Dragon Age III: Inquisition. Standard official discussion thread [XO,PS4,PS3,X360]
- Thread starter Cyan
- Start date
lol I dunno. You seem to be in a great love hate relationship with this game and you can't make up your mind because you are maddeningly frustrated with it but you also like it. I feel the same way with Destiny, enough that I always want to put in my 2 cents into the Destiny thread about how much I felt ripped off, yet i managed to play through 80 hours of it. I posted my 2cents once on the thread and afterwards I stopped, just I'm upset with the DLC, and how I feel like it's a blantant treadmill people still love the game, and you have to be respectful of that. The game has good qualities just like DA:I does. If the game was terrible, truly terrible it would get elicit enough response from me as much as Watch Dogs, AC4, Jade Empire, SWTOR and DA2 has - none. I just forced myself to finish them and nothing more.
Completing the quests grant you power or influence, it's about the only reason you'd put flowers on a Tomb Stone for someone. It's like spreading good will so people love you back and in turn people support your cause and not go against it. It's no different than any political party member who stands and knocks on doors and helps the little guy out. It's not because it's important to Thedas, he's just looking for that person to spread good will to get a vote. While I agree it's more challenging to shape this character in DA:I (I find that the negative option tends to have little to no consequence), I don't feel that game is entirely inconsequential at least from a dialogue perspective. Landmarks on the other hand...
Yes, when in doubt, stop the filler and work on the main quest. Don't burn yourself out on filler. Take what you need and move on, if you want more it's always there waiting for you
Sigfried1977
Legend
It's not really hate. It was an occasionally entertaining time waster with no real competition. It was just such a massive disappointment after the first game. Hell, even after the second. I do think it is far and away the worst Bioware game I have ever played, and I cannot for the life of me understand why people seem to love it. Maybe that's the frustrating part. I didn't like The Last of Us very much either, but I got why people did. Same with GTAIV, or the Halo games.
From Bioware: order of most disappointing to the least for me..., DA2 i barely managed to complete, I couldn't bring myself to finish SW:TOR or Jade Empire.
Jade Empire
SWTOR
DA2
Never played TLOU, but I hope to one day. I do like good narratives, which seems to be lately the only thing that has been evolving in games.
I didn't like Witcher 1, but I like Witcher 2, I still need to go back and finish that before 3 comes out. At least I know I will get around to it. Combat is sorta crappy in that game too imo, but w/e.
Any other thoughts on RPGS? My friend is telling me to go to divinty, it looks good to me, combat wise looks really good. Narrative it looks lacking.
Sigfried1977
Legend
Not a pc guy, so no thoughts on Divinity from me. I'd totally play it, though. Seems ace. The last rpg I played and which really fascinated me was Fallout New Vegas. Loved all the intricate systems and how they all interlocked. Unfortunately that kinda scripting nightmare was probably one of the premier reasons for why the game was such a technical mess. Soooo many possibilities. Soooo little development time. Other than that, the rpg situation has been a little dire for the last couple of years. At least on consoles. I also quite liked the Witcher 2 despite a combat system which I thought was rather poor and some very weak story telling. It had a lot of interesting little story vignettes, though, and some properly mature themes. If only it had found a more elegant way to relay its overarching narrative. You basically had to squeeze the final boss for information for 40+ minutes if you wanted to know what the hell was actually going on. Felt like sitting through an overlong Star Wars title crawl about trade blockades and shit.
I loved the first Dark Souls of course. Not so much the second one.
I loved the first Dark Souls of course. Not so much the second one.
I'll try out some of your suggestions, I'm really giving console a go for the first time ever here, I owned a 360 previously but never really did anything with it aside from typical Halo, Gears, Mass Effect and streetfighter play, it's mainly been PC. The New Vegas sounds good, I've been told on several occasions that it should be one that I try (I tried Elder Scrolls up to Oblivion and gave up), but apparently New Vegas and Skyrim are worth it. Witcher 2, agreed, lol mature themes was an interesting one for when my wife walked in and Geralt and Triss were going at it in the underground garden in Act 1. Not looking forward to that ending though lol but thanks for the heads up. I'll be giving Dark Souls 2 a try when the re-release comes out.
Boooooo.
Have you played Arcanum and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines yet? If not better do it ASAP, the longer you wait the harder it will be to stomach the graphics
Haven't done Arcanum, though IIRC I remember seeing the reference books at quite a few comic shops I used to frequent. My brother and I got through Masquerade - Redemption, though I don't recall too much from that, never played the Bloodlines sequelBoooooo.
Have you played Arcanum and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines yet? If not better do it ASAP, the longer you wait the harder it will be to stomach the graphics
Poor graphics generally don't bother me, I grew up playing Snake, Gorilla and Scorched Earth. Star Control II is still imo the best game I've ever played. I don't even know what to call it, RPG? Action? Adventure?
I'll check out Arcanum, I was never too big into the Vamp reference material.
The patch has definitely made things better. Pings appearing on the minimap is a godsend!
Are the loading screen messages important? The game loads too fast on my PC so I never have time to get past the first sentence or two, and there doesn't seem to be a way to hold the loading screen so you can finish reading.
Are the loading screen messages important? The game loads too fast on my PC so I never have time to get past the first sentence or two, and there doesn't seem to be a way to hold the loading screen so you can finish reading.
ArcticCircle
Newcomer
CRPGs died for a reason in mid 90's and then again in early 2000. For some reason or other, their potential customer base can only support 50k to 5000k budgets. Bioware and Bethesda did serious amount of research (and experimentation) what people actually like beyond that niche. And what do you know, it's now one horse race with Bioware in party based "rpgs" and Bethesda in single character "rpgs". This is obviously west based perspective as JRPGs are their own chapter.
We got some sales numbers last night and it shows that DA:I only did tiny bit better then DA2 and DA:O. For me it suggest that most of Bioware's fans will buy game no matter what and there's only slight variation if previous game is bad or not. My last Bioware game was Mass Effect 2 and TOR and it would seem like those will be my last Bioware games for the time being. They just don't create games that I'd enjoy anymore. But that's fine, as many still love their games. Just like I like Assassin's Creed series (despte the hate it gets).
I love AAA games and it's really frustrating to know that Pillars of Eternity or Torment is as good as it's going to get. Cheap ass low budget stuff but what can you do. Baggars can't be choosers. The Witcher 3 has tiny bit of chance to bring something good in single character games in (near) AAA space.
D
Deleted member 13524
Guest
Now that , the game opened up a lot and seems a lot more story driven than before.
I think that having to personally mine all the materials for the forge and alchemy stuff seems incredibly stupid if I'm also supposed to command a whole community/army and save the world.
One thing that's bothered me are the romance options, or lack of them.
Turns out if you decide to be a straight male, your romance options with companions are a bit reduced from previous games. As in: you only get one choice
(EDIT: How do I do spoilers now?!)
I think that having to personally mine all the materials for the forge and alchemy stuff seems incredibly stupid if I'm also supposed to command a whole community/army and save the world.
One thing that's bothered me are the romance options, or lack of them.
Turns out if you decide to be a straight male, your romance options with companions are a bit reduced from previous games. As in: you only get one choice
(EDIT: How do I do spoilers now?!)
Two actuallyNow that , the game opened up a lot and seems a lot more story driven than before.
I think that having to personally mine all the materials for the forge and alchemy stuff seems incredibly stupid if I'm also supposed to command a whole community/army and save the world.
One thing that's bothered me are the romance options, or lack of them.
Turns out if you decide to be a straight male, your romance options with companions are a bit reduced from previous games. As in: you only get one choice
(EDIT: How do I do spoilers now?!)
D
Deleted member 13524
Guest
Two actually
With companions you only get one.
Romancing with either advisor is becomes a bit shallow because you only get cut scene interaction, nothing during your adventures.
true well said.
D
Deleted member 13524
Guest
Ok, some ~35 hours into the game and I'm getting pissed at the game's writters/artists.
I complained earlier at the game about the romance options (or lack of thereof for straight male protagonists), but it's turning out to be much more than that.
Something went very wrong with the writing/design of the game and at this point, I'm starting to fear why.
1 - The only romanceable companion for a straight male protagonist: Cassandra.
I don't know if she was made as a check-list for whatever the writers/artists at Bioware think how a strong woman should be, but here is what Cassandra is in Inquisition: a man with boobs and large hips. Talks like a man, shows little to no emotion, has a manly strong jawline and acts like a man.
But Cassandra wasn't always a man. During Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, Cassandra is most definitely a girl/woman. Moves, talks, acts like a woman. But look at how Bioware twisted the character through Dawn of the Seeker, DA2 and DA Inquisition (respectively):
So according to the writers/designers' opinion, a strong woman is ugly, manly and shows no emotion. Basically, a character made mostly of male traits, joined with just the indispensable factors to tell the player she is actually a woman: breasts, hips, eyeliner and high-pitched voice.
If this is their idea of "better representation of women in videogames", then they really need to get out there and actually meet some women.
Then the actual romancing interaction tries to depict her as some kind of tsundere, which fails miserably because Bioware forgot how to do facial expressions in characters, voice-acting isn't consistent with the change of atmosphere and everything is really short.
In terms of character development and interpretation, comparing Cassandra to Morrigan in DA:Origins is like comparing the acting of the first 2 minutes of a porn flick to Lupita Nyong'o in 12 years a slave.
Morrigan was this initially bad girl driven by her own interests and despise over society in general, who throughout the game starts showing real emotions (regret, doubt, compassion, etc.). Facial expressions (using a 5 year-old game engine) differed greatly and the voice acting was convincing with those changes.
Cassandra is a wall and stays a wall even during the romance scenes.
Conclusion: my only romanceable companion option as a straight male is a non-interesting man with boobs and eyeliner.
2 - Romanceable companions for straight characters are ugly. Companions for homossexual characters are beautiful.
If Cassandra is a poor and only option for straight males, Blackwall is.. a 60+ year-old bearded geezer as the only romanceable companion for straight females. Solas is also an option only if you're a female elf, but Bioware said this romance was a last-minute add-in with little depth, and Iron Bull is.. well, a different species with a small head, big horns and ape-like proportions (there's no bissexual female companion, though).
I didn't delve too much into the Blackwall, but it seems rather harsh for players with female characters to have a grandpa as their only choice. Whatever.
But gay characters? Here are the companion options for gay characters:
Dorian is arguably the best written character, as long as we take away the victimizing "my-parents-don't-like-that-I'm-gay" cliché that has been overused in pretty much all forms of media. I thought the world in Dragon Age was supposed to be this "social utopy" where homossexuality was treated naturally and with indifference.
But no. In DA:I, they had to bring up a guy who comes from far away, and in that far away they don't like people to be gay, and of course they had to explore the drama of a guy who's gay and his old-school parents don't want him to be gay. Because the writers think that bringing predictable dramas from bad soap operas makes the game a better one.
The fact that straight characters get two ugly companions while gay characters get two good-looking companions does grind my ears.
I have no problems with gay players getting their share of beautiful and interesting companions, but what did straight people ever do to deserve uglier companions?
What's the point? I gather this was as obvious to them as it was to me, so what's the message?
3 - They took away the most interesting enemy - Desire Demons.
Desire demons allowed for the most interesting side quests by far, IMO. By exploring the deepest wishes of the several characters, they would bring out their weaknesses and turned them against the player using clever tactics of deception.
Yes, they appeared in the world as hot females using skimpy outfits:
Is that sexist/misogynist/uninteresting/blahblahblah to women? They're taken from the traditional design of a succubus, so yeah, I guess.
If they thought it was a problem, I wouldn't have any problem with them putting some Desire Demons following the lines of an incubus (hot males with skimpy outfits). Or they could put more clothes into female the Desire Demons, or whatever.
Instead, what did they do? Removed desire demons from the game.
Desire Demons were replaced by terrible sidequests like picking up flowers, hoarding cattle and delivering letters (only delivering letters, with no twists or enemies to kill inbetween whatsoever.. even Skyrim usually stood up to a higher standard in those missions). Not to mention the weird platform acrobatics that are required to gather some of the shards, since the jump animation is poorly implemented.
Graphics are still beautiful. The overall progression and story is still interesting. Looking at the "big picture", this is still a worthwhile game.
But this weird displacement in character development and general writing made the game worse.
For me, this is making the game a lot worse than the different gameplay mechanics did for Dragon Age 2.
I complained earlier at the game about the romance options (or lack of thereof for straight male protagonists), but it's turning out to be much more than that.
Something went very wrong with the writing/design of the game and at this point, I'm starting to fear why.
1 - The only romanceable companion for a straight male protagonist: Cassandra.
I don't know if she was made as a check-list for whatever the writers/artists at Bioware think how a strong woman should be, but here is what Cassandra is in Inquisition: a man with boobs and large hips. Talks like a man, shows little to no emotion, has a manly strong jawline and acts like a man.
But Cassandra wasn't always a man. During Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, Cassandra is most definitely a girl/woman. Moves, talks, acts like a woman. But look at how Bioware twisted the character through Dawn of the Seeker, DA2 and DA Inquisition (respectively):
So according to the writers/designers' opinion, a strong woman is ugly, manly and shows no emotion. Basically, a character made mostly of male traits, joined with just the indispensable factors to tell the player she is actually a woman: breasts, hips, eyeliner and high-pitched voice.
If this is their idea of "better representation of women in videogames", then they really need to get out there and actually meet some women.
Then the actual romancing interaction tries to depict her as some kind of tsundere, which fails miserably because Bioware forgot how to do facial expressions in characters, voice-acting isn't consistent with the change of atmosphere and everything is really short.
In terms of character development and interpretation, comparing Cassandra to Morrigan in DA:Origins is like comparing the acting of the first 2 minutes of a porn flick to Lupita Nyong'o in 12 years a slave.
Morrigan was this initially bad girl driven by her own interests and despise over society in general, who throughout the game starts showing real emotions (regret, doubt, compassion, etc.). Facial expressions (using a 5 year-old game engine) differed greatly and the voice acting was convincing with those changes.
Cassandra is a wall and stays a wall even during the romance scenes.
Conclusion: my only romanceable companion option as a straight male is a non-interesting man with boobs and eyeliner.
2 - Romanceable companions for straight characters are ugly. Companions for homossexual characters are beautiful.
If Cassandra is a poor and only option for straight males, Blackwall is.. a 60+ year-old bearded geezer as the only romanceable companion for straight females. Solas is also an option only if you're a female elf, but Bioware said this romance was a last-minute add-in with little depth, and Iron Bull is.. well, a different species with a small head, big horns and ape-like proportions (there's no bissexual female companion, though).
I didn't delve too much into the Blackwall, but it seems rather harsh for players with female characters to have a grandpa as their only choice. Whatever.
But gay characters? Here are the companion options for gay characters:
Dorian is arguably the best written character, as long as we take away the victimizing "my-parents-don't-like-that-I'm-gay" cliché that has been overused in pretty much all forms of media. I thought the world in Dragon Age was supposed to be this "social utopy" where homossexuality was treated naturally and with indifference.
But no. In DA:I, they had to bring up a guy who comes from far away, and in that far away they don't like people to be gay, and of course they had to explore the drama of a guy who's gay and his old-school parents don't want him to be gay. Because the writers think that bringing predictable dramas from bad soap operas makes the game a better one.
The fact that straight characters get two ugly companions while gay characters get two good-looking companions does grind my ears.
I have no problems with gay players getting their share of beautiful and interesting companions, but what did straight people ever do to deserve uglier companions?
What's the point? I gather this was as obvious to them as it was to me, so what's the message?
3 - They took away the most interesting enemy - Desire Demons.
Desire demons allowed for the most interesting side quests by far, IMO. By exploring the deepest wishes of the several characters, they would bring out their weaknesses and turned them against the player using clever tactics of deception.
Yes, they appeared in the world as hot females using skimpy outfits:
Is that sexist/misogynist/uninteresting/blahblahblah to women? They're taken from the traditional design of a succubus, so yeah, I guess.
If they thought it was a problem, I wouldn't have any problem with them putting some Desire Demons following the lines of an incubus (hot males with skimpy outfits). Or they could put more clothes into female the Desire Demons, or whatever.
Instead, what did they do? Removed desire demons from the game.
Desire Demons were replaced by terrible sidequests like picking up flowers, hoarding cattle and delivering letters (only delivering letters, with no twists or enemies to kill inbetween whatsoever.. even Skyrim usually stood up to a higher standard in those missions). Not to mention the weird platform acrobatics that are required to gather some of the shards, since the jump animation is poorly implemented.
Graphics are still beautiful. The overall progression and story is still interesting. Looking at the "big picture", this is still a worthwhile game.
But this weird displacement in character development and general writing made the game worse.
For me, this is making the game a lot worse than the different gameplay mechanics did for Dragon Age 2.
Last edited by a moderator:
D
Deleted member 13524
Guest
Are you sure about this?
I was thinking about halting the game for a while and wait for a mod with better facial animations, and maybe another mod that turns women a bit less... ugly.
Yes, 99% of the women in Inquisition are ugly (NPCs included). And it's not just "real world" ugly. They were made uglier than what I see when I go out to the street.
In comparison, 99% of the males are Brad Pitt look-alikes.