Trails through Daybreak proves games can be normal about trans people

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Table of Contents A fraught history of inclusion Just be normal

There are few video games as long lived as The Legend of Heroes. Telling a continuous story for the past 20 years in over a dozen games, an anime, various manga, and other transmedia, the franchise has followed young heroes who fight for others by uncovering the tide of oppressive political forces shaping national borders. It’s the most — verbose and lighthearted, conflicts solved through both the power of friendship and international trade treaties.

Trails through Daybreak’s particular ensemble of heroes, though, stands out. Gig workers, orphans, queers, and ethnic minorities come together as a found family in their French locale to fight villains who have allied themselves with capitalists stoking racial tensions in a multicultural nation. They call out and fight back against the white supremacy of their opponents anti-immigrant rhetoric, the cover for economic power grabs.

Much of that was reduced down to one conversation between Van Arkride, the game’s spiky haired, autophile protagonist asking a new party member, Quatre, his pronouns. It’s a fair question since Quatre wears thigh high boots and short shorts along with a tie, his long silver hair not communicating a clear gender expression at all. Something left out of that single frame of dialogue is how other characters respond to the question. Quatre is himself surprised, while other party members — notably teens compared to Van’s decrepit 24 — are offended he would say that. It’s not exactly a pronoun circle, but a reasonable translation of trying to figure out politely what someone’s ambiguous gender presentation is.

And while it was a relative flash in the pan as far as gaming controversies go, I was reassured — impressed, even — by how unphased actual fans of the The Legend of Heroes were themselves to the inclusion of a queer character. Not that it should be surprising to someone who has played a Trails game.

A fraught