Dragon Age: Inquisition

[Beelzquill]

I really wish Forbidden Oasis, Hissing Wastes and the Western Approach had been condensed into one level.

[RobbyB1982]

I really wish Forbidden Oasis, Hissing Wastes and the Western Approach had been condensed into one level.

Naw, I like the visual variety and the lessened load time.

They just needed some of the Hinterland development time thrown into them so that you had a little more to do in the other places, and a little less in the Hinterlands. Or another ix months to just do... more stuff for all the other places.


Hinterlands had 42 quests and 50 characters, and a dragon...

Forbidden Oasis had 9 quests and 1 character.

Hissing Wastes had 6 quests and 2 characters. (despite the size of the map!)

The development time difference was ridiculous. Could also compare enemy diversity and Hinterlands beats all other areas there too,,, but enemies got reused all over the place so that's harder to judge.

It's telling that they were desperate at the end when you get to Emprise De Leon and there are THREE dragons there and all three of them are on limited area rooftops where they didn't have to make any real attack patterns for them. That they ran out of time is super obvious.

Its funny, the game had 12 dragons and they stopped being impressive fast. The first game only had three dragons (if you count Flemeth) and they were all impressive.

[Beelzquill]

Watching the latest video, I really can't help but be reminded about how I wished the game had given more reasons to do the templar mission. I mean, the templars just act like dicks to you when you first show up and the mages are nice-ish, which is a good first impression, then they suck you in with the time mystery. The Templars just punch a priest, dismiss you, and that's it, no further interactions you just have to commit to the Templars based on that one interaction. It's a shame really, because I actually like Champions of the Just as a level way more than In Hushed Whispers.

[Ranadiel]

Watching the latest video, I really can't help but be reminded about how I wished the game had given more reasons to do the templar mission. I mean, the templars just act like dicks to you when you first show up and the mages are nice-ish, which is a good first impression, then they suck you in with the time mystery. The Templars just punch a priest, dismiss you, and that's it, no further interactions you just have to commit to the Templars based on that one interaction. It's a shame really, because I actually like Champions of the Just as a level way more than In Hushed Whispers.

It is a real shame because I like just about everything about the Templar route a lot more than the mage route. I mean Ser Barris is a freaking badass taking on angry mobs trying to murder an innocent mage, an invading army of mages, and an army of demons in his war table missions. Meanwhile Fiona's contribution is a single war table mission where she says, "Don't be too hard on the mages that nearly murdered your guards for no good reason."

Likewise I like Calpernia a lot more than Samson as I find her quest to be more interesting. Plus I liek the fact that you can talk her down during a later confrontation. Plus I fully expect her to show up in DA4 since she doesn't really seem to die in any version of the plot. Closest she gets is falling off a cliff to her certain doom, which we all know means she is still alive. And I expect she will be an option for the inevitable choice of ruler of Tervinter.

[RobbyB1982]

The templars are kind of ALWAYS asses in these games at first glance though. You have to be playing adamantly anti-mage yourself for them to not be... terrible.

In-universe they make sense as a needed support system, but in game they're generally cruel and trying to urder people seemingly without reason. Sure they always SAY "they're possessed by a demon" and that's true sometimes, and they say "they're secret blood mages!" which is basically ALWAYS trues in DA2... but the way they come off is awful.

[Beelzquill]

The templars are kind of ALWAYS asses in these games at first glance though. You have to be playing adamantly anti-mage yourself for them to not be... terrible.

That actually supports my point. The game should be working extra hard to show the templars as good or at least potentially good so people will at least be tempted to join them. If picking mages in the First Act dilemma is super easy, it basically robs all value from the decision, it's like being forced to pick between petting a puppy and getting bit by a rabid dog and expecting it to be a difficult choice.

[Riedquat]

The templars are kind of ALWAYS asses in these games at first glance though. You have to be playing adamantly anti-mage yourself for them to not be... terrible.

That actually supports my point. The game should be working extra hard to show the templars as good or at least potentially good so people will at least be tempted to join them. If picking mages in the First Act dilemma is super easy, it basically robs all value from the decision, it's like being forced to pick between petting a puppy and getting bit by a rabid dog and expecting it to be a difficult choice.

Whilst that's true I've also grown rather tired of "Which particular bunch of arseholes do you want to cheer on?" type choices, and it's hard to have two sides wanting to annhialate each other without making at least one of them like that (then it's the easy choice) or both (when it's a tedious "I'd rather say sod off to the lot of you" choice).

[CareerKnight]

Ah the Templar/Mage conflict. Dragon Age 1 provided the setup, Dragon Age 2 was all buildup and then kicked it off, and Inquisition moved past it as fast as possible.

[Beelzquill]

Whilst that's true I've also grown rather tired of "Which particular bunch of arseholes do you want to cheer on?" type choices, and it's hard to have two sides wanting to annhialate each other without making at least one of them like that (then it's the easy choice) or both (when it's a tedious "I'd rather say sod off to the lot of you" choice).

That's fair, and I agree the Dragon Age 2 did that particular form of choice difficulty way too much and it should not have been repeated. I guess, I just wanted to see like the reverse of what happened in the game, the Templars seeming reasonable to you and the mages being unreasonable, since the veteran players are just going to naturally have a pro-mage bias anyway. I am pro-mage by the way, I just like the Templar level way more and Sir Barris was just a better addition than Fiona was, which is weird since she's Alistair's mom (You would think she would do more than just stand near a bookshelf in skyhold but whatever).

edit: spelling,

[Thebestoftherest]

Yes but then again wouldn't that be like having an x men sequel where you side with the sentinels?