Exodus Romance Options Are Not Gender-Locked for Both Male and Female Leads

As you'd expect from a space opera RPG that shares many similarties with Mass Effect, the upcoming Exodus from developer Archetype Entertainment has character relationships that you can build through dialogue choices, interactions, and decisions they make. This includes romance options; while you can choose to play as a male or female version of the lead character Jun Aslan, all character romance options will be available to you.

I spoke with Exodus narrative director (and former BioWare narrative lead) Drew Karpyshyn and asked him about how romance options work in this new game. "First of all, the player drives the romances and they are not gender-locked," he told me.

Karpyshyn continued explaining the depth of the system and how you can have multiple partners, saying, "There's no situation where a character is going to romance you if you didn't take the initiative. We want to put you in situations where you can potentially try to romance more than one character. Sometimes it'll go well, sometimes it won't depending on the character and depending on the choices you make. Like real life, it's complicated, right? We want it to be complicated."

It seems you won't be able to have everyone you want, however, and Exodus is said to pose tough decisions in both story moments and relationship dynamics. "We want to put you in positions where you can't make everybody happy. You're going to have to choose. Who do you side with, knowing that you will gain or lose affinity with one of these companions?" Karpyshyn said, before explaining that the choices you make throughout a playthrough will effect how characters perceive you. And rather than romance being a mechanical type of gameplay system, he mentioned, "We're leaning more toward the romances being a sort of role-playing relationship thing as opposed to being tied directly to gameplay."

With regard to any differences between the male and female versions of Jun, Karpyshyn said, "We really want players to feel like their choice of whether to play male or female is the choice that makes them happy... we're telling a story that works regardless, so there's not a lot of differences in how characters react to you."

The next logical question you'd probably ask is: what about sex scenes? Well, Exodus has them, too. “I think we're a bit closer to the reserved side, but certainly it's clear what's happening, but tasteful is a good way to describe it,” game director Chris King explained in a separate conversation with us at gamescom 2026.

With queer romance being a major feature in games such as Baldur's Gate 3 and even the older Mass Effect games, Exodus seems to be following suit. And we'll see how it plays out when Exodus launches on April 7, 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Be sure to check out my hands-on impressions of Exodus and read my full interview with Drew Karpyshyn where we discuss how choices, consequences, and the morality system work.

Michael Higham is an editor at IGN who regularly contributes with reviews, previews, features, and news in written and video form. He's usually entrusted with covering long RPGs and tech products, but he's got range when it comes to games. You'll also catch him at events and hosting video content, including IGN's weekly podcast Unlocked.