You will still need to initiate romantic dialogue to show that you are interested in them (and in Cullen's case, your character will need to be a human or elven female as well). Note that Josephine and Cullen are not subject to the approval ratings. (Of course, if you're role-playing or trying to craft a particular tale, all bets are off!) Dialogue, quest availability, and even endings are affected by approval ratings regardless of whether an NPC is a suitor or not, so you'll probably want to keep those approval ratings nice and high with all your party members. Romance is only available if you maintain high approval with your chosen suitor. There is no simple visual indicator to gauge their friendship level with you, though you can usually get an idea based on how they speak to you. Unlike previous iterations of the franchise, these numbers are hidden from you. Your major companions (the ones you can choose for your party) have approval numbers based on your actions and dialogue choices. Note this means that elven females have six potential suitors, human females have five potential suitors, and every other combination of race and gender has four potential suitors. More details on their personalities can be found below. The chart below lists the eight possible relationships, their gender preferences (i.e., what your character needs to be to romance them), and whether they use the approval system.

Each of those eight have specific gender and/or race preferences that you cannot overrule, though you can usually flirt with them even if they won't want to take things to the next level. Serious relationships (that is, relationships with long-term game consequences that may affect the endings) are limited to eight characters. In other situations, flirting will actually be counterproductive early flirting with Cassandra, for example, tends to lower her approval rating because she thinks you're not taking her ideals seriously. Some NPCs, especially non-party members, may react favorably in specific quests, and initiating a one-night stand may resolve quests in special ways. All NPCs have their own preferences on partners they want, if any. However, just because you flirt doesn't mean the subject will respond favorably. All flirty romantic interactions are designated with a heart icon on the dialogue wheel.ДЇew NPCs will ever initiate usually you'll need to be the one to initiate, else the subject will assume your relationship is platonic at best. At the most basic level, as the player-character, you can initiate flirtatious dialogue with many non-player-characters, including subjects your character cannot actually romance. Casual romances are suited to minor characters, perhaps even one-night stands for NPCs in special circumstances in quests. Our Romance Walkthrough below will help you close the deal, but you have to work a bit to convince your potential suitor that you are worth their time.ДЇor lack of better terms, there are serious and casual romances in Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Romance is more nuanced in Dragon Age: Inquisition compared to previous Dragon Age iterations and other franchises from Bioware.

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