NEO: The World Ends with You divides queer players with the Variabeauties
NEO: The World Ends With You is available to play right now and, for the most part, is a charming game that will have many TWEWY fans – queer or otherwise – feeling pretty pleased. Or at least, that’s what the general consensus is on the surface of everything.
However, there has been some divide amongst queer NEO: TWEWY fans and it all leads to a certain team: The Variabeauties. As journalist CJ Andriessen from Destructoid describes them, they are a team full of “slim, fashionable men the developers or localizers or somebody in charge decided to make into gay stereotypes.”
These gay stereotypes include: high, effeminate voices, referring to their leader Kanon as ‘kween’, as well as barks that repeat lines of dialogue like ‘let’s go, girls’, ‘work honey’ and ‘how rude.’ Andriessen also found more barks after turning down the music and other sounde effects, which can be viewed via this Youtube video.
It’s important to stress that, as Andriessen themself commented on in their article about NEO: TWEWY having a number of tired, gay stereotypes, there are a number of queer men out there who do indeed talk like that and ultimately there is nothing wrong with that. For some queer players that commented on Adriessen’s article, the way the Variabeauties talk is not only relatable to them, but life-affirming.
Nevertheless, other queer players feel as though it would just be nice to have a game that doesn’t put all queer men in the same basket – particularly in JRPGs. For example, Dragon Quest’s Sylvando is very flamboyant and isn’t afraid to express his sexuality, but it is also a point of tension for some players who aren’t completely on board with how the game handles his character.
To be frank: it is hard to say whether the developers of NEO: TWEWY included the gay, flamboyancy of The Variabeauties as a joke – cruel or not – or make decision on whether the portrayal is offensive or not. The queer community is not a monolith after all. There’s also the fact that Josh, a character from the original 2007 game, is depicted as queer and is an important, main character that has players questioning whether or not this inclusion of The Variabeauties is enough to undo the good of what the developers have created.
Regardless, the queer community remains divided on gay stereotypes – and we don’t mean just the ones included in video games either – as a whole.
NEO: The World Ends With You is available to play now on PS4 and the Nintendo Switch.
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While I am all for affirming femmes of the queer community, this is still disappointing to hear. With the caveat that I have yet to play the game, it sounds like it will be up to the player to decide whether they are affirming or a cruel minstrel act. The characters’ dignity can never not be up for debate. The first game itself was a problem too. While it is true Joshua was gay and effeminate, and was definitely no joke, he also did not respect Neku’s boundaries. In fact, that seems to be the pervasive representation of queer characters in J-RPG’s- undesired flirting (or worse). One of the shopkeepers in TWEWY was overtly gay, and the way he expressed it was by aggressively offering to help Neku out in the dressing rooms. It was very disappointing.