Those mad lads at Obsidian were bluffing us: Avowed does have a tiny bit of companion romance, as a treat

pcgamer.com:

At least one of Avowed's companions can be romanced by the player character, flying in the face of multiple pre-launch warnings by Obsidian that we shouldn't expect that from them. We're not talking a full-on Baldur's Gate 3 or Mass Effect multipart courting with premium cable nudity at the end of the rainbow, but the romantic subplot we can confirm so far is an interesting outgrowth of an already standout companion quest. Mild Avowed spoilers, including that companion's identity, below.

Obsidian is very much on the record as the anti-RPG romance developer. Studio design director Josh Sawyer has expressed a distaste for them that goes back decades, arguing they're often objectifying, crass wish fulfillment. When there are romantic subplots or themes in Obsidian games, they typically run toward the tragic or subversive:

Obsidian explicitly denied that there'd be anything of the sort in Avowed multiple times in the run up to the game's release. «We are building thoughtful relationships with our companion characters,» project lead Carrie Patel told IGN last January on the back of Avowed's first gameplay reveal. «Ultimately, I personally am a fan of making that an option, but I feel like if you're going to do it, you really, really have to commit and make sure that you're giving all to fulfilling that in a way that feels both true to the character, but also creates an engaging player experience. So not something we're doing for Avowed, but I wouldn't say never.»

We haven't seen how it ends, but there's an optional romantic element to your relationship with Kai, Avowed's poster boy and a new hall of famer when it comes to chummy RPG warrior companions. After completing Kai's multiple act companion quest, Battle Scars, there's a debrief conversation back at camp. Afterward, I had the dialogue option «I feel like we've really gotten to know each other, haven't we?» pop up in Kai's general dialogue tree. That starts a conversation where you can affirm your friendship with