Ooo ooo I’ve got one.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits. It’s like a Pixar souls like adventure game. Lots of foresty magic, very beautiful, and challenging enough to give you a run for your money while she laughs at your many failures.
It’s a good game.
Submitted 1 year ago by 2tone@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://gameranx.com/features/id/228820/article/15-best-games-to-play-today-with-female-leads/
Ooo ooo I’ve got one.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits. It’s like a Pixar souls like adventure game. Lots of foresty magic, very beautiful, and challenging enough to give you a run for your money while she laughs at your many failures.
It’s a good game.
Not so sure if the protagonist is a girl though. It’s a bit ambiguous iirc
It’s very clearly a girl.
Nothing ambiguous about it at all.
Thanks!
I scrolled until I gave up shame on all of you. Play Portal, solve puzzles, there is multiplayer songs and cake.
This post is a triumph!
I’m making a note here, huge success.
Celeste. It’s a platformer with a nice story about anxiety and overcoming one’s fears.
very very good game, it does get pretty challenging at some points though, idk if a 5 yr old would like it
Yeah I’m in my 20s and I found even the first few levels too hard. Granted, I’m a total noob when it comes to platformers, but I think the game would be immediately frustrating for a 5 year old
And to add, the game can be extremely difficult but it can be customized to play very easily, even for a 5 year old. The colors are bright, there’s some slightly scary parts but I’m sure you could play those with her!
Very wholesome message and no killing involved, just some strawberry farming!
Seconding because my 8-year-old plays and loves it, due tobthe fact that it has assist-mode options. He now plays without assist mode at all, and is pretty freaking good at it.
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.
I love Spiritfarer, would normally agree without a second thought, but in this case, I’d definitely say be quietly prepared to answer some questions about death.
It does excellently to handle its themes in beautiful ways, but kids can be more aware than we give them credit for, even if they don’t fully grasp a concept.
I played this one with my older son a few years back and I think this would be a great option for her. As the cat, you can really just loaf about
Sayonara Wild Hearts Celeste Sable Night in the Woods (female, but also an anthropomorphosised cat) Assassin’s Creed: Origins
You’d recommened AC: Origins for a five year old?
Plus it’s AC Odyssey where you can play as a woman. And yeah, I played her as a walking clap clinic. Not really a kids game.
Going by a few of these recommendations I don't think many read the part where they said she's 5!
Probably you’re right. I basically forgot about the assassinating part of that game and just remember the dialogue and exploration of the game world.
Seconding Sable.
I recommend that one too everyone though.
Haven’t played that particular Shantae game, but I found the series off putting to play in front of my kids due to the high amount of fan service. Seems like not what op might not be going for here.
I get what you mean, but i don’t recall anything i would consider too inappropriate for kids. More just tongue in cheek. But i expect the OP will look into each of the games listed and make their own call based on the trailers etc.
Technically I think the Celeste character is supposed to be trans, not female.
That’s the same thing, they’re a woman
That’s a part of why Celeste, and Madeline as a character, now has a strong place to some trans gamers. She climbed the fucking mountain. She looked at her self doubt, her fear, the person in the mirror telling her she could never do it, never be that person, and did it. She overcame it.
Madeline is a woman, and writing her character off as “trans, not female” is writing off the impact that story has had for people climbing their own mountains.
Satisfactory. She’s fearless She conquers a planet She’s an engineer
This one’s been on my list. Didn’t realise it’s a female protagonist
Don’t think the gener is specified anywhere so it could be either. Anyways, amazing game.
You can only tell by seeing the player model but the devs have confirmed it. Not a whole lot of dialog or story so hard to tell.
Game does get pretty complicated quick and I’m not sure a 5yr old could pull it off solo, might be fun for her to watch you though
Plus, it's coop!
A hat in time is a wonderful mario style game with a young female protagonist.
Man that game was such a breath of fresh air when it came out. I wish I could play it for the first time again.
I have to recommend CrossCode, since it is so damn underrated.
It's a beautifully 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.
Seconding this. It’s a masterpiece. If she’s 5, I don’t think she’d really pay too much attention to the dialogue anyway.
Honestly, yes. This game is so good that it inspired my girlfriend to take up game development, which shes been doing for two years now
I never got to play the whole game but the HTML5 demo was outstanding!
Good point actually. I completely forgot that it had one, even though that's what made me buy the early access back then too. Makes it easy for OP to check the game out. At least in regards to some very basic gameplay.
A Short Hike. Lead character is called Claire. No combat, no death, no resets. Just exploring, puzzles and story.
But deals with family medical issues and a mother daughter coming to terms with one of them being extremely sick.
It does, but that doesn’t have a significant impact on the general tone of the game.
Eventually she should play Horizon Zero Dawn 😁
Came here to say this. HZD got me sceptical at first but the more the story unraveled the more everything made sense. Great main character, great story, great ethics.
HZD And Forbidden West really push forward the idea that you are playing as a strong woman and the graphics are so good she seems like a real person. Probably not play as but a young girl watching those games being played would be a great role model.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Just propping this post up, because poster actually remembers the kid is only 5 years old.
Mirror’s Edge
Great choice!
Portal is another one, horizon zero dawn is another great one as well. Possibly resident evil 2 with Claire if OP feels comfortable letting her play that at her age.
That game made me sick/dizzy.
Hmm, some games with a strong female lead that I’ve played:
A hat in time. Lovely 3D platformer
Subnautica: Below Zero. Sequel to the original Subnautica but enjoyable without having played the first one. Loved both games.
Gris
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
River City Girls: Pixel art beat 'em up
Horizon Zero Dawn
The latest Tomb Raider trilogy
Portal and Portal 2
It’s a five year old, and Lara gets graphically, violently killed in the Tomb Raider games.
Yeah, you’re right. I had kind of forgotten about that part lol.
Even if you manage not to die in any of the horrific ways it’s still pretty violent.
The girl is five years old. Subnautica is a bad call IMO if you want her to sleep again
There are more things to do than finishing the whole game the way it was intended, not every biome has a monster that can kill you.
You can swim with the pengwings, play with the sea monkeys, build a giant base in the starting area while playing in creative mode…, there might even be mods that completely disable the need to surface for air or make every creature passive so you can swim mwext to them in peace.
Hellblade and lara croft for a 5 year old???
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a wonderful game.
yeah! recommended my little girl loves kena
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.
This looks fun. Wishlisted
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.
Shovel Knight allows you to gender swap all major characters.
What about ROM hacks with Zelda replacing link?
Mario Bros 2 and choose Peach on every level
Beyond good and evil seems like a good title with all the antropomorphic characters and isn’t too violent. I think the political themes will be lost on a 5 year old however
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.
A game, for maybe in the future, cause it’s still in early access: little witch in the woods
Immortal fenix rising has a female lead who is saving all of the greek gods
…
Profit
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.
@2tone, Spiritfarer (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.
Beyond Good & Evil should be amazing. Strong female lead, animal characters and photography.
I liked horizon zero dawn a lot. It’s mild violence, but mostly with mech dinosaurs.
Contramuffin@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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
2tone@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Great suggestions, but Spelunky 2??? I love my daughter, but I also don’t hate myself ;)
Annoyed_Crabby@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Hat in Time is perfect for this.
Also to add: Aquaria, quite old but it’s kinda nice. EDF if you willing to play as Wing Diver only. Iconoclast if you’re into metroidvania. Metroid Prime remaster if you have a switch. Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is pretty nice. Transistor but i don’t really dig it, maybe you’ll like it. Orc Must Die 2 if you only play as Sorcerer. La Mulana 2 if you wanna torture yourself and confuse your daughter 😂
JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Slime rancher is a fantastic suggestion for a little girl. Great game, female MC, cute little animals and overall graphic style.
I loved it as a relaxing post work game even as a 30yr old man
paultimate14@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Shocked I had to scroll so far for A Hat in Time. Seems pretty much perfect for this.