Ah, shipping. A specially coded word that [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_(fandom)]potentally dates back to Star Trek.[/url]

Sometimes, it doesn't work. I'll jot down some examples, explain why they don't work and then leave it up to the rest of you.

Johnny X Meryl (MGS4) Yeah, this one makes no sense. Miss, "I don't think about guys that way" and Mister "I crap my pants as a running gag" get hitched. This doesn't work for the simple reason that there's absolutely no logical reason for this to work, nor even a hint of chemistry or romance between the two. Or that for the majority of the game, Meryl wasn't aware that Akiba was Johnny/Shitshispants.

Satoshi (Ash Ketchum) X Anyone: I'm cheating, this is from anime. He's a 10 year old (last I knew) ignoramus, who never learns anything, decides that his best plan is to leave all his polkamon behind when traveling to a new area, and his visual makeover has done him no favors, visually.

Link x wossername (Twilight Princess) So, I'm not even sure if this was supposed to be a romance, but it was kinda implied, then forgotten about and by the time she surfaces at the end of the game, she has anime amnesia, and gives you a worthless item. At the end of the day, Link has all the personality (in this game) of a plank of wood, and Ilia spends most of the game in the offscreen box.

Here's the thing. These don't have to be canon ships. Or cannon ships. Most of them aren't either.

Only one comes to mind. Wakka & Lulu in FFX. Jesus, why?

Go on?

Are you refering to canon pairings/ships that actually occures in-game or popular non-canon pairings/ships that people commonly prefer?

Both as specified are valid for discussion.

Paul and Vince.

Paul is such an asshole! Just look at him! You can tell from the look on his face he doesn't care about Vince and he is just doing this whole thing for the money.

On a side note, I wonder if that effects their accuracy having pom poms sticking out of the end of their gun barrels.

...Is that Contra?

Ikari Warriors

Contra was Mad Dog and Scorpion.

Oh. Clearly a better bromance anyway.

Okay!

I can then start with that I dislike in general all popular non-canon pairings/ships (with exceptions) since in most cases they don't make any or little sense. As to that, I indirectly dislike most (if not all) fan-fiction.

When it comes to canon pairing/ships... no idea yet >:D

Cloud and Aeris. She knew it was doomed before she even met him

I've read that a USA commercial even said, "A love that was never meant to be".

Cloud X anyone felt weird because he didn't have his own memories... His own feelings, even? I'm not even sure if he has a defined personality as of 2017 other than abused and recovering.

I hate "shipping". It's fandom at it's most vapid.

Anyway, romantic relationships are apparently really hard to write well (and act, if it applies to the medium in question). I have seen in movies, tv, comics etc. so many relationships that felt forced and totally artificial that I've come to the point were any relationship that I actually "buy" is in itself noteworthy. It's one of the reasos I liked Wonder Woman so much, it's one of the very few superhero movies were the relationship feels earned and genuine.

However, I can't think of many relationships in games at all, and most I was ok with, like Guybrush and Elain in Monkey Island or Max and Mona in Max Payne. I think there was something between the player character and Bastila in KOTOR which felt a bit out of nowhere for me, but I don't remember much about it. There was also a shitload of possible romances in Mass Effect games, but I ignored all of them.

This is so painfully terrible it hurts. Your memories are your own by definition. Now, if they are fake, you're believing lies. If they're true but shared by someone else and society recognizes this someone (not you) as their rightful owner, you're being denied personhood. Both are problems because your sense of self comes into conflict with the real world. But if, say, you're a fantasy clone double whose original is dead and everyone accepts you as a valuable member of society, then everything's perfectly fine.

re: op: artistically speaking, all "pairings" can go pound sand. Some of them are culturally valuable as jokes about human sexuality***, the kind of trainwreck shit that's posted on failblog, but they undermine the experience people say they aspire to get or deliver in a videogame.

***important clarification: as examples of fictional material real living people [expect sizable audiences to] fap to, not as examples of or reflecting real life.