A free couples update adds same-sex partners to developer Furi’s RPG Haven.
The game’s narrative focuses on the relationship between Yu and Kay as they explore a vibrant alien world.
Now, with this update, players can choose to play according to their preferred pairing: either a woman and a man, or two women, or two men.
New designs for both characters have been implemented, although there are similarities regardless of gender.
As Creative Director Emeric Thoa explains in a PlayStation Blog: “Looking at the new Yu and Kay, you will notice that Kay and Yu look a lot alike in all playable versions. There are two reasons for this: first, they are the same characters in the story, they have the same personality, the same backstory, and life. And secondly, for technical reasons, we had to keep the same height, the same haircut and the same morphology.”
The game now features new 3D renderings of the characters and redesigned 2D assets, as well as new voices from Lexie Ann Kendrick and Ryan Highley.
“We’ve also made sure that the written dialogue is appropriate for each pair in the eight languages Haven is available in, and lines with explicit or implied gender references have been edited to appropriately reflect the characters you’ve selected ( if Yu says ‘Sir’ to Kay…it doesn’t work with a woman anymore),” Thoa says.
Interestingly, the game was originally meant to include eight couples to explore a wide range of relationships. This was scaled down for the original release, but this couples update allowed the team to address some of those ideas.
“Yu and Kay’s story is about two personalities, two tangled lives, that players would come to know and fall in love with during gameplay, and we were asked many times, ‘Will I be able to choose the gender of my characters in Haven? “. We are very proud to be able to offer the love story in two new ways that more players can relate to,” says Thoa.
Haven is available now on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Nintendo Switch, and PC.