To be honest, I now see situation with romance in cyberpunk, and it is terrible. There are 4 romantic characters in total. There is not a single bisexual among them, so if you are not bisexual yourself, then you have only 1 option + prostitutes. [...]
Umm no. Stories should not be pansexual friendly. Stories should be stories and characters should be characters. Having all characters be mind wide open to any and every attraction, it takes away from their character. The PC is the only important character that can be pansexual, because that's you, you are your character.
I said this comment before, but characters need preference, not because they need preference, but because they need character. Lae zel is a hard warrior women, it only makes sense that she finds her attraction to a bad ass warrior as well. But that shouldn't stop a PC to pursue her anyways. Maybe there is a chance if PC can accomplish xyz to win her attraction.
I dont want to make too many comparisons to real life to our game but, even in real life. Some people will just not like you like that, because you are just who you are. You can't fault characters for their preferences. This is a fighting adventure "fantasy" game, not a "fantasy" date sim. The camp scene really made this game go from a fellowship to a harem.
There is a range between "every companion being attracted to a single gender" (Cyberpunk I guess?) and "all companions being player-/pansexual" (BG3). Both extremes have negatives: the former harms player ability to romance a character they actually like and the latter (arguably) breaks immersion and/or detracts from NPC characterization. Cyberpunk's problem seems to be the limited number of romanceable options, which strongly restricts player choice and thus fun. BG3, on the other hand, I think went too far. With the 8(+ allegedly?) companions, it would be more fine if each companion had defned sexual preferences. The player would still have the choice of 2-4 companions no matter their gender/orientation.
I agree that NPC characterization is important in crafting a believable NPC, but why can't bi(or pan)-sexuality be one of those traits? In your Lae'zel example, it would be perfectly in character for her to be straight, gay, bisexual, or +, as long as she still only goes for strong people.
