Most well-written game romance?

[Twyce]

Is it horrible to list Junior and MOMO from Xenosaga?

Yes, I realize one is a child robot and the other is an adult in a child's body, but I think their relationship (along with Sakura and Albedo) is beautifully written. The romance is only VERY subtly hinted at, but you can tell they both hold a deep fondness for each other.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

Simple but well told and with sympathetic characters. It's not great, but I'd say that's the best in the gaming industry as far as romance goes. Frankly everything else I tend to think is rubbish!

It also has the best love scene gameplay, that thing in the bath house. I'll take that over stilted sex scenes any day.

Bioware romances while entertaining are pretty shallow and pandering.

You know, there is something about baths that make for good romance. When the Prince and Farah do it, it is touching. When Geralt and Triss do it, it is hilarious, watching Geralt fight to get his boots off before tripping into the pool.

 

[kyogen]

There are a fair number of good partnerships, but if we're talking classic romance, then I'd say:

Geralt and Triss (TW1-2)
the Prince and Farah (PoP: SoT)
Ico and Yorda (ICO)

Honorable mention to any Dragon's Dogma romance because they're all difficult to predict and control. An interesting take on the topic, to be sure.

 

[XMark]

Me and the anonymous random stranger in Journey.

 

[Fappy]

Nobody has mention Mario and Peach?! Come on guys! She bakes him a cake!

 

[WaysideMaze]

Red Dead Redemption
- I don't know if it is technically "romance" since John's been married for a while. But in terms of a relationship it's one of the best I've seen. A committed married man? In a video Game? WOW!

RDR was awesome in a lot of ways, but yes their relationship was particularly well written I thought.

Sticking with the Rockstar theme, GTA4 had the potential for some good ones, but didn't do much with them. Kate would have been a far more interesting character for Niko to fall for, if it weren't for the fact you could be sleeping around with 3 or 4 other women whilst dating her.
Also, Johnny and Ash in The Lost and Damned. I really felt sorry for Johnny in those scenes with Ash. He knows she's dragging him down and bad for him, but he just can't bring himself to leave her.

 

[Nannernade]

Honestly I'd have to go with Fenris and Female Hawke, starts out awkward and he pushes away but then it turns around at the end, if it's cliche idc I liked it.

 

[Slycne]

Sounds pretty awesome, though it definitely sounds pretty complex.

This is actually how it mostly used to be done for Bioware games. The Baldur's Gate games did not have obvious paths to their romances, and it would often get affected in different conversations.

Well if that's the case, what's changed? This doesn't seem like something they'd cut out if it was so great, even for the sake of "Appealing to a broader audience".

Dialogue, it's much easier to write long subtle branching dialogue trees in text. It's much less feasible to record all of that in voiveover.

 

[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.