Drew Karpyshyn: Exodus won't let you romance anyone just because you're the hero

In the upcoming Exodus from Mass Effect veterans, Archetype Entertainment aims to create a more realistic romance system, moving away from the approach where players can win over any character.

In an interview with GamesRadar+, narrative director Drew Karpyshyn shared the studio's philosophy:

We want to give players as many options as we can, but we want to keep it so that these characters feel real.

There are some games where, literally, you can just romance anyone, because you're the hero, and you just get it. We want it to be a little bit more than that. We want these relationships to feel real, which means there's sometimes conflict, there's sometimes push and pull.

Sometimes you've got to earn it. Sometimes you do something that sets some characters off, or upsets them, and then maybe closes off some of these paths, or maybe makes it harder to reopen them.

In Exodus, relationships extend beyond player interaction with specific companions. The system accounts for connections between companions themselves, story developments, and the game's unique time dilation mechanic, which opens interesting possibilities for narrative evolution.

They all have their own motivations. So we want to keep it realistic in a way that is challenging and fun for the players, so that you can't just be like 'I'm the focus of the game, I get to romance whoever I want, and they just love me because I'm me.' I don't think that's very entertaining for people. So we really focus on that. And then we've also focused on the emotional impact.

Exodus launches in early 2027. The game represents just the first step in building the universe – the studio already views the project as a foundation for future sequels and expansions.