@taril, you bring up such an excellent point. Developers have played around so much with systems and stats and points, trying so many variations of how you level up and develop skills and in some casesd how you do things out of combat but fundamentally the way rpgs handle social interactions haven't changed since BG1. You pick a dialogue option from a list, maybe some stat or another will influence it, maybe another option you picked from a box of options earlier will impact it, and that's it. It's very rare to have a game really experiment with the social aspect of things. At best they expand what's been there before, which is great as well, but I feel like social interaction in rpgs aren't really looked at as gameplay the same way combat is.
Also I just want to say that I think it's good that romance is in games and that people enjoy it and get excited about it. There's a frsutrating trend I find with people looking down on romance like it's inerior or inherently low brow, when it's really not. People like romance in their media. Just think about all the books and movies and tv shows that feature romance subplots. They aren't, or at least don't have to be, some cancer that takes away from the rest of the game. There can be good romance systems in games, bad romance systems, but that's down to execution, just like everything else. If a game with a robust romance system is bad, the romance system isn't why it's bad. The characters and romances are the best part of this game and personally I think if Larian hadn't focused on romances, then we'd have basically the same game, with maybe a few less bugs, a very slightly stronger story, but still overall not meaningfully better than what we have now. And people mocking games with strong romances for being "glorified dating simulators" just make me roll my eyes because that shouldn't be an insult. There are damn good dating simulators out there, some with great, engaging stories and ideas. I resent the idea of insulting a game by calling it a different genre that has its own fanbase that loves them just as much as we love rpgs. And on that note, if someone plays a game and the romances are their favorite part, that's fine. The romances are part of the game, they SHOULD be someone's favorite part. And them asking for the romances to be better or for more in following games isn't wrong of them. They're free to ask for what they want, same as every other fan.
