With Valentine’s day right around the corner, I wanted to do a post about romance. And in my experience, the video games that do romance best are Bioware’s! In those RPG games, you can engage in romantic relationships with various characters, depending on your personal preferences — and whether you can win over your crush. Here are a few of my favorite romances and moments from Bioware games so far. =)
First Crush: Alistair (Dragon Age: Origins)
My first Bioware game was Dragon Age: Origins. As soon as I saw Alistair — the first companion you get to meet — I was hooked. It was an instant crush. He’s tall, blond, with a British accent and a bumbling, sarcastic sense of humor about everything. He’s down to earth enough to tell you funny stories about life as a Templar in training, but he also gets a little emotional when it comes to the people he cares about, such as Duncan, the man who helped raise him. Flirting makes him blush. He also appreciates true kindness.
Not to gush too much, but between the sarcasm and the sensitivity, he’s pretty much the perfect guy.
Most Memorable Romance Moment: Alistair’s Kiss in the Deep Roads (Dragon Age: Origins)
The cool thing about Bioware romances is that in some cases, they can be unique to your playthrough. This is especially true of Dragon Age: Origins, when you can interact with your love interest anytime, anywhere.
As I mentioned, my first time playing the game, I romanced Alistair. At least, I was trying to. We went on a mission to the Deep Roads, fought a bunch of darkspawn, experienced an epic moment of self-sacrifice from an amazing character we had just met (awesome quest)… and then I turned to Alistair and he confessed his love for my character, giving her a swooping kiss out of nowhere! It was the perfect, unexpected moment. We had blood splattered on our faces from the recent battle, and I was already feeling emotional from the quest we had just been on. The surprise made it all the more romantic.
Hardest-to-Get: Zevran and Fenris (Dragon Age series)
Some Bioware characters like playing hard to get. Of the romances I’ve played, this is definitely true of Zevran in Dragon Age: Origins and Fenris in Dragon Age 2.
I would say Fenris is the toughest. He’s an elf who had magic forced upon him when he was a slave. This past makes him very skittish. Some would call him “emo,” as he spends a lot of time waxing poetic and being dramatic about the state of the world and his history. To romance him, he either has to really like or really loathe your character — nothing in the middle will do. Every conversation you have counts, as does every decision you make. To be honest, I did a little internet research to win this guy over successfully!
Zevran is a tad easier, but it depends on how you want things to play out. Also an elf, he’s an assassin from Antiva, with a sexy “Latin” accent (let’s just say, though I guess it’s Antivan) and a flirtatious personality. It’s very easy to catch his eye and even get him into bed. The trouble comes if you want to actually win his heart. He doesn’t take things too seriously, so in order to impress him fully, you have to decline his initial favor to get a real, personal proposal out of him. It’s tricky but very rewarding if you get it right!
Favorite Bioware Romance: Garrus Vakarian (Mass Effect series)
The Bioware romances I have experienced in full so far are Alistair, Zevran, Fenris, and Garrus. (I’ve also partially romanced Leliana and Kaidan.) Of those, my favorite has to be Garrus. Nobody can come close to matching the badassery that is Garrus Vakarian in the Mass Effect series. He’s your companion in all three games, which is why you get so attached to him, I think. He’s a renegade with a good heart, and your best friend — the sarcastic one with the scars. Sure, he may be a bird-like alien whose face you could probably rap your knuckles on like you were knocking on a door, but he’s still hot. And the dancing date in the Citadel DLC is pretty much the best thing ever.
Most Romantic Moment: Last Night with Kaidan on the Normandy (Mass Effect 3)
This is a moment I’ve only seen in videos — I haven’t gotten to experience it for myself yet. But if I had to choose just one moment as the most romantic in Bioware games, it would have to be Kaidan Alenko’s last night with protagonist Shepherd in her quarters, at the end of Mass Effect 3. He comes in with a drink in hand, but it soon becomes apparent he doesn’t just want to wine and dine — he wants to seduce Shepherd while he’s at it. I kind of love how real that feels. Their relationship has evolved over the course of three games, with ups and downs — they even broke up for a time — and if you’ve romanced him the whole way, he will tell Shepherd he loves her. It’s a sweet, sexy moment that hits all the right notes for me.
Have you played Bioware games? What are your favorite romances and special moments?
— Ashley
Robo♥beat 
For a long time, the only person I could bring myself to romance was Jack. What can I say, I have a thing for tattooed damaged-goods who don’t care what other people think. But the last time I ran a playthrough, I was 100% Tali.
I’m currently pushing myself to start another playthrough romancing Miranda for the first time. Not sure how I feel about it.
But what I absolutely love about how the ME series treats its romance is how true to my choices it has to feel. I think Garrus is awesome, but there’s nothing about him I find attractive (and being heterosexual could have a lot to do with this). Even if I tried to romance him, I’d literally feel uncomfortable with that play-through and start over. It would feel like the equivalent of screwing up a build for me. Does it feel like this for anybody else or am I some kind of freak? lulz
Haha that’s true, the romances are set up very differently which makes them more realistic… You definitely have to go with your preferences! There are some romances I wouldn’t want to pursue either — like for me, romancing Thane just feels wrong with all he’s been through and is going through. Anyway though I usually go with guys, I love Jack and would romance her in a heartbeat! She wasn’t into my female Shep though…
Yeah, apparently she’s straight. To which I say “really? Says who?”
Initially I was rather weirded out by the concept of in-game romance. I completely ignored them when I first got into the Mass Effect games (a lack of appealing options for fem Shep didn’t help). Then Traynor showed up. Super genius science geek who’s into strategy games and has a sexy British accent? Sold!
That said, while I’m obviously quite fond of Traynor, the writing of her romance is cringe-inducing. There’s barely any new scenes or dialogue, and what there is mostly seems like it came out of a cheesy softcore porn. She does have a few nice scenes near the end, at least.
But that broke the ice for in-game romances for me.
The only other romance I’ve pursued in Mass Effect is Kaidan. That was okay — written better than Traynor’s — but he’s one of those characters that I feel was written as a romance choice first and a person second. He’s just this shiny perfect romantic archetype. He doesn’t feel real.
Oh, and I did do the quasi-romance with Samara on my last play through. Does that count?
Most of the romance options in ME that appeal to me are exclusive to male Shep, but I really don’t like his voice acting, so I never pursued them. Shame. Ashley is pretty much my Shepard’s soul mate.
My overall favourite Bioware romance to date is Merrill in DA2. She’s a great character — kind, selfless, delightfully quirky, fond of forbidden magic, and with another very fetching accent — and I found the writing of her romance felt the most natural and real of any I’ve played. It evolves very slowly from a friendship to “true love.”
Wanted to do another play-through of DA2 to romance Fenris, but I hate the combat in early Dragon Age games so much I just couldn’t. I romanced Leliana in Origins, mainly because I liked the stories she told, but in hindsight, I’d rather have gone with Morrigan.
Romanced Sera on my first play through of Inquisition. That was… interesting. She’s a very challenging character to romance. Sorting through her foul-mouthed word salad to figure what she’s actually saying is a full time job, and there’s one scene that really pisses me off. But she also turns out to be a character with incredible depth when you put in the effort, and in Trespasser, she grows up a lot and is just ridiculously sweet and adorable.
Also did a playthrough hooking up with Dorian. That was okay, but too easy and simple. Just a fairy-tale, really.
Eek, this didn’t seem like such a wall of text in my head.
Haha thanks, it’s okay as I like long comments!
I really like Traynor as well and have thought of romancing her… probably on a playthrough when I’m just playing ME3 on its own. Too bad it’s not very well-written from what you say though! I disagree about Kaidan but I can understand what you mean. That is one potential problem with romances in games… they can be placed in there as a little cardboard for the sake of giving players an idealistic (and therefore boring) romance. Especially now that it’s such a “thing” in Bioware games, I can see them pandering just a little.
Ooh I would also love to romance Sera at some point in Inquisition! It’s funny you say you don’t like the early Dragon Age combat though. I like it better than the newer combat!
Romancing Sera is definitely something I would recommend. It’s challenging, but that makes it all the more gratifying in the end.
Of course, I made it harder on myself by playing as a Dalish mage. Not a good way to win over someone who disdains Elven culture and fears magic. Play a Qunari if you want an easier time. Sera has a thing for Qunari girls.
I have tried to romance Zevran, researched it, tried again, loaded games that make me lose hours of gameplay because I’m worried I did something wrong, and I have still. Never. Managed. To. Romance. That. Bloody. Elf.
I’m only doing for completion’s sake really, as he’s probably my least favourite character from DA:O, but still… gaaaahhh!
Alistair is pretty much the perfect man, and Garrus is the sweetest thing ever. Great post!
Haha yeah I had trouble there too! For me, Fenris was even trickier though. Those guys are ridiculously hard to win over! it’s funny he’s your least favorite character though. He didn’t appeal to me at first either — like you said, Alistair is the perfect man! — because he was a player type. But after a few times playing the game, I was tired of always choosing Alistair (or Leliana partially), and Zevran’s accent helped me like him a lot. :) Good luck if you keep trying with it!