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Z-A Has A Benefit To Crossdressing

by Faiz••0

Pokemon Legends: Z-A has some of the best character customization in Game Freak’s monster-taming series. Lumiose City’s wide array of fashion choices are a welcome change after Scarlet and Violet locked everyone into school uniforms, but the best addition is that none of these clothing items are gender-locked. So whether it’s skirts or long hair, whatever you see on the rack is yours to buy and wear as you please. The game is pretty fluid in how it lets players present themselves in the world, but even so, it’s got some gendered stuff in its story that some players aren’t thrilled about. However, the fashion freedom is helping people get around some of those limitations.

When you pick your character’s initial appearance, you’re also picking whether the game will recognize them as male or female, regardless of what you’re wearing. However, you’re also picking who your rival is going to be. If you play as a male character, you’ll be greeted by a young girl named Taunie when you arrive in Lumiose City. Conversely, a female trainer will meet Urbain, a boy who has a similar role and aesthetic, but is otherwise a different person. At first, I kinda figured this split would be in service of some shoehorned, heterosexual romantic subplot, but thankfully it never came to that. I rolled credits last night and I’m still not a hundred percent sure what the point of having these two characters is, beyond giving the main cast an even gender divide. Maybe I’ll find out more as I make my way through the post-game. That said, some fans want to play as a girl and have Taunie on their team, or want to be a boy and hang out with Urbain. So while it’s not a perfect solution, some players are taking up crossdressing to present as one gender and still get their preferred rival.

X user @Toriyaro_NICHI created a whole diagram to show players the types of clothes to wear to hide some of the features that distinguish the player models’ builds, and since you can wear any hair style, the game gives you the tools to be pretty genderfluid. Unfortunately, the game will still refer to your character with the designated pronouns based on what appearance you chose in the beginning, but it’s not like it’s voice-acted, so you can simply ignore it. Now that fans’ third eyes have been opened, a handful of folks are even starting the game over so they can have Urbain or Taunie. Or they’re just doing it because it feels right to them.

 

 

As far as I can tell, the rival is the only thing determined by the player’s gender in Legends: Z-A, but maybe this will impact other parts of the game as well that I haven’t seen yet. Live your best life in Lumiose, trainers. No one’s gonna say shit to you for wearing whatever you want.

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