Follow TV Tropes

Following

Ambiguously Gay / Video Games

Go To

Ambiguously Gay in Video Games.

A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. Examples for any games released as episodes shouldn't be added for 3 months after the ambiguity is introduced (or not until end of season, if the game uses that approach). This is to allow time for the story to develop the character and resolve ambiguity. There is no waiting time for non-episodic works.


  • Ace Attorney:
    • Miles Edgeworth, who reacts with nothing short of genuine repulsion when his coworker observes how popular he is with women; every time a woman makes romantic advances towards him, he reacts with either surprise, disgust, fear, or some combination of the three; his closest relationship with a woman is with his adoptive sister. Hell, he's completely immune to the beautiful Dahlia, who almost every other male in the game instantly goes crazy for. On the other hand, he seems to have a relatively easy time opening up emotionally to Phoenix, and barely reacts at all when Lang calls him "pretty boy." The original character designer is even on record saying that he "doesn't have a type of girl". This being the same character designer that was a yaoi mangaka and whose work in the BL genre inspired Edgeworth's design. There's also his effeminate attire: A magenta suit and a Classy Cravat. Despite this, he's never shown to be interested in men, and nothing about his sexuality is mentioned at all. The developers confirmed while he isn't interested in women, he thinks that Phoenix looks rather nice.
    • Franziska von Karma, whose family Miles was adopted into, comes around the other way as Ambigiously Lesbian. She has short hair, a shorter temper, and enjoys using her whip to deal pain to men who get in her way — but around women she can actually be very tender and caring (barring certain exceptions like Lotta Hart).
    • Lana Skye is said to have had an "intellectual attraction" to Mia Fey in college, and told her sister Ema to go to Mia if she ever needed a lawyer. Nothing ever comes of it, since Mia was dead by the time Lana was introduced, and Lana hasn't appeared since her debut case.
    • Adrian Andrews had a very close attachment to her mentor, Celeste Inpax, such that when she had committed suicide Adrian also attempted suicide. In general, she has a tendency to be dependent on other women. When she shows up again in 3-2, much more mentally stable, she then begins to show a dependency on Franziska. Made more obvious by a moment at the end of the third game, when Franziska takes Adrian away on holiday... supposedly "teaching her how to use a whip" in the process.
    • Maya Fey never had shown any romantic interest in any guy (her relationship with Phoenix is clearly stated to be Like Brother and Sister and while she swoons over Max Galactica in Justice for All, it's more of a Celeb Crush than a romantic crush and even so, it gets shattered due to his haughty attitude and after learning that he's actually a country bumpkin) but she does have a moment when in Justice For All she claims that "even she wants confess her love" for Regina. She's also one of two people to call Iris beautiful, with the other having a pretty clear crush on her. That said, nothing about her sexuality is readily touched upon.
    • Kristoph Gavin from the fourth game seems to tick all of the boxes. He's prim and proper; well groomed, keeping his nails painted and his hair long. Add in his sheer obsession with Phoenix which has them reading like bitter divorcees, and it speaks for itself.
    • Florent L'Belle, the villain from the second case in Dual Destinies. He doesn't flirt with anyone and seems too narcissistic to find anyone else worth his time, but he dresses and acts in a flamboyantly camp manner, wearing a pink/purple quilted suit and using cosmetics of his own invention (enough to damage the stratosphere, if one believes his Villainous Breakdown) to keep himself looking immaculate at all times.
    • Aura Blackquill, the sister of Simon Blackquill, also joins the huge list of ambiguously gay characters in the series but she is the one who almost crossed the "ambiguous" line with a statement from her about her friendship with Metis Cykes with the statement being "Her respect as a co-worker wasn't all that I wanted!" When the Judge asks her what she did want, Phoenix is stunned that he could be so dense as to not realize what she obviously meant by that.
    • Herlock Sholmes of The Great Ace Attorney leans strongly into the common Alternate Character Interpretation of Sherlock Holmes as gay more than most incarnations, presenting him as one of Iris's two daddies prone to camp mannerisms and getting touchy with other men. Even the famous photo of "that woman" on his mantlepiece plays into it when Iris reveals that it isn't of Irene Adler at all—it's Sholmes in drag.
    • In The Great Ace Attorney: Resolve, Rei Membami is strongly hinted to be nursing a crush on her childhood friend Susato, and is shown unambiguously flirting with her both before and after she uncovers Susato's Sweet Polly Oliver disguise as "Ryutaro". The artbook inches it closer to canon by describing Rei's feelings for Susato as those of "yearning".
  • Animal Crossing:
    • The Lazy animal archetype often fills out this role in games from Wild World onward, often when you least expect it. Some conversations between certain female character types also fill out a fair amount of weird Les Yay moments, including one such discussion where one animal comments that it would be cool if the other was made out of cake, so she could eat her thighs. And let's not even get into the Jock-type animal's strange obsession with spandex.
    • Papi from New Leaf takes the cake, with his catchphrase of "Haaay!"
  • ANNO: Mutationem has Ayane Misuno, the deutoragonist and best friend of the protagonist, Ann Flores. Despite only being able to communicate via a remote drone, an internet connection, and futuristic hardlight hologram projection technology, Ayane is extremely physically and verbally affectionate towards Ann, constantly hugging her, playfully teasing her in flirtatious manners, and calling her "Darling." (And when Ann tells Ayane to stop calling her that, Ayane playfully offers "Honey," "Baby," or "Lover" instead.) Ann mostly constantly rejects these acts of playfulness and Word of God says she's not the "romantic" type, but is Ayane just flirting with the full-knowledge her romantic feelings will never be reciprocated or does she just think it's funny to tease Ann?
  • Assassin's Creed:
    • Played for Drama in Assassins Creed with Abul Nuquod, who dresses very flamboyantly (both for the time and in general) and caresses his bodyguard's shoulder suggestively. However, he isn't played for laughs and is shown to be extremely resentful of the people and the social stigma he carries among them.
    • Assassin's Creed 2 has Leonardo da Vinci. His biography says he was probably gay and was convicted of sodomy (which is Truth in Television), but he is also very familiar with a brothel (which doesn't necessarily only have female employees) in Venice. The only thing for certain is that he really likes hugging Ezio. He became no longer ambiguous since the introduction of his assistant/lover, Salai (which might also be Truth in Television).
    • Rebecca went on a date with Shaun's girlfriend. That haircut isn't doing any favors either.
    • Shaun seems to find a lot of excuses to talk about gay issues in history, going on quite a bit about Leonardo's sexuality in the Animus database, and in Assassin's Creed 3 he writes an unreasonably long email to Desmond about homosexuality in 18th century America with no notable catalyst. He cares a lot about LGBT issues for a straight guy.
  • Banjo-Tooie has the glorious font of Jolly Roger. His mannerisms and voice scream Camp Gay. His "business partner" Merry Maggie is very obviously a man in drag, being very muscular and having one of the deepest voices in the game. The menu at his pub contains items like "Seaman's Surprise" and "Toad in the Hole" (Jolly and Maggie are both frogs). When you approach the jukebox for the first time, he says he's miffed that it's broken because he used to love dancing to a song called "The Salty Seaman Jig". In Nuts and Bolts, Jolly now wears a purple robe, a belly shirt, and pink pants, screams like a girl if you hit him or attempt to run him over, and he paints Banjo's house pink at the end of the game! And he sometimes calls Banjo "Teddy Bear".
  • Baten Kaitos has Geldoblame. In Origins he has an affinity for children's toys and cute things, a generally prissy demeanor (but he's an Imperial politician, so that's not a huge indicator) and keeps a scrapbook of another male character by his bed. He also takes that character's betrayal quite hard, almost as a spurned lover.
  • Best Fiends gives us Bam the caterpillar. His final evolved form is a big fluffy winged thing with fabulous eyelashes. There are some pretty clear gay coming-of-age parallels in his backstory too - he grew up ashamed of being so fluffy, but eventually decided to embrace it and even become the go-to hairstylist for the rest of the Fiends.
  • Borderlands: Anthony Burch confirmed on his old ASKFM that Tiny Tina is a lesbian. However, as he states in another answer about Maya and Zer0 being asexual, 'what's in [his] head is no longer canon', so there's some room for debate about her sexuality.
  • Bomberman: Recurring antagonist Mujoe from Bomberman Generation and the Bomberman Jetters anime. Just take a good look at him.
  • It's mentioned in one of Chrono Trigger's bonus endings that Cyrus plucks (or, in the Japanese version, pencils!) his eyebrows. On its own that just makes him vain, but then, consider the Ho Yay with Glenn...
  • In Cookie Run Sea Fairy Cookie's only desire is to reach the moon.... who is another female cookie, named Moonlight Cookie. Many of Sea Fairy's line are about her constant longing and how much her heart aches. She also has a trusting relationship with Moonlight Cookie, and sees her as having the warmest of hearts. Despite this, nothing is confirmed.
  • Kiyotaka Ishimaru from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc displays a complete lack of interest in girls, coupled with a barely subtextual attraction to his best friend/sworn brother Mondo Owada. As the "Ultimate Moral Compass" he tries to enforce a rule that boys and girls basically interact as little as possible and certainly never get the opportunity to pair off alone, but he's notably keen to get himself into any situation where he gets to strip off with another boy. Whether he's a covert Hypocrite or just oblivious to the implications of his own behaviour is not quite clear; but his absolute devotion to Mondo once they become friends is extremely hard not to read as indicative of some very sexual/romantic feelings, at least on Taka's part. His reaction to Mondo's guilt and execution in Case 2 is extremely suggestive: he's clearly more than willing to literally die on the hill of Mondo's innocence even as it becomes more and more improbable (and indeed he does in the stage play version), and several other characters remark that his complete breakdown after Mondo's death certainly reads like he lost someone he was in love with. His later spiritual merging with Mondo even includes a pretty overtly romantic line where Taka-as-Ishida refers to Mondo as his/their "soul".
  • Disgaea:
    • Mid-Boss and Master Big Star. This may be unintentional, due to differing Japanese stereotypes, but Master Big Star's character profile (for the Japanese version, anyways) did say one of his favorite things were "manly men".
    • Halfway through Disgaea 4, several of the characters start to suspect that Fenrich's obsessive loyalty towards Valvatorez isn't exactly platonic. After bluntly asking Fenrich if he swings that way and getting no denial on his part, Fuka just assumes he's gay from that point on.
  • Dragon Quest XI: Sylvando has basically every (PG) gay stereotype, being an incredibly flamboyant and effeminate performer who has a following of Pretty Boys (all of whom are just as effeminate as him), often refers to others as "darling" or "honey", and even dresses up in a pink peacock-styled costume in one sequence. The only thing stopping him from being Camp Gay is the fact that he never shows any real attraction to anyone, male or female.
  • Zhang He from the Dynasty Warriors series is very flamboyant and focused on beauty, and these character traits only increase with each installment in the series. Compare: DW3, DW4, DW5, DW6. Yes, that is makeup he's wearing in that last one.
  • Claymore from Eldritch Lands: The Witch Queen's Eternal War, a homunculus of the main character Sofia's old and close friend. Her dialogues particularly her fifth one, have her describing how awed she was at how Sofia looked in her dress, to the point of saying that she "found out how women should properly look and act" just by seeing her. However, the dialogue also implies that she felt her true calling was combat rather than a traditional "feminine life", and she never outright says anything to Sofia beyond that.
  • Flak and Shrapnel from Fallout 3. While Flak looks a lot like a stereotypical Leather Man and they share a bed, there's nothing explicitly stated about their sexual orientation. And this is a game with Discount Lesbians. The bed-sharing may be an unintended side-effect of a script that requires them to be near each other. After all, this is known to cause problems with Shrapnel leaving Rivet City to wander the wastes if Flak has been enslaved.
  • Final Fantasy:
    • Final Fantasy VII: Sephiroth is one of the most famous queer-coded villains in video games, with his long hair, slim build, feminine features, and complete fixation on Cloud.
    • Final Fantasy XII:
      • Balthier. Despite being a sky pirate that seems to woo most of the women in the game, the writers make him more irresistibly charming to them than actively pursuing any of the gender. His brightly colored bracelets and rings, concern for his clothes and appearance, and constant ambiguity in other such situations (such as his motives for helping the group) has made numerous fans suspect that something is up. Fran does however state in the sequel that he did "something" to woo her and that his methods are different than the ones Tomaj tries in the same game. What he actually did and if they're actually a couple is left open however.
      • When Al-Cid Margrace invites Ashe to his mansion in a conversation full of Lampshaded Double Entendre, in the background, Balthier looks offended that he wasn't invited instead.
    • No-one would be jolted if Fang and Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII dropped the "ambiguous" part of their interactions. The fact that Fang was originally a male in early drafts is just icing on the cake; she has several Declarations of Protection throughout the game and a completely uncompromising Always Save the Girl attitude in regards to Vanille, up to and including thinking that Vanille is worth Hell (which is very similar to Snow's attitude to Serah) and they are both also openly very touchy-feely and comfortable with each other, to the point where Vanille can nonchalantly rest her hand on Fang's breast with neither one batting an eye. There's also the fact that the game ends with the both of them performing a Heroic Sacrifice together, transforming into crystal statues locked in an eternal embrace with Intertwined Fingers. Also, while it's not as obvious as Squall and Rinoa, Fang and Vanille are the game's logo.
    • In Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, their relationship is taken to a razor's edge width from dropping the "ambiguous" part, with the database itself mentioning that Fang and Vanille share a bond with each other that goes beyond family, and despite the fact that Fang and Vanille are separated for almost the entire game, they still have so much subtext, it's borderline ridiculous that Square Enix don't just give the Word of Gay. One particularly notable moment is when Lightning gives Fang a speech about her relationship with Vanille that is nearly identical to the one she gave Snow about his relationship with Serah.
    • The party of Final Fantasy XV may be a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, but most of them are clearly attracted to women, with the exception of Ignis, who instead receives some gentle ribbing from Prompto that implies he might've expressed interest in other men in the past. Episode Ignis expands on this a bit further, suggesting that he may harbor unrequited feelings for Noctis specifically. At the very least it's made clear that whatever the nature of his love may be, he does indeed love Noctis more than anyone or anything else in the entire world, to the point that he's willing to throw away the fate of the world and everyone else in it in order to keep Noctis alone safe, and views his own health and life as disposable to that end, in general acting very much like Fang above. Even Ardyn seems to twig onto it and taunts him over it.
  • Fire Emblem:
    • At the end of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Ike only gets a special ending with Soren or Ranulf if he gets an 'A' level support with either, in which he leaves the continent with said character. Coupling this with how Ike never shows any type of strong affection toward females aside from his sister, Ike's sexuality is definitely in question.
    • Fire Emblem: Awakening has revived the issue within the fandom: A secret character named Priam claims to be a sort of a descendant of Ike, but he cannot use Ike's trademark skill passed on through inheritance (Ike's father had it as well). It's ambiguous exactly what kind of descendant he is, since a wife is never mentioned, and his sister does get married (collateral descendance has been noted before in the series), but Priam resembles Ike himself, inherited his sword, and doesn't resemble his sister at all... arguing about it causes many a backlash.
    • Calling Soren's sexuality questionable is frankly giving it too much credit. He also shows affection towards Ike in a more passionate way than the other way around, even vowing to always be at Ike's side.
    • From the same games as well is Heather, a thief who borders on the ambiguous part at times. She frequently makes comment on the "cuteness" of females in the party, but shows very little but contempt for males she comes across. She even outright tells Nephenee she "likes country girls like [her]".
  • Gorgio Shanua, one of the potential buyers from House Flipper. He's Camp as all get out, obsessed with clothes and hair, works as a stylist, and according to the achievement for selling to him, he's a Belieber. The game never explicitly says what orientation he is, though.
  • Hypnospace Outlaw Dylan Merchant mentions he's pretty sure his brother Adrian has a crush on Zaréd, a male Earthhaze artist. While this can be seen as lighthearted teasing, Jay Tholen included him among other LGBT Hypnospace users.
  • A few characters in Indivisible, not counting unambiguously gay Baozhai and omnisexual Ren.
    • Baozhai's crush, Thorani, starts out oblivious to the former's interest, but at the end of their personal quests, offers to be there whenever Baozhai needs someone to talk to. Whether this is reciprocating Baozhai's romantic interest, or Thorani just being her usual Team Mom self isn't clear.
    • At first, Tzitzi's constant exclamations of "my queen!" to the Serpent Queen just seem like how anyone would address royalty. But after being defeated and freed from Kala's influence, she admits to being hurt and jealous when she fell out of favour with the Serpent Queen. After the Serpent Queen forgives her and welcomes her back, there's an exchange that sounds very much like Tzitzi about to make a Love Confession, with the Queen cutting her off with "I already know."
    • Razmi doesn't talk much, it's snark when she does, and Vitriolic Best Buds is typically the friendliest she gets with anyone. But at the end of the game, she admits in a release of pent-up emotion that she genuinely likes Ajna, and doesn't know what she means when she says she that.
  • Jak and Daxter: Razer in Jak X. Every other character says "Wham, bam, thank you ma'am!" as a victory line, even Ashelin. Razer, however...
    Razer: Wham, bam, thank you... sir.
  • Kenji Setoh from Katawa Shoujo. A He-Man Woman Hater with a penchant for pink bowling shirts, he started to fear and despise women (or, as he says, feminists) after having sex with his then-girlfriend and believing that she sapped his life force. The writers put here and there some little innuendo in his conversations with male protagonist Hisao, and the background music from the bad ending with him and Hisao is the same one that appears during the sex scenes with the girls. Originally the writers intended Kenji to be Hisao's Gay Option, but this idea was scrapped because of time and other constraints.
  • Riku from Kingdom Hearts.
    • In the original Japanese dialogue of III, when Riku and Mickey are in the Dark World for the first time, Mickey says Riku has found the strength to protect his 'precious person' (taisetsu na hito), very obviously implied to be Sora. This scene comes directly after one with Hercules saying Megara is his own precious person. After a flashback of receiving the Keyblade from Terra, Riku then says to himself, "(Is this) the strength to protect the person most precious to me...?" However, in the English dub, Mickey and Riku both say the 'things that matter' instead, while Hercules says 'the person I love most' about Megara, so the parallel and implication are completely lost (even if we as the audience can still deciper that Sora is the reason for Riku's growth and character development). In addition, the KH3 Ultimania entry about Riku also uses precious 'person' instead of 'things'. It seems Riku's wish has deliberately evolved from when he was a child, but that important bit of character development got no homoed out of several different official KHIII English translations.
      Image Text: A young Riku stated his wish: “I want to become strong enough to protect the things that matter.” Roughly 10 years later, after many twists and turns, he has finally obtained the strength to protect the person who matters.
    • To top it off, he's very aloof and awkward about Shiki's obvious flirtation with him in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]:
      Riku: I'm bad at this. Sorry.

      Shiki: Aren't you my knight in shining armor? Well? [winks]
    • In a similiar vein, towards the beginning of Riku's visit to La Cité des Cloches, he asks Quasimodo if it was really Frollo keeping him from leaving the cathedral, or if it was his own self holding him back. Later, after Quasimodo thanks him for the advice, Riku admits that he was speaking from personal experience. Phoebus responds by saying he probably still keeps a lot inside, and Esmeralda reassures Riku that everyone does that sometimes. She then follows up with, "There are just some things we need to keep separate from the world at large, at least until we have time to figure them out." Which sounds very much like something you'd say to a queer person upset with themself for not coming out yet. And that's not even going into Esmeralda persecuted for being Romani, as in the source material.
    • We also get this conversation in DDD during Riku's first visit to Traverse Town (in which we can infer Riku must only be talking about Sora, given the game its in being focused primarily on them and their relationship):
      Beat: I just... wanna protect the one person who matters.
  • Kirby Star Allies: Francisca and Flamberge are shown to be quite close to each other, and there's a lot of Les Yay surrounding them throughout the game. This is best seen with Flamberge; with how she gets furious when someone hurts Francisca, concerns for her melting in the heat of Sizzlai Moon, the Accidental Innuendo about "getting wild" in her Guest Star pause description quote, and Word of God stating that their relationship could be deeper, it is all but stated that Flamberge is in love with Francisca.
  • League of Legends:
  • The Legend of Zelda:
    • Dark/Demon Lord Ghirahim from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, although he's technically genderless. His dialogues with Link are very suggestive, and he makes various poses while admiring his alleged beauty prior to the second boss battle.
    • In Twilight Princess, the Lake Hylia clowns Fyer and especially Falbi give off this vibe. Falbi wears a very small green belly shirt (it looks more like a sports bra with sleeves, poses with one hand on his hip, and the spoken dialog that plays when speaking to him is a high pitched "heeey". Fyer wears a pink shirt tied above his stomach and has a broken heart pattern on his pants. Being minor characters, their dialog doesn't seem to point one way or the other.
  • Lux-Pain: Akira and Hibiki. The former is prone to saying the wrong thing at the wrong time while the latter is questionable.
    • Akira. Best friends with three girls and shows no interest in them, forcing yourself into the life of the main character that you just met, says double innuendo whenever near said main character, the best cook of the group, the only character in the game that didn't need Rui to tap his shoulder in order to remember Atsuki.
    • Hibiki. Shows no interest in women, hits on his best friend Ryo (who is oblivious to said flirting), gets jealous when Ryo hires a young co-worker at his bookstore, stalks Atsuki just to creep him out, rather feminine looking body, supporting Suzu's yaoi fantasy about him and Ryo being together.
  • MadWorld: Jude The Dude, who is the second boss Jack has to fight in the game. Jude behaves much like a stereotypical cowboy but the announcers call him "The Brokest Back In The West" and " The Ambiguously Gay Cowboy". There were even posters that had the former slogan all over Jude's arena before and after he is fought. One of the finishers that was cut from the official game performed on Jude is very suggestive and explicit and had to be changed for the final cut.
  • Micky, the boss head of Star Demon Overlord Valvolga from Makai Kingdom talks with a lisp and twiddles his fingers a lot. He's probably just "shy".
  • Mandrake Boys has Cher from the Childhood Friends Seed collection. He seems to harbor feelings for his childhood friend Zale and is quite upset when he learns about his friend liking someone else. Also, according to his rare mandrake info, dozens of girls have confessed to him, but he doesn't seem to be interested in any of them.
  • Marco & the Galaxy Dragon: At one point, an unconscious Marco is told that she needs to resist the temptations of her subconscious mind in order to survive a difficult surgery. These temptations take the form of her female friends flirting with her and asking her out on dates, much to her annoyance.
  • Medievil: Canny Tim displays a lot of rather campy mannerisms. Especially in the PSP remake, Resurrection. The PS4 remake, or more specifically the tie-in comic released alongside it, rectifies this a bit by implying that Canny Tim was in fact really Canny Timberly, but it's odd because the remake reuses most of the voice acting from the first game and Tim still really sounds like a young man.
    Tim: Gosh, but I miss the camaraderie of serving with you! All cuddled in together, keeping warm at night! Telling scary stories until we were afraid to put the light out!
    Dan: I think that was just you...
  • RiCO from Mega Man X DiVE tends to squeal and coo over any of the female characters in their more fanservice themed outfits, often openly calling them beautiful and sexy.
  • Liquid Snake of Metal Gear Solid, whose glorious theatricality has led him to be featured on such lists as "The Top 7 Outrageously Camp Bad Guys In Video Games", and who has been described by another reviewer as "Oscar Wilde meets Darth Vader". Liquid has no canonical sexuality, but he was rather keen on getting Solid Snake's shirt off and proving his "dominance", and while it probably isn't relevant Liquid's English-language VA Cam Clarke is openly gay.
  • The Magypsies in Mother 3, though they also all have an Ambiguous Gender.
  • Arcanette from Octopath Traveler II. She's in a relationship with Tanzy, is mentioned to have flirted with another woman at one point, and never shows any similar interactions with men. However, her "relationship" with Tanzy is only a means to get Tanzy to help her locate the Sacred Flames so the Moonshade Order can extinguish them, which makes it ambiguous as to whether or not she's truly attracted to women.
  • Amaterasu from Ōkami takes a few opportunities to ogle some of the more attractive women in the game, but nothing is really confirmed.
  • Ginger from The Path. She's a rough-and-tumble tomboy who never expresses interest in men, unlike her three older sisters. Her "wolf" is a girl she meets in the woods who playfully chases her before pulling her down to lay with her in a field of flowers, and Ginger is clearly laughing and enjoying herself during their interactions. The scene can be viewed platonically, but given the game's themes of growing up and learning new things about yourself and the world, many have interpreted Ginger's story as an LGBT Awakening.
  • Daniil Dankovsky from Pathologic. One of the locals, Eva Yan, who is a very attractive young woman shows interest in Daniil, but most of Daniil's dialogue options ignore all the flirting he receives from her. It's left ambiguous if it's because he chooses to ignore her advances or if it's because he simply doesn't notice when he's being flirted with. On the other hand he's extremely interested in Artemy Burakh, this is less noticeable in the bachelor route but in the haruspex route Artemy may receive multiple letters from Daniil a day. In both routes during Daniil's and Artemy's first meeting Daniil says the following quote: "Yes... Far be it for me to call myself a person of mystical inclinations. However, when I look at you, I get the feeling that nature is playing jokes on us. It's as if both the left and the right hand have clutched the head to realize for the first time that they are both parts of a single whole." It could be argued that this is a fourth wall break, since they're both the main characters, but Daniil does not say this to the third main character Clara. Daniil also offers Artemy the option to sleep in his bed, although sleeping in another characters bed is always possible, Daniil is just the only one to offer him this option out loud. Daniil is also described as dandy by some of the locals. He also asks to change the subject when Aspity talks about naked women.
  • Bebe, the Gratuitous Japanese-spouting Funny Foreigner of Persona 3. Very camp, head of the Fashion club and shares a good amount of Ho Yay with the Main Character.
  • Persona 5 has Goro Akechi, a Bishōnen detective and a celebrity who in-universe is popular amongst mainly women, and despite not being a romance option happens to make a lot of comments towards the male protagonist during their confidant that can be interpreted as flirting, with the protagonist also getting a few chances to respond to him with similar comments. It's also worth noting that Akechi is the only male Phantom Thief who doesn't have any Ship Tease moments with a female character, and is never shown or implied to have any interest in women.
  • Pallegina in Pillars of Eternity. When Maneha (who is unambiguously a lesbian) starts flirting with her by complimenting her Vallian accent, she's surprised to find herself flustered, and possibly receptive. And in a possible ending to Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, she becomes the bodyguard of a ducess, with the exact nature of the relationship between the two women speculated upon by Vailian gossips and playwrights. Otherwise Pallegina's sexuality simply doesn't come up; she's Married to the Job first.
  • Pokémon:
    • In the Japanese version of Pokémon Black and White, there's a Hiker named Natsumi who you can take on a ride in the ferris wheel in the Summer if you play as a male character. He says some rather dodgy lines about how sweaty you both are and asks if you have a lover, but nothing very blatant. Then in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, nearly any ambiguity was thrown out the window when they brought the character back. He talks about how he fell in love in the summer two years ago (BW2 takes place 2 years after BW) and how his heart was broken when he confessed his love. He doesn't use any gender specific pronouns about who he's talking about, but you can only talk to him as a girl in BW2, and he says he has "zero interest in your type." and he "Still considers you a friend even though you're a girl." The subtext is pretty obvious. His dialogue was completely changed in the English versions of BW, but oddly enough was left mostly unaltered in BW2.
    • Similarly, there's an unnamed hiker in the Jubilife TV station whole lets the player dress up their Pokémon and talks in a rather effeminate and flamboyant manner.
    • Matt in the Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire demo says he finds Tabitha funny, and that he loves "funny, interesting dudes" like Archie. Then he tells Tabitha that he wants to battle, saying "I'm gonna love you to BITS!"
    • Poni Island's Kahuna Hapu mentions she's distracted by Lillie's 'loveliness'.
    • Hassel and Brassius from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have a very close relationship and even use pet names for each other ("Brassie" and "Hass," respectively). Then there's the fact that Hassel rejected his family's inheritance (which likely would've required him to get married and have children) to focus on his art instead. However, there's no official word on what exactly their relationship is.
  • Henry from Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask shows Undying Loyalty to his childhood friend Randall to the point where he even married Randall's girlfriend in order to keep her from being married off to another man, while not showing romantic feelings for her at all. This can all be easily construed as Henry being in love with Randall.
  • Psychonauts: Franke Athens is heavily implied on her Campster to be a lesbian. All of her favorite shows, books and music artists have lesbian associations and she lists her sole interest as her friend Kitty Bubai. Kitty and Franke both list their relationship statuses in their profile as an "Open Marriage", implicitly with each other. While Vernon Tripe thinks he and Franke in a relationship, Franke shows no interest because she is stringing him along into doing her camp homework. Within the actual game however, Franke is just Kitty's Beta Bitch friend.
  • Punch-Out!! Wii gives Disco Kid this personality, just to round out the cast of stereotypes. He even calls himself FABULOUS.
  • Red Dead Redemption II:
    • Bill Williamson is heavily implied to be gay which was never implied in the first game. Arthur, the protagonist, says in one of his journal entries from before the game starts that he knows Bill is living with some sort of big secret but doesn't push it because it's not his secret to tell. You can find his discharge papers from the army around camp and one of the reasons he got kicked out was "deviancy". In an early mission, Arthur and one of the other characters talk about how couples with similar names don't work out. Specifically about one of the other guys, Lenny, having a crush on a girl named Jenny. The other examples he uses are "Arthur and Martha" and "Bill and Phil". In a bar fight, Arthur asks if he's fighting a guy or kissing him. He's also implied to have a crush on a guy at camp, Kieran. Someone else points it out and there's a random event where Bill tries to force him to drink out of his beer bottle. If you intervene, Bill says "Can’t two men enjoy a drink in peace?" and tries to get him to come back. There's also some antagonizing dialogue where you tell Jack Marston he doesn't look like a Marston but he does look like a Williamson, if John Marston is standing nearby he'll say that Bill doesn't swing that way.
  • Rose Guns Days has Miguel Kurashiki, a character who dresses and acts in a very feminine fashion, has a deep aversion for women and is very close to his boss Caleb, yet is never explicitly stated to "swing that way". Characters who face him usually are too busy fighting him or not making him angry to worry about such considerations anyway.
  • Hugh Bliss from the Telltale Sam and Max games. His voice sounds like that of a homosexual, he's obsessed with rainbows and "Prismatology", and according to Episode 205, one of the months on his Prismatology calender is called "Gaypril".
    • Sam and Max themselves are also strongly implied to have more subtext between them than being lifelong partners-in-crimefighting. Beyond hints of their own partnership (which has been alluded to to the degree that there have been multiple fantasies of the two getting married), Sam has hinted at attraction towards men and women while being "off the market" relationship-wise, and Max has an entire Running Gag of fantasizing about women before being reminded that he "doesn't even like girls."
  • The Sly Cooper series has Murray, who is pink-skinned, overweight hippo and is the only member of the Cooper trio to not have a love interest. Word of God has stated through the developers that they originally intended for Murray to be a gay/bi-curious character but the concept was dropped during development after test players were unable to understand dialogue from Murray that associated him with his sexual orientation.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Octo Siren's first line interacting with Shantae in the Definitive Edition? "Hey Baby."
  • The Sims has an odd take on this. Until sexual orientation options were added to the fourth game in 2022, nobody was straight by default. The player could have their character enter a relationship with any other character of an appropriate age, regardless of their genders, meaning the player decides their character's sexual preference when they do so. But there were no explicitly LGBTQ+ pre-made characters until a late add-on for The Sims 3 introduced the first same-gender couple in the gamesnote , which began an increasing trend towards including explicitly LBGTQ+ Sims in the series going forward. However, before that, there were some pre-made characters who fit this trope in-story:
    • The Sims 2 gives us roommates Mitch Indie and Max Flexor, whose family bio suggests that they are about to "learn something about their friendship" and who are able to enter romantic reactions when first played (but won't autonomously); and Nervous Subject, who usually rejects flirts from women and may autonomously display attraction to men.
    • Prior to the Roaring Heights add-on introducing an explicitly lesbian couple and a queer Love Quadranglenote , The Sims 3 gives us Gobias Koffi, said to prefer male company and unable to find the right woman; Alma Drill and Blaise Kindle, who are roommates who even have a pushed-together bed made of two beds; and most obviously, Viktor Valquist and Jesper Sandstrom, who, though called just best friends, are described as doing everything together, strike a pose only used for romantic couples in their family bio picture, and the adopted daughter of one of them even has the surname Valstrom.
  • In Skies of Arcadia, there's something akin to this occurring with the pretty Ramirez in regards to how he feels for his captain and master, Galcian. In addition to having predominantly platonic relationships with every female he meets in-series - Fina, one of the heroes and his childhood friend, states that she viewed him like a brother and he treated her like that in turn - not long after his first mentor, Mendosa, betrays him, and he becomes far more cynical towards Arcadia's people, he clung to Galcian and his epic strive for global dominance. His loyalty is to the end, culminating in his crying and screaming for him when Galcian is killed, swearing to destroy all of Arcadia with him, and, in the Japanese version of the game, calling for him when he himself is killed (Ramirez is the game's Final Boss. Much like the game's infamously unresolved Love Triangle, the idea of Ramirez being in love with Galcian is pretty entrenched in the game's lore.
  • The recurring villain from the flash RPG franchise Sonny, Baron Brixius, speaks in a voice that would likely produce a false positive on all but the most finely-calibrated of gaydars (with two of the three voice clips that play whenever he gets hit with an attack sounding more appropriate for wrestling than the armed combat generally seen in the games).
  • Elder Magnus from Spyro: A Hero's Tail, who is dark-ish pink, speaks in an effeminate tone, and calls Spyro 'sweetheart' and 'darling'.
  • Although his presence is brief, Belzeber from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time certainly gives off this vibe. He speaks in an eccentric tone, has very flamboyant mannerisms, and wears lipstick.
  • Jowy Atreides and the protagonist in Suikoden II have a few Brokeback Mountain-esque exchanges throughout.
  • Lucretia, Lelei and Cathari in Suikoden V. Lelei has been confirmed as lesbian and is hopelessly in love with Lucretia, who is implied to have been romantically involved with Cathari in the past. A few lines of dialogue (followed by a fade-to-black) between Lelei and Lucretia on the night before the big battle might easily be seen as a Relationship Reveal. It's a Suikoden game, of course, so these are only the most obvious examples.
  • Summon Night:
    • Aera, from the second Swordcraft Story. She behaves odd around girls, especially Lynn. Then again, Swordcraft Story is best known for its Lesbian options.
    • Razzy from the first game seems to develop a crush on the female protagonist, and even asks if she thinks that girls can marry other girls. This could just be admiration that she's confusing for love, but she only develops these feelings if you choose to play as a girl.
  • Sunrider has Kryska Stares. She mentions that she previously served in an all-female crew, as the Solar Alliance believes that segregating its soldiers into same-sex contingents will prevent fraternization; when asked if these measures actually worked, her response is a smirk and a brief chuckle. Tellingly, she’s the only member of the Sunrider’s female crew to show no romantic interest in Kayto Shields and is the only one who cannot be romancednote  in Liberation Day’s [RE]turn scenario. She also forms a close—if vitriolic—friendship with Icari Isidolde, so much so that other members of the crew speculate that the two of them might be more than just friends.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
  • Tales Series:
    Zelos: "But really, though... Isn't it true that you and that Estelle gal are really close?"
    Rita: (shyly) "Wh—? I-it's not really like "that".
    Zelos: "There it IS! Rita-chan's TSUNDERE PERSONALITY!! It's sooo CUTE!"
    • Richard from Tales of Graces. Very elegant hand gestures, effeminate appearance, and quite possibly crushing on Asbel since they were kids. Not helped by the scene in which he gives Asbel his ring. Or the skit in which he pretends to be Cheria so Malik can practice flirting with her (It Makes Sense in Context). Or the fact that Pascal points out that they're "mwa-mwa hanky-panky all the time." Or the fact that he sounds extremely irritated by the idea of his many female suitors. Or the fact that he says things like "[Asbel] is such a kind man. It's the trait I love most in him." Or the fact that his entire motivation as a villain, though it's intensified by a little Demonic Possession, is the fact that he sees Asbel's rejection of his aid as a direct betrayal.
    • Dist the Reaper in Tales of the Abyss. A Sissy Villain to the max, he's completely obsessed with his former friend Jade, either to surpass him, force Jade to acknowledge him, or both, and desperately wants to return to the time when he and Jade went everywhere together as children. Refers to himself as "fabulous" and "gorgeous" (among many other adjectives), insists on being called "Dist the Rose", and generally acts like a jealous ex.
    • Sorey in Tales of Zestiria. His relationship with Mikleo hits a lot of the same notes as previous chastity couples in the Tales series, with the Tales staff even referring to Mikleo as "his one and only". He is also canonically not attracted to any of his female comrades and is confused at the idea of finding naked women attractive. His description of Mikleo's appearance in the novel is also downright romantic:
      Sorey flicked a glance at Mikleo who was walking by his side. Hair the color of pale aquamarine, skin so fair as to seem translucent, sophisticated violet eyes. Even from his prospective, Sorey thought there was a beauty to Mikleo that would draw the eyes of others.
    • Velvet, Eleanor, and Niko in Tales of Berseria
      • Velvet and Eleanor have immense amounts of Ship Tease covered in the Ho Yay section to the point that it's even referenced in the achievement for completing Eleanor's personal sidequest - she's blatantly checking out Velvet's chest while the achievement asks where her eyes are. Velvet comes off as a Tsundere towards Eleanor on a number of occasions, namely seeming concerned for Eleanor, but denying it, which gets lampshaded by Laphicet and Magilou. The fact Eleanor becomes Velvet's confidante, and they share an important moment on the traditional night before the final battle fuels it further.
      • Niko is Velvet's childhood friend. Every scene between Velvet and Niko appears to feature some degree of Ship Tease with Velvet. When Velvet encounters a dream illusion of Niko, which is based off of Velvet's ideal wish, it is enough to cause Velvet to start reverting back to how she was in the prologue even before hearing that her brother Laphicet might still be alive. Niko is is extra affectionate towards Velvet. When dream Niko sees Velvet's daemon arm her response is to panic for a second ... before offering to help hide it and saying it's OK. As the illusion is based off Velvet's memories and thoughts, this means that Velvet thinks the real Niko would have done the same.
  • The Carecrow from Toonstruck behaves like a stereotypical gay man; he's very effeminate, he calls his crows his babies, and he's obsessed with fashion.
  • Fujiwara no Mokou of Touhou Project is very butch in both appearance (barring her long hair) and mannerisms, especially amazing considering she was a human raised in Japan 1400 years ago, and that's before considering her centuries-long obsessive rivalry with Kaguya. Then again everyone is gay in Gensoukyou, so this probably doesn't mean much.
  • Ty the Tasmanian Tiger: Dennis, a green tree frog and one of Ty's allies, shows off a lot of Camp Gay mannerisms such as lisping and sounding flamboyantly as well as tasking Ty with finding a thunder egg that was pink colored.
  • Wario World: Red-Brief J, a giant, muscular, anthropomorphic bull that wears a red speedo.
  • Wintermoor Tactics Club: Rare version where the ambiguous part isn't the gay part. Jania and Baphomet, if you pitch in on their side quests, will eventually strike up a relationship with each other, one that the epilogue confirms lasted all their lives. It's not stated if both are lesbians, or if one or both are bisexual; the only thing known for sure is that both are wlw in some fashion.
  • Joshua from The World Ends with You.
    • His favorite color is pink; he loves rainbows, takes pictures of the main character's ass and calls him pet names; and as one announcer put it: "When he sees a hole, he knows how to fill it". There's also his constant girlish giggling.
    • This whole exchange right before Neku enters Shibuya River in Another Day:
    Neku: I guess that's understandable. All right, I'll go check it out.
    Joshua: Whoa there, Black 'n' Blue. I'm going with.
    Neku: You? You seem the LAST person who'd want to go in there.
    Joshua: I could never live with myself if I let you go alone. Let's spend some quality time.
    Beat: Whoa ho ho! You guys are... Like, you ain't...
    Shiki: Blue and Pink!? Sure, they go.. but I didn't know they went LIKE THAT!
    Neku: Now look what you've done!
    Joshua: Hee hee... Shut up and walk, dear.
    Shiki: ... I'm going, too. If something happens, I want to see... I mean stop it!
    • And in the normal game, there's the priceless line:
    Joshua: You watch my behind, and I'll watch yours.
    • He starts with a very high Brave stat, which lets him wear metrosexual shirts right off the bat and equip handbags with a bit of grinding. Also, the Frilly Parasol.
    • In his appearance in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] he not-so-subtly flirts with both Riku and Neku. Seems Joshua has a type.
  • Male Blood Elves in World of Warcraft, though more as a joke than anything. Not only is this a joke among the players but many of the male Blood Elves' /emotes, particularity /joke, dab in this trope. Then there's Martek's tale in the quest "The Day that Deathwing Came: What Really Happened." Ironically, male Blood Elves are larger and more muscular than the average real-life male; it's just that males of the other races, including humans, are cartoonishly muscular.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles
    • Mórag and Brighid from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 have quite a few Les Yay moments throughout the game, almost bordering onto the territory of romantic subtext. Neither of them have shown a romantic interest in boys either. Their relationship even comes full circle when Mórag realizes that she’s the only Driver in the party (besides Tora, who isn’t even a driver in the traditional sense) who isn’t a Flesh Eater or Blade Eater, and Brighid offers some of her core crystal to her. She declines.
    • Lanz from Xenoblade Chronicles 3. He’s always looking for tough people to take on, and has a very muscular appearance. He’s never been shown to be sexually interested in women, and has a Bromance-like friendship with Sena. Lanz also acts like a Tsundere when he’s around other male characters, such as Valdi and Triton.
  • In Yooka-Laylee, the main villain, Capital B. During one cutscene, his assistant Dr. Quack attempts to give him a Secret Message Wink. Capital B instead interprets it as Quack trying to flirt with him, and tells him that "I'm flattered, but once bitten..." An official piece of Valentine's Day art even depicts Capital B and Dr. Quack on a date, though the canonicity of that is up for debate.

Top