device on her thumb.







Zoey - Left 4 Dead

The only female character in game is a college student and horror movie enthusiast. In her free time she likes to listen to the music and to kill zombies with various weapons.



Cate Archer - No One Lives Forever

Cate Archer is the female equivalent to James Bond with a grain of Austin Powers. She’s equally good in handling lipstick (each lipstick contains a different explosive) and arsenal of guns. She’s made by real life actress and model Mitzi Martin.







Jill Valentine – Resident Evil series

Respect for her badassness, but I simply doubt this is the ideal outfit for killing zombies. However, Jill is a favorite girl of survival horror genre.




Heather - Silent Hill 3

Most of us (hopefully) would never visit such hellish place like Heather did. After two sequels with male protagonists, Heather was first lady introduced in one of the scariest games ever.







Violette Summer – Velvet Assassin

I always liked WWII games, and opportunity to play Splinter Cell in that setting makes me excited. Velvet Assassin is another game in development (scheduled for May this year) that will be exactly that. The main character is Violette Summer inspired by a real life World War II secret agent/saboteur Violette Szabo.



Laura Bow - The Colonel's Bequest and The Dagger of Amon Ra

Classic ‘Agatha Christie style’ adventures for Atari and Amiga, and later Windows, had a university student, daughter of a detective and wannabe journalist, named Laura Bow (pun to Clara Bow, silent movie actress and America’s first sex symbol) as a main character. Game screen tells everything (“We usually hire men for this job…”), but Southern belle Laura was capable to solve any mystery she faced in two sequels.






Manon Batiste - Medal of Honor: Underground

We know Manon as a French resistance woman who appeared as an advisor in the first MoH game. In the sequel for PlayStation called Medal of Honor: Underground, she is the main character who takes on covert missions in occupied Europe and Africa.



Lara Croft – Tomb Raider series

I thought not to put Lara on this list, because she’s part of every list that includes female video game heroines, but that simply wouldn’t be possible, considering the impact that this character had in history of video games.







Alice - American McGee's Alice

My favorite video game heroine is well known Alice, this time placed in twisted and much darker setting of what once was Wonderland. Other characters are also weirder than they were in Lewis Carroll's original novel.


Honorable mentions:


Alma – F.E.A.R.

Although not being playable character, Alma is one of the most significant female protagonists in video games. Her appearance made us shiver and scream in the dark rooms. That’s why she deserves her place on this list. We all fear Alma.







Aerith Gainsborough – Final Fantasy VII

Aerith (known as Aeris too) wasn’t main playable character in FF, but her death is one of the saddest and most significant scenes in history of video games.