0 Comments 
Gender Swapping (or Genderbending, as it is sometimes known) is a common trope in modern media, especially in art and cosplay. Fans love to reimagine their favorite characters as the opposite gender, just for the fun of it. Even studios are known to dabble with this and release special but official “gender-bent” content (like we have in Adventure Time: Finn and Jake = Fiona and Cake). As for TFD, we can’t ignore the fact that it’s the girls who are responsible for the appeal and popularity of this game. Sure, both guys and girls in TFD are borderline supermodels, but the girls appeal to the majority of the player base. And it was just a matter of time before the community brought up the question of gender swapping in the game, and The First Descendant devs are considering it.
Next Year is Predominantly Male Ultimate Descendants
Over the last few days, more and more people asked about gender swapping in TFD on the official Discord channel. Originally, this started from a comment by user Running Bunny, who noted that the future releases for Ultimate Descendants will be predominantly male (since most of the girls already have their Ultimate variant, except Luna and Hailey). “…in keeping with the Director’s previous comments about releasing the Ultimate Descendants in order of joining the Descendant Troops, devs will continue to have only male Descendants as Ultimate Descendants from Q2 ’25 to Q2 ’26…” They finish by asking: “Is it possible to release the Ultimate version with alternating male and female descendants, rather than in the order they joined the troop?”
Is Gender Swapping the Way to Go?
The devs have noticed the detailed research, and they said that they also realized that it will mostly be guys who will get Ultimate versions in the foreseeable future. Knowing that girls are the more popular gender in the game, they asked the community for their thoughts on the matter. “I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts as we reevaluate the direction of the development team.”
The most popular answer is: “Option 1: Move up the release schedule for female Ultimate Descendants (e.g., Enzo → Luna → Yujin → Hailey)”, while the runner-up is: “Option 2: Release male Ultimate Descendants alongside a female version?!! (e.g., Ultimate Enzo (original) and Ultimate Enzo (female version)”
Thoughts on Gender Swapping in The First Descendant
After the question about the male/female ratio and genderbending, the devs have gathered all the thoughts and comments that the players shared, addressing all the pros and cons of such a feature. They have compiled a short list of the most popular and sensible observations.
- “Concerns that releasing female versions of male characters could make it harder to maintain consistency in the lore and might compromise the uniqueness of existing characters”
- “Suggestions to use a Choose gender option approach for Option 2 or to release similar female Descendants as separate characters (e.g., “Nell” with Enzo’s skill set)”
- “Concerns that a simple skin-level female version might lack appeal, suggesting that additional gameplay elements or a narrative justification for the appearance of a female version of the Descendant would be necessary”
- “Proposals to release gender-swapped Descendants as limited-time characters for special seasons (e.g., April Fools)”
Devs Two Cents on the Whole Idea
After all of this, the devs finally share their (vague) thoughts on the matter. Dev TFD_Director_Jooms finishes by saying: “I’ve been exploring this topic myself, so I wanted to gauge the direction players prefer and incorporate it into the decision-making process. Thank you so much for all your input. I believe this topic requires more careful consideration. I’ll continue to review your feedback and aim to decide on a direction that players can be satisfied with. I’ll check in along the way to keep you updated on the decision-making process.”
Gender Swapping in The First Descendant, Yay or Nay?
As it stands, the devs are pretty vague on the whole thing, and it looks like they want to keep their options open (or to have an exit strategy, most likely). Even the community leans more against it than for it. “Doing the genderswap thing is just making more work for themselves just to appease the worst parts of your fanbase, so I prefer Option 1 for sure,” said Redditor FederalMango. Others agree, with Schecter_23 adding: “I like hot female characters as much as the next guy, but that would be absolutely wild to just make every character female because that’s what sells. I get they’re a business, but damn that would make no sense and just be plain weird for the game.” and –Catalyst said: “Genderswapping…Eh…No. Don’t want this to ruin the game’s integrity.”
Ultimately, we doubt that gender swapping will be an option in TFD (except the April Fools idea, that one is hilarious and we’re rooting for it). But it all seems like too much work that will stall the general development of the game itself, like new content, bosses, dungeons, and so on. Genderbending can be cool as a concept if done tastefully. However, sometimes the fans can get a bit too passionate and the idea of gender swapping goes too far (for reasons we are not allowed to say). The devs are already catering to the masses with the removal of the posterior flaps in Twisted Worship and the promise of Jiggle Physics, they are allowed to slow down a bit and focus on some real issues.