Dragon Age

Pretty sure he's physically in the mortal world now, not possessing a corpse. That's part of why Solas finds him exceptional.

Yeah, I remember that too, thought I haven't really read the book. But I do remember people being confused when he was announced as a companion, and I really wasn't expecting him to be a soft cinnamon roll.

edited 13th Sep '17 2:16:52 PM by iamthecircle

... So when do you folks think we're getting another game in the series? After all it doesn't seem like we're getting another Mass Effect game until pretty near the heat death of the universe after the plans for DLC for Andromeda went away, along with any patches for still-current issues, and EA need some positive feedback for one of their RPG franchises.

And will it have a new engine? One of the reasons why some critics attacked Andromeda was that the Frostbite engine wasn't up to the demands of what EA wanted it to do in that game.

Alexis Kennedy^note creative director on Dragon Age: The Last Court, also did Fallen London earlier confirmed he'd been brought on to work for the next Dragon Age, which is pretty much a confirmation that there is a next Dragon Age in the works. That was then, 'course, but I don't think Andromeda's further fallout will have drastic enough effect to change too much there. I think to some extent Inquisition was quickly overshadowed by Witcher 3 after its release, but it still did fairly well both critically and — ever-importantly — financially. If it hadn't, I imagine the Trespasser DLC would've been very different.

Probably worth noting Andromeda was done by BioWare Montreal; its relative failure hurts the Mass Effect brand and to some extent the BioWare name, but it's probably not going to cause BioWare Edmonton to completely lose faith from EA. All in all I think we can be relatively optimistic, life being life, that the next Dragon Age will actually get made, if nothing else.

edited 13th Sep '17 9:55:42 PM by Lavaeolus

People wanted another Mass Effect, myself included, but I'm not sure another Mass Effect was needed the way another DA is. ME went to surprising lengths to wrap up all the franchise's dangling plot hooks, which I maintain was a mistake, but what's done is done. ME, meanwhile, has tons of metaplots still yet to be resolved: Solas, the Archdemon, the Qunari, and in the wake of Inquisition, Dorian's reform campaign in Tevinter, the Adamant Survivor's investigation into Weisshaupt, the Titans, and whatever ones I'm still missing.

I get the feeling that Bioware would've been just as happy to start up a new IP then and there (which I suppose their mech game is— I legitimately cannot seem to ever remember the name, other than Dylan) and it was probably EA who was pushing for another ME game, probably on the strength of ME 3's multiplayer. EA loves a reliable cash cow.

I thought he WAS demon possessed corpse?

If I remember correctly from Assunder, Cole was originally a mage from the Spire who was punished by the Templars and left to rot away in the dungeons until he eventually starved. His cries called forth Cole, a spirit of Compassion, who ended up possessing him and eventually thinking he WAS Cole in the process. The Templar who left the original Cole to rot is the one we ended up meeting during his Companion Quest.

In Inquisition, he literally looks like a corpse. His hair looks matted and unhealthy, his eyes are grey and dead, and his skin looks like its rotting away.

If he's a corpse, his relationship with Marydyn and the whole 'make him more human' choice seem a bit off to me. He's seemingly still going to rot away. If he's not a corpse at all and is a spirit who has fully taken human form, then why look so corpse like? And why does this not come up at some point considering how often 'dude, you're kind of creeping some people out' comes up.

I have not read Asunder, but looking at Cole's wiki page, I can find no mention of him possessing a corpse. It also mentions that he faded away after Lambert exposed him - why would a corpse fade away?

I think you're mistaken here, Ink Dagger.

Then why did he think he was Cole during the story? It seems the wiki page has changed because I remember it being written a lot differently back when Inquisition was up coming.

He doesn't look *that* corpselike. We've got darkspawn and actual walking corpses around for comparison. He's just a awkward, gangly, extremely pale kid, but there's nothing that unwholesome about him and Maryden.

I haven't read Asunder, but the way Cole talks in Inquisition makes it sound like he took on the original Cole's form and spoke to him as he died, rather than possessing his body. He doesn't have any of the problems of, for example, Justice in Kristoff's body, so it seems like he managed to cross over somehow instead, foreshadowing the version of Leliana who remembers dying at Haven being a spirit double conjured by her faith.

I always thought that he was a spirit from the Fade who took on the original Cole's memories and appearance after he died. Why would that require him to be possessing the original Cole's corpse? We know from Inquisition that spirts are highly mutable, often influenced by the thoughts of mortals.

edited 13th Sep '17 10:40:25 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Cole is closer to the Divine Justinia met in the Fade; a spirit that identifies so much with a person that the spirit ends up believing they are that person.

A Spirit of Compassion met the Cole dying in a cell, and tried to help. When it was unable to, it empathized with him and tried to understand him to the point it became Cole.

Ah.

Well, in that case, I still don't quite get why he looks so corpse like. His eyes are grey and deadlike, his skin is so pale it shows his veins, and his hair is matter. It just seems like such a strange choice.

So that he looks creepy?

I mean, I think they could have made him look dead for symbolic reasons and what-not, rather than because he's literally possessing a corpse.

edited 13th Sep '17 11:48:26 PM by KarkatTheDalek

I imagine he looks exactly the same as the real Cole did when he died, and since he's a spirit that has willed himself into a physical form he can keep that look going even though he's exposed to sunlight, can eat food and brush his hair.

Ok, but it still means that his girlfriend in the 'make him more human' choice is dating a guy... who looks an awful lot like an rotting corpse.

I wouldn't go that far, he looks like someone who hasn't seen the sun in a long while and is pretty thin, but he's not rotting or bloated or any other signs of a dead person.

Which brings up the interesting question of whether or not his appearance can change if you made him more human. Blackwall did bring up the possibility of him having to eat. Maybe there's a chance he'll look less... dead? Or even grow a beard?

He really doesn't look that dead. He's just cast in shadow most of the time, in part because of where most of his cutscenes place him, in part because of his various hats. But if you get him out in the sunshine, like in the Eastern Reach or whatever, he's still pale, but it's not like he's an albino or anything.

Yeah, I'm just being hyperbolic here. Never really saw him as "dead", just in need of food. And hugs. Lots of them.

All I'm saying is compare Cole to Justice, who we know for a fact is possessing a rotting body. Justice looks a lot worse than Cole, so we know they could have made it overt. The fact that they didn't seems to imply he's not a corpse, but not quite human either.

Are we still debating whether or not Cole is possessing a dead corpse? I thought it was made clear in the game that it was a form he took modeled after the real Cole?
And a question for those who have read Knight-Errant: Is Sebastian still trying to invade Kirkwall to kill Anders? Or is Anders dead in the comic's continuity?

Got the full version of Dragon Age: Origins. There is a fuckload of DLC for this game. Got Dragon Age II as well.

Oh, great! I can't remember if you've been here before - have you played Inquisition, or are at least familiar with any other aspects of Dragon Age?

Oh yeah; know what I'm doing. Used to spend hours farming material for armor and weapons in Inquisition.

Finished the main game and am starting through Awakening. Tini the Dwarf will not be stopped!

edited 15th Sep '17 9:10:58 PM by HextarVigar

Just came across Sigrun. Ohgren immediately began hitting on her.