It Takes Two has a great protagonist
This is a very obscure one, but there is a mod for Freespace 2 called Blue Planet: War in Heaven which has an amazingly well written story and female lead.
A few more that may not be mentioned:
Dandara - fun platformer
Ion Fury - throwback to 90s shooters, good if you can handle some juvenile humor.
Knights and Bikes - played through with my daughter and we loved it.
(Edit: runekn mentioned this already) Spiritfarer - low pressure gameplay, story and exploration focused
There's this weird game from a while back that didn't get much hype.
You'll find it either as "The Experiment" or "Experience112". Got some interesting mechanics, which later influenced another niche game I just realized has a female protagonist: Republique.
Technically, you don't play as a female protagonist. But you're essentially not the main character and you have no discernible physical features anyway, so you could just apply whatever gender you want to whoever you think "your character" is.
It's kind of like... "Female protagonist by proxy". I feel like that's a decent description. The point is that the main character is a (generally) well-written lady protag.
The modern tomb raiders are pretty decent.
Seconded. And I'd say they're more than pretty decent. They have amazing level design, particularly with respect to interactions with the level. Eg, you jump on a ledge and the ledge might start to break. Think stuff like that, repeated dozens of times in various ways.
Lara is pretty cool. She has that kinda inquisitive yet "I wanna help everyone" power fantasy that I relate to. They did also try to make it like she doesn't want to kill bad guys (which is realistic -- it's weird more video game characters have no qualms with the first time they kill someone), but it is a video game where combat plays a prominent part, so it doesn't really work when Lara is kill people by the dozens.
I recommend CrossCode. It's a puzzle-heavy top-down action-RPG. Think 2D Zelda games, but faster paced and sci-fi themed. You play as Lea, an amnesiac who's trying to recover her memories by playing a fictional MMO called CrossWorlds. I love basically everything about it: the art, the music, the characters, the story, the puzzles, the level design; it's just great.
"good" is subjective, but I can recommend the Tomb Raider reboots.
Castlevania: order of ecclesia
Cross code
Oceans heart
Alice games
Stardew valley
Stardew valley is fun
Going Under. It's a goofy rougelike game which parodizes corporate companies and startups. You play as an unpaid marketing intern who needs to kill monsters from failed startups, but she applied for marketing,
If you're into the anime aesthetic: Nier Automata, Atelier series, and Recettear. I think FFXIII is fun but people would argue otherwise.
Recettear is something I recommend too, as it's really unknown for how good it is. You play as an item shop owner (who's a young girl) that has to make a profit from making and selling items, and there's a dungeon crawling elmenet too.
Alien: Isolation!
Any of the Atelier games
Cyberpunk!
Cyberpunk is soooo much fun. I can't wait for the DLC. It got a bad rap when it launched, but at least when I played it (on PC about 6 months after launch), it was really great and didn't experience any major issues.
Though it should be noted for those unaware that it is a very dark and mature game. An NPC is violently raped off camera. That makes the game not for everyone's taste. Personally, I enjoy when games don't feel like they're avoiding subjects like that (which can feel jarring, since it's a real life concern) and it does add an extra level of emotion to the game. Plus of course, getting to have revenge.
Also some smaller indie games with a cyberpunk theme: Dex (sidscrolling action RPG with a great soundtrack! Although Dex has generally a linear main plot, there is a clear attempt to give you the ability to approach parts of the game different and make it feel more open) Cloudpunk (odd mix of open world and walking/driving simulator with focus on story, if that makes any sense? Despite the voxel graphics: the city has a great atmosphere. Great music at times. Some really interesting stories.
By NOLF you mean No One Lives Forever? If so a quick search gave me this "revival" site, seeing the Windows targets i bet that runs on Wine
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. After playing it for a while I couldn't stop until I reached the end. It looks aged now but controls are generally nice and the story is amazing. And I think the character feels feminine, it's not just a neutral character with a female skin.
That is a good game, agree. My one complaint is that there're a few moments of drive-by transphobia in it. And some puzzles are obtuse or require items that can be missed, but a quick google solves that frustration easily if need be.
Along a similar vein, Syberia is wonderful.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. You play as many characters, but the primary main character is Alexis Roivas.
Extremely retro, but currently available on the Mac App Store: Mess O' Trouble. It was a WorldBuilder game--think Infocom, but with static pictures you could interact with. I believe your choice of Daredevil Dawn or Fearless Frank had some impact on the gameplay if you got far enough, but child me never did.
Final Fantasy X-2 comes to mind. I didn't finish it, but it's well-reviewed so...
I loved the gameplay of X-2, but the story is a bit lackluster and it's really easy to accidentally skip huge portions of the game and find yourself underleveled to a debilitating degree.
Passing By (I think Curly is technically gender-neutral but I always saw her as a girl).
I think the download files got taken down though unfortunately
Edit: Apparantly they've been canonically made non-binary
Played Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin recently
fantastic game. The platforming is fun with surprising depth. The Rice mechanics have way more depth than I can stand, but it's still forgiving enough that you never feel severely punished for messing up.
Forspoken isn't bad.... As long as it's played completely dubbed in Japanese with subs on. Obviously last of us 2 was really great, horizon is also very well acted, and very well done. I think it also is inclusive in a way that matters where some games just replace the protag with a woman, these games build it into narrative as well. In the same vein, I really liked life is strange (even colors to be honest)
A lot of good suggestions here. Remember Me and Mirror's Edge are also good, perhaps not as great some of the truly outstanding ones already posted though. But if you're looking for something with a cyberpunk edge, both will fit the bill nicely.
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