Honorable Mentions
In truth, there are many incredible voice actresses out there making the video game industry better than it's ever been. If I could dedicate an entire page to each of them, I would. But I fear how long that would take. Nonetheless, I must give acknowledgement to a handful I greatly admire, along with their characters.
As mentioned before in the page about Patricia Summersett, every Zelda game involves different incarnations of the main characters. Therefore, I need to give a good shout-out to my absolute favorite one: Tetra from The Wind Waker.
Yes, the child pirate- excuse me, Captain (you're never too young to lead a ship with grown men as your crew) who gets wrapped up in Link's adventures when coming across his home island and witnessing his sister getting kidnapped. Link practically demanded her help and was eventually talked into it. Although she gives the "villain" vibes at first, she totally comes to Link's rescue a few times before her true identity is revealed to her. That's right, she's not just a pirate; she's a princess, too!
Before Breath of the Wild, the voice acting in Zelda games consisted of grunts and gasps, so a round of applause to Japanese voice actress Hikari Tachibana for giving Tetra the right amount of sass in her laughter.
UP NEXT WE HAVE MAKOTO NIIJIMA FROM PERSONA 5.
Ahhh yes, that nosy school council president who you think you're going to hate (especially if this is your first Persona game... guilty) and turns out to be one of your favorite allies.
I'll be honest- I only started playing Persona 5 about a month ago, but it has already made my list as one of the greatest games I've ever played (and I normally don't even care for RPGs unless it's Skyrim or Fallout). So, I'm completely new to the series. Still, I've played enough to realize the game is full of women who have insecurities and fears they must conquer, making them beautifully developed and strong once they accomplish their goals, and you, as the player, can help them.
Anyway, I didn't think I'd care for Makoto as much as I do now. She gets brushed aside as a pushover who just listens to what the adults tell her (which means spying on you and your friends for information the principal needs). Yet, she ends up being the one to help you find the leader of a Mafia who's been scamming your classmates, then she joins your team and has some of my favorite abilities. Every ally has a code name and hers is 'Queen'. Quite suitable, eh?
This game is a Japanese RPG, but I'm playing the English version. However, I must give a shout-out to both Japanese and English voice actresses since they've both brought such personality to the sweet, determined and totally not useless (as many like to refer to her as) Makoto.
Cherami Leigh offers the English voice, and she is quite known for giving the English versions to Japanese anime and games. So, Persona 5 was no stranger to her.
She's charming and sweet, which is reminiscent of Makoto who is so caught up in her own studies until she finally meets the protagonist of the game. Makoto is oblivious to how her peers spend their free time and have actual fun, but she is willing to adapt for the sake of understanding everyone better. I find that to be a wonderful strength.
Rina SatÅ provides Makoto's voice in the Japanese version.
She's a popular voice actress in Japan who has won an award for Best Lead Actress Award in the 8th Seiyu Awards. The Seiyu Awards celebrates voice acting, so thank goodness Rina earned one. She's definitely a talent.
NEXT: GERUDO CHIEF, URBOSA FROM THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD.
As mentioned before, this is the first Zelda game with full voice acting. Thus, there were many wonderful women with lovely ladies behind their voices. Aside from Princess Zelda herself, we also have the Gerudo Chief, Urbosa.
She's totally that type of person you wouldn't want to piss off. Seriously, there's a cutscene where she takes down two foes and strikes with lightning with a mere snap of her fingers while Zelda stands by. But Urbosa is so much more than just a fighter. She's loving and caring, and cares for Zelda as if she were her own daughter. That is mostly because she was best friends with the Queen before the Queen's passing, so she was there for Zelda's birth. Really, one of my favorite parts about this game is the mother/daughter relationship between Urbosa and Zelda.
Elizabeth Maxwell provides the voice of Urbosa who I've actually known from Rooster Teeth's animated series, RWBY. She plays a powerful woman (Winter Schnee) in that series, too. The strong female character definitely suits her.
In truth, there are so many wonderful women out there providing the voice of various female protagonists. I wish I could name them all, but I haven't played every single game yet that has these lovely ladies in them. Although, I hear games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Overwatch certainly give women great respect.
Should any more cross my mind, I will be updating this. In the meantime, you've read this far, I hope I've given you an idea of how important it is to recognize women in the gaming industry. I won't lie, a lot of my favorite video game characters are men such as Nathan Drake, Persona 5's protagonist (he doesn't actually have a name, you name him... though I've read that canonically his name is Akira), and Joel. Still, women have made an incredible impact on video games as well.
As mentioned before in the page about Patricia Summersett, every Zelda game involves different incarnations of the main characters. Therefore, I need to give a good shout-out to my absolute favorite one: Tetra from The Wind Waker.
Yes, the child pirate- excuse me, Captain (you're never too young to lead a ship with grown men as your crew) who gets wrapped up in Link's adventures when coming across his home island and witnessing his sister getting kidnapped. Link practically demanded her help and was eventually talked into it. Although she gives the "villain" vibes at first, she totally comes to Link's rescue a few times before her true identity is revealed to her. That's right, she's not just a pirate; she's a princess, too!
Before Breath of the Wild, the voice acting in Zelda games consisted of grunts and gasps, so a round of applause to Japanese voice actress Hikari Tachibana for giving Tetra the right amount of sass in her laughter.
UP NEXT WE HAVE MAKOTO NIIJIMA FROM PERSONA 5.
Ahhh yes, that nosy school council president who you think you're going to hate (especially if this is your first Persona game... guilty) and turns out to be one of your favorite allies.
I'll be honest- I only started playing Persona 5 about a month ago, but it has already made my list as one of the greatest games I've ever played (and I normally don't even care for RPGs unless it's Skyrim or Fallout). So, I'm completely new to the series. Still, I've played enough to realize the game is full of women who have insecurities and fears they must conquer, making them beautifully developed and strong once they accomplish their goals, and you, as the player, can help them.
Anyway, I didn't think I'd care for Makoto as much as I do now. She gets brushed aside as a pushover who just listens to what the adults tell her (which means spying on you and your friends for information the principal needs). Yet, she ends up being the one to help you find the leader of a Mafia who's been scamming your classmates, then she joins your team and has some of my favorite abilities. Every ally has a code name and hers is 'Queen'. Quite suitable, eh?
This game is a Japanese RPG, but I'm playing the English version. However, I must give a shout-out to both Japanese and English voice actresses since they've both brought such personality to the sweet, determined and totally not useless (as many like to refer to her as) Makoto.
Cherami Leigh offers the English voice, and she is quite known for giving the English versions to Japanese anime and games. So, Persona 5 was no stranger to her.
She's charming and sweet, which is reminiscent of Makoto who is so caught up in her own studies until she finally meets the protagonist of the game. Makoto is oblivious to how her peers spend their free time and have actual fun, but she is willing to adapt for the sake of understanding everyone better. I find that to be a wonderful strength.
Rina SatÅ provides Makoto's voice in the Japanese version.
She's a popular voice actress in Japan who has won an award for Best Lead Actress Award in the 8th Seiyu Awards. The Seiyu Awards celebrates voice acting, so thank goodness Rina earned one. She's definitely a talent.
NEXT: GERUDO CHIEF, URBOSA FROM THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD.
As mentioned before, this is the first Zelda game with full voice acting. Thus, there were many wonderful women with lovely ladies behind their voices. Aside from Princess Zelda herself, we also have the Gerudo Chief, Urbosa.
She's totally that type of person you wouldn't want to piss off. Seriously, there's a cutscene where she takes down two foes and strikes with lightning with a mere snap of her fingers while Zelda stands by. But Urbosa is so much more than just a fighter. She's loving and caring, and cares for Zelda as if she were her own daughter. That is mostly because she was best friends with the Queen before the Queen's passing, so she was there for Zelda's birth. Really, one of my favorite parts about this game is the mother/daughter relationship between Urbosa and Zelda.
Elizabeth Maxwell provides the voice of Urbosa who I've actually known from Rooster Teeth's animated series, RWBY. She plays a powerful woman (Winter Schnee) in that series, too. The strong female character definitely suits her.
In truth, there are so many wonderful women out there providing the voice of various female protagonists. I wish I could name them all, but I haven't played every single game yet that has these lovely ladies in them. Although, I hear games like Horizon Zero Dawn and Overwatch certainly give women great respect.
Should any more cross my mind, I will be updating this. In the meantime, you've read this far, I hope I've given you an idea of how important it is to recognize women in the gaming industry. I won't lie, a lot of my favorite video game characters are men such as Nathan Drake, Persona 5's protagonist (he doesn't actually have a name, you name him... though I've read that canonically his name is Akira), and Joel. Still, women have made an incredible impact on video games as well.
