Fran and Balthier was the most blatant thing in existence. They had more chemistry going on than Tidus and Yuna could ever dream of. It's a nicely done, subtle relationship which works because of how much you can see they rely on each other just through their body language. Watch the Pharos scene, or the one in Salikawood where Fran talks about Balthier's eyes, or that line Balthier says about Fran disliking being tied up - come on!

It's more than just that, though. As a global culture, we are steadily moving away from coming of age romances. Heck, even Disney movies, which practically invented the idea, are also stepping away from it with Frozen deconstructing that idea and focusing on sisterly love.

We need love in games, yes, but not boring old predictable coming of age romances. Radiant Historia is one good example of a game that is at its core about the Four Loves, with only a little romantic subplot for the main character, only to complete that model. I'd prefer for FF to just move on and try to do other kinds of stories rather than shoving a forced romance down our throats again.

I think it was mostly Sakaguchi responsible for that, I think, if you think about it. We stopped having those once he left, and the Last Story focuses on a terrible, overdone romance pot between two bland, hollow husks so devoid of personality their relationship should for all intents and purposes have created some sort of black hole.

I just think we're done. I think coming-of-age romances are dead and can't be interesting anymore without some big twist, or just without being so in-your-face about it like FFX or The Last Story.