Can you be gay in Rune Factory 5?
Rune Factory 5 is officially here, and as always when it comes to video games that allows the protagonist to have relationships with other characters, we ask the very important question of ‘well, can you be gay?’
Sly jokes aside, our ‘Can You Be Gay?‘ guides may look odd in comparison to the video games guide work that you’ll find scattered around on big, video game-focused sites, but we’ve always established that being true to our authentic, gay selves, can be important. That still remains true for when we’re playing video games!
More importantly, we don’t look at queerness in video games with a black and white view. Regardless of whether the answer is yes or no, we examine how being gay is presented, and what this means for the player.
So, with that explanation out of the way…
Can you be gay in Rune Factory 5?
The simple answer is: yes, you can be gay in Rune Factory 5.
It’s been a long time coming, but after many years of queer fans asking for same-sex romances to be included, Rune Factory 5 has finally obliged. However, gay romance and marriage is only available through the Western version and is currently not included in the Japanese release – but will be added via a patch sometime in May.
The localization team at XSEED worked hard to bring this about, designing and then assigning gender tags in order to bring the game up to date and make it more inclusive for players who were looking for a same-sex romance. As far as we’re able to tell from our own playthroughs of the game, this meant design changes (such as the wedding time stamp, which used to resemble a man and a woman, now simply two rings) and different cutscenes.
The only big, real difference between heterosexual and same-sex couples is that the way you get children is different. While heterosexual couples will have the female character become pregnant, same-sex couples with have a different method entirely (one that we won’t spoil, but let’s just say it’s very magical), though they still have access to the same selection of children, regardless of whether you’re in a gay relationship or not.
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