I do think it should be a bit harder to romance in this game. Because you don't need to even try and to me that's kind of a problem. Like I got people just sitting at camp who haven't been in any quest with me or you just met and they're already down for the dirty. Ready for the horizontal cha-cha. A little of the devil's dance, a little campsite rodeo... I think a little effort isn't asking too much. But they all acting like the Absolute is in my pants and they're ready to get blessed!
There is also no way to just be friends. The friendly option are also the fuck options so if approval gets too high you need to actively be an asshole to them.
That's the actual problem I think. Imo it's fine for them to try to flirt with you, but almost all the non flirt options in those situations are kind of mean. There are also some options were I'm just not sure if I am being nice or starting down the relationship path.
Is this hug going to comfort them or is it already sexual? I don't know. Which is all the more hard for me because I'm playing a kind old dwarfen paladin who just wants everyone to get along and be happy.
My first playthrough I sent lae'zel straight to camp, never spoke to her again. At some random point before even act 1 ended, her romance dialogue came up.
My theory is the tadpoles ramp up sex drive to absurd levels, unless you're shadowheart apparently. Illithid orgies must be incredible.
Unless you're shadowheart? I told her I didn't hate her god and the next day she was hitting me with the "I've never had a confidant quite like you... You're very special to me..."
She hadn't even told me about the religious stuff yet when the option came up. Although if you read her mind about it as a woman, not only is she dead serious, she's deeply confused and embarrassed to be realizing she's bisexual.
No interest in doing a male file in order to find out whether Gale, Wyll, etc. would react with the same awkwardness, but I felt that. Normally, the devs just address it by making everyone openly bi from the get-go, and I appreciated the smallest shred of realism.
On one front, if not the other. I'm not really interested in a lot of her fighting style, so we've barely spoken.
Aaah, so it's a homage to Cronenberg's 1975 movie Shivers
Hobbes had developed a parasite that was "a combination of aphrodisiac and venereal disease that will, hopefully, turn the world into one beautiful mindless orgy."
I have a bit conflicting thoughts about this. On one hand yes, the "let's fuck" option comes a bit too easily: simply talk to them a few times, ask about their day, don't be an ass and you'll get laid on day 3.
But on the other hand, the game is also filled with situations where you make a single wrong comment and the conversation instantly turns to a fight, which ends up in a bloodbath.
I guess these balance each other out. The game is just generally fast with getting to a (quite extreme) conclusion in both ways, and I don't really have a problem with it.
I find the writing for each more or less appreciable, but I do think they need to slow their damn roll, definitely. Not only do all but two of them want me, somehow I ended up reaching this point at the exact same time with all of them and we might as well have solved the whole thing by massive camp orgy and called it a day.
I'm quite sure some of this can be gated behind specific plot points so the progression makes sense. I'm over here completely ignoring the plot for the side quests in Act 1.
Asterion says he "knows a place," which is predictable because Asterion would bang a tree if it weren't for the cock splinters. But he also very specifically said that same day that he's never been to the underdark before, and he literally can't know a place. We just passed an NPC that told us not to make the slightest perceptible noise or we'd attract ravenous monsters and we're going to be murdered.
Maybe we should wait to offend god until after we get outside, perhaps?