While recent Final Fantasy games have featured queer characters, the director of the upcoming Dawntrail expansion for Final Fantasy 14 has confirmed that it will not despite LGBTQ inclusion in previous titles.
Final Fantasy 16 featured openly gay characters, with Dion and Sir Terence depicted as lovers. While the series has hinted at same-sex relationships in the past (most famously with Fang and Vanille in 13), it has rarely been as explicit as in Final Fantasy 16.
Final Fantasy 14 is an odd example, as same-sex marriage is possible between players, but it’s not as clear among the NPCs. There are certainly lots of queer-coded characters and implied relationships (hello, Ryne and Gaia), as well as an easily missable couple in a sidequest, but nothing as explicit as in Final Fantasy 16.
Dexerto recently interviewed Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida (via a translator) during a preview for the upcoming Dawntrail expansion. Yoshida was also the producer of Final Fantasy 16, so we asked whether Dawntrail would feature LGBTQ characters in the same vein as Dion.
“So, if the question is whether there is a character that is clearly expressed in that way as Dion,” Yoshida said, “Then the answer is no.”
“But this time around, the Warriors of Light will be meeting many different races, many different tribes, many different peoples. The theme of the expansion is “diversity”, so in that sense, you can expect many different encounters.”
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“But of course, we’ve incorporated a sense of drama as a game. So, you will find certain characters might be narrow-minded and they have a narrow perspective of things. And then, on the other side of the spectrum, there could be characters who don’t think so much about old values but have wider horizons and are more focused on diversity, and I think you’ll really be able to feel that as you play.”
“So, of course, we have been developing Final Fantasy 14, and we developed the characters, and we are the same team who developed Final Fantasy 16, so I think our players will understand just how much importance we place on diversity, and you can look forward to those aspects when you play the expansion. I think there will be new discoveries to be made.”
Final Fantasy 14 is an ongoing story, unlike 16, which had a contained narrative, so big decisions (like canon romantic interests) for major established characters are rare.
Dion and Sir Terence and characters from older Final Fantasy games, like Faris and Quina, show that the franchise isn’t afraid to feature people with different sexualities and gender identities. Maybe one day, Final Fantasy 14 will do the same amongst its core cast, perhaps in the post-launch updates that will occur after Dawntrail, or in the next expansion.
