Action Girl / Video Games

Action Girls in Video Games.

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• 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds has Maggie, who fights with a machete and a stake, though she usually goes for ambushes, since vampires have Super-Strength. Despite this, she does fight them hand-to-hand during 16 More Ways, wrapping her arms in rosaries, and she uses Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
• 20 Minutes Till Dawn has everyone of its characters being a gun-toting girl with magical powers. From Scarlett who's every 3rd shot releases a wave of flames to Lilith who turns slain enemies into damaging ghosts. Guns for your girls range from a pistol to grenade launchers to the mystical bat shooters which fire a pair of enemy-seeking bats.
• Advanced V.G. II features an all-female cast of combat waitresses, who're competing in an MMA tournament for the title of "Virgin Goddess". As the series' Hero Protagonist, Yuka Takeuchi is Miranda Jahana's chief obstacle to her plans of creating the ultimate fighting machine.
• Alan Wake has Sheriff Sarah Breaker, who is an indispensable ally and one of the few people you run into constantly that isn't a Jerkass.
• Many protagonists in the Aleste series are female, including series main character Ellinor Waizen (Aleste 2, GG Aleste, M.U.S.H.A., Aleste Branch), Alice Pfieffer Waizen (GG Aleste 2), and Luna Waizen (GG Aleste 3). The box art for the Aleste Collection emphasizes this, with the male pilot of the Master System Power Strike II being placed in the top-right corner behind Luna, Alice, and Ellinor. In Senjin, all four pilots are female also.
• Alisa: The titular character is an Elite Royal Agent who was on the trail of a criminal when she ended up in the Doll House. She can most certainly hold her own against the life-sized killer dolls.
• Alice in American McGee's Alice has accumulated lots and lots of levels in badass since her time in the original story, and now fights her way through a Darker and Edgier version of Wonderland with a wide variety of unique weapons. She comes back in full force in Alice: Madness Returns.
• ANNO: Mutationem: The protagonist; Ann Flores, knows a variety of martial arts, takes on enemies with energy blades, and can activate a Super Mode acquiring a new move set that'll wipe the floor with most of her opponents.
• Art of Fighting:
  • In the original game, King was a kickboxer who was being forced to serve Mr. Big, as the bouncer for one of his establishments. But after the fall of his syndicate, she went into business for herself, as a full-time bartender. Since then, she's usually the captain of the All Women's Team at the annual King of Fighters tournament.
  • After being the Damsel in Distress in the first game, Yuri Sakazaki decided "I Will Not Be a Victim" and convinced her father to train her in the family dojo. In around a year she had not only dominated the basics, but she managed to develop some techniques of her own! From then on she's a mainstay in the aforementioned All Women's Team.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • Lucy Stillman. Not so much in Assassin's Creed, but she Took a Level in Badass between 1 & 2; come Assassin's Creed II, she's a kick-ass, high-heel wearing, falcon-punching Action Girl.
  • Rosa, Paola and Teodora also fall into this, the first being part of the Venetian Thieves Guild and more than capable of handling herself even with an arrow in her leg, the latter two being Assassins and performing leaps of faith at the end of :Memory Block 11. Catarina Sforza also gets in on the trope during the Battle of Forli expansion.
  • Aveline De Grandpré from Assassin's Creed III: Liberation is a true Action Girl and the first playable female Assassin in the franchise.
  • Pirate girls Anne Bonny and Mary Read/"James Kidd" in both Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Real Life.
  • Shao Jun, a Chinese Assassin who appeared in many Expanded Universe materials such as Assassin's Creed: Embers prior to her playable debut, is the main character in the spinoff game Assassin's Creed: Chronicles, and is the second playable female Assassin in the franchise.
  • Elise de la Serre from Assassin's Creed: Unity is regarded as being a better swords(wo)man than Arno Dorian. Too bad she works for the Templars.
  • Evie Frye from Assassin's Creed Syndicate is one of two playable characters in the game, and the first playable female Assassin in a mainline game in the franchise.
  • Aya from Assassin's Creed Origins is the wife of Bayek and one of the founders of the Hidden Ones, the ancient precursors to the modern Assassin Brotherhood. She is also known by her alias Amunet and was responsible for the death of Cleopatra after she agreed to allow her to train her son Caesarion as a Hidden One.
  • Kassandra from Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is a Spartan misthios (mercenary) and the granddaughter of not just the legendary King Leonidas I but she is even related to Pythagoras of all people and she would go on to live a long life thanks to taking possession of the Staff of Hermes from her real father until handing it over to Layla Hassan when she dies.
  • Eivor Varinsdottir from Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is a Scandinavian Viking shieldmaiden from Norway who is not only a badass warrior but she is the reincarnation of Odin, the chief deity of the Norse Isu pantheon.
• Bacon Man: An Adventure has Lard Lass, who is very, very fat. Not that it seems to impede her ability to kick serious booty.
• The Baldur's Gate series:
  • Jaheira is both a warrior and a druid, not afraid to criticize the PC for doing stupid things, and assumes a role of either leader or trusted advisor. She also has fabulous stats and wears the pants in her marriage.
  • It doesn't end there, however. Viconia and Imoen are also highly competent warriors, as is Neera from the Enhanced Edition.
  • The first game also has Safana, Branwen, Dynaheir, Shar-Teel, Faldorn, and Alora, all of whom are capable in their own right.
  • Mazzy and Nalia from the second game also join the fray. So, while Jaheira is easily the #1 Action Girl of this franchise, there are certainly other ladies who deserve mention.
  • In the third game, Lae'zel and Karlach are the primary physical brawlers of the group, Shadowheart is a Combat Medic, Minthara is an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, and they are joined by an Older and Wiser Jaheira.
• The two Baten Kaitos games have one or two.
  • Xelha, Savyna, and Mizuti in Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Xelha is a mage who basically kicks off the plot by chasing the Big Bad and the others join her in the quest. Savyna is a ex-soldier who talks with her fists. Mizuti is a 14-year-old girl who takes pride in powerful magic.
  • Milliarde in Origins gets a huge kick out of tearing her enemies up and beating the shit out of them.
• Zara Ghufran in Battlefield 1 is an extremely rare example of a female Player Character in a military First-Person Shooter. She's one of five playable protagonists in the campaign "War Stories" mode, where players take control of her for a series of missions in Ottoman-occupied Mesopotamia.
• Brawlhalla has a whole host of them.
• Battle Princess Madelyn features Madelyn, a young knight-in-training who doesn't hesitate to fight anyone or anything necessary to rescue her family and avenge her dog Fritzy...even though Fritzy tags along for the journey despite being dead.
• Bayonetta has the Umbra witches, who are trained in the ways of powerful dark magic to fight angels. Bayonetta, the series protagonist, is a shining example of this, as are Bayonetta's best friend, Jeanne, and Bayonetta's mother, Rosa.
• Allison Angel in Bendy and the Ink Machine, who rescues Henry in Chapter 4, then fights along him in the large-scale penultimate battle in Chapter 5.
• Jade from Beyond Good & Evil is both a regular Action Girl and a kind of Action Mom — although she doesn't have any biological children, she is the "mother" of several cute orphans at a shelter.
• Bio Lab Wars has Becca, one of the three mercenaries you play as.
• Eleanor Lamb from BioShock 2. We may only get her briefly, but she kicks so much butt. Dr. Tenenbaum also deserves credit for surviving Rapture and WWII with only her smarts and her gun. We may not see her fight, but she must've to live to that age and still be alive (and escape).
• Pretty much every female character in BlazBlue is this. The most notable examples, though, are Noel Vermillion, Tsubaki Yayoi, Litchi Faye-Ling and Makoto Nanaya.
• All of the female Hunters in Bloodborne qualify, including the Player Character if played as such. Huntresses of note include Eileen the Crow, a (potentially) friendly Hunter of Hunters, tasked with hunting and killing Hunters who go mad from bloodlust, and Lady Maria from the Old Hunters DLC, a truly epic example of this trope in boss form who will kill you at least five times. There's also the Great Ones, giant boss enemies and the main antagonists, most of whom are referred to with female pronouns by characters in the game and the developers. Though to what extent they can be classified as "female" in any recognizable way is debatable.
• The female versions of the bloodlines in Bloodline Champions. The point of the game is fighting the enemy team, after all.
• Bombshell: The protagonist, Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison. In addition to her weapons training and military combat experience, she also worked as a bomb disposal technician and therefore has extensive knowledge of explosives.
• Borderlands: Since the Vault Hunters are supposed to be the biggest badasses in a planet where Everything Is Trying to Kill You, all of the playable women (Lilith, Maya, Gaige, Athena, Nisha, Aurelia, Moze, and Amara) are this by default. Plus, many of them are Sirens (beings with special and mystical powers), making them arguably More Deadly Than the Male Vault Hunters.
• Bot Vice: The protagonist Erin, who was a police officer, and is now on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm: Plenty:
  • Among the playable protagonists there’s:
    • Catie, a feisty young queen who jumps at the call to go adventuring.
    • Til, an archery master with a side of Hackette.
    • Tyalie, a thief girl with high-level Genre Savviness.
    • Cornelia, a Living Weapon A.I. who can install drives to swap abilities on the fly.
  • The villainess Arianna, especially after she makes her Heel–Face Turn and stops relying on the power of STORM.
• Bravely Default: Edea and Agnès from form half of the game's Gender-Equal Ensemble of protagonists, and are both extremely competent on the battlefield, just like their male counterparts. Edea is a knight, and is actually the party member most geared toward fighting, meaning it's an excellent choice to keep her as your main tank/physical damage dealer. Agnès, meanwhile, is geared toward magic, but can easily keep up with the others however you mold her.
• Breath of Fire II: Katt/Rinpoo from may wield a staff, but don't let that fool you. First seen battling at a colliseum for shits and giggles, she joins up with Ryu and becomes one of the best physical fighters in the game.
  • Not just any staff. She uses a Zhua! A sub-section of staff with a big-ass, heavy, SHARP claw on the end. For bonus points: Said claw is a Katt's claw! Don't think there's a difference? The Zhua has been known to crack a man's skull cleanly in two with a single swing. And that's BEFORE they get the sharp end out.
• Despite being firmly Rated M for Manly, the Call of Duty franchise has produced a few female badasses of note:
  • Lt. Tanya Pavelovena in Call Of Duty: Finest Hour has the distinction of being the series' first playable female character, albeit for one mission. She still manages to rack up quite a body count in that time, and serves as a supporting character throughout the rest of the Russian story arc.
  • Call of Duty: Ghosts introduced Character Customization to multiplayer, including the ability to play with a male or female avatar. Since then, every game in the series has returned female characters to multiplayer in one form or another.
  • Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has ex-Spetsnaz soldier Ilona, who serves as one of the major squadmates in the game. She's established to be Atlas' best operative at least before she defected.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops III has quite a few, including the Player Character if played as female, CIA agent Rachel Kane, cyber soldier Sarah Hall and a villainous example in Goh Xiulan. The campaign also features female enemy Mooks in a series first, who are just as common (and brutally dispatched) as male enemies. Multiplayer has several female specialist characters, namely Outrider, Seraph and Battery. The zombies mode has a Femme Fatale-themed example in Jessica.
  • Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare has Lieutenant Nora Salter, Reyes' veteran wingwoman. As a member of SCAR she's trained as both a Space Fighter pilot and a spec ops commando. She acts a squadmate for every mission in the game, easily making her the most prominent and fleshed out female badass in Call of Duty to date.
• Candy Mountain Massacre: You play as Candy, a girl sent to fight their way through the horribly transformed Candy Mountain and kill all the infected creatures.
• Castlevania:
  • Anyone from the Belnades clan of witches (Sypha from Dracula's Curse being the first), and Maria Renard from Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, who was fighting monsters before puberty.
  • Sonia Belmont, the first Belmont from Castlevania Legends, at least until they dreamed up Leon several years later, and then retconned her out of the timeline altogether.
  • Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: Shanoa the heroine.
• Aurora from Child of Light is an adorable young princess who fights darkness with a BFS and light magic. Her companions Norah, Rubella and Genovefa also qualify.
• Curly Brace from Cave Story is a gun-toting Robot Girl who even after getting her body broken doesn't become a Faux Action Girl as she keeps on shooting while tied to protagonist Quote's back, she even takes Quote's place as The Hero in Curly Story. In Blade Strangers Curly is even more badass with plenty of More Dakka.
• Caveman Warriors has Liliana and Brienne, two of the four Player Characters of the game.
• Ayla from Chrono Trigger is easily the most powerful character (while fighting barehanded), even without magic powers like the other protagonists. And in-story, she is the leader of her village, and its most skilled warrior (even Kino, her boyfriend, is weaker than her).
  • Princess Marle is pretty badass herself, wielding a crossbow and some darn good magic.
  • Lucca too. Just look at her Big Damn Heroes scene, and her awesome firepower!
• A staple of the Command & Conquer series, since Red Alert introduced us to Tanya Adams, a certified badass "professional volunteer".
  • After that in Tiberian Sun we had Umagon, a mutant lady who was Put on a Bus during the expansion.
  • Tiberium Wars introduced a new Nod Commando with a sexy accent and an eyepatch, and it's expansion also introduced a squad of sonic grenade launching jetpack women in form fitting Powered Armor.
  • Red Alert 3 once again had Tanya (this time Jenny McCarthy), along with Natasha (Gina Carano), and Yuriko. Oh, and there were flying anime-inspired laser dominatrices; I am not making that up.
• Clockwork Aquario: One of the three Player Characters in the game is Elle Moon, a pink-haired girl on an adventure to stop Dr. Hanyo from taking over the world>
• Due to budget limitations, we never get to see Sergeant Brooks of the Crusader series of games in an actual fight, but when you consider the lower-ranked NCOs are afraid of her, she lips off multiple times to a superior officer who also happens to be someone who could probably kill her without a breaking a sweat, and survives WEC captivity with no wounds requiring anything more than a two-day stint in a (probably poorly-equipped) hospital, she almost certainly counts.
• Cute Knight series: Combat skill-based Multiple Endings are available for the female protagonists, either in general, or defeating some kind of boss monster and netting an instant ending that way.
  • Cute Knight, the first game, the monster is a dragon.
  • Cute Knight Kingdom, the second game, the monster is a high level Giant Spider.
• Cyberpunk 2077 has Panam, a Ladette Friendly Sniper and Rogue, who used to work as a mercenary and is now mostly a fixer, but she has no problems with taking a more active role even in the current timeline, where she's about eighty. Judy might also count, because while she's mostly a techie, she has no problems with picking up and using a gun. Female V will also always be one. There's also Claire, who takes place in death races. While V serves as the driver, she is tasked with shooting at the opponents' cars through the window. There's also a lot of minor characters who serve as this trope.
• A Dance with Rogues plays with this. The Princess can become one, but the game makes the player work for it.
• Monica from Dark Chronicle, a time-traveling princess who's just as good with a sword as she is with fire magic (and she's cute, to boot).
• Jennifer Goodwin from Deadfall Adventures happily kicks ass alongside James Lee Quatermain when she's neither a hostage nor captured by the Big Bad.
• Ellie from Dead Space 2. Just for starters, when she gets her eye gouged out by Dr. Stross, she bashes him over the head with a big pipe and yells at Isaac, "You owe me an eye, you bastard!"
• Devil May Cry:
  • Trish doesn't get a lot of action scenes in the first Devil May Cry game, but even in the intro cutscene, she is clearly capable of taking on or hurting Dante, something only Mundus and Nelo Angelo are capable of doing in the story. Later installments helped this trait of hers shine even further, such as involving her in more fights, or making her playable (in Devil May Cry 2 and Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition). In the fourth game, Trish also disguised herself as Gloria, yet she can still single-handedly wipe out a horde of Scarecrows with just a pair of daggers.
  • Lucia, the Deuteragonist of the second game and the first playable female character of the franchise easily qualifies. She is an artificial demon created by the villain Arius and was adopted into a warrior clan who protect their home from evil with their fighting skills and powers borrowed from the gods they worship. Lucia is also the first female character of the series to take on and defeat a final boss of her own in story.
  • The DMC2 novel features Beryl, a Badass Normal demon hunter who relies only on her BFG to take out demons. She is something of an antecedent to Lady below.
  • Lady is introduced in the third game, and she already qualifies by taking out demons with enormous ease using her guns, rockets, and explosives, despite being a normal human being. Like Trish, she's also playable in the Special Edition of the fourth game.
• Most female characters from the Disgaea series. For example, Ax-Crazy Princess Sapphire, who's also part of a Battle Couple.
• In Disney Princess, all of the playable Disney princesses are this, even Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora.
• Donkey Kong: An amateur programmer created a ROM hack Donkey Kong Pauline Edition for his three year old daughter. In it, the roles are reversed and Pauline tries to save Mario.
• In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Dixie Kong. Diddy is slightly more agile, but her hair spin makes her just as capable. She even headlined the next game in the series, and her long-awaited return in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze sees her as Donkey Kong's most capable partner.
• In Dragon Age, unless a female character is explicitly stated to be a non-combatant, you're dealing with a bonafide badass:
  • Dragon Age: Origins has Leliana, Morrigan, Wynne, and Shale; the female companions from the first game in the series. Leliana is a master spy with insane ninja-like skills, as well as a fantastic archer. Morrigan is the offensive spellcaster, and tears opponents limb from limb with her magic. Wynne is the healer, thus acting as the party's life force in battle. And finally, Shale is a talking female golem who once lived as a dwarven warrior, and hasn't lost any of her skills from that time.
  • Mages were given more badass melee combat in Dragon Age II, now any of the female cast could qualify, but of particular note is Aveline, Isabela, and Merrill.
  • Dragon Age: Inquisition gives us Cassandra, arguably the finest warrior in the Chantry hierarchy; Vivienne, an icy Magic Knight who is always Kicking Ass in All Her Finery; and Sera, a foul-mouthed, brash rogue who can kill you as soon as you say "what".
  • And all are thoroughly outdone by a female Player Character in all three games.
• The Dragon Quest series has some:
  • Dragon Quest II has the Princess of Moonbrooke as Dragon Quest's earliest example, who joins the two princes on their quest and fights alongside them.
  • Dragon Quest IV gives us Tsarevna Alena, Meena, and Maya. Alena is an incredible martial artist, while Meena and Maya are top-notch spellcasters. The Hero, if you chose to make your Hero female, is also a heck of a warrior.
  • Dragon Quest V has Bianca, Nera, and Debora. All three are potential brides for the Hero, and can join him on his quest, kicking plenty of butt along the way. There is also Madchen, the little whip wielding, magic casting princess.
  • Dragon Quest VI has Millie and Ashlynn. Milly is a White Mage who nonetheless shows zero hesitation about taking the fight to the bad guy, and Ashlynn is a Black Magician Girl who, with enough work and patience, will eventually gain spells that will wipe the floor with any and all enemies.
  • Dragon Quest VII has Maribel and Aira. Maribel has the heart of an adventurer and stays with the party through thick and thin, and Aira is a Master Swordswoman who hits like a dang truck.
  • Dragon Quest VIII has just one, Jessica. But what an action girl! Not only is she the one most likely to take charge against the bad guys, but she can back up that attitude with knives, whips, fisticuffs, and powerful magic that can get the heroes out of just about any sticky situation.
    • And she's not the only one anymore; Red has become a party member in the 3DS remake, and comes with a unique, Dance Battler-esque flair.
  • Some female party members from Dragon Quest III and Dragon Quest IX can certainly fit this trope, if you choose to arrange your party to include women in your quest.
  • In Dragon Quest XI, Jade and Veronica are tough-as-nails, gung-ho heroines who fight every bit on par with their companions; Jade with her amazing skill and finesse with a spear, and Veronica with her powerful magic. But Jade gets an extra special mention, for single-handedly beating the crap out of a whole swarm of enemies pursuing the heroes and the powerful enemy knight leading them before even joining the party, not to mention for having attack power that easily rivals the Hero's when she does join.
    • Serena becomes one much later, when a spoiler-heavy event makes her an uber-powerful Black Magician Girl in addition to the dedicated healer she was before then.
• Most of the playable female characters in the Dynasty Warriors series, especially Sun Shang Xiang, Zhurong and Wang Yi, where there is some basis in the source material.
  • Other action girls include Xingcai, Yueying, Wang Yuanji, Diaochan, Lianshi, Daqiao, Xiaoqiao, Bao Shanniang, Zhenji, Guan Yinping, Zhang Chunhua and Lu Lingqi. While these girls didn't have the same basis in the novel like the other two, they were made into warriors in the DW franchise.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In any game in the series, a female Player Character will be this. She'll save the world from all manner of supernatural threats (sometimes punching out one or more Cthulhus in the process), become the leader of multiple powerful Guilds and Factions, and, in almost all cases, acquire or develop abilities that make her damn near a Physical God in battle prowess.
  • In the Backstory to Morrowind, the Tribunal deity Almalexia. Revealed by several in game books (the 2920 series in particular), she banished Mehrunes Dagon after an epic battle when he was summoned to destroy Old Mournhold. She (along with Wulfharth and the Underking) defeated the forces of Ada'Soom Dir Kamal at Red Mountain during the Akaviri invasion of Morrowind. She's also the "Fighter" in the Tribunal's Fighter, Mage, Thief trio. Following her Face–Heel Turn into becoming the Big Bad of the Tribunal expansion, she also proves to be one of the toughest opponents in the entire game.
  • Skyrim:
    • Just about every female follower counts as this, charging into battle against all manner of foes alongside the Dragonborn and usually holding their own in battle.
    • Uthgerd the Unbroken is likely one of the first followers you will meet, being in Whiterun. The first time she sees you, she dares you to take her in a fistfight. If you win, instead of getting angry she's pleased, mentioning that she hasn't had a good fight like that in years, and requests to come along with you to "see how you handle a few trolls."
    • There's also Mjoll the Lioness. Her strong moral compass keeps her in Riften as its unofficial protector, but when she comes with you she cheerfully describes her adventuring days, hunting cliff racers, scaring bandits with her enchanted glass sword, and generally finding battle wherever she could. One of her ambient dialogue lines is "I've seen enough death to last three lifetimes, yet I never tire of a good fight."
    • Delphine definitely qualifies - she may be in her fifties, but she's a badass member of an ancient society almost wiped out by the Thalmor. The Thalmor, incidentally, have a warrant out for her death but don't recommend trying to take her with anything less than a full legion of battlemages.
    • The ancient Nord heroine Gormlaith Golden-Hilt took a very "hands-on" approach to dealing with dragons. She once killed four of them in a single day. Unfortunately for her, Alduin was no ordinary dragon, and he killed her at the peak of the Throat of the World.
• Eternal Sonata has a few; Viola, Falsetto, Claves, Serenade, Salsa, and March. Polka can also fight rather decently, although she serves more as a healer once more characters join the party.
• The Etrian Odyssey series always features two female character designs for each class, and favors using mostly women in its official artwork. In addition, each class has an 'official' representative that symbolizes that game:
  • Etrian Odyssey features the blonde Protector.
  • Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard uses the Gunner with a Jack Frost hatclip.
  • Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City uses the ponytailed Princess.
  • Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan uses the short-haired Landsknecht.
  • Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth uses the short-haired blonde Fencer.
  • Etrian Odyssey Nexus uses the green-haired Hero.
• Evolve:
  • Every female hunter qualifies, given their current job is hunting and killing the monsters that have decimated the entire planetary defense system.
  • Credit also goes to Commander Park, leader of the Ebonstar forces on Shear. Flavor text mentions that after the Fall of Shear she goes on to become an expert on anti-monster tactics.
• Eyra the Crow Maiden: The Player Character is a Nubile Savage warrior priestess from a tribe of barbarians who's on a quest to rescue the men of her tribe, who were kidnapped by the Infernal Marauder.
• Fallout series:
  • You were allowed to bestow this status upon your female Player Character from the very first game, Fallout, by way of the Action Girl perk.
  • Fallout 2 has Miria, an Unwanted Spouse that you could marry regardless of gender, who is quite skilled in Unarmed.
  • Fallout 3 had Star Paladin Cross, for goodies and Clover the psycho-slave for baddies.
  • Fallout: New Vegas has the Power Fist loving Veronica and the hard drinkin' hard shootin' Cass, daughter of Cassidy.
• Fear & Hunger: Termina has Abella, who served as a mechanic in the Second Great War. She is notable for being the only playable female character who is capable of equipping two-handed melee weapons or restraining you for committing murder. As a recruitable character, she's also the only one who comes with a skill directly related to physical combat.
• The Final Fantasy series has numerous examples:
  • Rydia, the uber-badass Black Magician Girl from Final Fantasy IV is one of he earliest ones in the franchise. Her Big Damn Heroes moment late in the game in particular is an iconic Action Girl moment among Final Fantasy fans.
    • Rosa takes a while to grow into the role, but after spending a third of the game as the Damsel in Distress, she firmly places herself into this category. Although she does get special mention for going off on her own to search for Cecil earlier on. That took some serious guts.
  • Final Fantasy VI: Celes and Terra are ultimately the most powerful fighters and the most powerful spellcasters in the game, including using "knightly" equipment that most men aren't up to equipping. This is particularly obvious in a Natural Magic Challenge game...
  • Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII can punch and kick her way with the best of them. She has been trained in martial arts since she was a child, and has superhuman reflexes and strength. Yuffie Kisaragi the teenage ninja also qualifies, though her action is based more on speed than strength. Despite being a flower girl, Aerith Gainsborough herself is no slouch as White Mage (although in the remake they promote Aerith from White Mage to Red Mage). The remake adds Jessie Rasberry, going from The Load in the original game to a skilled Demolitions Expert who’s handy with grenades.
  • Final Fantasy VIII's Quistis and Selphie, being fully trained Seeds, surely qualify. Rinoa becomes one very late in the game due to becoming a sorceress. She fights beforehand, but as more of a back-row support character than a complete Action Girl.
  • Freya Crescent from Final Fantasy IX. To put it in the words of one reviewer:
  "Let me see if I'm understanding this. Freya is one of the main heroines of a JRPG — and she doesn't at any point have the hots for the hero, never needs to be rescued by the hero, and in fact shows up the hero in a monster-slaying competition? (Unless the player really knows what he's doing during the Festival of the Hunt sequence, that is.) And wait — does Freya really offer zero fanservice? Not even the slightest effort is made to cater to The Secret of NIMH fanboy furries? (..) And am I really not imagining the game, when Freya ends up with the guy she has the hots for — a guy who, again, isn't the game's male main character? Whoa. Not only might Freya be the best Dragoon in Final Fantasy, the best female party member in the whole series (at least from a feminist perspective)."
  • Garnet and Eiko are both powerful summoners who can wipe the floor with enemies. The former can be made to be a potent Red Mage.
  • Beatrix, of the same game, gets the opportunity to play a game of Heads I Win, Tails You Lose with the party three times, and then she joins as a Guest-Star Party Member and gets to clean house. It's interesting to note: she is actually the only character in that entire game who is never defeated by anyone. She also hits a lot of the points from the above review about Freya.
  • Lulu from Final Fantasy X is a really badass Black Magician Girl who fights alongside the guys to protect Yuna. Her powerful magic makes her one of the most valuable fighters in the game. Rikku, the Lovable Genki Girl Rogue, is no slouch either. Yuna is a powerful summoner who can use black magic like Lulu can if leveled up a certain way.
    • In Final Fantasy X-2, all three of the main characters are Action Girls, with Yuna trading in her summoning for two blazing guns, Rikku being her usual genki self, and Paine, a new character whose main weapon is a sword.
  • Ashe and Fran from Final Fantasy XII. One of them is a princess who kicks ass with a sword while taking a prominent leadership role throughout the story, the other is a sky pirate who can easily hold her own with any kind of weapon she wants (her primary one appearing to be a bow & arrow), and also probably has a long history of ass-kicking.
  • Half of the Espers are female and no less savage for it.
    • In Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, a female character named Filo is added alongside some male characters, who appears to attack enemies while riding a flying surfboard.
  • Exactly half of the player party in Final Fantasy XIII consists of Action Girls: Claire "Lightning" Farron, Oerba Yun Fang, and Oerba Dia Vanille.
    • Lebreau as well. Even though she's just an NPC with limited screentime, she sure does make the most of it!
    • Serah was also supposed to be one but had to be made an NPC due to implementation problems. Final Fantasy XIII-2 rectified the issue.
• Almost all the girls who don't fit in the White Magician Girl mold in Fire Emblem, and even some of them when they're promoted. They're always treated as equal to, and are always every bit as competent as, the men. Leave it to Fire Emblem to feature plenty total badasses from both sexes in each game. The fact that this series takes place in a medieval setting makes it particularly impressive.
  • The best example is Princess Ayra from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. She is a very tough lady and has the deadly skill Astra, which allows her to hit five times in a row for one round, which can easily mow down almost all enemies. This quote probably sums up her status as Action Girl, as she threatens her "boss" for using her beloved nephew as a hostage:
    "You better not double-cross me, Kinbois, because I'll hunt you down and put your head to a stick! Even if it takes me to the ends of hell! Got it!?"
    • From the First Generation, there's also Lachesis, Brigid, Erinys, Ethlyn, and Tailtiu. And the Second Generation has Ayra's daughter Larcei, Deirdre and Arvis's daughter Julia, Ethlyn and Quan's daughter Altena, Tiltyu's daughter Tinny, Fury's daughter Fee, and Briggid's daughter Patty.
  • Thracia 776 has Mareeta, Macha, Sara, Misha, Evayle, Amalda, Karin, Miranda, Tanya, Olwen, Selphina, and Lara.
  • Another case in point, Mia, from Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn. She travels around the world, looking for her ultimate rival. And in battle, she has awesome growths, slicing and dicing enemies to bits with her sword. And, she even drags the resident healer to her training sessions to ensure that she doesn't have to hold back. Said training sessions are always with Ike, who has a similar "no holds barred" training ethic to her. Everyone else on the mercenary crew is too scared to spar with either of them.
    • Titania is another glorious example. We also get Nephenee, Jill, Tanith, Lethe, Marcia, Lucia, Astrid, Calill, Ilyana, and Mist. And Radiant Dawn also adds Nailah, Micaiah, Sanaki, Vika, Sigrun, Heather, Meg, and Fiona. Even Princess Elincia becomes one in the second game, after slowly heading in this direction at the end of the first game.
    • Tanith is an extra notable case due to her "Reinforce" ability, in which she can summon a unit of Red Shirt Action Girls to help you. Being a high-ranking army general certainly has its perks.
  • Lyn, the leading lady in Blazing Blade, is one of the most recognizable Action Girls in the franchise. After a short story arc of her own, she teams up with Eliwood and Hector to take down the evil Black Fang and basically co-leads the army alongside them. She's particularly notable for her wonderful speed, and being incredibly gifted with the sword. Her Action Girl status is summed up with this quote she says to the Final Boss:
    "The nomads of the plains do not abandon their fellow tribespeople. Eliwood and Hector are my dearest friends... Their sorrow is my sorrow. Their anger is my anger. Nergal! In my friends' names, I will cut you down!"
    • The game also has include Fiora, Rebecca, Karla, Louise, Nino, Farina, Isadora, Vaida, and Florina. Serra and Priscilla become this after they promote.
  • Marisa from Sacred Stones is a renowned mercenary who spent her whole life training to be a master of the sword, and as a result, has a very good reputation for her fighting abilities.
    • In addition, we have Princess Eirika, Princess Tana, Vanessa, Amelia, Lute, Myrrh, and Syrene. Oh yes, and Princess L'Arachel after she promotes.
  • Melady in Binding Blade is the personal bodyguard of Princess Guinevere, who flies all across the battlfield on her wyvern to join your army. She's one of the biggest badasses in the game, with monstrous stat growths and the ability to slaughter literally everyone in her path after just a few level-ups.
    • Other Action Girls include Lilina, Fir, Shanna, Echidna, Thea, Sue, General Cecilia, Igrene, Dorothy, Gwendolyn, Juno, Fae, Cath, and Sophia.
  • Celica from Gaiden/Echoes is a gracefully badass leading lady who commands her own army and charges into battle with both her sword and magic skills. She shares the role of protagonist with her Love Interest, Alm, who also has some female warriors in his army.
    • Celica's army also has Mae and Sonya, two badass mages. The Whitewings from the Archenea games (mentioned below) also join.
    • Alm's army has Clair and Mathilda, both female soldiers, and the mage Delthea. The Echoes remake also adds Faye to the mix, so that Alm could have a girl in his initial party from the beginning.
  • Princess Caeda from the Archanea games (Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem) is the original Fire Emblem Action Girl, along with Malice, Minerva, the Whitewings, Princess Sheena, Linde, Athena, Norne, Katarina, Cecile, and Tiki (who makes a comeback in Awakening). As you can probably tell at this point, Intelligent Systems loves this trope.
    • Extra special mention to the Whitewings - Palla, Catria, and Est - mentioned above twice. They are a trio of sisters who join the party in both Archanea games, and Gaiden/Echoes. That's right, these three girls fought in three wars in a row. Action Girls to the max.
  • The most notable one in Fire Emblem: Awakening is arguably Lucina, who gathers her friends to literally travel through time to save the world and saves everyone on multiple occasions before even joining the party, and wields the sword "Falchion," which is legendary in-universe. For most of the girls, this trope is cranked up a notch with the mostly female-only skill "Galeforce", which grants them another full turn if they beat an enemy.
    • If Robin is played as a girl, she'll definitely be one, as a tactician who formulates battle strategies and kicks some serious hiney with both swords and magic.
    • Cordelia, Sully, Flavia, Tharja, Cherche, Say'ri, Tiki, Panne, Anna, Miriel, Nowi, and Sumia. Lissa and Maribelle become this after promotion. And Olivia? First dancer in an internationally released FE game who can fight. And that's just the first generation.
    • The second generation adds Severa, Cynthia, Kjelle, Noire, Nah and female Morgan. Yeah, it's that kind of series.
  • Fire Emblem Engage has Ivy and Hortensia, warrior princesses who command their own armies when you first meet them before eventually turning over a new leaf and joining the protagonist Alear to kick ass and take names for the good guys. Both gals are powerful magic users who fly into battle on wyverns.
    • Alear, if female, will naturally outclass everyone in the game as a badass swordfighting Action Heroine.
    • Other fighting ladies include Goldmary, Timerra, Chloé, Céline, Panette, Merrin, Yunaka, Lapis, Jade, Citrinne, Saphir, Anna, Framme, and Etie.
    • Veyle eventually becomes one late in the game, after being rescued from her Superpowered Evil Side and finally joining the party. From that point on, she cleans house with both daggers and magic. And magic daggers.
  • Naturally, Fire Emblem Fates continues the World of Badass trend, with Camilla and Oboro arguably being the strongest examples from each route. Princess Camilla of Nohr is a gorgeous vamp who rides into battle with a giant axe and has the best strength of all the royal siblings, seen as a beast in battle by both friends and foes. Oboro of Hoshido, meanwhile, is a super-girly, lance-wielding retainer who tanks with her wonderfully high strength and defense.
    • Corrin, if a girl, will be the heroine who leads an army to victory regardless of which side the player chooses.
    • Azura doesn't look like one, but she's surprisingly competent in a fight, and follows you in all three routes.
    • In the Nohr route, you'll get Selena, Effie, Charlotte, Beruka, Nyx, Peri, Flora and Felicia (who joins the avatar regardless of what side he/she chooses). Princess Elise starts as a mounted White Mage, but she can be promoted into this.
    • The Hoshido route has Hana, Scarlet, Kagero, Princess Hinoka, Rinkah, Reina, Setsuna, Orochi, and Mozu (who also can join in both sides). Princess Sakura starts as an on-foot White Mage, but she can be promoted into this.
    • Finally, Fates also has a second generation, and it also includes several girls who are skilled in combat: Sophie, Ophelia, Soleil, Nina, Selkie, Velouria, Midori, Caeldori, Rhajatl, and Female Kana. The only White Magician Girl in the group, Mitama, can join the Action Girl-dom when promoted.
• Lieutenant Keira Stokes of F.E.A.R. is the only female in the Delta Force team, but she's in Delta Force. No further explanation required.
  • She also survives to the end of the game, unlike the majority of the team. Ahem... well, the first game, at least...
• Gears of War 3 marked the first time female characters were playable on the battlefield. The in-universe explanation for the lack of female soldiers previously is that humanity is on its last legs and the women are needed to help maintain the population; any female COG soldiers are actually infertile and perform support roles. Prior to the second game, the only female Locust we see are the Berserkers, which are huge, ugly hulking beasts.
  • Anya Stroud, the Mission Control for the first two games, becomes a frontline soldier in the last game (along with other female Gears, Samantha Byrne and Bernadette Mataki) because the stakes were a lot higher now.
  • Alicia Valera is another female COG who is part of Zeta-Six, who performs a Heroic Sacrifice for the rest of her squad.
  • Queen Myrrah, the Locust Queen, likewise takes up her battle armor in the last game because her people are fighting for their very survival.
• Grandia:
  • Feena and Milda from the first Grandia are certified Action Girls, making for a nice change of pace in the JRPG genre.
  • Grandia II has the awesome Millenia, as well as Tio.
  • Grandia III gives us Miranda, the local Hot Action Mom, and Dahna, the Death Dealer.
• Grapple Force Rena has the titular heroine, who uses a grappling hook to get around and fight enemies.
• Many examples throughout the Growlanser series. Although all of the Growlanser protagonists are male, most of them are closely associated with an Action Girl right from the beginning. Julia Douglas from the first Growlanser is a notable example, being the first female to earn the prestigious "Imperial Knight" title that both Wein and Charlone aspire to in The Sense of Justice.
• Guenevere has (potentially) the title character, who can develop into a very powerful swordswoman or mage, as well as her female knight bodyguards.
• Halo:
  • In the Halo 3 level "The Covenant", as Sergeant Johnson is held prisoner by the Brutes, Miranda Keyes crashes her Pelican through the Citadel's window and starts blowing away the Brutes with her shotgun.
  • Other badass ladies include Alice-130 from Halo Wars, Veronica Dare from Halo 3: ODST, Noble Two (aka "Kat") from Halo: Reach, Sarah Palmer (introduced in Halo 4), Morgan Kinsano from Halo Wars 2, and a bunch more Spartans and Marines in the Expanded Universe. It can also apply to the only human in the Haloverse equal to the Master Chief in overall deadliness, if the player chooses to make Reach's Noble Six female.
  • Halo 5: Guardians brings in Spartan-IIs Linda-058 and Kelly-087 from the Expanded Universe, and Spartan-IVs Holly Tanaka and Olympia Vale.
• Haunted Halloween '86: The Curse Of Possum Hollow: Tami is upgraded to this from the previous game, joining Donny on his quest to battle the monsters that plague Possum Hollow.
• Queen Catherine Ironfist of Heroes of Might and Magic III, a cunning tactician, skilled warrior, and phenomenal leader. Then there's Mutare, a young human woman who rises to prominence in the "dungeon" cities of Nighon (populated mostly by monsters like harpies, medusas, minotaurs, etc.), makes a grab for power the moment her enemy shows a sign of weakness, and ends up the ruler of all Nighon due to being transformed into a sentient black dragon. There are other female warrior-types who probably count, but those two are the only ones with real characterization — the other characterized lead, Adrienne, doesn't count, because she's a Magical Girl.
• Heroes Rise has plenty of these including, potentially, the player character.
• Aloy, the protagonist of the action RPG Horizon Zero Dawn.
• Varla Guns in The House of the Dead: OVERKILL, more so in the extended cut where she gets to go through two levels herself. In the main game a lone it's more of an Informed Attribute.
• Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora: Detective Emma Jones was a firefighter before becoming a detective.
• Kate from Hydrophobia certainly fits this trope. Taking fearlessly diving under flooded corridors and tackling armed terrorists with only the slightest prompting from an annoying Scotsman. Also shown that she did quite a bit of rock-climbing before the incidents of the game too.
• Virtually every female character in I Miss the Sunrise (due to Gender Is No Object), a female Ros in particular.
• Diana from Implosion pilots a WarMech and fights with a lance that is basically a stick with a sword Sharpened to a Single Atom on each end. Most of her special attacks involve twirling her weapon and one finishing move has her planting the lance and whirling around it like it's a stripper pole, a la Bayonetta. The rest of the time she beats down mooks with a combination of She-Fu and snark. When a boss escapes her after his defeat, her only comment is "Fat Boy's faster than he looks," before chasing after him.
• Intrepid Izzy has the titular character, who has some serious moves.
• Jade Empire has Silk Fox and Dawn Star. And the female PC, of course.
• Ashelin from the Jak and Daxter games has had full Krimzon Guard training, and unlike most of the Guard, actually remembers it.
• Thora in Jotun, a Viking warrior who, despite being a female and the chieftain's younger child, proved herself powerful enough a warrior to become leader of her clan and their fleet of drakkr ships. Unfortunately, her death at sea wasn't valorous enough for her to reach Valhalla, but she gets a second chance to prove her mettle by battling her way through Norse purgatory, fighting the elemental giants known as Jotun. And she does, with only her axe and her determination.
• Anne in Jurassic Park: Trespasser. Favours guns, but will use sticks if necessary, and enjoys counting the number of rounds left in a gun out loud, and also has a heart-shaped tattoo on her breast that is an indicator of how much health she has left. Wow.
• Aqua from the Kingdom Hearts series. Kairi begins to gravitate from Damsel in Distress to this in Kingdom Hearts II, where she gets a Keyblade and fights a horde of Heartless alongside Riku, even if at this point she's still a beginner ala Ven from "Birth By Sleep". Xion would probably be more of an intentional case of Faux Action Girl, since she can only fight when unknowingly sapping strength from her friend Roxas. Also, it's contested both in-game and outside it whether or not Xion can be considered 100% female at all...
  • Ariel, Rapunzel, and Mulan get to show their Action Girl chops as party members (even if Ariel is chickified in II), Mulan is especially interesting since she's a complete joke while she's in disguise as boy, but once she drops the disguise she Takes a Level in Badass.
  • Elizabeth Swan isn't a party member but you can see her kicking butt during cutscenes in III'.
  • Naturally, Tifa and Yuffie's appearances can add them to the list as well, especially when they help Sora fight off a whole swarm of Heartless. Tifa gets bonus points for going toe-to-toe with Sephiroth alongside Cloud.
  • Queen Minnie gets her turn at one point during II, using some light magic to fight off Heartless when they attack her castle.
• Tess and Ellie in The Last of Us continue Naughty Dog's tradition of physically strong female characters who are more than able to hold their own in a fight, and even have to rescue the player on occasion.
  • The sequel introduces a couple more: Dina, Ellie's girlfriend, Abby, a tough soldier, Yara, who escaped the cult she was raised in with her brother to protect him, and also Nora and Mel, who are members of the same paramilitary group as Abby. Both the WLF and the Seraphites have female members who are also active combatants, unlike in the first game, where all enemies were men.
• The Legend of Dragoon has some extra lovely examples, especially for a JRPG from The '90s.
  • Rose is a wandering fighter who has plenty of experience on the battlefield before the game begins. She pretty much carries the party through their battles in Disc 1 because of how experienced she is until the others eventually start to catch up, but she remains a total badass throughout. As an added bonus, she was one of the legendary heroes of old, making her Really 700 Years Old.
  • Miranda is a military general and an expert archer. She joins the party and replaces the Damsel in Distress who is rendered incapable of continuing the quest and leads her army with an iron fist, making her a competent addition to the party despite joining late in the game.
  • Meru is not a soldier like the other two girls, but she's more than willing to charge into battle and is the fastest member of the party. She learns some deadly moves as she levels up, which she can put to excellent use. Not to mention she beats the enemy up with a bigass hammer.
  • In the game's history, Shirley and Damia were among the group of legendary heroes, the original Dragoons. Naturally, they kicked ass.
  • Shana... is definitely the game's Damsel in Distress, but even she gets her moments. To her credit, she took the fight to the evil Fruegel with her bow and arrow, and she can work offensive magic items better than the others. Nowhere near the level of the above women, but worth a mention.
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails: If she's a female character and is playable, it's a very high chance that she is this in the series, though the stand outs would be Estelle Bright who fights with a staff, Rixia Mao who is an assassin and uses a BFS one-handed, and Laura S. Arseid who is considered by her own classmates as the strongest in their class.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • Ashei, the lady knight who aids Link in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The titular princess herself, Midna, also counts as she isn’t afraid to ride into battle on Wolf Link’s back and while she doesn’t actively fight back, she assists Link by locking onto enemies with an energy field she projects with her magic while he strikes. When she ‘’does’’ fight back, she grabs Darkbeast Ganon by his face and tosses him to the ground with her magic hair to help Link bite the scar on his belly and attempts to kill him with her trident after transforming into a monstrous multi armed form of herself and teleporting Link and Zelda to safety.
  • Princess Zelda has been slowly approaching this Trope for some time; in Ocarina of Time she fills a more Barrier Maiden role, but in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess she takes a more combative role. In Spirit Tracks, she qualifies fully. It's less noticeable in Skyward Sword, but she still manages to fight her way through two monster-strewn lands and temples on her own and unarmed. In Breath of the Wild, Zelda is initially lacking in any combat prowess and is trying in vain to awaken her powers so she can seal away Ganon when the time comes. When Link is near death after fighting corrupted Guardians, Zelda’s power is awakened when she steps in front of Link and shuts off all the surrounding Guardians in the area. After instructing some Sheikah to take Link to the Shrine of Resurrection and sealing away the Master Sword in the Lost Woods, she marches toward Hyrule Castle to take on Calamity Ganon himself, proceeding to fight him for a hundred years while sealing themselves away in Hyrule Castle in a stasis to prevent the destruction of Hyrule and wait for Link to awaken and help her seal away Ganon. After Link weakens Darkbeast Ganon with her help, she emerges from Ganon and personally deals the final blow by sealing him away with her divine power.
  • Skyward Sword also has Impa, who serves as Zelda's bodyguard. It's implied she's this in Ocarina of Time too, considering the fact that she was able to get through the Shadow Temple on her own.
  • Comes to a head in Hyrule Warriors; of the game's ten main playable heroes, eight of them are female, including both Zelda and Impa. Even girly little Agitha can cut a swath through entire armies of monsters.
• Lennus II features an interesting example of a woman named Nikita, a burlesque dancer by profession, who reveals that she had worked to perfectly tone her body not to please the eyes of others, but to fight! "I want to fight! I want to fight! I want to fight!" If you dismiss her from your party, she'll hate you for robbing her of the chance to be an Action Girl. And if you keep her, she'll become an awesomely powerful fighter.
• Live A Live has, from the Imperial China chapter, Lei Kugo, former bandit and one of three possible characters to become the inheritor of the Earthen Heart martial arts style. Of the three possible characters, she is the fastest and has decent attack power and health (far faster than Hong, more health than Yun, although that ceases to be an issue as your level increases). Of the three characters, she starts with more attacks than Yun, but less than Hong, but is the only one of the three to get a whole-screen attack. Like the other two, she becomes death incarnate once she gets her ultimate tech.
• Selan in Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals fits this well, despite also having elements of The Heart (although Tia is more of a Chick). She also eventually becomes an Action Mom.
• Jean from Lunar: Eternal Blue is both an professional dancer AND a martial arts expert who packs a seriously mean punch. Especially after she Took a Level in Badass.
  • Lemina Ausa from the same game also has some nice offensive magic on her.
• In a fictional work where females cannot be mages under natural means, the women encountered in Magium are more often than not capable of kicking ass, sometimes to One-Woman Army degree. Kate is the most prominent example.
• Just like their comic book counterparts, all of the women in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games are super-hardcore, super-badass Action Girls; Ms Marvel (now known as Captain Marvel), Storm, Black Widow, Gamora, Elektra, Invisible Woman, Scarlet Witch, Songbird, Spider-Gwen, Elsa Bloodstone, Wasp, Spider Woman, Psylocke, Jean Grey, Crystal, and She-Hulk. This trope applies to several female NPCs as well.
• Mass Effect has a lot of examples:
  • Ashley Williams in Mass Effect. Of all of the squadmates, she is the best all-around fighter, being able to use shotguns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles, wear heavy armor, has high hit points (second only to Wrex) and health regeneration, and can use Immunity, Shield Boost, and Adrenaline Burst. None of your other squadmates can do all of this. In the Time Skip to Mass Effect 3, Ashley Took a Level in Badass and grew into a lethal Lightning Bruiser.
  • There's also Tali'Zorah nar Rayya and Liara T'Soni, which are even more impressive: Tali is a mechanic; Liara is an archaeologist.
  • Mass Effect 2 gives us four new action girls: Miranda Lawson (the Illusive Man's right-hand woman and Shepard's second-in-command), Samara (asari matriarch, Knight Errant, Warrior Monk) or her daughter Morinth, Jack (trained from childhood to be the ultimate biotic), and Kasumi Goto (possibly the galaxy's best thief). Tali also returns, having taken a level in badass since the first game. That's not even going into the NPCs.
  • Mass Effect 3 brings Liara and Tali back, adds EDI to the fold when she gets her spanking new gynoid body, and although she only shoots once in the game, Eve makes it quite clear female krogan are as badass as any of the males. The Citadel adds FemShep's evil clone. All of Cerberus's snipers and Phantoms are also women.
  • All of these characters, however, are altogether outdone if Commander Shepard is played as a woman. While any of the above can take out entire squads of soldiers by themselves at higher levels, Shepard routinely smashes entire armies and Eldritch Abominations with little trouble.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda again gives the player character if Sara Ryder is chosen, accompanied by squadmates asari techno-archeologist Peebee, turian smuggler Vetra Nyx, and human (but asari commando trained) Cora Harper. As is normal for the series, many of the NPCs likewise fall into the category, with female angarans making up a large portion of their forces fighting the kett, and both the asari (obviously) and salarian Pathfinders falling into the category.
• Mona Sax of Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne is a very capable assassin who is the title character's equal when it comes to guns and ass-kicking in general. You get to play as her during the second act, when Max gets in trouble at the construction site and Mona has to ensure that he stays alive. You also step into her shoes during the third act, when Max gets a bullet in the head from Vlad at the funhouse and Mona "comes to get him through the fire." The two eventually go on a two-person castle storm on Woden's manor.
• Medal of Honor featured Manon Batiste, a female French resistance fighter and OSS agent as a recurring protagonist. Tough-as-nails, fiercely patriotic, based on a real person, and predates the "realism of women protagonists in World War II games" debate by twenty years, thank you very much.
• Marino, the sexy thief from Mega Man X: Command Mission.
• From Mega Man ZX, there's Aile and Ashe. Ashe moreso, because she's an experienced Hunter who can kick ass with just a pistol (And Model A increases her ass-kicking ability quite a bit). Even more impressive is when you realize she can beat bosses with a weapon from the armory of one of few groups from Zero and ZX whose weapons are typically useless in the hands of anyone else besides bad guys and other heroes.
  • And Aile and Ashe are humans, in a series of robotic protagonists. That makes it even more impressive.
• Metal Gear:
  • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has The Boss, who is a very extreme example of this trope, probably closer to an Action Hero with breasts and bordering on a female Ace: physically powerful, emotionally intelligent, and deeply perceptive. She beats the snot out of the main character repeatedly; intimidates the psychopath she's "working" for who is both nearly twice her size and controls electricity; fought in World War II — while hugely pregnant — and became a hero. For a lot of rather complicated reasons, she is probably the most popular female character in the fandom.
  • Meryl becomes one of these in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The members of The Beauty and the Beast Unit from the same game are part this trope and part horror.
  • Also Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear Solid, Olga Gurlokavich and Fortune from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Fortune also wields the biggest gun in the whole series including Raven's), and to some extent EVA from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. There's also Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain whose a deadly Cold Sniper and taken down multiple soldiers barehanded by herself.
  • The spin-off Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has the Multi-Armed and Dangerous Dark Action Girl Mistral from the Desperado Enforcement LLC who is a very powerful female Cyborg capable of going toe to toe with the Lightning Bruiser Raiden.
• The Metal Slug series has the S.P.A.R.R.O.W.S., including Fio Germi, who uses More Dakka attacks, and Eri Kasamoto, who specializes in explosives. The fourth game includes Nadia Cassel as Eri's replacement and the seventh game introduces Leona from The King of Fighters into the mix.
• Metroid:
  • Samus Aran is the original video game Action Girl, even if that wasn't always obvious. Nowadays, everybody knows — and she's still one of the most badass characters in the video game world, female or no. In-universe, she's considered a living legend, and many of the Non Player Characters she meets in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption are starstruck at seeing her. Her exploits in-universe are legendary to the point of being mythical; Federation Marine logs in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes have at least one of the marines expressing doubt that Samus even exists because the things she's accomplished are so unbelievable.
  • Subverted by Mother Brain in Metroid, despite being female and the final boss; this is the only game in the series where she does not fight the player directly in her boss fight.
• Minecraft Dungeons: Some of the character skins are clearly intended to be female, allowing for this trope to be invoked. Adriene and Valorie are special cases as they are two of the four heroes who have canonically fought against the Arch-Illager.
• Minecraft: Story Mode:
  • Jesse. Well, if you chose the female Jesse, and don’t fail the quick time events, anyway.
  • Petra is a great fighter, and the strongest in the group (apart from Jesse), even when she’s suffering from Wither sickness.
• The Founder/ Isa is capable of flips and kicks to defeat monsters.
• Mirror's Edge: Faith is a "runner". Meaning, she spends her time sprinting across rooftops Le Parkour style, while dodging security and enemy gunfire, in order to meet contacts and deliver secret messages to her allies. But she can fight, if she has to, and is capable of disarming multiple gunmen during close quarters combat.
  • This is possibly taken even further in Catalyst where she can easily clear rooms apparently using only martial arts skills and some Traversal Attacks if the player feels like it. Unlike the last game, Faith doesn't even have the option of using guns so she has to make do using only her legs and fists.
• Ava, the Player Character of Moon Raider, is the daughter of Dr. Cover and the former queen of the moon. Her mother is dying, and the only thing that can save her is on the moon. So, Ava has to battle the moon's hostile inhabitants to get it.
• Nebs 'n Debs: Debs is a female astronaut stranded on a hostile alien world who needs to collect the pieces of her ship. To do this, she traverses the planet, smash dashing her way through everything in her path.
• Neverwinter Nights 2 doesn't really have any perfectly straight examples, but Elanee, Neeshka, Shandra, and Kaelyn all show some elements of this. Safiya is more of a Squishy Wizard type.
• Ninja Gaiden has some female characters that start off as Faux Action Girls but then become this
  • In Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, Momiji was a mere Faux Action Girl throughout the game. Sigma 2 and Ninja Gaiden 3 changed all that. Also, if you unlock Dragon Sword's Way of The Kunoichi mode, you can play as her!
  • Ayane in Sigma 2 and the Special Edition of 3 titled "Razor's Edge"
  • Rachel only had a passive role in cutscenes in the original Ninja Gaiden, but in Sigma she had her own playable chapters and was fully playable in Sigma 2.
• In Noitu Love 2 the lead villain went through pains to avoid encountering the legendary 'Noitu', the male protagonist from the first game. And is broadsided by Xoda Rap, an action girl who's abilities are actually superior to those of Noitu.
• Octopath Traveler: All of the female characters — Primrose, H'aanit, Ophilia, and Tressa — have become full-fledged asskickers by the end of their stories. H'aanit, in particular, is also an action girl prior to starting her journey, as her job as a Huntress requires that she constantly is waging battle against beasts.
• Parasite Eve features of course Aya Brea (who fittingly debuted same year as Claire Redfield) a underpaid 25 year old Fair Cop who takes on and kills an Humanoid Abomination, an army of mitochondria mutants and by the end of the game kills the Ultimate Life Form. If that wasn't enough she has an arsenal of Final Fantasy like spells, called "Parasite Power" and even has her own Super Mode Liberate where she transforms into a blue angel-like being and deals out massive damage to everything nearby. Even when significantly depowered in the sequel, she's still plenty badass. Understandably The 3rd Birthday 's decision to put Aya through Chickification, dial up the Fanservice and reveal by the end you are not actually playing as Aya, but the underaged Eve Brea inside Aya's body while the real Aya is killed, was treated with such fan backlash over the poor treatmeant of an awesome Action Girl that franchise ended right there.
• All three of the playable female characters in Odin Sphere are Action Girls.
• In Persona, pretty much every female party member is this, with many being capable fighters even without their Personas:
  • In the original Persona, there's Maki Sonomura, Eriko Kirishima, Yuka Ayase, and Yukino Mayuzumi.
  • Persona 2 has Maya Amano, Lisa Silverman, and Ulala Serizawa.
  • In Persona 3 Portable, the female protagonist is the most powerful member of the group who naturally falls to this. Party members Mitsuru Kirijo, Aigis, and Yukari Takeba are also highly capable combatants.
  • In Persona 4, there's Chie Satonaka, Yukiko Amagi, and Naoto Shirogane. Support Party Member Rise Kujikawa becomes a straight example as well in Persona 4: Arena Ultimax.
  • Persona 5 gives us Ann Takamaki, Makoto Niijima, and Haru Okumura.
  • The known Velvet Room attendants are mostly female, and they are among the setting's most powerful characters; Elizabeth from 3, Margaret from 4, and Justine and Caroline from 5 can be fought as Superbosses, and they will most certainly kick your ass.
• Phantasy Star has what is probably one of the earliest video game examples of this trope in the form of Alis (Alisa in the original Japanese version). When her brother is killed at the beginning of the game by the evil King Lassic's forces, she doesn't hesitate to go kill him. She's a strong physical attacker with plenty of HP and defense, while her magic is actually pretty poor compared to Myau and Noah/Lutz's (an inversion of early RPGs stereotyping female characters as frail spellcasters).
• In Planescape: Torment, Annah is a fierce and fearless knife-fighter. She's drawn to the protagonist almost against her will, but then so are the rest of the NPCs, thanks to their torments.
• In Planet Explorers, female Non Player Characters and player characters are all capable of hacking their enemies to pieces.
• Chell from the Portal games. Armed with only a portal gun, the long fall boots and her own brains, she'll escape death traps and fight robots. Just watch!
• Emmy Altava from the Professor Layton prequel trilogy. She is the most competent physical fighter of the series which took place before Luke becomes the Professor's assistant. Due to the series being a puzzle game, her fighting skills are most likely to be shown in cutscenes only.
• Sarah in the hockey/fighting game Puck OFF is the definition of an action girl. Her hockey skills match player's skills for the entirety of the game's story.
• The RPG Radiant Historia has three kickass girls who join your party:
  • Raynie is the standout one, being a mercenary who's been fighting her whole life and is an offensive powerhouse, with both her spear and good selection of magic spells.
  • Eruca is a warrior princess who brings her rifle into battle to fire magic shots, all the while wearing a lovely dress.
  • Aht is literally nine years old, yet has the absolute most powerful offensive magic in the game.
• Lani, Kidra, and Santes from The Reconstruction. Lani is Hot-Blooded, prone to yelling a lot, and bashes any foes that come her way with a giant tower shield. Santes blasts any foes in your way to oblivion with Judgement.
• Red Goddess: Inner World: This game has you play as Divine, a young goddess who's traversing her inner world to recover her memories and her powers. She starts out able to shoot fireballs, and slowly regains more and more powers as the game progresses.
  • A non-Player Character example: Syri is a skilled assassin.
• Resident Evil:
  • Jill Valentine can tear through a Zombie Apocalypse and even The Dreaded Nemesis like a hot knife through butter. Plus she has the honorable title of "Master of Unlocking". Jill becomes very strong in RE5 being given Bio-Augmentation though she's also the Brainwashed and Crazy puppet of Big Bad Wesker.
  • Resident Evil 2's Claire Redfield was just a college student who thanks to her brother's training: survived the Zombie Apocalypse, killed hundreds of zombies and monsters then took down a Monstrous Humanoid all while protecting one little girl. By the time of the sequel, Claire is running from helicopter fire and killing a whole squad of men with one bullet and a fuel tank^note This was shamelessly ripped off by Alice in the second Anderson movie.
    • Special mention to RE2make Claire, who’s not only tougher than her original depiction but goes all Gatling Good in the Final Battle.
  • Ada Wong originally was quite a subdued Action Girl being a Femme Fatale Spy quick with a 9mm and a karate chop, but Resident Evil 4 makes her unabashed She-Fu badass.
  • Rebecca is an interesting case; in the original RE, she was much more passive, in Resident Evil 0, she's one of a duo of protagonists, and holds her own. It's weird to play 0, where she's quite capable, and then go to REmake (which happens in the same damn week), where she borders on Damsel in Distress at times.
    • Could border on Fridge Brilliance if you think about it. Rebecca has only been a cop in the sleepy midwestern town of Raccoon City for two months when RE0 rolls around. She goes through what could range from 18+ hours to several days of continuous stress and danger, fights several unstoppable killing machines and creatures straight out of Japanese cinema, is constantly having to watch her back since she's hanging around with a dangerous convict, is exposed to grime and other pathogens constantly, finally blows the place up and escapes in the nick of time AND THEN immediately heads for the mansion (maybe a trip of a few hours) where she finds that shit has gone to hell there too. It's the better part of a week before Alpha team arrives as backup so Rebecca has been dealing with that constantly for that amount of time in the RE0 lab and then the mansion all without proper rest, supplies or ammunition. She had nothing left to fight with at the end of 0, so she'd be scrounging bullets and ammo around the mansion and wouldn't have a chance in hell of getting a good rest, not with all the hell going on around her. By the time Chris finds her she's basically running on empty: Sleep-deprived, adrenaline-poisoned, hungry and dehydrated and physically overtaxed. Frankly I'm surprised she was even coherent at that point.
  • Alexia Ashford from Resident Evil – Code: Veronica is a villainous example complete with her own One-Winged Angel form. In the original version of the game she managed to give even the superpowered Wesker some trouble.
  • Sheva Alomar from Resident Evil 5 is pretty badass cutting through the horde as easily as Chris, and even capable of fighting the Lightning Bruiser Wesker with her knife skills.
  • Sherry from Resident Evil 6 also qualifies, as do Helena and Dark Action Girl Carla.
  • Mia in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is revealed to be this, and is even playable for a few chapters where she has to rescue Ethan.
  • Resident Evil Village adds quite a few villainous examples. Firstly there’s Lady Alcina Dimitrescu a Statuesque Stunner vampire lady who uses her strength to overwhelm Ethan similar to other pursing enemies such as Mr X and Nemesis. There’s also her three daughters Bela, Cassandra and Daniela who have overt vampire-like powers. Next there’s Donna Beneviento, a Marionette Master who fights using creepy dolls. Finally there’s Big Bad Mother Miranda a Voluntary Shapeshifter who rips Ethan’s heart out, although he manages to kill her first before dying himself.
• River City Girls: Misako and Kyoko plow through the entire city and hundreds of Mooks to find and rescue their boyfriends; Kunio and Riki. Noticably, in their first game, the girls couldn't grapple enemies. In this one, they're strong enough to pick said enemies up and use them as bludgeons.
  • Marian from Double Dragon would grow to become this in the River City Girls continuity for the sole reason of getting tired of her Damsel in Distress routine and as a result, she became a powerhouse with chiseled abs so that she won't get punched in the gut and carried off to parts unknown anymore. And even outside of the River City Girls series, she still gets her time in the action spotlight in a Neo Geo Double Dragon game as a fighter and in Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons where she is equipped with a Hyperspace Arsenal of firearms.
• Most of the cast of RosenkreuzStilette is female, and they happen to be a bunch of cutesy magic-user girls who are all more than capable of holding their own in battle. One such prime example happens to be found in Grolla Seyfarth, who owns her late grandfather and mentor's legendary sword and is more than willing to protect her colleagues and cut down those who stand against them at any cost. The fact that she's one of two characters who share similarities with Mega Man X's Zero alongside the likes of Pamela Arwig also helps.
• Ginchiyo Tachibana and Ina from Samurai Warriors 2 are easily the toughest women in the game. Whereas the other female characters either wear robes (Okuni, No) or are ninjas (Nene, Kunoichi from SW 1), Ina is the daughter of Tadakatsu Honda (regarded as the strongest in the land) and wields a giant bladed bow while wearing armor (and one of her alternate costumes in Warriors Orochi 2 has full body armor). Ginchiyo wears full plate and chain mail, wields a serrated, lightning-imbued sword and has one of the most devastating movesets in the game. There's even a line group between her and Zhang He (a very un-masculine character from Dynasty Warriors) in Warriors Orochi:
  Zhang He: You are supposed to be a woman, where is your sense of grace?
  Ginchiyo: You are supposed to be a warrior! Where is your sense of masculinity!?
• Kai in Samurai Warriors 3 is a ferocious female warrior of the Hojo. In the crossover, Achilles even commented that she reminds him of the Amazon Penthesilea. In Samurai Warriors 4 , she fights alongside Hayakawa, who also actively participates in her family's battle.
• Secret of Mana has Purim, full stop. She plays with this at first: when she first joins the party she has slightly above average physical stats, low Intelligence (which is nearly useless to her anyway) and a high Wisdom, and her starting weapons are the Knuckles, though her badass potential isn't fully reached until she becomes the party's red mage, able to deal very high damage to the enemy part with fire damage or to heal her own party. Popoie may or may not be this, but serves as the party's Black Mage nevertheless.
• Septerra Core presents Maya, Led, and Selina as these.
• Rebecca from Rise of the Wool Ball. While in the previous game in the series (Shadow of the Wool Ball) she's a Damsel in Distress being rescued in her boyfriend, in Rise their roles are reversed and it's Rebecca who shoots her way through the kitten army in order to rescue her boyfriend and save her world. Not only is she as good at fighting and shooting as him, but she's also really damn good at skateboarding.
• Shantae: The titular genie, herself, obviously. As the guardian genie of Scuttle Town, it's her sacred duty to protect its citizens from wayward spirits and pirates, like Risky Boots, and beats them back with her magic and her hair.
• Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3. Arguably, the very nature of the series makes the other female characters varying types of a Faux Action Girl at the very least, but Heather is probably the most well-known and easily identifiable example of a true Action Girl.
• Skies of Arcadia had Aika, who was Vyse's best friend and served both as first-mate and as ship's navigator. Fittingly, she also cameod in Valkyria Chronicles, along with Vyse, to kick even more ass.
  • Fina counts as one too, and the heroes have no shortage of women in their crew.
    • Among the female crew members, Belle and Kirala will happily go on the offense when necessary.
• Blaze the Cat is the most straight example from the Sonic the Hedgehog games, but Amy is no slouch with that hammer of hers and Rouge will literally kick your ass as a Kick Chick. Cream will sometimes take action as well, and actually made her debut game a breeze to play through(thanks to her Chao sidekick, Cheese). Shade the Echidna from Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood is another perfect example, armed with twin blades, grenades and martial arts.
• Mary Jane in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (the next gen console verison that is) well help Spidey fight off symbiotes with a shotgun, while suffering from a broken arm. Black Widow will also blast a few symbiotes with a SVD.
  • MJ took a massive Level in Action Girl in this game. If you compare her potrayal in any other game, she's always a helpless Damsel in Distress or a supporting character in the cinematics. Here, her deathcount for Symbiotes is higher than any other normal person in the game (not counting those with SHIELD training), and she put fear into Luke Cage! Watch his introduction, and then remember that he was scared of a girl who's constantly wearing a see-through top in the game.
• Charlotte, Ionae, and Grace, the three sharpshooters in The Spirit Engine 2. While they have low defense, they can dish out significantly damaging ranged attacks, as well as a poisoning attack.
• Krystal, from Star Fox, although it's heavily debatable on whether or not she's an Action Girl or a Faux Action Girl.
  • Speaking of which, Fara Phoenix displays similar characteristics.
  • The DS iteration of the series has one possible scenario in which Krystal, Katt Monroe, Lucy Hare (Peppy's daughter), and Amanda (Slippy's fiancee) team up to save Corneria. A good day for gender equality indeed.
• Maria, Nel, Sophia, Mirage, and Peppita in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Maria is the leader of the anti-Federation group who fights with a Ray Gun, Nel is a soldier who fights with twin swords, Sophia has powerful offensive magic on her, Mirage is the daughter of a dojo owner and the one who taught Maria how to fight, and Peppita is a Dance Battler who helps the heroes liberate Moonbase.
• Reimi, Lymle, Meracle, Myuria, and Sarah in Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Reimi is Edge's childhood friend who fights with a bow and arrow, Lymle is a little girl who fights using symbology especially when summoning a hellhound, Meracle is a Cat Girl who literally claws her way out in any situation, Myuria is a Morphus who uses elemental symbology through her staff, and Sarah is a ditzy Featherfolk who can heal and fight at the same time.
• Star Wars video games naturally provide more than a few:
  • One of the most effective light-side heroes in Star Wars: Battlefront II is Aayla Secura, the hot blue female Twi'lek with the two lightsabers
  • Commander Iden Versio in Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) is the commanding officer of the Empire's elite Inferno Squadron of joint TIE fighter pilots and special operations commandos, and is the primary Player Character of the game's singleplayer campaign.
  • Bastila Shan in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. And, like Ashley in Mass Effect, she pales in comparison to the female Player Character, particularly when you learn that the incredibly badass Darth Revan everybody's been talking about all game, the one who beat the living daylights out of the Mandalorians and the Republic, Jedi Order and all? You're her. That is, if you happen to play that way.
  • Mira, Brianna the Handmaiden, and Visas Marr in the sequel Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, not to mention the Jedi Exile, who unlike the previous game's PC has been established as female in canon.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic has many, including every female companion and possibly the PC. NPC action girls include a Mandalorian bounty hunter, the wife of a Sith lord, and Satele Shan, descendant of Bastila Shan and Revan.
• Streets of Rage has Blaze Fielding, a judo expert with a lot of She-Fu skills, and a mainstay of the series, appearing in every SoR games without missing a number and always playable, without falling behind her male friends.
• The Suikoden series has too many Action Girls to count. Since each game has 108 heroes, it shouldn't be that surprising that there are one or two of these.
• Maia and Sangaril from the (unfortunately) obscure RPG Summoner 2.
• Super Cloudbuilt stars Demi, who can fire guns while running along walls.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Princess Peach is infamous as a Damsel in Distress, but there are a few games where she really gets to shine. The levels in badass she takes in these games don't generally tend to stick in subsequent games, but it's still nice when it does happen. Games where she becomes a proactive hero include Super Mario 3D World, Super Princess Peach, Super Mario RPG, Super Paper Mario, Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Super Mario Run, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. She is also able to participate in the torture and chaos that is Mario Kart and Mario Party, is just as much of an athlete as everyone else in the various sports games (the Mario Strikers series in particular make her a sassy and confident Lady of War) and is also a very impressive and powerful fighter in Super Smash Bros. One really does wonder why she gets kidnapped so frequently and easily when she can hold her own so formidably... though then again the person who frequently kidnaps her is Bowser so perhaps it is justified.
  • The spin-off titles (Mario Kart, Mario Party and the sports titles) have Princess Daisy, a Tomboy Princess who is certainly more then willing to get down and dirty with the rest of the cast.
  • Rosalina. In Super Mario Galaxy, she transforms her space station into comet mode and blasts though the armada surrounding the castle like the ships were nothing but cheap toys, and in Super Mario 3D World, she's a playable character who has her own personal attack against enemies. A welcome addition to the franchise indeed.
  • The first two Paper Mario games give Mario partners who join him on his adventures, both male and female alike. Since the partners fight alongside him in battle and help him rescue Princess Peach, it's natural that the female partners fall into this trope.
    • In the first game, we have Bombette, the explosive Bob-omb girl; Bow, the Boo who only needs to arm herself with a her fan and with a slap; Watt, the adorable baby light bulb who purges enemy defenses; and Sushie, the older but definitely not worn out Cheep Cheep.
    • The second game has Goombella, who's always willing to bonk some enemy heads; Vivian, who can set foes on fire with ease; Ms. Mowz, the traveling thief who can steal items for you; and Madame Flurrie, the cloud spirit who can fight by squishing enemies with her boobs and blowing them away with her powerful windy breath.
  • Toadette gets her turn to be plenty badass as a playable character in Super Mario Run, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and the Switch version of New Super Mario Bros. U. She even gets her own exclusive power-up in the latter!
• Every female pilots in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation series are all Action Girls. It doesn't matter if the said pilot is Moe and shy. Once she enters her mecha, expect multitudes of ass-kicking to commence from her.
• By virtue of being a fighting game series, Super Smash Bros. features a bunch, which include Samus Aran, Jigglypuff, Princess Zelda (also as Sheik), Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Rosalina, Nana, Lucina, Palutena, and Bayonetta. But special mention goes to the Wii Fit Trainer, who attacks opponents with what are basically yoga poses. All those other women had at least some taste of action in their original franchises; the Trainer's games never featured any action at all. Lastly, due to their gender being optional, the Villager, Robin, Corrin, Byleth, and the Mii Fighters can qualify as this.
• The Tales Series has several:
  • Velvet Crowe from Tales of Berseria, the first female protagonist of the Tales series that doesn't share the position with a male protagonist, is probably the biggest one who fights with a wrist blade, a hidden knife in her feet, and a red left hand that can easily absorb and eat enemies.
    • Magilou and Eleanor also have plenty butt-kicking to offer, with the former having a pro at magic and the latter charging into battle with a spear.
  • Chloe Valens in Tales of Legendia is a tough-as-nails swordswoman who kicks everyone's asses and takes names. We also have Grune and Norma, two very powerful Black Magician Girls.
  • Judith is the resident air master of Tales of Vesperia and was so popular that she was accepted as one of the characters to appear in Tales Of Vs.
    • Rita Mordio, the local Tsundere of the same game, is also a beloved Badass Bookworm. She also appears in Tales of Vs.
    • Patty Fleur has a fun, wacky fighting style involving a long knife, a gun, and a slew of crazy hijinks that can help her clean house.
    • Even Estelle has some nice fencing moves, is the party's resident Combat Medic, and overall quite a tank. Granted, she does get hit HARD with a Distress Ball at one point, but before and after that, she still counts.
  • All three of the ladies in Tales of the Abyss are Action Girls. Ahem...
    • Tear Grants is a strong, silent, battle-hardened Combat Medic who manages to make the White Magician Girl role seem really, really badass. So badass, she could have killed the Big Bad 10 minutes after the start of the game if Luke didn't defend him.
    • Princess Natalia Luzu Kimlasca Lanvaldear is a crack-shot archer, taking every opportunity to draw her bow and arrow whenever trouble strikes. She's usually the first one in the group to land a hit on enemies, and there's no shortage of scenes, even outside of gameplay battles, with her firing arrows at bad guys.
    • Anise Tatlin is a tank-tastic Cute Bruiser who rides into battle on a giant teddy bear, and boy, can that teddy bear kick ass.
  • From Tales of Symphonia, we have Sheena Fujibayashi, Presea Combatir, and Colette Brunel. Sheena is the standout case, dishing out plenty of flashy ninja moves and using some powerful Summon Magic. Meanwhile, Presea is a Little Miss Badass who's choice of weapon is a giant ax that is literally heavier than she is and her physical strength is the highest in the game. An finally; Colette, despite her occasional Damsel in Distress tendencies, is perfectly capable of handling herself on the battlefield.
    • Raine Sage is also seen kicking ass in the opening sequence, and can be a force to be reckoned with once she starts learning offensive magic of the Holy Hand Grenade variety.
    • The sequel adds Marta Lualdi to the list as well.
  • From Tales of Destiny, we have not one, but FIVE:
    • Rutee Katrea and Mary Argent are two lovely sword-fighting ladies, and the most obvious cases here.
    • We also get an adorable (if slightly bratty) archer in Chelsea Torn.
    • Lilith Aileron can beat you up with a pan and a ladle.
    • Even Philia is quite fond of throwing bombs at people before nuking them into oblivion.
  • And let's not forget Nanaly Fletch from Tales of Destiny 2, a hot, tomboyish Archer who can kick your ass and look good doing it.
  • Farah Oersted in Tales of Eternia is so powerful that she is capable of firing three consecutive beast heads with the technique "ground breaker" and she does this ENTIRELY BAREHANDED.
    • Meredy can also tear enemies apart with her magic, and is never once in distress.
  • Milla Maxwell from Tales of Xillia has killer looks and a Determinator-like attitude, consistently displaying awe-inspiring skill with both a sword and magic. She starts out as somewhat of a Crutch Character: ridiculous skills to start with until she gets Brought Down to Normal near the beginning, resulting in her gradually learning all the abilities that she used to rely on the power of the Spirits for. The results of this are quite astounding.
    • Leia Rolando can be added to the list as well. Sure, she may wield a staff, but she's not a helpless, meek little healer girl. Instead of using her staff to heal, she uses it to kick ass!
    • Elize Lutus. She may not pack a punch in close combat, but may the spirits help you if you underestimate her ability to smack the bejeezus out of you with magic.
    • All three return in Tales of Xillia 2, and are joined by Milla's sister, Muzet. She can teleport around the battlefield to hit enemies up close, or she can hang back and cut loose with devastating magic of any element except Light.
  • Sophie from Tales of Graces is probably no more than five feet tall and is skinny as a rail, but she can beat baddies into the ground with her gauntlets like no one's business.
    • Also Pascal from the same game.
    • Cheria Barnes is one of the most-used characters because of her flexibility in combat. She can fight at long range or in melee, she can cast magic, her abilities allow her a lot of maneuverability, and she can heal.
  • Innes of Tales of Hearts has a Big Fucking Soma and knows how to use it.
    • Kohak from the same game, once she got her Courage Spirune back, starts kicking ass and officially joins the party.
  • Arche Klaine and Suzu Fujibayashi from Tales of Phantasia. Suzu is a cute, badass little ninja girl and an Optional Party Member who makes an excellent addition to the party if you choose to get her, and Arche is an awesome Black Magician Girl who's powerful magic will obliterate any unlucky opponent.
  • Hermana Larmo, Iria Animi, and Ange Serena in Tales of Innocence. Also, QQ Selezneva in the remake.
  • Shionne in Tales of Arise is a proactive, take-charge woman on a mission who wields a magic rifle. She fires magic blasts from her gun, has plenty spells on her, and heals. An undeniably badass leading lady.
    • Kisara is a powerful knight who leaps into battle with a mace and a shield, dishing out pain with both and acting as a master tank.
    • Rinwell is the resident mage, tearing shit apart with her spells and has been known to be quite the Game-Breaker when properly equipped.
  • Rose in Tales of Zestiria fights with knives and can fuse with other party members to launch humongous attacks. And plus, she's an assassin.
    • Alicia is a princess who insists on being treated like a knight, wears armor, and carries a spear. And she's cute, to boot.
• Target Acquired (2016): Yura is a futuristic cop who blasts her way through Cammy's Mecha-Mooks to bring her to justice.
• Target Of Desire Episode 1: Maia loves action, whether it's running from bad guys, shooting at bad guys or making a sexy pose before shooting at bad guys.
• Tears to Tiara: Most of the named women characters are one, except the ones who were first seen residing in Avalon. Rhiannon gradually turns into one near the end of the anime series.
• Tears to Tiara 2: All female characters minus little girl Charis. The heroine is the Goddess of War.
• Ayame from Tenchu, a kunoichi who, after a string of traumatic events in her childhood, took an attitude and became the second best ninja in the Azuma Ninja Clan. Also a Deadpan Snarker in most games.
• Most of the cast in Telepath Tactics, but particularly the two protagonists, Emma and Sabrina. They're both skilled swordfighters, and at high levels they're nearly impossible to take down.
• Alicia Winston in Time Crisis 3. Not only does she subvert the series' trend of Distressed Damsels, which the past three games had, but she's also a playable character in the PS2 port.
• Queen Meve of Lyria & Rivia in Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales was known for her beauty and courage, her Establishing Character Moment being her barreling through her own troops trying to protect her straight into the front lines during a bandit ambush. With her equally badass husband now deceased and her son being young and inexperienced, she's all that stands between the kingdom and Nilfgaard.
• Time Gal: Reika. She travels through time and space fighting in nothing but a bikini and manages to kick butt.
• Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. She is practically the Trope Codifier for video game protagonists who fall under this trope. At the height of her popularity, she was probably both the best recognized, and the most popular video game character originating in the western hemisphere. And her gender has never really been a matter of suspicion (a common problem in earlier, sprite-based characters). Given that all of her adventures have involved her shooting enormous amounts of ammunition at similarly enormous enemies, she's the Action Girl many would most readily identify.
  • Her status as Action Girl is played with in Tomb Raider (2013), however. Early in the game she's very much not, but as the player proceeds they see Lara grow into the role, until by the end she's a one woman slaughterhouse. Played straight in Rise of the Tomb Raider, where she's a fully confident and tested proactive badass.
• Basically any female character in the Touhou Project series is an action girl, excluding few exceptions like Kosuzu Motoori or Hieda no Akyuu. Considering that it contains an Improbably Female Cast in a World of Badass, this was pretty much inevitable.
• Despite being relegated to Alternate Continuity, Mercury from Tron 2.0. Current champion of the Game Grid, armed with not a classic disk, but a nasty Rod Primitive, fights off a horde of Z-Lots to get Jet and Ma3a to safety, gets Jet out of the lightcycle arena death trap twice. Not as much of a shock when you find out who programmed her...
• Uncharted. Chloe is an action girl of Nate's equal, and Elena is a journalist who... happens to kick a lot of ass. Somehow. Who's complaining?
• Samantha of Until Dawn while the other ladies Ashley, Jessica and Emily fall under the Action Survivor category, Sam is undoubtedly a Action Girl proper being the most athletic of the main characters and most competent alongside Mike. Even when fleeing from the Psycho wearing just a Modesty Towel, Sam can still can fight him off and escape.
• It's probably easier to list women who aren't Action Heroes in Uncommon Time. Teagan is a particularly notable example, as she's a purely physical fighter and the toughest of your five party members.
• Unhappy Ever After has Sophia and Gretel, the former of whom is from another world. Both are able to hold their own against their adversaries.
• Unicorn Overlord has… so many of these. So, so. SO MANY. Virginia, Chloe, Berengaria, Miriam, Hilda, Kitra, Fran, Celeste, Eltolinde, Leah, Berenice, Amalia, Nina, Melissandre, Ochlys, Liza, Monica, Yahna, Yunifi, Rosalinde, Galadmir, Raenys, Ridiel, Dinah, Umerus… even Scarlett becomes one after being rescued. Then there’s the extra female mercenaries you can hire.
• The Vagrant, a videogame inspired by the works of Vanillaware, which often have Action Girls, has its main protagonist Vivian.
• Yuko Asou of the Valis series is capable of some marvelous magical feats when in possession of her Valis sword, sending out beams of various strengths and sizes as well as some traditional magic spells. The third game sees her joined by her sister Valna, a strong mage in her own right, and Cham, a demon-like huntress who is deadly with a whip. The fourth game introduced a new duo of playable ladies — new Valis warrior Lena and her sister Amu.
• Valkie 64: Valkie is the last surviving guardian of the Goddess of Order on a quest to defeat the Goddess of Chaos.
• Oh, so very many in Valkyria Chronicles. Alicia, Marina, Rosie, Edy, Lynn, Jane, Catherine, Freesia, Rosina, Wendy, Audrey, Aika, Varrot, Juno, Aisha, Nina, Yoko, Elysse, Ramona, Cherry... Actually, let's just put almost every single girl in the game, shall we? Even Isara and Nancy have their moments. It probably helps that the game is all about fighting a war, so every single character that can be recruited is a military soldier.
  • Selvaria, the local Dark Action Girl, is arguably the most badass girl of them all, being able to wipe out every single unit on your squad, destroy tanks with one single blow, and deflect enormous attacks with her weapon.
• Speaking of which, Aliasse, Lavinia, Coleen, Anisette, Rene, Chloe, Juliana, Nichol, Marion, and Sofia from Valkyria Chronicles II are every bit as kickass as the girls from the previous game.
• Valkyria Chronicles III gives us Imca, Riela, Leila, Annika, Gisele, Margit, Amy, Frederica, Ada, Valerie, and a much older variant in Gloria. Yeah, this trope happens a lot in this series. Who's complaining?
• Lenneth from Valkyrie Profile is one of the strongest, most ladylike RPG heroines to date.
  • Her sisters Hrist and Silmeria have no trouble keeping up with her in a fight, while their patron, Freya, is legendary among Tri-Ace fans for how overpowered she is. Silmeria's mortal vessal, Alicia, grows into one after the two are seperated, and the valkyries have no shortage of female warriors and mages among their einheirjar.
• Every female in Vanguard Bandits is fully capable of kicking some ass. Being in giant mecha just makes it easier.
• Visions & Voices has Elena, and, to a lesser extent, Telia.
• Viewtiful Joe franchise: Sylvia. While she's a Damsel in Distress in the first game, in the Even Better Sequel she becomes a badass superheroine every bit on par with her titular boyfriend.
• Clementine in The Walking Dead (Telltale), in order to survive the zombie apocalypse. Thanks to Lee teaching her how to fend for herself (along with a few survival tips from Jane), Clementine grows up to be a skilled survivor and fighter by the time Season 2 hits. By New Frontier, she is a walker killing machine, and it's best to stay out of her way.
  • Episode 4 of the first season introduces Molly, who is a bit out of place in the series as some kind of post-apocalyptic ninja who is worth more in a fight than all the other characters combined. She beats up both Lee and Kenny empty handed but usually fights with an ice axe calld Hilda.
• Wallachia: Reign of Dracula has Elcin Floarea, who battles hordes of enemies with a sword and archery bow.
• Warcraft has Tyrande Whisperwind, Maiev Shadowsong, Shandris Feathermoon... Action Girl is the Hat of female night elves. Also Garona Halforcen.
  • World of Warcraft's Cataclysm expansion introduces Fanny Thundermar of the Twilight Highlands. She gets kidnapped by ogres as part of the main questline, but by the time the player reaches her... she's brushing herself after killing her three ogre jailors bare handed, asking you "What took ye so long?"
  • Truly, any and all female player characters are Action Girls by default, as they're gonna fight monsters.
• Weird and Unfortunate Things Are Happening: Alicia and Mariam, women who are fighting off eldritch monsters in a near-abandoned town.
• Wild ARMs:
  • Cecilia from Wild ARMs is a Rebellious Princess who sets out on a quest completely on her own and joins the party with some lovely magic powers. Probably one of the earliest video game princesses who wasn't a Damsel in Distress.
  • Wild ARMs 2 has not one, but three; Kanon, Lilika, and Marivel.
  • Wild ARMs 3:
    • Virginia serves as the game's protagonist, and wields Guns Akimbo along with some nifty healing powers to boot.
    • Virginia's rival, Maya, is quite capable.
  • The best example is Raquel from Wild ARMs 4, a swordswoman and Lightning Bruiser of epic proportions. She can easily engage the enemy before anyone else and often kill them in the same turn, and even comes with some engaging Character Development.
  • Rebecca from Wild ARMs 5 comes with guns, and can randomly shoot up to two to five times in a row!
  • Clarissa from Wild ARMs XF is a Jack of All Stats who carries out the plot armed with sass and a gun called "Strahl Gewehr".
• The Blazkowicz sisters from Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which should be no surprise given who their parents are. They even have specializations, with one being a weapons expert and the other a bare-knuckle boxer.
• Red Riding Hood from Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries is an axe-wielding girl who battles wind-up guards on a mission to discover the truth behind her father's murder.
• Wrath Unleashed: The Giantesses, from the Light Armies. The Demigoddesses Aenna and Helamis can also be considered this.
• Wulverblade: Of the Player Characters, one of them is Quinevere. There's also plenty of women on the enemy side of the conflict.
• Fiora, Melia, and Sharla from Xenoblade Chronicles are all fantastic warriors, and part of the main group of heroes. Fiora is a knife-wielder who later becomes a cyborg and upgrades to wielding twin swords, Melia is a powerful mage who can nuke enemies into oblivion, and Sharla has a huge gun that fires magic bullets for both damaging foes and healing allies.
• Elhaym "Elly" Van Houten from Xenogears. She is a competent fighter with her rods, but she has powerful elemental ether, which makes her valuable to the party. She can also somersault her opponents with a single blow or a single kick.
  • Although her competence is only shown in gameplay, whereas in the actual story she's absurdly hesitant to the point of becoming useless several times.
• KOS-MOS from Xenosaga with her big-ass guns. And her big-ass... other guns.
  • Her creator and friend, Shion Uzuki, qualifies as well. After all, she is a very competent martial artist and makes her use of the MWS. Put her in a AWGS, however, and she kicks all kind of ass regardless.
• Any fighting game girl fits by default, but a few are more noteworthy:
  • The famous Chun Li from Street Fighter II and beyond could turn anyone's head with her looks or one (thousand) of her ridiculously fast and powerful kicks. Her SF legacy is continued by ladies like Cammy White, Rose, Sakura Kasugano, Karin Kanzuki, Makoto, Elena, Hokuto, Pullum Purna, "Rainbow" Mika Nanakawa and others. The newest addition to the roster is Laura Matsuda from Street Fighter V.
    • In the more recent game Chun-Li has fell into Faux Action Girl territory losing all of her battles in the story mode except from one and constantly needing help from or saving from her enemies. Effectively Karin took the role from Chun-Li as the Action Girl Girly Girl as Karin not only was the Big Good for the good team but won every single one of her battles even if they were back to back. Cammy has been falling into Chickification territory not winning too much either with Laura or even Makoto both having a better claim than her to being the Action Girl tomboy of the franchise. Other girls such as Elena being a combat medic in Street Fighter vs. Darkstalkers being able to heal her allies while not being helpless in fights at all and Ibuki beating top players such as C. Viper (who notably beat Cammy) and even the aforementioned Karin give them good arguments for surpassing the OG SFII girls as the action girls of the series ^* Though with that said Chun-Li's depiction in Street Fighter Vs Darkstalkers is almost ludicrously overpowered compared to the canon . Thankfully Street Fighter 6 brings Chun-Li back to her original legendary Action Girl status after her Chickification in V, with Chunners absoutely schooling the newcomer fighters and reaffirming that alongside Ryu she is one of the best and strongest the World Warriors.
  • Chun Li's partner in dishing out leggy Chinese violence, Jam Cloudberry from Guilty Gear is a Lethal Chef of a different variety. The other girls in the game aren't slouches either: May is a Badass Adorable with a huge anchor as her weapon of choice, Baiken is a one-armed Handicapped Badass, A.B.A can whack the hell outta anyone with a big key, Millia Rage attacks skillfully with her Prehensile Hair, Elphelt Valentine handles her guns rather well...
    • Guilty Gear's Spiritual Successor BlazBlue gives us ladies like Taokaka, Makoto Nanaya, Tsubaki Yayoi, Noel Vermillion, Litchi Faye-Ling, Rachel Alucard, etc.
  • Morrigan Aensland the succubus Action Girl of Darkstalkers certainly counts. She was created by Capcom with the purpose of making a female fighter as iconic as the aforementioned Chun-Li and given Morrigan has become more iconic than the series she's oringated from (mainly thanks to appearing in pretty much every crossover game), suffice to say they succeeded. Morrigan is also technically one of the most powerful exampes listed here, being a S-Class Physical God-level Darkstalker at full power, though she does get The Worf Effect in crossovers courtsey of Iron Man and Chun-Li. Besides Morrigan, there's Cat Girl Felicia, Chinese Vampire Hisenko, Bee Girl Q-Bee and "loli icon" Lilith Morrigan's Soul Jar. There's also Baby Bonnie Hood, who's Word of God the most dangerous character, one of the intros has her dragging the aforementioned Lilith by the head defeated.
  • Nina Williams from Tekken would also count... though she might be a bit Darker than the norm. Anna Williams, Michelle and Julia Chang, Ling Xiaoyu, Jun and Asuka Kazama, Alisa Boskonovitch, Emilie "Lili" de Rochefort and Christie Monteiro would be more straight examples, then. Tekken 7 adds Katarina Alves, Master Raven, Josie Rizal, Lucky Chloe a pop idol (don't ask), Zafina and most awesomely Kazumi Mishima (Heihatchi's wife and Kazuya's mom) who rides tigers and has her own Devil form.
    • Asuka's case has become debatable, as her real battles tend to be Designated Girl Fights against Lili and in a Pachinko game Asuka is shown to be scared of and was no match against Devil Kazuya. He easily lifted her in a Neck Lift and was dropped from a high building and presumably would have died if her older cousin Jin didn't save her in time. Jun on the other hand is much less debatable, given she's canonically kicked the shit out of the Devil Gene when it tried to enter her womb and even fought Anicent Ogre. Not to mention Jun's Superpowered Evil Side Unkown who's the Big Bad of Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
  • In The King of Fighters, there are: Cute Bruisers (Athena, Yuri, Hinako, Momoko), Little Miss Badasses (Mignon), Action Moms (Vanessa), Ladies of War (Chizuru, Maki, Elisabeth), Blood Ladies (Vice and Mature), Emotionless Girls (Leona Heidern), Bifauxnen (King, though she's also a bit of an Action Mom because she raised her little brother), Strong Grapplers (Shermie, Blue Mary), Highly Visible Ninjas (Mai), and many others.
  • The now obscure Rival Schools has: Akira Kazama, Hinata Wakaba, Tiffany Lords, Natsu Ayuhara, Kyoko Minazuki, Zaki, Yurika Kirishima, Momo Karuizawa, Ran Hibiki and Chairperson. Akira in particular was popular enough to appear in Street Fighter V where she can throw down with the likes of Akuma and Gill.
  • Sophitia "Badass Mother" Alexandria. Fugudsakes, when she thought her daughter Phyrra was in danger, she promptly mowed down almost every single character in the game with ease. Honorable mentions go to the lady ninja Taki, the very talented Ivy Valentine, Sophitia's younger sister Cassandra, Chinese Girl swordswoman Chai Xianghua, Plucky Girl Seung Mina, Jeanne d'Archétype Hilde, Femme Fatale Setsuka, the young and classy Amy, and the tiny but powerful Talim. The fifth game has Taki's McNinja apprentice Natsu, Xianghua's daughter and Lady of War in training Leixia, and the aforementioned Phyrra herself after her Dark Magical Girl stint is over.
  • Akatsuki Blitzkampf is set in a dystopian Crapsack World, so it logically features women able to physically defend themselves. While Mycale is a spellcaster and both Perfecti and Marilyn Sue fit more in Dark Action Girl, Kanae from the Japanese Army and the Church Militant Anonym are good examples of the trope, and in Ein-Eins Perfektewelt they're joined by the Lady of War Templeritter.
  • Pikachu Libre from Pokkén Tournament is one of three Pokémon to have a confirmed gender (one of the other two is genderless). She is a luchador-based grappler and fights differently than her male counterpart from the same game.
  • Mortal Kombat features numerous female characters who are every bit as deadly as the males. These include Lieutenant Sonya Blade, the first female character of the series, fan-wielding, Kitana, her friend and bodyguard Jade, Cassie Cage the daughter of Sonya and Johnny Cage who has inherited her father's mystical abilities and is a leader in Outer World Investigation Agency and Jacqui Briggs, the Badass Normal daughter of series regular Jax Briggs. On the villains' side there's the sai-wielding Mileena (who can actually wield Shao Kahn's hammer in the DC comics adaptation of MKX) as well as Evil Queen Sindel, Frost (Sub-Zero's evil Distaff Counterpart), The Power of Blood user Scarlet and insect woman D'Vorah who infamously killed Scorpion.
  • While it is Best Known for the Fanservice, Dead or Alive is filled with plenty of capable female fighters. Standout examples are Kasumi, the default protagonist of the series who frequently defeat biological weapons made from her DNA; Ayane, Kasumi's half-sister and rival who is powerful enough to destroy a building and aids Ryu Hayabusa over in Ninja Gaiden; Hitomi, who can and will kick your ass if you mistreat animals in her presence; the elegant and deadly Helena Douglas who is also a successful CEO on the side; Momiji, another ninja from the Ninja Gaiden franchise; and Rachel a supernaturally strong demon hunter who is another one of Ryu's allies.
• Yes, Your Grace: Asalia's friend Maya, who's already skilled with a sword despite only being twelve-years-old, thanks to being taught by her parents.

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