Harvestella will offer a non-binary pronoun option

News
By published

Daisuke Taka said he wanted to show that "all players are welcome."

Harvestella
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Harvestella, the upcoming farming sim from Square Enix, will offer a non-binary gender option in its character creator. 

It was first revealed a couple of weeks ago, when the developer shared some screenshots of its character creator on Twitter. It showed separate pronoun and body options as well as standard hair and eye colours. The gender selection in particular stood out, and now Harvestella's producer has offered some more insight into the decision behind it. 

Speaking to Eurogamer, Daisuke Taka said that the decision to add more pronoun options to Harvestella was a no-brainer, saying "I think it's completely normal these days for non-binary to be included in gender selection. The visibility of gender non-conforming people has become much more commonplace, so we thought it was important to reflect this within the game and show that all players are welcome to Harvestella."

Taka added that "there's no major impact on the game other than pronouns changing, but we hope that this means everyone feels included." He continued that Harvestella is designed to be a game "for everyone," and that "using gender-neutral pronouns takes a relatively small amount of effort, yet the positive impact is huge."

Specific non-binary option choices in character creators are still few and far between. More creators are leaning towards 'body types' rather than gender and a lot of dialogue is being neutralised, which makes it all the nicer that Square Enix has gone out of its way to include a variety of pronouns. Even if they don't matter to you, they sure as hell matter to someone else, and as Taka said its impact is minimal to those it doesn't affect.

Mollie Taylor
Mollie Taylor
Features Producer

Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.