Dragon Age: Inquisition confirmed romances *SPOILERS*

[Burnouts3s3]

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/512958-romances-in-dragon-age-inquisition/

So... Mike Laidlaw decided to reveal the last romance in the Dragon Age series and who will be romancable (sp?) for the inquisitor.

Cassandra is interested in male characters.
Blackwall is interested in female characters.
Josephine is interested in both male and female characters
Iron Bull is interested in both male and female characters
Sera is interested in female characters.
Dorian is interested in male characters.
Two ?additional? romance options were added to the game as a result of the extra development time DA:I received. They are more limited in scope, largely for reasons directly related to their story arcs, but are otherwise the equal of the other options:
Cullen is interested in female elves and female humans.
Solas is interested in female elves only.

So, to keep track: 4 romances, 2 females and 2 males are available to male inquisitors while female inquisitors will get 6 romances, 4 male 2 female.

During the weekend there was a stir-up at Solas being only available to female elves, both to players planning for a gay romance, others because human, dwarven and Qunari inquisitors cannot romance him.

There's also the other elephant in the room. Mainly, female inquisitors (mainly elven ones) getting more romances than males, of both genders. To me, this seems fair after a lot of female Bioware player characters from Mass Effect got way less romance options than the male counterparts. Lots of male player characters, the Smuggler, the Imperial Agent get the option of two romances or more while females are usually left with one or two good choices. (Thane ends up biting the bullet while Jacob cheats on you. Jerk.)

So, what do you think about all this? Do you think Bioware is appealing too much to a demographic's sexual orientation? Do you even care?

All I know is that it's going to be a loooong wait until November.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I don't think you can ever have enough diversity. I actually think it'll be better than Dragon Age 2's "Everyone is bisexual because we're progressive!" attitude.

I think it's better to have some routes closed off depending on your race/other circumstances to shave off time spent fixing technical errors and have a more grounded sense of realism, or the general awkward, elephant in the room-ness of everyone being attracted to both sexes and all races, which just made DA2's feel awkward and forced. It was basically the writers screaming "Choose Anders, even if you're a guy because we won't judge you." And if you don't choose Anders they spite you for the rest of the game.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I don't think you can ever have enough diversity. I actually think it'll be better than Dragon Age 2's "Everyone is bisexual because we're progressive!" attitude.

I think it's better to have some routes closed off depending on your race/other circumstances to shave off time spent fixing technical errors and have a more grounded sense of realism, or the general awkward, elephant in the room-ness of everyone being attracted to both sexes and all races, which just made DA2's feel awkward and forced. It was basically the writers screaming "Choose Anders, even if you're a guy because we won't judge you." And if you don't choose Anders they spite you for the rest of the game.

Yeah, I agree. That whole thing in Dragon Age II was rather weird. Very happy that Merrill swung both ways, but when Anders suddenly did too I was like, "Whoa, what? Is this the same playboy from Awakening?"

I will need to see what these characters are like before I get excited and choose any of them. Looks only get you so far (Morrigan). They need to have a personality that I like too.

As for why BioWare is doing this, I think it's because the romance subplots and chasing after that one person for a good part of the game is often fans' favorite parts. So they're just adding more of it. Plus, they are throwing in a lot of new races and genders and I think it just makes sense to up the possible romance interests too.

I agree though, November is going to take a long time to get here. Sigh...

 

[Panda Pandemic]

I do have to admit the romances are kind of a guilty pleasure of mine. Next step we need the ability to start shipping other members of the party.

 

[Longing]

Can I just express my deepest sadness to the fact that Vivienne is not a romanceable npc?



Guess I'll just have to sink my elven mage claws into Cullen!

Anyways, I don't see how you could say bioware is appealing to certain people when there are 2 bi options, 2 gay ones and 4 straight ones. I'm happy they've finally decided to give characters specific sexual identities, the 'everyone is bi' thing was a wee bit jarring.

Peeps, only like 10 weeks left!

 

[mhb77]

Can I just express my deepest sadness to the fact that Vivienne is not a romanceable npc?

AGREED! I was planning on romancing her since they first showed her, she just seems cool. Oh well. I wanted to romance Aveline in DA II so I'm used to not getting my way. I suspect I will like Cassandra so it's fine.

10 WEEKS.

 

[votemarvel]

Hard to know what to do with this information really since we don't yet really know anything about these characters.

The only one I can really be excited about is Cullen as we've had two games worth of his back-story and development. Though to me he'll always be secretly in love with the Hero of Ferelden, their love denied by her being a mage.

 

[Asita]

Honestly, I rather like that imbalance. It makes it feel more organic rather than perfectly synchronized.

...Damn, I really have to finish DA2 one of these days :/

 

[Ryallen]

I'm annoyed that Sera is only interested in female characters, because I always play male for immersion purposes. She was the only one that I liked. Ah well.

 

[Longing]

Can I just express my deepest sadness to the fact that Vivienne is not a romanceable npc?

AGREED! I was planning on romancing her since they first showed her, she just seems cool. Oh well. I wanted to romance Aveline in DA II so I'm used to not getting my way. I suspect I will like Cassandra so it's fine.

10 WEEKS.

fuck , I get you, Aveline was my ultimate girl crush and by far the most likeable character in the entire DAII universe.

but hey, with the way ea is running bioware, maybe we'll get day one romance dlc

 

[mhb77]

but hey, with the way ea is running bioware, maybe we'll get day one romance dlc

Honestly I would totally buy it. I would complain, but I would still buy it.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I'm annoyed that Sera is only interested in female characters, because I always play male for immersion purposes. She was the only one that I liked. Ah well.

idk if you play on pc at all, but I'm sure someone will fix alot of these "female/male" only to be available to either or in a mod, I haven't paid TOO much attention to the pre-release information on this game but unless all the dialogue options between the main character and that love interest are tied together in one seamless bit then I'm sure some switching around won't be hard for someone.


that is, if you're playing on pc...good luck paying for that as DLC on console if EA tries to release it as some sort of microtransaction bullshit.

 

[babinro]

I think it comes down to the story/characters.

Is it reasonably conceivable that this character could be romanced by the other character? If yes, make it possible. If no, don't do it.

The fact that one character is only interested in female elves is GREAT. This 'seems' to be a character choice and not something forced into the game to appeal to markets or offer fan service. If a game had 14 romance options as a female and only 1 as a male and yet had a logical character reason for this I'd be 100% okay with it.

Will romancing characters still just mean having awkward video game sex or can the reward be something more fleshed out and interesting for once?

 

[Souplex]

What does Bioware have against Dwarves?
We haven't been able to put the moves on a single Dwarven companions in any Lizard Time game.
For some reason Bioware is more interested in letting us put the moves on elves. That's stupid.
Seriously, I'm a hetero male, but Varric was one of the only good points of Lizard Time: Crappy Sequel, and I would have totally put moves on him.
And now we have characters who are only interested in elves? The hell? Why would you cater to the people who play elves. Those people are almost as bad as the people who play humans.

 

[Ryallen]

I'm annoyed that Sera is only interested in female characters, because I always play male for immersion purposes. She was the only one that I liked. Ah well.

idk if you play on pc at all, but I'm sure someone will fix alot of these "female/male" only to be available to either or in a mod, I haven't paid TOO much attention to the pre-release information on this game but unless all the dialogue options between the main character and that love interest are tied together in one seamless bit then I'm sure some switching around won't be hard for someone.


that is, if you're playing on pc...good luck paying for that as DLC on console if EA tries to release it as some sort of microtransaction bullshit.

I usually game on my PC, but I'm getting this game on my PS4, as it, at the moment and in the foreseeable future, has the better graphics card and processor.

 

[Saetha]

Ah crap, Aimo's never gonna shut up about this. Jeez, and I wanted some neato Cullen or Solas fan art from her. *Sigh*

EDIT: And of course Cullen's race-gated! Ugh, and I was so happy when Solas was announced.

So, there goes my Qunari PC. Ah well. Probably doesn't change much anyway.

 

[Elfgore]

Well, I'm now playing a male Qunari for sure. Cassandra is mine!

I like the diversity here, not a selling point for me, but nice to see. Though the ultimate question is who my female Qunari is going for? Maybe Blackwall.

 

[StormShaun]

Eeeey, I am happy my character will like Cassandra.
She seems quite close to what my Inquisitor wants (Well at least what I planned in mind).

I like what Bioware is doing.
They are not ALL bisexual, and that makes sense, because people have preferences and sexual orientations.
Imagine how boring a story would be if everyone was bi ...

... okay that point is arguable.

Still, I am looking forward to the game.
Hoping Bioware won't let us down. (Though I am quite optimistic for this game)

 

[Malpraxis]

I avoid Bioware romances like the plague. I hope they are completely optional and not shoved down your throat (I'm looking at you, Mass Effect).