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Romance in Video Games
themocaw
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So Robert Heinlein once said that true happiness comes from "Loving a good woman and killing a bad man." Video games seem to give a lot of the latter, not much of the former: probably because it's societally encouraged to get married and have kids in real life, but not so much so to kill people, even bad people.
Even so, games tend to do romance really frikkin' badly. You got your Japanese "love-sim" games which tend to have the same insipid plot (Faceless Gary-Stu male protagonist hits on and scores (to varying degrees) with various incarnations of stereotypes), or the more laughable romance subplots from RPGs, which tend to revolve either around "look at these beautiful people being beautiful together" or "The main character is in love with this girl because the plot says so."
Honestly, the only games I've seen so far that did romance in any way effectively were Baldur's Gate 2 and Final Fantasy VIII. Even BG2 wasn't perfect because, ya know, the girls tended to be a bit irritating at times. Aerie was a whiner, Jahiera was just mean, and Val-whatever, although fun, was a bit bleh. But the romance was done well nonetheless because the relationships had a plot beyond "Hey, I'm falling in love with you because the plot says so and/or you brought me nice things." There was an actual story there.
Final Fantasy VIII did it well too, but not Squall and Rinoa. Squall and Rinoa were bleh. I'm talking Laguna. Laguna's story was awesome. First because he never got with the obvious love interest: he and Julia never got together, which is where it looks like it's headed at the beginning of his story. And then there's Raine, whose story was awesome mostly because they weren't hormone ridden kids: they were grown-ups with grown-up concerns. That was pretty refreshing.
Thoughts? Am I wrong? Am I right? Or am I wasting my time thinking about stuff that has no real bearing on real life? In before "OMG GET A GIRLFRIEND U LUSER."
Even so, games tend to do romance really frikkin' badly. You got your Japanese "love-sim" games which tend to have the same insipid plot (Faceless Gary-Stu male protagonist hits on and scores (to varying degrees) with various incarnations of stereotypes), or the more laughable romance subplots from RPGs, which tend to revolve either around "look at these beautiful people being beautiful together" or "The main character is in love with this girl because the plot says so."
Honestly, the only games I've seen so far that did romance in any way effectively were Baldur's Gate 2 and Final Fantasy VIII. Even BG2 wasn't perfect because, ya know, the girls tended to be a bit irritating at times. Aerie was a whiner, Jahiera was just mean, and Val-whatever, although fun, was a bit bleh. But the romance was done well nonetheless because the relationships had a plot beyond "Hey, I'm falling in love with you because the plot says so and/or you brought me nice things." There was an actual story there.
Final Fantasy VIII did it well too, but not Squall and Rinoa. Squall and Rinoa were bleh. I'm talking Laguna. Laguna's story was awesome. First because he never got with the obvious love interest: he and Julia never got together, which is where it looks like it's headed at the beginning of his story. And then there's Raine, whose story was awesome mostly because they weren't hormone ridden kids: they were grown-ups with grown-up concerns. That was pretty refreshing.
Thoughts? Am I wrong? Am I right? Or am I wasting my time thinking about stuff that has no real bearing on real life? In before "OMG GET A GIRLFRIEND U LUSER."
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That's basically it.
I don't think any videogame romances have resonated with me. Although Deionarra in Planescape was a very compelling female counterpart. She wasn't as important to the plot as the NPC romances, though.
And I know this will get a lot of flak, probably, but I really liked the development of Tidus/Yuna, too.
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My problem is that they were a romance between two characters that you watched, and failed to involve the player.
Hence the 4 I posted.
at least i think it was will wright.
Edit: Added "again" for historical accuracy.
...or do they?
Dammit I need to play Planescape I guess.
There has never been, at least in what I've played, a well-written romance. The industry has not really reached that point, and most attempts have been pretty crummy ala Mass Effect.
Edit: To be fair, Planescape's is okay simply because the rest of the game's dialogue is so well-done, but it still shoehorns it in regardless of your decisions.
Romance is all Ico is.
it's just, y'know, implied.
Xenogears and FFIX had better 'love' stories than VIII did.
Odin Sphere has some good segments, but it's highly dramatized, so it's not for everyone.
Overall, I think FFIX, mainly for having the most heart-warming ending ever.
I would say Digital Devil Saga 2, but...
Maybe it's because I'm a woman, but I appreciate a romance subplot. It's an extra dimension one can add to a story if done well. I'd like to see it be a bit more involved, make you care for this character (make it have an impact on parts of the story). Sadly, the way many games do it, I end up caring more for npcs that are my friends than the potential romance npc.
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"Ryu...Hello..."
"I'm busy."
"I understand...bye...ryu."
Def. Yuri and Alice. It was so good that it made two so god damn fantastic because of his regret. And still one of the best endings in a video game ever.
Or Rose from MGS2
"Jack, I'm pregnant."
"Thanks, honey. That's really what a guy in the middle of a delicate covert operation to save the free world needs right now, more weight on my shoulders and things to worry about. Why not tell me my mom has cancer while you're at it?"
But i think the KOTOR relationships were interesting, insofar that i actually felt bad when i killed the alien chick.
God I love SotC. I need to get a functional PS2 and play it again.
And yeah, in my opinion FFX was one of the worst romance (or heck, even people interaction) subplots I've seen in a game. Maybe it would have been better with the japanese voices. Man, so many awkward moments that were supposed to be 'heartwarming'.
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"HA. HA. HA. HA. HA."
Edit - Son of a bitch, beaten. But I was funnier.
I'm just kidding. God, could you imagine?
Anyway, Xenogears probably had the coolest romance of all in my opinion, I can't really think of any other game that had characters I cared about as much. Gabriel Knight and Grace Nakamura from the GK games and the main characters of Silent Hill 2 for honorable mentions.
Cyber love is the only kind of love. "eat me out plz"
And yes, I was told that on an RP server. I don't think they appreciated me playing dumb for the next ten minutes.
Also, first page and no-ones mentioned Alyx Vance?
My kingdom for Sand and Neeshka as options.
Edit: I am also of the opinion that any player chosen romance should be available for any and all genders.
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Which alien chick? Juhani or Mission? Because I remember having Mission's wookie friend kill her when I went bad side and even though she was annoying as hell it did make me feel kinda bad.
But then I got to kill Carth at the very end and that made up for it all.
HK-47's impersonations of Bastilla and Carth in KOTOR2 are a wonderful illustration of how shallow the romantic element was in that game. Having decided that Revan was male and evil during KOTOR2's prologue, many, many hours later I was treated to HK-47 synthesizing Bastilla's voice and the line "I hate you and everything you stand for. Now kiss me!"
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Back in the early days of SWG I remember someone with a female avatar offering to 'cyber' with my male Twi'lek for 25,000 credits. I thought it was ridiculous but then I rolled a female character and people would tip me thousands of creds for dancing in the cantina. Way more than anything a male dancer would get at least. Then there'd be gifts sent to me and that's when I decided to delete that character, it was getting creepy.
Yeah, you have a whiny-voiced numbskull and a breathy, wishy-washy dork, and they have small talk about five times on the worst subjects and suddenly it's ROMANCE
Of course the game is fun, but anything that tried to be cute or endearing was practically scarring. I can remember like five scenes right now that were just terrible and seared into my mind forever.
This is my opinion as well. The story between Fei and Elly was pretty amazing, and thus became the only romance in a video game that I actually cared about.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Word.
I hate pointing to a FF game, but I think Balthier/Ashe was handled pretty well. Not in your face, sometimes even pretty subtle - you have to look to their mannerisms and speech around each other in the few character development scenes you get. At the end of the game it does suffer a bit from "In case you thickheads missed the understated build-up, we'll make it obvious for you!"-itis, but it still works pretty well throughout. I especially like how he couldn't get the girl because of social/political barriers, knew it, and did the next best thing he could for her, all before she even realized how she felt about him. It was a good arc.
Can't think of any good video games where the romantic element is integral to the game/plot besides SotC and Ico, though. Most of the time it's just a tangent, absurd/silly, or both.
Different people find different things attractive.
Graphical appearance, voice acting, and personality (as shown through scripted dialogues and reactions) all combine to create a fairly distinct impression of each character, assuming the game is more detailed than, say, an NES RPG. And that impression will be a little bit different for everyone who plays the game.
It's hard enough for game designers to come up with protagonists that characters can identify with. I mean, that's a problem all on its own, really, and it tends to be dealt with in one of two ways: either they let the player determine as much about the character as possible (name, appearance, etc, as in games like KoTOR or Baldur's Gate), or they go to great lengths to define the character ahead of time: "Look, you're this spiky-haired emo guy with a gunblade, it says that right on the box, if you don't want to be him don't buy it."
But coming up with a romantic interest that people care enough about to bother going through the, uh, proverbial dialogue options with... that's really, really difficult. Bioware tried to work around it with multiple romance options for male characters in BGII, with some success - if you thought Aerie was a limp-wristed whining Barbie doll (like I did), maybe Jaheira's "don't fuck with nature or I'll gut you like a fish and feed your viscera to needy wolverines" schtick would appeal to you more (which it did). Otherwise, the romantic interests are just blanded down to the point of maximum compatibility, like Carth, or left deliberately understated and implied.
Romances work in movies and books because the viewer/reader isn't involved in the story. They aren't asked what the characters should say to each other, or where the hero should go next, or how to react when the party runs into a scripted ambush. Instead, they can just watch and enjoy, trusting the actions and expressions of the characters in the narrative to tell them how to feel. Oh, Slab Hardchest feels his breath catch in his throat every time Belle D'Amour walks in the room? OK, he's either allergic to her perfume, or they're going to end up in the sack, so I should be rooting for the latter to happen. But when a character I find grating has been whining at me all fucking game about how torn-up he is about his past relationship, then comes out with "Oh wait this is the part where I confess that I love you, [CHARNAME]!", I profoundly fail to be moved by that.
tl;dr: romances in games can occasionally work if they're handled with exceptional skill, but by and large, they suck because one player's wet dream is another player's shrieking harridan, and not just in the physical senses. When you're actually playing the role of the protagonist, you just can't make yourself fall in love with [obvious romantic interest] if they're not your type, and there are too many types out there for companies to reliably cater to everyone.
And also, realistic, due to it not being there in MGS2 due to Snake's drinking and general disregard for anyone else in his life. But the whole "love blossoming even on the battlefield", on a basic short term basis, I thought worked very nicely.
In the confined space of the mission, with the set rules and limitations, the mutual care for a comrade having chance to be something more (as it turns to move there) and the dual endings with you as Snake breaking or not breaking during the torture defining whether love will endure for another round, I found really great.
They did have a lot of help from the Family Psychiatrist, Psycho Mantis though.
Dunno, maybe it was just me. Thought it was done well.
a) the understated ones between minor characters wherein the romance is not their primary focus (Steiner and Beatrix in FF9 is a favorite example of mine)
b) when the romance is in the background and more about everyday love than the falling in love part. Like watching a married couple who clearly care about each other a great deal.