History of Female Protaginists

Ms.Pacman could be considered one of the first female protagonists. She is from an unauthorised sequel to the great Pac-man, Ms Pacman released in 1981, which features the same game play as its original but with new maze designs. Visually, Ms Pacman looked the same as the orginal Pac-man, yet appeared to have eyelashes, bright red lips and donned a pink bow. However, the arcade machine showed a far more sexier side to this "yellow ball" by giving her legs and pink high heels, and showed the ghosts to be chasing after her. It is unclear why they made her this way, but she seems to be one of the first female video game protagonists to be shown as a "sexy" character.




SamusFirst seen in Metroid. Released in 1986 for the…. Action adventure video game, published by Nintendo. Game was praised for being one of the first video games to have a woman as the protagonist, even though Samus Aran's gender is unknown until the end of the game and only shown if the player can complete the game in only a couple of hours. Although Samus’ has been greatly received not only as a protagonist, but a sex object as well, she spends most of her time in a bulky suit, unlike many other female game protagonists (such as Lara Croft) who are dressed to show off as much flesh as possible or skin tight suits.
The idea for Samus to be female came up partway through the development of Metroid when the developers determined that it would be an interesting twist to reveal her as female at the end of the game. Samus is one of the first major female protagonists in a video game, and her popularity among fans has helped her top several lists of the best video game heroinesGameDaily considers Samus the video game industry's "first dominant female, a femme de force that didn't rely on a man to save her"
Samus' garish space armour falls away and thousands of pre-teen boys had to come to grips with the fact Mother Brain had just been wasted by a cootie-infested girl.
To gamers, Samus is mostly an enigma. Unlike other game heroines, she hasn't spread herself and her secrets everywhere like a high school senior of ill repute. Samus' motivations still command respect and a certain degree of awe.Lara Croft - Tomb Raider
First seen in Tomb Raider. Released in 1996 for the…developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive.

Gard designed Lara Croft to counter stereotypical female charactersLead graphic artist Toby Gard went through about five designs before arriving at the character's final appearance. He initially envisioned a male lead character with a whip and a hat.
Deciding this looked too much like Indiana Jones, Gard made the character female.
The first Lara Croft (seen in the first Tomb Raider) is made up of around 230 polygons.
Eventually, they settled on a tough South American woman in a long braid and hot pants, willing to go to any lengths to win the greatest trophies lost to history. An Olympic-level athlete, an expert of antiquities, a born survivor. Gard named his creation Laura Cruz. Cores Parent company wanted a more UK friendly character, so she became British aristocrat Lara Croft.
While making test adjustments to her girlish figure, a slip of his mouse turned an intended 50% increase to her breast size into a 150% gain. It met with instant approval from the team before he could correct it.

Yuna - Final Fantasy X-2
Yuna is the main character in the game Final Fantasy X-2 and the first female main playable character in any Final Fantasy game. She was originally the romantic counterpart to the main protagonist in the first game Final Fantasy X, but due to her popularity with fans, the creators decided to create a game where she was the main protagonist. Her appearance in FFX was very conservative and her personality calm and gentle. However, she was revamped for the FFX-2 game to "reflect the more carefree world" of the new game. This was met with both praise and critisism. Although her new style showed Yuna's change in personality (she was now much fiestier and unbound by any rules she had previoously had to follow) it also showed a much more exploitative outfit than the style fans had grown to love her in. 


Nariko - Heavenly Sword
Nariko is from a game called Heavenly Sword, created by Ninja Theory. Her style and look is refreshing, yet he clothing, or lack of, very similar to that of a Mortal Kombat "babe". It is unclear whether she is meant to be seen as a sexy character because although she looks like one, her attitude in the game does not reflect this. Her attitude is very hotile, aggresive and some-what Tomboy-ish. Hey clothing reflects ancient asian fashions, but with a lot less material, consisting of a one-sleeved top that only covers her breasts, a "skirt" that is very short one side and flows long on the other, tied to her leg to keep it in place, and a pair of knickers to show what modesty she may have left. However, even dressing like this, her "sex" appeal is balanced out by her attitude.

Faith Connors - Mirrors Edge


Lightening - Final Fantasy XIII