Amen.
As someone who played the Mass Effect games and the previous Dragon Age titles, I dove into the game expecting to make meaningful connections with the companions. However, things felt unfinished or shallow in certain places. There’s no conflict to resolve *with* Rook (e.g., let them hash it out with Neve about going to Treviso rather than Minrathous), no commitment to clarify (e.g., let Rook and Lucanis talk about where their relationship stand, why he’s being avoidant etc.), no getting-to-know chats outside of the companion’s prompts/quests. Like???
Heck, I can go up to Assan and pet him, or play rocks-paper-scissors with Manfred but I can’t go up to my LI and just be cute?
What’s really sad is that there’s promise in these characters and the relationship they can form with Rook, platonic or otherwise but it just falls flat in the end. I suppose I can always fill up the gaps with good ol’ imagination, but I shouldn’t have to do that for basic things that ought to be part of the game, especially where relationships are a big deal and could make or break the story.
You're right... why can we play and interact with Assan and Manfred, but not our so-called love interest. I talked with someone at EA yesterday and he said that they are aware everybody feels this way. And I let him have it with ever single thought that we all have and he confirmed understanding with each one. He even summed them up sometimes before I finished some of my thoughts. The shallow, non-interactive, dull "romances" and the lack of nudity - They know! Now, the question remains, will they do anything about it? They risk alienating their own fanbase and let's be honest - they haven't gained a lot of new fans with all the negativity leading up to the release, and afterward.
As for a patch, I told him that I no longer had any faith in BioWare at all and that I'm not expecting anything. Now, it remains to see if they are listening, and if they even care. It will be a long while before they finish ME5, so my advice to them would be to FIX this crap and regain the trust and admiration of their loyal and dedicated fanbase before they proceed to something else they will want us to buy later down the line. I told him that after this, I'm not buying anything else from them... unless all of this is acknowledged, and fixed.
Now, my voice doesn't do crap in making any headway with this, but the overall point is - I learned that they all know everything that we are expressing... it will be very sad if they don't do something about it.
I hope they at least take the right lessons from this for ME5. I don't hold out any hope they can really patch anything in - all the voices are recorded, they aren't brining the VA's back into the studio to add content as they are hemorrhaging money on this project already - but at least they could patch OUT some of the more obviously annoying things (I'm looking at you, Luci\Nev).
And they need an adult in charge there. It just seems like they took every single person they could find that was uncomfortable with writing romance and put them on this project. Every romance feels like it was just meant to be ace or just friendships.
And fine, if they want one of those, okay, I'm not even that annoyed that right now it does seem like one of my top choices was always meant to be an ace relationship, but that it's all so dumbed down is just insulting.
I don't. I hope they take the right lessons from this and DO something about it. I don't give a single rip about Mass Effect. I'm a Dragon Age fan- I've tried playing ME and it never grabs me. Fix THIS game that took a DECADE and let us have our dark fantasy and romance with great characters. ME is still cooking and these issues can be avoided already.
Thank you for advocating for us. Also good to know that they are aware.
Honestly, I am not holding on to any hope that they will add significant content to bridge the gaps we have identified (I would love to be proven wrong), but I really do wish they fix the romance flags. That’s seriously the least they can do. No, actually they HAVE to because that’s definitely a bug.
Maaaaybe some extra codex entries if we’re pushing it. I could see something like additional logs working for the Lucanis romance. Perhaps a letter to Rook talking about feelings he’s hesitant to convey in person.
I letter from Lucanis to Rook would be better than what we have now, for certain.
And they certainly won't bring back voice actors for new scenes, but one thing they could do is make all the romances a little more mature, since they said this is a mature game... they could make all the characters nude in their romance scenes - if you so choose to, by using the nudity option that currently does practically nothing.
The whole thing just aggravates me to no end lol. You're right cornerbite, they need some adults in the room who know what they are doing and who will listen. Though it is not their style, but they would have been better off doing an Early Access like Larian did and allowed people to let them know what they are missing and what they need most. With the fact that BG3 was so successful, winning 5 GOTY awards, and selling as many copies as they did, you'd think that someone ... at least one person ... at EA and BioWare would have paid attention and made certain they had this game right before release.
I really think our only hope is that modders can get some of the things as right as possible.
One last thing - the fact that this outfit is the only major game studio that does not allow you to contact them (without difficulty) is the most telling story of all. You want to contact Larian - go ahead and they will reply every time. The Cyberpunk studio will also reply with help. Even Bethesda will reply if you contact them properly. EA and BioWare doesn't want to know what we think, even though they actually know.
