Dragon Age

I'll assume you're anti slavery and pro mages, in which case why not just bring Fenris exclusively on missions where you get to fight against Tevinter guys? Or simply choose really innocuous things that don't affect the story but give points? I mean, it's pretty obvious which quests will give you which points with which companions. "A bunch of runaway apostates. Anders will love it if I burn them all to death and give their charred remains to the templars, right?"

And that's only if you want consistent decisions. If you don't mind flip flopping on pro or anti mage sentiments or the like then it's even easier to max our rivalry or friendship. Frankly, that's one of the things I thought was actually good about DAII.

edited 19th Apr '14 1:17:28 AM by Arha

I tried that. It would either result in switching out my party every other quest (which is incredibly annoying and also a ton of loading screens) or I'd end up in a mission that I didn't realize Fenris/Anders/Merrill would make a comment during that my reply would... create rivalry. Which comes to my previous comment that I was getting so frustrated by creating more rivalry/friendship left and right than a guy with split-personality that I very seriously going on the Wiki, creating a chart of which companions to take what missions to and what dialogue option to choose so that they would stop making such a fuss... But that results in such a boring experience of checking every dialogue option and team comp (which still would result in tons and tons of loading).

To put it short, everyone's issues with goddamn everything was ruining the experience and making everything a chore.

Morrigan is hardly a pragmatist, doesn't she tell you to ignore the undead army in Redcliffe (despite the fact that the undead were in the middle of wiping out the guys you were trying to recruit)?

edited 19th Apr '14 8:32:48 AM by TheCuriousFan

Yeah, she's more of a cynic who plays at being a realist.

What I meant was that, if you can argue a logical reason to do something, she usually won't get a negative to relationship. Or, that's what I remember. At the very least, it wasn't the pain DAII's relationship stuff was.

I think that's more the fault of DAII's writing being shitty than anything mechanics-wise.

But DAII's writing wasn't shitty; whatever other faults the game had (and they were many) the character writing was solid. Placing friendship and rivalry at opposite ends of the scale is a) largely nonsensical and b) very limiting.

I'd have to disagree. Aside from Varric and Avelline (and maybe Isabela) a lot of the characters were very... single-minded. They had their one little wank (Slavery,Mages for Fenris, Templars for Anders, blood magic for Merril...) and even then they still managed to be inconsistent.

While I'll agree with you on Anders, the other two weren't define solely by their personal obsessions.

I would agree. Aveline's two topics were friendship/respect and the well being of others... Which, in the long run, was something that I couldn't disagree with often enough unless I wanted to be an outright dick.

Varric was... I can't figure out his two subjects exactly.

Isabella, funny enough, is a lot more subtle, but her topics are pirates/thevery and relationship abuse, but she doesn't so openly discuss them in such as 'With me or against me way' where the only times I'd gain Rivalry were usually when I was being an outright dick (There's only a single time I can think of really where Isabella gave me R. Pts and it struck me, which was when I returned the ring to the husband of a missing wife which we later found out was apart of the Necromancer's Body-Fusion thing. Which, it didn't bother me since that felt less forced and more about her character and I actually liked it. It told me a lot very subtly).

Anders and Fenris, however, were the most vocal and abrasive of the companions on what they did and did not like. Merrill was less so, but her two topics were Mages/Blood Magic and Elves, though the last one didn't come up all that often.

Which, where as Isbella could be subtle and let me know what she agreed to and disagreed with without throwing it in my face, Anders and Fenris would CONSTANTLY start tangent conversations on my decisions.

I feel like there are a number of solid character moments, but the characters themselves were weak to me. Like, one of my favorite scenes is when Hawke is grieving and one of the companions shows up to speak with them. I like it because it says a lot in very little. But, over all, a number of the characters fall a bit flat to me and I don't see much of an arc to them when I feel like I should considering the game wants these characters to be more integrated with the plot.

Now, I know that can sound like 'Well, I just don't like Anders or Fenris and blah blah blah'. But, what I'm trying to say is that you really have to go out of your way to get Aveline and Varric to hate you, where Anders and Fenris will get pissy with you at the drop of a dime.

Varric very carefully maintained his neutrality. All he cared about was having some fun and adventures without screwing people over.

I just wish Orsino didn't have to give in to despair.

edited 20th Apr '14 4:36:13 AM by AnotherGuy

IIRC it was stated that it happened that way because they needed another boss fight.

That's exactly why.

The only part about the writing in DAII was how awful every single one of the relationships were handled, my god. They were better in ME and DA:O.

So the relationships to be "Oh, Player Character, your will is the will of all. What do you wish us to think" in order for them to be considered "good" or "well written"... I find that rather interesting.

It would explain the dislike of 2's relationships. Because those companions don't bend to the will of whatever the player thinks...

edited 20th Apr '14 8:44:58 AM by Swish

I liked how Kot OR 2 handled companion relationships. Influence was gained by agreeing with them but as soon as you had influence their views began to coalesce with yours.

If Knights Of The Old Republic II The Sith Lords was made by Bioware, that would be worth bringing up.

If Lucas Arts had let Obsidian release that patch that would have fixed the rest of the game, that would have been worth talking about, you mean.

Who cares who made it? A good idea is a good idea and worth copying.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. You shouldn't be able to just lord over your companions, but the fact that they're completely intractable about basically EVERYTHING isn't good writing.

@Librarian: Pretty sure the unofficial restoration patch fixes everything that was meant to and more.

Whether that's good writing or not will never be agreed upon, but it makes for profoundly irritating characters.

iirc the mod restored functionality, restored content already in the game but taken out during development phase for whatever reason, and added some additional things, presumedly based on, i dont know, words about what was intended?

Box Art. Click the fist image to see it at max size.

Okay so two things:

• They're making it very clear that the tear in the Veil is the main concern here.
• Bioware finally figured out how to make gender-neutral promotional art.

Edit: I wonder if that's the default Inquisitor armor or the ultimate Inquisitor armor(like how Hawke's Champion Set was on all the promotional material for DA 2).

edited 21st Apr '14 12:43:07 PM by JotunofBoredom