BioWare is known for its character-driven RPGs, and the romances in the studio’s games have been a big part of that. BioWare RPGs have some of the most memorable romances in gaming–some with far happier endings than others.
Here are just some of BioWare’s most memorable romances, and what each one can teach storytellers about carefully crafting believable romantic relationships in gaming. All of them have one feature in common which have a lesson to teach RPG developers as the genre enters the next generation of gaming.
Romancing Morrigan in Dragon Age: Origins sets the player up for one of the most interesting twists in a BioWare RPG. The apostate is relatively hostile at first, having been made to join the two surviving Ferelden Grey Wardens on their quest to stop the Blight at the behest of Flemeth, her mother.
However, if the player is kind to Morrigan, it isn’t long before they’re sharing a tent in camp. At first, it seems like a sudden switch, and one which plays into the sort of fantasy that has many gamers turning their nose up at video game romances entirely. The ending of the game, however, brilliantly re-contextualizes that romance when it’s revealed that Morrigan has been preparing for a ritual where, by giving birth to the child of a Grey Warden, she will be able to trap the soul of the Blight’s archdemon after its defeat.
This not only makes Morrigan’s seemingly sudden switch in attitude towards the Warden make sense, but depending on how well the romance developed from there, it can feel like a great moment of betrayal that perfectly sums up Morrigan’s destructive desire for power. The Witch Hunt DLC goes into this more, and a Warden who chooses to go through with Morrigan’s dark ritual gets a great bitter-sweet ending that puts the perfect cap on one of BioWare’s best fantasy RPGs.
Liara T’Soni comes from a cohort of some of the most memorable romances in gaming, with Mass Effect’s companions from Garrus to Tali all having touching moments and great individual scenes across the series. What makes Liara work so well, however, is that she’s one of few characters who Shepard feels on a level playing field with in the series.
While Liara is under Shepard’s command in Mass Effect 1, in Mass Effect 2 she outgrows the Normandy to become the Shadow Broker, an almost omniscient information dealer whose name matches Shepard’s in fame across Citadel space, even if few know their true identity. This helps infuse a romance with Liara with more moral complexity than some of the other romances in the game while simultaneously making it one of few Mass Effect romances which feels like it truly takes place between equals.
On the other end of the Dragon Age: Origins spectrum from Morrigan is Alistair, one of the most likable romance options in any BioWare RPG. Alistair appears to be the only other Ferelden Grey Warden to survive the Battle of Ostagar, and while he first appears as a helpful guide, it quickly becomes clear just how out of his depth he feels.
Things are taken to knew extremes when Alistair is discovered to be the rightful heir to the Ferelden throne. This puts players who romanced Alistair in another fantastically crafted dilemma as any player who isn’t a human noble is forced to choose between their future together and the future of the kingdom itself.
Solas is Dragon Age: Inquisiton’s most dramatic romantic option, which almost makes it a shame that its only available to a female elf Inquisitor. Romancing Solas gives the player unique insights into elven history, and adds up to some haunting and touching moments, like when Solas offers to remove the Inquisitor’s Dalish facial markings, explaining how they once symbolized the subjugation of elven slaves to the false “gods” who once ruled over their empire.
The late-game reveal that Solas is in fact one of those gods – a powerful, ancient mage known as the Dread Wolf who led a rebellion to lock away the other elven mages who has ascended themselves to godhood – is a great twist that puts Solas’ humanity up against his desire to find justice for his people. With Dragon Age 4’s new protagonist its unclear how that relationship could continue into the next game, but romancing the Dread Wolf himself is certainly one of BioWare’s most memorable relationships.
Like many of the best BioWare romances, a romance between the player character and Bastila Shan in Knights of the Old Republic has implications which are tightly woven into the main plot. Like the best Star Wars stories Knights of the Old Republic sees its heroes battle for the light, fall to the dark side, and depending on player choices, redeem themselves.
A romance with Bastila Shan plays into one of the main themes of the series – the idea that the Jedi have to restrain their emotions while the Sith can let their passions run free. Contextualizing the struggle between light and dark as one between restraint and passion is far more interesting than a simple binary between good and evil, and makes turning to the dark side all the more tempting in the context of the story.
By the end of the story a romance with Bastila Shan can lead to some of the most dramatic decisions in any piece of Star Wars media. After Bastila is turned to the dark side by Darth Malak, which already feels far more like the player’s fault in a romance run-through, players are put in a position where they can choose to follow the light side and kill or try to redeem her, or to follow the dark side, killing Malak with her and ruling by her side. Few romances set players up for more story-central choices that Knights of the Old Republic’s Bastila Shan.
The most memorable BioWare romances are those which don’t feel supplementary. They aren’t supplementary fantasies confined to the ship or to a campsite, but have real implications for the broader plot, and influence some of the biggest decisions players have to make in BioWare RPGs.
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