Cyberpunk 2077's romance system just a massive endorsement from none other than Obsidian mainstay Josh Sawyer, who designed beloved RPGs including Pillars of Eternity, Fallout: New Vegas, and Pentiment.
When I say "massive endorsement," I really just mean Sawyer told PC Gamer that he really enjoyed the way CD Projekt Red implemented romance into Cyberpunk 2077, specifically with regards to its pacing, which is something he really does not say about games very often.
As PC Gamer notes, Sawyer's nuanced thoughts on RPG romances publicly dates back to 2006, when he said on an Obsidian forum that he doesn't "hate love in game stories" but does hate "reducing love to shallow, masturbatory fantasy indulgence." He's also previously said he feels out of step with what people expect from romances in modern games.
Cyberpunk 2077, though, it got romancing right in Sawyer's view. That's because it paces its four available romance options out so that the respective love stories happen separately from each other and thus feel more natural and organic.
Sawyer said he finds the typical RPG romance structure of having everyone stand around in a camp together while the player character engages with them at will, kind of awkward. "There are six of us together, and we're engaging in these romantic talks right next to everyone, and it feels kind of odd."
What Sawyer likes about Cyberpunk's romance is that, in his words, "it's not in a party context." It also helps that its big budget cinematic and overall presentation are great for immersion, and Sawyer also prefers the first-person perspective that it offers instead of third-person, but the other Main Thing is Cyberpunk's pacing, which locks a lot of romance progression behind progress points in the critical path.
"You do something with Judy, let's say, and then, you wrap it up, you have a convo, and then she's like, 'I gotta go do some things, bye,'" said Sawyer. "She is gone and you're not going to hear from her until time has elapsed, and probably until you've progressed a critical path.
"There's a built-in pacing, so the development of the human component of that relationship is developed over content that is specifically made for the two of you, like it's content for you and Judy alone. River doesn't come into it at all."
So there you have it. Sawyer is no "romance-hating scrooge" as he was dubbed in 2006; he just likes his romance to be believable and organic, which apparently is a tricky enough feat to accomplish that even Baldur's Gate 3 fell short by Sawyer's standards.
