Dragon Age

I have no choice but to use bolded all-caps.

THEY'RE MOVING BIOWARE EDMONTON INTO A NEW LOCATION SOON. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD THEY PUT THE RESOURCES NECESSARY FOR THAT MOVE INTO A DEVELOPER THEY MIGHT "AXE"?

And you're still continuing to insist that multiplayer modes they supported didn't make them profit.

You always have a choice, and that isn't what I said. I said it didn't make them the kind of money they wanted, not that it didn't make any money at all. People are concerned, but not unreasonably so given EA's track record. They still like Bioware. A new office is a good sign. You probably don't need to get so combative over any hint of criticism.

Edited by Unsung on Dec 7th 2018 at 9:27:02 AM

Back to Dragon Age:

Golems of Amgarrak is a return to pretty everything that was bad about the main game.

Backtracking all over a convoluted map? Check.

Overcorrecting for said flaw by making a different flaw in the form of the colored Fade dimensions? Check.

Stupidly overly powerful enemies that resist almost all of your techniques? Check.

Inability to use good tactics because the game won't let you? Check.

Why, yes, I'm stuck on the treasure room with the Reaper's Cudgel and the six golems that attack you at once. Fighting them in the same room didn't work. Running out of the room didn't work. Most forms of tactical play is a matter of hoping none of the golems choose that particular moment to use the hurl rock ability to stun the entire party.

Most infuriatingly, putting the Bronto summon in the room while everyone else is outside and stacking a Storm of the Century didn't work - not only did it not work, the start of battle automatically pulled everyone inside the room, so I was also taking damage from my own spell.

And as for the previously discussed topic:

Crap like this is one of several reasons I personally won't shed any tears if Bioware dies, regardless of whether it's on its own or if EA kills it.

As far as I'm concerned, Bioware's stopped being that company who takes very standard tropes and plays with them just enough to create incredibly compelling fictional worlds and stories for about a decade, and since then have merely been coasting on their reputation and covering up for subpar writing that consist mostly of tropes in a blender and seeing what sticks via hefty doses of nostalgic referencing.

I like playing Golems of Amgarrak. Shame about that Sequel Hook though.

Golems of Amgarrak was difficult for all the wrong reasons. It also ultimately had no plot relevance. Heck, the "Harvester" in DA II has a completely different origin. I preferred Witch Hunt anyway.

Also, the party members in Amgarrak were pretty much useless come the final battle of the DLC. I ended up having to solo the damn thing with my Arcane Warrior.

Edited by M84 on Dec 10th 2018 at 5:19:50 PM

Same.

Only reason I survived the 6 golems at once was because I was too tanky and auto-healy that they couldn't kill me, but the constant knock downs only resulted in prolonging the fight which made it worse.

Yeah, Agmarrak has no plot relevance (unless it turns out that the lyrium wells/colour shifts were a massive hint about how the world works) to go along with it being a bunch of challenges stapled together over a reused map. If they brought back the runic golem and it's designs for use with all golems that'd be one thing but for now Agmarrak's only legacy is introducing the Harvesters.

A theory from Ashe Lady Insanity

This is a weird thought that occurred to me when discussing The Dawn Will Come with other people. I like the song but a ton of folks find it cringey. That's fine and all but I also liked Leliana singing in DAO (she was my first ever waifu) and when thinking about the fact I liked both "singing segments" in the first and third DA game, the obvious fact there was no singing in Dragon Age 2 occurred to me. Then I kinda shrugged it off with "well, it be out of place in that game."

But would it? What do you all think? Is there any place in the DA 2 we got for some inspirational song?

DA II isn't exactly an inspirational game, so no, I don't think it'd fit. There aren't a lot of moments where it would work, and it'd probably end up feeling kind of hollow.

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Dec 24th 2018 at 4:27:53 AM

On the mage side, you could sing for much the same reasons as Haven near the end, try to warm the hopes of Orsino and the others. Besides, I'm sure Orsino loves a good hokey pokey.

Could sing a song to pass time walking through the Deep Roads, but then, that might attract darkspawn. They could mistake you for an Old God!

Finally, and most obviously: the Arishok should fight you in rap.

Edited by Lavaeolus on Dec 24th 2018 at 9:36:48 AM

Things are darkest before the dawn. I think a full-on dance number would be out of place, but if you came to the Chantry at one point and there was a choir singing as you walked through or one that continued singing in the background during one of your shadowy meetings with Petrice or Leliana, I think that could be a fitting juxtaposition. The hope and inspiration are there, but do they reach everyone equally? Certain Hawkes could even deliberately reject that message or call it out as hypocritical — not saying that's how I feel, but I think there's an interesting opportunity for roleplaying in that.

Or you could embrace it — characters like Bethany, Sebastian, or for that matter Varric might even know the words.

I think that's the thing about DA 2 — it's dark, but it's dark because that darkness is there to be fought.

So with the teasers of upcoming game being a thing, I realized that after I last time played inquisition in 2014, I've never actually played any of the three dlcs despite purchasing them So decided to finish them, but geez taking four year long break from this game is really confusing.

Like, during that time there have been patches that fixed shit, I could swear UI was different and I could swear they didn't allow you to switch outfit from that silly pajama looking thing. Also what the heck are trials and why they warn you to have multiple saves? Seems like extra challenges for extra rewards, but I don't get the multiple save recommendation, like can they corrupt files or what?

But yeah, I'll see if I manage to learn the game again even if its really confusing(also confused if I really missed that many codex entries or if the all three dlc just added that many. Also also, annoyed that dragon age keep playthrough for the game was bugged it seems by one of the patches, but hey I can just add the correct one back when I'm finished with dlcs :P)

There's really no place for inspirational singing to take place in DA II. In Act I things aren't quite shit enough for someone to try and rouse peoples' spirits with a song. In Act II the Chantry acts as the driving villainous force that brings about the Qunari attack. In Act III the Chantry is defined by its refusal to take sides and is actively trying not to do anything.

I would actually say the most likely place for a song would be in the Hanged Man or whatever the tavern is. Some thematically appropriate filk song going on.

I also remember YEARS ago in this thread suggesting an Inquisition boss vs. The Red Templar commander where other Red Templars grew into such large lyceum crystals that they became part of the architecture to be mined by their comrades (Ignore the run on sentence). As the boss played, they could be dramatically singing the Chant of Light making the music diagetic and thematically appropriate.

Probably would have been a lot better than what we DID get.

DA II could have been livened up by having an optional scene in Act III where, if all of your Companions are still available (not sold off into slavery, not brainwashed into the Qun, etc.) and have maxed Rivalry or Friendship, they decide to hang out at the Hanged Man just for the sake of hanging out and having fun. Then everyone gets roaring drunk and starts singing a sea shanty Isabella knows. Off-key.

Of course, Anders won't be in it because of Vengeance (which suits pretty much everyone else just fine since nobody save Varric at that point can still tolerate him).

I find that DAII becomes much more enjoyable if you assume that there's an ACT II and a 1/2 with the two DLC forming one between Hawk as the Champion and the Templar War.

The story suddenly has a relatively nice period where Hawk gets to enjoy his life and lay to rest some demons.

I don't have a problem with the second game being a tad bleak. I only dislike it's story and gameplay.

I was thinking less a hallelujah choir for the chantry, and more of a Gregorian chant/Carmina Burana sort of deal.

Wonder if they might have gone with a "one last night before the final storm" sequence if they'd done the Exalted March DLC. But yeah, definitely wouldn't have minded a longish pure character cutscene like that.

Edited by Unsung on Dec 26th 2018 at 10:12:18 AM

So I got all of DA 2 DLC for $11 instead of $24. Merry Christmas. There is some stuff here I don't think I ever had before like a few new armors or whatever so that's cool.

Fuckin' Sebastian. He gives me extra XP and some chances for more Friend/Rival Points with characters I care about so I guess it's okay he comes with everything else.

I haven't done Legacy since my first run of DA 2. This will be my fifth playthrough. Thinkin' I'll do Legacy and MOTA in Act 1 because it makes no fucking sense, especially MOTA. Then again, all the awesome equipment I get will end up being worthless later.... Plus I am curious about Bethany's dialogue in Act 2 or 3 if she's a Warden or in the Circle. I have never done the DLC quests with her.

I don't mind Sebastian as much as I otherwise might given that he's supposed to be a smug hypocrite and no one else really likes him.

I never cared for Sebastian so much as I didn't care for most of the other characters either. Not an outright hatred. Just, more, indifferent.

I just didn't understand why half of them were there and tolerated each other for a longer period of time compared to any other game in the franchise despite having the weakest reason to stick around. They hate each other constantly. I don't understand why they can't find other friends if they hate everyone so much. I know what they went for was 'True (Vitrolic) Companions' but they focused too much on the in-fighting and not enough on the relationships between them to really portray that they would stick together.

Most of them don't hang out with each other on a regular basis. They just hang out with Hawk or Varric. Hawk is the one whom they all have ended up revolving around, and Varric is one of the only people in the group trying to maintain a connection with everyone.

It's worth pointing out that the group seems to have drifted apart in the timeskip between Acts II and III.

And of course there's Anders, who just grows further and further apart from the rest (even Hawk) as Vengeance influences him more and more.

As for Sebastian...I actually found him interesting in terms of gameplay since it meant I had someone in my party who could actually use the bows I kept finding. Varric's Bianca is great, but you gotta mix it up every now and then.

Edited by M84 on Dec 25th 2018 at 11:04:04 PM

There's a kind of bond that comes from a certain form of hate. What they hate in each other is what they hate in themselves, and that hate doesn't really go away. That's basically what Rivalry is.

Besides, they don't all hate each other. Fenris, Anders, and Merrill hate each other, Aveline and Isabela are on opposite sides of the law, and Carver is an all-around sourpuss, but most of them get along reasonably well. And they're united by Hawke, who is, it's implied, a natural-born leader even if a given version of Hawke is a jerk — a PC, in other words.

Edited by Unsung on Dec 25th 2018 at 8:37:42 AM

They do find other friends and I don't think we're supposed to think that Merrill and Fenris secretly have each other's backs or anything. They both happen to be friends of Hawke and have occasionally mutual goals, so they work together.

I don't fully buy it, though, because I don't feel like their common goals are enough to keep them together like, say, SEES in Persona 3 pretty have to work together despite not always getting along.