Married protagonists in video games

I wonder if anyone has noticed that married protagonists in video games are a very rare sight. In fact, much rarer than other forms of entertainment like movies and TV shows. One possible reason is to have them romantically available so to add a love dimension to the story, although I think having to put a love side-story to make your plot interesting is a weakness on part of the creators. Another reason is that not having a family (or at least a living family) will allow the hero to indulge in whatever quest he wants, although having a family can be exploited as a source for drama. In a nutshell, a video game protagonist is supposed to be the embodiment of freedom and adventure (including sexual adventure), things that are not very compatible with married life. Married female protagonists, or even Married female characters, are even rarer, since, in addition to the issues stated above, video game creators usually want to appeal to male customers by sexualizing female characters as much as possible (or permissible), and a female character being married quite kills that appeal. So do you know any Married video game protagonists? Also, protagonists who start as single but end up married after a romantic relationship in the game’s story do not count, since they are just instances of relationship upgrade. Here are a few examples I know: Cole phelps (L.A. Noire) Alan Wake (Alan Wake) John Marston (Red Dead Redemption) Games made by Koei, since they are based on real people, and in the real world people are quite likely to marry.

The Survivor from Fallout 4?

Don't stop, just proceed, 'cause this is what you need-proceed, just proceed, 'cause this is what you need!

Quite a few in the early JRPG genre.

Technically a mid-game spoiler for Lufia II: Maxim and Selan. Quite notable since they get married during the game, are married for a large part of the game and even have a child together, and both remain fighting main protagonists all the way to the end of the game.

Also the Hero and one of two girls (three in the remake) get married during the course of Dragon Quest V. It's quite central to the plot. Here, too, the female character becomes a party member and the two have children. The children also grow up to be party members.

Then there are the main characters of Legacy Of The Wizard (Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family in original Japanese), which are (like the Japanese title says) a Dragon Slayer family. Xemn and Meyna are married and have two children, Roas and Lyll. All four are playable.

Ox, the second-to-last party member to join in Breath Of Fire 1, is married and his wife is pregnant at the time of joining. This is a big part of his character.

Cyan from Final Fantasy VI. His wife and children die early in the game, and he feels guilty for it for quite some time.

The knight Oersted in Live A Live. Without giving too much away (go play Live A Live, it's really good), his wife Alicia is quite important to the plot.

edited 5th Jan '16 4:43:20 AM by Lemurian

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Female PCs can potentially marry Alistair in Dragon Age: Origins.

I like to keep my audience riveted.

Well there was Max Payne.

Emphasis on was, lol

And then there was silence

Chuck Rock.

In some games Your character could marry someone.

Skyrim I know they don't start out married I'm not sure about other Elder Scrolls games.

I know the recent Fire Emblem games all party members can marry because in a few Fire Emblem games you can add their children to the party. They also had some from the 90s have marriage options.

Batman Ninja more like Batman's Bizarre Adventure

i recently found out that Ken and Dhalsim from Street Fighter are married. Ken even has a kid.

edited 5th Jan '16 8:09:30 AM by crimsonstorm15

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

They don't qualify in the first game, since they only get married at the end, but Cecil and Rosa qualify in the FFIV sequel.

Only in Skyrim.

I like to keep my audience riveted.

I'd point out the obvious pattern: In a lot of those cases, either the spouse, or the resulting child are the target of villains and, serves as motivation for the heroes do things (Damsel in Distress / I Have Your Wife) or they are already dead and a source of pathos for the character. This extends to the western games mentioned:

Skyrim: your wife/husband can be kidnapped by bandits.

Fallout 4: Avenging the death of your spouse and finding your son is the basis of the plot.

Max Payne, like Cyan, has the "My family is dead" as pathos thing and motivation against the villain.

Weird exception is Sam Fisher. He's married and a widower, but his marriage ended in divorce and his wife died of ovarian cancer, not some nefarious plot. His kid is still a doom magnet though.

No, that's only the case in under half of them: DQ V and Final Fantasy VI. In Lufia II and Legacy of the Wizard both are active protagonists, and the children are never the target of the villains. In Ox's case, it was the men that were attacked by the villains and have to be saved and rescued.

I'll explain Live A Live, since it's a bit complicated. Big plot spoilers for second-to-last chapter.

So, Oersted and Alicia are married after Oersted wins the right in a tournament. Alicia is then kidnapped by the Demon Lord. Oersted leaves together with his best friend Straybow to save Alicia. Straybow dies during this quest. Oersted then confronts the Demon Lord on his own, but it is revealed that it was Straybow all along, who made a pact with the Demon Lord because of the love between him and Alicia. Oersted is then forced to kill Straybow. This causes great sadness for Alicia, who blames Oersted for Straybow's death and kills herself on Oersted's blade out of despair. Oersted then realizes that Alicia had been stringing him along all the time so that he would have to take the blame for killing the king, Alicia's father, under the influence of the Demon Lord. So in this case, Alicia was the villain.

edited 5th Jan '16 8:42:49 AM by Lemurian

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Maxim's kid totally gets kidnapped in Lufia 2. It's what prompts Maxim and Selan out of retirement.

FFIV is an exception, but the wedding only occurs after the end of the original game anyway, so its there mostly to aknowledge the previous game's ending (A game that, at the time, wasn't made with any plans for sequels in mind)

edited 5th Jan '16 8:48:36 AM by CobraPrime

Nope. Maxim is approached by Iris who says that he changed the destiny of the world by defeating Gades, and that to save the world he has to fight to save his loved ones. When he tells this to Selan, she says that she will fight beside him. Jeros is then left with Selan's aunt in Parcelyte, where he stays perfectly safe the rest of the game.

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Idura Kidnaps Jeros, goes to the Parcelyte lighthouse with the kid, Selan and Maxim FAIL to reach him and he holds the kid hostage, it's Iris who teleports in and takes the kid and saves him.

edited 5th Jan '16 8:55:48 AM by CobraPrime

...I'd actually forgot about that.

Because it lasts for only like 15 minutes.

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Still is a major plot development as this incident gives Selan and Maxim the impetus to go out and kick Sinistral ass.

@cobraprime: dude hide your spoilers, you totally spoiled fallout 4 for me.

Also I would say it again that getting married during the game in between consecutive games does not count, as they simply are relationship upgrades, as opposed to the marriage being part of the background of the character. see it this way: grounded married character versus sexual/romantic adventurer. many marriages you named are simply successful sexual/romantic adventures (fable III, Skyrim).

Bah. I'll begrudgingly concede that point (and that's still only half of them). Still doesn't change the fact that Jeros for the rest of the game remains a heartwarming source of inspiration and character development for both of them. I don't like that by generalizing this (and the other examples) into a "oh, they're only there to be threatened", you appear to be discounting the value it brings to the characters, the story and the storytelling as a whole.

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FFXII has Ashe, if widows count.

PSN ID: FateSeraph | Switch friendcode: SW-0145-8835-0610 Congratulations! She/They

Easily overlooked, but the three main characters of The Lost Vikings are all Happily Married and they each have at least one kid. That said, their families only show up in the opening and the ending.

Citan in Xenogears is not only married, but she also never comes in danger. That said, she also doesn't do much, either.

We do have one example from Final Fantasy IV - Yang is married, and it's established in a couple side conversations that his wife is badass. Not only is she never in danger, she snaps her husband out of problems. Oh, and has the most powerful blade in the world.

I'm not sure if "married" is quite the right term, given that she comes from pre-civilization where social institutions are rudimentary at best, but Ayla of Chrono Trigger is mated with Kino, and there's a subplot about him being jealous of the attention Ayla gives Crono's group. Also, depending on how you read certain lines, a Pregnant Badass.

Reminder: Offscreen Villainy does not count towards Complete Monster.

Also, there's Riki from Xenoblade Chronicles. While he's a Nopon, he's still married with 11 children. In a way, his wife and kids is the reason he becomes the Heropon and joins the party. Not because they are in any specific danger... but because he's in real heavy debt and his wife Oka threatens to divorce him if he doesn't get their economy in order, and becoming the Heropon will release him from all his debt.

Then we've got the married couple Khalid and Jaheira from Baldurs Gate who join the party together (and where the other will leave if one of them is dismissed from the party). They join the main character because they are good friends of the MC's ward.

edited 5th Jan '16 10:58:16 AM by Lemurian

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Right, totally forgot about Riki.

Expanding on this, Sagat is married and has many daughters. Guile is married with a Daughter, and Ken is his brother-in-law by means of their wives being sisters. Pac-Man before his reboot had a wife and two kids.

edited 5th Jan '16 4:21:49 PM by SilentlyHonest

The reason married characters in games are rare is because Joe Quesada makes all of those video games, or at least tells the makers how to make them.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.