The reality of a love story is that it will always be a deeply personal experience, just like the subject matter itself.
Whether it is relateable to the player or not depends heavily on the player. This list is an attempt to pull quality examples from several types of love stories, from light-hearted to devastating to epic.
We'll leave out the (big) spoilers as well, so you can pick out something to play through for Valentine's Day.
Xenoblade - Fei and Elly
Xenoblade's story is incredible for many reasons, but at its heart, it's a love story that spans centuries.
If epic is your speed, there may not be a more epic love story ever told. Fei and Elly find each other over the course of several lifetimes. Through all of the years of political, religious and social unrest, their partnership is a reliable constant.
To the Moon - Johnny and River
If you like a heavy dose of realism and melancholy with your love story, go add this masterpiece to you Steam queue right now.
It is heavy, and painful and sad and somewhat hopeful. Sometimes, though, that's exactly the kind of story you want to play through on Valentine's Day.
To The Moon is a story a driven indie game with no combat. In fact, it's one of the very best adventure games in a very, very long time -- a love note, if you will, to adventure games of yesteryear.
The Witcher 3 - Triss or Yennefer
Maybe one of the hardest decisions all year, The Witcher 3 had two fierce and unique love choices for Geralt.
Unlike other games where romance options often feel like making a selection off a take-out menu, these two women are fully developed characters. As such, there are real consequences if you screw it all up.
True to the rest of the game (and franchise), the believe-ability of either romance comes from creative and humorous writing. (We're Team Yennefer, by the way!)
Final Fantasy X - Yuna and Tidus
A refreshing break from the traditional JRPG love story, Yuna and Tidus are friends and allies first and lovers eventually. The story also veers away from the typical approach by heavily focusing on Yuna and her journey, especially if we factor in Final Fantasy X-2.
Depending on your point of view and whether you play the sequel, this story can be a real tear-jerker. Lucky for you, both have remasters available on current gen consoles.
Dragon Age: Inquisition -- A whole lot of people
There needed to be a choose your own love story RPG on the list, and DA:I has plenty of great ones. It was almost a toss up between this and the Mass Effect series, but the character writing in Dragon Age: Inquisition arguably pushes it over the edge.
Shout out to Bioware for having two major franchises with hundreds of potential love stories that are effortlessly charming and refreshingly inclusive.
Shout out to my girl Josephine as well, look forward to picking back up where we left off in Dragon Age 4 someday.
No matter how you like your love story in an RPG, there seems to be a game out there for all of us.
As gamers continue to get more diverse, so will our stories. It will be exciting to see what kind of love stories the next generation of games will tell, and which will be remembered form this generation.
What are some of your favorite love stories in RPGs? Is there a story you would like to see told that hasn't been?
Published: Feb 11, 2017 01:39 am