Veilguard Romances and Companion Interactions Feel Shallow

It just feels so weird to not be able to talk to your companions or just...kiss your LI. Why did I have to wait ~80 hours to see a kiss? Slowburn or not, that's just not how Dragon Age games used to work. 

RP potential within romances is heavily lacking as well. Went and created an older looking Rook to romance Emmrich as his peer, only for him to consistently refer to her as young. I don't mind age gaps but the fact that the only way I can romance him is via an age gap fantasy is disappointing

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. 

I just finished the game and romanced Davrin. I have to agree with you 100%. It felt forgettable, empty and had zero impact, it's as though it never happened. Zero tension or anything. Even the friendships with the other's didn't feel very deep. One of the reasons I always liked Bioware games was the emotional connections you built with your companions. You could really feel it and I spent hours agonizing over choices, looking up consequences on-line, replaying chapters to "fix" a choice I made 4 hours ago, well I think everyone knows exactly what I am talking about. This game though, it feels shallow and disconnected, I don't feel anything strong for my companions or my romance. I thought maybe I just outgrew all this but reading other player comments I guess it's just bad writing and game design.

[Minor spoilers]

I completely agree. I just finished the game after romancing Davrin and was really disappointed. I feel like established lore is either shallowly mentioned or avoided at all costs, like that slavery is very much legal in certain countries and that Tevinter has the black chantry with a male black divine, which in the past games have all been great conversation points. I romanced every character in dao and dai (sorry Merryl: da2) just to get the extra tidbits of lore from their backgrounds that helped shape my view of the world I was fighting for. But veilguard hasn't given me a reason to play again really because I won't learn anything new about the world or the characters. 

Taash is easily the least bland character in terms of personality, and their companion quests are good but would have had me even more emotionally invested if we could discuss Rivain and Qunari life, values, differences, politics, or something. But Rook is asked to make decisions that impact Taash as a person without getting to investigate anything that might help inform the decision. I don't know what it's like if you romance Taash, but I was really looking forward to FINALLY getting to find out more from our first ever female Qunari companion and what strict labels and expectations under the qun are like for the women. That would have helped make Taash's companion quests that much more impactful and help players understand both Taash's mother and Taash. Like how female Qunari can't be soldiers, yet Taash is a dragon hunter and fighter, which would lead to their mum saying things like "you act like a man". It just would have enriched that particular storyline so much more and been such an interesting aspect to make me want to do a Taash romance run.

I also found it super frustrating that the companions don't react if you flirt with multiple people. I went in thinking I would romance Lucanis because he likes coffee, I like coffee; he wears purple, purple is my favourite; he's an abomination, I romanced Anders first in DA2... But after getting blank stares when flirting I thought maybe he didn't really like my Rook, even though we had that brief date, so I flirted with Dav and he immediately responded and I went on to romance him instead. But Lucanis never says anything about it. The next time my Rook spoke to him he was gushing over Neve and made her a pie, which made me laugh, like okay... were they seeing each other behind the scene all this time? So I completely agree that Rook feels forgettable to the companions even when romancing them. In the end, my biggest investment was seeing any Solas and Lavellan interaction... which was also lacklustre unfortunately.

I completely agree with you!  I wrote a similar post, but didn't elaborate as well as you did here.  The lack of interactions, and like I pointed out, even the so-called "romance" dialogue option is very... bland, at best.  I was romancing Davrin and would notice that after locking in, couldn't go talk to him, unless he had something for us to do.  I found that odd, but was hoping that it was leading up to something good that I just hadn't gotten to yet... BUT, I have read that I am very, very incorrect, about expecting anything better.

Sad - Like I said in my post, I was in your corner BioWare, but you lost me and I'm changing my reviews.  I might try to finish the game just out of curiosity, but I won't be doing so with much enthusiasm.

ALSO... locking up armors to the point that you can enjoy ones you want to wear until late in the game.  You all are terrible.

Hard agree. I’m just constantly talked at, not with. To have only Solas ask how I’m doing is kinda laughable. Nobody seems to really care about Rook and the companions are really only focused on their own problems and each other. I really want to love this game, truly, but the relationships is what keeps me hooked in a game and I’m so disappointed by the shallow interactions that it might be awhile before I can stomach another run through once I finish the game. Rather play Inquistion again. 

There’s little to no conflict to keep it interesting, as well. Committing to Blackwall’s romance while he’s in manacles or Solas’ romance by giving up the vallaslin meant something because there was a reason you’d hesitate. The commitments here are just “yeah, sure, why not?”

Maybe the others are done better, but for example; Lucanis and Spite. It feels like there should be something addressed there that Rook and Lucanis would have to confront together, but it just…never happens? There is no stakes at all. It’s just “I made you coffee and dessert (the dessert is for Neve in another universe, but we’ll ignore that bit.)” and “Yeah, good enough for me!” No talk of the demon possession, Spite’s obsession with Rook, the fact that he’s a professional killer, nothing, just smooth sailing. Where’s the drama?

This has been my experience as well. I feel like I’m just watching everyone else get involved while Rook gets limited, if any, acknowledgment with advances for a really long time, especially with Lucanis. 

I don’t mind the parings happening, but the flirting with each other and paring off should trigger after the player has started their chosen commitment character or if they have not chosen any romance options.

As a result, I don’t feel connected to any character in the game. 

Agreed - these are the most shallow interactions I've seen in a BioWare game. There isn't even a real "before we all die I want to spend time with you" scene - whatever that even looks like doesn't have to be R rated. But, SOMETHING. 

Neve just shuts down, doesn't want to talk about it, think about it, walks away and sulks in a corner of the map. What a disappointment. Add to that not even being able to initiate a conversation, learn any backstory, anything. I find it so hard to believe that anyone at that studio PLAYED the earlier games much less helped with developing any of them, it must be all new people that don't understand what we loved about these games. 

Massive disappointment. Just massive.