Dragon Age

To be fair, Kettlemaker is a perfectly valid Medieval name.

He probably makes...kettles.

Rather than Eamon, if Alistair had wanted to remain secret, he probably would have gone by Alistair Redcliffe or Alistair Warden.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on May 20th 2020 at 6:50:15 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

He's a blacksmith, so yes! Although presumably it's not the only thing he can make. Bit of a niche market, otherwise.

Maybe it's a specialty.

:)

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

Eamon is his first name...his family name is Guerrin.

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Or even just using his name to help along a rebellion like what happens if you spare him with Anora on the throne.

Holy shit, Dragon Age II is back on Steam!

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.

Of course, it still requires you to be running Origin at the same time.

I eagerly await the day both II and Inquisition appear on GOG so I can get them without DRM and fucking Origin.

I do, however, believe I might be waiting for a very, very long time.

The Next Dragon Age got a first look video. Lots of concept art, test area designs, some combat looks, encounter/boss tests, and even some voice acting and animations. We MIGHT have the names of our first two companions.

ALSO DORIAN IS IN THE CONCEPT ART AND I LOVE HIM.

Edited by InkDagger on Aug 27th 2020 at 3:17:32 AM

"I love that character so much" Yeah, so much that you can't even say their name.

Sorry, sorry, the concepts and stuff they showed were interesting, it's just that the corporate part of that got really annoying. So much fake enthusiasm and meaningless marketing phrases...

Anyhow, while I do want solid information on the game, I'm kidna glad it's still in pre-production. Gives it a better chance that they'll do a good job on it.

Now to hope it doesn't end up a Live Service or something like that.

I am... somewhat... worried to see them do the same thing they did with Anthem for this game's marketing. Like just a bunch of concept art and graybox gameplay tests. Bioware's entire dev pipeline has been a garbage fire for like a decade now, and this does nothing to make me believe that has particularly changed. Still, the Dread Wolf is the first truly compelling villain they've had in several entries, so I wish them best of luck and hope it will turn out great.

Edited by ashlay on Aug 27th 2020 at 9:29:25 AM

The fact that Dragon Age's quality over time is sort of a downward-pointing line graph and that it's a known thing that Bioware is on it's last legs doesn't inspire much confidence either. It's barely even Bioware anymore, most of the people who did the best things they were known for have long since jumped ship.

Anthem had worse though. All we had for, like, a year was a fucking corn maze.

But, yeah, Dragon Age HAS had a downward graph for a bit. It upticked with Inquisition though. And then... Andromeda and Anthem happened.

I won't write them off but I'm not buying it right away.

I dunno, overall I find II more solid than Inquisition. There are far more issues with the latter than the former, even if the former's issues are more noticeable.

Over all, I saw a lot more people happier with Inquisition than when DA 2 came out. And, while this is my personal experience, I have yet to have a playthrough of DA 2 that wasn't a slog. I can't say the same about Inquisition or Origins.

It's interesting, I can replay DA II quite easily, but one playthrough of Inquisition was all I could manage.

I really wish those areas were half the size.

I played Inquisition more than II myself on PS 4.

When they came out, yeah, no doubt. II was lambasted, and rightly so, on release. But since then I've seen a lot of people reconsidering II, and just as many noticing more flaws with Inquisition.

And personally, I think that in hindsight II is a more solid experience, all things considered. Inquisition was far too spread out and unfocused, and by the time I finished it the first time the game was leaving me tired of playing it. II, for all it's flaws, is a more compact experience. I can, and have, played it more than once and had a lot of fun, while replaying Inquisition always comes with a list of chores due to how big yet shallow it is. Plus, the story of II is worlds better than Inquisition's.

Of course, neither comes anywhere close Origins. That game is one of the rare moments I'd honestly call something a masterpiece, and I strongly doubt the series will ever get better than it.

My ideal Dragon Age game would probably be:

• Origins' Narrative + World Building
• II's Character Development/Interaction
• Inquisition's Combat + Crafting

I have a lot of faults with Inquisition. The combat and movement isn't very interesting (because fuck frostbite engine). Being a mage is actually rather boring. And I really really didn't care for the crafting. And the plots are a bit underwritten (Mage vs. Templar getting hijacked, the Ball is really underdeveloped). But I actually cared about the characters. I felt like there was at least some heart there and an attempt to talk about some interesting themes that games don't usually do, even if it wasn't always executed the best. I can look past it if there are good enough characters to enjoy.

And Solas is still the best damn villain in the last decade of Bioware and he hasn't even been THE villain yet.

I think I hated... almost every character in DA 2. Anders is probably my most hated video game character ever just from how much he makes my blood boil from name alone. And the characters I don't hate I just kinda tolerate. They're ok. I like how some of them feel really integrated into the plots; Isabella to Act 2 or Anders to Act 3. Just... I wish they were better or more interesting characters. Or more interesting stories. But I just found it too much of a slog.

I still remember pouring over the Wiki to know who got disapproval when during what quests and tailoring my party so I didn't piss certain people off too much. Because I've more than once had an issue where I didn't get people's approval/disapproval high enough for certain checkpoints and just ended up ruining everything. And I kinda feel like, yeah, if I'm having to pour over the wiki because the characters are impossibly easy to offend every 5 seconds and they bicker like absolute children... I'm not really having a fun time at that point.

I want to hang out with Iron Bull or Dorian or Cole because I like their characters... not because of some tangential gameplay element I'm *having* to min-max just to keep the game going.

I don't think any particular character is really well done. I don't think any of the plots are particularly strong and, in fact, I think a lot of them rely on hand of the author to keep running (Qunari sitting in those damn docks for half a decade doing fuck all) (Anders. Period.). And I don't think Kirkwall is a particularly interesting location for reasons discussed dozens of times in this thread. If people are less harsh on it these days (probably because of Anthem pulling a "Hold my beer" moment), great, but I don't think it's some unsung true MVP of the series and I don't think people are wrong to cite it as a point where Bioware massively dipped in quality and showed a lot of sins they'd struggle with up until right now.

Honestly, I have the opposite experience from yours. I really like most (Fuck Sebastian) companions in II, but outside of a few highlights, I'm not too enthused about the Inquisition ones. Hell, Inquisition has Vivienne, the only companion in the entire franchise I actively hate. Even Sebastian has his moments with me. And while the idea of not being able to see your companions' approval in-game sounds logical, I don't really like that I can't properly tell how much they like me.

I think when it comes to the characters, Bioware has rarely failed, but which group you like more tends to come down to personal preference. Both Inquisition and II's squads fit the themes of their respective games really well, but because of that if you dislike one of them, there's a good chance you'll dislike the rest as well, which in a Bioware game, that lives and breathes on how much you like the characters, can kinda kill the whole thing.

Me, I like the squad in II better. I find them interesting and deeply flawed characters, and the difference between their dynamic and the squad dynamic in Origins felt refreshing. They weren't all best buds, in fact most of them dislike each other, but Hawke, magnetic badass that they are, manage to bring them all together and make them work, and I enjoy that.

There's no doubt that II wasn't great, especially for the time it was published in (although I'd argue that's not entirely Bioware's fault). It's got it's flaws, and it's by no means a high point for the franchise. But I really don't think it's as bad as you're making it out to be. In fact, I'd say it's about as good as Inquisition is, just that they're good and bad at different things from one another.

And that's exactly what I hated so much. I could *not* get them to work unless I sat down for ages to math out and pre-plan their approval. I felt like that Mom friend that constantly needs to keep the kids from fighting rather than them being goddamn adults and just dealing with each other or, better yet, find a group of people you actually. If they don't like Hawke and don't like ANYONE else in the party (Anders, Fenris, Sebastian), I really cannot comprehend why they're there.

I already do enough of that kind of thing irl trying to keep groups of people who are supposed to be friends from trying to kill each other. It's absolutely exhausting. I *hate* being the mom friend 24/7. It's not fun.

I'd like to point out, additionally, one member of this "group of friends" can advocate that they sell one of them back into slavery and NEVER gets called out on this. And you can do it and also not really get called out on it besides an approval hit. Everyone talks about Hawke like he was this keystone holding the group together and just that charismatic and... that just wasn't the experience I ever had with the game. I'm glad it was more natural for others but I never met that Hawke.

Even when you had the bitchiest of the Inquisition squad (Sans Sera who also has the DA 2 issue), They're still sticking around because otherwise it's apocalypse or they've got their own motives keeping them biting their tongue from worse. Same for Origins. Though I think Inquisition's cast is more or less playing it safe and certainly not as strong as Origins' characters.

So I do realize some of my feelings are steeped in personal experience with a game and not the overall consistent experience, but that is the experience the game consistently gives me every time I play it. A game that already has lack luster visuals, plot, and gameplay. If I could like the characters, I'd probably be softer to it and deal with the gameplay issues or weaker plot (as I already do with Inquisition or other games), but I just don't think there's anything for me in the game. I just... can't find much to care about. Darkness Audience Apathy I guess.

Edited by InkDagger on Aug 28th 2020 at 3:00:17 AM

Sebastian's only problem is he didn't trust me to kill Anders and felt he needed to threaten me to do it.

Not cool, kid.

Not cool.

I will however, give him a pass because his surrogate mom just died.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

I didn't kill him because it would just make him a martyr right now.

thatandhe'stheonlyfuckinghealergodamnit

Not like the game ever lets you express that anyway.

No, Fenris, goddamn it, don't give me disapproval for this. I am trying to get us out of here alive. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF THE CONCEPT OF LYING THROUGH YOUR TEETH?! ARGH!

I will give him no such pass. He and I had issues long before that day.

Ink Dagger, if I may be honest, and I mean no offense with this, but I don't feel like you're coming at this game or discussion in good faith? I'm not saying you're being malicious about it or anything, just that you clearly really disliked the game and I think you're letting you own bad experience with it color your view far too much, to the point where you're disregarding things that were good with the game because they resonateed badly with you personally. Not saying that your experience wasn't valid, just that you're kind of letting it get to you a bit much.

It kinda feels like I'm not so much debating the game with you as much as just watching you air out your grievances with it.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Aug 28th 2020 at 7:58:47 AM