I'd rather troubleshooter stick with established characters than become a dating sim. If there is romance then that's fine I guess, but I don't see this being a good romantic drama.

Maybe a continuation of that bit with Sion and Irene towards the end there, but that's about as far as I see it going (though i don't think those two will have a large involvement in banished children).

Originally posted by Salaf:

I'd rather troubleshooter stick with established characters than become a dating sim. If there is romance then that's fine I guess, but I don't see this being a good romantic drama.

Maybe a continuation of that bit with Sion and Irene towards the end there, but that's about as far as I see it going (though i don't think those two will have a large involvement in banished children).

Yeah agreed not wanting it to be a dating sim with a lot of games that considered multiple people as "options". I just felt like some relationships in the 1st game could have more development.

I mainly hope for at least 1 custom character so we can self insert into story :P
And maybe option to acess all relevant unlocked classes instead of thin slice and only seeing all other variants on enemies or NPCs

Dialogue with vendors includes rumours that Albus is a harem-anime protagonist, which he considers ridiculous and offensive, as well as questions whether Irene likes Albus or Sion, which she's baffled by. I ship Albus/Sion hard, and consider Irene asexual, Anne/Luna possibly, Alisa/Bianca undoubtedly, but the game doesn't need to say any more about that. Try Sunrider if you want more shipping, or too much.

Alisa/Bianca is IMO so close to cannon it's basically just on the DL.
Irene being asexual is about right, though i think her and Sion are a great couple.
I would quite like to see a couple in the next game, even if there aren't any relationship options, just have it as an established thing that two party members are dating, it's a nice dynamic that isn't covered so far.

You could certainly do something balance wise with it though, have limited number of romantic bonds for each character and let those slots have the more high impact effects like cover on them and the platonic bro slots be less limited and have more passive effects on them. Ration those romantic slots.

I agree romance mechanics would be fun! Imagine getting your two dororis to fall in love and creating a new dorori. Or a special anne dorori. That would be freaking sweet.

I can't help but think any question Irene gets about dating would pop up her choices like:

"Its a fruit, right?"
"It must be a fruit!"
"It can only be a fruit!"
"It's definitely a fruit."

I'll go against the grain and say that I like the total lack of romance in this game and don't really want it in the sequel. I don't have the writing ability to fully explain why, but it's unusual in a refreshing way.

Originally posted by Hemmingfish:

I'll go against the grain and say that I like the total lack of romance in this game and don't really want it in the sequel. I don't have the writing ability to fully explain why, but it's unusual in a refreshing way.

To be fair a lot of character based games rather than XCom style unit based games tend to lean on romance a fair bit, especially eastern SPRG/tactics games. Look at fire emblem, it's pretty much a core mechanic.

So yeah, variety is good but i do think there is plenty of room in this game for romance.

There's certainly room for romance in the story, and it wouldn't be anything forced. Though I do think it should just be a natural part of the story, not relating to any mechanics (except maybe adding some traits or something).

Personally, I think Albus & Bianca or Albus & Giselle had the best chance of going beyond friends.

Originally posted by Echo:

There's certainly room for romance in the story, and it wouldn't be anything forced. Though I do think it should just be a natural part of the story, not relating to any mechanics (except maybe adding some traits or something).

Personally, I think Albus & Bianca or Albus & Giselle had the best chance of going beyond friends.

Giselle being 15 years older than him at best guess makes it a little weird.
Giselle and Don Bruce however.
Can't speak to Albus and Bianca, but i'm pretty sure that she is more interested in a certain other sword user.
Also Heixing and Kylie felt like a decent combo as did Irene and Sion.
Ray and Leton felt like GF and BF on first meeting, not like adoptive/found family sort of relationship IMO.

The lack of romance works in the game's favor. The only ones that have a whiff of possible romantic chemistry are Sion x Irene, Albus x Alisa and Heixing x Kylie, and even this is just based on Misty shipping the former, Albus turning into a stammering schoolboy any time he speaks with Alisa, and Hexing & Kylie's history, so any romance threads are just speculation and fan shipping. And that's for the best, as long as devs don't pander to any specific groups of shippers too hard.

Originally posted by the man, the myth, the legend:

The lack of romance works in the game's favor. The only ones that have a whiff of possible romantic chemistry are Sion x Irene, Albus x Alisa and Heixing x Kylie, and even this is just based on Misty shipping the former, Albus turning into a stammering schoolboy any time he speaks with Alisa, and Hexing & Kylie's history, so any romance threads are just speculation and fan shipping. And that's for the best, as long as devs don't pander to any specific groups of shippers too hard.

So long as the romance doesn't compromise other elements i'm all for it, just another piece to play with story wise.
But i do agree, the game has to come well before romance options, this isn't a CRPG.

Go play some dating game or something.

Originally posted by Tricknologist:

Go play some dating game or something.

Tons of RPGs have romance options. It's been a thing for decades. Go play Call of Duty.