Mass Effect: Andromeda - New Approach to Romance

[Silver]

@Game Informer they look at how Mass Effect: Andromeda will move romances forward compared to the original trilogy.

Moving Forward From The Trilogy

BioWare is trying to evolve what it has previously done with romances; the team has learned from the original Mass Effect trilogy, and is taking those ideas in more interesting and believable directions. "We've built on it [from the trilogy]," Walters says. "We had a strong foundation for how [romance] was working. For me, typically in the trilogy it was a bit formulaic. You'd talk to them and then get to that one point in the game where there was no going and back and romance was going to happen. That's not real life. There should be some people who just want to hop in the sack immediately. There should people who are interested in a long-term relationship. There are people who aren't interested in romance at all."

This means more mature situations and dialogue, as Walters notes the first Mass Effect spent a great deal explaining the lore of the world and the different races through the characters than focusing on their individual personalities. "I think we've moved beyond just doing info dumps on characters," Walters says. "It comes back to the circumstances. That is what we should be talking about. What are those people actually thinking right now? I think that's the mature aspect of it. Let's not ignore everything that's going on just so we can have a moment to say, 'I love you.'"

Andromeda's Varying Relationship Types

The team wants romances to feel legitimate, not like an artificial game mechanic. Different characters want different things from their romances, whether it's physical or emotional, and Walters states that some romances can happen early in the game, while some characters may take longer to let their guard down. He also confirms that BioWare got rid of what he refers to as "the hard line," where you're trying to fit in romances before you reach a certain point and it cuts off the opportunity for a romance to occur.

Walters says the team wanted to make romances more varied than previous entries. "Just because someone has a romance doesn't mean they have a longer relationship arc with you," Walters says. The team even re-envisioned what a romance looks like. As Walters says, "Think of the relationship moment with Garrus in Mass Effect 3 where you [shoot bottles off the Citadel]. Does it always have to be, 'Get someone into the bed?' or can it be, 'Let's go have a bros' moment or a friends' moment.' I think once [our writers] started to think in those terms, it expanded what those scenes could be like. But if you want to get down to the sex scene stuff, we got aliens, alien environments...we keep coming up with unique places to have some interspecies relationships.'"

Walters says the writing team has worked hard to make sure characters are unique and fun to get to know. "The [characters] that aren't romanceable should have just as interesting and in-depth an arc as the ones who do," he says. "That's one thing we did to make it feel more natural. We have to check ourselves because we know the fans want romances, so the obvious thing is to make [everyone] romanceable, but that's not real. We're trying to find the balance between 'yes, it's a game,' but we want to make these characters as believable as possible and the situations as believable as possible."

More information.

 

[azarhal]

That sound a lot like how DAI worked. :/

 

[ChaosTheory]

That sound a lot like how DAI worked. :/

Yeah, but after spending my entire game trying to romance Sera only to learn she was a lesbian, perhaps they should drop a hint. Early.

 

[JDR13]

I cringe when I think about how much time and effort was wasted by the development team on this.

 

[Damian]

Yeah, but after spending my entire game trying to romance Sera only to learn she was a lesbian, perhaps they should drop a hint. Early.

That's why you have to try to romance several people at once, one of them surely is not lesbian?*

*This strategy will not work if you go to a lesbian night club.

 

[KaosWarMonk]

A Romance Playing Game?

I find romance in games really lame and cheesy and therefore a waste of CPU cycles tbh. Each to their own I suppose, maybe it's because I'm old, not young anymore..??

Serious question to the forum, how important is romance options to you when buying/playing a game?

 

[Damian]

I'd rather not even have them.

 

[JDR13]

About as important as having Tibetan subtitles.

 

[rjshae]

Normally, game romance feels like formulaic button pushing, so this sounds like a positive direction -- trying to make the social interactions options more realistic and plausible. I know there are people who enjoy romance in their games, so it can be a selling point and worth some amount of investment of resources. If they can manage to make me feel some investment in the characters and provide unpredictability, perhaps I'll give it a try. I just hope it doesn't become cringe-worthy.

 

[TomRon]

I enjoyed them in BG2…on the other hand, I was still really young back then. Can't say it bothers me though, if it bothers me it's rather because it often feels so artificial. Expand the characters and their motivations and I might actually enjoy romances.

 

[luj1]

More SJW rubbish

 

[GabrielMP_19]

I don't dislike romances. They are generally fun ways of interacting with your party. I do think they're a bit formulaic, though.

 

[six]

This is actually the first thing that made my interest go up for andromeda.
Personalities > Romance > Story > Gameplay.
I often grow bored of games without romance as they rarely go deep into npc's either then.

Tyranny for example I am in no rush to play and will get on a sale someday instead, due no romance.

 

[Terry]

Hard to get in a romantic mood when you are oppressing and crushing all you see in a tyrannical environment.

 

[mesmeris]

I still haven't gotten over Edi running off with what's his name. After all we had been through ... sigh

 

[NFLed]

I enjoy X in a game when it is done well, where X can be romance, fighting, dialogue, or most anything. I have enjoyed how Bioware handles romance in their single-player games.

 

[Capt. Huggy Face]

Hard to get in a romantic mood when you are oppressing and crushing all you see in a tyrannical environment.

I don't know. That kind of gets me going...

 

[Silver]

I don't know. That kind of gets me going…

 

[Morrandir]

I cringe when I think about how much time and effort was wasted by the development team on this.

I cringe when I think about how much time and effort was wasted by the development team on crafting systems.

 

[Turjan]

Romances? I found them somewhat interesting in BG2, as they were something new at that time, at least for me, as far as video games are concerned. Other than that , I don't really care for them. It doesn't help that most of these "romances" play strictly in the uncanny valley.

In this sense, I also see this announcement as somewhat worrisome. Making "more believable" romances hopefully does not mean that they become an even more integral part of the game.