| Topic List | Page List: 1 |
|---|---|
| Topic | When it comes to games with custom characters: |
| ParanoidObsessive 02/18/20 6:59:16 AM #36: | Unbridled9 posted... Also, I'm curious as to how sex/sexuality really plays a part. That rarely bothers me, because most of the time if I don't have an option to go after a specific person, I assume romance will occur after the fact regardless. Like in Fallout: New Vegas, where in spite of there being no romance option for any companion, I just assume my Courier can easily flirt with or hook up with any of the eligible companions after the main story is over. You basically end as one of the most important people in the entire Mojave, it would probably be fairly easy for you to find a date (and that's not even counting the characters you actually can sleep with along the way, who you presumably might try to get more serious with). And it makes sense that you may be less inclined to try and hook up while in the middle of crisis mode, but more inclined to do so after the Happily Ever After. I think the only time that sort of thing ever really annoyed me was in Outer Worlds, where you not only have no way to express interest in any of your companions, but the one you're most likely to wind up wanting to romance is a) asexual, and b) eventually asks you to help them hook up with someone else almost immediately after meeting them. So the game is sort of rubbing your nose in it. Though I do prefer Bioware's "These handful of very specific people are available as romance options" over the Fable/Skyrim method of "You can romance/marry pretty much any NPC, but very few NPCs have anything resembling a personality so there's no reason to care about any of them." I very rarely marry or romance anyone in those games because of that. But I feel the lack more when I'm playing a game that feels like a Bioware RPG but lacks Bioware romance (*cough*Obsidian*cough*). I basically have ridiculous headcanon involving Veronica and my Courier from my first New Vegas run. She literally caused my game to have a radically different ending than it otherwise would have ( Unbridled9 posted... If none of them appeal to you as a player, you get attracted to a non-romancable party member like Wrex Because of how I tend to play, which ones appeal to me as a player are rarely the determining factor for which ones I romance. Because I'm trying to construct a unique personality in my head for my character, and basing their decisions on that personality, it can dramatically affect who I choose to try and romance. Just in terms of Mass Effect, I've had characters who preferred Liara, and ones that preferred Kaidan (almost no one would prefer Ashley, because she almost always dies on Virmire - and the one character I played who probably WOULD have preferred her couldn't date her because she's not bi/lesbian). My Ruthless Colonist Shepard who was a xenophobic racist wound up with Garrus (which I didn't actually plan on happening - it just sort of evolved organically, mostly because the Jacob romance is brutally strict and I failed out of it without meaning to - which made it a really interesting narrative when it happened because it felt like it was super out-of-character for her, but also simultaneously had happened entirely organically and unforced... she'd essentially evolved as a character). I've had characters who break up with Kaidan over Horizon, and ones that stay loyal and rekindle things in ME3. Dragon Age is a bit more complex - the mechanical dynamics differ, which makes for more potential options. In Origins, my Human Noble, Circle Mage, and Dwarf Royal all wound up hooking up with Alistair ( Even when I've played a game before, I often have no idea which romance interest I'm going to wind up with in a given run until I get a feel for who that person is and what motivates them. And sometimes I kind of assume I know which way things will go only to find I've kind of surprised myself. It does kind of suck when I feel like a given character would absolutely pursue a specific NPC who isn't interested (like wanting to romance Tali as a female Shepard and being shit out of luck), but it feels more realistic that way, which I do like. In the real world you're not going to have a 100% chance of success with any person you flirt with - some are going to be incompatible due to any number of factors. The idea that a protagonist can essentially bend everyone's sexuality to their will [like the jokes about everyone in DA2 being "Hawkesexual"] is kind of lame. Even if it does mean that I tend to get screwed over from playing female characters 99% of the time if the best love interests aren't lesbian/bi (hence why I had to do male runs specifically to do Morrigan and Cassandra romances in DA). But I actually liked how DA:I kind of overcomplicated things (Cullen and Solas would discriminate based on race as well as gender, Sera will make negative comments about you being Dalish and a mage if you romance her, etc). And yes, there are games/runs where the choices for romance partner are so terrible, or so antithetical to the character I'm playing, that I just avoid bothering with romance at all. That was a problem in early Bioware (male PCs in Baldur's Gate can romance Aerie, Jaheira, or Viconia... female PCs... just get Anomen; the KotOR games are straight-romance only, because Lucas used maintain the idea that everyone in the Star Wars universe is hetero, so licensees had to follow that rule), and like I mentioned, I almost never bother getting married in Fable or Skyrim because of it. --- "Wall of Text'D!" --- oldskoolplayr76 &qu ... Copied to Clipboard! |
| Topic List | Page List: 1 |