No, Avowed doesn’t have any romance options, but there are some good reasons behind the game director’s decision

Romance options are very popular in role-playing games these days, and even though Avowed doesn’t have any, its director felt it would be better without them.

For probably very obvious reasons, video gamers love to digitally kiss other video game characters, and romance options are extremely popular in many role-playing games, no doubt due to the influence of games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. This is also an important reason why “Baldur’s Gate 3” is so popular, people just can’t live without characters like Astarion. But one of next year’s biggest role-playing games, Avowed, won’t have any romance options, even though they’re common in the genre these days. In a recent interview with GamesRadar, director Carrie Patel explained why Obsidian Entertainment won’t be releasing any new releases, and the reason is simple: “It’s a lot of work.”

Well, Patel actually had more to say on the topic, going on to say: “You want to make sure you do it right. Part of that is you want to make sure a player who chooses not to be in a relationship, but still wants to Build very deep relationships with these companions, gaining equally thorough and meaningful experiences on the path of friendship or alliance [if] They embarked on a romantic path. So we thought we could best tell the story of our companions and our players’ relationships with them without having a romance option. ”

It was important to the development team to ensure that each companion felt fleshed out and that all players would experience them in the same way, which is an important point in the game’s overall story. “For these four companions, we wanted them all to play key roles in the story, with different party roles, different personalities, and the way they compliment each other and allow them to tell the story of the Living Lands to players,” said Patel explain.

There’s even a companion who’s actually in a relationship, which is obviously a key component to the character’s development. “[It] I don’t think you often see the stories of the party members you travel with in many games, so one thing the player really gets to explore here is how she navigates places wholeheartedly while knowing she really needs to be here. ”

Personally, I’m not too worried about not being able to fall in love with anyone. A lot of the time the writing isn’t even strong enough to hold it up, so I’d rather see the companions and NPCs have their own stories and relationships.

Avowed was originally slated to release this year, but Xbox announced in August that it would be delayed to February 18, 2025 — at which point you’ll be able to play it on Xbox Series X/S and PC.