Valentine’s Day is that famous point of year where magic is in the air, there’s a twinkle in your eye, and you confess your romantic feelings by inflicting diabetes through excessive chocolate foisting.
For all the rest of us who are forever alone on this day, your lovelorn friends at Twinfinite have got the perfect consolation prize with this list of games where your character can get married.
We are excluding games where the sole objective is dating, because that’s cheating, and we all know cheating is toxic for a relationship. If you’re keen on that kind of content, you might like to browse our list of great dating sims, or learn about why the dating sim genre is so popular.
Please don’t point out that I wrote both of those articles. I’m not sad, I’m just surrounded by handsome fictional men.
Story of Seasons
Since those nostalgic days playing Harvest Moon on the SNES, the franchise now known as Story of Seasons has offered a selection of eligible townsfolk for you to woo and wed. After all, the best thing for running your stables is, undoubtedly, a stable relationship.
The latest entry, 2023’s remake of the GameCube title Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, only has eight candidates for marriage, but they’re all so charming it’s still worth the effort. You can seduce them in the conventional manner, by engaging them in uplifting discussions and gifting them with their favorite items.
Or, you can play the role of sleazy creeper by tracking down their hidden diaries to ascertain exactly what their darkest desires crave. Maybe it’ll be a fun story to tell your grandkids later on. Or maybe, it’ll result in a restraining order. Only one way to find out, so let’s hunt down those juicy farmin’ secrets.
Final Fantasy XIV
Do you remember back when you were a little kid, and you swore to your mother you would marry a catgirl someday? Oh, how she laughed, but who’s laughing now, mom? Me and my super cute Miqo’te waifu, that’s who.
Final Fantasy XIV doesn’t have traditional marriage, but instead, the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding. You’ll be able to invite 40 of your closest friends — or your worst enemies, just to keep them in check — and exchange rings with your betrothed.
This bling will allow you to teleport directly next to your partner, which makes the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding a helpful option if you like to adventure with your sweetheart. The Ceremony of Eternal Bondage, on the other hand, is much less romantic but I hear the fanart is quite stunning.
Skyrim
Bethesda’s seminal open world RPG is an intense, heroic romp where you must slay foul beasts, save the planet, and shout with pure ferocity at thine foes. With that being said, it does have a marriage feature, so if you’d prefer you can shout with pure ferocity at your spouse, instead.
Though you’re not able to pick from every single one of the various races in the kingdom (no Khajiit means my kitty waifu dreams are over before they ever really began), there’s still an extensive roster for the discerning Dragonborn.
Married life has its own benefits, including skill-learning bonuses or delicious meals that boost your Health, Stamina, and Magicka. I’m not sure what kind of affectionate cooking Borgakh the orc warrior has within her repertoire, but it almost certainly involves meat. Maybe just don’t ask what kind of meat.
Fire Emblem
Marriage between two units has been a mechanic in Fire Emblem for quite some time, and is still ongoing to this day on the Nintendo Switch. Engage’s Alear can form an eternal bond with their beloved, and Byleth can cross the boundaries of appropriate teaching conduct by taking the hand of one of their former students. May I suggest Raphael?
Never was the function quite as prevalent as it was on the 3DS. In both Awakening and Fates, nearly all of your colleagues can wed one another, producing a child unit who shares in their unique traits. It’s up to you whether you want to pair the two best suited to one another in-universe, or just awkwardly mash them together in the hopes of their offspring being really handy with a lance.
Alas, Western audiences were robbed of Fire Emblem Fates’ true potential; in the original Japanese release, marrying an ally would lead to a mini game where you could lovingly stroke their face. It was weird as hell, and in the end you probably just ended up poking Felicia in the eye repeatedly until she demanded a divorce.
Love is fickle, I guess. Now back to the relentless poking.
Tomodachi Life
Living on a remote island sure has its advantages, and you’d be surprised just who ends up moving in. While I was playing Tomodachi Life, I was resolute that LeBron James was destined to marry Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.
It took some hard work — as well as deterring the interferences of the lovestruck Margaret Thatcher, who was convinced that LeBron should have eyes only for her — but eventually the pair fell in love, got married, and moved to a quiet abode nearby.
This barely scratches the surface of this game’s potential for matchmaking bliss. You can create a Mii lookalike based on yourself, and tie the knot with your childhood crush. Or you can let fate take its course and wait until two neighbors take an interest in one another.
The result is a baby that ages at an alarming rate, and upon reaching their teenage years is sent off on an endless mission to travel the world. It’s not exactly model parenting, but I never picked Miranda as the motherly type in the first place.
Fable
Up to this point, this list has been a mostly romantic affair. Meet someone, fall in love, and join one another in holy matrimony.
Action RPG Fable plays its cards a little differently, on the other hand, as not every marriage is smooth sailing, and you’ll have to work hard to keep your spouse appeased. Treat them poorly enough and they’ll call the whole thing off — and yet, they can count themselves lucky.
For you see, if you are well and truly through with the old ball and chain, you can elect to instead murder them and put yourself back on the market. Perhaps on your Tinder profile, you can imply that you’re “dangerous” in order to build intrigue.
Would you swipe right on a murderer? I’m not picky, myself. Technically I think I’m married to a Probopass at this point in time.
Stardew Valley
Considering it is almost eight years old at this point, we can’t exactly proclaim Stardew Valley to be the new kid on the farming sim block anymore. Despite this, it’s still a huge deal, and the discourse rages on as to whom in Pelican Town is the most eligible bachelor/bachelorette/béchamel sauce.
By building up your affection with the various denizens, you’ll undergo a series of events that reveal their true character. This allows you to really get to know them over a sustained period of time before you deign to pop that important question.
If you’re feeling indecisive, please take a moment to consider the above image of a shirtless, muscular, and hirsute Clint. As this is merely the result of a third party mod and not in fact representative of actual gameplay, it is largely irrelevant to this piece.
And yet, grrrrrrr, daddy, am I right?
The Sims
For generations, the Sims games have been a realistic facsimile for the trials and tribulations of a long life. Just like us, the Sims can fall desperately in love, get married, and settle down with a baby. Just like us, sometimes everything catches fire and one Sim is forever haunted by the ethereal presence of their deceased lover.
That’s probably the worst case scenario, and in fairness, I’m not always haunted by the ethereal presence of my deceased lover (it’s only in the evenings, and all day on the weekend unless it’s football season). Your love-filled Sims session might pan out much better.
The safest way to ensure this is by reading our list of the best Sims 4 mods, so I recommend you do that now. If you don’t, well, I hope you don’t mind hanging out with the ghosts of those you failed, you heartless wretch.
My Time (Series)
In the same vein as Story of Seasons and Stardew Valley, the My Time games plonk you in the middle of a struggling society and task you with restoring it. In My Time at Portia, you’ll do so as a famous builder. In My Time at Sandrock, you’ll do much the same except with sand! Glorious.
Once again, gifts are the name of the game, and you’ll have to listen hard if you’re keen on courting one of several eligible parties. Sandrock’s range of romanceable characters includes a tightlipped doctor, a recent divorcee, and a hardened criminal.
Different strokes for different folks, I’m actually inclined to believe the doctor would be the least considerate in the bedroom. These are the kinds of things I think about when I’m playing the video games.
BitLife
Look, marriage isn’t some treasured thing for all of us. Some folks just want to secure a suitable partner, procreate, and then spend the rest of our existence in quiet disdain. You might find it passionless, I’d prefer to think of it as highly efficient.
In the life simulator BitLife, your goal is to guide a particular soul toward your preferred destination. You might want to see them become a world-renowned athlete, or maybe you’d like for them to pursue a career in the porn industry. Either way, little BitLife child, just know that your mumsy and dada are very proud.
Marriage is of course a possibility, and you can even be coerced into an arranged marriage. If you refuse, your digital parents may push the issue until you’ve become completely estranged from the family and are banished from the lineage forevermore. I think at one point I implied that this was supposed to be a romantic article, so my (in)sincerest apologies for leaving things on a sour note. I ain’t got Valentime for this nonsense.
We hope you enjoyed this passionate compendium of games where your character can get married. Perhaps you’ll feel inspired to try them for yourself, or even to go out and have a shotgun wedding at the earliest opportunity? Seems a bit drastic to me, but you do you, boo.
Published: Feb 13, 2024 12:30 am