Romance that hard to get.

I wouldn't want it to solely depend on that one dialogue option, and I wouldn't want it to be harder for one gender, but I do like they idea that it might be harder to win some characters over than others. Not necessarily by pestering them with constant flirts (in fact, I think it'd be cool if there were characters who were actually turned off by that) but through your actions. Like, maybe one character won't like that you're kind of promiscuous and sleep with others before approaching them - or maybe you have to work extra hard to show you're sincere if you do. Maybe another won't like you if you're too uptight and always playing the hero. Another absolutely won't consider a relationship with you if you side a certain way in a certain quest, because they find it morally reprehensible. Or maybe the only way to get that uptight character out of his shell is by being his opposite. You do risk the chance of making people meta-game to get the romance they want, but it would potentially add a neat layer to those characters and relationships.

Like, I know there were a lot of fans of DA2's rivalmance system, but I'm not one of them. That game was so much about those characters' convictions, and it kind of cheapened it, in my opinion, to allow all of those characters to go against those convictions just to romance the player. I could never bring myself to do it, especially since I felt like I had to be willfully disrespectful of a character's beliefs to get full rivalry with them.


Edit: Rereading my post, it does start to come across a bit too much like Mass Effect: The Dating Sim So I just want to specify that I don't expect every romance to be like this. But one or two would be a nice shift from the usual flirt-flirt-sex, your'e the protagonist so of course I love you romance mechanic that's become the formula.