The Most Uncomfortable Video Game Romances
Romance is just as prevalent in video games as it is in the movies. Some games even actively encourage us to pursue romances with different characters. Others use romance as a bit of set dressing to add depth to the characters, while some make these romances into significant plot points.
When they're well-written, they can be a beautifully immersive experience that brings so much more meaning to the many side quests and missions in our path. Sometimes, however, they can just be plain uncomfortable. Let's take a look at some video game romances that left us fidgeting rather than swooning.
Beware of spoilers ahead for some of the following games.
Hot for teacher - Persona 5
Persona 5 features several different romance options for our protagonist to pursue throughout the game. While most of these paths involve high school students the same age as the lead character, there are a few that step outside of those parameters in awkward ways.
Take, for instance, Sadayo Kawakami. She's the lead character's teacher at school, whom he finds out works for a maid service. As part of this service, she calls the protagonist "master" and wears a stereotypical "French maid" outfit. This is in fairly direct opposition to her demeanor during school hours. The player can choose to woo her, earning extra special treatment during class hours as a result of this relationship.
This raises all kinds of ethical questions, particularly when you consider the fact that she's in a position of authority over the protagonist. Add onto this the fact that she acknowledges the character as being underage and it all adds up to one big pile of "yikes."
You're hot then you're cold - Indigo Prophecy
To put it lightly, Indigo Prophecy – a.k.a. Fahrenheit for gamers outside of North America — is a weird game. Indigo Prophecy revels in its weirdness, almost daring the player at all times to call it on its ridiculousness. Its bonkers plot involves ancient cults, supernatural snowstorms, and the resurrection of dead characters. It's this last one that leads us to one of the most unfortunate love scenes in games.
Partway through the game, our lead character Lucas Kane is killed. He is shortly thereafter resurrected, but he's not the same as before. He's literally a cold walking corpse ... which is what makes it so upsetting when he sleeps with police officer Carla Valenti. It's almost like the game forgets that one of these two characters doesn't have any blood circulating through their body. The implications of the whole affair are just icky, and that's before we even get into the fact that Carla becomes pregnant with Lucas' child after this.
No big deal; people just used to marry Pokemon - Pokemon Diamond and Pearl
The relationship between a Pokemon and their human trainer has always been a dedicated one, but the Japanese release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl revealed a whole other layer to that. In the Canalave Library, players can find a book that details the ancient history and folklore of Pokemon. Within those pages is a pretty, uh, interesting tidbit: way back in the day, Pokemon and human could get married to one another. In the text, it's explained that this is because they were considered equals, but it's still a mighty bombshell to drop on players.
In the English version, the book was changed to read that Pokemon and human once ate at the same tables. This was presumably done so that Nintendo of America could avoid any accusations of encouraging interspecies romances. Also, when you get into the whole Trainer/Pokemon dynamic, it just opens up a whole other can of worms in terms of propriety. At the end of the day, this single page of in-game text likely raised way more questions than the English localization team felt like answering.