If you’re anything like me, you’ve just sorta realised that Valentine’s Day is this weekend and you’re scrambling to think of something romantic to do/give your partner. It got me wondering: has there ever been any properly good romantic moments in video games?
My own personal favourite is from The Secret Of Monkey Island. Guybrush and Elaine Marley, on the dock at Melee Island, declaring their (random) love for one another.
“Love Muffin”
“Sugar Boots”
“Honey Pumpkin”
“Plunder Bunny”
Seriously, how can you top dialogue like that?
But after The Secret Of Monkey Island, I can’t think of anything else that really hits the right notes.
Anyone?
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71 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: Most Romantic Moments In Video Games”
That moment in Uncharted when Nathan Drake and Sully finally gave in and explored their first tender kiss.
Oh wait, maybe I just imagined that…
I need to stop sharing my fanfics with you.
It’s so well written it’s hard to separate from the real game.
The part where Marcus and Dom make out and finally confirm their bromance:
http://api.ning.com/files/3-hYzddgpL5nZqKXLTTDAtR9O*VgtJ9Q2vc6efmAZ-CtwlYLAKJB2ICAvF0tKyPa9kdWrrJTs895g-vEtbgFN*zL6EO2pFm7/GearsOfWarShirtDark.jpg
Me and Naoto in Persona 4.
What a lovely game
Spoiler for Gone Home.
That ending. Romantic by proxy, I guess, and a little cliche if you discount the build-up, but brilliantly moving.Yes.
Johnny and Meryl hooking up on the battlefield..
The hand holding in “Ico”…. eeeeee >.
Something something Katawa Shoujo?
Also, Love Lab.
any leisure suit larry game
Ooooor Ride to Hell: Retribution, basically a love novel but with less sound effects.
*waits patiently for the GTA V – Lasey Jonas comment*
Thinking more along the lines of Poppy Mitchell
😉
When I used all my manipulative dialogue in Mass Effect 2 to get Yvonne Strahovski, umm I mean Miranda into bed. That was love (at least that’s what I told her)
@markserrels liked my post! He liked my post! *swoon
Who can forget that tender moment between Tidus and Yuna when they stand there going HA. HA. HA. HA. HA. ?
Me, that’s who, because whenever I remember that scene I force myself to forget about it again because it was so great. It’s like a wonderful discovery each time I remember it.
That time in Postal 2, when you… wait nevermind
Huh, poring over my game collection it’s really hard to think of any proper romantic moments at all.
There’s romance in sports.
Yeah but who even owns sport games?
I have a copy of FIFA 14 that was bundled with my PS4. It’s still in its shrink-wrap.
Anyway, romance.
Who can forget your time in the cage with a gorilla (having been body-swapped with another gorilla) in Leather Goddesses of Phobos?
Or there was the time I matched five hearts, triggering a cascade, in HuniePop. I could tell Aiko enjoyed it from the sound effects.
Ending in FF9 :’)
So I actually have a serious answer.
Alyx Vance and Gordon Freeman from HL2. When you’re heading off to confront Breen, and she says “Do your worst, Gordon, but, be careful.”
I think it’s even more touching because it’s so understated.
I’ve always loved that line.
The bit in the water in Final Fantasy X where Tidus falls for Yuna.
I honestly thought I’d be able to think of more examples, but decent romance doesn’t seem to feature too much in games.
That was blissfully Romantic
Mark, for someone that 15 minutes ago posted about Grim Fandango, you have a very short memory.
When ash and misty meet up behind cerulean city, then i interrupted them. Such romance.
My FemShep and Garrus Vakarian, in ME2 and ME3. Sigggggh. No Vakarian without Shepard, oof.
Dude, even as Broshep that bit right at the end of ME3 where Shep and Garrus have their little moment and Garrus is all like “you were born for this” oh my god.
Ohhh for a second there I was reading this as though you could romance Garrus as a dude, and I was like, “Holy shit, maybe I will finally play ME as a broshep.” LOL NOPE.
Well no. But I’m just saying, even with out all the coy discussions about “reach” and “flexibility” and biological compatibility, the Garrus-Shep relationship is the most heartwrenchingly sweet thing ever.
Man, I can never remember any specific moments in games unless I’m thinking about it beforehand. So uuhhh, maybe Yuri and Alice from Shadow Hearts. Oh! Rorona and Barrels in Atelier Rorona.
Aaaaah, Shadow Hearts. Where romance means catching the same train twice.
Literally.Mario getting a kiss on the nose.
ooh la la Nintendo, tone it down we only have an R rating here and don’t want to see games banned.
you get an up vote for saying ooh la la Nintendo.
I think I have a weird one. It’s toward the end of Assassins Creed Revelations.
Ezio is really old at this point, and has found himself a new love. He basically realizes that every time he gets a question answered, it somehow delivers him more. He’d spent his whole life to that point searching for he doesn’t even know what.He gives up his lifetime quest for his love. I actually cried a little. Okay, a lot.
It’s far from romantic in the traditional sense, but probably the most romantic moment that I can think of.
I really liked that. While I was really unsatisfied with the modern arc’s ending, that for Ezio was perfect.
That sneaky kiss in Shadow of Mordor is the first thing that pops to mind.
Actually, that’s the only thing that pops to my mind.
At all ever. You’re obsessed man!
The Darkness games. Its all about Jenny.
Watching TV with her in the first game. Dancing with the illusion of her in the second game.
Holding her at the end of the second game indefinitely…until you finally hit that QTE…
I came here to say that. Loved Darkness 1 and surprisingly still enjoyed #2 quite a bit too. 🙂
The time in GTAV where I picked up a lovely lady, drove her up to the Vinewood sign, and overlooking the city, made sweet love to her in the front seat of my car.
The ballroom dance between Squall and Rinoa in FF8.
Didn’t she run off to bang Seifer after the dance?
While I love that scene and especially the Waltz for the Moon track, I would put the later in the game scenes higher on the list.
Diving out into space with no regard for your own survival or giving an entire nation the bird as you break into the sorceress memorial to bust Rinoa out of prison.
In Civ 5, when I used my Legion units to build roads leading to my capital city.
… oh, romantic, never mind then.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
You could have at least gone with “That’s so Roman!”
Nicely done
All of transistor but particularly that last scene. It suddenly got really onion-ey when that all went down
Serious answer – The Alistair romance in Dragon Age: Origins. Felt like a giddy school girl every time I talked to him. He pulls off lines like “Maker’s breath, you’re beautiful. I am a lucky man.” and “Your desire is my command.” Thankfully my husband lets me carry on with our “affair” 😀
Ohh I am so glad someone mentioned this. I’ve played through DA:O so many times and that line always makes me go bright pink and giggly.
Ar Tonelico 2, Jacqli’s ending. Where the main character learns a complex language primarily used for song magic that humans (like him) can’t use so that he can serenade the final boss from the previous game. The song itself ends up becoming a duet and dialogue between the two characters. It’s a shame the game itself doesn’t include the translation for their song, the scene has quite a bit more impact when you know what they’re singing about.
Why has no-one mentioned Master Chief and Cortana?
Halo 4 made me squeal with fanboyish delight.
MASTAH CHEEF & CORTANA 4EVA
I give Halo 4’s storytelling a lot of flak, but I can’t fault that final farewell. *single tear*
She tells him several times what she knows, going through her own struggle with facing her mortality… And he refuses – insistently, desperately – to believe it. Even without knowing how, he won’t budge; there must be a way. There has to be.
The alternative is unacceptable.
I know this feeling.
I feel ashamed that no one has mentioned Sora and Kairi.
Shadow of the Colossus?
Wanda kills all these giant monsters for a chance to bring back his beloved. In the process of doing so he loses a piece of himself with each kill.
The entire game is about his love for her.
I dunno, it seemed to me that the more pieces of himself he lost, the more the whole thing became a stubborn, obsessed chore that he just had to see to the end no matter what. To me, he lost his humanity not after killing the last colossus but just before, when he forced himself to turn away and keep going after Agro fell to its apparent death.
The end of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
Brütal Legend – when Eddie & Ophelia hook up (the “got a car & a date” achievement part)
And The Witcher 2 –
if you choose to rescue Triss in Act 3, and then aren’t suspicious etc.The Opera House scene in FFVI, when Celes and Locke have to come to terms with the fact that they like each other through the play. It was so subtle and wonderful.
Also, flame me as you will for being a cheese, but I actually loved the ending of FFVIII.
Donkey Kong Country, when you go to save your game at Candy’s tent and she blows a kiss at you.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. The Ending.
It’s so happy and then it becomes sad. But that is gonna be fixed in the SC (maybe). (Second Chapter the next game in the series)Ohthankgod, I had no idea there was a sequel but yes. Excellent. Fantastic.
Oh man, how has no one mentioned Red Dead Redemption?
That song playing….. such an emotional scene….
in the newest Wolfenstein, when the big, musclebound, gun toting, nazi killing, blond, jock BJ Blascowitz….blushes.
Most humanising thing I have ever seen in games, and not at all what I was expecting from that game.
Squall and Rinoa in FF8 he travels to space to save her. TO SPACE!!!
Something from Katawa Shoujo, I imagine. I always loved the way Emi’s route ended, even if the utterly pointless sex scene was a tad annoying. There’s something about the “So, what do you want to do today?” line as the last line that I just find awesome. It just adds this sense of wholeness to the story.
On the flipside, Lilly’s line of
“Stop telling me not to cry about you, Hisao! Just this once… let me cry…” was really heartbreaking, although I’m not sure if it’s romantic as such.