Postby Magician » Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:24 am
Off the top of my head, Kira Walker from the Partials series, and almost any of the more prominent women in Harry Potter.
I'm not sure I'd call any of the Mario characters "characters" as they're all pretty void of depth, even in the RPGs. Luigi (though perhaps also Peach? Never played SPP after all.), despite originally being just a clone of Mario, is pretty much the only Mario character who's ever had any sort of implicit development because of the different ways in which he's been portrayed (and even that much is arguable). And I mean, what can even be said about Rosalina? How do you even describe that character? As far as I can tell, her and Daisy are both divergent clones of Peach, who is basically just Pauline reimagined for a Kingdom-like setting. These characters aren't 100% alike but I'd have to go into minute detail to differentiate their personalities without factoring in their appearance. To me, they seem more like props to serve a specific purpose than actual characters.
I like Zelda and Samus, of course, though Zelda has had various characterizations and some of them fell short. Samus, as a video game protagonist, is much more of an icon than a character (I realize it probably sounds hypocritical to mention her, but I'm willing to admit it's not so much the character I like but what she represents). In Metroid: Other M the creator of Samus tried to give her a character but it was pretty much like George Lucas and the Star Wars prequels—it failed her in the worst possible way. Haven't had a chance to play Fusion, though.
EDIT: How did I overlook Midna? Definitely add her to the list. She's quite possibly the best Zelda character, perhaps even best Nintendo character barring the more story-oriented games like Fire Emblem?