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Final Fantasy 16 Finally Gives The Franchise’s Fans A Queer Love Story
A series first — and hopefully not last!
Last week, Square Enix released a new entry in its long-running Final Fantasyvideo game series, Final Fantasy XVI.
For months, there have been rumors that the most recent iteration of the core Final Fantasy games would include queer characters (hence its recent ban in Saudi Arabia). Whenever the publisher was asked for comment on the situation, it declined to respond. And during a recent interview with the cast, I was told they weren’t allowed to answer questions regarding whether or not LGBTQ+ characters would be featured in the game.
Thankfully, we finally have an answer: Yes, there is a queer couple in the game. While there have been theories and subtext concerning potentially gay characters before in Final Fantasy games, this marks the first time we’re getting a canonical queer couple in the beloved series.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Final Fantasy XVI)
It’s official: Dion and Terence are a canonically gay couple. Not only are they a queer couple, they’re main characters who are powerful and central to the story of FFXVI. But what’s truly great about this kind of inclusion is that it’s not only history-making for the series, but the sexual orientation of these characters aren’t their entire identities.
Their love story is played throughout a few lengthy cinematic sequences, and it feels very natural. While as players we don’t spend as much time with them as we may have liked, we’re with them long enough to share an embracing kiss and to have some tears shed.
They’re in love, they have personalities outside of being queer, and it is beautiful that Square Enix is starting to turn that corner on inclusion. To the rest of the gaming industry, please take note: this is how you do it.
