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What are the best games with a believable romantic subplot?

6

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Considered

4

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Recs.

Mar 4, 2022

Last
Updated

6 Games Considered

Best games with a believable romantic subplot	Price	Platforms	Steam Rating
-- To The Moon	-	Windows, Linux, Mac	Very Positive
-- Final Fantasy X HD Remaster	$24.99	PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Windows	-
-- Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster	$24.99	PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Windows	-
-- L.A. Noire	$19.99	Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox 360	Very Positive
-- Final Fantasy VIII	$11.99	-	Very Positive

To The Moon

Top Pro

Cute story told backwards with an unexpected happy ending

The main story is actually told backwards, ala the movie Memento. While not the most original concept, still a cool way to tell a story. In the end there is quite the happy ending that will result in many tears being shed. See More

Top Con

Gameplay is lackluster

The actual gameplay of the game consists of tile flipping and a few other mini type games. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Top Pro

Well written characters

As the story progresses the characters attitudes and emotions change in response to the ever evolving story. This makes fro what is a very well written game that makes the story and characters seem genuinely real. See More

Top Con

Too short

Averaging play at around 4 hours to complete the game is quite short, good thing there are a bunch of free DLCs released that extend the gameplay. See More

Final Fantasy X HD Remaster

Top Pro

Thoughtful and grounded story

Final Fantasy X tells the story of the main character Tidus who one day finds himself in a faraway place 1,000 years in the future in a world full of death and suffering. A cleric-like summoner named Yuna embarks on a pilgrimage with Tidus and their other companions to destroy Sin: a gigantic whale-like monster that terrorizes the populace and causes countless, senseless deaths. As Tidus grows to care about Yuna, he questions the sacrifices that she has to make on her pilgrimage in order to defeat Sin, compelling him to take a stand against the status quo. It's a wonderful story that shows how far someone can go to protect the person that they care about most. See More

Top Con

Severe difficulty spike partway through the game

As you go through the game, you'll probably feel comfortable with the difficulty up until a certain point. There's one boss in particular that's notorious for how hard it is to beat compared to the previous ones. You'll more than likely have to spend hours grinding enemies in the area right before the boss to train. And even when you do defeat the boss, the ones after it are also quite challenging. It can be really confusing for newcomers if you aren't prepared. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Incredible music that fits the game's mood and tone

Final Fantasy X has an amazing soundtrack with a range of iconic tracks that are still beloved to this day, fitting well in each scene and situation they play in. "To Zanarkand" is a moving piano song that plays in the opening cutscene and again later on in the story, matching the game's overall thoughtfulness and retrospection. "Servants of the Mountain" is a really melodic and memorable song that plays in the game's snowy mountain level, with hard-hitting violins that mimic how tough and challenging it is to traverse the mountain itself. "Challenge" is a great boss theme that initially plays when you fight against one of the hardest bosses in the game, changing things up with some cool guitar riffs and fantastic-sounding drums that help pump you up for the fight's difficulty. There's a variety of sounds here that all come together as a cohesive whole, staying true to the game's atmosphere all the way through. See More

Top Con

Extremely linear environments

The locations in Final Fantasy X are beautiful and detailed, and yet there are lots of invisible walls blocking you off from exploring those locations. More often than not there's only a single path in any given environment to follow. It's a lot like running down a single corridor from the start of the world to the end. The good news is that you'll rarely get lost, but you won't be able to run around outside of the incredibly limited boundaries in each level. See More

Top Pro

Addictive underwater sports mini-game called Blitzball

Blizball is an addictive mini-game in Final Fantasy X that's great to play as a respite from the main game. It's like a mix of soccer and rugby played underwater, where you pass a ball around the sphere-like field, trying to score goals while the opposing team tackles and kicks to try and stop you. Playing matches can be quite intense as you navigate your players across the field with the ball, surviving the onslaught of tackles and kicks from the other team long enough to get close to the goal and score. If you're inspired to go back to Blizball on your own after the mandatory games in the story, you can get addicted to it, since it's so well-developed and fleshed out with lots of strategies and different team members that you can recruit. See More

Top Con

Airship travel is limited to picking points on the world map

It's really disheartening to unlock the airship in Final Fantasy X later in the game, only to discover that all you can do is pick a location and go to it automatically. You can't maneuver it through the skies like in older Final Fantasy games. It would have been nice to have the freedom to explore and see the world of Spira from high up. See More

Top Pro

Strategic and proactive turn-based combat

Turn-based battles in Final Fantasy X give you great ways to plan out how to approach each fight instead of leaving you to mostly react in battle. On the right-hand side of the screen, you'll see a long column including the icons of each character in your main party and how many turns the boss or enemies will have. When you see that a boss is about to have three or more consecutive turns to attack, you can cast spells ahead of time to protect your party members. It's a neat mechanic that lets you see into the future to plan ahead proactively. You can also use the right-hand column to plan out how your party members can handle enemy weaknesses. When you see that a strong armored enemy is up to attack next, bringing in one of your heavy hitters like Auron with his huge, armor-piercing sword is pretty efficient. Or if there's another monster that's resistant to physical attacks, you can bring in Lulu instead with her powerful black magic spells. Learning everyone's strengths and weaknesses in battle will help you breeze through normal battles and better prepare you for the game's more difficult boss encounters. See More

Final Fantasy X-2 HD Remaster

Top Pro

Risky but fresh change in tone from Final Fantasy X to X-2

Final Fantasy X-2 does a complete 180 from Final Fantasy X's more grounded themes of life, death, and corruption, showing the world after the darkness passes, and featuring an all-female cast of party members. The themes here are much more fun and upbeat, showing Yuna as more on an overall light-hearted journey with her troupe of treasure hunters, although the story does have its moments of seriousness and melancholy. Even the opening CGI cutscene is of Yuna performing a pop song at a concert. It's a risky, but bold and fresh move that you'll either love or hate depending on your tastes. See More

Top Con

Airship travel is limited to picking points on the world map

It's really disheartening to have the airship available near the start of the game, only to discover that all you can do is pick a location and go to it automatically. You can't maneuver it through the skies like in older Final Fantasy games. It would have been nice to have the freedom to explore and see the world of Spira from high up. See More

Specs

Genre:Role-Playing

Top Pro

Great soundtrack with a nice blend of different genres

Final Fantasy X-2's soundtrack is filled with energetic pop songs, pensive ballads, and an overall jazz and rock-inspired sound that matches the game's fun and adventurous themes. "Real Emotion" is an infectiously catchy pop song that would fit right in with the Top 40s charts in real life. "Yuna's Ballad" is much more thought-provoking and emotional, with pianos that sound a lot like how Yuna's sorrow and conflicting emotions would be in musical form. The normal battle theme has a great rock sound to it, mixing in violins to keep things interesting, and it doesn't get old no matter how many times you hear it during normal encounters. The soundtrack is amazing with the way it experiments with different genres that all manage to blend well together. See More

Top Con

Extremely linear environments

The locations in Final Fantasy X-2 are beautiful and detailed, and yet there are lots of invisible walls blocking you off from exploring those locations. More often than not there's only a single path in any given environment to follow. It's a lot like running down a single corridor from the start of the world to the end. The good part is that you'll rarely get lost, but you won't be able to run around outside of the incredibly limited boundaries in each level. See More

Top Pro

Heartfelt and thoughtful story

Set two years after Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 is much lighter in tone, featuring Yuna as the main character as she searches for treasure across Spira with her friends. Although the story seems overly positive and campy at first, almost like a cheesy movie with silly one-liners and hammed-up humor, there's much more depth to the story that reveals itself as you play through the game. As a world leader, Yuna tries to do what's expected of her by fixing the power struggle between Spira's two ruling factions, but she's also deeply upset by her love interest's absence. She questions if it's possible to find him with so much mystery surrounding his disappearance. It's an emotional experience watching Yuna struggle with her obligations to maintain peace in the world, and going after what she personally wants for her own happiness and fulfillment. See More

Top Con

Blitzball is automated with no player control

Blizball in Final Fantasy X is fun and addictive because of how in-depth it is, but all of that depth goes out the window in Final Fantasy X-2's version. The mini-game is like a mix of soccer and rugby played underwater, where the players pass a ball around the sphere-like field, trying to score goals while the opposing team tackles and kicks to try and stop you. In this game, you can't manually control the characters, turning you more into a manager with access to player stats and rosters and little else. It's more like a spectator mode, watered-down from the exciting matches in Final Fantasy X. See More

Top Pro

Fun turn-based combat with a cool job system

Final Fantasy X-2 has an exciting turn-based system where you can change jobs on-the-fly. During the fast-paced battles, you can choose to switch jobs to handle different enemy types and situations. When you change your main character Yuna from a gunner to a songstress, she can sing tunes that can debilitate enemies or buff the party for the duration of her song. Character models update to the new job costumes in real-time with special animations, like how Yuna will have a spotlight on her as she poses with a microphone when she changes to her songstress job. It's a fun and unique system that with the way you can swap jobs at any time to handle whatever your enemy throws at you. See More

L.A. Noire

Top Pro

Incredibly realistic facial expressions

Every single character in the game looks true-to-life because of how their faces look and move. The developers used some neat motion scanning technology to capture the voice actors' faces as they gave their lines. You get to see every wrinkle, every shift of their jaw lines, and every twitch of their mouths as they speak and emote. There's so much attention to detail that it looks like you're watching a movie with real people. It's really stunning and stands out as a great example of advancing technology in video games. See More

Top Con

No real consequences for failing to solve cases

Even if you continually mess up with the cases, you still get promoted in the police force. You could be the worst cop ever, making terrible decisions and getting yelled at by your superiors. But then in the next cutscene, your bosses tell you what a great job you did and that you're moving up to a more important department. It doesn't make any sense and gives you no reason to do your best during investigations. See More

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

Genre:Detective Action-Adventure

Top Pro

Great story set in 1940s Los Angeles

The detective drama in L.A. Noire is creative and intriguing. Playing as an honest cop named Cole, you get to see the magnitude of crime and racial tension in Los Angeles in the years after World War II, told through the stories of the authentic cast of characters you meet. As a cop, you solve crimes and nail crooks, moving up the ladder in the police department. Each of your investigations take you all around the great rendition of the city in the 1940s, rich with the styles of cars, fashion, and music from the time period. It's a unique experience and setting that not many other games explore. See More

Top Con

The finale is bland

After all the excitement and gritty realism in the story, the final mission and the ending are a real drag in comparison. The momentum from the plot gets sucked out at the end as you play through an uninspired and predictable sequence of events. It looks too much like the developers phoned this part in for the sake of having an ending that wraps up everything nicely. See More

Top Pro

Detailed crime investigation gameplay

Investigating crime scenes is great because of the attention to detail in each mission. Looking over murder victims for patterns in their wounds, for example, gives you an idea of how or why they might have died, which you then jot down in your handy notebook that keeps track of all the information you collect. Observing tire tracks, bloody murder weapons, business cards, and even picking through trash cans leads you to new clues to find and paths to follow. It's up to you to pick out which details may or may not be important, keeping you in control of where each investigation leads. See More

Top Con

Not a lot to do in the big open world

L.A. Noire's open world in Los Angeles is huge, but there isn't much to do in it. There's a bunch of space that's just there for the sake of it. Sure, you can take on really short cases as side missions that you find around the map, like taking out bad guys that are about to rob a place, though that's about all you can do. Including period piece locations like jazzy clubs or laid-back diners to visit whenever could have been a lot of fun. See More

Top Pro

Interrogating witnesses and suspects is a fun challenge

During investigations, you interrogate suspects in a cool, interactive way. After collecting clues, you use your notebook to decide which questions to ask witnesses and suspects. You read their facial expressions, body language, and their tone of voice to judge if they're telling the truth or not. Using your instincts to guess correctly gets the person to open up more, giving you the information you need. If you get it wrong, they shut you down and you're out of luck. The technology used for facial expressions gives you a lot of leeway to truly spot the shifty-eyed or nervous liars just like in real life. See More

Final Fantasy VIII

Specs

Steam Rating:Very Positive

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