By “girly” games I mean : games that have a soft/pink color scheme. About slice of life (preferably with romance elements), and non-violent with no/minimal combat.
I’ve already played Stardew Valley, Minecraft and Animal Crossing.
I’ve never played it but ‘Pony Island’ seems to have a pink color scheme and I’m guessing it’s about ponies, so maybe?
My daughter loves A Short Hike and Wobbly Life.
And on her phone Toca Boca World. Though it has a tendency to crash every few months, taking her progress with it.
She also likes Spider-Man but I guess that’s not very “girly”.
A Short Hike is ace!
And it’s not that short; the island to me seems to be an actual mile wide in circumference. There’s lots to do in the one environment.
The Hike itself is short. Took me only a few minutes.
Smushi come home is similar vibes to a short hike and I loved it.
My wife loves Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and she’s been way into Hello Kitty: Island Adventure lately. It seems to split the difference between those things and add some of its own spice on top.
I had childhood PTSD flashbacks reading “adventure Island” without ever having played any animal crossing games.
Unpacking
Spiritfarer
Oh, also the Life is Strange games are great.
I enjoyed the first one very much.
The latest one is one of the worst, most awkward, uninspired, terribly written, bullshit games I’ve ever seen, though. It’s absolutely hilarious.
Oh yes, definitely avoid the last one, Double Exposure.
But Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, by the same dev as the first Life is Strange is supposed to be decent. But I want to wait until all episodes are available before I play that.
Oh no, I meant Lost Records hahaha. It’s completely horrible in every aspect, to the point of being hilarious. The reviews it’s getting baffle me. It’s easily the worst of them all.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about VA-11 Hall-A. Haven’t played it myself, but it looks like you play as a bartender in a cyberpunk-esque world and talk to the partons in your bar to get to know what’s going on in both the world and their personal lives
In the same kind of game you got “Coffee Talk” (and its sequel), which works way better with a controller than VA-11 Hall-A does.
Unfortunately the story author died, which is a shame.
This is my favorite VN. I love this game so much. They just released a figure of the main character and I preordered it
Well there’s lot of shovelware girly games out there. Your best bet would be cozy games https://cozygamereviews.com/cozy-games-on-steam/ maybe try a dating sim or two? The KFC Dating sim https://store.steampowered.com/app/1121910/I_Love_You_Colonel_Sanders_A_Finger_Lickin_Good_Dating_Simulator/ is free and one my absolute favorites. Granted, it’s stupid, it’s cheesy, it’s anime, it’s taking itself a little bit too serious, but I like it. One of my friends recently loved house flipper 2 https://store.steampowered.com/app/1190970/House_Flipper_2/ a game where you clean houses, sell them, later even get to design your own houses. Also one of my new favorite cozy feel good games is little kitty big city https://store.steampowered.com/app/1177980/Little_Kitty_Big_City/ I just love the writing and the atmosphere of this game! Oh, and the Style-Boutique game series on the Nintendo 3 DS! If you know a tech savvy person who can Mod a 2DS or 3DS you can get the console for cheap and put the game on there from the internet. My wife and one of my coworkers loved these games!
[I totally want to start a thread about how Red Dead Redemption (GTA but it’s the wild wild west-era with cowboys) has the best horse riding experience in any game until now and how a horse riding game with the mechanics would be amazing, but I’ll just plant this seed here and hope for some game-dev to see it.]
Can second Little Kitty, Big City, but would recommend getting it on sale. There’s not a whole of content or replayability for the regular price, imo.
Totally! I think $15 is fine though
https://www.themanequest.com/ is all about horse games, by an equestrian game dev. You might enjoy it. I am not a horse person but the articles are a fun read.
House Flipper 2 is great. I wish missions were less linear, but it’s probably the best “home designer” game out there.
Check out Windstorm! It’s an upcoming game that is basically what you describe, just set in Mongolia.
My niece introduced me to LKBC, and so far it seems like a lot of fun!
I can’t recommend Celeste enough, personally.
I will warn you that the platforming can be challenging, but if it’s too stressful Celeste offers almost unparalleled accessibility options that will allow you fine control over the difficulty so no matter your skill level you’ll be able to progress.
Great story, cozy atmosphere but still emotional impact, and the only “fighting” you do is against yourself.
Amazing game, highly recommend Celeste
The first life is strange game. I suppose there is technically a violent part but it’s not a game based on violence.
Exactly this. Life is strange will make you feel like a teenage girl solving a mystery. Its awesome.
And the best part is that this game is good no matter what. Older straight white dude? No problem. Still fun and interesting. It shows how well done it was.
Agreed, I played it the first time when I was 26, and I’m a straight Swiss and German man. Freaking love playing as Max. I played it two more times after that, and also the Chloe focused prequel.
Before the Storm? Yea that one was really good too. I never played any of the other games though. They never looked as good. Also i heard the newest one was dogshit.
Yes same here. I did watch a bit of someone else playing the one with the two Mexican brothers running away, but never really had the motivation to play it myself. I guess I just found time power to be much more interesting.
I already knew the struggles that women have to endure that most men don’t. But playing this game really put that into perspective, with how immersed I became. By the end of the game, I felt emotionally wreck.
Very much a “girly” game, just in an entirely different sense.
A lot of [email protected] and [email protected] games would fit. [email protected] are romance visual novels aimed at women interested in men and a lot would fit too.
[email protected] is an open world dressup game very marketed at women and has that soft pink color scheme, warning for being a F2P gacha game although you can progress without ever spending money. I usually avoid gacha but gameplay is legitimately good and “good gameplay,” “high budget,” and “for women” is a combination this game hits that I do not see too often in video games. (Other commenter is right there is a lot of girly shovelware.) There is combat, but it’s definitely not the main focus. Very soft and pink. You might also like Beglitched (DEFINITELY pink and soft), and Style Savvy for Nintendo DS. I have been meaning to play both of those so I can’t offer perspective on if they fill the romance ask, though Beglitched has combat. You might also enjoy Slime Rancher, also lots of pink and soft. Although it’s also not combat-free it’s not the main point either. Cattails was fun, kind of like Stardew but with cats instead, although as with Stardew combat does exist (though if I recall correctly it’s optional and not the main focus).
Now probably my recommendation least like what you are asking for: I love the Touhou Project series. Don’t let the male-dominated fandom and the tons of sexualized art of the characters fool you, the games don’t sexualize the characters at all—I would feel very comfortable showing them to a 5 year old or Grandma. It is basically a bunch of superpowered women from Japanese mythology/folklore shooting very pretty lasers at each other. The focus is actually combat here, but I figured I’d give it a mention. Not specifically aimed at women but it’s not not aimed at us either. Lovely music too.
Source: am girly girl who also plays video games
My first Touhou game was on PC-9801, “The Highly Responsive to Prayers.” I think its the first Touhou game ever made? Not sure. I am not really much of an Outbreak or Arkanoid fan though, so I didn’t really care for it.
Then I tried “The Story of Eastern Wonderland,” which was extremely different from the previous game. I liked it more, but danmaku Shmup style games aren’t really my thing. They’re fine for a 30 minute stint, but I usually don’t play those kinds of games any longer than that.
I am sure Touhou has branched out since then, is there a Touhou game you might recommend that is different from those?
Most of the main series are shmups, but they have a few fighting games. I had a lot of fun with them! That would be Immaterial and Missing Power, Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, and Touhou Hisoutensoku. There are more recent ones too, which I admit I have not tried: Hopeless Masquerade, Urban Legend in Limbo, and Antinomy of Common Flowers. Cool to have found a PC-98 player!
There are also many fan games out there of different genres! A metroidvania, a puzzle game, long list… https://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Fangames
Wandersong! You play as a Bard who has to save the world through music and singing. Minimal combat and absolutely wonderful storyline that will make you cry tears of joy.
A bit of a wilder rec would be Cassette Beasts, which is basically Pokémon but better and has really nice optional romances. Very combat focused tho.
Cassette Beasts is great. So great I got the OST on both Vinyl… And cassette tape, of course 😆.
Never tried Wandersong, gonna have to add it to my playlist.
Haha hell yeah. The OST for cassette beasts is an all timer. The devs behind Wandersong also just released a monster catching game called Beastball if you want some more indie pokemon fix. Haven’t tried it yet but I heard great things.
Unpacking, it’s a relaxing puzzle game with some great environmental storytelling. Gameplay amounts to unpacking after various times moving house throughout a woman’s life. It’s really interesting to see how the different stages of her life are shown by the different living situations she moves into.
I was going to suggest this one!
Peggle! It’s a very fun and unique brickbreaker with lots of silly and cute characters, art, and music.
Not super girly/pink overall, but can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone.
Gris