Extra Punctuation: Why No Couples in Games?

[Gwynnbleidd]

It's just all about not f*cking up the screentime of the heroes. Who needs a pan brandishing female when you got a gun-wielding f*cknugget to do the job.

Yeah, it's rather bland, but the people got to accustomed with this kind of depiction of relationship that you can't simply give them another kind of view on this topic. It would burst their button-pressing, tons of dude murdering brains.

Damn, I watch too much Yahtzee, right? XD

But yeah, the time is ripe for deeper interactions with the opposite (or the same, whatever drives the story) sex. It would give games a different kind of flavour. Not a better one, mind. It's just about variety. I don't like to eat bread all the day. I would get upset with it. Sometimes it has to be potatoes ... or noodles ... or something completely different. *explodes in a burst of flames*

 

[jawakiller]

Think of it like this. Being in a relationship fucking sucks usually. Most people are trying to escape from their shitty problems, why let these problems follow them to their virtual realities.

And then she'd start nagging you if you didn't make the right moral decisions in-game. Like if you have to either to punt a puppy in order to get a free machine gun or give out lollypops to kids and only get a golf club.

She'd never let you hear the end of that one.

Plus it's hard to tip strippers when your gf is standing next to you.

 

[Alphalpha]

One of the few JRPGs I truly enjoyed is Lunar: A Silver Star Story for Playstation, and a large part of that is due to the attachment I developed for the characters. Its starts off with the protagonist and his love interest having obvious feelings for each other. You're also given plenty of time to acquaint yourself with the character as she accompanies you for a significant portion of the game before becoming otherwise engaged. Besides being thoroughly developed and likeable, she is also the most useful character in the party (the healer), her loss effects you both emotionally and strategically.

 

[zbareta]

Lufia 2 (a prequel to lufia 1) has an interesting spin when it comes to couples. Two of the main characters actually get married mid game and also have a baby. At the end they end up dying, but the baby survives. This was quite original, especially back in the SNES days...

 

[Griever]

For me personally, i think the best game for depicting this kind of relationship, romance, love-interest etc. is Final Fantasy X. The way in which Tidus and Yuna grow throughout the game and how they react to each other and their actions was done really well in my opinion. The way he reacts to Seymour proposing to Yuna and how she decides based on the people of Spira not her own happiness are interesting story-mechanics. It wasn't always obvious who the love-interest for Tidus would be from the beginning, as there are options to flirt with other female characters "You're more my type Lulu" as a multiple-choice option and Rikku's seemingly increased feelings towards Tidus as the game progresses. I will say that FFX-2 is pretty much all about founding a way to bring Tidus back as in FFX (spoiler alert, but seriously it's been long enough now) Tidus is actually a 'dream made real' by the Fayth, so when they are freed towards the end, the dreaming ends and therefore Tidus 'fades away'. But in all honesty, FFX-2 was a bad game overall and was really only created to continue the story from FFX.

Also, the relationship and chemistry between Squall & Rinoa in Final Fantasy 8 is worth noting.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

"Therefore, the "heroes" taking these courses of action are not in the least bit motivated out of love for their stricken spouses. They are seeking to counter a slight made against them personally, the destruction of one of their treasured possessions. It's an ugly macho white-knight justification for committing appalling acts of violence. "

I mean no offense to Yahtzee but I don't think that revenge is about someone who has taken "personal offence" by their treasured "possession" being killed & thus in need of satisfying their hurt ego... I also don't think it's grief due to the loss of a loved one which makes them seek some sort of closure for their tragic loss in the form of revenge.
It's about righting wrongs. I think it triggers a moral issue, about whether that person who killed his wife, will kill someone else... and therefore the right thing to do would be to kill that murderer.
Thus its not about closure or satisfying ones own ego, but justice. That is the all encompassing conscience of ours that can't abide by seeing murders (or rapists/pedophiles) walk free only to do it again. Killing evil is a tough, dangerous job that very few people would commit to, & even fewer have the actual characteristics necessary to be good at that sort of thing.

I'm not saying Kratos has a strong moral conscience, (he does have a lack of fear, and very little regard for his own personal safety which makes him a tough if not reckless killer), along with lots of anger/revenge for motivation... it's his own fault she was killed after all. But if it wasn't, like in Dom's case or almost every other case where revenge is concerned you understand that its got more to do than selfish desires. It's about Justice.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

But anyway, back to the whole romance topic theres 3 main problems here:

1. Relationships require time to cultivate, and video games leave very little time for it because it's to busy throwing you into the gameplay.
* But like Yahtzee said, theres ways to put it in with the action, like a couple that fights side by side, helping each other, giving them a chance to talk, and show their actual chemistry together. This would make the player care about them & understand their characters.

2. Happy couples have no real conflict and that's not interesting. Therefore having all the jealousy/envy/fighting for affection, the things before a relationship starts is more interesting (presumably), I think established relationships can be interesting because it can make us care.

3. Believable romance is incredibly difficult to write and the games industry, at least, still has the excuse of, alot of the time, not been written by professional writers.. or having the writers content get cut up to shreds by game designers before it gets put in game, which can happen when there's time constraints involved.

 

[Kiwiphoenix]

I do feel that there's a great example in the Mass Effect series.

It starts off a bit oddly - one alien crewman essentially develops a fangirl crush on the protagonist. But that can actually unfold into a healthy, mutually-supportive relationship. It's especially nice that they get to go into battle together, which reinforces the whole partnership element.

It's probably the least sexual of the lot, given that she constantly wears an opaque helmet that she only removes off-camera. But the characters make up for it with their interactions, ranging from suggestive banter in front of squadmates, to knowingly-optimistic planning for a future they know will probably never come. It actually got me all nostalgic for the earlier days of my own relationship.

That all came to a head in the ending of ME3, in which the protagonist has to go sacrifice himself to save all organic life and stuff. The goodbye scene, with its heartrending voice acting, moved me to the brink of a single manly tear.
It even swayed me to pick the only ending that -didn't- unambiguously kill the protagonist, just to keep alive the possibility of their having a happy, peaceful future together.

BioWare made me care so much about these two characters' future together that

Spoiler

wiping out an entire robotic civilisation off-camera seemed a small price to pay. And that, I feel, excuses all manner of bugs and shitty mechanics.