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Battle Couple / Video Games

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"Together, you were feared by demons and demi-gods alike - two lovers against whom no creature could stand."
— Kelemvor, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
  • Absinthia:
    • Jake and Thomas are a couple and are part of the team to defend Katti Town.
    • Freya and Ruthea were once a couple and went on at least a few adventures together during their time in the Halonian Knight order, but split up when Ruthea outed Freya as trans to their fellow knights without her permission. They become an example of this trope again during Lilith's final phase, and are able to perform the Ragnarok team skill perfectly.
  • Ace Combat:
    • Ace Combat 04 gave us Yellow 13 and Yellow 4, the only permanent members of their squadron. However, in their case, the romantic feelings were probably one-sided, since 13 seemed to have only seen a valued student and a trusted wingwoman in 4.
    • There's Edge and Blaze in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. Again, a similar case to Yellow 13 and 4 — while Edge definitely gets feelings for Blaze, he may or may not reciprocate.
    • There's also the two-person Espada Squadron in Ace Combat Zero, whose Number Two heavily implies that she was in a long-time relationship with Espada 1 at the time of their fateful encounter with the Galm Team.
  • In Albion, playable characters Sira and Mellthas have an Interspecies Romance and, well, they're both in your party during hundreds of battles.
  • In Armored Core 4/For Answer, the player character of 4 (Unknown Lynx — Pilot of White Glint in For Answer) and Fiona Jarnefeldt. Considering that in at least one mission in 4 she pulls a "Always Save the Guy", it's kind of obvious she has definite romantic feelings for him.
  • This is half the point of the Ar tonelico games. Inevitably the main character (who is a melee fighter) is paired with a backline magic-using woman. When blocking attacks against her, he stands very, very close. When she is casting spells, their power is increased by her love for him. In the second game, the combat dialog is full of innuendo.
  • Although most of it takes place off-screen, Altair and Maria are said to be this in Assassin's Creed: Revelations
  • Assassin's Creed: Unity: While their team-ups are rare (on account of being on opposite sides of a war), the times Arno and Élise do team up they form a battle couple.
  • Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana has Klein Kiesling and Lita Blanchimont as the Galgazit partners with an inversion of the usual hero and heroine state as Lita is a tank while Klein is a magician/healer.
  • The Baldur's Gate series has a few. There's Khalid and Jaheira, and to a lesser extent, Eldoth and Skie, in the first game. In the second game, the player him-/herself could have one, with one of the several options, while Haer'Dalis and Aerie, and maybe Korgan and Mazzy, have potential for this as well (but in an unmodded game go nowhere).
  • Battle for Wesnoth: Northern Rebirth has Father Morvin and Sister Thera, a married couple of White Mages who, besides being important advisors in the group, fight with the heroes while having friendly bickering with each other.
  • Cassette Beasts:
    • All the human party members can be romanced after maxing out their relationship level, regardless of the player's gender. Choosing to pursue a romance with a party member results in the player fighting alongside their lover.
    • Among NPCs, there is Leader Ianthe and Ranger Wilma, a married couple, who battle together as the last challenge for the player to become a Ranger Captain. There is also a pair of minor NPCs, Joseph and Janet, a married couple who can be found and battled against in the New Wirral Park.
  • Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse lets you (Trevor) have Sypha as a partner from the possible three, though he doesn't know she's a girl until the very end.
  • If you get the best ending in Cave Story, it becomes clear that there's a bond between Quote and Curly Brace. It's not clear if it's platonic or romantic, but either way, it's strong as iron.
  • City of Heroes: Fusionette and Faultline. She's a mutant with a nuclear reactor for a heart, and he's the son of the guy who wrecked Overbrook. It turns out the guy was Brainwashed and Crazy. You run into them repeatedly in the Rikti War Zone with them kicking butt all the way.
    • Manticore and Sister Psyche, teammates in the Freedom Phalanx who eventually got married... and had to fight off a horde of PC villains at their wedding.
  • Cuphead: At one time Sally Stageplay and her Henpecked Husband were originally intended to fight together against Cuphead and Mugman, as some unused sprites indicate, before all of the attention was handed over to Sally. In the Nintendo Switch and Patch 1.2 versions of the game, they can now potentially be this (with a baby who could have dropped bottles in the second stage, now with flaming projectiles) if the boys stand on both cherub props simultaneously to activate the Falling Chandelier of Doom on the husband, leaving her to move on to the second stage nunnery with a Stern Nun where you can beat Sally.
  • In Dark Devotion, the Dual Boss Elinor and Aureus have fought alongside one another in service to their king for decades and are implied to be romantically involved. When you defeat them, Elinor will limp over to Aureus's side so they can be Together in Death.
  • Dante and Lady in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. Dante's flirtation is mostly unrequited with Lady spurning his advances saying she's not desperate enough to date a demon... but just look at em. There's some Belligerent Sexual Tension at the very least and they do work well together, even giving Vergil a hard time. However, Dante and Lady are a straightforward battle couple during the credits.
  • The Disgaea series:
  • In The Great Circus Mystery, the second game in the Magical Quest series, Mickey and Minnie Mouse team up together to find out on what happened to the circus and defeat whoever turns out to be responsible (who ultimately turns out to be Baron Pete).
  • In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Diddy and Dixie Kong set out together to save Donkey Kong from King K. Rool.
  • Dragon Age:
    • Dragon Age: Origins:
      • Any romance option, to the point becoming a couple will help the characters level up. All of the relationships are still going strong too. In the third game a Romanced Leliana is still together with the Warden, just temporarily split by the current crisis. Similarly, if a romanced Morrigan and the Warden stayed together in Witch Hunt, they've been raising a son together in the interim and she leaves to rejoin him at the end of the game. A romanced Zevran is mentioned to still be with the Warden on their current adventure.
      • If romanced, Alistair and the Female Human Noble can eventually become the King and Queen of Ferelden. Their bond is so strong that Alistair will refuse to let the player do an Ultimate Sacrifice, and kill himself in their place. In a game where every choice matters, this is the one choice Alistair will not let the player choose. In Inquisition, it's noted that they're still a couple, but she's out searching for a cure for the Calling, since it's been ten years since her Joining and Grey Wardens are all Living on Borrowed Time. He misses her but understands that she's doing it for both their sakes and supposes that someone has to rule the kingdom.
    • Dragon Age II:
      • Again, any of the romance options, plus Aveline and Guardsman Donnic if Hawke takes the time to help them get together. Aveline is also this with her first husband Wesley when you meet them.
      • The tactics options allow you to turn any two of your companions into one of these as well. If you ship a particular pairing, you can go into the tactics settings and arrange it so that they will defend each other on the battlefield; if one is a rogue, you can add the Back to Back ability to make it even more visually obvious.
    • Dragon Age: Inquisition:
      • Every single one of the Inquisitor's potential Love Interests can join them on the field at some point (with the exception of ambassador Josephine Montilyet, who prefers "niceness before knives").
      • Iron Bull and Dorian can become a couple if neither is romanced by the Inquisitor and are placed in your party enough during the game, providing one of the few non-PC/squadmate examples of this trope in a BioWare game.
  • Dragon Quest V, after you marry a girl, she helps you in battles until you reach Gotha in the second act, and after rescuing her in the third one.
  • The various installments of Dynasty Warriors gives us Lu Bu and Diao Chan, Cao Pi and Zhen Ji, Meng Huo and Zhu Rong, Sun Ce and Da Qiao, Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao, Liu Bei and Sun Shang Xiang, and Zhuge Liang and Yue Ying.
    • Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce has several missions based entirely around fighting said Battle Couples.
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
    • You can be part of one yourself. This is because you are able to recruit an NPC to fight with you and ask them if they want to marry you. Do both and you play this trope straight.
    • There are a few examples within the game itself as well, such as Bujold and Kuvar in the Dragonborn DLC. Aela and Skjor of the Companions are rumored to be this, but Aela insists they're Just Friends.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: Toyama and Hamayo are a battle couple in-universe, being a renowned husband-wife tag team wrestling duo. In the events of the game, Toyama alone joins up with the heroes' team, but Hamayo lends her aid for his more powerful transcendental attacks.
  • In Fallout 4, you can romance your companions and have them fight alongside you.
  • Final Fantasy:
  • Pick a Fire Emblem couple. For characters to develop a relationship, the gameplay requires them to stand close on the battlefield for a certain amount of time. You get bonuses added to their stats when they do this. With Min-maxed supports (for example 2 earth alignments for hax evade) the units in question are able to take on half the battle by themselves. The Power of Love (or friendship), is indeed a mighty force.
    • The most obvious examples, both story- and gameplay-wise, might be Louise and Pent from The Blazing Blade (a Happily Married couple who start out with an automatic, unbreakable A-rank support) and Micaiah and Sothe from Radiant Dawn (who, once again, start out with an automatic A-rank support and will marry at the end if the player doesn't break up their support).
    • Brought to new highs in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Now two characters can go together (as in, sharing the same tile), which gives the active partner a boost in stats and allows their Relationship Values to develop faster. All male/female team-ups (except brother-sister or parent-child relationships, pairings involving a generation gap excluding those with the Avatar, and certain pairings involving Chrom or Sumia—who can only marry a handful of characters—or Flavia, Basilio, Anna, Say'ri, Tiki, or the SpotPass characters—who can only marry the Avatar) can potentially end up in marriage.
    • A similar system takes place in Fire Emblem Fates, with the perk of adding two Bisexual Options to the Avatar's potential love life (Niles for a Male Avatar, Rhajat for the Female one).
  • Gladius has a cup where you deploy 1 male (the only time a male unit must be deployed for their maleness) and 1 female unit and claims to be based on this. Nothing stops you from deploying the twins Ursula and Urlan beyond not complimenting each other (both being medium class units), presumably because it's made by LucasArts.
  • Isaac and Jenna from Golden Sun married after the period they fought together. Considering how long it took for their kid to pop out, they probably did not spit it out until some time after the first series ended.
    • The implication is that the same applied for Felix and Sheba, made more poignant by the fact the two get each other out of tight spots - Felix saves Sheba's life, and Sheba is the only reason the party could even contend with Jupiter lighthouse since she needed to become the hero of Shaman Village to gain the hover jade necessary to traverse the place.
  • GreedFall: De Sardet can form one by bringing their chosen romantic partner with them into the field.
  • Marjory Delaqua and Kasmeer Meade in the living story for Guild Wars 2. In the living story season 2, your character is joined by a small party of adventurers which includes this duo, and a variety of battles and adventures are had.
  • Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance from the video game Half-Life 2. While the exact nature of their relationship isn't clear (Gordon never speaking makes things difficult), whatever it was, it was forged in the fires of battle.
  • Halo: Hunters. You know those giant, pulsar-cannon dual-wielders that always come in pairs? The ones that basically have the same combat rating as a Spartan by sheer badass alone? They're always brought into combat in multiples because they're divided by mating pairs formed by their Hive Mind worm colony bodies, so if you kill one then you've actually killed off the entire roster of girlfriends for the hundreds of worms in the surviving unit, and they're collectively pissed off at whichever unfortunate Spartan did the deed.
  • Haven (2020): Kay and Yu fight together, and their best attacks are combos where they work together to blast the enemy.
  • Any of the five possible player/party member pairings in Jade Empire qualify, due to the Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting theme of the setting.
  • Jagged Alliance 2:
    • Raider and Raven. It doesn't make for any huge change as gameplay is concerned (they merely share moral gains.), but they do have their own Informal Eulogies for each other if one should get killed in battle.
    • There's also Wolf and Fox — she's the reason he lost all that weight.
  • Lololo and Lalala from the Kirby series. Justified in the anime adaptation, as they're two halves of the same being.
  • Knights of the Old Republic: In both games, certain party members can develop romantic feelings for the player, thus making it possible for the player to fight alongside their love interest.
    • In the first game, a male player character can romance Bastila, while a female player character can romance Carth or Juhani.
    • In the second game, some party members will fall for the Exile if the player raises influence with them: the Handmaiden and Visas for a male Exile, and Atton and the Disciple for a female Exile.
  • League of Legends brings us quite a few battle couples:
    • The first being Xayah, the Rebel and Rakan, the Charmer, a pair of Vastayan bird-people designed to fight together - from Rakan's dash having extra range towards Xayah to the two of them sharing a Recall - Their relationship can be summed up thusly:
      Rakan: I love watching you kill.
      Xayah: I love killing for you.
      Rakan: Let's make out.
    • The next came with Lucian, the Purifier, and Senna, the Redeemer. Initially they met and fought side-by-side as Sentinels of Light, but Lucian's past actions ended up with Senna being killed by Thresh and having her soul condemned to his lantern. Six years later, Lucian manages to free her, with the added bonus that her new undead form allows her to control the Black Mist that's haunted her since childhood, and get a new relic cannon in the process.
      Lucian: Reckon it's time...
      Senna: ...for a reckoning!
    • Graves and Twisted Fate, an Outlaw Couple and partners for years. Their relationship was rocky, as Graves blamed Twisted Fate for his long prison stint in The Locker, but in Burning Tides the two rekindled their partnership and in The Boys and Bombolini the two had a Love Epiphany and became a couple.
    • Jarvan IV and Shyvana as of The Mageseeker. While Jarvan's feelings for Shyvana were clear since the Lux comic, what Shyvana felt was unclear. The Mageseeker features the pair as a Dual Boss against Sylas, and Shyvana fights herself to total exhaustion protecting Jarvan from the rogue mage. It's Shyvana leaving Jarvan that makes him realize just how far he's fallen in trying to get revenge on Sylas and what finally gets him to revoke the mage persecution. The game's ending implies Shyvana returns to Jarvan's side once that's done.
  • Dart Feld and Shanna of The Legend of Dragoon are adventurers that can transform into Dragon knights. They become this trope after Shanna admits her feelings at the end of disk two.
  • The Legend of Zelda: While Link and Zelda have supported each other in battle several times throughout the series, it has almost always been as Lady and Knight. The closest they've ever come to being in a confirmed relationship is in Spirit Tracks, in which they're pre-teens, making their relationship closer to Puppy Love. In Breath of the Wild, they're both 17 (though chronologically 117). The travelling minstrel Kass explains that his teacher was envious of Link because Princess Zelda "only had eyes for her appointed knight". But in the western version, Link's own feelings toward Zelda are deliberately left ambiguous.
  • Love Nikki - Dress Up Queen has a rather curious interpretation of the trope. Since big conflicts in Miraland are more often than not solved via fashion shows rather than fighting (and models can use different skills to non-lethally damage their rivals and lower their scores), if a stylist and a model compete together in events they'll probably fit here or at least have Ship Tease. The best example would be Bai Jinjin and her boyfriend Zhong Lizi, with Jinjin as the model/frontline fighter and Lizi as the stylist/strategist.
  • Maxim and Selan in Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. The former is an adventurer and monster hunter who happens to be the only one who can wield a legendary blade to slay evil super beings and the latter is the strongest warrior in her country. They hook up, get married halfway through the game, and have offspring. Even after their marriage, they are still adept at fighting and when evil arises again, they are more than ready to travel. It's established that their offsprings are heroes in their own game.
  • Mass Effect gives us Shepard and their squadmate if they choose to pursue a romantic relationship. Of special note are: Ashley/Shepard and Kaidan/Shepard from the first game, and Miranda/Shepard and Garrus/Shepard in the second. The "Lair of the Shadow Broker" DLC can be played as Shepard and Liara getting back together - which, for them, involves tracking down and killing one of the most feared men in the galaxy. It makes the squabbling in the Taxi Chase Scene all the more funny when the implications of a relationship gone awry are thrown in.
  • Metal Gear:
    • In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Johnny eventually wins Meryl's heart by saving her life on not one but three occasions. In this scene, they hold a door against endless waves of attackers while slipping new magazines into each other's guns, and proposing to each other for marriage.
    • In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the Boss and the Sorrow had such a relationship before suffering a fate much worse than Star-Crossed Lovers - being forced to fight each other to the death in order to uphold loyalty to their respective nations, namely the US and the USSR. Said fight ended in the Sorrow's death. However, before being forced to split, the Boss gave birth to The Sorrow's son (Revolver Ocelot) while participating in the D-Day invasion. Later, it turns out that the Sorrow encouraged the Boss to kill him to complete her mission. This strongly implies that the Sorrow wasn't willing to fight to defend himself against her, showing that his loyalty was first and foremost to her.
  • From Monster Hunter:
    • The flying wyverns Rathian and Rathalos are implied to operate like this. They're actually the female and male of the same species, and their descriptions often refer to them hunting together as a couple. There are even a few missions that pit players against a Rathian and Rathalos together. In World, if both are present on the same map, they will even come to each other's aid and protect their wounded counterpart.
    • As of Monster Hunter: World, Teostra and his own female counterpart Lunastra can now get in on the action. Both are Elder Dragons, which makes fighting both at the same time even more epic.
  • There's more than one in Mortal Kombat, with the most glaring examples being Liu Kang and Princess Kitana (who mix it with Star-Crossed Lovers until X, when they become the Netherrealm's Ruling Couple) and later Kenshi's son Takeda and Jax's daughter Jacqueline "Jacqui" Briggs in Mortal Kombat X (who rescue each other mutually several times in the story).
    Ferra: Pretty boy.
    Takeda: Sorry, I have a girlfriend.
  • Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, with the ghost of Aribeth or Nathyrra and your PC, who end up beating up Mephistopheles. Or Valen and the PC if the PC is female.
  • Neverwinter Nights 2 (Though it was made by Obsidian) kind of precludes this with three of the four love interests over the course of the official campaign/Mask of the Betrayer arc being spellcasters (and Safiya being a literal Squishy Wizard), but a female PC and Casavir qualify. A male PC and Elanee, if she is optimized for combat; or a female PC and Gann if he is optimized for combat both fit.
  • NieR gradually upgrades Nier and Kainé to one. However, like everything else in the game, it can only end in tears.
  • The second boss of Ninja Baseball Batman, Mad Lax, could count as this, as driving the jeep are two anthropomorphic baseballs, one with a bow on her head, implying the two are a couple.
  • There's two pairs running around in Odin Sphere, Oswald and Gwendolyn, along with Velvet and Cornelius.
  • Persona: In Persona 3, Persona 4 and Persona 5, you can get a girl or boyfriend of the opposite sex, including your party members, resulting in you fighting enemies alongside your lover. The only exception is Junpei in Persona 3 Portable, who can't be romanced due to Chidori stealing his affections. Persona 2: Innocent Sin also allows for this, with the notable addition of being able to form a same-gender battle couple.
  • The Cool Couple double battle trainers in the Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire games, and the Double Team trainers, the Generation IV version of the Cool Couple (a pair of Cool Trainers or Ace Trainers, respectively). They make it in the anime as Oscar and Andi. See Anime.
  • Because of the gameplay of Project × Zone, the playable characters are by default paired with each other. Among them that do play it straight however are Reiji and Xiaomu, Haken and Kaguya, Ichiro and Sakura, Touma and Cyrille, Kite and Black Rose, and Kurt and Riela. The rest are either Platonic Life-Partners, Heterosexual Life-Partners, and in a few cases, ironic pairings.
  • Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello of Psychonauts, a pair of psychic secret agents who work on the field as partners. Their personalities are as opposite as it gets, but they clearly think highly of each other and have a long, fond history together - that said whether or not they're an Official Couple is no more than implied (Milla has a Memory Vault showing pretty obviously that she's in love with Sasha, and he seems to reciprocate in it, at least to some extent, though other vaults in the game make it clear that such vaults' contents aren't necessarily objective).
  • Gil and Ki from The Return of Ishtar, the sequel to The Tower of Druaga.
  • Leon and Ada from the Resident Evil games. Although their respective loyalties find them on opposite sides more often than not, it's been noted several times that, above all else, they are loyal to each other. This loyalty means that when they do encounter each other, they form a nigh-unstopable duo.
  • Rune Factory:
  • This trope is the concept behind the Sakura Wars series. The games are strategy-RPGs where the stronger the bond between you and your teammates is, the better you all perform in battle.
  • Sands of Destruction: Kyrie and Morte become one about halfway through the game. He dislikes fighting and fell in Love at First Sight, while she's a Blood Knight and takes a while to realize that, yes, he's more important to her than just another tool in the World Annihilation Front box.
  • In Shining Force, the birdman Amon asks for your help in saving her husband Balbaroy, who has been transformed into stone. Both join the titular Force upon his liberation.
  • In the Sly Cooper games, Sly and Carmelita qualify, when the latter is not trying to arrest the former they work together. At the end of the third game, Sly fakes amnesia so he can become her constable.
  • Sonic and Amy zigzag this trope depending on the game.
    • Sonic Advance 3 is a parody because they are referred to as a "Lovely Couple" even though Sonic doesn't look too happy about it, while Amy wishes they were.
    • In Sonic Chronicles it's up to the player if they become this trope or not.
    • Downplayed in the Sonic Rush series where Sonic and Blaze fight against Eggman and Eggman Nega together in their respective super forms during the climax of both games. Despite the occasional Ship Tease, it's up for interpretation whether there is anything between the two.
    • Depending on how you look at it, Rouge could very well be this with Knuckles in the Sonic X adaption, or sometimes in the games themselves. Or she could be this with Shadow, due to them working together so well.
  • South Park: The Fractured but Whole has Super Craig and Wonder Tweek who had intended to be a battle duo. Due to their factional split, they are described as "dating but fighting". If the player helps them mend their relationship, they gain the "Eros Eruption" Limit Break that lets them invoke The Power of Love to deal damage. Their abilities in-game also compliment each other, with Craig's being focused on drawing aggro and dealing heavy close-range damage, and Tweek's being focused on inflicting status effects and healing.
  • StarCraft:
    • Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan are this in the first campaign and played for drama when Kerrigan is left behind by Arcturus Mensgk, infested by the Zerg and turned into the Queen of Blades. By the end of the Extension, she has become one of the major Big Bads and has caused so much slaughter that Jim swears to kill her.
    • StarCraft II continues the story. After despairing for years on his guilt about what happened to Kerrigan, Raynor finally succeeds to de-infest her and bring her back to her original personality... only for her to turn herself back into a Zerg willingly so she can go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against Mensgk. While she retains control this time and even saves him, he is understandably horrified by what she has done and put an end to their relationship. Eventually he realizes Kerrigan is no longer the blood-thirsty monster she was as the original Queen of Blades, and comes to save her in the final confrontation with Mensgk. By the end of the game, Raynor and Kerrigan are on good terms again, and while they cannot stay together due to consequence, they clearly still love each other.
    • StarCraft II also introduces Mira Han, an eccentric mercenary leader and pirate, and Matt Horner, a Boy Scout war buddy of Jim Raynor who unwittingly won Mira's hand in marriage in a poker game. She's much more into it than he is, and while he'd rather have nothing to do with her, he's not above taking her help when he needs some extra firepower. The two even work together as one of the game's Co-op commanders; Mira provides cheap, easily replaced mercenary units, while Matt supplements them with powerful but expensive Dominion aircraft.
  • Fox McCloud and Krystal from Star Fox. Shortly after Fox freed her and defeated General Scales, Krystal joined the Star Fox team as one of Fox's wingmates, and the two began a relationship. In Star Fox Command, said relationship hit a rough patch when Fox decided he didn't want Krystal in harm's way, though depending the ending they patch things up. Or not.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic has these all over the place. In the Backstory, there's Eleena Daru and her "husband" Darth Malgus. There was also Satele Shan's fling with Jace Malcolm (that produced Theron Shan). Each player class has a companion with a romance arc that can and will be brought into a fight with them. Out in the expansions, there are even more options, like Theron, Lana Beniko, and Koth Vortana. In BioWare tradition, all of their romance arcs can be accessed by a male or female player character.
  • Villainous example in Steel Assault with the Nakamoto couple - Colonel Daigo and Ayane Nakamoto are a Dual Boss, respectively piloting a Spider Tank and clad in Powered Armor, where they'll attack you in tandem.
  • Suikoden series:
    • Hix and Tengaar (Suikoden and II); both of them from the Warrior Village. In that village, it's customary to name one's weapon after one's beloved.
    • Lepant and Eileen (Suikoden) are a Sword and Sorcerer pair who get a Unite Attack, the "Couple Attack" when in the party together. Along with the "Family Attack" with their son Sheena.
    • Freed and Yoshino Yamamoto (Suikoden II) also get a Unite Attack, the "Husband and Wife Attack", if they're put in the party together. Though Yoshino proves to be a much better fighter than her husband, who has mediocre stats all around and is more of an administrator than a fighter.
    • Ferid and Queen Arshtat Falenas (Suikoden V); they're a Ruling Couple in a country where Asskicking Leads to Leadership. Otherwise they fit the Sword and Sorcerer trope.
    • The Prince and his bodyguard Lyon. Save for an event or two forced by the story itself, you can't remove Lyon from the party for most of the game. There's an element of Like Brother and Sister given that Lyon was Ferid's ward, but given that the Prince also has a full blood sister, and Lyon's not nearly as close to her, it's pretty obvious, particularly toward the end of the game.
  • Super Lesbian Animal RPG: Melody and Allison started dating at the same time they started adventuring together and Melody even chose her healing-focused class to support her front-line fighter girlfriend. They can also kiss one another to boost their partner's stats for three turns while increasing their own star power. Claire and Jodie, the other two main party members, don't normally go adventuring with their love interests, but mid-to late-game can summon them momentarily for stat buffs, during one side quest where Jodie goes on a date with her girlfriend Faith they wind up fighting side-by-side a couple times, and Faith temporarily joins the party for the final boss battle.
  • Super Robot Wars X: A non-romantic pairing between Angelise Ikaruga Misurugi and Lelouch vi Britannia, each being former nobility of a corrupt empire and leading a resistance force against it.
  • The Tales Series likes this one, especially double-teamed with Belligerent Sexual Tension:
  • Total War:
    • Total War: Warhammer: Vlad and Isabella von Carstein have this as a gameplay mechanic: already quite strong alone, the two Legendary Lords gain massive bonuses to their stats when fighting together in the same battle. In addition, by starting a campaign with either vampire, you can recruit the other right off the bat, and at a discount too (in other campaigns you need to fulfill a certain criteria to unlock the Lord you didn't start with).
    • Total War: Pharaoh: Seti, Merneptah's Crown Prince, and his wife, Tausret, begin the game as allied faction leaders. There is even an achievement for two players cooperating together to win the game while playing as them.
  • Trails Series:
  • Nate and Elena, the Official Couple of the Uncharted series, get together while fighting off an army of Mooks and hunting for El Dorato on an uncharted island, which set the tone for their whole relationship. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves briefly has Nate and Chloe, during one of his frequent break-ups with Elena.
  • Undertale:
    • Two of the Royal Guard members you have to fend off are a married couple, Dogamy and Dogaressa. They have matching his-and-hers sentry stations — labeled with actual signs saying "His" and "Hers" — and they keep touching noses and "saying sickly sweet things to each other", as the flavor text states, while they fight you.
    • Then there's the team of RG 01 and RG 02, who have Unresolved Sexual Tension to spare and can be persuaded to admit their feelings for each other.
  • Valkyria Chronicles: Welkin and Alicia. Expected from a franchise that's all about Fire-Forged Friends and there is a romantic spark between them.
  • Viewtiful Joe and Sexy Silvia are both Henshin Heroes.
  • In The Walking Dead: Season One, if Carley is alive in Episode 3, she will help Lee eliminate the walkers seeping into the motor inn during the bandit attack. Note that they weren't really a couple, but this was around the time the ship teasing had kicked in.
  • In The Walking Dead: The Final Season, Clementine can be part of one with either Louis or Violet. Clem can get together with one of them near the end of Episode 2, and subsequently fights walkers and the Delta alongside them.
  • The World Ends with You:
    • Seeing as in the game's world any participant in the Reapers' Game needs a partner or they're powerless, it can be assumed that there have been quite a few Battle Couples out there.
    • One other case stands out in particular: Uzuki Yashiro and Koki Kariya. This Reaper duo fights you twice in the game and even have their own version of a light puck as well as a team attack that can render players that are under-leveled at those points in the game, screwed. Their relationship can also be considered Vitriolic if not an outright Battle Couple.
    • There's Neku and Shiki, who are treated as the star couple in all but name. Sure, they had a rocky start, but by the end of their chapter, they've become an unofficial Battle Couple, such that their separation is a major tearjerker for either of them, while their reunion at the end of the game is all the more heartwarming.
  • The Wind Road has the Zhous, a married pair of bandits who fights you one at a time, before facing you later in the Spirit World as a Dual Boss. You also fight Jiu-Erh and Ou-Yang, two rogue martial artists whom were a couple, together.
  • Orcs in World of Warcraft hold this as an ideal. In particular, in Warlords of Draenor, we are introduced to Durotan and Draka, the orcs who would become Thrall's parents. If the two aren't side-by-side in battle, it's only because one is defending the home front while the other goes out on a mission. In an in-game conversation during the Frostfire Ridge quests, Draka is shocked that Thrall insisted his own mate Aggra Stay in the Kitchen rather than be at his side in war, where she insists it's most important to have your family by you. Aggra later appears in Nagrand, having set Thrall straight on that point herself.
    • Actually there are a lot of these in Warcraft because the world is kind of really dangerous so most people have to fight sometimes. Warcraft has Arthas Menethil and Jaina Proudmoore, before the former does a Face-Heel Turn. Although they fall into the fighter and mage archetypes, it's a slight subversion of expectations because Arthas has the healing abilities (in RPGs, the girl always heals). Jaina's abilities mesh particularly well with Arthas' because they revolve around slowing down her opponents (which makes his job, of smashing them into bone dust easier). In Wrath of the Lich King, Jaina tries a last-ditch attempt at persuading Arthas to resist the influence of the Lich King nearly getting herself and the player killed. You can also loot a locket that used to belong to Jaina from the Lich King fight, proof that Arthas kind of still loved her (maybe). The expansion Legion also formally introduced us to Turalyon and Alleria, who are the Mamma Bear and Papa Wolf to basically the whole world (but most importantly, their son Arator who has become quite the paladin himself). Sylvanas and Nathanos Blightcaller were, and still kind of are, this. They were definitely lovers when they were alive, and they still act like it now even though they both don't like to admit it. Rhonin and Vereesa were this, kind of mixed with Ruling Couple as well since they were the de facto leaders of Dalaran's military. Oh yeah: Sylvanas, Alleria, and Vereesa are sisters. Their parents were probably also this although their mother is never explicitly mentioned. The titan keeper Thorim and his Vrykul girlfriend Sif. The Yogg-Saron later uses Sif as a disguise to manipulate Thorim.
  • Xenoblade Chronicles:
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 1 gives us Shulk and Fiora, until she's killed.. [Cyborg Then she turns out to have been Only Mostly Dead and they pick up where they left off.
    • Not uncommon in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, thanks to the need for trust and cooperation between Driver and Blade. One NPC mentions that in older times it wasn't unheard-of for Drivers and Blades to marry. She brings this up about Rex and Pyra, who are a shining example of this trope to everyone but themselves.
      • This gets deconstructed hard in the Torna prequel DLC. Jin, already under a lot of stress from learning about his past (where he was part of a battle couple with a woman implied to have actually married him) and seeing the full might of the Aegis, is made to consider the full implications of being a battle couple with Lora once it's clear to both of them there's some degree of love between them both. He decides he cannot live without her (which Blades literally cannot do) and takes drastic measures when Lora starts to succumb to terrible wounds that end up putting Lora into a terrible coma.
    • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has the Interlinking mechanic, where specific Ouroboros characters, all male + female pairs, can fuse into a larger powerful form. During the game each of the pairs, although initially cold to one another, grow closer. The main pair, Noah and Mio, have the most intense romantic feelings developed during the story. Eunie and Taion form a more bickering couple/friendship, and Lanz and Sena become more ofmuscle buddies. Additionally, two members of Moebius can also interlink into monstrous forms.
      • The Future Redeemed DLC story doesn't have Interlinking as a combat mechanic, but instead the player can pair up party members for different Unity combos.
  • Fei and Elly, as well as Citan and Yui of Xenogears.
  • Yes, Your Grace: Asalia's main Tomboy Princess quality is that she gets really into weapon-wielding when she gives it a try, and her true love is already experienced in that domain. If the two of them end up together, they will go on to form a combat-ready pair.

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