Can You Be Gay in Stardew Valley?
Eric Barone, aka ConcernedApe, really made a winner when they developed the smash-hit that’s Stardew Valley. Part farming simulator and part adventure game, the player leaves their capitalistic, hellscape of a job in the city to move into their grandpa’s farm in Pelican Town. You meet a number of different people, some of who you can even romance. With that in mind, can you be gay in Stardew Valley?
The short answer is yes, you can. You have 12 romance options to choose from, 6 men and 6 women, and all are single and ready to mingle once you get closer to them and achieve their 8-heart event. To do this, you need to find out what each bachelor/bachelorette likes, such as coffee for Harvey, and Amethyst for Abigail. Keep talking to them, or handing them their favourite gifts, and you’ll eventually hit that all-important heart event where you can choose to take things further. And by further we mean dating, alright? No hanky panky in this game. At least, none that we can see…
Anyway. After you start officially dating (and making it official with a bouquet of flowers first, of course) you get the chance to even wed your beloved. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a same-sex relationship or not, you get the same scene with everyone celebrating your marriage. We won’t lie, it’s super cute!
The game even takes into account that yes, this is a same-sex relationship by having characters mention they didn’t expect to like another guy or girl. Unfortunately, this can be both a positive and negative depending on perspective. After all, if every person you romance says something along the same lines, it conveys that Pelican Town has been suffering from heteronormativity for years. Until you came along, that is.
Stardew Valley also has yet to include anything that’ll allow you to choose or change your pronouns. While it is an old game, it’s still being added to and it would be far more inclusive for trans and non-binary players, which can never be a bad thing.
Stardew Valley does let you play as a gay character, but does make you and your chosen spouse feel like that ‘one gay couple’ in a small town. It’s not terrible representation by any means, but it’s something to consider when playing the game!
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