Gay/Lesbian or Trans Characters in HM?

SNES, HM64, BTN, STH, A Wonderful Life, Another Wonderful Life, AWL:SE, Magical Melody, Puzzle de HM, Tree of Tranquility, Animal Parade, Frantic Farming, Hero of Leaf Valley, My Little Shop, Seeds of Memories, Lil' Farmers, Light of Hope, Popolocrois: SoS, and Doraemon: SoS.
User avatar
Bananasaurus
New Seedling
New Seedling
Posts: 1
Joined: Jul 31, 2017 8:02 pm

Post  Posted:

*EDIT* WOW, admins, can we please not make the word g a y a slur censored by the board? It's not a slur when used correctly, for Pete's sake.
So with the release of Dream Daddy, a dating sim in which you are a single father choosing between several candidates to date, all of which are also dads, it was revealed that one of the dads is transgender, and the player character can also be trans, and it's not that big of a deal. I believe it's only brought up once, with the dateable trans dad talking about his (chest) binder.

Even Stardew Valley, which is BASICALLY Harvest Moon in almost all respects, has the option to be gay or lesbian.

Now, I'm not saying Japanese games are anywhere near making trans characters (except maybe Naoto Shirogane in Persona 4, who identified as male, though most say it's only because they wanted to work in the male dominated field as a detective). However, do you lovelies think that us LGBT people might ever get any representation in HM games? Being a gay transgender male, I used to pick female characters whenever I could just to be able to marry a male character, but it's extremely uncomfortable for me to be referred to in feminine terms, even in a virtual world.

Not much would honestly have to change, except the pregnancy and birthing scenes/mechanics. All that would have to be changed to is either surrogacy or, more likely, adoption. Everything else, all characters would be dateable by both genders, with only pronoun changes and occasional gender-specific scenes needing some tweaking.

However, it seems from a developer stand-point, it may be more complicated (see this article for a brief spin from Hashimoto about Story of Seasons).

Thoughts? Please, no transphobia or homophobia here. If you don't WANT the option, that's fine, but I'm looking for people who also want the option, and/or have ways it could or could not work.


P.S. I am starting a playthrough of Magical Melody and dating Jamie, because they're the only gender neutral person in the game. I just wish the game didn't end when you married them (or is that only a rumor?)
User avatar
Bluie
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 3262
Joined: Jun 29, 2005 11:02 am

Post  Posted:

The word gay has been censored on this board since forever. Once you're old enough, the censoring leaves and you'll only see it in quotes from other people quoting younger member's post using said word. I don't see it something to really get upset about. Cher will change it if she feels the need.

And for the topic at hand, we seem to have this thread every other week it feels like. I am neither for nor against the topic as you could take the marriage out of Harvest Moon and i'd hardly bat an eyelash. I'd prefer more goal based games as the marriage is becoming stale to me. I'd rather just mine and pet animals at this point.

However, if they do get around to adding more representation, i'd expect it to be a slow process as Japan's views on LGBT are not as accepting and usually make their games for their primary audience first (Japan) and usually don't consider the western audience and their wants.

But yeah, we get topics similar to this pretty often. There are plenty of people here who share your opinion.
FoolishGhoul
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1894
Joined: Nov 03, 2014 2:17 pm

Post  Posted:

There's so many topics like this on this forum it will make your head spin. Literally on this section a couple of topics down there's another one. The OP wasn't taking quite as a supportive stance as you, but if you read the comments and replies you'll see pretty much everyone on this site is LGBT+ positive, if not a member themselves, aside from the occasional anon troll. We've wanted gay marriage for a while in the games and being able to cross dress in the new games is a step in the right direction, though a small one. I'm sure we will get it eventually, but it's going to be a while and an uphill battle
Guest
Anonymous Fish

Post  Posted:

Can't someone make a sticky about this?

Believe me that I'm all about LGBT presentation on our HM/SOS games but it's just Not Gonna Happen Yet because of disgusting traditional views and their fear of ruining their image weeh.
ChaosAzerothCat
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Ultimate Farming Fanatic
Posts: 1195
Joined: Jun 24, 2016 3:12 pm

Post  Posted:

Anonymous Fish wrote:Can't someone make a sticky about this?

Believe me that I'm all about LGBT presentation on our HM/SOS games but it's just Not Gonna Happen Yet because of disgusting traditional views and their fear of ruining their image weeh.
Not really, the people against it come in and get nasty then people get tired of it and start losing patience at all, and then the thread gets closed from what I've seen. I don't think they'd sticky something they know is likely to attract drama.
User avatar
Robinstar
Huggy Chickens
Huggy Chickens
Posts: 287
Joined: Aug 09, 2017 6:39 am

Post  Posted:

First of all, I'll answer you about Jamie. Yes, your game does end if you marry him/her/them. I've done it, so I know for sure. Jamie is not a marriage candidate in the Japanese version, which is probably why the game ends.

And it seems Marvelous may be testing the waters on and off. There was the "best friend" thing in DS Cute. And then there there was Jamie. And now Story of Seasons has the canon gay character, Marian, even though you unfortunately cannot marry him. And then Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns did the Jamie thing again with Inari.

Also, you cannot get married in Save the Homeland, but you can romance characters. I have yet to see this for myself, so I can't say that it's true, but I read that you can have the romantic Moon Drop Dew event with a male character by not befriending a girl besides Katie, and by being really good friends with a guy instead. I started testing it out on Joe as I was also trying to complete his ending, and I have yet to see the scene, but... I think I accidentally romanced Katie instead. Hmm. However, when my character got sick, it was Joe who came to nurse me back to health instead of a girl, so maybe I was onto something and screwed up somewhere.
User avatar
JayDucky03
Huggy Chickens
Huggy Chickens
Posts: 264
Joined: Dec 14, 2016 3:37 pm

Post  Posted:

Yes! I desperately want this. I know lots of people just crossdress, but I like being a girl and being referred to as a girl.

Read my signature for more details.

I have high hopes for the next game. With Stardew Valley and everything, I really think the Switch SoS might allow same-« Chicken Hugging » marriage. Or even just the option of dating.

Here's hoping.
User avatar
Bluie
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
UNoT Extreme Mooomber
Posts: 3262
Joined: Jun 29, 2005 11:02 am

Post  Posted:

This post is way beyond the 10 day posting limit. Please don't revive old threads.
Locked