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PC Gamer
PC Gamer
Ted Litchfield

Pentiment and Fallout: New Vegas designer Josh Sawyer isn't usually a fan of RPG romances, but thinks Cyberpunk 2077 nailed it: 'If I were gonna base romances on anything, I'd probably do something like that'

Cyberpunk Judy Obsidian
Cyberpunk characters.

I had the chance to talk to veteran RPG designer Josh Sawyer (Pentiment, Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas) at this year's Game Developer's Conference, and alongside other big ticket RPG topics, I had romance on my mind.

I don't want to pigeonhole Sawyer as "the anti-RPG romance guy," but he's been a consistent critic of how love and sex have been implemented in the genre for years⁠. "I don't hate love in game stories; I just hate reducing love to shallow, masturbatory fantasy indulgence," he said in a 2006 Obsidian forum post about the topic, preserved on Reddit. Regarding Baldur's Gate 3's explosively popular companion dating, Sawyer said that he doesn't entirely get the appeal, and where he does get it, he doesn't like it.

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