Ok, my take from this whole discussion and romance and sex in BG3.
Was it really worth it for Larian to go there so deep? Why do you need serious romance and sex scenes in an RPG, in such a massive capacity? Especially when you're slipping into horror comedy or fantasy comedy all the time? Sex scenes don't belong everywhere and I think a D&D adventure is one of those places. Some things are better left for real life. Sometimes a game is also an escape from real life romances and you really don't want to deal with that stuff in a fantasy adventure game.
In my playthrough, after having to turn down both Astarion and Lae'zel, I found both Gale and Shadowheart quickly falling for my character and then having to choose who to pick and who to disappoint. I don't really want that in a game. (Sidenote: the "reward" for choosing SH, the big scene where she throws away her spear, assuming because of my influence, was too rushed. Her conflict was deeper than that and she should have struggled with the spear longer, bringing it on Nightsong's chest.) It's really off putting that everyone is sexually after your PC, whoever or whatever they are.
Personally I find romances or sex awkward in games a lot of the time, when they are taken to a very detailed cinematic level. Those scenes are very difficult to do in film, so how would a game studio just casually nail 20 of them? Including ridiculous stuff like Mind Flayers, bears and devils. Why does Larian always bite more than they can chew? From what I've seen these scenes also go on far too long, when the best solution would have been just one shot that would slowly tilt away to the sky. Like seeing Tav and Minthara on a skull altar but that's it, no raunchy details. Feed the imagination, don't suffocate it with details using a clumsy game engine.
All this said, there absolutely should be romance in an RPG. And let me ask: where are all the friendship scenes? Are we so horny that we forgot all about non-sexual companionship that would be far less awkward to do, but even more important? Frodo and Sam. A romance or any other kind of deeper bond like friendship between the characters absolutely belongs in good storytelling. It's the final glue that makes the game feel amazing. It's what makes you feel a companion's sacrifice or other hardship. But you can mostly leave romance on a contextual level. Show that a romantic and sexual relationship (kissing) exists. Let the player's imagination do the rest of the work. And if a player actively pursues a deep romantic relationship, when it comes to sex, less is more.
big agree on everything you said here.
they were so focused on their romance plots, that they completely forgot to write friendship storylines with these characters, and forgot to give us the actual ability to chose who we are romancing. And just have tav enter a romance with anyone they are nice to...
I sincerely think there is a series of bugs concerning dialogue triggers with this as well. Because some people are also reporting inexplicably failing to romance people.
For all of their talk about the effort they put into the romance. It's easily the worst part of the game...
