If you’re open to the idea of ditching a Microsoft product, I’d suggest Vintage Story as a Minecraft alternative that I think has a nicer aesthetic. It’s meant to be a sort of slow, “grindy” game, but if you sort of rewire your thinking to it being a slice of life game, akin to Stardew, I think it’s very fun. Fair warning the early game can be very punishing if you’re brand new to it, so explore the world and difficulty setting when you make your first save.
Somewhat cozy game with a femme lead I’m excited for is Cairn. It’s got a demo at the moment, but I’m very much looking forward to the full game. It’s technically a survival game about rock climbing, but if I had to guess the story will center the main character going through a lot of personal growth while attempting to scale a mountain (a la Celeste, also a great game) and overcoming a lot of adversity to regain some self confidence.
Flock is an underplayed cozy game with no combat. You are a bird and you find other birds, sometimes not birds, to join your flock and fly around. It’s completely chill and enjoys a really soft color palette (pink for sure but also purples, pale orange skies, blues, etc.)
Oh man I thought this was VORON for a bit (I had forgotten the game was called VORON). It is not, but if you are interested in Flock you might like VORON
I'm currently playing Research Story, that one is pretty cute. There are romances. I don't know about combat since I haven't gotten that far (just a few hours of play); it doesn't really seem like there will be combat, but there could be.
I'd also recommend Apico, Mudborne, Littlewood, or Fields of Mistria. I'm sure I'm missing a ton. I think Steam has "Cute," "Romance," and "Slice of Life" tags if you wanted to browse those on the storefront.
A bunch of retro games have good couch co-op support & the steam deck can emulate pretty much all of them
Zombies ate my neighbors, smash TV, 2-d brawlers like TMNT turtles in time, double dragon, and streets of rage, Goldeneye, toejam and Earl, bubble bobble
A lot of !cozygames and !lifesimulation games would fit. !otomegames are romance visual novels aimed at women interested in men and a lot would fit too.
!infinitynikki 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.
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!
crawl, rounds, ship of fools, pico park (better with a large group), risk of rain returns (2 would also be good except that it doesn't actually support local multiplayer, only online).
bin.pol.social
Aktywne