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userwithnoname · 8 years ago

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ive played skyrim before and liked it an a friend recommended dragon age but i dont know which one i should pick

Hm… this is still a little bit complicated, so I’m going to put another cut here just because it gets a little long.

tl;dr Your friend was probably talking about Inquisition, and while I recommend you start with Origins, Inquisition’s not a bad game to jump in with.

If Skyrim is your only basis for comparison, then I think your friend was recommending for you Dragon Age: Inquisition. I was in a very similar place when I started playing Dragon Age: had just beat Skyrim for the thousandth time, was getting bored and didn’t know how to mod my game, so I started looking at Steam recommendations. However, I had a bit of a buffer. Steam recommended me Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which is a pretty good game, but not quite what I was looking for.

What Skyrim lacked to me was character involvement. That isn’t to say there aren’t good characters, but they are limited and of the companions you’re given, they have little to do with the actual story and almost no involvement other than one quest here or there. Kingdoms of Amalur is similar to Skyrim in terms of story and gameplay, and if you liked Skyrim’s open-world and hack’n’slash combat, you’ll like Kingdoms.

To that end, Dragon Age is a pretty logical leap from either of those. But I can see where it would get confusing. The games are both reliant upon each other, yet can contradict each other horribly. When most people talk about Dragon Age. they’re referring to Inquisition because it’s the newest game to come out in the series. But as I mentioned, there are three games in total, not counting Awakening or Heroes of Dragon Age.

There’s no easy way to do this, so I’ll do a brief description then a (personal) pros and cons to each game before talking about the flaws the series has on a whole.

(Disclaimer: I am not a games reviewer or expert in any sense, these are personal opinions so take them with a grain of salt.)

(Also: SPOILERS)

Dragon Age: Origins (DA:O):

The first game in the series, DA:O focuses on the Warden or Hero of Ferelden. Without getting too much into the story, it heavily focuses on the arc of your character and the story that unfolds, allowing you a range of choices and quests that help keep replaying the game from getting boring.

Pros:

Personalized character backstory.

Character creation is interesting.

Pretty backgrounds (for the time).

Pausing combat doesn’t interrupt the flow of combat too much.

Gameplay is pretty straightforward and intuitive (at least on PC).

A lot of dialogue options.

Just enough side quests to pad out the story without distracting from the main quests.

Quest timing options.

Gifts to fix things if you mess up the dialogue options and can’t reload a save (they have diminishing returns, so be wary).

Companion options–don’t like someone? Kick them out of the party!

Weapon and armor options–spell casting doesn’t work well for this, but most weapons and armor aren’t class restricted.

DOG. PUPPY. WHO NEEDS ROMANCE, I HAVE A DOG.

Cons:

Main character has no voice acting.

Clunky animations. Like… mages in particular just stand there and point a staff in the air and sometimes wave their hand.

Sometimes confusing leveling mechanics.

Too much Codex stuff too fast.

Focuses a little too much on Alistair romance (even if I love him) and not much on the other characters.

Dialogue options can be hard to understand–this was before Bioware got their choice menu properly sorted out.

Will probably never see the Warden/Hero ever again no matter what they accomplish.

No armor modifications, only giving runes to some weapons.

Repetitive environments.

Limited romance options.

Hats.

Dragon Age II (DA II):

As the name implies it is second in the series, focusing on Hawke, the eventual Champion of Kirkwall, and has only a little to do with Origins. Not a direct sequel, DA II is very disputed across the fandom, and could have been handled better in general. Bioware changed their story-telling rhythm in this, instead breaking it up into 3 acts rather than major quests you can pick and choose the order of.

Pros:

New main quest each Act that focuses on Hawke as a person.

Varric.

Combat animation feels involved and fluid–you’ve upgraded from a person standing to actual fighting.

Hide hats option in menu.

Main character is voice acted now–yay!

Fixed the dialogue options so it’s not as confusing.

Dog is no longer a party member, so you have a back up you can summon if shit hits the fan.

Gives you a junk slot in your inventory so you know what you can sell.

Rival and Friendship system make it so you can hate someone you need and still keep them in your party.

Rival and Friendship system make it so you can romance someone even if you don’t particularly like them.

Cons:

Rival and Friendship system also, unfortunately, can lead to weird things happening in the story unless you go all out one way or another.

Cannot have a set team you use all the time unless you’re willing to possibly lose a few companions *coughs*Isabela*coughs*. Characters must be rotated out on quests if you want to get Friendship/Rivalry where it needs to be.

Specific, limited gifts that are easy to miss.

Confusing leveling mechanics.

The fuck did they do to the elves in this one?

Almost no interaction from anything in DA:O.

The screen layout got worse.

Facial animations (specifically eyebrows and mouth) are sometimes horrifying.

Character relationships are harder to manage.

Spend more time thinking about who you want on what quest than you probably should.

Romances are weirdly broken up in this one.

Armor picked up can only be worn by Hawke.

Please. Just let me romance Varric.

Combat animations are a little over the top and unrealistic.

Story makes it feel like your actions only effect Kirkwall, but actually end up effecting the whole world.

Race options–it forces you to play as a human.

Very repetitive environments.

Background is glanced over and explained away with no interaction.

Sibling death.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (DA:I):

The baby of the series, the most recent game and prettiest overall. DA:I has way more options in just about everything in comparison to the previous two games. You play as the Herald of Andraste, eventually becoming Inquisitor.

Pros:

That character creation tho.

Armor and weapon creation and customization.

Fixed elves appearances–no longer aliens.

Races now have different body types.

Fixed the combat ratio of fluidity to excessive.

Open world.

Actually get a horse/hart/dracolisk/freakishly large nug to ride this time.

Voice options (only two, but that’s one more than DA II and two more than DA:O).

Way more companion options.

Can play as a qunari.

Interesting cameos from companions in DA:O and DA II.

Cool search mechanic.

Cole.

HUGE map.

More romance options.

DRAGON MASTER.

Don’t have to play Origins or II to get the story-type you want, just log in to Dragon’s Keep and fill out some stuff.

Screw attributes completely.

Cons:

The hair. For everyone, but mostly qunari.

Undermines other choices in previous games.

Ooh… you might wanna get that hand looked at, buddy.

Hardens companion from DA:O regardless of actual choices in game.

Cut scene animation is a little weird sometimes.

Save files corrupt so quickly.

Sudden retconning of Dalish facts and changes the way mages are handled by the Dalish.

Main character disappearances.

Needs DLC in order to get the “real” ending.

Does not mod easily.

Bugs with animation and placement.

WHERE IS MY DOG, BIOWARE??????

THE MOUNT IS NOT A REPLACEMENT, IT CANNOT FIGHT OR FOLLOW YOU.

Doesn’t feel like a solid story ending, regardless of DLC.

You know those helpful numbers and bars we had to measure friendship in DA II and DA:O? Fuck ‘em. Don’t need ‘em. Oh, but likability is still being measured by the game, just not visibly.

Fuck gifts, too.

No more healing spells.

Oh, and let’s limit the number of healing items you can carry at once.

And we can’t make it too easy to make money, either.

Random loot is incredibly buggy.

Weapons/armor now class coded.

Gameplay takes some getting used to on the PC.

Screw attributes completely.

And that’s not including Awakening and Heroes of Dragon Age, which I am not discussing in this post.

Now, despite what you might think after that, I love these games.

They just… have their issues.

They pull a “Supernatural” on us, if you will. Each game, the enemy somehow gets bigger and badder. In the first one, you’re trying to stop the Blight and save your home, which is already a big feat. In the second one, you end up causing a civil war across multiple countries (even if it doesn’t feel so big at the time). In Inquisition, you have to save at least three countries at once, and in the fourth it looks like you’re going to have to save the world.

Each game focuses on a new protagonist, which is great in that it means a fresh new take on each challenge and new characters, but it really, really sucks in that it feels like you’re leaving a story unfinished. I mentioned we’ll probably never see the Warden in-game again and it’s been confirmed by Patrick Weekes, the lead writer for DA (I’d put a link here, but I can’t find it right now). This is mainly because the story has moved on from the Warden, but also because importing a Warden from DA:O to any new DA game would be almost impossible from a technical standpoint. While this is sad, it’s understandable from a story standpoint. But this method wasn’t what fans were expecting when DA II came out.

Which is probably the biggest reason for all the hatred towards DA II. It was marketed as a sequel to DA:O, and people kind of automatically thought of it as a direct sequel, mostly because the only other RPG series Bioware had running was Mass Effect and that’s what happened there. But it didn’t happen with DA II. Instead, we were given a new hero with new goals, no familiar companions and in a place DA:O didn’t even mention. Other than a few cameos, a couple characters, and a mention every now and then, there was nothing from DA:O in DA II.

And that’s really Dragon Age’s biggest problem. Playing DA II, it makes it feel like all those choices you made in Origins were insignificant (which on a scale they were). And Inquisition didn’t fix this. In fact, in some ways, it made it worse. It gave Hawke and the Warden more stories, which isn’t a bad thing, but it took your characters and tried to generalize your Warden and your Hawke into The Warden and The Hawke. Imagine you’d been given a choose-your-own-adventure book and the first two chapters are about one character, and then the next two about another, and so on and so forth. But in each of these chapters, you get glimpses of the previous characters doing other things in the same world. No interaction, no conclusiveness, just your character doing things that your character might not do. You have no control of the character whose choices are supposed to be yours after those two chapters are done.

Basically: for the story, with the way they’ve set it up, it forces you to bond to a character that you create but only briefly glimpse into their lives before someone else takes over. Yet instead of divorcing entirely from said character, the shorter timeline forces the heroes to interact in some capacity that we’ll never get to see. Varric is the perfect example of this. DA II is set up in a way that you know Varric will have to be involved in Inquisition. But after people started really liking him and the general backlash of DA II, Bioware couldn’t kill him off and couldn’t send him away. So they gave him a minor role in Inquisition and then retired him.

They do this again with the Inquisitor. The way DA:I ends left many fans to believe DA4 had to continue as the Inquisitor; after all it didn’t feel like the Inquisitor’s story was finished and the next Big Bad had been hinted at being kind-of their fault. But we’ve already been told that DA4 will not star the Inquisitor–instead, their story is supposedly done and the only chance we have of their involvement is probably a letter, a cameo, or as an advisor. That’s if Bioware doesn’t kill them.

Once again, they put away another character when it feels like they should still be involved, thus reducing the choices made in the previous games by an even smaller margin. Bioware takes a character you made, tells you their story is over when it feel like it’s just starting, then takes control of them.

The solution?

The Elder Scrolls series actually does a pretty good job at doing the same thing–by spreading the events out. I get that the whole name of the series is focused on a hundred year margin, but that’s still a hundred years for you to spread events out. Over the course of three games, only about 10-20 years have passed. DA:O takes place over the course of 1-2 years, maximum. DA II takes place over 7. And DA:I is about 2-5 (depending on if you count Trespasser), with a short gap between II and Inquisition.. That’s a lot of shit to happen over such a short time.

Give the games space. Let them breathe. Let the actions of the Warden fade as time passes, not lie ignored by NPCs just because it’s hard to account for all the choices. Let the stories have their own weight before you stack the other on, and maybe don’t rely to much on rapid storytelling.

And that really went off on a tangent, sorry.

Simply put, the games have their own flaws. If you have the money and prefer a newer-looking game and have the system to handle it, I recommend Dragon Age: Inquisition to start off. Being able to control the world through your choices in Dragon’s Keep gives you a good idea of previous stories without having to play them, while still preserving the themes from the series.

(But oh my god save frequently. Save every few minutes. And stagger save, too, don’t just save over old files because that shit corrupts EASY.)

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justanotherdumpingground · 6 years ago

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Chapter Reviews: April 9-13, 2019 + More Thoughts on WT and NB

High School Story Class Act Chapter 9:

By this point, I feel like I don’t enjoy Class Act as much as I wanted to. The presidential election drama is starting to drag me out, and Skye is sidelined because she didn’t get tangled up in this mess.

Anyway, it was really nice to see my old MC and his dad, the little poem for Skye was sweet, and seeing my MC and Skye watching Aiden’s concert while cuddling was adorable.

Even after Lorenzo gained a popularity boost for rescuing a kitten from a shocked Buttercup and Amber recording the entire thing, I’m still not fazed. Mainly because he’s still behind Rory, who has four stars compared to the three he and the twin have for each. Let’s see how it goes in future chapters.

Across the Void Chapter 17:

Wow! So Holmes is the one that gets injured. Well, that does it. I’m so glad I chose to remain neutral because the Jura general just sucks. I may not like Holmes, but he doesn’t deserve to get injured, though Kepler saying that he would never hurt anyone just made me shook my head.

If I can kick both Eos and Pax out of my ship, that would be great, though having them shut up and start acting maturely is good enough.

This chapter feels like a blink and it’s over. I installed the cryo atmos to bring the Atlas back to good condition, and I didn’t plan a party for Holmes, which would’ve improved crew morale. At least morale is still good. The only thing that keeps me interested is the possibility of who might be the Jura mole among the passengers. My best bet would be Rana because of her pro-Jura views. Other possibilities would be Adara and Leona, though they’re less likely to be the culprits.

Desire & Decorum Chapter 16:

On one hand, I like that Duke Richards gets a proper comeuppance (stripped from his title and holdings and locked away) unlike a certain villain. On the other hand, I’m rather disappointed that the evidence cabinet’s ultimate function is to determine the fates of Richards’s co-conspirators. Nevertheless, it was awesome to watch Luke Harper elevated to Knight Commander for stopping Richards. I think that’s a good way to allow players romancing him to marry him instead of being in a secret relationship with him. I also like that my MC gets to become Championess, yet another title for her to rub at Henrietta’s face alongside Countess of Edgewater.

Hamid’s proposal was the real cherry on the top of the cake, and I want him and MC to get married already. As for Dominique, I feel like I need some time before I can really forgive her. She may seem sincere, and she tried to redeem herself, but I still need to calm down about her. Maybe I’ll forgive her when I replay this book.

Great, another sequel hook. Just when I thought I could have my MC enjoy her wedding with Hamid, some stranger shows up unannounced. Apparently, this stranger is someone connected to Henrietta, who believed that person is dead. My guess is that the stranger is the MC’s half-brother Harry or Henrietta’s first husband (and Edmund’s father).

Overall, the second book is weaker than the first one while still okay. I love the formation of the inner circle and that the love interests, Briar, and the MC really look out for one another. Unfortunately, the love interests slowly lose their uniqueness while the getting out of the engagement with Duke Richards drags on for too long. I blame it on the writers resorting to clichés.

America’s Most Eligible Chapter 13:

A premium outerwear clothing looks good on paper, but it’s still a lure to spend diamonds just to see dialogue variations. Anyway, pass.

For the partner part, I still picked Adam because of how I roleplay my MC as. I may not like Adam completely, but I still have my MC pursue him because it fits his character.

So Wrenn is secretly leaking info to Piper, who thought Jen isn’t doing well. I’m conflicted on this. I know that this choice might affect Wrenn’s stance on me, but I also think they should be honest with Jen. In the end, I kept Wrenn’s secret while still considering the option to tell the truth to Jen in case I replay this book.

Dang, Carson has gone the deep end, hasn’t he? Just by looking at him spiraling into depression despite his best efforts to makes things fresh makes feel bad. Still pissed that it’s a premium option to console him, but it’s something I might do to bring him out of his shell.

Passport to Romance Chapter 5:

The Notre Dame trip is nice, though the recycled image from Rules of Engagement made me cringe. At least it was calming to see Ahmed lighting a candle as a reminder of how important the sense of community.

Hearing more about Marisa’s “boyfriend” Tristao just makes me want to punch him in the face and watch Marisa break up with him. It’s no secret she deserves better.

So far, I like the trip around the Catacombs in Paris, especially with Marisa expressing her fear of the dead. It was jarring to see Elliot chastising Ahmed and Sumire for making jokes about Marisa’s fear, and his premium scene implies that he lost someone or many people very dear to him. It didn’t endear him to me because he came across as a hypocrite for making a snide remark on Marisa during the dinner with Yvette. However, I think that as useless as Elliot is, he deserves to have his story told.

Not surprised that Yvette would extend the contract and keep the love interests together with the MC. After all, it would be a waste to get rid of the ones we have. Sure not everyone likes them, but it would be daft of PB to not develop them further.

I admit that I restarted the whole book to buy most premium scenes involving Sumire and not join Elliot in bouncing at Marie Antoinette’s bed. Interestingly, I managed to reach Level 2 for my blog and unlock a bonus scene, where I can talk about who viewers like, asking what they want to see, or thanking them for inspiring the blog. I picked what they want to see, and apparently, they want ambiance footage of Berlin, more Elliot and Ahmed, MC kissing those boys, and personal stuff. Well, my blog’s name is Sexcapades, so that might happen.

Open Heart Chapter 9:

That patient with Bryce Sterling's model is a total nightmare. His constant rudeness and belching gets on my nerves all the time. It's a good thing Ethan showed up to put him in his place.

The group dinner was nice, and I want Rafael included every now and then. Bonus points if he gives his perspective as a paramedic. I'll make him fit right into the inner circle in spite of his insecurities of not attending a prestigious university.

One thing I noticed is that Bryce mentioned attending a college as far away from home as possible. That sounds interesting, considering that he is consistently portayed as keeping a positive face. My best guess is that he had a rough childhood that strained his parents so much that he cut off ties with them once he's capable of taking care of himself. I'd like to know more about him, even if the story puts too much emphasis on Ethan.

Kyra as a love interest left me rather uneasy. I mean, I like her personality despite her cancer, but I don't think it's ethical for a doctor and a patient to date. Not sure how PB will handle this, so let's see how it goes.

MC is finally number one, which makes them a target of massive jealousy? I have a bad feeling about this. Aurora's sarcastic comment gives me the chills, which makes me think some of MC's roommates will contribute to unnecessary drama. I hope that's not the case.

Ride or Die Chapter 13:

Because I ended the previous chapter with my MC in the surveillance room with Jason and Foley, she ended up distracting them and saved the Mercy Park Crew. Talking about giving her badass moment, compared to the situation where she was locked in the vault with the Brotherhood.

Teppei choosing to sacrifice himself to let the Mercy Park Crew escape left me speechless, in part because he's a better written character than the other members of the MPC except Colt. I'm definitely mad at him for dragging the crew to his life, but seeing your own parent's death is always sad. In Colt's case, his father wanted him to live a normal, crime-free life, and it would be a waste for Colt to not honor his father's wish.

One quote that stands out to me the most is Mona asking the MC whether she wanted "freedom, fast cars, the bad boy", and that life, then said it's ultimately not for the MC. It sounds like Mona is saying that all these are mere delusions masking the dangers of being around criminals. Makes me think of the terrible first chapters. I still think the story's not that good despite improvements along the way.

Regarding Jason Shaw, I get that it's tempting for me to defend him because he goes after criminals, but I don't see that as a reason to praise him. I could say my feelings are complicated. As much as I understand that he has some sort of moral compass for going after criminals, I think he's addicted to freedom and power that he has lost sight of what his job ultimately means. Not to mention that it would've been better to hand those criminals to justice instead, and him threatening the MC comes across as hypocritical.

On another note, does anyone think Toby is rather suspicious? He seemed to be at the right place at the right time (telling the MC of Colt's operation, outside of the MPC garage when it burned down), and there were moments when he raised red flags that foreshadow something sinister (fixing MC's car, talking to someone during the party at a junk yard). I stumbled upon this theory on Instagram, and I wanted to know if anyone seems sold on it. If it's true Toby's up to no good, what if he was playing the Mercy Park Crew and Brotherhood all along?

The Elementalists Chapter 5:

I'm enjoying Book 2 so far, and this chapter on the nature of elemental sources was just fascinating. Learning about Alma the Blood source on the MC and Atlas's parents being elemental sources like her and Kane was fascinating. I think that's what makes the twins special in a way. And not to mention that I'm becoming more intrigued on Kane and Gemma as well as how the sources tie into the plot. What if we encounter the other sources? And how do the different races like wood nymphs and djinns factor into all this?

Man, I need to give Atlas a hug, considering the fact that they, unlike their twin sibling, wasn't raised in a loving environment when their parents died. It makes me wonder more of the events Atlas had to go through before meeting with their long-lost sibling.

I couldn't pass on the opportunity to learn the fire chariot spell from Griffin, especially if it might come in handy later on. Pity it's not included in the spell book, but at least it allowed my MC to score an easy win. Can't wait to use it on Kane and any other threat that gets in my way.

Thoughts on Wishful Thinking and Nightbound:

Honestly, I’m more excited for Nightbound than Wishful Thinking, mainly because I generally prefer fantasy and supernatural over romantic comedy. In Wishful Thinking’s case, I feel like it should’ve involved a crime-fighting element that makes it similar to Hero. After all, both stories are set in Northbridge. Thinking of it reminds me of Shazam, which I thoroughly enjoyed for its comedic style and serious moments that work well in the story. As for Nightbound, I may be more excited for it, but I’m still fairly wary that it will focus too much on a single male love interest that the entire story revolves around him. This has been going on for a lot of stories, so if the romance aspect is kept to a minimum like The Heist: Monaco, that would be a preferable while highly doubtful scenario.

#choices stories you play #chapter reviews #choices wishful thinking #choices nightbound #choices wt #choices nb

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