XSEED and Marvelous Games dropped the long awaited release date for Rune Factory 5 in addition to announcing a first for the franchise.
Developers published a blog post with details on the game’s localization process and the focus is on a first for the series: same-sex relationships. The news was very aptly posted today, as September 23 is bisexual visibility day.
Developers said the U.S. localization team had been asking for the inclusion of same-sex relationships since 2018, noting the team felt optimistic after it was an option in Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town.
“However, as we started reviewing design materials and text files, we grew worried that Rune Factory 5 didn’t have it,” developers wrote. “We asked our main liaison with the development team—Marvelous’ localization department in Japan—to check their plans for same-sex marriage. They confirmed that it was not planned for Rune Factory 5, but that they would ask about the possibility of adding it. Thankfully, the game’s producer at Marvelous and others within the company agreed that including this feature was important and began to push for it. At the same time, Marvelous’ localization team laid some ground rules for its implementation to make sure that players would have the same experience regardless of which character they pursued.”
Developers detail the great lengths they went through to add the feature to the game, from needing additional cutscenes, adjusting dialogue and voice capture as the localization team continued working on translations.
Rune Factory 5 will (finally) launch for the Nintendo Switch on March 22, 2022.
