RPG-romancer kan til tider være lidt akavede. Det er svært at få en ægte, menneskelig følelse ud af at score sig en elver-kæreste ved blot at vælge de rigtige dialogmuligheder. Josh Sawyer, veteran inden for RPG-design, har bestemt sine betænkeligheder ved dem, men han mener, at hvis han nogensinde skulle forpligte sig til at lave et romantiksystem i et RPG, ville han basere det på ét spil.
Det spil er Cyberpunk 2077 - en titel, der skiller sig ud for Sawyer, fordi den behandler sine romancer lidt anderledes. Du forsøger ikke at få din udkårne til at kaste sig i armene på dig midt i en fest af seksuelle muligheder. I stedet udvikler du dig sammen med en karakter, tilbringer tid med dem, opbygger et forhold - og du kan ikke komme videre, før den kritiske vej i historien skrider frem.
"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,'" siger han til PCGamer.
"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."
"Some of it is production value, which, of course, Obsidian is not necessarily the big cutscene company. Larian does that extremely well. Of course CDPR does that exceptionally well. BioWare also does it well."
Men udover filmiske mellemsekvenser siger Sawyer at det i sidste ende er pacingen der er afgørende - altså tempoet: "It's not to say that's flawless, but I really do enjoy that way of doing them. If I were gonna base romances on anything, I'd probably do something like that."