People have come to expect romance options in modern role-playing games. Even studios that haven't traditionally engaged with this feature are beginning to experiment with it, such as Bethesda. One notable holdout is Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian is notable for not focusing on romance in its RPGs, with romance either being absent from its games or understated, as in Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire.
Avowed hasn't bucked this trend for Obsidian. In an interview with Eurogamer, Avowed's game director Carrie Patel revealed why Avowed doesn't feature any romance between the player character and companions: "Doing romance and doing romance well are two very different propositions," Patel began. "Part of doing romance well means not only a compelling romance path but also one that is faithful to the character being romanced."
Patel is alluding to the phenomenon in writing where a character that falls for another character begins to lose their sense of self. While a character's individual ambitions were previously at the forefront of their being, the character has now been relegated to furthering the goals of their romantic partner, in this case, the player.
"It's always a bit of a letdown when you see a character who has a...
