Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Back in the early to mid 90's, when I first saw a hint of romance in video games, I was really fascinated by it, because I never saw anything like it in a video game before. Sure I've seen it in cinema and on TV, but never there until that point. And I also liked it too. It broke new ground for me when I first saw something like that in a game.

Some of my earliest exposures to romance in video games:

Ryu Hayabusa and Irene Lew from Ninja Gaiden:
This one is pretty obvious. Anyone who never beat the first game or saw it's ending or never made it past level 4 could tell that they were in love once the second game came out. I never beat any of the games, but I've gotten to the last levels in the first two, and saw both endings to them, and when I saw the ending to the first game, this feeling came over me. Words can't describe the feeling I had, but I thought it was cool having romance in a video game.

Iris and Zero from Mega Man X4:
I thought the relationship between these two broke new ground for not just the X series, but the whole Megaman series in general, because of the fact that romance was brought in. Iris was cute, I remember when I was younger and I first played the game crying when she died. Up until this year, I hadn't played Mega Man X4 since the year 2000, but Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has been making me revisit Mega Man quite a bit (this game especially), and I thought this was the best Mega Man X game, and their romance was an important element of the story I think.


Anyway, what was your first reaction when you first saw romance between two characters in a video game before?

Hmm, let's see...

As for Zero and Iris.......

WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

I don't remember the first time I saw romance in a video game, but I was surprised when I first beat Street Fighter II with Ken.

CJ and Catalina in GTA SA. I just thought it was very silly, and unromantic. Plus all of CJ's other girlfriends seem to like it when he takes them to the bar up the street over and over again, where's the variety in that?

Never really cared for romance in video games, seeing as how it's usually on the side and not the main thing I care about. There's only one 'romance' in a game that I care about...

Crypto and Natalya in Destroy All Humans! 2.

Why? Because it's FRIGGIN' FUNNY. It isn't this sappy happy-ending kind of thing. No, it's a stereotypical big-headed arrogant psychic alien using all the worst pick-up lines trying to woo a Soviet agent while in what is basically an alliance of convenience against a common foe. It just fits in perfectly with the parodic anarchy of the entire game and doesn't feel like a side story, it feels integral to the game's sense of humor.

Geez, I seem to have a thing for characters with psychic powers...

To be honest, I never gave it much thought. Most serious video game romances I've seen are underdeveloped or side stories happening to secondary characters. Phantasy Star gives good examples. The romances in PSIII are barely even there. PSIV is a little better with Hahn and Saya, but again it's a side story that is barely even touched on.

I guess I've just grown used to games where romance is barely even a plot point.