Recently it has been announced that an upcoming game for the Nintendo 3DS, Fire Emblem: Fates, will allow same sex marriages. This is a big thing considering last year we had the big incident with another 3DS game, Tomadachi Life. If you don't remember, there was a bit of controversy when Nintendo made a statement that it was going to fix a glitch that would allow people to marry the same sex in Tomadachi Life. Nintendo later on, after seeing the backlash, apologized and said that they will include same sex marriages in later games. Reflecting on this, I have to wonder if as a gay man and an avid lover of video games, has things gotten better for me? Am I being represented?
Same sex relationships isn't the new frontier in video games. It has been in games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Just after the Tomadachi Life controversy Square Enix allowed same sex relationships and weddings in its Final Fantasy XIV MMO. There was even a pride parade supporting this. This seems very profitable in games that let you customize your character, but what about games that don't?
As being represented in games we have come a long way. Over the years, we have had gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender characters represented in games. Has it gotten better? In some ways it has. The roles of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgenders in video games has progressed over time. The most obvious example has been The Last of Us. The Last of Us was one of the games where they had people who were LGBT, not only Ellie and Riley, but also characters Bill and Joel. Mortal Kombat X was the most recent game where one of the new characters Kung Jin was implied to be gay in a cinematic and was later confirmed to be gay by one of the creators. These characters were written as people you can see being real genuine people instead of stereotypes that often end being portrayed in video games, but in media as well.
While this is still good, the progression is still slow and being represented in games still seems to be a closeted thing. Gay characters are in games, but mostly they end up being supporting characters and rarely do we ever get them to be protagonists, people we control in the first place and the majority of the game. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to see people who are gay in video games, but I would like to see me being represented more than just a supporting character.
I'm not going to lie as society progresses, we see more demand for art and media to progress as well. We are starting to see this in games, just like we're seeing better female representation in games thanks to Anita Sarkessian who has been advocating feminism and pretty much has been laying down the issues of negative female tropes in video games. Just like that,we are starting to see the ball roll a bit faster. When we see more games with protagonists who are gay, that's where I can see progress.
Valentine's Day is here! In celebration of today (and since I have no plans for the day because I'm single T_T), I decided to do a post about the romantic couples in video games. I could've done the usual. I could've done Link and Zelda, Mario and Peach, and Sonic and Amy, but that would've been normal, and boring. Instead I decided to do a post about LGBT couples in video games. As a gay person who plays video games, it's nice as well as important to not only see me being represented in video games, but to see LGBT couples in games as well. It almost helps spread that message that says that my love is no different than your love and counteracts homophobia that some people have in not only in the gaming community, but in society as well. With no further due, here are the LGBT couples in gaming.
Birdo and Yoshi
Let's get started with the most famous: Birdo and Yoshi. Yoshi, even though is considered to be gender neutral, is mostly associated as a male. Birdo's gender has been controversial from the very start. According to the instruction booklet of Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario USA in Japan), Birdo, or Catherine, is described as a boy who think he is a girl. This is further confirmed with not only the Japanese commercial for Super Mario Bros. 2, but in Captain Rainbow for the Nintendo Gamecube. Birdo and Yoshi have been a couple and have had great chemistry in most of the Mario Spin-offs like Mario Party 7 and Mario Tennis. Mario Kart: Double Dash's japanese website has jokingly stated: "Catherine appears to be Yoshi's girlfriend... or does that mean boyfriend!?" (「ヨッシーの彼女に見えて実は彼氏!?」). Rudolph Gartheimer and Damian Shade
Rudolph and Damian both hail as the Fighting genre's first openly gay couple. Groove on Fight was released by Atlus in 1997. While not as popular as the Street Fighter series or SNK, Groove on Fight was a cult classic in Japan. Damien (17) is an orphan and was adopted by Rudolph (45). They are polar opposites as Rudolph is considered to be a very aggressive while Damian is a pacifist. They seem to be very protective of each other, Rudolph being more protective as when playing as Rudolph, Damian is usually seen in the back watching the fight when playing as Rudolph.
Venom and Zato-1
Zato and Venom are both characters from the Guilty Gear series. Venom was an orphan that was was about to be kill when Zato-1 saved Venom's life. Ever since then Venom has dedicated his life to Zato. Venom is fiercely loyal to Zato. Most of his action in the series is either doing what Zato says or looking for his master. Even when Zato-1 died, Venom was devoted to tracking down his killer, Millia Rage, and killing her. Sadly the love isn't really returned as Zato has a thing for Millia, who he also hates.
Crystal and Amber Bailey from Dead Rising
Crystal and Amber are twin sisters that both work as hostesses of the show Terror is Reality in Dead Rising 2. They also work as Tyrone King's bodyguards. Both of the twins are very flirtatious saying innuendos throughout the game and even flirting with you during the boss fight. Amber also gropes Rebecca. These two are close. Very close. The cutscene when you kill the one of the twins does say that there is something more to them just being twins.
Ellie and Riley
Ellie and Riley are two characters from The Last of Us. Their relationship pretty much plays like a romantic comedy in a zombie apocalypse. They both meet during a zombie epidemic and mostly everyone is dead and they form a friendship where they pretty much have each others back. Throughout the game, their friendship does blossom into something serious and touching. The creator, Neil Druckmann, has talked about their relationship and confirmed that both Ellie and Riley do both have feeling for each other.
Dragon Age: Inquisition: Your avatar and Iron Bull, Josephine, Sera, and Dorian
When Dragon Age: Inquisition came it, it came with the possibility of your character being able to not only have a relationship with a person in the game, but with a select few people regardless of gender. You can have opposite and same sex relationships. This isn't new. Inquisition isn't the only game in the Dragon Age series to have this option. Origins had the option to marry someone of the same sex. You can pick from four out of the eight characters in the game: Iron Bull, Josephine, Sera, Dorian. Here's how to can court them.
Are there any couples I missed? If so, please let me know in the comments section. Also, Happy Valentine's Day to you all.
