So I'm just getting started in the gaming world. I usually play stuff like Stardew Valley, The Sims 4, Cult of the Lamb… Ultimate I've gotten a bit more into FPS (I'm currently playing Fallout 4 and I'm loving it) and I'd like to continue exploring more in different genres.
In general I love horror, I could watch horror movies every night before going to sleep, so I'd like to know if there are any games out there that are more focused on the female audience. I already played Outlast a few years ago with my ex-boyfriend and I actually have great memories of it, but I feel that the type of gameplay is quite masculinized (if that makes any sense), and in general that doesn't bother me but I'd like to find something that can mix my girly and pinky side with my darker, creepy side.
Thank you in advance for your suggestions! 🌷✨ I will add my favorites to my wishlist for this autumn.
Very scary idk but little weird maybe game like Little Nightmare, Alice Madness Returns, Franbow
Scary maybe something like… Fatal Frame series or Kuon (Female main and ghosts)?
Oooh, do I ever have a suggestion for you!
Signalis is a survival horror game in the same vein as the original resident evil and silent hill games. To a new gamer, this might not mean much, so to better describe the gameplay– It is a top down/isometric view where you control a character through a labyrinth while conserving ammo, med kits and supplies while fighting off zombie-like enemies.
[Signalis Trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KFiOp2o4L8)
It was released in October 2022 and was developed by just two people. A woman and an NB person (feminine leaning) The main character is a female android (known as Replika’s) who is searching for a ghestalt woman. (human) The story and world building is subtle but well told through environments, notes and messages, etc. There is a heavy puzzle element in the game as well ,which are challenging but rewarding when you figure them out.
Most of the characters in the game are women and the story is set in a sci-fi universe set in a fascist empire. The world-building is captivating. I honestly can’t recommend this game enough, as it is my favorite game.
Little goody two shoes, alisa, pocket mirror, haunting grounds
What about little misfortune?
Alien Isolation is imho the best horror game ever. It’s not exactly girly (but I also don’t see it as targeting specifically the male audience) and the main character is a girl, or rather, a girlboss, similiar to the first Alien movie(s).
The missing: jj macfield
Lollipop chainsaw (more action than horror but it’s about zombies and the protagonist keeps the head of her boyfriend chained to her belt)
Little misfortune (not scary, more unsettling and kinda fucked up)
Not girly but female protags/focused story:
Tormented Souls
A plague Tale
The Medium
The Tartarus key
Crow country
Silent hill 3
Gylt
Dreadout
Fear the spotlight
Suffer the night
Remothered
Ikai
Martha is dead
Indika
The cat lady
Lorelai
True fear forsaken souls (this is touted as a “hidden object” game but it’s actually closer to point and click imo)
The burial at sea dlc for BioShock infinite
Detention
Rule of rose (goods luck finding a copy tho)
Amnesia 2
Lorraine
Doki Doki Literature Club is a super cute horror game! It’s more of a visual novel type game, but it’s one of my all time favs and it’s aesthetic is 👌👌
You could check out the studio Chilla’s art, they did many first person horror games with female protagonists and they do have a little bit of an anime aesthetic. In Parasocial for example you play a female streamer who gets stalked.
Check out the fatal frame games. Ghost hunting game with a camera as your weapon. Good story, good atmosphere. Characters are anime style girls.
Would Control meet your requirements? It’s rather good and the protagonist is cool.
Dredge is not really all that girly, but it’s cool, cute and creepy.
“Yeah I’ll refresh reddit before bed one more time. What can go wrong-“
Have you played Oxenfree or any of the main Silent Hill games (that’s Silent Hill 1-3 + Room and PT)? SH 3 has a female protagonist but I’d definitely not skip the earlier ones as they are all connected. In the same vein, there’s a SH-like coming out called Hollowbody, it has that great early Playstation aesthetic so I’m looking forward to it. Also Indika, a horror set in a Russian convent looks really unique, but I haven’t tried it. If you like point and clicks and folk horror, try The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow. In the FPS genre, ofc you have Resident Evil 7 but I also found Bioshock to be a bit of a horror (i guess these last two might be considered masculinised though, not sure)
Also I know it gets called toxic all the time but I have never found it to be so (mainly because I play on console and there is no text chat in console, overall there is no voice chat on any console) – have you tried Dead By Daylight? I get the sense that there’s a lot of us girl gamers playing DBD 🙂 At least there’s a lot of fun cosmetics and all the classic movie horror monsters in the game, plus plenty more spooky wonderful killers.
Little Goody Two Shoes – one of the prettiest pixel art games I’ve seen, the cutscenes remind me of old school anime, inspired by fairytales. It’s about a woman living in a small superstitious village, when a mysterious entity draws her into the dark woods and promises to make her dreams come true. It has multiple endings, throughout the day you have to choose dialogue options that don’t raise the villagers suspicion of you. As a heads up, there’s romance, the protagonist can date some of the villagers. However, all of her love interests are women and that’s a pretty important part of the story.
Dreadout 2 – a student has the ability to see ghosts and supernatural entities, so she starts hunting them, inspired by Indonesian folklore.
Tormented Souls – survival horror inspired by the old resident evil games, alone in the dark. While investigating the disappearance of two girls, a woman finds herself in an abandoned mansion.
Remothered Tormented Fathers/Broken Porcelain – more of a thriller rather than a horror series, stealth heavy, both protagonists are women. In Tormented Fathers a journalist is looking for a girl that went missing, the second game follow what happened to that girl and the orphanage she was at. I’m doing a terrible job at explaining the plot of this, I just don’t know how to describe it without spoiling anything.
Medium –
Games on Steam I’ve enjoyed and genuinely scared me:
* Dollhouse (you play a “detective” who follows the story of 6 Hollywood divas who are represented as creepy dolls. It’s VERY good, and I am scared shitless of dolls)
* Through the Woods (you play a mother in the Scandinavian forests who searches for her son, who got kidnapped by creatures from nordic folklore. Its VERY atmospheric)
* Alice Madness Returns (not officially horror, but very dark at times. A dark retelling of Alice in wonderland, where you dive into the mind of a mentally ill Alice little. love the soundtrack)
* Spookys house of jump scares (Looks cutesy, is cutesy and god I was so scared)
* Pony Island (same es spooky but make it a retro arcade)
* What remains of Edith finch (not officially horror, but it will leave you shaking. I promise)
* Little Nightmares and Little Nightmares 2. Not quite girly but OH BOI
Not on steam but Itch-io:
* Fear and Hunger (not necessary girly, but a generally shocking and creepy rouge like)
Edit: OH BOI how could I forget about Bramble! just…. please do yourself a favor and play Bramble!
i have heard a lot of good things about “Signalis” and “Alien Isolation” as well. Haven’t played them yet tho. “Close to the Sun” is also great with an amazing soundtrack, but I wasn’t too scared playing it
Try “dreaming mary” and “rule of rose”!
what exactly is “masculinized” gameplay? Like especially in terms of horror?
There’s a lot of horror RPG Maker games with what you’re looking for
Fausts Alpatraum,[Pocket Mirror](https://astralshiftpro.itch.io/pocket-mirror-classic) Classic is free while Goldenertraum is the remake, Dreaming Mary, [Sweeter Yesterday](https://magicabie.itch.io/sweeter-yesterday), and Little Goody Two Shoes (This one is not an RPG maker game but it’s from the same developers of Pocket Mirror).
Aside Fausts Alpatraum the others are free to play or have a demo available.
There’s the [Yomawari](https://nisamerica.com/yomawari/) series! I looove these games they all can be played as standalone and in any order but I advise to play them in order as each game polishes the mechanics. In the games you explore towns at night while running into all sort of Japanese spirits which are hostile and your only methods of defence are hiding, shining a light on them, throwing rocks or coins to distract them. The third game, Lost In the Dark has a demo available on the switch and playstation.
There’s also Fran Bow and Little Missfortune which are point-and-click adventure games.
Detention, haven’t played this one but I’ve seen lots of good reviews on it.
Alisa is a PS2-style survival horror game, it’s very reminiscent of Resident Evil’s early games and Haunting Ground (in the sense that each outfit has different effects).
They’re not *super* girly per se but Resident Evil 2-3 remakes both have badass lady protagonists. The series has had its fair share of downs with treating its female characters, but at least imo in recent years it’s on a significant upward trend, and the remakes kind of encapsulate that really well. RE is usually kind of campy but the remake series have been pretty down-to-earth horror, especially 2.
I’ll also shout-out RE4R for significantly improving not only both Ashley and Ada, but also the way Leon interacts with women in general. It *does* still force you to be Leon (for the main game) so it fits even less than the others lol but it’s a really good game in its own right. …and despite some male gaze woes the original is *also* one of the best games ever.
Don’t really have and “Girly” horror games but:
Amnesia Rebirth: MC is a woman, and it’s a really creepy, intense game that has a psychological horror vibe to it.
Hellblade: not really horror per se, but it’s has a creepy atmostphere as it focuses on Senua a Celtic warrior who has to navigate her life with a host of mental Health issues, and the game is very blunt with how it portrays it(they had actual mental health advisors on board).
Tormented Souls: not to sure about this game actually, but Female MC who is stuck in some sort of asylum and uncovers things as she progresses(it’s a survival horror game).
Resident Evil 2 and 3: both games have Female MC’s and the jist of it is, each character is stuck in Raccoon City when there’s a Zombie outbreak, and have to figure out how to survive and escape, while uncovering the truth of what happened.
Signalis: A woman is stuck in a Ship in a Barren place trying to survive. Don’t know much about this game yet even though i bought it yet again, but there’s an air of mystery around the whole thing.
The Medium: A woman who has the ability to see the dead, after sending her father off, gets a call from a mysterious person to go to an old abandonded hotel, where she unravels the mystery behind what happened there(it’s a walking puzzle simulator). This ones a bit tricky because it handles it’s topics especially Mental Health/Trauma really poorly, so it’s upto you.
Have fun! and your a madwoman for watching horror movies before bed, i specifically have to stop playing horror games like 4 hours before bed, or i’m plagued with Nightmares, lol!
Little goody two shoes
Doki doki literature club for psychological horror if you havent already haha
Two of my fave games:
Little Goody Two Shoes. A very cute, witchy horror game. Not incredibly scary, but visually beautiful.
Fatal Frame is less cute, but I found it terrifying when I played it as a teen. I loved how each game is linked and deepens the plot. The more you play the more you understand the whole (extremely violent) history. There are also some beautiful dark visuals.
Well try Eloquent Countenance or Married in Red 🙂 They’ve got cutesy art styles that i love.
RPG Maker Games like Ib, The Witch’s House and Mad Father. They are horror games with puzzle solving mechanics and are available on PC & Switch.
Crow Country is like Resident Evil but in an abandoned Disneyland and the main character is a girl with cute purple hair. Also it has an easy mode which is the way I played it, and it was still scary because of the ambient sounds lol
I’m sorry if this is obvious but are the pics from a game? I have a friend and I think this is literally her vibes so I would absolutely love to get it for her if she isn’t already playing it.
Fatal Frame def! Amazing supernatural horror that draws from esoteric, rather gruesome japanese occultism. Gameplay is also very addictive once you get the hang of it.
The female protagonists are all very pretty, and they have a bunch of costumes they could put on that is very in line with the aesthetic you have above.
First thing that came to mind looking at your inspo pics was Ender Lilies. It’s a dark fantasy metroidvania where you play as a doll-like little girl in a post apocalypse landscape.