GTA 6 has a relationship system, and it sounds as though you can make-or-break Jason and Lucia's romance
Rockstar has revealed a relationship system in Grand Theft Auto 6 , to underpin and support the bond between co-protagonists and lovers Jason and Lucia. Using this system you can nurture their bond, bringing them closer together, or neglect it, potentially leading to what sounds like a split somewhere down the line.
Said Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson to IGN : "There is a system that tracks what sort of criminal you are. And then there is also a relationship system. They're separate. You manage the relationship in the way you hopefully nurture any relationship - which is by spending time together. So being in the open world and exploring together or doing activities together, playing pool or mini golf or kayaking; normal slice of life things. Or, robbing stores together, robbing banks together. However players want to spend that time together, it will have a positive impact on the relationship.
"With the relationship," Nelson added, "we start Jason and Lucia off wanting to give it a shot, but just going through the story and playing missions together may not be enough to keep them together. You'll have to keep them together by spending a bit of time together in the open world, and then hopefully that will reinforce your connection to them and increase your investment in their story."
Players can swap between either protagonist Jason and Lucia seamlessly [LINK TO SHERIF'S EARLIER STORY], it sounds like, in a similar but evolved way to in Grand Theft Auto 5 . It's their relationship we've seen front and centre in previous GTA 6 trailers, and it sounds as though it'll form the backbone of everything we do in the game. But importantly: relationship maintenance won't be a mandatory and required task. If you don't want to focus on it, that's okay.
"The narrative is structured in such a way that the circumstances they find themselves in require them to stay together for most of the story and work together. At the very least they will get through most things as partners in crime," Nelson said. "I don't want to say too much more about this because I don't want to spoil anything. It really adds a compelling element to things and it's one of the reasons we wanted to approach this sort of story, because it's completely different for us.
"Could we bring some sort of emotional resonance to GTA for people if they wanted to engage with it? Could we also provide mechanisms for people to just opt out of it if they're not into it? If they feel like I don't want a relationship in this? That's what we're going to find out. It's not something that we want to foist upon players."
In separate preview based on an exclusive demo of GTA 6 [LINK TO IGN PREVIEW], IGN elaborated on the relationship system, stating that the more time Jason and Lucia spend together, the stronger, understandably, their relationship gets. But you can't intentionally break them by "dumping" each other or by only playing one of the characters, IGN said, though "you can expect the type of bond you build to be reflected in the story". That said, being a perfect couple bestows no gameplay benefit.
"They will remain partners in crime," Nelson explained. "You will always have the benefit of working together and having each other's back-whether they're romantically close or not doesn't change that. They will still work together. It's really about what you want for them, their story, and how it plays out. Whether you've nurtured the relationship or not will definitely have a bearing on how their story plays out."
There are many things you can do together to nurture the relationship if you want to, including a range of in-game GTA 6 activities from jet skiing to base jumping, to performing robberies together. But you can also kick back and spend more relaxed time together in your shared safe house and enjoy a beer. And you don't have to be glued together all of the time. You can split up and take the characters around the city independently, it sounds like, leaving the other character to go about their daily routine. Splitting up is apparently helpful for shaking the police in certain situations, if they're specifically looking for a couple on the run, say. The Wanted system is much more detailed this time .
"As the narrative unfolds, we're quite conscious to try and make sure that players have enough time with each character," Nelson added. "After doing GTA 5, we talked about different ideas of - do we do more characters? How do we follow up three characters? Is it four characters now? But we worried about diluting the amount of player time with each and, therefore, player connection with those characters. So we decided to step in this direction of two characters in a relationship." He later underlined this point, stating, "This is a story about a couple on the run."
These GTA 6 preview and interview details arrive alongside the GTA 6 extended look Netflix trailer, which has given us our longest uninterrupted look at Rockstar's new game yet, detailing and demonstrating many aspects of it - the relationship between Jason and Lucia included.
Meanwhile, over the past several months, Rockstar Games has been embroiled in a union-busting scandal after the studio fired around 40 people. The UK's Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB) threatened legal action against the studio , harshly criticising the dismissals on multiple occasions.
Many of Rockstar's workers have since formed the Rockstar Game Workers Union (RGWU) , which has grown its membership so much in recent months that it could soon trigger statutory recognition, forcing Rockstar to recognise the union .
GTA 6 is being released 19th November on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.