Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town remake will have homophobic "best friend" system for same-sex couples, NO Gay Marriage [Machine Translation]

CenturionNami

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This has been brought to my attention on the forum. Basically...I think it's a step forward, but is also extremely disrespectful.

Essentially to explain it to you in the DS Japanese version of Harvest Moon Cute, two girls could declare there love for one another and have a bestf riend ceremony. It was marriage in all but name, you could even have a child with "your best friend".

It was confirmed in a Chinese interview with the director the system is returning to the remake for the first time since Cute.


Since same-sex can pursue same-sex, can you marry the same sex?

Nakano: If it is a same-sex character, there will be no marriage elements. In the past, the DS version of "The Elf Station" has appeared in the setting of two girls who can get married. Similar to that setting, after the "big relatives and friends" ceremony, the two same-sex characters will become friends.
Why have the romance feature for same sex couples, but give them a different ceremony?! In 2019.
 

mazi

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making a thread with such a title based on just a google translation seems a bit hasty.
not that i don't think that will be the case in the final game
 
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CenturionNami

CenturionNami

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Someone should get into contact with Xseed and ask them if it'll be proper marriage in the English release.
 

TimeFire

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Amazing how Stardew Valley is still making Harvest Moon seem like amateur hour even 3 years after it's launch.

It's a shame, really. I was kinda looking forward to the remake.
 
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CenturionNami

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I reference to it as homophobic, because of the Japanese cultural stance that homosexuality is "just a phase" and this seems to reinforce that.
 

Rotobit

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Amazing how Stardew Valley is still making Harvest Moon seem like amateur hour even 3 years after it's launch.

It's a shame, really. I was kinda looking forward to the remake.
The fact Stardew released in Japan and was pretty big IIRC will make it even more egregious if these games don't have it. Mineral Town can at least roll with the "it's a remake" excuse, stupid as it is, but RF5 won't have that to fall back on.
 

TheIlliterati

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I read the title as "same-sex couples will also be given a homophobic best friend" and boy was I glad to be wrong there.
 

Baconmonk

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Yet another reason Stardew Valley is the superior farming game. Shame they're going so far out of their way to make it seem weird and different, this feels worse than just omitting gay relationships altogether.
 

Denman

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This Harvest Moon looks absolutely awful anyways. I do wonder why it's so hard for these developers to be inclusive though. I really doubt inclusivity would ever negatively affect sales, even with the most homophobic of people.
 
Oct 26, 2017
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Couldn't they just write the text for the main wedding ceremony to be gender neutral, so it fits with whoever you pick, and won't make it necessary to make two or more sets of data for practically every possible combination of wedding event in the game?
Yeah, it should be fairly easy to just switch the dialogue. I don't see what would be difficult about it.
 

batfax

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Most of the Bokumono community I've been talking to are really into the idea at least. It's nice to have something. Here's hoping Marvelous decide to avoid the "best friends" name and just call it marriage for the west though.

edit: Also, I see people acting like the "best friends" ceremonies in DS Cute were different events from the regular marriages. They're not.
 
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Cherubae

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I looked into it yesterday (a nice student of Mandarin volunteered to read the interview and give her interpretations) and it seems that it was more describing that you could be friends with both guys and gals, but you could only marry those of your opposite gender.
 

batfax

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I looked into it yesterday (a nice student of Mandarin volunteered to read the interview and give her interpretations) and it seems that it was more describing that you could be friends with both guys and gals, but you could only marry those of your opposite gender.
Is that so? That would be a massive disappointment. Makes me curious why they would say "similar to" the DS game but now I'm wondering if the translation I had read earlier was partially or entirely machine translated. Hopefully a Japanese news outlet or XSEED themselves will post about it soon so it's easier to get reliable info.
 

GaimeGuy

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IIRC, gay marriage isn't legal under japanese law. Several prefectures do offer things called "partnership certificates," which are basically marriage certificates with no legally binding authority. So, if, for instance, someone's partner is hospitalized, they can use their certificate/agremeent to prove to the hospital that they are a couple and obtain visitation privileges, but it's up to the individual hospital/locality to decide whether or not it will be honored.

That said, something like 80% of all japanese adults between the ages of 20 and 50 support gay marriage.

They're getting there as a society, but there's a long way to go,
 

Sandfox

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Is that so? That would be a massive disappointment. Makes me curious why they would say "similar to" the DS game but now I'm wondering if the translation I had read earlier was partially or entirely machine translated. Hopefully a Japanese news outlet or XSEED themselves will post about it soon so it's easier to get reliable info.
He might have just been referencing it because of the question. We need a better translation to know.
 

texhnolyze

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IIRC, gay marriage isn't legal under japanese law. Several prefectures do offer things called "partnership certificates," which are basically marriage certificates with no legally binding authority. So, if, for instance, someone's partner is hospitalized, they can use their certificate/agremeent to prove to the hospital that they are a couple and obtain visitation privileges, but it's up to the individual hospital/locality to decide whether or not it will be honored.

That said, something like 80% of all japanese adults between the ages of 20 and 50 support gay marriage.

They're getting there as a society, but there's a long way to go,
Fact: they're selling the game overseas.

So can we stop with all this "It's Japan" excuse in virtually every discussion such as this?
 

Jessie

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Oct 27, 2017
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IIRC, gay marriage isn't legal under japanese law. Several prefectures do offer things called "partnership certificates," which are basically marriage certificates with no legally binding authority. So, if, for instance, someone's partner is hospitalized, they can use their certificate/agremeent to prove to the hospital that they are a couple and obtain visitation privileges, but it's up to the individual hospital/locality to decide whether or not it will be honored.

That said, something like 80% of all japanese adults between the ages of 20 and 50 support gay marriage.

They're getting there as a society, but there's a long way to go,
Which is why I play Stardew Valley instead. 🤷🏻‍♀️
 

batfax

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Fact: they're selling the game overseas.

So can we stop with all this "It's Japan" excuse in virtually every discussion such as this?
Fact: The interview isn't for the western audience and we don't know if XSEED would simply localize it as marriage because "partnership certificates" aren't a thing here. As I said before, the DS Cute "best friends" scenes are the same as the male/female version of the scene. It's not treated as 'different" except in name.
 

Tfritz

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——既然同性可以追求同性,那么可以和同性结婚吗?

中野:如果是同性角色的话就不会有结婚要素了。在过去DS版的《精灵驿站》中曾出现过两个女孩子能够结婚的设定,和那个设定类似,举行“大亲友仪式”之后,两个同性角色就会成为挚友。

the question + response, for any interested and literate parties
 

Cherubae

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Is that so? That would be a massive disappointment. Makes me curious why they would say "similar to" the DS game but now I'm wondering if the translation I had read earlier was partially or entirely machine translated. Hopefully a Japanese news outlet or XSEED themselves will post about it soon so it's easier to get reliable info.
He might have just been referencing it because of the question. We need a better translation to know.
Yea, a more thorough translation or even an official statement from Marvelous (Japan) or XSeed (NA) would clear it up pretty quickly. The game itself is set to be released on October 17 (edit - in Japan and China as well, per the interview)
 

texhnolyze

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Fact: The interview isn't for the western audience and we don't know if XSEED would simply localize it as marriage because "partnership certificates" aren't a thing here. As I said before, the DS Cute "best friends" scenes are the same as the male/female version of the scene. It's not treated as 'different" except in name.
You're right. But how many times in the past localization could actually fix this kind of issue? Honest question, as I rarely follow this kind of subject in the past. It'd be great if it's common.
 

Jessie

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Oct 27, 2017
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This title would be better without the modifier. I thought it was referring to a homophobic best friend and was like WTF, these RPG elements are getting out of pocket.
 

batfax

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You're right. But how many times in the past localization could actually fix this kind of issue? Honest question, as I rarely follow this kind of subject in the past. It'd be great if it's common.
The last time this happened in the series was under Natsume, who removed the feature entirely. They rightly deserve that blame. However, the Bokumono franchise hasn't been localized by them in _years_ so we have to wait and see for what XSEED does with it. However, if the events are the same (as they are in DS Cute), literally all they'd need to do is change the wording they used which is very much what localization is for.
 

GaimeGuy

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Fact: they're selling the game overseas.

So can we stop with all this "It's Japan" excuse in virtually every discussion such as this?
My point is that the interview isn't for western audiences. Western audiences wouldn't even know wtf partnership certificates are or be able to relate to them, while east asian audiences know it's basically the "civil unions" stopgap on the way to fully-recognized marriage. Hell, they even acknowledge that it's the same thing in-game, just with a different name.

Yes I agree with the "separate but equal is inherently unequal" viewpoint, but I just wanted to provide some context on this - the developers didn't create some sort of weird workaround to marriage, they adopted the system their society/culture/language already uses. So I'd chill until/unless we find out that the western localizations can't/won't call it marriage
 

sxiebonjour

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——既然同性可以追求同性,那么可以和同性结婚吗?

中野:如果是同性角色的话就不会有结婚要素了。在过去DS版的《精灵驿站》中曾出现过两个女孩子能够结婚的设定,和那个设定类似,举行“大亲友仪式”之后,两个同性角色就会成为挚友。

the question + response, for any interested and literate parties
Q: Since you can pursue a relationship with same-sex characters, can you get married with them?

A: They won't be able to get married if the two characters are the same gender. Those two can be come best friends after a "grand relatives " ceremony, similar to the system in Harvest Moon DS version.

Well even in madarin the answer is kinda vague as it seems to imply only famles can become best friends.
 
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CenturionNami

CenturionNami

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Q: Since you can pursue a relationship with same-sex characters, can you get married with them?

A: They won't be able to get married if the two characters are the same gender. Those two can be come best friends after a "grand relatives " ceremony, similar to the system in Harvest Moon DS version.

Well even in madarin the answer is kinda vague as it seems to imply only famles can become best friends.
That would be a very bad look.
 

finalflame

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Amazing how Stardew Valley is still making Harvest Moon seem like amateur hour even 3 years after it's launch.

It's a shame, really. I was kinda looking forward to the remake.
I love Stardew, but the charm and feel of HM from the FoMT era simply has not been replicated.
 

Hours Left

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Q: Since you can pursue a relationship with same-sex characters, can you get married with them?

A: They won't be able to get married if the two characters are the same gender. Those two can be come best friends after a "grand relatives " ceremony, similar to the system in Harvest Moon DS version.

Well even in madarin the answer is kinda vague as it seems to imply only famles can become best friends.
Wow, even worse!
 

GenericBadGuy

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Oct 25, 2017
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Q: Since you can pursue a relationship with same-sex characters, can you get married with them?

A: They won't be able to get married if the two characters are the same gender. Those two can be come best friends after a "grand relatives " ceremony, similar to the system in Harvest Moon DS version.

Well even in madarin the answer is kinda vague as it seems to imply only famles can become best friends.
I can second this. It does indeed say that same-sex couples can not get married, but have a "great friend ceremony" where they become close friends instead. He uses two women as an example, but I don't take it to mean for sure that only women can do this. In fact just this quote doesn't seem to confirm the "close friend" system is in either, since in that quote he just says that's how the DS game was. However the "no same-sex marriage" is explicit.
 

batfax

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Again, this ceremony existed before and it was marriage in all but name due to Japan not having same-sex marriage. Should this feature be confirmed 100% it would be bizarre for the localization to not just simply call it marriage.

In fact, is it at all possible for the thread title to be amended? This is a regional thing and it seems to be confirming a feature people actually want that isn't completely homophobic. It's just what Japan has, which is still kind of wrong but it's still likely to be marriage outside Japan.
 

Hours Left

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I can second this. It does indeed say that same-sex couples can not get married, but have a "great friend ceremony" where they become close friends instead. He uses two women as an example, but I don't take it to mean for sure that only women can do this. In fact just this quote doesn't seem to confirm the "close friend" system is in either, since in that quote he just says that's how the DS game was.
Note: The "best friend" system was female exclusive in Harvest Mood DS Cute, as it was only added in the female MC release.
 

Tfritz

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Oct 25, 2017
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For reference: In Harvest Moon DS Cute, the "Best Friend Ceremony" is accessed the same way marriage is (you propose with a blue feather of happiness), and functions the same way as marriage (they move in, y'all eventually get a magic baby delivered to you, etc):


Apparently in DS Cute you could only be Gal Pals with the Special Magical Bachelorettes like the Mermaid and Harvest Goddess, I'm guessing in part because those characters already got Magic Babies anyway.
 

GenericBadGuy

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Note: The "best friend" system was female exclusive in Harvest Mood DS Cute, as it was only added in the female MC release.
Ah good assumption then. Its funny - my wife is actually replaying a couple of these but is getting off-put by how dated some sensibilities are. Apparently everyone in A New Beginning is a complete dick.