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?

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
- Great suggestions, but Spelunky 2??? I love my daughter, but I also don't hate myself ;)
  
  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 😂
- 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
- Shocked I had to scroll so far for A Hat in Time. Seems pretty much perfect for this.

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.
- Thanks!
- 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.

I scrolled until I gave up shame on all of you. Play Portal, solve puzzles, there is multiplayer songs and cake.
- Your 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.
- IDK man I'm a grown adult and I died 2,000 times before completing the game. I know I'm not the best player ever but giving it to a 5yo may lead to problems
  
  It has a variety of assist-mode options. My 8-year-old plays it and enjoys it, and actually can play with no assist most kf the time now.
- 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.
https://youtu.be/4pKJ-NuSjNE
- 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

any Metroid

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.

Sayonara Wild Hearts
Celeste
Sable
Night in the Woods (female, but also an anthropomorphosised cat. Maybe too boring-adulty conversational for a kid to enjoy watching)
~~Assassin's Creed: Odyssee~~
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero
Gris
Transistor
Ori and the Blind Forest
- You'd recommened AC: Origins for a five year old?
  I don't think the special scenes when you kill important targets would sit well with me. In one you smash someones face in repeatedly. You also play at least half the game as a male character.
  
  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!
  
  Oops, i meant Odyssee. But anyway probably you're right about all the murdering. I basically forgot about the assassination part of that game and just remembered the dialogue, characters 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 only played that one Shantae game. 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.

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.
- 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.

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.

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.

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 Aloy seems like a real person. Probably not play as but a young girl watching those games being played would be a great role model.

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.
- Just propping this post up, because poster actually remembers the kid is only 5 years old.

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.

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.

Mario Bros 2 and choose Peach on every level
- Super Princess Peach is also a good option.

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
- I'm surprised I hadn't heard of that! I'll have to check it out when it comes out next week.
  
  There are too many great games in the Indie/AA space, so something will always fall through the cracks, unfortunately! The only thing we can do about it is to try to spread the word about what seems cool

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.
- 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??????

Alba and Monument Valley

Shovel Knight allows you to gender swap all major characters.

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
- Tomb Raider might not be too bad
  You know I don't entirely agree
  
  Ah that's fair (it's been awhile since I've played it), maybe wait a few years. 😅
- This is amazing!!

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.

Beyond Good & Evil should be amazing. Strong female lead, your companion is a pig and you get to take pictures of pretty things.
- Came here to say this. Plus I would imagine a 5 year old would really enjoy the plot, the characters, and how great the world looks.

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.

I liked horizon zero dawn a lot. It's mild violence, but mostly with mech dinosaurs.
- Aloy is a fantastic protagonist in it, too! Some of the scenes might be a little much for a 5 year old, though. I remember a whole town getting slaughtered in the 1st one.
  
  Yeah I’d say it’s probably appropriate for like a 10 year old but a 5 year old is probably not only going to not be ok with some of the content but also will get extremely frustrated with how the game is stealth and tactics driven

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 was coming here to say the same thing - it's a fun sidescroller and I don't recall anything too scary other than a chase scene (which isn't gory at all). The educational bits are videos of the group's elders telling their traditional stories and way of life which she might still find interesting.
- I think it could be a little too scary for a 5 year old, but it's definitely a great game for like an 8 year old.
  
  In your opinion what would be too scary? I tend to have higher thresholds and limits than most people to what I call appropriate so I am curious.

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.
- Annoyingly there's some infrequent and arguably uneccessary swearing in Spiritfarer. But if you're reading to the child you could skip those words of course.
- Spiritfarer is probably the one piece of media to make me most afraid of death.
  It’s a story with a truly evil and heartless antagonist, who never gets any kind of retaliation or comeuppance - because he’s a primal force that will exist for all time and cannot be stopped.
  
  That... Is an absolutely wild take on this game, yet I can see how you could go there.

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
- It's a fantastic game. Some games just leave a huge impression.

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.

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.

Mirrors edge is fun to watch with a badass woman, with mild violence
- I second this. The violence is to be avoided! The mc is terrible with guns, intentionally. I tried a few times to fight, as it's an option, but it was always worse than parkour-ing around.

This wasn't mentioned and it's ideal: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1337010/Alba_A_Wildlife_Adventure/
- Ahh yes! I played this briefly a while back. Will revisit
- Ooh, can second this suggestion. An utterly charming little explore-em-up.

It's an older game but Beyond Good and Evil is a classic.

Metroid dread

A short hike
- At least this one is easy enough for a 5 years old to have fun with!
  
  Definitely!

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.
- Definitely Child of Light. But a little boring to watch probably. (Turn based combat)

A hat in time: others mentioned already but I think it's worth mentioning twice 😁
Stadew Valley
Trine (1/3 protagonists female)
Frogun
Say No! More
going under
a short hike (I don't remember the player character gender, I think it's androgenous?)
Some violence:
mirrors edge
Remember Me
- A short hike's MC is Claire, clearly identified as a girl. My kids love the game, it can be played at your own pace and has a lot more to find than what you can see at first glance

Horizon: Zero Dawn would be an excellent choice.
- Might be a bit violent for a 5 yr old? It's rated PEGI 16 .
  
  It's not especially violent unless you're concerned about violence against robot dinosaurs. There are however some times when the protagonist kills bad guys but I think that's true of most games.

How old is your daughter? This is important to know which games can be recommended and which games can't.
- Post edited

Terraria has a bunch of options for gender PLUS it's the best game ever made.

New Pokemon Snap let's you choose your gender

Give Donut County a try.

Celeste! Pixel graphics, cute story, the bosses not too scary I think! Plus it’s very fun.
- I've just been playing this with her last night! Even though it seems to have a high age-rating, there's nothing crazy yet. Great suggestion
  
  It has some mild horror elements and I believe Maddy mentions getting drunk to deal with her problems at one point which is what gets it a higher rating than you'd expect. It's absolutely a great game to play with her, though as it's a brilliant game that deals with themes of self-acceptance and perseverance!

Freedom planet series
La mulana 2 (though it has some adult jokes)
Undertale (frisk is deliberately gender neutral to be imprintable)
Touhou Luna Nights (the original touhou games too, though the translated dialogue doesn't always make sense).
- Undertale is absolutely not age appropriate... It deals with extreme psychological trauma and horror and starts out super scary

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

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.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/683320/GRIS/
- Gris was so good

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!

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!

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/