Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is Gaming's Greatest Lesbian Scavenger Hunt

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is filled with queer representation. While none of the main cast have been confirmed as LGBTQ+ (as much as my heart ships Aerith and Tifa), the world the game takes place in is surprisingly queer, and easily the biggest step towards inclusivity the series has ever taken. While Final Fantasy 16 has a heartfelt gay✅ romance thanks to Dion Lesage and Sir Terence, it ended in the tw🔴o parting ways before we had a change to appreciate their queer relationship, or to see it develop outside of dossiers and cutscenes. As 💖the player, we were left to fill in the tragic gaps ourselves, instead of embracing the queer joy which should still be possible in the midst of a grounded fantasy world.

Square Enix had clear intention to improve upon this in Rebirth, in subtle yet impactful ways that fold beautifully into the open world. Throughout my 60+ hour review playthrough I would make a point to slowly walk around each n🍷ew town and settlement, taking in unfolding conversations between people who are simply going about their everyday lives. While Cloud and company are trying to save the world, the majority of citizens you stumble across are all trying to make ends meet, constantly worrying about the capitalist overlord♛s staring down at them. They have to exist within the confines of systems they can’t control, so why not try to grasp onto a semblance of happiness while they still can.

Queer communities are a part of this equation, and much like The Owl House, ꧋Rebirth takes place in a world where homophobia does♊n’t appear to exist, even if other forms of prejudice do plꦰay a role in the narrative as Midgar and Wutai continually butt heads with each other on their troubled history. I first stumbled across this in the town of Kalm, where the game begins and you first develop a taste for the open world. The streets are packed with citizens talking, merchants trading, and a genuine buzz that prevents the affair from feeling too artificial. One of the fiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrst things I encountered was two women involved in a small scuffle as they furiously slapped one another in the face as they appeared to argue over a cheating boyfriend.

Afteܫr progressing the main story for a few hours and noticing the sun had begun to set in the sky, I opted to return to Kalm to pick up a few side quests and restock my inventory. Quickly noticing that new NPCs were now occupying certain spots around town, taking part in dense conversations that weren’t here previously, or were extensions of prior stories. When I went to check on the two women, they were now hold🐻ing hands and embracing each other, talking about whether they should take a vacation to Costa Del Sol or Gold Saucer in order to make it up to each other and deepen their relationship. It’s only a few lines of dialogue, but Square deciding to flesh out otherwise meaningless characters like this in its open world makes it so alive, and the fact they’re queer only warms my heart further.

This adorable and somewhat violent tale had faded into memory when I arrived in Costa Del Sol, until I decided that I should check out the pier, only to find the queer couple holding hands on the beach clad in new outfits I hadn’t seen before with expanded dialogue. They kept the world alive, and as I came to witness more of Midgar, they travelled it alongside me. I haven’t spotted them in the Gold Saucer yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they&rs🦂quo;re tucked away in an attraction having a good smooch.

They aren’t the only slice of queer rep folded into this world either. Crow’s Nest in the Junon region is home to two friends talking about being over men and the possibility of broadening their romantic horizons, only for the subject of potentially dating one another comes up in the conversation. I haven’t returned to this location🧸 yet, so who knows if things have changed, but judging from how the rest of the world h⛦as been unafraid to evolve, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth - Aerith and Tifa in swimsuits

I do wish that many of the brief sapphic romances featured in Rebirth weren’t primarily borne out of fallouts with men in their lives, as if they needed an excuse to embrace their true identity by leaving behind toxic masculine ideals. You could have featured said romances without preamble or narrative context, or at least superior framing that didn’t come with so much baggage. Because when I stumbled across two gay men in a hotel lobby within Cosmo Canyon, no such backstory seemed to acco🌟mpany them.

It’s quite the opposite. The two men are talking about one of them having to sudde🦹nly leave behind their job as a concert pianist in Costa Del Sol following an arm injury, an occupation that was taken up by Tifa in an earlier ques💦t. There are tinges of regret, but the couple aren’t afraid to move past this shortcoming and look towards the future. They talk about buying the house of their dreams and raising a family within it, making a life for themselves as a queer couple without fear of prejudice. It’s strange that the queer women in Rebirth weren’t given the same agency and had to be shackled to men to even appear, as much as I appreciate stumbling across them as a pansexual trans woman with a lifelong love of Final Fantasy 7.

It was also wonderful to see two queer people of colour depicted so naturally in a fantasy world like this. Here's hope it's a positive sing of things to come.

Putting occasional stumbles and lack of confirmed representation in the ensemble cast to the side though, this is undeniably a step forward for the series. It’s how I’d love to see a queer presence handled in future g𒁏ames that want to make our existence part of a virtual world without making it feel forced or awkward. We exist, want to express ourselves, and tend to fall in love just like anyone else, even in a world as twisted and beautiful as this.

168澳洲幸运5开奖网

TheGamer

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Is Gaming's Greatest Lesbian Scavenger Hunt

Your Rating

168澳洲幸运5开奖网: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

WHERE TO PLAY

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth