Final Fantasy 14 is a safe haven for queer expression, though its world and story are still stuck its hush-hush past

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(Image credit: Square Enix)

An image of a helmeted FF14 character bringing their index to their lips, as if to shush someone, amongst the locale of Bronze Lake.

Final Fantasy 14 feels like a safe place for gender expression and queerness in a way no other MMORPG really does. Despite that, the world—and its main story—don’t really acknowledge our existence in any meaningful way.

The wider game hasoneinstance of a confirmed queer couple I could find or remember. Ah, you might think. That’s nice, what are their names? “Blundering Treasure Hunter” and “Steadfast Companion”. They give you a side-quest for a dungeon, that’s the confirmed rep. Also—those two NPCs I mentioned vanish once you’ve done the quest, something I discovered while trying to get a screenshot for this piece. Though this empty, rainy picture of where they used to be kinda helps prove my point.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

An image of rainy La Noscea, with the game’s one confirmed gay couple conspicuously absent.

I’ve also heard whispers of a lesbian vendor in a seasonal event, but that’s about it.

The game has a booming queer community—partially because of its design, which makes the sheer absence of gay characters even more bizarre.

That last thing isn’t a mark against the game, necessarily. Aside from prolific woman-liker Thancred, your adventuring crew’s romantic interests and orientations are left completely unspoken. FF14 takes a hands-off approach to romance is fine, but a touch frustrating in the wider context I’m digging into, here.

What makes this all the more strange is the fact that the game has a booming queer community—partially because of its design, which makes the sheer absence of gay characters even more bizarre. How does a company create an MMO known for its liberated gender expression so… well, straight?

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Thancred, a character from Final Fantasy 14, looks directly into the camera as if he were on the Eorzean Office.

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But what really helps, in my mind, is a lack of worry over gendered clothing and expression. For instance, men are allowed to beprettyin excess—which is a far cry from other MMORPGs.

I am tired of barrel chests

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Godbert Manderville after landing like a meteor, striking a heroic pose with his arms outstretched.

FF14 felt like the first MMO with character creation that spoke to me. I’m visibly masculine, but I like to wear makeup sometimes—I have lipstick and eyeliner on in my graduation photos, for goodness' sake. It has always been a core part of my being to scratch and gnaw at the prison of gendered expectations society tossed me in. So when it comes to games I like to beautify my lads a bit.

Take World of Warcraft, for instance. Its portrayal of gruff orcs and bearded paladins on horses just does not speak to me. Even blood elves, whose metrosexuality is the focus of several poorly-aged /joke emotes, are still pretty barrel-chested and broad-shouldered. Not to say we need trolls in high heels, but if theoptionisn’t there, I feel disconnected from my characters. Granted: I’m sure the bears of our community feel very happy with Kul Tiran males, but still.

FF14 is notably gay in other ways, too. For example, there’s no gender restriction on thein-game wedding ceremony, and patches are continuing to smash through gender-restricted clothing items. It’s extremely easy to make the prettiest twink you can in the frilliest dress—and moreover, it looksgood.There’s been real, considered effort into making these outfits work.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

An image of a white mage in Final Fantasy 14, garbed in flowy white robes and striking an effeminate pose.

It’s extremely easy to make the prettiest twink you can in the frilliest dress—and moreover, it looks good.

Obviously these are just snippets, but even dipping your head under the water of the game’s bustling night club scene (yes, it actually has one of those—one of them even got in trouble because it tried toadvertise on a billboard) you’ll find a loud and proud underbelly of people just existing as themselves.

I want to break free

(Image credit: Square Enix)

A viera from Final Fantasy 14 folds their arms, looking mightily displeased.

It’s an utterly bizarre state of affairs. If you’re a queer person playing FF14, you’ll find yourself reflected in its player base—in its major cities, in its free companies, in its RP events and, yes, even in the smuttiest of billboard-buying nightclubs. But you’ll scarcely see yourself reflected in theworld.

Which feels sadly true to life. Maybe that’s why it feels like an inherently queer game despite not being one—because if you’re part of our community, chances are that’s your lived experience.

If our existence isn’t ignored, it’s notable, and then we have to spend time talking about it.

So many of us will find spaces—our societies, our clubs, our groups of friends—where we’re accepted. Where we’re allowed to breathe and move as we are, dressing how we want, putting what we want on our faces. But in the wider world, we sometimes have to keep quiet for survival’s sake—and even when we do poke our head above water, even among well-meaning people, it always becomes aconversation.If our existence isn’t ignored, it’s notable, and then we have to spend time talking about it.

I have no doubt that if Square Enix added another canonical gay or trans character to the game that we’d be seeing Twitter brawls break out like clockwork, with bad-faith actors sounding the dinner bell over the realism of queer adventurers in a world where thought can literally shape reality.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

An image of two imposing figures - one female, one male - from the Omega Protocol, an ultimate in Final Fantasy 14.

“I was heading to the office on a Saturday and I saw a situation that made me very sad. I was trying to go into the office and I was waiting at a red light. I saw a high schooler coming from the other side of the road in their school uniform. It seemed that they were biologically male at birth but they were wearing a sailor fuku, which is traditionally female attire.”

He then goes on to say that: “On the other side of the road was a mother and a daughter. The daughter was perhaps 5 years old. As soon as the mother saw the high schooler, she shielded her daughter as if she didn’t want her daughter to see.”

I think the unravelling of gender norms in FF14 is purposeful. But as a member of the community Square is clearly conscious of, I reserve the right to feelweird about it.The caution of it all, the deafeningly implied hetrosexuality of Eorzea. FF14’s story is happy to talk about serious topics like fascism, imperialism, inherited generational trauma, wage slavery, nihilism—and it does so with surprising grace.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

An image of a cutscene from Stormblood, wherein a trader is being kicked by a second generation unit of soldiers from an occupying imperialist force.

But it’s clearly hesitant to make us a part of the fabric of its world. Yes, again—the majority of the scions don’t have a stated sexuality (apart from Thancred, that handsome dog) but there are plenty of NPCs that are wives, husbands, and spouses. And aside from mister Blundering Treasure Hunter and Steadfast Companion—may their love reign eternal—we’re just not there.

I hope that changes soon, because while I’ve been a touch harsh on the game’s history I do think its liberated attitude towards gender expression means a whole lot to its playerbase. And honestly, me—my hyur isn’t effeminate, but it makes me happy to see him weave magic in a beautiful dress, wading into battle with flowers in his hair whenever the mood takes me.

I just want it to stop treating canonically queer NPCs like a landmine that must be avoided—rather than the normal, uneventful fabric of any world that aims, as FF14 does, to represent a multifaceted and culturally complex humanity.

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I am tired of barrel chests#

I want to break free#

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I am tired of barrel chests

I want to break free