Eien no Filena (Eternal Filena):
An old (1994) SNES RPG that was never ported over to the US but has an english translation. A minute or two of playing reveals why: The story can be summed up as "Lesbian power couple liberates the world"
So Filena is a female gladiator in a provincial capital of the Evil Empire (TM) that has taken over the world. Trained in both fighting and pretending to be male by being beaten up by her loving grandfather since she was 6, she is now 16 and ready to fight to the death for the amusement of the decadent imperial citizens. No one can know that she is a female however, lest she be executed.
But of course even the Evil Empire is willing to show pity on the soon-to-be-dead gladiators on their last night. So they give them concubines! Filena for obvious reasons refuses the generous offer, but the concubine assigned to her (Lila) hunts her down rather than be whipped for failing to properly entice Filena. After Lila INSISTS they go to bed together, Filena relents and they do... cue lila bugging out on discovering that Filena is actually a woman (how she found out isn't really left to the imagination).
Filena swears Lila to silence and they talk for a while, then Filena goes to the colloseum and kills another gladiator to the cheers of the crowd. Hurray?
Filena is set up with a house in the poor non-citizen (Clechia) quarter of the town. She is given a wife too (Lila) who is... surprisingly cool with the arrangement. The citizens of the empire (Devis) have the nice places in the city. They are also assholes almost to a person. That's nice.
Filena trains with her grandfather and fights another arena battle, killing another gladiator who was a bit of a jerk. Then she gets to kill two gladiators again, one jerk and one... not-jerk who wished his wife Sara a good life as he bleeds to death for the amusement of the crowd. You can talk to Sara afterwards who is depressed but doesn't hold a grudge against Filena.
Then for DRAMA the colloseum battle-scenario writer, Nest, writes that Filena is to kill her long-lost brother in the arena. Nest is a miserable guilty wreck at the local bar and willingly tells Filena that the scnearios are of course fake and that she won't be killing her brother. Everyone still refers to Filena as a man even though the name and sprite are pretty dang feminine.
So Filena effortlessly kills her 'brother' who confesses that he was just fighting because if he didn't his wife and kid would be executed. Oh and for bonus points the wife and kid are sitting right at the entrance to the colloseum watching. So Milika (the wife) and Fis (the kid) swear vengeance against Filena for slaying their beloved husband/father. The crowd cheers of course.
Filena is comforted by her wife Lila, but when she goes to see her grandfather the battle trainer, she finds he has been replaced at the training ground. And of course her next fight is against her own grandfather in the arena. Cue dramatic music and sorrow as Filena slaughters the man who was like a (somewhat abusive) father to her. As her grandfather bleeds out on the colloseum dirt, he hands Filena a special crystal and tells her to get it inspected at the imperial information borough (like a high-tec library).
Filena, as a non-citizen Clechia, can't go into the library, but the battle-scenario writer/local drunk Nest can, and feels guilty enough to help her. So they go to the Information Borough/library and get her magic info crystal analyzed. It reveals that Filena is actually the heir to a long-lost (by 16 years) sea kingdom and that she was raised by her grandfather as a gladiator because... well that isn't very clear. But her path becomes clear: she is to travel to the imperial capital and meet with a man named Uto who has a magic sword named "Filena" that will do... something.
Suddenly the library alarms go off, and it alerts the empire to forbidden knowledge being accessed. This triggers the super-secret-ultra assassins/special ops of the empire to target Filena. The first (of many to come) Black Devils assaults Filena and her friend Nest on the way out of the library. They kill it (1). Then Filena escapes to her home to scoop up her wife Lila, only Milika is there and throws poison in her eyes! Now Filena will be blinded for the next 1/3rd of the game. This has shockingly minimal effect on her combat efficiency even though she has a perpetual 'blind' status.
Turns out Milika has nothing against Filena in particular, but had to do that because the empire has her son hostage. After killing another Black Devil (2), Filena, Lila, Nest, and Milika escape through the sewers of the battle arena training grounds. Two more Black Devils pursue them and die in a fire (4). In a nearby town at the other end of the sewers, Filena consults a doctor who tells her to go to a nearby cave and get a special herb for her eyes. They do so and Filena has an operation on her eyes to stabilize them... it works! But she's still blind.
So Filena, Lila, and Milika dress up as religious dancers (Meemez) to get out of the city and make their way toward the capital. Nest goes his own way because he's a guy and can't join them on that plan (he's figured out Filena is actually a woman). So Filena pretends to be a man pretending to be a woman dancing... Milika and Lila bond over Miliak's flute playing and talking about her son and how she wants to see him (Death Flag). But the Black Devils catch on to their plot. They lure the three girls to a bridge with the intention of blowing it up. But Milika is able to knock down the Black Devil that plans to blow up the bridge (5). Only Milika falls off too and dies. Whoops.
After much boo-hooing over how unfair it was that Fis would never see his mother Milika again and how sad they were to lose her right after they had gotten to know her, Filena and Lila move along. They come to a frozen mountain that is home to a bandit group. Only it turns out the bandit group is in rebellion against the empire. Right around now two Black Devils attack the rebels and Filena. They get offed (7). So Filena and Lila make their way through the mountain to the secret village of the rebels. After talking with them and getting to know them, they are given access to more herbs to help with Filena's eyes! She's still inflicted with Blind. The blind status outlived the chick who inflicted it by a fair bit.
They are then tasked with helping one of the rebels, Laris, sell herbs to black market dealers. Laris isn't the usual guy, since that guy was killed in the earlier Black Devil ambush. Laris is also A) not terribly bright and B)Confused about his attraction to the 'male' Filena. They make it to the deal area, where Laris gets taken for a fool by the buyer who gets the product and scrams before paying for it. Whoops. Oh well. Laris has learned a lesson.
Karma being karma, the guy who ripped them off is promptly murdered by a Black Devil hunting Filena. Not before blabbing about the Rebel Village and Filena of course. Then the rebel village is attacked and Filena/Lila/Laris have to escape via some mine carts. Filena at this point tosses off her bandage and is FINALLY CURED OF THE BLIND STATUS, YAY! On the way Laris slips and fondles Filena, finally realizing why he had the hots for her despite her manly disguise (which, it should be mentioned, isn't much of a disguise). Laris bravely and stupidly decides to 'buy Filena and Lila time' by trying to fight two Black Devils by himself. He is tossed aside like a rag doll, presumably killed (and yeah he really is dead because he never comes back). Lila and Filena escape in a mine card, chased by two Black Devils in their own mine carts. One falls to his doom on a turn (8). The other crashes into Filena's mine cart and tries to fight Filena and Lila. They kill him (9).
Filena and Lila wake up in a cottage nearby and decide to go on towards the capital by going to a nearby port. They sneak onboard a ship (their actions still being monitored in passing by agents of the Black Devils). On the ship, Lila decides to get in the same bed as Filena because Lila is pretty much head-over-heels for her 'husband' Filena even though she knows Filena is a woman. 100% dedication and all that. Filena seems okay with it.
After landing in the next port, Filena and Lila come upon a mining town. After (a lot) of talking around, they pretend to be miners and go through the mines to the weapons factory at the other end. After more talking in THAT place, they come to an old abandoned mansion that has a path out of the region. But wait! Fis, Milika's son, shows up after being rescued by the same doctor that operated on Filena's eyes. But before they can explain much to him the Black Devils attack! One sets the house on fire and kidnaps Fis again. Then another meets them at the exit of the tunnel and tries to kill them. He fails and they murderize him too (10).
At this point, the power couple are in the wilderness and set out towards the capital. But not before going to a nearby misplaced black market and buying overpriced stuff that turns out to be endgame armor, helms, shields, and weapons. So yeah.
The couple come upon a woman on the beach, Amalda, who is rather pregnant. They also come upon her dog Hunter. Hunter is awesome. Just keep that in mind.
They follow Amalda back to her campsite where she and 'wandering Clechia' refuse to be turned into the empire's slaves, living instead off of the land and hiding from the "Clechia hunters" that want to turn them into said slaves. Of course this being a game the clechia hunters attack pretty much as soon as Lila and Filena show up. Cue both Amalda having her kid and IMMEDIATELY GETTING UP AND FIGHTING OFF THE HUNTERS. Dude... Dude.
After everything settles down over the corpse of the hunters, Lila watches the baby and gets some baby fever herself. She may need biology explained to her as she seems to want to have one with Filena, whom she knows (uh, intimately) is a woman.
The duo moves on to a hut near the capital and gets smuggled inside on a cart full of hay. They make there way around the capital and come upon the blacksmith they are looking for... who reveals himself as a fellow sea-kingdom filoseran, gives Filena the sword 'FIlena' she is searching for, Tells her to take it to the sea of Filosera, and then is promptly killed by the Black Devils who have tracked down Filena AGAIN.
Filena escapes through a secret passage AGAIN, is confronted by another lone Black Devil AGAIN, and adds to the count (11).
More to come...
