![]() ![]() "For the North American release of Friends of Mineral Town, the localization team for that title set an important precedent for localizing same-sex marriage: all of the bachelors and bachelorettes have special dialogue to acknowledge this," she says. ![]() This started with Friends of Mineral Town, as assistant localization lead Lori Snyder explains: XSEED's localization team is pointedly trying to ensure that players who want to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual in-game don't just have that as another option thrown in, but feel like those options are given care and consideration. And bachelors and bachelorettes from several previous games are returning to Pioneers of Olive Town via DLC in the coming months, offering opportunities for same-sex relationships with characters that they haven't been offered with in the past. He adds that he feels the development team did an even better job with the feature this time, as well as with the game's avatar creation - which allows players to customize their appearance independent of gender selection, which occurs later in the introduction. Speaking to IGN, game director Hikaru Nakano says that having the freedom to marry anyone regardless of gender "suited the Story of Seasons philosophy of letting players play however they want." Thanks to the collaboration between XSEED and Marvelous, that support has continued into Pioneers of Olive Town, the latest Story of Seasons game. "This has been a very long time coming in the Story of Seasons series, and the producer has been supportive of our decision from very early in development." "In our version, will just be called 'marriage,' and the relationship between same-sex couples will be given identical treatment to opposite-sex couples," XSEED wrote at the time. But XSEED, with Marvelous' blessing, stepped up to meet the challenge of filling the hole in Story of Seasons' social responsibility up to that point. While localizers already have an extremely important role in making sure games are translated to other languages, as being culturally sensible and meaningful in other regions, we don't often hear of them being on the frontlines of major, series-shaking changes. When the game came out in Japan, it included a "Best Friends" system that was basically same-sex marriage under a watered-down name, possibly in part due to the fact that same-sex marriage is illegal in Japan (though this ban may be on its way to being dismantled soon!).īut when it came West, localizer XSEED wanted to fully cement this critical, progressive change. The Story of Seasons franchise, now divorced from its former name and publisher, began - at last - to incorporate same-sex marriage in 2020, beginning with the its remake of Friends of Mineral Town. Put frankly: the boys stunk! I wasn't interested in Marlin, Rock, or Gustafa, and a part of me wished (though I never would have admitted it at that age) I could just be a girl and date a girl. When Another Wonderful Life released not long after, I was thrilled to be able to play as a girl, but deeply disappointed by the romance options.
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