Many questions fans have had regarding Splatoon 3 were recently answered ahead of the game’s release next month. The Splatoon 3 Nintendo Direct earlier this month showed off much of the new weapons, stages, and other features, providing a clearer idea of what the threequel will be bringing to the series formula. In the process, though, it raised a few new questions, one of which being the gender of one of the newly-announced characters, Shiver.
Following the reveal of Splatoon 3’s new music/announcer group Deep Cut, speculation arose wondering if Shiver, the group’s Octoling, might be non-binary. As publications including TheGamer noted, there have been a few possible hints. These include Shiver’s more androgynous appearance, the fact that all mentions of the character from Nintendo so far haven’t used any gendered pronouns, and Deep Cut’s overall heavy usage of yellow, white, purple, and black, the colors of the non-binary flag. However, it looks like fans can stop speculating, because Nintendo has now confirmed that Shiver identifies as female and uses she/her pronouns.
Word of this reveal comes courtesy of The Verge, who brought up the question of Shiver’s gender to Nate Bihldorff, Nintendo’s SVP of development and publishing. In confirming her gender identity, Bihldorff stated that while her pronouns weren’t mentioned in the Direct, they will be in the game. Meanwhile, GameXplain also received confirmation of Shiver’s gender during a preview session with Splatoon 3.
This revelation probably won’t come as too much of a surprise. Given that the previous games’ announcers were all female, most fans probably already assumed Shiver was also given her relatively feminine appearance. That being said, some fans will still probably be disappointed in the lack of non-binary representation. Splatoon 3 is already moving away from binary gender options with its character creation system, so it would’ve made sense for Nintendo to add more gender diversity to the game’s actual characters as well.
Although it looks like Shiver won’t be joining the growing ranks of notable non-binary video game characters, that hasn’t stopped her and the rest of Deep Cut from being warmly received by fans following their reveal. Even without the gender diversity that many were hoping for, Deep Cut is already breaking from Splatoon announcer tradition in multiple ways, such as it being a three-person group and its inclusion of a male member, Big Man the manta ray. It could be a sign that Nintendo may break with tradition even further, and Splatoon fans may see a non-binary character included at some point in the future.
Splatoon 3 may be a little over two weeks away, but Nintendo will be letting fans try the game out early through the Splatfest World Premiere Demo this weekend. Chances are fans will also get to see Deep Cut in action before the full game’s finally out.
Splatoon 3 launches September 9 for Nintendo Switch.
