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Female protagonist games


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Some great games here. Super Metroid is one of my top 10 all time favorites. Ignoring others in the series you named, I would definitely include Guardian Legend, Portal, Final Fantasy VI, and Castlevania Bloodlines and Symphony (Maria Renaud). Great games, great female protagonists.

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One often overlooked one is Famicom Salamander (aka NES Lifeforce). Like Contra, the Japanese version has more features than the US version, including a "surprise" ending reveal like Metroid depending on how many continues you used.

 

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5 hours ago, Rhomaios said:

Castlevania Bloodlines and Symphony

Are the ladies from these games actually playable?

 

Off top of my head I can mention Battle Mania 1/2 (Genesis) and Cotton series STGs. Especially the former, as it's really fantastic yet fairly unknown.

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5 hours ago, Mikebloke said:

The original version of the ninja (master system) on the mark III was a female ninja. I think someone has ported this version to the colecovision too. 

Yep, opcode's Ninja Princess. I think the original version is the arcade, right?

 

Thinking of Sega reminded me of Twinkle Tale and Monster World IV, both of which have female protagonists. And Twinkle Tale is such a fun shooter.

 

Monster World IV's protagonist also reminds me of Shantae, but I never put much time into that. It seems to be regarded well enough. A few other GBC games come to mind, including Wendy Every Witch Way and Alice in Wonderland.

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1 hour ago, Rhomaios said:

Brr, I meant Rondo on the PC Engine CD, not Bloodlines. And yes, she's a playable character in the Saturn version of SotN:

 

https://castlevania.fandom.com/wiki/Maria_Renard/Symphony_of_the_Night/Saturn

She's a playable chanracter in the PC-E version too, tho as you need to find her to unlock her, it's not quite a "main character".

However she's kind of a cheat code, given how overpowered she is :D

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Jade from Beyond Good & Evil and D'Arcy Stern from Urban Chaos deserve a mention. The latter is another from my "seriously underappreciated" list.

 

An interesting question could be who was the first ever female protagonist in videogames (including microcomputers)?

Edited by youxia
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2 hours ago, youxia said:

An interesting question could be who was the first ever female protagonist in videogames (including microcomputers)?

It's come up in other threads, and though I can't personally confirm it's the first, the consensus is Wabbit (October 1982) is one of the first games ever that has you playing as a female protagonist - the farmer Billie Sue.  Certainly it's the first on an Atari system.

Edited by glazball
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5 hours ago, youxia said:

Jade from Beyond Good & Evil and D'Arcy Stern from Urban Chaos deserve a mention. The latter is another from my "seriously underappreciated" list.

 

An interesting question could be who was the first ever female protagonist in videogames (including microcomputers)?

More research might be needed, but I think it might be Lady Bug, from 1981:

 

zHFND9U.jpg

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11 minutes ago, carlsson said:

If you're looking for a list rather than personal recommendations, there is also a category on Mobygames:

https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/protagonist-female

 

2500+ titles seems like a lot, though the definition of "protagonist" sometimes is a bit loose.

Yeah, and it lists Eliza from 1966 as the earliest example, though I understand that Eliza is someone you don't play as, but talk to. Might still be the earliest case of a game centering around a female character though:

 

oMgPs4M.png

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No. Eliza is a parody of a psychiatrist. As far as I understand, it never was meant to be taken seriously or any kind of example of self-learning intelligence, yet many people perceived it as such. But unless Eliza is protagonist, what is "she"? Clearly not an antagonist since your goal is not to break down the psychiatrist. Non-playable character that happens to be the main and only counterpart?

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13 hours ago, glazball said:

It's come up in other threads, and though I can't personally confirm it's the first, the consensus is Wabbit (October 1982) is one of the first games ever that has you playing as a female protagonist - the farmer Billie Sue.  Certainly it's the first on an Atari system.

Er.... wasn't Ms. Pac-Man released earlier in the year?

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