This article’s reasoning feels weak. Some of the best RPGs (The Witcher 3, Mass Effect, KOTOR, etc.) have shown that romance can be deeply meaningful when written well. The idea that romance reduces characters to conquests just isn’t true; a poorly written frienꦺdship can feel just as shallow as a poorly written romance.

Further, saying that most game's have weak romance mechanics is a non-argument. Ok? ﷽A lot of games have weak dialogue, weak stories, on and on. That's not an argument for the superiority of♔ not including those elements.

If the real reason is that Avowed is a smaller game and the devs didn’t have the resources to implement romance in a satisfying way, or that they felt it wou🐈ld be obligatory and non-meaningful with their creative makeup, that’s totally fair. But this article feels more like a personal antagonism towards video game romance.

Players aren’t asking for romance instead of strong friendships. Many great RPGs do both. I hope Avowed delivers on its character relationships, and I'm having a lot of f🅘un so far, but this article’s argument doesn’t really hold up.