Favorite Love Stories

Time to be mushy.

What video games have had the most powerful/realistic/substantial relationships in your opinion?

My choice...

Fei/Elly - Xenogears
(SPOILER)http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6733/feielly.png

I find "one person, one destiny, no matter the generation" idea that the game goes into to be very sweet and endearing. Fei and Elly have been together in one form or another for 10,000 years and their affection for each other only grows. They've had no shortage of troubles (Christ Almighty everything bad that can happen HAS happened to them) but their love for each other has not once dimmed.

I think the development of their modern relationship in the game is also very nice, with them both being shy dopes who can't admit it. Then Elly is the one to actually mature and come to term with her womanhood while Fei is still trying to man up. It all culminates ina v ery touching (if graphiclaly painful) scene of love.

So how about you all?

I find most game romances to be terribly done.

It's not so bad in games like Persona, however, where you build it up the course of the game spending time with the girl you woo. So I'll say Main/Yukiko in Persona 4. Mostly I just love Yukiko, favorite character in the series. <3

Rune Factory 3 also has a goofy charm to it with the Mermaid chick, I forget her name saddly. :p

For games you don't pursue the romance yourself, FF IX was probably the best done in any Final Fantasy game, and while I do like both characters it wasn't that well done.

BioWare and in some cases Obsidian games do it well. You really get to know the character over the course of a romance. Knights of the Old Republic 2 was my favorite example. If you captured the attention of Visas Marr, she'd come to you and recite a confession that was both stern and intense. Not your typical cheese or awkwardness. She knew what she wanted and even though she wasn't comfortable with having to say it, it was very well portrayed, and actually made me blush listening to her because I seriously was surprised, and it completely made up my mind on which character to pursue a romance with.

Squall & Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII

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Originally Posted by Shattered Dreamer

Squall & Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII

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Hey, you got there before me!

I'll second Elly and Fei for best romance. It's terribly tragic but very endearing. Seriously the two wonderful monologues at the start of Disc 2 where Lacan and Sophia talk about their feelings and their drifting relationship is quite touching and feels more real than some of the "I luv yoo!" sap that goes on in other games.

I think my other favorite love story is an odd choice but one that is at the very heart of the game, is Wander and Mono from Shadow of the Colossus. Even the advertisement is summed up as "how far would you go for love?".

Games where you can choose your own relationship never really feel real to me, even in the Persona games which are far more character driven then some Bioware titles, it still always felt artificial to me.

yeah all that 'marry who you want!' business
it's like
ugh
i have to do that in real life
i play games to go through a well thought out plot

shadow of the colossus was good because it was barely there and your brain was responsible for most of it

ff6 was really good too, because it was complicated enough to have you question who was really into who.

and hehe

uncharted 2 :}

Alex and Luna from Lunar: SSSC is probably my favorite, and the one that touched me the most. It's just a fun, endearing, and well-told story.

Kaidan and my Femshep :3

Zidane & Garnet.

It always seemed genuine, right from the very first moment she bumped into him on the stairs. It takes quite a lot of time for their relationship to really take off, but that is why it never felt rushed or gimmicky.

Tied up between Fei/Elly and the Prince/Elika from the Prince of Persia reboot. I feel like the way Prince of Persia was built was perfect for building a relationship with Elika. Aside from the fact that she was, arguably, the LEAST irritating AI partner ever, the fact that interaction was limited to just the Prince and Elika forced more effort into the relationship. Another brilliant point to me was the player-controlled random dialogue. It was kinda nice to just be able to initiate little blurbs of dialogue whenever, and I was pleased to see the diversity there, rather than just throw away lines on repeat.

Now if I could just get them to stop milking the sands of time series and give me a proper sequel so we could resolve that cliffhanger...

Ico. I absolutely loved the love story within that.

Tidus & Yuna.



lolololol


/troll

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Originally Posted by Chris

Zidane & Garnet.

It always seemed genuine, right from the very first moment she bumped into him on the stairs. It takes quite a lot of time for their relationship to really take off, but that is why it never felt rushed or gimmicky.

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I agree. I think it was the best FF love story. FFVIII and its 'love' theme was way too contrived.

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Originally Posted by Del Murder

FFVIII and its 'love' theme was way too contrived.

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Really? You didn't like the idea of a guy who becomes a loner to cover up heart ache from his childhood & ends up falling for a spunky rich girl. I especially love the scene when Squall is carrying a comatose Rinoa on his back across Fisherman's Horizon & he's having his little personal monologue.

I get that the FFIX love story was good but really the only difference is it took Garnet a lot longer to figure out she loved Zidane then it did Rinoa to figure out how she felt about Squall. Honestly I think a princess falling in love with a thief is contrived by almost Disney proportions.

Love Hina Sim Date RPG.

I quite enjoyed hearing about Otacon and his step mom in MGS2.

Ha! In all seriousness though some of my favourites have already been mentioned. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus being two of the biggest one because they were so simple and didn't throw cheesy dialogue at you the whole time. The relationship between Ico and Yorda grows naturally out of the gameplay despite Ico (and the player) not having a clue what the girl is saying. And Wander's love story is both epic and pretty smurfing tragic. And the best part is you never even know for sure what the relationship was before hand. You only know how important it is to him.

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Originally Posted by krissy

and hehe

uncharted 2 :}

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I'm going to say this as well actually but with the inclusion of Uncharted 3 as well. I thought that taking the classic and somewhat cliche ending of the hero getting the girl in 2, and then (SPOILER)completely upending it in 3 where we find out they were married and it all fell apart was absolutely brilliant. In fact the scene with him stumbling into her home and eventually falling asleep for a few hours on the couch was possibly one of the most emotionally mature love related scenes I've seen in a game.

Every single Pokemon and the Ditto I leave in the day care.

That thing apparently has a lot of love to give.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rantz Rantz Revolution

Love Hina Sim Date RPG.

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<3

Rinoa and Squall falling in love is just as contrived as Zidane and Garnet. The rich, spunky girl falls for the emo kid with no personality?

It's like a video game version of Claire and Bender. Except Bender was smurfing awesome, and Claire had better fashion sense. But my point is, the trope of the girl falling in love from the wrong side of the tracks is most played out.

The difference is, Zidane had a personality and Squall didn't. Which makes it more believeable that someone would eventually love him.

Zidane was into Garnet from the beginning and he slowly won her over. The princess and the loveable rogue is nothing new, but for a video game it was pretty well done. Squall, on the other hand, was emotionless, cold, and distant for the majority of the game and then all of a sudden he was into Rinoa, a girl who liked him back for whatever reason (never really explained well from what I remember, but it was a long time ago). It really made no sense to me that they got together other than the fact that it was the whole theme of the game.

Zidane+Garnet is to Squall+Rinoa what Han+Leia was to Anakin+Padme. One love story bloomed slowly out of circumstance and the other was forced upon us because that's what the plot dictated.

I agree, Zidane and Garnet went well together and their relationship's evolution was fun natural. In addition, I loved both characters.

Quina and Food.








Also, Locke - Celes was a well done one from way long ago, with the whole opera singing general contemplating suicide meets brokenhearted "thief" angle. For its time, very well done in my opinion.


Take care all.

To further the Xeno love, I'm pretty sure Shion was a lesbian for KOS-MOS.

EVERYONE is Lesbian for KOS-MOS.

Even the dudes.