Forum Discussion

Blorbetto's avatar
Blorbetto
Seasoned Novice
2 months ago

[Spoilers] Official Clarification Required - Lucanis Romance lock-out

Dear community managers, or anyone who is in touch with the devs.

There are a lot of discussions and assumptions circulating around Lucanis' romance and his hardening. Namely, people being unable to continue the romance after choosing to aid Minrathous. The uncertainties arise because in Neve's case, people can apparently still romance her if they aided Treviso.

For peace of mind, can we please get a clear statement from you - Is this intentional design, or a bug to be fixed? Is Lucanis supposed to be romanceable while hardened, or not? 

Many thanks

  • Voertigern's avatar
    Voertigern
    Seasoned Newcomer

    +1, because there are multiple threads here and on Reddit (along the other pages) asking for it – I am aware of this this [Lucanis ACT 1 Companion Quest is Bugged: Bidding Farewell] thread here, but it doesn't answer the question if hardened effect blocks the romance intentionally or not. It hurts when you helped Lucanis, and he resents you cause you haven't saved his city, and then he's drolling to Neve (and the other way you can still romance her). For the sake of a real RPG, please clarify here.

  • cornerbite's avatar
    cornerbite
    Seasoned Adventurer

    Good gravy, what are these devs thinking? If they wanted Nev and Luca, they should have just made them both advisors or something and given us other companions. 

    But, these companion arcs in general are the weakest in any game already, and I don't hold out much hope of them pulling a Larian and patching in popular requests ala Minthara.

    • DexiDerp's avatar
      DexiDerp
      Seasoned Adventurer

      It seems like they were thinking it wasn’t as important to deliver well-crafted romances with men, so they made sure they got the “important” work done first.

      I wish they’d say something about the disappointment people are obviously experiencing, rather than just making it more clear with a pop-up in a patch. I haven’t felt this disrespected as a fan of a game since Cyberpunk, when River released broken and with the worst endings in the game compared to the two lady romances. Weird how this always happens with the male companions, always. 

      On top of how bad the lockout decision is, the whole Neve thing just has me heated. This is not the way to do companion romances. It’s in the freaking story missions! It’s there before you can lock either one of them in!  I can’t even make a new playthrough without getting reminded that they have more chemistry together than my Rook was able to have. It’s infuriating and it’s miserable. I went from liking Neve to not using her at all. I avoid her banter in the Lighthouse. She will not have her Hero status as I go into the end game because she is so blatantly being favored that I resent her for existing at all lmao

      It’s so bad. It’s laughably bad. Let me turn off the background romances. Please?

      • Alexia_Kovalski's avatar
        Alexia_Kovalski
        Seasoned Newcomer

        As a fellow spiteful gamer, I am here to give you a way of blocking the background romance. I didn’t finish the game yet so I can’t be 100% sure about this, but I read that to block the background romance from happening you should just never put those companions together in the party when you go exploring and it will never progress. 

  • Reloaded a save from before my choice and the reddit post is true. Honestly wish it was just a bug, my homie Lucanis can make time for Neve but not for Rook.

    • DexiDerp's avatar
      DexiDerp
      Seasoned Adventurer

      I have to assume there’s no comprable message for Neve either, because why would there be? That would leave only 2 women left to choose from in a playthrough, and that’s unthinkable.

      The wording too, dang. “No time for a romance with you.” Coolcoolcool, fine. This is fine, nothing weird about this at all. Obviously Neve is just too charming to be angry at for too long, and Rook is just some schlub that can only bully Lucanis into a relationship if he feels obligated to give it up because Rook saved Treviso. (It’s not. It’s not fine, this is stupid. How did no one realize the implications of this are terrible?)

  • I'm almost to the point that I may not finish the game.  I mean, other than seeing the ending, apparently there's nothing in the story or romance to pull me back in.  I planned a Davrin romance, then a Lucanis romance, but these revelations are ridiculous.

    I don't even have faith any more that they can do a good job with Mass Effect 5.  I'm about done with BioWare and EA.

    • cornerbite's avatar
      cornerbite
      Seasoned Adventurer

      Me too. Hoping that we get another blockbuster from Larian, maybe. I don't know what they are working on next, but that last game had so much soul I'm going to immediately preorder whatever they drop, whenever they drop it. 

      I'm not even going to glance at Mass Effect. They should just do what they said they were going to do post-Andromeda and drop the franchise instead of rebooting that too. Most folks didn't like Andromeda enough that after getting burned with Dragon Age, they don't really have much of an audience left.

  • centSIKES's avatar
    centSIKES
    Seasoned Novice

    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.

    • cornerbite's avatar
      cornerbite
      Seasoned Adventurer

      I disagree that he is a hyper competent assassin . 

      What I have seen is him miss three targets, one of which he gets a second go at and gets someone else killed as a result. The third Teia has to handle and looks badass while she does it. 

      So from beginning to end, nothing the writers wrote for Lucanis makes me think he was ever more than a placeholder for Neve. It's really sad, because there was so much they could have done with Spite. I found myself saying "Thank you, spite!" every time I got the chance to use the RB ability from him, and wanted a LOT more conversation content with Spite. Such missed opportunities, and Lucanis can't even really do the one job he was recruited to do. Overall, I feel that Bioware failed this character in a HUGE way. 

      Very sad.

      • IvDDarkPhoenix's avatar
        IvDDarkPhoenix
        Seasoned Newcomer

        CineGame on you tube showed some very interesting stuff on where the game seemed to be heading with panel layouts and story boards. There is stuff in the game seems to support this. My theory is, that was the game we were headed for before the new people got involved in this game and the old got fired/quit and they scraped 90% of where it was heading for the last 10 years and had to rush this out so they have an un fleshed out game with 1 dimensional characters and no romance in it. It's a shame too because what I've seen of what was being developed was so epic I'd have paid $100+ for the delux version of that and everything that came with it. 

  • PixeledReality's avatar
    PixeledReality
    Seasoned Traveler

    Honestly, I feel too dejected to continue my campaign after just finding out about this.

    Why, Bioware? This romance should remain accessible, at the very least, to Rooks of the Shadow Dragons faction, a) because saving their own city is a no-brainer, and b) because Lucanis still ends up with Neve -who, BTW, is too preoccupied with Minrathous' woes to keep herself busy with anything and anybody else-.

    Dear Devs, please reconsider. 🤲

  • DexiDerp's avatar
    DexiDerp
    Seasoned Adventurer

    Someone on Reddit posted a screenshot from post-patch that shows after the choice in Act 1 it now says in the branching story notification: “After the blighted dragon attack devastated Treviso, Lucanis no longer has time for a romance with you.”

    If anyone else can confirm, so it’s not just that one Reddit post, I’d appreciate it very much. 

    • Voertigern's avatar
      Voertigern
      Seasoned Newcomer

      If that’s true it’s like a punch in the face, cause this is the only restricted without any reason (yes Neve, I’m looking at you) romance -in the game. Truly a pity. I hope they’ll unlock it at some point for the sake of the open role playing (if Crows can dates Neve so do Shadow Dragons should can date Lucanis, alongside with an option to save their hometowns).

      • DragonologyDpt's avatar
        DragonologyDpt
        Seasoned Newcomer

        Not to mention if you dont romance Neve, Lucanis still has time to romance her, just not you. Seriously goofy decision by the writers lol 

    • Ravenwolf08's avatar
      Ravenwolf08
      Seasoned Newcomer

      I just had this notification appear, post-patch got to this stage. so it is 100% true.. RIP Romance...

      • cornerbite's avatar
        cornerbite
        Seasoned Adventurer

        You know, in any other industry when someone says "I'm not comfortable doing that" or "That's not really what I'm good at", instead of forcing that person to deliver a mediocre product, they get someone else to do it!

        Why couldn't this writer have written one of the other characters in the game and someone who didn't have a problem with romance content write Lucanis?

    • Gwennurd's avatar
      Gwennurd
      Rising Novice

      I actually restarted my game because I was locked out of the romance, found out when Lucanis romanced Neve. But I also have to say that I didn't always use the romance option, and you do have to consider all of your responses in conversations. You can look them up, because responses that look 'okay' might actually lock you out. I think that is what happened to me.

      I can confirm the notification you mentioned, it just showed after arriving in Treviso and helping Minrathous. I'll continue playing and try better conversation choices next to using every possible romance response possible. because 'no longer having time' doesn't have to equal 'forever'. We all know Lucanis does return to you. 

       I'll update when I know more.

      UPDATE:

      I'm very dissapointed saying this, but I tried to make all the right choices, got every possible romance dialogue option before I had to make the choice regarding Treviso/Minrathous. Having chosen the latter (best choice) and helping in Treviso wherever I could, I have been locked out of a possible romance with Lucanis. I'm certain at this point, a sliver of hope remains for final companion quests with him. but none of the romance dialogue options appeared during the Weishaupt quest or his personal quest Bloodbath. But some remain. A message did appear and Lucanis stated himself that everything is okay again between him and Rook. Though I am quite devastated to miss so much of the romance when at every possible moment Lucanis says that he knows Rook made an impossible choice. 

      Will update if anything actually changes from this point onward.. fingers crossed.

      UPDATE 2: 

      Well.. for me it's official. Locked out. I just had the scene where you are supposed to commit to a romance with Lucanis, but did not get the dialogue options. This officially sucks and now I'm off to romance Neve out of spite (hehe..). 

      Seriously though, they better fix this. 

      UPDATE: 

      Just read this article: https://screenrant.com/dragon-age-veilguard-hardened-characters-reverse-status/

      It states that it is still possible to romance, but only if you reverse the hardened state? Might just be possible, because in my two tries to romance Lucanis I've never been able to reverse the hardened state. 

  • Blorbetto's avatar
    Blorbetto
    Seasoned Novice

    Thank you all who noticed the new pop-up. I hope that modders will be able to change the game enough down the line to either block out the Lucanis-Neve flirts in this scenario, or straight-up enable him to be romanced while hardened, or both.

    • centSIKES's avatar
      centSIKES
      Seasoned Novice

      I’ll be over here on xb watch all my PC bros choose Minrathous and romance Lucanis.  Even if I had a PC to do a modded play through I’ll never be playing this game for the first time again :’).

      Canonically, my first Rooks feelings were not reciprocated and my play through ended with no characters romanced.

    • WyllRavengard's avatar
      WyllRavengard
      Seasoned Scout

      Yep... without any admissions and fixes from the devs (doubtful), modders are the only hope that we have for many of the issues.

  • I've lurked on this thread a while, so might as well also voice my opinion right?
    It honestly sucks, that they have yet to really adress this (beyond the ingame notification) 

    When I first realized that Lucanis' Quest disappears after I saved Minrathous I pretty much replayed the whole game for him. (Why can quests like that even vanish without any warning? Thats honestly pretty stupid... I just wanted to get all the companions before doing side quests yk?) After his first quest and flirt option I... fell pretty hard. Hence why I'm so stubborn to actually get some answers. 

    It's been 10 years since the last Dragon Age Game, this is my first time in 10 years that I can play a Dragon Age truly blind, not really knowing anything about the decisions we get to make and the consequences they bring. I don't really want to change my decision, I decided for it fully intending to see it through, while also playing a Shadow Dragon Rook!!! 
    So reading that he has "no time for romance" struck me as really odd. Even before I reloaded he didn't seem really mad at Rook, talking about the impossible choice I had and all and even the other crows directly said they don't blame Rook! 
    So why, BioWare?
    Also reading about him possibly romancing Neve is just... why? She pretty much also ditched Treviso and him, why is she off the hook?
    Tbh the Neve x Lucanis and Neve still being romanceable when you save Treviso things lets me believe, that it has to be some kind of bug, that he is intended to be romancable still (maybe I'm just clinging to that thought, because I truly don't want to believe they'd make such weird and unfair decisions regarding the Romance)

    So yeah, I'm pretty much stuck rn, hoping I can somehow stick to my decision and also possibly expierence the Lucanis Romance. Is it petty? Maybe, tbh I'm even willing to wait a couple months until modders maybe figure out how to undo these non-sensical decisions and make him romancable. 
    And if it may turn out that Neve should also not be romanced if hardened? Well, I can accept if they really want to do the hardened stuff like this (even if I don't rly agree with it) but in my opinion it has to be fair on both sides instead of this... bs

    So please, dear Devs or anyone who can give us an official answer, what is going on here? At least tell us, cause many ppl are upset, confused and just frustrated with the silence!

    (I'm sorry for any spelling or grammatic errors, english is only my second language)

  • This sucks because I saved Treviso in my first play through and romanced Davrin. I need to save Minrathos in my second play through for completion and wanted to romance Lucanis.