Here's my promised thread on romance vs. game design (using AC Valhalla as an example). While romance CAN flow seamlessly in games, I'm using 'vs.' here because in many titles, it feels like the desire to have romance in a story is actively fighting the game's systems.

First off, this will contain spoilers for AC Valhalla, specifically the full story of Eivor's potential romance with Randvi. I'll try to skirt around heavy plot spoilers as much as possible, but if you want zero spoilers, turn back now.

I'm also using she/her for Eivor because the context of being a woman has a particular intersection with Randvi's romance (more on that later).

Fair warning: this thread is pretty long. Mute #ACVSpoilers if you want to hide most of it.

To start, there are two kinds of intimate systems in Valhalla.

#1: You can have purely sexual relationships (essentially one night stands) with several NPCs, both men and women, regardless of which Eivor you play. These pop up throughout normal story progression. #ACVSpoilers

#2 You can have a committed relationship with certain characters, but only one character at a time. Pursuing another character will break off the 1st relationship, but ONLY if they are also someone you can date. Having sex on the side (#1 options) doesn't break relationships.

The relationships in the 2nd system are explicitly romantic and have associated quests. They can be sexual - it's a repeatable player option - but don't have to be. The romanced NPC also has a changed line when greeting Eivor in dialogue. #ACVSpoilers

Here we have our first romance/systems snag. The game expects - without voicing it directly - Eivor to be monogamous romantically, but it's fine to bang your way through half of England as long as there's no date involved. Eivor's partner will never, ever know. #ACVSpoilers

I know the internal justification for this: in open world games, devs don't want to restrict player freedom. The problem is, they DID restrict player freedom by only permitting 1 romantic relationship (so no poly) while also refusing to let sidebar sex impact that relationship.

It's a situation where they're trying to let the player have their cake and eat it too. If a player started a romance option early, only to realize they could have sex with someone appealing later, they might get annoyed about being locked into an early choice. But! #ACVSpoilers

Valhalla could have fixed this by allowing multiple romances. Or they could have made the player choose between the short and long-term consequences of Eivor's romantic/sexual choices. Both are good for different reasons. Instead they went with a wobbly middle road.

This is particularly true for Randvi, who has the only romance that actively impacts the main plot. You can get Valhalla's 'bad' ending if you decide to be with her. Why? Well, she's your clan-brother's wife.

Stick with me here. #ACVSpoilers

At the beginning of the game, Eivor has a vision of betraying Sigurd, the heir of the clan that adopted Eivor after her family was slain. The narrative constantly reinforces Eivor's love and loyalty for Sigurd, and they even turn against their father together. #ACVSpoilers

Eivor's understandably shaken by this vision, but can't imagine a situation in which it would occur. Around then is when you meet Randvi, who was sent to marry Sigurd to secure peace with his clan three years prior. It is a strictly political context. #ACVSpoilers

On top of that, Randvi has only actually known Sigurd for a year, because he spent the last 2 years running around Europe following his dreams of power. Eivor served as the clan's second in Sigurd's absence, protecting the clan's territory in Norway. #ACVSpoilers

Eivor notices Randvi isn't happy to have Sigurd back, and Randvi implies their marriage is a dull, unpleasant formality. Eivor expresses surprise, but otherwise the narrative leaves this conflict alone. Which is why, for 20 hours of gameplay, I didn't know she was a romance!

I found out entirely by accident because I Googled who the romance options were. Hers was hidden under a spoiler bracket, and I left wondering why a romance important enough to alter the game's ending didn't give me a head's up at any point in the Norway arc. #ACVSpoilers

Systemically, you can't avoid Randvi. She's the NPC responsible for the war table where you take every plot-necessitated mission. You talk to her constantly, but you can't have an actual conversation about anything until the clan heads to England. #ACVSpoilers

Even then, it's quite some time before you can mention anything to Randvi other than strictly systemic matters like upgrading your settlement. She makes a few off-hand comments about missions, including when Sigurd is kidnapped, but it's one-liners, mostly. #ACVSpoilers

A player who didn't go looking outside the game for a romance list would have no clue that one could even occur, despite other NPCs being romanceable at this point. Randvi is almost entirely static, until after one mission, Eivor notices her mood seems grim. #ACVSpoilers

If you ask her about it, Randvi demurs, but Eivor pushes the matter (without player input). Randvi admits she's exhausted of being trapped in the war room, and Eivor offers to take her out to the country. This unlocks the quest 'Taken For Granted'. #ACVSpoilers

The quest itself is very good. I want to make it clear that after 30 hours of static, I was still swept up in what happens. It's a very reactive quest, with Randvi having different responses depending if Eivor takes her swimming, riding, on a walk, etc. #ACVSpoilers

The quest affords a keen look into Randvi's character: she was once a woman like Eivor, highly combative and athletic, intending to serve as a jomsviking (mercenary). Her clan using her as a bargaining chip for Sigurd shattered these ambitions. #ACVSpoilers

She sees who she could be in Eivor, both in freedom and desire. The quest makes this clear when Randvi teases Eivor about Soma (a woman Eivor allied with) and asks if they ever bedded each other. A flustered Eivor says no - Randvi notes that's a shame, because SHE would have.

After what amounts to a long date with drinking, riding, and slaying bandits, Randvi asks Eivor to take her to some ancient Roman ruins she's only heard about in stories. You take her to the top of the tower, and she kisses Eivor. #ACVSpoilers

Eivor's surprised (as would most players be, I wager!) and Randvi apologizes. Eivor tells her not to, saying they can blame it on drinking, but Randvi admits she's felt this way for a long time now. Then you get these options:

Choose to seal the romance, and Eivor says she's felt the same way for ages. But... the game never let Eivor express this before now. There's no hint, flirtation, or attachment to the prior 30+ hours of gameplay. The romance and the narrative systems are entirely severed.

And this isn't a case of Valhalla being unable to write chemistry. Eivor has a good deal of it with Soma, and most of the one-night stand scenarios in the game are cleanly telegraphed. But with the romance tied to the actual plot, it's nowhere to be found.

What's particularly egregious about this is that out of the 5 'bad' decisions you can make, romancing Randvi is the only thing that comes off as a true - if justified - betrayal. The others are fairly arbitrary, and 1 of the 'good' choices aids Sigurd in being a tyrant.

Yet Eivor does not discuss this in any capacity after the quest. You can kiss/sleep with her at will, and no one else in the settlement comments. Eivor is even challenged over 'betraying' Sigurd because she...kept conquering England, which is what Sigurd wanted to begin with.

By refusing to connect the romance to the greater plot, it suffers considerably. The vision Eivor sees at the start makes little sense, and despite spending 90% of the game either saving Sigurd or following his wishes, she's treated like an indifferent glory hound. #ACVSpoilers

If the game acknowledged Randvi's love for Eivor in its overarching design, it is now a story of Eivor trying to reconcile a familial bond with a romantic one, and in the case of female Eivor, rescuing another woman from a comp het marriage that's left her to wither for years.

Even if the player doesn't choose to romance Randvi, Randvi's feelings becoming public would have been enough to cause outcry among the game's characters to call it a betrayal. Trust me, Eivor is blamed for far more with far less evidence in many places throughout the game.

Instead, it means nothing if you're not pursuing the bad end. It takes 3 bad decisions for that to happen, so just romancing Randvi means you end up with Sigurd happily reconciling with Eivor, despite knowing that Eivor is sleeping with his wife. He doesn't comment on it either!

This narrative inconsistency and decay continued until Sigurd randomly confronted me after another mission to tell me he and Randvi had gotten divorced (!). He doesn't want to talk about it further, so I clicked on Randvi after, expecting some dialogue. What I got was this:

To be clear, there's about 10 hours of missions left after this (more if you pursue sidequests). Randvi doesn't comment on the divorce or being with Eivor until the very last scene of the game, after an oddly sudden quest to officiate for Eivor's blacksmith's wedding. Yeah.

It's at this point that Randvi tells me she and Sigurd divorced. 10 hours later. She and Eivor make their relationship more official, and then she walks back to the wedding. And the game is essentially over. #ACVSpoilers

AC Valhalla wants the appeal of romances (they're very popular) without committing to what a romance means for its story and gameplay. It went halfway with Randvi - and only her - and tacks on in a couple of end scenes to act like it was there the whole time. #ACVSpoilers

But here's the thing: a lot of AAA games do this. Rather than being a design or narrative priority, romances often feel like they're glued in after the fact, and rarely impact the actual story beyond a defiant endgame kiss. It's avoidable, but only if studios care to make it so.

It means hiring designers and writers who care about romance (and sex!) in games, and actually have experience with both harmful tropes and ideas about what might improve romance + game cohesion.

If it's part of the story, it has to BE a part of the story, not just a series of detached choices. (Can you tell how much this menu saddens me? It's not even actual dialogue options, just parenthetical actions absent feeling.)

What gets me is that Randvi's romance quest is good! The writing there is emotional, it's well-paced, and combines active gameplay with building tension and feeling. Yet its lack of priority in the narrative makes it so oddly out of sync. #ACVSpoilers

So yeah. I probably should have written an article or something, but there you have it. Please design romances with the same narrative cohesion as everything else, or it becomes mystifying.