Amara in Borderlands 3 and Athena in Borderlands The Pre-Sequel.
Athena in particular is expanded a lot more in Tales from the Borderlands (which everyone should play cause it's got a better story and writing than any of the mainline games.)
Axton from Borderlands 2 is bisexual, but supposedly he was made so accidentally (a programming error made him flirt with both male and female characters when reviving them).
To Gearboxes credit, they made the bug a feature and fleshed his character out a bit more in the DLC so that he was canonically bisexual.
Piers is depicted as being infatuated with Chris in RE6. Revelations 2 takes place before RE6 and has Piers sending a weird email to Claire that randomly ends with him asking for Chris pics:
Ultimately it's a hint that Piers is into Chris, but by proxy it also feeds into the homosexual Chris theory. Piers wants to see what his middle-aged mancrush looked like when he was younger. I think the DLC costumes alone are proof enough that Capcom knows Chris is popular with the gay community.
That's an interesting one. It's to some extent a player choice one for the degree of how serious it is (and whether Max is interested in Warren also/instead), but I don't think there's any context where Max is explicitly not interested in Chloe romantically.
If we extend this to Before the Storm, too, Chloe is more explicitly into Rachel, I believe (...although that's from hearsay, I've not actually got around to BtS yet!).
This is such a gray area. Even though you can perform certain actions that may suggest to Warren he has a chance with Max, she ultimately will never take him out of the friendzone - and furthermore, as proven by her dream, she sees him as creepy regardless if she accepts his movie date offer or not. She will never willingly show interest in him, however she will willingly kiss Chloe at the end without direct player input. (but it does depend on your choices throughout) That being said, Max is clearly her own defined character and the player only helps with decisions, not her actual personality/mentality. Therefor, we can assume she is bisexual, and it's just up to the player whether she acts on those emotions or not - a common struggle for LGBT youth.
Dishonored, explicitly with Death of the Outsider.
Implicitly or possibly with Dishonored 2. Emily Kaldwin, the main protagonist, has a relationship with a character named Wyman who is intentionally kept gender neutral, even referred to as "they" in the game script.
*Edit*
I thought Billie Lurk was a lesbian in Death of the Outsider, but I guess she's bisexual?
This is such a gray area. Even though you can perform certain actions that may suggest to Warren he has a chance with Max, she ultimately will never take him out of the friendzone - and furthermore, as proven by her dream, she sees him as creepy regardless if she accepts his movie date offer or not. She will never willingly show interest in him, however she will willingly kiss Chloe at the end without direct player input. (but it does depend on your choices throughout) That being said, Max is clearly her own defined character and the player only helps with decisions, not her actual personality/mentality. Therefor, we can assume she is bisexual, and it's just up to the player whether she acts on those emotions or not - a common struggle for LGBT youth.
Piers is depicted as being infatuated with Chris in RE6. Revelations 2 takes place before RE6 and has Piers sending a weird email to Claire that randomly ends with him asking for Chris pics:
Ultimately it's a hint that Piers is into Chris, but by proxy it also feeds into the homosexual Chris theory. Piers wants to see what his middle-aged mancrush looked like when he was younger. I think the DLC costumes alone are proof enough that Capcom knows Chris is popular with the gay community.
It is non-canon. Not only is it silly spotpass nonsense, but it in all likelihood was written by a different person than did Ike and Soren in the Tellius games.
And Fire Emblem is no stranger to people being called the "descendent" of someone when they're actually descended from a sibling. See: Marth's connection to Anri.
The fact of the matter is, the text from the actual Tellius games themselves couldn't be plainer about the nature of Ike and Soren's relationship. The official Tellius Recollections art book further says that they "joined their hearts together as one."
Now... whether Ike's a great example of an "openly gay" protagonist is another topic altogether, considering his sexuality is mostly subtextual.
There's also the fact that Fire Emblem canonically is a multiverse with infinite parallel realities with alternate versions of the same characters, which is literally how Priam being a descendant of Ike and also in awakening is even justified in the first place, so he could theoretically be a descendant of an alternate version of Ike who was straight rather than the Ike that was actually shown in the radiance duology
There's also the fact that Fire Emblem canonically is a multiverse with infinite parallel realities with alternate versions of the same characters, which is literally how Priam being a descendant of Ike and also in awakening is even justified in the first place, so he could theoretically be a descendant of an alternate version of Ike who was straight rather than the Ike that was actually shown in the radiance duology
What reason other than to ask someone for pics of someone they find attractive? Like, at that point in time Piers is 24 years old, Chris is 40 years old. I don't think it's incredibly outlandish. You're jumping through a hoop to imply there isn't some gay subtext there by going "who does that??"
Well certainly not a straight guy lol.
Chris and Piers shouldnt be in this thread regardless; they're either unconfirmed gay or just not. Even if they are coded gay through the writing in the game.
Ike and Soren are in the same boat as Sorey and Mikleo from Tales of Zestiria. Creators strongly imply their relationship, without actually using definitive sounding words. Once you hear it though, you can definitely see it in how these characters interact with each other. I wouldn't say either of them count as "openly" gay.
The most over example that comes to mind is Life is Strange: Before the Storm. Which doesn't just feature an openly gay character, but a large part of the story is about a gay relationship.
Chris on RE5 is all about getting Jill, his partner back, you see his emotions at the highest when it comes to Jill on this entry.
On Re6 he lost his whole squad on the beginning. He's dazed and confused, pretty much he's given up. By way of Piers's motivation and commitment to the job, he comes back. He reacts strongly to losing Piers because of similar actions predating this event, there wasnt anything romantic here and if you try to imply it, you're taking away the strong momentum they've built from the start to Piers's death. Probably Piers does have some feelings there implied by the letter and his superior's admiration.
So far it's on a very gray area when it comes to Chris and we may never know it if they stick to Chris's change from Re7.
This is specially interesting how lots of people consider the woman version canon and how the game always offers more female partner options (like the female only aliens in mass effect)
Chris Redfield not being officially confirmed gay is one of the most frustrating things with this subject because it would be so easy, and fit so perfectly, for them to just confirm it somehow. It's a shame they won't make it official. Like, everything is there, it just refuses to be explicitly stated.
When a developer creates a character, why would they ever think 'hey lets make this character gay, but actually not tell anyone or confirm it in any way, instead we'll leave ambiguous hints and leave it up to interpretation'.
It's just queer baiting until someone is actually confirmed in some way. Especially when discussing Japanese developers
Dishonored, explicitly with Death of the Outsider.
Implicitly or possibly with Dishonored 2. Emily Kaldwin, the main protagonist, has a relationship with a character named Wyman who is intentionally kept gender neutral, even referred to as "they" in the game script.
*Edit*
I thought Billie Lurk was a lesbian in Death of the Outsider, but I guess she's bisexual?
I believe Harvey Smith went on to say that Wyman is NON-binary.
Billie Lurk is female-leaning Bisexual but I assume the couple of men thing is before Deidre was killed. She explicitly says she never loved anyone like Deidre when discussing how the Duke's brother killed her. Of course there's Daud and Sokolov now but that's way more of a maternal relationship than romantic. She also had a thing with Delilah iirc.
I believe Harvey Smith went on to say that Wyman is Binary.
Billie Lurk is female-leaning Bisexual but I assume the couple of men thing is before Deidre was killed. She explicitly says she never loved anyone like Deidre when discussing how the Duke's brother killed her. Of course there's Daud and Sokolov now but that's way more of a maternal relationship than romantic. She also had a thing with Delilah iirc.
For a game, where you can't choose the protagonist from a bunch of characters or make choices that seem to affect whether they're queer or not, right now the highest budget games are Nights of Azure 1 & 2. At least until TLOU2 comes out.
Also the series is significantly less Bury your Gays than TLOU.
Every playable character in Borderlands has had their character greatly expanded on throughout the game. Like I really need a reason for this. They're not faceless avatars.
Second this, tales from the borderlands is such a good game <3
Athena is a really great character and her relationship with her GF is really written well
Not sure if it counts but Beatrix LeBeau from Slime Rancher
Regarding Sylvando: I think the intention is there, but the producers were afraid to fully go 1 step further to confirm. There's a common issue in Japanese media, likely due to the Executive side, that always is just one-step away from outright confirming it. Notable anime director Ikuhara (who has done quite a lot of Queer works over the years) finally got fed up with this and finally called out the industry on this in Sarazanmai (which I won't spoil how he did this, but oh man, is it quite blunt).
So I wouldn't entirely blame the team for not completely confirming it.
Having said that... Yeah, there really isn't a lot of openly Gay characters. A lot of times we've gotten hints and drops over the years, Chris and Piers in Resident Evil 6 come to mind (probably the closest we've gotten an answer regarding possibly Chris's orientation, despite the costume hint drops in the previous game), but per-usual, a lot of times the creators never fully commit for various reasons, sometimes to due higher ups, and it's always up in the air. Sometimes I do wonder if because these games also have a following in problematic markets, that's another reason why they may not commit.
While the ratio is a little higher for women (I don't think I need to explain likely the reasons behind this, which is its own set of can of worms and unfortunate), male side is really not there. Regardless, it's absolutely frustrating.
Speaking of which, in terms of notable female characters, Asellus in SaGa Frontier is either Gay or Bisexual, but she and another character, Gina end up falling in love with each other. Depending on which ending you get, both parties either end up with each other, or don't.
In the Human ending, Asellus and Gina end up with each other, but ultimately Asellus ends up passing away before Gina, leaving her behind in their old age. It's implied that her and Gina had kids and the kids that are alive in the sequence are their grand kids.
The Half-Mystic ending, Asellus feels afraid and keeps her distance from Gina, because she's not a human, but instead watches over her. Gina never understood why Asellus did this, but she did ultimately end up with someone else in the end. Unclear if her partner was male or female, but she does have grand kids in this scenario.
The Full Mystic ending, despite the fact Gina still loves Asellus, she doesn't seem to understand why Asellus has turned so evil and essentially becoming another Orlouge. I won't say that Gina was forced or coherenced in this ending, but the indication is absolutely not good, regarding how their relationship will ultimately be: Likely abusive, much like Orlouge's ruling.
The Full Mystic ending is incredibly difficult to get. Amusingly also considered the Bad Ending, but remains the hardest to get. Go figure.
From what I understand, the Canonical ending is a combination of them all, but forget the details, other than she's a kind hearted ruler and she does end up with Gina. That's it.
There are some problematic angles regarding Asellus's sexuality (game implies she starts falling for women because she has a male Mystic's blood flowing through her but never commits to this aspect), but for a game made in the mid-late 90s, it's definitely a lot better than some stuff we got during this period.
What reason other than to ask someone for pics of someone they find attractive? Like, at that point in time Piers is 24 years old, Chris is 40 years old. I don't think it's incredibly outlandish. You're jumping through a hoop to imply there isn't some gay subtext there by going "who does that??"
Well certainly not a straight guy lol.
Chris and Piers shouldnt be in this thread regardless; they're either unconfirmed gay or just not. Even if they are coded gay through the writing in the game.
Although I'm in the camp that thinks Capcom is at least gay-baiting with Chris, if not implying, I will say that asking for a photo of someone when they were younger to embarrass that person does not have to be sexually or romantically motivated. That said, it's also true that such a request could be motivated by a crush, as some people tease and like to inquire about their crush.
But I agree: Chris doesn't qualify for this thread until Capcom actually confirms something.
