Quote Originally Posted by Theodric View Post
I think people are free to draw their own conclusions on the matter. They behave like...so many other teenage girls do who are simply close friends. Just because it has some slight similarities in passing to some scenes in FFVIII it doesn't necessarily mean that it is exactly the same in terms of context. The development team rarely copy and paste plots directly from other titles anyway - there's usually a unique twist.
My point is that the use of the imagery makes it very easy to draw the conclusion that Ryne and Gaia are a couple. But yes, it wasn't explicit and you could decide their relationship was platonic if you really wanted.

It might be nice though, if there was an arc, sidequest or story beat about a less ambigous couple. Of course romance is rarely a focal point in FFXIV, but occasionally there's some, it'd be nice if when that happened, it was about a not straight couple this time.