Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Fix all the romance bugs and make romance content equitable for all companions

Please no fighting I beg you, for the love of cats no fighting. And please just delete this immediately if there is. I don't see a delete button or I would do so myself. The point here is that I do not want to see anymore fighting, I want people to be able to rest lol.

And I actually agree with the Red Queen, but since I don't see content being added that isn't super easy to add, I am just hoping that Larian will fix bugs, enable content, and tweak existing things so that things feel equitable for everyone. Because for some players the lack of equity goes beyond just seeing your fave have equal content but also feeling truly represented in game. I will not expand on that further as to not invite any further debate.

Again, just delete this thread if there is a fight or some other contentious stuff starts to happen.

*Editing to add, in terms of what I would want added, rather than people just hashing that out on this forum I truly think Larian should seek out fan communities and ask fans what they want to see while balancing that with what the story of each character as written and what they have the time/resources to accomplish. Larian should start with the fandoms of characters that have been underrepresented in the game up until this point. I don't want to speak for Wyll fans, Minthara fans, or any other fans on what should be added. I want them to actually have a voice. And this forum is but a very small drop in the bucket in terms of that kind of representation. Reaching out to fans would not be hard as most fandoms have discords. They could survey people while being TRANSPARENT about the fact that everything people want will not get added and additions will need to fit within character arcs. I've done survey's professionally, doing a survey of this nature (creation, implementation, and review) would not be a totally strenuous task.

Please Larian, fix the bugs, enable content, and make things equitable. Thanks so much lol.

When I think about things that would make the romances better, I don't think about kisses first, but about things that would improve the overall character arc.

In Astarion's case, I feel the "I will always protect you ..." line is not great for the romance, I'd say it contradicts everything said in the scenes before. So having this changed to something with a more suitable spin, preferably something that can be personal to the character you are playing, would be great. An option to gift Spawn-Astarion the portrait Oskar promises you would also benefit the story, I think, as it would give a conclusion of the mirror-plot-line from act 1, as well show the two of you overcoming one of the obstacles of Astarion's condition.

For Gale I would really like some commentary when you take him to the Vault of Sorcerous Sundries/ Ramazith's tower as we approach the Annals of Karsus and all the other wondrous objects. Some better dialogue for Tara in the Lower City and an option to have her eventually join us in camp for a bit, would also be nice.

When you return to the city as Avatar-Astarion, you can have a conversation about what coming home means to you with Wyll. I thought that was a sweet moment and while Karlach and Shadowheart have some nostalgic moments in the city, and Astarion has too in the romance, Wyll doesn't outside of banter. It's for example odd that lady Jannath's cook worked in the Duke's house some time ago and they don't recognise each other.

You put what I think into words much better than I ever could've. It's why I don't think most of the characters, regardless of route, really have much of an inequality in terms of romance, as most of them are satisfying narratively and explore another side of the character and how they've changed or are changing (in whichever direction) coherently, compellingly and consistently.

Ironically, SH is missing an act 2 scene, which for many could be considered a big oversight. Even then, I think her romance is good, my answer is pretty predictable but I think it's Minthara and Wyll who got shafted here. I'd say Halsin too but eh, I think they did what they set out to do with him and there's not that much else there.

This very much. I'm not interested in kisses or love scenes, but fixing bugs and content, no matter if romantic or not, would be great. Especially if it is about scenes important for stories (overarching or personal).

I don't need an equal amount of kisses (I didn't even notice kisses were broken with one patch) and I'm not sitting there with a clock to compare all companions scenes - we already know that the companions with the most content (SH and Astarion) have around 4 hours more than the companion with the least amount (Wyll). This will not be changed, but giving the neglected ones a bit more meat to the bones in touching up their stories a bit, would be nice.

Edit: I was talking about origins, I know, that Minthara and Halsin have less content than even Wyll.

My first playthrough character romanced Wyll and yes, in my view, the things that would have made that romance seem more satisfying wouldn't have been more specific romance scenes or kisses, but more reactivity around his personal quests, especially in Act 3 with his father, Mizora and Ansur. Sometimes, it probably would have been nice to have a line specific to a romantic relationship, but in others some more content that would suit friendship as well as romance would have gone a long way towards both making a romance relationship feel deeper and more meaningful (especially as that seems to be what Wyll is after in a relationship rather than something simply physical) but also would be more generally useful in giving him more heft as a companion, especially given how much his personal story connects with the plot.

The only other Act 3 romance content I've experienced first hand is Halsin's, and that did feel very superficial. But then that was what suited that playthrough as a flibbertigibbet not looking for any sort of committed relationship, so I didn't even try to look for anything deeper and therefore would find it hard to comment on what is lacking if one does. Personally, I'm okay with some of the relationships being more content light if they offer a different feel and different kind of story that will suit different playthroughs, and whatever its weaknesses I think Halsin's relationship delivers on that. In the playthrough where I romanced Halsin, my character had wobbly moments with other companions who were looking for more than she was willing to offer and it was a relief for her to find someone who felt on the same page. But then I do feel for the Halsin fans who were looking for a different kind of romance story with him!

That's a good point. Friendships seemed to work fairly well for me in my one playthrough with many of the main characters (both companions and others). It would be nice if having good friends was portrayed as being a fulfilling life. And reading this also made me think it is a bit odd that Withers chides you for not dating anyone at the point all relationships are closed off. The way he said it implies you've still got a chance to fix things, so you should get to work on it before it's too late

I got the impression, Withers is just your grumpy grandpa, who's always unhappy with your choices. If you don't have a lover "thou walkest alone" and he's unhappy, and if you do, he tells you not to waste so much time on smooches because you have a world to save and all will be dust anyway.

But I thought it was a pity, that Jaheira doesn't get a line about Khalid in the conversation.

It's great if people want more than romance, as I have said I do as well.

However I will say again and for the last time that it is important to a great many players, and I will say for Wyll especially that fans of Wyll and the community around him often comment that they would like BOTH things, that both his quest and his romance are important. This is for a variety of reasons that I will not list here.

Take care everyone. Please delete this thread if it becomes contentious or honestly too long or terribly off topic.

Please fix the bugs, enable the content, and think about equity (which is different from equality) Larian. Take care.

I agree, that is, why I made a thread for Wyll: Here

I saw that! But despite how it might seem, I am not particularly into posting on threads and I felt like your thread covered Wyll on the non-romance front. And I don't see Larian doing anything about any of this to be perfectly honest, doesn't mean I don't want to advocate for it.

However your thread is important and I hope it gets the priority and attention it deserves from people with decision making power. I can dream.

Rest easy everyone.

A romance specific question about Wyll: are his romance banter lines playing now? Some of them talk about his engagement, so I'm really hoping they're fixed. Also, does his dad acknowledge the engagement/relationship now? I thought Wyll's scene with his dad should have been longer or more emotional even in the friendship version, so I really hope there's something extra added if the player is romancing Wyll.

From what I can tell his romance is still bugged. I don't want to speak over Wyll romancers, but yeah I think for most people even non-romanced Wyll is bugged with some new fun bugs added this patch. And from what I can tell, he did not get a lot of content added in this patch and some of that content is not working for some, still.

At this point it should be my signature (although I hope to stop posting here soon lol) but fix the bugs, enable the content, and think about equity Larian, please and thanks.

In my opinion, since Larian advertised all those kisses as a Valentine Day gift to all the fans, it's really valid to ask them to make this equal. It's very weird to say: "This is a present" and then give someone everything (like Gale) and then some other companion pretty much nothing.
It looks pretty offending and unfair.
If Larian themselves didn't treat these kisses as such a big deal, then yeah, I would have agreed it's not that important. But now it just gives the wrong vibes, to put it mildly.

I like the romances of SH, Astarion and Halsin, he was a surprise and finally something different, but I would have preferred other characters as a romance option.

Agreed. To add to this, he also has no reaction if you make a statue of him. He hasn't seen himself in 200 years and misses "petty vanity", come on! It's such a glaring omission when Larian was the ones to put in ways to create art of your companions in the first place.

Honestly, I agree. They hyped it up and got my hopes up. I was very disappointed by the inequality when patch 6 came out. I hoped that they were planning to even it out in upcoming patches so I didn't complain, but then that didn't happen in patch 7 at all. :\

We already have recorded lines from AA: how he feels when he sees himself in a mirror for the first time. It would have been great to add this same line to his Spawn route when he sees himself as a statue or on that painting you can make for him. You don't need to record any new lines, they already exist!

Yeah, for me, personally, it isn't really about kisses anymore as much as about equality and fairness.
I also think that since Neil already worked so hard, it would be such a waste of his work and talent to leave these kisses half-bugged and not being able to get triggered. This content deserves to get officially completed, unbugged and properly added to the game. With good camera angles.
And yes, this is exactly the reason why I didn't complain either. I was sure this issue would get fixed in Patch 7.

Will second that, I didn't complain before because I thought they'd already be working on this.