I've always been a huge fan or RPGs, and companions/party dynamic in general. Romances are always a nice bonus.
I think we've made some huge progress in games, even as a certain crowd still bitches every time a game with a fem PC is announced.
I find some romances in RPGs even more compelling than most otomes, and I tend to get attached to that characters even more, to be honest. I think it's because RPGs are much longer games, and I pour a lot of hours in them, plus RPGs give you the chance to see the characters in a lot of ways: how they react to certain choices and the world around them, the relationships with the other companions, their relationship with the main character not only as a possible partner, but also as a comrade and a friend. I think they tend to give you a more well-rounded view of the character as a person.
I don't necessarily think that I would qualify the romance in Baldur's Gate - or any of the other franchise/games like Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Fallout, Cyberpunk 2077, etc - as specifically just for women (although the direction is definitely more inclusive, and women are a part of that).
I think the industry is (SLOWLY) coming to an awareness that there are gamers who are male, female, and/or somewhere on the spectrum between - and that offering more understanding and freedom in regards to the gender you can play as and the characters you can romance is something that is going to attract a broader following and potentially generate more sales.
I very much agree with this - I don't think I've seen any RPGs games targeted specifically at women, but since the 2000s studios have started to see that women are a part of the player base, and so they've started making choices that could appeal to them as well, but still as a part of the larger audience, not as the primary target like otome does. Even if you have a set fem PC, women are only a *part* of the audience not *the* audience (and there's a certain crowd that will never stop bitching about those games, even though the majority of games with a set PC have a male one). Though that's mostly referring to mainstream studios and specifically to the genre of RPGs and Action games. There's some indie games like, let's say, Cabernet that are more aimed at women.
Returning to romance, though... I'd say my favorites are Daeran from WOTR (as a character, he's both really funny and witty, but also really sweet and tragic, in some ways. It was interesting to see him with the rest of the party, too, both in his interactions with Ember and Lann and as a foil to Camilla. I just think he was really a well-written character) and Shadowheart from BG3 (It was just a really sweet story, with slowly building trust and coming to terms with her origins and stepping away from Shar. Also the beach scene was really beautiful and romantic, especially with her going from the fear of water being one of the first vulnerable revelations she makes to swimming together).
I've also really liked Zevran, Fenris and Sera from Dragon Ages and Garrus from Mass Effect, as well Judy in Cyberpunk (though in this one, I think the relationship I loved the most was Fem V's friendship with Panam, far more than the two romances available).
Lastly, while Skyrim does not have a deep romance system, I think Farkas deserves and honorable mention for being both my very first rpg 'romance', and for being a very faithful househusband and tending to my hoard of orphans and stolen books in many playthroughs.
Sorry for the long yap, lol.
