Can we get a type of love interest?

[FallenArisen0990]

As much as I would love to make Yugiri my Waifu, this is usually a feature that is mostly implemented in Western Games (which at times, is implemented very bare bones or poorly). I can't see it working very well (or at all) in a game like this. Writing love lines for every NPC would be a nightmare.

[KisaiTenshi]

As much as I would love to make Yugiri my Waifu, this is usually a feature that is mostly implemented in Western Games (which at times, is implemented very bare bones or poorly). I can't see it working very well (or at all) in a game like this. Writing love lines for every NPC would be a nightmare.

That's because "western" gamers don't like romance and sex in their games, they only like sexy outfits. Look at how many people just pick up quests and ignore the flavor-text.

Other than SWTOR (cause bioware), I can't think of another western MMO game that had any viable romance option. Usually prospective romance options get nerfed from localized versions of games of RPG's because American audiences are too uptight about their kids playing anything that potentially has sexual content. Come to think of it, the one thing that West critics seem to agree on about games in general is that romance aspects are terrible and poorly written. They're often some side-quest that has no bearing on the game's outcome. Eastern MMO's tend to have romance options, but they're laughable, if not cringeworthy localizations due to the translation teams often not having the context of the quests and facial expressions.

Romancing any NPC at will would just simply not work. Romancing any plot-centric NPC would also not work since they may die or become unavailable for whatever reason.

It would be interesting in a V5.0 plot line to have a character (that you save, or they join at some point) that has a recurring presence in the storyline (or secondary storyline like Hildibrand) and cutscenes that is your romancable/bromance option, but overall pulling that off would require creating at least a male and female option of each race, and that character creation process has to come from questions asked by NPC's in a round-about nature. If they appear in voice acted scenes... well that will usually be the point that players freak out if they sound wrong, so you'd have to pull the same page as the "voiceless player" in voiced cut scenes.

Like for example, you know how many storyline quests have "ask 5 random NPC's" before you progress anywhere, you'd have a similar fetch quest sequence, where the NPC's ask a personal question like:
"Do you like those who look more like you?" - Sets base race, gender and appearances to either mirror your appearance, or to randomize.
"Don't you think (race) are attractive?" - adds or removes that race as an option (asked multiple times, different races asked)
"If you had a sibling would you rather have a brother or a sister?" - combined with first question and the next question to select gender
"Don't you think (boys|girls) are better lovers? - If the calculation so far has suggested one gender, answering yes here confirms it, answering no reverses it.
Going back to any of the NPC's at this point lets you change your answers.

Answering all of the above would start a "find this NPC" quest with a description of the NPC you've created so far. So the next area you go to asks more specific questions like "Are you looking for someone with green eyes?" Eventually you find the name of this lore-correct named NPC.

[ZhaneX]

Just write your own Lore Story or something.

[Averax]

Now you're getting the idea!

[Arutan]

Why do you need a partner in the MSQ? They'll all die eventually.

[Clawbriar]

This isn't a single player game, so what you're asking for is the wildest polyamorous relationship.

That poor NPC.

[DreamAngel-Ren]

All the people (players) you see in game are supposed to be Warrior of Light, a single person, that means every single character can have a love interest about the same NPC, no one will care!...

I would like to marry my retainers personally, but some cavemen oppose to the idea when clearly it wouldn't have any impact on the game, if anything it would benefit FFXIV by increasing the income from weddings!...

Not everyone wants to marry another player, I definitely don't want to and the more options we have the better the game will be!...

I'm definitely one of the few who doesn't want to marry another player character because let's just say I will have trust issues with the person behind the TV/computer screen; while I'm thinking we're just buddies, they may assume something more and that's not the case. As much as I want the marrying NPC scenario be a thing, it would be pretty complicated for the dev team because they would have to come up with love lines for every NPC in the game plus Yoshi mentioned in an interview a while back about possibilities of a NPC that we love ends up dying in the story so yeah...bummer.

[Dualblade]

At the very least some NPCs do seem to be attracted to the WoL. Haurchefant is the most obvious, but some minor characters get in on it as well. In the Azim Steppe after completing the Qestir sidequest chain the NPC Cotota "looks away from you shyly" if you "talk" to her.

[Altena]

Nah.

Though I could get on board with more romance between certain NPCs / core story characters.

My character is happily forever alone thanks.

[giantslayer]

Good news for the OP! They've been working on that feature and wrote a developer blog post about it.
http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/pr/blog/000692.html