Your Favorite Romantic subplot

[Ranorak]

Yes, games and media in general are full of needless romantic sub-plots these days.
Most of them are god awful, but some manage to hit the right notes.

What's your favourite romantic sub-plot?

I'll go first.

Final Fantasy VIII.
No, not the annoying Rinoa and Squall.
But rather;

Spoiler

Their parents. Laguna and Julia who just fail to get the ball roling, but I actually felt more "realness" then in any other video game romance.

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

Got to be the paragon Jack romance in Mass Effect 2. It fells like out of all of the romantic subplots that one leads to the most character development. Second place goes to Alistair in Dragon Age: Origins thanks to all the drama that can come from it in the end game.

Also in b4 Vrex 360 and Ashley Williams.

 

[manythings]

Are you sure you remember correctly? He's not related to him.

I dunno if I have a favourite one (though Tali'Zorah and Garrus are my favourite Crew members) but I did enjoy Mordin's various comments regarding your romance options in Mass Effect 2.

 

[Vivace-Vivian]

Sheppard and Samara, I loved. Even though it wasn't a 'legit' romance.

Other then that I'd have to say Fang and Venille... which is more of a matter of opinion but anyone who knows me on this site knows exactly what I think about them.

 

[SoloStoffe]

Alyx and Gordon...?

If that counts.

 

[DJDarque]

This isn't restricted solely to games is it?

For the sake of posting something I'm going to just go with no.

Tavi and Kitai. They're so playful; I love it.

Or.

Harry and Susan. So sad.

EDIT: OH! I forgot to mention what these were from. The first is from The Codex Alera series and the second is from The Dresden Files.

[sub][sub]I may or may not have an obsession with Jim Butcher's stories.[/sub][/sub]

 

[Scarim Coral]

The only one I can think of is Keiran Thackeray and Gwen from the Guild Wars series (Well there Fire Emblem 7 but there are quite a few romances to remember).
Well ok Keiran is annoying by making you fetch all the items to woo Gwen but I find it funny how when the conversation starts between the two, they both ignore you

 

[The Blue Mongoose]

I can honestly say I have never enjoyed a video game romance more than the one between Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher. The end of Among Thieves actually gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. And since I'm a reasonably emotionally jaded, cynical bastard (I never RP romance in games) that's got to mean something.

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

The subplot with Alistair in Dragon Age.
I am generally not fond of romantic subplots. They kind of annoy me. But romancing Alistair as a human noble made the game feel so much more deep. Not entirely sure why.

Possibly because I kind of have the biggest mancrush on him, like it is not even funny. If I knew him in real life we would hang out all the time and I would cuddle him sometimes in a totally heterosexual manner.

 

[trooper6]

SPOILERS AHEAD

I don't think I'm going to go with a single favorite, but I'll list off my top 5 in no particular order.

1. DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS. My dwarven noble and Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins. Why? Because I knew objectively it was a bad idea, I really did. I mean, can you trust her? Clearly you can't. She's totally sketchy! But yet...I was drawn to her character and I kept that relationship going. I told myself that I was a good influence on her, that she was changing, that deep inside she was a good person. Yeah...and I still want to know what's up with her. I thank a couple of things for this. 1) My character was a dwarf, and so the Maker and all of that human religion was not relevant to me...so I saw her persecution at the hand of the Templars for being an apostate as really unfair...which predisposed me to siding with her. Then there was a good writing and the amazing voice acting. It made me understand the male protagonists of all those crime novels/noir films I read. Which leads me to...

2. MAX PAYNE. Max Payne and Mona Sax. There is some noir goodness right there!

3. SILENT HILL 2. To follow the trend of being invested in questionable women...My James Sunderland and Maria! I don't care what happened at the end of my version of Silent Hill 2--I refuse to think anything bad about Maria--my Maria was no demon. I still maintain that she was just what James needed at that point in time. A woman who was not the excessively virginal Mary, a woman who wouldn't put up with his moping. Someone who'd give him a kick in the ass a bit. And of course, playing the add-on Born of a Wish from the Xbox version humanized her even more...though also making it more clear that she may not exactly exist.

4. DREAMFALL: THE LONGEST JOURNEY. I really liked the relationship between April Ryan and Kian and also the not yet romance between Zoe and Damien Cavanaugh. I just like that game altogether.

5. ADVENT RISING. I got quite invested in the relationship between Gideon and fiance Olivia. I was so invested that I wasn't really able to transfer those feelings...or did so quite reluctantly after...you know.

 

[Ultress]

FemMc/Aki, it's sweet and it's really cute to see Aki get flustered.


Though most of P3/4's romance subplots were pretty good.

 

[Zhukov]

Shepard-Liara in Shadow Broker. I felt that it did a good job of depicting two people feeling entirely comfortable with one another.

Oh, and Paragon Shepard-Jack in ME2. Although that's probably just because I have a soft spot for badass-in-need-of-a-hug characters.

...

Y'know, it's kinda sad that the only examples I can think of come from the same game. Maybe I should play more Japanese stuff. I'm told they're a bit better at that sort of thing.

 

[ThatDaveDude1]

My personal favourite would have to be Shenmue's, even though the "romantic subplot" aspect was almost completely one sided and intentionally left aggravatingly unsatisfied, it's still some of the most 'human' emotion I've seen in a game.