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Obsidian’s fantasy RPG Avowed won’t have companion romance, which is fineTo the ships!
To the ships!
Image credit:Obsidian Entertainment
Image credit:Obsidian Entertainment
In a conversation withEurogamer’s Bertie Purchie, game director Carrie Patel and gameplay director Gabe Paramo drilled down into some details on Obsidian’s upcoming first-person fantasyRPGAvowed. Part of the Pillars Of Eternity universe,Avowedis set in a place called the Living Lands, an island continent with, I infer, very sedate night life, because Patel confirms you can’t romance your companions.
News Editorwin brought this story to me as, quote, “our resident ‘BG3 is horny’ correspondent”. Which, like, accurate, but also my interest in RPGs being horny is purely academic (your honour). I find the synthetic recreation of sex and romance in RPGs fascinating both in concept and execution, but also I’m sort of relieved that Obsidian have decided not to do it this time. It feels like romances have become an assumed check box on RPG development - “and of course, the players will want to shag the companions, that’s a given” - or I wouldn’t even be writing this post, right? But we don’t have to, it’s fine. I’m especially on board if it means other bits of the game can be done betterer. And there’s potential for developing characters in other ways, so we won’t really be missing much. Like how Donna Noble is a lot of people’s favourite modern Doctor Who companion because she’s just their best mate.
The rest of the interview delves a bit more into what was and was not shown at the Xbox Developer Direct (they have less developers now, though). Companions might not follow you into bed, but they’ll follow you into battle, of course, and they have some species of context sensitive combat abilities you can trigger yourself somehow, though Patel and Paramo held back on the details. The showcase was combat heavy in general, partly because, Patel says, “what the team has been doing really is going to show up as best in class”, for a first-person, melee-focused RPG, and partly because Patel is aware that “long dialogue trees tend not to make for the best video reveals”. Also reasonable.
The Developer Direct also revealeda release windowfor Avowed (this autumn). You can watch thewhole 25 minutes for yourselfto get a look at the alpha footage. It feels a bitThe Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimxOuter Worldsto me.
