Love in RPG's -- Oddfellow's FFVII & Z-Files Discussion Board

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Date Posted: 11:44:10 02/03/02 Sun
Author: Madcat
Author Host/IP: alb-66-66-212-226.nycap.rr.com / 66.66.212.226
Subject: Love in RPG's

Oddfellow's posing the question of what happened between Cloud and Tifa at the end of Disk 2 of FFVII got me thinking along this line. Why is that character in RPG's (I'm talking about console-RPG's here) rarely show any form of affection or intimacy, whether it be verbal or physical?

For example, take the issue of character and "those three little words." How many time can you remember one RPG character saying "I love you" to another one? Or even talked of loving someone? And I mean explicitedly stating it, not just implications. And even the implication of sexual relations is even rarer.

Only one game comes to mind when I ask myself any of those questions, and that's Xenogears. Fei and Elly's relationship actually had some (gasp!) real development over the course of the game, and (eventually) they actually expressed what the felt about each other. And there are seens with not only them, but another couple (Ramsus and Miang) in bed together. There's nothing pornographic about any scenes in the game, and it never gets overly mushy or starts to read like a romance novel.......it's all just very well done, and actually touching.

The Final Fantasy series in particular seems to have these kinds of problems (and the Breath of Fire series too, come to think of it). The writer's attempts at creating love stories always seem half-assed to me. Tifa and Cloud, for example, are a great couple, but we never really get much development on that front. Like all FF characters, they seem to have hang-ups about expressing their feelings in any beyond vague sentences and implications.

I don't want to see Hentai games, nor do I want to see Daniel Steele writing the script for the next FF game. But it would be nice if the creators delivered something a little more substantial than the fair the usuaully serve up.

Oh, and before anyone mentions it, yes, I have considered FFVIII in all of this. FFVIII's love story really wasn't very well done, and besides.....I don't care what Square claims, the theme of the game is NOT, I repeat NOT love. The theme is Squall getting over his stupid psychological complexes and opening up to others.

I hate when writers have been reading too much Freud.....

Madcat
Evil Director of Shanachie Studios

"The great thing about being a sociopath is that I always get enough sleep."
----- The Boss, "Dilbert"

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Replies:

Hrm.. -- Achilles, 12:59:15 02/03/02 Sun
- They do say they love each other...they just dont come out and say it. Take Aeris to the gold saucer and see her line on the thing.. "I want to meet you..." (NT) -- Vin Val, 18:07:37 02/03/02 Sun
Oh also, about the FF8 thing. There was love there, Squall getting over his Anti-socialness and dancing with Rinoa and carrying her miles across railroad tracks to Esthar, refusing to let her die in space, and at the end of the game Rinoa finds him right as he dies and flowers bloom all around then and at the very end her love for Squall makes him appear in front of her as an illusion. (NT) -- Vin Val, 18:09:42 02/03/02 Sun
In time for a Hallmark holiday... -- Saint Faucet, 22:49:42 02/03/02 Sun
Grandia -- Silver, 07:07:50 02/10/02 Sun