3. Shadowheart. My initial favorite but she's gotten worse with each patch. She's supposed to be secretive, hard to understand, distrustful and mysterious but has suddenly gotten chatty, friendly and quick to trust. Not the way a Tsundre romance is supposed to work.
Reminds of how PoE ruined Woedica. She's god who, for thousands of years, has been working to make sure that no one knows the secrets of the gods. But, because some players had trouble following the plot, they made her into the friend that just won't stop texting. "Hey! Just want you to know the name of secret project that created all the gods" "Hey, just wanted to make sure you know that the gods were created by humans, not sure if you got my last 5 texts to that effect. Don't tell anyone! It's our biggest secret."
Don't quote me on this, but saving her from the pod is a disservice to her character. I guess it makes her interactions more bearable for anyone playing the heroic sort, but for me it just dumped her down from ally and equal to boring underling.
Truth be told, i like none of the romances in this game, but as far as relationships go the 'friendship' with SH is the i enjoyed the most. Maybe because my PC is a formerly evil bullshitter, maybe because he still has that edge of ruthless practicality, but it actually felt like a slow building of respect (not trust) between two peeps who are working towards the same objective.
Then, of course, i talked with Gale or Astarion and my immersion was broken every time they treated me like their old time bud, with whom they can mess around and confide in.
I believe this makes me doubt Gale's alignment further. X] Of course, I realize that there has to be options of any alignment when the player is in control - but I do wonder how much of a say we'll have in their actual character development later on... Thinking of something similar to Aloth in PoE1 where most of the choices you made (or at the very least how you explained your reasoning to him) gradually pushed him towards one of his two possible paths.
So good. PoE actually had that going for every character. Eder and his crisis of faith, Sagani and her people, the Devil and revenge, Pallegina and her people, the Grieving Mother and her... whole everything. Pretty sure Durance was the most static, but then again he died early on for me so i'm not sure.
Also, man. Haven't touched that game in years and i still remember all those characters' names and what they went through. And most of them were randoms with down-to-earth backstories, no snowflakes or anything. That's quite something. (Shade being thrown)
