Top three influential females in gaming

Female characters have been a major part of video games since the beginning. Whether you were the brave Link, in the Legend of Zelda, looking for Princess Zelda or you were the main character Samus Aran in Metroid, females were and still play major roles in most games.

In my opinion here are three of the most influential female video game characters:

Samus Aran


Samus is an interesting character in the sense that in the game Metroid the gamer is led to believe that her character is actually a he. The gamer is shocked at the end of the game when Samus removes her helmet and reveals that he really is a she. Samus is also one of the first female lead characters ever.

Lara Croft


Lara Croft is from the Tomb Raider series. She is influential because she was one of the first female characters to be well designed so that it was obvious that you were playing a female character. Also the Lara Croft games showed that a female character could be beautiful, intelligent and just as tough as the boys.

Aerith Gainsborough


Aerith is from Final Fantasy VII. In the beginning of the game she is one of the main characters, up until she is killed by the main "bad guy" Sephiroth, an hour or so into the game. This is influential because the game's main character, Cloud, has set out to protect her from the main Sephiroth, but for the first time in gaming history a main character, Aerith, is actually permanently killed off about a quarter of the way into the game. While her character is killed, her spirit and what she was fighting for is enough to encourage the main character to continue and in the end save the world.

For a more in depth look on influential female characters you should check out Tom's Games website, which lists the top 50.

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