Alisa is the female lead for all intents and purposes, whether she will be in a romance with the lead character is something we don't know. But for all the promo material for this game and the second one, she is the one standing with the main character, and I imagine that she gets a more central role in Cold Steel 2 and 3.
She gets the most screentime with Rean and she gets the most character development with him, and she is billed as the main female character.
I *like* Alisa. I think she's a good character, with lots of room to grow and develop into her strengths. I even think romantically she and Rean are a good pairing.
I just like Laura and Rean as a pairing better now after having completed the game and seen more of their unique bonding moments, where you get to see more of Laura's other personal moments. How Laura perceives Rean is also different than Alisa too, which is part of why I like their pairing more as well.
Just me though. I don't think either pairing is in any way bad. I would support Emma as a pairing too if she were able to open up more, but she's still hiding too much to really let anyone in at this point.
And I think that Fie looks at Rean as a figure of trust and respect, they don't make it a romantic thing, which I thought was good.
When she describes how he reminded her of the Jaeger King, in terms of how she feels around him, I thought that was a good moment. Captures that whole idea of Fie finding a new family she can trust and fight for and with, to protect as allies and friends. They didn't try to shoehorn a romancey aspect into her moment there.
Towa is really cute too though. Her moments always just made me smile. She's just adorable.
And while this post kind of buys into the whole "Harem" criticism I saw earlier, I want to make it clear that I don't think this is really fair, since at no point are all these women throwing themselves at Rean. He's got women in his close circle, and several of them have the options to see more romantic inclinations, but it definitely isn't a Love Hina, or even for a more recent, SAO situation. The female cast members are not defined by their feelings for Rean, it's just a possible facet of development as part of pursuing those closer relationships with individuals. And certainly not everyone at once, with how the mechanics work out for the
Afterparty Dance
So, anyone looking at this and worrying about it being too overly haremy, or anything, I'd just brush that off. Each of the female characters has great qualities entirely on their own to add, that I really liked getting to see. I did enjoy the potential romantic aspects as it does bring out unique characterizations as well.
I still go Laura, though.