Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC adds romance at last
Aloy didn’t have much time for romance during the breakneck events of Horizon Zero Dawn, but in the sequel to the post-apocalyptic open-world RPG called Forbidden West, the heroine formed many close bonds with other characters. However, those relationships never went beyond the platonic level. From the Burning banks DLC, currently available exclusively on PlayStation 5 and set after the events of Forbidden Westthat has changed.
[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for the Horizon series and the Burning Shores DLC.]
Multiple male characters have shown romantic interest in Aloy in the past, but she would always shoot them down. However, it seemed that the remnants of a romance system were in place Forbidden West; in dialogue options with the Sun-King Avad at the start of the game, players could select responses from Aloy with a heart symbol next to them, similar to how romance-specific dialogue is delineated in BioWare games such as Dragon Age and Mass Effect. However, selecting the heart options never led to a romance, further leading fans and critics to speculate that Aloy could be asexual.
Forbidden West also contained another hint in the storyline of Elisabet Sobeck, a scientist from the distant past of whom Aloy is an exact genetic clone. Towards the end of Forbidden West, Aloy discovers that Elizabet was a strange woman. Queerness has never been officially linked to a genetic marker in real life (although many scientists have researched it), but the Horizon games always seemed to lean a bit towards the magical when it comes to the extreme similarities between Aloy and her ancestor. The two are treated as essentially the same person, just in two different timelines. For that reason, many fans have assumed that Aloy is strange as well.
Burning banksthe new DLC for Forbidden West, confirms Aloy’s sexuality with the introduction of a romance between the heroine and her female companion Seyka, which is new in this new chapter. The full scene can be seen in the video below.
Aloy has the option to reject Seyka’s proposal, but even if she does, that rejection doesn’t mean Aloy is straight. Aloy’s dialogue responses to Seyka are “Yes, I do,” “I’m not ready for this,” or “This is too much for me.”
When Aloy reciprocates Seyka’s feelings, the two share a kiss, but the DLC still ends with the characters splitting up. Whatever happens, the inclusion of this new character and her feelings for Aloy open up huge opportunities for storytelling in future Horizon games – including more romance with Seyka, or perhaps other characters as well.