One complaint I've seen from fans of DA2 when it comes to DAI is how the series went back to the Dis/Approval System from DAO instead of the more unique Frienship/Rivalry from DA2. For those who don't know Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition have a system that determines how much your companions like or dislike you, you can win or lose approval as a result of your actions, how you interact with them, do favors for them or give them gifts. If you manage to get enough disapproval from a companion you could end up losing them, either by them just straight up leaving you or straight up fighting you which forces you to kill them.
DA2 on the other hand has a similar yet different system. Like the other two games this system tracks how much someone likes or hates you, get enough points either way and they will become friends or rivals but either way you've managed to gain their loyalty and respect. For example, Isabella will only stay if you have enough Friendship or Rivalry points with her, have less of either and she'll abandon you and never be seen in the game again. It should also be noted that having a certain relationship with certain characters will alter key scenes later with the best example of this being Anders.
Spoilers for DA2 but if you have enough Rivalry points with Anders he actually reveals his plan to blow up the Chantry and you can even convince him to give up on his plan which then reveals that Vengeance has more control over Anders has it speaks its own mind and Anders doesn't remember what just happened. This still doesn't change the ending but it does paint Anders in a different light as you learn that he is as much a victim in this as everyone else is while being friends or having a natural relationship makes it seem like Anders is the villain of the game through and through.
For me, I prefer the Approval system as it has greater consequences while Friendship and Rivalry insures that your companions no matter what BUT I do see the benefits in the latter as having a different relationship with a character can highlight how we see a character. I think it would be interesting to have a system that can mix and match the two by gaining disapproval yet gaining a companions respect.
One of my favorite moments in DAI is a scene with Vivienne after I made an alliance with the Mages. The scene starts with her Greatly Disapproving my choice but with some careful wording where I stick to my choice and disagree with her in such a way that makes it seem like I agree with her that by the end of the conversation not only had I gained back her approval I had MORE approval then when I started the scene.
I bring this up because no matter how I play my Inquisitor I'm always AGAINST Vivienne as I do everything that will gain her as little power as possible while having her full support and ending the game with her calling me a friend and NOT feeling contrived.
I think it would have been interesting if DA4 had a system that allowed us to gain the loyalty of our companions while ALSO leaving open the possibility of them betraying, leaving or having us trying to kill them. Have it where we can become rivals with someone but gain their respect so we can have the best of both worlds.
Someways we can do that.
A mission requires us to choose between keeping a clan of elves out of a key conflict or use them in a plan to gain an advantage over an enemy group. One of our companions disapproves of the latter BUT we make our point clear as to why we are using this clan as a pawn in a plan AND we can arrange it so none of the elves get hurt. At the end of the mission we choose to take something from the elves because said item will help insure an alliance elsewhere which again our companion is against BUT we manage to take the item diplomatically and do our best to compensate the elves for taking this item.
As a result of this mission our companion doesn't approve of how we treated the elves which gains us rivalry points BUT does respect us for insuring that we did our best to insure the elves safety which gains us respect points which does gain their loyalty. Gain no respect and they will later turn on us and we will be forced to kill them.
This gives us the best of both worlds, we can gain approval or disapproval but gaining the later doesn't mean we can't get the loyalty through respect of those we disagree with which also gives players more room to play as a more nuanced character. We can get the job done no matter the cost but do so in such a way that shows we can be reasonable.
There should, of course, be some limits as making it so we can always win no matter how we play is a little cheap but I like the idea of mixing and matching as it gives us more options.
Thoughts?
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