What were your thoughts on the romances?

They've been using the set sexuality system ever since BGII (JE if you want to include same sex romances). The outlier in the entire group was DAII and the reason it went playersexual was clearly because of a lack of resources.


I'd argue it's actually more like real life with how some people won't be attracted to you since they may not swing for your team. You don't have to put up with someone you don't like, but the person you do like may not necessarily be into you either.


Yeah, this shows that Bioware (specifically the ME branch) still has a ways to go in giving equal content to everyone, especially gay guys. That's really the heart of the issue when it gets down to it. I mean, if they're treating m/m romances with the bare minimum when there are set sexualities now, how much more for playersexuality? We'd get even less representation and have to deal with even more cut scenes and awkward animations from the female template. Of course, this won't matter to you and you'd be content with whatever is given to you since you're straight and any playersexual romances will be designed with your demographic in mind first.

I wouldn't really call what we had in Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Jade Empire "romances." It was more so BioWare teasing at the prospect, but never actually being serious about it until ME1. Dragon Age, as I said before, is really the only BioWare property to really push this idea of set sexualities as we are defining them, and that was more so in DAI. Even in DAO, perhaps I remember falsely, but many of the companions were bisexual. They weren't to the extent of what we had in Dragon Age II, but they weren't far off either.

As far as DAII companions being written "player-sexual" because of "a lack of resources," that is a myth. Even though DAII had an incredibly short development cycle, BioWare did actually accomplish what they set out to do. The way the companions were written was intentional from the start, because from Gaider's perspective those companions were bisexual. Many fans obviously don't agree and coined the phrase "player-sexual," but that was never the intention of the companions in DAII.

Again, the point is no one would realistically settle for someone they don't care for. BioWare's current approach to locking sexual orientations forces players to settle, and there is always someone not happy with the romances because of it. I have seen a rather mixed response due to romances in DAI and MEA largely because of the issues we are discussing. Many of these concerns would go away if folks weren't locked into only a certain few characters being available.

The point I was largely trying to convey to you is I don't believe BioWare will ever realistically do a good job of appealing to your demographic. While you may believe the current system is ideal, I also believe it will be the system you benefit from the least. Especially with regard to the Mass Effect team, I just never see inclusiveness with regard to romance options being that strong.

As I said with regard to DAI, I didn't care for the romance options for a straight male, and I'm the "demographic in mind first." I doubt I was the only one less than thrilled by the options, and that goes for every demographic beyond just straight males. You've already voiced your displeasure with your options in DAI. I still fail to see how you can defend a system you already admitted is doing a poor job of catering to your demographic. You claim player-sexual would somehow be worse because the characters would be less unique and more heterosexual in orientation, but that's really up to how the writer portrays the character. Some characters are written in such a way that being bi, for example, fits perfectly with their character. Isabela, Leliana, and Peebee are perfect examples of that.

Also, I didn't romance him and even so his Loyalty mission, his content on main missions and Voeld was some of the best in the game. That's why I started to feel like this game was redeeming itself. I did Eos, Voeld and the first few main quests early on, then I did all the planets to settle an outpost before even doing the first Loyalty mission and when I got to Jaal's mission I thought it really turned the tide for good, memorable scenes in the game. The staff was definitely in the right to make Cathleen the lead writer moving forward. Not only did her stuff explore the idea of a new culture, she also tied whatever she could into the planetary exploration aspect it seems. I also had a feeling in the final mission that the constant references to destroying Eos first is something they added in after Schlerf was gone because they realized that should've been this game's focus and it made the fight better IMO because it felt like the plot was relevant to the gameplay.

I was satisfied for the most part, but it does seem like environmental awareness of your romance choice was drastically reduced in this game. For instance, your sibling has 0 to say about it. Also, it almost never comes up in banters or conversations with other squad members. I thought this was a definite downgrade as it's been a staple for every Bioware game since DAO. It did leave me with a pronounced "that's it?" feeling to romances. There's maybe 5 minutes of dedicated content in an otherwise 80 hour game. Just having it mentioned here and there does a lot to make it feel more integrated and relevant.

I was incredibly happy that there was an option for straight females who didn't collapse into a puddle of melodrama.  I'm really tried of LIs that are possessed by demons or secret Loki gods or become king and dump you and so on. 

Also, we are long past due the time for naked turians.  Come on, Bioware, get it together. 

A correct assumption, at least gauging from the like 1400 page long Jaal thread.  Romancing aliens is a massive staple of ME.  Bioware is always going to dedicate resources to it because people like it and it adds to the story.  I mean, hell, like 60%+ of all the characters in these games aren't human.  There are entire massive plotlines where you are literally the only human involved.   

Jaal romance was really sweet. I sav Liam one on youtube, and let's be honeslt, he clerly lacks content if compared to Jaal. And the is not with amount of scenes but rather how whole romance is executed. Wil Jaal it was more or less logical (as much as it can be in few cutscenes). With Liam it was like...oh, he flirts-we slept-was it a date?!!-okay, lt's play football wait u love me?- mkkay, end of romance >_> >_<

Still, nothing beats Solas romance. Which is odd, cause each new bioware game I have that special romance who is #1 to me. MAE did not follow that pattern here.

Exactly. Liam romance felt more like a high school crush to me, the whole thing felt very childish and I think it was sad after what they did to Jacob, cause they now had the potential to make this awesome black guys romance wonderful and make him loved, just like people asked for but they blew it.

Gay romances mostly suck. Reyes is great, but how he completely disappears from your life when you complete the romance is shit. And Gil is all kinds of wrong and no.

Maybe the DLC will rescue me? Doubt it.

I love you, but I am not gonna burst into "My Anders" essay like a Disney princess into a song right now, 'kay? (Hugs)

I would like to speak about Gil, for example, but I can't (beyond that his romance's forced baby-issue bother me), because I didn't finished the game yet, and Gil doesn't speak so much. Gil and Rolph played poker, during the poker Gil told about Jill and a baby. Later, Rolph tried to speak with him, and he spoke about baby. Another attempt, Gil spoke about baby. And I wasn't surprised! (Passed 50+ hour in game...)

Reyes romance started. 

Gil talked about the baby to me too! I told him to go have one for gods' sake! 'Cause Space Magic > Blood Magic and it's not like I am a total stranger or anything. His three page notes on poker were hilarious. Made me think he has a crash on Jaal. That's all I have on Gil.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, he goes to the same hairdresser as Theron Shan, of course. Bio just loves letting the cows lick male heads in order to create the boyish and roguish look.

It's a poker ruse. I dunno if you've noticed, but he seems to like poker.