User blog comment:StoryGirl83/Walkthrough Guide Discussion/@comment-3452092-20190708200619/@comment-37915141-20190709002556

(So, I just wrote a long ass response but it didn't send or save it... Kill me please. Here we go again:)

Sorry, it turned out to be pretty long. To reduce characters I used some abbreviations, e.g. BB1.1 means Bloodbound Book 1 Chapter 1.

The idea is good in theory but it might prove a lot more challenging to implement than one would think.

First of all, the definition of 'romantic' might differ for some. Is it romantic if the LI flirts with you but MC doesn't respond in a romantic way? What if how MC responds depends on a choice? What if MC doesn't have any reaction? What is a romantic response exactly? What could count as flirting in the first place? Sometimes you can compliment an LI and get +Romance even though I didn't really think it was like that, but I guess PB did. Can hugging be romantic? If so, when? Is cuddling always romantic? It might not be for some.

Sometimes there's minor stuff in the narration. If you chose to tell Lily "You deserve someone better." (BB1.1, non-diamond) it'll say "your gaze meets hers for one charged moment" but it never prompts any dialogue, choice, or narration which is the result of romantic scenes. Her BB1.3 diamond scene (in the club) has a similar and inevitable narration like this but it also doesn't prompt romantic stuff, even if the player chose to kiss her (which is pretty romantic IMHO). So was this diamond scene romantic no matter what? I guess kissing her still was, but the scene... I don't know.

Sometimes the rather (IMHO) romantic scenes have literally zero effect. For example, in BB1.9 Kamilah's scene (Marcel's garden) it's implied that MC's flirting with her. Kamilah says the nicotiana is purposeful and attractive and MC says "Like you." then Kamilah asks whether she's flirting with her and even if you chose "No." it's taken as if you did because MC says "Just, you know... Keeping things professional." and Kamilah responds with "Now you just sound like Adrian. And you know how good he is at keeping things professional." to which MC only says "Touche.", and at the end Kamilah will inevitably put her arms around MC's shoulder who'll lean into it, after which the narration is, some would say, romantic. But all of this yields no romantic stuff later. And you can only know this if you remember every word (or screenshotted everything) because the only indication (well, in the non-diamond path, but there's also only one for the diamond path in her BB1.16 scene which is only related to the BB1.14 cabin scene) of a romantic option taking effect with her if you kiss her in BB1.15 (before the battle) and it's not at all obvious. "She wraps an arm around you and pulls you up against her, so close you can feel her heart beating in her chest." if you've romanced her, meaning you kissed her at her rooftop pool in BB1.12 diamond scene or took her cabin scene in BB1.14 which is inevitably romantic. "There's no hesitation to her movements as she pulls you tight against her." if you didn't romance her, meaning you could've kissed her on the Ball train in BB1.8 (because that Truth or Dare game has no effect), only held her hand in BB1.12 rooftop scene (or didn't take it), and didn't take the BB1.14 cabin scene. All of this needed a lot of playthroughs to figure out. I guess you could say that garden scene is still romantic but that also means that you'll lose out on a lot of information about her if you don't want to take it for that reason (even though it has absolutely no effect later) and non-diamond interactions with her are incredibly scarce (there are like 8-9 at best in BB1).

Now that I mentioned games, what about those? None of the kisses on the Ball train in BB1.8 have any effect but might sound romantic for some even if it's a game. And I think you can kiss Julian in HSS during spin the bottle but IDK how romantic is that and he's also not an LI. (You could also flirt with Brian in HSS.)

Also, there are dialogues where the LI is only mentioned and it's referring to having romanced them. What about that case? One example for this, on which I only stumbled upon after my 19 or so playthrough and by accident because it's so hidden and circumstantial, is in BB1.7 in the girls' night in scene with Lily and Kamilah. You can choose to say you think you might be in love. If you took Adrian's BB1.5 scene (rooftop restaurant) and kissed him (but not if you only hugged him) and didn't take Lily's BB1.6 scene (or you only hugged her), Kamilah will smirk at you and imply she knows who you're talking about. If you took Lily's said scene and kissed her (but not if you only hugged her) she'll wink at you. If you took both scenes and kissed both of them, Lily's case is prevalent (she'll wink and Kamilah won't smirk at you). Even if mentioning like this doesn't count there might be hidden hidden stuff like this where an options prompts romantic dialogue if you've romanced that LI before (or in that scene).

"Former LI"? Meaning if you've romanced them in your current playthrough but they're not your latest choice? Thing is, sometimes romantic options have effects even in the following book. For example, if you take Jax's BB1.10 scene (in his room in the Shadow Den) and go all the way (accepting the dessert doesn't prompt romantic stuff in that scene, nor later) then in BB2.3 (non-diamond path) he'll still say "I like my sword. ...And MC." (and the latter part only appears if you've romanced him) even if you didn't pick any romance options with him after that. Also, in his Jax BB1.16 scene he'll say he's been thinking about MC during the whole battle if you've romanced him but he'll say he'd been waiting to have some time alone with MC like this if you haven't. The first example is in the non-diamond path and the second is inevitably romantic but there're diamond scenes where romantic dialogue depends on your current or previous choices, Jax's BB1.10 scene is an example of that because of the dessert option.

Sometimes you could've romanced several LIs but only the last one counts. I didn't test this thoroughly but I think Adrian appears in MC's dream at the and of BB2.4 if you romanced someone else but didn't take Cal's scene in that chapter (or went to bed alone). That is in the non-diamond path and not exactly romantic but there might be diamond scenes with romantic dialogues as circumstantial as this.

The walkthroughs refer to requirements like "if they're your LI" or "if you've romanced them" and it's fine that they're not clarified there but I think implementing this template/idea is different. If I gather correctly it serves to tell whether you can take a scene without having to romance an LI. Based on every example I said before, there might be scenes where it depends on your choices before that said scene whether the scene will have romantic stuff which would need clarification as to what choices did exactly prompt this since there'll be people who want to take it but don't want to romance the LI. Sometimes this testing could take several playthroughs. I did 31 runs of BB1 (so far) and I still don't think I have found all romantic effects (based on how accidental the BB1.7 one was).

So, uh, yeah, my examples may not be the best and some of it is theory so it might sound like I'm only making it sound complicated but in my ridiculous amount of BB playthroughs I learned that unexpected romantic stuff can happen in the books. But sometimes a diamond scene is romantic no matter what so I guess that'd be nice to indicate (provided we have a clear definition of 'romantic' encounters).