Games with strong male leads are a dime a dozen. They can come in a variety of flavors; there are the silent types like Link from The Legend of Zelda series, the gruff and haggard type like Kratos from God of War or Joel from The Last of Us, and plenty more. But for a time, female characters didn't get that same luxury.
Video games have come a long way from where they used to be. Before most female characters were made for very specific roles like; the damsel in distress, the love interest, the "daughter" etc. There's nothing wrong with these roles per se, but it's important for there to be games that allow female characters to take on multiple roles and allow them to be the strong lead.
10 Dani Rojas - Far Cry 6
Far Cry 6 marks the return of a pre-established character after Far Cry 5 and Far Cry: New Dawn gave players the ability to create their own silent protagonist. Players can choose between either a male or female Dani Rojas. Both options are full-voiced and have the same dialogue choices, but many fans feel as if female Dani is the intended protagonist of the game.
After escaping a near-death situation Dani becomes a guerilla fighter for "Libertad" to help take down Anton Castillo and his regime and free the country of Yara. Dani's military training makes her a natural with weapons and in combat against other trained military personnel. Dani shows herself to be loyal to those that prove themselves to be loyal to her, and she shows empathy toward the suffering of her fellow Yarans.
9 Heather Mason - Silent Hill 3
A person can be strong in more ways than just physically. There's a lot of merit in being strong mentally and emotionally, especially during tense situations. Silent Hill 3's Heather Mason shows a lot of mental strength as she does her best to survive the terrifying monsters of the Otherworld while also trying to figure out her connection with a familiar cult for fans of the original Silent Hill.
Despite all the hardship and tragedies she faces at the hands of Claudia Wolf, she maintains her strong moral belief that suffering is a part of life, but that it doesn't make it right for people to hurt others because of it.
8 Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, Sheva Alomar, And More - Resident Evil Series
There's no shortage of strong female characters in the Resident Evil series. There's the fan favorite Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield and Ada Wong from Resident Evil 2, Sheva Alomar from Resident Evil 5, and more. Every woman in the series is shown to be resourceful and specializes in at least one area.
For example, Jill is an expert at firearms and hand-to-hand combat, and Ada Wong is smart and knows how to use her charisma to get what she wants. Even characters like Rebecca Chambers who isn't physically strong, are very intelligent and skilled in medicine and science.
7 Aloy - Horizon: Zero Dawn
Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn, became an outcast due to the fact that she was not born to a human mother, and found herself being raised by a fellow outcast, Rost. She spent her early years aware of her outcast status, but not the reason why she had ended up with it.
She became determined to learn the truth of her origins and vowed to win the Proving so that the High Matriarchs would have no choice but to tell her about her mother, and spent over a decade training herself until her eighteenth birthday, when she would finally be allowed to participate in the Nora coming-of-age ritual.
6 Ellie - The Last Of Us Part 2
In The Last of Us Part 1, Ellie was the deuteragonist, and she became playable in the second half of the game while she nursed Joel back to health. Even as a kid Ellie showed a lot of mental strength as she hunted, took care of Joel, and fought off the Infected during Winter.
In The Last of Us Part 2, Ellie is the main character, and players are shown her growth in strength and skill. She's proficient with a bow and a gun and while she still doesn't have the same physical strength as Joel did in the first one, she has amazing speed and agility.
5 Xian Mei And Purna Jackson - Dead Island
Dead Island 2 is set to release next month and along with a new location and new zombie types, there are several new playable characters. Dead Island had four playable characters called Heroes, and two of them are Xian Mei and Purna Jackson. Xian Mei's class is Assassin, and she has the highest stamina stat out of the four heroes and is an expert at bladed weapons. She's a police officer from Hong Kong that was sent to the Royal Palms Resort in Banoi to be an informer.
Purna Jackson is a Support/Leader that specializes in firearms, making her the best Hero to use guns with. Purna also has a skill that lets her do more damage to male zombies, making them a lot easier for her to kill. She's an ex-detective for the Sydney Police department that became a bodyguard for the resort's VIPs.
4 Clementine - The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series
Clementine is one of the main characters of Telltale's The Walking Dead. Though she eventually becomes the playable protagonist for two of the four seasons, she's originally introduced in Season One as an unplayable character, where she forms a bond with Lee Everett.
Clementine starts out as a kind, well-mannered eight-year-old girl, and she fights to maintain her faith in the inherent good of humankind in spite of all the tragedies she's faced. By the Final Season, in which she's sixteen, she's grown hardened, preferring being on her own, as nothing good ever comes from being around others. Whether that's due to betrayal or having to deal with yet another loss.
3 Zero - Drakengard 3
Drakengard 3 is the prequel to the other Drakengard games, though it doesn't have much to do with any of the timelines. The anti-hero protagonist of the game is Zero, an Intoner whose plan is to kill her five other sisters to prevent the destruction of the world.
Zero shows an immense amount of strength and skill with her sword as she's able to hack and slash hordes of trained soldiers and enemies that are significantly larger than herself. While Zero can be cold and merciless to those that get in her way, she displays a strong altruistic nature as she's determined to rid the world of the evil of the Flower at the cost of her own life.
2 Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
Anyone that knows about games has at least heard of the main character of the Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft. She's one of the most iconic video game characters and is the best-selling video game heroine of 2021. Aspects about her have changed over time as a new era of her is released, but her general personality and abilities have stayed the same.
She's highly intelligent and athletic as she's able to traverse some of the most hazardous of locations to discover ancient relics. She's also able to fight off individuals and organizations that want to use those relics for nefarious reasons, oftentimes by herself.
1 Bayonetta - Bayonetta Series
Bayonetta is the titular protagonist of the games in the Bayonetta series. She's one of the last Umbra Witches which is a clan of powerful dark magic users that can summon demons to fight with. Bayonetta also wields several guns and is an expert marksman.
And her magical ability is the strongest ever seen as she's able to summon several powerful demons, defeat the highest rank of an angel in Paradiso, save the soul of another witch from Inferno and so much more. As cold, aloof, and ruthless as she can be toward enemies, Bayonetta can be very carrying at times and ultimately always does the right thing.