Dragon Age - Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Reverend
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Bioware relly gives the impression that they're actually listening to feedback from the players and then change things in the future.
Case in point Mass Effect 1 and the Mako driving on the planet that combined ressource gathering and the occasional fight. While fun at first (who didn't try to do the most awesome and ridiculous stunt with the Mako because you knew it was indestructible and everybody inside was fine when they should be splattered across the inside - they should have built several million of these to engage the Reapers and casually win the war without losing a single one of them
) it grew boring real quick so they changed it for parts 2 and 3 for a simple probe/radar minigame that only takes a few moments to complete.There were also some additional changes that see minor but are good improvements in gameplay.
While i didn't dislike DA2 (still think DAO was the better of the two games by a good margin) i think DAI is far better than each of them.
While much of it comes from the new technology (imagine if you had the same scope with the previous generation of consoles.. you'd be more of a disc jockey changing the DVDs) there are still big improvements while keeping the core the same.
Here and there are still some minor quibbles (such as not having a chest to store some items you want to keep for later) these can be forgiven.
I have all but given up on the main quest and am just sidequesting my way through the game for ages now.. sometimes just running in a certain direction to see what i will find.. found a hidden castle in the Hinterlands (and i thought i was all but done in Hinterlands!) that was just awesome and i got a certain Brokeback Mountain vibe off it considering the backstory i found written somewhere in the castle
I really like the game.. must have now spent well over 30 or even 40 hours and have not even visited some areas that are now open to me a sidequests (currently i'm about upgrading Skyhold.. the place looks like a mess and as the Inquisitor i gotta represent!
Yeah, and it was really important that they did this time around, they lost a lot of goodwill with DA2 (even though they're not precisely the ones to blame, EA rushed them to release with way too short of a dev cycle) and its copy/paste dungeons and empty sidequests etc.
Fixed that for you.
My character's actually romancing Sera. Sure she's ugly, but she's pretty funny, and I always like having an irreverent attitude towards everything in DA2 and this, since I honestly don't give a rat's ass about the lore of Thedas (never bother reading the codex entries unless they directly pertain to a quest) so Sera's a perfect fit for my rogue. Cole on the other hand, I can't stand that emo little shit. Ugh. I've been doing his Skyhold quests for completeness sake, but never once put him in my party.
^Cole most assuredly is not "emo", he just has the mental age nine year old who has been deeply, emotionally scarred and possessed of a deep compulsion to help people, which is all tied to his backstory. Indeed, people who are generally considered "emo" tend towards nihilism and self involvement. Looking at it like that, one could argue that Cole is diametrically opposite to "emo".
My main complait about the companions this time around is that there seems to be very little sense of them interacting with each other. Part of this may be a bug in that a lot of people are reporting that the party banter is almost never (if ever) triggering, often for hours at a time. But to me it's also also down to there being very little interaction going on back at Skyhold.
With DA2 you'd often go to speak with Avaline to find Varric there trying to talk her into something, or going to see Isabella and have her in the middle of a card game with Merrill. DAI doesn't have the sense of a tight knit unit that DA2 did so well. In my playthrough so far Vivvien & Dorien feel almost like DLC add-on characters since they each go off to their little corners of the hold where they're easily forgotten.
Actually I'm wondering if Dorien may be bugged since I'm pretty far along and as yet haven gotten much out of him in the way of quests and cutscenes.
My main complait about the companions this time around is that there seems to be very little sense of them interacting with each other. Part of this may be a bug in that a lot of people are reporting that the party banter is almost never (if ever) triggering, often for hours at a time. But to me it's also also down to there being very little interaction going on back at Skyhold.
With DA2 you'd often go to speak with Avaline to find Varric there trying to talk her into something, or going to see Isabella and have her in the middle of a card game with Merrill. DAI doesn't have the sense of a tight knit unit that DA2 did so well. In my playthrough so far Vivvien & Dorien feel almost like DLC add-on characters since they each go off to their little corners of the hold where they're easily forgotten.
Actually I'm wondering if Dorien may be bugged since I'm pretty far along and as yet haven gotten much out of him in the way of quests and cutscenes.
Maybe it's by design choice.
The areas are much large now and if people want to find a certain person they know where they are (or they could use the map).
Granted it would feel more natural if the characters would move around and formed impromptu small social groups but then Skyhold seems pretty static, ie. no one moves around.
I guess the game is complicated enough without having to introduce dozens of characters/people moving around (though it would look amazing and natural).
The areas are much large now and if people want to find a certain person they know where they are (or they could use the map).
Granted it would feel more natural if the characters would move around and formed impromptu small social groups but then Skyhold seems pretty static, ie. no one moves around.
I guess the game is complicated enough without having to introduce dozens of characters/people moving around (though it would look amazing and natural).
I'm thinking cutscene-style dialog triggers must be tied to approval rating. I was pretty dismissive of Vivienne's pro-Circle-ness back at Haven, and she's pretty much had zero new dialogue at Skyhold. I even did her find the three tomes quest and still nothing. On the other hand, companions I've gotten along with sometimes had cutscene dialogue one after the other. Vivienne's a stuck-up bitch, so I don't really care.
I've apparently had better luck with Dorian than you had, Reverend. I almost always have him in my party, he and my rogue get along great, she flirted with him every chance she got, even though I knew nothing would come of it As such I recall several cutscene dialogues with him at Skyhaven. Think the latest one I had was him criticizing the selection of Tevinter-related books in the library.
I've apparently had better luck with Dorian than you had, Reverend. I almost always have him in my party, he and my rogue get along great, she flirted with him every chance she got, even though I knew nothing would come of it
As such I recall several cutscene dialogues with him at Skyhaven. Think the latest one I had was him criticizing the selection of Tevinter-related books in the library.
I had the same feeling, I've talked to him as often as I can at Skyhold, but so far I haven't gotten his personal quest yet (if there is one) even though I´ve progressed quite far into the main quest now and done all the war table quests he´s given me.
I do like how the character tarot cards in the selection menu change after you do a character´s personal quest. It helps you keep track of whose you´ve yet to do.
I've had one scene where Dorian interacts with Cassandra, two where Cassandra interacts with Varric, and one involving Sera and the council members. There is apparently also a scene with everyone together, but so far I've only seen that on YouTube.
On reflection, I have seen a fair amount of interaction...and yet I don't get the same feeling of closeness we got in DA2. Maybe it's because everyone is part of this larker organization that they mostly feel like work colleagues, whereas in DA2 they (mostly) felt like a dysfunctional family.
In other news, I think I'm getting the hang of the CC as I now have a Dwarf archer.
A slightly more refined run at my elf warrior (which I'll still probably end up redoing b/c I overdid the make-up.)
And a Qunari mage.
...still not totally happy with the Qunari, but they didn't give us much to work with sadly.
Oh and I think I'm officially attached to my main character, flaws and all.
In other news, I think I'm getting the hang of the CC as I now have a Dwarf archer.
A slightly more refined run at my elf warrior (which I'll still probably end up redoing b/c I overdid the make-up.)
And a Qunari mage.
...still not totally happy with the Qunari, but they didn't give us much to work with sadly.
Oh and I think I'm officially attached to my main character, flaws and all.
/flex
I'm at the point where I'm starting to run out of stuff to do, and the war table operations keep getting longer and longer, like 3-6 hours each. I think I may end up creating a second character to pass the time while I wait for operations to complete on the first one.
I'm currently 17/19 for Skyhold nursery seeds. In the common category is an unknown between Blood Lotus and Deep Mushroom, and in the rare category, an unknown between Black Lotus and Dragonthorn. Anyone know which these are?
I got to the point where all I had left to do was collect shards and such so I went ahead and finished the game. All I'll say is that I really hope there will be some beefy DLC or an expansion (I can dream, can't I?) in the future. Certain aspects of the ending I was honestly not expecting and left me wondering about a lot of things. I guess that was the point.
Still, it was a great game. I was going to jump right back in and play another character but wound up buying the legendary edition of Skyrim this afternoon. Damn Steam sales...
Still, it was a great game. I was going to jump right back in and play another character but wound up buying the legendary edition of Skyrim this afternoon. Damn Steam sales...
I got Dragon Age Inquisition on the PS3 today. Besides from a few wonky texture loading problems (that weren't that big a deal), its been going pretty smoothly, and I'm enjoying it. I'm playing as an elf mage, and I thought the Character creator was pretty good for him, although apparently the elves in this game must have face tattoos, since I couldn't find a way to not have one. I ended up finding one I liked, but it was a bit annoying at first. The combat took a bit of getting used to (I kept jumping because I'm used to tapping X to attack in DA2) but its not bad. I've gotten to Haven and have done a few sidequests (I have to go to the Hinterlands for the next main quest), but I can tell I've barely started. I'm enjoying seeing Varric and Leliana again, and Cassandra is a bit different than I expected (I expected her to be a bit more of an uptight religious nut). I can tell I'm going to put a lot of time into this game.
^Contemplating something similar as that Cullen bug is now preventing me from continuing a quest.
I may just end up starting my second playthrough before I finished my first and just hope I don't catch up before the issues is patch or there's a viable workaround. You'd think it'd be a simple matter of using a console command to restart the bugged quest, but far as I can tell, nobody has come up with anything. :/
I've seen this reaction quite a lot and I get why, but if you've seen the (admittedly mediocre) DVD movie 'Dawn of the Seeker' from a few years back, you get more of a sense as to what she's about. Honestly I like that they've made a character who is deeply devoted to her faith, but not blindly so. Too often religious types are portrayed as just fanatics. She sees the injustices for what they are and doesn't confuse what is good or expedient for the Chantry and what is the right thing to do. She's also a hopeless romantic at heart (you'll see that later, and it's very funny and adorable!)
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So I finished the game last night, and want to side with the templars for a second playthrough. Initially I was just going to create a tank who probably takes the templar specialization, but I read about how OP the knight enchanter specialization is, so I thought it'd be interesting from a role playing perspective to play as a mage who remains loyal to the Chantry (which makes sense as a Trevelyan) and who, like Vivienne, feels that the Circles should still exist, but that they just need to be reformed. Seems like romancing Cullen as a mage would be more interesting as well, given his experiences at the Ferelden Circle and Kirkwall.
I recruited the templars tonight, and I gotta say that quest provides a way better introduction for Cole. Siding with the templars, you still have the opportunity to meet Dorian in Redcliffe beforehand, but when you side with the mages, Cole pretty much just awkwardly appears out of nowhere afterwards in Haven, so he kind of left a poor impression on me the first time around.
Completed the Cassandra romance. Still not older-forms-of-media-great in terms of writing or dialogue, but definitely a step up from earlier BioWare romance fare.
What a great character, though. I was generally lukewarm on my companions at the beginning (even Varric seemed strangely flat and boring compared to DA2), but they have definitely grown on me. BioWare certainly hasn't forgotten how to write compelling characters.
Putting off going to Val Royaux to
for the moment to focus on character and general completionist stuff. Can't wait for the holiday break to go completely nuts on it! 
What a great character, though. I was generally lukewarm on my companions at the beginning (even Varric seemed strangely flat and boring compared to DA2), but they have definitely grown on me. BioWare certainly hasn't forgotten how to write compelling characters.
Putting off going to Val Royaux to
save the Empress
Well, Varric's change is understandable. He's more jaded and world-weary now, having been personally involved with the origin of the mage rebellion and also losing his brother to red lyrium. Definitely no longer the happy-go-lucky dwarf you first met in Kirkwall 10 years ago. At least it isn't as drastic as Anders between Awakening and DA2.