Implied Love Interest / Video Games

• Ace Attorney:
  • Dick Gumshoe and Maggey Byrde. It's rather obvious that Gumshoe has a crush on Maggey, since he feels a bit jealous of her being in a relationship with another officer(the murder victim of Maggey's debut case), and is intent on defending her, even if his job ends up making him testify for the prosecution. While Maggey's not happy about Gumshoe testifying against her, she does accept weenies from him after third case in Trials and Tribulations and gives him new coat in the ending, but it's still left in the air whether or not they're a couple.
  • Apollo Justice and Juniper Woods. Juniper doesn't even try to hide that she has huge crush on Apollo, but like the example above, it's not clear if it's two-sided. It's worth noting that after Apollo eats lotus root Juniper gave him (which isn't meant to be eaten raw), he's worried that she'll think he's a weirdo, covers her from a bomb blast, and the wounds from said bomb blast are the only reason he didn't defend her later (he actually tried to defend her despite his injuries, but since he could barely stand, Athena changed him). At the same time, Athena's comment suggests he's Oblivious to Love. To complicate things further, in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit of Justice, Juniper doesn't appear at all.
• Ace Combat
  • Yellow Thirteen and Yellow Four in Ace Combat 04. It's heavily implied after Yellow Four is shot down by you.
  • Edge in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is obsessed with Blaze (that's you, bub). At the end of the game a woman very similar to her is seen with a child, though later material reveals she is just Edge's friend.
  • Slash and Edge of the Ridgebacks in Ace Combat Infinity have a very close relationship expected of a flight leader and his wingman, though their mid-flight dialogue can be interpreted as signs of a deeper intimacy. Notably, Slash's death at the hands of the Butterfly Master sends Edge into a blind rage that she is barely able to be calmed out, and Edge harbors a serious grudge against Slash's killer the next time they cross paths. However, once Arrowblades is formed after the first half of the campaign and Edge becomes Reaper's secondary wingman, she appears to become interested in him, slowly expressing her awe at Reaper's skill (when she's not angry over Reaper kill-stealing, that is).
• Beyond Good & Evil fans, thanks to the continued non-existence of the sequel to confirm or deny their theories, are still debating what Double H means to Jade. On one hand, he's extremely devoted to her, treats her with chivalrous kindness, and even gets to kiss her once. On Jade's side, she gets in a He is Not My Boyfriend moment. One could interpret certain parts of the ending as him moving in with her. On the other hand, he's more than a decade her senior, and while they do grow very close, the lack of any real statements on the nature of their relationship (Battle Couple, or just Fire-Forged Friends?) will leave fans debating until the sequel actually (if ever) arrives.
• Jin Kisaragi, Ragna's younger brother in BlazBlue, has one in Tsubaki Yayoi. They're Childhood Friends and she has an extremely obvious attraction to him, to the point where her closest friends play Shipper on Deck for the two. Considering how much of an asshole he is to virtually everyone else, the fact that Jin treats Tsubaki with genuine kindness only reinforces this.
• Done very well in Cave Story, where the protagonist and his female counterpart Curly Brace are almost never seen in particularly romantic situations, but it's still clear that they care about each other in some way.
• A slightly strange example occurs in Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics. The game features a large number of "tutorial skits" that feature a man, a woman, a little boy, and a little girl. Naturally, this makes them resemble a family. However, they're never actually stated to be related, and while the man and the woman share some flirty dialogue, they're never confirmed to be a couple or the parents of the children, leaving their relationship ambiguous. This may have been intentional, to give them Applicability.
• Cyberpunk 2077 has two, one for the male version of the protagonist, and one for female.
  • Panam is this for male V. She explicitly has a crush on him, even if you don't romance her, she's the only option for male V you meet in the main story, she's the love interest you spend the most time with, and doing her sidequests will unlock "The Star" ending, which the players consider the best possible one in the game. Even if you don't romance her, or you play as a female V (who Panam won't romance), your friendship with her is one of the strongest bonds V can form in the game, essentially making you Platonic Life-Partners or Heterosexual Life-Partners. The deuteragonist, Johnny, even encourages male V to get together with her.
  • Female V has Judy. She's the only romance option for female V you meet in the game's story and have to work with in multiple missions. Johnny will mention that he can see "the way (Judy) is looking at (female V)" and that it makes V feel all "mushy inside" (Johnny and V share a body, so he can feel their feelings). Judy also has the most content post her romance arc, often texting V and sending her trinkets for her apartment. She's also the only love interest, other than Panam, who will leave Night City with V in "The Star" ending.
• Danganronpa:
  • Makoto Naegi and Kyoko Kirigiri. Despite huge amounts of Ship Tease throughout Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, it's never actually outright said that they like each other or ever get into a relationship. While the epilogue and official artbook heavily imply they love each other and do get together, on-screen it never goes further than holding hands. Although, given the state of Kyoko's hands and how she feels about people seeing or touching them that alone speaks more volume about the nature of their relationship than it usually would.
    • In side materials where the killing game isn’t a factor (meaning Makoto and Kyoko’s bond isn’t as strong as it is in the canon storyline), Makoto is frequently paired up with Sayaka Maizono instead.
  • Dangan Ronpa 2 Goodbye Despair gives us Hajime Hinata and Chiaki Nanami. It's very obvious from early on that the former has feelings for the latter, and definitely appreciates seeing her in a bikini. It's more difficult to tell from Chiaki's standpoint because she's very low key about her emotions, but it's nonetheless shown that she cares deeply for Hajime as well. Seeing as Chiaki is an Artificial Intelligence and her real life counterpart is already dead, their chances of a successful relationship are basically null, but that doesn't stop the Ship Tease, and Hajime still cares for her even after he learns the truth about her.
  • The trend continues in Dangan Ronpa V 3 Killing Harmony with Kaede Akamatsu and Shuichi Saihara as they form a close and intense bond early on, which doesn't go unnoticed by other characters... Sadly Kaede is framed as the first killer of the game and executed, bringing any potential relationship to a crashing halt. Shuichi never moves on to another girl and keeps his feelings for Kaede until the very end.
• Max and Monica of Dark Chronicle are companions in battle and very close, and toward the end of the game Monica makes a possibly one-way trip through time to the place that is "most important to her", which turns out to be right by Max's side. However, there's never any explicit reference to a romantic relationship - it may be because Max is just barely into his teens and Monica isn't much older.
• Kasumi and Ninja Gaiden's Ryu Hayabusa in the Dead or Alive series. Ever since Dead or Alive 2 came out, plenty of fans deemed them to be the Official Couple of the series due to their interactions in the game, forgetting about Ryu's original love interest Irene Lew. (Back then Irene was basically all but forgotten about at the time, aside from a brief mention in the first game.) However, once Irene became an Ascended Extra in DOA Dimensions and Ninja Gaiden 3, she regained her position as Ryu's love interest.
• Deltarune: Kris is implied to have a crush on Susie, as her tea heals them for the most HP out of any of their choices^note Character Tea heals characters based on how much they like said character and when she asks who they would take to the carnival, replying anyone but Susie will have Kris answer in a confused tone, whereas answering Susie will be said sincerely and fluster her.
• Devil May Cry 4: In the Special Edition's opening cutscene for Vergil's campaign, there's a red-clad woman whose eye Vergil catches as they walk past each other. This may or may not be Capcom subtly showing the mother of Nero, as supplementary material confirmed that Nero is Vergil's son.
• Disgaea has a few of these, the most telling is the ambiguous relationship between Laharl and Flonne. While Laharl repeatedly claims to not like her, his actions in the game suggest otherwise, going as far as to attempt a Heroic Sacrifice. At the time, she was Not Quite Dead in the canon ending while in the normal ending he really does go through with it.
  • Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness shifts this dynamic from Laharl and Flonne to Laharl and Etna, as the story gives Etna plenty of focus. The ending where Etna successfully controls her power but is still unconscious for a while shows that Laharl totally isn't worried about her or anything. Etna is also significantly nicer to Laharl in this game than she is in basically any other appearance.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest IV: The interactions between Elisa and the Hero, have pretty heavy hints of Childhood Friend Romance, such as her wanting to be with them forever and the hug between the two on reuniting at the end.
  • Bianca Whitaker from Dragon Quest V. Most official media features her more heavily than both Nera and Debora, and use her son and daughter for the promotional artwork. Even the official cover art has Bianca and the children sharing her hair color. The story itself also nudges to player into choosing her as the bride as well, though the DS remake is more evenhanded about it.
• EarthBound has this with Ness and Paula. Despite them not actually becoming an item, plenty of NPCs are Shippers on Deck for them, and of course there's the time where Paula is implied to decide against a love confession (she claims to have "forgotten").
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy IV: The After Years: Edward and Harley. There's plenty of ship teasing and Unresolved Sexual Tension between the two of them, and Tellah's ghost is practically a Shipper on Deck, but the game never confirms if they become a couple.
  • Final Fantasy VII: Despite the fact that Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa compose one of the most famous Love Triangles in video games (Tifa even sharing a Did They or Didn't They? scene with Cloud before the final battle), Cloud's feelings towards either girl are never explicitly stated to extend beyond close friendship.
    • Depending on Cloud's Relationship Values, he can spend an evening with either one at the Gold Saucer. However, romance still isn't confirmed since only Aerith jokingly refers to their time as a "date", and if you play your cards right you can also take Yuffie or even Barret out instead.
    • The sequel film, Advent Children, does little to clear things up. The movie shows Cloud and Tifa living under the same roof and caring for a young orphan together, but even then they are never confirmed to be a couple. Not to mention Cloud spends much of the movie mourning Zack and Aerith's deaths.
  • Final Fantasy X does this with Lulu and Wakka. She previously dated his brother Chappu who died in battle. Tidus simply suggests to her that she get with Wakka instead at one point. She does share a tender moment with him in the middle of the game but it's left vague. The sequel is two years later and they're suddenly married with a baby on the way.
    • Final Fantasy X-2 also gives Rikku one as well. A lot of the scenes with Gippal are optional and if you miss some of them, it's this trope. If you get all of them (for 100% Completion) then it results in a Maybe Ever After.
  • All of the player characters in Final Fantasy XII. Vaan and Penelo have grown up together and they're certainly quite close. They are implied to be together by the end of the game. Balthier and Fran have also been partners (as in sky pirates) for years and there are obvious signs of flirting — as well as a handful of tender moments between them. Ashe and Basch do have an interesting relationship and this line from Penelo "I know Ashe misses Basch" implies some kind of romantic connection.
  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII:
    • Hope and Lightning get so much Ship Tease the only conceivable reason they aren't an Official Couple is because the censors would have problems with them hooking up (as he is chronologically an adult but physically underage).
    • Fang and Vanille's Ambiguously Gay relationship is even less ambiguous here. Again, the only likely reason they aren't an Official Couple is because of problems with the censors.
  • Haurchefant in Final Fantasy XIV is very friendly towards the player character and is willing to do anything for them. The romantic subtext between the two is very subtle in the English script, but in the Japanese script, Haurchefant is much more open with his feelings towards the player character and can get very flirtatious at times. Naturally, since the player character is a Heroic Mime, you can choose via dialogue options on whether or not you appreciate his feelings or are happy to have him as a friend. Regardless of the feelings, the player character is glad to have Haurchefant on their side since being ran out of Ul'Dah by The Syndicate and seeing all of their Scion friends pull a last stand effectively left the player character all alone. When Haurchefant dies, the player character is visibly struck hard by it and certain cutscenes later on in the story shows that they still haven't quite gotten over their friend's death. Because the player character can be shaped to however the player wants them to be, Word of God says it's up to the player to decide how they view their relationship with Haurchefant and other NPCs.
• Hidden City: Rayden and Kira are professional partners, and are almost always together. Rayden clearly admires Kira very much and has nothing but good things to say about her. He had once gone out of his way to give her a Fake Mystery in order to entertain her and give her a gift, while Kira is very protective of her colleague, and would always insist to accompany him whenever he tries to do something that could be dangerous. In one occasion, a villain had tried to use Kira as a hostage to steal a powerful artifact from Rayden. Despite this, the two never explicitly express romantic intentions towards each other. Unlike, say, the Detective's obvious and blatant crush on Juliette.
• In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Viridi is this to Pit. It's worth noting that she goes all Tsundere for him eventually, on top of one of Pit's weapons, the Viridi Palm, apparently only being usable by beings completely devoted to her (and its design being her face surrounded by weaponized hearts). When Palutena teases her for having a soft spot for him, Pit admits he's not completely against the idea.
  • The original Japanese version seems to depict Palutena more, with he even admits he fantasizes about her.
• Kingdom Hearts:
  • Even Sora and Kairi are just this. Plenty of Ship Tease, but nothing concrete that ever confirms it.
  • Roxas and Naminé first cross paths in the prologue to Kingdom Hearts II, and though they only interact a few times, the pair quickly build up a strong bond, with Naminé vowing that they will meet again one day, even if they initially aren't able to recognize each other. This is, of course, because they're the Nobodies of Sora and Kairi. There's even a scene before the final battle with Xemnas where, prior to their complete merger, Kairi has Sora promise they'll spend every day together when Naminé expresses joy over the prospect of being reunited with Roxas.
  • In an inversion to the official status of the Cloud-Tifa-Aerith situation, in Kingdom Hearts, Aerith is implied to be Cloud's love interest, while Tifa is the manifestation of his inner light.
  • The implications are no longer very subtle in the credits to 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue, which features Sora/Kairi, Roxas/Naminé, and Cloud/Aerith among a montage of clips featuring very well-established official couples from Disney.
  • By the end of Kingdom Hearts III, Sora and Kairi may be taken past implied, as they not only exchange paopu fruits, but are depicted holding hands in public more than once.
  • Arguably, Sora and Riku, or at the very least Riku towards Sora. 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). To top it off, 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.
• Ribbon from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is the closest thing to a love interest in the Kirby series. If you get the good ending, which requires 100% Completion, Ribbon will give Kirby a kiss, making him blush. It depends on whether you interpret the kiss as a romantic one or just a simple "Thank you" kiss. This is probably why Ribbon is so popular despite only being in one game.
• League of Legends:
  • Garen and Katarina have been teased for years in varying ways. Maokai complains about people carving G<3K in his bark, Lux teases them about sitting in a tree, Tahm Kench offers both of them the chance to be taken to the other, and Pantheon comments that they are lucky to have found a battle partner in the other. Legends of Runeterra finally confirmed the two are dating in secret in 2019.
  • While in the current canon lore Ezreal is presented as a Hopeless Suitor towards Lux, in the Star Guardian universe, Ezreal and Lux get plenty of teasing towards each other. In the Battle Academia universe they are straight up dating.
  • Jinx and Ziggs share very heavy visual subtext in the Paint the Town graphic novel, go on a date, and currently live together, but there's no word on whether they're an actual item or not. Jinx is insane enough to mistake Ziggs for her conscience, and Ziggs' appearances in subsequent media have been few and far between.
  • The Lux comic heavily implies Jarvan IV is in love with Shyvana, while Shyvana's Undying Loyalty towards Jarvan in Legends of Runeterra suggests the feeling is mutual.
• In The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, players can do bonding events with characters that would end in a romantic ending (or a friendship ending if the character is male). Out of all the girls, Alisa Reinford is pushed as Rean Schwarzer's primary love interest as the game nudges at their relationship, people even comment on it, and for three games, Alisa is the only one who ends up kissing Rean's lips at the end of their bonding events compared to the other girls who don't even get a kiss. It's only in the fourth game where almost all the girls can have a real shot at getting a romantic ending with Rean if the player chooses to... and the game still tries to nudge players to choose Alisa.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • The eponymous Princess and Link, throughout their multiple incarnations. They are the page image for a reason. The romantic connection between varies greatly depending on the game, from strongly implied (like in Spirit Tracks and Skyward Sword) to non-existent (like in Twilight Princess). Hyrule Warriors plays off this a bit, revealing that the Canon Foreigner villain of the game became jealous of the connection that is always present between the two, having fallen for Link herself.
  • In Twilight Princess, Link is implied to have romantic feelings towards Mayor Bo's daughter, Ilia, which Collin, Midna, and Telma make note of at different points in the game. There's even a Sidequest Sidestory dedicated to restoring her memories which concludes with Renado, Cor Goron, and the others giving them a moment alone. After giving Link the Horse Call, Ilia tells him he needn't worry about her anymore and says she'll wait for him.
  • Revelations in supplementary material that the Link in Twilight Princess is a direct descendant of the one in Ocarina of Time retroactively make Malon to be the likely spouse of the latter, given that the Link in Twilight Princess is a rancher who knows Epona's song and is neither royalty nor a Half-Human Hybrid.
  • Played with in Breath of the Wild, where there are at least three different girls with feelings for Link: Zelda, Mipha and Paya. While Paya's nervous crush on Link never goes beyond that, Mipha was planning to propose to him before the Calamity and Zelda is very heavily implied to be in love with him. However, Link's own feelings are ambiguous one way or another, and likely intentionally left to the player's interpretation.
    • The sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, continues this with Zelda, with multiple scenes that heavily imply her to have feelings for him. It also reveals that Zelda was living in Link's house in Hateno before the Upheaval, where There Is Only One Bed but it's left extremely unclear as to whether or not Link was actually living there with her. There are some hints that she doesn't live alone, such as the house having two of everything and Zelda having a private study to avoid distractions in the house, but she's also explicitly stated to have a great many guests visiting near-constantly and the sign outside just says "Zelda's House." When an NPC in Gerudo Town asks Link whether he has a "special someone," the player has the choice of choosing yes or no.
• In Littlewood, it's heavily implied that, before the game began, the Hero and Willow had romantic feelings for one another that came to a halt when the Hero lost their memory after defeating the Dark Wizard. She makes references to caring deeply about the Hero, mentions a few things you did in the past that sound awfully romantic (like swimming under the stars), and your adoptive grandfather Dudley remarks that it's a shame that you can't remember the "spark" you used to have. However, despite these implications, she's happy for the Hero no matter who you decide to hook them up with.
• Liara T'Soni in the Mass Effect trilogy is widely considered the "default" romantic option. She's romanceable to both male and female Shepard, can be romanced in the first game, a majority of the Shadow Broker DLC focuses on the strain of her and Shepard's relationship after the latter's been dead for two years, and she stays loyal to you throughout the entire series.
• Used frequently - though not always - throughout Metal Gear, in order to maintain Snake's unattainable quasi-Celibate Hero cool while still allowing him to have sexual tension with an attractive girl.
  • Diane in Metal Gear gives Snake advice over the radio and has an overprotective brother who hates the fact that Snake keeps calling her. She attempts a love confession at the end of the game but has second thoughts.
  • In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Snake hits on Holly a couple of times and remarks to another male character that she's 'a blond beauty'. He needles her by pretending he's been asked to kill her (which she doesn't find funny), they make a plan to eat Christmas dinner together, and then he ditches her with zero explanation. Gustava is also implied as a love interest for him, since they both open up to one another extremely quickly, she tells him about her relationship with Frank with the implication Snake reminds her of him, Snake uncharacteristically freaks out about Gustava's death, and there's some sort of triangulation going on in the interaction where Fox murders Gustava but keeps Snake alive for himself.
  • In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Snake is clearly attracted to Olga, and talks about her in sexual terms whenever the topic of her comes up, but also makes it clear he isn't taking his crush seriously. She flirts with him on their first meeting but mostly just hates him. The two of them had some kind of interaction offscreen in which he was able to convince her to work together with him, which was heavily implied to involve Snake battling her. This carries over to External Gazer, where she is too embarrassed to tell Snake that she's married in her universe, and Snake lets her off by saying it's better he doesn't know.
  • In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Elisa functions as a love interest. At one point she manages to gain access to Snake's cell by telling the guard she wants to seduce him and ends up hugging him naked in order to talk to him using her powers. Roy, when introduced to her, says that Elisa is a little young and Snake should probably wait.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has an interesting variation where several female characters appear to find Snake attractive (on some level, anyway) but all of them hook up with someone else. Meryl is an Old Flame who does still hit on him a couple of times but soon gets tired of his depressive Death Seeker attitude, eventually hooking up with Johnny. Snake's first interaction with Naomi is rather sexual in tone and involves a scene of them doing a clinch while holding a rose, like tango dancers... but when she actually gets to see him naked (for medical examination), she starts crying, and she eventually becomes involved with Otacon. There's an emphasised shot of Snake looking deeply unhappy when Otacon and Naomi sleep together, though which one of them he's jealous of is intentionally unclear. Eventually, when you realise Otacon is also raising a kid with him, vowed to spend the rest of his life together with him at the end, and forms Snake's most emotional storyline, you start to realise (as Word of God stated) that Snake's love interest was actually Otacon.
  • At the end of Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, Snake has a similar Character Development arc as he's put into by falling in love with Meryl in Metal Gear Solid, and rescues Chris and drives off into the sunset with her before declaring his desire to get revenge on the person who planned the mission. He asks Chris to wait for him and she agrees.
  • Metal Gear Ac!d partners Snake up with a beautiful FBI HRT agent named Teliko. Mostly they're just mission partners, save for one or two mildly flirty interactions, but at the end of the game Snake mentions he was climbing a mountain before the mission and she asks if she can come along.
  • In Metal Gear Ac!d 2, Snake seems to be in some kind of relationship with a woman named Consuela Alvarez, and is especially anxious to get to see her again.
• Minecraft: Story Mode: While Jesse and Petra get their fair share of Ship Tease in Season 1, it gets taken up a notch in Season 2, when their relationship plays a very big and important role in the story, especially since Jesse is the one helping Petra through her Character Arc.
  • It leads up to a point in Episode 4 of Season 2 where Petra basically pours out her heart to Jesse in a way in which it can be interpreted as romantic but still manages to stay vague, and Jesse can either promise to be by her side no matter what, or pull an I Will Wait for You.
  • Another thing worth noting is when Jesse has the choice to stay in Beacontown or go adventuring with Petra, is that Stampy’s Love Garden Heart is in the background, in Petra’s direction.
• Moshi Monsters:
  • Fifi and McNulty. In the song "Uptown Fifi", they go for a walk, and Fifi is shown with hearts coming from her head, and she's described as "hot to trot", but the official description of the song describes them as "friends". They're also only puppies, meaning that if they were dating, it'd be a literal example of Puppy Love.
  • In the movie, Katsuma sees a female Katsuma and tries to impress her with his dancing skills, but it never goes beyond that. In one of the magazines, when asked if they're dating, he says no, but leaves it ambiguous as to whether he doesn't feel that way about her, or if dating her would just be too difficult due to how far away she is.
• Persona:
  • In Persona 3, several of the Social Links will become intimate as they progress, but they’re kept separate from the main story. Yukari is given some Ship Tease scenes early in the game, leading into her Social Link being unlocked. And during The Answer, the post game campaign, she is deeply distraught by his death and wants to go back in time to bring him back. Meanwhile, Aigis has Undying Loyalty to the Protagonist, and a number of scenes later in the game emphasizing their intimacy, all the more noteworthy as she was not an option for a Social Link in the first release of the game. The most noteworthy scene between them is the ending of the game, where the protagonist spends his last moments with his head in Aigis' lap. In the Answer, Aigis is the main character, having inherited the protagonist's powers, and her self is split in two over her pain at losing the protagonist. The movie adaptations are more explicit, with Aigis being the only character Makoto shows interest in.
  • Persona 4 manages to avert this for the most part. While one of the companions, Rise, has a blatant crush on the protagonist, and is seen calling out an anguished love confession during the ending movie as the protagonist rides the train out of Inaba, no one character is given more in-game moments than another. That was until Persona 4 Golden introduced Marie. She holds a connection to the protagonist that none of his other friends do, she's frequently placed into She Is Not My Girlfriend moments, she's one of the few love interests to actually kiss the player character and the climax of her story carries a lot of romantic undertones regardless of whether or not the player actually pursues a romance with her. She also always shows up outside the Dojima house on Valentine's Day to give the player character chocolate, even if the PC didn't romance her or if he just got back from a date with someone else.
  • Persona 5's Updated Re-release Royal gives the protagonist Joker one of these in in the form of Kasumi (or rather, Sumire) Yoshizawa. She gets far more Ship Tease moments with Joker than even Haru Okumura (a character who explictly falls in love with Joker no matter what), and is the only romanceable character to have a Showtime with him (which features Joker carrying her bridal-style). Notably, she is also the only girl who confesses her feelings to Joker before he potentially engages in a relationship with her. To add to this, much of their designs mirror each other: she has a red scarf in January that contrasts his blue one, her thief outfit is quite literally a female version of Joker's, and her Ultimate Persona Vanadis looks like a Distaff Counterpart to Arsène. She also appears together with Joker frequently in promotional artwork for Royal. Ironically, Yoshizawa's romance confidant starts so late in the game that it actually has the least amount of romantic events, with things like the trip to Hawaii and the Christmas date being inaccessible. In addition, she and Joker spend the shortest amount of in-game time as a couple if she is pursued, only rounding out to about half a month at the earliest plus the Valentine's Day and White Day events.
• Pokémon
  • Essentially any time there's a possibility of the potential player characters meeting in any of the main line games (Ethan/Lyra, Brendan/May, Lucas/Dawn, Calem/Serena, and Rei/Akari respectively, the other member of the pair being an NPC). However, this is usually restricted to really light Ship Tease at best. This trope is played completely straight for Brendan and May in the remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, however, as the NPC half of the duo asks the player character out on a date, with the two actually going on that date at the end of the game.
  • Wes and Rui from Pokémon Colosseum, very much in the same vein as Mario and Peach themselves, but it's unknown if it's a case of Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading or intentional Ship Tease.
  • N and the player character could be said to have this relationship in Pokémon Black and White. However, due to the presumed age difference between the teenage protagonist and the 20 year old N, and N's obliviousness to human society in general, this is highly debatable.
  • This is the situation between Rosa/Nate and Curtis/Yancy in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2. It's painfully obvious that Curtis/Yancy has developed a major crush on Rosa/Nate, and if you follow his/her Sidequest Sidestory to its conclusion, the two eventually have a Ferris Wheel Date Moment together.
  • The player character and partner character in each game of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series has some ship teasing between them, but the pair in Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is upgraded to this. While they don't say anything direct, a lot of their dialogue during and after the third act makes it apparent they may have more than platonic feelings for each other.
  • The player and Shauna in Pokémon X and Y get a heavy Ship Tease moment at Parfum Palace... Especially if you're playing as Calem (whereas her dialogue to Serena is played up to be more platonic). This would just be an unusually heavy Ship Tease moment if it weren't for Word of God confirming the romantic undertones, sort of foreshadowing the Relationship Upgrade Brendan and May get in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon is another case where the opposite gender character never appears, and instead all of the Ship Tease ends up focused on the main character and Lillie, who is heavily implied but never stated to have a crush on the protagonist (regardless of what gender you choose) and who the protagonist helps throughout the game.
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield gives us Victor (male PC) and Marnie, or Gloria (female PC) and Hop. Marnie is never anything short of unfailingly cheerful and sweet to both the player, and Hop is a close friend to the player in all circumstances. The fandom is fine with both pairings. Or all three/four in one relationship.
• Puyo Puyo
  • There are multiple hints that Amitie has feelings towards Sig, with the games keeping the Ship Tease subtle while the official light novels explore their relationship further. With that said, Amitie is never outright stated to be in love with Sig, and Sig himself is too focused on Bug Catching to have actual thoughts on this, so even if the implied crush is mutual (and according to a line Sig says in the light novel Amitie and the Girl of Love!?, it might be), it's unlikely something will actually come out of it anytime soon.
  • Witch is very heavily implied to be attracted to Schezo in Puyo Puyo SUN, Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon, and Saturn Madou, where she accidentally demands he strips and wants to "touch" him respectively. Depending on the game Schezo is either flustered by her attention or irritated with it. When they meet in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 Arle asks if the two are dating.
• Rune Factory allows the protagonist of each game to marry whomever he (or she, later on) wants, but there are certain love interests who the devs give special attention to in the intros, plot and official materials, and are clearly intended to be the canon choice.
  • In the first game, the official couple is Raguna and Mist.
  • In Rune Factory 2, Mana is pushed as the love interest for Kyle. The intro is almost solely about them, and numerous people around town seem to expect them to hook up.
  • Rune Factory 3 pushes Shara as the love interest for Micah, notably in the second intro where he always runs to and embraces her, regardless of who he actually married.
  • Either Iris Blanche or Iris Noire of Rune Factory Frontier end up with Raguna since Rune Factory Oceans confirms that the twins' Rank 10 love event was completed. However, the event can be done without marrying Iris.
  • Rune Factory Oceans clearly intends for the two deuteragonists, Aden and Sonja, to be a couple, seeing as whichever one you don't play as starts out with love points instead of friendship points.
  • Rune Factory 4 doesn't have the same in-game pushing and intro favoritism the others do, but the official manga of the game pairs Lest up with Dolce and Frey with Dylas.
• While the Dating Sim aspects of Sakura Wars allows the player to chose which girl the main character ends up with, franchise poster girl Sakura Shinguji seems to be the main one for Ichiro Ogami, given her obvious attraction to him.
  • In Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love, Gemini Sunrise is this for Shinjiro Taiga; she's the first member of the team to befriend him (despite being the last to actually join), has faith in his abilities right from the start, and even her crossover appearances explicitly spell out how much she loves him.
• Shining Resonance allows Yuma to date any of its playable female characters, but will heavily imply that Sonia and Kirika are his two primary love interests, regardless. Most tellingly when they end up competing over him, due to Kirika's jealousy over Sonia being closer to Yuma than she is. However, at least two of your other party members^note Kirika's childhood friend, Rinna, and Kirika's brother, Lestin will encourage him to try to get closer to Kirika. But the final say is left up to the player: you can choose either, both, or neither one.
• Flynn and Isabeau in Shin Megami Tensei IV. Flynn is the player-controlled Heroic Mime, but Isabeau displays a fairly transparent crush on him. Since she's the hero representing the Neutral alignment, she only remains Flynn's teammate if the player ends up siding with her (in fact, she dies on the other two alignment paths), but the Neutral path in a given Shin Megami Tensei game is usually assumed canon, and considerably more pieces of merchandise and official art portray Flynn with Isabeau rather than her respective Law and Chaos counterparts Jonathan and Walter. There are also a few hints that Stephen is trying to nudge them together.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • The games themselves generally avoid the subject of romance, despite Amy's unrequited crush on Sonic. Though Sonic X changed it by adding bits of subtext so it wouldn't seem as one-sided. The show was rather (in)famous among the shipping community for a reason.
    • With that being said, Sonic/Amy receives a massive amount of Ship Tease across the entire series, even including most alternate continuities. Sonic Boom heavily implied a Cannot Spit It Out dynamic between that continuity's iteration of the two hedgehogs, (In that continuity, Sonic even occasionally lapses into Crazy Jealous Guy when on the subject of Amy), and multiple characters comment on how close they are.)
  • The end of the Knuckles and Rouge mini-arc in Sonic Adventure 2 climaxes with Knuckles saving Rouge from plunging to her death, followed by the two of them staring into each other's eyes for almost a minute before they pull away. This is then followed by Rouge giving Knuckles back her collected Master Emerald shards, with a classic tsundere excuse, whereupon Knuckles apologizes and then leaves, with Rouge staring back over her shoulder at him as she also leaves. As with Sonic/Amy, Sonic X built upon this, presenting Rouge as The Tease in general but who focuses her flirtations on Knuckles in particular, to the point of overt Belligerent Sexual Tension.
  • Sonic/Blaze receives a surprising amount of Ship Tease, with an attraction implied in most games where they appear together. And unlike how Sonic rejects Amy's affections, he is shown expressing as much interest in Blaze as she does in him — Sonic Rush literally ends with a scene where Sonic and Blaze have a long stare at each other and are trying to hold on to each other as long as possible before they get separated. And in this scene, it's clearly mutual that both are reluctant to part ways — Sonic's holding onto Blaze with both hands.
  • Sonic and the Black Knight: Manages to imply both Sonic/Blaze (through her Black Knight counterpart of Percival) and Sonic/Amy at once. Percival blushes at Caliburn's teasing when Sonic saves her life, and the final cutscene confirms Sonic and Amy were supposed to go on a date but Sonic missed it due to being summoned to Arthur's Realm.
• While Splatoon 2 featured plenty of Ship Tease between Pearl and Marina, the Splatoon 3 DLC Side Order takes them about as far as possible romantically without confirmation. Among other things, Marina constantly fawns over how cute she thinks Pearl is and gets jealous when she thinks Acht is flirting with her, while Pearl frequently mentions a desire to get some quiet time alone with Marina once their world tour is over. Marina's laptop background is even an intimate picture of Pearl.
• Spyro and Elora in the "Classic Trilogy" branch of Spyro the Dragon get plenty of Ship Tease, but are never explicitly said to be attracted to each other, much less outright to be in a relationship. Not helping is that Elora disappeared after Spyro: Year of the Dragon in the original Spryo gameline, and was booted from continuity in both The Legend of Spyro (in which Spyro got a new Official Couple with Cynder) and Skylanders. With the Spryo/Elora ship revitalized by the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, which doubled down on the Ship Tease, its fans are desperately hopeful that if Toys For Bob does a "Spyro 4" style sequel, Elora will finally get promoted to Official Couple status.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The most known example in video games would have to be Mario and Princess Peach, and it may extend to Princess Daisy from Super Mario Land. Mario is confirmed to have romantic feelings for Peach and sees her as his Love Interest. How "implied" it is between Peach and Mario varies, with various games and other sources (particularly the latter ones, which have remained consistent) outright confirming them to be the Official Couple, while others don't address the relationship at all, and prior to Super Mario World (which is the first game to portray some sort of romantic interest between them during the ending, though The Great Mission to Save Princess Peach! predates it if counting other media), the relationship was seemingly platonic. This game starts a trend after Peach is saved, as she often rewards Mario by kissing him on the cheek or on the nose, which leaves him lovestruck and causes him to blush heavily, or with cakes. Lampshaded by Luvbi in Super Paper Mario, and it's shown that the other characters in that game seem to be just as clueless about whatever's going on between Mario and Peach, which leads Luvbi to think it is an unrequited crush. The first Paper Mario game has NPCs throw out plenty of Ship Teases, and the things Peach says while in captivity seem to imply that she thinks of Mario as a lot more than a friend and Bowser has accused Mario of "trying to get between me and Peach". Predating both games, in Super Mario RPG, Peach calls Mario her "knight in shining armor". During Super Princess Peach, where Peach and Mario swap roles, after Peach rescues Mario; she enthusiastically calls for him, dances and spins around with him for a bit, finishing with a Bridal Carry complete with Mario taking out flowers for Peach out of his hat while Peach blows some kisses and hearts. In Mario Power Tennis, during Peach's victory scene, Mario outright tells Peach that "he loves her so much" to which she responds to with a smile and blowing a kiss to Mario and Luigi, who are left lovestruck, while Mario's victory scene in the same game has her giving him a kiss on the cheek. In Super Mario Galaxy, Rosalina refers to Peach as Mario's "Special One" and the two are seen Holding Hands toward the ending of the game. In Super Mario Odyssey, Mario is fully confirmed to have romantic feelings for Peach and that he undoubtedly sees her as his Love Interest, as his main goal in the game is to stop Bowser from marrying her and stealing her away from him. The ending outright teases a Relationship Upgrade where Mario attempts to propose to Peach, only for Bowser to shove Mario out of the way so he could propose to her instead. The two men keep shoving their flowers in Peach's face waiting for an answer, which causes Peach to angrily shout "Enough!" and walk away in a huff. Mario and Bowser stare slack jawed in shock before crying over the rejection, but Peach then waves for Mario to come back home with her after she calmed down. Her feelings towards Mario aren't addressed, though the post-game shows that she forgave Mario for the earlier incident and remain as close as ever, though no proposal was reached and the status quo thus remains. All in all, Mario is shown to be clearly in love with her and never blames her for how much she gets kidnapped, constantly risking his life for her, and while Peach's feelings aren't fully confirmed, she is seen to really enjoy Mario's company, appreciate all the times he's rescued/helped her (and viceversa), and (if told under the right circumstances) she's shown to not mind at all being told by Mario that he loves her.
  • Luigi and Princess Daisy are also implied to be a couple, or strongly believed to be one. In addition to various bits of Ship Tease between games, Daisy's SSBM Trophy mentions that gamers believe her to be "Luigi's answer to Mario's Peach". While in Mario Power Tennis, if Daisy wins the trophy, Luigi will be the one who presents it to her — to which she says "Thank you, sweetie!" They also act as each other's caddies in the Mario Golf series, further suggesting they may be a pair. And the center piece of the Daisy Circuit from Mario Kart Wii, is a statue of them dancing together.◊
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has Nel and Clair. They are implied to possibly be a pair. In-game, Clair is always concerned for Nel's safety and, when she returns from rescuing Tynave and Farleen, they share a prolonged embrace. The manga version plays up the scene by having Fayt and Cliff stare uncomfortably, as Nel and Clair gaze into each other's eyes, until Cliff finally has to clear his throat to break them up.
• Tales Series:
  • Harold and Judas in Tales of Destiny 2. While the other party members are paired up in quite obvious fashions, these two get Ship Tease moments (including a scene where Judas is specifically called out on only insulting Harold because he misses her) but no romantic resolution either way... Not helped by Harold getting sent back to the past with no memory of their journey and Judas possibly getting erased from time.
  • Tales of Vesperia: Rita and Estelle's friendship is another case that borders on Hide Your Lesbians, since it's never officially confirmed.
    • Several in-game skits lampshades the implied attraction between them, such as when Yuri and Karol discuss how Rita always frets over Estelle's safety. A separate skit has Judith call Rita out for trying to make an excuse to visit her, while a third one has Yuri outright call them "Ristelle."
    • Rita's also prone to blushing whenever Estelle pays direct attention to her, or anytime she gives Rita a compliment. Karol teases her about it in the following victory skit:
      Estelle: Wow, Rita! That was SO cool!
      Rita: [blushing] Really? Um, t-thanks...
      Karol: [grinning] Oooo~ooo!
      Rita: [flustered] Sh-shut up, YOU!!
    • Further implicated by the live-action "Tales of Ristelle" skit. During which, Zelos' Japanese VA tricks Rita's VA into showing up by telling her Estelle would be there. When Rita calls him out for it, he and Milla's VA tease her for being Tsundere towards Estelle.
• Total War: Warhammer III: Given the vague language used in the letter Katarin wrote to Yuri, which can be seen on her table on the original announcement trailer of the game, this seems to be the case between him and the Tzarina.

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