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[Chris Whitman]

I love story-based games with no love interest -- developing romances are the most cliched story element ever.

If you think you have fallen in love with someone you've known for the timeframe of your average game, which I guess could be as long as a couple of months for your epic JRPGs, you are probably fourteen. Most people who are older have enough life experience to know there is no way you can know someone that well in that short a time.

I don't think it's the fact that it's a cliché that gets to me as much as the fact that it wildly contradicts everything we know about human behavior for some insipid, storybook ideal. While we may be totally willing to accept games about magic wizards, we can't accept games about people behaving unrealistically. It definitely ruins any suspension of disbelief one might have.

[Seth]

they may be a cliched story element but I would love to see one handled in a non cliched way

though yeah in general the very fact a love interest is present makes me cringe

[Pacian]

If you think you have fallen in love with someone you've known for the timeframe of your average game, which I guess could be as long as a couple of months for your epic JRPGs, you are probably fourteen. Most people who are older have enough life experience to know there is no way you can know someone that well in that short a time.

Couldn't the characters already know one another at the start of the game?  Why do you assume the relationship has to go from two strangers meeting to a wedding and eternal love before the game ends?  Couldn't it be a story about, say, two long-time unrequited admirers who finally move their relationship to the next step (however small a step that is)?

I actually can't think of that many games that even show their love-birds making any declarations of love, let alone jumping in bed or getting married.  They tend to be more low-key than that.

[Cheater‽]

Couldn't the characters already know one another at the start of the game?  Why do you assume the relationship has to go from two strangers meeting to a wedding and eternal love before the game ends?  Couldn't it be a story about, say, two long-time unrequited admirers who finally move their relationship to the next step (however small a step that is)?

I actually can't think of that many games that even show their love-birds making any declarations of love, let alone jumping in bed or getting married.  They tend to be more low-key than that.

MGS is on both ends of that. In MGS2, Rose and Raiden were already a couple before the start of the game, while in MGS4 SPOILER: _{Meryl and Johnny fall in love IN ONE SINGLE CUTSCENE THAT INCLUDES WITH A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL, which HAPPENS IN THE EPILOGUE.}. Also, MGS1 is cool to, since by MGS2 we realize the love interest _{Didn't work out}

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I don't think those girls in MGS (aside from MGS2) are love interests exactly -- there can be flirting without there being love interest.

Love interest and developing romance are more things you tend to see in jRPGs. Those typically have the male and female meet and fall in undying love in very short order. Easy examples are Final Fantasy 8, 9, and 10.

[godsavant]

I don't think those girls in MGS (aside from MGS2) are love interests exactly -- there can be flirting without there being love interest.

"Otacon."

"Yeah?"

"Do...do you think love can bloom, even on a battlefield?"

"...uh...are you hitting on me?"

 :D

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I always thought of that particular part of the game as a joke / humorous rather than serious. It might even be an intentional parody or satire of what we were just talking about.

[Cheater‽]

I always thought of that particular part of the game as a joke / humorous rather than serious. It might even be an intentional parody or satire of what we were just talking about.

Yeah, that's what I meant. Both ends, seriously and joking.

[Cymon]

Who says Asians have small weeners.

Has that joke been made already about that?

[Gainsworthy]

No.

[ChevyRay]

Iji

[Pixelworship]

Yeah.

[reallyjoel]

Iji

Except that Iji is completely bonkers and talks to imaginary people. But she do kick ass, and she's very sorry for it.

[gnawingonfoot]

I'd like to see some suicidal female office workers in Karoshi.  Or, if the flavor of the game is in highlighting the downside of adhering to hegemonic masculinity's oppressive male-breadwinner role, then perhaps a sister game would involve assisting homemakers bored with Kinder, Küche, Kirche to escape the confines of gender role normativity.

[ChevyRay]

Except that Iji is completely bonkers and talks to imaginary people. But she do kick ass, and she's very sorry for it.

Except what? That doesn't make her any more sexualized.

But yeh, lots of video game characters talk to themselves. You see it in movies, books, and stage performances a lot too, it's something you can sort of get away with in storytelling. Though I prefer more creative storytelling techniques.

[John Nesky]

http://interactionartist.com/nesky/index.php?page=display&name=iji

[DjangoDurango]

What about the female characters from Barbarian? All of them wore extremely skimpy clothing, but none of them were particularly sexualized. Keela was almost butch looking and her fighting wasn't very womanly at all. Phade the assassin was cold and, if I were to guess, would probably have been socially awkward too. Eyara was the Guardian of Nature, so she was motherly. And Jinn was a demon. She wore nothing but a pair of arm bands. But she was quite obviously not looking to seduce anyone so much as just torture people.

[Brother Android]

Iji

Dangit, Chev. Beat me to it.

[medieval]

Dangit, Chev. Beat me to it.

[Gainsworthy]

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3170087

Bumpity.

Ok, so it's pretty much just due to mirror's edge (which looks neat, by the by), and it's a re-iteration of what's been said, but, hey. Thought of this thread.

...go ahead and swap out "attractive" for "strong" if so you wish.


(Also, Medival? 666 Posts. Yuhuh.)