I misunderstood your question. Looking back at a list off crpgs from that era yeah, i think it might have just been BGII, Planescape Torment, and Vampire.
Original answer: I guess? Is that not every romance plot or sub plot in every video game? I recall a lot of talking to Viconia about her life before coming to the surface, her struggles dealing with racism, her being a huge asshole. Jaheira's grief for her husband and trying to figure that out. Aerie was very stereotypical naive waif from what I recall.
From what I remember there was less, idk, to it than mass effect, probably bc your characters consisted of a small generic sprite and a single portrait so it was mostly reading text with very very limited voice acting for combat barks.
I also recall it being less formulaic than later games as they hadn't settled on the talk to character - unlock loyalty quest - do loyalty quest - character now adores you loop that dominated the mass effect games and their competitors. I've never seen a story branch chart for the games but subjectively it seemed more complex than that, with the characters occaisionally starting conversations while you wandered around the world. This was also back before karma systems and paragon/renegade and the "yes" "yes but be an asshole about it" "no, but actually yes" and "no, but i'll be forced to come back later" era where you could actually turn down quests, fail quests, or miss things entirely. If you pissed off people with your choices they'd leave and often not come back. If they died you had to find someone to ressurect them, which was expensive, or they stayed dead. I think some spells were an insta-kill with no ressurection possible.
This could all be rose colored glasses, i haven't played them in decades, but a lot of the very elegant, formulaic stuff that mass effect pioneered hadn't yet been developed so the games had somewhat more freedom to roam in your cage and the player was still allowed to make mistakes and lose.
I guess it's good to know that the ole cee arr pee gee games have a little more mass to em than Ass Erect, fuck those were annoying lol. Being less horny due to using tiny sprites is a Restriction Breeds Innovation thing and also a RETVRN thing!
Is that not every romance plot or sub plot in every video game?
IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK TO NOT HAVE THAT If I'm to want to kiss viddy gaem characters, I would at least like them to have some sort of autonomy. I have always desired for nonplayer characters to be able to make the first move or pass me up. Where is the game where a beautiful nonbinary goth lesbiab gazes upon my dorky protag and decides to have some??? Why can I not try to chat up the hot older catgirl in my squad, get politely but firmly rejected, and spend the rest of the game emotionally pulverised and pining??? Drop my spaghetti every time I talk to her???
I also kinda want nonplayer characters to be able to show, not tell. Mass Effect characters just follow you around, I want the sense that these characters have their own lives and do stuff, in gameplay/onscreen terms. That they go off and watch the new dyke romance film, or kill people they don't like and try to hide it from me(I will find out and approve of her wrongs). This is my desire.
I misunderstood your question. Looking back at a list off crpgs from that era yeah, i think it might have just been BGII, Planescape Torment, and Vampire.
Original answer: I guess? Is that not every romance plot or sub plot in every video game? I recall a lot of talking to Viconia about her life before coming to the surface, her struggles dealing with racism, her being a huge asshole. Jaheira's grief for her husband and trying to figure that out. Aerie was very stereotypical naive waif from what I recall.
From what I remember there was less, idk,
to it than mass effect, probably bc your characters consisted of a small generic sprite and a single portrait so it was mostly reading text with very very limited voice acting for combat barks.
I also recall it being less formulaic than later games as they hadn't settled on the talk to character - unlock loyalty quest - do loyalty quest - character now adores you loop that dominated the mass effect games and their competitors. I've never seen a story branch chart for the games but subjectively it seemed more complex than that, with the characters occaisionally starting conversations while you wandered around the world. This was also back before karma systems and paragon/renegade and the "yes" "yes but be an asshole about it" "no, but actually yes" and "no, but i'll be forced to come back later" era where you could actually turn down quests, fail quests, or miss things entirely. If you pissed off people with your choices they'd leave and often not come back. If they died you had to find someone to ressurect them, which was expensive, or they stayed dead. I think some spells were an insta-kill with no ressurection possible.
This could all be rose colored glasses, i haven't played them in decades, but a lot of the very elegant, formulaic stuff that mass effect pioneered hadn't yet been developed so the games had somewhat more freedom to roam in your cage and the player was still allowed to make mistakes and lose.
I guess it's good to know that the ole cee arr pee gee games have a little more mass to em than Ass Erect, fuck those were annoying lol. Being less horny due to using tiny sprites is a Restriction Breeds Innovation thing and also a RETVRN thing!
IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK TO NOT HAVE THAT
If I'm to want to kiss viddy gaem characters, I would at least like them to have some sort of autonomy. I have always desired for nonplayer characters to be able to make the first move or pass me up. Where is the game where a beautiful nonbinary goth lesbiab gazes upon my dorky protag and decides to have some??? Why can I not try to chat up the hot older catgirl in my squad, get politely but firmly rejected, and spend the rest of the game emotionally pulverised and pining??? Drop my spaghetti every time I talk to her???
I also kinda want nonplayer characters to be able to show, not tell. Mass Effect characters just follow you around, I want the sense that these characters have their own lives and do stuff, in gameplay/onscreen terms. That they go off and watch the new dyke romance film, or kill people they don't like and try to hide it from me(I will find out and approve of her wrongs). This is my desire.
Totes fair.