Dragon Age: Inquisition

[CharlesPhipps]

Corypheus is kind of like Dishonored 2's Delilah.

They were DLC villains suddenly elevated to sequel Big Bads.

[CharlesPhipps]

I do like having my choices matter. So having it randomized would turn me off. The game would have to be very very fun for me to forgive that. Example: Bioshock Infinite which claimed, before the game came out, that your choices will matter ( It didn't). And DA 2 which your choices don't stop or affect the major events of the story. I have yet to go back to Bioshock's third game but I have played DA2 alot.

Btw I tend to side with the mages in Inquisition because I enjoy that quest line a little more than the Templars.

To be fair, Ken Levine has a weird hatred of choice in video games. It's an artistic badge of honor to him that the story is told HIS way and seems to disagree that video games should be an interactive medium in terms of narrative. I mean, he's said this in a lot of interviews. There's actually a hilarious story about it.

Ken Levine: The executives said to put a choice and multiple endings in the game and I said, FUCK YOU, I'll put the most asinine stupid choice ever in a video. KILL KIDS OR SAVE THEM.

Interviewer: What happened next?

Ken Levine: I got praised for the moving choice between Objectivist evil and Selflessness good because reviewers are morons.

Infinite continues it as all your choices like, "The Cage or Bird" are meant to be meaningless.

I mean, "Dude, fucking get over yourself."

[Riedquat]

I mean randomised in that the circumstances leading up to a choice aren't always the same rather than the outcome.

So like getting the choice served up randomly, or like there's a random chance you'll get particular Templar/Mage vignettes?

More like the latter, so different playthroughs will give a slightly different impression of either side.

Ideally I like choices to be meaningful and informed (if you take care and pay attention) whilst not necessarily being 100% predictable, but without any metagaming really possible but that's asking for more than's really possible.

[Rocketboy1313]

Did not know this plot featured time travel so centrally.
I am torn.

Time Travel always introduces many narrative bugbears, but at the same time I like when traditionally sci-fi story tropes get modified into a fantasy setting.

[Beelzquill]

I guess I should say I dislike Time Travel, not Time Magic, in Dragon Age. I like the idea of freezing time, slowing time down, and speeding it up and implications that way, but going back in time requires a ludicrous amount of thought that I doubt the DA writers are going to think of and when the holes inevitably spring up it will hurt the story tremendously.

[Thebestoftherest]

I do like having my choices matter. So having it randomized would turn me off. The game would have to be very very fun for me to forgive that. Example: Bioshock Infinite which claimed, before the game came out, that your choices will matter ( It didn't). And DA 2 which your choices don't stop or affect the major events of the story. I have yet to go back to Bioshock's third game but I have played DA2 alot.

Btw I tend to side with the mages in Inquisition because I enjoy that quest line a little more than the Templars.

To be fair, Ken Levine has a weird hatred of choice in video games. It's an artistic badge of honor to him that the story is told HIS way and seems to disagree that video games should be an interactive medium in terms of narrative. I mean, he's said this in a lot of interviews. There's actually a hilarious story about it.

Ken Levine: The executives said to put a choice and multiple endings in the game and I said, FUCK YOU, I'll put the most asinine stupid choice ever in a video. KILL KIDS OR SAVE THEM.

Interviewer: What happened next?

Ken Levine: I got praised for the moving choice between Objectivist evil and Selflessness good because reviewers are morons.

Infinite continues it as all your choices like, "The Cage or Bird" are meant to be meaningless.

I mean, "Dude, fucking get over yourself."

I mean I can understand wanting to tell a straight forward story, there plenty of video games where the choices don't really effect the story, but maybe Dragon Age isn't the franchise you want to eat that with.

[Beastro]

I do like having my choices matter. So having it randomized would turn me off. The game would have to be very very fun for me to forgive that. Example: Bioshock Infinite which claimed, before the game came out, that your choices will matter ( It didn't). And DA 2 which your choices don't stop or affect the major events of the story. I have yet to go back to Bioshock's third game but I have played DA2 alot.

Btw I tend to side with the mages in Inquisition because I enjoy that quest line a little more than the Templars.

To be fair, Ken Levine has a weird hatred of choice in video games. It's an artistic badge of honor to him that the story is told HIS way and seems to disagree that video games should be an interactive medium in terms of narrative. I mean, he's said this in a lot of interviews. There's actually a hilarious story about it.

Ken Levine: The executives said to put a choice and multiple endings in the game and I said, FUCK YOU, I'll put the most asinine stupid choice ever in a video. KILL KIDS OR SAVE THEM.

Interviewer: What happened next?

Ken Levine: I got praised for the moving choice between Objectivist evil and Selflessness good because reviewers are morons.

Infinite continues it as all your choices like, "The Cage or Bird" are meant to be meaningless.

I mean, "Dude, fucking get over yourself."

I mean I can understand wanting to tell a straight forward story, there plenty of video games where the choices don't really effect the story, but maybe Dragon Age isn't the franchise you want to eat that with.

It's a continuation of the late 90s/early 2000s C&C heavy RPGs. Not having that would rob it of its soul.

[Thebestoftherest]

I do like having my choices matter. So having it randomized would turn me off. The game would have to be very very fun for me to forgive that. Example: Bioshock Infinite which claimed, before the game came out, that your choices will matter ( It didn't). And DA 2 which your choices don't stop or affect the major events of the story. I have yet to go back to Bioshock's third game but I have played DA2 alot.

Btw I tend to side with the mages in Inquisition because I enjoy that quest line a little more than the Templars.

To be fair, Ken Levine has a weird hatred of choice in video games. It's an artistic badge of honor to him that the story is told HIS way and seems to disagree that video games should be an interactive medium in terms of narrative. I mean, he's said this in a lot of interviews. There's actually a hilarious story about it.

Ken Levine: The executives said to put a choice and multiple endings in the game and I said, FUCK YOU, I'll put the most asinine stupid choice ever in a video. KILL KIDS OR SAVE THEM.

Interviewer: What happened next?

Ken Levine: I got praised for the moving choice between Objectivist evil and Selflessness good because reviewers are morons.

Infinite continues it as all your choices like, "The Cage or Bird" are meant to be meaningless.

I mean, "Dude, fucking get over yourself."

I mean I can understand wanting to tell a straight forward story, there plenty of video games where the choices don't really effect the story, but maybe Dragon Age isn't the franchise you want to eat that with.

It's a continuation of the late 90s/early 2000s C&C heavy RPGs. Not having that would rob it of its soul.

I agree with you, I say if he wants a straight forward story lile a movie there are no shortage of games th at do that, why chose a roleplaying game where such story telling is harder.

[Beastro]

I agree with you, I say if he wants a straight forward story lile a movie there are no shortage of games th at do that, why chose a roleplaying game where such story telling is harder.

Linear RPGs have their place. If they didn't, JRPGs wouldn't exist.

The problem is that DA is made in the spirit of games like Fallout. The problem is that so many C&C games don't really have much C&C and it's effectively a marketing trick to suck people in unless the designers really go out of their way to work on it.

Even then, many textbook examples of C&C games, like KOTOR 1, are divided between sensible choices and comicbook evil ones chosen for the fun of it simply because C&C is a feature. Even then with many that try, too often the C&C is just in the ending image reel.

[Thebestoftherest]

I agree with you, I say if he wants a straight forward story lile a movie there are no shortage of games th at do that, why chose a roleplaying game where such story telling is harder.

Linear RPGs have their place. If they didn't, JRPGs wouldn't exist.

The problem is that DA is made in the spirit of games like Fallout. The problem is that so many C&C games don't really have much C&C and it's effectively a marketing trick to suck people in unless the designers really go out of their way to work on it.

Even then, many textbook examples of C&C games, like KOTOR 1, are divided between sensible choices and comicbook evil ones chosen for the fun of it simply because C&C is a feature. Even then with many that try, too often the C&C is just in the ending image reel.

Yeah, I think Yahtzee of zero punctuation said it best, the evil choice should be something someone weak will would have chose instead.