The Gist - 5 Badass Female Game Protagonists

April Ryan and Jade are some of the best videogame characters ever! Jade was seriously badass, not overly sexualized (though the model was pretty), cared about orphans and political realities, and decided to take on an oppressive regime. Seriously, how much more badass can you get than that?

As for Shepperd, well, she was badass in the sense of ultra-militaristic glorification of violence, i.e. not my cup of tea. If I was going to go for a kill-everyone-in-sight madness badass, I'd say Tiny Tina from Borderlands 2. Not someone I'd want at my side under any circumstances, but really, really badass (and scary).

What...no BAYONETTA!!...these chicks wish they were bayonetta....

also Nariko and Lightning are pretty baddass....

honorable mention: ‎Black★Rock Shooter chick...also every chick ever made on any RPG

I definitely liked the new Lara. Never really played Tomb Raider previously but this one caught my attention and delivers.

I wholeheartedly back the Jennifer Hale-voiced FemShep. A fantastic character. One of my favorite "badass" protagonists of any gender in any genre. I've played as Male Shepard and... its OK.

The other three I didn't play, so I can't comment. I played Dreamfall though, so I'm sure April is a good choice just based on the depth of character there. Nice list.

Sing Along

♫ ♫Jess gives us women, women

Lots of pretty women

Men, Men, We can't live without them

Two parts love

One part wild

One part lady

One part child

A whole lot of fire

A little bit of ice

A whole lot of something you can't sacrifice.

Jess gives us women, women

Lots of pretty women

Men! Men! We can't live without them♫♫

---A slightly modified version of 'Women' by Def Leppard

I like Laura Croft. She may be drawn to be a sex object, but Jess is far more attractive and desirable than her.

I think I would drop FemShep and put Cate Archer in there. The Mass Effect lead is decided by the player so, if you include Shepard, that opens the way up to female leads in almost every Bioware game, Bethesda game, or MMO.

Imagine the fury that would be unleashed if there was a "5 badass MALE protagonists" video.

The feminist community would be outraged. Let's hope such a travesty does not happen.

Girl power.

Can't believe there is no love for Cate Archer from the No One Lives Forever series. Those games were excellent, and she was certainly a badass!

Is this video in 60 fps? Looks like that.

You picked some good ones. My list is different (my list of games played is radically different), but to each their own. :)

In no particular order:

Nariko and Kai (Heavenly Sword): Since you use Kai on about a quarter of the missions, I include these two as a pair. Nariko is a noble warrior who sets out to fulfill a prophecy that she knows will cost her life (not a spoiler - she dies in the first scene and the rest of the game is a flashback). Kai is insane, but also a badass sniper who can headshot enemies from a distance so great they aren't even visible when the arrow is fired. And it comes full circle when Nariko uses her last moment to heal Kai's insanity. Anna Torv is fantastic as Nariko. Oh, and Kai automatically takes cover behind obstacles in combat situations, a gameplay mechanic that was praised as innovative in the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot when Ninja Theory had been using it since 2007.

Female Shepard: Yes, Jennifer Hale is that much better than Mark Meer who was perectly adequate to Hale's fantastic interpretation of the character.

Lara Croft (2013 reboot and Guardian of Light) for the same reasons Jess gives.

Dr. Rosalind (To the Moon): Despite being an 8-bit sprite in a 2012 game and speaking only in speech bubbles, Dr. Rosalind manages to impress the player with her compassion and ingenuity, especially with a clever solution to a difficult moral dilemma in the game's final act.

Since I took two from Heavenly Sword, that makes five.

Kinda surprised theres no love for Clair Redfield and Jill Valentine up in here...

Kerrigan. Isn't someone who puts the whole humanity at risk sufficiently badass?

1. Samus Aran (Metroid)

2. Jodie Holmes (Beyond Two Souls)

3. Clementine (The Walking Dead)

4. Yuna (Final Fantasy X)

5. Marle (Chrono Trigger)

You just about nailed it, Jess. Fem Shepard was amazing, and I want to go back and play all the Mass Effects with her now.

Laura Bailey was amazing as the Saints Row boss in 3 and 4. Soooo badass, and really funny!

Aya Brea

where is Samus Aran!? D:

What if I said Jess is a badass female protagonist?

In games i'd say Samus is pretty badass, the's a fighter and survivor.....

actually though I agree with the list given.....all are good choices....

Go FemShep. I actually started as the male Shep, then I started again as FemShep, and I did indeed like the game better that way...

Faith from Mirror's Edge! :)

The Boss wasn't a main protagonist, but she is still the strongest female character I've come across in gaming.

Not exactly the most "badass" I believe they're all in bayonetta lol

agree with all, April and Shepard are top

Seeing as Jess is so strict about not acknowledging multiple protagonists I'll add another favourite who's most definitely the lead character:

Aya Brea in Parasite Eve.

There's load you missed, there's... erm... and of course there's... ahh, what's her name again?

Nariko from Heavenly Sword was my favorite ever. She was so freaking tough and at the same time didn't need to be slutty or masculine and she just kicked ass. She's one of the few examples I can think of that managed to be feminine and capable at the same time without showing off giant cleavage or acting/talking like a dude.

This list will never be complete without Samus.

Bayonetta, while occasionally cringe-worthy, is pretty badass

The female vault hunters in Borderlands and Lucina from Fire Emblem Awakening are also solid choices.

where is samus aran

Kinzie from saints row was fairly amusing even though she wasn't a main character. I'll have to agree that Morigan in Dragon Age was also pretty amusing. Jaheira from Baldur's Gate was a tuff character, but I found her annoying.

Faith! Mirror's Edge!

Totally badass!

I think female characters have been done well in games that haven't tried to be realistic. When everyone is doing over-the-top stuff in a game (like Ninja Gaiden for example), then the girl characters seem to fit right in. However, I haven't yet seen a job done well with having a female protagonist acting realistically in a realistic game (the closest thing would be Femshep). Too often both game developers and movie directors get the idea that a woman has to act like a man in order to be considered 'tough'. This misconception often has the female characters come off as cheesy and annoying instead of cool or intimidating.

The reason Vasquez from Aliens was such an awesome character is because: 1) she was actually a strong woman - not a 90 lb super model, 2) she wore attire that made sense - no high heels or tight leather, and 3) she did her job while not trying to oversell how tough she was - she didn't try to beat up the bigger guys in the squad, she didn't do any retarded-looking spin kicks or flying punches like so many other 'action girls' do in movies these days, she simply did her job well and acted like she belonged in the squad.

In games, it would be nice to have a girl show up as a squad-member in a military/swat-style game where she wasn't trying to sound overly cocky or tough, and didn't go out of her way to take on guys in close combat when she clearly is at a size disadvantage, but simply used her training to out-maneuver/out-shoot and either kill or capture her enemy. -> Female characters can be both awesome and realistic if they stick to what makes sense: Bravery, determination, training and skill rather than brute force and physical intimidation.

Where the F is Cate Archer???

I'm really glad Jade got some love here. Though Ellie from The Last of Us might be considered a supporting character, I think she could also be considered a protagonist and therefore a good addition to this list.

Honorable mentions:

Joanna Dark -- Perfect Dark series

Bastila Shan -- Star Wars: KOTOR

Samus Aran -- Metroid series

Morrigan -- Dragon Age

Yuna -- Final Fantasy X and X-2