Romance System

[Stepjam]

I've always felt if they were gonna do a romance thing ever, it should be in the patches of the final expac, just sort of a final sendoff thing.

[JWag12787]

The difference between SWTOR having it, and adding it to FFXIV, is SWTOR used it from day one as part of the story. With how far the story has progressed for so many players, it can't work in the same way SWTOR did, so they'd have to approach it differently than being part of the linear story.


That being said, there's already hints of it, but nothing concrete, because they want to tell a story, and let us imagine / envision the rest. If you have a love for a character, go for it. Pretend that you do. Enjoy it. Write stories of your exploits. I just don't see them integrating it much into the story, because there are far too many variants, and there is no way to line it up with story choices at this point.

[Con_Carne]

I'm not sure about this. I understand anyone can be in love with any NPC, and you can make it real in your own canon/RPs. I don't think the Favour System as a needed thing.

However, I would be up for something (which would help with those RPs): Expand the Group Pose system so NPCs can do emotes as well (very few can).

[JWag12787]

I'm not sure about this. I understand anyone can be in love with any NPC, and you can make it real in your own canon/RPs. I don't think the Favour System as a needed thing.

However, I would be up for something (which would help with those RPs): Expand the Group Pose system so NPCs can do emotes as well (very few can).

This I do support. I can't tell you how much it sucks that you can't make NPCs respond to your emotes unless it's like your squad member or something.

[Khalithar]

Eh they made the romance thing work in swtor, they could do the same for this game.

[Holymoly]

No-one flirts with General Tullius if they know what's good for them.

[Vyrerus]

Mmm, wouldn't work really. They like to actually kill characters/change characters/twist characters in this game. Given how many people were upset with the reveal of Lyse, I can't imagine this going over well if they added in romance-able NPC options, and then actually wanted to continue with good writing.

[kujoestars]

Brb. Marrying Sidurgu.

In all seriousness, I can see a romance system working for major characters with plot armor or even Job Quest NPCs (who either have plot armor or don’t matter enough to kill off). But it’s also hard to tell what SE plans to do with characters in long-term. But I would honestly love it if romancing NPCs is an option.

[Stepjam]

I wouldn't mind if it was like a quest series in the patches of the final expansion before the game goes into maintenance mode, but I don't think there's any chance of it happening before then.

Partially because it would limit their story options. Yeah, characters already rarely die as is (Y'shtola almost seems immortal at this point with everything that's happened to her), but if there was a romance system, it would further limit who can die since people would probably get pissed if they romance someone, only for that character to die later.

And beyond that, how would they choose who can be romance-able? The game has a ton of characters with varying levels of relevance. Would it be just the scions? The scions plus country leaders? Do we include class trainers too? Are you wanting personalized romance subplots for each character, or are you okay with a Skyrim-esque system of "Hey, you wanna get married?" "Ok bby", because the more options you have available, the less effort that will go into each one.

And then after that, does each character who is romance-able change their dialogue around you or do they act the same way? Does Alisaie still act like a schoolgirl with a crush, or does her dialogue totally change whenever that comes up? I remember it bugged me in Persona 5 where you romance a member of your team, but they continue to act like platonic friends in nearly all dialogue, even a situation that might be relevant comes up (Like if you romance Ann before Hawaii, you still get the scene where you, Ann and Ryuji are asking each other what they are wanting in a date partner, and none of the dialogue changes from if you were single or with someone else), and that kinda bugged me and I would bet it would bug others too.

And then there's just the added work of changing dialogue all over the place if you go the "more effort" route, but with as much text as XIV has, that starts to add up.

[SwiftWing]

I'm not sure about an actual romance with NPCs, but it would be nice for them to act like you, well, *exist*. I mean, Thancred in ARR flirts with all the females, but treats the WOL the same no matter if male or female - they're just THERE (and apparently not pretty enough to flirt with *sniff*). It's kinda the same when Yugiri is introduced - she goes out of her way to keep her face/horns hidden because she's the first Au'ra in the main 3 city states and wants to avoid people's reactions, but the WOL could be Au'ra, male Mi'qote, Hrothgar, or Viera - some of which never existed in certain times in the game - and there's just *nothing* from NPCs.