Jill Valentine

I completely agree, hence why I posted them. Despite having worked on several beloved and high profile games, even among Nintendo fans they're not well known.

Aya becoming head of one of EPD's major studios and directing one of the Switch's biggest games in particular is a big achievement.

Well, Daisy obviously! She's without a doubt the most talented racer in Mario Kart, the strongest character in Smash and excels at partys. Also Samus Aran, Jill Valentine, Krystal (Starfox) and Ellie.

On a related note, why always just celebrate the badass characters? 

- Zelda from Breath of the Wild is a rather soft person character-wise and needs to overcome her fears, which I find way more relatable and realistic than most flat-out "badass" characters.

- Clementine from the Walking Dead doesn't exactly start out as a badass, and she doesn't need to.

And I really hope they don't make Ellie a 100% badass character in the Last of Us 2 (in other words I hope her character won't become flat). Badass characters are cool, but it's perfectly fine to be soft, scared or "just" smart.

If holding off Calamity Ganon for a 100 years while Link takes a nap isn't badass, I don't know what is!

But you're right, I love Zelda in BotW, she's soft, determined, has a huge responsibility on her shoulders and gets emotional when she feels she's failing at it but never gives up.

Senua. It takes a lot of strength and perseverance from a person that lost so much and can  fend off Vikings while being clinically insane

While I don't know if badass is the most accurate or at least predominant word to describe her, Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite rounds out my top 3 female characters in gaming.

Not only did she manage the nearly impossible task of being a tag-along companion who's never annoying and consistently helpful, she was probably the first video game character that made me genuinely care about her on an emotional level. from the VA to her animation to her character development, she's just amazing.

Alyx in half-life 2 was a great companion who not only didn't get in the way  but  was useful.

Indeed she was, I just personally didn't connect with her on as much of an emotional level.

Yes it's interesting how we connect with different characters, some are instant,others develop overtime Alyx was a bit of both I liked her from the beginning but that grew as the game went on things like her humour when she says Gordon is a man of few words and how she wasn't perfect admitting jealousy paid a part in her dislike of Judith Mossman I also liked the vulnerability she displayed when they encountered the Hunters again after her attack and how she overcame that fear my thoughts about Elizabeth mirrors your's on alyx.

For the record I did find Alyx very likeable still.