Grand Theft Auto 6 is still several months away from its May 2026 launch, but thanks to two trailers from developer Rockstar, we have some broad outlines for what to expect from the year’s most anticipated game. Even though we’ve only seen about three minutes of official footage of GTA 6, we know the story centers around an adventurous couple, Jason and Lucia.
Both trailers’ emphasis on their bond implies that there’s more going on here from a gameplay perspective than the usual multiple protagonist stuff. And that’s a fantastic setup for an evolved riff on Red Dead Redemption 2’s honor mechanic — call it a ride-or-die meter or just a loyalty mechanic — between Jason and Lucia. Imagine if your actions determine the state of your relationship, which in turn shifts how the story of GTA 6 plays out.
If you’re a little rusty on the details, Red Dead 2’s honor mechanic is an unseen metric influenced by your actions, and determines how non-player characters treat the protagonist, Arthur Morgan. For instance, if you pick a fight in the center of Valentine to steal a stranger’s hat, the locals will scold Arthur and warn him not to cause trouble. If you’re consistent in your actions, Arthur’s reputation builds up over time.
If your Arthur is kind to civilians, donates money at camp, and pays off his bounties, he’ll get cordial greetings from folks in town and hefty discounts in shops. If he’s a nasty bastard who kills innocents and hurts animals, he’ll gain more valuable loot from fallen foes and have the option to antagonize pretty much anyone, but shops will have higher prices and civilians will be hostile. While Arthur’s story plays out largely the same either way, there are some notable tonal differences between a high- and low-honor ending.
This mechanic may seem to be an odd fit with GTA 6, where, presumably, you are meant to be doing crimes all the time. But linking a variation on the honor system specifically to the relationship between Jason and Lucia would make your decisions matter without undercutting the action and excitement that makes the series so much fun. Rockstar hasn’t officially confirmed anything like this for GTA 6, but the information the company has shared so far offers some intriguing clues in this vein. Most obviously, both trailers emphasize the importance of working together. “The only way we’re going to get through this is by sticking together,” Lucia says in the first trailer. “Being a team.”
What’s more, both trailers are accompanied by songs that underscore the theme of aspiring to be an unstoppable couple — but not being quite at that point yet: Tom Petty’s “Love is a Long Road” and The Pointer Sisters’ “Hot Together.” If you look at the lyrics for each of these songs, they’re both about a love that could be, not a love that currently exists.
Profiles of Jason and Lucia on the game’s official site (released the same time as the second trailer), also suggest that your actions in the game will influence the state of their relationship. Perhaps I’m reading too deeply into the could be of it all, but to me this language suggests that their relationship can take various forms:
- On Jason: “Meeting Lucia could be the best or worst thing to ever happen to him. Jason knows how he’d like it to turn out but right now, it’s hard to tell.”
- On Lucia: “A life with Jason could be her way out.”
So, if there is a loyalty system in GTA 6, how might this play out in the actual game? Even from just a few minutes of official footage, it’s clear that there’s a whole lot of naughty fun going on in Vice City — sex, drugs, booze, partying. Assuming you have influence over the actions of both Jason and Lucia, I’d imagine there’s a lot of optional activities you can get involved in that would piss your partner off: going to a strip club, accepting a date with someone else, doing crimes outside your committed relationship. And if one partner is less reliable, that could have a clear impact on in-game missions — not listening to your cues, bungling a robbery, shooting a hostage you want to keep alive, and so on.
Zooming out, there would seem to be four endgame possibilities: a loving relationship, a toxic relationship, and a lopsided relationship where one character is more attached than the other. (Maybe the two lopsided outcomes are the “neutral” route.) I suspect that it won’t be possible to actually break them up — there’s an obvious story excuse being paved that they’re “in too deep” with all the crimes they get up to.
I’m not suggesting that Rockstar is going full Baldur’s Gate 3 or Stardew Valley here with an ooey-gooey romance system. This is still, after all, Grand Theft Auto. But we do know that Jason and Lucia’s relationship is absolutely central to the story, and it makes a whole lotta sense for that to be reflected on a mechanical level. Happy wife, happy life, amirite?
Grand Theft Auto 6 is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X on May 26, 2026.
