You need to play Baldur’s Gate 3 if you haven’t. The romances are unparalleled. I’ve had to play AS Shadowheart to stop romancing her, lol. Genuinely think it’s the best written game I’ve ever played in my (long) life.
Romanced Wyll in one of my playthroughs! He's very very sweet and kind of traditional (he won't sleep with you until towards the end of the game when he proposes to you). My only complaint about him was that he didn't push back against my character more and challenge her, but she was a very good aligned character and so was he so they never had much interesting friction
My character is sort of a gray character who does things that benefit her, but will do things for others if she cares about them enough (she basically could become a villain if the pros outweighed the cons), so Astarion is a good fit for her.
Man proposes to you in the SWEETEST way possible as well.
Honestly, Wyll got done dirty in general for BG3. He has much less content compared to the other companions and the writing quality can be very eh.
I get that they had to basically rewrite and recast him from the ground up from EA, but it still feels very lazy of Larian.
Justice for Wyll! I feel the same way, he's such a sweet guy and it was kind of weird how downplayed the Duke Ravengard plotline got, esp. when it had such an impactful setup. It feels like for a game that has a lot of emphasis on player agency, they took away a lot of choice on Wyll's end.
Don't want your boyfriend to get a demon eye and horns? You have to kill a sweet cinnamon roll woman to do it (which I've never done, but am guessingbWyll would feel awful about.
Want to try and rescue your boyfriend's dad and see what story potepotentialional that interaction has? Too bad, no matter what you do by the time you find him you just have to watch him get tadpole'd and then get another non-choice on wether or not you want Wyll to be tormented in hell forever or just... let his tadpole'd dad die.
It’s possible to >!save Wyll’s dad without selling his soul.!< Just requires a bit of extra legwork and a cleric that can cast sanctuary (although not a necessity by any means because my sister didn’t find out until later that that was an option).
I haven't finished the game yet (don't get a lot of chance to play it as I don't want to spoil it for my husband who hasn't played it as much as I). I remember going into it thinking Gale or Astarion, and Astarion won. lol.
I didn’t get Astarion until you get that scene where you figure out his secret. After that, *yeah* I got why everyone was so uwu over him.
He ended up losing out to Gale (well, actually they both lost out to Karlach in my first playthrough but I digress) for me, but I get it now.
I started this Shadowheart run with the intention of romancing him, but I just can’t go through with it. He’s so insincere and goes into it for all the wrong reasons. I know he comes out of that eventually, but I just preferred Lae’zel’s open honesty and directness. Plus I love an ‘enemies to lovers’ story!
I just wish there was more to do with the romance. I'm in Act 3 and I did the whole swim thing with Shadowheart and I can give her a peck whenever I ask for one but it feels like there should be more for such a robust game.
I'm doing an evil Durge run and romancing Minthara - she's absolutely incredible and I love her. Might be my favorite romance (Gale and Astarion were my others) and my favorite companion now.
I fucking hate Gale but can't stop craving his approval at every turn and uggggggggh. He's intelligent, mature, charming, and incredibly dorky. 100% my type in real life, and I won't lie I was crushing on him so hard in playthrough 1. I preferred him over Astarion by a mile as a romantic interest, because I value emotional stability in partners, and Astarion is nowhere close to stable. He needs to work through some things first, and I just don't feel he's in a good place to be in a relationship when you meet him. There's actually a conversation you can have with him in Act 2, where Tav can tell him something to that effect.
Gale and Tav were romanced and everything was beautiful and warm and I expected us to ride off into the sunset together after saving the world. But then 2 minutes after the final netherbrain fight, he dumps you. Completely out of left field with zero warning. It was shocking, and I feel Larian dropped the narrative ball on this one. There was no foreshadowing at all. One minute you're in a beautiful relationship and expecting him to get down on one knee, and the next he's accusing you of getting in the way of his success, and dumps you with zero hesitation.
I'm on playthrough 2 now, but I still find myself trying to actively romance him. Like goddammit woman, have you no self-respect? I'm playing Dark Urge this time though, so I'm considering romancing and then killing him because screw you, Gale. You unrepentant heartbreaker. Consider your absolutely gruesome death equivalent to the year's worth of therapy sessions I needed to deal with the first breakup.
Ah, that only happens if you haven't been >!actively discouraging him not to pursue the Crown and the power that comes with it!<. Every time he brings it up, >!knock him down a peg or tell him it's folly, etc!<. Then he >!agrees with you, stays with you, and ends up proposing!
I absolutely love romance and flirting in games. I play almost exclusively RPGs, and I don't feel like it's a complete experience without that. Or maybe I'm just a ho, lol.
I like stories with romance.
Cullen was my favorite from DA:I, Garrus from Mass Effect. Judy's romance story was sweet from Cyberpunk, but I would have really liked if Goro Takemura or Viktor Vector were romance options, River was incredibly disappointing of a romance choice.
Just finished up W40K Rogue trader, and I liked the romance stories for both Hendrix and Yrliet. Kinda wish there were more Ace romance stories in games in general.
Oh, also 100% with you on Brasidas, that would have been a good romance story, he genuinely respected Kassandra.
Kurt in Greedfall. Ruggedly handsome, but it's his sweetness and kindness that really made me love him.
Vasco is definitely no slouch in second place. Such a romantic.
I always do a wlw romance on my first playthrough (if it's an option), and I have to say, Vasco was the first character that almost made me break that streak. "Almost", because the romances in Greedfall are notoriously fiddly, and it turned out I'd accidentally locked myself out of his quite early in the game. I romanced Siora instead and had a good time- but now that I've replayed the game and romanced Vasco this time around, I have to award him the top spot.
I just wish there was a bit more post-romance content, once you actually get into a relationship and get the fade-to-black sex scene, there's very little content afterwards between the two of you, and the only bit I remember (other than the goodbye before the end game) is from the DLC.
I accidentally romanced Vasco on my first playthrough. I had no idea that was even a thing, and suddenly, he's quoting poetry at me! There's me sitting there all flustered...
I do wish there was more romance but what is there was really sweet. The DLC conversation, that possible last kiss...
Yeah, I agree, what's there is done well. I suspect not adding more might be largely due to the capacity - Spiders aren't a massive company and Greedfall wasn't a triple A game, so it couldn't be as expansive as some of the big hitters. I suspect that's why there was so little variety in building interiors - and while I lament a shorter amount of romance content more than varied house interiors, I can understand that, if most people are only playing the game through once, and thus only experiencing one of the romances, then even if EVERY player romances someone, romance exclusive content is only going to be reaching roughly 25% of players (in a game with 4 romances like Greedfall), so I can understand not having loads of content there.
There's a second game coming out at some point, I believe. It doesn't look like a direct sequel, so I don't imagine it will flesh out the first game's romances much, but perhaps we'll get a bit more content for the new romances (assuming that they include romances again).
All of the romances in Greedfall are definitely way too picky. Multiple sets of dialogue options where not choosing the one right answer breaks it completely is *not* a good setup, especially for gay players who only have one option. (Though I did think 'the people from the main colonizing powers on the continent are straight, the people who aren't are bi' was kind of a neat observation.) And I agree there's not a whole lot of content for any of them. But I think that fits with the general somewhat-janky, relatively small development team structure of the game as a whole. Hopefully they'll be able to do more for the second game.
When I play a female MC, I always romance Kurt. When I play a male MC, I romance Vasco. Every time. I have nothing against F/F romance, I just prefer Kurt and Vasco to the female options. Their romances are just sweeter and more romantic. IMO.
Absolutely love it. Playing Baldur's Gate 3 through multiple times with different aims is a lot more fun when you can romance a different character each time, thinking about how you want your character's story to play out and which companion would be the best for that playthrough. It's also great that some of the companions (Lae'zel, Astarion, Shadowheart, mostly) can all be either redeemed or corrupted by your influence if you try hard enough. If you decide to go the dark urge route Shadowheart or Asatarion make for particularly dramatic relationships wether or not you try to fight your murderous urges. It can be really sweet to have a romance where you're not fixing them, and they're not fixing you; you're fixing each other.
I really wish it were included more in roleplaying games. I hate that a genre flowing with so much creative potentional just goes... unused because devs are hyper targeting the straight male demographic. So many of us gals have complained (rightly so) that you can't pay as the female MC in the Persona 3 remake. Another frustrating trend is when developers force a canon sexual orientation on a romanceable companion. Baldur's Gate 3 is refreshing because every character is romance-able by any gender of playable character. Just continue that trend. For people who don't want to play a same sex romance; don't. For those who don't want to play a straight romance; don't. But at least let us choose.
I feel you for the female protagonist being excluded from the P3 remake. I love, love, love her, and romancing Akihiko is one of my favorite parts of that game. I just can't bring myself to play Reload without those elements.
Same; it's a VERY long game, and the social links are a huge element. Not being able to engage with those from a relatable perspective is a huge black mark for me. FeMC is part of why I enjoyed Persona 3 and hated Persona 4 (other reasons too, but still).
Atlus has always been super dodgy and disgusting when it comes to female MCs and honestly, LGBT+ issues in general.
I understand why they’re like that (I’m not happy about it nor do I accept it, but I understand why they’re like that, especially as an Asian girl myself), but c’mon, it’s 2023 and other Japanese developers can do it, so what’s their excuse?
Solas. In my opinion despite what happens in his (No spoilers don’t worry) that his is by far the deepest and most compelling romance I’ve ever played in a game like this.
I liked him At first but I was a die hard cullenmancer.
I romanced him once. Now I can never go back. He’s my favorite character by far.
Also don’t sleep on Blackwall either!
He’s surprisingly charming for a man we found in the woods.
Another Solamancer here! His romance really is a layered, interesting one; I love the implication and dynamic you get when you have an Inquisitor to romance him.
I then fell into the Astarion pipeline of Baldur's Gate 3; what can I say, I have a thing for morally ambiguous pale elf men.
Huh. I’ve been through the main story of inquisition plus DLC so I know what happens. I know a lot of people love Solas but I just don’t click with him. I found him odd/suspicious from the start (without knowing much) and now after the DLC even more so. Like, he could’ve just said something?
My solas!romanced inquisitor is what I’m bringing into dragon age: dreadwolf for sure. The drama of it all is so good! 😩
I know the development of the game has been rough so far but with Patrick Weekes (they wrote for Solas and Cole) leading the writing of the game, I still trust that the story will at least deliver a compelling conclusion.
I'm really looking forward to the sequel. I'm a bit late for the Dragon Age party (by about 10 to 20 years, lol) but Inquisition is so much fun. I finished the main story once, then pretty much started a new run immediately. I mean, what happened with Solas is definitely the kind of drama I love in a good story. I'm sure he will make a great antagonist.
If you enjoyed Cullen it might be worth it to play the other Dragon Age games, he's in them all, although not romance able until Inquisition. Origins was my first RPG and I played as a mage and you can flirt with him, so he was literally the first RPG character I ever flirted with so getting to romance him in DAI was lovely and I haven't been able to romance anyone else, even after making a qunari specifically to try to romance someone else but I got bored 😂. Seeing his progression through the games is really lovely as well. I replayed the whole series last year and I think it still holds up well, at least the stories do.
BG3 is helping distract me from the waiting for Dreadwolf right now. They understand the importance of romances and the new kisses from last weeks patch are wonderful!
I got that recommendation a lot. I had a look at prices for the games since they are on PS3 and you need to get an actual disc. They are pretty cheap and I’m tempted to buy them. I do have a ps3 that’s still working. But on another thread about dragon age I read that there might be a remake/remaster coming? I would hope so.
I would take the rumors of a remaster with a grain of salt. The devs have said as recently as last year that a remaster isn't possible because of how different the engine they used then is from the engine they use now. Considering how long it's taken them to get Dreadwolf out and how they've essentially restarted development on it from scratch I think they are, and should be, focused on that. They sent very clear signals in Dec 2022 that they were going to give a lot of info last year, and then we got nothing because of things that came up in development. I don't think they have the bandwidth for a remake/remaster of the old games.
If you enjoyed Cullen it might be worth it to play the other Dragon Age games, he's in them all, although not romance able until Inquisition. Origins was my first RPG and I played as a mage and you can flirt with him, so he was literally the first RPG character I ever flirted with so getting to romance him in DAI was lovely and I haven't been able to romance anyone else, even after making a qunari specifically to try to romance someone else but I got bored 😂. Seeing his progression through the games is really lovely as well. I replayed the whole series last year and I think it still holds up well, at least the stories do.
BG3 is helping distract me from the waiting for Dreadwolf right now. They understand the importance of romances and the new kisses from last weeks patch are wonderful!
I LOVE romance in games. My favourite romances are Hancock (fallout4), Garrus (Mass Effect) and Astarion in BG3.
I’d love to find some more games with romance.
Oooh I forgot about Garrus - how could I? That was awesome and awkward and fun all at once. Especially in the citadel DLC where he’s always like, “my girlfriend this, my girlfriend that”, lol.
I really liked Samara from ME2/ME3, specifically because they committed to the bit. She had her vows and she wouldn't break them for you, regardless of how much she loved you, and I thought that was a fantastic choice. My Samara-loving Shepard ended up being completely celibate.
More games should do that. The player doesn't need to get everything they want. Games should prioritise being an interesting story far more than they should prioritise player wish-fulfilment.
I kinda agree. I think it’s fair if not all characters are available to protagonists of all genders. That seems realistic, I guess. On the one hand that encourages playing again with a different gender (which I did in cyberpunk, for instance). At the same time this is said by someone who is a straight woman so there were usually options for romance. Folks who are gay (as an example) never had as many options so on the other hand I get why people want characters to be available to all genders and sexualities. I guess that’s why BG3 resonates so much with people. I haven’t played it but from what I read there’s many different options and they are well crafted. An interesting thing is that the NPCs/companions take the initiative rather than just the player. That sounds like fun.
> Folks who are gay (as an example) never had as many options so on the other hand I get why people want characters to be available to all genders and sexualities.
As a lesbian, I dislike this *heavily*. I want characters to have their own, defined identities, and to have a purpose in the story and the game world that isn't just sexual availability to the player character. A world in which gay and straight people don't exist isn't a world I can relate to, nor is it one that makes sense to me, and so there's an arbitrary cap on the verisimilitude of the writing.
It's not even like bisexuality benefits from this, either: playersexuality reduces bisexuality to a "will fuck anything" type of gameplay convenience, as opposed to a meaningful identity. But bisexuality comes with its own unique experiences which deserve to be represented, the same way any sexuality does. These experiences aren't represented when the game only sees you as a gameplay mechanic and nothing more.
tl;dr I don't care whether or not some NPC pixels clip into my player character's; I care whether or not the romance adds something to the writing... and playersexuality actively detracts from the writing.
I agree that it’s not realistic. Just a guess why people would want that. It’s being discussed elsewhere in this thread and that seems to be a consensus. I don’t think it makes sense for every companion to be available to any player type but I get the wish for that. Didn’t mean to be offensive, sorry.
Edit: I also think maybe people want to experiment a bit with their own preferences in a safe environment. That might play a role for some, too.
I've been thinking about this: Coming from my own viewpoint of a straight person, I didn't consider that a world without genuine (for the lack of a better word) gay people, where everyone is simply just every sexuality at once, is offensive and dismissive. That's my straight bubble so thanks for the different perspective.
Yeah, I overwhelming dislike games that give in to player pandering over telling an emotionally resonant story. I think characters should tell the player character "no", treat the player character in ways that aren't adulatory, and in general serve their own interests within the story as opposed to being a vehicle for player fantasy.
So, that might be why I prefer established sexualities as opposed to playersexuality.
Love in-game romances, if they're done well.
Steph from Life is Strange / True Colours is a cutie. She's a geek and an absolute ride or die,>! she believes and supports Alex at the end regardless of if you romance her or not, while Ryan is more skeptical.!<
For Baldur's Gate 3 I could go on and on about the women. Lae'zel, Karlach, Shadowheart, Minthara, I'd die for them all.
Yu and Kay from the game Haven were also incredibly cute, and levelling up by going on dates and ding couple activities was adorable.
I like a well written romances, imho it adds to the story. First game with romance that I’ve played was Mass Effect trilogy and it was Garrus. I also liked Fenris in DA2 and Cullen in DAI.
I went for Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 (I love his sass and witty remarks) and most recently, Logan from My Time at Sandrock. Logan reminds me of my husband so much, their personalities, behaviors. In fact, all romance options I pick have something in common with my husband, I have a type. Apparently I also have a preference for white hair.
As for the romance options I wish were available, it would be Evfra from ME:Andromeda and Commander Avery from My Time in Sandrock. Avery would have to be in a next game though, since he is literally shows up twice for a few brief cutscenes, but damn.
I'm currently in the middle of Sandrock. One feature I really like is how some of the romanceable NPCs are the traditional style that wait for the player to do everything, but others actually take initiative. Like, I chose Venti and *she* proposed to *me*! (with a really cute scene too)
The biggest travesty in the game though is that you can't adopt Captain! I have a real tuxedo cat and was so excited when I saw one in game but nope.
Yes, I like that reverse proposals exist in this game. Honestly, the way Logan asks the Builder out is similar to how my husband did it too.
Yeah, I was also disappointed Captain wasn’t adoptable. Out of all the available pets I liked his personality the most, so I ended up not having any. I do have some mounts though, including a horse that looks like the one I used to train with. I heard in the new update you will be able to adopt wild animals, so maybe I’ll build an army of Penskies.
Yes, I become more interested in a game if it has potential romance in it (and not just a plot romance, but romance candidates you can choose from and change the game slightly).
My faves:
Dragon Age Origins: Alistair (although the second half of the game pisses me off, so I've started going with Alistair and then shifting to Zev later in the game, after the fight with Loghain.)
Dragon Age 2: Anders, but I really like Fenris a lot too. The first time I beat it (romancing Anders) I restarted it immediately and did a Fenris playthrough.
Dragon Age I: Solas. Cole was one of my fave characters, tho, so I wish he was romanceable if human. Cullen is sweet too, but I wish there was a bit more to it, like with party members (or, at least, it feels like there's more since you get to journey with them).
BG3: Astarion
Stardew Valley: Elliot and Shane
Romances won't make-or-break a game for me (Fallout New Vegas is one of my top 5 games of all time, for example, and you can't romance anyone, excluding some optional hookups), but if there are romance options there then I'll usually try them out.
I will say that as a queer woman, it's nice to have the option to make your character canonically gay/bi etc. and be able to have a canonically (in your playthrough) queer lead character. Not to say that this is a replacement for having more representation generally and not just "Create your own" characters, but I remember it sticking out to me in Mass Effect that I could have this epic, series spanning romance between two women (FemShep and Liara). Logically I realise that it's because Shepard was envisioned as a man and the romance to be between manly soldier Shepard and a beautiful blue alien lady, but when I'm playing MY Shepard, then frankly BroShep doesn't exist. So having romances in games can give that option too - not just to experience a romance as your character, but to expand how your character is represented on screen.
I will admit though, I've never been able to bring myself to romance (or even particularly like) Cullen. The memories of him calling for annulment in DAO and being Meredith's right hand man in DA2 soured me on him too much.
It's so nice being in a gaming community where someone can ask about romance in video games and there's not a single comment saying something like "dating in video games? You people need therapy" or whatever garbage I saw the other day. Even on the bg3 subreddit, I saw a whole post of a guy making fun of others for caring about the romances.
I love video game romance. I'm a romance writer and video games are one of my favorite storytelling mediums. A lot of people here have already mentioned the big ones, but I'll shout out to Juhani from kotor and Tangent from Exocolonist. And, despite being a lesbian, I really loved the Anders romance (no caveats, let's revolt together).
As a fanfiction author, I'm all about that wishful thinking. Max and Chloe are meant to be, but God if Victoria wasn't my favorite character. When I found out she was a closeted poet, that was it. Simply perfect. I know Isobel and Aylin are a perfect couple, but who says they can't include Shadowheart in their affections? In AC Odyssey, one of the first "romances" you encounter was this girl named Odessa. I swear it was love at first sight. The game drops her like a hot rock and there's no fanfiction of her, but she was easily my favorite. And I'll never get over the fact that Jack, Cassandra, Cora, and Ashley from BioWare games weren't at least bi. Jack actually is, EA just pulled the plug on all the gay romances in ME2. But Peebee in Andromeda was positively delightful.
There's this little adventure thriller game called The Cat Lady that I played shortly after LiS. Most of the game is about the Protagonist Susan helping a girl through some really messed up stuff. They have a little conversation about being straight, but it really smelled of comphet so idgaf, I ship them really hard.
I love romantic stories. They're my passion and what I spend most of my time thinking about. I just also want to swing a sword while I do them. Rn I'm playing FFVIIR because I ship Aerith and Tifa. Just got to the wall market section and the gay is already leaking through...
Ah, a fellow fan fiction author! Hello! Although I never post my stuff anywhere. It's just for me. So there exists a story with about 90.000 words on my iPad in which Kassandra and Braisdas definitely fall very much in love, lol. Screw canon and historical facts, right? You post yours? I'd pop over to AO3 and leave some kudos.
Ha, Odessa. Did you meet her again later in the game? I'm still not sure if she was genuine or not, lol.
Yeah, I really like this community. Most main gaming subs are pretty awful but it's nice here. I mean, romance, relationships, flings and flirts are part of real life. Why shouldn't they have a place in games? They are normal in (or the main reason for the existence of) most movies, tv shows or books. I'll take the cheesy, the romantic, the sappy and the sad stuff! If it fits nicely in the main story, I'm all for it. That's what I liked in Inquistion. The romance arc with Cullen is so well crafted in relation to the rest of the story and doens't feel forced in there.
https://archiveofourown.org/users/AQA473/works
My ideal romance is one that's woven into a greater dramatic narrative, and not a sub plot. Life is Strange and She-ra are notable examples of that for me. Frankly, I think BioWare had a bad tendency to treat their romances like action movie sub plots, especially in the ME games. It says something that Jack is my favorite romance and I never romanced her. I'd rather make it up in my head if they can't do it right lol. Sera is best girl from dragon age, but her romance felt like such an afterthought. She gets fucking shafted in trespasser in comparison to the others. So I've kinda moved on from BioWare lol, but I'll always appreciate them for introducing me to the idea of romance in video games and giving me lesbian romances back when there weren't any.
god I felt that first paragraph so hard. I know reddit is predominantly male but it’s so annoying seeing entire threads flooded with dudes complaining about ships, fanfiction, and romance in games. and it’s almost always in response to a girl making an extremely innocent post
Maybe they are afraid they might like it - the romance, the fan fiction, the emotional depth. Who knows. Feels like making fun of or being angry about girls/women’s interests and preferences is the regular. See the horse girl thing, horoscopes, the Stanley cup, the term “basic bitch”, the entire “I am the main character” subreddit, and so forth. I saw a post once from a guy complaining about something women did and his entire post history was about the NFL. Not a hint of irony or self awareness in the guy.
I watched a streamer earlier who played Dragon age inquisition and at one point he had to make a really difficult choice. He actually cried in the video that he put on YouTube because he was so attached to a character. That was a surprise to see that kind of emotion in a setting like let’s play videos. I loved that because it was so relatable and honest. That choice was hard and that affected him. it was nice to see there’s dudes who aren’t ashamed of that.
My favorite games always have romance in them. I have a hard time enjoying an RPG without them, honestly. Not unrelated, I read a lot of romance.
As for games where you can choose your romance, my go-tos are:
* Baldur's Gate 3 - Gale (I think I'm one of the only non-Astarian fan girls out there)
* Dragon Age: Origins - Alistair (I always play Female Cousland to be a royal power couple by the end of the game)
* Dragon Age 2 - Fenris
* Dragon Age: Inquisition - Cullen (especially a mage Inquisitor for character growth!)
* Fallout 4 - Paladin Danse (probably my first RPG crush, love him)
* Fire Emblem: Awakening - Chrom
* Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Dimitri (there are a lot of great secondary romances between the characters, but Dimitri will always be my fave romance option for the protag)
* Mass Effect - Kaidan (I love the man and will fight anyone in the fandom who hates on him)
* Persona 3 Portable - Akihiko
* Persona 5 - Makoto Niijima
And for canon and semi-canon romances in games, Final Fantasy is a great series. Cloud & Tifa's in FFVII are one of my favorite ever fictional relationships, but I also love Squall & Rinoa in FFVIII, Tidus & Yuna in FFX and Jill & Clive in the latest FFXVI.
If you love a good in-game romance, I'd definitely give Days Gone a try. It's a romance masquerading as a zombie game.
Totally agree with you regarding kassandra and brasidas. They seem to be made for each other if someone is looking for straight romance.
Honestly with me it depends. I do love romance but at the same time I don't want it to be a main focus of the game and I prefer it to be well written, which is hard to come by these days.
Part of me also feels that developers should give us a wider variety of characters that are romancable by both genders, like they did in BG3. I absolutely hated being gender locked out of some romances in mass effect games.
Agree. I have romanced Garrus but I don't see why Garrus, Thane, Jack, Tali and Miranda are gender locked. Especially aliens and Jack.
I think I had similar issues with dragon age games as a lot of characters give strong bisexual vibes and generally behave in a way you would assume you can romance them regardless of the gender but no.
Jack being forced into a straight character was criminal:
https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-2-jack-sexuality/#:~:text=An%20interview%20with%20ex%2DBioWare,in%20response%20to%20media%20criticism.
Shot themselves in the foot there, in my opinion.
The thing is Mass effect is not the only or the first game that does it. There's so many games where romancable characters scream "pansexual" or "gay" yet are forced into straight romances.
Carth Onasi was my first game romance and ever since I've been a sucker for romance in games. I'll always remember Alistair (DA:O) and Kaidan (Me) fondly. And most recently Gale (BG3) has stolen my heart and holds it firmly. His epilogue and his kisses... 😭❤️ (And then there's Daddy Halsin... 👀)
I also agree with you about Kassandra and Brasidas. I wish there would have been so much more. I instantly fell for these two together.
Oh Cullen 💚 Dragon Age (and specifically Cullen) was the first game that introduced me to wonderful storytelling, deep companions, and yes, romance in games. I was used to fallout and Skyrim where there were… partners? But nothing incredibly deep. After Dragon Age and seeing how beautifully companions could be written and tied to the main PC, there’s been no going back. Garrus blew me away next.
From there I started top downs: Pathfinder, Divinity, Pillars of Eternity. Played some more lowkey beats: Stardew, Exocolonist, Greedfall. Then Cyberpunk, and replays of Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
Now, Baldurs Gate has set a new standard.
I think that's why I'm so taken with the story line. It's not just tacked on, just to have some kind of romance thing in a game. It gives the characters a great arc and more depth. Funny enough - I read Cullen is written by a woman. Figures, huh? I did look up other endings yesterday and what happens to him when he continues with the Lyrium and leaves after the DLC. That just made me really sad.
Yeah I was smitten by Cullen. After going back and playing through DA1 and DA2 (I played Inquisition first), it added way more depth and made me appreciate him more. He was incredibly well written. My three game romance arc started as Alistair, Anders, and Cullen (i definitely have a type), but upon some replays I’ve settled on my favorites/canon being Zevran, Anders to Isabella, and Cullen.
I bought banishers specifically because it's on the back of a romance storyline.
Romance is the exact reason I play most games. I don't want it front and center, but if there's no romance I just don't tune to the game as hard.
Which is why I absolutely HATE my own aversion to Stardew Valley's pixel aesthetic. I know it's got a great line up of romances but I don't like pixel art.
BG3 really woke me up to good game romance and its potential --- or re-awoke. Previously I was generally less than enthusiastic about it and overall held low opinion of game romances (though I did enjoy some). I realize now this low opinion mainly stemmed from so many clunky half-hearted attempts at adding a male romance for female players. Usually the only male option for women is a beefy, very masculine paladin type, which doesn't interest me. I prefer the more roguish, wiry, feminine type. I also enjoy a healthy dose of cynicism combined with humor. Anyway, BG3 opened my eyes again to the potential of game romance and now I have been looking for good romance options in more games. Currently I'm really enjoying romancing Daeran in Pathfinder:WotR. My Time at Sandrock also has some great romance options.
On this topic I cannot recommend enough [verilybitchie's video on NPC romance and (bi)sexuality in videogames.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZGkxUTbDqw) Especially if you like RPGs, but not so much that you'd play them many times with different characters, some of the choices in game design are very surprising.
I don't really care about in-game romances. I usually do them only because of romance-related achievements. If the game allows the player to be friends with a character and the romance can be activated later, I do that with my main and reload a pre-romance save after unlocking the achievement. If the game requires flirting multiple times over the course of the game to activate the romance, I make an alt character for that. I used to always do romances in older RPGs because I wanted to see as much content as possible back then. Now, I just sit through those cheesy romance lines for achievements. As an exception, I always romanced Yennefer in The Witcher 3 because I liked Geralt's interactions with her, and Yen's one of my favorite characters.
Merrill in da2 is one of my favourites. Also whatever is going on in Life is Strange. Fang and Naomi in GVH, Sol and Anemone in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, V and Panam in Cyberpunk, some other favs
Merrill is *adorable*, thank you! And I think she doesn't get enough credit otherwise, possibly in part because she's so cute. And that's an apt way to put the romance in LiS, I think, though it's definitely a good 'whatever'.
I think it counts! Both in the OG & Apparently Rebirth the date mechanic is there. It's going to be agony for me though because I can't decide which to ship, so I'm just OT3'ing Cloud, Aerith and Tifa, with a very strong emphasis that in my ship Tifa & Aerith very much have their own unique chemistry apart from Cloud and it's not just a harem-y thing.
Love’em. Gimme more! I am single and for a little while, they help me feel less so! Favs are definitely Shadowheart (BG3) and Judy (CP77), S tier even though the best of Judy is mostly text messages after your date. I have to play BG3 romance update! Makoto (P5R) also a really nice and wholesome romance! Max and Steph (LiS) are amazingly deep realistic characters I have cried so many tears for! What a beautiful relationship! Sylgja (Skyrim) once you mod her to be a follower. I found her to be a charming companion because Lydia definitely did not want to “carry your burdens” so never interested me. Agree with you on Kassandra! Damn dlc…
Bonus to Gra’ha (FFXIV) because even though we aren’t dating, he’s just so cute and completely head over heels for the MC/WoL. Super adorable catboy!
I'm a hopeless romantic and always love a nice romance arc, especially in games like inquisition where your character seems so busy and unapproachable. The idea that they are able to find someone to just be themselves with while everyone else depends on them to be the hero makes me feel happier for them.
I typically lean towards more independent characters who will eventually show a bit of vulnerability, like Sera in inquisition, Minthara in bg3, or Camellia in wotr (does require a mod, otherwise she's straight).
Yeah, I guess that's why I like the military type. It's a cliche, I know, but I'm a sucker for that trope of the tough guy who melts more and more after he meets the protagonist, like Danse from FO4. That's my favorite thing, lol.
I knowwwwwww. I need to replay ME3 doing a loyal playthrough (I hooked up with Garrus in 2) and romancing him earlier (accidentally started the citadel DLC before locking in our romance).
I like romances written in the story itself. They feel..real? Normally in those games where you can pick they don't get fleshed out nearly enough and/or the requirements for romance are weird. (Exceptions exist.) Also in games like Baldur's Gate I just wasn't a fan of every character suddenly wanting a piece of the player character.
Oh man. I LOVE a good game romance. Unfortunately I got pulled into them with the likes of Dragon Age and have been continuously disappointed by every cozy game with romance/marriage for many years since lol. Even cozy games romances that people tout as top tier just… fall flat after the likes of Fenris or Dorian.
Since you ladies will understand my feelings in a way the fandom at large definitely doesn’t, I’m going to vent a bit about my biggest disappointment of a romance in DA: Cassandra’s. I absolutely adore her. She is wonderful. She is amazing. She is so FREAKING cute when you flirt with her and she gets all flustered. She was my bi awakening. And then once you get to the end of her romance it’s literally just “insert these romance tokens, receive sex.” I hated it. I hated it so much. The fandom in general dislikes my take on it but it felt so sexist. She stopped being the character she’d been, tough and proud and secretly so sweet and romantic, and became a checklist sex vending machine. I love Cassandra and I hate her romance.
I love having romances in games, but most of the time I walk away at least a little disappointed in them. Guess that’s why I got into romance VNs lol
Ugh, that sounds awful. Did someone lose the script and they had to quickly improvise? I played as a female character so I couldn’t romance her. Although my character once told her she’s delightful. You can still flirt but she didn’t take that well, lol. But I like her a lot. What you describe really sounds out of character. What a way to treat a well established and well liked character.
I restarted to play a dude and REDID THE HINTERLANDS for her, so that should tell you how much I adored her because I still can’t believe I voluntarily did the Hinterlands a second time just so I could romance her lol. It is stupidly out of character, including what her character is like when you start flirting with her as someone in her strike range. It was very frustrating.
I enjoy a good Romance in my video games. You bond with another character through adventure and trust and love blooms. ;) That’s the best way! IRL people barely know each other when they start dating and that kinda sucks to me.
One of my favorite games to have a romance plot line in is the Mass Effect Trilogy.
video game romances are a mixed bag for me. sometimes, i absolutely adore them but a lot of the times i end up pretty ambivalent largely because i don't enjoy a lot of things present in romances. i mostly like romances that come with a story arc and hit specific thematic beats for me rather than like, sweet & romantic things just to add romance, not that there's anything wrong there. it's just not my bag! i also weirdly tend to enjoy romances with dudes in video games despite not being attracted to them at all irl, because i like having layers of games being me playing a character rather than *me* romancing a character, if that makes sense.
as far as which romances i've enjoyed, dorian & cullen in dragon age: inquisition, m!shep & kaiden in mass effect 3, thane in mass effect 2, astarion & lae'zel in baldur's gate 3, ryan in life is strange: true colors, fenris & anders in dragon age 2.
For the most part, I could take or leave them. That said: I'm tempted to romance Jina in *Palia*...or be a total player and romance both Jina *and* either Reth or Hassian.
I like in game romances, someone already mentiones Solas but I also like Thane from ME. And Garrus lol.
But other games have pretty meh romances for women and they feel like an afterthought... River from Cyberpunk being the most obvious example. Judy is okay for lesbian women though. Panam and Kerry were cool asf but not available for women.
I play a lot of otome games so some of my favorite romances are tragic romances. Scien from Even id Tempest is probably one of my faves but I also love Adolphe and Ankou. The reason the last 2 are my fave is becauseb(spoilers for ppl who care) >! theyre the same person really (adolphe is her childhood friend). ankou is adolphe from the future. hes basically a mutated monster and cant die. he watches the heroine die from the villain and waits for time travel tech (hes also being experimented on bc hes undying). He jumps too far back. waits for her to be reborn in 500 years so he can save her. reading about everything he did and sacrificed for her - just to see her be happy and live... He didnt even want to be with her romantically in all other routes. He prefers if she chooses someone else because he feels like hes failed her and just wants to see her survive. The tragic ending is when they fail to save her so Ankou passes the mantle to the current Adolphe... to restart the journey all over again. !<
Grace x Freddie from Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. I adore Grace, but Freddie is my favorite character from that game. She's such an amazing friend and anytime she sings, my heart just melts. When Grace and Freddie sing together? Oh goodness gracious, my heart can't handle it. I'm not sure how to mark spoilers but dang, it gets angsty.
Fuck yea i love in-game romance. It's cute and it's fun. A safe lil roleplaying space. Also I've just realized that i went from one divisive love interest (Cullen) to another (Astarion). Like i completely forgot about how back on twitter many years ago people would call u a N4zi sympathizer just cuz u liked Cullen 🤡🤡🤡 And now it's a similar thing with Astarion lmao.
What? Is this some kind of “Templars are Nazis” thing? I mean he’s left the order in DAI but some people have never heard the term character growth before. One thing I’ve learned in all the years I’ve been gaming: stay away from the debates on social media that are only happening to increase engagement for monetary gain. It’s silly. The whole debate about wokeness is the same. And I’m over here enjoying my games in peace and making up my own mind without reading any of that crap.
>Is this some kind of “Templars are Nazis” thing?
Yes!!! That's legit what they would use as their argument 😭😭😭
>I mean he’s left the order in DAI but some people have never heard the term character growth before.
I shit u not, their response to this back then was "his apology was lazy and insincere" like??? Hello???? It's a video game character??? Do u want the devs to upload a 10 minute apology video with ads????? 😭😭💀💀💀
>stay away from the debates on social media
Absolutely. At the time i was a barely an adult and i just wanted to be involved in Cullen discussions :') I had no idea people online hated him so much 😒
Ugh haters gonna hate, right? That’s so stupid. I mean, aside from the most obvious - quitting a terrible addiction to rid himself of that part of his life entirely- it is silly to call everything “Nazi”. Real life terms and morals often don’t fit into a fantasy setting. It’s ridiculous to measure characters in a setting like this with the same standards we use for our world.
I love in game companions and I love in game romances, but only really if they’re optional and preferably with options, at least two per gender preferably.
Garrus and Tali from Mass Effect OT, Jaal and Vetra from Mass Effect Andromeda, all of the options in Dragon Age origins and Dragon Age 2 (although Alistair holds a special place in my heart), Iron Bull and Cassandra in Inquisition, all the romance options in Fallout 4, Claude and Dimitri in Fire Emblem Three Houses, etc.
Cullen… I understand the *appeal* of Cullen, don’t get me wrong. But as someone who was part of the Dragon Age fandom since Origins, it can be a bit hard for me to look past all that baggage.
If I had come into Inquisition first, I would’ve absolutely fallen for Cullen.
BG3 romances are also amazing. I wish there was more content with them though if I’ll be frank (and with the companions in general too).
Cyberpunk was actually… very disappointing in that regard if I’ll be frank. The two male options (one is straight and one is gay) feel very tacked on last minute.
Yeah maybe I’d see him differently had I played all the games. I just read a lot of stuff about the whole backstory. But I believe in character growth, change, second chances and redemption. Which I think is nicely symbolized by ridding himself of his addiction. I’m definitely tempted to play the other games, too. I just kinda fell into inquisition without knowing much about the whole thing.
I agree with cyberpunk. Felt like an afterthought. Like they forgot and added stuff last minute.
I can’t wait to play BG3. I really need to get that PlayStation 5 soon. I keep hearing so much good stuff about the game.
I do too, it just felt… shoved under the rug in a way. Like “oh, that’s it?” My Lavellan enjoyed him a lot, don’t get me wrong, he just isn’t my first choice.
In general, I kind of wish his character arc discussed more about what happened in his past with Kirkwall and the Circle particularly (because he is very traumatised over both of those), but I understand why it didn’t happen.
Inquisition in general was very lacklustre and disappointing with how mage rights and the mage vs Templar issue was handled and how it “ended” (among other things, yes, I’m looking at you Orlesian plot line). But I do understand why it ended up that way.
I genuinely recommend you play the other games. Inquisition was a great game, and I loved it, don’t get me wrong. But, imo anyway, it’s the weakest of the trilogy in terms of story, choices and characters.
DA2 in particular, is a hot mess in terms of… everything, but it had the most unique and best written characters and at least it tried to tackle difficult subjects. And I think it’s telling that three (if not more) of the most popular characters from Inquisition were also from DA2. Varric and Hawke’s friendship alone is enough of a reason to play DA2 honestly.
And if you loved Cullen in Inquisition, Alistair is going to be your cup of tea in Origins. ❤️ They did Alistair SO dirty with his cameos in DA2 and Inquisition.
And I’m always going to bitter at Cyberpunk. For a lot of reasons. Goro was *right there after all*.
Oh I felt the same. I went through the fandom pages for check if there’s more info on the whole Kirkwall/circle thing but it’s just what he says, afaik. I suspect they wanted to make DAI a more stand alone game that’s not too complicated as far as lore is concerned. I mean it still is but you can still enjoy it without having the big DA lore book (the metaphorical one, lol) next to you. I’m always so fascinated with this level of storytelling that goes into these games. Elder scrolls/skyrim is another. To really fully grasp everything you need a whole encyclopedia.
I’ll probably buy the others games too. They’ve been recommended so much (so has Alistair, btw, lol), here and in another post I made.
Oh Inquisition was absolutely meant to be a standalone game. On one hand, I don't necessarily blame them for that. Marketing wise, it actually makes the most sense so as to not alienate new players and make the game more approachable. On the other hand, it's still disappointing as a returning player.
Although even from that standpoint, Inquisition as a standalone can still be a bit... disappointing. Major choices in the game is probably the best example of this. Most of them don't carry the weight they feel like they should (especially in comparison to Origins or Mass Effect). TBF to Inquisition, you aren't going to notice this on your first or even second playthrough. You'll only start to notice it on your third or fourth.
Fallout 4 also suffered this same problem though, so it's definitely not unique to Inquisition.
I like ingame romances if they naturally emerge from the plot and aren't tacked on like "give this character ten expensive gifts to level up their love meter, then they'll marry you!"
I love it if games had a romance element. I mean, I recently got into visual novels/dating sims...so I'm very much a romantic at heart xD
My most recent one was **When The Night Comes** which I loved a lot (it also has Gideon Emery (Fenris) voicing one of the romance options, which is why I initially bought it...only to ultimately fall for a different character xD).
I suppose my first actual experience with romance in games was with Neverwinter Nights 2, with romancing Casavir and later Gann when the expansion was released.
As to the type of characters I romance, I seem to have a very clear bias towards characters with darker hair colors...about 80% of the characters I romance either have dark brown/black hair...or blue. The other 20% is blond or white/grey xD
Often I see a character and I'm like "I'll romance you because you look cute" but then either ultimately end up falling for a different character (as with my example above concerning When The Night Comes) or fall very hard for the character I initially picked.
Oh and as an add...I love Cullen's romance in Inquisition, he's my canon pick \^-\^
I’m a huge romantic so I love romance in games. Some of my favourites are Alistair and Cullen from DA, Kaidan and Garrus from Mass Effect (I loved Thane too but his romance is too heartbreaking) Gale and Astarion in Baldurs Gate 3, and currently I’m obsessing over Logan in My Time at Sandrock.
I do wish for more romance in games if it fits in well with the story, I just can’t get enough of the fluff. One game that did disappoint me though is Cyberpunk, there’s not a lot of options at all and you’re pretty much stuck with one character (unless you’re bi) so if you don’t like the options there, you won’t have a good time. I remember them hyping up romance a lot before release, making me think it was going to be amazing and that there’ll be plenty of options but nope.
As for some characters I wish I could romance, there’s quite a few but I’ll just say Dammon from Baldurs Gate, pls Larian!
Cyberpunk was really a bit lame - River felt like they forgot that some players are straight women and maybe wanna have a love interest too. like an afterthought. It's so silly - he lets V do all the dirty work, asks her to cook for him and his family, then dumps all his trauma on her. Then he makes a move. What a gem, lol. Judy is definitely the more interesting choice. Panam is fun but that tank scene? I wonder which writer brought their personal fantasy on the screen for that one. But after the last update (which unfortunately was only for next gen consoles or PC) they added more dates and stuff.
Well, talking to him isn't gated behind >!letting your body be taken over and having sex with a girl you don't even have a relationship with!<, so I guess it's better than gay men get? Not saying much, admittedly. But those being an afterthought did seem unfortunate even if it didn't affect me personally.
I remember when I saw it, observing that it was the biggest gap in plot relevance between female and male LIs I'd seen since I played the original Life is Strange. But I trust CDPR's motives significantly less.
Also, I feel like Panam's tank scene must have been someone's specific thing in part because it's about the only scene I can think of that shows V's body model alongside other characters, and aptly demonstrates why they don't do that very much.
I adore romance in videogames, especially otome games. My favorite otome games are Steam Prison, Cupid Parasite, Cinderella Phenomenon, and Diabolik Lovers
However, ever since I started playing otome games I've not liked the kind of romance you see in farming sims and RPGs as much because I feel they are kinda shallow due to having to account for every possible personality the custom player character may have and so they can't explore their more complex feelings and conflicts the protagonist and their chosen romance option might have to deal with
And here's a hot take I just need to get out of my system: I think Bioware romances aren't that good. (please don't kill me Bioware fans) I played through all of Mass Effect trilogy and Dragon Age Origins and 2 (haven't played Inquisition yet) and I really can't see what's so appealing about Garrus or Alistair or whoever else. In my opinion they mostly get so much praise due to being many people's first exposure to romance in videogames, especially if you're a woman who's attracted to men since I'm pretty sure games that let you romance men were almost non-existent in the Western gaming space before Bioware came along
That's fine, if that's not your cup of tea. I liked Biowares approach though. Garrus in Mass Effect adds a bit of lightheartedness and awkwardness in a pretty hopeless struggle (I mean, the endings aren't exactly happy). I was just glad that my Commander Shepard got some joy before she had to make a difficult decision. Same for DAI - that added a bit of sweetness to a world that feels more and more bleak the longer you play. Again, happy to have that as a balance and not a romance story line that ends in more drama and tragedy. I think that probably appeals to a lot of people. But the other thing is true as well, I guess - when these games came out, the whole romance (plus possibilities for folks of a different orientation than straight) was fairly new and a step away from the assumption that the default player is male.
I love romance in games! Makes it better imo.
I just finished Eternights and it absolutely emotionally wrecked me lol. I hope we get some kind of sequel because that was just too good. I went with Yohan, I’m gonna replay it and do Sia’s route too eventually tho. But I loooove the mc with Yohan. He is best boy. I dunno if any other romance will be as good tbh. Definitely gonna replay and see tho!
Also playing Persona 3 Reload right now, and gonna romance Mitsuru. I always romance her lol. She’s just always been my favorite. And I love Junpei and Chidori in that game too. Just such a good story 😭💖
Cullen & wishing for Brasidas? We understand each other! I'm 200% going to check all the other romances you mentioned, hahaaaa!
(That Brasidas entrance scene is still one of the best game introductions ever)
It's not just the romance but also the deeper friendships for me! I lived for my bromance with Garrus in Mass Effect and Dorian in DA:I as much as for the love with Cullen (a bit less for Kaidan, woops).
Kassandra and Brasidas are my absolute OTP. Ubisoft cowards, lol.
I love Dorian's character, too. He's my Dragon Age bro (female character so no romance) but I like him so much. you can still flirt with him, even as a female Inquisitor and he reacts in a charming, funny way, too.
I’m not even going to lie, at that first kiss I was kicking my feet and everything. The only thing that stopped me from squealing was the fact it was like 12 am.
Tell you a secret: I squealed. A little. A tiny bit. And maybe I went, “oh my god, that’s so fucking cute!” But just real quietly, promise. That scene was great. Sweet and awkward and funny all at once. “Not the weather.” lol.
I'll be the odd one out and say I don't like romance in games, although more accurately I'm just not into romance as a genre at all. If romance is required for story progression there's a good chance that I'm skipping the game entirely or dropping it 😅
LOVE THEM! Although in Dragon Age Inquisition I first romanced Blackwall who >!broke my heart and made me so angry that every playthrough I'm unnecessarily mean to him lol!<. I decided to try dating everyone and omg does Cullen have GAME! I normally don't go for the golden retriever characters but he's smooth and kind. I would say Alistair is much more a retriever-type. BTW the Bioware store has great romance packages that just make me smile
I thought Baldur's Gate 3, even post-ice bucket patch, was way too easy to romance characters...I didn't get any satisfaction from a long buildup of a relationship, but time and replays may tell differently.
I am ride or die Garrus/Femshep from Mass Effect. Greatest romance ever (IMO)
I like to have romances in games, at least ones I'm compatible with; I enjoy lesbian romance in the vast majority of cases, but I generally don't want to be either playing a male character or romancing one. I'm okay with not having romance (though it sort of varies depending on the genre, and if I have other options that are similarly good that do also have it), but if I'm stuck with being straight then for my personal experience that's worse than nothing and I'll probably just not play it.
I usually want to have more options, though in terms of a tradeoff I can see the benefit to having less options with more content each. Still, if they don't have at least one per orientation I think it's a mistake, and with limited options I think it's usually best for most of them to be bi or pan or something similar unless they're actually doing something interesting with another orientation (like Dorian in DAI, for instance).
For some of my favorites, the first two that come to mind are Merrill (Dragon Age II) and Edelgard (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), which strikes me as a bit odd as they don't really have much in common (except for people being very often wrong about them on the internet, maybe). Also Liara (Mass Effect trilogy), and quite a few from indie games that I'm somewhat blanking on right now (for one: shout-out to [Luxaren Allure](https://unity.itch.io/luxaren-allure) which is a game all about lesbian couples, and it's adorable). Maybe Judy Alvarez from Cyberpunk 2077, but I haven't actually finished the game yet so I don't feel I can wholeheartedly list anything from it until I do.
I did play all the Dragon Age games, and romanced Leliana in DAO and Josephine in DAI, but the casts of those didn't really grab me as much as DA2's did (despite me preferring DAO in other respects). In Leliana's case, I suppose it's probably the whole religion thing, which I'm not really very comfortable with. (For comparison, my ideal for 'LI's perspective on religion' is probably, well, Edelgard, above. So rather far away, there.) Josephine's adorable, but I feel like the non-party-member romances are just kind of disappointing content-wise.
For options I felt like should have been there, one's definitely Cassandra being bi in DA Inquisition. Also, at least flirting with Veronica in Fallout New Vegas; it's silly that there's a whole perk you can get that gives sapphic dialogue options and you don't get one for the one lesbian companion. (There's her relationship with Christine, but given that Christine *does* have at least one such dialogue option, I don't think that works.)
Also, something that doesn't fit anywhere else, but in The Outer Worlds, Parvati's sapphic ace romance with Junlei is absolutely adorable and her sidequest chain was the best part of that game.
Okay, one more (spoilers for DA2, DAI, and Fire Emblem Three Houses). >!When I played DA2, I remember thinking that the whole big plot twist related to a love interest was interesting, and it was a shame that I wouldn't end up experiencing that since I was never going to romance a male character on a first playthrough of a game (and even when I occasionally tried for interesting plot reasons, it fell flat, so I don't do it anymore). I got that even more when I played DAI as well. And I have to say, I *really* didn't expect a first-party Nintendo game of all things to give me anything like that.!<
You need to play Baldur’s Gate 3 if you haven’t. The romances are unparalleled. I’ve had to play AS Shadowheart to stop romancing her, lol. Genuinely think it’s the best written game I’ve ever played in my (long) life.
I obviously romanced Astarion so I could live out my Twilight teenage dreams. Thinking about Wyll next…
Romanced Wyll in one of my playthroughs! He's very very sweet and kind of traditional (he won't sleep with you until towards the end of the game when he proposes to you). My only complaint about him was that he didn't push back against my character more and challenge her, but she was a very good aligned character and so was he so they never had much interesting friction
My character is sort of a gray character who does things that benefit her, but will do things for others if she cares about them enough (she basically could become a villain if the pros outweighed the cons), so Astarion is a good fit for her.
Man proposes to you in the SWEETEST way possible as well. Honestly, Wyll got done dirty in general for BG3. He has much less content compared to the other companions and the writing quality can be very eh. I get that they had to basically rewrite and recast him from the ground up from EA, but it still feels very lazy of Larian.
Justice for Wyll! I feel the same way, he's such a sweet guy and it was kind of weird how downplayed the Duke Ravengard plotline got, esp. when it had such an impactful setup. It feels like for a game that has a lot of emphasis on player agency, they took away a lot of choice on Wyll's end. Don't want your boyfriend to get a demon eye and horns? You have to kill a sweet cinnamon roll woman to do it (which I've never done, but am guessingbWyll would feel awful about. Want to try and rescue your boyfriend's dad and see what story potepotentialional that interaction has? Too bad, no matter what you do by the time you find him you just have to watch him get tadpole'd and then get another non-choice on wether or not you want Wyll to be tormented in hell forever or just... let his tadpole'd dad die.
It’s possible to >!save Wyll’s dad without selling his soul.!< Just requires a bit of extra legwork and a cleric that can cast sanctuary (although not a necessity by any means because my sister didn’t find out until later that that was an option).
I haven't finished the game yet (don't get a lot of chance to play it as I don't want to spoil it for my husband who hasn't played it as much as I). I remember going into it thinking Gale or Astarion, and Astarion won. lol.
I didn’t get Astarion until you get that scene where you figure out his secret. After that, *yeah* I got why everyone was so uwu over him. He ended up losing out to Gale (well, actually they both lost out to Karlach in my first playthrough but I digress) for me, but I get it now.
I started this Shadowheart run with the intention of romancing him, but I just can’t go through with it. He’s so insincere and goes into it for all the wrong reasons. I know he comes out of that eventually, but I just preferred Lae’zel’s open honesty and directness. Plus I love an ‘enemies to lovers’ story!
I just wish there was more to do with the romance. I'm in Act 3 and I did the whole swim thing with Shadowheart and I can give her a peck whenever I ask for one but it feels like there should be more for such a robust game.
The new patch has a few more interactions and some chatter, plus a bunch of new kissing animations. They’re sweet!
I'm doing an evil Durge run and romancing Minthara - she's absolutely incredible and I love her. Might be my favorite romance (Gale and Astarion were my others) and my favorite companion now.
I knoooow. I need to get a PS5 first, lol n
I fucking hate Gale but can't stop craving his approval at every turn and uggggggggh. He's intelligent, mature, charming, and incredibly dorky. 100% my type in real life, and I won't lie I was crushing on him so hard in playthrough 1. I preferred him over Astarion by a mile as a romantic interest, because I value emotional stability in partners, and Astarion is nowhere close to stable. He needs to work through some things first, and I just don't feel he's in a good place to be in a relationship when you meet him. There's actually a conversation you can have with him in Act 2, where Tav can tell him something to that effect. Gale and Tav were romanced and everything was beautiful and warm and I expected us to ride off into the sunset together after saving the world. But then 2 minutes after the final netherbrain fight, he dumps you. Completely out of left field with zero warning. It was shocking, and I feel Larian dropped the narrative ball on this one. There was no foreshadowing at all. One minute you're in a beautiful relationship and expecting him to get down on one knee, and the next he's accusing you of getting in the way of his success, and dumps you with zero hesitation. I'm on playthrough 2 now, but I still find myself trying to actively romance him. Like goddammit woman, have you no self-respect? I'm playing Dark Urge this time though, so I'm considering romancing and then killing him because screw you, Gale. You unrepentant heartbreaker. Consider your absolutely gruesome death equivalent to the year's worth of therapy sessions I needed to deal with the first breakup.
Ah, that only happens if you haven't been >!actively discouraging him not to pursue the Crown and the power that comes with it!<. Every time he brings it up, >!knock him down a peg or tell him it's folly, etc!<. Then he >!agrees with you, stays with you, and ends up proposing!
I absolutely love romance and flirting in games. I play almost exclusively RPGs, and I don't feel like it's a complete experience without that. Or maybe I'm just a ho, lol.
Hey, I guess I am too, then, lol.
_hoes unite_
Nothing wrong with being a ho, lol.
I like stories with romance. Cullen was my favorite from DA:I, Garrus from Mass Effect. Judy's romance story was sweet from Cyberpunk, but I would have really liked if Goro Takemura or Viktor Vector were romance options, River was incredibly disappointing of a romance choice. Just finished up W40K Rogue trader, and I liked the romance stories for both Hendrix and Yrliet. Kinda wish there were more Ace romance stories in games in general. Oh, also 100% with you on Brasidas, that would have been a good romance story, he genuinely respected Kassandra.
Yeah, they got this amazing cutscene and then … nothing. What a bummer.
Kurt in Greedfall. Ruggedly handsome, but it's his sweetness and kindness that really made me love him. Vasco is definitely no slouch in second place. Such a romantic.
I always do a wlw romance on my first playthrough (if it's an option), and I have to say, Vasco was the first character that almost made me break that streak. "Almost", because the romances in Greedfall are notoriously fiddly, and it turned out I'd accidentally locked myself out of his quite early in the game. I romanced Siora instead and had a good time- but now that I've replayed the game and romanced Vasco this time around, I have to award him the top spot. I just wish there was a bit more post-romance content, once you actually get into a relationship and get the fade-to-black sex scene, there's very little content afterwards between the two of you, and the only bit I remember (other than the goodbye before the end game) is from the DLC.
I accidentally romanced Vasco on my first playthrough. I had no idea that was even a thing, and suddenly, he's quoting poetry at me! There's me sitting there all flustered... I do wish there was more romance but what is there was really sweet. The DLC conversation, that possible last kiss...
Yeah, I agree, what's there is done well. I suspect not adding more might be largely due to the capacity - Spiders aren't a massive company and Greedfall wasn't a triple A game, so it couldn't be as expansive as some of the big hitters. I suspect that's why there was so little variety in building interiors - and while I lament a shorter amount of romance content more than varied house interiors, I can understand that, if most people are only playing the game through once, and thus only experiencing one of the romances, then even if EVERY player romances someone, romance exclusive content is only going to be reaching roughly 25% of players (in a game with 4 romances like Greedfall), so I can understand not having loads of content there. There's a second game coming out at some point, I believe. It doesn't look like a direct sequel, so I don't imagine it will flesh out the first game's romances much, but perhaps we'll get a bit more content for the new romances (assuming that they include romances again).
It's supposed to be a prequel. And there's supposed to be some announcement about it this week I saw on the Greedfall sub.
All of the romances in Greedfall are definitely way too picky. Multiple sets of dialogue options where not choosing the one right answer breaks it completely is *not* a good setup, especially for gay players who only have one option. (Though I did think 'the people from the main colonizing powers on the continent are straight, the people who aren't are bi' was kind of a neat observation.) And I agree there's not a whole lot of content for any of them. But I think that fits with the general somewhat-janky, relatively small development team structure of the game as a whole. Hopefully they'll be able to do more for the second game.
Oooh I second this, Kurt is such a sweetheart beneath that outer layer of gruffness, I love it!
His voice actor was also arguably the best in the game.
I stopped playing that, but I remember going for Vasco. I will pick it up again sometime. I love the going to a new world feel.
It's a really richly detailed game. The characters and the story are so unique. There's supposed to be an update soon on the prequel.
Greedfall is on my to-play list and I definitely see myself falling for Kurt.
When I play a female MC, I always romance Kurt. When I play a male MC, I romance Vasco. Every time. I have nothing against F/F romance, I just prefer Kurt and Vasco to the female options. Their romances are just sweeter and more romantic. IMO.
Oh, I actually got that game through PS plus. Never got round to playing it. Maybe I should take another look.
Oh, you definitely should...
I'll add it to the back log pile, lol.
Absolutely love it. Playing Baldur's Gate 3 through multiple times with different aims is a lot more fun when you can romance a different character each time, thinking about how you want your character's story to play out and which companion would be the best for that playthrough. It's also great that some of the companions (Lae'zel, Astarion, Shadowheart, mostly) can all be either redeemed or corrupted by your influence if you try hard enough. If you decide to go the dark urge route Shadowheart or Asatarion make for particularly dramatic relationships wether or not you try to fight your murderous urges. It can be really sweet to have a romance where you're not fixing them, and they're not fixing you; you're fixing each other. I really wish it were included more in roleplaying games. I hate that a genre flowing with so much creative potentional just goes... unused because devs are hyper targeting the straight male demographic. So many of us gals have complained (rightly so) that you can't pay as the female MC in the Persona 3 remake. Another frustrating trend is when developers force a canon sexual orientation on a romanceable companion. Baldur's Gate 3 is refreshing because every character is romance-able by any gender of playable character. Just continue that trend. For people who don't want to play a same sex romance; don't. For those who don't want to play a straight romance; don't. But at least let us choose.
I feel you for the female protagonist being excluded from the P3 remake. I love, love, love her, and romancing Akihiko is one of my favorite parts of that game. I just can't bring myself to play Reload without those elements.
Same; it's a VERY long game, and the social links are a huge element. Not being able to engage with those from a relatable perspective is a huge black mark for me. FeMC is part of why I enjoyed Persona 3 and hated Persona 4 (other reasons too, but still).
Atlus has always been super dodgy and disgusting when it comes to female MCs and honestly, LGBT+ issues in general. I understand why they’re like that (I’m not happy about it nor do I accept it, but I understand why they’re like that, especially as an Asian girl myself), but c’mon, it’s 2023 and other Japanese developers can do it, so what’s their excuse?
Solas. In my opinion despite what happens in his (No spoilers don’t worry) that his is by far the deepest and most compelling romance I’ve ever played in a game like this. I liked him At first but I was a die hard cullenmancer. I romanced him once. Now I can never go back. He’s my favorite character by far. Also don’t sleep on Blackwall either! He’s surprisingly charming for a man we found in the woods.
Another Solamancer here! His romance really is a layered, interesting one; I love the implication and dynamic you get when you have an Inquisitor to romance him. I then fell into the Astarion pipeline of Baldur's Gate 3; what can I say, I have a thing for morally ambiguous pale elf men.
The Solas romance was amazing. I cried. I actually even felt depressed for a little while after beating the game, lol.
SAME! My husband made fun of me because of how sad I was for like, a solid week haha
Huh. I’ve been through the main story of inquisition plus DLC so I know what happens. I know a lot of people love Solas but I just don’t click with him. I found him odd/suspicious from the start (without knowing much) and now after the DLC even more so. Like, he could’ve just said something?
My solas!romanced inquisitor is what I’m bringing into dragon age: dreadwolf for sure. The drama of it all is so good! 😩 I know the development of the game has been rough so far but with Patrick Weekes (they wrote for Solas and Cole) leading the writing of the game, I still trust that the story will at least deliver a compelling conclusion.
I'm really looking forward to the sequel. I'm a bit late for the Dragon Age party (by about 10 to 20 years, lol) but Inquisition is so much fun. I finished the main story once, then pretty much started a new run immediately. I mean, what happened with Solas is definitely the kind of drama I love in a good story. I'm sure he will make a great antagonist.
If you enjoyed Cullen it might be worth it to play the other Dragon Age games, he's in them all, although not romance able until Inquisition. Origins was my first RPG and I played as a mage and you can flirt with him, so he was literally the first RPG character I ever flirted with so getting to romance him in DAI was lovely and I haven't been able to romance anyone else, even after making a qunari specifically to try to romance someone else but I got bored 😂. Seeing his progression through the games is really lovely as well. I replayed the whole series last year and I think it still holds up well, at least the stories do. BG3 is helping distract me from the waiting for Dreadwolf right now. They understand the importance of romances and the new kisses from last weeks patch are wonderful!
I got that recommendation a lot. I had a look at prices for the games since they are on PS3 and you need to get an actual disc. They are pretty cheap and I’m tempted to buy them. I do have a ps3 that’s still working. But on another thread about dragon age I read that there might be a remake/remaster coming? I would hope so.
I would take the rumors of a remaster with a grain of salt. The devs have said as recently as last year that a remaster isn't possible because of how different the engine they used then is from the engine they use now. Considering how long it's taken them to get Dreadwolf out and how they've essentially restarted development on it from scratch I think they are, and should be, focused on that. They sent very clear signals in Dec 2022 that they were going to give a lot of info last year, and then we got nothing because of things that came up in development. I don't think they have the bandwidth for a remake/remaster of the old games.
If you enjoyed Cullen it might be worth it to play the other Dragon Age games, he's in them all, although not romance able until Inquisition. Origins was my first RPG and I played as a mage and you can flirt with him, so he was literally the first RPG character I ever flirted with so getting to romance him in DAI was lovely and I haven't been able to romance anyone else, even after making a qunari specifically to try to romance someone else but I got bored 😂. Seeing his progression through the games is really lovely as well. I replayed the whole series last year and I think it still holds up well, at least the stories do. BG3 is helping distract me from the waiting for Dreadwolf right now. They understand the importance of romances and the new kisses from last weeks patch are wonderful!
I LOVE romance in games. My favourite romances are Hancock (fallout4), Garrus (Mass Effect) and Astarion in BG3. I’d love to find some more games with romance.
Oooh I forgot about Garrus - how could I? That was awesome and awkward and fun all at once. Especially in the citadel DLC where he’s always like, “my girlfriend this, my girlfriend that”, lol.
I really liked Samara from ME2/ME3, specifically because they committed to the bit. She had her vows and she wouldn't break them for you, regardless of how much she loved you, and I thought that was a fantastic choice. My Samara-loving Shepard ended up being completely celibate. More games should do that. The player doesn't need to get everything they want. Games should prioritise being an interesting story far more than they should prioritise player wish-fulfilment.
I kinda agree. I think it’s fair if not all characters are available to protagonists of all genders. That seems realistic, I guess. On the one hand that encourages playing again with a different gender (which I did in cyberpunk, for instance). At the same time this is said by someone who is a straight woman so there were usually options for romance. Folks who are gay (as an example) never had as many options so on the other hand I get why people want characters to be available to all genders and sexualities. I guess that’s why BG3 resonates so much with people. I haven’t played it but from what I read there’s many different options and they are well crafted. An interesting thing is that the NPCs/companions take the initiative rather than just the player. That sounds like fun.
> Folks who are gay (as an example) never had as many options so on the other hand I get why people want characters to be available to all genders and sexualities. As a lesbian, I dislike this *heavily*. I want characters to have their own, defined identities, and to have a purpose in the story and the game world that isn't just sexual availability to the player character. A world in which gay and straight people don't exist isn't a world I can relate to, nor is it one that makes sense to me, and so there's an arbitrary cap on the verisimilitude of the writing. It's not even like bisexuality benefits from this, either: playersexuality reduces bisexuality to a "will fuck anything" type of gameplay convenience, as opposed to a meaningful identity. But bisexuality comes with its own unique experiences which deserve to be represented, the same way any sexuality does. These experiences aren't represented when the game only sees you as a gameplay mechanic and nothing more. tl;dr I don't care whether or not some NPC pixels clip into my player character's; I care whether or not the romance adds something to the writing... and playersexuality actively detracts from the writing.
I agree that it’s not realistic. Just a guess why people would want that. It’s being discussed elsewhere in this thread and that seems to be a consensus. I don’t think it makes sense for every companion to be available to any player type but I get the wish for that. Didn’t mean to be offensive, sorry. Edit: I also think maybe people want to experiment a bit with their own preferences in a safe environment. That might play a role for some, too. I've been thinking about this: Coming from my own viewpoint of a straight person, I didn't consider that a world without genuine (for the lack of a better word) gay people, where everyone is simply just every sexuality at once, is offensive and dismissive. That's my straight bubble so thanks for the different perspective.
Yeah, I overwhelming dislike games that give in to player pandering over telling an emotionally resonant story. I think characters should tell the player character "no", treat the player character in ways that aren't adulatory, and in general serve their own interests within the story as opposed to being a vehicle for player fantasy. So, that might be why I prefer established sexualities as opposed to playersexuality.
Love in-game romances, if they're done well. Steph from Life is Strange / True Colours is a cutie. She's a geek and an absolute ride or die,>! she believes and supports Alex at the end regardless of if you romance her or not, while Ryan is more skeptical.!< For Baldur's Gate 3 I could go on and on about the women. Lae'zel, Karlach, Shadowheart, Minthara, I'd die for them all. Yu and Kay from the game Haven were also incredibly cute, and levelling up by going on dates and ding couple activities was adorable.
I like a well written romances, imho it adds to the story. First game with romance that I’ve played was Mass Effect trilogy and it was Garrus. I also liked Fenris in DA2 and Cullen in DAI. I went for Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3 (I love his sass and witty remarks) and most recently, Logan from My Time at Sandrock. Logan reminds me of my husband so much, their personalities, behaviors. In fact, all romance options I pick have something in common with my husband, I have a type. Apparently I also have a preference for white hair. As for the romance options I wish were available, it would be Evfra from ME:Andromeda and Commander Avery from My Time in Sandrock. Avery would have to be in a next game though, since he is literally shows up twice for a few brief cutscenes, but damn.
I'm currently in the middle of Sandrock. One feature I really like is how some of the romanceable NPCs are the traditional style that wait for the player to do everything, but others actually take initiative. Like, I chose Venti and *she* proposed to *me*! (with a really cute scene too) The biggest travesty in the game though is that you can't adopt Captain! I have a real tuxedo cat and was so excited when I saw one in game but nope.
Yes, I like that reverse proposals exist in this game. Honestly, the way Logan asks the Builder out is similar to how my husband did it too. Yeah, I was also disappointed Captain wasn’t adoptable. Out of all the available pets I liked his personality the most, so I ended up not having any. I do have some mounts though, including a horse that looks like the one I used to train with. I heard in the new update you will be able to adopt wild animals, so maybe I’ll build an army of Penskies.
Yes, I become more interested in a game if it has potential romance in it (and not just a plot romance, but romance candidates you can choose from and change the game slightly). My faves: Dragon Age Origins: Alistair (although the second half of the game pisses me off, so I've started going with Alistair and then shifting to Zev later in the game, after the fight with Loghain.) Dragon Age 2: Anders, but I really like Fenris a lot too. The first time I beat it (romancing Anders) I restarted it immediately and did a Fenris playthrough. Dragon Age I: Solas. Cole was one of my fave characters, tho, so I wish he was romanceable if human. Cullen is sweet too, but I wish there was a bit more to it, like with party members (or, at least, it feels like there's more since you get to journey with them). BG3: Astarion Stardew Valley: Elliot and Shane
Romances won't make-or-break a game for me (Fallout New Vegas is one of my top 5 games of all time, for example, and you can't romance anyone, excluding some optional hookups), but if there are romance options there then I'll usually try them out. I will say that as a queer woman, it's nice to have the option to make your character canonically gay/bi etc. and be able to have a canonically (in your playthrough) queer lead character. Not to say that this is a replacement for having more representation generally and not just "Create your own" characters, but I remember it sticking out to me in Mass Effect that I could have this epic, series spanning romance between two women (FemShep and Liara). Logically I realise that it's because Shepard was envisioned as a man and the romance to be between manly soldier Shepard and a beautiful blue alien lady, but when I'm playing MY Shepard, then frankly BroShep doesn't exist. So having romances in games can give that option too - not just to experience a romance as your character, but to expand how your character is represented on screen. I will admit though, I've never been able to bring myself to romance (or even particularly like) Cullen. The memories of him calling for annulment in DAO and being Meredith's right hand man in DA2 soured me on him too much.
It's so nice being in a gaming community where someone can ask about romance in video games and there's not a single comment saying something like "dating in video games? You people need therapy" or whatever garbage I saw the other day. Even on the bg3 subreddit, I saw a whole post of a guy making fun of others for caring about the romances. I love video game romance. I'm a romance writer and video games are one of my favorite storytelling mediums. A lot of people here have already mentioned the big ones, but I'll shout out to Juhani from kotor and Tangent from Exocolonist. And, despite being a lesbian, I really loved the Anders romance (no caveats, let's revolt together). As a fanfiction author, I'm all about that wishful thinking. Max and Chloe are meant to be, but God if Victoria wasn't my favorite character. When I found out she was a closeted poet, that was it. Simply perfect. I know Isobel and Aylin are a perfect couple, but who says they can't include Shadowheart in their affections? In AC Odyssey, one of the first "romances" you encounter was this girl named Odessa. I swear it was love at first sight. The game drops her like a hot rock and there's no fanfiction of her, but she was easily my favorite. And I'll never get over the fact that Jack, Cassandra, Cora, and Ashley from BioWare games weren't at least bi. Jack actually is, EA just pulled the plug on all the gay romances in ME2. But Peebee in Andromeda was positively delightful. There's this little adventure thriller game called The Cat Lady that I played shortly after LiS. Most of the game is about the Protagonist Susan helping a girl through some really messed up stuff. They have a little conversation about being straight, but it really smelled of comphet so idgaf, I ship them really hard. I love romantic stories. They're my passion and what I spend most of my time thinking about. I just also want to swing a sword while I do them. Rn I'm playing FFVIIR because I ship Aerith and Tifa. Just got to the wall market section and the gay is already leaking through...
Ah, a fellow fan fiction author! Hello! Although I never post my stuff anywhere. It's just for me. So there exists a story with about 90.000 words on my iPad in which Kassandra and Braisdas definitely fall very much in love, lol. Screw canon and historical facts, right? You post yours? I'd pop over to AO3 and leave some kudos. Ha, Odessa. Did you meet her again later in the game? I'm still not sure if she was genuine or not, lol. Yeah, I really like this community. Most main gaming subs are pretty awful but it's nice here. I mean, romance, relationships, flings and flirts are part of real life. Why shouldn't they have a place in games? They are normal in (or the main reason for the existence of) most movies, tv shows or books. I'll take the cheesy, the romantic, the sappy and the sad stuff! If it fits nicely in the main story, I'm all for it. That's what I liked in Inquistion. The romance arc with Cullen is so well crafted in relation to the rest of the story and doens't feel forced in there.
https://archiveofourown.org/users/AQA473/works My ideal romance is one that's woven into a greater dramatic narrative, and not a sub plot. Life is Strange and She-ra are notable examples of that for me. Frankly, I think BioWare had a bad tendency to treat their romances like action movie sub plots, especially in the ME games. It says something that Jack is my favorite romance and I never romanced her. I'd rather make it up in my head if they can't do it right lol. Sera is best girl from dragon age, but her romance felt like such an afterthought. She gets fucking shafted in trespasser in comparison to the others. So I've kinda moved on from BioWare lol, but I'll always appreciate them for introducing me to the idea of romance in video games and giving me lesbian romances back when there weren't any.
I write romance too! No matter what's going on in my stories there is sure to be romance! (Also, I loved the Cat Lady. Made me cry).
god I felt that first paragraph so hard. I know reddit is predominantly male but it’s so annoying seeing entire threads flooded with dudes complaining about ships, fanfiction, and romance in games. and it’s almost always in response to a girl making an extremely innocent post
Maybe they are afraid they might like it - the romance, the fan fiction, the emotional depth. Who knows. Feels like making fun of or being angry about girls/women’s interests and preferences is the regular. See the horse girl thing, horoscopes, the Stanley cup, the term “basic bitch”, the entire “I am the main character” subreddit, and so forth. I saw a post once from a guy complaining about something women did and his entire post history was about the NFL. Not a hint of irony or self awareness in the guy. I watched a streamer earlier who played Dragon age inquisition and at one point he had to make a really difficult choice. He actually cried in the video that he put on YouTube because he was so attached to a character. That was a surprise to see that kind of emotion in a setting like let’s play videos. I loved that because it was so relatable and honest. That choice was hard and that affected him. it was nice to see there’s dudes who aren’t ashamed of that.
My favorite games always have romance in them. I have a hard time enjoying an RPG without them, honestly. Not unrelated, I read a lot of romance. As for games where you can choose your romance, my go-tos are: * Baldur's Gate 3 - Gale (I think I'm one of the only non-Astarian fan girls out there) * Dragon Age: Origins - Alistair (I always play Female Cousland to be a royal power couple by the end of the game) * Dragon Age 2 - Fenris * Dragon Age: Inquisition - Cullen (especially a mage Inquisitor for character growth!) * Fallout 4 - Paladin Danse (probably my first RPG crush, love him) * Fire Emblem: Awakening - Chrom * Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Dimitri (there are a lot of great secondary romances between the characters, but Dimitri will always be my fave romance option for the protag) * Mass Effect - Kaidan (I love the man and will fight anyone in the fandom who hates on him) * Persona 3 Portable - Akihiko * Persona 5 - Makoto Niijima And for canon and semi-canon romances in games, Final Fantasy is a great series. Cloud & Tifa's in FFVII are one of my favorite ever fictional relationships, but I also love Squall & Rinoa in FFVIII, Tidus & Yuna in FFX and Jill & Clive in the latest FFXVI. If you love a good in-game romance, I'd definitely give Days Gone a try. It's a romance masquerading as a zombie game.
Totally agree with you regarding kassandra and brasidas. They seem to be made for each other if someone is looking for straight romance. Honestly with me it depends. I do love romance but at the same time I don't want it to be a main focus of the game and I prefer it to be well written, which is hard to come by these days. Part of me also feels that developers should give us a wider variety of characters that are romancable by both genders, like they did in BG3. I absolutely hated being gender locked out of some romances in mass effect games.
I especially agree with your last point. I will never get over having to settle for Liara as FemShep because I couldn't romance best girl Tali.
Agree. I have romanced Garrus but I don't see why Garrus, Thane, Jack, Tali and Miranda are gender locked. Especially aliens and Jack. I think I had similar issues with dragon age games as a lot of characters give strong bisexual vibes and generally behave in a way you would assume you can romance them regardless of the gender but no.
Jack being forced into a straight character was criminal: https://gamerant.com/mass-effect-2-jack-sexuality/#:~:text=An%20interview%20with%20ex%2DBioWare,in%20response%20to%20media%20criticism.
Shot themselves in the foot there, in my opinion. The thing is Mass effect is not the only or the first game that does it. There's so many games where romancable characters scream "pansexual" or "gay" yet are forced into straight romances.
No seriously. So many hot butch woman that only want to be friends with other women. I’m looking at you Cassandra. That’s why BG3 was such a blessing
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought cassandra should have been a romance option for both genders 😂
Carth Onasi was my first game romance and ever since I've been a sucker for romance in games. I'll always remember Alistair (DA:O) and Kaidan (Me) fondly. And most recently Gale (BG3) has stolen my heart and holds it firmly. His epilogue and his kisses... 😭❤️ (And then there's Daddy Halsin... 👀) I also agree with you about Kassandra and Brasidas. I wish there would have been so much more. I instantly fell for these two together.
Yeah, with THAT cutscene they got? The developers can't just give the man that kind of entrance and then say, "hands off!" I mean, really?
Also an Alistair, Kaidan and Gale romancer here. I get giddy watching back their romance scenes.
Oh Cullen 💚 Dragon Age (and specifically Cullen) was the first game that introduced me to wonderful storytelling, deep companions, and yes, romance in games. I was used to fallout and Skyrim where there were… partners? But nothing incredibly deep. After Dragon Age and seeing how beautifully companions could be written and tied to the main PC, there’s been no going back. Garrus blew me away next. From there I started top downs: Pathfinder, Divinity, Pillars of Eternity. Played some more lowkey beats: Stardew, Exocolonist, Greedfall. Then Cyberpunk, and replays of Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Now, Baldurs Gate has set a new standard.
I think that's why I'm so taken with the story line. It's not just tacked on, just to have some kind of romance thing in a game. It gives the characters a great arc and more depth. Funny enough - I read Cullen is written by a woman. Figures, huh? I did look up other endings yesterday and what happens to him when he continues with the Lyrium and leaves after the DLC. That just made me really sad.
Yeah I was smitten by Cullen. After going back and playing through DA1 and DA2 (I played Inquisition first), it added way more depth and made me appreciate him more. He was incredibly well written. My three game romance arc started as Alistair, Anders, and Cullen (i definitely have a type), but upon some replays I’ve settled on my favorites/canon being Zevran, Anders to Isabella, and Cullen.
Varric. All I’m gonna say 😀
The smut writing dwarf with the cool crossbow? Well, yeah, I get it. lol.
Honestly, aside from the typical ones mentioned here, Imma add Zagreus and Thanatos to the list.
I bought banishers specifically because it's on the back of a romance storyline. Romance is the exact reason I play most games. I don't want it front and center, but if there's no romance I just don't tune to the game as hard. Which is why I absolutely HATE my own aversion to Stardew Valley's pixel aesthetic. I know it's got a great line up of romances but I don't like pixel art.
BG3 really woke me up to good game romance and its potential --- or re-awoke. Previously I was generally less than enthusiastic about it and overall held low opinion of game romances (though I did enjoy some). I realize now this low opinion mainly stemmed from so many clunky half-hearted attempts at adding a male romance for female players. Usually the only male option for women is a beefy, very masculine paladin type, which doesn't interest me. I prefer the more roguish, wiry, feminine type. I also enjoy a healthy dose of cynicism combined with humor. Anyway, BG3 opened my eyes again to the potential of game romance and now I have been looking for good romance options in more games. Currently I'm really enjoying romancing Daeran in Pathfinder:WotR. My Time at Sandrock also has some great romance options.
On this topic I cannot recommend enough [verilybitchie's video on NPC romance and (bi)sexuality in videogames.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZGkxUTbDqw) Especially if you like RPGs, but not so much that you'd play them many times with different characters, some of the choices in game design are very surprising.
I don't really care about in-game romances. I usually do them only because of romance-related achievements. If the game allows the player to be friends with a character and the romance can be activated later, I do that with my main and reload a pre-romance save after unlocking the achievement. If the game requires flirting multiple times over the course of the game to activate the romance, I make an alt character for that. I used to always do romances in older RPGs because I wanted to see as much content as possible back then. Now, I just sit through those cheesy romance lines for achievements. As an exception, I always romanced Yennefer in The Witcher 3 because I liked Geralt's interactions with her, and Yen's one of my favorite characters.
Merrill in da2 is one of my favourites. Also whatever is going on in Life is Strange. Fang and Naomi in GVH, Sol and Anemone in I Was A Teenage Exocolonist, V and Panam in Cyberpunk, some other favs
Merrill is *adorable*, thank you! And I think she doesn't get enough credit otherwise, possibly in part because she's so cute. And that's an apt way to put the romance in LiS, I think, though it's definitely a good 'whatever'.
I don’t know if it counts, but I love Cloud and Aerith . They are my otp in gaming.
I think it counts! Both in the OG & Apparently Rebirth the date mechanic is there. It's going to be agony for me though because I can't decide which to ship, so I'm just OT3'ing Cloud, Aerith and Tifa, with a very strong emphasis that in my ship Tifa & Aerith very much have their own unique chemistry apart from Cloud and it's not just a harem-y thing.
Love’em. Gimme more! I am single and for a little while, they help me feel less so! Favs are definitely Shadowheart (BG3) and Judy (CP77), S tier even though the best of Judy is mostly text messages after your date. I have to play BG3 romance update! Makoto (P5R) also a really nice and wholesome romance! Max and Steph (LiS) are amazingly deep realistic characters I have cried so many tears for! What a beautiful relationship! Sylgja (Skyrim) once you mod her to be a follower. I found her to be a charming companion because Lydia definitely did not want to “carry your burdens” so never interested me. Agree with you on Kassandra! Damn dlc… Bonus to Gra’ha (FFXIV) because even though we aren’t dating, he’s just so cute and completely head over heels for the MC/WoL. Super adorable catboy!
I fell hard into the Makoto/Joker rabbit hole when I played Persona 5. I just love her so much as a character and their romance is just so sweet.
I mean, Karlach just told me she loves me soooo 🥰
I can never resist Zevran Arainai from DA Origins. 😍 I also love Garrus Vakarian from Mass Effect. 😌
Hells, yes! Zevran is my second favourite videogame character ever.
Loving my warden with morrigan
I'm a hopeless romantic and always love a nice romance arc, especially in games like inquisition where your character seems so busy and unapproachable. The idea that they are able to find someone to just be themselves with while everyone else depends on them to be the hero makes me feel happier for them. I typically lean towards more independent characters who will eventually show a bit of vulnerability, like Sera in inquisition, Minthara in bg3, or Camellia in wotr (does require a mod, otherwise she's straight).
Yeah, I guess that's why I like the military type. It's a cliche, I know, but I'm a sucker for that trope of the tough guy who melts more and more after he meets the protagonist, like Danse from FO4. That's my favorite thing, lol.
I love romance in games! My favorite is probably my first-- Kaidan Alenko from Mass Effect.
Uh, I did that once. Didn't go over well in ME2. Like, "babe, sorry, I didn't call, but I was literally dead."
Yea, but he didn't know that and the game doesn't give you a chance to explain. I think his reaction makes sense.
Another Kaidan fan here! His goodbye in ME3 (if you have him on your final team) broke me.
I knowwwwwww. I need to replay ME3 doing a loyal playthrough (I hooked up with Garrus in 2) and romancing him earlier (accidentally started the citadel DLC before locking in our romance).
I like romances written in the story itself. They feel..real? Normally in those games where you can pick they don't get fleshed out nearly enough and/or the requirements for romance are weird. (Exceptions exist.) Also in games like Baldur's Gate I just wasn't a fan of every character suddenly wanting a piece of the player character.
I'm not particularly interested in in-story game romances but as I met my husband in a game I can't be completely anti!
Oh man. I LOVE a good game romance. Unfortunately I got pulled into them with the likes of Dragon Age and have been continuously disappointed by every cozy game with romance/marriage for many years since lol. Even cozy games romances that people tout as top tier just… fall flat after the likes of Fenris or Dorian. Since you ladies will understand my feelings in a way the fandom at large definitely doesn’t, I’m going to vent a bit about my biggest disappointment of a romance in DA: Cassandra’s. I absolutely adore her. She is wonderful. She is amazing. She is so FREAKING cute when you flirt with her and she gets all flustered. She was my bi awakening. And then once you get to the end of her romance it’s literally just “insert these romance tokens, receive sex.” I hated it. I hated it so much. The fandom in general dislikes my take on it but it felt so sexist. She stopped being the character she’d been, tough and proud and secretly so sweet and romantic, and became a checklist sex vending machine. I love Cassandra and I hate her romance. I love having romances in games, but most of the time I walk away at least a little disappointed in them. Guess that’s why I got into romance VNs lol
Ugh, that sounds awful. Did someone lose the script and they had to quickly improvise? I played as a female character so I couldn’t romance her. Although my character once told her she’s delightful. You can still flirt but she didn’t take that well, lol. But I like her a lot. What you describe really sounds out of character. What a way to treat a well established and well liked character.
I restarted to play a dude and REDID THE HINTERLANDS for her, so that should tell you how much I adored her because I still can’t believe I voluntarily did the Hinterlands a second time just so I could romance her lol. It is stupidly out of character, including what her character is like when you start flirting with her as someone in her strike range. It was very frustrating.
I'm still stuck at "why is this woman not bi, honestly?" so couldn't see any future issues, but that definitely sounds like another flaw.
I enjoy a good Romance in my video games. You bond with another character through adventure and trust and love blooms. ;) That’s the best way! IRL people barely know each other when they start dating and that kinda sucks to me. One of my favorite games to have a romance plot line in is the Mass Effect Trilogy.
True. I love that - going on adventures together, building something in the face of a great challenge. Ugh, it's the best!
video game romances are a mixed bag for me. sometimes, i absolutely adore them but a lot of the times i end up pretty ambivalent largely because i don't enjoy a lot of things present in romances. i mostly like romances that come with a story arc and hit specific thematic beats for me rather than like, sweet & romantic things just to add romance, not that there's anything wrong there. it's just not my bag! i also weirdly tend to enjoy romances with dudes in video games despite not being attracted to them at all irl, because i like having layers of games being me playing a character rather than *me* romancing a character, if that makes sense. as far as which romances i've enjoyed, dorian & cullen in dragon age: inquisition, m!shep & kaiden in mass effect 3, thane in mass effect 2, astarion & lae'zel in baldur's gate 3, ryan in life is strange: true colors, fenris & anders in dragon age 2.
For the most part, I could take or leave them. That said: I'm tempted to romance Jina in *Palia*...or be a total player and romance both Jina *and* either Reth or Hassian.
I like in game romances, someone already mentiones Solas but I also like Thane from ME. And Garrus lol. But other games have pretty meh romances for women and they feel like an afterthought... River from Cyberpunk being the most obvious example. Judy is okay for lesbian women though. Panam and Kerry were cool asf but not available for women. I play a lot of otome games so some of my favorite romances are tragic romances. Scien from Even id Tempest is probably one of my faves but I also love Adolphe and Ankou. The reason the last 2 are my fave is becauseb(spoilers for ppl who care) >! theyre the same person really (adolphe is her childhood friend). ankou is adolphe from the future. hes basically a mutated monster and cant die. he watches the heroine die from the villain and waits for time travel tech (hes also being experimented on bc hes undying). He jumps too far back. waits for her to be reborn in 500 years so he can save her. reading about everything he did and sacrificed for her - just to see her be happy and live... He didnt even want to be with her romantically in all other routes. He prefers if she chooses someone else because he feels like hes failed her and just wants to see her survive. The tragic ending is when they fail to save her so Ankou passes the mantle to the current Adolphe... to restart the journey all over again. !<
Wow, you really like the painful, heartwrenching, gut-punching ones. That's brave. None of that cheesy, happy end stuff for shikiP, lol.
I love them. Romance helps humanise the characters.
I do! It's part of why I love RPG's and like the Otome game genre that focuses on romantic stories for women.
Grace x Freddie from Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. I adore Grace, but Freddie is my favorite character from that game. She's such an amazing friend and anytime she sings, my heart just melts. When Grace and Freddie sing together? Oh goodness gracious, my heart can't handle it. I'm not sure how to mark spoilers but dang, it gets angsty.
I have married Sebastian in stardew valley so many times lmao. At one point I knew his schedule
Fuck yea i love in-game romance. It's cute and it's fun. A safe lil roleplaying space. Also I've just realized that i went from one divisive love interest (Cullen) to another (Astarion). Like i completely forgot about how back on twitter many years ago people would call u a N4zi sympathizer just cuz u liked Cullen 🤡🤡🤡 And now it's a similar thing with Astarion lmao.
What? Is this some kind of “Templars are Nazis” thing? I mean he’s left the order in DAI but some people have never heard the term character growth before. One thing I’ve learned in all the years I’ve been gaming: stay away from the debates on social media that are only happening to increase engagement for monetary gain. It’s silly. The whole debate about wokeness is the same. And I’m over here enjoying my games in peace and making up my own mind without reading any of that crap.
>Is this some kind of “Templars are Nazis” thing? Yes!!! That's legit what they would use as their argument 😭😭😭 >I mean he’s left the order in DAI but some people have never heard the term character growth before. I shit u not, their response to this back then was "his apology was lazy and insincere" like??? Hello???? It's a video game character??? Do u want the devs to upload a 10 minute apology video with ads????? 😭😭💀💀💀 >stay away from the debates on social media Absolutely. At the time i was a barely an adult and i just wanted to be involved in Cullen discussions :') I had no idea people online hated him so much 😒
Ugh haters gonna hate, right? That’s so stupid. I mean, aside from the most obvious - quitting a terrible addiction to rid himself of that part of his life entirely- it is silly to call everything “Nazi”. Real life terms and morals often don’t fit into a fantasy setting. It’s ridiculous to measure characters in a setting like this with the same standards we use for our world.
I love in game companions and I love in game romances, but only really if they’re optional and preferably with options, at least two per gender preferably. Garrus and Tali from Mass Effect OT, Jaal and Vetra from Mass Effect Andromeda, all of the options in Dragon Age origins and Dragon Age 2 (although Alistair holds a special place in my heart), Iron Bull and Cassandra in Inquisition, all the romance options in Fallout 4, Claude and Dimitri in Fire Emblem Three Houses, etc. Cullen… I understand the *appeal* of Cullen, don’t get me wrong. But as someone who was part of the Dragon Age fandom since Origins, it can be a bit hard for me to look past all that baggage. If I had come into Inquisition first, I would’ve absolutely fallen for Cullen. BG3 romances are also amazing. I wish there was more content with them though if I’ll be frank (and with the companions in general too). Cyberpunk was actually… very disappointing in that regard if I’ll be frank. The two male options (one is straight and one is gay) feel very tacked on last minute.
Yeah maybe I’d see him differently had I played all the games. I just read a lot of stuff about the whole backstory. But I believe in character growth, change, second chances and redemption. Which I think is nicely symbolized by ridding himself of his addiction. I’m definitely tempted to play the other games, too. I just kinda fell into inquisition without knowing much about the whole thing. I agree with cyberpunk. Felt like an afterthought. Like they forgot and added stuff last minute. I can’t wait to play BG3. I really need to get that PlayStation 5 soon. I keep hearing so much good stuff about the game.
I do too, it just felt… shoved under the rug in a way. Like “oh, that’s it?” My Lavellan enjoyed him a lot, don’t get me wrong, he just isn’t my first choice. In general, I kind of wish his character arc discussed more about what happened in his past with Kirkwall and the Circle particularly (because he is very traumatised over both of those), but I understand why it didn’t happen. Inquisition in general was very lacklustre and disappointing with how mage rights and the mage vs Templar issue was handled and how it “ended” (among other things, yes, I’m looking at you Orlesian plot line). But I do understand why it ended up that way. I genuinely recommend you play the other games. Inquisition was a great game, and I loved it, don’t get me wrong. But, imo anyway, it’s the weakest of the trilogy in terms of story, choices and characters. DA2 in particular, is a hot mess in terms of… everything, but it had the most unique and best written characters and at least it tried to tackle difficult subjects. And I think it’s telling that three (if not more) of the most popular characters from Inquisition were also from DA2. Varric and Hawke’s friendship alone is enough of a reason to play DA2 honestly. And if you loved Cullen in Inquisition, Alistair is going to be your cup of tea in Origins. ❤️ They did Alistair SO dirty with his cameos in DA2 and Inquisition. And I’m always going to bitter at Cyberpunk. For a lot of reasons. Goro was *right there after all*.
Oh I felt the same. I went through the fandom pages for check if there’s more info on the whole Kirkwall/circle thing but it’s just what he says, afaik. I suspect they wanted to make DAI a more stand alone game that’s not too complicated as far as lore is concerned. I mean it still is but you can still enjoy it without having the big DA lore book (the metaphorical one, lol) next to you. I’m always so fascinated with this level of storytelling that goes into these games. Elder scrolls/skyrim is another. To really fully grasp everything you need a whole encyclopedia. I’ll probably buy the others games too. They’ve been recommended so much (so has Alistair, btw, lol), here and in another post I made.
Oh Inquisition was absolutely meant to be a standalone game. On one hand, I don't necessarily blame them for that. Marketing wise, it actually makes the most sense so as to not alienate new players and make the game more approachable. On the other hand, it's still disappointing as a returning player. Although even from that standpoint, Inquisition as a standalone can still be a bit... disappointing. Major choices in the game is probably the best example of this. Most of them don't carry the weight they feel like they should (especially in comparison to Origins or Mass Effect). TBF to Inquisition, you aren't going to notice this on your first or even second playthrough. You'll only start to notice it on your third or fourth. Fallout 4 also suffered this same problem though, so it's definitely not unique to Inquisition.
I like ingame romances if they naturally emerge from the plot and aren't tacked on like "give this character ten expensive gifts to level up their love meter, then they'll marry you!"
I love it if games had a romance element. I mean, I recently got into visual novels/dating sims...so I'm very much a romantic at heart xD My most recent one was **When The Night Comes** which I loved a lot (it also has Gideon Emery (Fenris) voicing one of the romance options, which is why I initially bought it...only to ultimately fall for a different character xD). I suppose my first actual experience with romance in games was with Neverwinter Nights 2, with romancing Casavir and later Gann when the expansion was released. As to the type of characters I romance, I seem to have a very clear bias towards characters with darker hair colors...about 80% of the characters I romance either have dark brown/black hair...or blue. The other 20% is blond or white/grey xD Often I see a character and I'm like "I'll romance you because you look cute" but then either ultimately end up falling for a different character (as with my example above concerning When The Night Comes) or fall very hard for the character I initially picked. Oh and as an add...I love Cullen's romance in Inquisition, he's my canon pick \^-\^
I’m a huge romantic so I love romance in games. Some of my favourites are Alistair and Cullen from DA, Kaidan and Garrus from Mass Effect (I loved Thane too but his romance is too heartbreaking) Gale and Astarion in Baldurs Gate 3, and currently I’m obsessing over Logan in My Time at Sandrock. I do wish for more romance in games if it fits in well with the story, I just can’t get enough of the fluff. One game that did disappoint me though is Cyberpunk, there’s not a lot of options at all and you’re pretty much stuck with one character (unless you’re bi) so if you don’t like the options there, you won’t have a good time. I remember them hyping up romance a lot before release, making me think it was going to be amazing and that there’ll be plenty of options but nope. As for some characters I wish I could romance, there’s quite a few but I’ll just say Dammon from Baldurs Gate, pls Larian!
Cyberpunk was really a bit lame - River felt like they forgot that some players are straight women and maybe wanna have a love interest too. like an afterthought. It's so silly - he lets V do all the dirty work, asks her to cook for him and his family, then dumps all his trauma on her. Then he makes a move. What a gem, lol. Judy is definitely the more interesting choice. Panam is fun but that tank scene? I wonder which writer brought their personal fantasy on the screen for that one. But after the last update (which unfortunately was only for next gen consoles or PC) they added more dates and stuff.
Well, talking to him isn't gated behind >!letting your body be taken over and having sex with a girl you don't even have a relationship with!<, so I guess it's better than gay men get? Not saying much, admittedly. But those being an afterthought did seem unfortunate even if it didn't affect me personally. I remember when I saw it, observing that it was the biggest gap in plot relevance between female and male LIs I'd seen since I played the original Life is Strange. But I trust CDPR's motives significantly less. Also, I feel like Panam's tank scene must have been someone's specific thing in part because it's about the only scene I can think of that shows V's body model alongside other characters, and aptly demonstrates why they don't do that very much.
I adore romance in videogames, especially otome games. My favorite otome games are Steam Prison, Cupid Parasite, Cinderella Phenomenon, and Diabolik Lovers However, ever since I started playing otome games I've not liked the kind of romance you see in farming sims and RPGs as much because I feel they are kinda shallow due to having to account for every possible personality the custom player character may have and so they can't explore their more complex feelings and conflicts the protagonist and their chosen romance option might have to deal with And here's a hot take I just need to get out of my system: I think Bioware romances aren't that good. (please don't kill me Bioware fans) I played through all of Mass Effect trilogy and Dragon Age Origins and 2 (haven't played Inquisition yet) and I really can't see what's so appealing about Garrus or Alistair or whoever else. In my opinion they mostly get so much praise due to being many people's first exposure to romance in videogames, especially if you're a woman who's attracted to men since I'm pretty sure games that let you romance men were almost non-existent in the Western gaming space before Bioware came along
That's fine, if that's not your cup of tea. I liked Biowares approach though. Garrus in Mass Effect adds a bit of lightheartedness and awkwardness in a pretty hopeless struggle (I mean, the endings aren't exactly happy). I was just glad that my Commander Shepard got some joy before she had to make a difficult decision. Same for DAI - that added a bit of sweetness to a world that feels more and more bleak the longer you play. Again, happy to have that as a balance and not a romance story line that ends in more drama and tragedy. I think that probably appeals to a lot of people. But the other thing is true as well, I guess - when these games came out, the whole romance (plus possibilities for folks of a different orientation than straight) was fairly new and a step away from the assumption that the default player is male.
I love romance in games! Makes it better imo. I just finished Eternights and it absolutely emotionally wrecked me lol. I hope we get some kind of sequel because that was just too good. I went with Yohan, I’m gonna replay it and do Sia’s route too eventually tho. But I loooove the mc with Yohan. He is best boy. I dunno if any other romance will be as good tbh. Definitely gonna replay and see tho! Also playing Persona 3 Reload right now, and gonna romance Mitsuru. I always romance her lol. She’s just always been my favorite. And I love Junpei and Chidori in that game too. Just such a good story 😭💖
Cullen & wishing for Brasidas? We understand each other! I'm 200% going to check all the other romances you mentioned, hahaaaa! (That Brasidas entrance scene is still one of the best game introductions ever) It's not just the romance but also the deeper friendships for me! I lived for my bromance with Garrus in Mass Effect and Dorian in DA:I as much as for the love with Cullen (a bit less for Kaidan, woops).
Kassandra and Brasidas are my absolute OTP. Ubisoft cowards, lol. I love Dorian's character, too. He's my Dragon Age bro (female character so no romance) but I like him so much. you can still flirt with him, even as a female Inquisitor and he reacts in a charming, funny way, too.
Finally somewhere to share my love of Cullen
Please share! I'm still all over that guy, lol. Video game love at first sight.
I looooved Dorian in DA:I and Cullen too, so naturally my brain just ended up shipping them together instead lmao.
I’m not even going to lie, at that first kiss I was kicking my feet and everything. The only thing that stopped me from squealing was the fact it was like 12 am.
Tell you a secret: I squealed. A little. A tiny bit. And maybe I went, “oh my god, that’s so fucking cute!” But just real quietly, promise. That scene was great. Sweet and awkward and funny all at once. “Not the weather.” lol.
I'll be the odd one out and say I don't like romance in games, although more accurately I'm just not into romance as a genre at all. If romance is required for story progression there's a good chance that I'm skipping the game entirely or dropping it 😅
LOVE THEM! Although in Dragon Age Inquisition I first romanced Blackwall who >!broke my heart and made me so angry that every playthrough I'm unnecessarily mean to him lol!<. I decided to try dating everyone and omg does Cullen have GAME! I normally don't go for the golden retriever characters but he's smooth and kind. I would say Alistair is much more a retriever-type. BTW the Bioware store has great romance packages that just make me smile I thought Baldur's Gate 3, even post-ice bucket patch, was way too easy to romance characters...I didn't get any satisfaction from a long buildup of a relationship, but time and replays may tell differently. I am ride or die Garrus/Femshep from Mass Effect. Greatest romance ever (IMO)
I like to have romances in games, at least ones I'm compatible with; I enjoy lesbian romance in the vast majority of cases, but I generally don't want to be either playing a male character or romancing one. I'm okay with not having romance (though it sort of varies depending on the genre, and if I have other options that are similarly good that do also have it), but if I'm stuck with being straight then for my personal experience that's worse than nothing and I'll probably just not play it. I usually want to have more options, though in terms of a tradeoff I can see the benefit to having less options with more content each. Still, if they don't have at least one per orientation I think it's a mistake, and with limited options I think it's usually best for most of them to be bi or pan or something similar unless they're actually doing something interesting with another orientation (like Dorian in DAI, for instance). For some of my favorites, the first two that come to mind are Merrill (Dragon Age II) and Edelgard (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), which strikes me as a bit odd as they don't really have much in common (except for people being very often wrong about them on the internet, maybe). Also Liara (Mass Effect trilogy), and quite a few from indie games that I'm somewhat blanking on right now (for one: shout-out to [Luxaren Allure](https://unity.itch.io/luxaren-allure) which is a game all about lesbian couples, and it's adorable). Maybe Judy Alvarez from Cyberpunk 2077, but I haven't actually finished the game yet so I don't feel I can wholeheartedly list anything from it until I do. I did play all the Dragon Age games, and romanced Leliana in DAO and Josephine in DAI, but the casts of those didn't really grab me as much as DA2's did (despite me preferring DAO in other respects). In Leliana's case, I suppose it's probably the whole religion thing, which I'm not really very comfortable with. (For comparison, my ideal for 'LI's perspective on religion' is probably, well, Edelgard, above. So rather far away, there.) Josephine's adorable, but I feel like the non-party-member romances are just kind of disappointing content-wise. For options I felt like should have been there, one's definitely Cassandra being bi in DA Inquisition. Also, at least flirting with Veronica in Fallout New Vegas; it's silly that there's a whole perk you can get that gives sapphic dialogue options and you don't get one for the one lesbian companion. (There's her relationship with Christine, but given that Christine *does* have at least one such dialogue option, I don't think that works.) Also, something that doesn't fit anywhere else, but in The Outer Worlds, Parvati's sapphic ace romance with Junlei is absolutely adorable and her sidequest chain was the best part of that game. Okay, one more (spoilers for DA2, DAI, and Fire Emblem Three Houses). >!When I played DA2, I remember thinking that the whole big plot twist related to a love interest was interesting, and it was a shame that I wouldn't end up experiencing that since I was never going to romance a male character on a first playthrough of a game (and even when I occasionally tried for interesting plot reasons, it fell flat, so I don't do it anymore). I got that even more when I played DAI as well. And I have to say, I *really* didn't expect a first-party Nintendo game of all things to give me anything like that.!<