Ithink 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.
I just had the Gale stargazing scene today, with no romance element. I just sat with him, and the next morning he said he was grateful to have a friend like me, and it was all very heartwarming. That said, I did think that we were sitting a bit closer than felt quite natural, and gazing at one another a bit more intensely than I'd gaze at my mates. I guess that is because the animation is intended to serve dual purpose, whether we're in a relationship or not? If so, then I'd agree that ideally there'd have been slightly different versions of the animation depending on whether there was an active romance, though the words in my playthrough seemed fine.
Ha, so it wasn't just me then. I mean I don't mind the scene overall, it was a bit awkward but apart from that it was a nice moment between two people - but considering how incredibly detailed Baldur's Gate 3 is in other aspects, I think it's quite natural to expect different variants of the scene depending on the context of the relationship with the character.
Originally Posted by BOKU Haram
Originally Posted by Count Turnipsome
Originally Posted by BOKU Haram
This game simultaneously needs more horny and less.
More/better sex scenes.
Less chance to accidentally click on an option to flirt with npc. (tag the option with [flirt] or something)
Feels more like Friendships were scrapped. We needed friendship dialogues.
Yeah, that.
Like in Mass Effect...etc. you have plenty of options to be nice without immediately leading into something romance-related. In BG3 it often feels like I either have to be an asshole (picking something along the line of "fuck off" or "*leave*" with the companion shown as visibly upset afterward) or flirt with characters. If Mass Effect 3 dialogues worked like in BG3, my maleshep would have been banging Cortez instead of just being sorry for his loss.
I can imagine that the emotional resonance I had with characters in Mass Effect franchise wouldn't be quite as impactful if the romance aspect of relationships with them would be approached by Larian. I mean I absolutely adore my BROmance with Garrus, he's one of my favourite video game characters of all time, a true brother in arms, I wish I had a friend like that in real life. Same goes for Liara when I played as FemShep - I just loved how their relationship is presented when there's no romance involved, she's a thoughtful and caring friend to the Commander.
And there's no nuance like that in BG3 - I literally only feel close to Shadowheart, because I romanced her - and developing a relationship with her actually is more conventional and reminiscent of what BioWare does in their games - and with Karlach, which whom I had actual friendship-like conversation ouside of what was going on in the quests. Maybe I'd also count Gale in, as I liked what they did with his storyline and I did not need to turn him down at all, because romance with Shadowheart was triggered quite early - so we had a chance to discuss some things. I'd like to say the same for Lae'zel - because I love everything about her character, from the way she is voice acted, to her looks, and I like her arc as well, but there seems to be lack of any meaningful interaction with her outside of her quest and romance. Shame.
