I don't like the way the Romance is implemented.

[DaniTheHero]

I'll just note that this is of course my own opinion, and it's okay if you feel differently :)


I don't like the way companion romance is implemented.

Every single romance option(Other than Shadowheart sort of), seem to come on to you very early on, usually quite strongly.
These interactions don't really occur from anything you really initiated other than being nice to them. These flirty or romantic interactions take what could be nice and friendly situations into instantly romantic or even suggestive in nature, such as practicing magic with Gale, Dancing with Wyll, cheering up Astorian about his lack of reflection, or even just offering to cheer up Halsin in the camp.
When you aren't interested, you only really have one way to refuse them but it seems firstly very harsh and secondly the characters, both them and YOURs seem extremely upset about it to a point where you can't help but feel really bad about it.
Not to mention that it's undoubtedly uncomfortable for some to be thrown into such situations depending on your orientation.

I don't think I ever saw a game approach romance this way. Romantic interactions in RPG's need to only occur once the player initiated them. Like a flirtatious dialogue path that I started.


This also puts you in quite the awkward position because if you DO progress romance with anyone, any other character you did the same with gets either instantly angry or gives you an ultimatum, which forces you to completely heartbreak the other character (Man I know this is just a game, but hearing hurt Karlach feels just awful).


I also don't understand the point of having so many characters who throw themselves at you so easily, are way too sexually aggressive and yet there's no real polygamy option.
It feels so unnatural to have the characters so unrealistically promiscuous and sexually aggressive, while at the same time being so incredibly monogamous.

[RhodosGuard]

It's way more realistic.
Each Companion has moral standards. You embody those standards they like you.
You embody those standards a whole lot, they start admiring you.

And at some point they will address you with things they wanna do to gauge your interest in them, and most of them react pretty well to rejection, especially in early scenes.

They also aren't really sexually aggressive (apart from maybe astarion)

Almost all Romances I tried so far only led up to a kiss in act 1, and reached their literal and figurative climax in Act 2 while emotionally deepening in Act 3

Lae'Zel is sexually more aggressive because of the cultural differences. There even is dialogue later on where she goes "Ye, we cant make babies and that's awesome because we can have sex without being burdened having to think about getting pregnant"

You can dislike the speed at which they go, but whenever I see posts similar to this, they really misrepresent the romance system.

I for one prefer when companions approach me, because it gives me more of a feeling, that they are real people who dont wait for Hero McHeroFace to tell them "You are allowed to love me now" before they express their admiration for you.

[Rex is back, baby!]

How does it feel unnatural?
Please expand on that thought.

It feels very natural to me. This is some of the most realistic romancing I've seen. The only caveat is time. But where in the real world we have years of time to foster a relationship, in the video game world, they have hours. But every long rest is a day in BG3 time. Gotta not mix your timescale up from reality to fantasy.

[OWO入口就化咩咩糖OMO]

cant be more agree

[seeker1]

Did this need to be necro'd?

And yes, I happen to agree with the first two people who responded to OP, not with OP.

[DeMasked]

Reported for Necromancy.

The relationships can be fast but it's also due to trauma bonding. Movies probably have it far faster in most cases.

[Adam]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.