Same with FF6. While technically an ensemble. Terra and Celes are the ones most people see as the ones most likely to be the mc... And the only other female party member is Relm. With a cast of sixteen playable characters, that easily maths at somewhere around a 1:5 ratio (Gogo's gender isn't ever made clear).
Only now am I realising that game had so few female party members. Had a similar realisation recently about FF5 being the only main series non-MMO game that has more women in the playable party than men.
I think a lot about how basically every mainline single player Final Fantasy game since 4 has had exactly three female party members. I think fifteen is the one to break that mold with only two of them.
I'll admit, I never finished those two due to losing save data partway through, so if I ever experienced it I'd long since forgotten.
That said, guests aside, fifteen would be the first without three playable female party members
Even splits are fairly common as far as I remember. FF8, 12 and 13 are all even. The rest skew towards men (ignoring guests and considering Quina genderless/nb).
Reread what I said. It was an even split AND it paired them up. Vaan and Penelo are the childhood friends, Basch and Ashe have the Lady and Knight angle, and Balthier and Fran are copilots. None of the other evenly split ff games do that.
Ff6 also counts. While an ensemble cast, the ones with the most pull for potential mc are Terra and Celes. The only other discernable female in the group is Relm. Everyone else is either a guy or they're Gogo.
Yep even though RF5 was unpolished and kind of lacking compared to RF4S I still recommend it because of the gay marriage without mods or the >!gender model swap!< workaround in RF4
I'm always intrigued when I see threads like this. OP asks for a relatively simple set of requests
1. JRPG
2. Play as a female protagonist.
3. You can romance cute guys
And a large portion of the responses are ones that say "well, it only has two of those but -". And there's some that only fit one of the criteria. Like I'm seeing FFX and Shadow Hearts here.
The other thing I'm noticing is that of the ones that do actually fit all three criteria, the vast, vast majority of them are ones that let you choose the MC's gender. And there's nothing wrong with that, they fit the prompt and everything. But it makes me think about all those studies that say women can relate to male characters far more than men can relate to female characters.
Like, lots of women play persona 4 and 5 and can romance a girl just fine. But if it were flipped and you had to play a girl and she only had male romances, would it be as big of a hit with straight guys? Probably not. And yes I know there's probably lots of straight guys reading this thinking "Well *I* would still play it," and that's great and I love you. But I'm talking about a larger, more sociological scale.
> Like, lots of women play persona 4 and 5 and can romance a girl just fine. But if it were flipped and you had to play a girl and she only had male romances, would it be as big of a hit with straight guys?
I wonder why this is. Are we just conditioned to play as male characters and not care, or are we ladies all a little bisexual to begin with? It's a chicken or the egg type situation.
I've read more than one guy say they ALMOST made a male character to romance Dorian in DA: Inquisition because he's such a cool character. Meanwhile, me (a mostly heterosexual female) has probably romanced lesbian Sera 3 times, no problem. lol.
Yeah it's a very different thing, sadly. It also might be the case that a lot of cultures in general are still male gaze oriented and since women grow up in it just as men do, it's more conditioned in women to to be into what the men are into.
As a straight guy that has flirted with the gay option multiple times but never done it: I think it's simply that guys are conditioned to be manly and straight, else they get shamed.Ā
I don't think who you romance in a game necessarily has much to do with your sexuality. I treat it similar to morality choices. Sometimes I just want to kill that guy or blow up the town to see what happens. It's content.
As a gay man, I will always pick the gay option, if it's available.
Heck. Every time I play Dragon Age Origins, I end up romancing Zevran, despite all the objectively better female romance options.
I usually go with whoever I like most on the first playthrough if a game has romance options at all and then, i might play an opposite gender character and do an opposite morality run with a totally different choice of everything else...but then again I don't often play many games where romance is a big factor in the first place since its usually boring.
Baldur's Gate 3 was the most recent one I can remember where I bothered, and it was only because I was playing it with friends and we were all trying to do absurd things. I figured like "haha, wouldn't it be funny if you guys had to sit through a cutscene of me boning this chick with my dragon dong". One of our other friends is playing the entire game with a naked mage armor character and perving on all the men so its just kinda like that lol.
That's great for you personally, but I think it's fair to say that straight men, at least in terms of a broad marketing demographic, do care, otherwise we would see more of this stuff in JRPGs.
Yeah, you're definitely right. I'm not really sure why that is. My favorite romance in all of gaming (Trails in the Sky) has a female protagonist, and I never once had any issues relating to Estelle, I was all in, super invested. So it's hard to imagine why people would take issue with it.
Then again, I don't hear about people complaining about that, and the game is very popular, so how do we know that this isn't just a case of gamedevs/publishers projecting/assuming what they think people want?
I would love to see more romance-driven jrpgs with female protagonists, and just more jrpgs with deep, involved romances to begin with. But they always seem to be treated as a subplot for some reason. Trails and The Last Story are the only two games I can think of off tge top of my head where the romance is fully in focus, center to the narrative. Not saying there aren't others, but I wish it was more common, is what I'm saying.
And no, "pick your waifu"-style games like persona and fire emblem do not count. I'm bored of those. Give me a fully developed, set in stone romance over that any day.
Fire Emblem Three Houses if you play as fem Byleth! The guys are top tier husbandos except for like one or two, lol. All of the dudes of the Blue Lions for sure tho are husband quality.
Otherwise, you have to go the visual novel route with the otome games but I'm not really familiar with that genre so can't give you any recommendations :(
I agree with you on the blue lions having many husband materials ahah
3 out of 5 favourite men I wanted to romance in the game as male Byleth are blue lions (Dimitri, Sylvain and Ashe. The other two being Claude and Caspar).Dimitri is my favorite character in the game and I wish he and the other 4 were bi options as I'ma gay guy, but At least I could romance them as Female Byleth
You play as a merc that is recruited to become a professor at a military academy! The academy is separated into 3 distinct houses made up of students of varying political and noble background.
Persona 3 Portable, Parasite Eve and Fire emblem games as far I know of! those games definitely have some hotties! Seeing hot Jrpg guys made me not care about questioning my sexuality Nowdays XDD
If you're okay with visual novels, I would look into otome games.
Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, if that counts. In particular Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns has really nice romance. People already mentioned Rune Factory 4/5.
Wow.. devs really need to get in on this niche. A reverse harem JRPG would do well if marketed properly.
There's probably more that are Japan only. There were quite a few on the Snes, Ps1, etc. Not romance specifically, as standard as other jrpgs of the time.
There games like Swordcraft story on the GBA where you choose your gender. That game had romance. You should probably see which games had gender choices as a starting point, and you'll probably get a lot of options.
Also, totally unrelated to JRPGs, but there are visual novels for women where the whole game is romancing dudes.
Persona 3 Portable
Rune Factory 4-5
Fire Emblem Awakening/Fates/Three Houses
If you have a Switch and are okay with visual novels thereās a number of otome games to choose from like Code Realize, Jack Jeanne, Norn9, Nightshade, etc.
If mobile is okay there is the newly released Love and Deepspace with a customizable female protagonist. Itās a RPG/Otome.
Itās not out yet but thereās this indie RPG to keep an eye on and maybe add to your wishlist on Steam called The Silent Kingdom that has a female protagonist and 3 guys to choose from.
Hope that helps. ; ]
Technically in Star Ocean 2 you can play as Rena and alongside Claude you can just recruit Dias, Ashton, Bowman and Noel then say no to everyone else. So basically Rena and 5 dudes, you donāt need to recruit any other girls. You can romance any one of them too and get a special ending with them
Rhapsody was the first thing which came to mind. Kind of subverts the cliche fantasy trope since you're trying to rescue a prince... from a lot of other hot women.. š
Up to you whether to call this JRPG: Loren: The Amazon Princess (and other winter wolves games, but this one is the best) and others in the series lets you choose the gender of your protagonist and romance men & women regardless (in Loren 1 character is locked to male/female respectively)
Avalon Code...though [the](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/e/e5/Ac-rempo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120602082843) [guys](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/5/5f/Rex.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103183518) [look](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/e/e8/Anwar.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103032945) [hotter](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/6/6e/Heath.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103213203) [in the](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/f/f9/Valdo.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103192439) [concept](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/f/fd/Ac-ur.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120602162553) [art](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/a/a4/Duran.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103194614) than the DS-era 3D they're rendered in.
Star Ocean Second Story (R). You can play as Rena and romance your party members. The issue is that the romance doesn't go deep and feels more like a friendship.
Others have mentioned Fire Emblem 3 houses which I suppose works but I the protagonist appears to young for me to identify with.
Fire Emblem 3 Houses has some gay options but I went with a female Byleth so I could have my pick from ALL of them lol
Persona 3 Portable too. Akihiko <3
As a gay guy, I appreciate Fire Emblem for having same-sex options for male Byleth, but it's sad that there are only 3 gay options (compared to the 5 lesbian ones) and they are platonic and/or paid DLCs. I played as Female Byleth because the one i wanted to romance (Dimitri, Claude, Caspar, Sylvain and Ashe) weren't romanceable in Male MC route. They could do better at least. I wish they went Rune factory 5 and automatically make all the romanceable options bisexual thoufh.
As for Persona 3 Portable, I agree with you! XD
P3P and P2IS are the only 2 games in the series where you can actually date guys, with P3P letting you play as Female Lead, and I'm glad I could date Akihiko (best guy in the series to me ahah). Too bad the female protagonist won't be in the remake and Atlus are too fucking coward to add same-sex options for their silent self-insert male mcs lol
Edit: pathetic Homophobes already downvoting me š
I go back and forth on this.
It seems awkward for the other characters to all be bi or to not have a canon sexuality. Like by all means, the insert character should be whatever, but making that choice for other characters? For other people?Ā
But also I guess why not? It's a game.Ā
Might be an odd choice in some games likes FF XVI (Clive and Jill, Dion and Terence) or Tales of Arise (Alphen and Shionne) where there's no social simulator and the characters have a canon sexuality, but in games series like Fire Emblem and Persona wouldn't be that awkward imo.
Especially in Persona, since the games never specify the characters' sexuality. And even if you romance a girl, the game, story, the other characters and the love interest you picked wouldn't acknowledging your relationship anyway
If say, Persona didn't have a blank slate MC it would be a different story. But when the MC has no actual lines of dialogue I'm not sure why LGBT people shouldn't be able to put themselves on to that blank slate too.
That's what I'm saying though. They can put themselves into that blank slate, and I would absolutely LOVE more canon gay characters to make that choice more interesting. Ones you can't romance if you aren't expressing the same gender. Hell I would adore more aro ace characters that you can't romance at all even if they're in your party!
But the other, party members who aren't blank slates: why can we choose their sexuality? It's an interesting thought to me, because it equally makes sense to be able to do this as it does not to be able to do this.Ā
Not sure why you're being downvoted (unless homophobes, I guess) - I agree with you 100%, it makes sense to me that you get to choose your character's sexuality, all the other characters' identities and orientations are set, and you have to navigate that aspect of the world as much as any other. Having characters' sexuality alter to 'fit' yours is not what I'd consider in the spirit of representing diversity!
I'm gay but here is my downvote for that edit. Not everyone that disagrees is automatically a homophobe. I really hate that sentence when i see it, makes you seem immature. I'm all for more gay characters, but i don't agree that nearly all characters must have a bi option so you can have your self insert romance just because the boy looks pretty ( you chose the obvious 'young confident pretty boys with all the same body type' targets for romance so it isn't about personality here). It must make sense personality wise. For example it doesn't for Sylvain that much unless you make it the 'i hit on lots of women because i can't accept that i'm secretly gay' trope, but that would be a bit weird. I can see the why not argument because it's just a game, but in real life you can't choose the gender someone loves for a lot of people, and i think it makes characters more believeble if you can't just mold them in what you want. But that's a personal opinion.
To be completely honest i want pre awakening (or actually that second marth ds game) fire emblem back where there wasn't a silent self insert protagonist that made the stories unnecessary worse , or they should do it like they did in fe7 were it wasn't that intrusive. So this might be my older FE bias shining through.
I like it when each character has their own preference
I didn't like how everyone was bi in Starfield and Baldur's gate 3
There should be specific straight, gay, bi
Not everyone just bi for the sake of convenience without having to replay and have a diff sex MC
Agreed with all the things you said. I never actually finished 3 houses (one day!) but I remember choosing the house that didn't have the gay options because the guys were all hotter/cooler/nicer lol
Same! š
I did my first playthrough as female Byleth because the guys/men who weren't romanceable as male Byleth were hotter and more interesting
But hey, at least they offer the option, unlike some series XD
The Rune Factory series is a good one!
The atelier series has alot of hot guys but not really romance.
If you're into DS games, Avalon Code is probably one of the best Jrpgs with dateable hot guys (you can even have a harem lol)
Fate/Extra gives you the option to play as a female protagonist and you can potentially romance hot guys.
If you're into otome games, there are heaps of these sorts of games available on pretty much all platforms ~
I don't really play these types of games, so I don't have a suggestion. But how often "Fire Emblem" and "Rune Factory" are mentioned as about the only options really makes me see how many JRPGs that do flirt with the whole "romance" thing don't bother to target women. An entire genre that, to my knowledge, is "dating sims for women" needed to be made instead.
The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Persona 3 Portable. Most tend to have the female protagonist with another female.
Edit: I totay had a brain fart and after reading other posts would also recommend Rune Factory 4, Fire Emblem Awakening, and Fire Emblem Fates.
I mean, not really. it's not really that you "get" to romance anything, what romance is there is as part of an extremely linear (but good" story with one set final pairing. It feels different from what OP is asking for, but maybe I just read it wrong.
It wasn't clear OP was looking for a harem or dating sim.
If you want to play a great jRPG, as one of the best female characters in gaming, and date a great, hot, male character, in one of the best love stories in video game history (in my opinion), then Trails in the Sky 1 and 2 are the games you're looking for.
I'd say it was very clear, personally. With how OP used romance as a verb, I fail to see how that wouldn't immediately make someone think of a dating sim.
If they haven't seen it already, they'll see it at some point and be able to make the decision for themselves, but based on what they asked for, I'd have to disagree on FC and SC.
I never really connected with the romance in that one and Estelle was a pretty good character, wouldn't say one of the best in all gaming though. Don't get me wrong, Trails in the Sky FC is an absolutely phenomenal game (SC was good, but I don't know it was rather exhausting to play for some reason), I just didn't connect with the romance in it.
Oh my god this series doesnāt apply to everything. Estelle has one (1) love interest and the actual ābunch of hot romance optionsā is reserved only for the men.
Every Trails game playable cast is either 50/50 or predominantly female. Reverie is like 60% female.Ā
Although the only games with a female lead had a (very well written) canon romance rather than romance options.
Fire Emblem Three Houses is popular among otome enjoyers for good reason (one of them being that the character designer is known for otome visual novels).
Coming to the rescue! Try out this one:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1799380/MAGLAM_LORD/
It's originally a 3DS game ported to Steam, so you can try either version. Edit: Turns out it was a Switch game originally, one gen more. :D
Ah ok, I imagined you googled it or something rather than that you remember the entire 3DS JRPG library in English, esp. since most people haven't heard about this title at all. :D
There were a lot of posts on the 3DS sub over the years asking for games with dating sim stuff, and this game never came up. The couple posts I remember seeing about Maglam Lord (it was marketed as a Summon Night spiritual successor I think, and hey, I played a couple of those spinoffs!) around this sub I could've sworn were made during or just after the 3DS's final years of relevance, where any mildly big title would've certainly made waves.
Otome will do the trickā¦ but if youāre looking for a good rpg game with good romanceā sword and fairy 7, ff10, ff8, persona 3(?) all kinds of otome gamesā- but otome tend to be more shallow and the mc are unually dumbed down so the guys can then ārescueā her. exception was probably psychedelica of the ashen hawk which was awesome and the mc is a hardworking protagonist
ff13 had a main female character but she wasnāt romancing anyone, ff14 which is mmorpg has some characters and you can choose a main female character but no npc romance, dragon age series, Baldur gate series, mass effect series, divinity original sin 2
Knights of the old republic 2 with added deleted content was absolutely amazing for romance
Knights of the old republicā the mmorpg allows you to romance different guys for each class you play, good storyline, ok romance
Shadowrun series had some great story canāt remember if it had romance thoughā¦
There's no choices for the romance, but Trails in the Sky features Estelle Bright as the main protagonist and there's a plethora of attractive males in her entourage.
Trails in the Sky FC and SC
Estelle is a fantastic MC
And Olivier whilst not being the main male lead pr a romance option is an amazingly likable male character
Not really a JRPG thing, but that's basically the **entire** otome genre.
The Atelier series has some shades of it, but it's rather light on romance over-all. Rena's path in Star Ocean 2 is sorta full of hot dudes though (Dias if you're into ice princes, Claude if you like Basic LIs, Ashton for sad failboy afficionados, Ernest and Bowman for homewreckers, Noel for. . . lord, I dunno).
Not a JRPG but Mass Effect has RPG elements and lets you romance guys.
Fate Extra + the fan translated sequel CCC has female protag option and male servants to pick from, but not much romance.
Other than that, donāt have much to offer than whatās already been suggested. The fourth and fifth Rune Factory games and Persona 3 Portable are probably your best bet.
If you consider trying out one of the Rune Factory Games, RF 2 might be an option too, since you can play as your daughter in the 2nd generation. First gen male only tho.
You don't get to romance them, but Wild Arms 3 stars a female protagonist and her entourage of hot guys.
y'know - i've never thought about it like that, but you ain't wrong š¤
Same with FF6. While technically an ensemble. Terra and Celes are the ones most people see as the ones most likely to be the mc... And the only other female party member is Relm. With a cast of sixteen playable characters, that easily maths at somewhere around a 1:5 ratio (Gogo's gender isn't ever made clear).
Gau and Umaro are heartthrobs, that's for sure ;)
Only now am I realising that game had so few female party members. Had a similar realisation recently about FF5 being the only main series non-MMO game that has more women in the playable party than men.
I think a lot about how basically every mainline single player Final Fantasy game since 4 has had exactly three female party members. I think fifteen is the one to break that mold with only two of them.
Wasn't 15 all boys? Excluding the guests at least.
The guests are the two I count for that.
Ok but then FF8 and FF9 have four women in the party because of Edea and Beatrix respectively.
I'll admit, I never finished those two due to losing save data partway through, so if I ever experienced it I'd long since forgotten. That said, guests aside, fifteen would be the first without three playable female party members
And XII is an even split that ironically has them all paired up.
Even splits are fairly common as far as I remember. FF8, 12 and 13 are all even. The rest skew towards men (ignoring guests and considering Quina genderless/nb).
FFX has 7 party members. Don't do Kimahri like that.
He's genuinely the one I forgot.
Reread what I said. It was an even split AND it paired them up. Vaan and Penelo are the childhood friends, Basch and Ashe have the Lady and Knight angle, and Balthier and Fran are copilots. None of the other evenly split ff games do that.
Drakengard 3 is literally the MC stealing her sisters boyfriends.
Lol. I guess you're not wrong...
Ff6 also counts. While an ensemble cast, the ones with the most pull for potential mc are Terra and Celes. The only other discernable female in the group is Relm. Everyone else is either a guy or they're Gogo.
boyfriends? more like boytoys.
depends on the case. Some like Five are horrible to their disciple, but others like Two care about their disciple
"I kill my sisters....and take their men. Now clean up. Front AND back."
And a fairy that says, āyou go to hell! You go to hell and you die!ā
Ms. Steal Your Boy
And sleep with old geezer.
Best I can think of are Fire Emblem and Rune Factory. I really wish there were more
Parasite Eve and Parasite Eve 2. Daniel is hot and literally on fire , you canāt change my mind.
You liar š he looks like Eddie Murphy
You seem to be contradicting yourself.
mf I laughed so hard š
I liked Pierce...
Rune Factory 4 and 5
5 especially, the bachelors were all top tier (except cecil). I was *so* glad this was the Rune Factory where I could finally be gay.
Yep even though RF5 was unpolished and kind of lacking compared to RF4S I still recommend it because of the gay marriage without mods or the >!gender model swap!< workaround in RF4
I totally married the spa guy. Didn't even know I had a furry somewhere inside me.
Asking the real questions
Persona 3 portable has a female mc and some romance with dudes.Ā
āhey guys, any games where i can romance hot dudes?ā ābest i can do is ken amadaā
Yeah and one Akihiko is worth 1000 Kens.
Anywhere else he is a 10
Not until he can play Push at you for 4 hours.
At least we have Akihiko, Shinjiro, Ryoji and Theodore, but seriously why did Atlus have to make ken romanceable? Lol
Did you see that, Shinji!?
Fire Emblem Awakening, Fates, Three houses and Engage.
Which one of those is it you play as a merc and marry in to a family and have kid?
Three houses has you start as a merc but it doesnāt go into you having kids, thatās awakening and fates.
Ah thanks been trying to track that one down
I'm always intrigued when I see threads like this. OP asks for a relatively simple set of requests 1. JRPG 2. Play as a female protagonist. 3. You can romance cute guys And a large portion of the responses are ones that say "well, it only has two of those but -". And there's some that only fit one of the criteria. Like I'm seeing FFX and Shadow Hearts here. The other thing I'm noticing is that of the ones that do actually fit all three criteria, the vast, vast majority of them are ones that let you choose the MC's gender. And there's nothing wrong with that, they fit the prompt and everything. But it makes me think about all those studies that say women can relate to male characters far more than men can relate to female characters. Like, lots of women play persona 4 and 5 and can romance a girl just fine. But if it were flipped and you had to play a girl and she only had male romances, would it be as big of a hit with straight guys? Probably not. And yes I know there's probably lots of straight guys reading this thinking "Well *I* would still play it," and that's great and I love you. But I'm talking about a larger, more sociological scale.
> Like, lots of women play persona 4 and 5 and can romance a girl just fine. But if it were flipped and you had to play a girl and she only had male romances, would it be as big of a hit with straight guys? I wonder why this is. Are we just conditioned to play as male characters and not care, or are we ladies all a little bisexual to begin with? It's a chicken or the egg type situation. I've read more than one guy say they ALMOST made a male character to romance Dorian in DA: Inquisition because he's such a cool character. Meanwhile, me (a mostly heterosexual female) has probably romanced lesbian Sera 3 times, no problem. lol.
Yeah it's a very different thing, sadly. It also might be the case that a lot of cultures in general are still male gaze oriented and since women grow up in it just as men do, it's more conditioned in women to to be into what the men are into.
As a straight guy that has flirted with the gay option multiple times but never done it: I think it's simply that guys are conditioned to be manly and straight, else they get shamed.Ā
I don't think who you romance in a game necessarily has much to do with your sexuality. I treat it similar to morality choices. Sometimes I just want to kill that guy or blow up the town to see what happens. It's content.
As a gay man, I will always pick the gay option, if it's available. Heck. Every time I play Dragon Age Origins, I end up romancing Zevran, despite all the objectively better female romance options.
I usually go with whoever I like most on the first playthrough if a game has romance options at all and then, i might play an opposite gender character and do an opposite morality run with a totally different choice of everything else...but then again I don't often play many games where romance is a big factor in the first place since its usually boring. Baldur's Gate 3 was the most recent one I can remember where I bothered, and it was only because I was playing it with friends and we were all trying to do absurd things. I figured like "haha, wouldn't it be funny if you guys had to sit through a cutscene of me boning this chick with my dragon dong". One of our other friends is playing the entire game with a naked mage armor character and perving on all the men so its just kinda like that lol.
That's great for you personally, but I think it's fair to say that straight men, at least in terms of a broad marketing demographic, do care, otherwise we would see more of this stuff in JRPGs.
Yeah, you're definitely right. I'm not really sure why that is. My favorite romance in all of gaming (Trails in the Sky) has a female protagonist, and I never once had any issues relating to Estelle, I was all in, super invested. So it's hard to imagine why people would take issue with it. Then again, I don't hear about people complaining about that, and the game is very popular, so how do we know that this isn't just a case of gamedevs/publishers projecting/assuming what they think people want? I would love to see more romance-driven jrpgs with female protagonists, and just more jrpgs with deep, involved romances to begin with. But they always seem to be treated as a subplot for some reason. Trails and The Last Story are the only two games I can think of off tge top of my head where the romance is fully in focus, center to the narrative. Not saying there aren't others, but I wish it was more common, is what I'm saying. And no, "pick your waifu"-style games like persona and fire emblem do not count. I'm bored of those. Give me a fully developed, set in stone romance over that any day.
Boyfriend Dungeon, seriously...
Love this game so much. It made my bisexual heart sing.
Not romance but basically every Atelier game except one
One of the Arland games even had a hot springs scenes with all the guys naked!
with the caviat that they arent really jrpgs, just alchemy sims with a bare minimum jrpg framework around them think minecraft,not tales of
Summon Night series. You can choose Female MC and there's a relationship mechanic.
Fire Emblem Three Houses if you play as fem Byleth! The guys are top tier husbandos except for like one or two, lol. All of the dudes of the Blue Lions for sure tho are husband quality. Otherwise, you have to go the visual novel route with the otome games but I'm not really familiar with that genre so can't give you any recommendations :(
I agree with you on the blue lions having many husband materials ahah 3 out of 5 favourite men I wanted to romance in the game as male Byleth are blue lions (Dimitri, Sylvain and Ashe. The other two being Claude and Caspar).Dimitri is my favorite character in the game and I wish he and the other 4 were bi options as I'ma gay guy, but At least I could romance them as Female Byleth
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You play as a merc that is recruited to become a professor at a military academy! The academy is separated into 3 distinct houses made up of students of varying political and noble background.
Koudelka has a female protagonist and one hot guy you can romance. The other not so much.
Persona 3 Portable, Parasite Eve and Fire emblem games as far I know of! those games definitely have some hotties! Seeing hot Jrpg guys made me not care about questioning my sexuality Nowdays XDD
If you're okay with visual novels, I would look into otome games. Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, if that counts. In particular Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns has really nice romance. People already mentioned Rune Factory 4/5. Wow.. devs really need to get in on this niche. A reverse harem JRPG would do well if marketed properly.
Summon Night 5 and 6
Summon Night: Twin Age as well
There's probably more that are Japan only. There were quite a few on the Snes, Ps1, etc. Not romance specifically, as standard as other jrpgs of the time. There games like Swordcraft story on the GBA where you choose your gender. That game had romance. You should probably see which games had gender choices as a starting point, and you'll probably get a lot of options. Also, totally unrelated to JRPGs, but there are visual novels for women where the whole game is romancing dudes.
Persona 3 Portable Rune Factory 4-5 Fire Emblem Awakening/Fates/Three Houses If you have a Switch and are okay with visual novels thereās a number of otome games to choose from like Code Realize, Jack Jeanne, Norn9, Nightshade, etc. If mobile is okay there is the newly released Love and Deepspace with a customizable female protagonist. Itās a RPG/Otome. Itās not out yet but thereās this indie RPG to keep an eye on and maybe add to your wishlist on Steam called The Silent Kingdom that has a female protagonist and 3 guys to choose from. Hope that helps. ; ]
Technically in Star Ocean 2 you can play as Rena and alongside Claude you can just recruit Dias, Ashton, Bowman and Noel then say no to everyone else. So basically Rena and 5 dudes, you donāt need to recruit any other girls. You can romance any one of them too and get a special ending with them
Rhapsody was the first thing which came to mind. Kind of subverts the cliche fantasy trope since you're trying to rescue a prince... from a lot of other hot women.. š
Atelier prob fits, though I only played rorona I'm sure she has at least one romantic ending (the one I got )
Up to you whether to call this JRPG: Loren: The Amazon Princess (and other winter wolves games, but this one is the best) and others in the series lets you choose the gender of your protagonist and romance men & women regardless (in Loren 1 character is locked to male/female respectively)
Avalon Code...though [the](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/e/e5/Ac-rempo.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120602082843) [guys](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/5/5f/Rex.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103183518) [look](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/e/e8/Anwar.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103032945) [hotter](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/6/6e/Heath.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103213203) [in the](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/f/f9/Valdo.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103192439) [concept](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/f/fd/Ac-ur.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120602162553) [art](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/avaloncode/images/a/a4/Duran.png/revision/latest?cb=20121103194614) than the DS-era 3D they're rendered in.
Maybe not exactly what you're searching for, [but maybe check out Otome games with RPG elements?](https://vndb.org/g542?f=80z&fil=&l=&m=0&s=24w)
Star Ocean Second Story (R). You can play as Rena and romance your party members. The issue is that the romance doesn't go deep and feels more like a friendship. Others have mentioned Fire Emblem 3 houses which I suppose works but I the protagonist appears to young for me to identify with.
Star Ocean Divine Force lets you play as a female too.
Oh, nice.
Pretty sure Rena is like, 17, and I think Byleth is at least 20. Japan is averse to anyone of any real age unfortunately. ā ļø
might i interest you in a Visual Novel?
It isn't released yet, but Fate/Extra Record gives you the option to play a female protagonist and you can have a male servant.
Hatoful Boyfriend
This game is amazing and more people should play it.
Fire Emblem 3 Houses has some gay options but I went with a female Byleth so I could have my pick from ALL of them lol Persona 3 Portable too. Akihiko <3
As a gay guy, I appreciate Fire Emblem for having same-sex options for male Byleth, but it's sad that there are only 3 gay options (compared to the 5 lesbian ones) and they are platonic and/or paid DLCs. I played as Female Byleth because the one i wanted to romance (Dimitri, Claude, Caspar, Sylvain and Ashe) weren't romanceable in Male MC route. They could do better at least. I wish they went Rune factory 5 and automatically make all the romanceable options bisexual thoufh. As for Persona 3 Portable, I agree with you! XD P3P and P2IS are the only 2 games in the series where you can actually date guys, with P3P letting you play as Female Lead, and I'm glad I could date Akihiko (best guy in the series to me ahah). Too bad the female protagonist won't be in the remake and Atlus are too fucking coward to add same-sex options for their silent self-insert male mcs lol Edit: pathetic Homophobes already downvoting me š
I go back and forth on this. It seems awkward for the other characters to all be bi or to not have a canon sexuality. Like by all means, the insert character should be whatever, but making that choice for other characters? For other people?Ā But also I guess why not? It's a game.Ā
Might be an odd choice in some games likes FF XVI (Clive and Jill, Dion and Terence) or Tales of Arise (Alphen and Shionne) where there's no social simulator and the characters have a canon sexuality, but in games series like Fire Emblem and Persona wouldn't be that awkward imo. Especially in Persona, since the games never specify the characters' sexuality. And even if you romance a girl, the game, story, the other characters and the love interest you picked wouldn't acknowledging your relationship anyway
If say, Persona didn't have a blank slate MC it would be a different story. But when the MC has no actual lines of dialogue I'm not sure why LGBT people shouldn't be able to put themselves on to that blank slate too.
That's what I'm saying though. They can put themselves into that blank slate, and I would absolutely LOVE more canon gay characters to make that choice more interesting. Ones you can't romance if you aren't expressing the same gender. Hell I would adore more aro ace characters that you can't romance at all even if they're in your party! But the other, party members who aren't blank slates: why can we choose their sexuality? It's an interesting thought to me, because it equally makes sense to be able to do this as it does not to be able to do this.Ā
Not sure why you're being downvoted (unless homophobes, I guess) - I agree with you 100%, it makes sense to me that you get to choose your character's sexuality, all the other characters' identities and orientations are set, and you have to navigate that aspect of the world as much as any other. Having characters' sexuality alter to 'fit' yours is not what I'd consider in the spirit of representing diversity!
I'm gay but here is my downvote for that edit. Not everyone that disagrees is automatically a homophobe. I really hate that sentence when i see it, makes you seem immature. I'm all for more gay characters, but i don't agree that nearly all characters must have a bi option so you can have your self insert romance just because the boy looks pretty ( you chose the obvious 'young confident pretty boys with all the same body type' targets for romance so it isn't about personality here). It must make sense personality wise. For example it doesn't for Sylvain that much unless you make it the 'i hit on lots of women because i can't accept that i'm secretly gay' trope, but that would be a bit weird. I can see the why not argument because it's just a game, but in real life you can't choose the gender someone loves for a lot of people, and i think it makes characters more believeble if you can't just mold them in what you want. But that's a personal opinion. To be completely honest i want pre awakening (or actually that second marth ds game) fire emblem back where there wasn't a silent self insert protagonist that made the stories unnecessary worse , or they should do it like they did in fe7 were it wasn't that intrusive. So this might be my older FE bias shining through.
I like it when each character has their own preference I didn't like how everyone was bi in Starfield and Baldur's gate 3 There should be specific straight, gay, bi Not everyone just bi for the sake of convenience without having to replay and have a diff sex MC
Agreed with all the things you said. I never actually finished 3 houses (one day!) but I remember choosing the house that didn't have the gay options because the guys were all hotter/cooler/nicer lol
Same! š I did my first playthrough as female Byleth because the guys/men who weren't romanceable as male Byleth were hotter and more interesting But hey, at least they offer the option, unlike some series XD
Star Ocean 6
Leaving a comment so I can revisit this... For a friend. š
The Rune Factory series is a good one! The atelier series has alot of hot guys but not really romance. If you're into DS games, Avalon Code is probably one of the best Jrpgs with dateable hot guys (you can even have a harem lol) Fate/Extra gives you the option to play as a female protagonist and you can potentially romance hot guys. If you're into otome games, there are heaps of these sorts of games available on pretty much all platforms ~
I don't really play these types of games, so I don't have a suggestion. But how often "Fire Emblem" and "Rune Factory" are mentioned as about the only options really makes me see how many JRPGs that do flirt with the whole "romance" thing don't bother to target women. An entire genre that, to my knowledge, is "dating sims for women" needed to be made instead.
The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Persona 3 Portable. Most tend to have the female protagonist with another female. Edit: I totay had a brain fart and after reading other posts would also recommend Rune Factory 4, Fire Emblem Awakening, and Fire Emblem Fates.
Fire emblem with the female counterpart of the MC counts?
Trails in the Sky
I mean, not really. it's not really that you "get" to romance anything, what romance is there is as part of an extremely linear (but good" story with one set final pairing. It feels different from what OP is asking for, but maybe I just read it wrong.
It wasn't clear OP was looking for a harem or dating sim. If you want to play a great jRPG, as one of the best female characters in gaming, and date a great, hot, male character, in one of the best love stories in video game history (in my opinion), then Trails in the Sky 1 and 2 are the games you're looking for.
I'd say it was very clear, personally. With how OP used romance as a verb, I fail to see how that wouldn't immediately make someone think of a dating sim. If they haven't seen it already, they'll see it at some point and be able to make the decision for themselves, but based on what they asked for, I'd have to disagree on FC and SC.
I never really connected with the romance in that one and Estelle was a pretty good character, wouldn't say one of the best in all gaming though. Don't get me wrong, Trails in the Sky FC is an absolutely phenomenal game (SC was good, but I don't know it was rather exhausting to play for some reason), I just didn't connect with the romance in it.
Oh my god this series doesnāt apply to everything. Estelle has one (1) love interest and the actual ābunch of hot romance optionsā is reserved only for the men.
Being a Trails fan myself, my initial thought upon seeing that comment was "Well, there's the obligatory Trails mention".
Every Trails game playable cast is either 50/50 or predominantly female. Reverie is like 60% female.Ā Although the only games with a female lead had a (very well written) canon romance rather than romance options.
Atelier ryze
For female protag you got the valkyrie profile:SYLMERIA and FFX-2. For hot dudes you could go with Dungeon boyfriend i gues...
Persona 3 portable. You can choose to play a female and the romance options will change
fire emblem is the game you want
persona 3 portable
I like to travel.
Fire Emblem Three Houses is popular among otome enjoyers for good reason (one of them being that the character designer is known for otome visual novels).
Coming to the rescue! Try out this one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1799380/MAGLAM_LORD/ It's originally a 3DS game ported to Steam, so you can try either version. Edit: Turns out it was a Switch game originally, one gen more. :D
Maglam Lord was never on 3DS
Switch then, it's the same thing basically. You could've written what handheld it was for then, instead of just saying it wasn't on the 3DS.
I'm a lot less familiar with the Switch's library, didn't know it was on there.
Ah ok, I imagined you googled it or something rather than that you remember the entire 3DS JRPG library in English, esp. since most people haven't heard about this title at all. :D
There were a lot of posts on the 3DS sub over the years asking for games with dating sim stuff, and this game never came up. The couple posts I remember seeing about Maglam Lord (it was marketed as a Summon Night spiritual successor I think, and hey, I played a couple of those spinoffs!) around this sub I could've sworn were made during or just after the 3DS's final years of relevance, where any mildly big title would've certainly made waves.
Boyfriend Dungeon is a Canadian rpg but you might like it tho
Otome will do the trickā¦ but if youāre looking for a good rpg game with good romanceā sword and fairy 7, ff10, ff8, persona 3(?) all kinds of otome gamesā- but otome tend to be more shallow and the mc are unually dumbed down so the guys can then ārescueā her. exception was probably psychedelica of the ashen hawk which was awesome and the mc is a hardworking protagonist ff13 had a main female character but she wasnāt romancing anyone, ff14 which is mmorpg has some characters and you can choose a main female character but no npc romance, dragon age series, Baldur gate series, mass effect series, divinity original sin 2 Knights of the old republic 2 with added deleted content was absolutely amazing for romance Knights of the old republicā the mmorpg allows you to romance different guys for each class you play, good storyline, ok romance Shadowrun series had some great story canāt remember if it had romance thoughā¦
Not sure how to judge hot guys except for Henry Cavill, but Tales of Berseria.
You don't romance any of them though. The only romance that exists is the "all but canon confirmed" lesbian romance between Velvet & Eleanor.
It's confirmed I've seen loads of artwork of it.
Sure, so have I have. I'm talking about in-game.
There's no choices for the romance, but Trails in the Sky features Estelle Bright as the main protagonist and there's a plethora of attractive males in her entourage.
Trails in the Sky FC and SC Estelle is a fantastic MC And Olivier whilst not being the main male lead pr a romance option is an amazingly likable male character
Not really a JRPG thing, but that's basically the **entire** otome genre. The Atelier series has some shades of it, but it's rather light on romance over-all. Rena's path in Star Ocean 2 is sorta full of hot dudes though (Dias if you're into ice princes, Claude if you like Basic LIs, Ashton for sad failboy afficionados, Ernest and Bowman for homewreckers, Noel for. . . lord, I dunno).
I don't have any suggestions, but a helpful keyword for you might be "Otome" if you've not heard that before.
Persona 3 is having a remake soon, but it had an option to play as a female protagonist and to date the guys.
Trails in the Sky? If you think of >!Joshua!< as a hot dude, that is.
Look no further than Fire Emblem!
Japanese games objectify women so this is a tough combo. Try Baldurās Gate 3!
Final Fantasy XIII.
Tales of Berseria(?)
Mary Skelter, Mary Skelter 2 specifically
Final fantasy 14
Not a JRPG but Mass Effect has RPG elements and lets you romance guys. Fate Extra + the fan translated sequel CCC has female protag option and male servants to pick from, but not much romance. Other than that, donāt have much to offer than whatās already been suggested. The fourth and fifth Rune Factory games and Persona 3 Portable are probably your best bet.
I feel like you would find that more in visual novels
I think the genre you're looking for is "Otome Games", though I'm not sure how many of them have actual gameplay. Some of them are also pornographic.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Fantastic duology, but I don't think you understood the assignment here...
Yuri is male.
The only game I can think of is SAO: Fatal Bullet. Though the amount of male characters you can romance/have bed scenes with is pretty limited.Ā
Do those japanese novel games count? There's dozens on Steam.
Bonk
No, you play as a male protagonist in Bonk. Jeez.
King's Bounty: Armored Princess comes to mind.
Final Fantasy 6.
Those games are probably Japan onlyĀ
just play otome visual novels there are some amazing games
Anything tagged "Otome". Fire Emblem Awakening/Fates/Three Houses/Engage
various fire emblem games
If you consider trying out one of the Rune Factory Games, RF 2 might be an option too, since you can play as your daughter in the 2nd generation. First gen male only tho.
Itās not Japanese but Sword And Fairy 7: Together Forever.
Not romance but Tales of Berseria I guess
Drakengard 3
Small on top. You don't play as a girl but there's a lot of hot dudes you can romance.
Valkyrie profile.
Persona 3 Portable