Star Crossed Lovers / Video Games

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Star-Crossed Lovers in Video Games.

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• Chaos and Varuna, the god of darkness and a goddess of light, will never be together in the Agarest Senki series. Heck, half of the reason why the war of the gods started was because Chaos never got Varuna.
• Mellthas and Sira in Albion. Not only Interspecies Romance, but Mellthas can't even talk! (one female gamer called it "The Little Mermaid in reverse!")
• Bayonetta has this between the title character's parents. Their clans were forbidden from falling in love due to a prophecy and the two were separated soon after the birth of their daughter, Rosa being imprisoned by hers and Balder being cast out from his. The two wouldn't see each other again for another twenty years, and Rosa was killed soon afterwords (something that poor Balder would end up witnessing twice due to time travel). As for Balder himself, he ended up getting possessed by an evil god and would later be murdered by their amnesiac daughter. What makes this especially tragic is their very nature as an Umbra Witch and Lumen Sage meant that even death wouldn't reunite them due to their souls being automatically bound towards Inferno and Paradiso respectively.
• Coffee Talk: Baileys and Lua's plot centers around how their families won't accept them dating each other due to their races. In their good ending, Baileys cuts himself off from his family to be with Lua while she slowly but surely convinces hers to accept him. They then prepare for their wedding in Episode 2.
• Dragon Age: Origins:
  • If Alistair is crowned king, then he'll very reluctantly break off his relationship with the PC due to his new responsibilities. And depending on your choices near the end, one of you may have to sacrifice their life to save the world. If Alistair loves you, then he won't even give you a choice.
  • A human noble PC who enters a politically motivated marriage with Alistair or Anora may be forced to end things with their real partner, or at least continue the relationship in secret.
  • Jowan and Lily from in the Mage origin are a mage and a Chantry sister, respectively, and are therefore forbidden from being in a relationship. No matter what the player does, their relationship ends in tragedy when Jowan is outed as a bloodmage and Lily is imprisoned for life.
  • Leliana may tell the player the story of Alindra, a young noblewoman who fell in love with a common soldier she was forbidden from seeing. The soldier dies in battle, so Alindra begged the gods to end her life so she can be with her love. The gods were moved, and placed both lovers in the night sky as stars... on opposite ends of the horizon.
  • All of the Origin Story "romances" the player can be involved in are doomed to fail. Let's see...
    • In the Human Noble origin, you can choose to have a sexual encounter with one of two certain characters. Regardless of which one of them you choose, they will be brutally slaughtered when the castle is ambushed that same night.
    • In the Dwarf Noble origin, there appears to be something intimate going on between the female player and Gorim, seeing as the player has several suggestive dialogue options with him. But it is made fairly clear that they cannot marry because he is of a lesser caste. Later in the game the player can find him in Denerim, only to discover that he has already married another woman and is expecting a child with her, and he breaks off the relationship for good. A male player, on the hand, has the option of having a sexual encounter with two "noble hunting" women during the origin story; but it's quite clear that these ladies only want to sleep with him because of his status, for their own personal gain, because they want to have his child so that they can live in the palace. Gets even more star-crossed by the fact that if the player does choose to sleep with them, one of them does end up having his baby, but because he got himself exiled the day after he slept with her, and because a child inherits their status from their same-sex parent, the child is casteless and when the player encounters her again later in the game, she bitches at him and blames him for her misery and accuses him of ruining her life and all that. Go figure.
    • In the City Elf origin, you're being forced to get married, but then a drunken human noble lord comes and ruins your wedding and kidnaps the women. If your character is female, then your fiance ends up being murdered by the lord's men. If your character is male, your fiancee ends up rejecting you after you rescue her from being raped and likely killed, claiming that "Grey Wardens can't have wives or families."
    • In the Mage origin, it is quite obvious that the templar Cullen is infatuated with the female player, although if the player tries to proposition him for sex he'll get incredibly nervous and run away. Later in the game, when the templars are overthrown and the tower is taken over by rebellious blood mages, the player will find that Cullen is the only templar on the upper floors who has not been slaughtered - when the female mage player finds him again, he will outright reveal his infatuation for her, but because of the psychological torture he has endured, he has developed a burning, immense hatred for all mages and pretty much rejects the player because he doesn't care for her anymore, though in Dragon Age II he gets better will speak wistfully of the Human Mage Warden.
    • The Dalish Elf origin has, perhaps, the most heartbreaking conclusion. It ends with Tamlen missing and the player joining the Wardens. Later, during the Shriek attack on the camp, you find out that Tamlen has become a ghoul, someone corrupted by the darkspawn. He confesses his love to the female Dalish elf before she is forced to kill him.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Dragon Quest III: Faerie princess Aniseed and her human lover, who chose to be Together in Death, leaving behind an angry faerie queen who thought they just eloped. And cursed everyone in his hometown to sleep forever.
  • Dragon Quest VI: Rod, an injured fisherman, loves the mermaid who saved his life, Unda.
  • Dragon Quest VII: Linda is a young woman saddled with her parents' massive debt after their deaths. Borlock agrees to forgive the debt if she'll marry his son; while Linda agrees, she's secretly pining after her real beloved: Pepe. She eventually drives Pepe out of town with her demands that he fight for her; though she marries Iwan, she eventually abandons him and their son to search for Pepe, only to decide she can't face him, and spends the rest of her life as a nun secretly watching over him from her convent.
  • Dragon Quest VIII: Xia's boundless curiosity about humans led her to leave the Dragovian Sanctuary to learn about them. Her father Chen Mui, furious, pursued her and dragged her back to the Sanctuary, but not before she had been betrothed to a human prince named Eltrio. Eltrio pursued her, but died before reaching the gates of the sanctuary; after discovering his fate, she died in grief soon afterwards. Her grave was placed on the opposite side of the sanctuary from Eltrio's just to keep them apart.
  • Dragon Quest XI: Serenica was Erdwin's lover, and the sage who fought alongside him in the age of legends until Erdwin got killed by a traitor. After sealing the demon god Calasmos's body Serenica attempted to travel back in time to save Erdwin, but perished in the process. Ultimately averted in the end because after the Hero and his party defeat Calasmos, he uses his powers to restore Serenica to her human form and gives her the Sword of Light, allowing her to successfully travel back in time and reunite with Erdwin.
    • Kainora was a human fisherman who fell in love with Michelle, a mermaid. He had to go home, but promised her he would return and marry her. However, the villagers believe mermaids are evil creatures and that Kainora had been cursed, so they burned his boat to prevent him from going back and exiled him to a hut outside the village, where he lived for the rest of his life until his death. Michelle remained waiting for him for years, until the Hero and his party arrive. The party agrees to go check in on him and learn the truth. The Hero then has to choose whether to lie to Michelle or tell her the truth. If she is lied to, Michelle continues waiting for him, not knowing that he'll never arrive. If she is told the truth, she asks to be taken to Kainora's hometown, where she is shown his grave. She turns herself human, and then kills herself to be with him in death.
• The Elder Scrolls
  • In the series' backstory, according to the in-game book series The Real Barenziah, Tiber Septim and the young Dunmeri noble Barenziah fit this trope, as they were like-minded souls who genuinely fell in love with each other. Though, of course, their relationship ended badly because as much as Tiber Septim loved Barenziah, he loved power more.
  • In Skyrim, Jon Battle-Born and Olfina Gray-Mane, members of two feuding families split over the civil war, are secretly courting each other.
• Fallen London: In a fit of sheer irony, Fallen London takes place in an alternate universe where stars are the avatars of divine power, whose harsh and oppressive law constrains two fundamentally different aliens from loving each other, yet it is the lowborn and insignificant audience, humanity, who becomes their greatest obstacle. And these humans, angry at everything, will destroy the stars themselves.
  • These aliens are literally the Sun and a giant space crab, who have the 'tragically'-impossible dream of being together due to the differences in their castes, and they enslaved, oppressed, and abused all of humanity in an attempt to overcome boundaries.^note Every sun is a sentient Reality Warper Physical God, and whatever absorbs sunlight becomes normal because the suns decide what is normal. The Bazaar's grandmaster is from a species of sun-couriers, and according to the caste system the suns obey, love is forbidden between higher (sun) and lower (human) castes. Naturally, the Bazaar eventually fell in love with a sun, and it happened to be humanity's. Now it hides in the deep crust of the Earth, where it cannot be burned out of reality by sunlight, sowing discord and tragedy among the humans above and below by instigating wars and bigotry (though not sexual bigotry, as that goes against its objectives) simply to create millions of other Star-Crossed Lovers, in the hopes that one rebellious couple and their touching love story will create the ultimate philosophical epiphany, one that could break the rigidity of the caste system for good.
  • Naturally, the humans (and a few others) who learn of this tragic tale are usually pissed off at what everyone involved in this 'tragedy' has done to humanity on a whim, and become spitefully antagonistic towards the lovers, those that crossed them, and pretty much everyone else for creating a Cosmic Horror Story out of the whole universe.^note The majority of humanity was deceived into perpetuating endless, pointless war and division to 'set the stage', and every tragic love story in history was indirectly orchestrated by a selfish ultra-powerful snob who likes to collect sob stories. Not helping matters is how they casually kidnapped entire cities, under the delusion that the ruler would have the divine right to sell an entire civilization like slaves, and crushed those cities and their citizens into slag when they were no longer useful. And most importantly, the gods humanity has worshiped their entire lives aren't compassionate or even self-centered, but fervently believe in the subjugation and torment of all lesser-caste beings, and ignore everyone except the sociopaths who betray and use their own kin; to those monsters, they give the opportunity to ascend in their chain-caste, so they might become even greater abominations that can use even more innocents as disposable tools and toys.
  • In response, a disturbingly large number of these informed angry men and women and si-uh-ma'-uhs have worked on a master plan to kill all the suns in the universe and replace them with artificial, human-raised ones, and they're planning to have the Bazaar unwittingly carry the disease/army/warhead when it travels to the stars to recite its epiphany of love across boundaries, killing the very rulers of creation it intends to make peace with. One character calls out the star-crossed close to home; despite their miserable state, they did horrible things for fundamentally insane reasons, and pissed half the Neath off.
  Noman: "You're sitting pretty. The Bazaar broke a law or two in making me, yes it did, but I wouldn't have lasted this long unless you had a foot snared in the Great Chain... I'll be free, very soon." (Its words are becoming harder to understand.) "You'll be tempted. Don't trust the Bazaar. Don't feel sorry for it. Love is a demand, not a solution. The Chain may go up to the stars, but it prisons us all. The Liberation of Night..."
  • One of these star-crossed lovers is also a massive hypocrite, as they claim to love like no other, yet ignored their own daughter and a human who fell in love with them.
• From Fatal Frame:
  • The first game has Kirie and her unnamed lover. Said lover was a visitor and couldn't stay, while Kirie herself was a shrine maiden who was supposed to have no emotional attachment to anyone for the sake of the ritual, for which she would be sacrificed. The priests, at the Himuro family master's order, killed him and lied to her afterwards to try to keep her from forming emotional attachment, but she found out anyway, causing her conflicted emotions that weakened her resolve as a Human Sacrifice, which ended up with a failed ritual that doomed the Himuro clan and anyone in the mansion, both during and after the ritual.
    Kirie: Let me see him one more time!
  • Fatal Frame III:
    • Reika and Kaname. Since Reika was a Tattooed Priestess that was fated to be sacrificed and males who weren't Master Builder for the shrines were permitted only as temporary guests, they were kept apart. Kaname's desperate attempts to return to the Kuze manor and reunite with Reika eventually led to his Plot-Triggering Death that Reika was Forced to Watch, causing the Unleashing that plunged the Kuze household into ruin and lured anyone with Survivor's Guilt into the Kuze manor to become cursed.
      Reika: I don't want to see anymore...
    • Kyouka (a.k.a. Brushing Woman), who fell in love with Akito, a visitor to the Kuze manor. Akito eventually wished (and tried) to take Kyouka away from the Kuze household, only to be murdered without Kyouka's knowledge, leading Kyouka to pine for Akito for the rest of her life (and afterlife). Seeing Kei did nothing to sate her anger toward Akito for thinking she had been abandoned all this time.
      Kyouka: You said you'd come back!
• In Fate/Grand Order, Rama and Sita are under a curse of separation that prevents them from reuniting. When he finally finds her in the America chapter, he collapses from his wounds and she ends up giving her life to save him. The Grail War's summoning system normally prevents them both from being summoned at the same time as well, though Singularities are strange enough affairs that they can be summoned at the same time. On a meta level, players have been waiting for Sita to be introduced as a summonable Servant so that the two can be reunited and she finally was in 2020... in the arcade, which Rama isn't part of.
• Final Fantasy:
  • In the Final Fantasy VII series, Aerith Gainsborough is this with both Zack Fair and Cloud Strife. Her and Zack's relationship was fairly happy at first, as shown in Crisis Core, but then Zack goes on the infamous Nibelheim mission and disappears for years, ultimately dying just outside Midgar before he can reunite with Aerith. She never learns what happened to him and, in the meantime, briefly sees Cloud (who happens to have been Zack's best friend) as a Replacement Goldfish. However, as they travel together and grow closer to each other, she begins to develop genuine feelings for Cloud and if her Relationship Values are high enough, expresses her desire to get to know the "real" him... only to ultimately face her own death at the blade of Sephiroth. She and Zack end up Together in Death, as shown in Advent Children and watch over Cloud, who continues to mourn for them until the end of the film.
  • Final Fantasy VIII:
    • Played with when it comes to Laguna and Julia. They have an attraction to each other during Laguna's military days, but it's not known if it ever progressed beyond that. Julia later wrote a song invoking this trope, as she believed Laguna to be killed in action. It is however a slightly straighter example for Laguna and Raine, who were together briefly, but Laguna left to rescue Ellone from Esthar soldiers. While he was gone, Raine died in childbirth.
    • Fanon liked to assign this to Squall and Rinoa (who are the children of Laguna and Julia respectively). A fan theory for years was that Ultimecia the Big Bad of the game was actually a future version of Rinoa, driven mad by Squall's death, due to sorceresses living longer (itself just Fanon). Square ultimately debunked this theory.
  • This could apply to Final Fantasy X's Tidus and Yuna with Tidus being actually a dream of the Fayth. But at the Golden Ending of Final Fantasy X-2, they are happily reunited.
    • Final Fantasy X-2 has Lenne and Shuyin, whose romance was interrupted by the war between Zanarkand and Bevelle. As a summoner, Lenne was assigned to the front lines to fight. Shuyin sought to use the machina Vegnagun to stop the war. Although Lenne stopped him, both were killed. They couldn't be Together in Death because of Shuyin's soul being trapped in the Den of Woe. It becomes Yuna's goal to reunite them.
  • Serah and Snow in Final Fantasy XIII-2. The first game's ending was pretty good for them, then the sequel kicked in and Snow went on a quest to find Lightning. It all goes downhill from there. Except in one of the Paradox Endings, i.e. an alternate, non official ending, where they go on adventures together.
  • The Warrior of Light and Cosmos from Dissidia Final Fantasy, as well as Cid and his wife, whose likeness they were created in.
• Fire Emblem has many, MANY of these:
  • Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light:
    • In the backstory, Anri the Hero and Princess Artemis of Archanea weren't allowed to marry since Anri was a commoner and Artemis was the last survivor of her noble house. Artemis married Duke Cartas and fell victim to Death by Childbirth, Anri remained celibate for the rest of his life, and it's said that Artemis cursed the Fire Emblem before dying, calling it 'the end of war, but also the end of love'.
    • Even more so: Princess Nyna and Camus. Holy shit, Nyna and Camus. Camus is a somewhat reluctant part of the invading force that defeats Nyna's kingdom but spares her, despite orders from the Big Bad to kill her. He successfully manages to keep her alive for some time but is eventually discovered. Camus successfully delivers Nyna to Marth and to safety, but remains loyal to his country and is apparently killed in the resulting boss fight. Nyna accepts an Arranged Marriage to Prince Hardin, who has a huge Bodyguard Crush on her, after the war is over, only for him to fall into depression when he realizes that Nyna cares for him but simply cannot love him back, which led him to end up Brainwashed and Crazy thanks to the work of Gharnef. Meanwhile, Camus reappears in Valentia, amnesiac and with a new name given to him (Ezekiel aka Zeke) by Tatiana, the White Magician Girl who found him. He falls for Tatiana and marries her between the second and third games, but regains his memory and goes back to Archanea to aid Marth in defeating Hardin, the revived Gharnef and Medeus while under the guise of Sirius. Camus/Sirius is the key to freeing Nyna from the Brainwashed and Crazy state Medeus put her in, but pretends he isn't himself to spare her feelings and not bring her more misfortune. It fails, but he still refuses to stay with Nyna, so he returns to Valentia and Tatiana afterward. The emotionally-shattered Nyna gets sick of all the fighting and how much her life has sucked, blaming herself for the hardship the continent faced, including the death of Hardin after being defeated and debrainwashed, so she gives up her kingdom to Marth and leaves, presumably to follow and confront Camus. Their subplot is never resolved.
  • In Fire Emblem Gaiden and its remake, Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Alm and Celica have a budding Childhood Friend Romance but must be separated since each one is The Chosen One for their lands. They swear to defy the trope, however, and decide to reunite no matter what. It almost gets played straight since their countries go to war and the Sinister Minister Jedah pits them against one another later, with Alm even seemingly killing Celica to snap her out of Jedah's possession, but with a bit of help from Mila, they turn the trope on its head and not only they marry, but unite their realms into one.
    • This can, however, be played completely straight with other characters if one member of a couple set dies before the ending: the survivor's end will go from a happy ending with his/her beloved to a bittersweet one tops. This includes: Mae and Boey ^note (if Mae dies, Boey becomes a famous sage and spiritual leader but never marries; if Boey dies, Mae tends to a monastery and stays single for the rest of her life), Gray and Clair ^note (if Gray dies, Clair becomes a famous lady of war but refuses to marry; if Clair dies, Gray disappears forever), the aforementioned Tatiana and Zeke ^note (if Tatiana dies, Zeke leaves to Archanea but never returns to Valentia; if Zeke dies, Tatiana locks herself away in a monastery, and only recovers in the remake. Zeke's appearance in Mystery of the Emblem thankfully means neither ending is canon, but that does not make them any less saddening.), Clive and Mathilda ^note (if Clive dies, Mathilda also becomes a fighting paragon but refuses to ever love anyone again; if Mathilda dies, Clive perishes very early while fighting pirates). Strong cases can also be made for Leon's Unrequited Love for Valbar ^note (if Valbar dies, Leon [who already lost his First Love in the past] becomes a famous knight and instructor but emotionally shuts down) and maybe Python and Forsyth ^note (Forsyth only ever marries if Python dies, while Python will also die young if Forsyth dies).
  • Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem has Abel and Est. Abel is forced to fight against Marth because Est has been taken hostage. The player can save both of them. Est's ending states that she leaves Abel, probably due to the guilt of being captured and her husband having to fight his lord because of her; Abel looks for her but nothing else is said.
  • Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War:
    • Sigurd and Deirdre. They do marry and have a child, but then Deirdre is kidnapped and brainwashed into marrying her half-brother, and said half-brother kills Sigurd. Yikes.
    • And then there's almost any couple coming from the first part. Most of the playable males die in the Battle of Belhalla alongside Sigurd (Only Finn and debatably Lewyn are still alive), and the girls either are missing (Ayra, Brigid^note Though Fire Embelm Thracia 776 reveals she is still alive under the pseudonym "Eyvel"., Lachesis, Silvia), retired (Edain), or dead (Tailtiu, Erinys) as well.
    • The second part has Travant's adopted daughter Altena (or better said, his spoil of war after he kills her parents and takes her hostage) and his full-blooded son Arion. In a subversion, one can give them a happy ending - but it heavily depends on the strategies used.
  • Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 adds more details to the Lachesis and Finn situation, as it's all but stated that Finn is the father of Lachesis' daughter Nanna, but it's also mentioned that Lachesis has been MIA for years already and in the end Finn spends years seeking for Lachesis, but never finds her. It also adds Deen and Linoan: they really like and care for each other, but Deen is is bound to his duty as a Thracian Dragon Rider and disappears after the war, and Linoan never marries afterwards.
  • Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade has Melady and Galle, especially when you let Melady talk to Galle before you kill him. Subverted possibly since Galle doesn't have to die to complete the chapter but neither the main story nor Melady's ending ever addresses whether he survived. They're not the only ones either: there's also Astolfo and Igrene. Their supports are just as moving and sad, because it's hinted that they are already married, but lost each other several years ago... and since he's a spy of Ostia, he can't return to her no matter what.
  • Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
    • This happens to Priscilla, if she is paired with either the myrmidon Guy or the Dragon Rider Heath. Basically, she's a noble girl whereas Guy is a tribesman from Sacae, and Heath is a deserter from Bern. So in the end, they back down. This is especially true on the Heath-Priscilla pairing, or her A Support with Sain, who truly loves her, but they both realize he can't abandon his duty to Caelin to return to Etruria with her. He ends up in tears while she tries to comfort him despite her own sorrow. (Erk, on the other hand, is not so unlucky thanks to his connections to Pent.)
    • Legault/Isadora (they find each other as enemies in the battlefield, years after the game events), Renault/Isadora (he disappears, she leaves the military and becomes a cleric to find him but we never find out if she does or not) and Harken/Vaida (reach an understanding, long for each other... then they never meet again). Also, if the player doesn't pair up Eliwood and Ninian via supports, she has to leave with Nils to her own world behind the Dragon's Gate, and she canonically is in love with Eliwood.
  • Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
    • There's a rather pleasing subversion with Dragon Rider Cormag and Princess Tana of Frelia. While he does leave after his land of Grado is reconstructed and she does spend years searching for him, they ultimately find each other and she knights him in what's implied to be her personal service rather than that of her realm.
    • Similarly, Princess Eirika and her loyal knight Seth also subvert this. Their final support conversation ends with both of them confessing their feelings to each other but also viewing them as improper for their stations and resolving to not act on them. Their shared ending however states they got married with the blessings of everyone, so they went through some needless angst over the whole thing.
  • Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance has Ena and her fiancé, Prince Rajaion of Goldoa. At some point he went to look for his missing sister Almedha and her son, and then his evil brother-in-law King Ashnard captured him, got him infused with a Psycho Serum that locked him in his dragon mode and made him go insane, and transformed him in his mount - in fact, he fights the heroes in the last battle riding him. Ena joins Ike's group in an attempt to reach for Rajaion, and after Ashnard is defeated she manages to do so... but Rajaion is so weakened and wounded that, despite recovering his human form and a bit of his sanity and memories thanks to the Herons's songs, he dies soon afterwards next to the saddened Ena. The only more or less bright spot is that some time later Ena gives birth to her and Rajaion's child, the first full-blooded dragon born in centuries.
  • Fire Emblem: Awakening:
    • This can happen and then defied if Chrom marries a female Avatar — because in the future, after the Avatar and Chrom defeat Validar at the Dragon's Table, the Avatar becomes possessed by the Evil God Grima and kills Chrom. The catch is that the player averts this- especially since Chrom's daughter Lucina and the children of the other characters will join the group to change the future.
    • By extension, this involves all the pairings including The Avatar, whether male or female, since Chrom's murder at the hands of the possessed Avatar will always be what kicks off the Bad Future where all the parent charas die and all the kid characters go through Break the Cutie. And strong cases can be made for all the parent pairings, for obvious reasons.
    • Any couple involving Nowi or Tiki (and maybe Nah) will cross between this and Mayfly–December Romance. Being Manaketes (or half manaketes, in Nah's case) means that all of them will outlive any possible boyfriend/husband.
  • Fire Emblem Fates:
    • Princess Azura and any guy she marries in the Birthright and Conquest routes will fall into this, a Male Avatar included. This is because she will die at the end of each of these routes, as her water powers that are Cast from Lifespan cause her to dissolve into water. It can only be averted if the player chooses the Revelation path.
    • The Male Avatar can have this with Scarlet in Revelation, since she only stays around for few chapters before being murdered. In such a reduced time span the player can have their Male Avatar romance her via using additional challenge maps (DLC or not) to their advantage... only for her to be killed in a Heroic Sacrifice and then forcibly revived, forcing the group to kill her again. In the Birthright path, however, she can marry the Male Avatar and live to the very end, averting the trope.
    • Kaze and any of his girlfriends can potentially be this in the Birthright path, if the requisite to avert his Heroic Sacrifice (having Kaze reach at least A support with an Avatar of either gender at some point) isn't fulfilled. Obviously, a Female Avatar who has successfully romanced him will end up saving his life.
    • Queen Mikoto went through this twice, with two different beloveds. First, it was with Anankos's good side: she rescued him when he was wounded, they were more or less happy and they had the Avatar together, but Anankos as a whole grew increasingly mad and she had to run away with their child to Hoshido. Later, she met King Sumeragi of Hoshido who fell in Love at First Sight with her and they were Happily Married, but Sumeragi was killed in the last war with Nohr and the Avatar was taken away almost at the same time; Mikoto pressed on, raised Sumeragi's children as if they were hers and ruled wisely over Hoshido... only to die few after being reunited with the Avatar, and at the hands of a Sumeragi who Came Back Wrong, thanks to the now fully maddened and evil Anankos.
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses has Edelgard and Dimitri. Edelgard's mother had married Dimitri's father when they were children, making the two stepsiblings who had lived together until Edelgard was forced to return home, where she was experimented on by Those Who Slither in the Dark, causing her memory of Dimitri to become blurry and her lifespan to drastically shorten. Dimitri, meanwhile, became traumatized as a result of the Tragedy of Duscur, and vowed to get revenge on those responsible, blaming an entity known as the Flame Emperor for the event. Though the two are reunited as fellow students of Garreg Mach Monestary during the first part, Dimitri goes insane upon learning that Edelgard is actually the Flame Emperor, and swears to kill her for supposedly being responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur. Neither character makes it to the end outside of their routes, meaning none of the routes conclude with both characters making it out alive. Similarly, Edelgard is implied to have feelings for the Avatar regardless of the route chosen, but due to the above circumstances, this can only be subverted on the Crimson Flower route.
• As if this trope wasn't enough in the original Fushigi Yuugi media, the dating sims Kagami no Miko and Suzaku Ibun also have it:
  • In Garasu no Miko, the Player Character Mariko Kobayashi can only stay with one of her potential beaus, her Childhood Friend Takumi. All the others (Uruki, Tomite, Hikitsu, Shigi and Canon Foreigner Shura) are doomed because Mariko's goals are to rescue Takumi and go back home. Specially Shura, since he dies in his route.
  • In Suzaku Ibun, the Player Character and Miaka's expy Madoka can fall in love with one of the Suzaku Seishi, but at the end she cannot bring her beau with her. Unless the player unlocks two Special Endings: the Reincarnation End where the boyfriend is reincarnated and reunited with her (like it happened in canon with Miaka and Taka/Tamahome) or the Staying Behind End (where Madoka stays in the Book with him).
• Gabriel and Malia in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers. Tetelo, Malia's ancestor, was killed by Gunter, Gabriel's ancestor. She's the head of the Voodoo cult he's after the entire game; Tetelo possesses Malia's body during ceremonies. Reclaiming the Ritter talisman causes the entire place to erupt into flames, allowing you to try to kill or save Malia though the canon ending is saving her, as the other one kills you. But even if you try to save her, she is swallowed by the flames.
• Guilty Gear: -STRIVE- reveals that Axl and I-no are the time-displaced Alternate Selves of the same pair of lovers, William and Megumi, unaware of each other's identities. While I-no knows that Will had "beautiful blond hair, like a woman's", it's only when Axl tells her that he "can't get anything out but tears", something Will used to say to her whenever they had a fight, does she realize that the goofball she keeps bumping into is actually her long-lost boyfriend.
• The Didact and Librarian from Halo. First, the Didact gets sealed in a chamber in hibernation for a thousand years. Then, after the Librarian puts her plan in action to reunite them, he is sentenced to death. Luckily, he is reincarnated in Bornstellar as the IsoDidact, and then it turns out that the original Didact is Not Quite Dead after all. Unfortunately, the Librarian is forced to seal away the original after he goes insane, while the IsoDidact is forced to fire the titular Halo rings in order to defeat the Flood, presumably killing the Librarian in the process. The last time they speak to one another, the IsoDidact is pleading with her to return to him, even as she accepts her own fate. To top it all off, the Librarian is told right before the Halos activate that the firing of the rings will destroy the Domain, condemning the original Didact to Go Mad from the Isolation.
• Tequila and Billie, the daughter of Big Bad Mr. Wong in John Woo Presents Stranglehold.
• Sora and Kairi become this by Kingdom Hearts III. After Kairi is sacrificed by Master Xehanort, Sora bitterly acknowledges that something always keeps them apart ever since the first game. In the end, a Heroic Sacrifice on Sora's part to save Kairi keeps them separated again.
• From both installments of Knights of the Old Republic: Male Player and Bastila, Female Player and Carth, Female Exile and Atton, Male Exile and Handmaiden, and other PC/NPC romances; canon states that both the PCs eventually left their loved ones behind and departed to the Unknown Region for good. There is also a side quest in the first game that features an example from two feuding families.
• Cole and Elsa in L.A. Noire.
• The Last of Us DLC Left Behind reveals that Ellie Williams and Riley Abel were this.
• Diana and Leona of League of Legends. In their youth, the two were completely smitten with the other. In the present, Diana is a moon-worshipping exile bent on revenge, and Leona is the embodiment of the zealous and xenophobic Solari faith. Even being bitter enemies in the present, it's clear those feelings aren't totally gone. This is actually a subversion, as the sun-worshipping Solari and moon-worshipping Lunari are supposed to be united as one, rather than divided by misguided and incomplete dogma, and as they were chosen as the Aspects of the Sun and the Moon the stars themselves actually intend for Leona and Diana to be together rather than "crossing" them.
  Diana: Wherever I go, you are never far behind.
  Leona: When night falls, I know that you are with me.
• In the Mass Effect series, this is the current fate of the possible romance between Shepard and Ashley/Kaidan. In the second game, Shepard is in an uneasy alliance with Cerberus while Ashley/Kaidan remain loyal to The Alliance.
  • It can also happen in Mass Effect 2 if your love interest dies during the suicide mission.
    • Or if you're romancing Thane as female Shepard, thanks to his illness and Kai Leng from 3.
  • Pretty much happens to all love interests who were part of your crew in the 3rd game, what with them being stranded on Gilligan's Planet, the relay system in ruins and Shepard being dead in the Sol system in most cases. One of the many reasons the ending is hated by the fans.
  • In the "Extended Cut" DLC, the Normandy is no longer stranded and the Mass Relays are only damaged and eventually repaired (unless the player's Effective Military Strength is too low, in which case they are still destroyed), but Shepard is still dead in all of the endings except for "Destroy" with high enough EMS.
• Max Payne and Mona Sax. The two become romantically involved over the course of the second game, but as they're on opposite sides of the law, with Max being an NYPD detective and Mona being an assassin for the Inner Circle, it's simply not meant to be.
• The Joy/The Boss and The Sorrow of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. They were together for a while, and they even had a child (Ocelot), but in the end, their devotion to their countries (the United States and the USSR, respectively) put them on opposite sides of the Cold War, and the Joy ended up being forced to kill the Sorrow. They're Together in Death by the end of the game.
  • Venom Snake and Quiet; they're in a love-hate relationship, mostly because while Venom has been a true companion to Quiet, Big Boss set her on fire. TWICE. Not to mention the rest of Diamond Dogs (Snake's personal PMC) hate her guts for being a rampaging supervillain with freaky parasites growing over her skin, who also worked under the same shadowy organization that hunted down hundreds of Russian soldiers, Diamond Dogs, and other PMCs. She's kept in the brig unless she's on a mission, and some of the crew, Snake's second-in-command included, would like Venom Snake to stop playing teenagers in love and just kill her. In the end, one of Quiet's parasites goes epidemic and she has to commit suicide to prevent it from spreading.
• Liu Kang and Princess Kitana of the Mortal Kombat universe, which is bound and determined in both the original series and the reboot to ensure they never find happiness because of their vastly different duties keeping them apart (his as Earthrealm's champion and hers as ruler of Edenia). Until Mortal Kombat X — their Revenant selves are the Ruling Couple of the Netherrealm, following the Evil Power Vacuum left behind by the death of Quan Chi and the permanent incapacitation of Shinnok. Then in Mortal Kombat 11, which features them as heroes again due to their past selves being brought forward by Time Travel, the Golden Ending features Liu choosing Kitana to be his partner in helping him reshape the universe with the sands of time...but then that was rendered non-canon in Aftermath, where the slate basically gets wiped clean and leaves their true future together uncertain.
• EVERY single pair of lovers in Odin Sphere:
  • Gwendolyn was promised to King Onyx; Oswald had his soul pledged to Queen Odette. (Also, contrary to what Gwendolyn was lead to believe by her father Odin, she was never under a love spell that would make her fall in love with Oswald. Oswald was willing to go through hell and highwater to find a way to break the "spell" before learning it didn't exist despite his own Desperately Craves Affection mindset) Both Onyx and Odette try to collect multiple times throughout the game via kidnapping, deception, and good old Murder the Hypotenuse, and Gwendolyn and/or Oswald must fight to remain together.
  • Cornelius' father actively tries to discourage his relationship with Princess Velvet in favor of a political marriage between Cornelius and one of Odin's legitimate daughters. Velvet's own brother Prince Ingway significantly disapproves of their relationship (up to the point he's the one responsible for casting the Pooka's Curse on Cornelius and trying to magically impersonate both of them at different points to break them up) as well, although he warms up to Cornelius much later in the game even admitting regret to cursing him.
  • Regarding Mercedes and Ingway, he has to leave as soon as the spell that changed him into a frog is broken. Also, while Mercedes is one of the five chosen heroes meant to save the world in Armageddon Ingway is one of the Five Disasters meant to end the world. In the true ending, Ingway is dead for their next meeting, and Mercedes dies shortly afterward in a Mutual Kill with King Onyx. And even worse: if the player chooses the bad ending by fighting the first Darkova with Mercedes, they end up essentially killing one another.
  • The backstory has King Odin (Gwendolyn and Griselda's dad) and Princess Ariel of Valentine, who gave birth to Odin's other children aka the aforementioned Velvet and Ingway. He had to leave before they were born and she ultimately died at the hands of her own father for having birthed his children. Odin has been heartbroken ever since.
• The are numerous examples within Persona 3:
  • Technically, literally every romance qualifies, as the Protagonist is doomed to give their life to seal a Cosmic Horror. This is especially pronounced with two specific romances, one for the Male Protagonist and one for the Female Protagonist.
    • The romance between the Male Protagonist and Aigis, as he dies on her lap while she promises to be by his side forever, and when one considers "The Answer" (A Playable Epilogue included in Persona 3 FES ) features Aigis inheriting his Wild Card, and her main motivation as she traverses through the Abyss Of Time is to find the meaning behind his passing. Failing to protect him became a major source of angst for her and it's made clear that she is the one most hurt by his passing as her door is located at the very bottom of the Abyss Of Time, and as a result of said pain has casted away her humanity, with Metis being manifested from it.
    • Subverted with the Male Protagonist and Yukari Takeba in "The Answer", who despite willing to face fighting Cosmic Horrors and her own friends just to resurrect him, there is nothing indicating the protagonist has ever loved her back as he chose to spend the last moments of his life with Aigis and she inherited his Wild Card,which became a driving point for her jealousy towards Aigis for the remainder of The Answer. However at the end of The Answer she reconciles with Aigis and admits that she is the one that feels most strongly about him.
    • The romance between the Female Protagonist and Ryoji Mochizuki introduced in Persona 3 Portable, as he's an amnesiac Anthropomorphic Personification of the Cosmic Horror the Protagonist needs to seal. They are on different sides due to Ryoji's alignment with Nyx, however since both end up dying you can interpret their bond as being Together in Death especially since he was with her throughout the game as Pharos and later Ryoji.
  • Outside of romances involving the Protagonist, Junpei Iori and Chidori Yoshino. He's a member of SEES, she's a Dark Magical Girl who works with Strega, a faction that opposes SEES and wants to bring about the Fall - yet they fall in love. And then in late November, Junpei is shot and killed by Strega's leader, before Chidori uses her Cast from Hit Points healing ability to save Junpei at the cost of her own life. However, Persona 3 FES made it so that, with the correct dialogue choices, the Protagonist will encourage Junpei not to give up on Chidori when she tries pushing him away, which will change events so that Chidori's healing ability will kick in one last time, and she'll revive over a month later, albeit without her memories of the Dark Hour or Junpei - but a desire to find the person she saw in her dreams, which is implied to be Junpei.
• Pokémon:
  • In the post-game story for Pokémon: Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire, the player stumbles upon two grunts from Team Aqua and Team Magma who are secretly a couple. Both are afraid of what their teams will say about their forbidden relationship, but members of their team find them anyway and bless the relationship.
  • Pokémon Legends: Arceus also has a secret relationship between two members of the Diamond and Pearl clans. Palina rescued Iscan from drowning when Noble Arcanine died and both have been together despite their clans’ rivalry. Irida and Adaman are both accepting of the relationship, to their relief.
• The prince and princess in the original Prince of Persia games.
  Narrator: And so the young lovers were wed and lived happily... well, for eleven days.
• This is practically how the war of the gods started in the three games of Record of Agarest War with 2 being the one that concentrates on it the most. Chaos, the god of destruction and rebirth and a dark god, and Varna, the goddess of light, were in love with each other but cannot be together because both light and darkness cannot co-exist with each other. In the end of Agarest 2 however, they finally reunite with each other.
• Leon and Ada in the Resident Evil series.
• Chibi-Usa and Anshar from Sailor Moon: Another Story, if you have his older sister and local Big Bad Sin defeated by Chibimoon's team.
• Kei Odagiri and Ukyou Tachibana from Samurai Shodown straddle the line between this and Courtly Love. They're in love and she's his inspiration, but Ukyou has to keep his distance because she's a high-ranked noblewoman while he's a swordsman, and will eventually die sooner or later. She gets married to someone else, but they still hold feelings for each other in their hearts, and when Kei needs Ukyou's help he will immediately go to her aid.
• In Shira Oka: Second Chances, one of the routes results in the inevitable death of its focus character, Yui
• Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox in Sly Cooper. It's played with in the first game with Carmelita's Mercy Lead, and he is rescued by his friends just as Carmelita was about to break out a glass of wine for the occasion of his arrest with him in the second. In the third game, he fakes amnesia after being injured by Dr. M. and ends up with Carmelita in Paris. In the fourth game, he vanishes without a trace to ancient Egypt as Carmelita and the Cooper Gang try to bring him back home.
• Xianghua's parents, Chai Xiangfei and Kong Xiuqiang in the Soul Series. She was training in a temple, he was one of the warrior monks in it, and they held a Secret Relationship where they even managed to have a daughter, Xianglian. When they were found out Xiangfei was forced to return to her house, Kong was expelled, and baby Xianglian was forcibly taken away from them, but he gave her a sword as a proof of love before they were separated. Little did they know that said sword was the treasure Krita Yuga, and that Xiangfei was pregnant with Xianghua...
  • Xianghua herself and Kilik are this by the time Soulcalibur V hits. They were in love, and even had a child named Xiba, but not only Xiba is also infected with his father's curse but Kilik believes that he is only hurting Xianghua due to how much she has suffered for his sake. So Xiba has been raised away from both parents, Kilik has gone Walking the Earth, and Xianghua has married someone else (a well-respected and high-ranked general of the Ming Empire, who's the father of Xianghua's daughter/Xiba's half-sister Leixia.)
• In the Shadow of Revan expansion of Star Wars: The Old Republic, player characters of both factions and genders have the opportunity to romance Republic SIS agent Theron Shan and Sith Lord Lana Beniko. By the end of the storyline, it's made clear that the truce between the Republic and Empire is over and the romance must end, either because you're forced to go back to being enemies or that everyone will be busy with other things.
• Timpani and Blumiere of Super Paper Mario. Or, as you know them for most of the game, Tippi and Count Bleck.
• Rufus and Alicia from Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria.
  • Lucian and Lenneth is about as star-crossed as it gets. He's a mortal, she's a goddess.
• This is part of the main plot of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The two main characters, Noah and Mio, are from rivaling factions who are always at war with each other, which is why, at first, their relationship is seen as taboo. However, by the time the game starts, Mio only has about three months to live, so their time together is going to be cut short. It turns out, that Noah and Mio were always destined to fall in love, as it has happened in all of their lifetimes, but it always gets cut short as they inevitably die. This is why N (an alternate version of Noah) is a Moebius, since he saw it as the only way for him to be with Mio and have their relationship actually last. When the gang finally defeat Z and restore the worlds, even then, Noah and Mio’s blossoming relationship has to end yet again, as they must part to their original worlds.
• Fei and Elly in Xenogears, multiple times. They are trapped in an endless cycle of reincarnation, and every single time it ends quite badly for both of them. Until they break the cycle, of course. At least one of their doomed romances has shades of Love Above One's Station.
  • Arc and Elle of Terranigma find themselves in an almost identical situation, as they reincarnate endlessly to save the world... and be killed off just as their love blooms and the world is safe, each time.
• Yandere Simulator: Literally the title of the credits song, an Award-Bait Song that's soft and gentle, about how deeply Yan-chan wants to be with Senpai. In fact, one bit of the lyrics is:
  And all I aim to prove, is that we're taking on life like star-crossed lovers.
• Adol and Lilia in the Ys series, as well as pretty much every other girl he meets. This is the only girl he gets close to getting serious with.

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