Ah, Valentines day is here. I don't have a girlfriend, but I do have friends who are in relationships. Anyways, in this post I will talk about several romances and romantic moments in video games.
#1 Super Mario and Princess Peach (aka Princess Toadstool) - super mario bros series
Video of Mario rescuing Princess Peach once again in New Super Mario Bros Wii. Mario and Peach (aka Princess Toadstool) goes along ways ever since the 1980s. In case if you are not familiar with Super Mario Bros, it is a generally a series of video games (usually side scoller and platformer) where you play as either Mario or Luigi, where they set out on quests to defeat Bowser and his minions usually over a series of 8 different worlds and rescue the princess. Of course, in the sequel, the princess (somehow) always manages to kidnapped once again by Bowser (perhaps Bowser has a crush on Peach too) only to be rescued by Mario and / or Luigi once again. Both plumbers seem to like the princess so they often compete for her heart. Perhaps the most amusing Super Mario quest was the one in New Super Mario Bros wii where up to 4 players can team up and work together to get through the many levels in the game, which can get amusing to watch too as players tend to die alot, much to the frustrations of other gamers.
#2 Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Roses (Sonic the Hedgehog series)
(video or pic will be added later)
Amy Rose and Sonic goes all the way back to Sonic CD era of the Sonic the Hedgehog series, where Sonic rescues Amy from the clutches of (then) Doctor Robotnik's Mecha Sonic and saves the world from certain destruction. Since then, Amy gets a much bigger roll in Sonic Adventure era Sonic games. Perhaps my favorite was Amy Rose in Sonic Adventure. She hasn't seen Sonic in many years and is more than happy to see him once again in the adventure. Of course in Sonic Adventure, she is constantly pursued by another one of Dr Eggman's robots who wants to kidnap her and the bird she was watching over (it had been carrying a chaos emerald that Eggman wanted to feed to the monster he was trying to create in the game). She even had her own storyline you could play through too where she was wielding a special hammer that she could use to whack enemies and ultimately defeat the evil robot that was pursuing her in the game. In subsequent games, she often functions as a support character and assists Sonic when needed (like in Sonic 2006 when she stood up for him when Silver the Hedghog was trying to defeat Sonic after being tricked by the evil Methalees into thinking that Sonic was evil). In the most recent incarnation of the series (Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric), Sonic and his friends (Tails, Knucles, and a new character with boomerangs) set out on a quest to rescue her from the evil Lyric (he replaces Dr Eggman as being the primary antagonist) who kidnapps her at the beginning of the game. Amy definitely has a huge crush on Sonic and will stop at nothing to win his heart. Sonic tends to brush her off though, so it is not really clear if they are an item or not, but they definitely make a cute couple in the games.
#3 John Marston and Abigal (Red Dead Redemption)
Set in the early 1900's (though still has a wild west style feel), you assume the role of John Marston in a grand theft auto style adventure in this western action RPG. In the game, John Marston was a former gang member that abandoned his old ways and was "recruited" by corrupt government agents, to hunt down his former comrades and even get involved with a Mexican civil war after they take his wife, Abigail and his son Jack Martson (along with their family dog). Throughout the game, Marston remains loyal to Abigail in the midst of all challenges that would test his loyalty, such as getting close with a lady named Bonnie, resisting flirty saloon girls who vie for his attenting, and even does Edgar Ross's dirty work (such as hunting down a gangster named, Dutch) to ensure his wife's survival. At the end of the game, Ross decides to betray John Marston by setting up an ambush against the Marstons house and John was willing to sacrifice his own life to save his wife and kid so that they may live. If you play as Jack after the storyline ends, he gets a chance to avenge his father's death by engaging Edgar Ross in a gunfight in the game's epilogue. Interesting tidbit: did you know that in Grand Theft Auto 5 online it is possible to create a character under John Marston's lineage? I created a character like that in the Xbox One version which I dubbed, Uncle Steve (I don't have a picture of him yet, but I will post it later).
#4) Carl Johnson (aka CJ) and Denise in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas
GTA San Andreas officially became the first game in the GTA series, where the game's protaganist can have a girlfriend. CJ saves Denise from the Ballas gang (a rival gang to the grove street gang, which CJ is a member of) and like any game or movie where a hero saves a woman (like Sonic and Amy or Mario and Peach), she automatically becomes a romance option for CJ at the end of the mission. She pretty much lives down the block from CJ (in the next street over if I remember correctly) and is probably the easiest girl to please in the game. CJ can win her heart by taking her to the local club, going out for fast food with her, drive her around the block, and even let her do some gangsta style drive by shooting. She will call CJ or a heart will appear at her house when she wants to date CJ.
By the way, given the twisted nature of the Grand Theft Auto series, Denise is not the only romance option for CJ, as there are several other girls that CJ can date as well, such as Helena in Blueberry, Millie in Las Venturas (she automatically becomes a romance option during the Las Venturas missions), a retired police officer named Barbara (which is an ironic relationship considering that CJ is a common criminal just like other members of his gang just as any other protaganist is in the series), a nurse named Katie (you meet her in San Fierro) as well as a driving instructor named Michelle, who likes to take CJ for a ride sometimes in the city of San Fierro). It is also possible for CJ to "cheat" on Denise by dating multiple girls, especially if you manage to obtain all of the hidden oysters (hidden under water) in the game, which pretty much gives CJ unlimited sex appeal and automatically makes him attractive to the other girls even if he doesn't meet their standards in appearances (normally, with the exception of Denise and Millie, you have to meet certain appearance requirements if you want to date Katie, Michelle or Helena). Apparently, there are versions of GTA San Andreas where a jealous Denise can chase after CJ in a car when dating the other girls, but that event doesn't seem to happen in the Xbox version of San Andreas (I tried it), though I have noticed that she can die suddenly if you take her to a rival girl's city (such as driving her to San Fierro if you are dating Katie or Michelle). Also, like real life relationships, Denise and CJ can break up (if your relationship level with her is low enough) and she can also be killed off too. Waring about Denise: be careful not to kill or break up with Denise unless if you don't care for her, or at least do not save the game should something like that happen since it is pretty much impossible for her to respawn or get her back should she die or break up with CJ (apparently some of the other girls respawn after a while if they break up or are killed off, but Denise and Millie do not respawn as far as I can tell if they die or break up).
By the way, GTA 4 has relationship options as well, but they are not quite the same as the ones in San Andreas. In Grand Theft Auto 4, for example, there is Michelle (Nikko dates her early on in the game) and later Katie McReary (who later replaces Michelle as Nikko's love interest), but both relationships are short lived. Michelle turns out to be an under cover FIB agent that is sent to spy on Nikko and Roman (which is understandable considering that Nikko often works for the crimnal element in Liberty City and even assasinates various targets too). Kate eventually replaces Michelle as Nikko's love interest, but you lose her during the course of the game's final missions (one scenario has her breaking up with Nikko and the other scenario has her getting killed off by Jimmy Pegorino, another kingpin who is in league with Demetri (the primary antagonist in the game) who Nikko gets entangled with during a drug deal gone wrong mission that Jimmy tries to force Nikko to do do. By the way, it is also possible to get a girlfriend via the internet in GTA 4, but I never tried it, so I don't know how that works or how they compare with Michelle and Katie.
In GTA 5, the girlfriend system gets done away with, Michael De Santa starts out as a married man in the game (married to Amanda) and has 2 kids (a son and a daughter), though he and Amanda temporarily seperate around the mid point in the game after a series of event, such as the jewelery store heist mission, FIB agents resurfacing in his life, parenting issues (like the mission where Michael forces his daughter off a party boat and gets pursued by her "friends", as well as the crazy Trevor Philips showing up at his doorstep not long after the Jewelery Store heist mission (happens shortly after the "Friends Reunited" mission (if you play as Trevor or Michael). As for Trevor, he doesn't really have a girlfriend or wife, though he does attraction for a lady that he and Michael kidnaps during one of the missions (though eventually he returns her to his husband), and later he becomes the owner at Vanilla Unicorn and can develop with some of the ladies he works with there, especially if you are going for the "booty call" achievement (towards the 100% completion). As for Franklin, technically had a girlfriend, named Tanisha at the beginning of the game (you never see her in person till the "Lamar Down mission", but she automatically breaks up with him early on in the game via a Dear John letter (via email), which is basically a "dreaded" (depending on how you look at it) letter or email that a boyfriend or girlfriend may send you that pretty much states that they want to break up and "just be friends" (much like what happens between Tommy Oliver and Kimberly Hart early on in the Power Rangers Zero series, where she sends him a "Dear John" letter during one of the episodes, effectively ending their relationship permanently ).
#5 Romance options in Mass Effect series
Above is a video where Shepard gets a picture of Tali "unmasked", which is only unlockable if you romance her in Mass Effects 2 and 3. BTW, I originally wanted to show the romance video between Shepard and Ashely, but I figured it might be too much for some people, but if you want to see it, you can find it on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1DtASoSShA.
Science fiction style romance anyone (such as Padme and Anakin or Han and Leia in Star Wars)? In the Mass Effect series players assume the role of, Commander Shepard (which can be a male or female captain depending on your preferences) and make various choices that can affect the main storyline in all 3 games, and Shepard can also take on a wide variety of romance interests. If you are a male shepard, Ashley (assuming she survives the events of Mass Effect 1, meaning you save her over Kaiden during the Virmire Missions) and later Miranda (from Mass Effect 2) are very tempting options for Shepard (probably the best looking female characters in my opinion). Of course, Shepard can also opt to date other crew members if he chooses, including Liara (an alien Asari), Tali (the masked alien lady) or even Jack (she is a "firey" lady that you can rescue from a prison ship in Mass Effect 2). He can also romance Samara's "sister" Morinth assuming he saves Morinth over Samara, but she literally kills him if Shepard decides to romance her (kissing her leads to the game over scene) as a result of a condition she has where people trying to romance her get killed in the process. Female Shepards can also date people like Kaiden (assuming he survives the events Mass Effect 1), Garrus, Jacob, Thane, and others. Same sex relationships are also possible too (such as female shepard and Diana or female shepard and Liara) if you want to make Shepard "gay" (not sure how else to put it. It is also possible to date more than one person at a time during the series (such as Ashely and Miranda considering that Ashely has much lesser role in ME 2 compared to the other 2 installments in the series), leading to love triangles that Shepard must resolve during the course of the game. In my playthrough, I actually killed off Ashely during Mass Effect one and ended up dating Tali. As female shepard, I thought it would be funny to have her date Diane, so she did. What romance option you go for is up to you.
Notes about romance options:
- Miranda, Jack and Tali: these relationships must be started in Mass Effect 2 in order to work in Mass Effect 3. In addition, they must be loyal (by completing their loyalty missions successfully as well as siding with them when getting feuds with other crew members, such as Jack vs Miranda or Tali vs Legion) and they must survive the game's climatic suicide mission at the end of the game too (which is very doale in my opinon).
- Ashley: relationship can be started in Mass Effect 1 or 3. A relationship with her assumes she assumes the events of Mass Effect 1 (either she or Kaiden will have been killed off during the course of the first game). In addition, Shepard must regain Ashely's trust too, which is inevitably shaken during the events of Mass Effect 2, where Shepard finds himself working for Cerberus while trying to defeat a diabolical alien race known as the collectors that want to kidnap humans and want to harvest their dna for the reapers, and later during the Mars mission on Mass Effect 3 when the Illusive Man and Cerberus start to show their true colors and attack the base, even almost killing Ashley in the process..
- Tali. A relationship must being with her in Mass Effect 2 and requires you to complete her loyalty mission successfully (the one where she is falsely accused of treason by her fellow aliens). Interestingly, she has a mask during most of the series and you can't really see what is behind the mask, so she is a mysterious woman. I like to think that Tali is a beautiful woman behind the mask, but her face is not revealed tills Mass Effect 3 and assumes you are in a relationship with her. Note: she must survive the events of Mass Effect 2 with her loyalty in tact for a relationship to work. Warning about Tali: she commits suicide in Mass Effect 3 should you save the geth over the Quarians during that leg of the game (Legion tries to upload a program that would cause the geth to turn on the Quarians, but Shepard can stop him and either bring peace to the 2 races or let one race destroy the other). If you want her in Mass Effect 3, you will have to stop Legion from uploading the program or bring a truce between the 2 races.
Other notes:
- Jack is definitely an interesting character and is often suspicious of Shepard and Cerberus. Interestingly, she seems to have a guy's name too (unless if her name is short for Jacky). She is also a fiery type too that has a short temper too. Date with caution. dating her requires you to do her loyalty mission in ME 2 as well as siding with her during a dispute she has with Miranda).
- Liara. She is a classic alien type that Shepard can date. If you are in to alien types, she is right up Shepard's ally. She also becomes the shadow broker after the events of Mass Effect 2 (there is a DLC mission that if you are willing to spend the extra money where Shepard can take part in the mission where he can help her take down the existing shadow broker on Illium). She can date either a male or female shepard.
- Diana and Samantha Traynor - if you are into lesbian style relationships, it is possible for fem Shepard to romance those 2.
- Some relationships can prove to be dead end relationships (which automatically ends), as is the case of Jacob in Mass Effect 3 or Ashley / Kaiden during the course of Mass Effect 2 since they don't take kindly to Shepard working for Cerberus during the events of Mass Effect 2 (not that the player really has a choice in the matter since Shepard's tenure with Cerberus is pretty much scripted during the course of that game and can't be chanced as far as I can tell), though those relationships can be rekindled in ME3.
For more information about romance options in Mass Effect 3, you can read the article on romance options at Wikipedia: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Romance.
That is all for now. Stay tuned for part 2.
Other ones includes:
- Scott and Ramona in Scott Pilgrim vs the World (btw I have finally seen the movie recently)
- Princesses you can rescue in Castle Crashers
- Fable relationships
- and mroe
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