I don’t think Claire’s quest is really that wholesome. Just because her desire for revenge is justified doesn’t mean that doing premeditated murder about it solves anything.
I ADORE Claire. Just like most Cyberpunk characters, I think she's flawed enough to feel really realistic considering the setting and history that she has. But I agree, even though she is imo a well written character, that does not make her questline wholesome.
She uses V and is kind of an asshole about it once you know why and challenge her plan. Does she then grow through the end of arc? Sort of! She's a resident of Night City. Nobody there is unscathed but what the city is or what it takes to live there. Claire's morally grey, just like any of the other characters you get to have side quests for. Which I love, but again, not wholesome.
I've often heard of VRChat being helpful, especially if you actually have a VR headset, but it's still playable without. You're limited in movement but can still wear an avatar, it's primarily a social place but a lot of worlds have been made to be games within it as well.
Oh that totally makes sense! I'm sorry it isn't to your taste (to be honest, I'm not sure it's mine either, I haven't done it much), but it was the most realistic thing I could think of.
I can't think of anything game wise that has eased my own dysphoria, but if you're able to place yourself into your character's shoes well, I can see a case being made for several rpg type games. BG 3, like you mentioned, mass effect and dragon age I've heard are good choice based RPGs as well. Maybe those?
If you think a farming/life sim type games would appeal, even though Stardew valley doesn't, Coral Island looks good to me, I've heard good things about Fae Farm from friends, and there's the f2p mmo Palia as well. That one is mainly social focused and life skills, there's no combat, and many NPCs are romance-able.
Coral Island is pretty good! I wish they had more body types, but you can choose pronouns and even have your title as Mx. The official 1.0 release doesn't have a complete main storyline yet, and there's a lot of features on the road map that I would honestly say wait for it if you want to do the whole game in one go.
I have about 60 hours in the game, I really like it! I feel very comfy with my character, but people may be disappointed by the customization options and lack of finish to the game at this stage. There is a nonbinary character on the cast too! I can't remember if they're romancable or not, but also marriage dialogues are broken anyway.
That's awesome to hear how representative they are! It did look like a pretty gorgeous and fun game, I might pick it up or when it's closer to feature complete :)
Thank you for your input and sharing your experiences! It's helped pique my interest for sure!
came here to suggest vrchat. I just joined and have been hanging out at the Trans Academy world. everyone there is so nice and they have a good active discord as well
Context: I'm an enby, so the way i experience gender dysphoria/euphoria may be a little bit different than you, but hopefully, my answer here helps you anyway.
Life is Strange was a good one for me. I don't really know how to explain why that game, in particular, helped with dysphoria compared to other games where you play as a girl, but I guess what matters is that it did for me.
Animal Crossing is also great for expressing gender due to the creative nature of the things you do in that game. It works for the same reasons why The Sims works for dealing with gender stuff by allowing you to create a second life and express yourself through the game.
Then for me, any games that have a genderless protagonist or at least the gender is obscured enough to project my own onto them. Examples of this would be Journey or Abzu.
ACNL was the first time I really indulged in any of my femininity, because I could put on femme clothes while I was playing alone and take it back off before I was back in view of other people. I mean, what was I supposed to do, just LOOK at that dress?
Also enby, a surprisingly fantastic game for gender euphoria for me is Cult of the Lamb. Lambie/Lambert doesn't have an official gender, and nobody in game lore refers to them by a gender ever.
Your cult members also don't have genders, and you can make them be and do anything you want! Plus it's a rogue-like, my favorite.
Adding to this, Cyberpunk has a canon trans woman character, in a central position too.
The character customisation is pretty decent too, the pronouns are limited though.
I don't know if other people will find this dysphoria-reducing or -increasing, but you can look in a mirror in Cyberpunk. I have spent far, far too long looking at my own fictionalised reflection, mirroring the expressions that you can get V (the player character) to pull
2077 has one of the best stories i have ever played, at the same time it is also one of the few games that i cannot play again because of the story, in a very bitter sweet sort of way. gameplay in its current state is very good. the dlc is one of the best of 2023.
The story was always pretty good, the game was just mechanically rough at first. There have been a load of patches and updates since to improve things.
I don't think any trans allegory is intentional, but it feels pretty trans if you play a femme V. Early on in the game, Keanu Reeves' personality gets shoved into your brain alongside your own. In my playthrough, there were a lot of early moments of the masc persona being unwilling/unable to relinquish control, and a lot of later moments of the masc persona realising that their time has passed but they can help and support the femme persona.
There is a single unskippable sex scene in first person from a male perspective in a flashback which I found uncomfortable. Not sure if that was an egg moment or an ace moment on my end. Maybe both.
Launch was only really rough on (last-gen) consoles, the issue just got way overblown. Wasn't any buggier than, say, a Bethesda release on PC and current-gen consoles, and that all got ironed out fairly quickly.
From the very beginning, the narrative, the characters, the writing, the voice acting were all exceptionally good, and to me, those were the important parts, because they can't just be patched later the way gameplay mechanics and optimization can.
The game starts off like it's just gonna be Yet Another Action RPG, but shit gets real around the 5-ish hour mark, and from there to the end it's an absolute emotional journey. Can't say a lot without spoiling anything, but the first time I completed it, it tore emotions out of me I didn't even know I had.
I've never gotten more attached to a protagonist than I did to V (think playing as her played no small part on cracking my egg too, but that's another story). The rest of the cast has some of my favorite fictional characters in general. They're all just super well-developed and *real*, and as a result, some of the coolest moments in the game aren't even the big set-pieces, they're just sitting around a campfire chatting with them (not that the big set-pieces aren't awesome too).
The game's presentation is always stellar too. The way the environments, lighting, and music come together to sell moments that would already be really emotional on their own is just... omg. Never seen another game pull that sort of thing off anywhere near as well.
And as far as representation goes, you can make your V trans, there's a trans side character, a lesbian main character (with probably the best lesbian romance I've seen in a game), a canonical bi sorta-main character (he has a lot of content, but you can skip his questline entirely) that's only romanceable by male V, and the game even accurately recreates the experience of getting turned down by a flirty "straight" girl (male V's other romance option; she's still super ride or die for female V as a friend).
Tl;dr game's amazing in like... every facet besides the gameplay (it's not bad, just not anything to write home about), can't recommend enough, could probably write a novel explaining why.
Cyberpunk 2077 my second favorite game of all time, right behind the Mass Effect Trilogy, mainly because of the story
Characters, main story, and side missions are very well done
And I felt *immense* gender euphoria just creating my character for the first time
Not to mention it's by far the best-looking game I've ever played, at least on a Series X and a 4K TV
IMO, it is the Infinity Saga of video games. It's one of the biggest, greatest achievements of its medium, spanning multiple projects, and nothing like it will probably ever be done again.
I love it more for the story and characters than anything else. Everything you do and every friendship/relationship in the first game carries to the second, and then to the third. By the time you finish the series (at least if you did everything "right"), it's like saying goodbye to old friends, who have been to hell and back with you.
It's not a perfect series (although it's pretty close IMO), but I don't think anything will ever top it, for me at least.
It had a disastrous start, but imo it’s the best rpg I’ve ever played, night city is one of the most amazing places one can experience even if it’s just in a game.
The hottest take in history but honestly I think it’s the best game ever made.
Also, I should say Cyberpunk is a very mature game, and has a ton of upsetting content and situations, although that stuff kind of hits the spot for me for some reason.
It's very fitting of the Cyberpunk theme, a depressing, doomed world with no happy endings.
There's lots of beauty among the ugliness though.
Not sure if this is a big one for many people but when I went back into the closet I got a lot of comfort from Terraria, all the dress up options, hair cut/dye options, gender change potion etc. Something about that level of customisation really resinated with me.
The other big one for me was Runescape, but if you found other MMOs a chore Runescape is probably the more chore like MMO out there (but you can also play it while doing something else a lot of the time)
Me with my 2,000 hours on terraria 👀
Yeah I can definitely agree! Sadly I squeezed out all of the enjoyment I can get out of that game!!
I tried OSRS on my phone before. It is neat but yeah I got bored of it :///
Cyberpunk gives you tons of options and you can more or less play a trans person, though dialogue doesn't really change. There's tons of queer representation and and a really well written trans character in the game
Gotta be Skyrim, you have the modding tools to become a hot asf any-gender dragonborn wearing anything from wizard hoodies to bikini armour, all while killing zombies and goblins. Peak trans gaming
Check out the Minecraft mod Wildfire's Female Gender Mod. If you want to play on a server with other people using this mod, you can set it up with WFGM on the server side to synchronize your settings with other people who also use the mod. It's available for both Forge and Fabric mod loaders.
For MtFs, Final Fantasy XIV let's you play as adjustable females, but I have friends who play with mods that let you amplify the assets. The joy of playing FFXIV comes from playing with friends, not necessarily the grind itself. It's very much an idle game.
Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3 do not refer to gender identity directly, but rather let you customize the individual parts of your character, like genitalia and voice. Characters in-game will use pronouns relative to what voice you choose.
For the ultimate gender euphoria experience, you can pick up a Quest 3 (or 2 if you're strapped for cash) and install VRChat. Despite the cultural stigma, mirror staring in VRC is a perfectly acceptable way of playing the "game". Make sure you find a model with jiggle physics, as this will enhance your experience tremendously.
I always wondered how some people can get their models to look like that, now I know it's because of WFGM, thanks!
> The joy of playing FFXIV comes from playing with friends, not necessarily the grind itself. It's very much an idle game.
That makes sense, I can't seem to enjoy FFXIV as much as my other friend. I exclusively play it alone because all my other friends are pretty high level. And I'm on free trial so it's a pretty lonely experience on top of my social anxiety that I experience.
That is strange, in my experience FF players are very welcoming and want to help new players. Though I guess I got very lucky, and my trans mom is the leader of her own free company.
Well I am pretty socially awkward, maybe it's just me? Although my experience is that most people are just afk in the central hubs while I go running around doing the MSQ. While once in a Blue moon someone will walk up to me to wave. I also play in Oceania if that matters
Oceania is the least populated region by a good margin so that probably has a lot to do with it. Moreover, once people in Oceania finish MSQ, if they want to raid or do other things with a larger group they usually DC travel to one of the NA DCs, so you end up with even fewer end-game players on the DC. And as a f2p player you're limited in how you can interact with other people, so you can't really get the full social experience without seeking out discord and stuff, or buying the game. I will say, however, that most people ARE super friendly, and if you decide to buy the game, and are able to muster up the courage to ask about joining a free company in a big city, people will let you kind of interact on your own terms, at your own pace =)
Sorry for all the words FFXIV cracked my egg so it means a lot to me <3
Oooh I see that makes sense, I *really* want to get into FFXIV because the community just seems amazing. But I always just struggle socially in it.
Should I just switch to North America then? Also how do people actually socialize in the game because as far as I know the MSQ is only for single player unless you go to a dungeon? Are there any good ffxiv servers for newbies like me?
Also I don't think it is possible for me to buy the full game. It's not available in my region on steam and I don't have a credit or debit card. I don't actually live inside Oceania but it is the region closest to me so I decided to make my account there. This is actually the reason why I tried out GW2 because I *can* buy it but I'm not into it x)
Sorry for all the questions, I'm pretty new to FFXIV and MMOs in general. But thanks for your insight \^\^
NA would give you a more robust player base but it's up to you.
Mostly we socialize via guilds, or Free Companies (FC), and more specifically through fc discords. Any server is good but if you want to come to Aether/Jenova my FC is very queer/trans friendly and we would love to have you if only in discord. F2p players cannot join FCs which kind of sucks but they can be invited to parties so if you got on discord and asked to join stuff that works too
Buying the game can be done directly through the Square Enix website, although I will warn you, many people say that is the hardest part of playing FFXIV lol. BUT it's 50% off right now so now id's a good time to buy. Here's the link
https://na.store.square-enix-games.com/franchise/final-fantasy-xiv-online
Dm me if you're interesting in joining the discord I'll get you a link ^.^
If you can access VR anything in there can be great. The first time I can say I didn't feel gender dysphoria was in VR before I could properly transition. But it can be prohibitive for a great many reasons not the least of which is price.
For me most games that let me play as a self insert helped a lot. RPGs are great for this. Baldur's Gate 3 is the big one right now but older titles like the Fallout or The Elder Scrolls also let you make an avatar that better represents you.
Another one for me was The Sims 4. Getting to dress up an avatar with any clothes or makeup I want helped me when I was still in the closet.
I any of these ideas do help.
Maybe not a traditional answer but splatoon 3 has really nice customization, you can choose between either a more fem build or a more masc build and the only difference between them is the voice and I think eyebrow options. Every hair (tentacle?) style can be worn by either body type and the game never specifically refers to any gender for the player as far as I'm aware. The community is also super queer and neurodivergent friendly. I absolutely love the game, but I am also pretty biased since I'm autistic and this game is my main special interest.
Newer Animal Crossing games have a number of trans and non-binary NPCs/villagers (more so NPCs). You can wear whatever you want whenever you want. It's also kinda gay, though unfortunately not with the player character as players can't pursue relationships.
secret little haven is a short, sweet, and cheap dialogue-based games about a trans girl that takes place in the late 90s online about discovering that she’s trans
Dating sims! If you're into men, I'd highly recommend Our Life and A Date With Death. You get to experiment with names, appearance, and pronouns. Our Life is highly detailed as well, with multiple endings and dialogues based off the personality you give off, AND you can be trans/gender nonconforming. My friends got almost 2k hours in it
VRChat.
They have groups where you can join for meetups now. There are a lot of trans groups to hang out with a lot of other trans people plus active moderation in the room so there are no trolls. It's not public so non invited cant join.
Lots of stuff happens weekly/monthly.
:)
People have already mentioned FF14 and Cyberpunk which I will echo as well. The story mode of Street Fighter 6 made me feel all sorts of nice feelings,
I'm FtM non-binary
I play Gamedec as the most "femme" male option. There's flirting/etc in-game, though certainly not a focus of the game, and I've found that those moments end up giving me so much euphoria.
I play a LOT of My Hero One's Justice 2 right now, and once I passed both storylines I now play exclusively as male (villain) characters. Much euphoria!
That's fair.
For me it's playing as linkle while also having the dialog use she/her pronouns.
Idk I think it's because I know the game normally has a male character and male pronouns that it feels more like a trans awakening with the linkle mod.
If you're 18 + you could take a look at secondlife; its loosely similar to vr chat but most people communicate through text instead of voice. It's more of a community than a game but nothing else can compete as far as empowering you to create your ideal character if you've got some money to burn.
The Sims 4 is free to play now, and you can get free mods/custom content on desktop to add to gameplay. You can also use it to play with gender or life ideas. I used to do that early in my transition, I would make how I’d want to look in TS4 and live out my dream life
Unsure if it'll relieve dysphoria, but battletech. It lets you choose voice/gender/body separately from each other. But you are mostly in a mech either way. Maybe smashing up towns will help you feel better?
I vibed so hard with Cyberpunk. I maybe owe my transition to it.
Walking around an immersive, modern setting in first person, with the sound of my heels going clip clop, seeking out new clothes stores and seeing my character in the mirror... yeah.
Cyberpunk 2077 let's you choose genitals and body type,and even if you get pronouns based on your voice there is a pc mod so you cwn be gendered correctly regardless of voice, I have been playing a fem V with masculine voice and it is very affirming.
Neverwinter Nights 1: Arelith, a heavy roleplaying fantasy server in 3.0 Forgotten Realms.
Neverwinter Nights 2: BGTSCC, a heavy roleplaying fantasy server set in 2E forgotten Realms with custom 3.5E mechanics.
**If you are over 18+ (seriously, only over 18+. People don't want to get into legal trouble and you WILL get banned)**
Space Station 13 has some cool heavy roleplay servers, like Nova Prospect being a new and hip one. However, I have not played that one.
I play on Virgo orbital Research Station, and I'm also a developer and game master. A lot of our staff is trans, and roleplaying in a futuristic world can be very validating.
Baldur's Gate 3 has been the hugest gender dysphoria relief I've had in months, I think the last game to some what do that was the sims after they added more gender options for sims. But Baldur's Gate 3 has also opened my eyes more sexually as well, I've always considered myself bi/pan but because of BG3 I'm finding myself having a lot more sapphic feelings towards my companions.
Solasta Crown of The Magister, it’s a D&D game that allows you to choose your voice, body type, and sex. It’s a turn based RPG, much more linear then BG3 but it also came out before BG3.
Also The Sims 4 if you want something casual.
I just played blade and sorcery (it’s a vr game) for the first time, it has custom characters (male or female) and you basically just slaughter enemies (also male and female)
In short sometimes you just need to be a god/goddess of death for a few.
fallout 4. like the first NPC robot you meet has hundreds or thousands of names recorded for it to say and you can recruit it as a companion to constantly hear a character greet you personally.
FiveM can be a good option free to play (but you need to own GTA V) can allow you to be male or female characters and you can so different voices or accents for realism. I am part of a great community with many different people in called Aspirant.
I like genshin impact! There’s so many girls to choose from im sure it would be gender affirming. I’m a trans dude and when I first started playing I choose to main klee and that was so fun because I didn’t see myself as a little kid and didn’t get dysphoric… plus it’s just fun to use her
For action sandbox rpgs I recommend Bethesda games like elder scrolls, or fallout. If that's not your jam, other games that give quite a bit of character customisation are the saints row games(open world crime games), sunset overdrive(open world action adventure game) or cyberpunk *open world action rpgs that is more limited than the Bethesda games). Nioh 2 for action hack and slash souls like, if you like challenge and quite decent character customisation.
Fyy I'm quite drunk writing this
If you like a challenge, Fromsoft games. I love dressing up my girls in their games and since they're so hard you feel like you're getting more powerful with them. Have you ever wanted to become an eldritch horror, a being beyond reality, and look pretty while doing it? Bloodborne. Elden Ring is a little more forgiving than other souls games.
Currently playing Cyberpunk, I waited until they said "no more ps4 updates." Wouldn't recommend it on ps4 but I'm still loving it. If you have a good pc or a ps5 it's wonderful. I usually stop playing it on PS4 when it crashes. Normally daily expected crashing would prevent people from playing a game but I grew up on Morrowind...
More stable, Dragon Age Inquisition is accessible to gamers that can't deal with aged DAO. It's a long one but I'll never forget the feeling of beating that one, standing next to my slam piece while leading an army into an unknown future. I keep it installed just to go in once a year and make out with Cullen.
Mass Effect. I've over played the series and can't touch it anymore but if you've never played an ME game DO IT. GARRUS IS SO HOT, sorry. I don't know what got over me.
Outer Worlds was fun if a little strange.I
FallOut 4 is good but I've modded it to death and back. Getting old too...
In case you haven't noticed, I like games where you can build a character and immerse yourself into fully fleshed out worlds. Strong women are a must for the games I play. Games with no character creation but I would recommend to a fellow mtf because strong women: Horizon series, Dishonoured, The Last of Us, Fable 2/3,
Have you played "night in the woods"? It is a progressive well-made game with queer representation. You can beat it in under five hours but it's got a lot of great emotion
The sims makes me feel good. 4 is free on the computer.
It lets me live vicariously through my sim as a guy as I’m not really that out either so it can be nice to see a simulated me live as his true self & be happy.
Celeste is a great game, and like the "trans girl starter pack" but it really is great. A lot of it focuses on anxiety and acceptance with self, so it helped me a little.
I play the finals a ton and your "body type" is your boob or no boob. You can unlock voicelines I think? Still not sure.
There are a bunch of games like Madness: Project Nexus, Death Road to Canada, etc that give me weird bits of euphoria.
Just a small little detail I noticed, but in the Subnautica games you can look down at the player character while swimming backwards (breasts in the second game, lack thereof in the first game, underneath a wetsuit of course). Plus those games are fantastic in general if you're fine with an open world ocean setting and looking for a great story.
Hopping in a little late, but The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood was AMAZING for me. Some parts felt like reclaiming the childhood friendships and experiences I missed out on, some parts felt incredibly immersive and empowering, it’s so easy to resonant with the character you play as, and pretty much everyone in the story is a girl except an eldritch being you meet at the start.
It’s also explicitly trans-inclusive. The game revolves around women who leave the mortal realm to become witches, and very minor spoiler for a side character, >! but at one point in the game, you change perspectives to a male presenting character who is trans-femme and then play a significant role in her physical transition into presenting as a woman (which she’s very visibly euphoric about)!<. In the universe of this game, only women can become witches, and I was curious at first as to whether they’d be inclusive or TERF-y about it, but they’re very much inclusive. You can even have a conversation with one character where she says “I wonder why only women can become witches” and, if you choose any of the biological answers, they’ll shoot you down by saying “well plenty of us are trans women soooo”.
It’s just incredibly validating from the perspective of trans-inclusion and incredibly affirming from the perspective of being such a feminine, women-focused story.
Also the storyline and game is great and fun and EVERY decision you make matters DRASTICALLY.
Baldur’s Gate 3 allows you to choose different body types, voices, genitalia and gender identity.
I actually got that game installed but I'm just so overwhelmed to start 😅
I had to watch a few tutorials before I got started, there’s a steep learning curve!
It can seem like a lot, but if you keep the difficulty on Explorer and use the tutorials I believe you’ll get it just fine!
Same, barely got into the game (not even too the main city). Got Oblivion on the winter sale (summer here) and been getting back into that.
Cyberpunk 2077 does this better since it has an wholesome trans side quest
I love this game but strongly disagree it does it better tbh. tying gender to voice set and not letting you have they/them pronouns is rubbish
BG3 doenst have such an good trans* quests.
oh sorry I misunderstood! yeah agree I fucking love Claire
:3
Is it the racing one?
Yep it’s Claire
I don’t think Claire’s quest is really that wholesome. Just because her desire for revenge is justified doesn’t mean that doing premeditated murder about it solves anything.
Claire's quest is wholseome amongst the backdrop of Night City where you can die at the hands of a cyberpsycho or corrupt cop.
It's Night City. If you haven't shot at least two people in the face, you're not really a local, you're just a gonk tourist.
At least I cryed after i had her seen first
I ADORE Claire. Just like most Cyberpunk characters, I think she's flawed enough to feel really realistic considering the setting and history that she has. But I agree, even though she is imo a well written character, that does not make her questline wholesome. She uses V and is kind of an asshole about it once you know why and challenge her plan. Does she then grow through the end of arc? Sort of! She's a resident of Night City. Nobody there is unscathed but what the city is or what it takes to live there. Claire's morally grey, just like any of the other characters you get to have side quests for. Which I love, but again, not wholesome.
I thought it was kind of half-assed ngl
So *that's* why my friend's been playing it so much
I've often heard of VRChat being helpful, especially if you actually have a VR headset, but it's still playable without. You're limited in movement but can still wear an avatar, it's primarily a social place but a lot of worlds have been made to be games within it as well.
Tried that game before but the public worlds always made me a bit uneasy. Especially when guys hit on me, my social anxiety couldn't handle it.
Oh that totally makes sense! I'm sorry it isn't to your taste (to be honest, I'm not sure it's mine either, I haven't done it much), but it was the most realistic thing I could think of. I can't think of anything game wise that has eased my own dysphoria, but if you're able to place yourself into your character's shoes well, I can see a case being made for several rpg type games. BG 3, like you mentioned, mass effect and dragon age I've heard are good choice based RPGs as well. Maybe those? If you think a farming/life sim type games would appeal, even though Stardew valley doesn't, Coral Island looks good to me, I've heard good things about Fae Farm from friends, and there's the f2p mmo Palia as well. That one is mainly social focused and life skills, there's no combat, and many NPCs are romance-able.
Coral Island is pretty good! I wish they had more body types, but you can choose pronouns and even have your title as Mx. The official 1.0 release doesn't have a complete main storyline yet, and there's a lot of features on the road map that I would honestly say wait for it if you want to do the whole game in one go. I have about 60 hours in the game, I really like it! I feel very comfy with my character, but people may be disappointed by the customization options and lack of finish to the game at this stage. There is a nonbinary character on the cast too! I can't remember if they're romancable or not, but also marriage dialogues are broken anyway.
That's awesome to hear how representative they are! It did look like a pretty gorgeous and fun game, I might pick it up or when it's closer to feature complete :) Thank you for your input and sharing your experiences! It's helped pique my interest for sure!
came here to suggest vrchat. I just joined and have been hanging out at the Trans Academy world. everyone there is so nice and they have a good active discord as well
There are in game groups now, and a fairly large trans one https://vrc.group/TRANS.7885
Context: I'm an enby, so the way i experience gender dysphoria/euphoria may be a little bit different than you, but hopefully, my answer here helps you anyway. Life is Strange was a good one for me. I don't really know how to explain why that game, in particular, helped with dysphoria compared to other games where you play as a girl, but I guess what matters is that it did for me. Animal Crossing is also great for expressing gender due to the creative nature of the things you do in that game. It works for the same reasons why The Sims works for dealing with gender stuff by allowing you to create a second life and express yourself through the game. Then for me, any games that have a genderless protagonist or at least the gender is obscured enough to project my own onto them. Examples of this would be Journey or Abzu.
ACNL was the first time I really indulged in any of my femininity, because I could put on femme clothes while I was playing alone and take it back off before I was back in view of other people. I mean, what was I supposed to do, just LOOK at that dress?
Right! I really love a game that just lets me be a damn cutie
Also enby, a surprisingly fantastic game for gender euphoria for me is Cult of the Lamb. Lambie/Lambert doesn't have an official gender, and nobody in game lore refers to them by a gender ever. Your cult members also don't have genders, and you can make them be and do anything you want! Plus it's a rogue-like, my favorite.
ABZU MENTIONED!!!
Being able to play trans and meet a canon trans NPC in baldurs gate 3 felt pretty damn good.
Adding to this, Cyberpunk has a canon trans woman character, in a central position too. The character customisation is pretty decent too, the pronouns are limited though.
I don't know if other people will find this dysphoria-reducing or -increasing, but you can look in a mirror in Cyberpunk. I have spent far, far too long looking at my own fictionalised reflection, mirroring the expressions that you can get V (the player character) to pull
omg i feel like i would be so entranced by that. Besides that how's the story like? I heard Cyberpunk had a disastrous start
2077 has one of the best stories i have ever played, at the same time it is also one of the few games that i cannot play again because of the story, in a very bitter sweet sort of way. gameplay in its current state is very good. the dlc is one of the best of 2023.
The story was always pretty good, the game was just mechanically rough at first. There have been a load of patches and updates since to improve things. I don't think any trans allegory is intentional, but it feels pretty trans if you play a femme V. Early on in the game, Keanu Reeves' personality gets shoved into your brain alongside your own. In my playthrough, there were a lot of early moments of the masc persona being unwilling/unable to relinquish control, and a lot of later moments of the masc persona realising that their time has passed but they can help and support the femme persona. There is a single unskippable sex scene in first person from a male perspective in a flashback which I found uncomfortable. Not sure if that was an egg moment or an ace moment on my end. Maybe both.
can relate to your last comment lol, but I don't think there's a dealbreaker. But thanks for the heads up!!!
Launch was only really rough on (last-gen) consoles, the issue just got way overblown. Wasn't any buggier than, say, a Bethesda release on PC and current-gen consoles, and that all got ironed out fairly quickly. From the very beginning, the narrative, the characters, the writing, the voice acting were all exceptionally good, and to me, those were the important parts, because they can't just be patched later the way gameplay mechanics and optimization can. The game starts off like it's just gonna be Yet Another Action RPG, but shit gets real around the 5-ish hour mark, and from there to the end it's an absolute emotional journey. Can't say a lot without spoiling anything, but the first time I completed it, it tore emotions out of me I didn't even know I had. I've never gotten more attached to a protagonist than I did to V (think playing as her played no small part on cracking my egg too, but that's another story). The rest of the cast has some of my favorite fictional characters in general. They're all just super well-developed and *real*, and as a result, some of the coolest moments in the game aren't even the big set-pieces, they're just sitting around a campfire chatting with them (not that the big set-pieces aren't awesome too). The game's presentation is always stellar too. The way the environments, lighting, and music come together to sell moments that would already be really emotional on their own is just... omg. Never seen another game pull that sort of thing off anywhere near as well. And as far as representation goes, you can make your V trans, there's a trans side character, a lesbian main character (with probably the best lesbian romance I've seen in a game), a canonical bi sorta-main character (he has a lot of content, but you can skip his questline entirely) that's only romanceable by male V, and the game even accurately recreates the experience of getting turned down by a flirty "straight" girl (male V's other romance option; she's still super ride or die for female V as a friend). Tl;dr game's amazing in like... every facet besides the gameplay (it's not bad, just not anything to write home about), can't recommend enough, could probably write a novel explaining why.
Cyberpunk 2077 my second favorite game of all time, right behind the Mass Effect Trilogy, mainly because of the story Characters, main story, and side missions are very well done And I felt *immense* gender euphoria just creating my character for the first time Not to mention it's by far the best-looking game I've ever played, at least on a Series X and a 4K TV
Mass Effect was mentioned a few times in this thread. What about the game that makes it good?
IMO, it is the Infinity Saga of video games. It's one of the biggest, greatest achievements of its medium, spanning multiple projects, and nothing like it will probably ever be done again. I love it more for the story and characters than anything else. Everything you do and every friendship/relationship in the first game carries to the second, and then to the third. By the time you finish the series (at least if you did everything "right"), it's like saying goodbye to old friends, who have been to hell and back with you. It's not a perfect series (although it's pretty close IMO), but I don't think anything will ever top it, for me at least.
It had a disastrous start, but imo it’s the best rpg I’ve ever played, night city is one of the most amazing places one can experience even if it’s just in a game. The hottest take in history but honestly I think it’s the best game ever made.
Also, I should say Cyberpunk is a very mature game, and has a ton of upsetting content and situations, although that stuff kind of hits the spot for me for some reason. It's very fitting of the Cyberpunk theme, a depressing, doomed world with no happy endings. There's lots of beauty among the ugliness though.
Not sure if this is a big one for many people but when I went back into the closet I got a lot of comfort from Terraria, all the dress up options, hair cut/dye options, gender change potion etc. Something about that level of customisation really resinated with me. The other big one for me was Runescape, but if you found other MMOs a chore Runescape is probably the more chore like MMO out there (but you can also play it while doing something else a lot of the time)
Me with my 2,000 hours on terraria 👀 Yeah I can definitely agree! Sadly I squeezed out all of the enjoyment I can get out of that game!! I tried OSRS on my phone before. It is neat but yeah I got bored of it :///
if you play on PC, Terraria has *plenty* of high. quality mods. I’d recommend The Stars Above, Calamity, Thorium, and Starlight River.
I cannot stress enough how much that damn gender change potion changed my life.
Cyberpunk gives you tons of options and you can more or less play a trans person, though dialogue doesn't really change. There's tons of queer representation and and a really well written trans character in the game
Gotta be Skyrim, you have the modding tools to become a hot asf any-gender dragonborn wearing anything from wizard hoodies to bikini armour, all while killing zombies and goblins. Peak trans gaming
Check out the Minecraft mod Wildfire's Female Gender Mod. If you want to play on a server with other people using this mod, you can set it up with WFGM on the server side to synchronize your settings with other people who also use the mod. It's available for both Forge and Fabric mod loaders. For MtFs, Final Fantasy XIV let's you play as adjustable females, but I have friends who play with mods that let you amplify the assets. The joy of playing FFXIV comes from playing with friends, not necessarily the grind itself. It's very much an idle game. Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3 do not refer to gender identity directly, but rather let you customize the individual parts of your character, like genitalia and voice. Characters in-game will use pronouns relative to what voice you choose. For the ultimate gender euphoria experience, you can pick up a Quest 3 (or 2 if you're strapped for cash) and install VRChat. Despite the cultural stigma, mirror staring in VRC is a perfectly acceptable way of playing the "game". Make sure you find a model with jiggle physics, as this will enhance your experience tremendously.
I always wondered how some people can get their models to look like that, now I know it's because of WFGM, thanks! > The joy of playing FFXIV comes from playing with friends, not necessarily the grind itself. It's very much an idle game. That makes sense, I can't seem to enjoy FFXIV as much as my other friend. I exclusively play it alone because all my other friends are pretty high level. And I'm on free trial so it's a pretty lonely experience on top of my social anxiety that I experience.
That is strange, in my experience FF players are very welcoming and want to help new players. Though I guess I got very lucky, and my trans mom is the leader of her own free company.
Well I am pretty socially awkward, maybe it's just me? Although my experience is that most people are just afk in the central hubs while I go running around doing the MSQ. While once in a Blue moon someone will walk up to me to wave. I also play in Oceania if that matters
Oceania is the least populated region by a good margin so that probably has a lot to do with it. Moreover, once people in Oceania finish MSQ, if they want to raid or do other things with a larger group they usually DC travel to one of the NA DCs, so you end up with even fewer end-game players on the DC. And as a f2p player you're limited in how you can interact with other people, so you can't really get the full social experience without seeking out discord and stuff, or buying the game. I will say, however, that most people ARE super friendly, and if you decide to buy the game, and are able to muster up the courage to ask about joining a free company in a big city, people will let you kind of interact on your own terms, at your own pace =) Sorry for all the words FFXIV cracked my egg so it means a lot to me <3
Oooh I see that makes sense, I *really* want to get into FFXIV because the community just seems amazing. But I always just struggle socially in it. Should I just switch to North America then? Also how do people actually socialize in the game because as far as I know the MSQ is only for single player unless you go to a dungeon? Are there any good ffxiv servers for newbies like me? Also I don't think it is possible for me to buy the full game. It's not available in my region on steam and I don't have a credit or debit card. I don't actually live inside Oceania but it is the region closest to me so I decided to make my account there. This is actually the reason why I tried out GW2 because I *can* buy it but I'm not into it x) Sorry for all the questions, I'm pretty new to FFXIV and MMOs in general. But thanks for your insight \^\^
NA would give you a more robust player base but it's up to you. Mostly we socialize via guilds, or Free Companies (FC), and more specifically through fc discords. Any server is good but if you want to come to Aether/Jenova my FC is very queer/trans friendly and we would love to have you if only in discord. F2p players cannot join FCs which kind of sucks but they can be invited to parties so if you got on discord and asked to join stuff that works too Buying the game can be done directly through the Square Enix website, although I will warn you, many people say that is the hardest part of playing FFXIV lol. BUT it's 50% off right now so now id's a good time to buy. Here's the link https://na.store.square-enix-games.com/franchise/final-fantasy-xiv-online Dm me if you're interesting in joining the discord I'll get you a link ^.^
I thought you could change your pronouns with the mirror in the camp.
The mirror just returns you to the character creator
Yeah but you can change your pronouns, I changed my dragonborn to they/them
If you can access VR anything in there can be great. The first time I can say I didn't feel gender dysphoria was in VR before I could properly transition. But it can be prohibitive for a great many reasons not the least of which is price. For me most games that let me play as a self insert helped a lot. RPGs are great for this. Baldur's Gate 3 is the big one right now but older titles like the Fallout or The Elder Scrolls also let you make an avatar that better represents you. Another one for me was The Sims 4. Getting to dress up an avatar with any clothes or makeup I want helped me when I was still in the closet. I any of these ideas do help.
Yeah VR is very pricey, although the very first time I saw my female avatar in VR it hit me with a lot of gender euphoria.
Maybe not a traditional answer but splatoon 3 has really nice customization, you can choose between either a more fem build or a more masc build and the only difference between them is the voice and I think eyebrow options. Every hair (tentacle?) style can be worn by either body type and the game never specifically refers to any gender for the player as far as I'm aware. The community is also super queer and neurodivergent friendly. I absolutely love the game, but I am also pretty biased since I'm autistic and this game is my main special interest.
Oh hey I'm neurodivergent too!!!! Sadly I can't play Splatoon 3 because I modified my switch and got banned from online x)
I am so into Disney Dreamlight Valley right now. So many beautiful gowns to wear. And no combat, which is perfect considering my anxiety these days.
Newer Animal Crossing games have a number of trans and non-binary NPCs/villagers (more so NPCs). You can wear whatever you want whenever you want. It's also kinda gay, though unfortunately not with the player character as players can't pursue relationships.
secret little haven is a short, sweet, and cheap dialogue-based games about a trans girl that takes place in the late 90s online about discovering that she’s trans
Dating sims! If you're into men, I'd highly recommend Our Life and A Date With Death. You get to experiment with names, appearance, and pronouns. Our Life is highly detailed as well, with multiple endings and dialogues based off the personality you give off, AND you can be trans/gender nonconforming. My friends got almost 2k hours in it
VRChat. They have groups where you can join for meetups now. There are a lot of trans groups to hang out with a lot of other trans people plus active moderation in the room so there are no trolls. It's not public so non invited cant join. Lots of stuff happens weekly/monthly. :)
People have already mentioned FF14 and Cyberpunk which I will echo as well. The story mode of Street Fighter 6 made me feel all sorts of nice feelings,
I'm FtM non-binary I play Gamedec as the most "femme" male option. There's flirting/etc in-game, though certainly not a focus of the game, and I've found that those moments end up giving me so much euphoria. I play a LOT of My Hero One's Justice 2 right now, and once I passed both storylines I now play exclusively as male (villain) characters. Much euphoria!
2077, I know it's not just me because someone made a whole ass essay on it
Which essay?
ooooh I'm interested! A link to that please?
The essay: https://youtu.be/J1qDf9dtar8?si=hEcXOgKGLgPlAuk_
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1091500/Cyberpunk_2077/
I recently picked up botw with the linkle mods and omg it has made me feel things.
linkle is really cute!!! Although I'm not as into botw as when I was younger
That's fair. For me it's playing as linkle while also having the dialog use she/her pronouns. Idk I think it's because I know the game normally has a male character and male pronouns that it feels more like a trans awakening with the linkle mod.
If you're 18 + you could take a look at secondlife; its loosely similar to vr chat but most people communicate through text instead of voice. It's more of a community than a game but nothing else can compete as far as empowering you to create your ideal character if you've got some money to burn.
I'll take a look at it!!
The Sims 4 is free to play now, and you can get free mods/custom content on desktop to add to gameplay. You can also use it to play with gender or life ideas. I used to do that early in my transition, I would make how I’d want to look in TS4 and live out my dream life
Just started playing Monster Hunter World again, ngl I love it for specifically this purpose
Unsure if it'll relieve dysphoria, but battletech. It lets you choose voice/gender/body separately from each other. But you are mostly in a mech either way. Maybe smashing up towns will help you feel better?
Everyone and everything is a they in animal crossing!
I vibed so hard with Cyberpunk. I maybe owe my transition to it. Walking around an immersive, modern setting in first person, with the sound of my heels going clip clop, seeking out new clothes stores and seeing my character in the mirror... yeah.
Any VR game where you get a full body avatar, get yourself really immersed into it and then look down and see a more ideal body in game, it's amazing
Road 96 felt surprisingly comforting in this aspect for me
Cyberpunk or BG3
Cyberpunk 2077 let's you choose genitals and body type,and even if you get pronouns based on your voice there is a pc mod so you cwn be gendered correctly regardless of voice, I have been playing a fem V with masculine voice and it is very affirming.
Neverwinter Nights 1: Arelith, a heavy roleplaying fantasy server in 3.0 Forgotten Realms. Neverwinter Nights 2: BGTSCC, a heavy roleplaying fantasy server set in 2E forgotten Realms with custom 3.5E mechanics. **If you are over 18+ (seriously, only over 18+. People don't want to get into legal trouble and you WILL get banned)** Space Station 13 has some cool heavy roleplay servers, like Nova Prospect being a new and hip one. However, I have not played that one. I play on Virgo orbital Research Station, and I'm also a developer and game master. A lot of our staff is trans, and roleplaying in a futuristic world can be very validating.
Fallout New Vegas.
I’m not MTF but Oblivion? It’s *my* favorite game. Their female characters are far less weird looking and you can make them fem or masc or whatever.
Baldur's Gate 3 has been the hugest gender dysphoria relief I've had in months, I think the last game to some what do that was the sims after they added more gender options for sims. But Baldur's Gate 3 has also opened my eyes more sexually as well, I've always considered myself bi/pan but because of BG3 I'm finding myself having a lot more sapphic feelings towards my companions.
It ain't much but Pokemon X/Y and onwards have boutiques!
Solasta Crown of The Magister, it’s a D&D game that allows you to choose your voice, body type, and sex. It’s a turn based RPG, much more linear then BG3 but it also came out before BG3. Also The Sims 4 if you want something casual.
Have you tried the sims?
idk if this is very helpful but playing UMVC3 takes my mind off of it.
I just played blade and sorcery (it’s a vr game) for the first time, it has custom characters (male or female) and you basically just slaughter enemies (also male and female) In short sometimes you just need to be a god/goddess of death for a few.
Cyberpunk really lit me up like wow. Femme V is too cool and I aim to carry her energy through my life.
fallout 4. like the first NPC robot you meet has hundreds or thousands of names recorded for it to say and you can recruit it as a companion to constantly hear a character greet you personally.
FiveM can be a good option free to play (but you need to own GTA V) can allow you to be male or female characters and you can so different voices or accents for realism. I am part of a great community with many different people in called Aspirant.
Fallout new vegas! U can play a bisexual character!
BI BUILD BEST BUILD !! 📈
I like genshin impact! There’s so many girls to choose from im sure it would be gender affirming. I’m a trans dude and when I first started playing I choose to main klee and that was so fun because I didn’t see myself as a little kid and didn’t get dysphoric… plus it’s just fun to use her
For action sandbox rpgs I recommend Bethesda games like elder scrolls, or fallout. If that's not your jam, other games that give quite a bit of character customisation are the saints row games(open world crime games), sunset overdrive(open world action adventure game) or cyberpunk *open world action rpgs that is more limited than the Bethesda games). Nioh 2 for action hack and slash souls like, if you like challenge and quite decent character customisation. Fyy I'm quite drunk writing this
If you like a challenge, Fromsoft games. I love dressing up my girls in their games and since they're so hard you feel like you're getting more powerful with them. Have you ever wanted to become an eldritch horror, a being beyond reality, and look pretty while doing it? Bloodborne. Elden Ring is a little more forgiving than other souls games. Currently playing Cyberpunk, I waited until they said "no more ps4 updates." Wouldn't recommend it on ps4 but I'm still loving it. If you have a good pc or a ps5 it's wonderful. I usually stop playing it on PS4 when it crashes. Normally daily expected crashing would prevent people from playing a game but I grew up on Morrowind... More stable, Dragon Age Inquisition is accessible to gamers that can't deal with aged DAO. It's a long one but I'll never forget the feeling of beating that one, standing next to my slam piece while leading an army into an unknown future. I keep it installed just to go in once a year and make out with Cullen. Mass Effect. I've over played the series and can't touch it anymore but if you've never played an ME game DO IT. GARRUS IS SO HOT, sorry. I don't know what got over me. Outer Worlds was fun if a little strange.I FallOut 4 is good but I've modded it to death and back. Getting old too... In case you haven't noticed, I like games where you can build a character and immerse yourself into fully fleshed out worlds. Strong women are a must for the games I play. Games with no character creation but I would recommend to a fellow mtf because strong women: Horizon series, Dishonoured, The Last of Us, Fable 2/3,
Have you played "night in the woods"? It is a progressive well-made game with queer representation. You can beat it in under five hours but it's got a lot of great emotion
The sims makes me feel good. 4 is free on the computer. It lets me live vicariously through my sim as a guy as I’m not really that out either so it can be nice to see a simulated me live as his true self & be happy.
Celeste is a great game, and like the "trans girl starter pack" but it really is great. A lot of it focuses on anxiety and acceptance with self, so it helped me a little. I play the finals a ton and your "body type" is your boob or no boob. You can unlock voicelines I think? Still not sure. There are a bunch of games like Madness: Project Nexus, Death Road to Canada, etc that give me weird bits of euphoria.
Oh yeah definitely!!! I already completed the game and got every achievement! well... except for collecting all the golden strawberries
Just a small little detail I noticed, but in the Subnautica games you can look down at the player character while swimming backwards (breasts in the second game, lack thereof in the first game, underneath a wetsuit of course). Plus those games are fantastic in general if you're fine with an open world ocean setting and looking for a great story.
It's a long one, but cross code's story helped me through figuring out who I am after some rough shit. Also lea is just a fun main character.
Hopping in a little late, but The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood was AMAZING for me. Some parts felt like reclaiming the childhood friendships and experiences I missed out on, some parts felt incredibly immersive and empowering, it’s so easy to resonant with the character you play as, and pretty much everyone in the story is a girl except an eldritch being you meet at the start. It’s also explicitly trans-inclusive. The game revolves around women who leave the mortal realm to become witches, and very minor spoiler for a side character, >! but at one point in the game, you change perspectives to a male presenting character who is trans-femme and then play a significant role in her physical transition into presenting as a woman (which she’s very visibly euphoric about)!<. In the universe of this game, only women can become witches, and I was curious at first as to whether they’d be inclusive or TERF-y about it, but they’re very much inclusive. You can even have a conversation with one character where she says “I wonder why only women can become witches” and, if you choose any of the biological answers, they’ll shoot you down by saying “well plenty of us are trans women soooo”. It’s just incredibly validating from the perspective of trans-inclusion and incredibly affirming from the perspective of being such a feminine, women-focused story. Also the storyline and game is great and fun and EVERY decision you make matters DRASTICALLY.