Few things are more satisfying for seasoned gamers than seeing an older game get a new coat of paint. Advancements in gaming hardware have popularized the creation of remakes, allowing players to experience beloved classic games on modern platforms. Final Fantasy VII Remake might have been the first video game remake to ever be nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards, but after the nomination of the Resident Evil 4 remake in 2023, it is no longer surprising to see remakes getting prestigious recognition. It is now commonplace to see remakes held to the same standards – if not higher ones – than new releases. However, some games have a complicated history of offensive content, especially regarding their depictions of LGBTQ characters. Fidelity to original artistic intent is an important aspect to remaking a video game, but reintroducing defamatory content from the past perpetuates the harm those depictions have caused and further alienates LGBTQ fans.
The way that studios deal with offensive LGBTQ content varies from remake to remake. Persona 3 has a scene where the main male party members unsuccessfully hit on various women at the beach. Their luck changes when an attractive beachgoer finally returns their interest, before an unshaven hair on her chin outs her as a transgender woman. The scene is played purely for shock value and laughs. The male characters are subsequently disgusted with themselves, not for repeatedly harassing women on the beach but for feeling “tricked” by the woman’s beauty.
the fact that we got trans rep in p3 (AND SHE’S HOT TOO) could’ve been really groundbreaking but then they play her off as a joke and i will never forgive atlus for that pic.twitter.com/cbCUsf1HLY
— ariadne 💥 (@catgirlkirijo) July 1, 2021
The idea that a trans woman is somehow deceiving people is a longstanding false and harmful stereotype. This scene rightly earned criticism from LGBTQ fans for making light of this dangerous misconception about trans women. When Persona 3 Reload, the Persona 3 remake, was announced, fans and journalists speculated about how this scene would be dealt with. After all, the studio in charge of its development, Atlus, is notorious for including anti-LGBTQ content in its games, frequently depicting LGBTQ characters as predators. But Persona 3 Reload decided to cut the trans character altogether. The trans woman was replaced with a conspiracy theorist, and the male characters were instead disturbed by her far-fetched beliefs and eagerness to sell them on a special – and likely useless – sunscreen. Keeping the original scene would have been an egregious misstep, but Atlus decided that excluding LGBTQ characters was easier than making better ones.
Granted, there is one explicitly queer character in the game that vaguely insinuates his romantic interest in the male protagonist. Players are not given the choice to reciprocate, despite the game’s 2009 PlayStation Portable variant allowing its female protagonist to romance that same character in her route. Persona hasn’t allowed players to romance a male character as a male protagonist since 1999’s Persona 2: Innocent Sin. With Persona 3 Reload, Atlus missed the opportunity to bring the game into the 21st century by opening up future Persona games for more queer romances. These games have always been about raging against the system, questioning authority, and defying fate. Is including queerness too rebellious for a series that regularly has its characters fighting gods and winning? Or perhaps Atlus never internalized the themes of Persona to begin with, reminding its players that it’s okay to be different as long as those differences do not challenge the status quo of heteronormativity.
Other recent video game remakes have undertaken a larger transformation. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake (2020) is best described as a reimagining of the first third of the original Final Fantasy VII, since the story makes several critical changes. The moment-to-moment story beats of the remake are also altered, expanding on character relationships and the overarching world of Gaia that were not touched upon in the original.
These changes notably impact a crossdressing sequence in one of Final Fantasy VII’s most iconic missions. When searching for clothing that the main character Cloud will use to disguise himself as a woman, players can choose to spend time in a bath where he will be accompanied by a horde of men, one of whom will repeatedly flirt with Cloud despite Cloud’s discomfort. The man in question, Mukki, is pushy with his advances and the scene concludes with him giving Cloud a pair of bikini briefs. Final Fantasy VII not only equates his queerness with being predatory and perverse, but it also uses sexual harassment as the basis for its distasteful jokes. This scene, along with another related quest involving Cloud encountering a crossdressing gym group, was removed from the remake. Instead, a new dancing minigame was added where Cloud must gain approval from nightclub owner and lead dancer Andrea by showing off his dancing prowess.
The revamped scene is a campy, catchy, and even celebratory moment that feels inspired by drag culture, but what delighted players the most were the words that Andrea leaves Cloud with after they finish their dance. “True beauty is an expression of the heart. A thing without shame, to which notions of gender don’t apply,” he reminds both Cloud and players alike. Cloud remains a semi-unwilling tourist of a queer culture in a single isolated story beat. And yet, a remake that makes a conscious decision to not perpetuate negative stereotypes of LGBTQ people is a noteworthy step in the right direction. LGBTQ fans appreciated the acknowledgement that elevating Final Fantasy VII’s treatment of queerness was more important to the developers than being faithful to the original’s bad jokes.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (2024), the second installment in Square Enix’s modern reimagining of Final Fantasy VII, also flirts with queer representation without making it a core part of its game. It has various same-gender couples sprinkled into the background, including two unnamed women that fight over a man before realizing they should just date each other, but it is far from being the pinnacle of LGBTQ inclusion that some have lauded it to be. The LGBTQ characters are so marginally placed that it is easy to miss them altogether. It is hard to celebrate their inclusion without feeling like the game is sending a message that queerness is better when shoved into the background where it can be safely ignored.
In 2023, Final Fantasy XVI made history when it debuted Dion, the franchise’s first major character explicitly confirmed to be gay. The game’s bold depiction of Dion signaled a shift away from Final Fantasy’s historical exclusion of LGBTQ characters, which made Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s return to barely-there representation feel like a step back. After all, the massive world of Gaia has plenty of opportunities for LGBTQ side content. Dion’s inclusion raised the standard for queer representation in the Final Fantasy series – a standard that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth unfortunately fell short in meeting.
Celebrating random NPCs is whatever. FF16 created a Gay Character and made him so damn cool. He was a MAJOR character!!! PUT SOME RESPECT ON DIONs NAME. pic.twitter.com/t3jqfv24Ln
— PhillyBeatzU (@PhillyBeatzU) February 24, 2024
Other remakes show how small changes can have a monumental impact when done right. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has a complicated legacy, specifically regarding Vivian, a character that was bullied for being a trans woman in the original Japanese game in 2004. Though the Japanese version misgendered her on multiple occasions, localizations were less consistent. Some versions, such as the Italian translation, showed Vivian proudly asserting herself as a trans woman whereas the German and English translation entirely removed any hints of her being transgender. Thankfully, the 2024 remake chose to confront the topic head-on, removing any doubt about Vivian and her gender while also excluding any instances of misgendering.
Though Vivian was always intended to be a trans character, her story now focuses on her personal growth and journey to belonging. The changes made in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are a welcome adjustment to Vivian’s story, staying true to her background while also refusing to make her the target of cruel jokes and belittlement. This remake shows how a commitment to authentic LGBTQ storytelling can enhance the original themes of the game, simultaneously preserving the best parts of the past while paving the way for a better future.
Thankfully, not all remakes require amends to past anti-LGBTQ content. Some simply find ways to introduce LGBTQ representation or options where it was originally lacking. Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a 2023 remake of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life that allows for more freedom of player expression and creativity than the original games. It no longer locks players into playing a male character, allowing players to choose from she/her, he/him, and they/them pronouns, and customize their character with non gender-locked hairstyles and outfits. Players can also romance both male and female characters regardless of their character’s gender.
LOUD QUEER NB SOBBING??????????? I’m so excited?? Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons is what made me realize I was queer as a kiddo without knowing any words to describe it https://t.co/KwvNFxtqLk
— Kade 🍄🪴🐌 (@FateBoundKnight) September 13, 2022
Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life has the benefit of being a player-driven farming simulation where queer content has become the standard thanks to titles like Stardew Valley and GLAAD Media Awards nominee Wylde Flowers. The changes made to the content of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life merely introduced customization options that are expected from modern simulation games. For story-driven games like Persona 3 Reload and Final Fantasy VII Remake, knowing what to change, exclude, and include from the original is more nuanced. But there is no rule that says a remake must operate within every constraint of the original design. A remake is more than just a port or remaster – it is an adaptation of the original game, not an exact copy. Content that demeans LGBTQ people for shock value was unoriginal and offensive when it was first created, and it is even more unacceptable given the consulting resources and information that studios have today.
Thanks to ports, remasters, and video game archives, many original iterations of these games are still accessible to players on current platforms. However, modern gamers are increasingly discerning, not only in terms of gameplay and graphics, but also in regards to the quality of representation within the games they choose to play. According to the 2024 GLAAD Gaming Report, 70% of LGBTQ gamers and 46% of non-LGBTQ gamers are less likely to buy or play a game if it contains harmful tropes or stereotypes about the LGBTQ community. Studios working on video game remakes are starting to understand that contemporary audiences will not accept anti-LGBTQ content, and that positive LGBTQ inclusion – even if it deviates from source material – can broaden and enhance a game’s reception.
Remakes simply offer a new way to enjoy a story that is worth being retold. As the demand for quality LGBTQ representation grows, so too does the responsibility of video game creators to meet those expectations. Video game remakes have an opportunity to be better than the originals and, more importantly, set a higher standard for the types of stories, characters, and players that they want to better represent.