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Best main female character in a game?

T

teacupcopter

Banned
etiolate said:
This is an old criticism based on the premise there was no Metroid games after the first. The sequels have furthered who Samus is, her relationships with others and her gender is no longer hidden or a surprise.

Plus, stories and personality do not rely completely upon dialogue. This is something many game writers should fucking learn already.
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Super Metroid had that whole thing running through it sure... and Metroid Prime has the whole discovering where she came from thing. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh- both of those things aspire to put Samus on the list as an actual character. But the fact remains that she is still not a huge character at all, more an avatar to the games she stars in, which are not heavy on story. And she is CERTAINLY not near the 'best' female character. To think people actually believe she is the epitome of good female character design (I'm not talking aesthetically) makes me weep for the gaming community at large.
 
J

japtor

Member
HI I'M DAISY
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...
 
E

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
teacupcopter said:
Super Metroid had that whole thing running through it sure... and Metroid Prime has the whole discovering where she came from thing. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh- both of those things aspire to put Samus on the list as an actual character. But the fact remains that she is still not a huge character at all, more an avatar to the games she stars in, which are not heavy on story. And she is CERTAINLY not near the 'best' female character. To think people actually believe she is the epitome of good female character design (I'm not talking aesthetically) makes me weep for the gaming community at large.
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Samus role is the same as Link(they don't talk, they are like avatars like you said that help the player interact in the game), and Link is considered by many as of one of the best characters ever so why not Samus? because she doesn't spend 30 minutes in a monologue explaining why she do what she does she can't be considered one of the best characters ever? nobody here is saying she is the epitome of 'good female character design' :p

and I considered her one of the best female characters ever when without knowing much about her, she still is so appealing and easy to get attached to(Metroid Prime help a lot in this with the whole inside her suit gameplay) and when a character that barely speaks is so interesting, I think the creator of the character an amazing job.
 
T

teacupcopter

Banned
Error2k4 said:
Samus role is the same as Link(they don't talk, they are like avatars like you said that help the player interact in the game), and Link is considered by many as of one of the best characters ever so why not Samus? because she doesn't spend 30 minutes in a monologue explaining why she do what she does she can't be considered one of the best characters ever? nobody here is saying she is the epitome of 'good female character design' :p
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Link is also an avatar. Although slightly more involved with the story, as the story is more prevelant in Zelda games, he's in a similar situation to Samus.

Like I said, this isn't an insult... Zelda and Metroid just aren't those types of games. Personally I think that's good.

And who is saying samus is the epitome of good character design for females? Umm... everyone who said "samus" in the "BEST MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER IN A GAME" thread... no offense man but it's the title.
 
E

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
teacupcopter said:
And who is saying samus is the epitome of good character design for females? Umm... everyone who said "samus" in the "BEST MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER IN A GAME" thread... no offense man but it's the title.
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saying the 'epitome of good female design' and 'the saying the best female character' are two different cents because I think The Boss is the epitome of a good female design but In no way I think she is the best female main character.
 
C

Ceb

Member
Error2k4 said:
Samus role is the same as Link(they don't talk, they are like avatars like you said that help the player interact in the game), and Link is considered by many as of one of the best characters ever so why not Samus? because she doesn't spend 30 minutes in a monologue explaining why she do what she does she can't be considered one of the best characters ever? nobody here is saying she is the epitome of 'good female character design' :p
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Samus and Link are good picks for a thread about videogame "icons", but they're pretty bland as characters. It's hard to genuinely care for a character when they almost doesn't have any personality whatsoever.

Some good picks in this thread though. I'm especially fond of Aya Brea, Heather Morris and Jade. I don't think anyone has mentioned Carla Valenti from Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit though - aside from her questionable taste in men, she was cool. :)
 
T

teacupcopter

Banned
Error2k4 said:
saying the 'epitome of good female design' and 'the saying the best female character' are two different cents because I think The Boss is the epitome of a good female design but In no way I think she is the best female main character.
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Eh. Semantics.
 
E

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
you people shouldn't pay me much heed :p as I love silent characters so I'm biased toward them hence why I prefer DQ to FF.
 
U

User 406

Banned
Hell, I'll go against the grain and say Lara Croft in the first Tomb Raider. Setting aside the inconsistent sex appeal angle, where she's skinny as hell in the game and a preposterous caricature in the FMV scenes, Lara is remorseless psychopath who singlemindedly steals priceless archaeological artifacts, and indiscriminately slaughters everyone who crosses her path, including a large number of endangered species. None of this touchy-feely internal struggle or positive role model crap, she's a vicious thug and a base thief with no redeeming qualities. What's not to like? :p
 
J

jett

D-Member
Samus is a generic character with zero personality...BUT OMG BEST FEMALE CHARACTER EVAR ANYWAY!!!!1 /ntot

*cough*

The Boss wins this thread, by a huge margin.
 
Pimpbaa

Pimpbaa

Member
Raiden said:
Ps: No Lara Croft's allowed in here.
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Why, she is just as valid as any other character. She can't help it if the developers of previous games couldn't do anything good with the series. The new Tomb Raider shall redeem her. Anyway, my vote goes to Samus as best main female character in a game. Cate Archer is a favorite of mine as well (please monolith, make another NOLF, not another F.E.A.R). The boss is a terrible choice, even if "she" was a main character. It's bad enough that people like the femme boys in games, but now they are liking manly women?
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Pimpbaa said:
The boss is a terrible choice, even if "she" was a main character. It's bad enough that people like the femme boys in games, but now they are liking manly women?
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So a female character can only be good if they look like a supermodel? She's not really manly either, she's just older than the majority of female characters.
 
Pimpbaa

Pimpbaa

Member
SolidSnakex said:
So a female character can only be good if they look like a supermodel? She's not really manly either, she's just older than the majority of female characters.
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No, but they at least have to look like a woman. A good female character has to be attractive plus have some substance.
 
E

EekTheKat

Member
In a way, The Boss is actually
the main character in MGS3
, but not in a traditional sense -
Kojima just took what he wanted to do with Raiden and Snake in MGS2 and swapped characters and roles around until everybody was happy with the results (Snake takes over the "Watson" role while The Boss becomes "Sherlock Holmes".

MGS3 took the same approach that MGS2 did, but they actually managed to implement it in a way that didn't alienate so many fans like MGS2 did.
 
C

Carm

Member
djtiesto said:
I can't believe nobody mentioned the greatest game character of all time!!!

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And my other favorite female character:

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Definitely these two, PS1&2 was so far ahead of the curve of not just having female characters just for little boys to oogle over with their huge anime breasts. I still weep we will most likely never see PS5, with all this PSO+Universe crap. First time I literally shed tears while playing a game was in PS2 with Nei :(, finding out later you could change that outcome by glitching made me go play through it again.
 
S

SolidSnakex

Member
Pimpbaa said:
No, but they at least have to look like a woman. A good female character has to be attractive plus have some substance.
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Says alot about just how much substance the Boss has that most don't really care what she looks like. In a game where most were expecting to like Big Boss the most, she stole the entire game.
 
Pimpbaa

Pimpbaa

Member
Blazyr said:
Puh-leasee!

Aya Brea! (only once in this thread so far?)
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It's a shame square hasn't made a part 3. The only good lead character in a square game since the 32-bit generation.
 
E

Error

Jealous of the Glory that is Johnny Depp
bob_arctor said:
samus01.png


Especially if we're talking "Main" characters. The girl's a franchise forgodsakes!
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but OMG SHE DOESN'T TALK ZERO PERSONALITY![/sarcasm]
 
K

Kiriku

SWEDISH PERFECTION
Pimpbaa said:
No, but they at least have to look like a woman. A good female character has to be attractive plus have some substance.
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Well, I'm so glad The Boss didn't look like a supermodel or anything close to it. Looking at the overwhelming amount of games picturing women as overly sexy, seducing girls, rarely past the age of 30, trying to appeal to the stereotype videogame player (= young males), The Boss was such a refreshing sight to see. Had she been the regular attractive videogame female I don't think her character would've worked well at all in the context of the game.
And no, a character doesn't have to be attractive at all to be good in my opinion, man or woman.
 
R

radioheadrule83

Banned
In all seriousness...

jadebeyondgoodevil6xg.jpg


My favourite female character this gen.
There were probably female characters that had more love put into them on RPGs etc, but I don't think theres a real representation problem in that genre.

Jade isn't scantily clad, she's a relatively normal looking cartoon female, that later in the game becomes a reporter and agent of a political rebellion against an insidious alien presence.
 
T

teacupcopter

Banned
Pimpbaa said:
Why, she is just as valid as any other character. She can't help it if the developers of previous games couldn't do anything good with the series. The new Tomb Raider shall redeem her. Anyway, my vote goes to Samus as best main female character in a game. Cate Archer is a favorite of mine as well (please monolith, make another NOLF, not another F.E.A.R). The boss is a terrible choice, even if "she" was a main character. It's bad enough that people like the femme boys in games, but now they are liking manly women?
Click to expand...

hotness != greatness. If I wanted a hot videogame character I'd dump into this thread the fighter list from the DOA series.

error2k4 said:
but OMG SHE DOESN'T TALK ZERO PERSONALITY![/sarcasm]
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I know it's just joking, but she doesn't have any personality. What is she about? What does she want? Who is she loyal to? What are her goals?

Basically the answer to every question is "I KILL METROIDS". There is nothing to her character, Duke Nukem is a more complicated guy.
 
Pimpbaa

Pimpbaa

Member
Kiriku said:
Well, I'm so glad The Boss didn't look like a supermodel or anything close to it. Looking at the overwhelming amount of games picturing women as overly sexy, seducing girls, rarely past the age of 30, trying to appeal to the stereotype videogame player (= young males), The Boss was such a refreshing sight to see. Had she been the regular attractive videogame female I don't think her character would've worked well at all in the context of the game.
And no, a character doesn't have to be attractive at all to be good in my opinion, man or woman.
Click to expand...

An unattractive women more refreshing? You can't be a guy.
 
M

Mr Jared

Member
teacupcopter said:
I know it's just joking, but she doesn't have any personality. What is she about? What does she want? Who is she loyal to? What are her goals?

Basically the answer to every question is "I KILL METROIDS". There is nothing to her character, Duke Nukem is a more complicated guy.
Click to expand...

IBTN.

Samus is a great design, but aside from looking hot in her ending pictures, there's nothing to her. She practically has no story and what's there is just pieced together by excited fanfic kids desperate to actually force a personality on her.

The only mute character with less personality than Samus is Gordan Freeman. At least with Samus, we know she's a bounty hunter who has done a few things in her life. Gordan. . well, he's a scientist. TADA!
 
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