My 2 picks (and they JUST HAPPEN TO BE oh so beautiful sorry where was I?)
1.Zhu Rong from Dynasty Warriors, she's a descedent of the Goddess of Fire, and she's the only female that actually fought in the wars of the ancient china days.

2. Midna from Twilight Princess.
She can make a giant hand monster thing that crushes castles... nuff said.

MercurySteam:

wouldyoukindly99:
Best: Bridgette Tenanbaum.

How? She hates her own "maternal instinct".

Best: Alyx Vance probably wins.
Worst: Princess Peach (she has the IQ of a fucking doorknob).

Able to keep her cool while Rapture descends into chaos? Stays off ADAM? Manages to survive all those years with Splicers/Big Daddies running around? Sounds like quite a feat to me.

Dnaloiram:
Ima let you finish

*shoots Dnaloiram three times*

*shoots Dnaloiram four more times*

*shoots Dnaloiram another three times*

*shoots Dnaloiram twice*

*reloads*

*shoots Dnaloiram ten times*

*shoots Dnaloiram in the head four times*

...

Is it dead yet?

*pulls pin from thermite grenade and drops both on dnaloiram*

*walks away*

Serenegoose:
... render them non-characters (Peach) ...

Thankyou. I was going to post that you can't really call Peach the weakest female character because she's not really a character.

I've got a weak female character for you: that voiceover-video goddess from Morrowind. "Fear not, for I am watchful," she says. Yeah, right. Diseases, rats, plagues, lava, traps, liars, assassins, slaughterfish, cliff racers, vampires, ghouls, zombies Corprus shamblers, the lot and did she help? No. Shunt Dagoth Ur into the lava all by myself thankyou very much for the help useless wretched mages' guild and obliterate that big heart thing and escape the crumbling insides of the volcano and then she's there to ... er ... give me a nice ring that I hardly need now but could really have done with about ten minutes ago [i]b]before[/b] I equipped those weapons. Goddess of what? Roaming televisual hallucinations?

I'll disagree with the poster who said female characters in some games were just eye candy or mages. That "just a mage" can be the most useful support, the deadliest attacker and/or the table-tipper with the most leverage if she's played right. If she's some lame script, probably not.

Strong characters, now ..... er ..... hmm.

Hands down, strongest goes to Samus, for being a mere mortal woman bounty hunter that was destroyed several entire planets. And I don't just mean irreparable harm to their ecosystem, I mean exploding and reducing to rubble!

I'm very tempted to agree with Peach as the weakest. Overall, I do not doubt it. Problem is, she's probably my best character to use in Smash Bros Melee (not to say I'm very good in the grand scheme of things, though).

If you're looking for characters that probably haven't been mentioned as much, then I'd like to pitch underdog votes to Mia Fey (supporting character in the Phoenix Wright series) for strongest in an unconventional way.

You could maybe talk about the women that feature in Zelda and the strenght of character that they show. For example

1) Princess Zelda, in Ocarina of time, even though she is kidnapped she learns the secret ways of combat and adorns a disguise to help Link. Again in Twilight Pricess, she sacrifices her life to save her kingdom

2) Navi, Ocarina of time, Link`s helpful guide

3) Midna, Twilight Princess, Has been turned into an ugly imp but manages to overcome this and in one of the keys in defeating Zant

4) I forgot her name, but in the DS game `Phantom Hourglass` there is this girl who is always pursuing Lineback because she wants to make a better man out of him

Ignore some of the boys who are being a little silly. The one`s on this website tend to get distraced by clevage a lot =) (no offence to you lovely gentlemen of course)

CloakedOne:

Jill Valentine is also a very strong and capable female character of gaming. She fights a hoard of zombies through a mansion hell only to do it again in RE3 and then works to take down Umbrella in Umbrella Chronicles and then again in RE5. Jeez, what a woman! She goes through hell so many times to make sure that the world stays safe from zombies and monsters.
She doesn't even have magic,she just has guns and her wits.

You forgot to mention; she's also the Master of Unlocking. ;)

Samus was a good suggestion, but her character is largely empty. She was an early gaming role model to empower women, since in her NES days, it was assumed Samus was a guy (right up until she took that suit off).

I echo the Jill suggestion.

For weaks; the suggestion of Princess Peach was first on my mind before it was suggested. She's only a plot device to make Mario traverse whatever terrain he must to be the Hero. She has no character. She's just a girl in a pink dress that hasn't learned to start packing a piece.

Any character that defines its personality with a bikini battle uniform. They could be gods of the game, but if we're supposed to like them based off of their sexy attire first, then I say nay.

For strongest I'd say the boss from mgs3 she's strong.beautiful. and has a great story that's makes you feel sorry for her in the end. Definetly the boss as the best female charcter ever for abilities,story, and personallity.

And for weakest character I'd say your love in shadow of the collosus since she's kind of dead.

The strongest female video game characters I can think of right now are; Konoko (Oni), Joanna Dark (Perfect Dark 64), Samus Aran (Metroid), Akira (Rival Schools) and Amaterasu (Okami).

The weakest: Peach (Super Mario Bros), Zelda (The Legend of Zelda) and Birdo (Super Mario Bros 2)

Jen from primal is uber strong (she has 4 demon forms) and I have no second that comes to mind...

Alyx Vance certainly is the most memorable female character, so i choose her.

The3Apocalypses:
Strong- Elizabeth Greene - Just so overpowered, it's ridiculous.
Weak- Zelda - has she ever done anything, really, other than give you a couple of arrows?

Rember that zelda turns into

Lt. Vinciti:

Weakest: [Insert Anime Female] [Insert Princess X]

Kurohime & Twilight Princess Midna?

lord canti:
And for weakest character I'd say your sister in shadow of the collosus since she's kind of dead.

fix'd

OT:
Strongest: Naija from Aquaria, she has amnesia and in order to cure it kills no less than 6 or 7 god-like beings, absorbing their power.
Weakest: Well... Kyrie from DMC4?

Peach in SSB is terrible.
Strong people? Samus, Samus all the way

The3Apocalypses:

Weak- Zelda - has she ever done anything, really, other than give you a couple of arrows?

her attacks are pretty mean in Brawl, if you sweetspot them, that is. plus shes a transvestite (sheik *cough cough*).

strong: Eva from MGS3. she could actually make Snake think of something else than his mission, plus she was helpful.

weak: Feiyan from Titan Quest. every time you meet her, shes either angry at you from saving her (?!) or she´s been pwned by a Telkine.

almost forgot another awesome one: Taokaka from Blazblue. shes the descendant of the most powerful creature alive, she has the most hilarious speech pattern in history and shes a cat that´s ALWAYS hungry.

Strongest: Samus or Zelda. Samus because she is just awesome and has no problems with anything that gets in her way, Zelda because of her Alter-Ego.

I'm seriously the only person who's voted for Kerrigan/Queen of Blades as the strongest female character? The the calculating mastermind of the swarm and, arguably, the best villain in a video game? oO Where the hell are all the StarCraft peo--...Oh, right...Playing StarCraft. <_<

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (or just Tali) is brave, intelligent, resourceful and independent (when necessary), and a nice and pleasant person. Although she is an engineer, and a very gifted one, she isn't a geek of any sort, and can do some pretty dangerous things by herself. She is neither a damsel in distress (Liara) nor an annoying, exaggerated You Go Girl! bitch (Ashley, Subject Zero). Although her form-fitting environmental suit produces a very agreeable figure, we don't know what she looks like because of the visor obscuring her face almost completely. She also has two toes and three fingers. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is a character that doesn't rely on sex appeal, at least not in any conventional sense. I bet she's really cute though.

As for bad female characters, throw a rock and you'll hit at least a few (like Liara, Ashley and Subject Zero).

I didn't pick the "strongest" female character because I don't see any point in doing that. Video game characters tend to be impossibly powerful in general.

Meryl, from MGS?

Really up to you if you want to take her as best or worst. I mean, on one hands, she leads the RAT PATROL nicely, but on the other hand Snake seems to have to constantly bail her out of trouble.

Strong: Samus (durrhurr), woman from R:FoM, and would Zoey and Rochelle count? Or are they not really proper characters?

Weak: Peach, Anything from Japan, everything else (Game developers are such Michael Bay fans)

Strong-The Boss(AKA The Joy) from MGS3. She very strong and kind women who was the leader of the Cobra unit.

weakest-Princess Peach

Come back and try and fight them when you've got as much destructive power as most national nuclear arsenals ;)

MagnetoHydroDynamics:

Lt. Vinciti:

Weakest: [Insert Anime Female] [Insert Princess X]

Kurohime & Twilight Princess Midna?

Princess Mononoke?

Strong Females are rather abundant, but you have to consider some du-alitys. Take Peach for example, in any platforming mario game she is always the primary objective. In most Mario RPGs she is a secondary objective who seems to play the role of double agent, providing helpful items and information(Paper Mario would of been hell without the Timed actions ability), a few instances she even joins your party to help save the world. Peach never says or does anything in a platforming game but if you dig into her RPG character a bit she has a rebellious streak and above average willpower. Samus is a must for strong simply because she lives the lifestyle she does despite no real necessity. You could venture to guess she enjoys her work, even though she is rather faceless.

A women I consider weak though is Airea (Think I spelled her name right) from Baldur's Gate 2: Shadow of Amn. As a male character she will use you as a crutch to deal with her horrible past, and booting her from the group will anger her childishly and she will disappear from the game world. No idea what happens to her but most assume she dies due to her frailty and emotionally unstable nature. She does provide a romance plot but the general reaction of your party to her presence will be agitated, they will strike up random conversations about how she isn't careful enough and isn't fit for adventuring, which provides plenty of opportunities for her to grow angry and leave permanently. Generally she is a nuisance but her Mage and Cleric spells push me to bring her along each time I play the game. Last virtual chick I'll demean is Yuzu from Shin Megami Tensai: Devil Survivor. Despite the general flow of events every player experiences she still opts to run away from the mess and, spoiler, her ending isn't the happiest. Her self-preserving attitude is symbolic with weak-willed humans who run from the obstacles at hand covering their ears, unwilling to hear their punishment and task.

I'm really just analyzing their characters since 'strongest' and 'weakest' can differ from person to person. The traits I value most are a above average will power and independence

GloatingSwine:

Spoiler: Click to View

Come back and try and fight them when you've got as much destructive power as most national nuclear arsenals ;)

Hi, I'm A random person, aka our resident Nanoha fanboy, and I approve this message.

Most of the female characters in Valve games are fairly strong characters as they are not walking cleavage...
Team Ninja makes the weakest if your looking at a realism point of view, they just staple a couple of G-cuppers on a twig in a bikini and say its a girl.
That is in my opinion the devs who create good and bad female characters (although there are more).

Chell/Samus is the awesomest, Peach is the weakest.

Samus is pretty much the best, outside of a female protagonist in massive RPGs like Oblivion and Mass Effect, but I'd assume they're exempt.

Weakest (in terms of personality) would probably be either Laura Croft (in the modern remake), or Bayonetta, seeing as they're just the "I am a strong woman so I need absolutely no help fighting the various demons and beasties I encounter, because I'm a well-rounded character like that." character that, in my opinion, is more offensive than the bimbo character, because at the very least the bimbo character is usually happy and sometimes even helpful.

I'm gonna be honest... After having my arse kicked by her all last night (DAMN YOU IdealistCommi!), I'm gonna have to go with Lilith from Borderlands (also, every so often, when you kill something with her, she lets out a contemptuous little laugh and a "Hah! I'm really good at this!", which is utterly badass). Honourable mentions go to Rochelle and Zoey from the Left4Dead series for services against rabies-infected humanity and Talim from Soul Calibur for being the only character I've seen so far that apologises as she kicks the crap out of you.

Weakest... Yeah, any of the bints that get kidnapped all the time. Peach comes to mind.

Weakest: The princess from Price of Persia. All she does is sit in a tower moping about the giant hourglass slowly ticking away the 60 minutes she has left to live if the prince fails to defeat the wizard.

For my money the strongest character is one that you will build yourself. Take any RPG that allows for custom character creation and make yourself a strong female character. That's one thing I love about Fallout 2, you have the choice to make the female character strong or not. And it's harder to make and keep her character strong because there are heavily sexist influences to the contrary. Like the ability to sleep with people to get what you want. The point is you get to choose how you play her rather than the scripted nonsense of most things.

As for non RPG games, Samus, Chell, Vance, and Valentine all come to mind, and have been said many times.

Weakest...well there's Peach, who's so one dimensional. I understand that she has had times to shine, but even then it becomes that she's the hero with no mention of her past as damsel, and when she's the damsel she seems to forget she can be heroic. Just bland, though I love saving her with ye olde Italian plumber by jumping on walking mushrooms and such.

CanOfBeans:
Heather from silent hill 3 is also a strong character, mainly because she didnt go crazy from the event that happened to her. heck i dont think i would survive the horrors of silent hill.

No, she isn't. I love her to bits and she's my favourite character of all time, but she's not a strong person. That's the point. The cult was trying break her and they did. She didn't throw in the towell though which is means she isn't that weak, but she isn't strong. She's a teenage girl and pulled her off perfectly, almost.
I spent the entire game wanted to give her a kiss on the cheek and a cuddle and tell her everything will work out fine.

Big, big shout out to Elena Fisher from Uncharted.
When it comes to games (and movies) like Uncharted, the female character is typically forced into the screamie, slapsticky role whose "big scene" usually involves saving the hero from danger through ridiculous means (Kate Capshaw and Karen Allen come to mind).

Elena Fisher is the polar opposite. She's strong, she smart, she's certainly beautiful and she often forces Drake to cowboy up. She is a support character through and through - not an accessory.