History DragonAgeOrigins / TropesLToQ

* NintendoHard: Higher difficulties will strongly punish players who don't properly use tactics. The game also gives a very minimal introduction to the combat, causing the difficulty to increase when players get into battles designed to be won with strategy.
** Given the focus the game has on tactics, there are a few design decisions that are a bit odd, almost to the point of being FakeDifficulty. The game makes some fights significantly harder by porting the entire party directly in front of the bad guys for a mandatory conversation before the fight starts; in extreme cases, this means the party walks directly into an ambush/crossfire/killzone.
*** Even worse is the irregular deactivation of abilities which of course have a cooldown, and are sometimes needed to use other skills. Other times you just lose the abilities themselves, which is bad enough.
** ''The Golems of Amgarrak'' is designed to be much, much harder than any other entry in the saga, starting with being the only module that doesn't provide the Warden with at least one Mage as backup and ending with a FlunkyBoss who spawns ''other bosses'' as its flunkies.

'''Leliana:''' [[JustForPun Ooohhh,]] very clever, I see what you did there.

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: The [[MurderInc Antivan Crows']] contact in Denerim talks almost completely in innuendo, in order to disguise what business he is actually discussing; never mind that the only eavesdropper his verbiage could fool would be a deaf one. You, as the player, can [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this very fact and he'll simply explain that he has no idea who's listening and just wants an out in case he's questioned. If you keep ignoring his attempts at innuendo, he snaps at you. It's worth it. After you complete the questline, he's willing to speak more openly.

* ObviousBeta: The critically bugged and broken endgame sequence. Among other things, several of the epilogue slides either contain inaccuracies about your playthrough or don't show up at all. The inaccuracies were later {{handwave}}d by the developers as being "rumors" of WhatMightHaveBeen; when they made ''Origins'', they didn't expect it to get a sequel so they weren't concerned about continuity at the time.

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* NintendoHard: Higher difficulties will strongly punish players who don't properly use tactics. The game also gives a very minimal introduction to the combat, causing a DifficultySpike when players get into battles designed to be won with strategy.

* MookMaker: Broodmothers.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: And most have individual voice actors, including some well-known ones. [[Characters/DragonAge See the sub-page.]]

* OnlyOneFemaleMold: Putting Wynne (whom Word of God confirms is in her 40s) next to Morrigan (early 20s with a figure that's openly admired by Leliana) and having them wear the same outfit (as long as it's not a formless robe) is... disturbing, to say the least. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by one of Zevran's comments to Wynne:

** The Dwarf Noble origin allows to acquire quite a few items, earn a lot of money, and gives access to merchants. At the end, you're banished from Orzimmar and ''any item'' you're carrying (minus money and a few special items added by the [=DLCs=]) is permanently lost. You're supposed to sell everything before proceding, but the second part of this prologue (the "A Noble Expedition" quest) still allows to gain a lot of stuff, and at this point there's no way to meet a merchant before the betrayal which results in your banishing and the loss of your stuff.

** The final one occurs after the Landsmeet, as a prelude to the final battle. Travelling to Redcliffe and entering Redcliffe Castle leaves you with sometime to leave elsewhere and wrap up some business, but once you have learned from Riordan the purpose of the Grey Wardens -- and either accepted or declined Morrigan's ritual -- this ultimately puts you on a one-way fast track to the ending, as you and your army immediately head to the darkspawn-invaded Denerim to begin the final battle. This is a vaguely polite example, as dialogue indicates that there may not be any chance to go back for anything you missed once you commit to this final battle.

** If the Warden is romancing Morrigan and another companion simultaneously, the Warden can suggest this to her when she calls him out on it. As it turns out, Morrigan disapproves.

* PurelyAestheticGender: Downplayed. The gender of your character has no effect whatsoever on your stats. Gender is not ''completely'' aesthetic, but it mostly affects some conversation options and a couple of the potential romances. However, it has to be said that you cannot impregnate female [=NPCs=] as a female player, [[spoiler:which may affect two questlines, one minor and one not so minor]]. Also, the City Elf origin quest is the only origin with notable changes depending on the Warden's gender: a male Warden raids Denerim iarl's castle to rescue his kidnapped bride, a female Warden ''is'' the kidnapped bride.

* NoHeroDiscount: Mostly played straight; despite the fact that the Warden goes around saving the bacon of pretty much everyone in Ferelden, most of the merchants you encounter won't offer you so much as a minor discount in return, and the game even goes out of its way to rub this in the player's face by having one of the few who claims to be doing so (Bodahn) charge you ''some of the highest prices of anyone'' for his goods.
** Gorim is an exception to this rule, but only if you play as a Dwarf Noble. Because he and the Dwarf Noble Warden have a history, he ''does'' give you a discount and buys your items for higher prices too.

* NoOntologicalInertia: Subverted with [[spoiler:Zathrian and Witherfang. Killing Witherfang will not end the werewolf curse. It only provides Zathrian with a cure for his Dalish kin, allowing the humans afflicted to continue suffering. Killing Zathrian will not end the curse either. If Zathrian willingly removes the curse, however, it will kill both him and Witherfang.]]

* NotSoDifferent: Prince Bhelen and Lord Harrowmont. Both hire criers to spread lies and slander about their opponents, both are willing to use deceit and fraud to win the support of the deshyrs, both have armed bands of supporters roaming the streets and assaulting their opponents, both hire mercenaries to assassinate the Warden if they side with the other...

* PerspectiveFlip: Most of the base game and the bonus campaigns take place from the point of view of heroes fighting against the darkspawn to end the Fifth Blight. ''The Darkspawn Chronicles'' casts the player as a darkspawn MookLieutenant fighting on behalf of the Archdemon with a rotating roster of darkspawn minions, and involves the wholesale slaughter of every party member you might have recruited and several [=NPCs=] you interact with during the main game.

* PlayableEpilogue: [[spoiler:Unless you beat the Archidemon by sacrifying the player character]], after the final boss and subsequent cutscene where the Warden get to walk around and speak to the party members and related NPC folk about what happened, ask them what they're going to do, and generally sort of fill out the epilogue before the final FINAL cutscene of the game.