Older games with female protagonists?

Mandy@sh.itjust.works to Patient Gamers@sh.itjust.works – 140 points –

What games of older generations would you put up? i dont mind the genre really, id would just love to hear yalls suggestions.

204

Portal!

Calling this game "older" is hurting my soul, though.

if it makes you feel any better, you dealt psychic damage to me as well

My steam account is 15y old, the Orange Box was my first purchase.

The Orange Box was a lot of people's first Steam purchase. It's hard to overstate just how much gaming value was included.

Mine was Counter Strike, bundled with CS: Condition Zero.

My account is old enough to buy cigarettes

My back hurts

I thought at that time you couldn't buy condition zero separately, only within the orange box 🤔

I bought it before the orange box existed, like I said it was bundled with the OG Counter-Strike and CS: Condition Zero Deleted Scenes.

To be clear: Condition Zero came out in '04, the Orange Box came out in '07.

My Steam account is 18 years old, so I bought CS in '05

I had to sign up for this new fangled "Steam" back when I had to use 5 CDs to install Half-Life 2. Lost that account years ago though, unfortunately.

Metroid is likely the most famous

i recently streamed metroid fusion but had to stop cause the infinite spin jump simply didnt work, very sad cause its a good one

It's not in Dread either. Drives me crazy.

It is in fusion tho, it just LITERALLY didnt work correctly, i got it working maybe once or twice and than never again

idk how i managed to get up to the final boss in dread, but i really didnt like it, the big selling points of the robots where so annoying, like a pale imitation of the samus x of....fusion

I spent 200+ hours with Dread when it came out. Shiniest new toy in awhile so I played the hell out of it. I tried playing it the other week and it doesn't really feel like Metroid to me now.

Long ass opening with an intro fight we can't even play.
Samus flies across the room. She's way way too fast.
Far too much of a focus on boss fights.
Weakest exploration in the series.
Super missiles don't bounce off anything.
The scary robots are in obvious locations and can just be run past.

Super Metroid is still top dog. If you want a modern metroidvania check out Axiom Verge.

Is Mirror's Edge "older" already?

unfortunately, yes, its been 15 years

I'm still alive I cannot apologise

Late 00s first person, non-shooter game involving a female protagonist expertly traversing platforms in a techno-dystopia covered in white, with a theme song "Still Alive".

Portal and Mirror's Edge have a lot more in common than I realise

Mirror’s edge still had shooty bits if you wanted to. But of course the proper play-through is the one where you take the 100% non-lethal approach :)

Portal had shooty bits, I mean the whole game revolved around a gun and shooting the correct locations.

You’re technically right. But I think we both know that I meant regular gun shooty bits, not portal gun shooty bits :)

Beyond Good & Evil

I started playing this for the first time earlier today. Only 3 hours in, but I can already tell why it has a very adamant fan base to this day.

How old are we talking? Final Fantasy VI, Super Metroid, Resident Evil 2, and the OG Tomb Raider series are all pretty old but great.

Portal, Portal 2, Mirror's Edge, Alien Isolation, Child of Light, Celeste, Tales of Berseria, Final Fantasy XIII, Slime Rancher, the newer Tomb Raifer games, and A Plague Tale are a few games from previous gens that hold up really well.

A more recent game that flew under a lot of people's radars is Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and it was a lot of fun. Also, Atelier Ryza and Alba: A Wildlife Adventure are very worth mentioning, too. :)

I have to call out Mirror's Edge, it is a great experience if you have the right mindset.

Trying to play it with an FPS philosophy is not the way.

Atelier Ryza

Don't forget the rest of Atelier series!

That's true! There's a lot of good games in that series, I've heard. I have yet to play most of them myself.

I haven't played a lot, but I did played Atelier Iris 3 as well as Atelier Rorona. Mana Khemia is fun as well

Kena: Bridge of Spirits really is an excellent game, I've done a couple of playthroughs at different difficulty levels, and there is so much more depth to the gameplay than I realized on my first playthrough. It's fun, challenging, has a decent story, beautiful environments, and some really cool bosses. The fact that it's an indie studio's first game still blows my mind.

Just wanted to add my own recommendation of Kena to anyone who might be interested, even though it's a more recent game.

It's been on my wishlist for a while cuz I thought it looked pretty good but wasn't quite sure if I should try it.

Now I know to buy it next time there's a good steam sale. You've sold me!

How dare you have such great taste on the internet? I can't even fight you over this list.

Fatal Frame
Rule of Rose
Clocktower (the series, but I recommend 3)
Resident Evil
American McGee’s Alice
Fear Effect
Dino Crisis

Depending on your definition of “older” you also have:
Alien: Isolation
Fran Bow
What Remains of Edith Finch
Life is Strange

Jill of the Jungle, if you like Commander Keen era PC platformers.

Hah I was thinking about that one, I played the three of them (I think that's all of them?) way back in the early 90s. What a novel concept, a jungle lady saving a prince!

King’s Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
One of my most favorite King’s Quest games. And one of the first games I remember playing with a proper female lead.

are the kings quest games selfcontained? do i need any of the previous ones to fully understand what is happening?

I think the third Leisure Suit Larry has a female lead in some parts too.

Metroid.

How did I scroll through this list and not see Samus Aran mentioned?

Damn I just replied the same thing without bothering to scroll. Hahaha

Tomb Raider (1996). The levels are well designed and work with the tank controls in a way that lets you master Lara Croft's acrobatic descent through haunting environments that feel far more threatening than most games I see today

The Longest Journey was my favorite as a kid. Point and click adventure about a young art student in the future who keeps teleporting to a fantasy world.

never really got around to playing it, ill make sure to do so now

Here are a couple I played back in the day:

  • Oni (Bungie, 2001)
  • Remember Me (Dontnod, 2013)

that girl form oni looks like she cna kick my ass, i like her already

It always seems like very few people played Remember Me.

i played like one hour, or two before, it neither looked nor played nice to me when i tried it.

Parasite Eve (never played it myself but I know it's considered a classic)

The woman in that game is an adult in a child's body. Skip this one.

“Aya Brea is the main protagonist of the Parasite Eve series. She is 25 in Parasite Eve, 27 in Parasite Eve II and 38 in The 3rd Birthday.”

Please elaborate.

Meanwhile, her younger sister Eve (a genetic clone of Aya) is an example of the inverse, as when she was rescued she was chronologically only 2-3 years old but had the appearance and behavior of a preteen girl. Ten years later on the day of Aya's wedding, Eve still looked about the same age instead of aging into a 20-something, even though by now she'd graduated from college. In the ending, it's revealed that the person the player has been controlling is actually Eve in Aya's body. She permanently takes over after Aya's death, making her a young teen in an 38-year-old body that looks 20.

That’s the third game in the series. Not only is it completely different in style and tone, but it’s generally disliked and dismissed by the fandom. Are you recommending they skip 1 and 2 just because of this third game?

If someone asks you if you like pe, do you say yes? Or, do you say, yes expect for the borderline csam?

oh fuck off, they were amazing games 1&2, I've never even heard of the third game until your comment, you're dismissing the series based on something irrelevant

Final Fantasy VI is a great one!

I remember creating a female Twi'lek Jedi in some of the old LucasArts Jedi games.

  • LucasArts Jedi something something
  • KOTOR
  • Baldur's Gate
  • Fallout Although these were more like "create-your-own protagonists" rather than "known hero protagonists" that people recognize.

Aside from the classics already mentioned in the thread, Lara, Chell, Samus, Valentine, Redfield, etc. here's a few that come to mind:

  • Peach in Super Mario 2, the game that feels more like a mushroom trip, than a trip to mushroom kingdom
  • Aya from Parasite Eve
  • Chun Li from Street Fighter, also Cammy
  • Mortal Kombat
  • Tekken
  • Soulcalibur
  • Dead or Alive
  • Sarah Kerrigan in Starcraft(s), although it's an RTS, so protagonist is a bit loose.
  • Rayne from BloodRayne, the first video game character to appear in PlayBoy, eh
  • Ellie from The Last Of Us, damn it's been 10 years already? Is that an old game already? Am I old? Nevermind, don't answer.
  • Clem from The Walking Dead
  • Joanna from Perfect Dark

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few others.

I believe the default choice in the jedi academy character creator was a female twilek..

Some of these aren't that old, but still...

Blades of Time - fun hack & slash

Crosscode - great SNES inspired action rpg

Gianna Sisters - platformer, has co-op

Icey - another hack & slash

Mirror's Edge - first person parkour simulator with a great main character and good story

Psuedoregalia - short indie metroidvania, best movement mechanics of any game in a long time

Transistor - awesome story, interesting mechanics.

Jill of the Jungle is the oldest one I know of that isn't Metroid. Fairly certain Metroid was first, but everybody knows Samus. Nobody, even people my age, ever talks about Jill of the Jungle tho.

Playing Jill of the Jungle (and many other retro gems) on my grandpas computer when visiting is one of my core memories from my childhood. He had so many great games from that era that have since gone forgetten. I wish i could remember them all.

if you look at metroid and jill side by side, i dont blame em

Iji is a free game released in 2008. Sidescrolling shooter with a story, fun boss fights, and a great soundtrack. It's really a shame it isn't as well known in these circles, it's quite good.

oooh, it has that classic flash game design, of course, it came out in 08, thanks for that one

Trying to think of some obscure, unknown games: Eien no Filena, a JRPG on the Super Nintendo. The protagonist is a woman pretending to be a man as a lower class citizen forced to be a gladiator. Awkwardness ensues when she is "assigned" a wife and the men around her start being very confused about their sexuality.

Zapp: "I've never been so happy to get beat up by a woman."

Leela: "Let's do it again sometime."

The Laura Bow adventure games Colonel’s Bequest and Dagger of Amon Ra from Sierra OnLine.

Came here to post Colonel's Bequest. I loved so many Sierra games but this might have been the most fun and interesting.

"Jill of the Jungle" is an ancient DOS game, and honestly a bit sexploitative. But it does feature a female protag. And is old.

Syberia, if you're into point and click adventure games. I think they made three of them.

The ovious one: Tomb Raider

Ah yes, Tomb Raid. With famous action hero Lar Crof as the protagonist

I love samsung's autocorrector

I believe all Elder Scrolls (at least the mainline games: Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim) let you select your character's gender.

Also, what is "old"? Mass Effect 1 is already 15 years old.

Trails in the Sky FC and SC.

Also, FemShep was a popular option in Mass Effect for good reason.

Here to second the Trails series and Sky in particular. Estelle is the best.

The older Resident Evil games (1, 2, Code Veronica, RE:Zero) have playable female protagonists. Actually most of the RE games have at least one segment where you play as a female character.

The swapping of two protagonists is actually something I wish they would bring back to the modern games in the franchise.

Yeah replaying all the RE now and it's crazy how this very early choice of two playable characters in the original series allowed the remasters to feel much more modern in their writing. Jill feels like the modern badass main woman a lot of game which they could write properly.

Phantasy Star. Love that game.

I put together a list of games for every letter of the alphabet with playable female characters that I've personally played and a lot of them are pretty old.

https://eldritch.cafe/@Gwendolyn/109348711301572294

Yeah I was going to say "a lot of jrpgs" Phantasy Star probably tops that list though.

The main protagonist in Final Fantasy 6 is female. There's a large number of games that age or newer with Female protags... older is a bit harder (but not too hard. You just unfortunately end up with a lot of fringe games or exploitive games)

And below, some cheatiness (a fairly exhaustive list of both :) )

1980s

1990s

The Siberia series, King's Quest IV, Parasite Eve series, Excalibur 2555 AD, Fear Effect series

Coincidentally, I just finished Syberia 2 this week

quite a lot you got there, ill put em on the list

Excalibur 2555 AD is very, very bad. Not even the "so bad it is good" kind of bad. Just bad.

you had me at very bad, i love to try out the crustiest of games, thanks

At risk of posting twice but, I had to add this one as well:
Kyrandia 2: The Hand of Fate
A point-and-click adventure game. It was funny, colorful, and Zanthia is still awesome :) Made by Westwood of all people. It makes some references to the first, but you could play it on its own.

cool, but what about the first one? do i need it?

Hmmm.. The plot of the first one has nothing to do with the second. But you do get a lot of world building and some characters are properly introduced in the first.
I guess you should play the first as well if you want the best experience. It’s also a good game, though the puzzles are a little more.. frustrating. But it’s nothing a good walkthrough can’t solve :)

Metroid of course!

Also Ion Fury isn't old, but its made to look and feel old, and the protag is kick-ass

i played a couple of levels already, the quips had me and my gf in stitches, id LOVE more like ion fury, gib me more plz world

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem.

the cover looks very familiar..i saw this one before, i just cant place it where it was.

It's an old GameCube game. Definitely a hidden gem of the console.

A lot of point-and-click adventure games do feature female protaganists. One that comes to mind that's not bee mentioned so far is Kathy Rain.

after having to pinpoint my search to Kathy Rain the GAME, i really dig her biker chick look

How in the world did y'all miss Silent Hill 3? It's October, and there are even other horror games mentioned. No excuse! Tsk tsk.

I haven't seen it mentioned so i'll go with Ion Fury. It's not really that old, but it's made on Build engine. The same was used in Duke Nukem 3D or Blood. Same roots means main protagonist have badass comments on lot of game occasions.

Don't know if PS1 counts as old but Valkyrie profile is one of my favorite games and you play as a Valkyrie recruiting fallen warriors and training them up for Valhalla.
Star Ocean 2 (also on PS1) is another one of my favorites and you can choose between a guy or girl at the beginning, which changes the story a bit.

my man, its been 30 years, you have to accept the fact ps1 is old now

but ill check that one out

its been 30 years

Don't say these things! It is scary. D=

im crumbling to dust as we speak, you just gotta accept the times gotta time

Donkey Kong Country 3 if you count anthro characters. Dixie is also in DKC2 but there she is the sidekick and not the main character, not that there's much difference from a gameplay perspective.

Okami

I played that game when I was very young but I remember thinking the main character was a bitch.

If you accept games where you fully create the character, you've got a ton of RPGs. Baldur's gate, elder scrolls, arcanum, fallout.

Napple Tale: Arisa in Daydream
A game for the Dreamcast that had a primarily female dev team. It was exclusive to Japan, but a translation patch was released a couple years ago.

Atelier series
There are a bunch of these. They’re RPGs based heavily around crafting. Actually, they basically pioneered crafting in RPGs.

Um Jammer Lammy
A spin-off of Parappa the Rapper. Lammy has only 15 minutes to make it to her band’s performance, but getting there won’t be easy.
Note that Stage 6 is censored in the North American release. Also as a bonus, completing the game unlocks Parappa mode, with new versions of every song after Stage 1.

Athena
Stick with the original arcade version. The NES port is infamously bad.

Psycho Soldier
A spin-off of Athena (sort of) starring Athena’s descendant/reincarnation (it depends on the writer), Athena Asamiya (and Sie Kensou as player 2’s character). Athena (and Kensou) would later become staples of the King of Fighters series. The game is notable for being the first game with a vocal soundtrack.

Baraduke
An arcade title from Namco. Being on this list is actually a pretty big spoiler because the fact that the protagonist is a woman isn’t revealed until the end of the game. Now that probably sounds like a ripoff of Metroid, but here’s the thing: Baraduke did it first.

Koudelka
An obscure horror RPG for the PlayStation.
The game is an unhappy compromise between the creator and the dev team. One side wanting to make a survival horror game and the other going for something like Final Fantasy VII. I’ve never actually gotten very far in this one because I hate the battle system. Also, this game has connections to the later Shadow Hearts series.

Literally every game in the Otome genre
Probably not what you’re looking for, but technically fits your criteria of having a female protagonist.

I might add more to this post if I can think of something else.

thats a lot of stuff i havent heard before, thank you kindly

Siberia!!! And Dreamfall!!! Best games ever!!!

edit: also I saw Life is strange in the comments, this is a really good game. And also I remembered bayonetta!!!

Eien no Filena on the SNES/SFC (it was Japan-only but it's been fan-translated).

Not only is the protagonist a woman - that fact is repeatedly plot-relevant.

Cult: Heretic Kingdoms

Fantastic RPG game, with a badass female protagonist.

Super Hang-On had a female protagonist but you only found out if you beat the hardest arcade mode

Erica

The Syberia Series

The Longest Journey

Gone Home

Virginia

What remains of Edith Finch

Beyond Good and Evil

Gabriel Knight 3 has shared protagonists that you switch between; one is a woman.

Likewise some of the Broken Sword series

Talos Principle is either non-gendered or whatever you want the protagonist to be.

The first Blair Witch game from 2000

Everyone's gone to the Rapture

Also, holla at whoever said "No One Lives Forever"; that game rules.

  • Broken Age - point & click
  • Little Dew - ARPG/Zelda-like
  • most RPGs with character selection (Elder Scrolls, Mount & Blade)
  • Raven's Hike - puzzle/platforming
  • Shantae - platformer

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet.

Most of my suggestions were already mentioned, but PN03 & darkened skye come to mind.

Pedantry aside, if you count the option of selecting a female character, trickstyle, borderlands, super mario bros 2, vigilante 8 second offense, tony hawk 3 (4, underground and probably any in this series but I haven't played them lol)

pn03 looks like bayonetta and vanquish got it going, looks itneresting

Final Fantasy 6. There are technically several protagonists, but the one with the better claim to "main protagonist" is a woman.

Also, Heaven's Vault isn't an old game, but it's not very well known or talked about, so I'll throw it in anyway.

idk what it is about Heaven’s Vault artstyle but something irks me about it, i wish i could say what ti is

I know what you mean, I felt the same way when I first saw it, and even when I started playing. But the concept intrigued me, so I kept going, and after a while I got used to the art style. If the concept of the game appeals to you, I'd still recommend you give it a try.

A bit late to the thread, but I just wanted to say Beyond Two Souls recently had its 10 year anniversary, if that counts as old.

One of my top 3 JRPGs, Star Ocean: The Second Story, has a remake coming out early November. In the beginning of the game, you get the choice to play as one of the main characters, a male or a female, each of whom has their own story arc and exclusive party members that can be found during the playthrough.

not to rain on your parade but uuuh, this is patient gamers but ill check the og out

not to rain on your parade but uuuh, this is patient gamers

What's your point? The game is over 20 years old, and there's no rule against simply mentioning an upcoming remake.

Nobody likes unnecessary gatekeeping.

The original PS1 game had both main character options, if that makes you feel better about it.

Actually not from older generations, but Tacoma and Deliver Us The Moon are a few years old and both are short, sweet space-related narrative games with a female protagonist.

  • Monster World IV
  • Twinkle Tail
  • If Tomb Raider is old enough for you
  • Contra
  • Touho
  • another game I played (forgot the name, will edit later)
  • most games where you could choose between 2 or more playable characters

Now that I think of it, the only not oversexualised female protagonists in retro games (I can think of rn) are from japanese titles. The USSR didn't import video games and Europe and the US were just too conservative ig.

undertale

ddlc

katawa shoujo

little misfortune

hellblade: senua's sacrifice

parasite eve

depending on "old" but horizon zero dawn

like a dragon 5 (Haruka is a protag)

Ddlc, hzd and hellblade, aint old

Undertales protag doesn't have a gender

Katawa shoujos protag is a dude

Ooops, I was basing it on "old-to-have-sales" and not "retro-old" with patient gamers and all. totally didn't read your mind there.