The month of June is celebrated every year as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month. Initially created as a commemoration of LGBTQ pride after the Stonewall gay liberation riots in 1969 in the U.S., the celebration is now an annual global phenomenon that celebrates LGBTQ rights and culture. For gamers worldwide, there are LGBTQ-friendly games that you can play to celebrate Pride Month in stride.
Most of the games chosen for this list were developed by teams with different sexual orientations, gender identities, and backgrounds. This provides several different perspectives on the lives of the characters involved in the game, making it a more authentic, real-life experience for players playing these games as well.
While there are a number of worthy games to play during Pride Month, we have made it easier for you to choose from by picking out the top games we consider to be the best ones to play.
Top games to play during Pride Month
In today’s times, LGBTQ representation is quite strong in the gaming community. Characters in popular titles such as Raze and Killjoy in VALORANT, Tracer and Baptiste in Overwatch 2, and Diana and Leona in League of Legends are renowned LGBTQ characters that play a prominent role in their respective games.
Related: Who are Apex Legends’ LGBTQ characters?
We have curated a list of different games that are LGBTQ-friendly and provide realistic depictions of the characters involved. These games spread across a variety of genres, from role-playing to third-person action adventures and beyond, making it a diverse experience and providing something for every kind of gamer.
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
When it comes to LGBTQ-friendly themes, the Assassin’s Creed series by Ubisoft might not be the first thing that pops up in your mind. With most of the games in the series focusing on the Order of the Assassins, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey takes a step away from it all by taking place 400 years before the formation of the Assassin Order, making for a very different experience.
This focus away from the Order led Ubisoft to create a game where you can choose your own protagonist’s gender. The general tone of Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey is quite light-hearted compared to the other games, which allows more focus to be put on the characters. This has led to them being involved in several heterosexual and homosexual romances throughout the story.
Who you choose to seduce is up to you and their eventual fates will be decided based on the choices you make throughout the story. You might be surprised when certain characters end up dead if you aren’t careful with the decisions you make.
Dragon Age
While Bioware is known for its masterful storytelling in all of its RPG series, none of them have as much of an LGBTQ-friendly theme as the Dragon Age series does. While the first two games explore the nuances of gay relationships, their vision was fully realized in the third game Dragon Age: Inquisition, with characters such as Dorian Pavus, Sera, and Iron Bull.
Dorian is only romanceable by the male Inquisitor and Sera is only romanceable by the female Inquisitor, while Iron Bull can be romanced by either one. Inquisition is also one of Bioware’s first games to fully implement the concept of sexual preferences throughout the game. No matter what your preferences are, there is someone for everyone to romance in the Dragon Age series.
Growing Up
Growing Up is quite a unique entry in this list because you start from the very beginning. Created by Vile Monarch, the premise of Growing Up is taking charge of a character starting as a toddler all the way to adulthood. The game has a sandbox environment where every choice you make will matter in the long run, be it something minor and trivial or a major life-changing decision.
Growing Up has several LGBTQ themes and choices where your sexual orientation and gender will come into play. The game provides quite a unique experience to play since every choice will shape the life of your character, including what your future job and life will be like and who your romantic partner will be.
When you finally graduate high school, you will be given an end result based on all the choices you made throughout your childhood growing up and where your character eventually ends up as an adult.
Life is Strange trilogy
The Life is Strange series comprises three games, all of which are LGBTQ-friendly with a plot that revolves around a few characters that have seen their share of despair throughout the years.
The first game puts players in the shoes of Max Caulfield, a photography major that soon discovers that she can reverse time. Using her powers, she saves her best friend Chloe Price from danger. Following this, the duo investigates the disappearance of their fellow classmate Rachel Amber, leading to some sinister secrets in Arcadia Bay. Eventually, Max finds out that haphazardly reversing time has its own share of consequences, leading to an alternate future.
The second game in the series titled Life is Strange 2 shifts gears, putting players in the shoes of the Diaz brothers, Sean and Daniel. The older brother Sean attempts to guide his younger brother Daniel as he learns to make use of his newly-awakened telekinetic powers. The brothers escape a tragic incident and are now on the run. How the story plays out and how the rest of the characters respond to you is up to the decisions you make for the siblings.
The third game in the series is Life is Strange: True Colors. This is the final entry in the series and has the most queer romance options and storylines of the three. In this game, you play as Alex Chen, a girl with the psychic power of Empathy who can absorb the emotions of others around her. Because of this, she often considered her powers to be a curse, but after her brother dies in a mysterious accident, Alex puts her accursed powers to use by finding out the truth about the incident.
The Life is Strange series is a three-part game with individual stories, so there is no need to worry about playing the games out of order. But there are some easter eggs and references to other games in the series that you might miss if you haven’t played all of them in order.
Mass Effect
As a game developer, Bioware has always shown itself to be LGBTQ-friendly. While it is well-displayed throughout the Dragon Age series, the sentiments carry over to its other best-selling series, Mass Effect. Throughout the course of the original trilogy, Commander Shepard travels with a diverse cast of humans and aliens, most of which are romanceable by a male or female Shepard.
The sequel, Mass Effect: Andromeda provides the Pathfinder Ryder with a variety of romanceable choices as well. All of the choices throughout each game involve a variety of straight, gay, and bisexual characters and aliens with unique personalities that can be courted throughout the events of the game. Who you end up with at the finale can affect certain choices in the game as well.
Tell Me Why
A perfect example of a game that celebrates Pride Month is Tell Me Why. The developers of the game, DONTNOD Entertainment, are the same minds behind the Life is Strange series, making it a compelling story headlined by a trans protagonist. The story features Alyson and Tyler Ronan as twins reunited together by a supernatural bond that they use to find out the truth about their troubled past.
Tell Me Why received praise from reviewers everywhere because of the accurate portrayal of the trans protagonist. This was achieved because DONTNOD Entertainment conducted on-the-ground research with the help of gender advocates to create this beautiful, true-to-life experience.
While the duration of the game isn’t as long as the Life is Strange games, it offers a lot of meaningful storytelling for people interested in playing through a masterfully-told plotline.
The Last of Us
The Last of Us is a critically-acclaimed story-driven game series that has garnered renown from players all over the world. The games were so popular that they inspired a TV series that is performing just as well, if not better. The Last of Us showcases what life would be like in a post-apocalyptic world with every character struggling to survive.
The series is split into two games, the second of which has a long-running story arc displaying a thriving lesbian relationship. Ellie, one of the main protagonists of the series, is involved in relationships with Riley Alba and Dina throughout the course of the game. Her harrowing story is celebrated in The Last of Us, garnering praise from fans and players of the series worldwide.
Wylde Flowers
Wylde Flowers is Studio Drydock’s masterpiece where you play as Tara, a farmer by day and a witch by night, who has moved to the small town of Fairhaven to be with her grandmother. Indulge in a variety of witchcraft as you ensure the prosperity of your family’s farm and uncover a mystery that overshadows the entire populace.
Wylde Flowers was well-received by fans and critics everywhere. The game was developed by a diverse team with their own contribution to the creation of realistic depictions of gay romances between Tara and several eligible candidates in the town of Fairhaven. Wylde Flowers performed so well that it won the Gayming Awards 2023’s Best LGBTQ Game award, so it is definitely worth a try.
