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yuna Sheva Samus Resident Evil 5 Metroid Final Fantasy

Unfortunately, gaming trends don't make finding a strong, attractive, lead female character as easy to spot as their male counter parts, but video games have created some seriously deep and powerful gaming ladies. These are my personal top 3 female leads that I've met in my last 20 years of gaming. In no particular order.

Yuna – Final Fantasy games are known for their captivating stories. Once Square learned how to utilize CGI, demonstrated in Final Fantasy VII, western audiences were hooked watching these fantasy realms come to life. By the time Final Fantasy X came out, Final Fantasy games had an almost systematic approach to make games and characters that people cared about. Yuna was a character so devoted to her faith that she was freakishly self-less and let's be honest, mental.

She was crazy, but when she made her appearance in Final Fantasy X-2 she pulled herself out of the humble, shy, and timid archetype to a much deeper character in hot pants. She jumped from one extreme to another, but you gotta give her credit for being willing to changer her life 100% when she realized that her world didn't exactly work as she thought it had. There aren't a lot of people that can do that. Not only was she smart, attractive, and capable, but she was interesting enough to encourage a Final Fantasy game to have it's very first direct sequel. I can't help, but give this priestess-to-pop-star some props.

Samus Aran – Until recently Samus Aran has been fully armored, a lone wolf, and master of all trades. If the Zelda series cut out the over world, the towns, and just attached dungeons to one another, that would be a Metroid game. Link has it easy. He gets to go shopping, catch fish, and ride horses all day. Not Samus Aran, she's all business. From one new power-up to an upgrade, her mission is always about taking down the next monster or finding the next secret upgrade. She's taken down one of the most menacing foes in the universe on multiple occasions. Add all of that to her ability to adapt to any situation and you've got a character that earns her spot on my list.
Sheva Alomar - This is the most questionable entry on the list. Sheva Alomar is attractive and the game doesn't mind showing her off, but she does fit in to place right next to iron man Chris Redfield, She holds herself as well as her male counter-part and never gets kidnapped. I've only ever played Resident Evil 5 cooperatively, so maybe I'd feel differently if I had ever allowed the A.I. to control her, but compared to Ashley, the annoying school diva in Resident Evil 4, Sheva's the reliable girl next door. The girl you would hope to meet in a zombie apocalypse.