Looking for games with strong female leads for my daughter (even just to watch as I play). Came across this link, but they're a bit age-inappropriate. Any suggestions from the community?
Looking for games with strong female leads for my daughter (even just to watch as I play). Came across this link, but they're a bit age-inappropriate. Any suggestions from the community?
We’re going to highlight fifteen games that we enjoy and happened to feature a female lead protagonist as well.
Edit: Daughter is only 5 so she's unlikely to play much but she watches me and as long as it's not too violent, it should be fine
Portal! Chell may be silent, but it's directly stated that she got as far as she had due to sheer tenacity and resourcefulness
Also, Silksong, if you're willing to wait for its release in 2377 AD
Edit: here's some more (these are all fairly family-friendly):
*Celeste
*Crypt of the NecroDancer
*Spelunky 2
*A Hat in Time
*Slime Rancher
*Webbed
Idk if this counts as it's not visually obvious, but Amaterasu from Ōkami is a fun female protangonist, on account of her being straight up Amaterasu Ōmikami, the sun goddess (and all around top dog) from Japanese mythology. Graceful and elegant and also she's a big ol' wolf who does doggy things, which I imagine would delight a 5 year old.
The game's artstyle is really stylised and pretty, the story is based on Japanese mythology and legends which I'd think would also interest a kid, it's kinda zelda-like with puzzles and whatnot, and there's a dedicated woof button. It came out way back in 2006 but at the same time it's been remastered pretty recently (it's in capcom's summer steam sale if you're going down that route) so you've got some choice about which route to go down trying to find it. Try and stick to European versions if you can because apparently the American localisations removed most of the mentions of the fact that Ammy is a girl which imo is a really weird choice because like, that's a whole ass mythological figure?
Honestly, Spiritfarer would be perfect. You can play local co-op, it's quite easy. You will understand what's going on but your daughter will just think it's cute. One of you can play as a cat. It's absolutely gorgeous and a very poignant story.
My partner and I have played it all the way through 3 times now.
any Metroid
I have to recommend CrossCode, since it is so damn underrated.
It's a beautifully crafted 2D / sprite based 16bit / SNES era inspired RPG with a fast paced action combat system and puzzle filled dungeons, as well as big boss fights. Although the trailers do not do it justice imo. It contains one of my favorite protagonists, which is sort of mute, which is also part of the story and cause of some hilarious but also sad moments. Pretty wholesome friendship based storytelling for the most part, although it does contain one suicide towards the end, which gets a little darker too. It's not graphic though and will topically probably fly over her head anyway. The spoiler free premise is that you play in sort of a MMORPG, which is located physically on another planet where they build something akin to a Westworld theme park out of something similar to nanobots, in which you control your avatar remotely made out of the same material. It has tons of accessibility options to adjust the difficulty too, in case something isn't quite your cup of tea.
I also want to throw in Ori and the Blind Forest. I don't know the gender of Ori for sure, but it's a little animal.
It's a beautiful game, with great gameplay, animation, music, story, and I think it would be fun to watch someone else play.
wandersong is a super simple game that she might be able to play. You play a pacifist bard who just is naive, friendly to a fault. The bard is a male, but the villain, supporting cast, it's quite diverse with some strong females cast in. It's got a pretty good story and a lot of sesame street level lessons on life in there too. Even starts a conversation on what strength truly is. Totally something you should look at.
Slime rancher is another super chill, might actually be able to play herself, game where you do play as a female protaganist, but much lighter on plot than wandersong. You basically farm cute adorable slimes and it's genuinely pretty addictive and super relaxing after a shitty day.
Mirror's Edge you play as a female protagonist. Plot might be a bit steep for her.
If you haven't played through portal 1 or 2 yet, I bet it could be fun. Glados is silly, Chell (who you play but doesn't talk) is female and she can help you with the puzzles a bit.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart has you play at least half the game as a lady Lombax.
Stardew Valley. They might find that a bit dull though.
Endling if you want to see your child in floods of tears.
Probably be a few years before you can play It Takes Two together. I think my niece is 8 or so, and she played that with her mum. Also tried with her dad, but was less successful because he doesn't listen.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe has Toadette and Peachette.
Super Mario 3D World has Peach / Cat Peach.
My daughter beat them both at 5 years old. There's also Mario Kart 8 which also has Peach. You may be noticing a theme here.
There's also the Lego games where you get to choose your character and she always picks the girls.
Miitopia is great because you create your own characters. She makes the entire team girls.
My Friend Peppa is kinda entertaining, but she didn't really care for it all that much.
Kirby is pretty great and both games Return to Dreamland and Forgotten Land are accessible, though both ramp up difficulty later. (Kirby is gender neutral)
There are more games out there, like Kena, Metroid, Celeste, Shantae, but not for her age yet.
Hmm, some games with a strong female lead that I've played:
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A hat in time. Lovely 3D platformer
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Subnautica: Below Zero. Sequel to the original Subnautica but enjoyable without having played the first one. Loved both games.
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Gris
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Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
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Kena: Bridge of Spirits
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River City Girls: Pixel art beat 'em up
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Horizon Zero Dawn
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The latest Tomb Raider trilogy -
Portal and Portal 2
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Check out En Garde, it releases on the 16th. Swaggy protag, the fighting is comedy based and sanitized, and it looks like it'll be a blast.
Shovel Knight allows you to gender swap all major characters.
Alba and Monument Valley
What about ROM hacks with Zelda replacing link?
Aside from Portal, maybe Mirrors Edge? There's bullets and fighting, but I don't remember too much violence. Maybe Tales Of Berseria?
Once she's older, that opens the door to The Walking Dead telltale series, Resident Evil, Assassins Creed (one of them anyway), Silent Hill, and (the new) Tomb Raiders.
Tomb Raider might not be too bad either considering the focus on stealth and puzzle solving
Transistor comes to mind. There’s comic violence so take that into account but the story really is awesome. I finished it over Christmas a few years ago and has stuck with me. It’s from the studio who went on to make Hades.
My daughter just turned 6!
She loves watching, in no particular order:
- Horizon Zero Dawn (when I let her)
- Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart (rivet is a strong female co-lead)
- Bugsnax (lots of characters of various genders)
- Tears of the Kingdom (Zelda is her favorite)
- Metroid (she's watched Prime Remastered and Dread and loves that Samus is a girl)
- Mario Kart 8 (so she can be peach or Rosalina)
- Kena Bridge of Spirits
She also likes playing Pokemon and Drawn to Life now that she can read.
My first thought was Never Alone
It is a puzzle platform adventure and the main character is a little girl probably around your daughter's age who befriends an arctic fox. It's an educational game about the Iñupiat people and their culture.
I dont know if there's any scary scenes but since the main character is a child and the main focus of the game is to be educational, I doubt there will be anything too inappropriate. There will probably be things that she won't understand but just about everything will have things here and there she wont understand - she's 5.
I played little big planet on ps5 with my daughter. There are female costumes and such for the characters. She really enjoyed it.
@2tone, Spiritfarer (https://thunderlotusgames.com/spiritfarer/) is pretty dang good and visually would be awesome for a younger kid. Visually it's probably some of the best to watch. Just be aware it's thematically about death. It's very sweet and wholesome, but you might get some heavier questions about it. There's a lot of stuff that might go over her head but will gut punch you. Could be a great way to have those conversations but, you know, sometimes it's a long day.
On the other end of the spectrum, overwatch is free to play and the roster is crazy diverse. That's actually the game where it "clicked" how important that was for me. Games in a rough spot, but there's still fun to be had time to time.
edit: if you want to give em Nightmares, Prey (2016). Pro: A strong female protagonist in a STEM field! Con: They'll never go into a STEM field because they think you'll be eaten by monsters.
edit: Maybe fallout 4? It's Bethesda so the combat animation is about as visceral as a cartoon. An RPG could be fun because you could ask them where they want to go etc. Plus: It's got a dog.
Costume Quest and Costume Quest 2 would be something you could play together. The player character is the twin of your choice, a girl or a boy, on a mission to save their sibling. You would have to read it to her and probably solve the puzzles, but she would be able to do the fights once you got going since it is turn based. It's very kid friendly.
If you have a switch New super Mario bros U deluxe and Super Mario 3D World, both let you play as Peach and Toadette and you can do local co-op so you and her can play together.
A Hat in Time. It’s like those classic platformers for N64.
Edit: Rayman Legends might be a stretch, but if I’m not mistaken you can play most of the game (maybe all?) with Barbara.
This wasn't mentioned and it's ideal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1337010/Alba_A_Wildlife_Adventure/
It's an older game but Beyond Good and Evil is a classic.
Metroid dread
New Pokemon Snap let's you choose your gender
Terraria has a bunch of options for gender PLUS it's the best game ever made.
While stuff like Tomb Raider is the quintessential example, for a five year old you would probably be better with something more colourful and fun, even if you are the one playing it.
With that in mind my first thought was A Hat in Time although I've not played it through to verify end to end appropriateness.
You could also try Mirror's Edge because bright colours and dynamic movement, I don't remember it being that violent but maybe on second thoughts consider the safety aspect of introducing a child to the concept of jumping between buildings and maybe I'm talking myself out of this.
Celeste is colourful and fun and honestly at that age I don't know that she would pick up that much on the heavier aspects of the story which are allegories for anxiety/depression/gender dysphoria. A five year old is basically going to see it as a story with an evil twin I think.
I haven't played Child of Light but that might be appropriate?
The main character in Crypt of the Necrodancer is a girl called Cadence, although that is one you would really have to enjoy to make it worth it imo. I'm mostly thinking rhythm and bright colours are child friendly again to be honest, but you still have to play what is basically a roguelike mixed with a rhythm game and if that's not your jam it will be a waste of money.
You can always play a game with selectable skins too, like Spelunky 2 has a few characters you could pick between which all play the same but has a variety of designs you can play as.
As a woman myself... i prefere a game where i can create my own pc and do my own choices. Cause i dislike the presentation of my gender in many games. But it is changing cause of society moving forward.
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A game, for maybe in the future, cause it's still in early access: little witch in the woods
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Immortal fenix rising has a female lead who is saving all of the greek gods
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...
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Profit
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I looked through most the comments and didn't see it, but Gris. Beautiful pastel color palette and a mount story about finding oneself / gaining your voice back. Very existential but in a passive way. I'd like to think of it as a Metroidvania, as you have powers to gain that open up new areas, but there's little to no actual fighting.
Give Donut County a try.
I'll split it into games your daughter could play, and some that could be fun to watch and get her to interact with. This is coming from someone who was playing Pinball 3D in preschool, so your mileage when bringing up a gaming child may vary.
One thing I haven't seen here is casual games. The less deep stuff that can still provide a lot of entertainment for kids that may just be starting to get a hang of things like computer mice and keyboard controls.
Alice Greenfingers (1 and 2) is a casual farm game featuring the titular character starting her own farm and selling the produce. No keyboard controls, just mouse controls and it was a pretty great introduction for me as a kid to finer motor movements.
The Diner Dash series is also a pretty good one to start. They have some variations, I know there's a detective game under the franchise that you could get input from your daughter on as you go through to encourage interaction.
There's the FATE (the WildTangent one, not the anime one) games, where it was one of the first games I remember that let me create my own female character. It's a diablo ripoff with much simpler mechanics. Gameplay can be repetitive but it's still a very fun, mouse-heavy game I still go back to. You can also choose between a cat and dog pet, and feed them special fish you find to turn them into awesome creatures like flaming unicorns!! (I'm sorry, I really love this game) i it's certainly playable with not much reading skill and therefore should be okay for a child, even if there's your standard combat violence.
For games that are fun to watch, I remember playing a Hello Kitty game for the PS2. There's still elements like hitting things, but it's overall a much cuter aesthetic.
There's also a PS2 Avatar: The Last Airbender video game that's based on the show (highly recommended watch even for kids), so you could relive the show you've just watched by playing the game with them. It's 2 player.
Crash Bandicoot Warped - while you play often as Crash, in the latest game I think it's possible to play everything as his sister Coco, who was already the only choice for some stages in the original game. Violence is mild, and was also one of my early games growing up. Fun to watch and play for kids.
I think there's a game called Infinity Nikki (PS4, PS5, PC, Android) that's a dress up platformer game. New outfits unlock different skills. The only issue is I've never played it, and it seems like microtransactions may inevitably come into play. Take caution. It's a crazy pretty game, though...
The Marvelous Miss Take (PC, and some consoles iirc) is a stealth game about a young woman trying to pull off several art heists. It features a female main character and is generally quite fun.
Hope this helps :)
I wish you guys all the fun!
I obviously haven't played it yet since it's not out yet, but I kickstarted "Girl Genius: Adventures in Castle Heterodyne" which is based on the Girl Genius comics. The comics are a bit violent and cheesecakey but the game looks like a more cartooney take on the story.
The "Girl Genius" setting is like a fantastical take on 19th-century Europe if it were run entirely by mad scientists - basically taking the Steampunk concept into more fantasy direction. The plot of the game: Agatha is a mad scientist with a heart of gold but she's also the lost last heir to the evil and depraved Heterodyne Family. To prove her claim to her birthright and save the city of Mechanicsburg she has to get the badly-damaged and utterly crazed AI-powered Castle Heterodyne under control.
The game is a puzzle-platformer.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1789370/Girl_Genius_Adventures_In_Castle_Heterodyne/
Here's a list of game's I'd highly recommend from across all of space and time, filtered on female lead, and excluding ones where you can choose or design your own character), edit: filtered for most egregious age 5-inappropriate, random order:
PotionomicsMetal: Hellsinger- Riftbreaker
- Ittle Dew
- Transistor
- Spiritfarer
BPM: Bullets per Minute- Crypt of the Necrodancer
- Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams
Blacktail- Night in the Woods
SatisfactoryAlien Isolation- TSIOQUE
Slime Rancher is a good one. It's bright, fun, has adorable critters and plenty to do and explore. There's a sequel too but I'm not sure if it's released yet or not.
The main character is a silent protagonist though so might not be completely what you're looking for
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure You play as a young (7-ish years old?) girl exploring a Mediterranean island, taking pictures of cute animals and saving a nature reserve. Very child-appropriate and a joy to play. Highly recommended!
Portal (2) - Chell
As someone who began playing video games around that age, I recommend Pokémon! She can pick her gendered avatar, then pick her favptite team of cute and/or cool creatures, and I'll swear up and down that my desire to embrace and understand that entirely text-based world of Pokémon nurtured my reading abilitiy far more than school ever did at that age.
Pokémon! It's like crack, but for reading, and also suitable for five year olds!
I don't have a game to add, but raising a daughter myself I'm taking notes on all these wonderful suggestions. (Actually I'll second the people who suggested The Hat in Time, hat kid is a character worth emulating lol)
Some of these might be a little more like 8 than 5 because they have storybook-scary but still mentioning for you to have a look and decide.
Lost Words - Beyond the Page
Unpacking
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
One Step from Eden
Wargroove
TsioqueTechnically not female lead but kinda close and definitely age-appropriate:
Chicory - From creators on Wandersong + Celeste. Not positive your character is canonically female but let's just call it very plausible and you are filling in for the titular character who is called "she".
Donut County (technically the male racoon is the main character but the only human and next-most important character is female)
Journey (likely canonically no specific gender but great game, no dialog and could easily interpret as female if you choose)Not what you asked for but maybe consider:
Beglitched - No human characters other than the player, puzzle game with pink and purple hacker aesthetic.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - Androgynous animals and humans pilot a wacky ship in 4 player co-op lots of hearts.A Hat in Time
Super Mario bros 2 you can play as princess peach. The game is of course not trivial to play.
Play Stardew Valley with her
Giana Sisters as female C64 clone of Mario Bros.
I think Tchia may be just what you're looking for!
Ōkami.
Well, she's a wolf, but she's the Sun Goddess too.
Sayonara Wildhearts. I bet she could play it herself
Celeste. It's tough as nails, but it's so rewarding and the story is.....gah!
We love Knights on Bikes for our girls to play.
Old but gold, the Longest Journey, since you seem to want something story centered.
The Longest Journey / Dreamfall / Dreamfall Chapters. Absolutely magical games.
Hey!
It's not coop, but I recently played "The Big Con" (with Gamepass) and it's more of a fun ride with an easy control scheme and decent puzzles. While the FeMC isn't the classic "strong female lead", she is a teenager growing up and develops throughout the game and it's story.
I found it very funny (your daughter might not get every joke, tough), depicts some good topics (trust, family and responsibility) in a very lighthearted way with a cute art style. :)
Beyond good and evil
Gianna sisters: twisted dreams
One I haven't seen mentioned yet, Dreamscaper. Its an action roguelite about a girl who battles her inner "demons" at night and lives her life in a new town during the day.
Contrast on Xbox market was awesome. Really fun platformer that has an amazing soundtrack too
Roughly what age are we talking? The list you linked is accurate and pretty much all the mainstream ones. Also,
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Telltales The Walking Dead
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Minecraft Story Mode
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Baldur's Gate 3
If you have a switch Pikmin 4 lets you make your own little character person. Its quite fun. There are quite a few Digimon games too. Other than that the ones that stick out in my mind aren't really age appropriate. There was a Drakenguarde that had a woman as the main character. I heard they're making a new Princess Peach game tho.
Main character:
Lost in random Beyond good and evil Night in the woods Infamous first light A hat in time Spiritfarer Celeste
Good overall:
Final Fantasy X Bioshock Infinite ( saw your age update lol) Ratchet and Clank rift apart
That’s what I can think of from the top of my head. I’ll see if I can come up with some more.
From the link you posted I highly recommend “Kena: Bridge of Spirits”. Gorgeous game with a solid story and fun gameplay. Great job for a small studios first game.
Ignore the age inappropriate ones obviously
I just finished playing Lost in Random. The graphics are a bit dark, but the story and action is good. No blood or gore or anything though.
It was surprisingly good and, if you've got a Xbox, it's on Game Pass for free.
To be quite honest I did not read through all the comments to see if this has been suggested already, but Child of Light comes to mind!
Carto
Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Horizon Zero Dawn would be my recommendations.
- Mass Effect
- Tomb Raider
- Arc Survival Evolved
- Syberia
Some of these might be a little more like 8 than 5 because they have storybook-scary but still mentioning for you to have a look and decide.
Lost Words - Beyond the Page
Unpacking
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
One Step from Eden
Wargroove
TsioqueTechnically not female lead but kinda close and definitely age-appropriate:
Chicory - From creators on Wandersong + Celeste. Not positive your character is canonically female but let's just call it very plausible and you are filling in for the titular character who is called "she".
Donut County (technically the male racoon is the main character but the only human and next-most important character is female)
Journey (likely canonically no specific gender but great game, no dialog and could easily interpret as female if you choose)Not what you asked for but maybe consider:
Beglitched - No human characters other than the player, puzzle game with pink and purple hacker aesthetic.
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime - Androgynous animals and humans pilot a wacky ship in 4 player co-op lots of hearts.I originally bought this game years ago to play co-op with my then girlfriend, but I think it can work for your purposes too - Never Alone
A Juggler's Tale
Windbound could be another fun one.
Touhou is difficult, but "Easy" is still fun. Just don't expect to win, neither the adult nor the child.
Touhou is famous for its all-female cast of Witches, Shrine Maidens, Vampires and other female-themes cute characters. Its a Japanese single-person developer who does the music, art, and gameplay. The art of the official projects kind of sucks, but the character designs are unique enough that the huge fanbase iterates-and-improves upon the art style. Participating in the greater Touhou fan culture is fun for all ages.
I personally got started with Touhou 8: Imperishable Night.
I've not played these yet but they look good for a 5 year old
Fire Emblem Blazing Blade GBA, Lyndis.
They're not particularly old. There's a few games as recent as this year there. But then, can you really trust the quality of a list that includes 'Laura' (sic) Croft?
What platforms do you play, and how old is she? Because there's no point in us recommending particularly grisly PS exclusives like The Last of Us Part 2 if you're an Xbox player with a 6 year old.
Red Alert has a strong female character and is definitely age appropriate... :)
Half Life Alyx + No VR mod
If you're okay with some very black comedy (all spoken-aloud, nothing shown) and the occasional blood splatter when you get shot, the Portal games are good. The villains are robotic turrets with machine-guns that are defeated simply by tipping them over - so while they're acting in very violent and lethal ways, the player is just teleporting around and nudging them over to fall down onto their side. But I remember my kid being very offended when GlaDOS called the player character fat, and later reveals she mass-murdered a building full of scientists using nerve-gas.
Lots of great suggestions from others already, so I'll add some for when she's a bit older. I'd say when she grows up the Tomb Raider series would be great for her to play if you want a good female protagonist. And it may be too raunchy of a recommendation for a daughter, but if you want another good female protagonist I'd suggest Lolipop Chainsaw, a great game for when she becomes a teen if she keeps up the hobby. :)
My 2 year old enjoys watching aloy go on a killing spree in horizon forbidden west..... I am a bad parent.
Street fighter 6. Pick Juri, Kimberly, Manon or more. With the new Dynamic control system, even your kids can easily play with you.
Resident Evil Village
So letting your 5 year old watch you play videogames is how you raise children nowadays. No wonder you seek strong leads in games there seem to be none in your daughters family.