"Romance" is still hella weird/cringe in this game

[NOD Flamer]

After finishing the game in the first week of it's release, i haven't touched the game at all.

Yesterday I decided to do a Dark Urge playthrough and just be an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and a psychopath.
Than in camp all of a sudden, out of nowhere are two characters straight up telling me they wanna bang.
THERE IS NO BUILD UP TO THIS AT ALL

Laezel told me she would do me that night if i didn't do something in particular to her (no idea wtf she was talking about).

Minthara also straight up told me "you're mine tonight".

It really feels like these scenes were written by a fetishist or something, or maybe it's the context of comedy? But than again this ♥♥♥♥ isn't funny at all and just makes me cringe behind my pc.
And the fact that it has no effect on gameplay, i wonder why it even is in the game at all. Would be better to just disable it.

[id795078477]

It's cringe in almost all video-games

[LordOfTheBread]

Originally posted by id795078477:

It's cringe in almost all video-games

name one where it isn't.

[Aldain]

It's pretty much the thing that put me off the game outright really.

Everything else is solid to good, but...holy crap this romance writing is just staggeringly tacky.

Still think it wouldn't have been a problem if Reputation wasn't the primary metric by which they're triggered, hell even some of the more mediocre farm sims tend to have a separation of the two.

[id795078477]

Originally posted by LordOfTheBread:

Originally posted by id795078477:

It's cringe in almost all video-games

name one where it isn't.

Hm... if I'm to choose then the best experience of that field was in the series of NWN 1 modules (3 chapters total) built as the continuation of the main campaign and focusing on saving the main heroine and having a proper romance with her - romance which has entire NWN 1 OC 4 Chapters as the build-up.

Btw - NWN 1 heroines are what I wish we had more for female characters these days: strong, but feminine; capable, but vulnerable; powerful but not "empowered". Nowadays? Sorry, but when "she" rolls in and orders "let's bang" I just can't see "her" romantically.

[NOD Flamer]

Originally posted by id795078477:

It's cringe in almost all video-games

yeah, that doesn't make the one the nose "hey i want to ♥♥♥♥ you right now" any better.

[NOD Flamer]

Originally posted by Aldain:

Still think it wouldn't have been a problem if Reputation wasn't the primary metric by which they're triggered, hell even some of the more mediocre farm sims tend to have a separation of the two.

bro, i got Laezel to disapprove of me once and before that no approve or disapprove and yet she striaght up tells me she wanted to have sex..........

this reputation thing doesn't do anything but either enable it or disable it, but doesn't make a character more or less attracted to you (they're all attracted to you)

[Cenwalh]

Food for thought:

Although these romantic interactions are more or less just as cringe in any other RPG, in Baldur's Gate 3 you at least have more types of such interactions and more types of approaches.

Yes, some characters do not have any build-up to doing it (Lae'Zel), others have a never-ending build-up (Shadowheart), because sexual interactions between people are varied.
Some are romantically/emotionally engaged, some are just looking for fun. You know, just like actual people...

I feel like this better reflects reality more than any other video game where romance is an option.

BG3 also does another spin on these types of interactions that I haven't seen in other party RPGs -- that the player is not the only one who can initiate such an interaction. In other games, your main character was the only one who had the power to initiate these interactions, as if your character is the only one who had any volition of any kind and the rest had to simply follow your desires.
In BG3, this is a bit more nuanced with NPCs who can themselves decide that they want to engage in such an act, making them more believable characters in my opinion.

[Fluffykeith]

Originally posted by SchizOrtho:

Originally posted by Aldain:

Still think it wouldn't have been a problem if Reputation wasn't the primary metric by which they're triggered, hell even some of the more mediocre farm sims tend to have a separation of the two.

bro, i got Laezel to disapprove of me once and before that no approve or disapprove and yet she striaght up tells me she wanted to have sex..........

this reputation thing doesn't do anything but either enable it or disable it, but doesn't make a character more or less attracted to you (they're all attracted to you)

Lae’zel is very much like a TNG Klingon. When she pulls the “I want to do things to you” line, it’s after the fight to resolve the goblin camp problem. Either way you just killed a bunch of people and her society sees “glorious battle” as highly admirable. So you just broadcast that you’re strong and a worthy partner.

The romance makes a bit more sense if you try to see things from their point of view.

[glenn3e]

I got Laezal’s before even doing the Goblin camp. I did all the sidequests before going there

[wokecensorshipdoesntwork]

Originally posted by Cenwalh:

Food for thought:

Although these romantic interactions are more or less just as cringe in any other RPG, in Baldur's Gate 3 you at least have more types of such interactions and more types of approaches.

Yes, some characters do not have any build-up to doing it (Lae'Zel), others have a never-ending build-up (Shadowheart), because sexual interactions between people are varied.
Some are romantically/emotionally engaged, some are just looking for fun. You know, just like actual people...

I feel like this better reflects reality more than any other video game where romance is an option.

BG3 also does another spin on these types of interactions that I haven't seen in other party RPGs -- that the player is not the only one who can initiate such an interaction. In other games, your main character was the only one who had the power to initiate these interactions, as if your character is the only one who had any volition of any kind and the rest had to simply follow your desires.
In BG3, this is a bit more nuanced with NPCs who can themselves decide that they want to engage in such an act, making them more believable characters in my opinion.

It's more unrealistic, just in the opposite way. Here it's like a dating simulator where you are an irresistible pansexual entity that everybody is inexplicably drawn to, with no preferences. Attraction and approval are synonymous here too, moving it even further away from reality. In reality there are people you respect who you don't find attractive, and people you find attractive that you don't respect. That is nuance. This is just a dating simulator approach.

[Zeel Ara]

Welcome to RPGs

[BigJ]

Daily reminder Shart will romance gith despite her rather justified prejudice.

[Cenwalh]

Originally posted by wokecensorshipdoesntwork:

It's more unrealistic, just in the opposite way. Here it's like a dating simulator where you are an irresistible pansexual entity that everybody is inexplicably drawn to, with no preferences. Attraction and approval are synonymous here too, moving it even further away from reality. In reality there are people you respect who you don't find attractive, and people you find attractive that you don't respect. That is nuance. This is just a dating simulator approach.

Guess what, just like everything else in the game story-wise, your choices reflect "what" you are. You're limiting yourself to seeing only one approach.

If you choose to bang everyone you can and don't care about romance, that's who your character is.

You can also choose to be an asexual ascetic hero who is not at all interested in anything related to sex or intimacy with others. And that's who your character is, if you choose that.

And anything else in between.

I don't understand how you cannot see the nuance the game offers as well (it's still a game, so of course it doesn't match reality fully...), and simply go with the most inane interpretation of the choices you're offered.

If you had played the game at all you would've seen that it's not at all how you portray it here. It's exactly the opposite, it offers MORE choices than other similar games, exactly because it is more nuanced in this approach.

[Aldain]

Originally posted by Cenwalh:

I don't understand how you cannot see the nuance the game offers as well (it's still a game, so of course it doesn't match reality fully...), and simply go with the most inane interpretation of the choices you're offered.

Personally I don't see how "Basically everyone is willing to jump your bones with no real preference via a small approval nudge" is nuanced in any way, but you do you.

[wokecensorshipdoesntwork]

Originally posted by Cenwalh:

Originally posted by wokecensorshipdoesntwork:

It's more unrealistic, just in the opposite way. Here it's like a dating simulator where you are an irresistible pansexual entity that everybody is inexplicably drawn to, with no preferences. Attraction and approval are synonymous here too, moving it even further away from reality. In reality there are people you respect who you don't find attractive, and people you find attractive that you don't respect. That is nuance. This is just a dating simulator approach.

Guess what, just like everything else in the game story-wise, your choices reflect "what" you are. You're limiting yourself to seeing only one approach.

If you choose to bang everyone you can and don't care about romance, that's who your character is.

You can also choose to be an asexual ascetic hero who is not at all interested in anything related to sex or intimacy with others. And that's who your character is, if you choose that.

And anything else in between.

I don't understand how you cannot see the nuance the game offers as well (it's still a game, so of course it doesn't match reality fully...), and simply go with the most inane interpretation of the choices you're offered.

If you had played the game at all you would've seen that it's not at all how you portray it here. It's exactly the opposite, it offers MORE choices than other similar games, exactly because it is more nuanced in this approach.

Well, no, not really. You could be the nicest lizardman in the entire world and I still wouldn't want to ♥♥♥♥ you, because you're a lizardman. Nothing you ever said or did could change the fundamental fact that I will never find a lizardman attractive or desirable. I might respect you, but I will never lust after you.

Every single companion trying to bang you just because you progressed their quest is not "nuance", again, it's a dating simulator for people who need to go to horny jail.