Originally Posted by MalacPok
Originally Posted by Ecc2ca
I STRONGLY disagree with this sentiment in regard to the Shadowheart romance at least. It’s not “pushing buttons until sex,” come on. What I’ve found is that most things in the game (barring lacking aspects of Act 3) are deeper and more satisfactory the more effort you invest in them. There are ways to get the most out of a romance, and out of a character’s story, that is not just “in my roleplaying head” and it’s WAYYYY more meaningful than pressing buttons until sex. I make sure to do Shadowheart’s secret interactions throughout the game, which are very sweet, and I check in with all of my companions for their reactions regularly. You get out of it what you put into it.

Sure, you can have a lot of nice interactions with companions (even without romancing them), but these events are mostly self-contained and restricted to the narrow "romance storyline". They have no effect on the main story.

For example, you could be in a "blossoming relationship" with Shadowheart, but when the moment comes for her to decide what to do with Nightsong and you dare (!) to suggest that killing that imprisoned girl may not be the best idea, she will throw the same 30 dice roll challenge at you. Your supposed closeness to her does not make a difference. The game just ignores romance status in many cases where it should count. At least for me, it ruins the immersion.

I don’t ever remember having a 30 dice check even when I was trying to persuade her. I remember it being a 20. I do think that level of approval has an effect on the dice rolls, at least as I can recall from Lae’zel’s zaith’isk scene. (I do remember a lower threshold when romancing her, pretty sure.) But with Shadowheart nowadays, I just have her eat the Noblestalk mushroom in Act 1, and then I trust her to do what she feels she has to do. And she spares Nightsong every time. I do think that how you approach your interactions with her does affect the main story, like choosing respectful dialogue options that give her agency or making sure that the small interaction with the Noblestalk happens. That stuff directly leads to different story outcomes, and also new dialogue branches. If you do give her Noblestalk, restoring one of her memories, she expresses doubts about her faith multiple times in act 2, for example. This does not happen without the Noblestalk. So there is definitely an impact. Granted, this is not a romance specific interaction. But I feel like it’s the people who romance her who are most invested in her story, and most likely to make sure that the “secret” interactions happen?

Last edited by Ecc2ca; 08/02/24 01:53 AM.