Gaming

There's Alien: Isolation if you're looking for a horror game. Every so often I'll go and give it another playthrough. That game was phenomenal, especially if you're a fan of the Alien movies

Assassin's Creed Odyssey female lead is canon, although you have the choice to play the male as well.

Returnal.

Great list from @mint@beehaw.org, just a few more:
Gris is an absolute gem.
The A Plague Tale duology is also up there (with Requiem being my favourite game of all time, so I'm extremely biased, sorry / not sorry :D).

Cyberpunk!

Besides me wanting to immediately say things like Metroid, Celeste, Tomb Raider, Life is Strange and such.

Games I enjoyed

• Cat Lady / Lorelai
• DOS2 (technically you can just play Sebille and Lohse stories)
• fault milestone (incomplete)
• anything by Christine Love (visual novels)
• Transistor

Then other random games I can think of that I didn't see listed

• Fatal Frame
• Bleed
• They Bleed Pixels
• Franbow
• Beyond Good and Evil
• Beyond Two Souls
• Indivisible
• Hatsune Miku games? (lol)
• Potionomics
• Alice Madness Returns
• Tandem: A Tale of Shadows
• Gris
• Little Misfortune
• Crypt of the Necrodancer
• Neptunia series
• Saintmaker

And I should stop before I am here all day thinking... lol

It's older, but The Longest Journey is good. Unfortunately, the final game in the series kinda sucks.

While it's an ensemble, most people would agree that the main character of Final Fantasy VI is a woman—they just might disagree about which woman is the lead.

I also liked the first Xenosaga game, but again, it's a series that goes pretty badly downhill.

The Mass Effect series is still my favorite, you can choose your protagonist to be female and the game will adapt accordingly. Or Dragon Age if you are more into fantasy.

Plague Tale:Innocence and Requiem

Can I suggest some great novel games?

**VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action **

• play as a bartender and change outcomes of stories by providing different drinks

Fatal Twelve

• death game, mystery, lesbian couple as main character, one of the best

A group of developers have created a version of the game and it's sequels that runs on modern machines: http://nolfrevival.tk/

Edit: this was meant as a reply to @KIM_JONG_JUICEBOX 's comment. No One Lives Forever is a whip smart spy FPS that nails the Bond aesthetic but stars an unforgettable female protagonist, Kate Archer. Download it for free above.

In approximate order of how strongly I recommend but all are recommended

Sayonara Wild Hearts
Epistory
Tales of Berseria
Tangle Tower (Pair of male and female protagonists through the whole game and they are very balanced for screentime)
Wargroove
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
Crypt of the Necrodancer
The Stillness of the Wind
Sable
Tsioque
The Flame in the Flood
The World Next Door
Never Alone
One Step from Eden

beyond good and evil is great

Ms Pac Man obviously

technically any MMO (or other RPG) that lets you build a female character, but I would say FFXIV as there are a lot of interesting female secondary protags.

Hmm, by that standard, Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous both qualify, though opinions on the NPC companions vary.

Nier: Automata

Immortals: Fenyx Rising

A couple of the Star Ocean games let you choose between a Male or Female protag.

Trying to find some that haven't been talked about yet:

Echo. It's a fantastic experimental infiltration game with an AI that adapts to your way of playing. The setup is very impressive.

Pathologic: one of the three playable characters (the Changeling). It's a bizarre russian game, with an unique world, and messy gameplay. Can't recommend it enough.

Va11 Hall-A: chill bartending game in a cyberpunk setup.

The Blackwell series: comfy, kind of amateurish point and clicks by Wadjet Eye. I like them very much.

Transistor: weirdest game by Supergiant. You play as a redhead with a talking sword. I don't remember much about it except that it was good.

The Fall: (pushing it a little bit, since the protagonist is an AI, but I've always seen here as female.) Criminally underrated puzzle games, disguised as metroidvanias.

Eliza (by Zachtronics): the only visual novel I enjoyed. It's hard to explain, it's about AI, burnout, whether tech dehumanizes people, and solitaire.

Hedon Duology: for something completely different, it's a slightly kinky retroshooter, with amazon Orcs fighting demons.
It may sound a bit dumb, but it's excellent. Huge levels, interesting worldbuilding, and a gameplay based on exploration, puzzles as well as shooting.

There's probably a ton more, but that's all I can think about at the moment.

Not seeing Transistor but if you want a female protagonist that will make you cry your eyes out at the end, I recommend her.

Games As Literature 101 has a documentary that goes into a deep dive about Red as a character.

Also some people used Red's song from Transistor as a wedding song 😃

Celeste!

Surprised no one has mentioned Tomb Raider yet. Others not yet mentioned:

• Assassin's Creed: Liberation, and Chronicles: China
• Beyond: Two Souls
• The Last of Us Part II
• inFamous: First Light

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.

Most games I can think of have been mentioned, but I found Signalis to be an interesting experience assuming you can get past the annoying inventory management

If you're into the anime aesthetic: Nier Automata, Atelier series, and Recettear. I think FFXIII is fun but people would argue otherwise.

Night in the Woods is objectively the best game ever made by any measure. Tacoma and Gone Home are amazing too.

I mean I dunno, it depends on what kind of games you like, surely?

Mirror's Edge is a good one I haven't seen mentioned yet. A bit older by this point but it was a fun one.
Transistor is another great one. The gameplay was fine but the art and sound is incredible.

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.

"good" is subjective, but I can recommend the Tomb Raider reboots.

The tomb raider Trilogie

The Great Giana Sisters!

Silent Hill 3 has a great female protagonist imo, but you have to play Silent Hill 1 to get the gist of the story in 3.

Castlevania: order of ecclesia

Cross code

Oceans heart

Alice games

Stardew valley

Resident Evil Remake 2 and 3, great games with both male and female protagonists!

Whoa whoa whats wrong with Senua?

The modern tomb raiders are pretty decent.