Side-Quest 153. Friendship Completed!

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Talk This! It’s Dangerous to Podcast Alone. This week, we’re talking about relationship systems! I don’t want to date an action figure, okay?

As always, you can listen to our podcast basically anywhere you want. Check it out on Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotify, and Pandora (or head over to our episodes page for even more options). Or just listen below!

The Topic

Screenshot from Fire Emblem Engage featuring the main character and Marth

How are relationship systems handled in games (outside of things like dating sims)? What are some of the different approaches to gamifying relationships? Why are so many of them player-focused instead of dealing with a wider cast of characters? When will a game let me play as a matchmaker?

The Actual Discussion

Mass Effect showing two characters kissing

We talk about how many approaches to relationship building in games boil down to the same sort of thing, and why it’s hard to imagine a different system. We discuss tying relationships to mechanical benefit and the issues inherent to that approach. Also, we spend too long talking about Fire Emblem. Sorry about that.

Enjoy the episode! Tell us what you think in the comments or on social media. Make sure to check out last week’s episode and look forward to next week’s where we’re talking about Façade and Pentiment.

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