A Study on the Representations of Female Warriors in “Ghost of Tsushima” and “Samurai Warriors 5”

Research on female representation in video games has gained much attention over the years, especially with the rise of the strong female character archetype and the need for critical examination of the characterizations. However, much of the research is done on video games set in modern or fantastical gameworlds, thus perpetuating discourse that is present within contemporary popular culture or genderrelated concerns of modern times. This shows a lack of research done on historical video games and should warrant equal attention considering their nature. Game scholars have shown that historical video games reimagine the past in ways that can inform our understanding based on the interpretations of the developers, presenting a selective perspective (Chapman 2012, 2016, Balela and Mundy 2011, and McCall 2019). Nevertheless, this situates such games as potential sites where players are invited to interrogate in-game representations of history, specifically, to interact with its represented world and characters, often concerning personal or societal experiences. Thus, this paper aims to address the gap in research done on female representations in historical video games. While there are many aspects to a game character that can be analyzed, this research will focus on two interconnected facets– character and game design– as these inform how the characters are designed as representations, and how they can be interacted with by players which involves the process of negotiation of relevant concepts and interpretations. Representative samples of female warrior characters will be taken from the video games Ghost of Tsushima (2020) and Samurai Warriors 5 (2021), which are set during the medieval Japan period, thus situating the characters within a predominantly male warrior society.