The Sims 4: Rom-Com Scenario Playthrough

Spoiler Alert: It Glitched. As Usual.

In case you missed it, The Sims 4 added a bunch of new scenarios to the game a little while ago. So many, in fact, that we’re still in the process of playing through them all! Today’s scenario, “Rom-Com,” is about a pair of engaged Sims with great friendship but no romantic chemistry and a career driving a wedge between them.

Here’s how our Rom-Com scenario went!

Getting Started

You’ll notice the scenarios have gotten a bit of a revamp. Along with lots more new scenarios, there are now difficulty ratings on each scenario to give you an idea of the time and effort it will take players to complete them. The Rom-Com scenario is listed as an Easy scenario.

This is a permanent scenario so there’s no need to rush to start it before a certain date. It will be available in the game forever so start it whenever you like!

The scenario description states that your Sims are engaged but have lost the spark in their relationship and one Sim’s aspirations to become a successful comedian could get in the way of trying to mend their failing relationship. The household requires two Young Adult or older Sims who are engaged to each other.

There are several potential outcomes to this scenario:

One Sim gets promoted to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career and is Lovers with their original partner
One Sim gets promoted to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career and is Soulmates with their original partner
One Sim gets promoted to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career but has broken up with their original partner
One Sim gets promoted to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career but their original partner has moved out or died

When you start the scenario, both Sims will have part-time jobs, level 2 in Cooking, Comedy, and Charisma skills, and a Deeply Wounded sentiment towards each other.

We randomised a couple Sims in CAS and spent a short time slapping some styled looks on them before hopping into the game and getting them settled into an apartment in Evergreen Harbour.

A House of Sorrows

We thought the outcome in which the other partner moves out sounded the most interesting so we intended to play out a story where one Sim is ready for marriage and children and just wants to settle down with “The One” immediately but the other Sim still has their own ambitions to chase and doesn’t want to add marriage and kids to the situation until they’ve established those other goals. Eventually, the Sim who wants a family realises they won’t get that with their partner and walks away. We gave one Sim, Larissa, the Joke Star aspiration and her fiancé, Jaiden, the Soulmate aspiration.

Larissa started out as a barista and Jaiden was a babysitter. Since Larissa is the one with the Joke Star aspiration, we had her quit her job and join the Entertainer career. We immediately added the Convivial lot trait to their apartment to help her build the Comedy skill faster and carved out an office space for her to write jokes. We also wanted her to work on her aspiration so she could buy career reward traits so he also went around the neighbourhood giving funny introductions to Sims.

Her “funny” introductions just came off as cringy and pathetic, however. She was sad from being around her fiancé. In fact, every time Larissa and Jaiden were in the same room with each other, they’d both become sad from their sentiments; they both know the love in their relationship is dying and miss those warm fuzzy butterflies they used to feel for each other.

Avoiding the Problem

For most people, this should be a sign that they need to unpack what’s going on in their relationship and address the issues before they escalate further but Larissa doesn’t want to deal with those heavy emotions; they would interfere with her new career ambitions and she can’t afford to mess this chance up after leaving her other job and taking a risk on show business. She spends as much time as possible out of the house and away from her fiancé, giving small performances at the lounge and supplementing her comedy skits with some music.

It may not be good for her dying relationship but it’s great for her career. She builds the Comedy skill quickly and gains promotions quickly, too. She comes home with a shiny new promotion almost every shift! She wants Jaiden to be proud of her; after all, the sooner she achieves success, the sooner she’ll actually feel ready to marry him and start a family but Jaiden’s just annoyed by how much time she’s spending on work. Financial success isn’t as important to him as just enjoying life with the ones you love and he doesn’t understand why Larissa feels like she has to be wealthy and successful before she can start a life with him. Can’t she do both at the same time?

The more successes Larissa has in her career, the worse things get at home until they’re sleeping in two separate beds pushed up against each other and barely speaking to each other at all. They’ve become roommates who barely know each other rather than soulmates preparing to spend the rest of their lives together. The more they try to talk to each other, the worse it gets. They’re absolutely miserable every time they’re near each other for even just a few minutes.

He’s Got My Past… But I’ve Got Me

While Larissa’s relationship crumbles to pieces around her, her career skyrockets. It’s a bittersweet feeling, getting everything you ever wanted except someone to celebrate it all with you.

The day she gets promoted to the Comedian branch of the Entertainer career, she comes home to Jaiden packing his things. He tells her he can’t do this anymore. He’s waited for her to catch up to the page he’s on for too long and it’s time for him to go find someone who wants what he wants out of life. Larissa tries to tell him that she’s finally a successful comedian now, just like she always wanted! They can get married and raise that family now but it’s too little too late. If Larissa’s honest with herself, she could put up more of a fight… but she doesn’t really want to. She knows they aren’t right for each other, too.

And so Jaiden moves out that night. It should have been a heartbreaking end to an otherwise amazing day but once she’s finally by herself, a sense of peace washes over her. It’s the freest she’s felt in a long time.

There was happiness with Jaiden once. And there will be happiness after him, too.

Our Thoughts

So where did this scenario glitch out on us exactly? Well, technically we did complete it by having Larissa become a comedian and having Jaiden move out… except the game did not register the move properly. When Jaiden used the phone to move out on his own, it canceled the scenario on us and we never got our 5,000 satisfaction points despite doing everything required of us.

Maybe we had to do it through the Manage Households screen. Maybe there was some other way to move him out without breaking the scenario. We’re not really sure but even if there is a way to finish the scenario with this outcome, it’s still pretty ridiculous to us that this scenario breaks when you try to get this outcome through normal gameplay. Like… isn’t that the point of scenarios? To explore gameplay?

So no, we can’t recommend this scenario. If a scenario glitches in any way that prevents us from completing all outcomes, it’s an automatic thumbs down from us, no matter how fun the rest of the scenario might have been before it glitched.

And yes, the Taylor Swift references in this article were deliberate.