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Aramis: ...Thank you, Your Highness. |
Wow. This goes past gay, all the way back around past straight, before settling at situationally bicurious. |
This page contains examples from[]
A-E[]
- Alan Wake. Alan/Thomas. Mind Screw-iness abounds, so this is open to interpretation but consider:
- Alan writing Thomas into his manuscript as his savior figure. Or vice versa.
- Thomas, the Light Presence, saving Alan from the cabin and "keeping him safe through the night".
- Episode Four ends as Alan finds what he needs to defeat the Darkness, the "clicker" left by Thomas who knew Alan would need it, and the credit song is "War" by Poets of the Fall, a sort of romantic power ballad with lyrics like "When I thought that I fought this war alone, you were there by my side on the front line" and "we were one with our destines entwined". Yeah, it might be referring to Alice, but she's trapped at the bottom of Cauldron Lake. Subjective as all get-out, but if you want it to be a Crack Pairing-ish bit of Mind Screw Ho Yay, you're set.
- And then there's Barry and their Heterosexual Life Partner relationship. At the end of the first telephone conversation he hangs up "I love you" and after he joins the story physically (NB: he flew over to Alan the moment he felt something was amiss) he takes Alice's previous role (i.e. being a damsel/sidekick combo).
- In Alpha Protocol, if protagonist Michael Thorton gains a good enough relationship with one of his handlers, Sean Darcy, Darcy will give him a signed photograph of himself as a gift. After the "Operation Desert Spear" phase of the game is completed, Mike will keep the photograph next to his bed in all of his safehouses.
- Alexander and Daniel in Amnesia the Dark Descent. Alexander speaks tenderly to him and is surprisingly attached to him despite the fact that Alexander isn't even human and sees humanity as insects.
- Mega points for Alexander waking him up for a nightmare and comforting Daniel in his bed.
- Arcana Heart is filled to the brim with it. Being an all-girl fighting game, this is to be expected. By Arcana Heart 3 it can barely even be called subtext anymore, particularly where Heart and Saki are concerned. Clarice's crush on Elsa also goes well beyond subtext and everyone accepts that she's flat-out in love with her.
- Arcana Heart 3 also gives us Mei Ling Hua/Mei Fang.
- While Rios and Salem of Army of Two are undoubtedly the poster-boys for Ho Yay, and Mission Control probably sees them like this given the way she doesn't buy into their machismo, it seems like the devs were going for more of a frat-boy attitude to complement the game's constant hammering home that the military is no fun, and out of its league to boot, while private contractors are gods in mortal form.
- Too bad the credits specifically list a voice actor for Rios' wife. I've never actually heard her in game, but she's right there in the credits. Not that that necessarily stops anything...
- Rios' "wife" figures into the graphic-novel prequel, where they are never actually shown getting married, because Rios would always run off with Salem on missions on the wedding day. When Rios and Salem ask for time off to vacation in Hawaii together, Rios' wife hasn't even been mentioned for quite a few pages.
- In Assassin's Creed II, the main character Ezio is best friends with a young Leonardo Da Vinci. With the way Leonardo's eyes light up every time he sees Ezio, the insistence that Ezio road trip with him to Venice, his shooting down Ezio's dreams of hooking up with (then married) Caterina Sforza a little too insistently, Leonardo's relief that Ezio's still alive after constantly putting himself in danger, the passionate bro hugs they share (including the famous Quick Time Event) and after 22 years he's still arguably Ezio's closest friend, enough that the Assassins trust him implicitly with the secrets of the Order despite his not actually being a member, you really don't have to be a Yaoi Fangirl to see enough subtext for at minimum a one-sided crush on Leonardo's part. Whether or not it's reciprocated on Ezio's part is debatable though, and good arguments can be made either way. At the very least, they're clearly Heterosexual Life Partners.
- In Assassins Creed: Brotherhood there is a mission that you can send your assassin recruits to called "To Steal a Kiss", the associated text says something along the lines of seducing a templar's wife. You can send an assassin of either gender to go.
- In the DLC The Da Vinci Disappearance, Ezio has to go retrieve Leonardo's "Assisstant" who himself is fairly flamboyant, the two share a conversation littered with the assistant ending up thinking that Ezio is into him.
- There's also a conversation about the Mona Lisa Leonardo: "I work on the small portrait of a woman. I am growing rather fond of it." Ezio: "Do not let a beautiful girl distract you from constructing my designs." Leonardo: "Have no worries. Women provide little distraction." Ezio: "Wait, I don't get it."
- There's also the fact that historians are fairly certain that Leonardo was Homosexual, and by fairly certain, I mean they are pretty darn certain.
- The Avernum game series has this BROADLY implied between two NPCs.
- In A Witch's Tale Princess Gretel responds to discovering that Liddell (a young girl herself) rescued her by saying "Both strong and lovely, you must be sent from heaven" while a heart appears in her character portrait. She later comments on how she knows she can trust Liddell because she has "pure eyes", with the heart appearing again.
- Played straight (no pun intended) in Bahamut Lagoon where the elderly summoner Sendak has an unhealthy obsession with the protagonist Byuu. Like when Sendak comments on the shape of Byuu's rear, and when he asks Byuu to rub his legs because he's frightened.
- Bioshock has tastes of this. Sander Cohen being a good example, since he practically flirts with you as you try to complete his little art project, but he also nicknames you "little moth". Sure, it's creepy because it relates back to the disciples he had and is now killing off, but it seems rather personal. And then there's Atlas/Fontaine. He seems so nice, you start to trust him... and bam! Turns on you, but he keeps talking to you, comparing you to a dog has to be put down, and he seems honestly upset about the thought. Then "Danny Boy" is playing in his apartment. Sung by a male singer, too. It's like the developers want you to embrace the screwed-up relationship!
- The sequel has an even stronger version, where Subject Delta picks up an audio-log from Stanley Poole, in which Stan describes how he needs to be "more like Johnny Topside" (Delta pre-Daddy suit).
Stanley: I keep thinking of Johnny Topside, though. Took real guts to find Rapture like he did... makes it easier not to crack if I sort of... imagine that I'm him. It's a good thing I can't tell Lamb about that. She'd probably say I got a secret need to fall into his arms and make wild whoopee or somethin'! |
- The possibility of Sinclair/Delta. Despite his past as a Corrupt Corporate Executive, by the end it's pretty clear that he's grown a heart along the way. First he ties (and fails) to pull a Big Damn Heroes when he could have easily turned tail instead, and after he becomes an Alpha Series, he begs for a Mercy Kill, expressly stating that he's content to die as himself if Delta and Eleanor can escape. Is this a case of Power of Friendship... or Love Redeems?
- Taokaka from Blaz Blue is obsessed with breasts, particularly Litchi's — or, as she calls her, "Boobie Lady." Litchi, for her part, seems completely oblivious to the possibility that this interest might be anything but completely innocent, even when Taokaka does things like try to "eat" them or makes comments like "You always have nice, comfy airbags."
- She's not limited to groping Litchi's breasts, either. In Continuum Shift Tsubaki becomes a victim of Tao's ravenous lust for boobies. Noel would be as well, if she weren't flat-chested, something Taokaka has to make a point of mentioning every time she sees her.
- Speaking of Noel, she's become quite a case of Even the Girls Want Her, as Litchi has a fetish for dressing Noel up in cute outfits, and Makoto is extremely protective of her. There's also a lot of Noel X Rachel art, and much of it is official!
- Also, it's hard not to envision Litchi Faye Ling as an ambiguous bisexual given her propensity to dress other girls up in cute outfits and dote over them (Noel in Calamity Trigger, Tsubaki in Continuum Shift), and in a non-canonical Teach Me, Ms. Litchi: Reloaded segment, Litchi was apparently very... "thorough" when examining Noel's "beautiful, lithe, etc." body...and doesn't realize she was being so "thorough" because it was like "a dream come true". The fact that she is the most common target of Taokaka's breast groping, and seems almost tolerant (albeit embarassed) of it on a few occasions only adds to the speculation.
- Jin is... a leetle obsessed with Ragna. "Ah~! Long time no see...BROTHER!!!~"
- Jin's obsession is played with a lot in the various gag reel endings in the story modes - even in those for mostly unrelated characters. From Relius Clover's BBCS Extend gag reel, where he mind-swaps several of the other characters, in particular Ragna and Jin:
Ragna(?): Is... is this... Brother 's body...?! *Pant* *Pant* Oh, Brother... BROTHER! |
- Prince of Darkness Hazama planned on marrying the beautiful Princess Ragna in Arakunes Gag reel.
- Bully was embraced by the slash community, in part because main character Jimmy really can kiss some of the other boys in the game. Then there's that time Petey Kowalski makes an excruciatingly painful joke about Jimmy becoming a male stripper... did we mention Petey wears a pink shirt? The slash fanbase went way overboard, and half the cast has been Flanderized into flaming homos, even those that are canonically straight.
- In Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, when the (very female) Shanoa rescues Monica, the seamstress, she responds to this with "What did I do to deserve being rescued by such a beautiful angel?" If this sounds like a romantic come-on to you, you're not the only one. Most of her other interactions with Shanoa have more muted levels of this, and she has some interesting bits of self-loathing going on. It's not exactly hard to read her as a closeted lesbian.
- Likewise with the jeweler Laura: "I never managed to touch your heart, though I learned a few things about my own..." Everyone's les for Shanoa!
Laura: You dress like you're in mourning. Waste of such a finely-shaped-- |
- Even the Liliths in the castle get in on the Yay: "Let's play, cutie!"
- The Werebats, too. "Let's play, cute little kitty~"
- AND the spider-women. "You look DELICIOUS!" They ARE trying to eat you, but they still say it in a very lustful way.
- The always-together antagonists. Death is Dracula's confidant indeed... "Dracula's intimate friend"? "Knows many dark secrets "? Okaaaay... Thinking about it, given that Dracula's already known as practically the master of evil, it's difficult to imagine any secrets he has being darker than what he's already known for, which does lead one to wonder if these secrets are of a rather different nature...
- In Portrait of Ruin, Death appears out of nowhere to block Jonathan's attack on the newly-risen Dracula, and the two fight you together. When you KO one, Death gives Dracula his power and Dracula uses Power of Dominance to "merge" Death's soul to his and become True Dracula. Soulmates... ? Plus, there are his quotes in Judgment: After defeating himself in a Mirror Match, Death opinions that "One advisor is all the Master requires."
- Also in Judgment, his ending sequence: "Death, unconstrained by mortality, pursued every possible means of reviving his master. Why would such a being serve Dracula so loyally? Perhaps there is some greater force at play behind it all..."
- In the same game, Carmilla is referred to as "Dracula's plaything" by Alucard, and one of her victory lines implies that only Dracula can satisfy her. (Poor Laura.) And yet she remains jealous of how Death is "always at Dracula's side".
- Even the Liliths in the castle get in on the Yay: "Let's play, cutie!"
- Isaac, the villain in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, has a modest amount of Ho Yay with protagonist Hector, but his one scene with Trevor Belmont is just full of it, with Isaac driving Trevor's own dagger through Trevor's body, pressing up against him, whispering in his ear and kissing him on the neck before "pulling out."
- It gets worse if you consider that Isaac may be possessed by Dracula at this time ("Enough talk" being a well-known Draculism, and IGA being known to use dialogue echoes as hints at Not Rightness). Foe-threeway-yay? My head hurts.
- Well, the first thing Dracula says when he is revived in Belmont Legacy comic is "Belmont! You are mine!".
- It's an older phenomenon than that in the 'Vanias; Hugh and Nathan of Circle of the Moon are rivalslash-tastic - when your happily married straight male friend announces that Hugh has it bad for Nathan and the subtext is far too large for the Gameboy screen to contain, you know you are not simply seeing things. Dracula is rather - something at Morris Baldwin, too.
- Juste and Maxim in Harmony of Dissonance, or Mathias and Leon (before the Foe Yay kicks in) in Lament of Innocence...
- It's an older phenomenon than that in the 'Vanias; Hugh and Nathan of Circle of the Moon are rivalslash-tastic - when your happily married straight male friend announces that Hugh has it bad for Nathan and the subtext is far too large for the Gameboy screen to contain, you know you are not simply seeing things. Dracula is rather - something at Morris Baldwin, too.
- Even robots are not immune--Telly Vision from Chibi-Robo! seems awfully dedicated to Chibi, even vowing to "rebuild Chibi from [his] own parts" the first time Chibi faints from lack of energy.
- The Cho Aniki game series thrives off its dozens of intentional depictions of muscular men in homoerotic poses, from the enemies to the backgrounds to two of the main characters, Samson and Adon.
- Chrono Trigger. Glenn and Cyrus.
Glenn: Cyrus, wait! I... I...! CYRUUUUUUS! |
- In Crackdown, your contact in the Agency seems a little too pleased with how well you're... "developing".
- Darksiders has a fairly squicky example with the Watcher. Not only does the guy set a new standard for Jerkass Exposition Fairy, he invariably treats War like his prison bitch. Seriously, half his lines sound pretty kinky even IN context.
I always knew you had it in you. |
- Darkstalkers had quite a bit of this, mainly with the female characters. An example is here (the characters are sisters).
- Somehwat justified in that Morrigan was absorbing a dying Lilith into her being (Lilith is one-third of Morrigan's soul that was sealed away and then took on human form). However, given that both are Horny Devils that wear Stripperific outfits, and how Morrigan is positioning Lilith in that picture, it's easy to see how one could come to that conclusion. A worse example comes from the animated series.
- Hitomi and Lei Fang from the Dead or Alive games (more specifically the Xtreme spinoffs) appear to be very fond of one another. Since the series is practically a big playable Fan Service... that's not so surprising.
- In fact, although they're some of the biggest examples, it's downright notorious for this among Girls Love circles, and it's probably easier to find a pair of females you can't read this into.
- This was most likely intentional. In Xtreme Beach Volleyball, you can give gifts to the other girls to raise their friendship meters, and they will often gift you things back, such as bathing suits from their own personal collection. The bathing suit that Lei Fang gives Hitomi when her friendship level hits max? A white bandeau bikini with red polka dot trim that says "LOVERS <3" in red glittery cursive. Lei Fang will NOT give this to anyone else you play as; it's the same style bathing suit, but it's plain yellow with no text on it.
- Crypto and Orthopox tend to sound like an old married couple. In one moment of unsual giddiness, Pox calls Crypto a "silver stud."
- Dante and Nero from Devil May Cry have some Ho Yay. The first fight they have, when Nero meets Dante after Dante shoots Sanctus, Nero flies into the air, and straddles Dante's waist, and Nero bites Dante's 'gun' [1]. Also, whenever the two meet back up with each other during the game, it almost seems like Dante is flirting with Nero.
- Digital Devil Saga part the first had Argilla gaining an instantly fast rapport with Jinana, a rival tribe leader, the two having conversations about "Sadness" - having only been recently awakened to emotions. When she dies, she calls Argilla "Comrade", a very emotionally charged word in their world. Later on, while Argilla bawls her eyes out. Heat sarcastically calls Jinana "Argilla's Girlfriend".
- Bat talking about devouring Jinana acting as Argilla's Berserk Button.
- Though not as obvious, some remarked it is Lupa who got Gale to awaken to his emotions. And in the second game, Gale sheds some of his Straw Vulcan tendencies, espousing the other man's honor code.
- No mention of Heat/Serph? You can brush off their Foe Yay as competition over Sera for a while... until Serph and Sera merge into a single hermaphroditic being... and Heat comments that he/she's "cute". Well, that's one way to resolve a love triangle...
- Laharl's poor choice of words aside, there is quite a bit of Ho Yay between Axel and his director in the second Disgaea game.
- After Mao ambushes Almaz and mugs him of his (wannabe) Hero title in Disgaea 3 he wastes almost no time in drafting the poor guy as his lab rat, and takes a rather strange fascination towards him from that point on (particularly over that his new pet can teach him about this "love" thing). The Master/Slave overtones just snowball from there.
Almaz: Uh... I think I've just been violated. |
- And in Disgaea Infinite, but Mao does it again, with Laharl (debatably, almost all of his conversation with Laharl is made with a flirtatious tone).
Mao:You're too good to be true! I must capture and examine you~!* huff* * huff ** drool* |
- The 4th game continues the "tradition" with Fenrich's devotion to his lord. Fuka speculates that Fenfen is jealous of Artina and and one point asks him "if he swings that way". She doesn't get an answer, sadly.
- In the hybrid board game/RPG Dokapon Kingdom for Wii and Play Station 2, the heroes, regardless of gender, are competing for the Princess' hand in marriage. At the end of the game, if a girl wins, the King objects - though the Princess says she really doesn't mind. The King then dons a wedding dress and offers to marry you instead, as he wants a bloodline. This doesn't go over very well, and the final shot of the game seems to imply that the Princess and her heroine went through with the marriage anyway.
- In Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime, Hooly's mother, as with all the captive slimes, sends a letter when rescued. In it she mentions that Hooly "Sends his lo... says hi." Though, with her tendency to embaress him, it may simply be poor wording on her part.
- Drakengard 2 features a boss fight dedicated to Ho Yay, as Yaha, one of the guardians of the Districts, openly admits at least three times during the boss fight that in the past, he had a crush on Urick, a former member of the Knights of the Seal, and that he made his pact with the gnomes in order to win Urick's love once and for all. But Urick rejected him. So now Yaha is sad. And really campy, because it seems that the gnomes in fact took his masculinity. Ironically, during the boss fight Yaha insinuates that Urick in fact returned his feelings before Yaha made the pact.
- Furthermore, Urick and Nowe seem far too friendly in their dialogue for just old friends. Direct your attention, if you will, towards Urick's death scene, where Nowe holds Urick in his arms as Urick lies there dying, and then lovingly deposits his body in the funeral pyre of the burning Holy Flowers.
- And in the Dynasty Warriors: Gundam series, you get the unexpected Gundam crossover Ho Yay. For example, playing as Domon Kasshu, rescuing Seabook Arno, and hearing him dreamily inform you that "My soul has drawn you here... or at least, that is what I want to believe."
- Domon is also fond of informing characters like Heero Yuy and Kamille Bidan "Anyone who gets in our way will taste the power of our passion!" Your... passion, hrm?
- While adding Embric of Wulfhammers Castle is probably cheating, given that nearly every female in the game has the hots for the Duchess, with Louni in particular being gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide (with apologies to Pratchett and Gaiman), it still includes some subtle and/or ambiguous examples. Alice's blatant Bodyguard Crush, for example, is closer to hero worship than infatuation and doesn't go anywhere, wandering hands aside, while Falwythwier, despite growing closer to and almost respecting the Duchess, is one ice queen that remains very much not defrosted.
F-J[]
- Fatal Frame has a rather Les Yay-rific relatonship between Rei and Miku. Both women clearly care deeply for one another. And often in VERY sexy lingerie in many of their scenes together. The fact that Rei's still mourning her husband might or might not add to this.
- When it comes to Ho Yay, Fatal Frame 2 is the undisputed champion of the series, with a healthy dose of Twincest on the side. A pair of identical twins, aged anywhere from young children to older teens, are forced to perform a ritual in which one twin must kill the other in order to become "one". It does not help that the one time the ritual is seen performed, it can easily be interpreted as having sexual overtones. Naturally, pairing pretty boy woobie Itsuki with his equally pretty twin Mutsuki is one of the fandom's favorite pairings.
- There is a lot of Les Yay in Fate/stay night, some of which goes beyond subtext - see its page for examples - but there is one Ho Yay incident in which Shirou fails to realize that suddenly telling his (male) friend to take his clothes off is... kind of weird. Issei blushes a lot, and Shirou has to strip him by force. Actually, a lot of Issei's normal behavior could qualify.
- Also, in the second scenario, U.B.W., the designated sleazy brat, Matou Shinji, expresses a fair amount of attraction to Archer.
- While Issei had a great deal of Ho Yay already in Fate/stay night, Fate/hollow ataraxia manages to top that by making it hard to deny he has a crush on Shirou.
- Hana and Rain from Fear Effect: Retro Helix, which played up the quasi-lesbian Subtext between the two characters for all it was worth.
- That's not subtext. They're actually a couple. It's all but confirmed by the last half of the game.
- The cancelled Fear Effect Inferno would have had a Love Triangle develop between Glas, Hana, and Rain, while Rain and Deke would have become girlfriend and boyfriend. Talk about fun relationships!
- In Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage. Jagi and Amiba have a very odd relationship, just look at the ending FMV for them, they both have each other's arms around their waists. I'm sure it wasn't intended to look so gay, but it does.
- At one point, Jagi asks Amiba, mid-mission, what is it with him and musclebound guys. It was probably very intended.
- In Fragile Dreams, Crow and Seto kiss. Seto is surprised, but doesn't show anything to prove that he disliked the kiss. Crow kissed him because he never had a friend before, and he thought friends kiss on the lips, but the scene was still cute. It'll break your heart once you see Crow's death, and that Seto embraces him until he dies.
- Freddi Fish actually has some of this between Boss and Spongehead. They even hold fins for a bit.
- God of War seems to be moving towards "bro yay" territory as Deimos, Kratos' brother, has been introduced; check the original GOW at the end of the credit's theme, as well as the main trailer for GOW: Ghost of Sparta.
- Amoretta and Lillet's relationship in Grim Grimoire is full of this. Amoretta's first meeting with Lillet seems to show her developing an outright girl crush on the heroine, which includes her saying the line, "I like your smile. Can I touch it?" and Lillet nervously agreeing to it. They do wind up together near the End Game... sort of, thanks to The Power of Love. And they live together in the post game epilogue.
- Nearly every single one of May's win quotes against a female opponent in the Guilty Gear series involves her commenting quite visibly on how attractive they are. She says it's about evaluating their worthiness for Johnny, but it's not exactly hard to instead read her as a closeted lesbian who's trying to convince herself that's why she keeps noticing this.
- Also, Sol Badguy and Ky Kiske definitely have some Ho Yay going on. They often appear a bit too close in official art, and in "Accent Core" their entrance pose, they're practically kissing.
- In .hack//GU, waify Bishonen Endrance unambiguously falls in love with the main character Haseo, simply because the heroes needed his help.
- In-game mails suggest that Endrance's player is pansexual. He was similarly dependant on Mia back when he was Elk, and his affections as Endrance transferred to Haseo after the cat on his shoulder (referred to as Mia) turned out to be AIDA and was destroyed. Endrance's version of the post-ending wedding event is both hilarious and amazingly creepy; does he really need to wear a dress?
- Ovan's apparent obsession with Haseo to be more than a little creepy, too.
- The same can be said about Bo's great admiration for Haseo (and Haseo's strange kindness towards Bo, seeing how Haseo was a Jackass to everybody when he met Bo). Bo is adorable. It is impossible to be mean to him, unless your his sister, who's even worse than Haseo was.
- Haseo and Matsu have their moments too.
- Seriously, no Gordon and Barney on this list yet? That whole "let's get him out of his civvies" conversation is all you need, but it's far from the end of it.
- Believe it or not, there's plenty of Ho Yay in Halo. Particularly between the Master Chief and Sergeant Johnson (see the opening cutscene of Halo 3).
"In my chambers! Immediately!" |
- The easter egg from Legendary mode. (Big spoiler warning here, folks)
- Speaking of Easter Eggs, some hidden dialogue unlocked by the IWHBYD Skull imply that a good deal of the Elites are mildly aroused by Master Chief.
"I-I like you, too. Let's talk about this afterward, shall we?" |
- Although, that dialogue can't be taken too seriously, as it is there mostly for kicks.
Brute: He was my lover! (Upon killing one Brute of a Brute pair.) |
- In Halo Reach; if you're playing as a male Six, at the end of the ONI: Sword Base level, Jorge put his arm on Six's shoulder and you get this;
Jorge: Nice work, by the way. |
- Happens in Harvest Moon a lot. In "Friends of Mineral Town," if you show the Blue Feather to Grey, he blushes and says something about not liking those sorts of things.
- In the Japanese version of Cute, you can "Best Friend" one of the special girls. They have the same lines as in the DS version, you have all the same events (you can even give them chocolate on "Spring Thanksgiving"), you "best friend" them, and you have a child together. In the same game, the Mineral Town girls are extremely affectionate to you, and constantly mention the fact that you "play" together.
- In More Friends of Mineral Town, the girls accidentally mention girls if you show them the Blue Feather. They also act the same as they do in Friends of Mineral Towns, so once you become friends with them they really do seem to have a crush on you.
- In Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming, Foe Yay is blatant between the Witch Princess and Harvest Goddess, with bickering like a Tsundere couple, and, in the final chapter of Mark's story, they actually blush at the thought of working together, while protesting that they don't actually want to. This may be intended to be blushing over Mark... but it doesn't really come across this way.
- Hotel Dusk: Room 215. The protagonist, Kyle Hyde, meets several attractively drawn young men in quick succession, all of whom give him their room number. And part of your mission is to find a lost pornographic magazine.
- And the person Kyle's trailing around after like a lost puppy, Brian Bradley... or is he too obvious?
- Or the fact that Louis is following Kyle around like a lost puppy and is nearly brought to tears of rage when you insult him or withhold information.
- Louie's backstory involved leaving Manhattan with his best friend Danny; the way he talks about it, it's like they were going to elope and find some place to settle down together and raise their kids away from the ugliness of the city or something.
- Or the fact that Louis is following Kyle around like a lost puppy and is nearly brought to tears of rage when you insult him or withhold information.
- Seeing as Hyperdimension Neptunia and its sequel is an all-female party, this trope was inevitable. To wit:
- IF is a Chick Magnet herself who has the attention of RED, Vert, and 5pb.
- The sequel has IF almost kissing Nepgear just to let Nepgear transfer to Purple Sister. It's one of the first few C Gs you can unlock in the game.
- Nepgear has this with everybody as a gameplay mechanic.
- Neptune would sleep with Compa and hug her to the point IF lampshades what the hell she's looking at.
- IF is a Chick Magnet herself who has the attention of RED, Vert, and 5pb.
- As if being a Chick Magnet isn't enough, Yuri from Infinite Space also has some subtext with a few other male characters:
- The most notable one is with The Rival Cico, who gets furious when he thinks Yuri broke his promise to go to LMC together with him. Even when they meet again ten years later, he doesn't seem to lose his obsession to Yuri. His line of dialogue before they settle their score doesn't help.
Cico: Ha ha! Now there's the Yuri I know and love! |
- Torlo occasionally calls Yuri as "my man". Sure, it is probably his way of calling him "buddy" or something like that, but still...
- Dietrich really respects Yuri and seems happy whenever he is assigned under Yuri's command, even going so far pleading him to accept the proposal to lead the battle in Adis, just so he can fight alongside his fleet. Right before his death, he apologizes to Yuri for unable to keep his words to stay alive, and Yuri seems to be shocked upon hearing his death.
- Official artwork for Izuna Legend of the Unemployed Ninja shows the eponymous ninja and her traveling companion Shino in very close proximity of each other. In-game, however, Izuna merely thinks of Shino as a sisterly figure.
- The sequel first introduces Shino's younger sister Shizune, who instantly takes a strong liking to Izuna - when they meet, she gives her a no-holds-barred glomp, complete with boob-squishing. If the two are in a dungeon together and you initiate a Tag Attack with Izuna in the lead, Shizune will float up to her and kiss her face (the screen sillhouettes, so you can't exactly tell where), with hearts floating up the whole time. This fully recovers both girls' HP. Then there are the times when Shino ends up Brainwashed and Crazy, and it's implied that Izuna would go after her before anything else, even if Shino wasn't conveniently waiting at the source of the problem. Shino herself has a line about how she'd never choose between Izuna and Shizune if anything happened. (OT 3, anyone?) This isn't even mentioning things like the Furo Scene, where Suiren rests her head on Fuuka's breasts as if it's no big deal... These games' stories are big on girl power, but damn.
- Jak and Daxter have this at times. One notable scene is when an incredibly inebriated Daxter hugs Jak while slurring "I love you, man!" (Which earns a disturbed look from Jak.)
K-O[]
- The Kingdom Hearts series, especially the second game on the PS2 (In particular, watch when Sora gets on his knees for Riku. He doesn't cry when he finds Kairi again, but when he finds Riku, he breaks.), is full with Ho Yay undertones between Sora and Riku.
- In the first game, Riku gets pretty mad when he thinks Sora has "dumped" him for Donald and Goofy. Sure, it's technically a friendship thing, but there are some who look at it differently...
- But even they pale in comparison to Axel and Roxas' subtext-that-might-as-well-be-text in Kingdom Hearts II and 358/2 Days (very chiefly on Axel's part in both cases, as Roxas is shown to be too naive to fully grasp the idea of love). Then there's the hintings of Axel having some kind of deep relationship with Saix before they both become Nobodies. Axel will do anything to save Roxas in KH2, even going against the Organization and performing a suicide attack to save him.
- One of the bonus scenes in the Japanese-only Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix, in which Axel and Roxas' spirits meet up one last time on the clock tower after Axel's death, where Axel questions the fact that they're not supposed to have hearts, and seems absolutely heartbroken that this will be the last time he can ever see Roxas. When they say goodbye for the last time, Axel addresses Roxas by the Japanese word for partner, and a single tear falls from his eyes.
Sora: "Axel? What were you trying to do? |
- Or how about this one:
Roxas: "No one would miss me. |
- There's even some mild Ho Yay between Setzer and Roxas at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II. Just how were you planning to make it worth my while, Setzer?
- Oh, and then there's Seifer's "Isn't this ROMANTIC!?" line, in battle against Roxas or Sora.
- Terra and Ven in Birth By Sleep also qualify here, especially from Ven's side.
- Probably the biggest amount of consistant Ho Yay, (throughout the Re: Chain Of Memories, and with the most questionable dialogue,) was between Sora and Replica Riku. Repliku kept acting like some sort of heart broken lover in regards to Sora, using phrases like, "You never cared about me!" and "You're only ever worried about her!" It's a big Flanderization of Riku's Foe Yay with Sora in the first game. The pinacle of this pure Yaoi Fodder was this little exchange.
Repliku: Sora... You're always trying to worm your way into my heart! |
- Aqua in Birth by Sleep manages to have this with Cinderella, by taking the man's place in the scene where, in the movie, the Duke takes her hand and guides her to a chair. Then by shielding her with her body when they're attacked. Then by helping her up with a lingering hand on her ass. Watch 2:06, and from 4:03 to 4:25 if you don't believe me.
- Then there's the fact that in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora's Limit with Jack Skellington is a dance number. That's right, Sora has Ho Yay with a skeleton.
- KotOR 2 isn't free of Les Yay - a very Stripperiffic Exchange lieutenant on the Citadel Station hits on the protagonist during her involvement in a sidequest, and she does so regardless of player gender.
- KOTOR 2 also has some Ho Yay between Male Exile and Atton, during the light side dialogue options when you turn him into a jedi. Paraphrasing, "Think of when you wanted to protect me, how you felt when I was in danger." And the references to them playing strip pazzak.
- In addition to the bartender in Athlum (a blatantly obvious example of this trope) there is also some significant Ho Yay subtext between Rush (the protagonist) and David (the Marquis of Athlum) in The Last Remnant.
- Left 4 Dead 2. Nick and Ellis. Here's the paragraph on them from the Left 4 Dead Wiki:
Nick insults Ellis and makes fun of him on several occasions, but this seems to be more of a "joke" between the two of them. Ellis even seems to look up to Nick a bit, starting conversations with him such as having the same suit or sometimes being excited at Nick shooting the helicopter pilot. Nick, for his part, will compliment Ellis's shooting or ask him if the Midnight Riders are any good, which may be an attempt to bond with him. Though it may seem that Nick is less caring towards the younger man, he has a soft side too, like if both survivors (Coach and Rochelle) are dead, or if Ellis is dead he will sometimes apologize for his behavior. Ellis is always sad to see Nick die. However, Ellis is also angered by Nick when talking about horses, in the sense that Nick has a like of horse meat, and Ellis states that "horses are for riding" and not meant to be eaten. He also may sometimes call the Spitter "Nick's Mom!" Ellis does still see Nick as a very good friend, as in "The Passing", he may suggest that he and Nick get a tattoo with "Bros" on it, and will respond to Nick's exclamation of "I hate you Ellis," with "well I like you, Nick." Though Nick is rough around the edges, he seems to care for Ellis more then he comes across like (sometimes) if he heals Ellis he says things like "Don't tell the others this, but I'm doing this for you." |
- And the trauma Ellis gets when a survivor dies, especially when it's Nick.
- Oh, and this lovely quote:
Nick: Ellis, did you get that girl's name? 'Cause I can tattoo it on your ass. She'll like that. |
- Plus, in the opening movie, they have their arms around each other's shoulders. To support one another, obviously, as they both seem to be limping, but still. Cue Squee from the fangirls.
- It's not just that. Ellis exhibits Ho Yay-worthy quotes on two more occasions. When talking about Jimmy Gibbs Jr. ("If the laws of nature would have it, I would bear that man's children"), and when Rochelle jokes about 'someone' having a crush on that 'awesome biker dude' ("Well I don't doubt it. That is a cool guy!")
- The tagline for the first campaign Dead Center sums it up nicely: Prices aren't the only things getting slashed. Neither are the zombies, Valve, neither are the zombies. And Ellis's hand seems to disappear behind Nick's ass in the campaign poster.
- The function on Xbox 360 where you say the person's name your cross hair is over if you press and hold down the left analog stick. Ellis tends to say Nick's name very...sensually. He says Nick's name with a certain amount of what can only be described as lust, more times than he says his name normally.
- Plus, in the opening movie, they have their arms around each other's shoulders. To support one another, obviously, as they both seem to be limping, but still. Cue Squee from the fangirls.
- Kain and Raziel from the Legacy of Kain games. From the opening of the first game, to the way they become insanely obsessed with one another, to the way they finally make up at the end of defiance, with Raziel healing Kain's heart. There's also Kain/Moebius, Moebius/Elder God, Elder God/Raziel, Raziel/Janos Audron, the list goes on. This may be because there's almost no females in the cast, Ariel, Azimuth, and Umah are the only women.
- The following piece of dialogue is infamous:
Raziel: How is it that you know my name? We have never met. |
- Dart and Lavitz from Legend of Dragoon, to the point that Shana, Dart's love interest, complains about their relationship. Dart carries around Lavitz's portrait as a key item after his death, mentions how he "can grill a thick piece of meat", suggests that they "practice with their swords" in Lavitz's bedroom, or that they go "take a nap", in sequences directly followed by Lavitz inviting Dart to his rooftop to tell him about his childhood. All while Shana is helping Lavitz's mom in the kitchen.
Dart: Huff huff huff! |
- Even the least slash-inclined player is bound to raise an eyebrow at Avin and Mile in Legend of Heroes IV: A Tear of Vermillion.
- Amazingly, you'll find this in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, not with Link and Sheik like most people assume, but with Link and the Poe Collector, the first time he encounters Link:
Poe Collector: "Oh...you are quite an energetic young man. You're brave and handsome, too... Heh heh heh...your name is Link, isn't it? Heh heh heh...don't be surprised. I can read people's minds. If I looked as good as you, I could run a different kind of business...heh heh heh..." |
- There's a lot of Ho Yay fan-speculation with Link and Sheik as well. After all, women from all over are throwing themselves at him, including TWO princesses, but the only one who he interacts with on a regular basis is the blonde "boy" in the corner playing the lyre (and Link's always so intent on finding where "he" disappears to).
- The canon game is not clear on the matter (Ruto's description did not help). The point is Zelda fans on both sides blatantly IGNORE the canon game in favour of flame wars... Some of the lines Sheik throws doesn't help to dispel the Faux Yay:
Sheik: It is something that grows over time... a true friendship. A feeling in the heart that becomes even stronger through time...The passion of friendship will soon blossom into a righteous power through it, you'll know which way to go... |
- Then there's the scene where a strange force from inside a well beats the tar out of Link, leaving him half-conscious on the ground for Sheik to take care of. Despite not knowing about slash or fanfiction at the time, I like imagining continuations of the scene with Sheik nursing Link back to health.
- Also, after her life was saved by her (temporary) Heroic Sacrifice, Midna was noticeably a bit too intimate when it came to Princess Zelda...since they did share a body for quite some time... This seemed to be returned by Zelda, since in the final scene she appears to be even more disappointed than Link that Midna is leaving forever.
- Also, in the Oracle of Seasons manga, Ricky the kangaroo was quite Gay for Link: gushing over the Chosen Hero, oozing admiration at Link's sword skills, and openly voicing his disappointment at the possibility of him having a female love interest... Ricky having a pouch makes this one questionable.
- In the Four Swords manga, there's some flamingly obvious Ho Yay between Red Link and Blue Link, which certainly says some interesting things about Link in general...
- Then there's Purple Link/Vio and Shadow Link, especially after Vio switches sides.
- The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword: Given some of her dialogue/behavior, as well as how fiercely protective and devoted she is toward Zelda, it can make one a little curious as to the exact nature of the relationship between Impa and Hylia before the events of the game.
- Lux-Pain. Just... Lux Pain. Considering the sheer amount of subtext among the characters, one has to wonder if the Ho Yay elements are canon at all. To name a few:
- Pick Atsuki and any guy character. Special mention goes to Akira, whose Character Development comes from his interaction with Atsuki.
- If you talk to Ryo in the final chapter of the Bad Ending, he'll say something like "I think it'd be great if we could always be together-- Oh, wait, did that sound weird? Like a proposal or something?"
- During Shinji's Gaiden scene, picking the right options and encouraging him to follow his dream of being a doctor will cause him to blush and respond with something like 'Geez, trying to be cool... Not like I care what you think, but...' And then he smiles. '... Thanks anyway.' Seems like Shinji's Tsundere...
- Yui and Mako. You won't go so far to snap at everyone and tries to avenge the one who kills your partner if you're not that close.
- There's also the relationship between Hibiki and Ryo, childhood friends who do seem really close; nurse Suzu even fantasizes about their relationship (although she does the same with female school nurse Honoka and practically adopted son/younger brother Hibiki: 'A forbidden teacher x student romance!'). There's an archive scene dedicated to their relationship which while focusing on Ryo and his new co-worker, you see another side of Hibiki that you don't see in the game.
- Obvious? Hm... Well, in any case, picking a certain answer while talking to Suzu will cause her to include Atsuki in her little daydreams, and Hibiki does take an immediate interest in Atsuki, even causing the students around them to stop and look when he accousts Atsuki in the hallway. After Hibiki loses his psychic abilities, he seems to have formed an even stronger bond with Atsuki, if his final words ('So, you're leaving, then? ... No, you don't have to answer that.') are any indication.
- Pick Atsuki and any guy character. Special mention goes to Akira, whose Character Development comes from his interaction with Atsuki.
- Magician's Quest (Enchanted Folk for those of you in Europe). Just... Magician's Quest. You can get people of the same sex to say that being with you creates a "sense of meaning", and it even offers an equivalent of the "Declare Love" incantation for the same sex to promote "Best Friends". Also, if you visit the Limelight with one of your friends, you'll get the same analyses regardless of the gender of your friend. Mentions of "significant others" abound!
- While we're still in Mana Khemia, the second game, Mana-Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy takes this trope even further, with occasional Lampshade Hanging:
- Pepperoni and Goto are uncomfortably chummy with each other, and there's a line somewhere around the game about how they will "ride on each other".
- Chapter 3 of Pepperoni's character quest. He practically screams in ecstasy when he oil wrestled Gato.
- There's also Chapter 4 of Gato's character quest where he had to pretend to be attracted to Pepperoni and Enna to break up with Marta. Enna was constantly disgusted by the whole ordeal, Pepperoni on the other hand enjoying everything.
- Of all people who become the target of her incantations, Chloe is really fond of using her childhood friend Ulrika as her guinea pig.
- Yun and Raze can qualify as well, especially in later chapters. The ending where Raze is hired to become his adoptive daughter's bodyguard doesn't help, since practically that makes Corona has two daddies.
- In Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al Revis the main character Vayne Aurelius and Roxis Rosenkrantz have a good deal of Foe Yay going on throughout the game. I mean, even Roxis's ending is Ho Yay-tastic, with Vayne and Roxis becoming sparring partners (ahem), and the loser then subjected to the winner's experiments. It all sounds kind of kinky. By the third character quest it was outright Ho Yay.
- Vayne's tone of voice in Japanese in Pamela's third character quest when it concerned Roxis is hilarious to listen to. "But... Roxis...!"
- Among the items you can alchemize are collars, for Sulphur. For one of them, Roxis snarks at Vayne as usual but mentions aside that he thinks putting a collar on Vayne isn't a bad idea (granted it's supposed to be more of a controlling a rival thing but if that doesn't sound questionable, what does).
- Mega Man X is full of this between eponymous character X, and Bishounen reploid Zero.
- Parodied in Bob and George. During the story arcs involving X and Zero time traveling to the present, most of the characters in the present, especially Roll, think they're gay lovers.
- In one webcomic, Zero is female in an Alternate Universe. And she is in a relationship with her X, and they have tons of insane, hot sex. Eventually Fem-Zero gets to the main universe, and finds out that both Zero and X are male. She makes the natural assumption.
- And then there's the people who think Zero and Axl become a little too friendly a little too fast. Or at least, Axl does. It doesn't help that he seems intent on barging in on subtext-filled scenes between X and Zero for much interruptions, leading to a little pocket of the fandom, who think he's not all that bad, to joke about his block powers.
- And in one ending on Mega man X8, Zero says "Maybe I won't have to fight anymore..." then smiles and looks towards X as if he was imagining something. Very Ho Yay moment.
- Even before that, when X and Zero reunited in X6, Zero had a small blush on his face.
- The dialogue between Geo and Pat in Mega Man Star Force is filled with this, especially during the Gemini Spark chapter. It continues in the sequel where, in the Apollo Flame quest, Mega Man destroys the alternate version of Gemini Spark and is actually worried about Pat, unlike the other fights, where he doesn't care less about the bosses that were merged with his friends in his dimension, not even Sonia, the very first friend he made with who is arguably the closest person to him, herself. It's made even worse by the Viewer Gender Confusion.
- Of all the games you never thought would show any flavor of romantic text or subtext: Gandrayda, a female shapeshifter, blatantly hits on Samus multiple times in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The Yay is initially Played for Laughs (Samus has a number of "WTF?" reaction shots to Gandrayda's antics) and then starts to veer into Psycho Lesbian territory...
- Case 1: When restarting the generator on Norion:
Gandrayda: Space Pirate grey is definitely not my style. And neither is machinery, so I'll let you get this thing restarted. (walks away, swinging her hips suggestively, while speaking in a very seductive tone) Thanks, Sammy. |
- Case 2: When fighting on the Pirate homeworld:
Gandrayda: (seductive but sinister tone this time) You really shouldn't trust strangers, Sammy. This is going to be fun. |
- Case 3: One of Gandrayda's attacks is an "atomic glomp" - she jumps at her target and throws her arms around their neck, irradiating the hell out of them and, perhaps not coincidentally, looking very much like she's about to kiss them. The subtext gets worse if you notice where the glomp move puts the rest of her body. And it gets even more blatant when she pulls the same move on Samus, depicted in first-person.
- Did anyone else notice that Samus seemed to take Gandrayda's death a bit harder than the other hunters she was forced to kill?
- The last thing Samus sees of her is her own power suit begging for mercy. That's harsh.
- More Yay from a recently translated Japan-only manga and strategy guide by Wanpakku Comics, released in 1986: Samus accompanied by a pair of "his" scantily clad fangirls, as part of "his" promotional video no less. It was no doubt meant to keep up the game's surprise ending, but to the modern reader it's unintentionally hilarious.
- In Mortal Kombat: Deception, Nightwolf's ending has him go through hell to reunite Liu Kang with his body.
- In Mother 2 (Earthbound), several comments made by the character Tony to his best friend Jeff seem to point to a good deal of one-sided Ho Yay subtext. He also gives Jeff quite the extended phone call ("Is this Jeff? Oh happy day!"). Shigesato Itoi confirmed it as canon.
- And there is also that guy guarding the Mani Mani statue at Sidemoon, and when you show him the guy with the golden tooth, both of them leave to go get a drink.
- Additionally, some of the slightly more twisted Mother fans see this in Mother 3. Porky's slightly creepy obsession with all things Ness and Earthbound-related probably isn't just because he's homesick.
- In Mother 3 while underwater, you must fill up on oxygen by kissing robot O2 tanks who look like middle aged mermen wearing bright red lipstick. When you do it makes your whole party blush. In the last part of the game there's a centaur version that offers oxygen above water for no reason.
- During the underwater stage one of the Pig Masks comments that he kind of likes them, disturbing his comrade.
- There's also a Pigmask who nervously offers you an item when you're dressed as "the commander" and insists it's just a friendly gift.
- There's something fishy about how exactly Ionia showed Lucas how to use PSI, also.
- Flinty-poo ~<3 ...What? That was my Magypsy impression. Do you like it? ...Don't act so embarrassed!
- This from Neo Geo Cup '98.
- In Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark: During the Valsharess's last offer for you to join her before she sends her forces in an attempt to destroy you, if you are playing a female character there is a lot of lesbian subtext being thrown about. She especially gets mad if you tell her that you aren't her type.
- In No More Heroes Travis accidentally sends a recording of himself humping a pillow back to the video store. What is on the pillow? A burly masked wrestler. And the Samurai-esque relationship he has with his master Thunder Ryu, with all its shudo implications. And given that Thunder Ryu makes sure that Travis keeps his ass clean for some of the techniques he teaches him...
- Magnus and Prince Yumil in Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber have many moments in the plot which are considerable, and they even fit the physical characteristics of Yaoi Guys with Prince Yumil being the Uke and Magnus being the Seme.
- Due to the Purely Aesthetic Gender rule, many examples are present in the first game if the social leader is a female, for example, Deneb will compliment the player's good looks even if they are female, and if spared, the towns people will say you did it because she was a pretty girl. Another boss claims the social leader is jealous of his skills with women.
- In Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, if Junpei enters Door 5, then examines the bed multiple times, Snake will comment on it.
Snake: Junpei, I cannot help but notice your interest in the bed. Perhaps you are hoping we will spend time on it, together... |
P-T[]
- Pajama Sam 3 has this too in the ending montage where General Beetfoot is seen giving Carrot a flower while the latter smiles bashfully.
- Parappa the Rapper: Parappa's "best friend", PJ Berri, assists him in the second stage of PtR2, entitled Romantic Love. The clincher? Parappa and PJ do more together "romantically" in this one stage than he does with Sunny Funny in two whole games!
- Persona 2 has the relationship between Tatsuya Suou and Jun Kurosu: Jun definitely thinks of Tatsuya as more then a friend, whether or not the player has Tatsuya reciprocate his feelings.
- The game itself and some interviews would lead us to believe that Suou and Kurosu are actually the intended pairing. The drama CD "Errors of Their Youth" practically operates on the assumption that they're dating.
- Also, there is the rather questionable devotion that King Leo has for his boss, Joker-sama, in which at one point during Innocent Sin he describes the Joker as being "as beautiful as a goddess" under the mask. Eternal Punishment only adds stalkerish tendencies on Sudou Leo's part.
- In Persona 4, Kanji's shadow is shown as a representation of his feelings towards men, though it is actually a representation of his desire for acceptance. In fact, there's even a scene where he kisses human-Teddie/Kuma.
- Les Yay is also present in Shadow Yukiko's words to Chie, whom she refers to as "her prince" as well as Shadow Chie representing her control over Yukiko and taking the form of a Dominatrix.
- There's also the School Festival, which gives the protagonist a few options to start some Ho Yay of his own, particularly with a Cross Dressing pageant he's forced to enter.
- Yosuke tends to say things to the main character that sound at least awkward, if not outright flirtatious. That and his semi-homophobic behavior at times seems to be an act of Transparent Closet:
- The events for Rank 9 of the Magician Arcana, where Yosuke talks about all the people who are important to him, and ends with the MC, after he mentions friends. Yosuke wants the MC to nail him like a 2 x 4. There's also the Rank 10 event, which somehow managed to make the whole 'and now, we fight like men!' thing just seem waaaaaay too gay.
"There's still nothing here, but I have family and friends... and you." |
- If you choose the right options in ranks 7 and 8 or Magician (which is already famous for being Ho Yay-tastic, you can hug Yosuke after the rank goes up. Yosuke, who you might think would freak out, just starts sobbing into your chest, in a Ho Yay moment that crosses as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
- This is why Chie x Yukiko and Yosuke x Souji (MC) are the most popular couples in the fandom...
- There are also the Fellow Athletes, Daisuke and Kou. The latter certainly has a fascination with balls...
- Kou's "What are we to you?" speech to Daisuke in his Level 9 Social Link.
- Yes, this picture is from the official digital art disc that came packaged with Phantom Brave: We Meet Again. Looks like someone got dressed in quite a hurry...
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon has Chatot/Wigglytuff in Explorers of Time/Darkness. Also, the two main characters are rather... subtext-y, regardless of their genders.
- Pokémon Ranger hints at some sexual tension between your character and Aria. The game features Purely Aesthetic Gender, meaning that if you pick the girl character at the beginning, Aria's dialogue is exactly the same.
- This dynamic is reversed in Shadows. Keith's lines are already filled with romantic subtext, so playing as a boy invokes the trope.
- In the main Pokémon series, if you play as a boy, some of the actions and dialogue of your rival apply.
- Like wise, some of the dialogue from FireRed/LeafGreen if you play as Leaf, the female protagonist, due to dialogue not being changed.
- There's one little bit of the massive Pokémon section where some think that, since Erika and Sabrina's Pokémon having some Psychic and Grass moves respectively in the Stadium games, it implies subtle Les Yay.
- Sabrina? What about Erika and Jasmine?
- There seems to be some tones of Les Yay in some of the dialogue involving Maylene & Candice if they visit your Villa together in Platinum? Or the fact that they're together? The same might possibly be said for Flint & Volkner.
- And this.
- Aaron and Lucario... wow. The eighth movie made it really, really hard to not ship it.
- In Pokémon Black and White, you get to go on a ferris wheel with NPCs that vary with the season and which gender you chose. The conversations on these rides are loaded with Ship Tease. If you play as the girl, one of your potential partners is a waitress. As the guy, you get a male hiker. You also go on the ferris wheel with N... Even when you're playing as a male.
- In Heartgold and Soulsilver Blue seems a bit too interested in Red. He even calls you to tell you that you remind him of Red.
- In Portal, GLaDOS harbours a level of obsession for Chell that is suspect even for an insane AI that can apparently think of nothing besides Science and Cake, and while being a monumental Unreliable Expositor makes it difficult to know when she's being sincere, she really does seem regretful about trying to kill Chell (it being part of the testing procedure) and her unexpected retaliation. At the very least, Wild Mass Guessing has a field day with it. Probably not helped by the following:
GLaDOS: Despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far... is my heart. |
- From the ending song, sung by GLaDOS: "I'm not even angry / I'm being so sincere right now / Even though you broke my heart and killed me..."
- When Chell breaks the first morality core the subtitles say that GLaDOS's voice gets less mechanical and "more seductive".
- Portal 2 is far, far more blatant, wavering between Tsundere and full-blown Psycho Lesbian territory. GLaDOS seems entirely convinced that Chell attacking and "killing" her was without any justification and is furious at her "betrayal", attempting to guilt-trip her constantly with lines that are variations of either "how could you do that to me?" or "now you'll never leave me". Then, when a power-mad Wheatley becomes a threat to them both they actually grow to become friends, relying on and trusting each other, although while eventually GLaDOS decides she doesn't want to kill Chell, that doesn't mean she wants her around. And finally, while "Still Alive" was full of passive-aggressive threats, "Want You Gone" is a love song in everything but name.
- And then you consider the English translation to the lyrics of the turret opera, sung by GLaDOS to Chell:
My beautiful dear, my darling beauty! My li’l girl, oh Chell! That she holds her in such esteem! That she holds her in such esteem! Oh my beloved, fare thee well! My dear child... why dost thou not stay further away? Yes, away from Science! My dear, dear baby... Ah, my beauty! Ah, my dear! Ah, my dear! Ah, my li’l girl! Oh my dearest one! |
- AND in the version of Still Alive appearing on Jonathan Coulton's new album, Artificial Heart, G La DOS' part is sung by the openly lesbian Sara Quin. Not THAT relevant but it's...interesting.
- Possible Squick when you consider the implication that GLaDOS's AI was created from Caroline, Chell's possible mother.
- The relationship between Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, is seen by some as having... undertones. Batman and Robin-like undertones. As an example? The third game in the series features a future version of Luke, aged up. He's nicknamed "Legal"--and they ain't just talkin' about for fangirl fantasies...
- Layton and his friend Clark are pretty affectionate in the ending credits of the fourth game, too.
- Ambiguously Gay Space Pirate Rusty Pete from the Ratchet and Clank series is quite blatantly obsessed with Captain Slag, crying over Slag's decapitated head and having it talk to him like a ventriloquist dummy, saying things like "You may not have me body, but you will always have me heart". He eventually rewires Slag's head so it can talk again and calls it "Slag on a Stick", and later attaches it to the decapitated body of Angstrom Darkwater to revive him.
- The title pair of Ratchet and Clank qualify as well. They're certainly very close friends, and have probably lived together through all of the 'between game' periods. Both of them have had multiple love interests, none of which ended up being more than hinted at before mysteriously vanishing for the next game. In the Future series, the normally cheerful Ratchet tends to have a bit of a breakdown when Clank goes missing. And Clank risks the universe in A Crack in Time in order to undo Ratchet's death.
- The 4th Resident Evil has its own share. Here, try a suggestive knife fight or taking anything that happens to Luis out of context. Namely Saddler's tentacle (go to 'bout 00:25) or the fact that his first appearance can be summarized with him coming out of the closet, Leon ending up on top of him twice, and him remarking that it's a little rough, don't you think?
- How about Wesker and Chris? It becomes increasingly obvious that Wesker has a blatant crush on Chris. And their incredibly blaring Ho Yay/Foe Yay gets a lot worse in the fifth Resident Evil. Wesker takes every opportunity to scream Chris' name in the most dramatic way possible, and has the obvious tendency to ignore everyone except Chris. Also, the incredibly hot Excella, who was coming on to him like crazy, only receives contempt and annoyance. However, as soon as she mentioned "Chris," he actually smiles, and she wonders if the sudden expression means he's "concerned." Chris has a female partner during the game, whom Wesker largely ignores in favor of going after Chris specifically. And it's not just because he has a history with Chris - he also largely ignores Jill during the fight at the Spencer mansion. And all this is not even mentioning the final battle, where Wesker ends up shirtless in tight leather pants, and continually uses his tentacles to grapple with and molest Chris. Oh, and how about Wesker's furious anguish when Chris leaves him to die by escaping on the helicopter? "CHRIIIIIIIISSSSSSSS!!" This ends with Chris shooting him with a rocket launcher, telling him to "suck on this, Wesker."
- Or what about Birkin acting like Wesker just broke up with him in Umbrella Chronicles/Resident Evil Zero? The whole scene was him trying to convince Wesker to not leave Umbrella because he still wanted to stick around and finish his G-virus and then completely flipping a shit when Wesker still wanted to leave. 16-year old girl getting stood up for prom, much?
- Given that Birkin and Wesker were research partners for at least 20 years, starting when their mentor attempted to encourage a rivalry between them but accidentally sparked an instant bond which other scientists comment on, complete with nicknames... and given that even at his most unstable and paranoid, the almost cartoonishly-insane Birkin will listen to and trust Wesker... well, these things add up. Especially when they go on their version of a date - killing their boss, stealing his research and taking over his lab.
- Resident Evil Revelations, despite it's relatively small fandom, has a group of fans who ship Parker and Raymond. Parker taking a bullet for Raymond and them saving each others' lives and Parker nicknaming Raymond does not help matters.
- In Rift, Enqyeke Chinua makes an offhand comment about having a "schoolgirl's crush" on Asha Catari. And Uriel Chuluun and Kira Thanos seem to have a bit of Slap Slap Kiss going on:
Uriel Chuluun: "I don't think she likes me much, but I'll win her over." |
- Rune Factory 3 has Carlos, big brother to one of the potential brides of the game. Although he claims that all the ladies love him, he comes on to the main character in a variety of ways. Most are not even subtle.
- If you befriend the townsfolk and then don't speak to them for a while, talking to them will trigger a "Hey, long time no see" dialogue. Carlos' is appropriately... Carlos ('Have you been avoiding me? Not cool, bro!') while Rusk gets a pouty/angry face and dialogue which really only seems appropriate for potential love interests. Then consider most of his 'quests' are just giving you sweets...
- In the second Rune Factory game, if you play Aria you can make a Childhood Marriage Promise to two twin girls (Sera and Serena). In the English version they changed it to them being stupidly naive and believing marriage was a tea party though, thus taking away the lesbian subtext.
- In the Saints Row series, the Boss becomes awfully fond of Shaundi, even if the Boss happens to be female. In fact, the second-to-last mission in The Third, ends with the Boss having to choose between hunting down Killbane and rescuing Shaundi from a monument that's been rigged with a bomb. If the Boss chooses to go after Killbane, Shaundi dies, and that's considered part of the Bad Ending.
- Sam and Max Freelance Police has this is a good amount. This is even Lampshaded in the series several times. They have been mistaken for a couple more than twice, Sybil, the psychiatrist, found their perfect match as each other, Sam insists that "[Max] doesn't even like girls", as well as the fact that Sam goes into either unstoppable rage or deep depression if he thinks that Max is dead. They definitely are, however, Heterosexual Life Partners.
- To mention all the Ho Yay in Samurai Warriors (and to a lesser extent, Dynasty Warriors) would require an article on its own. The biggest example is Gender Bender Ranmaru Mori, whose relationship with his two masters is practically canon (then again, he was historically gay to begin with).
- Zhang He gets progressively campier with each entry into the Dynasty Warriors series. In Dynasty Warriors 6, he flirtatiously taunts his opponent "You've come alone. Was it my beauty that drew you?" Given that 80% of the playable characters are male, the odds that this line will result in Foe Yay are very high. Tended to originally be paired with Wei strategist Sima Yi (even after Sima Yi kills Cao Cao and usurps Wei in 6), but in 6 there were hintings of an attraction to Xiahou Yuan, while in 7 he's just campy and flamboyant without attraction hinted towards anyone (other than a platonic affection for Xiahou Yuan).
- One of the Dynasty Warriors games ends with Sun Ce and Zhou Yu riding off into the sunset together.
- Ling Tong and Gan Ning have too many moments to count. There's one battle in particular in Dynasty Warriors 6 where if you kill one half of the pair, the other is consumed by Unstoppable Rage. Incidentally, this is exactly the same reaction you get from Lu Bu when you kill his canon Love Interest Diao Chan. Just sayin'...
- They're all but canon in Ling Tong's ending in Dynasty Warriors 6 Special, especially in their final scene together.
- In DW: Empires 4, one of the unlockable endings had Sun Quan lovingly stroking Zhou Tai's face... pissed as a fart, naturally.
- Mitsuhide gets a lot of Ho Yay, not only with Ranmaru in SW1, but also with Nobunaga Oda, of all people, in SW 2 and Motochika Chousokabe in SW3.
- The amount of sheer homoeroticism between Joachim and his mentor, the Great Gama, in Shadow Hearts: Covenant is so intense that the other characters are rather creeped out. Except for the little girl, who instead gets starry-eyed when things reach their logical conclusion.
- Granted, one never actually SEES anything, but... the whole Man Festival side quest is unambiguous mangroping, with a happy ending.
- And, well, Joachim does flat-out state that he is gay if you choose him during the torture sequence. The Great Gama, meanwhile...is twice as eager.
- Roger in Shikigami no Shiro III gets intensely jealous of Kohtaro's shikigami, Sayo, and loathes the fact that she gets to spend so much time around his "beloved Kohtaro".
- In Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, there is a male junk shop owning Manikin who loves to flirt with the protagonist, who is also male. The junk shop Manikin is extremely flamboyant, and says 'fabulous' a lot, calls the protagonist a cute little boy, hot stuff, handsome, and tells him that he hopes they will have a long-lasting relationship, and then winks at him. The Collector Manikin and the Protagonist have a tiny bit of Ho Yay, you need to squint to see it. The interaction between the two is just REALLY cute.
- Shinobido brings us the twin sisters Ageha and Usuba, who leads a gang of all female ninjas and are strongly implied to be lesbians (judging on their... weird discussion about Usuba's faked breasts (for a disguise).
- The Sierra adventure game The Colonel's Bequest has the protagonist Laura Bow snooping around the mansion looking for clues to the murder mystery. If Laura enters the french maid Fifi's room at a certain time, Fifi changes clothes and Laura will spend some of her time watching her undress.
- Occurs in The Dagger of Amon Ra, too. Laura gets blatantly hit on by a woman in a speakeasy restroom, and ends up changing clothes in front of her. Also, during a long sequence of eavesdropping on all the museum offices, it's possible to find out that the flirtatious Yvette is just as happy to canoodle with women as she is with men.
- It might seem odd to mention The Sims 2, a game best known for its Everyone Is Bi mechanics. However, the stories of the pre-packaged characters are uniformly straight, except for Strangetown's Pascal Curious and Nervous Subject. True, the game opens on them as friends, but Nervous is coded to walk by the Curious household just as Pascal goes into labor with his alien baby.
- There is also a pretty big chance of Nervous autonomously making a move on Pascal, even tough the latter is straight, which would usually stop male sims from hitting on him.
- The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a Slash fan's dream. The flagship Ho Yay is Sonadow, or Sonic/Shadow. In Sonic Heroes, Shadow, who has no memory at this point discusses Sonic's "date with Eggman" as a "date to die for" with a ravenous smirk. Sonic appears to flirt with Shadow in Shadow the Hedgehog. Some people cite Knuckles weird tag-alongs with Sonic despite his duty to the Master Emerald and some of his stranger dialog as being evidence of Sonic/Knuckles as well.
- In the Fleetway series Tekno and Amy have quite a Romantic Two-Girl Friendship. Amy doesn't have the major schoolgirl crush most adaptations have on Sonic, though she does like him, and Tekno only has Word of God on her liking Shortfuse.
- In this Soul Calibur 4 Omake, Cassandra is is a little too interested in destroying Hilde's clothes... She is also very excited to show Hilde's her new revealing outfit (and at the same time pressures her to try cosplaying). At another point she poses in an even more revealing outfit and asks "...want to play with me?". This can be interpreted as being addressed to the reader or Hilde. Cassandra also gets very upset at discovering that Hilde has a "partner".
- Tira's Critical Finisher in the game itself. It's a death kiss. Which can be performed. On anyone. Even women.
- In a similar vein, Raphael's decidedly vampiric qualities give him an appropriately vampiric finisher that involves forcing his opponent to their knees and draining them from the neck while they futilely struggle beneath him. Like all Critical Finishes, it can be used against male characters as well.
- And there's Voldo's devotion to his master and Nightmare's obssession with Seigfried... sorta.
- Soul Calibur V has a smattering of Les Yay here and there; one of the most obvious is the Romantic Two-Girl Friendship between Xianghua's daughter Lexia and Taki's student Natsu, but the one most plot critical is Pyrrha's status as a Replacement Goldfish for Tira. Not only does the girl inherit the extremely abusive Foe Yay between Tira and Sophitia, but gets to grow up isolated and paranoid because of Tira's Yandere tendency to kill anyone that makes her happy so that Pyrrha will never trust anyone but Tira and become a new host for Soul Edge. Since Tira has been working this plan since Pyrrha was about three, she not only manipulated and is heavily implied to have eventually killed Sophitia for Soul Edge's purposes, she went on to perform Wife Husbandry on her daughter
- In Star Control II, Admiral ZEX is quite obviously lusting after the Captain. It is suggested that you don't think about that. Not that it stops the ZEX fangirls...
- Given that ZEX's attraction is a bit... different from most examples on this page, you could also call this a case of Mars Needs Men.
- Star Fox has its own share of mild homo-eroticism hints - usually in the forms of various awkward dialog localizations (like how Wolf has a tendency to act gay towards Fox).
- This is somewhat parodied in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, in a communication link with Wolf. Leon gushes in orgasmic jealousy about how vicious and efficient Wolf tears into his enemies, and Panther, in a fit of confused disgust, has to ask him who he's in fact jealous of: Wolf, or his victims.
- In Star Fox 64, on Titania:
Falco: I think you look better in a tank. |
- Famously lampshaded in this VGCats strip.
- In a rarely seen Private Action, Claude and Chris from Star Ocean the Second Story have some Clone Yay when they meet outside a bar and Chris offers to buy Claude a drink. Fop that he is, Chris is thrilled as beans to be drinking in a prole bar with someone and thanks Claude for the companionship... and then gives him a friendship ring, albeit one that boosts stats. (One guesses it does so through The Power of Love.)
- There is also a Private Action between Claude and Ashton, in which they share a shake with two straws.
- The game also makes fun of Albel and Fayt in Till the End of Time, where a requirement for making Albel join your party is to say that you "don't hate him"; in their paired ending, the two resemble an arguing couple. And the manga where the two are paired in awkward situations.
- Also from Till the End of Time, Nel and Clair have heaps of Les Yay, ranging from a hugging scene to Nel saying "I did it, Clair!" when she levels up. Oh, and in the ending, Clair gets irritated when her father Adray tries to marry her off to men, saying that she'll "find her own husband, thank you very much". One is inclined to think she already has a significant other in mind...
- Again from Till the End of Time, while it's not nearly as blatent as Fayt and Albel, Fayt and Cliff definitely show signs of a Bodyguard Crush for a good chunk of Elicoor.
- In First Departure, Millie and Mavelle (Marvel in the Japanese version) get some mostly-one-sided Les Yay. Millie, upon being asked about Mavelle, immediately goes into how beautiful she is and how she just had to ask her to join her and Ronyx (Ronixis). And when you first see Mavelle in Ionis, Millie almost throws herself at Mavelle while complaining that she was afraid Mavelle was going to get herself killed and that she shouldn't worry Millie like that.
- Star Ocean: The Last Hope has a good deal too, even if it gets buried under the canon pairings most of the time. There's Edge's one-sided rivalry with Crowe, Edge's attempts to talk Arumat into getting life extending treatments on EN II so that his genetic enhancements won't prematurely end his life-- he even tries to kiss him, albeit jokingly. And Faize's adulation toward Edge. His feelings toward Edge actually play a big part in the catalyst for his Face Heel Turn--he doesn't start hiding things from the party until his faith in Edge is shaken. The end is particularly rife with this, as well. Edge is the only one besides Lymle to figure out who the Apostle of Creation is, and is the first to run to him when he collapses after the he's defeated. He then stays behind to help Faize, and falls after him when he lets go of Edge's hand instead of just cutting his losses and going to his friends. Their conversations here and before the final battle are quite emotional.
- In the Star Trek: Elite Force game, your character, Alex Munro, slowly falls for one of the other team members, Telsia Murphy over the course of the game. Par for the course, right? But then you remember that you can choose the gender of your character at the beginning of the game... and all the cutscene dialogue stays exactly the same, regardless of gender.
- Quite a bit of Les Yay can crop up between Luna and Venus in Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament. It's probably not just an artifact of Purely Aesthetic Gender, either — the game is voice-acted, so they would have had a fairly good incentive to remove the Les Yay lines if they'd wanted to.
- In Street Fighter 4, Sakura's winning quote against Sagat indicates she sees him as a romantic rival regarding Ryu.
- Through out the whole series especially Manga and anime Ho Yay is heavily implied between Ryu & Ken look at this here and Ken has repeatedly joined these Tournaments to see and or fight Ryu, though he's married with a Wife and Son. Also, there's some implications of possible Ho Yay between Gulie, another married man, & Charlie. Even after the events of Street Fighter 2, where Bison dies a vicious death at the hands of Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu, Gulie still seeks out any and all Shadowloo activity. *Psycho Lesbian, arguably Depraved Bisexual, Juri has her fair share of Les Yay when it comes to certain female characters. She teasingly asks Chun-Li if she has a "schoolgirl crush" on her.
- There's a pretty amusing bit towards the end of Suikoden Tierkreis where Asad, who has quite clearly had a thing for Lady of War Chrodechild throughout the game, ponders who the biggest obstacle in his way of his affections is. At first he thought it was her Number Two Meruvis, but changes his mind to Fredegund... which would be incestuous Les Yay. Whether or not the subtext was deliberate or not, it really does not help that Fredegund gets very gushy around her sister.
- Suikoden Tierkreis is full of this. The hero has quite a number of subtext with other male characters, and that's not even consdiering the others...
- While we're on the subject of the Suikoden series, Lucretia, the protagonists' strategist in Suikoden V is almost explicitly stated to be a lesbian, with possible romantic links to both Lelei, the person who once guarded her prison cell, and Cathari, a sniper who may have once had a contract on her life. And then there's the prison guard's Furo Scene.... (And Lelei and Lucretia are heavily implied to spend the night together before the final battle.)
- And in the Where Are They Now ending credits, it turns out Lucretia left the country without telling anyone, except Lelei, who went with her.
- And in Suikoden III, Cecile comes across as having a fawning girl-crush on Chris. And Chris having a Furo Scene where she notices that another girl is covered with scars — why she spends the entire scene staring at the other girl in order to notice just how scarred she is isn't discussed.
- Chris and Yun, especially in the manga.
- In fact, all the Suikoden series suffers with this a bit. If it's not the close friends like Flik and Viktor (though Flik had a girl in Suikoden, he was still traveling with Viktor in Suikoden II and were mentioned as still traveling together in the 15 years between Suikoden II and Suikoden III) then there's the Narcissists - every game has two or three frumpy males (and in some cases females) who very loudly proclaim their close 'friendship' for each other.
- There's also the infamous bath scenes, where you can watch certain characters interact whilst bathing. Some of them are rather... interesting.
- Sugar, a female water spirit from Summon Night: Swordcraft Story, has been sworn to marry the person to whom she's bonded. If you choose Pratty as your main character (a female), she responds with the following line when Sugar offers her a kiss: "No no! I, uh, kiss other girls all the time!" For extra "lulz" points, Atlus put that screenshot on the back of the box. Seriously. And that's only the initial meeting.
- Ho Yay between Cleru and Varil: The Tsundere Toy Ship has... undertones with a male PC, especially when Varil's butler states that 'all Master Varil was missing was you.' And prior to that, Varil's out-of-nowhere demand that Cleru's Guardian Beast stay behind. After the Ariel and Mariel match; Varil ping-pongs from 'You were nowhere near as strong as when you beat me!' to "Is it because they're girls? Or do you have a crush on them? Which one is it?" to 'Well, I guess I can understand.' Cleru is absolutely lost. Varil tells him it's okay, then compliments Cleru's style.
Varil: "Girls have to be protected." What beautiful words. You sound like such a gentleman... Anyway, that's how men should behave. |
- The sequel also features a lot of Les Yay if you choose to play as a female, mostly thanks to very lesbian Lovable Sex Maniac Lynn.
- Given that most lines are identical regardless of if you choose a Male or Female characters, otherwise innocuous scenes - such as BFF Ryouga blushing and getting flustered during the intro and ending segments, or Orin (who, for extra effect, is your Adopted Older Brother) doing the same or comforting you - becomes HoYay-tastic. Same goes for Gabriel, particularly his ending, and maybe Arno depending on how you see it.
- Angel!Dinah tries to get a kiss from the player character, no matter what their gender is.
- In the first game there's also Razzy who shows hints of liking you only if you play as Pratty, the female playable character.
- Incorrect. She also likes you if you're male, it's just that if you're playing as Cleru you won't get the 'Do you think girls can marry other girls?' question because... Well, Cleru's a guy. Instead, you get "Can boys marry other boys?" which could still be this trope if you weren't aware that Razzy's a girl.
- The sequel also features a lot of Les Yay if you choose to play as a female, mostly thanks to very lesbian Lovable Sex Maniac Lynn.
- Mario and Luigi, probably originating from the close brotherly moments they share. Because they're twin brothers who have been through everything together.
- Super Robot Wars. It's the series that gave us Sanger Zonvolt and Elzam von Branstein, who are responsible for the "real men ride each other" meme.
- Hell, Irm and Mekibos had a touch of this in OG 2.
- Rai and Ryusei have a fair amount of it as well. Made all the more obvious to the point of it becoming a Running Gag in some of the comics by the way Ryusei is not interested in girls (only mecha).
- Excellen is a walking font of Les Yay. She might be Kyosuke's canonical love interest, but doesn't stop her flirting. She even admits to wanting to bone Viletta at one point!
- Lemon Browning, her alternate universe counterpart is hooked up with Axel, but doesn't anyone find it a tad suspicious she gets very loving around Lamia, even when they are enemies. Lamia even calls her Mistress.
- Certain members of the Chimera unit, but that's more or less canon.
- The Project T.D team's female members. That is all.
- Bian Zoldark and Maier von Branstein, an older version of the obvious Ho Yay dynamic between Ryusei Date and Radiese F. Branstein.
- Gilliam Yeager occasionally gets drawn into the Sanger/Elzam Ho Yay jokes. The only Aggressor immune to this is Kai.
- KATZE KOTOLNOS. It's obvious he thinks Haken Browning is a hot piece of ass.
- Shine and Latooni get depicted this way in fanart (and some official art!), despite Shine's freaking obvious crush on Rai.
- Latooni has a similarly blindingly obvious crush on Shine which is likely the source of this.
- Latooni is at first reluctant to wear a cute dress but changes her mind when Shine compliments her on it.
- Yes, it's more Foe Yay, but anyone else notice Shu seems to be more bemused than pissed off by Masaki? In a way, Shu could be getting off on the aggression, and purposely riles Masaki up to keep it going. Considering he hangs around a very perverted Dark Action Girl (and is not ungrateful for her company), it possible this is his kink (it's hers too, but it's probably more subtle in Shu's case).
- Archibald has a creepy Gauron-esque way of pissing off Rai and Elzam that carries some overtones of this.
- The freeware adventure game Sweet Dreams. You play as Amy, who has to rescue her friend Juliet from her own dream world. In this dream world, Amy is somewhat inexplicably thrust into the role of the Prince who has the wake the sleeping Princess Juliet. When you finally reach Juliet, you're given the option to wake her with a kiss. And then, as part of getting her to wake up from her dream, Amy tells her that "You'll always be a princess to me."
- Another early Hanako Games title Summer Schoolgirls is a giant flaming mass of playable Les Yay. Given that the credits include a thank-you to the Shoujo Ai community, this is completely intentional.
- Various other Hanako Games tend to include varying degrees of Les Yay... and prior to creating Hanako Games, the creator behind it released a few Interactive Fiction works under the name Papillon, several of which go straight past Les Yay into "explicitly contains lesbian relationships."
- A lot of the lines Heavy from Team Fortress 2 says to Medic are pretty homoerotic sounding, whether intentionally or not.
- Considering that the Medic and the Heavy are seemingly meant to be paired together as a "tank and healer" deal, it's likely that this was completely intentional.
- "GET BEHIND ME, DOCTOR!" that is all.
- "I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!"
- One of Sniper's achievement's "Beaux and Arrow" in which you have to kill a Heavy & Medic pair with the Huntsman. While beaux can technically mean a frequent and attentive male companion (which Heavy most certainly is with Medic), it's most commonly associated with boyfriend, lover, sweetheart and other such terms.
- The Heavy, being a Boisterous Bruiser, has lots of lines like this. Consider his "THANKS FOR THE RIDE!" response after being teleported by an Engineer.
- In "Meet the Medic," the doc touches Heavy a lot more than is seemingly required for open-abdominal surgery, including patting his head, pinching and stroking the side of his face ("Don't be such a baby, ribs grow back"), and clasping hands for a slightly but noticeably longer time than is required to help him up from the gurney. He also gives Sasha her own gurney and refers to Heavy as "my friend" with genuine fondness in his voice. Heavy willingly gives Medic his heart For Science!! (which Medic then accidentally blows up) The whole thing is about hearts.
- The line the Spy gives when he dominates an enemy Spy: "See you in hell, you handsome rogue." Admittedly, all Spies look exactly alike, so this may be more of a case of Self Yay.
- Sniper and Soldier can be seen sharing a decidedly tender moment in the beginning of the "Meet the Medic" outtakes.
- Considering that the Medic and the Heavy are seemingly meant to be paired together as a "tank and healer" deal, it's likely that this was completely intentional.
- Tears to Tiara, despite being a hetero Eroge, has possibly the strongest relationship in the game between Arawn and Pwyll, from their first meeting - rife with Manly Tears and Meaningful Handshake and exchanging True Names - to the moment of Arawn's first 'death', and then the multiple times that Pwyll manifests in the present day. They go from being potential enemies to Heterosexual Life Partners in about fifteen minutes, and there's a lot of mentioning of 'walking the same path' and 'our city/cities', and watching them with Primula comes off like she has two daddies: Arawn's "Geez... Pwyll, is raising a child really this hard?" and Pwyll understanding what Primula was saying about learning the Ancient Magic. Arawn was absolutely adorable after Pwyll explained that whole 'friendship' thing, and Pwyll's internal monologue... Uh...
Pwyll Voiceover: That's right... He was a fallen angel. The same blaze that condemned me was the same that had mercilessly condemned him. He threw himself into that fire, burned away his brilliant white form, and dyed himself in darkness. And he was still burning in that inner fire even as he stood before me. ... His ice-cold eyes met mine directly, condemned me, and called to me. Saying... 'Fall with me.' So... So I... |
- Later it's Arawn and Arthur, who's near-identical to Pwyll but with a different personality. They're Back-to-Back Badasses in the anime's opening sequence, while eating an apple (though they make a point of obscuring just what part of the apple Arthur took a bite from); when Arawn nearly dies again Arthur snaps him out of dying (though Arawn briefly hallucinates Arthur as Pwyll); then there's the scene in the Avalon courtyard, during which time Arawn's voice is softer than we've ever heard it before (while speaking to Pwyll's ghost and when calling Arthur back inside). Oh, and when Arthur reclaims the sword Danwyn, Arawn's half of the matched pair starts glowing and humming like a cellphone in your back pocket. Played with during the tournament (game-only) when the party is split into opposing teams; Arthur and Arawn are on the same team, Arthur's sister Rhiannon is on the other, and before the fight Rhiannon accuses her Oniisama of 'stealing her time with Arawn-sama!' while the other girls query why, if Arawn got to choose the teams, they aren't on his team (though Arthur is).
- The game also features some Ho Yay between Arthur and Spoony Bard Taliesin, as well as one-sided hero-worship for Gaius from his subordinate Decimus; the former involves Taliesin commenting that Arthur can't die because Taliesin 'has prior claim on his life,' while the latter is made more obvious in the anime (and possibly the PlayStation 3 game).
- In the anime, Gaius's almost suggestive tone while talking about building a 'freer, more tolerant world,' and Decimus' reaction, seem to be implying a tolerance beyond freedom from theocratic rule.
- And there are copious amount of Les Yay from Octavia and Morgan, who are also Back-to-Back Badasses at multiple points; Octavia also gives Morgan a 'friendship necklace,' and they hold hands during the seige of Avalon. Then there's the Les Yay and/or Foe Yay between Octavia and former roommate Lydia...
- Test Drive Unlimited shows what might be the laziest Les Yay in the history of creation: all PC characters and NPC characters get the same animations for the two kinds of hitchhiker missions - in the "Hitchhiker" missions, the dude asks for a lift, you give it, and he thanks you and leaves, and in the "Top Model" missions, the babe asks for a lift, you give it, and she thanks you, flirts with you, and leaves. Take this Double Standard, add the option for choosing a female PC, and... well, yeah.
- Long before TDU came Ecstatica, which did essentially the same thing (male or female protagonist, female love interest).
- Tomb Raider example: the Flanderized Plucky Comic Relief versions of Larson and Pierre, seen in Chronicles, are inseperable for the first two levels, and Pierre inexplicably offers to buy Larson a milkshake.
- Adel and Derek in the third Trauma Center game. It's not really there at first, but then there's a situation where Adel gets sick, and someone else besides Derek does the operation. When Adel finds out, he acts like Derek just left him at the altar.
- There's also Derek, his old school buddy and a certain snarky scientist that carries a lot of subtext too.
- In the Visual Novel Tsukihime, Vitriolic Best Buds Shiki and Arihiko never use Honorifics to address each other, but what makes even Shiki's own sister do a Double Take is Shiki's habit of referring to Arihiko by his first name (a habit usually attributed to girls). Shiki having a similarly put-upon, what-the-hell-are-you-thinking-idiot demeanor in his Slap Slap Kiss relationship with Arcueid also helps.
- Shiki walks into some Les Yay between devoted maid Kohaku and her mistress Akiha, which was only made more blatant in the more family-friendly anime: Kohaku's back being turned means Akiha biting and sucking blood from Kohaku's breasts looks a helluva lot more questionable.
U-Z[]
- In Umineko no Naku Koro ni Battler's little sister Ange is quite popular with the Stakes of Purgatory, especially Mammon.
- And then there are the side stories about Valentine's Day and White Day, which feature among other things Kyrie/Leviathan.
- Bernkastel and Lambdadelta are quite... affectionate with each other for Arch Enemies. Confirmed as canon in EP 5.
- There are also few couples in later games like Will/Lion and Erika/Dlanor.
- Author somewhat likes making lots of Ronove/Battler fanservice in TIPS and Ougon.
- An entire "17 years old Angel" TIP is dedicated to crack BL ships.
- Vagrant Story: Sydney/Ashley, Sydney/Hardin, Ashley/Guildenstern...do we need to go on?
- Jan/Sydney, though that's quite onesided. Poor Rosencrantz.
- To explain: this is a game where the cast is almost entirely male, and most of them walk around in skin-tight borderline fetish outfits (the main character wears assless chaps, and he's not even the only one). Half the dialogue has some kind of homoerotic subtext. But cult leader and primary antagonist Sydney Losstarot deserves special mention here. He's all but outright stated to be bisexual, described by Agent Merlose as being so beautiful and charismatic that his followers give their bodies as well as their souls to him. Every single one of Sydney's dialogues is positively dripping with blatant sexual innuendo, particularly his scenes with Ashley. Rosencrantz is another Launcher of a Thousand Ships, albeit to a lesser extent, since he has Belligerent Sexual Tension with half the male cast. Guildenstern inexplicably calls him a "harlot" of all things, and he has a significant Clingy Jealous Girl moment once he realizes Sydney has chosen Ashley to be his successor instead. Cue Jan's What's He Got That I Ain't Got? speech.
- Squad 7 in Valkyria Chronicles doesn't believe in the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Want proof? Take a look at Engineer Dallas Wyatt. She has "Man Hater" and "Fancies Women" as character traits, and most (if not all) of her quotes relate to main heroine Alicia Melchiott in some way.
- This also applies to lancer Jann Walker - a makeup wearing man who loves other men, especially Largo.
- Some people also see some Les Yay between Rosie and Isara. Think about it, Isara's the one Rosie acts most Tsundere to (she was never as tsun-tsun to Zaka or the other Darcsens), Isara's the one who get Rosie's deredere side out and it was Rosie who was hit hardest by Isara's death. Rosie's song, A Love Passed On, was specifically promised to and first sung for Isara.
- Then there's Belgen Gunther and Professor Theimer, who Isara refers to as her "two wonderful fathers".
- The intro trailer for Warhammer Online trailer contains some relatively subtle Les Yay (that probably counts as Foe Yay) between the nameless High Elf Shadow Warrior and the Dark Elf Sorceress.
- At one point in Wet, Rubi visits a lady by the name of Kafka Dvorak, who's into ancient books and who she wants info from concerning Mr. Ackers. Kafka seems to have something of the hots for Rubi, considering the way she acts toward her during their first meeting, and the fact that she practically feels her up suggests that she might have a bit more than just a crush on Rubi (this being Kafka, who knows what she really wants to do to her?). And the capper? The mission you go on for her is called "Falling for Kafka."
- In Wild Arms 2, Brad Evans and Billy Pilder are incredibly close-knit former war comrades who maintain a deep emotional attachment to each other long after Billy has stopped fighting. Their interaction is usually of a deeply sentimental variety, with the brain-injured wheelchair-bound Billy known to keep calling out Brad's name, while Brad is periodically shown to be keeping Billy firmly in his thoughts and feelings. They could be Heterosexual Life Partners, if only there was any evidence either of them were actually straight, which is almost diligently lacking.
- Probably because in Japan they're together, and this game's English translation didn't cover that up very well.
- Sorceress Philippa Eilhart's relationship with her apprentice Cynthia borders on a Running Gag in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, where Geralt keeps hearing moans from behind their door, only to walk in on something other than the obvious - first time Cynthia giving a sensual massage to Philippa, the second Philippa giving a sensual whipping to Cynthia; gives her official title "leashed sorceress" a completely new meaning. There's also discussion with Cynthia where she expresses admiration to the lifelike illusions Philippa is capable of doing, most notably a garden where "the fruit and she-elves are juicy".
- Odd example for a game where the player characters have no personality comes from Wizardry VI: Bane Of The Cosmic Forge. At the end of the game, if you choose the peaceful method, you confront the vampiress Rebecca and have the option to tell her that you love her, regardless of the party member speaking (who can be male or female). She gives that character the Diamond Ring, the best defensive trinket in the game or its sequel. The kicker? It's only usable by a female character. Hmmm...
- The World Ends With You: Joshua seems uncommonly interested in Neku, and tries to get the two of them to travel the streets alone during his chapter. Sure, he has a reason for it that's important to the plot, but the voice he uses makes him sound outright flirtatious.
- Lampshaded in the Omake chapter "Another Day: This Day Ends with You!":
Joshua: Shut up and walk, dear. |
- In the manga, Joshua is stalking Neku, and takes a picture of his ass with his phone. Yeah.
- Makoto, too, can be included in this. While pitching the Red Skull pin all over Shibuya with a cry of "Come and get some hot stuff!", Futoshi slowly and sensually backs into Makoto as the latter grins the entire time. And if the player builds up his Friendship Gauge at Shadow Ramen, he thinks you're coming onto him. "This isn't in the manual!" During week 2, he calls the Prince 'baby', and when some issues pop up during one of their 'business conversations' Josh gleefully remarks there seems to be 'trouble in paradise'. Oh Ai, poor dear, you never had a chance.
- The assistant in Wild Boar in Udagawa. When you get his FSG up high enough, he acts like a lovestruck schoolgirl, thinking such things as "(Don't go!)"
- The flirtatious shopkeeper in Cadoi City. It sounds like fairly typical male-to-female come-ons at first, but when you think about it, the only consistent party member (and thus, the only one he can be addressing, given that his lines never change except in response to increased friendship) is Neku.
- That little chat between Joshua and Neku in regards to Minamimoto...
Joshua: Think he's got a thing for you, Neku? |
- For some Les Yay, Eri really misses Shiki, Uzuki idolizes Konishi, and Ai doesn't seem that devastated when she explains to Mina that her date with Makoto ended up kinda sucking.
- In the Xenosaga games, there's a very strong, definitely intentional element of Les Yay between Shion, and KOS-MOS, the beautiful robot she designed. It doesn't hurt that the fetish level of KOS-MOS's outfits depends directly on how much Shion has to do with that body's design...
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