Obsidian explains why Avowed will not have romances: focus on the story, not on superficial relationships

While many modern RPGs seem to compete to see who offers the most elaborate (and sometimes daring) romance, Avowed, the highly anticipated RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, goes against the grain — and now we know why. In an interview with Eurogamer, Carrie Patel, the game director, openly explained why Avowed will not feature romances between characters, a decision that, according to her, was made to maintain narrative integrity and avoid relationships that sounded forced or artificial.

"We want to create meaningful connections between characters, but not necessarily with the pressure that these relationships need to become romances," explained Patel. "Implementing romances in a satisfactory way requires much more than just optional dialogues, and we prefer to dedicate our efforts to deep, even platonic relationships, rather than creating something that feels empty or rushed."

According to Patel, the choice reflects Obsidian's commitment to offering a cohesive, emotional, and relevant narrative, without falling into the trap of following trends just because they are popular in other games of the genre, like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and even the recent Baldur’s Gate 3, known for its numerous romance options.

Another point raised by the director is the limitation of resources and development time. Creating a significant romance that respects the characters' personalities requires attention, branching dialogues, and real impacts on the story — something that, according to the team, would divert their focus from what they most wanted to work on: building a consistent world and a plot that truly involves the player in the tough decisions of the Eora universe (the same setting as the Pillars of Eternity series).

"We didn't want to fall into the trap of introducing a romance just because other RPGs do. If we can't give it the proper attention, we'd rather not do it," reinforced Patel.

Avowed, which will be released in 2025 for Xbox Series, PC, and Game Pass, has also been involved in several discussions about its development. The game went through two reboots, as previously revealed in reports by Bloomberg, and has changed significantly in scope since the initial concept — which started as a massive open-world RPG but was reformulated into a more "semi-open" experience, focused on dense hubs, similar to The Outer Worlds.

The absence of romances may come as a surprise to some studio fans, especially considering that in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire, the team had already begun to explore deeper relationships between characters. However, Patel defends the view that "meaningful relationships" do not always need to involve romance.

"Our goal with Avowed is to ensure that the player has real bonds with companions, that they care about what's at stake. But that doesn't need to translate into love or romantic scenes to have emotional weight," she concluded.

In the preliminary analysis published about the game, it was highlighted that Avowed, despite having "some technical limitations and not reinventing the genre," presents a fun combat and an interesting narrative interesting enough to captivate RPG fans, even without the appeal of romances.

In this way, Obsidian seems to want to reaffirm that not all RPGs need to follow the same mold to deliver a quality experience. It remains to be seen whether fans will embrace this more journey-focused proposal and less on "flirting," or if the demand for romances will continue to be something that the community will demand after the release.

Avowed is scheduled for release in 2025, with direct arrival on Xbox Game Pass, and is one of the highly anticipated titles among Microsoft's heavy exclusives.