The great thing about the Yakuza/LAD games is that they could put almost any kind of mini-game in them and it just works, even if it shouldn't. Like I'm not even sure if this is the weirdest mini-game that has been in one of these.
What I want out of romance in games is to have it take you by surprise, which often means it’s not a “romance option”. Some of the best character scenes I’ve seen wrapped some other major plot point into the fact that one person cares a bit too deeply about another, and processes it all very suddenly.
So I’m fine with this removal. All those romance choices in RPGs like Fallout and Skyrim felt ultra shallow to me. Even BG3 just seems like raw wish fulfillment from a horny cast.
Good. I gotta say, I find romance options incredibly distracting and pointless in games. BG3 was awful about this. Covered in shit, tadpole in the head, just got finished slaughtering a bunch of people and all my companions are just like “But I’m horny, please fuck me!”. You almost can’t avoid it. You basically have to be an asshole to all of them because platonic companionship apparently just doesn’t exist.
There is no need for it. It does not help nor drive the story. No game was ever improved by adding softcore porn. If you want that, may I introduce you to the internet where you can have any flavor of porn you want.
I disagree on pretty much every point, but I personally don’t see the problem you’re having with the game. If you don’t like the nudity, that is optional (as in, there is an option for it.) If you’re complaining about the romance, that’s like an entire genre of stories. Heck, softcore porn is also a genre of stories that is exceptionally popular. So, why would removing it for you make up for the loss of potential customers that were gained from it being there, especially since you bought it with it there anyway? Idk, seems like you disproved your own point.
Romance should absolutely exist, but it doesn’t need to be included in every story, and it’s currently included in far too many stories (another example: The Witcher games, what does it add?).
I generally think the writing is better either when the story focuses on romance, or when it avoids it entirely. As the author of my favorite book said (I don’t speak french, but I think this is the right passage):
Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher.
In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness.
I think romance is included in a lot of stories because it is a very common component in life. We have so many experiences around love, and exploring that in a fictional environment at the same time we do battle against demons is fun for many people.
TTRPGs cater to you choosing your own story. To remove the romance from this story is to say that some choices in this story cannot be made.
Also, there’s mods to remove the romance. It would be a loss to have them gone at the onset.
In the example I gave (The Witcher), you really don’t make your own story, you follow the main quest amd your choices are limited to who to have sex with.
It’s included because sex sells. That’s really it.
I haven’t played BG3 (haven’t had time), so I don’t know what it adds to the story. My understanding is that it doesn’t really add anything, and should probably be a mod for those who want it. That’s true for most RPGs, unless the romantic relationships matter in the broader context of the story. I thought it added some real depth to Yakuza 1&2, since it was integral to the plot. Likewise for Nier: Replicant (but in a very different way). If it’s just stapled on like in Skyrim or GTA, it feels cheap and unnecessary.
I’m not against romance and love stories generally, but they need to matter in the context of the plot.
You are making a silly argument that is flawed. The Witcher includes sexual themes because the book it is based on also includes these themes.
BG3 includes optional romantic themes because the game it is based on can include optional romantic themes. The game is about your involvement in the story, about how you navigate the world and its people because it attempts to mimic DnD. You can do a lot of “I seduce the dragon” and BG3 was designed to be fairly accomodating to a variety of tables.
To suggest the game would be better if it contained no romance when you haven’t played it is… bizarre? Especially with it being optional. But, that is perhaps the epitome of my argument. A lot of content in BG3 is optional. To remove any of it would be to make a game about options lesser.
I have read the books, and while there are sexual themes, they’re not a huge part of the story. Basically, we know Geralt is a womanizer, but most of the stories have little, if anything, to do with that, it’s just part of the character development. The books are all about his adventures fighting monsters and resolving disputes.
Basically, Geralt is like James Bond, and James Bond games don’t include sexuality.
I don’t know much about BG3, hence why I kept to The Witcher (haven’t played 3, only 1&2), which I think would be better without the sexuality, since it’s not part of the main plot, or even a particularly interesting sub-plot. There are plenty of other games with bad/uninteresting romance.
I’m not against romance in games, I’m against bad romance.
The problem is that BG3 makes it too easy. A lot of them companions like you a lot just by taking a basic interest in them and being a decent person. I think ironically it doesn’t help that all of them can be interested in you and at the same time.
Let’s assume you happen to be a golden god and having a camp full of people into you isn’t weird, in what world do they not attempt to sort it out between them in some form.
What the game has done narrative wise is seriously impressive. Whatever choices you make, it feels like that’s the main, intended path (maybe except one choice with Gale, but that’s nice to have too). As fun as jumping down the throat of a fallout 4 for having dialogue choices that don’t really change anything might be, most games don’t do it (especially fully voiced, and in many cases mo-capped too) because it’s a huge investment. But with the romance specifically, some of the come ons aren’t obvious, and the only way to say no is to pretty much tell them to fuck themself. A “you’re cool, but I don’t want to bang you” would be nice.
I agree with you about BG3, but not about games in general. I think romance stories are valid narratives and can add to the experience if executed well.
The presence of sex also depends on the scope and intent of the game. Ultimately, love and sex are integral parts of the human experience. And some settings - like Cyberpunk - would be strictly weird and implausible without stuff like oversexualised ads and street hookers.
Thank you! It seems like every developer or TV producer is shoehorning awkward sex scenes and romance into every piece of media being produced. It’s like the people in charge don’t realize porn exists, and think their viewers desperately need to be able to jerk off to whatever media they’re consuming at any given time. It’s pathetic. A creator should be able to create something without it turning into porn.
Honestly I’d say Fallout 4 did a good job with their companions and relationships. It’s not super deep, mind you, but the more you travel with a certain character and do things they like, they’ll start to have feelings for you, and almost all will take it in stride if you politely decline.
Thus far, Obsidian has been very good at creating games within reasonable constraints, which means they’re typically not overscoped relative to the size of the game’s actual audience. And they do all of this while being a multi project studio that’s allegedly good to its employees.
Yes, I really like them as well. And I bet the game will be good too. I just worry about the game not selling good enough and with Microsoft’s current track record of shutting studios down, Obsidian being shut down as well.
Microsoft is a wrench in the works, but they’re not building a game any larger than they’ve been doing for some years now. This is still a game that is scoped so that it doesn’t need to sell 10 million copies to break even.
Panned mainly by folks who expected “Fallout in Space” in terms of open-world and modding, but it was smaller in scope and great in writing and tone. Would recommend watching Tim Cain’s YT channel for the vids about it. The main valid criticism was that it was too easy, but I really enjoyed it.
They said “From the Creators of Fallout and Fallout: New Vegas” which is true because it was Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky. That doesn’t mean the game is going to be FNV. Every interview they gave, they were clear about it. But a bunch of people saw the word “Fallout” and immediately stopped listening to anything else.
When you make a game that looks like Fallout, sounds like Fallout, plays like Fallout and you reveal as “From the Creators of Fallout New Vegas” people are going to expect Fallout New Vegas.
I mean it objectively didn’t look like any Fallout game, it certainly didn’t play like any Fallout game, and it was space opera not post-apocalyptic. But please explain to me exactly how it’s just like Fallout? And which Fallout exactly?
Cyberpunk is part of the cyberpunk subgenre and has a premade main character.
Fallout is a post apocalyptic game set in a retro futuristic universe.
Outer Worlds is not post apocalyptic but being in barren planets in the frontier gives it a much more similar vibe. It’s basically a spiritual successor to Fallout that falls short in a lot of aspects.
I don’t think Outer Worlds is bad but if they couldn’t live up to New Vegas they shouldn’t have set the expectations they did.
Yeah, I get that - it’s downright silly in a lot of ways, but I found that fun myself. If looking for Robocop-type things, you did see this, right? It’s a pretty good shooter, and the anti-corp tone is straight out of the first movie.
Really do need to play that, played the Terminator game awhile back and it was solid. But yeah I really hope outer worlds 2 is more akin to Fallout 2 in improvements rather than Red faction Armageddon. But ill just have ro wait.
Pretty sure I’ve seen this exact same article from different websites, which is kinda weird. Opinion stays the same though, outside of marketing speak (immersed in the world? BS, then why is it not first person?) it looks bad. The gameplay showed off a very not good basic action combat system and this doesn’t inspire confidence either. Not to mention every single dragon age game has had worse combat and character building than the last one, it’d be stupid to expect them to buck the trend now.
Honestly, this sounds potentially good or even great.
Two things though:
They should have shown it in the gameplay trailer, instead of making claims in articles.
Not in a mainline Dragon Age game.
Maybe it could’ve been a good combat-focused fantasy game with linear missions instead of being forced to include some lame dialogue wheel and pretending it’ll appeal to Dragon Age fans.
Not like we aren’t feasting right now anyway. Baldur’s Gate, Pathfinder, Pillars of Eternity, Skald, Wasteland. I would love a Dragon Age spinoff that went back to its roots though.
If this means we’re getting more faction building like we did in Inquisition, then the title change marketing worked on me. That was why I loved that game.
A lot comes down to the cast for me in these types of games, though. I need to want to bug them in camp and do their sidequests or I’m going to feel like I didn’t get a lot of value.
I hope Bioware go back to their roots and take more inspiration from DA:O and BG3 instead of DA:I and go back to more tactical and less action-y gameplay. The overwhelming success of Baldur’s Gate 3 proves there is a market for traditional CRPG, especially coming from the the studio that made the first two Baldur’s Gate.
Also, less Ubisoft/Skyrim-esquelarge empty open world and more carefully crafted maps with emphasis on choices. DA:I wasn’t a bad game, but if Bioware releases another DA:I in 2024 it will definitely be compared unfavorably to Bg3.
I remember the leaked(?) gameplay a while ago showing how it was very action heavy clearly inspired by the God of War reboot. But then BG3 happened and I would feel really bad for the devs if they were told by management to pivot and just copy another game instead and now theyre remaking the game yet again… I honestly have no faith in the gameplay being anything near as good as Origins, but hopefully the story and world and characters can be good? Do good writers still work at Bioware anymore?
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