Romances in other games

Visual Novel Community Anime/Otaku Discussions
#1

The alternate title of this subject being: “We are not the norm”

I picked up Mass Effect 2 this week and played it through - great game and well worth the money.

One of the nice options they had for it was importing your saved game from the first installment so the second could take your previous decisions into account.

One of these decisions was your character’s Love Interest from the first game. I was excited about this, as it meant I could continue to pursue the relationship I had begun in ME1 and see where it would take me in ME2. Unfortunately the game cock-blocked all your previous relationships in favor of encouraging you to develop relations with the new cast members.

This, itself, disappointed me - especially when I eagerly went to the planet my love interest - Liara - was in order to continue it as quickly as possible … only to receive a cold kiss and apparent disinterest - which mostly summed up all the old love interests you’d imported.

Eventually I got past this, because the new cast was more interesting than most of the old … only to be heartbroke again when I found out the girl I was interested in (a secondary character from the first game which gets carried over - Tali Zorah) is not romancable if you’re playing a female lead. Now, I had been charmed by Tali in the first game and bemoaned the fact - at that time - that she wasn’t a potential love interest … but then to come so close in the second game only to be shot down again! Arrggh!

To add insult to injury, none of your squad members are same-sex romancable. So, not only did I fail to continue my romance from the first game, not get the alternate romance I had always wanted anyway, but I was denied any romance for my lesbian character!

The closest thing they had was a throwaway dirty dance scene with a background character whom had been throwing herself at you from the beginning (no matter your sex) and took no effort to win. Nor, apparently, does she actually count as a love interest (which is already evident in the fact that she is pretty one dimensional and you learn very little about her) because the badge system - which would tag her as such for the next game - does not consider her to be. (She is basically that random sex partner you see in many H games provided merely for a sex scene before you win your real love interest)

I was not happy.

When I happened to bitch about this in some of my other forums’ ME2 threads I got responses to the effect of “What does it matter, she’s just a character on a computer game!” … something I’m sure we’ve all heard to some extent from people who don’t understand our interest in Eroge. That caused me to pause and consider just how few people really seem to get what we find interesting in the games we play here … how few can understand that it might be possible to become - even temporarily - emotionally invested in a fictional character.

This certainly isn’t the first, mainstream kind of game, in which I’ve become invested in a romance and had countless others fail to understand.

I asked these same people if they hadn’t ever acquired small crushes on characters in books, films, or television series’ … to which they also claimed an inability to understand …

So, then, I have to wonder what it is about people like us here who can make that leap?

I really wish games like ME2 had more involved romance lines in them … a combination between that and an Eroge title would be a dream come true.

#2

Well if it makes you feel better the Game Salesman in the Citadel will say the following if you talk to him enough,
“Those Asari and Hanar porn games they sell in Shinakiba are really nasty.” :lol:
Of course if they took that idea and ran with it, maybe making a Mass Effect eroge for instance, I’d damn sure give them my support.

On a side note, my biggest disappointments with the game have been with the former romance options.Ashley basically says to fuck off and Liara…well they certainly took liberties with her personality, I mean at least Garrus had the seeds of becoming a vigilante in the original but Liara just does a complete 180 personality wise.

#3

Jack/Subject Zero and Thane both switch hit in ME2.

Though, I romanced Tali first as she was more interesting to me than Liara or Ashley in ME. Downside was, the camera pans away when her helmet comes off, so I still don’t know wtf she looks like.

#4

Some people in the ME community have solved that mystery through various means.

And of course there’s always those who wanna clean it up a little. :o

Careful… she’s a sickly fragile virgin outside that encounter suit (or was depending how you acted). :wink:

Ah… if only there were two of her… :twisted:

#5

They aren’t interested in a same-sex Shepard though, which makes the references kind of a tease.

#6

In fact, Jack even goes so far as to say she isn’t into girl games even though she had talked about being in a relationship with women in the past. And while I haven’t pursued Thane as a guy, I know from the forums that there are no same sex relationships for Shepard unless you count Kelly - which nobody does. (because, as I said before, she isn’t really a relationship)

At least “Dragon Age: Origins” offered same sex relationships … and with two of the most enjoyable characters of your group. Very sad that you won’t have relationship options in the upcoming expansion. (nor will you be able to further pursue your old relationships) That decision, at least, is getting a lot of flack from fans who became very invested in their DA love interests.

#7

Hopefully Bioware either takes the criticism to heart and starts carrying characters over… or they stop with the franchises and stick to single games.

#8

Old topic, but I just got around to playing Dragon Age (Origins)

And I must admit I have zero interest in the expansion and only limited interest in the sequel. Why? Because I’m head over bloody heels for Alistair. Yes, me, usually seen chasing girls, dumped Leliana for him. The gameplay was not that great, I was often frustrated, bored, or cheating. I finished that game out of perverse attraction to a fictional character. Our plotline wraps up at the end of that game, why the heck would I want to play the expansion?

As long as the sequel is a completely different set of characters, which I believe it may be, I’ll be okay with that.