I think the moral of the story truly is, "just don't Dragon Age it." Dragon Age took itself very seriously while having really awful animations and expressions and cheesy music for their sex scenes. The whole thing didn't work, but nobody seemed to have the heart to tell anyone the Emperor had no clothes there. Such a shame. Somebody really needed to say "this is ridiculous" and everyone else needed to listen. That did not happen. Major mistake. The Witcher's stuff was both better animated and more tongue in cheek, so it was more successful, albeit still... not always equally so, and not so pleasing for the male-attracted for the most part.
Pillow talk lying down in a tent would've been both easier to do AND 100x more intimate-feeling. Shadowheart's hair clipping through Astarion's hand gave a tiny whiff of that, so probably a single finger stroked down the cheek or throat or shoulder would be a better idea in the final version of the game. Caresses only work if you're not distracted by glitches. DA2 did it so much better than DAO, but it was too sparing. I still would prefer some pillow talk rather than all the upright clothed conversations in convenient underwear, however; why can't we just show everything from the armpits up and imagine they're naked still? Sigh. I never understood these things in games. If you don't have incredibly good animations that will work with all character models, then just rely on voice actors and writing to carry the scenes. Bad sex scenes are really sad and embarrassing for everyone... Inquisition did it so much better it's insane, but even then it was a bit sparing and didn't feel so spontaneous as it might have been if it had happened when you were out and about, being driven somewhat by plot rather than just "you cleared this mission, so more content is available at the Keep." More like in the novels where you have a forbidden union during a long excursion in the DA equivalent of the Underdark, all gloomy and compelling for its hopelessness and danger.
Give me a boatload of sexual tension and sensuality sprinkled throughout over a scene with awkward boning animations modeled after porn any day. Give me unrequited feelings on the player's side or on the companion's side where someone's constantly trying to convince you they're better for your PC than someone else. God, that would be amazing, actual longing and wary tension and personality conflicts rather than just petty manufactured drama for drama's sake. Imagine a quiet PC pining for Astarion, probably without knowing all his flaws, with Gale noticing and constantly pointing out that your intellect would be wasted on him, peppering in barbs and flirtations, maybe even letter it boil to a fever pitch where he finally takes you aside and makes some impassioned plea for your affections, after which you can crack his poor heart and have him suffer, or just give in and sleep with him, after which you can either stick with him or still be drawn to Astarion and have to leave Gale with that one pity lay, which might leave him still carrying a torch or telling you to go to hell depending on how you let him down. (If you prefer, trade names for Lae'zel or Shadowheart or Wyll, of course, with circumstances adjusted per character.)
I understand that in Ye Olden Days of Yore, it would've been too sophisticated in terms of coding... but if someone could do it in the modern day, the inevitable binary confrontations simply not happening would be amazing. I like that Lae'zel won't care, but I also would hope to see less open characters becoming infatuated or even outright falling in unrequited love like that. It would be so much more interesting than those interactions where you could just feel the code happening. A more sophisticated, mature brand of romance would be so amazing, and would make any hopefully-classy touch animations feel like they mean something.
Ideally, I just want to feel like I'm living in a good fantasy novel while playing D&D. I know that's a big ask, but after DOS2 I would say Larian can do it if anyone can.
Exactly.
