The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[Falksi]

Ya'll nuts? DA2 is WAY less retarded than DAI.

Neither are worth a wank. It's like debating which you'd sooner get arse-raped with, a chainsaw or a pneumatic drill.

There is no right answer, only pain & misery.

 

[Riddler]

Did you play Awakening? Prime Junta

 

[Prime Junta]

Did you play Awakening? Prime Junta

Nope, didn't play any of the DLCs, should I? I think I have it, I have the Ultimate Edition on Steam.

 

[Riddler]

Did you play Awakening? Prime Junta

Nope, didn't play any of the DLCs, should I? I think I have it, I have the Ultimate Edition on Steam.

I'd say so, not the least because it contains a far more palatable version of Anders than DA2.

 

[vortex]

DA:I > DA:O > DA2

 

[rusty_shackleford]

DAI has good companion interactions if you stay away from the retarded ones. Easily one of the best aspects of it.
Varric, Dorian, and Blackwall are all top-tier.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Did you play Awakening? Prime Junta

Nope, didn't play any of the DLCs, should I? I think I have it, I have the Ultimate Edition on Steam.

I'd say so, not the least because it contains a far more palatable version of Anders than DA2.

My theory is that Anders in DA2 was originally a new character but they scrapped it late into development.
The character is nothing like the Awakening Anders, and he creates a time paradox just by being in Kirkwall.

 

[Riddler]

Did you play Awakening? Prime Junta

Nope, didn't play any of the DLCs, should I? I think I have it, I have the Ultimate Edition on Steam.

I'd say so, not the least because it contains a far more palatable version of Anders than DA2.

My theory is that Anders in DA2 was originally a new character but they scrapped it late into development.
The character is nothing like the Awakening Anders, and he creates a time paradox just by being in Kirkwall.

Could be, I was under the impression that people really liked Anders so it would've made sense to force him into DA2 even if the almost completely change his personality.

 

[Prime Junta]

Did you play Awakening? Prime Junta

Nope, didn't play any of the DLCs, should I? I think I have it, I have the Ultimate Edition on Steam.

I'd say so, not the least because it contains a far more palatable version of Anders than DA2.

Thanks I'll keep it in mind next time I get some inexplicable urges in re BioWare cRPGs.

Varric, Dorian, and Blackwall are all top-tier.

I would add Cassandra and Solas.

Most of 'em are more than passable, even the irritating ones. Only one I thought was actually dumb and bad was Iron Bull.

Vivienne the rich black pro-police-violence lady was kinda unintentionally funny but somewhat one-note; I was actually positively impressed by Sera's character development -- for someone with obvious foetal alcohol syndrome she makes a surprising amount of sense. And Cole is a cool sidekick for Solas.

 

[cvv]

I gave DAI a spin a few months ago, during a particularly bad open world RPG boner, while waiting for Warhorse to finally fucking finish Kingdom Come patching.

I tried to give the game a chance but it's painfully obvious it's a nuBioware product. The writing, characters and story oozes a soft, soyboy, estrogen-laden vibe. You could almost smell the vegan farts and hair dye. The main villain is straight outta some Sunday morning cartoon for retarded children. He could give Skeletor a run for his money. The overall plot is shockingly dumb.

Aight, some positives. First, the visuals. DAI came out in 2014 and to this day it remains one of the prettiest games on the market, which just shows the powah of the Frostbite engine. Bioware had been known for making ugly games with excellent writing. Now it's the exact opposite - their environmental design is jaw dropping (DAI, Andromeda, Anthem) but their writing is burning hospital refuse.

Second, there are pockets of greatness, even in writing. I guess a few talented writers still remained in Bioware after the founders left and it shows. (Andromeda is already a 100% pure turd tho.) I think I even laughed once or twice during the convos with your companions. The main quests are p. good. The "talky" quest in the Empress' castle is a great example. Children and retards could find it booooring I guess but as simulating court intrigue and high politics goes this part is great. There was a lot of moaning about the MMO collectible quests. I didn't mind those because due to my severe OCD I happen to like collecting useless shit and hoovering up question marks on the map. That's just me tho.

The combat is bearable. Parts of it are even done well. The different classes and specializations actually play very differently, some of the skills are fun to use and you can really feel the resistances and vulnerabilities of various enemies, I've always liked that. But it's still RTWP so overall it's shit.

Itemization and crafting is shit too of course but it's mainly because VERY few developers understand how to do itemization well and crafting is shit always and everywhere. That said I could list many RPGs with much worse itemization than DAI.

Dunno if anyone can call those positives but I tried.

 

[Delterius]

Did you play Awakening? Prime Junta

Nope, didn't play any of the DLCs, should I? I think I have it, I have the Ultimate Edition on Steam.

I'd say so, not the least because it contains a far more palatable version of Anders than DA2.

My theory is that Anders in DA2 was originally a new character but they scrapped it late into development.
The character is nothing like the Awakening Anders, and he creates a time paradox just by being in Kirkwall.

the reason he's nothing like anders is because he's posessed by an anal spirit

 

[rusty_shackleford]

The time traveling quest is pretty darn good tbh. If you didn't take the mage route then you really missed out.

 

[HanoverF]

Possibly the worst designed game of all time too. Locking story missions so you're forced to grind through shit areas is the worst game design choice I've ever known.

It makes Dragon Age 2 look like a masterpiece.

The only thing that could make Dragon Age 2 looks like a masterpiece is a massive head wound.

 

[DalekFlay]

Possibly the worst designed game of all time too. Locking story missions so you're forced to grind through shit areas is the worst game design choice I've ever known.

Mass Effect Andromeda is the same shitty, banal quest and world design but with worse writing. Have fun!

 

[Falksi]

Possibly the worst designed game of all time too. Locking story missions so you're forced to grind through shit areas is the worst game design choice I've ever known.

Mass Effect Andromeda is the same shitty, banal quest and world design but with worse writing. Have fun!

Ha. I did try that and what amazed me even more was 1) how bad the characters were, but 2) how absolutely fucking awful the combat was, and worthless the powers were.

The retardism at Bioware/EA is astounding. They've took one of Bioware's weaknesses, action combat, and tried to build games around it. I mean, there's fuckwitted and fuckwitted beyond, and that's the latter. It's like putting Alec Guiness into the WWF.

 

[DalekFlay]

2) how absolutely fucking awful the combat was, and worthless the powers were.

I'm not saying the combat is great by ANY means, but it was honestly the only bright spot in the game for me. I played a sniper poppin' moles and it has that satisfying gameplay loop of headshotting motherfuckers while your companions rush in and distract them for you. I played the original trilogy much the same way. I agree it's not really worth playing the game for at all though, and you might as well play an FPS if you're just playing for mole poppin'. I'm a sci-fi slut though so I finished it anyway.

 

[Nano]

DA:I > DA:O > DA2

DA:I > DA2 > DA:O. Fixed it for you.

 

[Prime Junta]

I tried Millennial Effect out for a bit. The combat was the only halfway serviceable thing about it. Even so I could only stomach it for a bit, the rest of it was just retarded and if I wanted to play a shooter there are better ones out there that don't force me to run errands for every shithead that comes along.

 

[Quillon]

I wanted to play a shooter there are better ones out there that don't force me to run errands for every shithead that comes along.

As much as we pretend it doesn't happen in our fav RPGs, running errands is the staple of RPGs ffs There is always non-RPG games that use same combat systems as any RPG so no need to play RPGs for you then.

 

[Prime Junta]

As much as we pretend it doesn't happen in our fav RPGs, running errands is the staple of RPGs ffs

Of course. The question is, how well do they manage to sell you that errand-running? If it's done well you don't even realise that's what you're doing.

ME:A fails dismally at this. The chores just feel like chores. If you have zero interest in the quest-givers, you have zero interest in the quests, and that makes the whole thing pointless.

 

[Dishonoredbr]

Varric, Dorian, and Blackwall are all top-tier.

Varric and Dorian are really cool. Blackwall twist was good especialy when your romance him because the ending for that is quite tragic not matter what.
Sadly the game has some moments of ''oh shit this is good'' (aka almost anything Dorian related) then you need to destroy more 5 rifts , get 5 flowers to unlock the next mission to fight the lamest villian ever with zero difficulty because most classes are broken.
DA2' Story is amazing compared to this shit. Trepasser's ending is quite good tho.

 

[Quillon]

ME:A fails dismally at this.

I thought you were referring to ME1.

 

[Prime Junta]

ME:A fails dismally at this.

I thought you were referring to ME1.

Nah the original MEs are decent. I liked them more than any of the DAs, RGB ending and copy-paste sidequests notwithstanding. Like with most things BioWare, my main beef with them is that they could have, should have been so much better.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

DA:I and Andromeda fail because nu-Bioware has completely forgotten the basics. From the start you are bombarded with LOOK AT ALL THIS EPIC SHIT. But the magic of RPG is in the journey. Best stories always follow the same pattern, they start ambiguously and slowly unravel.

You don't have to be literally starting in a basement with a wooden stick and killing rats, but a 50 hour game needs to take it slow. If I'm fighting with a Demon King within first 30 minutes and then suddenly I find myself doing filler quests and picking flowers, clicking on uninstall.exe becomes inevitable.

 

[Prime Junta]

DA:I and Andromeda fail because nu-Bioware has completely forgotten the basics. From the start you are bombarded with LOOK AT ALL THIS EPIC SHIT. But the magic of RPG is in the journey. Best stories always follow the same pattern, they start ambiguously and slowly unravel.

You don't have to be literally starting in a basement with a wooden stick and killing rats, but a 50 hour game needs to take it slow. If I'm fighting with a Demon King within first 30 minutes and then suddenly I find myself doing filler quests and picking flowers, clicking on uninstall.exe becomes inevitable.

While I agree with the sentiment, these aren't even close to the worst problems DA:I or ME:A have. They don't even have the same problems.

DA:I's main problem is bloat. It's chock full of fetch this, gather that, craft the other, and mechanics like the vile levelled loot are there to force it on you. Strip out all that and you end up with a superficially much smaller but much more focused game, with a loot system where finding or crafting a cool piece of gear actually means something. The story is more than good enough to keep the game going, intro Pride Demon and all. All it really needs is some drastic editing, cut out about 75% of the side-quests and all of the proc generated shit, get rid of the levelled loot and replace that with hand-crafted genuinely cool unique items and a crafting system that was frugal enough with components that it meant something, and it would easily be the best DA, and be a solid contender for top AAA RPG of its generation, up there with Twitcher 3 except different.

ME:A's main problem is shit content. The companions are shit, the story is shit, the side characters are shit. It just completely fails at selling itself to you. The gameplay is actually fine, at least as good as in any of the other MEs, the problem is that the game entirely fails to make you give a shit about any of its shit. Shit, there's a lot of shit in this paragraph, like the game. Which is shit. It's basically unsalvageable; only thing you could keep from it is the core gameplay and systems, but you'd have to build pretty much the entire game over from scratch.