The all-male party was a deliberate creative choice by director Hajime Tabata to emphasize natural male bonding and approachability, with no gender-swapped established characters, pronoun mechanics, or identity-focused arcs. The central romance remains Noctis's heterosexual engagement to Lunafreya, while supporting characters like Cindy and Aranea fulfill story functions without any feminist or systemic-oppression messaging. Thematic centrality stays low because the 2016 development carried no DEI mandates or activist intent from Square Enix, keeping the narrative centered on friendship, duty, and kingdom reclamation rather than identity politics. This traditional structure produces a positive absence of forced progressive elements, allowing the core journey and character relationships to stand on their own without contemporary social agendas intruding on the experience.