Jason and Lucia Are Only a Couple in GTA 6 If You Want Them to Be
At long last, GTA 6 fans got a real, in-depth look at gameplay for the highly anticipated release. The Netflix Extended Look went live on August 27th, with a YouTube version to follow. Overall, it was a pretty impressive showing, with solid graphics and seamless gameplay swapping between Jason and Lucia. It was hard to miss some of the extra layers of realism that Rockstar has peppered into the game, including the option to “hold hands” when walking side by side. For those who love a romance in their games, that’s good news. But what if you couldn’t care less about fostering Jason and Lucia’s love story?
In a recent interview with IGN, Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson confirmed that the romance between our two lead characters is entirely optional. But it is a full and robust mechanic if players choose to engage with it. Don’t foster the love story, and it won’t happen. But how does that impact the overall story? Well, we’ll have to wait to play GTA 6 this November to know for sure. However, Nelson is confident that leaving the romance behind won’t negatively impact your experience.
GTA 6 Puts Its Main Romance Entirely in Your Control, For Better or For Worse
The extended look makes it pretty clear that both Jason and Lucia are central characters in GTA 6. Indeed, players will swap between both of them as the main protagonists of the story. We’ve also known for a while that Jason and Lucia are a couple. Or at least, most trailers present them like one. But according to Rockstar, their relationship (or lack thereof) will be entirely in players’ hands. This is just part of what’s looking to be the most immersive GTA world we’ve seen yet, and for those of us who played Baldur’s Gate 3 for the romance, it’s a positive development. Thankfully, if you’d rather skip the mushy stuff, Rockstar has made sure that the romance, while involved if you choose it, can also be pretty much ignored without sacrificing gameplay.
According to Nelson, GTA 6 invites players to “manage the relationship in the way you hopefully nurture any relationship – which is by spending time together.” In other words, whether Lucia and Jason ultimately get together and stay together romantically is up to the player. As you’re in the open world, you can foster their relationship dynamic by going on dates, such as playing mini-golf or kayaking. And yes, your dual life of crime will also help strengthen the bonds between them. Ensuring that Jason and Lucia spend time together outside of progressing the main story will “have a positive impact on the relationship.” In other words, if you want to see a love story in GTA 6, you’ll have to put some work into it.
Conversely, that means their love doesn’t blossom if players don’t explicitly dedicate time to fostering it. At the start of GTA 6, Jason and Lucia do want to get together and stay together as a couple. However, just playing the story won’t necessarily be enough to keep them together. So, if you want to skip the sappy stuff, you can. And according to Nelson, it shouldn’t negatively impact the gameplay experience. Whether you choose to nurture the romance or not, you’ll still be able to play as both Jason and Lucia. They will remain partners in crime whether or not you opt to keep them partners in a romantic sense.
Nelson played pretty coy about how exactly the story will change if you break the couple up or keep them in a healthy relationship. But the idea for the new relationship mechanic is to add some more “emotional resonance” to the game, for people who might want it. At the same time, letting people opt out of that element was pretty important to the team, too. “It’s not something that we want to foist on players,” Nelson said. Essentially, the love story is there for the fostering if you want to dedicate time to it alongside your life of crime. But if not, the game won’t punish you for it by taking away character options or skipping out on core story moments. Will those story moments play out differently depending on your relationship’s health? I certainly hope so, but it seems like Rockstar still wants to keep some mystery alive ahead of GTA 6‘s long-awaited release on November 19th.
