How Final Fantasy 7 Helped Baldur’s Gate 2 Discover Romance

When players think of Baldur’s Gate 2, they often remember more than tactical combat or min-maxed character builds. They remember companions who bickered, joked, confessed fears, and even fell in love. That focus on emotional storytelling was not an obvious feature of computer RPGs in the late 1990s. It emerged partly because BioWare’s writers looked across the genre divide at a Japanese RPG phenomenon: Final Fantasy 7.

The original Baldur’s Gate was a landmark for party-based Western RPGs, but many of its companions were mechanically useful first and characters second. After seeing how FF7 made players care deeply about Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, and the rest, BioWare’s leadership grew convinced that their own characters needed more interior life. That realization led directly to richer companions and the introduction of full romance arcs in Baldur’s Gate 2, setting a template that would guide the studio for decades.

The State of RPG Storytelling Before Baldur’s Gate 2

To understand why Baldur’s Gate 2 felt so different, it helps to recall what came before it in Western CRPGs:

• Early computer RPGs like Wizardry or Ultima emphasized dungeon crawling, party management, and world simulation rather than deep character relationships.
• Storytelling was broad, not intimate: plots centered on defeating evil overlords or saving kingdoms; emotional arcs were rare and often delivered through text rather than performance.
• Companions were largely mechanical constructs: they had classes, stats, and maybe a bit of flavor text, but rarely long-running personal storylines integrated into the main plot.

By the mid-1990s, JRPGs on consoles were experimenting aggressively with cinematic presentation and scripted character drama. Square’s Final Fantasy series, culminating in Final Fantasy 7 in 1997, helped redefine what players expected from game narratives by combining pre-rendered cinematics, a sweeping score, and character-driven story arcs. Sony itself later highlighted FF7 as a flagship story-driven title that helped sell the PlayStation globally.¹

Final Fantasy 7’s Shockwave Through BioWare

Final Fantasy 7 captivated players worldwide with its blend of melodrama, sci-fi fantasy, and memorable character moments. For Western developers, it was also a wake-up call. Interviews with BioWare writers have described how seeing FF7 in action made their own work feel emotionally underpowered by comparison.²

Several qualities of FF7 stood out:

• Clear emotional arcs: characters like Cloud and Aerith had vulnerabilities, secrets, and growth intertwined with the central plot.
• Cinematic storytelling: even with blocky models, the framing, music, and timing made key scenes feel like emotional set pieces.
• Party as found family: the game treated the cast as a motley, evolving group, not just a lineup of battle units.

According to developers, this comparison made many BioWare companions in the first Baldur’s Gate look flat. The result was a deliberate effort, going into Baldur’s Gate 2, to deepen characterization across the board: more personal quests, more inter-party banter, and ultimately, structured romance storylines.

From Stat Blocks to People: How Companions Evolved

The shift from the first game to the second is most visible in how companions are written and used. In the original Baldur’s Gate, party members often served as:

• A way to cover missing roles (like a healer or thief).
• A source of brief flavor dialogue or alignment clashes.
• Occasional quest hooks, but usually not fully fleshed story arcs.

Baldur’s Gate 2 elevated companions into co-protagonists:

• Personal storylines that ran parallel to the main quest, sometimes with major gameplay consequences.
• Reactive dialogue that changed based on locations, quests, and player choices.
• Inter-party dynamics including arguments, friendships, and rivalries independent of the player character.

This philosophy represents a design choice that game narrative scholars often call ensemble storytelling—building a cast of characters with their own arcs rather than focusing only on a single protagonist.³ While FF7 is not the only influence, it provided one of the most visible examples of how a game’s emotional impact could be driven by its party members.

Why Romance Became the Next Logical Step

Once companions were treated as fully realized individuals, it was almost inevitable that romance would follow. Romantic subplots have long been part of broader narrative media because they:

• Create high emotional stakes for characters.
• Offer personal, grounded conflicts alongside epic threats.
• Encourage players or audiences to project themselves into relationships.

BioWare recognized that letting players form romantic relationships with companions could strengthen their attachment to the cast and to the playthrough itself. Romance also fit neatly with the studio’s interest in player choice and branching narrative. Academic work on interactive storytelling notes that systems where players forge interpersonal bonds heighten agency and investment because choices feel personally meaningful, not just tactically optimal.⁴

In Baldur’s Gate 2, romance was not just an optional minigame; it was woven into how the companions evolved over the course of the adventure.

How Baldur’s Gate 2 Implemented Romance

Baldur’s Gate 2 introduced multiple romanceable companions, each with its own requirements, pacing, and narrative tone. While details vary by character, the overall structure followed a few key principles:

• Dialogue-driven progression: romances advanced through timed conversations, often triggered after resting or completing major quests.
• Alignment and race checks: certain romances depended on the protagonist’s moral alignment or race, reflecting Dungeons & Dragons lore.
• Branching outcomes: players could deepen relationships, break them off, or fail them through dialogue responses.

Romantic arcs were tightly bound to companion characterization. For example, a proud or insecure character had romance conversations that explored those traits, allowing players to support, challenge, or even exploit them. This approach moved RPG relationships beyond simple “approval meters” to more intricate narrative sequences.

Lessons Borrowed from Final Fantasy 7

While Baldur’s Gate 2 remained a very different type of role-playing game than FF7, you can trace several design attitudes back to that earlier influence:

1. Emotion Is a Design Pillar, Not a Byproduct

FF7 showed that investing resources in emotional storytelling—music cues, dramatic confrontations, and character revelations—could become central to a game’s appeal. BioWare likewise began to treat emotional beats as key design pillars rather than side effects of a good plot. Companion deaths, betrayals, and romantic climaxes in Baldur’s Gate 2 often land with more force precisely because they are framed with care.

2. Ensemble Casts Keep the Journey Fresh

In both games, the adventure comes alive in large part through an ensemble cast. Each new area becomes an opportunity for specific characters to react, comment, or grow. This structure encourages players to replay the game with different companions to see new scenes, effectively extending the life of the game without adding completely new core content.

3. Relationships as a Form of Progression

RPGs traditionally reward players with levels, loot, and new abilities. Baldur’s Gate 2 added another dimension: the progression of relationships. Unlocking new dialogue, pivotal romance scenes, or resolution to a companion’s personal problem served as its own reward, reminiscent of how FF7 rewarded players with optional character scenes or hidden backstory segments.

The Wider Impact on BioWare and Western RPGs

The success of Baldur’s Gate 2 validated this focus on relationships and romance. From there, BioWare doubled down on character-driven stories in later series:

• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) expanded romance and companion arcs in a fully voiced, cinematic format.
• Mass Effect (starting 2007) made romance a headline feature, integrating it tightly with a trilogy-long narrative.
• Dragon Age leaned even further into intricate party dynamics, approval systems, and diverse romance options.

By the late 2000s, the idea that a big-budget RPG would ship without romance options or developed companions began to feel unusual. Scholars of game design have pointed to these BioWare titles as central examples of character-focused RPGs, where personal relationships are as important as mission structure.³ The influence of FF7 is part of that lineage: its success helped normalize the expectation that players should care deeply about the people in their party.

Why Romance Resonates with Players

Romance in RPGs is not simply fan service; it serves multiple design and narrative goals:

• Personal stakes: when the world is in peril, loving someone within that world raises the emotional cost of failure.
• Role-playing depth: romances let players express who their character is beyond stats and moral alignment.
• Replay value: different romance options encourage multiple playthroughs and experimentation with choices.
• Representation: over time, more varied romance options allow for better reflection of diverse player identities.

Psychological research on media suggests that parasocial and fictional relationships can provide meaningful emotional experiences, sometimes even affecting mood and empathy in positive ways.⁵ In games, where players actively choose those relationships, the sense of investment can be even stronger.

From Baldur’s Gate 2 to Baldur’s Gate 3

Modern RPGs, including Baldur’s Gate 3, now stand on the shoulders of the groundwork laid by Baldur’s Gate 2. Larian Studios’ take on the franchise features:

• Companions with extensive personal quests.
• Complex romance systems, including queer relationships.
• Reactive storytelling that considers who your character is and what they’ve done.

These design pillars have become part of the franchise’s identity. While technology has advanced—fully voiced dialogues, motion capture, cinematic cameras—the core idea remains recognizable: party members are not just allies in combat, but fully realized individuals whose emotional lives can intertwine with the player’s choices. That lineage traces back to Baldur’s Gate 2, and beyond it, to the moment a team of Western RPG developers looked at a JRPG phenomenon and decided they needed to step up their game.

Key Takeaways for RPG Storytelling

• Looking outside your own subgenre can expose blind spots and inspire meaningful change.
• Companions become memorable when they have problems, desires, and arcs independent of the player.
• Romance, when treated with care, amplifies emotional engagement rather than distracting from the main plot.
• Ensemble casts and long-form character development enrich replayability and deepen player attachment.

Baldur’s Gate 2 did not simply bolt romance onto a combat system; it reframed what party-based RPGs could be. Influenced in part by the emotional ambition of Final Fantasy 7, BioWare transformed their companion design philosophy—and, in the process, helped set expectations for story-driven RPGs for decades to come.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did the original Baldur’s Gate have romance options?

No. The original Baldur’s Gate did not include fully developed romance storylines for companions. Those structured romance arcs were introduced in Baldur’s Gate 2, which built on the foundation of party-based storytelling established in the first game.

How exactly did Final Fantasy 7 influence Baldur’s Gate 2?

Final Fantasy 7 showed BioWare’s team how powerful emotionally driven, character-focused narratives could be within an RPG. Developers have described feeling that their original companions were underdeveloped by comparison, which led them to invest more heavily in character arcs, party dynamics, and eventually romance systems for Baldur’s Gate 2.²

Are romance systems now standard in Western RPGs?

Not universal, but very common. Many major Western RPGs—especially those influenced by BioWare’s work—include romance options as a core part of their narrative design. However, some RPGs still focus mostly on exploration, combat, or simulation without detailed relationship mechanics.

Why do developers spend so many resources on companion writing?

Companions and their relationships often become the most memorable part of an RPG. They can turn a standard quest into a personal drama and give context to the player’s decisions. From a design perspective, strong companions can significantly improve player satisfaction and replay value, making the investment worthwhile.

Is Baldur’s Gate 2 still worth playing today?

For players interested in the history of narrative RPGs, Baldur’s Gate 2 remains highly influential. While its interface and visuals are dated, its companion writing, quest structure, and romance arcs continue to be studied and enjoyed, especially through Enhanced Edition releases that help it run on modern systems.