We’re looking at the 10 most badass female characters who made a splash in gaming this year.
Badass women take many forms in videogames. Some of our favourite female characters in videogames are badass because of their strong personalities and strength of combat, such as Kassandra from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Samus Aran from Metroid. Others are badass because of their ability to overcome the harshest tribulations in deeply challenging situations, like Ellie from The Last of Us Part 2. Other characters feel badass to us in a more abstract sense, simply because they sport fantastic designs and have compelling backstories like Junker Queen in Overwatch 2 and 2B in Nier: Automata.
Badass is a spectrum, and people can fit in that spectrum in many different ways. This year alone, we’ve seen a ton of female characters make a splash across new and upcoming 2023 games just because of how compelling they are at a glance. Whether we’re playing as them or facing off against them, these are the 10 most badass female characters who blew us away in gaming for 2023:
Cammy (Street Fighter 6)
Street Fighter 6’s roster is already packed with pretty fantastic female character designs, but Cammy made a real splash this year with her debut trailer. In it, the British special forces officer traded her green leotard and beret for more practical clothes to beat people up with, but retained all the style and proficiency that makes her beloved among fans. In Street Fighter 6, Cammy is described as, “Hyper-competent but somewhat moody,” and hates, “everything if she’s grumpy." The only thing she has a soft spot for are cats.
Honestly? Same.
Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom)
One of the most exciting things about The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is that we’re no longer dealing with an amnesiac Link as a protagonist. With his memories returned to him and Zelda alive and well, the duo can get to work repairing the damage done to Hyrule and resolving whatever calamity hits it next - because there’s always another calamity. Zelda isn’t just the princess of Hyrule anymore, but the leader and inheritor of an entire kingdom. She spent most of the last game stuck in Hyrule Castle waiting for Link to reach her, but this time, she’s taking a more active role in restoring and protecting her home.
Bayonetta (Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon)
Some of us can barely wear heels, let alone shoot bullets from them, but there is very little that Bayonetta can’t do. Cereza AKA Bayonetta is an Umbran witch who forms contracts with demons to fight off celestial angels. There’s a clear difference between a sexualised protagonist and a protagonist who recognises her sex appeal and rolls with it, and Bayonetta belongs in the latter camp. She’s cheesy, charming, capable and utterly over-the-top, making her the perfect protagonist for a bonkers hack-and-slash franchise like Bayonetta.
This year, we’re getting Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, a companion game to Bayonetta 3 that dives into Cereza’s life as a young witch labeled as an outcast in her own home. It’ll be interesting to see a version of Cereza who hasn’t fully realised her powers just yet.
Lilith (Diablo 4)
One could argue that villains have the most potential for badassery in gaming, and Lilith is a solid example of just that. Diablo 4’s reveal trailer treated us to a series of bloody ritual sacrifices that led up to the murder of innocents and the creation of a pentagram formed from blood and sinew. This demonic sheet of skin ruptured to reveal Lilith, a demon who emerged into Sanctuary newly reformed as bits of gore drifted through the sky like roses around her, while wearing a cape of skin attached to her back. That’s horrific, but it’s also pretty badass.
Lilith is mother, and I mean that literally. As the daughter of Mephisto, she used her immense power to create the realm of Sanctuary as a refuge for anyone who sought to escape the war between heaven and hell. She did this with the help of an angel called Inarius, and their relationship led to the birth of the Nephalem - an in-between race that Diablo 4’s protagonist falls under. After inhabitants of Sanctuary conspired to destroy the Nephalem, Lilith fought for her children’s sake and murdered any who opposed her, causing Inarius to banish her from the realm.
In Diablo 4, Lilith has returned following the depletion of heaven and hell's forces, and moves to fill the resulting power vacuum in Sanctuary. Yes, the premise of Diablo 4 is basically 'go kill your mum'. Good luck with that.
Ada Wong (Resident Evil 4 Remake)
Ada Wong returns from Resident Evil 2 to make Leon S. Kennedy’s life difficult. Again. Ada first appeared in this rebooted timeline in Raccoon City, where she skirted around the sudden zombie outbreak to steal a sample of the G-virus from Umbrella’s laboratory for a rival company. I'll avoid spoilers by keeping her role in Resident Evil 4 a secret - but seeing as she’s something of a free agent, you can probably guess that she’s not exactly on the side of the angels here.
Throughout the Resident Evil franchise, Ada has deftly popped in and out of apocalyptic scenarios for her own gain, coming at odds with Leon despite growing pretty fond of him over the years. She has the skills and the smarts to endure multiple outbreaks and come out on the other side winning, but her empathy is obvious from the way she constantly makes sure Leon and his friends get out safely too.
Ellie (HBO’s The Last of Us)
Okay, we’re cheating a bit here. HBO’s The Last of Us isn’t a videogame, but it stays surprisingly close to the source material while charting its own path. Bella Ramsey had her work cut out for her when she took on the role of Ellie, given that gamers everywhere have a very specific idea of what this character looks and acts like. Ramsey’s portrayal is at times dead-on to the original, but often veers off in a completely different, nonetheless satisfying direction.
The darkness inside of Ellie is much more obvious in HBO’s portrayal of the character, and that’s important given what she goes through in the second game. Ellie repeats a mantra throughout the series, taken from her favourite comicbook superhero Savage Starlight: ‘Endure and survive’. Being an orphan in the apocalypse is a difficult thing, a burden only worsened by the fact that she might be our planet’s only hope at finding a cure to the infected. Ellie goes through harrowing conditions and survives grievous injuries and still, she endures and survives.
Wonder Woman (Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League)
Wonder Woman’s best friends are trying to kill her. In Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, Amanda Waller sends a team of villains into the bowels of dystopian Metropolis to complete a covert mission, in the wake of a city-wide invasion by the alien supervillain Brainiac. Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot and Captain Boomerang soon discover that Brainiac has brainwashed the entirety of the Justice League, but he seems to have missed a member of their ranks: Diana Prince AKA Wonder Woman.
In the trailer, we see the superhero throw her Lasso of Truth around the Flash to demand a solution to cure the Justice League and save the world. The Flash mournfully tells her that she’ll have to kill the entire League to do it. In various other DC Comics media, we’ve seen that the Justice League functions less like an office of superhero colleagues, and more like a family of friends who love and support one another. Wonder Woman herself is a warrior unafraid to take deadly action for the right cause, but is she willing to kill her family to save the world?
Aloy (Horizon Forbidden West: The Burning Shores)
Our favourite machine hunter will return this year in Guerrilla Games’ expansion for the excellent open-world sci-fi game Horizon Forbidden West. The expansion is titled The Burning Shores, and it takes Aloy to the untamed wilds of Los Angeles, which has turned into a dangerous volcanic archipelago in recent years. There, she will take on a massive machine threat and meet new characters south of the Tenakth Clan Lands.
Aloy is one of the best female protagonists we’ve seen in gaming recently and while Horizon Zero Dawn gave her a compelling backstory, it was in Horizon Forbidden West that we truly started to see her personality shine. Aloy is something of an introvert, often preferring to break away from her friends to go on quests on her lonesome - but that can lead to her being stuck in dangerous situations without the help she needs. It took an entire game for Aloy to realise that she needs people around her, and that the people around her are more than capable of helping her defeat a seemingly invincible foe.
For evidence of her badassery, we submit all the massive machines she’s taken down armed with a mere bow and arrow - from the massive Tremortusks to the hulking Thunderjaws, and one must not forget the militaristic Deathbringers. One person with primitive weaponry did that, and it couldn’t have been anyone else but Aloy behind the bow.
Dehya (Genshin Impact)
Dehya’s a newcomer to Genshin Impact, having just joined the game in March this year, but she’s already becoming a favourite among fans. Her unique design matches her fiery personality (and abilities), and she’s a 5-star character - which means that you’ve got to spend quite a few wishes to get your hands on her. Dehya is a Pyro-elemental Eremite mercenary from the Sumeru region, and her faction refuses to pledge allegiance to any of the game’s nations, instead choosing to work as mercenaries for the highest bidder.
Dehya wields a Claymore in battle, but she can also make use of her Pyro abilities to turn her fists into balls of fire and smack some sense into her foes. Despite her prickly exterior however, her motivations are surprisingly selfless: she sympathises for the people living in such harsh conditions in the desert, and fights to deliver them hope. She even used all her savings to help a Sumeru orphanage, at one point. Her design and backstory are so compelling to players that they’re unanimously calling for developer miHoYo to buff her abilities, so that she can stand among other characters as a meta-worthy fighter.
Merrin (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor)
While it hasn’t been confirmed, the return of nightsister Merrin in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s sequel is basically a sure thing given her popularity. Merrin is one of Dathomir’s nightsisters, a witch-like group that uses the Force in mystical ways to reanimate the dead and cast illusions on their enemies. They’re one of the coolest additions to Star Wars lore to date, but Merrin is far from a one-dimensional Force witch - or at least, she isn’t by the time Fallen Order’s story comes to a close.
Cal and Merrin did not get off on the right foot, with the latter assuming that the former was working with the renegade Jedi Malicos to manipulate Dathomir’s dark magic. This misunderstanding was soon cleared up and Merrin began to warm to the crew of the Mantis, revealing herself to be a surprisingly human and empathetic person underneath all the chaotic dark Force magic she wields in battle. Nightsisters aren’t typically friendly people, but Merrin is freeing herself from the shackles of her home planet and venturing out to meet new people and embrace new experiences, and we love that for her.