2338: Link’s a Boy, Deal With It. Or Spend Some Time With These Awesome Female Protagonists Instead of Moaning

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Nintendo revealed its new Zelda game today, or, more accurately, showed off a decent amount of gameplay. It looks lovely, both from an aesthetic and gameplay standpoint, though it remains to be seen if they can provide a Zelda narrative that keeps me interested more than most of the previous incarnations.

Naturally, this being the ever-offended Internet, most of the discussion surrounding Zelda was about the fact that, shock horror, Link is still a boy. You know, like he’s been for the last 30 years, as an established character — indeed, one of the most recognisable characters in gaming after his Nintendo stablemates Mario and Luigi.

A bunch of people seemed to have got the idea in their head that Link “should” be female in this new Zelda. Nintendo had fueled the fire a little with some concept art and, later, a character called Linkle (seriously?) in 3DS title Hyrule Warriors Legends, but nope; the new Zelda game will feature a male protagonist, just like its predecessors, and — spoiler — will probably also feature a princess called Zelda.

Don’t get me wrong, a female Link could be cool, but that’s about all. If Nintendo were to change Link to a female character now, it would look like change for change’s sake, and Nintendo isn’t really about that… to a fault, some might say. There’s also an argument that people want to see a representation of themselves on the screen, but no; despite the fact that Link has never spoken in any of the Zelda games, he’s still an established character. You are playing as Link; you are not playing as you.

But let’s not get bogged down in this; there’s a whole argument to be had over Zelda lore and Link actually being lots of different incarnations of one heroic spirit, but that’s for another day. Instead, I want to talk about something more general on this topic.

This exchange on Twitter bothered me:

https://twitter.com/IvoryOasis/status/742786606466142208

“They” presumably being either Nintendo, or Japanese developers in general. Either way, it’s just plain wrong. Here are some excellent female protagonists from Japanese developers, including Nintendo:

Samus Fucking Aran

If Nintendo consider women “2nd class”, how is it one of their most beloved characters is a woman? The fact that Samus is a woman is widely known now, of course, but back when the original Metroid came out it was a genuine surprise to see her take off the helmet of her power armour and reveal that yes, indeed, she was a woman.

This was in 1986. 30 years ago. To my knowledge, not one person has argued that Samus should be rebooted as a man.

Arnice

The protagonist of Nights of Azure by Gust is a thoroughly capable young woman who doesn’t take any shit from anyone. Not only that, she’s also gay, so double diversity points there.

Pretty much every protagonist in the Atelier series

With the exception of the three Atelier Iris games and half of Atelier Escha and Logy, all the protagonists of the Atelier games have been female. There are 16 Atelier games, plus spinoffs and reboots, and the series has been running since 1997.

Everyone in the Senran Kagura series

The Senran Kagura series has a cast that expands with each new installment, and there are very few male characters. The focus is squarely on the female characters, each of whom get a decent amount of time in the limelight and, in the Versus games on PlayStation platforms, their own side stories to further flesh out their characters. Estival Versus has 25 playable female characters, plus several additional DLC characters.

Everyone in the Neptunia series

The entire main cast of the Neptunia series (with the exception of important character Umio in the latest installment) is female. In fact, there seem to be very few men in these games at all, and when they do show up, they are usually shown to be incompetent or evil. The Neptunia cast has become so strong and recognisable now that it’s transcended its original role-playing game genre into visual novels, strategy games and beat ’em ups, with more doubtless to come in the future.

Estelle Bright

Estelle from Trails in the Sky was easily my favourite thing about that game. She was a great protagonist for a traditional RPG: optimistic, enthusiastic and courageous. She also had a dry wit and a good line in putdowns for those who thought she was too tomboyish in her behaviour, and acted as an excellent, well-crafted centrepiece for an interesting, memorable ensemble cast.

Yunica Tovah

One of the three protagonists in Ys Origin, Yunica overcomes a considerable amount of adversity in her world: she can’t use magic like many of her peers, but instead of getting mopey and depressed about it, this just makes her throw herself into bettering herself in other ways. She strikes an interesting balance between traditional femininity in her behaviour and being a total badass when it comes to combat, swinging around battleaxes and two-handed swords like they weigh nothing at all.

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Not much is known about Nier Automata yet, but if the first game’s ambitious, emotional story is anything to go by, there’s going to be a very interesting story surrounding the female android protagonist of this sequel.

Bayonetta

Two of the best character action games in the last few years have a woman in the leading role. Bayonetta is designed in the exaggerated superhero mould, and her portrayal in the games deliberately emphasises her sexuality, which she takes total ownership of throughout. Also she rides a motorbike up a rocket into space before punching God in the face.

Milla Maxwell

My love for Tales of Xillia protagonist Milla is well documented, but she bears mentioning again, because she’s awesome. An incredibly interesting character with some fascinating development over the course of the two games in which she appears, Milla subverts a ton of tropes and ended up being one of the most memorable characters I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with in the last few years.

I could go on, but that’s probably enough for now.

Needless to say, my point is probably clear: Japanese devs (including Nintendo) emphatically don’t think of women or female characters as “second class”. In fact, I can name considerably more Japanese games with female protagonists than Western ones. And they’re cool, interesting, well-written characters, too — even in the more fanservicey games like Senran Kagura, which many people find to have an extraordinary amount of character development if they go in on the assumption it’s about tits.

But let’s not let facts get in the way of a good bit of stupid, pointless outrage, shall we?

In other words: stop getting upset that a character who has been male for 30 years is still male when there are a huge number of awesome female-led games from Japanese devs. And stop lying, while you’re on. kthxbai

2240: Ten Great Ladies of Games

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It is, apparently, International Women’s Day, or at least it was up until an hour ago as I appear to have stayed up rather late playing Dungeon Travelers 2. Whoops. Oh well.

In the interests of respecting International Women’s Day, I thought I’d do one of those list post thingies, because those are nice and easy to put together and my brain is starting to dribble out of my ears.

So here, then, in no particular order:

1. Sophia Hapgood (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis)

Pretty sure Sophia Hapgood was my first “waifu”, or to put it another way, my first crush on a fictional character. It surprised me at the time, because she wasn’t what I would have considered to be my “type” — she’s outspoken, assertive, sometimes aggressive, and very strongly spiritual, with some rather… interesting beliefs. None of those things are a bad thing in a woman, of course, but at the time I played Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis for the first time — I was in my teens, still at school — the prospect of a woman like that was a little intimidating.

But there was something special about Sophia. Perhaps it was the fact that she could take care of herself, and had almost as important a role to play in the story as Indy. Perhaps it was her nice arse, which was lovingly rendered in 320x200x256 colours and wiggled when she walked away from the “camera”. Perhaps it was the fact that she was a fiery redhead — though, again, at the time, I hadn’t yet discovered my penchant for fiery redheads. I don’t know what it was, but she was — and is — awesome.

2. Kai Tana (Velocity series)

The narrative in Futurlab’s rather wonderful shoot ’em up/puzzle game hybrid Velocity is rather easy to ignore, but pay attention and you’ll find an enjoyable plot to follow, presented by some rather lovely stylised still images. The protagonist of the series — which wasn’t immediately obvious in the first game, making for a nice Metroid-style realisation — is Lt. Kai Tana, a likeable leading lady who actually has some personality beyond being “generic badass woman in space”.

Kai is intelligent, quick-thinking and immensely capable. She’s also pretty cute, even with that bonkers haircut: noteworthy in that it gives her a very distinctive look that is immediately recognisable.

3. Claire Redfield (Resident Evil series)

Claire was one of the first bona fide female protagonists I had the opportunity to play as in video games, making her debut in Resident Evil 2, which was actually the first Resident Evil game I played. I found her noteworthy for subverting the horror movie trope of “screaming woman” and instead being one of the most competent characters in the entire game, more than capable of taking on the zombie hordes — and worse — singlehandedly. There was also an interesting narrative hook with her pursuing her brother Chris, who was one of the protagonists from the first game.

Claire got an even greater focus in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, which was a headline title for Sega’s doomed Dreamcast system, and was subsequently rereleased on a number of other platforms. Once again, she proved herself more than capable of handling the zombie threat by herself, and in fact was portrayed for most of the game as a considerably stronger, more willful character than one of the other main male characters, Steve Burnside. Although that was at least partly up to your actions as the player; forget to pick up the grenade launcher before the boss fight at the end of the first disc and you’ll be in a world of shit. Poor Claire.

4. Dawn (Lands of Lore series)

Eh, showing my retro knowledge here, aren’t I? Yes indeedy. Dawn made her first appearance in Westwood Studios’ dungeon crawler Lands of Lore, which came out in 1993. She’s a powerful sorceress, and a major character in the overarching plot of both the first game and its 1997 follow-up, in which she was rendered in full, glorious FMV-o-vision.

To be honest, I don’t remember a huge amount about Dawn in the first Lands of Lore game, but I do remember her being one of your main points of contact for the unfolding plot in Guardians of Destiny, the second game; as a powerful sorceress, she was ideally equipped to help protagonist Luther with his unfortunate curse, which unpredictably (and sometimes predictably) turned him into either a teeny-tiny lizard or a big hulking slobbering beast. In one of the endings you got to shag her, too.

5. Nepgear (Hyperdimension Neptunia series)

You didn’t think I’d let this post slip without at least one Neptunia character, would you? Of course not.

Nepgear is my favourite of the series large cast. For a while, I thought it was Noire, and for sure Lastation’s goddess has her considerable tsundere charms (plus some amazing curves that her HDD one-piece show off marvelously) but I just like Nepgear a whole lot more. Nepgear is someone I’d want to hang out with. Nepgear is someone I can kind of relate to a bit. Nepgear is someone I feel a great deal of sympathy for, as one of the most sensible characters in the series, constantly dragged along in the wake of chaos that her energetic sister Neptune inevitably leaves behind her.

Nepgear also gets some of the most interesting character development in the whole series. Over the course of mk2/Re;Birth2, we see her grow from a scared child who doesn’t believe in herself to a confident young woman who, while she still sometimes seeks the approval of her peers, her sister and people she looks up to, understands that her thoroughly pleasant nature draws people to her in a very similar way to Neptune’s infectious energy.

In recent installment Megadimension Neptunia VII, she gets further development, exploring her relationship with some of the other characters in a bit more depth, and all but confirming that Neptunia as a series registers very high up the yuri scale.

6. Estelle Bright (Trails in the Sky)

Trails in the Sky is a fantastic RPG, and everyone should play it — even if you’re not normally a fan of the more provocative side of JRPGs. As a release by Falcom, it errs more on the “serious” side of things rather than being filled with boob jokes and fanservice, but it has some immensely strong characterisation helped enormously by an excellent localisation.

Protagonist Estelle is a highlight of the experience. A spunky teenage girl who doesn’t take shit from anyone — particularly those who judge her for being a pretty young girl sporting twintails, albeit with a somewhat tomboyish bearing and demeanour — she’s very much a character in her own right rather than a self-insert avatar for the player. Her relationship with leading man Joshua is believable and enjoyable to witness, and her interactions with other characters are just as joyful.

The best thing about Trails in the Sky is that it takes a fairly cliched anime and RPG trope — young kids come of age, go on epic quest — and makes a very distinctive, well-written experience out of it. I must confess I’m yet to play the Second Chapter follow-up to the first game, but I absolutely adored the original release — and Estelle in particular.

7. Erica Reed (Cognition)

The work of Phoenix Online Studios working in collaboration with Gabriel Knight creator Jane Jensen, Erica Reed is a wonderful character with depth and intrigue. She acts as an excellent focal point for the four-part episodic series that makes up Cognition, growing into and becoming more comfortable with her unusual mental powers over the course of the four cases you lead her through.

Cognition is a well-written thriller series that has more than a little in common with the TV series Fringe: it’s a female-led series where said protagonist is a special agent who comes to discover strange and wonderful abilities that help her to crack some gruesome cases. Erica herself has plenty of skeletons in her closet, and learning more about her over the complete overarching narrative of the series is a real highlight of the Cognition experience.

8. Ysayle (Final Fantasy XIV)

Ysayle is one of the most interesting characters in Final Fantasy XIV in that she was introduced late in the A Realm Reborn storyline as a villain of sorts — though nothing is that black-and-white in the lands of Eorzea, it must be said — but through a complicated series of circumstances, found herself in the Warrior of Light’s entourage for the majority of Heavensward, despite said Warrior of Light having kicked the shit out of her at least once (twice if you did the Shiva Extreme fight) in the relatively recent past.

I shan’t spoil the details, but suffice it to say that Ysayle has a long and interesting history of why she became the person she did — and throughout Heavensward we see her following a most intriguing journey of personal growth and understanding as she learns more about the things she has been fighting for and against. She gets a particularly spectacular moment of redemption towards the climax of the base Heavensward story.

9. Haruka (Senran Kagura)

It’s easy to write Haruka off as fetish-bait, given that she’s the most obviously “sexual” member of Senran Kagura’s cast. Her Shinobi outfit is pretty much just a basque, panties and stockings, she’s very obviously into sadomasochism and she’s one of the only characters to seemingly express pleasure rather than embarrassment during the clothing destruction scenes in combat.

In each Senran Kagura game, though, she gets plenty of development that shows she’s more than just fap material. In Burst, her interactions with Hibari during the latter’s crisis of confidence show her to have a good understanding of other people and a strong sense of empathy. In Shinovi Versus, her bonding with the masochistic Ryouna is a delight to watch; it’s clear she’s found someone who understands her more than pretty much anyone else in the rest of the cast, most of whom you get the impression sort of try not to think too much about what she gets up to in her free time. And despite her sadistic tendencies, it’s clear she has a sensible head on her shoulders, often acting as the “big sister” of the Crimson Squad group.

10. Prometh (Demon Gaze)

Demon Gaze has some great characters in it — unusual for a dungeon crawler in which you create your own party, but Demon Gaze gets around that particular issue by populating the inn which you call your base with a variety of colourful characters, one of whom is Prometh.

Prometh is the inn’s mortician, because times are dangerous and of course the inn needs a mortician. She collects skulls, often sleeps in a coffin and speaks in an endearingly sleepy quasi-kuudere style. She’s also habitually half-dressed, usually clad in little more than a hoodie and some ill-matching long socks. Occasionally she just shows up in scenes wearing nothing more than her undies; no explanation is ever really given for this, but once you’ve got to know Prometh a bit, it just doesn’t seem all that unusual.

You see a lot of Prometh, both when you resurrect fallen party members and when you deliver her one of the game’s main collectables: the skulls she likes so much. With each visit, you get to know this unusual woman a little better, and by the end of Demon Gaze I was finding myself greatly enjoying every trip down into her basement. So to speak.

2124: Here are 35 Games From Between 1981 and Now with Female Protagonists

Polygon wrote something dumb the other day. As most of you know, this is nothing unusual, so I’m not even going to bother to link to an archive this time. The gist of the piece, though, was that female-fronted video games are New and Exciting, and their evidence for this was Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (which features both a male and a female protagonist) and Fallout 4 (which features customisable, player-created protagonists).

Trouble is, it’s not the first time either of those games have had a female protagonist. Assassin’s Creed Liberation featured only a female protagonist — no bloke with whom to share the limelight — and Fallout has had a selectable character gender since its very first installment. In fact, female-fronted games are nothing new at all. And as an attempt to prove this, I am going to list one game from every year since I was born in 1981 that featured a female protagonist, be it of the pre-scripted, “written” variety, or the ability for the player to create their own female character with which to experience the game.

1981: Ultima

One of the earliest role-playing games, Richard Garriott’s Ultima set the mould for many future titles to follow. It featured a fairly comprehensive, customisable character creation system that included the option to play as either male or female characters. Rather progressively, this choice was purely cosmetic, and had no effect on your stats whatsoever; none of that “women are weaker but can run faster” stuff here.

1982: Ms. Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man was copyrighted in 1981, but actually came out in 1982. Developed and released by Midway without the authorisation of Namco, Ms. Pac-Man is a very fondly regarded game that some people even prefer to the original Pac-Man.

1983: Ultima III

Cheating? Nah. Ultima III was an important installment in the series, as it was one of the first games to feature tactical turn-based combat. It also allowed you to select your gender as male, female or “other”. How progressive!

1984: Ice Climber

Nintendo’s two-player platformer featured both male and female protagonists who had exactly the same abilities.

1985: Gauntlet

Inspired by Dandy Dungeons from two years earlier, Gauntlet combined the aesthetic and theme of dungeon-crawling role-playing games with the immediacy and action of an arcade game. It had four playable characters, one of whom was a woman.

1986: Metroid

Samus, that armor-clad badass you play for the whole game, is a lady. Surprise!

1987: Phantasy Star

Sega’s excellent sci-fi dungeon-crawling RPG (bring graph paper) had a female protagonist by the name of Alys. She was cool.

1988: Super Mario Bros. 2

Rather than getting kidnapped, Peach (then known as Princess Toadstool) was instead a playable character in the American and European release of Super Mario Bros. 2, which was actually a reskinned version of a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic. Peach was one of the most useful characters due to her ability to float for several seconds after a jump, allowing her to reach places the other characters might have had difficulty with.

1989: The Colonel’s Bequest

One of Roberta “King’s Quest” Williams’ early games, The Colonel’s Bequest was noteworthy for being a somewhat more mature-themed take on the adventure game than its stablemates from Sierra (and Williams herself). Its protagonist was a woman named Laura Bow, who fronted both this game and its sequel The Dagger of Amon Ra in a short-lived mini-series.

1990: Gauntlet: The Third Encounter

Gauntlet’s Atari Lynx-exclusive incarnation was noteworthy for taking longer to complete than a set of batteries in the Lynx would last. It also had an array of peculiarly unconventional protagonists such as “Nerd” and “Pirate”, but also brought back the Valkyrie from the original Gauntlet. She is a lady.

1991: Street Fighter II

The world’s first encounter with Chun-Li’s thighs, and the world was never the same again. For many people, Street Fighter II was the first time a female character had been so noticeable in a major release, though as we’ve seen, there have been plenty of examples in the preceding years.

1992: Alone in the Dark

The first fixed camera angle 3D survival horror game, Alone in the Dark allowed you to play as either a male or female protagonist.

1993: Lost in Time

A gorgeous adventure game from Coktel Vision, Lost in Time featured a female protagonist, full-motion video, freely explorable 3D rendered backdrops and all manner of other goodness.

1994: Super Metroid

Samus is still a lady.

1995: Phantasmagoria

Noteworthy for several reasons: a female protagonist, coming on about a bajillion CDs due to all its full-motion video, being rather more adult-oriented than the rest of Sierra’s catalogue, which was mostly family-friendly, and attracting controversy for its extreme violence and rape scene.

1996: Dead or Alive

While Street Fighter II was noteworthy for introducing us to Chun-Li, she was but one woman in a cast of mostly men. Dead or Alive gave us a cast with four women to play: Kasumi, Ayame, Lei Fang and Tina.

1997: Ultima Online

You could be anyone you wanted to in this, male or female. You didn’t even have to be an adventurer if you didn’t want to; you could play the game and become a shopkeeper or crafting specialist.

1998: Parasite Eve

Square’s peculiar blend of survival horror and RPG wasn’t entirely successful at what it set out to do, but its protagonist Aya Brea was pretty badass and went on to star in a couple of sequels.

1999: UmJammer Lammy

The sequel to PaRappa the Rapper featured a leading lady guitarist instead of a rapping dog. Playing it still felt like you were tripping balls.

2000: Resident Evil Code: Veronica

The Resident Evil series as a whole had always had playable women; Code Veronica put female protagonist Claire Redfield very much front and centre.

2001: Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance

A spinoff of the Baldur’s Gate series of Dungeons and Dragons-themed RPGs on PC, Dark Alliance was a Diablo-style action RPG for one or two players, and had a playable female character in the form of the elven Sorceress.

2002: Fatal Frame

This absolutely terrifying game featured a playable female protagonist, though you played as her brother for the prologue sequence.

2003: Dark Chronicle/Dark Cloud 2

This sequel to one of the more unusual RPGs out there featured both a male and female protagonist that you could switch between at any time.

2004: Metroid: Zero Mission

Samus is still a lady!

2005: Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit

The world’s first encounter with David Cage featured several different playable characters, including a woman and a black dude.

2006: Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Not one, but two playable ladies in this adventure game and sequel to the wonderful The Longest Journey (which also had a lady in the leading role).

2007: Tomb Raider Anniversary

Can’t talk about gaming ladies without having Lara Croft in there somewhere. Tomb Raider Anniversary was a considerably enhanced remake of the original game.

2008: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

This year’s Castlevania game brought us Shanoa, a pretty awesome female protagonist who would be seen again in the underrated PS3 and Xbox 360 time-attack Castlevania.

2009: OneChanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad

Exploitative it may be — and deliberately so — but OneChanbara certainly features some of the most ass-kicking young ladies you’ll see in gaming.

2010: Final Fantasy XIII

Love it or hate it — I love it, everyone else hates it — Final Fantasy XIII had a highly capable woman at the helm. For double Progressive Points, the one black character in the main cast was also arguably one of the most well-realised characters in the whole thing.

2011: Hyperdimension Neptunia

An all-female cast, with any male characters being literally faceless, the original Hyperdimension Neptunia managed to kick off what has become a highly successful series even after some atrocious reviews from people who really didn’t “get it”.

2012: Atelier Meruru

The Atelier series is pretty much the nicest series in existence, and has always had pretty girls at the helm. This year’s installment was the wonderful Meruru, the third and final installment of the Arland trilogy, and a favourite of many series fans.

2013: Gone Home

A favourite of progressive, narrative-loving types, Gone Home was a “walking simulator” with a female playable protagonist who ultimately was of little importance to the story; instead, the story was largely focused on her sister, who, being her sister, was also a lady.

2014: Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus

The Vita installment of this lovely hack-and-slash series of brawlers came out this year, and features some wonderfully well-realised characters in its almost all-female cast.

2015: Life is Strange

Another narrative-heavy game, this well-received episodic series featured a female protagonist.

I think I’ve made my point. Can we stop with this shit now?