I’m 63hrs in and I just found this out. It feels terrible. I’m not going to throw away this playthrough just to smooch a (very fine) Antivan gentalman. It’s very bittersweet because I’ll never have the feeling of playing this game through for the first time but my experience feels very soured now.
My Rook is a Shadow Dragon and though I played through both the Minrathous and Treviso scenarios to see the outcomes I ultimately chose Minrathous as it felt like the bigger blow to lose and the Venatori a bigger threat vs the Antaam. As a Shadow Dragon, Rook is intimately familiar with the damage they can do. After a year in the Venatori’s gentle company, Lucanis is familiar too. I didn’t want to make a choice I knew my Rook wouldn’t rationally make just to make it easier to get into a characters pants down the road. When making the decision on where to go first Lucanis encourages you to chose what feels right, and won’t judge your choice before heading to Treviso himself, and in the direct aftermath, is very understanding and reiterates that the blame doesn’t lie with you - Teia and Viago also do not hold it against you, if it’s the approval of his family that holds him back. So in terms of gameplay mechanics we the player make the choice, but narratively the aftermath is not Rooks is not at fault and did everything with they could with the resources at hand to aid both cities. Your team splits 50/50 for Pete’s sake - you don’t leave Lucanis to go it alone. Rook just isn’t there personally - which Lucanis tells you on several occasions he doesn’t take personally so ??? So it’s not you he’s just unavailable until he can work through this. Which you do - with him - personally at his side supporting him and bringing retribution to those responsible.
I don’t have beef with Neve or how the Lucanis/Neve romance progressed - I think they’re cute and good for each other. I very much enjoy Neve’s character (she was a very close 2nd to romance for me) so I didn’t mind their banter since I was also flirty with Neve and having them both in my party was my default if I didn’t feel I needed another character for plot reasons. Neve is observant and has a nice soft touch when dealing with and respecting ppls boundaries - her as a fellow Shadow Dragon, it felt good that we could both have his back after the **bleep** he must’ve gone through in the Ossuary.
I found Lucanis’s story very compelling if Treviso is blighted I thought I would be getting a good slow burn romance (which I now know will never was) as he works through all that.
In the beginning Lucanis is unavailable due to his circumstances with Spite and my Shadow Dragon Rook would be familiar with the damage people can suffer by the Venatori, never mind for a whole year of torture. So they’re in his corner, they’re not gonna push him for anything or approach that topic. Then Treviso happens and that is just one too many things on his plate and Lucanis has to lock in and becomes off-limits. Then as the story progresses and you do all his side-quests; help Treviso, its people and the Crows, help him with Spite, and slay the dragon that blighted Treviso. One by one you help or support him as he deals with all these problems and Rook shows him they can be relied on and will show up for him. A reoccurring theme in his personal missions is that he doesn’t have to deal with all this crap alone - this team, and Rook are there for him. By the end of, I think his 2nd mission, you see that he starts to believe it and now that more and more of his demons are resolved you feel like he’d be prepared and open to the idea of romance. I mean - he is, just not Rook. Despite the game reiterating that there is no beef or blame between Rook and Lucanis at all. There isn’t even a conversation about how intellectually he knows you’re not to blame but deep down he spitefully can’t move on from it. As far as my play through was going Lucanis an I were on very positive terms and he’s my primary party member.
Then suddenly I notice Neve (who I turned down once I felt Lucanis was the right choice for me) and Lucanis’s banter shift and its more intimate and then next Lucanis conversation in the Lighthouse is about baking her a pie and asking you if you think it’s too much and he’s not good at this and do you think she’ll like it - and you just have to smile through the pain.
I almost feel like it wasn’t intentional to lock him out but it was more complicated to fix it rather than just put in that branching story notification. Lucanis really doesn’t begrudge you if go to Minrathous first. I don’t buy the ‘can’t make time’ thing bcus that man did NOT leave my side after Treviso was blighted so I could work on my bond with him. All the things he is busy focusing on addressing - Zara, Spite, the Antaam, the blight in Treviso - Rook is right there with him. He doesn’t go it alone.
The take away I was getting from his missions was that he was a hyper competent assassin with high expectations put on him by his family. He cares deeply for his family and goes above and beyond but he hasn’t had someone able to do that kind of thing for him. And after the Ossuary, the loss of personal control with Spite and then Treviso he needed to be shown there is someone who is as capable as himself who has his back.
If those aren’t conditions under which romance blossoms then where?? You also don’t just ‘make time’ for romance - you just fall in love. There are entire sub-genres of romance where it comes for you at the wrong time, wrong place - whether you were ready or not. You just are there for one another. That’s the appeal of the slow burn.
There are several plot points where you specifically MAKE time to address your party’s personal problems before the story can progress. My foot he can’t make time. He should be chomping at the bit every time the plot comes to a screeching halt to address other characters/factions issues.
God this sucks. I might put this play through on hold until the devs grant us mercy and do the right thing and make him an option or give us a scene where he turns Rook down so I can have some dang closure.
