Hideo Kojima, the father of the Metal Gear Solid series, likes creating interesting women in his games. This goes beyond Metal Gear Solid as Death Stranding is the most recent example. Some may think they tend to fall under broken stereotypes like Fragile and Mama which is not untrue.
It is safe to say fans have a divisive opinion on the matter, but that is a whole other conversation. What is noteworthy for now is that these eight female characters are some of the best heroes and villains in the Metal Gear Solid series. Hideo Kojima didn’t have a hand in all of them but they come from familiar territory.
8 Mistral
Mistral is one of the only female bosses in Metal Gear Rising. She is also known as “The Cold Wind of France” or at least that’s how she introduces herself to Raiden. She has one of the best boss themes in the game, “A Stranger I Remain” which is pure metal. Her gimmick is her spherical robots with arms that she uses like Doc Ock from Spider-Man.
It’s a tough fight, cementing Mistral as one of the coolest characters in that game and the series even if she wasn’t in her debut much.
7 Venus
Venus is Snake’s partner in Metal Gear Acid 2, the better of the two spinoffs on PSP. Teliko Friedman was Snake’s partner in the first game and also deserves a small nod in the female history books of this series. Both games were tactical card-based RPGs that kept the stealthy gameplay around for a truly unique hybrid.
The sequel is better thanks to the more colorful aesthetic, tightened gameplay, and Venus’ introduction as Snake’s partner. She knows her way around guns and over-the-top bosses that are too whimsical to be real.
6 Fortune
Fortune is one of the villains from Metal Gear Solid 2. Her power is her inability to die or even be hit. That’s because she has special armor that can deflect things like bullets almost like a high-powered magnet. It is left ambiguous whether or not she has an internal power of deflection and high luck as well but that’s par for the course for this franchise.
Fortune wields a giant rail gun that can destroy anything in its path with one blast. She’s a tough boss to crack at first but eventually, she meets her end like most villains do in this series.
5 Eva
Eva, also known as Big Mama, was a secret agent Big Boss meets during his mission in Metal Gear Solid 3. Like Ada Wong in the Resident Evil series, Eva’s allegiance is not clearly defined. Was she a good guy trying to help Bog Boss on his mission or did she have ulterior motives?
She only appears in two games in the series with the latter version in Metal Gear Solid 4 feeling like a different character altogether. Wherever her true allegiances were in the prequel, Big Boss owes his life to Eva for the help that she did provide.
4 Quiet
There are two female snipers worth highlighting in this series. The first of which is Sniper Wolf from Metal Gear Solid. It was an intense battle but it was hindered by the PS1 limitations and she wasn’t in it much to get a true understanding of her character.
The encounter with Quiet in Metal Gear Solid 5 is presumably the sniper battle Hideo Kojima always dreamed of. Quiet is a master with her rifle but not so much her words. She’s part plant or something, making it difficult for her to interact properly with others. Literally quiet or not, this female sniper could blow a jet out of the sky if asked.
3 Olga Gurlukovich
Olga Gurlukovich is the first big boss Snake fights on the tanker at the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 2. It’s a cool fight that helps demonstrate the PS2’s capabilities with physics as players have to blow away covers, like tarps, to expose Olga.
After the tanker sinks, Olga returns as the reimagined Cyber Ninja. Her daughter, Sunny, is later adopted by Snake, Otacon, and Raiden for a bigger role in the sequels. It’s easy to sympathize with a mother like Olga trying to provide a safe world for their children by any means necessary.
2 Meryl Silverburgh
Meryl Silverburgh technically began her life in another Hideo Kojima game via Policenauts. Her design is a bit different in Metal Gear Solid as well as her personality. Either way, she is seemingly an important character to Kojima that found her way into more bizarre adventures.
She’s a rookie in the first game who evolves and gets to command her own squad in Metal Gear Solid 4. Strangely enough, Meryl and Snake don’t end up together. She married Johnny Sasaki instead whose family lineage is practically covered in waste. It’s an odd end for Meryl but overall she is a classic.
1 The Boss
The Boss helped create the dynamic of this series in Metal Gear Solid 3. She loved her country so much that she defected to Russia and created a giant convoluted plot just to train Snake who later became the new boss aka Big Boss.
She sacrifices a lot but ultimately walks away victorious as sad as it is. Was it the right decision? There might have been better ways to help the U.S. Out but then again this series may not exist without her grand idea of revenge and that would be a depressing state indeed.