In the age of toxic masculinity surrounding gaming culture, female characters play an essential cornerstone to balance it. They’ve come a long way since the first iterations of Lara Croft from Tomb Raider & Jill Valentine from Resident Evil, those two being the only females to carry the flag. Luckily for gamers, there are plenty of strong female lead characters we see in today’s games rather than ten or twenty years ago.
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In fact, pulling off an excellent heroine is no easy job. Some developers fell short while others paid more attention to their physiques. That being said, it is the best time to appreciate these strong ladies, because their in-depth character development deserves a celebration.
10 Clementine (The Walking Dead: 82)
The Walking Dead is the kind of game that gets you emotionally hooked for years.
Throughout the four seasons, with the first premiering in 2012 and scoring a 94 Metascore for PS3, Clementine’s arc is so carefully written, and it’s good to know she got a proper send-off in the finale. Her transformation from a child in The Walking Dead‘s first season to a badass female survivor and a leader in the Season Finale is fantastic. She’sthe whole package: savvy, sassy, smart, caring, and brave, making her a perfect and rugged survivor.
9 Lara Croft (Rise Of The Tomb Rider: 88)
Square Enix’s 2015 Rise of the Tomb Raider saw a return of the most iconic female characters in video game history, Lara Croft. In this game, she picks up what she left off her late father’s research and fights across Siberian snow’s wilderness while dealing against an ancient and shady organization.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider, a sequel to this game, was released three years later. That means, it’s safe to expect more to see from our favorite femme fatale in the upcoming years.
8 Aloy (Horizon Zero Dawn: 88)
Game of the Year-nominated Horizon Zero Dawn is the story of Aloy, and no one else. She embarks on a dangerous journey of finding the truth about who she is and what kind of monstrous machines swarm the world she lives in.
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What makes this character so great is that she’s more than just a typical good-looking babe who gets put on the game’s cover to pump sales. Aloy is an intelligent and determined person.
7 Edith Finch (What Remains Of Edith Finch: 88)
What Remains of Edith Finch follows Edith’s story, a young woman who travels back to her Washington home to learn about the curse of the Finch, where every single of her family member died in an unfortunate way.
If you haven’t played this game, you’re missing out big time. What Remains of Edith Finch may be an indie game, but it gets you hooked to the point where you feel more like experiencing a story than playing an interactive game. It teaches you that life is precious and there is more to it than just worrying about death and a curse.
6 Zara Ghufran (Battlefield 1: 89)
Battlefield I takes players on a nostalgic journey to the World War 1 era. Composed of six ‘war story’ campaigns, Battlefield 1 features an Arab Bedouin warrior, Zara Ghufran, seeking revenge against the Ottomans who bombarded her village. In this game, Zara partners up with the infamous Lawrence of Arabia, a real-life war hero & British archaeologist.
As a World War 1 video game, historical accuracy is a number-one priority for Battlefield 1, and Zara Ghufran is the case of an excellent translation of it.
5 Claire Redfield (Resident Evil 2 Remake: 91)
As one of the earliest female lead characters in history, it’s nice to see Claire Redfield in modern-day graphics. Claire debuted in 1998 in Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, which saw a remake version in a brand new RE Engine in 2019.
In Resident Evil 2, Claire is a college girl trying to find her missing brother, Chris, and little does she know that a much bigger danger is waiting ahead. She’s a perfect co-protagonist to rookie cop Leon S. Kennedy, who is also one of the two playable characters in this game.
4 Tracer (Overwatch: 91)
2016’s Overwatch lets you choose one playable character from a roster of 30 ready-to-die fighters. One of them is our favorite cover girl, Tracer, an agile and energetic game-changer who is highly lethal with weapons. The game follows the story of a superhero group of the same name as they attempt to end a threat against humanity.
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On top of that, Tracer is a representation of the LGBTQ+ community in this game. Tracer is known to have a romantic relationship with Emily, an ordinary human who isn’t a part of the star-studded team.
3 Bayonetta (Bayonetta 2: 92)
Bayonetta, from the game of the same title, may probably be the most over-sexualized character from the rest of this list, but she’s a classic female role model in the unforgiving male-dominated world. In 2014’s Bayonetta 2, she embarks on a journey to Inferno to rescue her friend before everything goes south.
As of this writing, Bayonetta 3 is reportedly in development progress. Let’s just hope it’s not going to end up like one of those scrapped triple-A games.
2 Madeline (Celeste: 92)
It may come as a surprise for many, but Madeline of platformer game Celeste actually comes in near the top of this list. As Madeline, your only task is to climb the mountain and deal with her ‘Part of Me’ lousy doppelgänger.
In fact, Celeste is more than just a platforming, Super Mario-esque game, because there are plenty of layers to explore. The game’s lead developer, Matt Thorson, wrote Madeline’s character based on his own experience of dealing with depression and anxiety, making this character even more precious.
1 Ellie (The Last Of Us: 95)
Metacritic’s best female playable character of the 2010s goes to Ellie from 2013’s The Last of Us, even though she only plays a small part during the winter chapter and the Left Behind DLC expansion pack. The Last of Us explores an emotional ride between Ellie and her soon-to-become-a-protective-father-figure, Joel, and how far one could go to protect the ones they love.
A sequel to The Last of Us, titled Part II, is now available for PlayStation 4 gamers since June 2020, and it’s been a hot topic since!