The Most Iconic Female Video Game Characters by generation

Despite what some may have you believe, women have been in video games from the start, and while not always the main stars, they have always left an impression on gamers. In fact, there have been so many famous ladies in gaming, that this list has caused quite a free-for-all here behind the scenes. So get out your flame shield while we cover the ground rules.

First off, we’re starting with the third generation and only counting home consoles, because that’s when characters became less abstract, allowing them to be more recognizable on their own, and gaming came back to life after the great video game crash of 1983. This is important, because iconic is a balancing act between fame, recognition, and excellence. Some characters may be from games that sold far better, and were of higher quality, but you wouldn’t be able to pick them out from a crowd, often by design, so they didn’t make the list. If you don’t like it, feel free to let us know in the comments section below. Furthermore, there can only be one most iconic female character per generation, and that character can only make the list once.

Remember, this list is just our opinion, so don’t get your jimmies too rustled as we go forward.

[LordoftheCritics]

My personal favourites

1. Elizabeth/Bioshock Infinite
2. Ellie/LOU
3. Lara Croft/TR
4. Aloy/HZD
5. Alyx Vance/HL2 series
6. Faith Connors/Mirrors Edge
7. Femshep/ME series
8. The lead women of the Witcher series - many of them, all well written

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

At least you have Ellie at # 2

[shadowstriker]

The list is divided by console generation, not just a list of personal favorites.

[DefaultComment]

very nice list indeed. I like it, also Elizabeth Comstock is an amazing character!

[archibold]

HRRRRNNNNGGGG!!! **SPLORT**

[Lightning Mr Bubbles]

What a bunch of bull... My two favorite female characters are not included. Tifa and Ellie, how is Tifa not there, she is probably the most iconic female from Final Fantasy. Yuna, I can totally understand.(I use to love her during the PS2 era) But Bayonetta and 2B? Are you kidding me? 2B is the most iconic female of the PS4 era? The most iconic female recently has to be Ellie of The Last of Us series. But 2B... are you serious?

[Name Last Name]

I would say that Aerith is more iconic than Tifa.

[TricksterArrow]

Yep. Tifa is probably the most popular (at least outside of Japan, pretty sure Aerith is more popular over there), but Aerith is definitely the most iconic from FF7. Her death still resonates with everyone and her face is what you first and last see in the original game.

[shadowstriker]

Just curious, did you read the rules or reasons or just look at the list?

Tifa's arguably the most iconic female Final Fantasy Character overall, but in the 90's Lara Croft was everywhere. Even my grandmother knew who Lara was. It's not even close as to who is more iconic during that generation.

Compare Bayonetta to Ellie. Ellie has no real features that make her identifiable from any other teenage girl with bad teeth. If you walk down a busy city street, you wouldn't even notice an Ellie costume walking by or even think "Hey that looks like Ellie!" If someone or their avatar can walk by you and you don't even recognize them, then they are not iconic.

And yes 2B.

[LordoftheCritics]

Depends.

Iconic as in cosplay level or groundbreaking, relevance, genre pushing? etc etc

The ones listed were barely memorable for me.

[TricksterArrow]

If you go by your description of Lara, most people would not recognize Bayonetta or 2B either. Certainly not my grandmother. If that is what defines an iconic character, they should definitely not be on that list. They should've probably looked at other female characters like maybe Kitana, Samus or Jill Valentine, or, maybe of a cheat, even Harley Quinn, considering that her video-game look was so popular it actually went on to be her default look everywhere.

[shadowstriker]

Iconic is a few things balanced together. Your grandmother doesn't have to recognize a character for her to be iconic, but it doesn't hurt. Samus was in Other M in the seventh gen, which redesigned her look and attitude away from classic, iconic Samus, so there's no way she was going to be the pick for the generation. Kitana isn't even popular in her own series, Mileena is more popular, and she just had a major design change as well. Jill had an iconic look in the PS1 era and in the GameCube remake, but in the seventh gen her design was heavily altered as well, for the worse I might add.

The only real debate for the generation was Ellie vs Bayonetta. Ellie was in a more popular game, and the game she was in was top tier, but her design is generic on purpose. Bayonetta is popular, was in the best action game of the era, and has a recognizable design. She filled all three of the criteria, whereas Ellie exceeded in one, had the other, and was designed to lack the third.

Now show me an eighth gen, PS4/XB1/WiiU character more iconic (opular, excellent, and recognizable) than 2B.

[Proexposed]

halo cortana
Gears Kait
Horizons aloy
Last of us Ellie

[Tigerblud]

Would be cool to do it by every console. PS1-PS5, each Xbox, each Nintendo console.