Ship Tease / Video Games

They have a statue of them dancing, but we still don't know if they are actually a couple.

Games with their own pages

• Ensemble Stars!
• Genshin Impact
• Pokémon
• Puyo Puyo
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

BlazBlue

• BlazBlue has teasing all over the place. For the main quadrology...
  • Ragna is teased with both Noel and Rachel. He also has some teasing with Taokaka a little, but she seems too dumb to understand, so their relationship is more platonic so far. He was also shipped with Celica, but then he went and died. Oh well, it still counts.
    • Alluded to in the joke ending for Rachel in Continuum Shift, where the gag is that Rachel teaches Ragna a lesson for his Well, Excuse Me, Princess! attitude by planting magical spectacles on him that cause women all-around to fall madly in love with him. Hilarity Ensues as a harem of every single female character in the cast and Jin Kisaragi converges on a beleaguered Ragna while Rachel snidely mocks him. After the scene literally explodes, Rachel ponders why the Spectacles of Eros did not effect her and the question is left hanging, but to most of the audience the answer is obvious (and this is confirmed in a later joke ending in Chronophantasma): it doesn't work if you are already in love with the wearer.
    • Thanks to Chronophantasma, the teasing with Celica definitely counts, as a copy of Celica is brought forth to the current era and Ragna himself briefly goes back in time to the Dark War to enact a significant portion of the series' Stable Time Loop, with Celica even becoming a major catalyst for Ragna's Character Development. Members of the fandom are already grabbing pitchforks and lighting torches.
    • By the end of Central Fiction, however, Ragna effectively erases himself from existence, subsequently sinking every ship ever associated with him, canon or otherwise.
  • Jin is teased with Tsubaki and Makoto. Although, for both, it flits between Ship Tease and Morality Pet, with a dash of Big Brother Instinct.
  • Litchi is teased between Bang and Arakune (and despite everyone else thinking that the latter is more closer to Official Couple, the game has been rather vague on her romantic feelings on him so it counts). And occasionally Carl.
  • While more platonic than the rest, Makoto is teased with way too many people. Jin, Carl, Ragna, Noel, Relius... Wait, scratch that last one. Chronophantasma also heavily implies that her and Kagura have a history together, even though she now hates him, whereas the Remix Heart manga shows that Makoto gave newcomer Mai her First Kiss.
  • Tager gets a little tease with Kokonoe, and if you squint there's some with Bullet as well.
• And the shipping continues in BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, complete with crossover potential; even before the official release the potential is there.
  • Ruby Rose is shipped with both Ragna and Rachel, the former due to Ruby's fascination with Blood-Scythe and the latter due to the shared birthday and rose motif the two have. Only squick potential ^note Ruby is explicitly stated to be fifteen in the earlier chapters while just about everyone in BlazBlue is noticeably older, especially Rachel keeps the fans from taking these too far.
    • The Episode Mode ships Ruby with Hyde Kido. In Episode P4A's ending, he is seen sharing his textbooks with Ruby when she forgot hers. In Episode Under Night In-Birth, he comes to help Ruby when he mistakenly believes Yosuke and Chie are harassing her. And in Episode RWBY, they end up fighting for each others' Keystones but are very civil to each other regardless.
  • Fellow icelords Jin and Weiss have been shipped as well by the fans, but neither have official grounding in canon just yet; doesn't stop some loony fans from thinking Weiss may be a substitute for Tsubaki.
  • In a surprising, if not refreshing, twist, fellow Plucky Comic Relief characters Makoto and Yosuke Hanamura have been teased in-game with Yosuke's head turning for Makoto's tail and Makoto genuinely supporting Yosuke in combat commentary. The fans see no problem with this.

Dragon Age

Dragon Age franchise:

• Dragon Age: Origins
  • Shale in Dragon Age: Origins gets a telling remark about how attractive Sten's body looks in battle, while he affectionately calls her "kadan", a term that means something like "close to the heart" in the Qunari language.
  • Sten may also start using this term for the Warden, if his approval gets high enough.
  • Zevran Really Gets Around, but special mention must go to his soliloquizing to Morrigan (in a bet with either Alistair, Oghren, or Leliana) about her beauty that would "turn the eye of the Maker Himself." There's also his leering at Wynne in particular and her "magical bosom."
  • Hilariously, if the Warden is female and on good terms with Oghren, he will at one point get so drunk that he starts hitting on her - but then pass out before anything comes of it.
  • One of the options for the Warden to learn the Duelist specialization from Isabela is to sleep with her instead of beating her in a card game. Depending on who's in the active party and what their relationship is with the Warden, this may also involve Alistair, Zevran, and/or Leliana.
  • In the Awakening expansion, despite there being no romance options, Nathaniel and Velanna's conversations contain a lot of Belligerent Sexual Tension, while Anders and a female Warden can engage in their fair share of flirting. Averted in the case of Oghren and Sigrun, where any Unresolved Sexual Tension is merely a figment of Oghren's booze-addled imagination.
  • The Witch Hunt DLC introduces two new companions, Finn the mage and Ariane the Dalish warrior. They are quite fondly regarded by the fandom and many players thought their chemistry was ship-worthy. The World of Thedas, vol. 2 gives this ship some actual credence, as it confirms that the two continued adventuring together following the events of the DLC.
• Dragon Age II
  • Bethany will become flustered around Sebastian, if his DLC is installed, and he happily flirts with her if not romanced; however, because of the way the game is structured, they only have screen time together if they're both brought for either DLC campaign in Act 2 or 3.
  • Carver has a very obvious crush on Merrill, who is either oblivious to it or very good at pretending to be. If they're brought for the Mark of the Assassin DLC, there's a bit of banter which suggests she's not as oblivious as it seems.
  • Aveline cannot be romanced by Hawke, but there is a point in the game where Hawke can flirt with her. She fails to catch on and it doesn't go anywhere.
  • If neither of them are romanced, Fenris and Isabela develop a Friends with Benefits relationship by the third act.
  • Hawke and Varric can flirt, with Varric even acknowledging that his friend is very attractive, but it's treated more like a running joke between them than anything. The game indicates as much; unlike Hawke's flirt dialogues with anyone else, Varric never has a heart icon next to any of the dialogue options when speaking to him.
  • Varric also flirts with Isabela. This too is treated mostly as a joke, centered in part around Varric's chest hair.
  • Somewhat more subtle than either of his other examples, but also sweeter and arguably more sincere, is Varric's flirtation with Bethany; they have a lot of affectionate banter. Bringing them along for either DLC campaign gives them additional flirty screen time. If she's still alive in Inquisition, it's implied that he writes to her frequently.
  • At the end of Zevran's quest, if Isabela is in the active party and not in a romance with Hawke, they will go off together to hook up. Alternately, if Hawke is single, s/he may hook up with Zevran instead, optionally including Isabela.
  • The Mark of the Assassin DLC also brings us a brief possible romance between Tallis and Hawke.
• Dragon Age: Inquisition
  • In addition to the various romance options, the Inquisitor can flirt with Scout Harding, who — if it happens often enough — will eventually flirt back. However, she's not a real romance option, much to the disappointment of fans, although Trespasser can potentially reveal that she and the Inquisitor did at least date a bit between the main game and the DLC.
  • In Haven, the player may overhear a series of background dialogues between Charter, one of Leliana's top agents, and Scout Pellane, who is relatively new to the spy business. The longer it continues, the more it starts to sound like a ship tease. (Nothing comes of it after the Inquisition relocates to Skyhold, however, and the Magekiller comic shows that Charter eventually gets into a relationship with another character.)
  • Also in Haven, there's a young pair who hangs out by the smithy and talks about the Inquisition's horses. The pair consists of a young nobleman and a female scout who enjoys sassing him about his pampered past. These also are not seen again after the move to Skyhold.
  • The Jaws of Hakkon DLC suggests the possibility of Interspecies Romance between Scout Harding (dwarf) and Professor Kenric (human). He rather insistently addresses her as "Lady Harding," and she can gush to the Inquisitor about how nice Kenric is.
  • The Descent DLC strongly hints at something between Shaper Valta and Legionnaire Renn. A war table operation concerning his stolen remains after the DLC is finished only adds to the curiosity.

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy franchise:

• Final Fantasy VI:
  • One would be forgiven for mistaking Locke rescuing Terra in the opening minutes and his promise to stay with her until her memory returns for a Rescue Romance, but he quickly moves on to form the closest thing the game has to an Official Couple with Celes.
  • Terra also gets a Ship Tease scene on an actual ship with first General Leo, then Shadow. Hell even Sabin protects Terra from Ultros‘s Naughty Tentacles
  • Edgar gets at least one moment of teasing with every female party member, including Relm of all people. Depending on the translation, he either has the decency to act squicked about it or else implies a Jailbait Wait.
• Final Fantasy VII:
  • There is a micro-Dating Sim where one of the three girls (and Barret) can go on a date with Cloud.
  • Tifa and Cloud reminisce about a promise under the stars they had when they were kids. When Cloud tells the story of Nibelheim, he goes into her room and pokes around in her bedroom, and teases Tifa by pretending to have gone through her drawers (which makes her cross).
    • Cloud and Tifa get more explicit Ship Tease in Last Order: Final Fantasy VII where Cloud strokes Tifa's hair after carrying her away from danger.
  • Aerith tells Cloud that if he acts as her bodyguard she'll go out with him. When sitting around the fire in Cosmo Canyon Aerith talks about her being the last Ancient and how it makes her lonely, and Cloud tries to reassure her with 'but I'm...we're here for you, right?' Cait Sith looks at Cloud and Aerith's horoscopes and determines that they'd be a perfect match just before she leaves your party and is killed by Sephiroth. At the end of the game, Cloud also talks about wanting to find Aerith in the Promised Land.
  • Yuffie will kiss Cloud if you take her on the Gondola.
  • Barret gets a lot of Ho Yay with Cloud, getting moved when Cloud talks with him about politics and nervously apologizing to him after realizing he's not all bad. If the player chooses to have Cloud compliment Barret's sailor suit ("a bear wearing a marshmallow"), they'll later find Barret locked in a room with a mirror, checking himself out. He even gets Gay Bravado flirting and the opportunity to date Cloud.
  • It even has instances of Ship Tease with random male characters, like Mukki and Don Corneo.
  • The Turks get a bit. Rude admits to liking Tifa. Tseng asks Elena out for dinner, but has a certain amount of involvement with Aerith, who Reno says he 'likes'. Aerith doesn't seem interested, but she doesn't seem all that scared of him either, and she expresses attachment to him when she finds his unconscious body, saying he's one of the only people who really know her.
  • The Remake continues this trend as well. Both Aerith and Tifa have moments with Cloud throughout - Tifa and Cloud reach for one another in the heat of battle, have a Suggestive Collision, stand back to back together and Cloud has the option to comfort Tifa very intimately at the end - while Aerith is showing wearing the red dress for Don Corneo's mansion from Cloud's perspective, while fireworks go off in the background. There's even a moment where Cloud has both women holding his arms!
    • Surprisingly Jessie! Gets heaps of moments with Cloud compared to the original and unlike Tifa and to a lesser extent Aerith she doesn't hesitate to show him great affection. In the bike racing mini-game depending on how well the player does Jessie even kisses Cloud on the cheek causing him to become shy in an endearingly dorky fashion, then she outright invites him to her room later. Unfortunately as anyone who has played the original will remember Jessie is killed, in this continuity by falling rubble leading to a Tear Jerker where she's so glad that Cloud is the one to hear her last words before she dies.
• Final Fantasy X:
  • Tidus and Auron seemed to flirt a bit in Luca during Auron's reappearance. Between Auron saying things like "Come or don't come. It's your decision," and Tidus assuming the position shortly thereafter, the UST was palpable. (See 6:15 and 6:38-7:00.)
  • Depending on your affection rating, you can have Tidus outright tell Lulu or Rikku that he would rather have them in Guadosalam. Rikku will get a little weirded out (which makes sense given she and Tidus are Like Brother and Sister) while Lulu simply says "hmm, I could add you to my list."
  • Lulu gets teased with Wakka quite a bit since she used to date his brother. Then come the sequel, they're an Official Couple with a baby on the way.
  • Rikku also gets a Ship Tease with Gippal in X-2. An optional conversation has him saying the two "were quite the couple", though Rikku denies it. However she shows plenty of signs throughout the game such as ordering everyone to go and rescue him. The two are also seen leaving the Farplane together at the end.
• Final Fantasy XII:
  • It's subtle, but there is a little shipteasing between Balthier and Fran in Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings. When Tomas is trying to woo Fran, she mentions that Balthier's methods were different. You might also count the scene in the Pharos when the Sun Cryst explodes from the original game as rather shippy. Balthier's lines regarding Fran always have some kind of sexual undertone to them (but hey, don't all his lines?)
    Balthier: "No one knows men like Fran does."
    Balthier: "I always knew Fran didn't take well to being tied up. I just never knew how much. How about you?"

    This scene is also fairly shippy.

    Fran (cupping Balthier's cheek): "Hadn't you best be off? That's what a sky pirate does, you fly, don't you?"
    Balthier (holding Fran's hand): I suppose you'd better hang on then."
  • There's also some Ship Teases for Balthier/Ashe too, especially in the original game. During a scene closer to the end of the game, he seems rather agitated when Al-Cid flirts with her, prompting Fran to give him a knowing look. Also, in the scene in which Balthier is risking his life to stop the Bahamut from destroying Rabanastre Ashe seems particularly scared that he might die, (especially in the original Japanese version) The following is a translation of some of the scene:
    Ashe: "You... do you understand what you are doing?"
    Balthier: "Princess, there's no need for worry. Who do you think I am? I'm the hero of the story. And the hero never dies."
    Ashe: "Please, Balthier, hurry and get out of the Bahamut! Please. If you die... if you die... I..."
    (as the Strahl blasts away)
    Ashe: "BALTHIER!!!!"
  • Ashe and Basch is also plausible. In the ending, Penelo writes to Larsa, and she tells him how she hopes Basch will see Ashe because she thinks Ashe misses him (which Basch reads after Larsa hands him the letter).
  • Penelo also gets a lot of scenes with Larsa in the first game, which could be construed as this, and they certainly seem to feel affectionately for each other.
• Final Fantasy XIII:
  • Aside from Serah and Snow, the rest is all up to interpretation, the biggest source of tease coming from Vanille and Fang, whose relationship is so laden with Les Yay their Ambiguously Gay status is barely ambiguous at all.
  • Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII has a lot of Hope/Lightning tease. Hope giving up the chance to be reborn with his parents in favor of saving Lightning, or Lightning desperately trying to grab his hand as his body disintegrates, are just a few of many examples. The rest (and, again, there's a lot) can be found on the game's main trope page.
  • There's also this line, which is a Shout-Out to Squall's promise to Rinoa.
    Hope (to Lightning): "Even if the entire world hates you, I'll always be by your side."
  • There are a few elements of tease in regards to Hope and Vanille. In the first game, during a side-quest event in Gran Pulse, Hope says to her "her smile makes him happy", which is immediately interpreted as love confession by Vanille, judging her panicked expression. But soon after saying that, Hope says this was a joke, angering her. LR features a Call-Back to this scene in which Lightning teases Hope about having a crush on Vanille, which he promptly denies; the Japanese version has Lightning instead noting that he looks happier than usual with a hint of jealousy after meeting Vanille.
• Final Fantasy XIV:
  • The Player Character Warrior of Light's relationships with many NPC is usually written with a bit of leeway for people to assume a romantic implication, which was confirmed to be on purpose by the developers. There is also a case where within the fifth anniversary livestream, two segments were shown with the Warrior on various dates during the Rising that practically screams ship bait.
• Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy:
  • A series of scenes involves Firion trying to approach Lightning to talk to her, only for a string of Moment Killers to scare him off. It turns out he lost his rose and she found it, and he's trying to ask for it back but is embarrassed about the Hot-Blooded rebel having to ask the resident Action Girl for his flower (in his exact words, "a grown man asking for his flower back..."). However, the subtext is very thin, and is complete with Cecil appointing himself Firion's wingman.
  • And then when he finally does get to talk to her, the Ship Tease still goes strong as Lightning returns it to him and notes that for both of them, the sight of that rose is the key to their memories^explanationIn Firion's case, the phrase "Wild Rose" is a Continuity Nod to the Wild Rose Rebellion that Firion and his friends were a part of; in Lightning's case, her Eidolon-summoning crystal was shaped like a rose, and splitting it caused a shower of rose petals, and asks him to keep it safe because when he remembers everything, she might need it back for help with the same. He watches her leave with a dreamy smile.
  • Terra gets ship teases with Onion Knight, Cloud and Vaan. Vaan and Onion Knight appoint themselves her protectors, worrying about her safety and counselling her on following her heart to find out what she truly wants. Cloud meanwhile waxes poetic with her about their dreams for the future in spite of their self-doubts. When Cecil, again playing Shipper on Deck, asks Onion Knight if he's fallen for her, he denies it, but in a fairly flustered manner.

Fire Emblem

• Fire Emblem lets you control the amount of Ship Tease in your game with its support conversations. Starting with Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, each character has 3-7 characters they're compatible with and some of them might lead to a Relationship Upgrade. The conversations for Support Levels C and B are the cute Ship Tease ones with 95% of the A level conversations being the actual declaration of love. In The Binding Blade, Roy is the only one who can pair up with others and have it noted in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, but later on, this system extended to beyond the main lord.
• Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade goes even further with this for the Lord characters. While Eliwood, Lyn, and Hector have several romantic options each, Ninian is canonically in love with Eliwood no matter what supports you choose, and you get a special ending where she stays with him at the end. Hector, meanwhile, gets numerous scenes alone with Lyn in Hector Mode, including two special conversations towards the end that can only be unlocked if they have A Support. Neither of his other two love interests get equivalent scenes, and both the unique A Support sequences play music tracks that aren't used anywhere else in the entire game.
  • The game basically declares that Nino and Jaffar are meant to be. He pulls a Heel–Face Turn after falling victim to the Florence Nightingale Effect, meaning that he outright loves her regardless of Supports. Legault will outright ask Jaffar if he's going to marry her in their Supports, with complete seriousness. This is a rare example of the Supports between characters acknowledging a coupling that isn't already set in stone.
  • Lyn and Rath get a special picture of him rescuing her, and become excited that they're meeting another Sacaen. Kent, another possible love interest of her's, immediately gets jealous.
• While Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance's ending establishes no pairings (you only get a different last line from the person Ike has A Support with), the system returns in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. The Support conversations are usually far more generic, however. But like The Blazing Blade, some pairs get special conversations near the end if they have reached A Support by then, them being Boyd/Mist, Sothe/Micaiah, and Ike/Soren. There are others with paired endings as well, such as Jill/Haar and Leanne/Naesala.
• The Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem remake has some between the male Avatar and Katarina. When he talks to her during her boss fight in Chapter 16x, she'll tell him that her dream was the two of them becoming Royal Guards, saving many people, being hailed as heroes...and then she finishes with the rather suspect line of "and then you and I...we, um...we... ...never mind."
• Even before support conversations were introduced in The Binding Blade, the series had some shipping — Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War actually used it as a game mechanic. The prologue and Chapter 1 both revolve around rescuing Adean, and by the time they're done, Midayle, Jamke, Azel, and possibly Dew have all received Ship Tease with her. The following chapter, Sylvia and Ferry both join and are both immediately Teased with another of your new recruits, Lewyn, with the former also getting an optional conversation teasing her with Alec. Then Tailto shows up and is blatantly shown to have a crush on Claud, while the chapter after that has a conversation between Sylvia and Ferry that again plays up their Love Triangle with Lewyn.
  • The second generation is just as blatant. Right from the start, Seliph is heavily teased with Julia, while both Johan and Johalva have feelings for Larcei which can be used to recruit one of them. At the start of the next chapter, Patty immediately starts fangirling Shanan, while Larcei also has some teasing with Shanan once he rejoins the group. Then Ares shows up with Leen, already seemingly an item even though from a mechanics standpoint they aren't, and later still Patty/Lester and Lana/Faval can both get conversations shipping them if neither half of one of those pairings has a spouse yet. Finally, while all of the girls except Julia (and Altenna, who is heavily teased with her adoptive brother Areone and can't actually be married to any of the male units in your army) have potential conversations with a few of the guys in the final chapter if they're already married to that character, resulting in the male unit getting a stat boost, Tinny and Arthur have a conversation in the same chapter that gives both of them a slight stat boost that's only available if neither is married yet.
  • Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 (which takes place during Genealogy's Time Skip) didn't let up, either. Among new characters, there's Tanya/Orsin, Dagda/Marty, Karin/Fergus, Fred/Olwen, Linoan/Dean, and Miranda/Conomore, as well as the one-sided Lifis-->Safy. It also serves as a Cutting Off the Branches for Genealogy of the Holy War, as Ced is able to wield Forseti here, making Lewyn/Ferry canon, while Leif/Nanna becomes an Official Couple at the end and...well, Raquesis's choice falls halfway between Cutting Off the Branches and Take a Third Option. ^note While the mechanics behind pairing in Genealogy of the Holy War would force Delmud and Nanna to be full siblings, they're half-siblings here, with Delmud being Beowulf's son and Nanna being Finn's daughter. Fergus is also Beowulf's son, but strangely it's Fergus, not Delmud, who is implied to be a bastard.
• Fire Emblem: Awakening really lays on the Ship Tease between Chrom and either Sumia or the Avatar, whether the Avatar is a guy or a girl:
  • Chrom and Sumia: A.) She's the only character along with Chrom, Lissa, Validar, and Lucina to appear in an animated cutscene (originally called "Lovebirds", wherein Sumia rescues Chrom from some enemy units on her pegasus); B.) Both she and Chrom have a small pool of love interests (four for Sumia and five for Chrom, counting the generic village girl, and they can also get with the Avatar depending on the gender you give him/her), while the others have a much wider pool (and the Avatar can get with anybody of the opposite gender); C.) When Chrom picks a bride at the end of Chapter 11 (assuming the player hasn't initiated an S Support with any other units before then), Sumia can get top priority over Chrom's other options save for maybe Olivia ^note (Sumia > Maribelle > Sully > Olivia > FeMU > Random Villager Girl) (if they're tied in Support points/Support Level and are above C Rank; see Olivia's section below for more details) and gets an extended version of the post-chapter confession scene ^note where, instead of Lissa, Flavia, and Basilio (and the Avatar, if the player isn't marrying a female Avatar) leaving before Chrom pops the question, Sumia flies in and hugs Chrom while fretting over him; and D.) the intro of the game shows Chrom and Sumia as the Ylissean Ruling Couple, baby Lucina included. Flavia even casts her lot with the two as a couple after seeing Sumia punch Chrom (unintentionally; she was aiming for a slap) to get him out of his funk when his sister Emmeryn returns to Ylisstol—into the hands of Plegia—at the end of Chapter 7, and tells them to Get a Room! in the aforementioned confession scene.
  • Chrom and the Avatar: Despite how the Avatar can get with anybody of the opposite sex, s/he and Chrom are still extremely close whether they marry or not. And unlike the above case of Chrom and Sumia, the Ship Tease remains even if Chrom marries someone else than the Avatar and/or s/he is either single or married to anybody else, to the degree where fans complained about it. ^note Any other spouse of Chrom, the aforementioned Sumia and below mentioned Olivia included, will be Demoted to Extra after Chapter 13 aka Lucina's official recruitment, save for their mother/daughter Supports and Future Past talks) Since the Avatar can be a man or a woman, it has different results:
    • Both Avatars: Aside of the already mentioned "two halves of a coin" speech by Chrom, in The Future Past DLC, Grima (though the Avatar's body) will taunt Lucina, saying the person "who controlled this body loved [Chrom]" — which does NOT change if the Avatar is married to someone else, or even if the Avatar happens to be a man (and maybe even Lucina's own lover). Note that this is a case of Dub Text though: the Japanese version just had Grima say Chrom was ambiguously a "very important person" to the Avatar. Not to mention, when the Avatar of either gender or marriage is trapped by Grima at the end, s/he can only be brought back by the sound of Chrom's voice.
    • Female Avatar: Their supports play out in Belligerent Sexual Tension manner, which is a very popular (if token, for some) romance trope, and it's extremely easy to get them married to each other practically by mistake/accident. ^note (More exactly, by unlocking even one Support while either forgetting or ignoring that Chrom needs to be married off in Chapter 11, which will likely lock all their other prospect spouses out unless they have higher Support levels). If the Avatar marries Chrom, there's LOTS of romantic/familiar drama in their future since she's the perfect vessel of Grima, including a far more dramatic "Lucina's Judgement" scene where Lucina ultimately breaks down sobbing for not being able to kill her mother to save the world, meaning that the plot itself can be seen catering to the Female Avatar x Chrom couple. (The only one that compares in that sense is Lucina x a Male Avatar.) If she doesn't marry Chrom, Lucina will be hostile to the Female Avatar and accuse her of wanting to seduce Chrom, then be offended to see the Female Avatar isn't in romantic love with him and will almost demand that she falls for Chrom's "charms." Even more, the Cipher card game has two very "suspicious" cards regarding Chrom and the Female Avatar: they depict a scenario where Chrom◊ not only failed to stop the Grima-possessed Avatar, but ended up dying and being resurrected as the ruler of the Risen due to his holy blood, and as said below she's depicted in a companion card as the Vessel of Grima◊.
    • Male Avatar: His supports with Chrom play out in a very Ho Yay-tastic way, with him acting as a borderline "nagging wife" towards him. Some fans have joked that Male Avatar's C-through-A supports would have worked even better for a Female Avatar romancing Chrom than her own lines, plus they get near everything the Female Avatar gets regarding Chrom save for marriage and Lucina's above-mentioned nagging.
  • Outside of Chrom's matters, there's Lon'qu and Chrom's little sister Lissa. Their supports state that Lon'qu was specifically made into Lissa's bodyguard by Chrom himself, at some point he saves Lissa from being shot by arrows, and this last part can be seen as potentially mirroring the father-child talks with Lissa's son Owain — where Owain's dad is said to have died in exactly the same manner.
  • While the Avatar can marry anyone, as previously mentioned, the Male Avatar gets quite a bit of shipping with Lucina, as she's the female with whom he interacts with the most throughout the game, and they bond over their desire to protect Chrom and save the world. Perhaps most significantly, though, would be the scene in which Lucina realizes that it's the Avatar who kills Chrom in the Bad Future and goes to kill him. If he's married to her, she'll find herself unable to do it out of her love for him...something that only happens otherwise if the Female Avatar is her mother.
  • Vaike and Miriel can be potentially seen as having this, too. When they appear first, Vaike has misplaced his axe and Miriel returns it to him — and a talk with Miriel's son Laurent states that his father often used to misplace stuff…
  • The game contains a retroactive example by providing Ship Tease for characters from the previous game in the DLC: Katarina's conversation with a Male Avatar in the Rogues and Redeemers chapter heavily implies she was in love with Kris, if he was male. If Awakening's Avatar is female, the conversation ends after a few sentences. But if they're male, Katarina reminisces about how he reminds her of someone, and goes on about how "strong and kind" they were, and that they'd have a place in her heart even if they were reborn as someone else, before wondering what she's even saying.
• Fire Emblem Fates, similarly, piles on the Ship Tease between the Avatar and Azura (moreso for the Male, though). Right off the bat they forge a close connection, bonding over their similar circumstances and always sticking by and supporting each other, no matter what. Azura outright tells them she feels safe whenever they're around, even after they go berserk and try to kill her—and in fact, what stopped them from killing her was her pleading for them to come back to themselves. On Birthright, she asks them to show her their "lovely" smile again before she dies, and spends her final moments reaching out to them; on Conquest, she chooses them and them alone to appear to for her final goodbye before disappearing forever; and on Revelation, she swears to always stay by their side at the end of the game, even if they aren't married. It helps that Azura alone has three different support chains with them. The tease is even greater for the Male Avatar, as she has three different confession scenes with him and him alone, and has a male-exclusive scene where a random merchant makes a comment about her being his "lady friend" and gives him free food to share with her.
  • There's the pre-fight dialogue if you fight Amiibo!Lucina with Laslow /Inigo. She anticipates his attempt to flirt with her and pre-emptively agrees to have tea with him after the battle, leaving him visibly flustered by the end of the conversation.
  • There's also a fair bit of tease for Ryoma/Scarlet, especially in Revelation—they're have nothing but the utmost respect for each other despite only meeting recently, they act Like an Old Married Couple, and even his siblings seem to think something's up between them. It gets additionally teased right as it's being sunk—she dies, and he's utterly devastated, cradling her body close and almost in tears.
  • Jakob/Flora is teased twice: once when she mentions in her Birthright boss fight that she has a crush on him, and again in the Spooky Scramble DLC, where he tells her she's one of the few he truly respects, which causes her to swoon. Sadly, no supports means it's never resolved.
  • The Drama CDs added even more Male Avatar/Azura tease, as well as Female Avatar/Xander and Female Avatar/Leo tease. For the Male Avatar/Azura tease, he accepts her offer to take him on a date around Hoshido, and her thoughts during the berserk scene are shown to be solely on protecting him. For Female Avatar/Xander and Female Avatar/Leo, both of them briefly daydream about her in a swimsuit, and are shown to be frantic with worry when she goes missing.

Kingdom Hearts

• Kingdom Hearts II. Hilarious given that it's a No Hugging, No Kissing game — Nomura (and Nojima) are screwing with us all, and the shipper wars they have given birth to are incredible to behold.
  • The most famous and cited instance of teasing occurs when Sora held Riku's hand, kneeled before him, and began crying, all the while sobbing "I looked everywhere for you!" In context, though, it's Not What It Looks Like.
    • DDD takes it a step further and introduces Sora and Riku's joint Reality Shift: a merged, rainbow-colored Keyblade, with a heart at the tip of the blade and a paopu fruit as the handle's charm. Paopu fruit are said to bind together the fate of whoever shares one. When they summon it in KH3 in the battle against Anti-Aqua, the song Dearly Beloved also plays in the background as its leitmotif.
  • There's the numerous scenes between Kairi and Sora. At one point in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora imagines himself dancing with her, and towards the end they share a heartfelt hug.
    • The cover art for Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD Remix makes it appear as though Kairi is flirting with Sora.
    • Kingdom Hearts III has the two decide to exchange paopu fruit with each other.
      Sora: Kairi, I'll keep you safe.
      Kairi: (shakes head) Let me keep you safe.
  • 3D, in a rare, canon instance of Crossover Shipping (thanks to the inclusion of TWEWY characters), has a bit of Riku/Shiki. This is lampshaded by Shiki asking if he's her Knight in Shining Armor, which immediately flusters Riku.
  • Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep has more than a good amount of tease between Terra and Aqua, with the most prominent being how she jumps into to what is essentially Hell to save him.
  Aqua: "I'm with you!"

League of Legends

• Likely the most prominent is the ship between Garen, the Might of Demacia and Katarina, the Sinister Blade. They started out with simple Foe Romance Subtext (being both Blood Knights of opposing nations who each saw the other as a Worthy Opponent) and each subsequent appearance by them in the lore has painted them as less and less antagonistic towards each other. Even years later, Riot seems to have a soft spot for the two, and frequently references this with new or updated characters, and in Katarina, their budding relationship was officially canonized.

  Maokai: Stop carving words into my bark! Everyone knows "G hearts K"!

• Another ship Riot likes to tease (emphasis on "tease") is between Swain, the Noxian Grand General and LeBlanc, the Deceiver. While their relationship was subtext from the start, lore updates from the 2014 Sion update revealed a mostly one-sided interest on LeBlanc's side, exacerbated by her concurrently-released "Ravenborn LeBlanc" skin, coordinating her appearance to Swain's raven-themed aesthetic. This took a turn for the complicated following Swain's lore update in 2018, where it's revealed that while the two have personal history together, LeBlanc is actively conspiring against him and Swain knows it, making it a much more violently love-hate kind of thing.
  Swain: I suppose this makes us enemies with benefits.
• Another pairing Riot has on/off fondness for is Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer, and Lux, the Lady of Luminosity. Ezreal's uncle Lyte in the Howling Abyss will sometimes ask him about his relationship with Lux, and this image of the two together◊ was curiously hidden away on an in-character forum post. However, this would be undone years later with Lux's updated 2017 voiceover, where she taunts him with "Are we supposed to be... dating... or something? We've never even talked."
  • The ship was ambiguously resurrected with the later creation of Zoe, the Aspect of Twilight later in the year, who has a Precocious Crush (sort of) on Ezreal and has a decidedly one-sided rivalry against Lux for his affection.
  • Ezreal's new perspective was finally given with his late 2018 visual/voiceover update: he still has a pretty blatant crush on Lux, but she's simply uninterested in him, and Ezreal wants Zoe to knock it off at risk of ruining his chances with her (incidentally, he rejects Zoe because she's too old for him).
  • The non-canon, but official Star Guardian Alternate Universe features counterparts of Ezreal and Lux, and in the online serial Starfall (released after the aforementioned Ship Sinking), it positively revels in showing the two crushing on each other right as they first meet. Combined with the Zoe interaction, one has to wonder if someone within Riot's internal lore team was really unhappy with the decision to split them up and is doing their damnest to reunite them in any way they can. The later Battle Academia versions of the finally broke all pretense and now states the two are officially dating, so that one writer in some way got their wish.
• Prince Jarvan IV, the Exemplar of Demacia and Shyvana, the Half-Dragon are loyal partners-in-arms, and are implied to be perhaps something more. Beyond the subtext of how they met (Shyvana helped save an exiled Jarvan from her dragon mother, and the two defeated her together), the "Lux" comic saw Jarvan admit that he was in love with an indeterminate magical being, heavily implied to be Shyvana. As for Shyvana's end, she pledges her Undying Loyalty specifically to Jarvan over the rest of Demacia, and one of her in-game quotes upon taking fatal damage is weakly croaking out his name. The Mageseeker finally confirmed that the two are in a Secret Relationship (secret due to Shyvana inherently being against the anti-magic rhetoric Jarvan is flimsily trying to uphold), with Shyvana briefly offering to run away with him to abandon the crown once Demacia begins tearing itself apart from revolution.
• The Immortal Journey universe's version of Morgana (Majestic Empress) can be read to have some kind of history with Enduring Sword Talon. In this universe Morgana was so enraged by demigoddess Irelia taking Talon's powers from him that she came down from her heavenly throne to crush Irelia and seeks to return those powers to Talon at any cost. Her splash art features her looking at him through a magical pool, and her recall animation shows her fall to the ground sobbing in grief when his power disappears from her. Talon's side of this is unclear, as none of his art or animations reference Morgana.

The Legend of Zelda

• In The Legend of Zelda franchise, since each Link is essentially a different version unless otherwise noted, there's plenty of room for shipping with the various ladies he meets on his quest.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess did its share of Ship Teasing. Between the little come-back-safely speech Ilia gives to Link (complete with appropriate music swelling in the background), the hand-holding scene between Link and Zelda before the final battle, and the heartstring-tugging farewell by Midna in which she almost says something emotional to Link, the shippers had a field day... especially considering that Link's a Heroic Mime with no dialogue to offer clues.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is dripping with this for Link and Zelda.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword also seems to be heading in the Link/Zelda direction, to the point of an official trailer detailing their romantic chemistry. They even somewhat trick shippers into thinking a kiss is a part of a ceremony.
    • The Ship Tease in this game is overwhelming, considering they are childhood friends and everything Link does is to protect Zelda. After the credits, Zelda tells Link that she plans to stay on this land. Link simply nods and smiles, strongly implying he is staying with her. In fact, Demise's final speech canonizes it when he says that all future Links will "share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero". Babies Ever After?
  • The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was the game that first got the shippers into a frenzy:
    • Nabooru's "Promise" to Young Link, which gets a sight less ambiguous when she muses that she should have kept it in light of how handsome he grew up to be.
    • Talon asking Link if he wants to marry Malon and the Gossip Stone which says she wishes for a knight in shining armor to sweep her off her feet. Oh and in Twilight Princess Link (who is descended from the Ocarina of Time Link) is not only a rancher like Malon, but knows Epona's song which Malon learned from her mother... you do the math.
    • Both of Saria's goodbyes to Link.
    • Ruto actually getting engaged to Link, the scene in which it happens dripping with subtext.
    • There tends to be an underlying vibe to any scene with Link and Zelda in it, and he's shown (and implied via dialogue) to be quite motivated to protect her. In particular, there's a great deal of unspoken emotion in their last scene together, to be interpreted as the player wills.
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker teases Link/Zelda, Link/Medli, and Link/Mila.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening: "You got Marin! Is this your big chance?"
  • In Hyrule Warriors, there's Link/Zelda, Link/Cia, and Link/Lana.
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild had quite a few options.
    • Zelda acts very Tsundere towards Link in the beginning, because she resented how he was chosen to be The Hero long before her powers could develop. Her diary states she does feel guilty for snapping at him, though it only makes her more angry with herself. After Link rescues her, she looks at him as though seeing him for the first time and soon starts getting to know him, realizing she was wrong to act distant and the two became inseperable. A sidequest reveals that she actually is in love with Link, as she turns down someone's love and tells them that she is already in love (with Link). One recovered memory contains a Freeze-Frame Bonus of Zelda momentarily grasping Link's pinkie with her thumb and forefinger. Her love for him also activates her dormant powers. This also ends up appeasing a bunch of Zelda/Link Shippers.
    • Mipha was a childhood friend of Link's who is out right stated to have feelings for Link, just like the previously mentioned Ruto. Too bad she died before she could confess.
    • Paya has an obvious crush on Link, but her diary implies she'd live with the heartache if he choose Zelda.
  • The trend continues in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom with Link and Zelda still inseparable in the time since the last game. The game also heavily implies that they live together in Hateno in the house Link bought in the prior game, now upgraded to contain all Zelda's things and a single larger bed, which the two are presumably sharing. No one ever outright says that the two are romantically involved, though.

Mass Effect

• The romantic interactions with Samara in Mass Effect 2 seem to be going somewhere, but then she pulls away when you are about to kiss her, and the relationship ends up going nowhere.
  • There's also a short-lived ship tease between Shepard and Morinth.
  • Shiala, if she survives Mass Effect, comes back in the sequel and is visibly attracted to Shepard, but nothing comes out of it.
  • In Mass Effect 3, James Vega flirts with a female Shepard, but it never goes further than that. In the Citadel DLC, this possibly turns into a one night stand.
  • Tali gets flustered around a female Shepard, but she is only a romance option for male Shepard.
  • Largely lampshaded with Mordin Solus in Mass Effect 2, but only if you speak to him enough times and you're either in no current romance or are loyal to one from the first game. It could be assumed this is a playful jab from the writers at those who ship their player character with everyone, but it certainly hasn't stopped people from assuming that Mordin might actually be serious about the possibility of him "trying Shepard."
  • In the final Mass Effect 3 DLC "Citadel", you throw a party for the crew. During the course of the party, depending on who is alive/present and your relationship status at the time, you can see: Ashley and Vega flirting with each other, EDI making extensive comments on Traynor's attraction to her voice, Shepard can comment on Jack and Miranda's Belligerent Sexual Tension, Zaeed displays a blatant crush on Samara, Shepard's own teasing with Samara can go even further, and Shepard can have a one night stand with Javik, of all people (which they will never speak of again). Tali meanwhile ends up drunk in the bathroom, suggesting a relationship with male Shepard, Garrus, or Garrus and FemShep depending on pairings.
  • We see a few examples of Kasumi's interest in Jacob, from her haiku in Lair of the Shadow Broker, to her comments in the third game, about how Shepard might stand a chance recruiting her again if Jacob was still around. In fact, the relationship between Jacob and FemShep could be seen as a Ship Tease since in ME3, he's ditched her in favour of Brynn Cole.

Persona

• Appears from time to time throughout the Persona series. An interesting case of Tarot Motifs are often at work for teased pairings: expect Persona-users of the Lovers Arcana, which are always female, to hold some sort of romantic interest in the Protagonist. Both Lisa Silverman (Persona 2) and Rise Kujikawa (Persona 4) have overt crushes on their respective leading characters (Tatsuya Suou and Yu Narukami, respectively). The same can be said for Yukari Takeba (Persona 3). This carries over in P3 FES' playable epilogue, "The Answer", where her feelings for him makes her want to turn back time and bring him back to life, despite the risks that would be involved.
• Aigis's relationship with Persona 3's Protagonist get a lot of attention within the main story, particularly in "The Answer."
• In Persona 4, Kanji and Naoto get a fair amount of ship tease, which is expanded on in all the spin-offs. However, it ultimately goes nowhere, as all of it is one-sided on Kanji's part, and Naoto is completely oblivious to Kanji's crush on her.
  • Yosuke and Chie also have their fair amount of ship tease, given that despite their Vitriolic Best Buds tendencies they're shown to understand each other quite well and get along swimmingly when they aren't bickering. This isn't lost on the rest of the cast either, as Rise and Yukiko tease that the two of them are perfect for each other, and the player even has a chance to point out that they're a pretty good match. But of course, Yosuke still has lingering feelings for Saki, and Chie remains completely against the idea of dating him, and will quickly and cleanly shoot down anyone who tries to convince her otherwise.
  • Yu and Chie however do gets some legitimate moments in the games and anime, in episode 15 Yukiko even ruins a tender conversation Yu and Chie are having by phoning at the worst moment.
  • Yu gets ship teased with Marie regardless of the player’s choices.
• In Persona 4: Arena, there's... something going on between Teddie and Labrys, what with him proudly declaring himself as her knight and conversing her in a way that he normally doesn't with his other female friends. The same can be said about the Friendly Rivalry with Chie and Akihiko.
• In regards to Persona 2, Maya is admired by both Suou brothers, with both canonically having crushes on her and Tatsuya has the possibility of kissing her at the end of Eternal Punishment. During Innocent Sin, when Maya and Tatsuya are chatting in the bomb shelter, we see him smile for the first time. He even blushes when Maya pointed it out! Word of God states that Maya was Tatsuya's first crush. Word of God leaves it up to your imagination if Tatsuya's protectiveness for her in Eternal Punishment is due to her death in the Other Side or deeper feelings. It is established in the ending narration that "...so too has her love, retreated to a world beyond her reach."
  • Also, the amount of ship tease for Tatsuya and Gay Option Jun is outright legendary, from their exchange of personal gifts to their interactions in a CD drama. In fact, the scenario designer said in one interview that if he had full control of the script, he may have had Tatsuya and Jun be an official item from the get-go.
• In Persona 5, Joker has ship tease moments with plenty of female characters, but mostly with his female party members, since he spends the most time with them.
  • The first time Joker sees Ann in-game is accompanied by a soft piano and string theme (aptly named "Encounter") reminiscent of Catherine's music style. In May, Sojiro will ask Ann if she has a boyfriend in a way that implies he's actually asking if she's dating Joker. Ann also develops a crush on Joker during the early events of her Confidant, though she only admits it if she's romanced.
  • During Futaba's story arc in August, Sojiro mistakes a terrified Makoto clinging to Joker as an embrace and outright asks if they're dating. During the boss fight in Futaba's Palace, Joker saves Makoto with a Diving Save, and they briefly share a Held Gaze. This scene is moved from Futaba's Palace to the Casino Palace in the anime adaptation, where he snaps Makoto out of her Heroic BSoD so that she can fight the boss instead of Akechi in the main game. On top of that, Makoto's Confidant Link involves her and Joker going Undercover as Lovers regardless of whether or not you have any interest in pursuing her romantically.
  • Haru has a scene where her company's new president reveals that he thought she was eager for her engagement as he assumed it was a Perfectly Arranged Marriage, but now sees that she'd clearly prefer to be with Joker. She shows hints of having a crush on him at the cultural festival by inviting him to a date before her Confidant even begins. Sojiro also suspects something is going on between her and Joker when she first comes over. And finally, if the player goes for the friendship route, she's clearly heartbroken.
  • Futaba is one of few characters to have an unavoidable Rank 1 Confidant event, where she wonders why she only feels comfortable going out with him and decisively considers him a "key item" in her life. She also gets very flustered when Joker pats her head in Rank 8. And in a case similar to Haru's, should the player pick the friendship route, Futaba, who was just talking about how Joker makes her feel, backpedals into an Aborted Declaration of Love. Sojiro even thinks there's a chance Joker might be interested in her in his Rank 10 Confidant, and wavers between discouraging it or not regardless of whether or not Joker pursues her.
  • The Ship Tease moments between Joker and Kasumi borders on Implied Love Interest, being the only girl to outright confess her feelings towards Joker before he potentially romances her, and part of her Showtime attack with Joker has him carrying her bridal style (note that she's also the only female party member to share a Showtime attack with Joker). Kasumi also has no less than two official artworks of her with Joker.
  • While not a romance option, there is a fair amount of tease between Joker and Akechi. During a visit to LeBlanc, Akechi mentions to Joker "Ever since the first time I met you, it felt special to me. I feel like I can tell you anything." with a lot of his other dialogue towards Joker coming across as flirting^NoteIn the original Japanese version, one scene has Akechi greet Joker with "おかえり" ("okaeri"), short for "お帰りなさい" ("okaerinasai"), which is mostly used by someone to greet another to a place they both regard as "home" or a "home base". This line was simply translated to "Welcome home." in the English version. with Joker given several options to play along. The opening for Persona 5 Royal has Akechi falling down into a pile of treasure alongside Joker.

Resident Evil

• Rebecca and Billy from RE0 have a few teasing moments.
• RE1: The scene where Jill puts her head on Chris's shoulder◊ when she falls alseep. Also when playing as Chris in the first game, when you save Jill from the basement prison, they hug in an intimate manner. Also can't forget the Jill-Chris end screen.
• In RE2: Leon kisses Ada and then screams her name as she "dies". In her later appearances Ada is Leon's main Love Interest... despite Leon also having Ship Tease moments with many other women such as: Codec girl Hunnigan, Angela in Resident Evil: Degeneration, Manuela from Resident Evil The Dark Side Chronicles who has a Bodyguard Crush on Leon, and Helena from RE6 gives him the Held Gaze. Out of Universe, Capcom does a lot of shippy marketing and promotional material with this couple, including giving them a themed drink at the Capcom Cafe.
• In RE3 Jill despite not showing any romantic interest in Carlos in the main game is shown on a imitate cruise with him in the ending score screen. The Resident Evil 3 (Remake) (much like Leon and Claire below) deepens Jill and Carlos's relationship compared to the original, their bond is more affectionate with Jill eventually responding gently to his flirting and Carlos even gives her a piggyback when she gets infected.
• Claire and Steve in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, while she finds him annoying at first she eventually returns his advances, the Wii Game even explicitly has Steve give Claire the Male Gaze when she bends over a computer. Unfortunately for those who ship them, Steve is turned into a giant monster by Alexia and dies telling Claire he loves her.
• RE4: Leon almost blatantly checks out Ada's ass as she's leaving the boat in the cinematic just before you begin playing the island. In the closing scene, Ashley all but invites Leon into her pants; he politely declines.
• RE5: Jill tackles Wesker through a window to save Chris, and you get a game over if you kill Jill in the game. Chris sounds staggeringly pained whenever Jill is mentioned (as she seemingly died), and the way he acts around her after freeing her from Wesker is loaded with emotion. Not to mention Chris was willing to stay with Jill instead of chasing after Wesker, putting the whole world in danger.
• Resident Evil: Revelations: Chris acts as though he's Married to the Job and ignores the advances of his mission partner Jessica... at least until Jill gets captured. From that point on, he plows through everyone to save her.
• Resident Evil 6: The entire campaign between Sherry Birkin and Jake Muller is sexual tension galore during their quieter scenes. There's one tidbit where they're trapped in a research facility in China; Jake has nothing but pants on, Sherry's in a skimpy hospital gown, they meet, and Male Gaze ensues. Jake is also fiercely protective of Sherry.
  • Leon's campaign in RE6 boils down to him having a Cock Fight with the Big Bad over Ada, at one point Ada even gives Leon a ring for a puzzle and tells him "don't get excited".
  • Ho Yay fans rejoice that Chris and Piers’s campaign is nothing but this.
• Leon and Claire were the only partners that initially avoided a lot of Ship Teasing. Mostly due to having few scenes together in the original RE2 and Leon being attracted to Ada, Resident Evil: Degeneration added a little more with Leon giving Claire emotional (and physical) support and Claire giving Leon a cheeky wink but overall spoiled thanks to Angela being ship teased with Leon instead. Resident Evil The Dark Side Chronicles gave Leon and Claire a few moments but played it off as them being more friends than love interests... the Resident Evil 2 (Remake) however plays it straight. It strongly implies that Claire at least has feelings for him, while Leon is far less stoic around her. In the ending Sherry puts the cherry on top mistaking them for boyfriend and girlfriend. Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness delivers yet more Ship Tease between them, as especially seen in climax of the first season where despite the mutated villain escaping, when Leon sees Claire in need of help he immediately rushes towards her and pulls her to safety resulting in a Suggestive Collision complete with a Held Gaze. If that wasn’t enough, during the Bittersweet Ending when Leon meets Claire outside the White House, he actually hoped she was going to ask him out for dinner. Out of Universe Capcom even teased Leon/Claire fans on the New Years poster◊.
• The Outbreak spin-off even had one in the form of George and Cindy, who shared a Downer Ending together. All the survivors shared one of some sort of pairing, but theirs was the only romantic one.

Sonic the Hedgehog

• For a series that tends to avoid the topic of relationships in the games (except for Amy, who is... rather clingy and it seems one-sided), Sonic the Hedgehog has been known to ship tease a few times. Knuckles and Rouge in Sonic Adventure 2, for starters. Then there's the end of Sonic Rush, where Sonic and Blaze have a long stare at each other and are trying to hold on to each other as long as possible before they get separated — Sonic's holding on with both hands. It's as if they're both reluctant to part ways.
  • Then there's Sonic Chronicles. Being a turn-based RPG by Bioware, it's hardly surprising that you can pursue optional dialogues with your various allies. Sonic/Amy is well-supported, Sonic/Rouge is hinted at if you're sarcastic with Amy, but the real tease is Knuckles/Shade towards the end. Knuckles could just be relieved that he's not the Last of His Kind anymore, but it could also be something more specific.
  • Multiple games have nods towards Sonic/Blaze, including Sonic Generations and Sonic and the Black Knight. At this point, it's possible both of them are suffering from Cannot Spit It Out. (Although due to Sonic's characterization as a Chaste Hero, the implications of romance aren't as simple in this series.) But taking into account how some of their interactions fit right into Rule of Romantic, Blaze seems to be what is actually an Implied Love Interest for him.
  • Sonic Unleashed has Sonic feeling depressed after Amy didn't recognize him as a werehog, thinking she mistook him for someone else again.
  • Silver's story ending in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) could be seen by some as a Silver/Blaze ship tease, the ending scene shows to the player how much they actually cared for each other right before Blaze's sacrifice to seal Iblis and save the future. Possibly averted however, as Blaze's official character bio◊ (Japanese) for Sonic '06 states that they both shared a brother and sister relationship.
    • Also in Sonic 06, some Silver x Amy shippers have jumped at the chance when they saw how cute the scenes with said characters were.
  • Shadow and Rouge may be closer to True Companions, but even they get this from time to time. In Sonic Adventure 2, he saves her life and gets all Tsundere about it. In Sonic Battle, Rouge returns the favour, referring to him as a "Prince" and telling him that he's, "Not bad looking." There's also the scene in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) where she tells him she'll always be by his side (or if you're playing in Japanese, that he always has friends he can rely on). And Sonic Rivals does this too. Shadow is rapidly getting worried about Rouge when she gets trapped in a card, to the point where he says 'that card's mine' [aka, 'Rouge is mine']. Then in the final cutscene, Rouge gets particularly flirty with Shadow, where she says 'that's my Shadow, why don't we get a peek into our future?' Shadow wants to decline, but Rouge keeps insisting and we don't know if Shadow gave in or not. But this is Rouge, so... you never know.
  • This happens in Shadow the Hedgehog as well, with, of all pairings, Shadow/Amy. If you complete the dark missions prior to Amy's mission, then do hers and the hero missions until the end, said pathway is called "The Miracle of Love." In the Last Story, Amy is practically swooning over Shadow in this exchange:
  Rouge: I hope he's ok.
  Amy Rose: I'm sure he's fine, Rouge. After all, he is Shadow.
  • One of Sonic's idle dialogue lines on Kronos Island in Sonic Frontiers makes mention of the Umbrella of Togetherness trope, firing off yet another round of Sonamy ship tease.
  Sonic: Wish we were sharing an umbrella, Amy...
  • The same type of Ship Tease as the above example (with the same ship, no less) would also appear in Sonic Superstars where, in Pinball Carnival Zone, it's possible to find a graffiti drawing of Sonic and Amy sharing an umbrella.
  • The official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitters account has Twitter Takeovers, where the fans can ask the Sonic cast questions. Any time Sonic is asked about Amy, he tries to dodge the question, and the other characters tease him for hiding his feelings.
    • In the Sixth Twitter Takeover, Amy herself is asked a similar question (the question asked is "What do you like about Sonic?"), and Amy is teased by everybody present except Sonic when she gets nervous about her answer.

Soulcalibur series

• Soulcalibur gives us Kilik/Xianghua, numerous times over. From their Destined Battle in II (a Fighting Your Friend moment where neither wants the other to move on for fear of them dying in the battle against Soul Edge/Inferno) to their endings in III (Kilik's having him outright ask Xianghua to stay with him as they share a tender moment, Xianghua's having her hint her affections to an oblivious Kilik) as well as the fact that they're the only characters in III to have a dual Weapons Demonstration (complete with a pause in the action where the duo stare and smile at one another before refocusing), it's quite clear that these two are more than True Companions. Soulcalibur IV drives home their status as the Official Couple quite soundly: in Xianghua's ending, she pleads for him to not go through with his Heroic Sacrifice and confronts him on their shared romantic/sexual chemistry. Kilik painfully states that he wants to be with her, but there simply isn't a way and instead wants her to find happiness in a life without him. Right as he begins his kamikaze attempt, Xianghua runs up to Kilik and embraces him, telling him that she's going to stay with him; Kilik replies with "Thank you." Soulcalibur V initially implied the pairing is outright sunk: Xianghua has a daughter, and Kilik is not the father. Guess who Xiba's parents are, though.
• Viola and Z.W.E.I Walk the Earth together, despite having no relation to each other than being "kindred spirits." They fight each other only reluctantly, and if Viola wins a battle against Z.W.E.I, she will sadly ask him to wake up (in contrast to her Lack of Empathy towards most people).

Tales Of

• Tales of Destiny 2: While Kyle/Reala and Loni/Nanaly are fairly straightforwardly confirmed, Judas and Harold don't have any deep and serious relationship arcs- But there are teasing moments with each other, like Judas awkwardly and uncharacteristically apologizing to Harold for not telling her her brother was going to die on the day the Er'thers won the war, then offering her a shoulder to cry on, a few times when he leaves the party to go check up on what she's doing, and his kind comments (for him, anyways) about her when others are making fun of her. Nanaly, the Team Mom, comes to the conclusion he misses her when she leaves the party for a while and he comments on sleeping better without her around. Harold, on her end, calls Judas "captivating", "interesting", and goes so far as to say it is rare to find someone on her level (when she calls most everyone else stupid). There's also a skit where she says she'd be most interested in dating someone on said level.
  • There's also the third time you meet Philia, where she recounts Leon's betrayal, saying having to fight him was the hardest part of her journey, and Judas comforts her by saying Leon didn't regret his decisions. It's implied she recognizes him after he speaks to her, which up to that point he was trying to avoid doing.
• Tales of Symphonia's creators probably knew that that shipping was inevitable, so they made Relationship Values lead to Multiple Endings. Despite this, there are still scenes that favour the two main female leads more than the others; with the most blatant example being a skit that occurs in Welgaia between Lloyd and Sheena. When someone other than Colette or Sheena is your closest party member, the cutscenes are generally non-romantic, exploring various other types of relationships such as admiration and friendship; but a lot of people seemed to think they were all love options. In the sequel, the Raine and Presea options are promoted to full romantic levels.
  • It helps that Presea looks like a young girl around Genis' age (but is actually a woman who is a decade older than Lloyd), and Raine is Lloyd's teacher. The Genis/Presea and Regal/Presea ships often get teased; when Zelos suggests that Presea could fall in love with a much older man around Regal's age, Genis gets very defensive.
  • Genis has a few moments himself where he seems very jealous when anyone else gets close to Lloyd. He'll seem hurt if you don't put him in your party on the occasions when the party has to split up. Meanwhile, when Mithos tells Genis he has to choose between him and Lloyd, Lloyd gets very uncharacteristically defensive in turn, almost yelling at Mithos.
  • And although it never really comes up in the first game, The Anime of the Game and the sequel Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World both tease Regal/Raine pretty hard.
• Tales of Rebirth teases Tytree and Hilda quite aggressively, though Tytree denies being interested in her in that way and Hilda's feelings on the matter are never clarified. And despite Veigue and Claire's ambiguous relationship, there's a bunch of Belligerent Sexual Tension/Unresolved Sexual Tension between Veigue and Tytree.
• Tales of Vesperia, despite never really focusing on romance, does have a lot of fun teasing the fans. Yuri and Judith are openly flirtatious, Yuri goes to great lengths to save Estelle from Alexei, Karol keeps trying to impress Nan while Nan is very clearly hoping he does (Nan's dialogue when Karol fights her in the Colosseum is also very revealing; and it's implied in the credits they eventually end up with each other), Judith keeps telling the other girls they look cute...and then there's Rita and Estelle's very, very close friendship.
  • Yuri and Flynn are also close, close friends. Close, close... "friends."
  • There's even a skit where Judith asks everyone about their ideal romantic partner — Estelle starts waxing lyrical about romance novels, Karol describes someone who sounds suspiciously like Nan, and everyone else just says they want someone who isn't like Raven.
  • And then there's all Raven's lusting after Judith.
• Tales of Graces has Asbel and Sophie. Seven years before the game's events, they start by vowing to protect each other. Then after they reunite seven years later, there is a scene that has Asbel kneeling in front of Sophie, letting out his regrets for his failing her. Then, after Sophie regained her memories they have a date have a little chit-chat at the place where they first met. And remember the 125th entry of The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Clichés, "If any character in the game ever meets any other character standing alone at night looking at the moon, those two will eventually fall in love"? Despite this, Asbel still ends up with Cheria, his childhood friend. This is justified because Sophie is not human, and that he officially adopts her as his daughter. Doesn't stop the shippers, though.
  • Note: There's another person Asbel meets alone at night looking at the moon, and it's not Sophie or Cheria — it's Richard.
  • This isn't half as bad as what the cruel, cruel writing team does with potential Beta Couple Hubert and Pascal. In the original game Hubert's crush on Pascal is mostly just implied in some skits, but in Lineage and Legacies they turn it up a notch. It's outright stated that Hubert is in love with her, and that's the reason he won't marry the president of Strahta's daughter. Richard and Malik are constant shippers on deck and tease Hubert about his crush ceaselessly. There's a half-dozen scenes where Hubert goes out of his way to shield Pascal from attacks. It's even implied by Fourier that Pascal might reciprocate his feelings, though she seems somewhat unaware of them. It gets to the point where Hubert outright confesses to Pascal, "my every waking thought is consumed by you." AND THEN the game yanks it away at the last minute with a Maybe Ever After. Goddamnit, Namco.
  • It gets teased even further when the two show up as the cameo battle in Tales of Hearts R.
• While Tales of Xillia has a pretty solid Official Couple established in Jude and Milla, there's still plenty of this for them and other characters. Leia admits that she's got a thing for her childhood friend. The ending also features Milla ascending to godhood, which gives any of Jude's other ships a bit more weight.
• Tales of Xillia 2 did not let up on the shipteasing, either. The official couples are still Jude and Milla. And Ludger with Lara, with whom he'll eventually have Elle. Though the teasing is between practically everyone. Ludger and Jude tend to compliment each other, before blushing in embarrassed silence and Muzét pretty much ships herself with everyone. This skit has her practically shipping herself strongly with Jude, as a shout-out to a moment in the previous game, Gaius and even Ludger. There are also some more-or-less heavy hints between Ludger and Alternate Milla, which was turned up a notch in the manga for the game and resulted in Together in Death.
• Tales of Zestiria has a ton of shiptease for Sorey and Mikleo. Word of God has said that Mikleo is Sorey's "one and only", and Sorey canonically finds Mikleo attractive (from this skit) - not to mention his description of Mikleo from the novel:
  Sorey flicked a glance at Mikleo who was walking by his side. Hair the color of pale aquamarine, skin so fair as to seem translucent, sophisticated violet eyes. Even from his prospective, Sorey thought there was a beauty to Mikleo that would draw the eyes of others.

The Walking Dead

• Should you choose to side with her in Episode 1, then Lilly will reveal a softer side of herself to Lee. For example, she only calls Lee sweet when they have private conversations and treats him with more respect than the other group members. Unfortunately, it doesn't go anywhere after Episode 3.
• By Episode 3, Carley has definitely developed feelings for Lee. Sadly, the romance never gets the chance to go anywhere thanks to Lilly's itchy trigger finger. A conversation between Lee and Katjaa following Carley's death gives the player the opportunity to address the romantic fondness that Lee had for Carley.
• Molly with Lee in Episode 4, though it is not as obvious as with Carley and Lilly. After seeing him take charge of the group at Crawford, she gives him the old approving down-up look. However, the hug they share if they get to know each other well enough is the sort a father and daughter would share which might be more appropriate given their likely age differences.
• Larry and Brenda in Episode 2. He acts like a completely different person around her, until he finds out she eats human flesh, at which point the ship gets sunk pretty quick.
• Later in Season 2, Luke and Jane are teased over a possible relationship since they had sex while Luke was supposed to be patrolling the area for walkers.
• Kate With Javier in A New Frontier. How overt it is is up to the player. This eventually results in a confession of love from Kate in episode 4; you can choose whether to upgrade the ship tease or whether to engage in Ship Sinking instead, by either accepting or rejecting the confession. Due to Javi's charming nature, he can also have some moments with Eleanor and Jesus.
• Gabe With Clementine in the same season. Both deny it, but Javi can choose to give them his blessing. If he dies, one of the dialogue possibilities is Clem admitting she loves him. The two share a kiss, and then a few seconds later, he is put down to prevent reanimation.
• Clem can develop feeling for Louis and/or Violet over the first half of The Final Season, though her moments with Louis are a lot more obvious than with Violet. Clem can form an official couple with either near the end of Episode 2.

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• ANNO: Mutationem: Ann and Ayane frequently have incredibly intimate interactions with each other; Ann resting on Ayane as a Lap Pillow, and Ayane constantly flirting with Ann by calling her darling. Whether this is just playful banter or Ayane being serious and Ann either rejecting the romantic advances or not realizing Ayane's intentions is never made clear, but the two are extremely close and enjoy each other's company nonetheless.
• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood teases at Lucy and Desmond. In the first game, they were simply working together, with only vague hints that she was on his side up until the end. The sequel had a little bit of ship teasing, but not a lot. By the time of Brotherhood, though, it's quite clear there's some unspoken mutual attraction there, especially in one of the out-of-Animus sequences where Desmond and Lucy have a brief, heartfelt conversation while looking up at the moon. Then there's the ending...
• Several cases of this happen during the Baldur's Gate series.
  • The PC's childhood friend Imoen is very close to them, to the extent the first half of the second game's plot is about rescuing her, yet they never become anything more than Just Friends. Probably for the best, as they end up being actually half-siblings.
  • In the second game, Haer'Dalis will seem quite interested in a female PC when she rescues him, making several flirtatious remarks before suddenly dropping them completely. This is because he actually was supposed to be a romance option, but had to get cut due to time constraints.
  • In the Enhanced Edition for the first game, the PC can flirt with all the new companions of the appropriate gender, with the possibility of a Relationship Upgrade in the Enhanced Edition for the second game.
• Beyond Good & Evil has quite a bit of teasing between Jade and Double H, to the point that Double H having a Bodyguard Crush on Jade is widely-accepted Fanon. The most obvious tease is when HH attempts to give Jade a Smooch of Victory after winning a Racing Minigame, but there are others: There's a Take My Hand! scene with a dramatic Diving Save (and a Meaningful Echo that could well be interpreted as meaning "I love you"), Double H being driven to the verge of Manly Tears whenever Jade gets sad, and (from Jade's point of view) the fact that Jade initially seems to go into Giddy Fangirl Mode when they first meet. Some sort of relationship develops between them over the course of the game; it's just hard to say what, exactly.
• Borderlands 3: Zer0 and Lorelei. The ECHO Log "Lorelei holds off Maliwan troops" records Zer0 reacting to Lorelei with uncharacteristic nervousness - even uniquely bungling one of his haikus. Lorelei's reaction is more subtle, as she muses, "That's a weird one. Tall though." In regular game dialogue, Zer0 also says, "Lorelei scares me. / But, you know, in a good way. / Am I making sense?"
• Near the end of BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm, Til and Tyalie briefly debate which members of their party would be shipped if they had fans. Til gets flustered at the idea of being paired with Anonymous, and Tyalie inadvertently reveals her own massive crush on Catie. (In the True Ending, Til and Anon do get together, but Tyalie never quite manages to spit it out).
• True Companions Quote and Curly Brace from Cave Story, they are a Battle Couple and whether they're something more is left up to the player interpretation but it's clear they care for each other very much, their bond is strong as iron. In Blade Strangers just the memory of Quote is enough get Curly out of her drowning Nightmare Sequence.
• Some Chrono Trigger fans have latched on to Crono and Lucca, in large part due to Lucca being the only other character to embrace Crono in a cutscene on his revival if Marle isn't in the party.
• Cyberpunk 2077: While the game seems to insist that Johnny Silverhand and V are strictly friends, it's incredibly easy to interpret Johnny's behavior towards V as him falling in love with them: In the mission "Chippin' In", Johnny can tattoo a cupid's heart with "V + Johnny" written in it on V's arm while he has the control over their body. Johnny can compare his and V's relationship to an old married couple in another scene. A sidequest where Johnny and V fix a broken rollercoaster and take it on a ride is called "Rollercoaster of Love", after the song by Ohio Players that talks about a tumultuous romantic relationship and a guy who loves how wild his partner is. A secret ending that involves Johnny and V storming the Arasaka Tower by themselves to save V's life is called "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", after the song by Blue Öyster Cult which tells the story of two lovers commiting suicide together and features a lot of Romeo and Juliet imagery (Johnny writes V's questlog, so it's safe to assume that he names the missions too). The game features some Tarot Motifs, and the "Lovers" arcana is used twice in the game, both times relating to Johnny and his two ex girlfriends, Alt and Rogue, but they also tie back to V in some way, implying that Johnny sees V as as important as he did his ex girlfriends (both of who still hold a degree of fondness for him and vice versa). He frequently gets annoyed when V pays attention to someone other than him, which can be interpreted as jealousy. The "Temperance" ending makes Johnny seem like he's mourning his deceased soulmate. The pair's constant snarking and bickering can be interpreted as Belligerent Sexual Tension. Johnny's type, going by his past two girlfriends, seems to be people who aren't afraid to stand up to him and call him out on his horrible behavior, which V fits perfectly. V's feelings regarding Johnny are more abiguous, on account of them being the Player Character, but they can still show kindness to Johnny and even give him some compliments.
• Darkstalkers:
  • Demitri and Morrigan are the primary Ship as rivals, Morrigan acts like The Tease to him and Demitri alternates between wanting to destroy her to claim the Demon World Throne and wanting to suck her dry◊. The OVA was more explicit and Demitri and Morrigan become an Unholy Matrimony by the end.
  • The secondary Ship is Jon Tailbane and Felicia being a Wolf Man and Cat Girl the Female Feline, Male Mutt come to life and Jon does legitimately care for Felicia while she implores him to humanity a chance. Both of them care for children and become a Battle Couple protecting innocents in the OVA and comics.
  • The third slightly more downplayed example is Lord Raptor and Hisenko both zombies and Lord Raptor gets heart eyes before fighting her and says "My love" however Hisenko considers him a Abhorrent Admirer. The manga plays it straight however.
  • Morrigan in general can be considered a Launcher of a Thousand Ships since the Capcom vs. games she expresses lusty attraction to: Ghost Rider, Phoenix Wright, Wolverine, Frank West, Gambit, Batsu, Shuma Gorath, Zero and Dante. Also double standard Morrigan has some Les Yay with Chun-Li, X-23 and especially Lilith◊ her living Soul Jar.
• Deltarune:
  • The most overt ship tease in the game is how Noelle is blatantly crushing on the oblivious Susie; she is the only person other than Kris to try and make nice with Susie, and she was doing so even before they all visited the Darklands. Then there's the raging fit she throws when she learns that the obnoxious Beardly has a crush on Susie as well.
  • Kris/Susie has its fans as well.
  • Whilst Noelle most obviously thinks of Kris as just a friend, there is one route where she expresses that she might be attracted to Kris too. This tease is particularly complicated by Noelle's clearly lesbian attraction to Susie, whilst Kris might be male.
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: Aria Argento is a kind, sweet woman working as the quartermaster in TF 29's Prague division. Her interactions with Adam Jensen are few, but they clearly know each other and are on friendly terms. Adam is even willing to vent to her, which he doesn't do with anyone else. Aria's relief at finding him alive and well after the train station bombing implies stronger feelings than mere friendship, while Adam's kind demeanor and frequent encouragement might mean he's finally starting to open up to the idea of moving on after Megan.
• Devil May Cry
  • Initially Dante and Trish were shipped together in DMC1 with his heroics inspiring Trish Heel–Face Turn from Big Bad Mundus and Mundus nearly killing her in retaliation inspires Dante's Let's Get Dangerous!, at the end of game she even embraces Dante. Viewtiful Joe added even more with Dante and Trish replacing Joe and his girlfriend Silvia in cutscenes, even in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Trish laments that Vergil isn't as fun as Dante in her win quote, and in the Pachinko title, Devil May Cry X, Dante and Trish take on a mission together, one scene has Dante comically trying to get Trish to play around as if they are on a date.
  • Dante and Lucia get a bit of teasing in DMC2 with Luicaa trusting him, openly worrying for Dante's safety when Dante claims he intends to enter the portal. In the DMC5 tie-in novel Before the Nightmare, it's revealed Lucia had feelings for Dante and they even reunite in Vie de Marli and they defeat the fire demon Balrog together.
  • DMC3 introduces the Fan-Preferred Couple Dante and Lady and it helps that she doesn't look like his mother, or that she acts tsundere towards him when he flirts with her, or the bit where he saves her from falling or the fact they invoke Battle Couple twice. Pretty much all the sexual tension can be summed up in the library scene where Dante takes away her gun away and comes within inches of her face as they have Held Gaze and when Dante moves his head even closer Lady makes a suspect noise before she gives him her BFG. Oh and less we forget Dante is one who gives her the name "Lady" after she denounced her old name of Mary and she's one who gives Dante the inspiration to defeat Arkham and Vergil. The anime and CD-drama imply Lady is actually somewhat jealous of Trish and relationship’s with Dante. Out-of-Universe Reuben Langdon (Dante's voice actor) and his wife cosplayed as Dante and Lady for DMC5 Tokyo Game Show 2018, then the director Hideaki Itsuno had to come in and kill the moment by saying Dante and Lady aren't a couple.
  • Nero and Kyrie throughout DMC4 with them having a Childhood Friend Romance and Kyrie wearing the necklance that Nero got for her through most of the game. Unlike the previous examples Nero and Kyrie's relationship is more explicit with a Bridal Carry and Almost Kiss at the end making them an Official Couple.
  • On the Ho Yay side, the brothers Dante and Vergil receive more Fan Art than anyone else, Dante also asks Vergil if he’ll give him a kiss when they meet again in DMC3. Les Yay has Trish and Lady especially in the anime.
    Dante (to Trish and Lady): If you two are gonna continue like that, you should find a underground club or something, your little show could probably bring in some money.
  • Dante and Kat in the Reboot, the comic also shows Kat had a relationship with Vergil too.
  • In crossover games such as MVC3 Morrigan is attracted to Dante calling him a "handsome devil" and while Dante flirts back he also lament that he never meets any nice girls. In MVC Infinite Dante gets paired with Captain Marvel in the Final Battle.
• Disgaea: Hour of Darkness has a bit of this between Laharl and Etna. Especially if you read Etna's journal where it's implied that her crush on the King has at least partially transferred to his son.
  • Also teased is Laharl and Flonne, though whether all the talk of love ever moves into romantic love or not is left up in the air. Still, considering that he was willing to sacrifice his life to bring her back to life, it would be hard not to believe that there is something between them.
  • One ending of the third game has Etna and Flonne both wanting to pretend to be the mother of his baby.
  • In Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten, it's regularly suggested (most often by Fuka◊) that the relationship between Valvatorez, Fenrich, and Artina isn't a Friend Versus Lover one so much as a straight-up Love Triangle.
  • Though Fuka herself is also teased with Valvatorez, though it was seemingly sunk when she became a Shipper on Deck. However her Epilogue with him implied she was still interested in him but did not want to "break the friendship rule."
• Dota 2 usually has very little 'romantic' encounters (barring the obvious ex ones like Vengeful Spirit/Skywrath Mage). But... when Crystal Maiden gets her Announcer Pack, she has special positive calls when the player picked Sven, and if the game goes idle long enough, she'll start wondering just where Sven is, this in addition of her getting really curious of what's under his armor if they encounter each other in-game and in the same team. Sven-Crystal Maiden has been a rather popular Fan-Preferred Couple for a long time^BonusThey also have a fair amount of synergy in terms of gameplay: Sven has powerful abilities, balanced by their high cost and his poor mana regen making it hard for him to use them very often. Crystal Maiden has an aura that increases her allies' rate of mana regen, helping to alleviate this issue.
• Dragon Quest V: Several times it is hinted Honey has a crush on the Hero, though nothing can come of it (on account of her being a fairy, and him being the Chosen Hero's future father).
  • Of course, the absurd amound of ship teasing the game gives for Bianca over the other two potential brides must be mentioned. Everything from the commercials, to the movie adaptation, to the fact that the main art for the kids are the blond versions, spells out just which bride is the favorite. Still, there has never been any sort of sequel or official confirmation that she is the canon bride, so they just skirt around Official Couple status. Still, if one of the brides were to be made canon, Bianca would certainly be the one most likely to get it.
• Numerous NPCs as well as arguably the game itself ship Ness and Paula in EarthBound (1994). Also, what was Paula going to say to Ness that she "forgot"?
• In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, there is a lot of this between Serana and the Dragonborn, which is part of the reason why the pairing is heavily shipped by the fandom. However, she politely declines any proposal of marriage, claiming her Dark and Troubled Past left her completely afraid of temples. Curiously, said marriage decline is a case of Developer's Foresight, as most un-marry-able characters simply have no way of proposing. Clearly, someone at Bethesda knew players would want to marry Serana, and made a point of having her reason for declining being no lack of feelings on her part. At one point, Serana mentions that she spent a long time slumbering with her Elder Scroll and jokes that she thought she should know more about something after sleeping with it a lot. The Dragonborn then gets the chance to suggest that Serana wants to know him/her better. She declines. Later on, when confronting Lord Harkon, a Dawnguard aligned Dragonborn can respond to Harkon's accusation that s/he would kill all vampires, including Serana, by saying that "Serana means too much to me." Harkon will remark, with an almost-defeated tone, that Serana "was lost to me the moment she accepted a mortal into her life."
• The End Times: Vermintide and Vermintide II: Implied between Kerillian and Kruber in a few lines of dialogue. In one exchange, Kerillian catches Kruber staring at her, and he explains it as not seeing an elf before, but he definitely sounds smitten with her. He also finds her singing in the keep enchanting, though Bardin warns him against telling her that. After becoming a Grail Knight, he seems unusually concerned about whether or not Kerillian likes his (incredibly fake and hilarious) Bretonnian accent, and she giggles cutely at it. After she becomes a Sister of the Thorn and mentions her despondence at Queen Ariel being absorbed into the High Elf Everqueen, Kruber semi-jokingly offers to beat up a living goddess and her elite bodyguard entourage if it'll make Kerillian feel better, and doesn't seem too deterred at her telling him he would die if he tried. In-game, if Kruber uses a medical supply pack on Kerillian, one of her (unique in his case) lines is a slightly terse warning to watch where he puts his hands.
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, there seems to be quite a bit for Monkey and Trip, especially evident in the end of the fourth chapter where they share a rather long Held Gaze, after Trip scans the dog.
• Fear & Hunger: Termina contains a few hints implying that Levi and Marina are an item: the latter has unique party talks towards the former, playing as Levi ensures that Marina won't leave if you recruit her in the Mayor's manor, and the biggest hint being what happens if you lose once against Needles whilst they're both in your party — you can come across their heads on a fence, positioned to make it look like they're kissing each other.
• Gears of War 2 has some of this between Marcus and Anya, such as the way Anya asks him to take care of himself when he descends into the Hollow, and Marcus calling repeatedly over the radio at the end to see if Anya is okay, and looking extremely relieved when he spots her on the next Raven helicopter. The first game kind of hinted at an old relationship when they meet up briefly at the start of the game. You never saw her again, so nothing more came of it.
• Golden Sun:
  • The original Golden Sun and Golden Sun: The Lost Age has Felix unhesitatingly jumping off the top of Venus Lighthouse to try to save Sheba. The two of them probably get mentioned the least in Dark Dawn, so it's one of the few ships from the original duology that was neither confirmed nor sunk.
    • There was also some borderline Foe Romance Subtext between Felix and Karst.
    • Isaac/Jenna was teased quite a bit in Lost Age, and the ending doesn't upgrade them to Official Couple...but the next game, set 30 years later (and released seven years later), does, which means it would no longer qualify.
  • Dark Dawn steps it up quite a bit.
    • The game starts out with a Two Guys and a Girl Childhood Friends Power Trio, and the sheer amount of Belligerent Sexual Tension between Tyrell and Karis makes them seem like the more likely couple but on the other hand Karis seems nicer to Matthew and he's The Hero. Then Sveta shows up, and Matthew actually merges souls with her at the conclusion of the game, making for an obvious Ship Mate to Tyrell/Karis...if not for the sizable amount of Les Yay between Karis and Sveta, leading to the major Ship-to-Ship Combat being Matthew/Sveta and Tyrell/Karis vs. Matthew/Sveta/Karis. ^{"Sizable amount"}Early on, Sveta outright says, "Karis, you are a good person. I like you very much." After the activation of the Grave Eclipse, as the party is sailing away from Belinsk, the five male party members stay out on the deck to fight off the monsters while Sveta, who was just forced to leave her only living relative, her older brother, for dead, was allowed to rest below deck; Karis went below deck as well. The next morning, Sveta seems to be in much higher spirits, and Eoleo, who also lost a family member in the escape from Belinsk, comments that she looks as though nothing happened. Sveta blushes at this comment.
    • Nowell's disappearance when Kraden returns is explained as her following Piers, who she's evidently taken a fancy to.
• Guilty Gear:
  • Ky/Jam was teased with artwork, special intros and stuff. Their ship got sunk. Accent Core Plus now teases, surprisingly, Ky/Dizzy.
  • Guilty Gear 2: Overture drops loads of hints the Ky/Dizzy pairing has become official, which was given explicit confirmation in Xrd as they have a son.
  • Millia Rage and Zato, though they had the benefit of being an item before the series proper. He's still attracted to her even after Millia betrayed him and he was later killed and taken over by his parasitic Shadow Beast Eddie, as evidenced by the fact that Millia is the one thing Zato clearly remembers after his resurrection in Xrd and the one thing that evokes any sort of emotion from him. Millia's interactions with him in the same game (as well as her Death Cry Echo being Zato's name) suggest those feelings are most likely reciprocated despite their long and often turbulent history.
  • In XX, Bridget (when she still identified as a boy) was teased with both Dizzy and May in several arcade mode endings.
    • There's also some ship tease between Bridget and Jam, although despite Jam's flirting, she notes that Bridget was too young for her. In one ending of Accent Core Plus, Jam hires Bridget as a waitress in her restaurant.
    • One special illustration◊ shows Bridget getting doted upon by Dizzy, Jam, and Baiken.
  • Jam also shows an interest in Ky's son Sin in Xrd; she even tells him to "never let go" when he grabs her in his Instant Kill.
  • The Foe Romance Subtext between Sol and Ky. Fans of the pairing will often point to the fact that one of the drama CDs depicts Sol mourning Ky's death at the Battle of Rome in an Alternate Timeline-turned-Bad Future.
  • Since Valentine and her sisters Ramlethal, Elphelt, and Jack-O' are made from Sol's girlfriend Aria's genetic template, shipping them with Sol is fair game. Though Valentine and Elphelt have their moments, Jack-O' presents the strongest case due to possessing half of Aria's soul and most of her memories, to the point of essentially functioning as Aria during the second half of -REVELATOR-'s story. That ship technically is sunk by the end of -REVELATOR-... but only because Jack-O' willingly initiates a Fusion Dance between herself and Justice (who is Aria in the flesh) to fully revive Aria. It's telling that Sol drops his series-long animosity against presumed Big Bad That Man once the latter comes clean to his old friend about everything and explains the plan to bring Aria back to life.
• Half-Life 2 has some subtle moments of affection between Gordon and Alyx. Then Episode One and Episode Two went nuts with it, including almost achieving full Battle Couple status, both Barney and Eli (Alyx's father) being Shippers on Deck for them, the first half of Two being straight out of a Hurt/Comfort Fic, and the Vortigaunts stating that their bond is "almost Vortal".
• Halo seems to do this between Master Chief and Cortana (even though Cortana is an AI), especially starting in the third game when Chief rescued Cortana from the Gravemind. In the fourth game, Master Chief goes to extraordinary lengths to try and save Cortana when her programming begins to rapidly deteriorate due to rampancy. Cortana ultimately performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save the Chief, but not before revealing her deepest desire was to be able to touch him once before she dies. In Halo 5: Guardians, Chief is clearly shaken up by her death, and goes AWOL the moment he realizes she might be alive. For her part, a revived Cortana still wants John to be at her side. Unfortunately, the two end up at odds against each other when John realizes that Cortana has jumped off the deep end.
• The Harvest Moon games set in Forget-me-Not Valley have Rock with the female PC. He's one of the potential Love Interest characters for you, so what's so odd about that, you ask? The fact that the game continues to tease PC/Rock even after one or both of you get married. Rock will continue to make romantic comments toward you even after you marry someone else, and once he gets married, his wife Lumina will chew him out about it.
• Hitman: The series teases something between main characters Diana Burnwood and Agent 47, hitting many romantic tropes along the way. Diana's feelings are basically confirmed, with multiple characters commenting on it, her many teasing remarks to 47, Longing Looks, and even going so far as to kiss him in Blood Money to apply an antidote when she could've just used her fingers instead. What's less known is 47's feelings on the matter, although his actions show he does care about Diana in some way. Hitman 3 even went so far as to have the two dance the tango, with the song title being a Casablanca reference, at the end of the Mendoza level — with the level itself being chock-full of ship tease.
  The Constant: In his own special way he cares about you... and vice versa.
• In Hiveswap, Xefros clings to the hem of Joey's shirt while blushing.
• Mid-way in Jak II: Renegade, there is a scene which Ashelin flirts with Jak, while Daxter outright ships them together. It's more common in the next game, even outright going as far as to show them kiss, even though the camera pans down. Of course, by Jak X, the shipping stops completely, and Jak finally gets to kiss Keira.
• In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Pit gets some of this with Viridi, the Goddess of Nature. Though Viridi is initally introduced as an enemy, and plans to exterminate humanity, the rest of the game forces her to team up with Pit against bigger threats, and she becomes Tsundere for him. Palutena even lampshades it at one point. It's even more obvious in the Japanese version, where Palutena outright calls her a Tsundere, to which she responds with even more typical Tsundere lines.
• The King of Fighters, as a Fighting Game franchise with a LARGE female fanbase, has followed suit:
  • Male/Female: Almost all of Mary and Terry's interactions. Athena's light (and semi-canon) crush on Kyo (despite Kyo having a girlfriend). Kensou's blatant crush on Athena. Jhun being a total Athena fanboy, to the point that at least one fighters will get nervous at the thought of fighting her because they know he'll react badly. Almost everything regarding Ryo and King. Shen openly telling Vice and Mature that he loves strong and sexy women. etc.;
  • Male/male: Iori's murderous obsession with Kyo, which is very easy to interpret as a borderline Stalker with a Crush deal and gets lampshaded by other people. Shingo's behavior to Kyo, which isn't too far from a man-crush. Shen and Duo Lon's very slashy Odd Friendship. Shen's Foe Romance Subtext with Oswald. etc.
  • Female/female: Whip is Kula's Cool Big Sis and even wiping some ice-cream off her face at some point, Athena's borderline Pseudo-Romantic Friendship with Kaoru, etc.
• Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards teases Kirby/Ribbon—the very first cutscene features a Crash-Into Hello, and when you finish the game with 100% Completion, the resulting cutscene has Ribbon kissing Kirby, giving him a Luminescent Blush.
• In Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil, a cutscene has Tat telling Klonoa, on whom she has an implied Villainous Crush, that "girls don't like pesky boys, you know". Lolo happens to be with them and assures Tat that she likes him, peskiness aside. Klonoa wonders about this, causing Lolo to give a flustered facial expression when she realizes what she just said.
• In Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords:
  • If a male player character tells Mira that they just want to get to know her better, her immediate assumption is that he wants to get her into bed. Her immediate refusal ruins it, though. You also get a really creepy side-order of Ship Tease for each gender. One is a Sith Lord held together by hatred who thinks the female Exile is beautiful, but he also wants to kill her because she's a Jedi. The male Exile has a Jedi Master who's rapidly sliding down the slippery slope to the Dark Side, who gets jealous of your actual Love Interest and is caught somewhere between hero worship and a serious case of Foe Romance Subtext.
  • For a Female PC Sion wanting to kill you is actually less about you being a Jedi and more about his master replacing him with you and him not wanting you to undergo the same torture he did. So his answer to protecting you from her is killing you before it can happen
• Left 4 Dead 2, brings us The Passing which features Ship Teases for Ellis with Zoey, and Rochelle with Francis. Ellis quickly falls in love with Zoey and she seems to have a crush on him. Francis openly flirts with Rochelle who shows an attraction to him. Although there is that matter of her insulting his vest...
• Life Is Strange:
  • The game constantly teases Max and Chloe. Episode Three takes this up a notch, with Max and Chloe sharing a bed and Chloe daring Max to kiss her. In the climax, Max tells Chloe that Chloe is her number one priority. If Max chooses to sacrifice Chloe and the player consistently took Chloe's side throughout the game (and kissed her), Max and Chloe share a kiss before Max goes back in time.
  • While not as prevalent, there is also some teasing of Max and Warren. Warren obviously has a crush on Max, even asking her to come to a drive-in movie marathon with him. Several other characters comment on Warren's feelings for Max.
  • During the Nightmare Sequence, Max sees visions of Chloe, teasing her with Jefferson, Warren, Nathan, and Victoria.
• The Luminous Arc series have it as a part of the gameplay mechanics, both in and out of Intermissions between each game's protagonist and most of their female party members. In the first game, while there's not-so-subtle hints of Alph/Lucia, there's also Alph/Cecille, Leon/Cecille, Nikolai/Cecille, Heath/Iris, Alph/Vanessa (!)...
  • Luminous Arc 2 brings it back with two potential love interests for Roland, depending on dialogue choices, he can end up with either Althea or Fatima. Beside those two, there's Ship Teasing for Roland/Dia, Roland/Sadie, Roland/Karen... And the blatant teasing for Rasche/Dia can't be a coincidence, especially their teasing about forming their own Final Bond after seeing Roland do it with Althea or Fatima.
  • Luminous Arc 3's Refi can find himself in this, as well as forming a closer relationship with one of the girls for a Zodiac Card to perform a Unison Strike. For some extra, he is NOT limited to female.
• Lux-Pain. You can pair roughly half the cast with each other and it makes at least a little sense.
• Mega Man X:
  • Fans have shipped X/Zero ever since its first game, citing Zero's Heroic Sacrifice for X and the latter's desire for Zero to be the one to kill him should X go rogue as proof. There's also the (optional) reunion cutscene in X6 in which X looks a bit too enthusiastic (to the point of blushing) when he sees Zero alive and well.
  • Alia gets some of this with her past colleague Gate, and X; the latter is supported slightly when you observe how she delivers information to Zero professionally, but tends to stutter, hold back, or just shows more general concern with X.
• Mega Man Zero has various moments of Ship Tease between Zero and Ciel (who's human, by the way), not only during the series' run, but in the accompanying materials as well. Amongst many, there's this little piece of dialogue before the end of the first game:
  "Zero, I'm happy that I could meet you...if it were not for you, everyone would be gone by now... Promise me that you will come back alive. Even if you cannot destroy Neo Arcadia, I just want you to be able to return safely."
  • And another, from Zero's very famous speech that is also his Final Speech.
    "I never cared about justice, and I don't recall ever calling myself a hero... I have always only fought for the people I believe in. I won't hesitate... If an enemy appears in front of me, I will destroy it! Ciel, believe in me!"
  • The entire lyric sang by Rie Tanaka, Ciel's seiyuu herself, in the song "Freesia", in Remastered Rockman Zero Soundtracks PHYSIS depicts Ciel's love for Zero.
• In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Para-Medic hints several times that she's got a thing for Snake. In particular, in one conversation, she calls a (literal) snake pretty, before freaking out at herself for calling a snake 'pretty' and telling Snake "this is all your fault". Snake doesn't get it.
• Mortal Kombat used this massively between Sub-Zero and Sareena, even going up to a Love Triangle-like tease by adding a little subtext with Noob Saibot, Sub-Zero's older brother who was the original Sub-Zero.
• In the Neptunia series, there's a lot of these with Neptune and Noire when they're both together on screen. Neptune has no problems glomping on Noire, exchanging pudding with her, and seeing that Noire is just tsundere for her. Noire meanwhile will always help out Neptune whenever she's in trouble but she'll always make an excuse about it. And in Megadimension Neptunia VII, Noire has finally admitted that without Neptune, she did feel a bit lonely. Too bad Neptune just had to lampshade that Noire's back to her Tsundere self.
• Neverwinter Nights 2:
  • The sheer amount of interaction with Bishop and Neeshka that never goes anywhere is infuriating... Neeshka's influence goes down whenever you agree with another girl for instance. As for Bishop, he'll have a few instances of jealousy over the Knight-Commander's relationship, romantic or not, with Casavir, and will offer to run away with her if she has high enough influence. Also, Elanee/Casavir will be really jealous if you have a higher influence with Neeshka/Bishop than with them. Really jealous.
    Elanee: "You're spending more time with Neeshka than with me!"
    Casavir: "I don't like how that ranger looks at you."
  • Some dialogue with Kaelyn in Mask of the Betrayer could potentially be interpreted as this, but not blatantly.
• Nobody Saves the World: Of all people, Randy and Danielle the Mummy decide to go on a date during the game's ending, though it remains unknown whether that would lead to anything more.
• Onmyōji (2016) has this between Seimei and Yaobikuni, especially the latter's introduction when she tells him that she has been waiting for god knows how long for her "fated one", who is none other than Seimei, to arrive and... kill her. A heart icon even popped up next to her during that moment in order to further drive the point home. Unfortunately, fans like to pair Seimei with Hiromasa or yōkai characters instead.
• Overwatch: Two of the pre-battle dialogues for Valentine's Day have Mercy and Genji give each other a box of chocolates.
• The ending of Portal 2 is a parade of Ship Teasing. First, the Turret opera heavily hints that GLaDOS may actually deeply care for Chell (especially considering the English translation), further solidified by the ending song "Want You Gone", which may as well have been titled "Tsundere: The Song/" Second, Chell's final scene has her reunited with Companion Cube. Third, the very final scene has Wheatley lamenting all the bad things he did, and that all he wants to do now is apologise to Chell.
• Although the series as a whole doesn't do much in the way of ship teasing, the bonus game Professor Layton's London Life has a very subtle one that hints at the possibility of pairing the two young people in the Professor's life — his apprentice Luke and his adopted daughter Flora. It's especially hinted in the way Luke reacts rather violently to the possibility that Flora has been kidnapped.
• Psychonauts: Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello. Despite being complete polar opposites, in-game bonuses like characters' memories and concept art hint that there might be some more going on than being just co-workers. The other two games in the franchise continue this: When the plane is about to crash into the Rhombus of Ruin, Sasha tries to tell Milla something and calls her by her full name Camilla... but he's interrupted by the plane going down. In the cutscene leading up to the final boss, Sasha and Milla collide into each other and spend most of that cutscene physically close together.
• Saints Row: The Third:
  • If your PC uses Female Voice 2, she'll repeatedly imply that she's got a thing for Pierce, from expressing concern for him during "We're Going to Need Guns" to flirting with him during quest dialogues. During the "confession" scene in the penultimate quest "Three Way", whereas other Bosses will admit their secrets with some trepidation, Female Voice 2 will shamelessly confess "I want to make love to Pierce in front of a live studio audience!"
  • There's also a one-off line from random city residents, asking a Female Boss if she and Johnny are going to hook up with Aisha out of the picture.
• In a game that prides itself on Ho Yay, Sengoku Basara gives us a little Magoichi/Mistunari ship tease in 3 if you choose (while playing as Magoichi) to side with Mitsunari. Magoichi actually treats Mitsunari's lack of social skills with snark and tends to always engage him in conversation. Mitsunari as a result acts less deranged, angsty and starts answering in words other than threats. When Magoichi asks him why he wants to keep a mercenary group like the Saika he replies : "When you joined the Toyotomi army you became a part of its treasure. There's nothing wrong with a man keeping his treasures to himself" leaving her speechless (at which she comments on his Hidden Depths when he's out of earshot). After killing Ieyasu, Mitsunari walks up to her and demands (in a rather casual way instead of his usual tone of seething rage) "Remake the deal." which can be taken as his way of saying "Don't leave me." and attacks her (the first time she blocked. Here she merely stands still) and stops the blade at her throat and removes it before walking away saying "We have much to do." As he walks away, Magoichi gently (for her) smiles before doing what he asked.
• Senran Kagura:
  • Imu is canonically in love with Miyabi, who doesn't seem to return her feelings... but replies to Imu's promise of Undying Loyalty with "I'll hold you to that", becomes distressed (during her Estival heart storyline) at the thought that Imu doesn't find her attractive, and risks her life to defeat Imu's Superpowered Evil Side, so either way their relationship is definitely open to interpretation.
  • In Shinovi Versus, Yumi actively pokes fun at Homura's obvious attraction to Asuka.
• Shantae:
  • Rottytops, the resident zombie, is a merciless flirt. Nearly all of this flirting is directed at Shantae^note (although she does give Bolo a quick glance, too). In the very first game, when she barely even knows Shantae, she says that she likes her passion. In Risky's Revenge, the very first thing she does is call Shantae "snack cakes," and according to her brothers Abner and Poe, is talking about her near-constantly. Then along comes Shantae and the Pirate's Curse in which she does the following...
    • Fakes a leg injury so that Shantae will carry her through a dark forest (in a bridal carry, at that!)
    • Follows Shantae to Tan Line Island, where they both end up in ridiculous outfits. Rottytops is thrilled that they match.
    • When Shantae finds Rotty's human soul on Mud Bog Island, she (unknowingly) gushes to Shantae... about Shantae, and worries about the ways she keeps screwing up their friendship.
    • Invites herself to Shantae's for a sleepover at the end of the game.
  • While the teasing is toned down a little in Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, Rottytops does call Shantae "snack cakes" again, and when she asks Shantae to come to Cape Crustacean with her, she makes it sound like a date.
• Silent Hill does this a bit, but it's always subverted in some disturbing Psychological Horror fashion.
  • Silent Hill: Harry Mason and Fair Cop Cybil Bennet, it get especially explicit when in the Golden Ending where Harry and Cybil have a cute moment with his newly reincarnated daughter Cheryl, intentionally mirroring Harry finding Cheryl years early with his deceased wife Jodie◊.. suggesting Cybil will be the new mom. Unfortunately the ship is Doomed by Canon as Cybil (Word of God) died horribly during the events of the first game, justifying why she would be absent in Silent Hill 3.
  • Harry also has some tender moments with Sexy Nurse Lisa, interestingly in the screenshots of SH1 a photo of Harry and his wife Jodie can be seen behind Lisa. Considering the Mind Screw nature of the town, Lisa can well symbolizes the former love and lose in Harry's life. Which gives greater context to Harry being unable to save Lisa from her bloody fate, much like Harry lost his wife Jodie.
  • Silent Hill 2 has its own unexpectedly horrifying contributions to the trope with James Sunderland, a introverted individual who traveled to the eponymous town to search for his dead wife Mary, and Maria, an mysterious extremely flirtatious and slightly Tsundere woman who reminds James of aforementioned dead wife (she look exactly like Mary). For a while it seems as if the two will enter a Replacement Goldfish-esque relationship (and they do in the "Maria" ending), but turns out that not only is Maria a figment of James' imagination formed from a combination of his sexual frustration and refusal to accept his wife's death, but that she's the one who has been unleashing all the horror on James throughout the course of the game, and the Final Boss.
  • Silent Hill 4 has Henry Townshend and literal Girl Next Door Eileen Galvin. Elieen cares very much for the welfare of Henry her neighbor since he hasn't come out of his room in for five days (thanks to the supernatural serial killer keeping him trapped) and she implores the landlord and other neighbors to help Harry out, in turn Harry can "check up" on Elieen in her room throughout the game making sure she's okay. Of course this being a Silent Hill game their Ship Tease gets twisted unpleasantly as despite the good intentions Harry is still being The Peeping Tom and the giant disembodied ''staring'' head of Elieen is some kind of Laser-Guided Karma for Henry's voyeurism. When Henry reunites with Eileen she is initially terrified of him thank to having a near death experience with the Ax-Crazy Walter Sullivan however Henry gives her a Cooldown Hug and the rest of the game is a Escort Mission. In the best endings Harry visits Elieen in hospital with flowers.
  • In Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Harry Mason has at least a little chemistry with every female character in the game. Since they all turn out to be elements of his daughter Cheryl's mind, this has some interesting implications.
• Skies of Arcadia:
  • The night before the final battle, Vyse talks to both Aika and Fina and can reassure them one way or another — he can put his arm around Fina's shoulders, and if he says the right thing to Aika, she'll kiss his cheek.
  • On Clara's ship, Aika and Fina wake up in bed together with no apparent awkwardness at all (it's not what it sounds like, to be fair), and when they both mention him to Clara, she promptly assumes they like both him that way.
  • The part where Aika is holding Fina after she's badly injured on Crescent Isle, while Vyse confronts Ramirez. Or the time where Aika glomps Vyse after they're reunited in Daccat's tomb, where Fina hugs Vyse after he, Aika, and Glider rescue her from Valua's palace, and where Aika glomps Fina out of sheer happiness in the ending. All of these are about as ship-teasing as the aforementioned scenes.
  • In their cameo appearance in Valkyria Chronicles, Vyse and Aika will call out each other's names if they're injured (and are absolutely beside themselves with worry when they rescue the other and call for the Medic (who just happens to be Fina, compounding it further). Also, if they're close enough to provide supporting fire, they can say things like "Let me help, Vyse baby!"
• Snow Sakura has this one at the end of Kozue's route with the Bromantic Foil Sumoyoshi and your resident Tsundere Saki, who compliments him on a nice rousing speech to Kozue while blushing noticeably. There were a few fans quite disappointed with Digital Objet not doing more with it.
• Solatorobo teases Red x Elh enough during the main game, but the DLC quests take it further. In #5, they both act embarrassed when Red sees Elh in her cheerleader outfit, and she's disappointed if Red doesn't manage to beat the track record (which is the condition she agreed to in order to wear that outfit in the first place). In #7, she gets extremely upset when Red has Princess Terria and Toffee fangirling over him, and in the end Red admits he wanted to give her the tournament prize as they make up. #8 borders on "Relationship Upgrade with the Serial Numbers Filed Off", as it eventually turns into an Interrupted Declaration of Love. It also teases Béluga x Merveille a couple times, with him giving her a hologram of flowers and losing an arena match because he was trying to show off too much.
• Splatoon: Pearl and Marina, with the latter having an obvious crush on her musical partner; from the "Pearlie" nickname and near-endless gushing over the rapper, to the drawings on her laptop, to the official Japanese lore website outright calling her a "Maiden in Love". While it's up to interpretation in the second game whether Pearl is aware of or reciprocates Marina's romantic interest, it's all but stated that the two are indeed an item by the events of Splatoon 3: Side Order; Marina has a suggestive picture of Pearl as her desktop wallpaper, Pearl talks about the duo getting some alone time once they finish fixing Order Sector, and Acht generally reacts to all their banter with alternating bemusement and frustration, as if they're a Third Wheel watching two Sickeningly Sweethearts flirt.
• Spyro the Dragon: The Classic Trilogy gently teases Spyro and Elora as a couple, starting with her debut in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, where the cutscene after finally defeating Ripto in the Winter Palace has her kiss Spyro on the nose in gratitude, with Spyro inviting her to come to Dragon Shores with him. The Tease is strengthened in the hidden epilogue unlocked if the player completes all the skill point challenges, where it's shown that Elora did go to Dragon Shores with Spyro and tried (but failed) to kiss him in the Tunnel of Love. She likewise makes her only appearance in Spyro: Year of the Dragon in the ending cutscene, asking Spyro to come and visit her in Avalar (something Spryo promises to do), and, at the very end of the cutscene, flirtatiously inviting him to join her in watching the romantic fireworks like Hunter and Bianca are doing. The shipping was, unfortunately, somewhat undermined by Spyro's "too cool for girls" attitude, with him ignoring Elora's attempt to kiss him in Ripto's Rage and the cutscene ending without showing Spyro's reaction to Elora's proposal in Year of the Dragon. Combined with Elora never showing up in any other games, and it led to the fandom for the couple largely fading away — especially when The Legend of Spyro introduced Cynder as Spyro's explicit love interest. The debut of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy breathed new life into the Spyro/Elora ship, removing the hidden epilogue with its failed kiss, making Spyro and Elora's expressions, tones and body language much more flirtatious and implicitly mutually attracted in their interactions, and expanding its adaptation of the Year of the Dragon finale cutscene to show Spyro and Elora sitting down to watch the fireworks together, with Spyro snuggling up to Elora and placing his wing on her back.
• The original StarCraft had many of these between Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan. From the first time they met when it was shown that Raynor had some attraction to her from the start and even to Kerrigan's mission on New Gettysburg where he tried to convince her not to undertake the mission due to the danger. The second game takes this even further with almost every character seems to refer to Kerrigan as Raynor's girlfriend in one form or another.
• Street Fighter:
  • The chemistry shared between series leads Ryu and Chun-Li. Ryu respects her abilities greatly (he even states her kicks are "stunning" in his win quotes) and considers her to be a very good friend, while Chun-Li has a lot of admiration for him and enjoys fighting him every chance she gets. Chun-Li also suspiciously excited to see him again in the Street Fighter V story mode and Ryu even saves Chun-Li and Fi-Len from fire with a Hadoken. Also fact that Ryu and Chun-Li are in every crossover title together only encourages things. There's also the illustrated alternate cover◊ of SFV of Ryu and Chunners back to back and smiling at each other in their "Hot" costumes. Capcom in general doesn't shy away from having official art of Ryu and Chun-Li being quite close together see the New Year art and especially the SFV Pocky cover. Even if it doesn't come up in the games themselves, there's some spin-off media (comicbooks, etc) that explicitly states Ryu and Chun-Li are either now, could be, or had in the past, been in a relationship.
  • Sakura's Hero-Worshipper tendencies to Ryu have pretty much evolved into her having a blatant crush on him. She refers to Ryu as "dreamy" in one of her post-fight quotes against Sagat, in The Ties that Bind she gives him a Cooldown Hug after he almost falls victim to his Superpowered Evil Side and then stays by him when he has an Heroic BSoD because of that, and both of her endings have her either helping Ryu after he destroys BLECE (IV) or him dropping by to visit her (Super IV). SFV goes the extra step further of giving Sakura Luminescent Blush when she talks about being old enough to give birth to Ryu's child... "not that she wants to have kids".
  • Guy and Rose in SSFIV. The idea behind Guy's Rival Battle with Rose is that Guy is trying to stop Rose from facing Bison, something he failed to prevent in Street Fighter Alpha 3, because he sees it as Rose being a martyr, but the romantic subtext comes on strong for anyone who's seen their fight (their banter in-battle consists of, among other lines, Guy somberly asking Rose to reconsider, Rose sorrowfully proclaiming that she doesn't want to die, and both fighters apologizing before unleashing their Ultras) and their linked endings (Guy becomes fiercely protective of Rose and unusually emotive when Bison abducts her, and Rose is roused back to life by Guy's concerned urging). This becomes stranger if you take into consideration that, according to Final Fight 2, Guy already has a fiancee.
• Super Mario Bros.
  • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door features Mario getting kissed by each of his female party members and no less than four times by Ms. Mowz (which makes Goombella and Flurrie jealous).^note Ms. Mowz and Goombella can also learn a special skill that allows them to kiss Mario at any time for HP recovery and an extra turn respectively. Vivian almost makes a love confession to Mario in the ending, but decides that he and Peach would be a good couple, and Goombella is about to tell Mario something she hadn't been able to express to him before in her last e-mail, but decides to save it for later. Peach has an almost romantic bond with TEC, especially when educating him about human feelings, and by the time Grodus has him deleted for helping her get classified information for Mario, he declares his love for her just before shutting down (he gets better).
  • Super Paper Mario is a gigantic ship tease for Bowser/Peach fans. They get married in the opening and Bowser constantly declares his love for her throughout the game. Then there's the scene near the end where Bowser stays behind to hold up the ceiling, Peach stays a little longer than Mario and Luigi, and later on falls on top of him off-screen. Considering Bowser is covered in spikes, he probably caught her in his arms or on his chest. Their marriage is never really annulled, either (though Peach quite rightly points out that the event was a sham, since she was forced to participate against her own will).
  • One popular Ship Tease is Yoshi and Birdo, probably because they're both dinosaurs who are about the same size with one being male and the other being female, plus both of them use eggs as ammo (which Mario Kart: Double Dash!! took note of for their special item). Some sources say Birdo is transgender, and most of the fans that follow those sources love to ship her with Yoshi. When this shipping exactly started, the jury's still out on it, but some say it was Mario Tennis on the Nintendo 64 that started it. ^note Possibly made canon by a blurb on the Japanese website for Double Dash!!
  • Because Mario/Peach tends to sit in a strange place between Official Couple and Implied Love Interest, the sheer number of ship teases between the two are almost too numerous to list. Luigi/Daisy is similar, but not as prominent.
• Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Solid Snake's codec transmissions regarding Samus Aran could be regarded as a form of Ship Tease, since it's all one-sided and we have no way of knowing how Samus feels about the matter. That hasn't stopped them from becoming the game's resident One True Pairing... though the pairing's support has less to do with any perceived teasing and more to do with how their combined sex appeal is dense enough to create a singularity.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U gives even more teasing, such as Peach and Zelda fighting over Link, Shulk smashing Link away to play with them both, or Ike offering a flower to Palutena.
  • A somewhat unintentional example, but the Tiny Guy, Huge Girl dynamic between Little Mac and Samus in his reveal trailer was just Played for Laughs, but coincidentally the trailer came out on Valentine's Day. So their ship became◊ very popular, effectively dethroning Snake's ship with Samus.
• Up to Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2, most people think that Axel Almer and Lamia Loveless could never get along, as almost every appearance they have, they're usually enemies/rivals. The sequel Original Generation Gaiden gives them a chance to fight under one banner, and gives them a subplot that might have linked them together romantically, where the latter feels indebted to the former for saving her life. The end of the story adds Axel, in attempt to find his own paradise (on Lamia's suggestion), promises to tell her first if he ever finds one. Awww...!
  • The game adds up the teasing about pairing him and Einst Alfimi. There has been a lot of older men/little girl fan pairings in SRW, and both of them traveling together in Original Generation Gaiden all the time attracted the attention of lolicon fans, viewing them as a pair (it helps that Alfimi just happens to be a clone of Excellen Browning, the Alternate Universe counterpart of Axel's deceased lover Lemon Browning, who also happened to have built Lamia). It's also supported with the way she states before their departure: "I may be the only one who understands him." It's perhaps become official: their appearance in Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier EXCEED ascends them both to Battle Couple status.
  • A slight Ship Tease is present in Ryusei Date and Mai Kobayasahi, following their Combination Attack in Original Generation Gaiden, although it's somewhat odd when Latooni Subota is the one who came up with the attack, as Latooni also has a deep-seated, one-sided crush for Ryusei since OG1, and she's been around longer than Mai.
  • When Mekibos was asked if Seti was an old girlfriend of his in Dark Prison, Yong Gebana screamed loudly "nothing of the sort!", which caught the others by surprise.
  • Hibiki Kamishiro with Suzune Saijou in Third Super Robot Wars Z: Jigoku-Hen, since she shows interest in him after he saves her from Grogos G5. Afterwards, he swears to protect her. Also she calls him Knight and they become partners. At one point, Hibiki gets jealous of Ryouma getting along with Suzune-sensei.
  • Whether or not Iori's picked as the protagonist of Super Robot Wars X, the members of X-Cross will be under the impression that he has a crush on Amari. When the members of X-Cross ask if Iori is Amari's lover, she quickly deny sadly no one believe her. If Iori is the protagonist, Hope will ask what is her relationship with him which make her blush.
• Tales of Monkey Island: Although Guybrush and Elaine were already neatly paired and Happily Married, this did not stop the developers from throwing some Ship Teasing (along with Ship Sinking) moments between Guybrush and his fangirl, Morgan Le Flay. Noticeably in The Lair of the Leviathan and Rise of the Pirate God.
• After Heavy/Medic grew to prominence amongst Team Fortress 2 fans, hints about their relationship began to be sprinkled about the various supplementary material, such as the Sniper's "Beaux and Arrows" achievement (kill a Heavy/Medic pair) and their strangely intimate interactions during open-heart surgery in the "Meet the Medic" video. Though, the WAR update attempted to torpedo it with the Demoman's Medic-specific taunt that suggests the Medic is married.
  • Spy/Sniper fans take some of their domination taunts and achievements as ship teasing. But then again, this is the Spy and the Sniper.
  • Sniper/Medic fans take the Sniper's "charge me" voice clips as Ship Teasing.
  • Yaoi Fangirls went Squee when Valve started releasing information leading up to the WAR update. Until the Mac Update shipped, the loadup screen featured the BLU Soldier and the RED Demoman butting heads and glaring at each other very intensely.
    • From the sound of these (robotized) unused Domination lines, the Administrator was unsuccessful at preventing their friendship.
  • Prior to the 2011 Australian Christmas update, the Pyro and Engineer got a comic together.
• Stealth game Tenchu made some massive teasing about the two protagonists, Rikimaru and Ayame, most notably during the intro of the Wrath of Heaven episode. Then they sunk the ship really bad in the ending of Shadow Assassins.
• Plenty of this trope in Thief II: The Metal Age, between Garrett and Viktoria. Granted, while both characters undergo a Relationship Upgrade from being bitter former enemies, they act more like platonic friends rather than being attracted to each other physically. It doesn't help that such an attraction wouldn't probably be feasible, given that they are... erm... not quite compatible humanoid beings... This still didn't stop some of the series' fans from considering the two a Star-Crossed Official Couple... (Ultimately, both of the characters are two lonely souls and outcasts in an uncaring Fantastic Noir world.)
• This is teased to some degree in Thor: God of Thunder, a game set before the events of Thor itself, after Sif is impaled and becomes temporarily dead. Her death enrages Thor and causes him to seek vengeance, to the point where Odin worries that "Thor will slaughter and bring holocaust" if he doesn't do anything. It probably doesn't help that she died in Thor's arms either.
  Odin (discussing bringing Sif back to life and interfering with fate): "If I do not, I fear that Thor will..."
  Loki: "Thor will defy you and wage war against the Jotuns from now until Ragnarok."
• Tomb Raider (2013):
  • Lara and Samantha is the most notable, being extremely close since they met in university. Lara throughout the game is very protective of Sam who in turn is very affectionate to her, the finale takes it even further with Lara giving Sam (in a white dress) a Bridal Carry after saving her from Big Bad Mathias. Rhianna Pratchett the main writer of reboot did intend for Lara and Sam to be a couple, but Executive Meddling got involved. While Sam makes no appearance in the sequels, she does return in the comics where she lives with Lara and acts her Living Emotional Crutch.
  • To a lesser extent there’s Lara and Alex while it initially seems like a one-sided Amazon Chaser crush on his part, Lara does admit she finds him “sweet”. When Alex gets himself trapped trying to be a hero and impress her, Lara is very upset when he decides to sacrifice himself and refuses to leave him at first but Alex urges her to go. Lara then leans in close to give him a Last Kiss on the cheek, noticeably she appeared to aim for his lips but Alex turns his head away pained. In the comics Lara remembers Alex fondly and in one of her less horrific visions, Alex appears before her and she strokes the non-scarred side of his face.
• Until Dawn:
  • Sam and Josh became close after the deaths of his sisters and some of their conversations can be seen as flirty. They are also the only girl and boy out of the group who are not dating or crushing on another member when the game starts. Sadly, this has no chance of happening since Josh either dies or becomes a Wendigo.
  • Sam and Mike get some Ship Tease as they are portrayed as the Final Girl and Guy. Should both of them survive, there is a shot of them clinging onto each other as they watch the lodge burn. Additionally, the player would have to go out of their way to end the game without them being each other's highest relationship.
• In Vanquish there’s something going on between protagonist Sam and his radio girl Elena. Which only becomes more apparent in the ending where Elena thinks Sam has died and despairs only to discover to her joy that he escaped unscathed and when their ship rocks with the impact of a explosion Sam quickly gives Elena a Security Cling which she notably enjoys. If that wasn’t enough when Sam wonders if he's not so different from Burns, Elena (with "my hero" eyes) assures him that he saved millions of people, Sam gives Elena a big smile in response.
• In Warcraft, the strong alliance between Thrall and Jaina Proudmoore has raised some... interesting stuff going on between those two. The White Gnomeregan Punch Card also contains "Thrall and Jaina sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G." (in binary, but still), and Jaina happens to resemble Thrall's Dead Surrogate Big Sister Taretha from Lord of the Clans. World of Warcraft even gives them nearly identical character models.
  • As of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Thrall has met a nice lady named Aggra, and Chris Metzen confirmed them to be mates at Blizzcon. (Chris Metzen despised the incredibly popular Thrall/Jaina ship and seemingly invented Aggra just for the purpose of making Thrall committed and has even gone on to say "Thrall/Jaina will never happen. EVER!")
  • Varian Wrynn and Jaina Proudmoore get a bit too, particularly in Icecrown Citadel after his Pet the Dog moment toward Saurfang the Elder. It helps that he grew up as the best friend/near-brother of her only past lover (Arthas Menethil, Prince of Lordaeron) and retains a lot of similarities, while she looks scarily like his dead wife and acts as a sort of surrogate mother to his son.
    Jaina: [sobs]
    Varian: "Jaina... Why are you crying?"
    Jaina: [sniffle] "It was nothing, your Majesty... Just.. I'm proud of my king."
  • Garrosh Hellscream and and Warlord Zaela got plenty of this, which became particularly apparent when she remained loyal to him long after most of the Horde turned against him and he was defeated, and even after he helped found the Iron Horde.
  • Battle for Azeroth featured Mathias Shaw and Flynn Fairwind on a mission with the player; the two of them spend the entire thing flirting with each other. They got together in a tie-in novel set between BfA and Shadowlands.

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