#she was already one of my most favourite companions in my first playthrough but wow

[perplexingly]

My best friend Jaheira 🥹

[mytumblogforgames]

yeeeeeaaaahhhhh.......... :/

the more time and space I have from actually finishing, and just like ruminating on it all over and over..... My impressions are just growing colder and less forgiving. I'm gonna have to write them all out sometime here, it's just how I process things. But it'll be hard. Saying goodbye to my favourite little guy maybe of all time, is very hard. My shorthand thoughts are basically: as an action fantasy game, it's fantastic... it's cinematic and gorgeous and the narrative is powerfully emotionally motivated, and I'm certain someone that has no DA knowledge can leave it feeling like it was a great piece of art; as an RPG, it's quite middling....it's got a decent character creator with 6 technically different bgs but it really isn't much more than flavour imo, and ultimately everything is either a binary choice or no real choice at all (companion quests have two paths, the ending itself is one flavour, though I will give credit for the suicide mission elements that do actually add a bit of variability, but dialogue options are often three ways of saying the same thing slightly different)...it's not bad, it's serviceable...it can be called a role playing game, in a very specific way.....but it is not an rpg robust and full of choice; as a dragon age game, it's not very good....the amount of auto dialogue was giving me ME3 flashbacks in a very bad way, bc at least Shepard was always a less dimensional (on OUR part, the player) character.....but as predicted, rook is even less your own than Inquisitor, and even more basic...you find your character very often just...saying shit, and it's like "oh no, the bad guy is bad! But don't give up team we are the good guys and we can persevere. *Beat* also I can't cook ha ha ha" Also now that I'm in another playthrough I can see just how much dialogue is repeated and it's most of it..... 😬 and the lore was ....odd.... some things are like, glaringly bad (blight effects...) and others, most actually, are cases of just....deciding that it didn't matter...and for me personally the Big Lore Reveals (that I assume any longtime solas enjoyer like myself already all knew lol) were very Telling Me The Story you know? I found the writing this time to be rather..."accessible" is the word I am thinking of but when I say it in this case I mean it as like, commercially accessible. like....marvel/Disney, ya know... we are all On the Hero Spectrum and we basically only talk about Pulling through!!! Because heroes don't give up! We have each other!!! We'll never turn into those EVIL people! ...idk. idk. antagonists from main and side missions often felt flat, Pure Evil redshirt mobs....and the obvious, the lack of respect for the world so far....we see/hear nothing of any dao/daa companions or major players besides Morrigan, who isn't there bc shes morrigan :/ theres one DA2 cameo, one dai cameo....that is it....DA to me means 1 meaningfully expressively different ways to roleplay the PC 2 a growing world state of different flavours that continues to reference itself as it expands 3 a fantasy setting where we get a new crew of companions to wander around with per title .... we get the last one sure, but I didn't really feel the first two so like I said I don't see it as a particularly successful dragon age game; and for ME most importantly, as a Solas game, game about Solas, marketed to me as a game of choice that still somehow resolves the tale meaningfully and satisfactorily no matter the path................ sorry. it's a fail for me. I'm sure I can go on and on and on about it but I need to just let it simmer for now.

Someone who isn't me can absolutely have a blast and come away thinking wow what a game. But she ain't me 😔 I didn't especially enjoy the combat, like I guessed, but it's fine, I can endure combat that I don't super think is fun....I think the slimming down on the RPG elements that are collecting and selling and min maxing and shit, potions loot etc, was nice and convenient. They COULD keep resource intensive stuff around but I personally don't care 🤷🏼‍♀️ and I really liked the simplicity and ease of just, look for a green pot to break lol. Played a rogue though and that fuckin arrow regen mechanic....not for me. Will have to see what ranged combat is for the rest. The music was the weakest of the series by far for me, characterless, very general (not always unique location/character specific pieces....), why is there synth to begin with but definitely why is there so much of it lmao... Biggest compliments I can give are the cinematics and environmentals and lighting, looked even more beautiful than inquisition. Though I've been experiencing a textural bug with white dots all over mostly hair and sometimes floors.... driving me insane. It changes person to person but there are a few VAs that were particularly Cartoon voicing and I don't really enjoy that, so I can't just wholesale compliment the voice talent.... But in general the main cast is very well played. And GDL, for me, is literally carrying this title on his Welsh shoulders. The ghil moments we get are also actually pretty fire

But yeah. Idk. I knew there was basically no way for this game to satisfy me, but I was so hopeful bc the Solas enjoyers in the dev team have been hyping it so much as such a great conclusion to his tale........... Makes it feel worse in a way. In a couple cases I at least genuinely believe the person just likes stories that end this way. And that's fine. But man. Man..... I really just. Wanted something else...I finished 11am, starting the climax and final point of no return at 5am already exhausted but so eager to finish, after waking up at like 2pm on election day and just playing through the evening. Woke up 6pm later on, of course my first thoughts are of this new game, the new ending I'm left with, time has passed I slept and I'm thinking more about what happened, and then I hear the news get turned on and then there's election results playing. So that was my experience ending this. I suffered in the fake world, went to sleep, then woke up to suffer in the real world and I can't use the fake world to escape for fun... It unfortunately colours the whole thing in an even worse light for me 😔 I'm just feeling emotionally drained. And I really wish. I really fuckin wish, this thing that's meant so much to me, could offer a bit of relief :/

all right. before I get my hands on this lemme get thoughts out

I don't care for the textural look. The blurred yassification of it all... Hoping for mods 😭

Solas better not die or I'm quitting

Inquisitor....Imma be real idrc 😔🤷🏼‍♀️ like I'm sorry but they're literally all gonna be the same character? That's a joke.

Sorry I'm not being Fair. I bet it ends up like this: you are kind of sad and kind of nice when you "redeem" and you are kind of mad and kind of mean when you "stop". If you romance him your Lavellan will make that stupid ass frowny face from DAI but otherwise be basically the same as "redeem"

I'm expecting to not like the combat unfortunately....it looked like everything just jumps you and you exclusively and the difficulty is just gonna be even more mobs literally mobbing you while ur companions looked like they were kinda doing fuck all ........ Plus the only 2 😭 my banter 😭😭 but yeah idk. I get they're rly relying on the detonation thing but tbh w u I didn't rly do that shit in DAI....dao yes bc combat is slower. When it's faster like this I honestly just turn my brain off lol

I'm guessing I'm gonna go for davrin, emmerich or bellara first. I also see them as possible Culprits but idk if we're getting yet another betrayal arc tbh

Would love one of the romances that happens outside ur own to b with that old man

Taash got something Mythal related going on ? Suspicious

I'm expecting this to be my least favourite of the four but that's rly bc it wasn't allowed to be what it should have been for most of its development..... The live service skeleton is all over the look of this and it seems to be anchoring the story, but Make it relevant to the sequel hook from DAI....it seems like it's just kind of set up to fail as the weakest narratively. Which sucks bc it's the big climax. Hoping I'm pleasantly surprised

I was gonna read the supplemental stuff but didn't. I've read summaries tho, so my take from the dread wolf was seemed to be that the lyrium idol=the lyrium dagger....

very curious to know if we can interact with Solas at will in the lighthouse or like. How does it work. Anyway can I ask him about his fish

Really hoping the soundtrack references Morris when it comes to Inquisitor and Solas :/ and any other returning notes I just don't know who else gonna be there lol

I honestly haven't given it too much thought beyond uhhhh my guy better be okay

[enchantment1385]

🐉 Age Questions

I was tagged by the very lovely, @nerdierholler to give up some of my darkest gaming secrets... Yaaay! Thank you, darling XD 

1. Favourite game of the series? Wow... Not pulling any punches, are we? Honestly, they all have things I adore and all have things I dislike. I’ve played DAO more than the others, but that’s because it’s the oldest of them all. I love the camp mechanic and just how in depth Origins is, but the combat is... dated? Da2 has Hawke, which for me is a winner in itself.  And DAI has so many wonderful characters.  

2. How did you discover 🐉 Age? I honestly can not even remember at this point! I remember playing DAO when it was quite ‘new’. I remember dying, aaannnnd then i didn’t play it again until someone showed me how amazing DAI looked. So, I bought it and then got back into them all in a big way, and destroyed my life in doing so! 

3. How many times have you’ve played the games?  Ahahahahaha... Umm... I don’t know..?  Let’s put it this way, on my laptop alone (as in ALL my console hours, which is a whole lot, not counted.) I have clocked up over 1200 hours on DAO, 720 on DA2, and 1250 on DAI... So, yes. Now you all know how very sad I am... 

4. Favourite race to play as? Dwarfs, they hands down have the BEST and funniest dialog options.

5. Favourite class? DAO; Dual wield rogue  DAI & DA2; Mage. Oh, so many mages...

6. Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? I kinda vary it, but not as much as I sometimes want to. I’ve never done a pure ‘asshole’ playthrough, even though sometimes I would like to see how it ends up. I blame Bioware for making the NPC’s likeable.

7. Go-to adventuring group? DAI: Alistair, Zevran, Shale. DA2: Varric, Fenris/Carver, Anders. DAI: Varric, Dorian, and random. My 3rd spot always changes so I can hear as much awesome dialog as possible. 

8. Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

This poor sod...  Viridis - My DAO dalish elf is a close second, but she’s dead, so her struggle is over, and she went out a hero. Poor Faeron suffers every. single. day. And still finds some reason to try and smile. 

9. Favourite romance? Alistair. But that is helped hugely thanks to cute (and not so cute) mods.  This is actually hard because, Although I like to romance certain people more than others, that isn’t me saying that their romance is my favourite.  I mean, I freakin’ love Dorian, but out of all the romances I feel his was done really well, but... A little quick compared to others which had a nicer, spread over time, thing, going on. 

10. Have you read any of the comics/📚? I read one... But that was a long while ago now.  It was good! They’re just pretty pricey and very rarely on sale. 

11. If you read them, which was your favourite 📓? The one I read? 

12. Favourite DLCs? All are acceptable answers, bar trespasser. - I don’t care what you say, I know it was amazing. I know it was stunning. I know it answered a lot of questions and set up DA4 in a great way and such - BUT

This. This is too much. HE’S ALREADY LOST HIS LOVER - AND THEN THE AVERAGE, BALD, WOLF, WHO STOLE FAERON’S ARMOUR BTW, THEN RIPS HIS SODDING ARM OFF?! 

FUCK YOU, BIOWARE.

13. Things that annoy you? Invisible walls. Boundaries and made to be broken!  And doors in DAI. I am always getting stuck behind one instead of running through the doorway. Please tell me it’s not just me?! I miss the doors of DAO and DA2. I am willing to sacrifice immersion on that one small point, I just want to get through the doorway, please. 

14. Orlais or Ferelden? Who in the shit picks Orlais? For Ferelden!! 

15. Templar's or Mages? Mages. Especially as i’m playing one 95% of the time.

16. If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? Depends.  Jereth, Xander, Tobias, and Faeron & Nico, are all from the same timeline, and my ‘canon’ run if you like. Xander also has a sister (other than Bethany) who is from the same time, but also has her own separate parallel play-through.  I mix and match backgrounds. 

17. What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc.) Jereth called his mabari, Captain blightballs, because he is forever 12, and thinks it’s funny. Xander’s mabari was named Wrex, as in Wrex from Mass Effect.  Faeron’s Halla is named Ghilas, which is elven for ‘to go’.  Nico’s horse (yes a horse and NOT a halla) is called stormy, which is a RP in joke.

18. Have you installed any mods? Oh hell yes! Many, many mods. Gods bless you mod makers! You guys make everything so much better! And I say this as someone who has played all the games, many times, totally un-modded.  Lots of better textures for CC, gameplay changes, cheats. You name it! It’s not like I don’t know the base game at this point. 

19. Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?       Yes, and no.  Did Jereth want to get out of the circle, and possibly being made tranquil? Oh yes! Yes indeed. However, did he want to drink blood cocktails, watch his bromies die, and actually have to do stuff?  Not so much. 

20. Hawke’s personality? Purple. They always all end up as purple... Or at least, varying degrees. I can’t not.  Xander is 100% purple, bar maybe 4 occasions in the whole game. 

21. Did you make matching armour for your companions in Inquisition? Heh... I have TWINS. I had to try and remember who was wearing what, and which parts were dyed, and then make two sets... Utter nightmare. 

22. If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? Jereth wouldn’t change anything, because he isn’t that wise. Plus, in his mind he ended up coming out ahead.  Xander would have tried to save Bethany and paid more attention to his mother. He’d just try and be more responsible, I guess, but probably end up failing and just being the same smartass as ever.  Faeron... My poor boy... Faeron would do it all differently if he could. I think, if he could change one thing, he’d have let Morrigan drink from the pool. Having yet MORE voices in his head was the last thing he needed, not to mention a constant reminder of who Mythal really is...  Nico wouldn’t let Dorian get close enough to Faeron for the relationship to start in the first place. It was was a big enough thing for her to accept it in the first place... But when he decided to leave, and said Faeron couldn’t go with him... Nico didn’t take kindly to it. 

23. Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?  Twins? Someone dating Varric? The fact that Hawke, Amell & Alistair are all alive?? Sorry Stroud. (not sorry) Yeah... I substitute that bit... You know all those pictures of Hawke or Alistair’s LI waiting on them? Well, I just can’t ever kill Alistair and leave poor Jereth holding some wilting daisies, pouting. I mean... Who would put up with him full time?? Leliana?? I think not! 

24. Are any of your character(s) based on someone? Yeah, me. All of them. Well, mostly. Tobias for example is nothing like me in any sense. But Jereth, Xander (& his sister Lola), Faeron and Nico are all some part of me. Some of my other wardens and Hawke’s too. 

25. Who did you leave in the Fade? Sorry again Stroud. (Still really not sorry...) 

26. Favourite mount? Faeron on his Halla is definitely most epic... But the Hart sound... It’s like having PTSD, I’m forever on edge and thinking ‘Don’t stop suddenly... DON’T stop suddenly...’  I did get this awesome Dracolisk mod which made them look like Maleficent’s dragon, which was so good for my qunari mage. 

Tagging: @heraldofwho @tessa1972 @keeperscompanionsdai @ielmoe @shannaraisles @dreadhobo @gugle1980 @inquisitorsmabari @sassylavellen @dickeybbqpit @dalish-ish @john-cousland @long-liv-prairies