Game Recs: 10 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Games with Nonbinary Characters

Game Recs: 10 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Games with Nonbinary Characters

 
 

This is a post I’ve wanted to do for a while (I know, I say that a lot, but there legitimately are a lot of posts I’ve been wanting to do), so what better time than Pride month?

A lot of games now have a gender-ambiguous player character or let you choose they/them pronouns, including a lot of games here, but I wanted to showcase some games that have more than that. Most of these have a romanceable character who is nonbinary. One is befriendable. One has a canonically nonbinary player character. And a lot of these games are queer in other ways too. Hopefully you’ll find something that sounds good to you!

(My usual disclaimer: Not every character specifically says what their gender label is, some just use they/them pronouns, and in real life you shouldn’t assign people labels based on pronouns, but for the purposes of helping people find rep, I’m including them in this post. If I’ve incorrectly included any characters, just let me know.)

Monster Camp // Monster Con

Screenshot of Milo, a reaper with gray/black skin, a sort of painted on skeleton, a cute red heart on their chest, red eyes, and white hair, wearing a flowing hooded black and orange robe over an open red shirt. They're saying, 'Here, try again and let me critique you. Perhaps by the time we get to camp, you'll be such a good corpse impressionist that I'll have to schedule a gig to reap you anyway.'
Screenshot of Nico, a mimic with red skin, fairly muscular build, white hair, naked except for an open treasure chest that it looks like they're standing in but the chest is part of them, and there's lots of teeth on it and a tongue hanging out, and there are more teeth on their collarbone, and they have a big toothy smile. They're saying, 'I'd love to go to the party with you! What cosplay should I wear?'

These are both part of the Monster Prom line of games, which are mostly silly, irreverent dating sims with bold art and fun, ridiculous characters and situations. Monster Camp has Milo, and Monster Con has Nico, both of whom are nonbinary and dateable. You can also choose pronouns for the player character.

My Review (I don’t have reviews for these, so it’s my Prom review) // Steam (Camp) // Steam (Con)

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

Screenshot of Nomi, a human with colorful clothes and short shaggy colorful hair. Text reads: What do you do now? HOP OVER TO NOMI! Nomi is playing a game on their holopalm, which is helping to entertain some of the children from the creche. When they see you, Nomi jumps to their feet and waves so enthusiastically that their holo fizzes out. 'Sol!' they shout, 'Otanjoubi omedetou!' Nomi throws themselves into your arms, and you spin them around. The children scatter, shrieking in delight. When you put Nomi back down, they bounce back on their heels and spark up their holopalm again. 'Let's take a photo! What frame do you want?' 'THE ONE WITH THE STARS!' or 'THE ONE WITH THE CHERRY BLOSSOM TREES!'

This is a sort of life sim, sort of visual novel, sort of deck builder about growing up on another planet. It has gorgeous art, wonderful characters, and lots of outcomes. It also has a lot of canonically queer characters, including one nonbinary character (Nomi-Nomi) you can befriend or romance. And you can choose pronouns (I think there may be some customization too but can’t quite remember) for the player character, and change them at any time.

My Review // Steam

Chronicles of Tal’Dun: The Remainder

Screenshot of Ilar, in ink drawing style, looking anxious and holding some tools. Text reads: How afraid they are, how afraid we’ve both been, but not anymore. Not I. 'Do you want me to stop?' Is the silence an answer? 'N-no,' they mumble at last. I smother a secret grin, it’s too soon still to greet their vulnerability with anything like mirth. My fingers travel over their cheekbone, over the corner of their mouth, down to the side of their neck. They draw a quick, sharp breath, lips parting, eyes darting away. 'Please, I can’t. It’s already so difficult…to keep away.'

This is a dark, emotional visual novel about two mages with a complicated history trapped in a tower, potentially facing a fate worse than death. You can choose pronouns for the player character, and the other character, Ilar, (who is sort of romanceable) is nonbinary.

My Review // Steam

Ace in Space

Screenshot of Adrian, a human with a beanie, no hair, purple overalls, and a striped green sweater, and Forge, a rusty, muscular-looking robot with a large circular eye-like light on their face. Forge is saying, 'I am not male. I am not female. I have no desire to be referred to as either.'
Screenshot of Adrian and Fern, a rusty, blocky robot covered in plants and little critters, one snake-like, one lizard-like, one chicken-like. Fern is saying, 'I thought, if you wanted to spend some time with me, we could have lunch in the meadow.'

This is a fairly small visual novel about someone with cancer getting chosen to go live on another planet in an idyllic society run by robot aliens. It can get heavy, but it can also be sweet and happy. The player character (on the left in the screenshots) is canonically nonbinary and asexual, and many of the robots you can befriend or romance are too.

My Review // Steam

The Hepatica Spring

Screenshot of Lief, a human with long black hair, a little bit of facial hair, and round glasses, saying, 'From that day on, I've kept to myself, because I don't have to care what others think about me if they don't know me.'

This is another fairly small visual novel, where you play as the owner of a hotel in a fantasy land working with one of three potential friend / romance options to stop some political machinations. One of the options is nonbinary (Leif).

My Review // Steam

Arcade Spirits

Screenshot of Ashley, a human with long blonde hair wearing a pink shirt and blue denim vest with pins, saying, 'It's not as simple as man or woman, male or female. And maybe I'll never have the proper explanation or words that define me, and that's ok.'
Screenshot of Rhapsody, a human with long, dark brown hair in a ponytail, a slightly open pink button up shirt, and a dark blue coat with tattoos on their chest of what looks like flowers.

I haven’t played the second one yet, but the first is a visual novel about working in an arcade, plus friendship and/or romance. It’s not really SFF (the first at least), it just takes place in the near future, but I still wanted to include it. Because the first one has a romanceable character (Ashley) who doesn’t use the term nonbinary (and I think she only uses she/her pronouns) but is questioning her gender in a way that was very relatable to me, and the second one has a nonbinary character (Rhapsody). The player can also choose pronouns.

My Review // Steam

Citizen Sleeper

Screenshot of Peake, a human with long dark hair, wearing a tight body suit with a satchel over their chest, leaning back against a wall with one leg bent up. Text reads: You find Peake waiting near where you first met, at the entrance to the docking tunnel for the Founder's Ferry. They are leaning beside the wall in the flickering light, and you realize now how different they look from when you first met. There is a darkness around their eyes, a sense of exhaustion to their pose, but also a solidity, a sense of purpose and self-knowledge. They look concrete, for want of a better word. Solid.

This one is a sort of text/choice-based life sim about living on a space station, surviving, exploring, making friends. The player character is never given a gender, and there’s no romance, but there is one nonbinary character (Peake) you can get close to.

My Review // Steam

First Bite

Screenshot showing all three characters standing together. Laurel has dark brown skin, long tight curls, purple lipstick, a strappy leather outfit, and nipple piercings. Valeria has light skin, long black hair, and is wearing a tight dress. Ilyas has tanned skin, short dark hair, big muscles, and is wearing a shirt that barely covers anything. Valeria is saying, 'You interrupted us, kitten. And Ilyas here was just about to take his shirt off.'

This is a fun, vampire-filled visual novel in which you have to try to not die and convince the sexy vampire throuple to make you one of them instead. And two of them (Laurel and Valeria, left and middle of screenshot) are nonbinary! The player can also choose pronouns.

My Review // Steam

A Ghost Story?

Screenshot of Ollie, a humanoid figure with purple hair, an extra set of thinner eyes under their normal eyes, and slightly green tinged skin, wearing a green sweater top with a collar sticking out from the top. They're saying, 'Everything that is happening right now has already happened before.'

This is a beautifully illustrated visual novel with a somewhat tragic, mysterious story about a haunted house and romance options of various genders, including one who’s nonbinary (Ollie).

My Review // itch.io

Moonstone Island

Pixel art of the player and Paolo in Paolo's carpenter shop. Paolo, a human with long dark hair pulled back, is saying, 'Guess who has two thumbs and nearly sawed through both of them?'
Pixel art of the player and Gaiana on a dock at night. Gaiana, a human with dark wavy bob-length hair, is saying, 'Maybe you should just call me next time you've got a spider and I can take it off your hands.'
Pixel art of the player and Rowan on a dock at night. Rowan, a human with short messy orange hair and round glasses, is saying, 'Maybe next time let's go on a date to somewhere with less... seaweed in it.'

This one is a cute creature collector / farming sim (kinda, you don’t have to do much farming, but it has similar overall gameplay). There are many romance options, including men, women, and three who are nonbinary (Paolo, Gaiana, Rowan).

My Review // Steam

If you enjoyed this, you may also like my post about sci-fi/fantasy books with nonbinary characters!

 
 
 

Talk to me!

Have you played any games with nonbinary characters?
Do you think you might try any of these?

 
 
 

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  1. Lola
    Reply

    Great topic for a post! I have played Life as an Teenage Exocolonist and have Moonstone Island on my wishlist, but the others are new to me and will check some of these out. Arcade Spirits looks interesting. I have played some games where you can pick pronouns for the main character and it does seem to get more common to see non-binary pronouns there too.