Lucanis romance bug after Act 1 decision

Yeah, after this and many other disappointments I've been having and reading about, I've uninstalled the game. Wish I could return it tbh. I think I'm done giving Bioware the benefit of the doubt. Feel sorry for anyone who's as sad about all this as I am.

Agree with everything here.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind even if the lock choice on him was on purpose because of his personality. What was the punch in my gut was him romancing Neve after, it feels exactly like people said here, insulting. Like he’s not okay only with the Rook? If Neve was in the Rook’s place, she would make the same decision without thinking twice, so it feels just personal and not about his personality or trauma.

Unfortunately I don’t think they’ll back down or change this decision, so I stopped playing my Shadow Dragon and will wait for them to release a mod on the fandom that allows us to do it. Which is just sad.

Yeah I am enjoying the game so far but there is definitely a big issue if Lucanis is locked out of both his romance AND his hero status if you do not save Treviso, while Neve retains full access to hers.

this. you pretty much said everything i had an issue with regarding hardened lucanis, and it unfortunately ruined my first playthrough as well. imagine my surprise when i chose to be a shadow dragon rook, specifically chose to be a tevinter mage, only for lucanis the mage killer to not care an ounce about my specialization. ok… thats fine, he only hunts venatori, sure. but he also doesnt care where rook is from either bc being a shadow dragon rook has no weight with your companions when you choose to save your home (if we ignore the already very glaring political implications to the story that you already mentioned. and also u need to save minrathous anyway for the good ending i hear??? like??). and i thought his hardened state was temporary until trust was regained again which is what made the most sense to me, especially as someone who is always on the hunt for the most angsty romances, but nope! forever locked, while a hardened neve can still eventually be romanced. where is the logic in that?

where i thought i would also find a compelling romance like you did, something like what i found with fenris, solas, and kaidan from mass effect, a push and pull between two people who end up opposing each other in some way and yet still find it impossible to ignore one another, i and many others were instead met with the brick wall that is the romance lock. i completely agree with this lock souring the angsty and delicious true slow burn that this romance couldve been with a minrathous save run. it MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL and is not anything near what i was expecting from a dragon age game which i have always known to have such deep, complicated, and beautiful romances with characters that felt real. i swear i saw this game advertised that they were using a similar companion system to dragon age 2, and this is nothing like that at all. just incredibly confusing and disappointing writing/direction decisions. im beyond frustrated and sad at how much of an impact this had on my first playthrough and just the enormous waste of potential 

incredibly sad. i havent felt the same enthusiasm to continue my shadow dragon rook since i found all of this out. the only thing pushing me to finish is to finally see the solavellan ending ive been waiting ten years for and bc this is my 100% run. i agree with everyone here that it feels incredibly personal and an insult to our rook when lucanis still gets with neve despite everything. i really dont know what the devs were thinking and i wish we could get some answers 

So, it's not a bug, Bioware really just thought locking out one of the most antecipated romance choices (by women and gay men especially, don't think we don't see you) with no explanation in game as to why that is the case only for him, therefore necessarily tying his romance to a harder time getting the best ending, was a good and interesting choice. And then, for some reason, they decided he should have better chemistry with Neve and romance her regardless of having "no time" for a relationship with Rook (SD Rooks especially were in the exact same situation as Neve and made the same choice). We were supposed to be able to romance any companion regardless of gender or background, as they said, but apparently you can only romance Lucanis as a SD if you compromise your roleplaying for the romance. And the reward is not all that, from what I hear. I've been seeing romance videos pop up and they're remarkably short for a game they said was so focused on characters and romance.

I would have preferred clear hard locks for romances like in previous games, based on the character's sexuality and background, because then at least I'd know straight away and understand. I wanted to romance Lucanis as SD, because they said any background was possible, but only possible if I'm willing to roleplay sacrificing my whole city, which is the better strategic choice, for the pretty boy, apparently. Meanwhile, Nevemancers get to make their choice and have a whole different dynamic/romantic relationship with her if they choose one or the other, which we should have gotten for Lucanis as well. It's like they didn't want us to romance him at all, like his whole romance was an afterthought despite him being so popular since Tevinter Nights. It's baffling to me.

Posted this on another thread, but this one is more established. Someone on Reddit posted a screenshot from post-patch that shows after the choice in Act 1 it now says as a 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. 

It really does feel like they’re surprised people want to kiss men in their games. I thought they got it after Inquisition was the first game, maybe even the only game, that had the ratio skewed toward better relationships for those interested in men, but that version of BioWare is nowhere to be seen. I am so jaded by game companies as a whole at this point, I don’t know why I bother expecting anything at all. 

I wish I could get a refund and my time back.

Took the plunge on the quest today, I can confirm this. Unfortunately. I don't have a screenshot bc it was one of those prompts that flashed very fast, but, yeah. That's it I guess. 

I'm not even mad about having to pursue another relationship, but as someone with a Shadow Dragon Rook...if "no time for romance" Lucanis romances Neve after all that, I'm gonna evict them both to the void & also the unfairness of Neve apparently not being locked out?

I’m mad, and I didn’t even choose the “wrong” option. I have absolutely nothing nice to say about this decision… Like, let me turn off background romances, please. I don’t care about watching dev’s ships play out and I am genuinely annoyed that it plays out like this. They flirt from the moment they meet and it’s TRASH. Knowing the double standard happens is just the cherry on top, Lucanis isn’t a ride or die, he’s fickle lmao

I don’t know who/if anyone important reads the boards, but I hope it’s clear that this is an awful, sucky decision. Almost everything about Lucanis feels like they didn’t want you to romance him, but especially this. There’s only three men to romance, and one of them can get locked out (not one of the women though, can’t do that!), and that lockout makes him unavoidably hook up with the only other person that made the exact same choice that locks the player out? Seriously? And that’s not even getting into what a catty thing that would be for Neve to do. What kind of “found family” story is this that she’s just like “Well…if he doesn’t want you, it’s free real estate?”

Awful, nonsensical decision, from both a narrative and a meta perspective.