They Lose Their Sense Of Personhood

People have come to expect romance options in modern role-playing games. Even studios that haven’t traditionally engaged with this feature are beginning to experiment with it, such as Bethesda. One notable holdout is Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian is notable for not focusing on romance in its RPGs, with romance either being absent from its games or understated, as in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.

Avowed hasn’t bucked this trend for Obsidian. In an interview with Eurogamer, Avowed’s game director Carrie Patel revealed why Avowed doesn’t feature any romance between the player character and companions: “Doing romance and doing romance well are two very different propositions,” Patel began. “Part of doing romance well means not only a compelling romance path but also one that is faithful to the character being romanced.”

Romance Isn’t Everything

Patel is alluding to the phenomenon in writing where a character that falls for another character begins to lose their sense of self. While a character’s individual ambitions were previously at the forefront of their being, the character has now been relegated to furthering the goals of their romantic partner, in this case, the player.

“It’s always a bit of a letdown when you see a character who has a clear personality, and goals and interests, and suddenly, in the service of romance that the player has embarked on with them, they’ve now become the player’s yes-person, they’re happy with whatever you want and lose their sense of personhood,” Patel says.

It’s certainly an issue with romance writing in video games, where developers are hesitant to “ruin” a player’s romance with negative reactivity from their romantic partner. Even in a game with fully-realised characters like Baldur’s Gate 3, there’s still an element of suspending your disbelief when it comes to what a character approves or disapproves of. Even if your character does something your romantic partner should find abhorrent, they often won’t bring it up.

Avowed’s companions are well-written, reacting to the events of the narrative and chiming in with their opinions during decisive moments in the plot. Although there isn’t any romantic aspect to their relationship with the player, you can certainly become closer to each of them in a platonic sense through exploring dialogue. Patel advocates for these “fully platonic” paths because she doesn’t believe romance should be the only way to forge relationships with characters.

Avowed has proved both a critical and commercial success for Obsidian. The studio is preparing to release The Outer Worlds 2 later this year.

Systems

Released

February 18, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence