Shack Chat: Who is your ideal video game Valentine?

Love is in the air! With Valentine’s Day coming up this weekend, we thought we’d take this Shack Chat to talk about the video game characters we really like. As in “like” like. We’ve all got those characters that have a special place in our hearts, for one reason or another, so let’s share!

Question: Who is your ideal video game Valentine?

Sasha (Tales from the Borderlands) - Ozzie Mejia, Senior Romantic

This was an interesting one to think about, just because the question is asking for valentine. That's asking who I'd like to have a romantic relationship with. And when it comes to gaming, I can only think of one of the first characters where I ever actively pursued the romance option. That's Sasha from Tales from the Borderlands. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Rhys pining for her was even an option. Once I did, I had to pursue it, just because she came across as the roguish hustler with a heart of gold. I wasn't disappointed. The romantic tension between Rhys and Sasha was genuinely one of the game's highlights and she'd be a fun date for Valentine's Day.

Panam Palmer - Donovan Erskine, loverboy

I don’t like to use the term “simp,” but boy was I simping hardcore for Panam during my Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough. As soon as I met her, I mainlined her entire questline. Whenever she called or texted, I dropped what I was doing so that I could be of assistance. I was at her beckoning call. She’s easily my favorite NPC in Cyberpunk, as I found her to be one of the most fascinating and complex characters in the game. She’s also extremely attractive, so there’s that too.

Lara Croft - Blake Morse, Tomb Raider Trophy Husband To Be

Camping can be a romantic experience if you do it with the right person. I’d love to just take off to the middle of nowhere and spend some time hunting and foraging and living off the land with my significant other. However, I’m not very good at any of that nature stuff, so having a better half that can track a deer and kill it with a bow and arrow would be great for such an adventure. It’s basically a toss-up between Lara or Nathan Drake, and Lara is more my type (Nathan doesn’t seem like a cuddler to me.)

Rio Morales (Spider-Man: Miles Morales PS5) - Chris Jarrard, Has better opinions than other staff

Mmmmmmm. Mmmm. Mmm. Mmm. Thicker than a bowl of oatmeal and is presumably a stand-up lady (judging how Miles turned out), Mrs. Rio is my video game queen. I’ll take her out to Cheescake Factory for a five-star dinner, then we would go to the park and look at the stars while I try to get a handle on it.

Partner’s Pirate - Sam Chandler, The perfect partner

I play a whole lot of Sea of Thieves with my partner. We fell deeply in love with it before it was even released, relishing any opportunity to sail upon the waves in the betas. Now, some three years after its initial release, we still look forward to getting on the seas. To me, our two pirates are ourselves incarnated in video game pirate form, so having her pirate as my Valentine is an obvious choice.

Ada-1 from Destiny 2 - Bill Lavoy, Full-Time Guardian

My ideal video game Valentine is Ada-1 from Destiny 2. Ada-1 came into our lives during the Black Armory expansion, also known as the Season of the Forge. She didn’t trust me at first, which I appreciate, but once we were on the same page Ada-1 did what any good video game Valentine should do; provide me with an arsenal of cool-looking weapons and armor that I could use to smash space skulls. Over the course of the next two years I got to know Ada-1 – well, her lore, which is heartbreaking – and secretly wished that I could pledge my allegiance to her instead of the Vanguard. After all, the Vanguard never gave me a curated roll of Threat Level that stayed in my primary slot until it was sunset by the evil corpo baddies at Bungie.

Triss Merigold from The Witcher games- Josh Hawkins, Guides Editor

Despite the fact that her initial relationship with Geralt might have been created on...well, not so legitimate terms, Triss Merigold has to be my video game valentine simply because she’s an absolute legend in The Witcher games.

Her wit, intelligence, and overall mastery of magic make her a total badass, and despite The Witcher 3 clearly pushing for me to romance Yennefer, I still found myself drawn to Triss and the striking feeling that her presence brings to any room. Of course, she’d probably kill me for even making a move, but ya know, some things are worth the risk.

Samus Aran - TJ Denzer, News Editor

Samus is a strong, busy woman. She’s got a galaxy to save over and over again, big terrifying aliens to destroy, Mother Brains to deflate, and so much more. She needs someone who will cook for her, keep the ship dusted, clean the acidic alien fluids off of her armor… that’s where I come in. I don’t need much. I do pretty well for myself as a work-from-home employee, I clean up well, and I know the value of a good back rub after a long day at work.

That is to say, I surely do respect Samus for all the work she does. There are a lot of terrifying space pirates out there and Samus does a bang-up solo job of keeping them all in check. The money from being the galaxy’s best bounty hunter is probably a fine reward for all the work she does, but if something happens to be missing, maybe a Valentine of appreciation for all of that hard work and saving the galaxy’s bacon time and time again would be nice?

At least… if we’re talking about the Samus that saves the animals instead of leaving them to their fate. I don’t know if I can hang out with animal killer parallel Samus Aran.

Great Fairies - Breath of the Wild - Greg Burke, Head of Video

Yeah, the Great Fairies in Breath of the Wild are whimsical, big & beautiful. My god they are gorgeous creatures. I want to be like Link when they pull him into the Fairy Fountain, but I'd never leave. That is my happy place. Confident big magical women. Vampire lady who? 9ft? Pffftt try 50ft.

Miriam, Bloodstained:ROTN-Steve Tyminski, International Ladies Man

Valentine’s day is coming up soon and it gets us at the Shack thinking, “What is your ideal video game valentine?” As a Nintendo fan I would have to say the main ladies like Princess Peach, Daisy, Samus, and Zelda to name a few. However there are a few non-Nintendo ladies that I wouldn’t mind having as a Valentine. Miriam, from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a great character and she’s not bad on the eyes either. I didn’t think I would like this game but fell in love with it the first few times I played it at conventions.

Great Fairy from Ocarina of Time - Bryan Lefler, Confused since 1998

The Legend of Zelda franchise is coming up on its 25th anniversary and this Shack Chat has me recalling one of the first times I ever felt funny about a video game character. Ocarina of Time was a huge game for me as a fourteen year old, it was a monumental release for the entire world. The low polygon count and muddy texture resolution didn’t matter to me at all. For the first time, I was completely engrossed in a full three dimensional adventure.

Upon meeting the Great Fairies in the game, I instantly felt sort of confused. The suggestive triangles and skimpy attire was something I simply was not prepared to see on a Nintendo entertainment console for the whole family. As the Great Fairy rose into the air, opening her arms and posing wide, imbuing her magical powers upon me, I was transfixed. Mesmerized. This Amazonian giantess had ensnared not only the young protagonist, but my own heart, as well. Link’s various relationships throughout the game and in future titles have remained as confusing as ever, with Breath of the Wild putting Link in a love triangle? Square? Whatever shape it is, it definitely has multiple points, but that first encounter with the Great Fairies in three dimensions will always remain special to me.

That does it for our staff's answers to this week's Shack Chat. We're curious, do you have a video game Valentine? Let us know down below and enjoy your weekend!

Shack Staff

Shack Staff stories are a collective effort with multiple staff members contributing. Many of our lists often involve entires from several editors, and our weekly Shack Chat is something we all contribute to as a group.