Dark Souls III and Trans-inclusivity.
Dark Souls has been out for a good while in Japan and even for certain reviewers and beta testers, though for the rest of us normal consumers, it has just dropped since midnight of April 12th. Many players are taking their first dive into what I’m noticing is a far more sinister, hopeless and deadly world, but it’s no less beautifully crafted and incredibly full of strange beings and bosses. Some might have taken the plunge into the Abyss as their own iteration of the ‘Ashen One’ early, but it still serves to say that while things are quite bleak in the world of Lothric, it’s clear that there’s a certain beauty in the grotesque creatures and landscapes it’s already shown me in just the world’s first two areas.
However, that isn’t exactly what I’m going to be writing about. With the backlash of the inclusion of a trans character in the game known as ‘Balder’s Gate’, many have noticed that games could be shown to have some horrific reprimands from very annoyed, even starkly angry people regarding something that doesn’t even have any real repercussions upon their own experiences in the game. Single NPCs will obviously completely ruin an entire game, yes?
Dark Souls III has very slyly slipped in a work-around to this issue. I took notice of this when I went into the character creation screen for the first time and took notice of the menagerie of new customization options available to me. I went with my typical go-to gal-pal of the Soulsborne series, Adrian, and took my sweet time tweaking her skin color, hair color, brow shape and even her pupils (they added in blind eye-types and cataracts!) while making sure she looked and sounded how I imagined my favorite deadly girl would. And then I took a closer look out of pure curiosity.
Body hair? Oh my, you can have a hairy woman or a cleanly-shaven man! How nice. Musculature? Ooooh, a scrawny male or a toned female… now we’re getting somewhere. Beards? A cleanly shaven male is obviously an option, but for females, what would you expect but nothing.
Nothing but every option a male would have. Mustaches. Beards. Side-burns. And not just thin ones. Full sets. Big, bushy beards and ‘staches. Peach-fuzz. And so many varied sets of hair as well! It doesn’t even stop there. If you go into the facial options, you can even have a male have a traditionally feminine facial structure and vice versa with a female being born looking a bit more masculine.
It’s a very subtle, yet incredibly effective tactic in slipping in trans-inclusivity. Many may not even notice, some may play around with it as a joke (because making some of the strangest-looking people with bright green skin and a jawline that looks to be trying to eat the rest of their face), but for the people that something like that matters for? This is, while not as open as many would like, a step forward.
You can make someone truly in your image, voice and all. A traditionally masculine man… with a young, feminine voice. Or even an elder woman with a thick, gruff tone. The possibilities are there, and they’re almost limitless.
I will admit that it’s faintly depressing that it had to be something as simple as this to pass by the sight of the typical crowd that would be completely up in arms about something that doesn’t even relate to them in any way, shape or form (why include something in a game if it isn’t tailor-made for me specifically?), but the sheer fact that it’s there is incredibly hopeful.
Before you mention it could’ve been an oversight on the part of From Software… this is the first game they’ve done it in, and they explicitly placed these options there. Bloodborne didn’t even have this level of customization. And yet Dark Souls III does.
It’s certainly a step in the right direction.
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