Veilguard Romances and Companion Interactions Feel Shallow
So far, I have about 100 hours in this game, I have completed the primary and side questlines, and have found that even when your Rook does engage in a locked in romance, you can completely forget about it. This is an opinion, but I do feel like Veilguard has the weakest romance aspect in any of the DA games, and that even some of the romances in Mass Effect: Andromeda seem more thought out than these, which is something I'd never thought I would say.
I have heard of people being incredibly disappointed with how little thought is apparently put into the companions interactions with Rook, and not just the romantic ones, but how Rook feels like a Fly on the Wall for a lot of the game. And I hate that I somewhat have to agree. I like that the companions seek each other out and have unique conversations and dialogue, I find that very enjoyable, but what it lacks for me, is any depth or proper emotion given to the romances, or even to companion interactions with individual Rooks.
I romanced Davrin, and have seen on forums that a lot of people think he has one of the better romances, and after watching the Lucanis and other romances, I would have to agree. I think this is because he tends to offer and at least somewhat reciprocate your advances through a lot of the interactions Rook and he have together, whereas with some of the others, you completely forget that you started romancing them. I was glad to see how romance could happen organically outside of Rook's choices, the Lucanis/Neve, Taash/Harding and Emmerich/Strife pairings I feel all progressed well. However, they feel as if they were given more time and effort than a single one of Rook's pairings, as they have more depth than Rook's.
One of the things that I found most damaging to the romance in this game, is that you can't really interact with your romance outside of the missions that they give, like at all. In other Dragon Age games and Mass Effect games, you could typically walk up to a companion and talk to them, enter into dialogue trees, learn more about their characters and backstories and their thoughts and feelings in regards to you, other companions, or the present circumstances, and that is almost entirely missing from Veilguard. Not only this, but the reactions that the romanced character would have to certain things, such as Rook being in extreme danger, are nearly completely missing. The dialogue, and the way the romanced companion regards you outside of their missions where you can occasionally pick the Heart option, is incredibly lacking. It feels as if there is a massive chunk of the game missing just from that alone, that Rook can barely talk or interact with the companions outside of the missions they give you, and I feel like that is one of the main problems this game has. If feels like they kind of slapped and wrote a lot of the dialogue and romances together 3 months before the game release, and that is detracting from romance as a whole. Rook could romance no one, and there wouldn't really be a remarkable change or shift in hardly any of the dialogue or scenes that are given, which is a travesty for a game series that engages in player choices, both big and small.
I remember in Inquisition, that I could literally just spend an hour of my time going through a couple of character's dialogue trees in Haven or Skyhold, and learn so much about them and what their experiences and thoughts were. This is not present at all in Veilguard, and has, in my opinion, done the game a great disservice.
