Games are not well known for their diversity. A 2009 study found that 89.5% of the characters in the top 150 selling video games are male and that 85% of the protagonists are white.
For this list, I decided to omit characters that are in fighting games or in casts that are predominately Asian -- so no Final Fantasy or Chun Li.
#5: Ada Wong
Ada Wong first appears in the Resident Evil franchise in Resident Evil 4, and she is a playable character in Resident Evil 6. Sally Cahill, who voices Ada, described her as "a totally hip, modern, kick ass femme fatale who could handle weapons awesomely" and remarked that Ada could maintain "her strength with still being sexy and very female."
#4: Ghost
In Enter the Matrix players can control two supporting characters from the Matrix series, Ghost and Niobe. Ghost is Niobe's first mate, a weapons guru, and assassin.
The game was virtually forgettable, but Ghost is still a great character.
#3 Faith
Faith is the main character in the Mirror's Edge franchise, with the second game hotly anticipated for the holiday season of this year. Faith is considered one of the first Asian American protagonists in video games.
#2 Knives Chau
Knives is a Chinese-Canadian high school student who's most well known character trait is being madly in love with Scott Pilgrim. In the game version of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: the Game, she's first an assist character but in the DLC she's added as a playable character.
#1 Chell
Chell, the protagonist of Portal 1 and 2, is the perfect test subject for Aperture Science's test-mad robot GLaDOS. Their relationship, which admittedly consisted predominately of GLaDOS throwing insults at a silent protagonist, is one of the strongest in video games and really holds together a great game.
What do you think of this list of Asian protagonists? Who would you add?
