It’s been said that marriage is a blessed arrangement, a dream within a dream…and it can also be within a game!
See, video games are not all murder and killstreaks, and looting the corpses of your enemies. They are also love, romance, and building a home together with an NPC whose love might have required a journey, a quest for love, if you will.
Indeed, there are quite a few games where you get married, and some even make provisions for marriage between player characters. Understandably, RPGs with marriage are much more common that shooters or even strategies with that option, but even so, we’ve found some of those as well!
Let’s find virtual love in
Video Games with Marriage Systems
| Name | Release | |
|---|---|---|
 | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition | 2016-10-27 |
 | Fable III | 2010-10-24 |
 | Stardew Valley | 2016-02-26 |
 | The Sims 3 | 2009-06-02 |
 | FINAL FANTASY XIV: Endwalker | 2021-12-07 |
 | Divinity: Dragon Commander | 2013-08-23 |
 | Crusader Kings III | Royal Edition | 2020-09-01 |
 | Wildermyth | 2021-06-15 |
Final Fantasy XIV
| Release date: | 2011 |
| Genre: | Massively Multiplayer |
| Developer: | SQUARE ENIX |
There are many bonds one could form while playing an MMORPG. The kinship between fellow raiders, the loyalty to one’s guild, and, indeed, a marriage between characters. In Final Fantasy XIV it takes the form of the Ceremony of Eternal Bonding, and is a whole production, with a special quest, customizable ceremony, and several plans, which include two paid for with real money.
The paid plans even let you pick the music! All this production isn’t just for show and fun roleplay, however. The wedding bands you get give you the ability to teleport to your spouse, with some mild limitations Depending on the “Plan”, there might also be a special mount and minion, and even gifts for the guests. It’s easily among the most thorough marriage systems in any modern game.
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Divinity: Dragon Commander
| Release date: | 2011 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Larian Studios |
Divinity: Dragon Commander is a somewhat odd spin-off of Larian Studios’ Divinity franchise. It puts you in unenviable position of an heir of a withdrawn emperor, and tasks you with defeating your power-obsessed siblings before they claim the throne. Since the story involves a lot of political maneuvering and such, it also means you must consider a formal marriage to cement alliances.
You get a choice of four princesses, coming from your four supporting nations: the dwarves, the elves, the lizardmen, and the undead. It might seem like it’s mostly a political marriage, but you do get a chance to talk with these princesses, address their own personal struggles, and maybe pick based on whom you like best, not just who provides best troops or improves your standing.
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Crusader Kings 3
| Release date: | 2011 |
| Genre: | Strategy |
| Developer: | Paradox Development Studio |
To continue the political marriage theme, but on a grander scale and in a more historically accurate setting, let’s take a look at Crusader Kings 3. It’s the latest installment in a series of anecdote generators hidden in detailed and complex simulators of dynastic politics in medieval Europe. Obviously, it includes all kinds of marriage shenanigans, for better or worse.
As expected of the time period, there are many great houses (you’re playing as the head of one of them) you could marry into to get out of a bad situation, or to improve your own family’s standing. Perhaps your house is powerful enough that you can marry your children to the royal family, putting your own heirs in the line of succession. Of course, your opponents have similar ideas.
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Fire Emblem Awakening
| Release date: | 2011 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Intelligent Systems |
Fire Emblem: Awakening is a 2012 installment of a series famous for robust cast, dense systems, and more roleplaying than you’d expect from a tactics-oriented game. The characters can get into relationships and, indeed, marriage, which can result in a child carrying some of the parents’ traits such as appearance or classes. Marriages also bring special side-quests called Paralogues.
Of course, before your characters get into relationships, you’ll need to have them go into combat together, forming a battle-forged bond. Quite fitting for a game like Fire Emblem. Unfortunately, FE Awakening is only available for Nintendo 3DS, so you can’t play it on your Switch. You CAN, however, play FE Three Houses, which also features a marriage system, unlocked after the main storyline.
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Wildermyth
| Release date: | 2011 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Worldwalker Games |
Marriage in Wildermyth might be less dramatic or obvious than in other games on the list, but perhaps even more genuine and hopeful. Instead of your own dedicated character, here you’re starting out with a custom (or procedurally generated) team of future heroes, who will develop relationships over the many travels, missions, and years of peace they experience.
If two characters develop a romantic relationship, you might see a vignette story showing them romance, and then many more of them living together and possibly even having a child. Better yet, the kid might join the party if enough time passes between adventures. Relationships, including romantic ones can also provide bonuses in battles, as characters protect or one-up each other.
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Fable III
| Release date: | 2010 (X360), 2011 (PC) |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Lionhead Studios |
Fable III is a role-playing game mixed with cheeky life-sim where we take control over the Royal Hero – a descendant of the previous Fable’s “Hero of Bowerstone”. Betrayed by your brother and rescued by a lucky circumstance, you have make your life elsewhere before coming back and reclaiming your birthright. That life might very well involve becoming married…with kids!
The road to this begins with Fable III’s social system. You can freely engage in social interactions and make new friends among the NPCs. But, what is most important here – you can also get married to your co-op partner’s character! That doesn’t even remove the option to have that marriage produce children, but might make custody awkward when you decide to go solo.
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The Sims 4
| Release date: | 2014 (PC), 2017 (PS4, X One) |
| Genre: | Life simulator |
| Developer: | Maxis |
At the time of writing, The Sims 4 is the latest installment of the fan-favorite life simulation series with even more freedom of customization and nearly limitless possibilities. Create your Sim (or Sims), give them names, decide about their outfits, look, age, and, of course – personalities. Then get into the game and live your “second life”… or toy with the lives of these silly little people.
This installment lets you have a beautiful wedding, too. There are tons of possibilities and decorations to make “that day” absolutely perfect! And then seeing your Sims settle n theirs lovely house, making woohoo and raising their child together, isn’t that just the dream. Or one of them get’s pregnant by aliens, and the other becomes a dark mage. Marriage is full of surprises!
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Stardew Valley
| Release date: | 2016 (PC, PS4, X One), 2017 (Switch), 2018 (PS Vita, iOS), 2019 (Android) |
| Genre: | Farm simulator: |
| Developer: | ConcernedApe |
Stardew Valley is a mixture of a farm simulator and a role-playing game in which the player takes control over an ex-corporation employee who decides to take a rest from the urban hustle and take over the neglected farm they inherited from their deceased grandfather. As you might expect, much of your time will involve planting and harvesting crops and taking care of the whole homestead.
However, your farm isn’t the only one in the region, and there’s also a nearby town, which means: plenty of NPCs to build relationships with. Marriage in SDV can take some work, but it’s worth it. Not only is it just a cherry on top of how delightful the game is already, it also comes with tangible benefits, because a happy spouse will provide you with valuable assistance.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
| Release date: | 2012 (X360, PC), 2013 (PS3) |
| Genre: | Action RPG |
| Developer: | Bethesda Game Studios |
The cold and harsh Skyrim is full of deadly enemies, such as dragons and Daedric priests. However, there are still many moments of peace, some of which are possible thanks to the Amulet of Mara, the key to getting married. Well, that and meeting the spouse-to-be’s requirement. The married life in Skyrim is a generally pleasant time, especially if you also adopt kids.
Marriage not only changes the voice lines spoken by the married NPC and settles them in your house. Resting alongside them provides XP boosting “Lover’s Comfort” bonus, and they can cook you a fancy meal increasing regeneration. Your spouse can even work like vendor buying things from you, and generating steady profit when you’re out slaying Imperials and slurping dragon souls.
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Game me to the end of love
This concludes out list of games which let you cement the relationship with NPCs through marriage. Sometime they make a big deal out of it, sometimes it’s more low-key, but always (well, almost always, looking at you, Crusader Kings) it’s quite wholesome.
Hopefully among the game we’ve covered you found something that sparked your interest and you’ll build a happy home with one of the NPCs waiting for you.