Video games may have started with a binary-based Pong, but they’ve grown leaps and bounds to include trans and non-binary characters. Here are 15 appearances of trans characters in video games.
NOTE: TW transphobia in #14
1. Circuit’s Edge: Yasmin
Circuit’s Edge is a video game developed by Westwood Associates and released by Infocom in 1990. It is based on George Alec Effinger’s 1987 novel When Gravity Fails.
The game features a transgender woman named Yasmin alleged to be the player character’s former lover, and a gay man named Saied. — Wikipedia
2. RuneScape: Angof
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. RuneScape was originally a browser game built with the Java programming language; it was largely replaced by a standalone C++ client in 2016.
Angof is a female character in “The Light Within”, a quest released on August 24, 2015. At some point after the quest, the player can show her a wedding ring, prompting her to tell the player she was born male, but “corrected” herself to female once she could shapeshift. — Wikipedia
3. World of Warcraft: Pelagos and Chromie/Chronormu
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment.
As Shadowlands takes place in an afterlife realm, the characters the players meet are often previously deceased. After death, the Kyrian Pelagos — who had a “female form in life” — chose to take on a male form in his afterlife. This is detailed through in-game dialogue with the NPC.
Chromie — a dragon who may appear as humanoid — adopted a female “visage form” and preferred pronouns after a draconic ceremony (“Visage Day”). This clarified by then-narrative lead Steve Danuser in 2021, after the publishing of a short story of the ceremony in World of Warcraft: Folk & Fairy Tales of Azeroth the same year, an anthology of franchise-relevant stories. — Wikipedia
World of Warcraft’s first trans character is an important step forward
Pelagos, WoW’s First Transgender Character, On His Identity in Shadowlands
4. Captain Rainbow: Birdo
Captain Rainbow is an action-adventure video game developed by Skip Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The game was released exclusively in Japan on August 28, 2008. The game puts players in the role of Nick, an ordinary guy, whose alter ego “Captain Rainbow” was once a popular TV superhero.
Birdo’s gender identity is explored in Captain Rainbow, which delves into her gender and how she was imprisoned for using the woman’s bathroom. Birdo asks the player to find proof of her being female so she could be set free. — Wikipedia
5. Mighty Jill Off: The Queen
Mighty Jill Off is a 2008 independently developed freeware platform video game designed by Anna Anthropy, with art by James Harvey and music by Andrew Toups. It stars a submissive named Jill, who has a boot fetish and is forced to climb up a tower after her Queen kicks her down it as punishment.
Jill and her Queen’s relationship are the core drive of the game, with Jill’s desire to return to her Queen acting as her primary motivation, and their BDSM practices providing context for the game’s difficulty.
The game’s designer, Anna Anthropy confirmed The Queen is canonically trans on the game’s itch.io page. — Wikipedia
6. Assassin’s Creed Syndicate: Ned Wynert
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is an action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Quebec and published by Ubisoft. It was released on October 23, 2015, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on November 19, 2015, for Windows.
Ned Wynert is a minor non-playable character (NPC) and a trans man. — Wikipedia
7. Dishonored 2: Mindy Blanchard
Dishonored 2 is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Arkane Lyon and published by Bethesda Softworks for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It is the sequel to 2012’s Dishonored.
Mindy is a recurring character in Dishonored 2 who can act as either an ally or antagonist to the player depending on their actions. A number of interactions in game hint at her being transgender, with the game’s director, Harvey Smith, later confirming it on stream after players picked up on the clues. — Wikipedia
8. Final Fight: Poison
Final Fight is a side-scrolling beat-’em-up video game produced by Capcom. Originally released as an arcade game in 1989, it was the seventh title released for the CP System hardware.
Poison is introduced in Final Fight (1989), where she is either a pre-op or post-op trans woman, depending on the region where the game was released.
One of Poison’s win quotes, “Being gossiped about is proof of my popularity!” seemingly alludes to the controversy and ambiguity surrounding her gender identity. — Wikipedia
9. MTG Magic Duels: Gonti, Yahenni, Alesha, and Delney
Magic Duels is a video game based on the popular collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Magic Duels is a successor to Stainless Games’ Magic: The Gathering — Duels of the Planeswalkers and its annual sequels, released from 2009 through 2014.
The Aetherborn are a short lived genderless species born from the process of producing an energy source called Aether. Some Aetherborn, like Yahenni, and Gonti, take on genders and pronouns during their lives.
Alesha is a warrior from the plane of Tarkir. Among her people names are earned in glory and battle. At the age of 16 she earned her name and chose the name Alesha, after her grandmother.
Delney is a Ravnican youth occasionally working with the city’s detectives. They use they/them pronouns.
10. Magic the Gathering ARENA: Klement
Magic: The Gathering Arena or MTG Arena is a free-to-play digital collectible card game developed and published by Wizards of the Coast.
Klement is a tiefling cleric from Baldur’s Gate, who is represented on a card in the Arena exclusive set “Alchemy Horizons: Baldur’s Gate”. He was designed by the set’s narrative lead, Justice Geddes, who confirmed his identity.
11. Super Mario Bros 2: Birdo/Birdetta
Super Mario Bros. 2 is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was first released in North America in September 1988, and in the PAL region in 1989.
In the first-edition manual for the North American release of the game, Birdo is referred to as a “male who believes that he is a female” and would rather be called “Birdetta”, making her the first transgender character for Nintendo. In the Japanese version, Birdo is referred as “Catherine” where it is also stated that the character is a man who wishes to be a woman. In later printings, mention of Birdo being male was omitted, and further not included in most later games with the character.
12. Paper Mario — The Thousand Year Door: Vivian
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is a 2004 role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The Thousand-Year Door is the second game in the Paper Mario series following Paper Mario, and is part of the larger Mario franchise.
Vivian is a transgender woman who is mocked by her elder sister Beldam, who misgenders her and refers to her a cross-dresser. This characterization was largely excised in the English localization. — Wikipedia
13. Mass Effect: Andromeda: Hainly Abrams
Mass Effect: Andromeda is a 2017 action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It is the fourth major entry in the Mass Effect series and was released in March 2017 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One.
When the game initially released, Abrams would readily inform the player that she is transgender and the masculine name she was given at birth. She tells the player that she left the Milky Way galaxy searching for greater acceptance of her gender identity. The abruptness with which she shares this information received criticism from fans, and the game was later patched so that Abrams would only reveal this information if the player developed a supportive relationship with her. — Wikipedia
14. Persona 3: “Beautiful Lady”
Persona 3, released outside Japan as Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, is a 2006 role-playing video game developed by Atlus that is the fourth main installment in the Persona series, which is part of the larger Megami Tensei franchise.
In Persona 3, various male characters flirt with a woman, and then misgender her when they realize she is transgender. In the 2024 remake Persona 3 Reload, there is no reference to her being transgender, and the boys instead run away because she is a conspiracy theorist. — Wikipedia
15. Watch Dogs 2: Miranda Comay
Watch Dogs 2 is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the sequel to 2014’s Watch Dogs and the second installment in the Watch Dogs series.
Miranda Comay is a city councilwoman of San Francisco, a long time friend of protagonist Marcus Holloway and his family, and a transgender woman. — Wikipedia
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