I'm waiting for Avowed from Obsidian, especially after their promise that there will be no morality in their game. And there won't be romances either. I never thought I'd be happy that there would be no romances in the game,
Ehh... I'll hold my reservations for now.
The Outer Worlds did the whole "Look ma, no romances!" thing and I felt that the companions ended feeling flat and boring because there was much less interaction with them besides their story mission...
That said, isn't Avowed supposed to be the "Skyrim-alike" set in the Pillars universe? Romances were never a big part of Skyrim (Nor was its companions, besides that vampire gal in the DLC) so perhaps the lack of romances won't be as jarring as in TOW where it felt much more like your typical Bioware style "Collect-the-companions" game.
I guess we'll have to see.
Personally I'm on the side of hoping more games do romances so that people can work on making them better as opposed to avoiding them completely so they never evolve past DA:O's terrible "Get approval > Awful and cringy sex scene" system. I want to see more dynamic systems, with better interactivity with partners, more realistic friendships, rivalries and autonomy (Less, "Collect all the companions and they stay with you forever no matter what, even if you leave them in camp 24/7")
