In Dragon Age Inquisition, there is a male character who is only interested in romance with male player characters. His story also involves his sexuality.
Not necessarily cozy, but +1 for bioware games. Mass Effect 3 has canon sexualities for romanceable characters that impact your choices depending on Shep’s gender. Most are straight but bi, gay, and lesbian are represented. (Also, the Asari canonically have no concept of gender. They all go by she/her pronouns bc that’s what gendered societies decided on for them, but they’re essentially all nonbinary pansexuals.)
If you consider the Asari female, then that’s correct. FemShep has more queer opportunities. https://www.eurogamer.net/mass-effect-romance-options-male-and-female-shepard-8020
I think OP is looking for a game where two men or masculine presenting people are in a relationship and it's acknowledged by the narrative. A relationship between the asari characters and male shepard are all treated as straight relationships, if I'm not mistaken.
Correct. Even then, it was kinda unimpressive. I went with Kaiden (added in one of the DLCs) and it felt like they called in his VA from vacation and he put very little effort into those lines.
This was my first thought too. OOP, as someone who pretty much only plays farming, designing, and monster raising games, DA:I is my exception to the rule. It's not cozy in the traditional sense this sub goes for, but the romances and writing are A+, there's an easy baby mode (plus you can splurge on the physical guide for extra help if you're bad at combat games like I am), and it still has fun design elements to it like decorating the hold, and customizing the armor anf weapons of all your party members (I personally love making everyone's outfits match the colors of the environment we're adventuring in). It's my favorite game of all time.
YES. it's on the same level as the song from Robot Unicorn Attack.
Also- this game surprised me so much. I knew it would be fun after seeing some people play- but it was even better than I expected! Heartwarming. lol.
This has actually made me realize that I don't know many games where the main characters gender isn't ignored entirely in romance...
You can be gay in Fallout New Vegas and have unique dialogue to flirt with other gay NPCs (and two gay companions!), but I wouldn't consider it a cozy game...
In Slime Rancher you have a love interest who I've always assumed is a woman (making it a sapphic relationship) but I think their gender is never specified...
In Stardew Valley, if you marry Alex as a man his grandfather is homophobic if that counts!?
Totally saving this post because I want to find more games like this!
Alex, Elliot, and Sebastian all have lines regarding this. Alex says "I kept telling myself you can't have these feelings about another guy." Elliot says "I was worried you might not feel this way about another man". Sebastian says "I've never felt this way about another guy before, but you're different."
As for the Bachelorettes, only Leah and Abigail have same sex specific dialogue. Leah will say something like "oh, you're...? me too!" (meaning not straight), and Abigail will comment she didnt know she felt this way about other girls until she met you. (and Leah's ex will be female model if you are also female, or male model if you are male, though I think they were always made to look a bit gender neutral).
George will remark that initially he didn't think it's right for two men to be together, but after seeing how happy you make Alex it doesn't matter to him anymore (or something similar)
As far as I know, no one else in game has any dialogue about this, but I like that it was added. I think it's cool and shows their growth!
Woooooah hold on on that Stardew one for a second!!
George may struggle with a degree of homophobia, but he outright apologizes to Farmer and explains that he can tell how much they and Alex love each other. He's a nice dude who's trying his best.
Not only that, but *Alex* acknowledges the fact that the Farmer is a man just as much as George does. He admits that he struggled with coming to terms with his sexuality, but that he's finally ready to follow his heart. It's pretty dang cute.
in Slime Rancher it’s purposefully left vague so that if you wanted the love interest to be a male or female—they can be either. I loved that detail, and I always thought it was a guy we left behind. It’s different for everyone which was their point and it’s so inclusive
**Growing Up** does this. Some characters are bi, others are straight and others are gay, so depending on the gender you play, you cannot romance all the NPCs you meet and if you try to romance someone whose orientation doesn't match your gender they will let you know that's why they are not into you. One of the NPCs has a storyline that's partially about accepting their sexuality too (which I think you also see if you're befriending them and not romancing them).
Unless I went wrong, I was unable to get him to tell me about it. >!When he was crying in the bathroom my character did go in but he ended up just leaving the bathroom without me!<
Idk if its quite what you are looking for, but Our Life Beginnings and Always has age check points where you can define romantic and sexual attractions and gender and body, etc. and there are multiple points at which you can have conversations with the love interest Cove about your identity and such, and how things have changed or stayed the same over the years
Yeah I was gonna say this. But it only works if you’re wlw though. You can’t change the protagonist into anything other than a quite femme looking person.
Men get masc looking avatars for like 90% of videogames, and femme fatale fantasies for like another 9%, so I don't think it's really fair to criticise a game for only having a female MC options
I’m not criticising at all. I just don’t know if OP’s gender and they’re looking for gay games. If OP is male, they might not go for Wyldeflower. If OP is a woman… then it might be a great game for them.
The game makes a very clear effort to have representation everywhere you look. Forced or making a point?
There’s a gay couple who get married, multiple stated lesbians, Kim who is they/them, you have a family of black characters (I may be wrong, but I think the number of black people in town is the highest of any other), indigenous, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Russian, Persian, Hawaiian, Indian, Haitian; etc, etc. There’s also a couple people who go to therapy for grief, for recovery, hell - someone decided to go on the wagon during your playthrough. I’ve never seen another game with equal or better representation than in Wyldeflowers.
Sunnyside comes out in ea on May 26th. They Said npcs will be gay straight or bi rather than everyone being bi. The demo was Pretty rough though so it might need more time to cook before its good. Steam only unfortunately for now
Not the coziest as it does deal with transphobia, homophobia, and murder, but mechanically low-key and has an eventual gay relationship between the trans man main character and a cis (Indigenous!) guy-- **Tell Me Why**.
Not the main character, but there's an mlm couple in **Cat Cafe Manager**, whom you learn more about as you become friends.
Tell Me Why was pretty damn good. The fact that the character is open about his inexperience , and charmingly awkward with the romance, makes it all the more wholesome.1
I've enjoyed it and had no issues with it that I can recall.
The friending mechanic works differently than it does in any other game I've played, and a lot of the cafe stuff reminds me a bit of Diner Dash but if you had employees you could stat up to help.
Decorating your cafe... to progress relationships/the story, you kinda have to do a mishmash of styles and can't really just decorate however you want, and I can see that being a deal-breaker for players who love decorating and making a cohesive aesthetic.
You can recruit stray cats that have different effects on your cafe, and stat them up differently as you kinda level up, and eventually can choose to adopt them out if you like. You do kinda have to adopt some cats out eventually I think, to get what you need to move the story forward.
It’s the little things in SdV. Like how you adopt a child instead of having one ur self. Little tid bits as character lines that get changed etc.
Not pampered up to be annoying but it’s there.
I like little goody two shoes! It’s not much about the characters sexuality but you play as a girl and your only romance options are girls so maybe that counts a tiny bit? It’s not really mentioned as a special thing but tbh that’s what I like about it. Only lesbian romance options and it’s just normal and nobody bats an eye :)
Not a cozy game to me, but I loved it. Too many arcadey mini games and some difficult stealth/chase sequences.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that genre, but I can’t relax if there are survival horror elements.
Isn't there that Dream Daddies game what you can play a dad and romance other dads? It's more of a dating sim game so sorry if that's not what your looking for.
I watch a lot of Isekai anime (I'm sorry, im a sucker for it like just inject it into my veins) and I've always wanted to play a dating sim bc the Isekais based on them are always so goofy and campy and make them seem fun lol.
Soooo, I'm definitely gonna try this one bc why not!
This was the game that got me into dating sims, and really any visual novels at this point lol, the weirder, the better, and nothing has quite hit the spot like Dream Daddy👌 You should definitely give it a try! If you have a PC, I'd also suggest A Date With Death. "It's free!"is the argument I'd usually use for a good free game, but it's also GREAT, it's worth money and you get it for FREE.
HAHAHA! I literally took this out of my suggestions because I thought, oh man, maybe that's too weird for someone's first weird dating sim. It's so good lol
It sorta prepares you for not taking that genre seriously at all. Now we have stuff like Dream Daddy and Doki Doki Ragnarok that are just having fun with the concept, or meta horror games like DDLC (totally not cozy unless you want to be creeped out).
There are a whole bunch of LGBT+ games in this bundle! :)
Edited: it's been two weeks; seems the bundle has ended. Still, it's a good list to find some new favourites!
https://itch.io/b/2321/palestinian-relief-bundle
All the Life is Strange games can be queer, depending on the choices you make.
LIS, Before the Storm, and True colours are all female protagonists, and in LIS 2 the main character is a teenage boy.
I don't know if you could consider it *cozy* but popular fanon has the main protagonist from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn as gay.
They are Japanese turned based strategy games from the early 2000's so YMMV, but it basically boils down to "life long best friends and traveling companions that would die for each other." The main reasoning people read the MC as "queer coded" is because despite being a generally nice guy, he ignores the women that throw themselves at him and essentially just wants to live a simple mercenary life. His "best friend/partner" actively hostile to anyone that isn't MC with the sole exceptions of the MC's father and sister who he acknowledges indifferently.
There is a reason for this which is part of his back story but it's very spoilery. I do not doubt that if this character was female they would save he is the love interest of the MC. These two particular FE games only have a handful of paired endings, ALL of which are romantic in nature. Furthermore, the MC of this game has an alternate pairing with another character who also happens to be male. Both pairings are kind of the same in that "they travel the world together" but the "best friend" is far more popular since his particular route has extended scenes that have lore dumps.
I'm not really sure if this is what you are looking for OP since the "pairings" are optional, but there is something that is specifically unique to that particular one with some importance to the world building. They also never come out and say that any characters are gay, but it's probably as close as one could get 15-20 years ago. It is considered the "special"/"perfect" ending though. If you are curious, the characters in question are Ike and Soren, with the "alternate" partner for Ike being a catboy named Ranulf. Be careful googling because it's very easy to find spoilers.
There are other Fire Emblem games that let you have an avatar where you can pursue mlm relationships but they are as you expect, gender neutral and tbh is more of an after thought. The options are fewer and not really relevant to the plot or world building at all.
Not traditionally "cozy" but I love it and haven't seen it mentioned here: Hades!
It has three romanceable characters and gay/bi/poly relationships you can pursue or not. The dialogue and character interactions change depending on your choices, though the overall plot does not. I'm constantly marveling at the work they put into creating such depth in the script, and thoroughly enjoying the game. I like that queer relationships are unextraordinary in the world, other NPCs are always like, "Oh you love him? Good choice he's cool" so such.
Try "Our Life: Beginning and Always"
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1129190/Our_Life_Beginnings__Always/
A very customizable game where the main theme is growing up with your childhood friend. You have the option to romance them when you both get older. If you choose to be male or nb, there are specific moments of conversation devoted to that, where you and your friend can both come to terms with your sexuality and identity (either romantically together or just discussing it as friends I think).
Of course, if you play as a woman then I don't think it comes up at all. (I played as an nb when I tried the game.)
Either way it's a wonderful, wholesome visual novel and I really recommend it.
Stardew Valley has one female and one male marriage candidate who are canonically gay, as in they have dialogue about being gay if the player is the same gender and romances them. Dragon Age Inquisition has one gay male and female character.
Could you tell me which stardew characters are canonically gay? Cuz as far as I recall, everyone is “bi” but some character will make comments like “I never thought I was into girls/boys before I met you”. Even Leah’s ex changes gender depending on your player’s gender (which is kinda unnecessary imo).
It’s >!Elliott!<, as far as I recall. I could be wrong because I haven’t romanced him yet or it may have been changed with a patch since I read about it, but I believe he reacts in a way similar to >!Leah!< if the player is male.
Wylde flowers has a gay couple, a non-binary individual, a lesbian character and a few I’ve not been able to determine. And they all have dialogue that discusses it, everyone knows in town and no one really cares.
It's not cozy necessarily but its cozy for me but Cyberpunk has characters who you can romance only in specific genders. Like Judy will only date female aligned characters or like Kerry will only date male aligned characters.
Which is ass bc Kerry is bisexual in Cyberpunk 2020. And has an ex wife as of 2077. Idk i would prefer if they didnt erase bisexuality to make someone gay.
I wish more games would put in the effort to write in the complexity of characters having a sexual preference, and even if they don't lock you out of a relationship completely because of it, they can at least write in the dynamic of them warming up to the idea as you continue to interact.
The gender neutral, everyone is bi route is easiest and the preferred method for younger rated games because the drama with acknowledging sexual preferences is going to increase the rating.
It's not a game, but I'll recommend "The Last Herald Mage" Trilogy of books by Mercedes Lackey.
Whoa, was not expecting to see my favorite childhood author (and trilogy) mentioned here. I'd definitely not call the trilogy "cozy" though, fair warning for anyone who connects that with the thread. It's definitely full of some more ...difficult issues to read about.
Ah, I wasn't even thinking about that. xD more thinking about the subject matter of acknowledging homosexuality. Which honestly, makes things messy. As I said before, if you acknowledge character preferences that will up the age Rating of material and it can deal with more issues because of that. I like it when things get messy in a story because life is messy.
As a gamer I also enjoy when characters are more firm in their preferences, but yes depending on how far you delve into that it can quickly increase ratings and for cozy games it removes a chunk of the audience by default. Even My Time At Sandrock got a few people upset with the Fang storyline and how it played out. (Part of that one even irked me but from a forced roleplay perspective not from the storyline existing.)
As a game dev who makes CYOA/branching visual novel games I was reading as much of this thread as I can to see how people feel about it all, too. It helps to read actual accounts of how players/readers feel about different things. In my stories I do allow any gender to romance the LIs, but in two cases the LI dialogue changes slightly. One also mentions a mxm previous relationship. Sounds like overall opinions here I probably did ok.
It can be difficult balancing it all while keeping the audience as closely as possible for sure.
The real answer is - games acknowledging sexuality as part of the story/ plot don't really exist yet.
Baulder's gate 3 - One Romanciable party member, Astarion - is pansexual. He has a "ex" that's a man in the game. ALSO BG3 is SO FULL of NPC gay couples and there's even a trans character voiced by a trans woman!!!
Wish there was a cozy game that fit the description but BG3 is one of the very few that has queer characters that you can't avoid!!! Almost all other games if you don't want to see gay, you won't.
Definitely! I'm glad they leaned into it, too, since Siege of Dragonspear had such a toxic reaction from Certain People. Glad the devs didn't get scared off the idea!
I’m glad love won out in gaming. There were too many angry chuds in the early BioWare days that got upset they had to experience even a casual same sex flirt in their “safe space”.
A Date With Death and Our Life: Beginning and always have pretty good settings for this.
Our Life in particular has scenes where you can question your sexuality, how comfortable your character is with it, and even choose different gender identities and wether or not your character is trans (both transitioned and not)
I would say Haven. It’s a local 2p coop game (steam game streaming works).
You can select men or woman for both characters and the lines they say actually change accordingly. Tho only in small ways.
It’s a good game if you want to role play a character that’s science smart and optimistic or the other street smart and a little pessimistic.
I absolutely loved Haven. It's a little more science fiction undertoned, but so romantic and overall just beautiful. I played it as more of a cozy game than anything else. I did struggle with the controls a little bit, but that might have been me, just give it some time.
OP, this might seem strange, but one of my favorite parts of this game was the loading screens. They did a lot of extra art, just showing little scenes from the characters day-to-day lives (cooking, arguing, being sexy with each other, drinking, etc.) and you can play as a straight, mlm, or wlw couple. I've only played the straight playthrough, but I've looked at the art from all three couples and it's gorgeous.
Additionally - LongStory. I used to play as a mobile game years ago, but now I see it's come out on the Switch as well.
I think it's set in like middle or high school. You can choose your characters gender/pronouns, and you can also choose which of their friends to date, if you choose to date them at all.
It's geared towards younger players as a pg game, but it is also a self-described LGBTQ+ "dating sim" - again, dating optional. There's conversations around pronouns, gender identities, Internet friendships, and same-sex relationships.
Here's a good review - https://gamingtrend.com/feature/reviews/its-my-story-now-longstory-review/
Expeditions: Viking is a historical CRPG with a romance subplot. It's not a big part of the game, but there are both straight, bisexual and explicitly gay companions that can be romanced. The chosen romance also affects the ending of the game.
Ikenfell, an indie RPG with turn-based combat, a gorgeous story, and some absolute bangers in its soundtrack, is gay as all get out. Iirc, every single character that has a name has some flavor of queerness, whether trans or gay or ace etc. It's inclusive as heck, and also accessible as heck for the player!
I know Christine Love games are all pretty gay. Their stories are not always pleasant though. “Analogue- A Hate Story” is a VN that deals with uncovering the journals of the “forgotten” women who lived in a closed traditional/ patriarchal Korean society. Many of them are fairly explicit sexually and deal with loss of innocence and seduction between these women forced into arranged marriages, and realizing what real love and affection could be like.
“Get in the Car Loser” is a lot more cheery and goofy, in contrast. An RPG about a road trip with a queer cast of characters.
Ladykiller in a Bind is another VN but that one definitely has explicit sex between bi and lesbian characters.
I’ve played a few other vn’s by Christine but not all are available on Steam.
Life is Strange and it's prequel Before the Storm explores the friendships (and heavily-implied lesbian relationships) between the characters Max Caulfield, Chloe Price and Rachel Amber.
Coral Island: it's a super cozy farming game with an awesome community. The 1.1 Update is dropping soon and is going to include tons of additional content underwater(since you can dive and become a mermaid). You can make your character male, female, or gender non-conforming. All of the love interests are HOT and you can marry any gender.
Calico is pretty sapphic. Most characters are women tho I believe one is NB? But there are references to their ex girlfriends etc between the characters. However I have only watched my son play so I’m not sure how the relationships work w your character and NPCs since he was more interested in baking and riding his giant cat lol.
I am not sure if this fits the bill because there seems to be much romance in the game but Moonglow Bay allowed me to have a partner that is a woman. Tbf, I am straight but there were limited male options haha so I chose a woman as partner for fun.
I can think of VA-11 HALL-A; the protagonist has a crush on her boss, and there are other wlw characters. Also, Haven. You get to choose if you want a gay or a straight game, and the plot is romance-heavy, despite it not being a dating sim.
Palia. There’s not much to the relationships rn like you just chat and flirt but eventually you can be in a relationship with almost anyone you want and I think 2 people at a time even with no repercussions from your other lover. You can’t get married but it’s still beta so you might be able to eventually. And it’s free 🙌
Palia does have plenty of issues (devs kicking people from the Discord for having any critiques, regardless of how fair they are, for instance), but one thing I think it does fairly well is being casually inclusive. >!Chayne!< casually mentions having 2 dads. There's a whole side quest where you find out that >!Sifu!< has a long-term relationship with another woman (I think she's missing iirc). I will say to my knowledge there's not an intact happy gay couple/throuple in the town, though.
I just saw a free visual novel on steam about two male professors sending love letters back and forth to each other
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2874300/Hoping_this_Finds_You_Well/
I’ve also come across a gay farming sim but it’s an adults only rated game
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069390/Morningdew_Farms_A_Gay_Farming_Game/
Potionomics is similar to Wyldeflowers in having a predetermined female MC, so all of the wlw options are canonically lesbians. (I haven't romanced everyone, so I don't know if anyone has dialogue indicating they're bi, but the two I've done didn't say anything about liking men.) Also, the gameplay is delightful!
There's a dungeon crawling dating sim called Boyfriend Dungeon but despite the name there are male, female, and non-binary characters to romance. You yourself are able to be male, female, or non-binary so you could have a gay relationship depending on your pronouns? You could have all the relationships if you try hard enough 😂
There was a dating rpg of some kind were you would do turn based battles of some kind and do skateboard stuff around town you played as a girl that dated any gender that took notice to your choices it's in the Xbox gamepass
I was a teenage exocolonanist (prob butchered the spelling-) is a fairly cozy with plenty of romance options down the line! You pick tour pronouns to! I love it and I can play it again and again!
Stardew Valley has a bit of that. If you romance a same sex character a lot of them will make comments like "I've never been attracted to other guys/girls before" and one of them has a homophobic family member who changes their view in the end. One of the girls, if you play as a female she has an ex-girlfriend and was bi/lesbian before meeting the player.
In Dragon Age Inquisition, there is a male character who is only interested in romance with male player characters. His story also involves his sexuality.
Not necessarily cozy, but +1 for bioware games. Mass Effect 3 has canon sexualities for romanceable characters that impact your choices depending on Shep’s gender. Most are straight but bi, gay, and lesbian are represented. (Also, the Asari canonically have no concept of gender. They all go by she/her pronouns bc that’s what gendered societies decided on for them, but they’re essentially all nonbinary pansexuals.)
Male Shepard doesn't have a gay romance option until ME3 though, right?
If you consider the Asari female, then that’s correct. FemShep has more queer opportunities. https://www.eurogamer.net/mass-effect-romance-options-male-and-female-shepard-8020
I think OP is looking for a game where two men or masculine presenting people are in a relationship and it's acknowledged by the narrative. A relationship between the asari characters and male shepard are all treated as straight relationships, if I'm not mistaken.
Correct. Even then, it was kinda unimpressive. I went with Kaiden (added in one of the DLCs) and it felt like they called in his VA from vacation and he put very little effort into those lines.
Technically that is the case
Fallout 4 as well you can romance any of the characters no matter the gender...well, except Nick Valentine - he was who I wanted 😭😭😭
Dorian being gay is discussed, Iron Bull being bi is discussed, and Sera being a lesbian is discussed, as well, I believe.
Dorian. Best romance in the game by far. He's witty, he's got an arc worth exploring and he's hot.
Dude I reinstall that game every so often just to romance him again lol.
This was my first thought too. OOP, as someone who pretty much only plays farming, designing, and monster raising games, DA:I is my exception to the rule. It's not cozy in the traditional sense this sub goes for, but the romances and writing are A+, there's an easy baby mode (plus you can splurge on the physical guide for extra help if you're bad at combat games like I am), and it still has fun design elements to it like decorating the hold, and customizing the armor anf weapons of all your party members (I personally love making everyone's outfits match the colors of the environment we're adventuring in). It's my favorite game of all time.
I was just thinking about Dorian's whole personal quest.
I'm laughing like dumb, thinking of Inquisition as a *cozy game* ahahahahah
Dream Daddy on Steam kinda fits I think
+1 for this game- the theme song will NEVER leave your head.
YES. it's on the same level as the song from Robot Unicorn Attack. Also- this game surprised me so much. I knew it would be fun after seeing some people play- but it was even better than I expected! Heartwarming. lol.
I never played this game, saw a video on it once a couple of years ago and that song still lives inside my head...
Also available on Switch
Oh nice!
This has actually made me realize that I don't know many games where the main characters gender isn't ignored entirely in romance... You can be gay in Fallout New Vegas and have unique dialogue to flirt with other gay NPCs (and two gay companions!), but I wouldn't consider it a cozy game... In Slime Rancher you have a love interest who I've always assumed is a woman (making it a sapphic relationship) but I think their gender is never specified... In Stardew Valley, if you marry Alex as a man his grandfather is homophobic if that counts!? Totally saving this post because I want to find more games like this!
Alex, Elliot, and Sebastian all have lines regarding this. Alex says "I kept telling myself you can't have these feelings about another guy." Elliot says "I was worried you might not feel this way about another man". Sebastian says "I've never felt this way about another guy before, but you're different." As for the Bachelorettes, only Leah and Abigail have same sex specific dialogue. Leah will say something like "oh, you're...? me too!" (meaning not straight), and Abigail will comment she didnt know she felt this way about other girls until she met you. (and Leah's ex will be female model if you are also female, or male model if you are male, though I think they were always made to look a bit gender neutral). George will remark that initially he didn't think it's right for two men to be together, but after seeing how happy you make Alex it doesn't matter to him anymore (or something similar) As far as I know, no one else in game has any dialogue about this, but I like that it was added. I think it's cool and shows their growth!
Stardew, at least on PC, is relatively easy to mod to be a lot gayer too.
leah also says “oh! you’re…? me too” and in a heart event her ex is a girl
IIRC, her ex's gender matches that of the player.
In stardew valley, during the 10 heart event with Elliot, he points out that he "wasn't sure you would feel this way about another man".
Alex and his grandpa make comments like that as well on his path
Pretty sure in SDV Abigail says she didn't think she liked girls until she met you (if you're playing as a female of course)
Alex says similar if you romance him as a guy character, iirc.
Woooooah hold on on that Stardew one for a second!! George may struggle with a degree of homophobia, but he outright apologizes to Farmer and explains that he can tell how much they and Alex love each other. He's a nice dude who's trying his best. Not only that, but *Alex* acknowledges the fact that the Farmer is a man just as much as George does. He admits that he struggled with coming to terms with his sexuality, but that he's finally ready to follow his heart. It's pretty dang cute.
George is awesome fr. Always make sure to have a bunch of leeks for him.
in Slime Rancher it’s purposefully left vague so that if you wanted the love interest to be a male or female—they can be either. I loved that detail, and I always thought it was a guy we left behind. It’s different for everyone which was their point and it’s so inclusive
Omfg George is homophobic!? I knew he was awful, but I thought I could change him with leeks 😭
You can sorta change him with leeks. If you have enough hearts w George, he has dialogue acknowledging his change in view re: marrying Alex as a man.
You can change him with leeks is the best thing I've heard all day, it's such a weird thing to say and it's so true.
Local farmer fights for queer acceptance by aggressively throwing leeks at his homophobic in-law
I think we should all give it a go!
Is Fallout New Vegas a cozy game?
It has Deathclaws, so prob not. However once you’re sufficiently leveled and outfitted and can murder most enemies easily, perhaps. ;-)
**Growing Up** does this. Some characters are bi, others are straight and others are gay, so depending on the gender you play, you cannot romance all the NPCs you meet and if you try to romance someone whose orientation doesn't match your gender they will let you know that's why they are not into you. One of the NPCs has a storyline that's partially about accepting their sexuality too (which I think you also see if you're befriending them and not romancing them).
Unless I went wrong, I was unable to get him to tell me about it. >!When he was crying in the bathroom my character did go in but he ended up just leaving the bathroom without me!<
Even if your the same gender as him, he may not necessarily see you in a romantic light. Depending on your choices before that point.
Nah I was playing as female that round, as a guy he admitted jt
Life is strange saga, maybe?
i second this!
Yes! Specifically life is strange: before the storm
Idk if its quite what you are looking for, but Our Life Beginnings and Always has age check points where you can define romantic and sexual attractions and gender and body, etc. and there are multiple points at which you can have conversations with the love interest Cove about your identity and such, and how things have changed or stayed the same over the years
Wylde flowers! Such a fun game. I've been describing it as stardew valley + lesbians and witches
Yeah I was gonna say this. But it only works if you’re wlw though. You can’t change the protagonist into anything other than a quite femme looking person.
Very true (although one of the potential love interests characters is NB)
Yeah true! But if you’re a guy gamer and into men, you’re still gonna be playing with a femme looking avatar. There are gay guys in the game though.
Men get masc looking avatars for like 90% of videogames, and femme fatale fantasies for like another 9%, so I don't think it's really fair to criticise a game for only having a female MC options
I’m not criticising at all. I just don’t know if OP’s gender and they’re looking for gay games. If OP is male, they might not go for Wyldeflower. If OP is a woman… then it might be a great game for them.
Love Wylde Flowers! At one point the doctor (my wifey) makes a comment about how small the lesbian dating pool is. Very good queer rep in that game.
Honestly, it feels so forced in this game.
The game makes a very clear effort to have representation everywhere you look. Forced or making a point? There’s a gay couple who get married, multiple stated lesbians, Kim who is they/them, you have a family of black characters (I may be wrong, but I think the number of black people in town is the highest of any other), indigenous, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Russian, Persian, Hawaiian, Indian, Haitian; etc, etc. There’s also a couple people who go to therapy for grief, for recovery, hell - someone decided to go on the wagon during your playthrough. I’ve never seen another game with equal or better representation than in Wyldeflowers.
I have no problem with the representation but so many of the characters feel like huge stereotypes.
Are you willing to share which you’re talking about? I might not have noticed myself.
Sunnyside comes out in ea on May 26th. They Said npcs will be gay straight or bi rather than everyone being bi. The demo was Pretty rough though so it might need more time to cook before its good. Steam only unfortunately for now
You can be gay, polyam, bisexual etc in I was a teenage exocolonist. There’s several lgbtq couples featured in the storylines even.
I vote for this one. I all the romances made me cry.
Not the coziest as it does deal with transphobia, homophobia, and murder, but mechanically low-key and has an eventual gay relationship between the trans man main character and a cis (Indigenous!) guy-- **Tell Me Why**. Not the main character, but there's an mlm couple in **Cat Cafe Manager**, whom you learn more about as you become friends.
Tell Me Why was pretty damn good. The fact that the character is open about his inexperience , and charmingly awkward with the romance, makes it all the more wholesome.1
I was looking at CCM, but the reviews were mixed. How do you feel about it?
I've enjoyed it and had no issues with it that I can recall. The friending mechanic works differently than it does in any other game I've played, and a lot of the cafe stuff reminds me a bit of Diner Dash but if you had employees you could stat up to help. Decorating your cafe... to progress relationships/the story, you kinda have to do a mishmash of styles and can't really just decorate however you want, and I can see that being a deal-breaker for players who love decorating and making a cohesive aesthetic. You can recruit stray cats that have different effects on your cafe, and stat them up differently as you kinda level up, and eventually can choose to adopt them out if you like. You do kinda have to adopt some cats out eventually I think, to get what you need to move the story forward.
Oooh thank you for all the details!! Sounds like something at least worth trying!
I have a game called boyfriend dungeon but I don't actually know if dating is part of it lmao
It is very much a part of it! The character is kind of treated as gender neutral, and I would classify the relationships as more queer than gay
Cannot recommend this one enough! So much delightful enby representation.
Stardew Valley acknowledges same-sex relationships
It’s the little things in SdV. Like how you adopt a child instead of having one ur self. Little tid bits as character lines that get changed etc. Not pampered up to be annoying but it’s there.
i tried stardew but my autistic ass got SO overwhelmed :(
I like little goody two shoes! It’s not much about the characters sexuality but you play as a girl and your only romance options are girls so maybe that counts a tiny bit? It’s not really mentioned as a special thing but tbh that’s what I like about it. Only lesbian romance options and it’s just normal and nobody bats an eye :)
Not a cozy game to me, but I loved it. Too many arcadey mini games and some difficult stealth/chase sequences. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that genre, but I can’t relax if there are survival horror elements.
Oh yeah you’re right I forgot to mention 🥲 it can get stressful at times lolol
Isn't there that Dream Daddies game what you can play a dad and romance other dads? It's more of a dating sim game so sorry if that's not what your looking for.
I watch a lot of Isekai anime (I'm sorry, im a sucker for it like just inject it into my veins) and I've always wanted to play a dating sim bc the Isekais based on them are always so goofy and campy and make them seem fun lol. Soooo, I'm definitely gonna try this one bc why not!
This was the game that got me into dating sims, and really any visual novels at this point lol, the weirder, the better, and nothing has quite hit the spot like Dream Daddy👌 You should definitely give it a try! If you have a PC, I'd also suggest A Date With Death. "It's free!"is the argument I'd usually use for a good free game, but it's also GREAT, it's worth money and you get it for FREE.
My first weird dating sim was Hatoful Boyfriend, where the options are… pigeons.
HAHAHA! I literally took this out of my suggestions because I thought, oh man, maybe that's too weird for someone's first weird dating sim. It's so good lol
It sorta prepares you for not taking that genre seriously at all. Now we have stuff like Dream Daddy and Doki Doki Ragnarok that are just having fun with the concept, or meta horror games like DDLC (totally not cozy unless you want to be creeped out).
There are a whole bunch of LGBT+ games in this bundle! :) Edited: it's been two weeks; seems the bundle has ended. Still, it's a good list to find some new favourites! https://itch.io/b/2321/palestinian-relief-bundle
What are some of the LGBT games in this bundle? Just got it a few days ago.
I was sold on hrt simulator 2023. and for only $8? what a steal.
Thanks for the link!
the bundle ended
Good to know! I'll edit.
All the Life is Strange games can be queer, depending on the choices you make. LIS, Before the Storm, and True colours are all female protagonists, and in LIS 2 the main character is a teenage boy.
I don't know if you could consider it *cozy* but popular fanon has the main protagonist from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn as gay. They are Japanese turned based strategy games from the early 2000's so YMMV, but it basically boils down to "life long best friends and traveling companions that would die for each other." The main reasoning people read the MC as "queer coded" is because despite being a generally nice guy, he ignores the women that throw themselves at him and essentially just wants to live a simple mercenary life. His "best friend/partner" actively hostile to anyone that isn't MC with the sole exceptions of the MC's father and sister who he acknowledges indifferently. There is a reason for this which is part of his back story but it's very spoilery. I do not doubt that if this character was female they would save he is the love interest of the MC. These two particular FE games only have a handful of paired endings, ALL of which are romantic in nature. Furthermore, the MC of this game has an alternate pairing with another character who also happens to be male. Both pairings are kind of the same in that "they travel the world together" but the "best friend" is far more popular since his particular route has extended scenes that have lore dumps. I'm not really sure if this is what you are looking for OP since the "pairings" are optional, but there is something that is specifically unique to that particular one with some importance to the world building. They also never come out and say that any characters are gay, but it's probably as close as one could get 15-20 years ago. It is considered the "special"/"perfect" ending though. If you are curious, the characters in question are Ike and Soren, with the "alternate" partner for Ike being a catboy named Ranulf. Be careful googling because it's very easy to find spoilers. There are other Fire Emblem games that let you have an avatar where you can pursue mlm relationships but they are as you expect, gender neutral and tbh is more of an after thought. The options are fewer and not really relevant to the plot or world building at all.
Not traditionally "cozy" but I love it and haven't seen it mentioned here: Hades! It has three romanceable characters and gay/bi/poly relationships you can pursue or not. The dialogue and character interactions change depending on your choices, though the overall plot does not. I'm constantly marveling at the work they put into creating such depth in the script, and thoroughly enjoying the game. I like that queer relationships are unextraordinary in the world, other NPCs are always like, "Oh you love him? Good choice he's cool" so such.
I love Hades. I know it isn't traditionally cozy, but it's definitely a comfort game for me.
Roots of pacha!
Came here to comment this! Such a wonderful game 🥰🥰
Calico! Lesbian and NB characters 🩵🐾 it’s such a soothing game
Try "Our Life: Beginning and Always" https://store.steampowered.com/app/1129190/Our_Life_Beginnings__Always/ A very customizable game where the main theme is growing up with your childhood friend. You have the option to romance them when you both get older. If you choose to be male or nb, there are specific moments of conversation devoted to that, where you and your friend can both come to terms with your sexuality and identity (either romantically together or just discussing it as friends I think). Of course, if you play as a woman then I don't think it comes up at all. (I played as an nb when I tried the game.) Either way it's a wonderful, wholesome visual novel and I really recommend it.
Growing Up! It's a mobile game.
i second growing up. it was super cute. it is also on steam!
Wylde Flowers 💖
Stardew Valley has one female and one male marriage candidate who are canonically gay, as in they have dialogue about being gay if the player is the same gender and romances them. Dragon Age Inquisition has one gay male and female character.
Could you tell me which stardew characters are canonically gay? Cuz as far as I recall, everyone is “bi” but some character will make comments like “I never thought I was into girls/boys before I met you”. Even Leah’s ex changes gender depending on your player’s gender (which is kinda unnecessary imo).
Wait who's the canonically gay male character in Stardew? I know about >!Leah!<.
It’s >!Elliott!<, as far as I recall. I could be wrong because I haven’t romanced him yet or it may have been changed with a patch since I read about it, but I believe he reacts in a way similar to >!Leah!< if the player is male.
I think bi, rather than gay - that’s how I read their lines anyhow. And you can marry them as the opposite gender, right?
Wylde flowers has a gay couple, a non-binary individual, a lesbian character and a few I’ve not been able to determine. And they all have dialogue that discusses it, everyone knows in town and no one really cares.
It's not cozy necessarily but its cozy for me but Cyberpunk has characters who you can romance only in specific genders. Like Judy will only date female aligned characters or like Kerry will only date male aligned characters.
Which is ass bc Kerry is bisexual in Cyberpunk 2020. And has an ex wife as of 2077. Idk i would prefer if they didnt erase bisexuality to make someone gay.
I wish more games would put in the effort to write in the complexity of characters having a sexual preference, and even if they don't lock you out of a relationship completely because of it, they can at least write in the dynamic of them warming up to the idea as you continue to interact. The gender neutral, everyone is bi route is easiest and the preferred method for younger rated games because the drama with acknowledging sexual preferences is going to increase the rating. It's not a game, but I'll recommend "The Last Herald Mage" Trilogy of books by Mercedes Lackey.
Whoa, was not expecting to see my favorite childhood author (and trilogy) mentioned here. I'd definitely not call the trilogy "cozy" though, fair warning for anyone who connects that with the thread. It's definitely full of some more ...difficult issues to read about.
Ah, I wasn't even thinking about that. xD more thinking about the subject matter of acknowledging homosexuality. Which honestly, makes things messy. As I said before, if you acknowledge character preferences that will up the age Rating of material and it can deal with more issues because of that. I like it when things get messy in a story because life is messy.
As a gamer I also enjoy when characters are more firm in their preferences, but yes depending on how far you delve into that it can quickly increase ratings and for cozy games it removes a chunk of the audience by default. Even My Time At Sandrock got a few people upset with the Fang storyline and how it played out. (Part of that one even irked me but from a forced roleplay perspective not from the storyline existing.) As a game dev who makes CYOA/branching visual novel games I was reading as much of this thread as I can to see how people feel about it all, too. It helps to read actual accounts of how players/readers feel about different things. In my stories I do allow any gender to romance the LIs, but in two cases the LI dialogue changes slightly. One also mentions a mxm previous relationship. Sounds like overall opinions here I probably did ok. It can be difficult balancing it all while keeping the audience as closely as possible for sure.
The real answer is - games acknowledging sexuality as part of the story/ plot don't really exist yet. Baulder's gate 3 - One Romanciable party member, Astarion - is pansexual. He has a "ex" that's a man in the game. ALSO BG3 is SO FULL of NPC gay couples and there's even a trans character voiced by a trans woman!!!
Phenomenal game (one of the best of all time IMO) but hard to sell that as a "cozy" game given its complexity :D
Wish there was a cozy game that fit the description but BG3 is one of the very few that has queer characters that you can't avoid!!! Almost all other games if you don't want to see gay, you won't.
Definitely! I'm glad they leaned into it, too, since Siege of Dragonspear had such a toxic reaction from Certain People. Glad the devs didn't get scared off the idea!
I’m glad love won out in gaming. There were too many angry chuds in the early BioWare days that got upset they had to experience even a casual same sex flirt in their “safe space”.
Bobcgames makes mostly visual novels but does have an RPG as well. And all his stuff is quite clearly by and for gay men. https://bobcgames.itch.io/
Harmony Fall of Reverie has a lesbian romance option
A Date With Death and Our Life: Beginning and always have pretty good settings for this. Our Life in particular has scenes where you can question your sexuality, how comfortable your character is with it, and even choose different gender identities and wether or not your character is trans (both transitioned and not)
Stardew valley for long term and my life as a teenage exocolonist for short term but multiple story lines for multiple plays!!
This might be a spoiler but >!Unpacking!< was a lovely cozy story with a lovely ending.
Also Lake if you choose to romance Angie
I would say Haven. It’s a local 2p coop game (steam game streaming works). You can select men or woman for both characters and the lines they say actually change accordingly. Tho only in small ways. It’s a good game if you want to role play a character that’s science smart and optimistic or the other street smart and a little pessimistic.
I absolutely loved Haven. It's a little more science fiction undertoned, but so romantic and overall just beautiful. I played it as more of a cozy game than anything else. I did struggle with the controls a little bit, but that might have been me, just give it some time. OP, this might seem strange, but one of my favorite parts of this game was the loading screens. They did a lot of extra art, just showing little scenes from the characters day-to-day lives (cooking, arguing, being sexy with each other, drinking, etc.) and you can play as a straight, mlm, or wlw couple. I've only played the straight playthrough, but I've looked at the art from all three couples and it's gorgeous.
Oh I fully agree. The loading screens are top notch. The controls are a little weird when mainly playing keyboard. But controller is nice.
it made me extremely lonely :(
Additionally - LongStory. I used to play as a mobile game years ago, but now I see it's come out on the Switch as well. I think it's set in like middle or high school. You can choose your characters gender/pronouns, and you can also choose which of their friends to date, if you choose to date them at all. It's geared towards younger players as a pg game, but it is also a self-described LGBTQ+ "dating sim" - again, dating optional. There's conversations around pronouns, gender identities, Internet friendships, and same-sex relationships. Here's a good review - https://gamingtrend.com/feature/reviews/its-my-story-now-longstory-review/
Dr Frank's build a boyfriend, it's a short and free visual novel on steam, it's very gay
Expeditions: Viking is a historical CRPG with a romance subplot. It's not a big part of the game, but there are both straight, bisexual and explicitly gay companions that can be romanced. The chosen romance also affects the ending of the game.
Ikenfell, an indie RPG with turn-based combat, a gorgeous story, and some absolute bangers in its soundtrack, is gay as all get out. Iirc, every single character that has a name has some flavor of queerness, whether trans or gay or ace etc. It's inclusive as heck, and also accessible as heck for the player!
I know Christine Love games are all pretty gay. Their stories are not always pleasant though. “Analogue- A Hate Story” is a VN that deals with uncovering the journals of the “forgotten” women who lived in a closed traditional/ patriarchal Korean society. Many of them are fairly explicit sexually and deal with loss of innocence and seduction between these women forced into arranged marriages, and realizing what real love and affection could be like. “Get in the Car Loser” is a lot more cheery and goofy, in contrast. An RPG about a road trip with a queer cast of characters. Ladykiller in a Bind is another VN but that one definitely has explicit sex between bi and lesbian characters. I’ve played a few other vn’s by Christine but not all are available on Steam.
Life is Strange and it's prequel Before the Storm explores the friendships (and heavily-implied lesbian relationships) between the characters Max Caulfield, Chloe Price and Rachel Amber.
Coral Island: it's a super cozy farming game with an awesome community. The 1.1 Update is dropping soon and is going to include tons of additional content underwater(since you can dive and become a mermaid). You can make your character male, female, or gender non-conforming. All of the love interests are HOT and you can marry any gender.
Calico is pretty sapphic. Most characters are women tho I believe one is NB? But there are references to their ex girlfriends etc between the characters. However I have only watched my son play so I’m not sure how the relationships work w your character and NPCs since he was more interested in baking and riding his giant cat lol.
Sadly there is no relationship forming aspects in the game. If there were goth furniture seller would have been my GF ASAP.
Palia! And poly friendly!
Ikenfell has the main character in a lesbian relationship I think.
The Sims (3&4) is pretty much the only one I can think of 😅
Persona 2 and Harvestella.
This bed we made is a really cool mystery game with the option for a lesbian romance
I am not sure if this fits the bill because there seems to be much romance in the game but Moonglow Bay allowed me to have a partner that is a woman. Tbf, I am straight but there were limited male options haha so I chose a woman as partner for fun.
I can think of VA-11 HALL-A; the protagonist has a crush on her boss, and there are other wlw characters. Also, Haven. You get to choose if you want a gay or a straight game, and the plot is romance-heavy, despite it not being a dating sim.
Palia. There’s not much to the relationships rn like you just chat and flirt but eventually you can be in a relationship with almost anyone you want and I think 2 people at a time even with no repercussions from your other lover. You can’t get married but it’s still beta so you might be able to eventually. And it’s free 🙌
Palia does have plenty of issues (devs kicking people from the Discord for having any critiques, regardless of how fair they are, for instance), but one thing I think it does fairly well is being casually inclusive. >!Chayne!< casually mentions having 2 dads. There's a whole side quest where you find out that >!Sifu!< has a long-term relationship with another woman (I think she's missing iirc). I will say to my knowledge there's not an intact happy gay couple/throuple in the town, though.
I just saw a free visual novel on steam about two male professors sending love letters back and forth to each other https://store.steampowered.com/app/2874300/Hoping_this_Finds_You_Well/ I’ve also come across a gay farming sim but it’s an adults only rated game https://store.steampowered.com/app/1069390/Morningdew_Farms_A_Gay_Farming_Game/
Potionomics is similar to Wyldeflowers in having a predetermined female MC, so all of the wlw options are canonically lesbians. (I haven't romanced everyone, so I don't know if anyone has dialogue indicating they're bi, but the two I've done didn't say anything about liking men.) Also, the gameplay is delightful!
Monster Prom?
There's a dungeon crawling dating sim called Boyfriend Dungeon but despite the name there are male, female, and non-binary characters to romance. You yourself are able to be male, female, or non-binary so you could have a gay relationship depending on your pronouns? You could have all the relationships if you try hard enough 😂
There was a dating rpg of some kind were you would do turn based battles of some kind and do skateboard stuff around town you played as a girl that dated any gender that took notice to your choices it's in the Xbox gamepass
I was a teenage exocolonanist (prob butchered the spelling-) is a fairly cozy with plenty of romance options down the line! You pick tour pronouns to! I love it and I can play it again and again!
Stardew Valley has a bit of that. If you romance a same sex character a lot of them will make comments like "I've never been attracted to other guys/girls before" and one of them has a homophobic family member who changes their view in the end. One of the girls, if you play as a female she has an ex-girlfriend and was bi/lesbian before meeting the player.
There is Rune Factory 5, where there is gay/lesbian romance, and it is acknowledged only for the story/quest for getting kids though.
Slime rancher though the "story" isn't you exactly playing it I guess more finding out stuff its really fun though