The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[Frozen]

I kill that whore in DA:O, her fake wannabe good girl front she puts up when you first meet her won't get past me.

How fun it was to see that stupid face again in DA:I...

 

[9ted6]

None of the writers had any original ideas since Origins. Everything in 2 and Inquisition is the same regurgitated lore with the only difference being tons and tons of retcons and epic subversions of expectations.

 

[Just Locus]

I genuinely think the lore of DA would've benefitted from not including a codex that tells you all there is to know about something regarding the world of Thedas, This is purely a 'me' thing and I know what I'm about to criticize amounts to "I wish this thing was more like another thing" but I wanna vent since I like DA's lore but I my gut instincts tell me that DA2 and DA:I's writers don't share that opinion.

The Codex in DA tells you way too much information and leaves little to no room for interpretation, One of the examples I can think of is one regarding the Qunari's beliefs:

[...] The Qunari view their whole society as a single creature: a living entity whose health and well-being is the responsibility of all. Each individual is only a tiny part of the whole, a drop of blood in its veins. Important not for itself, but for what it is to the whole creature. Because of this, the Qunari most outsiders meet belong to the army, which the Qun regards as if it were the physical body: arms, legs, eyes and ears, the things a creature needs in order to interact with the world.

This entire portion of the entry could've led to so many interesting quests or interesting characterization for certain characters but nope, all of it, just explained right there for you to read, there's no interesting bits that are left out for you to make your own interpretation, zero characters you interact with contradict this system of belief AFAIK, etc.

And the list goes on and on, My solution would be just making it so interacting with books or any other textual item would make it so the entry would fill up over time with excerpts from books you've read, Imagine it like this;
"I've read that Darkspawns are soulless, however, I've also heard that are just tainted human beings, It's best that I go look for more information." the more content regarding the Darkspawns would fill up this particular entry with excerpts that conflict with each other, It's a convenient way of rounding up the info you've collected so far without making it so all intrigue is thrown out the window because you've explained all there is to explain in 3-2 paragraphs.

 

[Skinwalker]

The mage specializations are so bad in this one. Really, the entire mage class is trash, but I took my three mage companions (each has one of the three specializations unlocked), tried all of their abilities, and most of them looked less impressive than the already lame basic abilities.

Ended up going Rift Mage purely because Your Trainer is hilarious.

I genuinely think the lore of DA would've benefitted from not including a codex that tells you all there is to know about something regarding the world of Thedas, This is purely a 'me' thing and I know what I'm about to criticize amounts to "I wish this thing was more like another thing" but I wanna vent since I like DA's lore but I my gut instincts tell me that DA2 and DA:I's writers don't share that opinion.

The lore of DA would have benefitted from not including a hack writer with severe verbal diarrhea, spewing his walls of text and endless banal shit boring dialogues at the player from every orifice. It's kind of insane just how much completely worthless writing and dialogue there is in this game. "Tell, don't show" is the operative principle with Gayder.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Ended up going Rift Mage

I knew it, you are playing an elf chick.

 

[9ted6]

I genuinely think the lore of DA would've benefitted from not including a codex that tells you all there is to know about something regarding the world of Thedas, This is purely a 'me' thing and I know what I'm about to criticize amounts to "I wish this thing was more like another thing" but I wanna vent since I like DA's lore but I my gut instincts tell me that DA2 and DA:I's writers don't share that opinion.

The Codex in DA tells you way too much information and leaves little to no room for interpretation, One of the examples I can think of is one regarding the Qunari's beliefs:

[...] The Qunari view their whole society as a single creature: a living entity whose health and well-being is the responsibility of all. Each individual is only a tiny part of the whole, a drop of blood in its veins. Important not for itself, but for what it is to the whole creature. Because of this, the Qunari most outsiders meet belong to the army, which the Qun regards as if it were the physical body: arms, legs, eyes and ears, the things a creature needs in order to interact with the world.

This entire portion of the entry could've led to so many interesting quests or interesting characterization for certain characters but nope, all of it, just explained right there for you to read, there's no interesting bits that are left out for you to make your own interpretation, zero characters you interact with contradict this system of belief AFAIK, etc.

And the list goes on and on, My solution would be just making it so interacting with books or any other textual item would make it so the entry would fill up over time with excerpts from books you've read, Imagine it like this;
"I've read that Darkspawns are soulless, however, I've also heard that are just tainted human beings, It's best that I go look for more information." the more content regarding the Darkspawns would fill up this particular entry with excerpts that conflict with each other, It's a convenient way of rounding up the info you've collected so far without making it so all intrigue is thrown out the window because you've explained all there is to explain in 3-2 paragraphs.

Compare that to Origins' codex entry about them.

Anyone who travels far enough to the north will eventually encounter the Qunari: White-haired, bronze-skinned giants, a head again taller than a man, with frighteningly calm demeanors and a sort of sparkling fire behind their eyes.

For quite a long time, people believed that all Qunari were male, or that their men and women were simply indistinguishable. It was not until the Blessed Age that diplomats from Rivain were allowed, however briefly, to visit Par Vollen, and there they discovered that Qunari females do exist in abundance, and are quite easily recognized. The Rivaini say that Qunari have a certain kindness to them, or at least a conspicuous lack of cruelty, although I did not observe the creatures closely enough to evaluate their character.

Less verbose, less explicit, and lets you draw multiple conclusions from them, especially given conflicting information presented in game, such as Sten's enraged murders and how cruel the Qunari sound from his dialogue, mixed with his dialogue where he shows intense remorse for killing a family of peasants and respects the Grey Wardens for fighting even though they lost.

Best way I can describe Origins lore vs. later game lore, besides the fact they made it hugely more woke and politically correct, is that Origins presented lore from the perspective of people living in the setting directed to other people in the setting. 2 and Inquisition present it more as an objectively true lore dump from an RPG rulebook, with the lore being aimed at a fourth wall audience that exists outside the setting itself.

That's especially true with the idiotic Sexuality in Thedas entry from Inquisition, because if everyone loved gay people and were cool with them as the entry says, why would anyone need to write a diatribe on how everyone loves and accepts gay people? People in the setting would already know that.

The answer is the writers fucking suck and many of them have repeatedly said they hate Origins lore for being too ambiguous, too dark, not woke enough, etc, so they tried to distance themselves not only from the lore of Origins but the way it was presented. Gotta scream at the player that gay people are universally loved and women are better than men, Chantry can't be ambiguously right or wrong but objectively evil because it's a religion, Qunari are now misunderstood, peace-loving and trans-loving.

They wanted to make modern day Portland with elves and swords instead of a genuine fantasy setting, and it's as bland and brainless as that makes it sound.

 

[Skinwalker]

Also the usual trope of woketertainment: random Black people interspersed throughout the otherwise White and Europe-based populations, with no explanation of their origins or any acknowledgment from the characters' point of view. Some people are just randomly Black for no reason, I guess, but only the sympathetic/empowered ones.

 

[9ted6]

Also the usual trope of woketertainment: random Black people interspersed throughout the otherwise White and Europe-based populations, with no explanation of their origins or any acknowledgment from the characters' point of view. Some people are just randomly Black for no reason, I guess, but only the sympathetic/empowered ones.

Gotta exaggerate the features too. This mage is African black in a European fantasy world, but she can't just look like a normal black woman, she needs to have huge lips, a shovel face and ridiculous headwear because that's now a not-racist depiction or something. Then again everyone in DAI looks like an ugly cartoon character.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

I don't give a shit about races in games because it's just a rollercoaster ride or a theme park, who cares. Writing and game design being shit is just inexcusable. DAI was a mess because of that. Oddly enough, I do feel it's the game that threw the least amount of gay shit in your face, and the gay companions (and the game itself) didn't made a scene if you just rejected them. Compared to Origins or 2, where everyone is a serial rapist.

 

[9ted6]

I don't give a shit about races in games because it's just a rollercoaster ride or a theme park, who cares. Writing and game design being shit is just inexcusable. DAI was a mess because of that. Oddly enough, I do feel it's the game that threw the least amount of gay shit in your face, and the gay companions (and the game itself) didn't made a scene if you just rejected them. Compared to Origins or 2, where everyone is a serial rapist.

2 maybe but not Origins. The only two companions that bring anything like it up aren't even fully gay, and if you don't probe Leliana's past or recruit Zevran it literally never comes up in their normal dialogue. Only other explicit reference to a gay/bi character I can think of without player input is the Dwarf Branka, but it's only brought up to show how heartless and cruel she is. She cheated on her husband and then uses her female lover and all the soldiers under her as Darkspawn bait.

There's very little gay shit in Origins, a bit of gay shit in 2, and some gay shit in Inquisition, but the gay shit is so vocal and in your face that it seems more prevalent than it actually is. If Dreadwolf comes out I bet the majority of NPCs will, 1, be gay or bi, and 2, tell you about it at every possible opportunity.

Like you said though it's the writing and gameplay in the new ones that's worse than the pandering. At least you can ignore Anders or Sera, but you can't ignore their games' completely retarded main plots or Inquisition's low budget MMO quests and combat.

 

[Just Locus]

It's Bioware. everyone wants to fuck the PC for some reason.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Ended up going Rift Mage

I knew it, you are playing an elf chick.

Yes, me too. Elf chicks are great.

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

Is this game considered good now that starfield is out?

 

[Semiurge]

They design a character to look and act like the most obvious dyke this side of the Netherlands, but then make her heterosexual.

They did the same with Jack, except for the fact that there were hints about her possible bisexuality in her dialogue. It was probably something they left out at the last minute in an effort to make her less stereotypical.

 

[Skinwalker]

They did the same with Jack

Who?

Is this game considered good now that starfield is out?

That's Bethpizda. This game will be considered good if/when DA4 comes out and somehow proves to be even worse than anyone thought possible (the trajectory for this series, and for Biowhore in general.)

 

[Semiurge]

Who

Are you kidding?

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Who

Are you kidding?

A punk girl who pretends to be tough but is actually an unstable child who confuses strength with being defiant.

The most realistic character in the series.

 

[The Jester]

Who

Are you kidding?

girl

She looks like some old fart tranny retired yakuza member.

 

[La vie sexuelle]

Who

Are you kidding?

girl

She looks like some old fart tranny retired yakuza member.

My description still fits.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

yakuza

No way they got better tats. This looks like some Russian mafia wannabe

 

[Skinwalker]

I am almost done exploring all the optional areas, before jumping back into the main quest. I think I've figured out two of the DLC areas that I'll probably do after the main quest, but where is the third one? Also, this entire time I thought I would have to play that retarded Qunari mission with Felicia Day, only to just realize that it was a DAII dlc, not this game... truly, I was scarred for life by that horror.

I have to say that if you ignore the endless collection quests and just do the sidequests that are worth doing... you still get crappy combat mechanics and bad writing. But this isn't quite as unplayable as I first thought... if only they had made smaller, more focused areas, without tons of copy-pasted trash-tier content.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

I am almost done exploring all the optional areas, before jumping back into the main quest. I think I've figured out two of the DLC areas that I'll probably do after the main quest, but where is the third one? Also, this entire time I thought I would have to play that retarded Qunari mission with Felicia Day, only to just realize that it was a DAII dlc, not this game... truly, I was scarred for life by that horror.

I have to say that if you ignore the endless collection quests and just do the sidequests that are worth doing... you still get crappy combat mechanics and bad writing. But this isn't quite as unplayable as I first thought... if only they had made smaller, more focused areas, without tons of copy-pasted trash-tier content.

One of the areas is one of the DLC (frostback basin). One of them starts on the coast and the last one is after endgame.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I genuinely think the lore of DA would've benefitted from not including a codex that tells you all there is to know about something regarding the world of Thedas, This is purely a 'me' thing and I know what I'm about to criticize amounts to "I wish this thing was more like another thing" but I wanna vent since I like DA's lore but I my gut instincts tell me that DA2 and DA:I's writers don't share that opinion.

The Codex in DA tells you way too much information and leaves little to no room for interpretation, One of the examples I can think of is one regarding the Qunari's beliefs:

[...] The Qunari view their whole society as a single creature: a living entity whose health and well-being is the responsibility of all. Each individual is only a tiny part of the whole, a drop of blood in its veins. Important not for itself, but for what it is to the whole creature. Because of this, the Qunari most outsiders meet belong to the army, which the Qun regards as if it were the physical body: arms, legs, eyes and ears, the things a creature needs in order to interact with the world.

This entire portion of the entry could've led to so many interesting quests or interesting characterization for certain characters but nope, all of it, just explained right there for you to read, there's no interesting bits that are left out for you to make your own interpretation, zero characters you interact with contradict this system of belief AFAIK, etc.

And the list goes on and on, My solution would be just making it so interacting with books or any other textual item would make it so the entry would fill up over time with excerpts from books you've read, Imagine it like this;
"I've read that Darkspawns are soulless, however, I've also heard that are just tainted human beings, It's best that I go look for more information." the more content regarding the Darkspawns would fill up this particular entry with excerpts that conflict with each other, It's a convenient way of rounding up the info you've collected so far without making it so all intrigue is thrown out the window because you've explained all there is to explain in 3-2 paragraphs.

You read the DA Codex? Why?

 

[Skinwalker]

The Winter Palace level was so drawn-out and tedious. Somehow they managed to add a "gather thirty dirty letters/coins/magical statues" even into this tight story-driven sequence, where you get penalized for staying out of the main areas for too long. Sheer obsessive madness, like a monomaniac going through every single level and compulsively adding endless collections and walls of text everywhere.

If it weren't for that, it might have actually been a fun political intrigue. Oh, and that bitch Morrigan made an appearance. Last we saw her, she was going through a super-sekrit magic portal to somewhere even more otherwordly than the Fade. Didn't realize that place was called "the court of the queen of Orlay". Yawn.

 

[9ted6]

If it weren't for that, it might have actually been a fun political intrigue. Oh, and that bitch Morrigan made an appearance. Last we saw her, she was going through a super-sekrit magic portal to somewhere even more otherwordly than the Fade. Didn't realize that place was called "the court of the queen of Orlay". Yawn.

If you've played it for more than five minutes you'd know any chance for decent roleplay or political intrigue was long gone since every noble in the Orlesian section is either evil greedy male noble or strong intelligent lesbian noblesse and any politics going on are done at a YA fiction level of complexity.

Did you meet the empress yet? She's another character they turned to utter shit in the tie in books and another Liara self-insert by the gay bluehair male feminist lead writer.