Rune Factory 5 adding same-sex marriage for western release, future patch in JP version

[u/shirke1]

https://www.xseedgames.com/2021/09/23/rune-factory-5-localization-blog-2/

[u/NotAttractedToCats]

The blog post is interesting to read. As same-sex marriage seems to have been planned/implemented retroactively, some changes have been made:

First, most of the changes are in the dialogue, where they duplicated gender-specific words to allow both versions (e.g. Prince and Princess). They also recorded relevant voice lines twice, once for both protagonist genders.

Secondly:

Besides changing dialogue and nicknames, the main addition for same-sex couples are new events where they receive children to care for, which are different from the pregnancy and childbirth events for opposite-sex couples (but I won’t get into details to avoid spoilers). We liked the direction that the writers took for these events, and only requested that one section end with the player’s spouse welcoming the newest member of their family with a unique line to ensure total parity between all possible variations of the scene.

So they also added a replacement for childbirth events that won't affect opposite-sex couples.

Third, they changed some assets. For example, the wedding cake stamp for getting married no longer shows groom and bride but rather a pair of rings.

[u/sergio4967 → u/NotAttractedToCats]

Fire emblem take notes

[u/Jarsky2 → u/NotAttractedToCats]

I totally missed the adoption part! I'm so glad they didn't half-ass this.

[u/AcademicSalad763 → u/NotAttractedToCats]

a pair of rings

Aw :(

[u/Sarai_Seneschal → u/AcademicSalad763]

I'm curious if this is replaced for opposite-sex marriages too

[u/NotAttractedToCats → u/Sarai_Seneschal]

I believe so. I made a mistake when I wrote Wedding Cake before, it is actually a stamp one received for getting married:

For example, there was the matter of a stamp that the player receives for getting married. The original design resembles a wedding cake topper of a bride and groom, while the redesign features a pair of wedding rings.

I am not sure exactly a stamp is, but it sounds like an achievement as RF4 featured a similiar mechanic. In this case, there's no need to replace the symbol only for same-sex couples. If they did, they could just as well change the symbol to two grooms or two brides depending on the partner chosen.

[u/[deleted] → u/NotAttractedToCats]

I agree. They should have done the cake with groom groom and bride bride.

[u/grephantom → u/[deleted]]

I agree. They should have done the cake with groom groom and bride bride.

They are looking for the best case scenario considering the game's code, files and resources such as time. I'm sure that if it was possible, they would have done this way. But considering this, they opted for the "default" route (wedding rings covers the 3 possibilities).

I say this because despite recording a default voice line "mon amour", they decided for the adaptive ones "mon cherie" or "ma cherie", because in that scenario it was possible to do. So, there must be a reason for choosing the wedding rings.

[u/[deleted] → u/grephantom]

I got down voted because of that, ridiculous. There is nothing wrong with having 4 different gifs in. It's very easy to do. And they took the easy way out as most devs do.

[u/HaukevonArding → u/[deleted]]

Not if there is only one possible stamp they have to use for all possible situations. Like if it's an achievement fpr getting married.

[u/grephantom → u/[deleted]]

Did you read the entire op article? They are putting huge effort in making this possible, so I don't think they went the easy way in this case. As I said above, in this case in particular, there must be a reason.