“Without love nothing remains of Eve, she is the only beauty” – Victor Hugo.
Without love there is nothing left of Eve, since it is the only beauty. It’s a catchphrase, as powerful as it is pure. Italian literature sang love through the Dolce Stil Novo, with Dante and his Beatrice reunited in Paradise after the worries experienced by the Great Poet, while Victor Hugo, the well-known French playwright, joined hands with Esmeralda and Febo forever.
Cinema tells the story of love by translating images and adapting poetic and pictorial instances to vision, and has invented a totally proper language to narrate the theme. Video games, which came later, offered more exciting stories. Someone might ask how they did this in relation to other media, and the answer, contrary to what some might expect, would remain unchanged. However, it is the loquela of the video game that is even more effective, as well as capable of narrating fascinating and captivating stories.
Often no one realizes how much a love story provides greater security for addressing certain concerns
Often, in fact, no one realizes how much a love story, in addition to adding to the context something worth dreaming about and getting lost in, represents a greater security for dealing with certain worries and moments of discouragement. It’s simple to establish but it’s important to repeat it: love is different, it’s not rational and it comes to anyone. Love has no rules, no matter how many people think there are, and it has no obligations. It has no borders, not even barriers. Every story, from the saddest to the most beautiful, starts with a loss. In videogames I have often found works dealing with protagonists tried by impossible lovesfrom unrequited loves, from hard-won loves, and from loves born young and dying all too soon.
SPIN THE WOOL, SPIN YOUR DAYS
These words are of a French ballad composed during the Valois War. They could uniquely summarize the love that binds Arno Dorian to Elise, the two protagonists of Assassin’s Creed Unity. Now, it must be said that this iteration is not one of my favorites for various reasons, yet it tells of the love of two characters, united since childhood, in a light and carefree way.
Divided more than ever, in reality, due to differences of thought, they discover that everything, every side of the coin that concerns the battle between Assassins and Templars, is the typical struggle to understand which of the two factions is the stronger, spite of everything, even of peace. Even if they try to let these differences slip on them, both are swept up in the ordeal of the French Revolution and the nationalist hatred of France in 1789, with the remnants of an era that disintegrates the souls of young people, taking them to the extreme. In Assassin’s Creed Unity, unfortunately, the fate that binds Elise and Arno will divide them forever. Of those kisses in the apple orchard, the afternoon escapes and the return of their love, unfortunately, nothing will remain. A similar love story, however lived intensely while it lasted, pierces the heart.
Of those kisses in the apple orchard, the afternoon escapes and the return of their love, unfortunately, nothing will remain
The same fate, told in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, concerns Ezio Auditore and Cristina Vespucci. They never got a second chance, despite the life of the infamous Assassin had taken him far and in vast territories where he met someone again willing to love him. The relationships of Arno Dorian and Ezio Auditore, in fact, exactly reflect that youthful love typical of the stories that can be found in the books of European Romanticism, especially in the Italian, French, English and German ones.
If they may only seem like fillers used to write pages upon pages of stories, I assure you that they are not: they represent experiences that form the character of a person. Arno, due to the loss of Elise, has changed forever. Ezio didn’t give up, and continued his life path until the end of his days.
LET THE WORLD BURN FOREVER
What are you willing to give up in order for your love to survive the bad weather of fate? This question was answered by Prince of Persia – Warrior Within, the continuation of the highly appreciated Prince of Persia – The Sands of Time. When the Prince of Persia first meets Kaileena, the Empress of Time, he feared he was facing a new enemy and not an ally, especially after what had happened to him before their unexpected meeting.
What are you willing to give up in order for your love to survive the bad weather of fate?
The context of the title, dark and brutal, at the time showed a prince still recovering from the events of the first chapter, afflicted by repentance and loss, destroyed and annihilated as if there was nothing left inside him, not even the happiness he felt as a boy spontaneously. He continued his mission in a difficult way, hoping to find that light that could free him from his fears. The love that bound him to Kaileena, in fact, will lead him to take her to Babylon, after the horrendous events experienced together in the second iteration of the franchise developed by Ubisoft.
While their love materialized and became more powerful than death itself, the evil Vizier Zervan captured the girl and killed her, permanently dooming the world to slow decay. The prince, however, did not give up and tried to save her, managing to retain the soul of the Empress of Time, hoping to be able to give her life again. But Kaileena knew it would mean the end of the world. The girl’s great proof of love was to give her life out of love for the prince and for the whole world, sacrificing herself to save him, while the prince, on the contrary, was willing to see it burn. And so it was that Prince of Persia – The Two Thrones, with the narrative voice of Kaileena, marked the end of the adventures of the Persian hero, overwhelmed by pain but in any case happy to have seen someone sacrifice himself for him for the first time in the life of him. In reality, not everyone is willing to see the world burn.
IF SOMETHING DON’T WORK, FIX IT
Love isn’t beautiful if it’s not a fight, some would say. It Takes Two, developed by Hazelight Studios, is the perfect example of what it means to never give up and recover a bond. Sometimes, however, the Book of Love does not seem to agree that two people separate after they had loved each other so much, although there is a little girl who wishes her parents to get back together. If you haven’t played It Takes Two yet and you’ve been facing some relationship problems for some time just like Cody and May, perhaps it might be the right time to get it back.
the goal of the work is to mend that relationship and restore hope to two hearts that were once so united
In fact, video games do not speak of lost loves but also of found ones. The two protagonists, who have been incompatible for some time, think it is now useless to continue their life together because they no longer have intimacy or even time for them. Every day is a continuous quarrel: the goal of the work is to mend that relationship and restore hope to two hearts that were once so united. It’s a nice way of telling love, especially for the ironic, effective and essential themes it contains.
Love then unites and no longer divides, even if it takes a while to make itself felt. This happens in Florence, developed by Mountains and published by Annapurna Interactive. It tells of the life of a young woman who follows a not particularly exciting routine, and that during her adolescence she was already used to living it to conform to the boring rules of society. Home-work, work-home, nothing worse than getting bored and losing what life really offers in all its unpredictability.
nothing is more difficult than making everything go well, especially in the first period of acquaintance
And who would have thought that a sudden exit to the park would mark the beginning of something beautiful, pure and unforgettable? Florence, this is the girl’s name, meets Kirsch, a charming, funny and curious man, passionate about all forms of art. And, as many will already know, nothing is more difficult than making everything go well, especially in the first period of acquaintance. Love is not only renunciations but also listening and understanding, the ability to feel empathy towards the other and to be patient and understand what others want, also to make them happy and to live life together. Love, well before being a bond that unites two people, is freedom.
Sometimes someone forgets it for convenienceas happened in the last two weeks after the publication of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores among the usual complaints, the annoying review bombing and discrimination that never fails. Ellie and Dina, protagonists of The Last of Us Parte II, they learn over time to love each other and to recognize their feelings. Because of the context, in fact, building something becomes complex, especially in the world dominated by the Cordyceps, where everything is unsustainable. And I dare not imagine what it’s like to love someone in a post-apocalyptic world, as happens to Aloy and Seyka.
Ellie and Dina, Aloy and Seyka: love stories of this type, unfortunately, represent all the limits of a society that is not yet in step with the times
And it wasn’t easy even for some of the main characters of Life is Strange and many other works by Don’t Nod. Unfortunately, love stories of this kind represent all the limitations of a society that is not yet in step with the times. Also because getting excited about the stories mentioned above is inevitable, but it should be natural to treat the others in the same way, understanding that it is diversity that colors this world. Haven is a video game that unites two people on a far away planet: they learn to know each other, to understand each other and, finally, to really love each other. It takes time, mind you. Time to understand each other.
There are so many other video games on Itch.io who treat love in a powerful and passionate way, the same sentiment that no one should fear manifesting like Ellie and Dina. In fact, the protagonist of The Last of Us was the protagonist in the past of the Left Behind additional content connected to the first chapter of the Naughty Dog franchise together with Riley, a girl of her age for whom she had feelings.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF PIXELS
Each story contains the past, present and future of each protagonist who, beyond a single acquaintance, hopes to find more. I’ve learned that love, however, blossoms suddenly and unexpectedly, and that rushing it is completely discouraged. If it took Ellie a long time to come out, it took the Prince of Persia some time to realize that perhaps there was even hope for loving someone, after what he had lived in his journey sprinkled with blood and suffering. I could cite several of similar works, such as Dragon Age, Mass Effect, in which there is the possibility of choosing one’s own love drift. And there is the carnal, passionate and lively love between William BJ Blazcowicz and Anya Oliwa.
Each pixel, in fact, gives the player new stimuli to better understand what lies beyond the life of a protagonist in all its nuances
Each pixel, in fact, gives the player new stimuli to better understand what lies beyond the life of a protagonist in all its nuances. Each of the video games that I have mentioned deals with the theme of love in a personal and intense way, not by limiting or minimizing it, but elevating it with intelligence and delicacy from different points of view. Love is a weave made of lives, composed of filaments similar to entangled branches which, if strengthened and cared for, cannot divide. Every story begins with a “once upon a time”, but few end with a happy ending. It all depends on the path, but above all on one’s intentions, just like that Shadow of the Colossus in which Wander, to save his beloved, became a destroyer of worlds and divinities, even cursing himself.
