Romance and how it flourishes in a video game love story can come in numerous forms, from the naive teens discovering love to the battle-hardened warriors who connect through hardship and find beyond the spark of their blades clashing.
What makes certain love stories stand out is their believability and connectivity to the player beyond the circumstances that put them into their respective situations. Out of all of the romances, each of these is a video game love story that comes to mind the most when asked, “Just what are the greatest love stories in games to date?” What better time to experience them yourselves than on Valentine’s Day?
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Looking for more couples outside of a video game love story? Take a look at the anime couples that should have happened.
Tidus & Yuna
Game: Final Fantasy X
Developer: Square Product, Development Division 1
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
In a world where religion is directly tied to a tangible threat, it’s no wonder that someone unfamiliar with their customs will find it all beastly. Especially when it eventually is revealed that to give the world some peace, someone and their allies must make the ultimate sacrifice, all to feed right back into that cycle of sadness and destruction. This is the story of Tidus of Zanarkand and Yuna of Bevelle. Throughout their strange and harrowing journey of Spira, their love grows through not only their ever-growing respect for each other but to help fill voids in the other’s ignorance.
Yuna teaches Tidus what this current Spira is about and why she and other summoners do what they do, even knowing they will die if they succeed. And Tidus shows Yuna how to enjoy life and their journey. All while also bringing that outsider perspective to encourage Yuna and the guardians to look for another way to stop Sin — the big bad — once and for all.
Their reasons to help each other are a mix of selfishness and wanting the other to grow as people. Yet what helps with connecting to Tidus and Yuna are their sacrifices to protect the other. Every choice feels believable and grounded in knowing who these characters are. Even if this story ends in sadness, it’s a melancholic feeling that carries over to Final Fantasy X-2, and they wish to carry on a future for the rest of their days together. Making this an all-time video game love story.
Noah & Mio
Game: Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Noah and Mio’s story is oddly similar to Tidus and Yuna. Their love felt destined in a world that is barbaric to onlookers. Children are raised at an early age to fight in a neverending war between the Keves and Agnus armies. If they do not die within their ten years of service, these war heroes are basically killed as part of a “homecoming ceremony.” Noah and Mio are unique within their respective armies, each having the role of Off-seer, a flute player who mourns the dead and sends their affinity back home to rejoin the cycle.
Yet after breaking the cycle and being marked as Ouroboros, Noah, Mio, and their respective squads begin a time-sensitive mission to end the war while having both armies hunt them down. This isn’t a simple love-found-on-the-battlefield story. Theirs is truly inevitable, where those who control this world fear their love and what they can do when together. We learn that time and again, they overcome their differences, different roles, and choices to come together. Even knowing that the ending will rip your heart out after being given hope time and again, playing through their story is worthwhile.
BJ & Anya Blazkowicz
Games: Wolfenstein: The New Order, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Developer: Machine Games
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platform:PlayStation 4, Xbox One PC
BJ Blazkowics, our favorite Nazi slayer, was fleshed out considerably in the 2014’s Wolfenstein: The New Order. With that growth of character gave us Anya, a nurse who saved BJ from Nazis and himself time and again. At first, their relationship starts odd and out of desperation. BJ needs Anya because she is familiar with the area he finds himself in after waking up from a near-fatal injury years after the Nazis won the war. Anya needs BJ because he is the last spark of hope to be the fulcrum to take down the ever-insurmountable task of taking out the Nazi regime.
Anya is the perfect partner for BJ. He will do everything possible to get his target, even if it means death. Anya shows BJ that he needs to take steps back and think. Not only for his safety but also because she gives him growing reasons to continue fighting. That taking out a Nazi general, even if he dies, isn’t worth it because there is always a greater threat out there to deal with.
And after The New Colossus, the Nazis need to be taken out to create a better world for their daughters. Hopefully, their story continues, and we will see what a more modern world holds for these two since Youngblood teased a return of BJ to the series.
Max & Chloe
Games: Life is Strange, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, Life is Strange 2
Developer: Dontnod Entertainment, Deck Nine
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch PC, iOS, Android
Take away the powers with Life is Strange, and you have a classic and heartbreaking story of a first high school love. If you’ve experienced this, you can relate so well to Max and Chloe, even if you can’t connect with them from an identity standpoint. That first love feels like it’s the only love you’ll ever know. Being naive to the world, romance, and connecting to your feelings, you’d do anything to protect that love. Especially at that age, you think that if it ends, there is nothing beyond that.
Introducing powers takes all that and cranks it to eleven. If you could rewind time, what choices would you change to protect that person who is not only your friend but is the person you first felt more for? What if that choice causes destruction? Sometimes, being young and naive leads to selfish decisions, and all that on display in the Life is Strange series is an excellent depiction of what many of us felt or pictured while being hormone-addled teens.
Dom & Maria Santiago
Games: Gears of War 1-3
Developer: Epic Games
Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
Platform: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Dom and Maria may be the most tragic story on this list. Dom, the grizzled war veteran, and Maria, his wife, were thrown into the fray after the locust popped out of the ground on Emergence Day. That day ruined so much for both of them, losing both of their children and loved ones. Through that grief, Maria self-exiled because of her PTSD and depression until she was captured by the locust and forced into a work camp.
Getting word of this, Dom had to recruit his childhood friend, now military criminal, Marcus Fenix, to take the fight to the Locust and save his wife. But what happens if you find the love of your life a shell of who they were, tortured nearly to the point of death, where dying would be the safest and healthiest option for them? Dom, through his feelings for Maria, took it upon himself to give his wife the mercy and release of death in a tragic scene, changing himself forever.
Until his ultimate sacrifice, turning the tide of war and finally being able to rejoin his wife in death. Even without knowing Maria for long in the game, the game immaculately captures her and Dom’s feelings, making it still feel real even today.
Which is your favorite video game love story? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you. And however you’re spending Valentine’s day, we at But Why Tho? hope it’s a lovely one.
