7 Tragic Video Game Love Stories

“Love Hurts,” so sayeth the mighty Nazareth... and it should. If there's nothing to lose, what is there to win? Even video game characters have had their fair share of emo lapses. Game protagonists have been chasing skirt since Mario first saved the Princess and it's been a shitty Groundhog Day for the Italian stallion ever since. Yet he fights on, ever the faithful cuckhold.

In case you forgot, it's Valentine's Day. Don't take it out on the world if you're alone. If you want to wallow, read this list of gaming love stories that have gone down the drain. We promise you'll feel better about yourself when you're done.

PSA: There are some plot spoilers on this list so if you play games for the romantic storyline, read at your own risk.

Not even a triple shot of testosterone sprinkled with shavings from Odin's beard could keep love out of Gears of War's storyline. Unfortunately, this is the harshest ending to any relationship on the list. Dom not only loses Maria, he loses her in the worst possible way. It's a slow, excruciating, self-destructive, gut-wrenching end that somehow turns into a twisted blessing.

Everyone saw it coming, but no one wanted to keep it real. Tidus was a man displaced from time and the dickhead rules of tragedy dictate that such a man isn't allowed long-term happiness with his summoner mistress; especially if his hair is feathered.

Yuna never got over it, spawning a funktastic sequel so chock-full of J-Pop that every copy of X-2 should have come with a box of strawberry Pocky. But we played the whole thing through, hating and enjoying ourselves just a little more every time we changed the girls' costumes mid-battle.

Passionate couplings are usually the ones who take the longest to fade into embers. In this case, terminal illness was the barbed, slow-burning wick.

Mary's slow descent into disfiguration destroyed the once-stable relationship between herself and James, but the dark twist of her death is the game's linchpin.

They were never a couple in the traditional sense of the word. Nor was any love between them explicitly stated. But that part of us that wanted to see Leonardo get with April O'Neil saw that there was more to the Mia and Phoenix pairing than a simple mentor/student relationship. Even in death, Mia returned to help Phoenix. When was the last time your boss did that for you?

All hail Sephiroth, the ultimate Valentine's Day Troll. Cloud was likely contemplating an uber-date with Aerith at the Gold Saucer for V-Day until Sephiroth rolled up and prison shanked the Flower Girl in the back.

This was the moment emo became an inseparable Siamese twin to the Final Fantasy franchise.

Sacrifice is an important part of any amorous affair. Some guys give up Sunday Night Football. Others give up their porn collection. Some relinquish their video gaming time. Others die.

After all was said and done with the Colossi, Wander gave his life for Mono's. Let's face it, a game that revolved around murdering giant creatures could never end in a peaceful clearing of the brush.

As everyone knows, the most tragic element of this star-crossed trist isn't Iris' death. It's the fact that Zero no longer knows what he's fighting for.