Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Romance is Dead

I must say, the Shadowheart romance is the only one, I do like - it feels natural: You share a bottle of wine, talk and then it ends in a kiss. That is more what I want from a romance part than 'Come on, let's fuck'.

So?
I hope you dont live in dream that every relationship on this planet is healthy, equal and well aged. :-/

Seems natural enough.

I liked Astarion’s romance the best. The other two male romances seem to still have not gotten over their ex’s which is as boring in game as it is in real life to hear about.

If this ia troll, its a good one. I could use it in my sig.

I believe this is the difference between gently drinking wine versus hammering down hard liquor because you don't like the taste of what's offered...

All joking aside, I expected nothing less than Lae'Zel's proposition/command.

When you get older age, you' realize they are the same thing.

Oh come on people ...
Not every adventurer in Faerun will be romantic soul, some will just use the opourtunity, and some other will just have some fun. :P

I personaly think its great that we have different options. :P
Would be quite odd to see Astarion, or Lae'zel in some kind of romantic scene, wich would only lead to shy kiss.

I never said it's not ok to just want sex, I like a bit more story around a romance and I'm not even a romantic person. I just think, the Shadowheart romance is well done and it is strange, that 4 out of 5 companions just propose sex on the same evening. I know, EA and they want to show everything, still, strange. (5 If you count psycho drow in).

And why some guy feels the need to call me a troll because of that, is beyond me. Some people really lack manners.

And THAT was my point. Thank you. 4 pages later, and it's back to the beginning.

I get it's a party. Everyone is in high spirits. Lae'zel and Astarion... They make sense. Sure. Maybe they are just, "Let's do it," both on the same night.

But EVERYONE? And not a single person cares what gender you are? Is everyone bisexual? Is everyone so easy? There's no variety, no foreplay, no leading up to anything, and absolutely no option to be close to characters WITHOUT them soliciting you for sex. What about just bros hanging out on party night, or ladies just hanging and being friends? Must it all just be sex, like a sex buffet?

It is ...
I just think even rest of them is also well done and perfectly fiting their characteristic ...

Maybe Gale is a little weird ...
You know all that "im so much in love with Mystra so i will shag you til morning" is quite odd attitude, but still ... there is many people out there who started on talking about hurted feelings, and few minutes later they were in bed. So, while its a little odd ... its certainly not unbelievable.

What kinda bugs me is Lae'zel ...
I would accept that night with her was exhausting for any non-Gith race ... but if you are Gith, and she litteraly tells you that she will "reward you with pleasure", i would expect you to enjoy it ... and yet Narator tells you the next morning that you are exhausted, everything pains you and you dont feel satisfied at all ...
Dunno, seems just wrong. :-/

Personaly i have no problem with that ...
I mean, taken from history perspective, its fitting ... alcohol, chemistry, and exitement from surviving the battle ... (i had other more inapropriate example prepared, but lets keep it in this vague matter)

It would be nice tho, if other characters would accept when you pick your company for tonight, and didnt try to take her or his place ...
After all, the excuse larian is using that this is a small camp, and our minds are connected ... so they should know that we allready decided.

Dont feed the troll.

I do feel like everyone propositioning you on the same night feels kind of artificial, but not to a degree that breaks my immersion really. I think there's better ways to approach relationship development, but that's partially a matter of taste.

The main problem to me is two-fold. The first problem is that the relationships don't feel as if they evolve organically a for a lot of the characters. I think the main issue there is the fact that it's EA and there are either cut scenes that aren't implemented, or are missed entirely because of the way the game currently handles those scenes. Maybe the added scenes won't fix that, but we won't know until they've actually been added so I'm not going to be too harsh in my judgement here, since I see this part of the problem as being primarily technical.

The other problem, which I feel is bigger, is the fact that there's no other way to celebrate with your party other than picking someone to hook up with at the celebration. I feel as though there should be more interaction at the celebration with the party, especially the party as a whole. There should be cut scenes where everyone is together doing stuff. It feels like a waste of narrative opportunity otherwise. At that point in the game I feel as though the celebration moment, should hammer home the dynamics of the party and how that relates to the game as a whole. Either use the celebration as a moment to show that the party has come together as a group of unlikely allies who are starting to develop some real bonds with each other, or use it to show that there are still divisions and frustrations that are still unreconcilled and might not be able to be recconciled. And even on a one-on-one level, we should get interactions that let us see the various members of the party enjoying themselves. I think it would have been better if, assuming their approval level was high enough, we got a cut scene with each member when we spoke to them, letting us interact and have some fun character moments with them, and the offers of sex could come after that. As it is now, the offers feel disconnected and at times, kind of unearned. Especially since we don't get as much opportunity to flirt and build tension before the celebration scene. You can argue that Larian wanted to make sure people could see the relationship aspct of the game in EA, but I would argue in turn that they should probably have prioritized making the celebration, which I think is actually a really good inclusion that I found really rewarding, be a good character moment for the party.

How do you get everyone to proposition you? I haven't had it happen since the last two patches or so. On my good runs Lae'zel and Astarion both disliked my character too much to be interested (I was surpised they didn't leave tbh), and on my evil run Wyll left and Shadowheart disliked my character. Gale afaik you need to get through the buggy weave romance scene first, otherwise he just offers to share wine at the party.

I normally talk to Shadowheart first, agree to meet her later and then suddendly everyone tells me what could have happened, if I had picked them - even if they wouldn't have offered, if I had talked to them first (I did try it once with reloads, to see, what would happen, after everyone said, what I would miss to not pick them).

I have only romanced Astarion. I did try Gale, but despite him having a exceedingly high friendship with Tav, we just share wine together. Never got the Weave Scene.

Wyll does express jealousy and admiration of my romance With Astarion, but when I call his bluff, he says he prefers to drink instead.

I guess... Tav just is less exciting than a mug/wine for the three available male love interests. =-)

I guess there is always... VOLO. LOL

Might be this, because I don't try anything with Shadowheart, so I haven't gotten any jealousy scenes.

It's quite funny, because I did try Gale's romance once out of curiosity, since it was so famously buggy, and ever since his dialogues keep bugging out in my other runs.

If you want to try, you basically have to camp at every approval increase until you exhaust all of his conversations. The issue is that other companions seem to take priority, so you need to really rest spam, or travel just with Gale. But because his approval is very easy to get if you do good deeds at the grove, you can actually get the weave scene very early on.

Oh, thanks. I may try this, just for fun. I just found it strange that I had Gale up to the highest of any Love interest, but never have triggered the romance.

I'd argue all the romances in the game were NOT written by males.
Written like females would imagine/think on how male have and like their fantasies. If that makes sense. That how all the "romances" feel and evolve in this game. "Most single gamer guys will like that!" kind of mentality.
Its just all weird. It's rushed, its pushed, its sultry, there's no friendships...You go into the romance/sex tree or you don't. Nothing much in between...with VERY few exceptions.

Agree the romances are rushed, awkward, and way to fast. And those saying it's a male fantasy are dead wrong as it's mostly men on here complaining about it. DnD is a game that depends on having interesting party characters and while I generally like the companion quests, the character development and interparty relations are a big fail.

As this is a resurrected thread from 18 months ago and so talking about early access, let’s carry on using https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=887939 for romance trigger discussion now. People are also welcome to create specific threads critiquing individual romances.

I’ll lock this to cut down on duplicate discussion.