The Romance Cliché

Hello, it’s me again. It’s time to talk about another famous cliché that exists within gaming that I want to talk about today for my own self-satisfaction. I can’t assume that anything I write will actually make a difference in the games industry, because like it or not I am but one voice in a sea of many and my words come across like someone who is talking excitedly with my mouth full. So, rather than wait for the day that people actually care about what I have to say, I would much rather just write these posts for fun. And that’s totally okay with me. I am not trying to force something or pretend I know exactly what I am doing. I feel like that should be normal, but yet the games industry has this idea that they have perfected the formula for games and that they can just place in these storylines into any game they choose. I at least try to sound like I care about what I am writing. The result is debatable but at least I try. Nowadays it doesn’t even feel like they really care and just try to force in things that they saw worked well before. One of the most egregious examples of this is when they add in a romantic element to games that really shouldn’t have any romantic element attached and make it feel as though it was just kind of tacked on to it. So I want to take some time to attack this cliché with everything I have. Admittedly all I have is a small blog and about two decades worth of gaming experience, but it’s something at least.

Now, some of you who actually read my blog regularly (if you actually do I really appreciate it) may think that I just want to talk about the princess cliché for another post. I won’t deny some inspiration was taken from that post, but I didn’t want to spend another post really talking about it. The reason is that the games I mentioned previously either don’t try to force a romantic element or are using established characters so that the romantic element comes across more naturally. Of course, there is one exception. Now this would be the first time I bring up a previous game I have already mentioned in a blog post. However, I feel that this something that needs mentioning just due to how awful its inclusion was in the game. With that in mind let’s once again talk about Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

Now I already talked about how awful getting repeatedly getting kidnapped is as a plot device and my gripes on it from a gaming perspective. You may have noticed that I tried not to delve too deeply into the plot as I talked about the game. It wasn’t because I was worried about spoiling the game for you. As if anyone would be worried about spoilers from this game. In all honesty the main reason was simply that I find the plot to be so bad that I just wanted to bring it up for as little as possible. However, since we have come to this point I will give you a taste on how terrible the plot actually is. Elise, the game’s princess for those who have forgotten, has this evil power sleeping inside of her that will awaken anytime she cries. Sounds dumb right? It gets worse as by the end of the game Sonic dies, briefly, and Elise cries for the first time in her life and unleashes the evil power that is soon to destroy the world. She managed to hold the waterworks when her dad died as a child, but when the main character dies then all bets are off apparently. But now the final boss is here so they need to bring Sonic back with the power of the Chaos Emeralds and… Elise’s kiss? Again, it’s really weird. Aside from this being a dumb story, it was also unnecessary. Honestly speaking, Elise never really seemed to be very strong-willed in the game so destroying the town or something similar could have achieved the same effect. It never mattered what happened to the people since by the end of the game the entire continuity gets erased. Or maybe they could have had it so that instead of having her cry being the trigger for the final boss,have it be in a pendant or something that she gives up to save Sonic. It makes more sense than the main villain, who has had no interaction with Sonic the whole game, knowing to kill him to get Elise to release his other half and become the final boss. At the end of the day, the romance feels tacked on as a plot device and a poorly executed one at that. Maybe if the game’s tone and plot weren’t so all over the place, then I might not feel like the ending is just bad Sonic fanfiction.