Most well-written game romance?

[DJjaffacake]

Red Dead Redemption was a good one, although I would have liked for some of it to be shown before John hunts down the gang, so you could see what he was fighting for more clearly.

And of course, Tali and my Shep. It's got to the point where I feel bad for romancing someone else on repeat playthroughs.

 

[Brandon Logan]

Maxim and Selan in Lufia 2. There's just something I like about it.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Kaim Argonar and Sarah Sisulart from Lost Odyssey... because they're both f'ing grown ups instead of teenagers!

I think overall I'm a sucker for game romances that don't "begin" at the end.

 

[CaptainMarvelous]

Yuri and Alice of Shadow Hearts. I'd probably be lying if I said it was amazingly well-written but it did drag feels out of me which I didn't expect in their interactions.

Aside from that... Link and Zelda in Skyward Sword? That did a pretty good job of conveying they had feelings without being TOO ott about it.

Honestly, grabbing for one's people haven't already said, that's as far as I could get.

 

[Erttheking]

I think I'm the only one on the website, but I was always a fan of the Mass Effect romances, especially with Tali.

ONLY ONE?!

I thought it was common knowledge that the best romance is with Tali!

Anyway, 100% my vote is for Shepard and Tali. I actually cried when they say goodbye to each other before the run for the beam.

Yeah well, I've seen a lot of threads where people said that they thought that all ME romance was just wish fulfillment and pandering. I don't believe that but it seems to be a fairly popular opinion on this website.

 

[bojackx]

And of course, Tali and my Shep. It's got to the point where I feel bad for romancing someone else on repeat playthroughs.

I feel your pain. I'm currently playing through ME trilogy for the second time (currently on ME2) and I'm up to the point where the loyalty missions start appearing, which means there's still a chance for me to go with Tali again (I plan to go with Miranda, but I can't stop thinking about the Shepard-Tali romance I'm missing out on).

 

[skywolfblue]

If you don't mind my asking, just how are they terrible?

See below:

The problem with Bioware romances is that they're very artificial and in your face. Characters never develop a rapport. It's like 5 conversations and you're ry humping in the middle of the camp (Dragon Age Origins). Plus they make way too much of a big deal out of it, like "Hey guys, you can totally romance all these people, see how interesting our stories and characters are?"

YEs Bioware, I see it, that doesn't mean I want to fuck it.

I agree.

With a well-done romance, the relationship is woven into the main story, and grows to define both characters. With Bioware it is "a few lines, gratz you can have sex now" and hardly anything is affected. Maybe that is a failing of RPGs in general, whenever a large cast of romanceable characters shows up it ends up more like "pick-a-bride" then an actual relationship.

Best:
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
- Yes it falls for a pretty simplistic guy-meets-girl trope, but it's done in a heartwarming fashion. It's whole, there's no gaping jumps where characters do a logic-defying 180

Gaping jumps. HAR HAR.

But what I find particularly interesting about this entry is, semi-spoiler, Trip and Monkey never really get around acknowledging or consummating the relationship. The narrative clearly points to them growing closer, but (and hollywood can learn from this) the life and death circumstances constantly surrounding them always come first.

Ok, but flawed:
Dead Space 2
- For all the plot holes (Elie goes from trying to shoot Isaac to willingly babysit a crazy guy for him in the space of about 5 seconds), the characters treat it appropriately, given the circumstances.

Screw Elie, what about Nicole? Isaac's internal dialogue to get over her is brilliantly written and showcases the darker side of relationships that rarely gets mentioned in other media. It's like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but without having to suffer Jim Carrey.

But actually I think Elie gets a pass too, thanks to Dead Space's goto for all things inexplicable: space dementia. Why does Elie shoot at Isaac? Fear and space dementia. Why does she change her mind? Witnessing Stross' space dementia. How do the flying necromorphs appear when they haven't been created from corpses or the marker itself? Space dementia. It's the will of the force in the Dead Space Universe.

Oh I have to agree, the way Isaac is struggling to put Nichole to rest while doing his best to get Elie to safety is a large part of what makes that relationship interesting.

 

[GonzoGamer]

I'll always remember the romance in Soul Blazer but that may be because I was 15 and so full of hormones when it came out.
But it is sweet.
Skip through the credits.
If you'll notice; in a surprise twist, the hero loses his memory at the END of this JRPG.

 

[AbstractStream]

I'm going to exclude my obvious answers (Shep/Liara and Warden/Alistair) and say Aya Brea with Kyle Madigan. Starts with flirting and then bad ass Aya confesses that she likes Kyle. Then there's Third Birthday...buuuut >>

(It's possible for Kairi and Sora to be on this list. It's obvious they love each other.)

 

[lord.jeff]

i did enjoy tidus and yuna's thing they had goin on, first time i actively paid attention to a romance in the slightest in a game.

Not to be rude by any means, but allow me to...
Game romances suck 99% of the time, they just don't work unless the characters are already established. ( Usually when the game is based on a book or a movie) The ones where you get to choose who you romance are so unbelievable that they make me cringe.

As much as people pick on that scene, it is painful to watch, it is still romantic it shows how far Tidus is willing to go just to keep Yuna happy, even if it meant making himself out as a fool and an idiot to everyone around, player included.

Also the Prince of Persia had a good romance, well the first game at least.

And the bromance of Sam & Max.

 

[Slycne]

Well now that i've given it some thought I think i'd prefer that the dialogue options remain tight and focused anyway. I don't mind if the character arcs are a bit linear. The characters you interact with are great and go a long way in enriching the game, but they're still not the main focus of the game. Really i'd be surprised that a Commander Shep would even have the time to commit to a full fledged authentic relationship anyway what with being constantly busy trying to save everything ever.

What I miss most about the older method is that it allowed for your party members to interact with each other and other people more frequently. Outside of a few scripted scenes and throw away dialogue, every conversations now plays out only between the main character and conversation subject. It takes on this goofy one on one situation despite other people being there. This has to be done because recording that much voiceover isn't cost effective, because you might not have X character in Y situation during Z side-quest branch.

Mass Effect 3 thankfully made a few small strides in this area, though it meant Garus and Liara never left my party thanks to their conversations with Wrex.

That's also your own person feelings concerning Commander Shepard. Imagine if for everyone who thinks Shepard would become detached due to the proceedings of the series that someone would also think that Shepard would relish friendship and romances as an escape.

 

[EHKOS]

I'm just saying this because it hasn't been mentioned yet (on the first page, my attention span is pretty short), it has nothing to do with my avatar.
Nate and Elana, while not so much a romance as a relationship, was written pretty well. They acted realistically after the marriage/engagement was broken off.

 

[Innegativeion]

Protagonist and Naoto Shirogane (Persona 4) by far the cutest couple.

All of my agree's. Both the calm, strong type. Best P4 romance IMO.

That said, since I've had Persona on the brain recently what with just finishing P4, and P4:A coming up soon, I'd say I really enjoyed

Minato(protagonist) and Yukari from Persona 3. Especially when Yukari has her heroic blue screen of death in P3: The Answer.

 

[In Search of Username]

The one with Kaidan in ME1. The one in 3 just felt forced, but in the first game it felt so natural, him gradually opening up to you. Although the 'I've wasted enough of your time' line was a bit annoying once you'd heard it 10 times. But yeah, that's my favourite. Oh, and Alistair in DA:O. His adorable shyness and one-liners. <3

Feel free to call my heterosexuality into question.

 

[In Search of Username]

Geralt of Rivia and Triss Merigold.

Really? I love the Witcher games, think they're a great example of a mature storyline in gaming, but the romance in those games was invariably what let them down. The game seems to just assume that every woman in the world is madly in love with Geralt and will do anything for him. And despite getting extremely jealous about Shani, Triss never seems to mind Geralt just fucking every other woman he meets. The romance is basically the only aspect of the Witcher I DON'T like.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

Jackie Estacado and Jenny Romano from the Darkness.
It manages to be heartwarming, realistic and bittersweet, all in the space of the 1-2 hours in which we get to know them. And when she dies it gives the perfect motivation to play through to the end because we want to avenge her as much as Jackie does.

Ooh, gotta say that's close.
My top 3 in no particular order are: Any Romance from Mass effect that doesn't involve miranda *Fucking* lawson, Jackie and Jenny, and Ezio and Christina.

Ezio and Christina was tear Jerking, and pretty much the only thing in assassins creed 2 and brotherhood that didn't make Ezio look like a vengeance driven killbot of death.

The mass effect ones cuz, well, Bioware games are well written. They just are. So much so that I am Fairly sure I've fallen in love with Liara T'soni for realsies.

 

[AnarchistFish]

I loved the Shepard/Liara romance but it's hard to justify it objectively. It was really Liara who made that romance, considering that Shepard isn't really a character at all. You could see how it changed and affected her character. The devastation after Shepard's death, turning her into a less innocent and more hardened woman. The confusion when he comes back and her desperation in ME3 not to lose him again. She was by far my favourite character in ME.

Assassin's Creed too, between Lucy and Desmond, mostly because it wasn't a true romance at all. You could feel it building up in the first couple of games and it had the hallmarks of something that would blossom into a true storybook romance (without it being directly stated) and then BANG, the ending to Brotherhood comes along and shits all over that out of nowhere.

 

[AnarchistFish]

The mass effect ones cuz, well, Bioware games are well written. They just are. So much so that I am Fairly sure I've fallen in love with Liara T'soni for realsies.

dude don't tell anyone but I think me too <3