Avowed has no companion romance paths. Game director Carrie Patel said the team wanted companion relationships to develop naturally, without making romance a required focus or leaving players who chose friendship with a less substantial experience.
Why doesn’t Avowed have romance options?
Patel’s explanation has two parts: a romance route takes considerable writing and design work to make it feel true to a character, and a non-romantic friendship route should feel just as rich. In a GamesRadar+ interview, she said the team felt it could best tell its companions’ stories and players’ relationships with them “without the romance option.”
There was also a concern about emphasis. In a GameSpot report on her appearance on IGN Unlocked, Patel said romance options can “undermine that core experience” by drawing attention toward romance rather than the story or characters. That is her reasoning for Avowed’s design, not a general claim that romance systems harm role-playing games.
Patel described the goal as relationships that feel natural and give players as much as they choose to put into them. In a VICE interview, she also said the best companion relationships—whether romance, friendship, or rivalry—feel like a natural development of time spent with a character.
#1 Best Overall
- Welcome to the Living Lands, a mysterious island filled with adventure and danger.
- Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.
- Explore an island home to many different environments and landscapes, each with their own unique ecosystem
- Mix and match swords, spells, guns, and shields to fight your way
- Companions from a spread of species will fight alongside you, with their own unique set of abilities.
What relationships with companions does Avowed offer?
No romance path does not mean companions are absent from the story or that their relationships with the player are empty. Companions have distinct personalities and story ties, and the game builds bonds through dialogue, interactions, and how players handle events.
Patel described a companion story about someone whose heart is elsewhere while she is needed in the Living Lands. She said it was not a story often seen with a party member travelling alongside the player. The example illustrates the kind of character-focused story the team wanted to tell without turning it into a romance route.
Rank #2
- Requires base game, Game Pass Ultimate, or PC Game Pass Membership (Sold Separately)
- Premium Upgrade includes: Premium Skin Packs: 2 sets of bonus skins for your companions, and access to Avowed Digital Artbook & Original Soundtrack
- Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.
- Explore an island home to many different environments and landscapes, each with their own unique ecosystem.
- Mix and match swords, spells, guns, and shields to fight your way.
How do companions join and travel with you?
In a Game Informer interview, Patel described four companions joining the party over the course of the story. Players can generally take two companions on excursions, although some areas or quests require a particular companion.
Companions banter at camp, and those conversations can vary with world events, completed quests, story progress, and who is present. The developers also described companions reacting to quest decisions and to how the player handles the main story and side quests; Xbox Wire’s overview of Avowed’s choices and companion system covers those reactions.
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- Premium Edition includes: Avowed base game, Premium Skin Packs: 2 sets of bonus skins for each of your companions, and access to Avowed Digital Artbook & Original Soundtrack
- Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.
- Explore an island home to many different environments and landscapes, each with their own unique ecosystem.
- Mix and match swords, spells, guns, and shields to fight your way.
- Companions from a spread of species will fight alongside you, with their own unique set of abilities.
Does Avowed have a physical edition?
Yes. Obsidian announced a Premium Edition SteelBook with a digital code for the base game, a SteelBook, and a map of the Living Lands. It is a physical edition, but the announcement does not describe it as including a game disc. See Obsidian’s edition announcement for those details.
Release and pricing details depend on platform and announcement date. Obsidian’s January 2026 PlayStation 5 announcement gives February 17, 2026 as the PS5 release date and lists $49.99 for Standard Edition and $59.99 for Premium Edition; those are the prices stated in that announcement, not a guarantee of current prices across storefronts.
Quick Recap
Rank #4
- L'édition Premium SteelBook comprend: le jeu de base Avowed, jusqu'à 5 jours d'accès anticipé, le SteelBook Avowed, la carte des Terres Vivantes, deux packs de skins Premium et l'accès à l'Artbook numérique Avowed et à la bande-son originale
- Vous êtes l'envoyé d'Aedyr, une terre lointaine, missionné pour enquêter sur les rumeurs selon lesquelles une épidémie se propagerait dans les Terres Vivantes, une île pleine de mystères et de secrets, de dangers et d'aventures, de choix et de conséconsés. quences, et d'une nature sauvage
- Explorez une île qui abrite de nombreux environnements et paysages différents, chacun avec son propre écosystème unique
- Mélangez et associez des épées, des sorts, des armes et des boucliers pour vous frayer un chemin
- The compagnons d'un large éventail d'espèces se battront à vos côtés, avec leurs propres capacités uniques
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