Vivian Is Confirmed To Be Trans In Paper Mario Remake's English Translation

thegamer.com:

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door's remake has finally addressed Vivian's gender in the game's English localisation. Here, much like the Japanese release of the original game, Vivian is now explicitly transgender, after this aspect of her character was removed in the first translation in 2004.

This was spotted by eagle-eyed fans now that the reviews of the remake are out, giving us more footage of the game. Here, a new line sees Vivian say that it took her a while to realise that she was a girl, and that her sisters have bullied her since she came out to them.

Fans are delighted with the news, having long complained about how the first English translation decided to omit this part of Vivian's story.

In fact, this translation arguably makes it even clearer than before, as she confirms that it took her time to realise she's a woman. In the original Japanese release, Vivian was often referred to as a woman, but was also misgendered by some characters. As per the Mario Wiki, the Italian localisation said that she, "used to be a man, but now she's a woman and proud of it." However, this was completely removed in the English release, keeping her as a woman, but rewording any dialogue that suggested she was transgender.

It became clear from the previews that the remake wouldn't take this approach, but fans are still pleasantly surprised with the results. It leaves no room for people to deny her gender identity too, which is a nice bonus. Some players are trying to, but they're not finding much success (and they're getting clowned on a lot).

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door's remake has been met with positive reviews so far. It sits at an 89 on Metacritic, which puts it in a good position ahead of its launch on May 23.