Romancing Ashley Williams: My Greatest Shame in Video Games?

With Valentine’s Day and the Mass Effect Remaster around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about romance. Not in the real world of course. We are (still) in the throes of a pandemic and dating was in the Before Times ™ and online dating has only evolved to be a different type of crushing existential burden that’s not worth talking about right now. And maybe it’s just the polar vortex that’s been flirting with the Midwest, but I’ve mostly been thinking about my regrets in video game romance options, like falling for Vicki Vale in Telltale Batman only to have the knife twist when she was revealed to be the antagonist.

Not following through in my conviction of the Rhys/Fionna ship, given into the in-game pressure of Rhys/Sasha. And very ironically, serial dating in Persona 4 Golden, only to proceed to break several character’s hearts as each one came to my front door to tell me they wished I had spent the day with them instead. But as the title suggests, there is one decision that haunts me more than literally anything else. Nothing has come remotely close to the shame of the titular confession.  Let me paint the picture if you will. It is 2009. I am getting ready to go to college, and I have a lot myself enough funds one for one game. Something to keep me occupied as a #gamer during the off days studying and when my introverted ass didn’t want to interact with people. I held in my hands Mass Effect and Dragon Age, and of course my sci-fi leanings lead me to purchase…