Why can't you romance companions in The Outer Worlds 2?

The Outer Worlds 2 continues Obsidian Entertainment's streak of RPGs with no romance. If compared to their last handful of games, The Outer Worlds 2 is arguably even more bone-dry of any love in the air. To be sure, there was romance in the first entry to this Obsidian-original sci-fi space RPG-lite world: you could play wingman to Parvati, for example.

However, The Outer Worlds 2 companions steer clear of any romcom shenanigan. If you thought Obsidian Entertainment simply took a no-no stance in their marketing campaign to spring a secret romance arc on your spacefarer, you would be disappointed.

---

The Outer Worlds 2 devs (likely) didn't have enough gamedev budget for romance

Two hands are better than one, but... (Image via Xbox Game Studios)

Obsidian Entertainment has always been somewhat diffident in injecting romance into their games. The big standout exception was one of their runaway hits (at least in terms of brand image if not sales value): Pillars of Eternity 2. In that game, there were multiple romance-able companions, in the same vein as Dragon Age games.

The studio is not necessarily anti-romance narratively, but they want to do organic romance rather than gamified add-on options just to fill a romance checkbox.

Romance may not be necessary to tell a story (certianly not one about gross corporate greed or blind dogmatization). However, it does add some life into the world of a game, if not just for the spice. There's even a little inkspot of courtship in Pentiment, for example (I won't spoil what it is).

Obsidian's studio culture still holds true to Josh Sawyer's decade-old comment on a forum post takes a hardliner stance against turning an RPG into a "harem anime" sim, which is "a total fantasy indulgence and gross pandering". In The Outer Worlds 2, it seems to have been both a matter of narrative intent and budget. As game director Brandon Adler says to Gamesradar:

"Say three nice things to them, and then they'll want to romance.' It has to be deeper than that, and has to, in some ways, be organic when you're writing these things."

In the same interview, Brandon Adler also reminds that all things in game developments are "give and take", so doing romances at least in the highly organic and feature-complete manner that the studio culture seems to demand would take away too much wind out of other sails.

The Outer Worlds 2 makes giant strides in terms of gunplay feel and world size over the first one, and between shipping this game, Avowed, and Grounded 2 within the span of a few months, it makes sense that there wasn't that much wind in the sail to begin with. As a token of goodwill towards romanceable companion enjoyers, Avowed at least give you a mild yes and a pat on the back.

As for what it means in future Obsidian Entertainment games, Josh Sawyer at least cleared out his current dispositions towards romancing companions in a potential third Pillars of Eternity game:

"What the fantasy audience enjoys in a romance is not generally what I enjoy in romances. (...) If I were to make romances in a game... that were done in a way that I find appealing, would an audience enjoy that, or would they actually hate it even more than romances not being in the game?"

This is froma Q&A session that also talked about Baldur's Gate 3 right before that question (which, co-incidentally, sprung some talk about gamedev budget constraints). You can check out the full video here for broader context:

---

And as for cementing the original question: you can't have romance in Arcadia because The Outer Worlds 2 is too focused on improving other parts of the reactive companion experience.

Check out our other guides on the game:

• All Flaws in The Outer Worlds 2, and how to trigger them
• The Outer Worlds 2: All Perks ranked
• The Outer Worlds 2: Best Traits tier list
• The Outer Worlds 2: All Tasks in Paradise Island

Are you stuck on today's Wordle? Our Wordle Solver will help you find the answer.

Edited by Sambit Pal