I dont really know what are you doing people ...
My Dwarf had no problem at all, and we just reached City of Baldur's Gate ...
One kiss with Shadowheart (on second date) ...
Dance with Wyll ...
And watching night sky with Gale ...
Just tell them you are not interested in this way right when you feel like it could get into something biger ... it works!
Trust me, i tryed.
I think that's where for some of us it already feels immersion braking (or a bit creepy sometimes).
I wouldn't neccesarily call them creepy, but immersion breaking for sure.
I think the main issue - apart from limited dialogue options with not enough "in-betweens" and badly written dialogue choices with no clear indication of starting a romance route - is the fact that it is clearly bugged.
And I'm saying this as someone who did not have many problems with horny companions in this game.
Let's take Halsin for example - once he joined my camp I gradually talked to him and exhausted most of the options in Act 1, which were later repeatable. No issue there.
There's more content with him in act two - which I engaged with, and the dialogue opens up, IRC, when you are able to use him as a companion - you can ask him about his life and note he's quite huge for an elf (which I think prompted his later advances), and inquire about his love life - which is ONE dialogue option I intentionaly LEFT OUT.
At the end of act two, after Moonrise Towers he was thankful and looked at me all dreamy, saying there's "one other thing" he need to take care of - I thought at the moment that I'm reading too much into this, but shortly adter, in the camp, he flat out confessed his feelings for me, and when I said I'm not interested he acted all confused and basically blaimed me for leading him on, and literally referenced the one dialogue option I did not pick while interacting with him, which would be me asking about his love life. Which I did not.
Apart from that, I think Gale's scene with gazing at the stars can be, with a bit of good will, viewed in two different ways - although I do believe there's no distinction between that moment with romance triggered, and without it - and it does look a bit weird and forced, if you're just friends. Same goes with Wyll dancing scene.
At the very worst - it's just really awkward and as much as I appreciate Larian's attempts to create mature, more organic romances, I do not think they are quite there yet.
And I do prefer how BioWare handled it - which basically means that it's the player that has to initiate the romance, not the other way around - and that there are many friendly interactions outside of romance.
Not all players will be interested in all of the characters. Wyll is on the sidelines for the whole thing,I had him in my party once and I did not intend to get intimately close to him, so I don't really want to be forced to reject him when I did not gave him any indication of romantic interest whatsoever - just an example, but it's that simple.
Karlach or Lae'zel being horny and wanting to use the player for their needs kinda makes sense from the perspectives they are written (and no, not because they are women, you could make Karlach a male Tiefling and it would still make sense), but at the same time, if the player complies, it should be just that - as it is presented - which is a quick intimate interaction for the sake of sexual release. And it shouldn't be directly tied to the romance route, which I kinda think is - considering Lae'zel did not make a one move on me after the initial rejection.
This is my first post btw, I hope I have not stepped on anyone's toes. Cheers.
