Best and worst portrayal of romance you have seen in a game

[Nova Helix]

Best: Bastila in KOTOR

I liked that one, but it's kinda overlooked because it's completely optional and probably wouldn't pan out in the light side ending. My personal favorite is the ME1/ME2 Liara relationship.

On the other side of the spectrum, The Force Unleashed romance was one of the worst pieces of crap I've ever seen. Refer to Yahtzee's TFU 2 review.

I couldn't deal with how Laira changed from ME1 to ME2, besides Tali was a romance option in ME2.

Force unleashed was pretty bad.

 

[Blair Bennett]

I'm going to have to say that my favorite romances in games tend to be those which involve decision making on the behalf of the player; games like Persona, where you actually have a decision in how things play out (for the most part). In addition to this, I will always, always have a soft spot for Wander & Mono (I think that's her name) from Shadow of the Colossus, and, though I wasn't really such a fan, I will admit that what went on between James & Mary was well done.

For my worst...I can't really think of anything specific, but I'd say games where you are absolutely forced into a relationship, and then inexplicably expected to harbor genuine feelings for the character who has been forced upon you.

Also, I'm wondering why there is so much conflict involving the relationships in Mass Effect. I haven't played them myself, and for that, perhaps I need to be shot, but I've never seen so much contrast in people's feelings towards it as I have here, so I was wondering why that was.

 

[Chrono180]

Speaking as an person who (in real life) is autistic, never had a girlfriend (or boyfriend, being bi), has never felt the part of love called "passion" and who has sworn off romance completely upon reading the statistics regarding divorce and domestic abuse, I can safely say that I have not got the faintest clue as to what makes a romance "realistic" or even "good" in really any form of media.

I have known people who live their entire life without marrying anyone or even dating and I have known people who fall in love at the slightest advance. While I can spot the more extreme examples on both ends of the spectrum and recognize them as abnormal, most things in between just stump me as to how realistic they are. When I played Mass Effect, I followed the Liara romance to get the achievement and my reaction was basically "meh, whatever" when it finished. Same with the romances in pretty much any game I played, including Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment. I really just don't "get" romance I guess, but I would like to understand what it is made of, if only so that I can understand what everyone is talking about.

In summary, I would appreciate it if someone could give me some objective criteria for determining whether a romance is "good" or not.

 

[Scrythe]

I'm one of those people who are inexplicably pissed of at shoehorned romantic interests in my entertainment, mostly because American cinema seems to over rely on this so much it's a goddamned cliché by now.

I can't pick a single absolute worst/best for games, so I'll just list the worst and best off the top of my head:

Worst
- Tidus/Yuna, Final Fantasy X
- Dante/Trish, Devil May Cry series
- Vincent/Lucrecia, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
- Squall/Rinoa, Final Fantasy VIII
- Sophie/Irvine, Final Fantasy VIII
- Carl/everyone he hooks up with, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
- Elliot Salem/Tyson Rios, Army of Two (oh, snap!)

The "Eh" Group

- Snow/Serah, Final Fantasy XII
- Rick/Jennifer, Splatterhouse series
- Dante/Beatrice, Dante's Inferno
- Zidane/Garnet, Final Fantasy IX
- Thrall/Jaina Proudmoore, Warcraft 3
- Nero/Kyrie, Devil May Cry 4
- Pretty much every romantic relationship in the Metal Gear Solid series

Spoiler

*Big Boss/EVA
*Meryl/Johnny
*Otacon/Sniper Wolf
*Otacon/Namoi
*Vamp/Fortune
*Strangelove/Huey

Best
- Jackie/Jenny, The Darkness
- The Prince/Elika, Prince of Persia (the one everyone forgot existed)
- Welkin/Alicia, Valkyria Chronicles
- Ezio/Christina, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

 

[mikev7.0]

My example for best is not really for the best relationship but for the best way one was threatened and then handled really well. In Shenmue you start off with a girlfriend who it's obvious that you've grown up with and had a high level of connection to. After Ryu's father is murdered and everything goes crazy in his life, rather than add "damsel in distress" to "recent angsty father revenge" issues they broke up. The story I wrote in my head for it was that he really loved her and wanted her to have a bright future. Soon he had plans (at least then) to trade his for revenge. He wasn't going to have her there to watch him become something she would likely no longer know. I just thought that was a really classy way to show really "human" sides of the characters without becoming the cheesy cliche'.

My example for worst relationship fittingly enough then comes from Shenmue 2. Want to hear the psychic scream of millions of gamers releasing their displeasure upon the multiverse?

"Hey Sega Fans! They're finally making Shenmue 3 and Joy is coming back as a main/playable/well at least stuck to you character again!!"

Seriously. I think they named that character "Joy" as a metaphor for how much fun it must have been to try to shoe horn a workable romance into a game that really didn't need it.

She rides up on her motorcycle has someone take a picture of you, then takes you to a motel but not in a fun way and then for the cherry on the top of the WTH sundae she comes back the next morning to inform you that while you will not be doing the horizontal mambo anytime soon she was at least nice enough to go get you a JOB. Stupid Agent You're Fired!!

 

[Hiphophippo]

Heavy and his Sandvich is the obvious answer here.

 

[supermariner]

Best: hmm, difficult one. I suppose it'd have to be The man and woman in Shadow of the Colossus. Mainly because their relationship has very little detail. so gaps have to be filled by the players imagination and keeps you wanting to know what exactly teir relationship was before she died

Worst: Juno and Starkiller. How could it not be?

 

[Tim Mazzola]

Can't believe this hasn't been mentioned. How 'bout PEACH and TEC from TTYD for best?

Also, worst ones I've seen are all the Final Fantasy romances, except maybe FF9.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Best is easily the Darkness, Enslaved Odyssey To The West and Rick Taylor/Jennifer Wells from Splatterhouse. Also Markus/Anya from Gears of War.

Worst is every JRPG ('cept FF7)

I should know cause I write fanfiction of romance between characters lol.

You are condemning a lot of games. Could you be more specific? (If this is trolling, I apologize for feeding him).

Star ocean, final fantasy 9, kingdom hearts, blue dragon, basically anti other JRPG