Originally Posted by Robcat
I don't think Swen's response was necessarily contrary to previous information. They've never talked about the feature in terms of romance as far as I can remember. If I had to guess I'd say nothing's changed.

Genuinely curious about my question, not trying to belittle romance.

I think the expectation comes from this:

Social stats shape inter-player relationships
Disagreeing in cooperative dialogs doesn't just influence choice and consequence, it also shapes how well the two protagonists are compatible with one another. Every decision adds to a social stat: what do your heroes' traits tell about their affinity? Will they end up as friends and even lovers, or do they have to learn to live together out of sheer necessity?

..which was paired with this background image:

[Linked Image]

..and mixed with this:

[Linked Image]

..which is actually touched on with this:

RPS: You have the characters holding hands on the main image. Is there romance at the core of the plot, or is that just more of a symbolic kind of thing?

Vincke: You have the affection dials. If you have a high like score, you have the option of taking it further. It happens a few times in the game. If you don't want to, then you'll be very good friends. If you want to, then you'll take it one step further. But the holding hands has nothing to do with romance. You'll have to figure that out for yourself when you're playing the game.

Now, that response indicates the hand-holding has nothing to do with romance. For all we know it's the two of them activating their Wonder Twin powers. But this part of the comment:

"If you have a high like score, you have the option of taking it further. It happens a few times in the game. If you don't want to, then you'll be very good friends. If you want to, then you'll take it one step further."

..pretty much sounds like there is a step beyond "very good friends" that you can take the relationship to. Granted, he could mean "very, very good friends", but I don't think people are reaching too hard here expecting all of that to equal some kind of love-bond potentially existing between the two main characters.

During the livestream, the question asked was:

"Can the player have a romance?"

And the answer given was:

"Not really, it's not a Bioware type of game." .. which is just odd considering the above. But it's totally possible the question and/or answer was taken the wrong way.