I’m all for companions having the potential to change their opinions and alignment, for good or bad, in the course of the game, depending on what happens in the story and the relationships they build with the PC and possibly even other NPCs.
For me, those changes have got to make narrative sense and be rooted in the established character and motivations of the companion, and should in most cases be independent of whether or not the PC is romancing them. Plus one of my cRPG companion bugbears is when we have to be super-nice to build a relationship while they can be as prickly as they like, and that’s additionally unappealing in the context of a romance arc. For me it’s important that relationships, whether platonic or romantic, between characters who have very different outlooks feel as though both parties are struggling towards mutual understanding and respect, rather than my PC having to carefully pick nice dialogue choices while the NPC gets to be antagonistic.
+1
That is what I would have wanted to say, but you expressed it so much better.
And I agree, a positive or negative influence on our companions should be independent from a romantic relationship.
