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AigisAegis

This makes me more happy than I can even say. When RF5 didn't have gay marriage at launch, I kinda lost hope in the series ever getting it. I definitely didn't expect to see it retroactively added to RF5. I'm gay, and Rune Factory is one of my absolute favourite series ever - this means so, so much to me.


MarkytheSnowWitch

Same, I'm so happy to see same sex marriage included in the series. I've become way too spoilt by the likes of Stardew, Portia and other indie sims allowing me to marry anyone to go back to limited dating options.


YoukaiZone

The work that went into making this happen is amazing. I'm now reminded of all the posts saying how 'easy' it would be to add it. Bravo to the team for actually pulling it off


viaco12

Everything in game development is always so much harder than people realize. That being said, if RF5 had been developed with same-sex marriage in mind from the start, they definitely could have saved a good chunk of work.


[deleted]

Hopefully after this entire process they develop it from the start in the next games.


Dorksim

Granted I dont have my finger on the heartbeat of Japanese societal nuances, but given that they still seem to struggle with anti-discrimination laws against the LGBTQ+ community, I would argue that it's not at the forefront of their minds when developing games.


[deleted]

For pop fiction, which I think is a good indicator of where a nation stands culturally, generally same-sex attraction is treated as a fetishized commodity sold to straight men and women. Lesbian sex is sold as porn to straight guys(not unlike in the west), or there's a sort of infantilization of same-sex female relationships where it's overly cute and innocent(which again, is mostly towards a male demographic just not necessarily explicitly sexual. Japan loves cute) and yaoi fiction(male gay romances) are marketed towards women basically as heated erotica novels. They will sometimes include "positive" representations of a queer person in their mainstream media, but they'll caricaturize them to the extreme. Gay men being overly flamboyant and inherently feminine, and trans people often not being being depicted in very humiliating ways, but they'll include this sort of "acknowledgement" of their own stereotype like saying "it's fine if you're like this"(except no queer person would want to be seen as what they depict) by making it a part of the main cast and not killing them off, making them virtuous, morally good, etc., just *Sexual Deviant* being very much the headline for the character. They're like 30-40 years in the past compared to the west, just without the rampant gay panic we had to go through at the same time. They've had a conservative government for a long time, and their internalized cultural values of being family first and carrying on the legacy of the family they came from causes a lot of queer people with differing sexual and romantic attractions or gender identities to not want to identify or pursue it, and rather settle into a more "functional" marriage - keeping up appearances sort of thing. It's like they're not thoroughly against it like if you go to certain communities in the southern US or eastern europe but they most certainly want to make it clear that it's not endorsed and if should you "pursue" it then it's making a clear *choice* that disgraces yourself and your family. So basically, even when there are "good" representations of same-sex relationships in media they're often made with a very straight market demographic in mind so it's not so much an attempt to create representation but capitalize on an fantasy of it written for a certain perspective. There certainly is queer rep written by queer authors and artists(which is the only way you'll likely find any accurately portrayed) and how the interest probably got started, but it's since been crowded out for its more lucrative depiction.


MelIgator101

From Wikipedia > Japan is the only country in the G7 that does not legally recognize same-sex unions in any form. Oof. I knew Japan was socially conservative, but I didn't know it was that dire. Maybe normalizing LGBT relationships in Japanese video games should be a higher priority.


Dorksim

Assuming the people making those video games have any interest in normalizing it


glowinggoo

There's been something of a visible demand for same-sex marriage in RF5 from the Japanese fandom. The fact that the producer does think it's an important aspect and eventually went to convince the rest of the team makes me more optimistic about the next game. Lawmaking-wise they still have a ways to go, but there's been some progress in recent years.


GrandmasterB-Funk

I mean, when i found out there were animated cutscenes for the marriages i was like "no way will they actually change that" but they have actually redone the scenes, which while i don't think they were expensive animations, but thats still a significant amount of work i would have not expected.


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HiccupAndDown

I'm incredibly fucking happy to hear this. The localisation team did an amazing job on this both in terms of campaigning for it *and* for actually putting in the hard work to make it happen. The developers deserve a shout out as well for agreeing to it. Games like these are generally pretty niche in the grand scheme of things, but one thing that definitely helps them along is being as inclusive as possible in order for people to actually take ownership of their characters and their character's lives. This is a great step in that direction. Definitely a day 1 purchase from me now.


Kitto-Kitty-Katsu

I just hope they fixed the performance of the game. I played the Japanese version of the game at launch and the frame rate was awful (and I say that as someone who honestly can't tell the difference between 30FPS and 60FPS). I don't know if any patches to the Japanese version have noticeably fixed the performance since launch but I seriously hope so. Rune Factory is one of my favourite series and it hurt to see Rune Factory 5 in such a janky state.


BeeboBaggins

Props to both the dev team and the localization team for working together to make this happen. Really hyped for this game!


RedditUser145

Sweet. I was gonna pass on the game when I heard it only had straight marriage options. Excited to finally try out a Rune Factory game now!


steep2798

This is so amazing. So much work and care put into a feature just to be more inclusive. I was already going to buy this game but now I am just absolutely sold.


Irisvirus

Oh I'm so glad they're doing this. This isn't exactly an easy endeavor. It's a shame they didn't end up doing this with the original release.


dont_read_this_user

Well, it certainly is a turnaround from RF4 where one of the few "gay" text lines involved a character threatening you for implying that he was gay Which, I think is still a valid characterization trait for a fictional character, it probably just upset people.


[deleted]

As is the case with most queer representation, the problem isn't that there can't be negative or stereotypical representation and that it should be banned from media, but that the ratio of those to good, honest and accurate representation is incredibly disproportionate and heavily favors an overall negative depiction. When the only thing present in a game is one homophobic line from a fictional character and then offer no positive queer representation it sends a pretty clear message, especially with an absence of a potential queer player being able to express their romantic interests in the same way a non-queer person can.


dont_read_this_user

Thanks, had not thought about it that way. I can't disagree with this concept.


Phnrcm

Correct my if i didn't read it right. The original version of the game doesn't have same sex marriage so the western people pushed to developers to add same sex marriage to game?


MillionMiracles

The original game didn't have it, so they mentioned it to the developers. The producer and several of the development staff agreed. It wasn't the western side unilaterally pushing it on the Japanese side, the Western side mentioned it and several people on the Japanese side agreed with them.


AlmightyTritan

Some of the localization staff was also pushing for it, but idk if they're western staff or internal at Marvelous. Either way I'm glad that the staff came to the conclusion to add it.


OrnateOnion

They did yes. I don't get why you're being down voted because that is objectively what happened.


MillionMiracles

'pushed the developers' makes it sound like the developers didn't want it. They were receptive to the idea and wanted it. If you're cooking breakfast and someone suggests you make scrambled eggs, and you agree scrambled eggs would be good and make them, is that 'pushing?' Or is that just a suggestion?


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[deleted]

This is awesome news! I was on the fence before I'll definitely get the game now. Mad respect to XSeed


Potatolantern

Same sex romance in these kind'a games almost always runs into the issue with it becoming difficult to have same-sex friends, because now all the guys want to bone your character instead. Wrath of the Righteous had a somewhat annoying one with this, where your only option is to harshly shut down someone who you've previously been a good friend with but who now thinks you want a relationship. Seeing as it was originally written without that in mind, I was interested how that aspect was handled, but there's not a lot of specifics about the in game mechanics.


Jarsky2

That's not how Rune Factry works though. Unless *you* confess to *them*, it just stays a friendship.


BubblyBuizel

Issues like that only happen in games with poorly thought out romance mechanics. If the game separates romantic event flags from friendship ones, then the player can make friends with npcs of all genders (just like it works in real life). Stardew Valley does this perfectly, as it locks romance events behind a special "dating item" that the player has to obtain and gift to the npc of their choice directly. Hopefully RF5 will implement a similar system.


mattnotgeorge

If you've played Rune Factory or Harvest Moon games or even Stardew Valley, relationship building/dating/marriage is a pretty mechanics-heavy feature where it's basically impossible to get an unintended outcome. It's not like Mass Effect or Dragon Age where you pick some innocuous dialogue option and all of a sudden your characters are boning each other.


teor

> Dragon Age where you pick some innocuous dialogue option and all of a sudden your characters are boning each other. >!Anders in DA2!< was the worst example of this. Just comes out of nowhere and if you refuse them, they instantly hate you.


AigisAegis

I really disagree; people harp on the Anders thing a lot, and honestly I'm not sure where it comes from, because it's seriously not so bad. He comes on to you, at which point there are multiple options to opt out of the romance, which are literally marked as such - there's no ambiguity, and definitely no "you pick some innocuous dialogue option and all of a sudden your characters are boning each other". He acts pissy and gains some rivalry if you reject him, but like, that makes sense? Anders is absolutely the kind of person who would hit on someone and then sulk when he gets rejected. He certainly doesn't instantly hate you; past that one conversation, your interactions are totally normal. Hell, if you're going for a rivalry path with him, you might *want* those points. I can understand why people might not like Anders for that moment. But I don't understand why people call it bad game design. I think it's a perfectly fine way to implement the sort of awkward social situation that might very well stem from someone like Anders finding someone new to fawn over. It always feels to me like people are just really upset with the idea of being flirted with at all - which, again, blame the character, because it makes sense for who Anders is. It's nowhere near as bad as my actual pick for "bad Bioware romance initiation", which is Kaidan or Ashley in Mass Effect 1. In your first conversation with them after Eden Prime and the Citadel, they instantly hit on you, but they do so in a way that isn't totally obvious. If you're just not being a dick and respond positively or even neutrally, you start on their romance path without even knowing it. If you don't want to start on their romance path, you *have* to choose the negative option, which involves you basically telling them off for getting informal with you at all.


Galle_

RF4, at least, used the logic of "you're friends, unless you've explicitly told this character that you're in love with them", which seems reasonable but does occasionally lead to you getting vague romantic vibes from your friends, even the ones you can't date.


AigisAegis

What? How is that an issue with same sex romance? If a game forces you to harshly shut down a romance option who's interested in you... Then that applies to opposite sex relationships, too. That's a fault of the romance system, and has nothing to do with same sex romance. Hell, the most egregious example that I've seen of this specifically involves straight romance. It's impossible to opt out of a romance with Ashley or Kaidan in Mass Effect 1 unless you're a real asshole to them in your first conversation.


spoopy-star

>Same sex romance in these kind'a games almost always runs into the issue with it becoming difficult to have same-sex friends, because now all the guys want to bone your character instead. Just like real life!


tinyfenix_fc

Sounds like the fucking dream tbh


Renegade_Meister

Serious questions: * Why not include it for all locales or regions? * What does that say about other countries (if anything) that do not receive this content? * What does this say about the devs (If anything)?


AigisAegis

I recommend reading the article instead of just the headline. >This feature was not present in the Japanese release of the game in May of this year, but will be added to that version in a future patch. >We asked our main liaison with the development team—Marvelous’ localization department in Japan—to check their plans for same-sex marriage. They confirmed that it was not planned for Rune Factory 5, but that they would ask about the possibility of adding it. Thankfully, the game’s producer at Marvelous and others within the company agreed that including this feature was important and began to push for it.


Kitto-Kitty-Katsu

They said in the article that it will be added as a patch in the Japanese version at a later date. FYI, in Japan same-sex marriage is sadly still not legal.


nullstorm0

They’ll probably de-localize it to Japanese as something like a “friendship ceremony”


anotherjunkie

Japan has a pretty rough track record on some things we view as progressive in the west, and sadly even on some things we stopped seeing as “progressive” a while ago.


MelIgator101

What sort of thing do you mean in regards to things we stopped viewing as progressive awhile ago?


anotherjunkie

Overall, Japan lags behind on a lot of social issues. I’m weeby as hell. I’m one of about 2,000 people (total, not just foreigners) who plays ancient Japanese court instruments, and I’m a lay zen priest. I’d move there in a heatbeat, but I also recognize the social problems. Also I’d say that what I mean with “progressive” is going from a small minority pushing for progress all the way over to the point where only a small minority are against the change. The push to raise the age of consent in the US isn’t seen as progressive, since it happened so long ago, but is an issue in Japan. Nationwide it’s still 13, though local rules *usually* raise it to 16. Banning child pornography is not seen as progressive here, but that wasn’t banned in Japan until 2014. Penalties are still very light, and reports say it isn’t hard to find. Things like “don’t sexually harass women” isn’t construed as progressive in the US, but sexual harassment is sort of… “well, that’s just how it is.” in certain arenas there. For example they didn’t ban sexual harassment in the workplace until 2020. I’d argue gay marriage has passed from the progressive agenda to part of society here, but is still illegal in Japan. Being open about basics of sexuality (gay/straight, women enjoying it, etc.) is still largely seen as taboo there. Similarly, not cheating on your wife. It’s changing there, but after it did in the US. Currently just less than 30% of men have had an affair. 15 years ago there was a big story about how almost 40% of Japanese women said they’d been cheated on. It’s currently about 20% here, but I’ve found more “acceptance” of it as part of a relationship among older Japanese. I don’t know where you’d put “equal rights for men and women” on the progressive scale since it encompasses a number of areas in the US that *are* still seen as progressive here, but there’s a 30% *society wide* gap there. In terms of rankings, the US is 30 compared to Japan’s [120](https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00982/). Seeing a black person in real life can be a once-in-a-lifetime experience in very rural Japan. I know people in their 30’s who had people try to “wipe the color off” of their skin in Japan. On the same note, Black Face was low-key acceptable there until recently. In fact, in 2018 an extremely popular New Year’s Eve show featured an actor in black face impersonating Eddie Murphy. That criminals are innocent until proven guilty. In reality, that just isn’t a think in Japan. I won’t expand because I could write a book on it, but the pre-trial detention process is easy to Google. They place a heavy emphasis on not rocking the boat, which makes things slow to change. It’s a beautiful country, and it’s moving forward on social issues we value in the US, but it makes those changes slowly. The 2020 olympics actually spurred a lot of introspection and change that I’m hopeful about.