Obsidian Entertainment would’ve never expected such warm reception for this one character in Avowed.

Whether it be the protagonist, the villain, or maybe even the side highlights, it is the characters that make the game, especially so in RPG titles such as the recently released Avowed. A trend in the industry has also been allowing players to interact extraordinarily with these characters, often even allowing players to romance them.

Avowed has many different characters for players to interact with | Obsidian Entertainment

Unfortunately, that’s not the case with this one character, Kai, in Avowed that everyone otherwise would have liked to rizz up. While Obsidian Entertainment, the studio behind the game, would not have expected such a warm reception towards Kai, it is still welcome.

Avowed: The power of Kai and his loose shirt

Players of the game have been melting over Kai | Obsidian Entertainment

As expected before its release, fans were naturally excited to see what the game and its different characters will have to offer once it finally comes out. However, all hell broke loose when it came to Kai, with players wanting nothing but suggestive interactions and the ability to romance with him.

Talking about the creative decisions the team had to make when it came to the character, Dimitri Berman, the lead character artist, revealed the following in an interview via GamesHub.

We didn’t plan for [players to be attracted to Kai] but we don’t stay away from it, We had different outfits and concepts for his outfits – for example, if he’s a soldier, should he wear a heavy armour, a lighter armour, what does it mean? But we always look at the background of the character, how they’re written, their personality. With Kai, he’ll like his shirt open, and he’s got a little whale. We just pick what makes sense for the character.

Berman essentially revealed how the design of every single character is thought through under the roof of Obsidian Entertainment. Apparently, all it took for our fish-buddy Kai was for him to have his shirt open and have a tiny whale locket to suddenly become the community’s collective digital crush.

Why characters are one of the best way to market your video game

Characters remain a huge part of any video game | Obsidian Entertainment

In the highly competitive world of gaming, different and unique characters are always the studio’s key to making sure their title emerges as a blazing success. Whether it be Mario, Geralt from the Witcher series, or Master Chief from Halo and more, characters will always be the greatest identity of any video game franchise.

Kai is just one of these characters that has happened to catch the eye of the players. And not only are they liking him, they demand to have more suggestive interactions with the character, showing the real down-bad side of the player base.

Whether intentional or not, Obsidian Entertainment has stumbled onto the perfect formula for getting RPG players hooked on a character, which is how we know Avowed is a success, despite the Steam numbers suggesting so.