Topic: Best LGBTQ+ Switch Games -- Your Suggestions!

Hellooooo!!!

You may have seen my "Best LGBTQ+ Games" list — I wrote it as part of Pride Month, but I almost definitely missed out quite a few games (including Hades, one of my favourite games of all time! OOPS)

Of course, missing out games doesn't mean I don't like them, necessarily! I'm just one person and I can't always play or remember every game — and that's why I'm starting this thread, so I can get more recommendations from you fine folks

I will say that the general things I'm looking for are games that we've rated over 8/10, which is why games like Pioneers of Olive Town isn't in there, and also generally positive, or at least not hurtful, representations of LGBTQ+ characters

So, let me know: what games do you think I should add to the list?

(obligatory reminder that bigotry is not welcome here thank u 🏳‍🌈)

The artwork for Hashihime of the Old Book Town looks amazing.

And the Life is Strange series is well regarded.

Did you see my Timespinner recommendation in the list's comments section?
Previously awarded 8/10 by Nintendo Life, LGBTQ themes and relations are focused a bit in the story, and more prominently as you complete the side quests.
Since spoiler tags are warranted:
The protagonist will open up to friends about being bisexual, and develops feelings for someone that implies themselves to be a trans woman, whilst helping a gay male couple to hook up, and more.

The game itself is a highly enjoyable Metroidvania that wears how much it loves Igavania DS games in particular on its sleeve. Seriously, lots of the mechanics are directly limited from or influenced by Order of Ecclesia, right down to how some treasure chests on the field will refill when you leave the map and sometimes appear with rare contents in a special green ornate chest.

Copy and pasting my comment from the article:

“Can I nominate Strawberry Vinegar? It’s a childhood friends lesbian love story VN and in one of the endings they get together as adults (well older teenagers anyway) and one of the girls is a gluttony demoness obsessed with food. I enjoyed it since the main character reminded me of myself at that age. (Very cynical and logical- for a child anyway. )”

Others have mentioned The Outer Worlds as well.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses?! There’s are a number of same sex options, and they’re available if you chose to play as the female or male Byleth. I think Petra, Dorothea, Sothis, Rhea, Edelgard, Mercedes, are female options when female, and Linhardt, Gilbert (platonic), and Alois (platonic) are male options when male.

Easy to tell there’s more options if you play as female Byleth but it’s there.

@Magician I intend to add LIS as soon as it's out!!

As for Hashihime, there are so many VNs that probably fit the bill but I haven't played most of them 😭😭 but I see that it's coming out later this year as well?

Neither are the best representation but in terms of games I'd really enjoy playing.; Catherine though the handling of Erica feels mixed, it's good as in the others don't out her but she still becomes a punchline to a joke and Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario games need more Birdo!

@RupeeClock @Ryu_Niiyama @TheJGG @jump

Timespinner: Dang, if we gave it 8/10 it's probably a great candidate! I'll do a bit of research so I can write the wee blurb

Strawberry Vinegar: We have no review of the game, so I can't add it right now — but we're always looking for old games to review, so this one may get reviewed eventually

The Outer Worlds: A good shout, though the game as a whole isn't super representative of LGBTQ+ people if I remember correctly — just Parvati? I did love Parvati a whole lot though. I'll think about it

FE:TH: I thought about this one (and past Fire Emblemses) and I just wasn't sure, because the options for same-sex relationships are... limited at best, but I added SOS: FOMT so I reckon Fire Emblem could be on there too!

Catherine: I'm so torn on whether to add this because a lot of the research I did was mixed on Erica's representation, and since I haven't played it myself, I'm not sure how to feel!! But enough people have recommended it that I think I'll add it with the caveat that your mileage may vary on whether or not it's "good" rep.

@KateGray

At a glance, I don't see a western release announced for Hashihime.

However, the English supported Japanese release is in December, yeah.

@KateGray
Well then, in your Timespinner research something that should help would be to look up the camp fire scene.
Not everyone is too fond of that scene, not because of the subject matter but more how they handled it on a story writing skill level, I felt it could've been done better myself but didn't object to its inclusion.
My brother felt the same way too, but we both loved the game otherwise.

I recommend Catherine for the character of Erica as well as Celeste. I actually had no idea Madeline was supposed to be transgender until very recently

Stick Shift needs a Switch port.

@KateGray Thank you for responding!

@TheFrenchiestFry Both my partner (who’s trans) and I really dislike the way Erica’s handled in Catherine. It’s a punchline. Persona 5 did the same thing with that god-awful ‘the gays are chasing us’ scene. While representation in general is a good thing, Japan has a long long way to go.

@TheFrenchiestFry I don't double dip on many games, and the few that I do I almost never play them to completion on both consoles — Celeste (and Undertale) I was more than happy to! Two of the reasons I ended up buying a Switch (far too late, I might say, 2019)

@nessisonett The P5 scene was super obscene

I know Erica's divisive but I almost feel like the bigger deal was how Rin was characterized. I do remember Erica being way worse in vanilla Catherine though

Not on Nintendo Switch but The Sims 4 is definitely a life sim game with LGBT things.

Story of Seasons Olive Town has one confirmed gay character. Though of course, he’s exclusive to the dlc pack, and about as stereotypical as you can get before saying “pink means gay”.

Thought I might mention it since your article means these games have none outside of the player-sexual best friend/marriage candidates.

@Anti-Matter Did we ever get an iterations of the Sims on Switch? Last I think I remember was the original DS, but it's not as if the Switch couldn't comfortably run it? Plus it feels like a much more portable-friendly kind of series.

So does this mean in other games if you use a female lead character does that qualify for this as well? I know in God of War 3 - I use a lead female character. If I got the name right-if not I will update this after checking my game.