I’m still riding the bittersweet high from having completed Final Fantasy 14’s Endwalker — arguably the MMO’s best expansion to date. The Hydaelyn and Zodiark arc drew to a close, leaving our Warriors of Light in peace for the first time in a long while. I loved every single bit of it, yet I was left feeling like something was missing. It seems as though the game has evolved to a natural point where it could easily incorporate relationships between players and NPCs, but for some reason, it hasn’t taken that final step into what the fandom craves the most.
Our favourite NPC characters have naturally grown with each expansion and it’s been great to get a peek into their histories and witness their journeys into who they have become today. As Square Enix added more and more content, these characters developed beyond mere side characters that were just there to set the scene and help tell the story, and instead have become a living, breathing part of the game.
One of the main turning points for this was introduced in Shadowbringers, where our beloved Scions became a part of the action and joined us on the main scenario quest dungeons via the Trust System. Instead of partying up with other players, the Scions and your allies would join you as AI companions, so no need to wait for others. This content was likely aimed at players who prefer to solo things and skip the queues, it offered so much more than just a simple gameplay mechanic.
Characters who had only truly come to life previously in cutscenes or the odd few instances can now run alongside us as our ride or die in dungeons. With the introduction of Trusts, I felt that we as player characters were beginning to build more of a relationship with NPCs and that each player was getting a different experience depending on which characters accompanied them, or in which roles.
This idea of more tailored gameplay was expanded upon in Endwalker too. One main scenario quest sees players choose which Scion meets with them in a late-night rendezvous, which can easily be perceived as having romantic connotations. Playing that particular quest and realising how similar it was to BioWare’s finale scenes for romances made me suddenly feel this concept could work well, whereas previously I had dismissed it as wishful thinking.
Main scenario quests tailored to our personal choices reflecting any romantic relationships we might be a part of would be a dream come true for many fans who love to ship their WoL with their favourite Scion. Imagine you could trigger more of these scenes just by visiting your chosen beau wherever they are a la BioWare? Fancy a quick smooch? Head to the Waking Sands and hit Urianger up. Or if you have a personal apartment or FC house, perhaps you could invite them back to your own little love nest. It would be Gposer heaven.
There have always been little elements that showed promise when it comes to this idea, such as character dialogue changing depending on your own progression in the game. For example, Estinien’s dialogue in Heavensward is slightly different if you have completed the Dragoon job quests, as he acknowledges you as a fellow Azure Dragoon.
Take this same idea, but imagine he’s speaking to you differently because you have an intimate relationship. Or imagine the lines used in Trusts are different because your NPC buddy is your romantic partner. G’raha healing you in a panic mid-dungeon because he doesn’t want his beloved to get hurt, or Thancred teasingly telling you that you’ll make him jealous if you keep getting attention from other men when accidentally taking hate while he’s tanking. It would be adorable.
Romance in MMOs is fairly rare, though not unheard of — looking at you, SWTOR — but there are plenty of games that FF14 could take inspiration from. Loads of single-player games with romance options involve gift-giving, so imagine hunting around for the perfect gift for each Scion. It could be such fun discovering which NPCs love which items, as well as the idea of them reacting poorly to a bad gift choice — you know Alisae won’t appreciate a burger with pickles. On that note, imagine dates: you could pick a location to take your beau to, maybe characters like Estinien would go in casual wear instead of their armour too. Treat them to a night out at the Gold Saucer, or go and watch the pole dancers of Eulmore. Whatever floats your NPC ship.
Genshin Impact’s Hangout Events would be another great template to draw from, where players could take part in special story quests with specific characters that feature multiple endings depending on the choices made during the quest. Perhaps it could be quests like this that progress your relationship with a given NPC, or completely set you back if you pick the wrong options. Perhaps purposefully screwing one of these up would be how you’d dump a character, leaving you free to go and romance your newer fave.
If we’re being practical, there’d naturally be a limit to which characters you could romance. As much as I fought the waves of fandom pressure to not fall in love with Emet-Selch, Endwalker broke down my defenses. Fans would love to romance him, but it wouldn’t work based on the story content. The same goes for Haurchefant. It would be too harsh to romance a character and then they leave for… whatever reason. The Scions seem like the easiest batch of characters to pick, but even then you run the risk of your romance prematurely ending. The extended band of allies has some notable candidates that would be ideal — Aymeric, Hien, Yugiri, Magnai, Sadu, or Cirilla, to name just a few.
There’s likely a fair few players who do not like the idea of being able to romance NPCs, but the beauty of it would be that it wouldn’t have to affect their gameplay at all. If they don’t want to romance anyone, they don’t have to. The content would revolve around each individual player just as it’s always done, so if you weren’t romancing a NPC, that character wouldn't be romancing anyone — unless it’s another NPC as part of the story, of course. So there would be no danger of seeing the Scions sucking face with other players in the side alleys of Ul’dah. Sure, you’ll still get a Twitter feed flooded by stans sharing their favourite screenshots or artwork of their ships, but that already happens now anyway. There’s no escaping the community’s headcanons.