Dragon Age - Discussion Thread

[Reverend]

Given all the footage coming out or E3 and rather than continuing to derail the Mass Effect thread, I thought I'd start a new thread. Not just for DAI, but DA in general since I'm sure I'm not the only one revisiting the old games in anticipation of the new. Plus I think there's a new novel due out soon.

First up is a pair of new trailers.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD627y_AvFs[/yt]
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh77xvlDSTI[/yt]

I like that they've learnt some lessons from marketing ME3 and begun pushing the female protagonist angle as well as the male. Also, it's nice to see Leliana kicking arse again (with an arrow in the shoulder no less!)

Speaking of the FemQuisitor (?) here's some recent alpha footage featuring a Qunari (or Vashoth?) female mage Inquisitor.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfGTtyYeO8E[/yt]

I have to say, for a game that's supposedly in alpha this looks damned impressive. I remember back when ME3 was only a month or so from release, the demo footage looked rough as hell.

With a bit of luck we won't have quite so many bugs on launch. I still remember how my first DA2 playthrough was mired by import bugs and that accumulative attack speed slow down thing that meant I had to use a save editor every time I levelled up. Then there were the cutscenes that didn't trigger right and the glitchy sidequests...still. I live in hope.

Oh, and then there's this.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCnVQQ0K2FQ[/yt]
So Cullen romance = "swoon worthy" CONFIRMED!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I have a question on the original DA. I really, really hated the inventory management on it. Mainly, they didn't make it easy to tell which equipment in your possession would be optimal for a given character. I found myself having to click through every item I'm holding to figure out which had the best stats. This is pretty much unforgivable in a modern RPG.

Are there any mods or tips that help with this? I'd like to play the game but I'll be damned if I'm going to fuss with that bullshit equipment/inventory system as-is.

 

[Reverend]

^Pretty sure you just mouse over the items and a comparison window should come up. There's also a drop down near the bottom of the inventory screen so you can select which companion you with to compare it to.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yes, that's what I hate. I shouldn't have to do that. I have a lot of items and it's tedious as hell to do that comparison for every single one.

 

[Reverend]

Well generally you can tell which items will be good for which characters by the type of stats. There's no magical way to tell you which item is objectively "better" since it depends what build you're using for each character.

Personally, I tend to pick a line-up that works best with my character's build and only bother equipping them with anything special, leaving the rest till just before the endgame.

 

[Thestral]

Hey, at least it's better than the Mass Effect 1 inventory management!

Those videos do look fantastic, both the gameplay and just the general gorgeousness. Hope my 360 can handle all that.

I hadn't heard about that Grey Warden companion or that Cullen was joining up with you so it's nice to get a few more of those confirmed. Speaking of Cullen, talk about a character who went from being very minor to having a huge role. I don't suppose there's any talk of Tallis returning? Cause that would just be awesome. I'm currently running a second DA2 playthrough (LadyHawke mage), and I gotta say... I know a lot of people preferred Origins but I think I prefer 2. I'm liking what I'm hearing about Inquisition being a "blend" of the two games.

 

[Reverend]

Can you believe people complained that the later games didn't keep the inventory from Mass Effect 1? The mind boggles.

Cullen it a bit of an oddity. I think it's mostly the (straight) female fanbase that latched onto him from the Mage origin. Honestly, when he showed up in DA2 I initially didn't realise he was a recurring character from DAO. My first Warden was a Cousland so I only encountered him in one scene and when I did play as a female mage I think I chose the wrong dialogue option to get that he had a crush on her. Flew right over my head.

I did find it interesting that despite his attitude in both games, in the end he still stood against Meredith. With that in mind I'm interested to see where they take him in DAI. From the lion armour I'm thinking he' left the Templars and is Empress Celene's new champion (she lost her old one in the recent novel.) Either way, you have to wonder what could persuade a Fereldan to wear the regalia of Orlais?

Anyway, it's not just Cullen that's back, but Morrigan...
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPpC3roW6ZM[/yt]

Varric...
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVtUTRnlDBE[/yt]

And Alistair...
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFDDUxUMSic[/yt]

The new companions are looking interesting too. Sera looks like she'll eb a laugh and we're finally getting a Tevinter magister who isn't a psychotic blood mage. Not sure about the design of Iron Bull though. I think they proportions just a little too extreme. Specifically I feel his head looks distractingly tiny, like a little pin head with the body of a sumo wrestler.

 

[kirk55555]

I'm super excited for Inquisition. i loved both earlier DA games (even DA2, even though it was a step down from DAO). I'm glad we're getting some familiar characters in the new game, especially Morrigan and Varric, who were my favorite characters from DAO (Morrigan) and DA2 (Varric). I don't know why Alistair is back, I didn't hate him but he seemed to get a lot of hate, but honestly the only character I definately don't want to see again is Anders, who was a huge ass.

I'm also really glad that this is coming to PS3, and not as a stripped down port. Bioware has said in several articles that graphics are the major difference between the PS4/Xbox One and PS3/360 versions, probably because its been in development long enough that making the PS3/360 version fully featured was still a priority. It will probably be the last game from one of my favorite companies that I'll be able to play for awhile (there is no way I'll be getting a PS4, especially since I'd also have to get an HDTV), so I'm hopeful that DAI will be awesome.

 

[Evil Twin]

I loved Anders in Awakening, he was very funny there, basically Alistair 2.0, but yeah, I hate what they did with him in DA2. Turned him all serious and mopey. Damn you, Justice! I am currently doing a female mage playthrough just to see what his romance is like, never done it before (usually go with Isabela.) I'm using a mod that changes his face to his Awakening appearance so... that's helping a little.

The character I absolutely despise though is Fenris. Goddamn anime reject, he is... The elf redesign as a whole in DA2 is just What in the fucking fuck were they thinking?!

 

[Reverend]

I think they were thinking that elves should look more distinct and not just slightly short humans with pointy ears. They weren't wrong, but perhaps went just a little too far...but that may have been more a result of the whole game's aesthetic shift than anything else.

Personally, I really disliked Alistair initially. His personality just grated my nerves all the way through playing as my first Warden...and yet somehow I managed to convince him to marry Anora even after I recruited Logain (who, incidentally, was the one that nastified Morrigan for the dark ritual....eeeeewwww.) However, he's grown on me somewhat in subsequent playthroughs.

I never really liked Anders in either DAOA or DA2. In Awakenings, yes he was another Alistair who I already disliked, so that didn't go over well. Then in DA2 he became such a joyless mopey bugger with a one track mind.
Never had much of an opinion of Justice since he always felt like a non-character. Probably because by his nature he can only really be one thing. Mind you all the Awakenings companions had pretty strange arcs, mostly I feel because the game was so short. You barely had a chance to get to know them before the game was over.

Since it looks like Cole might be one of the companions...[spoiler='Asunder' novel]it's possible he was created specifically to take another run at the idea of having a spirit companion character. Though in his case I suspect he's more akin to a shade than a spirit of virtue.[/spoiler]

On a slightly different topic; what do we all think Flemeth's real deal is? My pet theory is that she's Andraste...and Fen'harel. If you read some of the lore, it seems like there's a lot of thematic overlap between the Chantry's myths, Dalish lore and Tevinter history. Which each source is biased unto itself, putting them all side my side you can start to see some patterns.

This theory also implies that the arch demons/old gods are the elven "creators" and perhaps even that the Golden City was Arlathan, or at least the part of it that existed within the fade.

 

[Skywalker]

After the slight disappointment of DA2 and the major disappointment of ME3 I'm a little gunshy on BioWare at the moment, so instead of this being a guaranteed day one purchase like usual I'm going to hold off and wait for some word of mouth to come in. But I'm planning on purchasing a new PC in the very near future, so this might be the first DA game I'll get to enjoy on the PC instead of having to settle for the console versions.

 

[Reverend]

I'm of two minds. While I do really want to play it, I'm not sure I'm willing to spend launch day money on it and I certainly couldn't give a toss about pre-order bonuses. Plus, I've now bought three Bioware games on day one and every time the games have had quest and even game breaking bugs that took them months to patch (some prominent ones are still present!) So I may just grit my teeth and wait.

You know it still irks me that they only ever released an "ultimate edition" of DAO and not any of their other games, despite DA2, ME2 and ME3 having significant story DLC, all of which has never even been discounted as far as I'm aware.

 

[PsychoPere]

I can't speak to the PC versions for ME2 and ME3, or the PS3 versions of any of the games, but I do know that story DLC has been discounted on some sales on both Xbox Live and Origin for DA2, ME2, and ME3. I purchased ME3's Leviathan on one such XBL sale, and DA2's Legacy on an Origin sale.

 

[SPCTRE]

With a couple of years of hindsight, I've grown to really, really appreciate DA2 and what it tried to do (and partially succeeded in doing).

That said, I'm very much looking forward to Inquisition, placed my preorder months and months ago.

 

[Reverend]

I can't speak to the PC versions for ME2 and ME3, or the PS3 versions of any of the games, but I do know that story DLC has been discounted on some sales on both Xbox Live and Origin for DA2, ME2, and ME3. I purchased ME3's Leviathan on one such XBL sale, and DA2's Legacy on an Origin sale.

I must admit that I almost never check Origin (rarely have a need to) so there could have been DLC sales of which I am oblivious. Still, the Bioware games are all on sale now as far as I can tell, the DLCs aren't. I can only presume that's intentional.

With a couple of years of hindsight, I've grown to really, really appreciate DA2 and what it tried to do (and partially succeeded in doing).

That said, I'm very much looking forward to Inquisition, placed my preorder months and months ago.

You know it's strange. Despite the fact that I see DAO as the overall superior game, DA2 nevertheless seems much more repayable. Last couple years I've made several new DAO characters, but I tent to get bored and give up after Lothering.
It may be DA2's more frenetic gameplay, the more linear narrative, the voiced protagonist, the (subjectively) better group dynamic or a combination of all of the above, but I just find I have an easier time revisiting it.

 

[SPCTRE]

You know it's strange. Despite the fact that I see DAO as the overall superior game, DA2 nevertheless seems much more repayable. Last couple years I've made several new DAO characters, but I tent to get bored and give up after Lothering.
It may be DA2's more frenetic gameplay, the more linear narrative, the voiced protagonist, the (subjectively) better group dynamic or a combination of all of the above, but I just find I have an easier time revisiting it.

Agreed, DA2 is a strange beast. My remaining main complaint is the repetitiveness and shallowness in the side content (revisiting the same cave for the 138th time, completely irrelevant and asinine "thank God you found THIS" turn-in quests, etc.) but on the other hand, the main storyline is really fun to revisit as you said.

 

[Reverend]

I suppose it also helps that you get almost all of the characters fairly early on, so you have most of the rest of the game to get to know them. Indeed, the companion/Hawk's family stories are the backbone of the game.

I remember in my first DAO playthrough I hated Orzammar during my first visit so I went and did everything else before coming back, so I barely got to know Oghren at all before it was time to go kill the archdemon. That plus 2H warriors have such slow attack in DAO that I never bothered using him. As a result I missed out on a ton of entertaining content.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I just started playing DA:O for the first time through Gamefly.

To give some background for my tastes, I mostly play adventure games, Japanese RPGs and platformers, and the only Western RPGs I've ever really gotten into are Baldur's Gate and Mass Effect series.

I went with an Elf Magi. So far the atmosphere and presentation are excellent and I particularly like the directions they went with the initial Fade sequence.

However the combat is boring as eff so far. It consists of casting a spell, waiting for it to cool down, and casting it again. I feel like I'm doing even less than you do in Xenoblade during a fight. Hopefully combat gets more interesting when you get more spells and some allies.

 

[Reverend]

Race is mostly an aesthetic choice and has no real impact on the combat. But yeah, playing as a mage can be a bit tedious early on until you gear up and get some of the more interesting spells. Make sure you have a good idea at the kind of build you're going for as there's no respec without modding and you can easily gimp yourself.

 

[Thestral]

^ Mage for me went from "kinda boring" to "Awesome nuking time" in Origins, with the Arcane Warrior option serving as a nice emergency backup. Then I went to Origins, added a whole bunch of continual spells (plus Battlemage) and combat turned into "guzzle lyrium potions while sword and shielding with my crazily buffed ghost mage."

You know it's strange. Despite the fact that I see DAO as the overall superior game, DA2 nevertheless seems much more repayable. Last couple years I've made several new DAO characters, but I tent to get bored and give up after Lothering.
It may be DA2's more frenetic gameplay, the more linear narrative, the voiced protagonist, the (subjectively) better group dynamic or a combination of all of the above, but I just find I have an easier time revisiting it.

Working through DA2 right now and I really have to agree - I prefer DA2 overall. For me the voiced protagonist is a big part of it (and the snarky options are just so, so fun), and something about the group interactions I just prefer. I was resistant to how much "smaller" it was at first too than DAO, but I really appreciate how focused it is now. The elf redesign was weird, but I'm happy with it more or less. Plus Merrill is just... oh, Merril.

As mopey and single-minded as Anders was - especially compared to Awakening - it really made sense and I found it fairly compelling because I liked Justice in Awakening, so I was sad to see what had happened to both of them. Plus, that moment... wow. Plus Varric and Isabella's awesomeness, and Aveline (especially paired with Izzy). Carver's rather a putz so far though... much prefer Bethany.

One minor thing: though it's fun you can romance all but three of your party members, does anybody ever bother with Fenris or Anders?

That said, I'm really looking forward to seeing some familiar faces return (Morrigan! Alistair! More Leliana!)

I wasn't able to get Alistair to stay with me in Origins after I decided to make Loghain a Warden for my first Warden (a Cousland) unfortunately... so he was a sad drunk in Kirkwall. I wonder where he'll show up in Inquisition for that character?