Horror cinema has a rich history of final girl protagonists and scream queens, and horror games also tend to have standout female leads. Not to the same degree as films, but there are still plenty of great female heroines in horror gaming, with many being thebest overall horror game protagonists, no matter the gender.
With the genre having a very sizable female fanbase, having female protagonists can make them relatable in a unique way. Not to mention adding female-specific themes that can really transform the title and make it unlike anything else out there.
8Rei Kurosawa
Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented
Sometimes, a character or plot point will give you a negative vibe at first, but they can win you over by the end. Rei Kurosawa, the protagonist of Fatal Frame 3: The Tormented, is a great example of that. Her backstory is a tragic one, as she’s still dealing with the loss of her fiance due to a car wreck.
It seems blatantly sexist at first, as the in-game notes say, “in an accident caused by my careless driving.” However, it comes down to the execution, and by the end, Rei’s journey of dealing with and coming to terms with her lost love is a powerful tale more effective than any other story in the series.
7Regina
Dino Crisis
Out of allthe fan-favorite Capcom series that’s been abandoned, Dino Crisis is one of the biggest. A survival horror series from way back in the PS1 days, a large appeal to them was the female lead character, Regina.
A sassy red-headed badass with an iconic look and great personality, she was a notable highlight in these games. In Dino Crisis 2, you played as both Regina and Dylan, and many people just wanted to play as Regina the whole time. Dylan was quite boring, even though he’s more plot-important.
6Fiona Belli
Haunting Ground
If you make a female character the lead in a horror game, you can employ various female-centric fears and themes. The best example of that, probably in the whole medium, is Haunting Ground. Fiona Belli is a young 18-year-old woman who is continuously stalked and watched throughout the game, a common female fear.
She’s given a sexualized outfit by her captors, and again, being sexually objectified is another female fear. All these are executed gracefully in a unique way, making Fiona’s eventual overcoming of the odds even more triumphant. You also have to love her relationship with her best bud, Hewie,an amazing dog companion.
5Aya Brea
Parasite Eve
In the original Parasite Eve, Aya Brea was a fantastic female protagonist. A young 25-year-old NYPD cop who doesn’t mess around, she had the perfect balance of being a badass and a relatable, caring individual. Her relationship with Daniel and his son is a great example of this.
Many games in the late 90s only focused on the badass part, which made her stand out at the time. Sadly, once The 3rd Birthday released, Aya became incredibly weak and sexually objectified. Still, in the original game, she was a top-tier female character of the PS1 era.
4Jill Valentine
Resident Evil
You can make a case that Jill Valentine is a top three female video game character due to her importance in the PS1 days. Sure, you had Lara Croft, but Jill Valentine was one of two playable characters in Resident Evil 1, and virtually everyone preferred to play as her. Jill’s campaign was easier, but the difficulty felt more hassle-free instead of an actual easy mode.
She had two more inventory slots, could pick locks, get the grenade launcher, and all those are massively important if you’ve never played RE1. The original RE3 is when Jill entered legendary status as a horror gaming icon, beating all the odds, withthe final Nemesis kill blow linestill being remembered to this day.
3Claire Redfield
The other big female character in the Resident Evil series has to be Claire Redfield. Debuting in Resident Evil 2, she was much younger than Jill in the first game, having a lovable young attitude that comes out gracefully due to the performance of Alyson Court in the original titles.
Most of the best lines in the original RE2 and Code Veronica come from Claire. She eventually matured as the series went on, which can be seen in the animated movies and Resident Evil: Revelations 2, and she works well as a veteran role in the story alongside other established series' heroes.
2Heather Mason
Silent Hill 3
For a series with such a big female fanbase, it’s strange that, for the longest time, Heather Mason was the only female protagonist. Heather is very similar to Claire Redfield, with that sassy teenage attitude, but the original voice actor, Heather Morris, did a great job at not only delivering that but making her likable.
This character could have easily come off as an unlikeable brat, but Heather Morris captured the young age and innocence phenomenally throughout the entire game, especially in the emotional scenes. This aspect brings you towards her side. Not to mention, she has a lot of depth and intrigue in regards to the Silent Hill universe, and there’s plenty of great insight you can gain by examining various stuff in the game world.
1Clementine
Telltale’s The Walking Dead
Clementine is no doubt a top three female video game character of the modern age, along with Ellie and Aloy. While she wasn’t the protagonist of The Walking Dead Season One, after the emotional finale of that season, she’s the protagonist going forward. The journey Clementine goes through throughout all four seasons is one of the best narrative-driven experiences in all of gaming, up there with the Mass Effect trilogy.
The seasonal format is perhaps why Clementine connects with a lot more individuals than other female horror protagonists, who aren’t usually the face of the whole series. Yes, The Walking Dead is based on a comic, but Clementine was created for the Telltale series, so it counts.
