Originally Posted by Mania
Hi, I made an account because I was very disappointed with the Halsin romance and wanted to share.

I'm just a casual gamer and before buying the game I didn't know a whole lot about the world of Baldur's Gate, DnD and all of that. I try not to spoiler myself before, so I didn't look up anything before playing and didn't know that Halsin was a late addition and practically a bear-sex-joke.
I played a Druid because I like nature, wanted to be able to talk to and turn into animals. In games like Dragon Age I absolutely loved the romance aspect and how this affected the outcome of the game. So you can imagine how happy I was, that BG3 gives me romancable companions.
I liked my companions but I didn't see my character with any of them. I mean, I'm a druid, and none of the guys gave me the impression of caring about nature at all. They are all city boys.
Imagine my happiness, when Halsin comes into the picture. Against my own rules, I looked up if he was romancable. Yes, awesome!
He is kind, caring and when I flirted with him at the party he wants to take it slow. I loved that. Here I am thinking: yes, a slow burn romace with a good hearted druid is more than I could have asked for. AWESOME.
I didn't lift the curse in my first playthrough, because that guy got killed in the Tavern. When I noticed that mistake (second time I broke my "no looking up stuff" rule) I had to reload a save from 12 (!) hours ago. It was so very frustrating, but I wanted my happy ever after with this awesome guy.

I don't want to spoiler anything else but I invested so many hours in this game, in Halsin. I don't have a problem with him being poly. Not at all. But I feel manipulated by him. He says things like "you would have made a fine addition to the grove" but does not ask me to come with him at the end. After all that slow building romace, we finally go and spend the night together. The turning into a bear thing was a little silly for my taste, but he turned back so thats ok for me. Calls me "my love" all the time, says the sweetest things - but calling this a relationship? No way. Bears may do it like that but he should realize that my character is not a bear.
I have the feeling most of the companions have arcs where their beliefs are tested or changed. But I can't even ask Halsin to think about us in a more serious way. That was very disappointing for me.
So I tried to find out if I missed something else. That was when I found out about the bear-sex-jokes and how he is a late addition. Makes sense now, but leaves a bitter taste for me. I didn't know that.

He gives me no choice, I can't challenge his beliefs and at the end he leaves. Does not sound like the man he seemed to be at the beginning. Don't get me wrong, you can do a romace without a happy ending. Like with Solas in DA or Anders. But with Halsin it does not feel planned like that. It feels like the romace was just not taken seriously from the beginning. And I feel like an idiot for not getting that.
He started out as the most awesome companion for me but at the end I wish I hadn't romanced him at all. Too many hours were invested for a joke.


Anders doesn't have a happy ending but he loves you deeply and you can commit to him. What's more, being a mage, my favorite romance was the elf because of the arc there was, and even that character would commit to you and you would go with him. I'm a big fan of DAO, and the romances are great.

The thing with Halsin is... strange, strange, you have options with everyone except him. And the cop theme should have some option so that the player can influence, he keeps telling you that he doesn't need anything else now but that he wants everyone to enjoy you, which is fine for anyone who wants Halsin as just a sexual adventure, but you should have the option to say "me too with you" to be able to settle that issue and be able to have a relationship of 2 for whoever wants it. The thing is that my character did not ask to be a cop at any time, and it seems that the game automatically decides that he did.

Add to that the contradictions (it has those parts that are so sweet, so tender...until Halsin hayd-pervert appears) in the writing, it adds that there are really very few conversations and gestures of romance, too late. That ending, the lack of an epilogue...And the one that was destined to be my favorite romance or the second favorite was left in disappointment. It needs an urgent fix because we don't have many romance options either.