Summary

  • Avowed's focus on storytelling and companion relationships led to the decision to omit romance options.
  • Obsidian aims for players to have a thorough experience in one playthrough.
  • Avowed's departure from including romance options aligns with Obsidian's approach seen in The Outer Worlds and sets it apart in the RPG genre.

Avowed director Carrie Patel has explained why Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming role-playing game won't feature romance options. For most RPGs, romance options are a staple feature in this day and age, but Avowed is taking a different approach.

Avowed is set to launch in February 2025, as the new title from veteran RPG studio Obsidian Entertainment. As the developer behind Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds, among other incredible titles, it's one of the upcoming RPGs gamers are most excited about, and fans of the genre are looking for any news they can gather before its release. Obsidian has been drip-feeding news to gamers about Avowed, and there's now a pretty good picture of what the game will entail upon its release next year.

In an interview with GamesRadar+, Avowed director Carrie Patel explained why the game won't include romance storylines that have become so integral to the best modern RPGs. "It’s a ton of work," Patel began. " You want to make sure you do it right. And part of that is also you want to make sure that a player who opts not to romance but still wants to have a very deep relationship with those companions gets to have just as thorough and meaningful an experience on a friendship or ally path as [if] they went on a romance path...we felt that we could best tell our companions' stories and our players' relationships with them without the romance option."

Avowed Romance Options Would Be "A Ton of Work"

Avowed will have four companions in total. The focus seems to be on ensuring players can experience their entire stories in one playthrough, rather than having to complete several runs of the game to fully flesh these characters out. "With the four companions we wanted them to all have key roles in the story, different party roles, different personalities, and ways that they compliment each other and let them tell the story of the Living Lands to the player," Patel said. When put like this, it makes a lot of sense. Replayability in an RPG is great, but that often means missing lots of content on a first playthrough. It's easy to see how the inclusion of romance hampers this massively.

We felt that we could best tell our companions' stories and our players' relationships with them without the romance option.

It shouldn't be a huge surprise that Avowed doesn't feature romance options. The Outer Worlds didn't feature romance, an approach that differed from other RPGs at the time. This evidently isn't something that Obsidian concerns itself with, believing that leaving the feature behind is best for its titles. In a world where Baldur's Gate 3 is essentially at the top of the pile when it comes to RPGs, it's a bold choice, given that Larian's title gives such importance to its romance storylines.

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7 /10

Avowed
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Action RPG
Adventure
RPG
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Systems
Xbox-1 PC-1
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Top Critic Avg: 80 /100 Critics Rec: 82%
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Released
February 18, 2025
ESRB
Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Violence
Developer(s)
Obsidian Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Xbox Game Studios
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
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Welcome to the Living Lands, a mysterious island filled with adventure and danger. Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.

You are the envoy of Aedyr, a distant land, sent to investigate rumors of a spreading plague throughout the Living Lands - an island full of mysteries and secrets, danger and adventure, and choices and consequences, and untamed wilderness. You discover a personal connection to the Living Lands and an ancient secret that threatens to destroy everything. Can you save this unknown frontier and your soul from the forces threatening to tear them asunder?

Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Franchise
Pillars of Eternity
Genre(s)
Action RPG, Adventure, RPG