By	mollipen	0
	Filed Under	Feature, Video Games
	Tags	mass effect 2, persona 4, romance

Rachel Shepard–the particular Commander Shepard that inhabits the world of Mass Effect which finds itself brought to life every time my Xbox 360 powers up as of late–seems well on her way in her quest to romance her teammate Garrus Vakarian. I have to admit: her interest in Garrus has come as a bit of a surprise to me.

Two years ago, during the battle to stop Saren and his quest to aid in the destruction of the universe at the hands of the Reapers, Shepard had seemed to form a bond with her Asari teammate, Liara T’Soni. The two met when our hero saved Liara from captivity deep in a Prothean ruin, and from that very moment some saw a spark between them. It wasn’t usual for Liara to accompany Shepard on the various missions the Normandy crew found themselves becoming a part of, and that closeness on the battlefield no doubt helped to strengthen their feelings for one another once back in the eerie quiet of the halls of the starship they now called home.

Time, and events, can change people however, and the reunion of Shepard and Liara served as a strong example of this. Old feelings still lingered in both of their hearts, but it was obvious that the Asari had moved on with her life; few could really blame her for having done so. Shepard, meanwhile, found herself trying to fit back into a world that had now passed her by, in charge of a Normandy that felt both familiar and foreign at the same time, surrounded by a crew she hardly knew. Garrus was an old friend and comrade, and unlike Liara, he was ready and willing to return to Shepard’s side as the universe was once again in need of a hero.

Okay, so, to be fair: not all of those details and plot-points come from the gameplay BioWare has infused into Mass Effect 2. Some elements are pieces that our brains are eager to fill in naturally when we begin to care about a game’s characters. And romance, I have come to appreciate, can help in causing me to care in ways I never fully appreciated before.

The idea of love in games is certainly not new, nor is the idea of crafting entire titles around the concept of wooing a virtual partner. While not the first game to be classified as a “dating sim,” Konami’s Tokimeki Memorial series became a blockbuster franchise that saw popularity even outside of its native Japan; the game publisher has recently returns to those roots with Loveplus, a new dating sim series that seems to be on its way to gaining a similar level of fanbase and profits as TokiMemo achieved. Player-controlled romance has even been prominent in other genres of games that have made it to the West, from the farming sims of the Harvest Moon franchise to RPGs such as Thousand Arms and Sakura Wars.

Unlike Japan, however, Western gamers still seem to hold some hesitation in having games go in this direction. Some of that thinking may come from the not so pleasant reputation dating sims have outside of Japan; a game strictly created for dating an imaginary girl can seem to some, not totally unfairly, somewhat pathetic and desperate. More than that, however, I’ve seen more than a few examples of people simply not understanding why the option for romance needs to exist in a game period, even when the game’s genre is not directly focused on that goal.

The truth is, love–as a concept, a source of inspiration, or as a final objective–has existed in gaming for almost as long as gaming itself has existed. Jumpman braved the obstacles thrown his way by Donkey Kong in order to save his beloved Pauline; the same character, now better known by the moniker Mario, did battle across an entire mushroom kingdom just for the hope of a little attention from a captive princess. Later, Sony’s PlayStation 2 masterpiece Ico was completely dependent on creating an emotional bond between the player and an innocent and inquisitive young girl named Yorda. Twenty-four some years later, Link is still wielding sword and shield to protect the princess Zelda, and you’d be lucky to find a Japanese RPG that doesn’t include one (or more) major plot lines based around young romance.

Video games are not some special exception in the world of entertainment, and as such we who enjoy said entertainment–no matter if we openly admit it or not–will find ourselves rooting for the guy to get the girl in the end. Or, you know, whatever other pairing we may be given for the more modern tales of action and adventure.

So why is it that many seem hesitant to allow that decision to be put into the hands of the player?

The acknowledgement that many games feature romantic sub-plots of some sort also comes along with the harsh reality that, a lot of times, the choice for love interest can be absolutely brutal to the player. A number of the Japanese RPGs I’ve played in recently years have, to be honest, kind of all melted together into one anime-esque blur, but I know that in at least a handful of those I’ve utterly detested the character that the game’s creators pre-determined I would like. With video game storylines already far too often teetering on the border between being acceptable and downright embarrassing, there’s nothing better (and by better, I mean worse) than having to bear through a ridiculously vapid storyline while being forced to help your character get busy with the most obnoxious moeblob the game could muster up.

If optional romantic progression did nothing more than give me the choice to purposely avoid giving the time of day to the saccharine-infused magic-using nymphet a game’s developers cruelly decided would be the perfect main heroine, then I’m already on board with this idea 100%.

Maybe the problem many have with player-controlled options for romance in games is some feeling of being required to actually find attraction in the mating choices a game presents us, or the belief that such options exist only so that the developers could have an excuse to test their skills at rendering naked boobies. Instead of just seeing these kinds of options in a game as a set of paths that lead to a few quick cutscenes where we can giggle while imaging two polygon-created character models bumping uglies, however, let us actually appreciate what they can offer us: an additional means of true and honest character development.

Though their means for doing so and final results were quite different, two sets of games in recent years have ended up really standing out for their strong pushes in the way of character interactivity: the aforementioned Mass Effect 2, along with its previous chapter, and the dual-demonic combo from Atlus, Persona 3 and Persona 4. Both of these groups of titles put importance not only into the teams that you brought together around your main character, but also in what their relationships with that main character were. The strengthening of bonds with teammates like Grunt in Mass Effect 2 or Chie in Persona 4 weren’t just handed to you at regular intervals; you had to actively seek out their time and attention. By putting forth the effort to know more about them, not only would you end up with a richer understanding for the overall narrative itself, but a stronger sense of appreciation for the characters around you.

The reason for this is also the reason that the ability to pick and choose your romantic interest can improve and enhance your appreciate for a game: because they are choices you yourself make. Well, okay; let’s not have any confusion here. Choice in video games, even in titles like Mass Effect or Persona, are never real choice, but instead the illusion of choice as the developer has seen fit to present to the player. If my Commander Shepard decides to spare a rogue Salarian instead of blasting them to bits, both of those options were pre-determined and offered up to me via a small set to choose from. Even so, at that moment, I feel like I am in command far more than other games, because the actions Shepard takes in that moment only play out according to what I myself chose.

For those who find the idea of getting their virtual groove on to be of absolutely no interest, the wonderful side to all of this is that you never have to. But for those of us longing for something more from our games, that possibility existing–even if our selection of possible prospects is rather limited–just adds another later of depth to a game that understands that the more we care about what’s going on in the lives of the characters involved, the more we’ll care about the game.

Let me give you a good, real-life example that I personally encountered.

Had Persona 4 been crafted the “traditional” way, I have no doubt that the game’s main female–the kung-fu-movie-loving goofball Chie–would have been the top choice for love interest for the protagonist. Yet, the more encounters I had with Chie, and the more I came to know her as a character, I came to realize that I saw her relationship to my avatar as more of a best friend than a love interest. Normally, I would have been forced to romance her through the natural progression of the storyline, even though that wasn’t how I wanted my connection with her to play out. Instead, because the game did indeed give me that choice, she ended the game as just that: my main character’s best friend. (Meanwhile, of course, I was off playing kissy-face with the red-haired J-pop idol.) Because of this option to alter the course of my character’s life in this regard, I felt like I had more influence over how the game was playing out, and through that, more of a personal connection to the game as a whole.

Relationships, when done in this way, are just another set of choices we have. They can be sub-plots that can be ignored because the mission to save the universe is far too great to have any distractions, or they can be extra elements of storyline that draw us closer to a particular character in the game and, through them, our own digital selves. They are not, and never will be, any sort of replacement for real human interaction serving as an escape for those who can’t find love in the real world. They are real, substantial, and powerful elements of storytelling, ones which, when used properly, can help strengthen an even more important relationship: that of the gamer and the game they are playing.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 12:59 am and is filed under Feature, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.