Will this game have romances/ character bonding?

If so, I hope it will be more extended than in Divinity OS2 and older Baldur's Gate games, there's more to it than just one fade to black sex scene and few flirty dialog choices before it.

Something like Gold Saucer date in Final Fantasy VII is a good start.

Larian, make this happen as everyone before you have done it wrong.

Oh no, not this again.

Hey, I'll support it, if it's done well. ;) I think the BG2 and DA romances were some of the best features of the games. But if they do it, they really need to assign decent writing time (and writers) to the task, and not simply cram it in just because it's something "fans expect". The romances in the NWN series were pretty shallow because not enough time was taken to write compelling and meaningful arcs, and it showed.

That's why I'd rather prefer they'd allocate those resources to e.g. refinig main storyline and dialogues, which will have impact on the whole game. Romances usually are optional and extremely difficult to pull off, so in my opinion not worth the resources.

And no, BG2 didn't do them right in my opinion. It was too obvious/borderline cringe, look at PS:T for better and subtler approach.

I won't be mad if there'll be romances though, I'll simply do the same as in BG2, not recruit any romanceable NPC.

Swiggity swooty, you roll a charisma check for that booty.

That's fair enough, although the romance component was a big selling point for myself and a lot of other players, so personally I'm hoping they will be included. :)

PS:T definitely had the best writing out of all the Infinity Engine games, and while I'd agree that this extends to the romances (such as they were), they ultimately weren't satisfying due to the nature of the game itself. (Imagine if you had a romance novel written from the PoV of somebody who was dying from a terminal illness. It might be a brilliant novel, but the ending would always be bittersweet.)

Are you seriously hoping to get an official answer here?

Anyway, that's a wrong question. The real question is mods. Baldur's Gate is mods. If you have mods, you will have everything. If not, no game will last. I hope Larian realizes it.

Definitely. :) I'm just a bit tired of all the grimdark fantasy AAA RPGs that have been taking center stage for the last few years. I want some more classic high fantasy stuff for a change, stuff where the hero DOES manage to set things right, get the girl/guy/sentient ooze if that's your thing, and save the world.

The best would be for the game to have several possible endings/paths. That would be actually awesome in my book. Baldur's Gate has very high replay value by the virtue of having multiple choices in the character creation and the NPCs. Hopefully a new game would add more in this regard.

I usually despise game romances but I wouldn't mind an illithids romance for a mind-blowing experience.

I don't know if a romance with illithid is a good idea, but certainly an illithid companion would be something fresh and interesting. :) Same goes for a beholder. If written properly, this could be one of the best companions in cRPG history.

I was joking and was referring to the trailer when I said "mind-blowing" experience. :)

I definitely agree with you on an illithid companion. I really love companions in RPGs of classes that you can't be. It makes me feel that they are really different than I am. I couldn't be like them even if I wanted to. This helps a lot with my Role Playing imagination.

IF written well, that's the kicker. ;) I think a common flaw by writers when writing for non-human companions is that they fall into the trap of humanizing these creatures TOO much. We have to remember that the mind of an illithid or a beholder is not the same as a human's, and could work in very different ways. An illithid HAS to consume living brains of sapient creatures to survive; with that in mind, on some level, humanoids will always be a "food" to it. It may respect you, as we respect the power of a tiger or a shark. It may even like you, as we like and bond with our pets, but it will NEVER see you on the same level as itself.

I think I'll pass this idea to Larian forums. :) Did you play Mask of the Betrayer? There's a bear god that you can recruit and a being called One of Many. Torment Tides of Numenera also has some interesting companions. There's a jelly-like entity called Oom which reveals tides assigned to certain dialogue options. There's also a child called Rhin which develops quite well during gameplay. I'm not even mentioning Planescape Torment here, because probably everyone here knows how great and memorable are companions in this game. :)
An illithid would be a good companion for an evil party. It doesn't have to destroy the whole race concept. There's a beholder in Throne of Bhaal which can be reasoned with. It was a very interesting and funny moment. :)