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Dragon Age 10th Anniversary
- Thread starter Zeno
- Start date
They're all weirdly flawed in different ways, but Origin was the best. I can only imagine how much work went into making so many different backstories for every character. They never did that again, and because of that I always felt like there was something missing in both DA2 and DA:I.
People like to say EA had no fault or impact on how Bioware turned out. Reminder that Origins was mostly developed before the buyout and it was concieved for PC exclusively at first, then an almost completed game was delayed to develop a really really awful console port . That's why it is so different with its design compared with the sequels. They couldn't recapture that ever again and it won't happen ever again.
With that move, they tarnished the brand to console audience and the following blow back caused them to make a game that made nobody happy.
With that move, they tarnished the brand to console audience and the following blow back caused them to make a game that made nobody happy.
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Origins is the best. The setting is vanilla as hell but the characters and quests more than make up for it. No characters from the sequels were anywhere close to as good as the original and the ones they brought back they somehow ruined.
Origins was ugly as sin on Playstation 3 but it was also the first Bioware game that made its way into that platform. I loved it. Loved its characters. Bought it for PC later on but I still haven't played it in all its modded splendor.
Inquisition was a okayish, kinda of a numb experience, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
Inquisition was a okayish, kinda of a numb experience, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
DA: Origins is such a good game; at least back when it released. It consumed a ridiculous amount of my time. I wish someone would remaster the game.
I just realized I have two boxed copies of DA2 my wife and I bought on clearance years ago that we never got around to. I wonder if the keys are still good. Should be but I don't trust anything these days.
I feel like Inquisition will be one of those games that'll be on my backlog for years, if not a solid decade. As for Origins, that'll always be one of my favorite WRPGs I played as a kid. In fact, I remember playing it so much it got to a point where my main character stopped taking any noticeable damage and my mage could clear out an entire room with a single AOE spell.
Origin + Expansions are a masterpiece. Fantastic lore, fantastic gameplay, fantastic everything. I really loved the world, the characters, and even the book were interesting enough.
The the sequels happened... :(
Inquisition is a little better but still far away from the first game...
The the sequels happened... :(
Inquisition is a little better but still far away from the first game...
I think I have the same opinions as most people--Origins, then Inquisition, then 2--but I think 2 has a great game struggling to get out. The asset reuse was really obvious, and the mid-battle adds were annoying to deal with. Things also go off the rails really badly in the third act of the story. But I also liked some of the choices DA2 made. I don't have a problem with the idea of spending most of your time in a single city and its surroundings, for example.
In general, I enjoyed my time with DA2 just as I did with the others. I just happened to enjoy my time less. (I will say, though, that Inquisition making mouse and keyboard mostly unusable was a terrible decision.)
In general, I enjoyed my time with DA2 just as I did with the others. I just happened to enjoy my time less. (I will say, though, that Inquisition making mouse and keyboard mostly unusable was a terrible decision.)
Damn, it's honestly hard to pick. There's no clear cut favorite for me as each one did something like. Origins, for the branching narrative and origin stories. 2 for Hawk and their family dynamics along with the 10 year story(this wasn't done well though). Inquisition for the plot twist and that amazing setup in Trespasser that will never see the payoff:/
Origins is the one that made the biggest impression on me. Now that Game of Thrones has gone mainstream, it's not as special anymore but back in the day, the dark fantasy setting rife with intrigue and societal fault lines was refreshing for a videogame.
Inquisition came out when I was really thirsty for a big epic single player RPG and it satisfied me but the gameplay was so tedious, I never managed to play beyond the vanilla campaign. Apparently, I missed most of the narrative payoff because they relegated that DLC for some reason.
At least Origins was a complete and epic package right out of the box.
Inquisition came out when I was really thirsty for a big epic single player RPG and it satisfied me but the gameplay was so tedious, I never managed to play beyond the vanilla campaign. Apparently, I missed most of the narrative payoff because they relegated that DLC for some reason.
At least Origins was a complete and epic package right out of the box.
Loved Dragon Age Origins. I remember buying that game on Steam and setting my PC up at my buddies place to LAN all night.
Put 60+ hours into PC version and then ended up buying and replaying it on PS3. What a game.
I enjoyed Inquisition a decent amount too. I really hope they knock it out of the park for the new game.
Put 60+ hours into PC version and then ended up buying and replaying it on PS3. What a game.
I enjoyed Inquisition a decent amount too. I really hope they knock it out of the park for the new game.
As a console player, Inquisition is my favorite. It has the best story and the controller gameplay improvements are hard to understate from Origins and 2. It's also the best to replay since you can largely skip the open world and treat it like another Origins basically.
Origins was good when it was the only game of its type being made at the time. Then the Kickstarter/revivalist isometric stuff happened, and Dragon Age veered straight off a cliff with its sequel. Haven't returned to the series since.
Loved the first one. Was the first western RPG I played for a long length of time. I almost finished and then stopped. One day I will start again and finish it. Loved the game!
DA:O is still the best, it played like shit on consoles but the story/lore/companions are still the best.
DA:I is severely underrated in here, is a very good game with a good set of companions and story. And the trespasser dlc is phenomenal.
DAII is the worse, Hawke was by far one of the few good things.
DA:I is severely underrated in here, is a very good game with a good set of companions and story. And the trespasser dlc is phenomenal.
DAII is the worse, Hawke was by far one of the few good things.
I'm one of the weirdos who kinda prefers DA2 and Inquisition to the original, even as I easily recognize the many reasons Origins is widely considered the best of the three.
The problems with DA2 are very real (it's ugly, incredibly repetitive, recycles more assets than I've ever seen in a AAA game, dumbs down the combat, etc.), but I like the basic skeleton of its story and its characters. I preferred the smaller, personal focus - you're not fighting against some continent-spanning generic evil, you're just an unusually talented refugee trying to make a life for his/her family who gets caught up in a series of local political storms while ascending in prominence in a specific city. I liked also the fact that the story is as much a personal tragedy as a hero's journey, which isn't really true of Origins even if you end up with a "bad" ending. Slightly paradoxically, it's also frequently a lighter, funnier game than Origins, particularly in one of its DLC.
Inquisition took us back to the continent-spanning evil thing, which I didn't particularly care for, but it has by far the best dialogue system of any of the games and, more subjectively, in my opinion the best-written and most impressively implemented companion arcs and quests. You defined your character's beliefs via in-game dialogue, and the game remembered your responses and adjusted your moral/spiritual profile to suit. Your companions are varied, interesting, and almost uniformly well-written. And Tresspasser is far, far better than the expansions for the other games.
I don't have a problem with Origins overall -- it's a good game, and I loved it when I played it at release -- and it clearly does some things far better than the other games (the class/race-specific intros; the tactical combat; the mixture of horror into high fantasy). But a lot of the dialogue and many character beats were borderline embarrassing (worst sex scenes in gaming history?), and I thought that a whole bunch of your companions were bland (Alastair to a certain extent, Wynne definitely, Sten probably) or silly-in-a-bad-way (Leliana, Oghren, Zevran, even Morrigan in certain scenes). And tonally, it's really bloody and dark. Sometimes this works pretty nicely as a brief dip into zombie horror ("on the first day..."), but it makes the game faintly depressing in a way that its lighter sequels avoid.
The problems with DA2 are very real (it's ugly, incredibly repetitive, recycles more assets than I've ever seen in a AAA game, dumbs down the combat, etc.), but I like the basic skeleton of its story and its characters. I preferred the smaller, personal focus - you're not fighting against some continent-spanning generic evil, you're just an unusually talented refugee trying to make a life for his/her family who gets caught up in a series of local political storms while ascending in prominence in a specific city. I liked also the fact that the story is as much a personal tragedy as a hero's journey, which isn't really true of Origins even if you end up with a "bad" ending. Slightly paradoxically, it's also frequently a lighter, funnier game than Origins, particularly in one of its DLC.
Inquisition took us back to the continent-spanning evil thing, which I didn't particularly care for, but it has by far the best dialogue system of any of the games and, more subjectively, in my opinion the best-written and most impressively implemented companion arcs and quests. You defined your character's beliefs via in-game dialogue, and the game remembered your responses and adjusted your moral/spiritual profile to suit. Your companions are varied, interesting, and almost uniformly well-written. And Tresspasser is far, far better than the expansions for the other games.
I don't have a problem with Origins overall -- it's a good game, and I loved it when I played it at release -- and it clearly does some things far better than the other games (the class/race-specific intros; the tactical combat; the mixture of horror into high fantasy). But a lot of the dialogue and many character beats were borderline embarrassing (worst sex scenes in gaming history?), and I thought that a whole bunch of your companions were bland (Alastair to a certain extent, Wynne definitely, Sten probably) or silly-in-a-bad-way (Leliana, Oghren, Zevran, even Morrigan in certain scenes). And tonally, it's really bloody and dark. Sometimes this works pretty nicely as a brief dip into zombie horror ("on the first day..."), but it makes the game faintly depressing in a way that its lighter sequels avoid.
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Since I may not ever have another chance to post this, I have theory about the Blight taint based on what we learned from Dragon Age Inquisition:
The ancient elves caused the original taint way back in their original war with the titans, the titan they killed was done so by using the taint (remember red lyrium is caused by lyrium corrupted by the blight taint and lyrium is the blood of the titans). This is why in DA2, the Red lyrium artefact (dated from before the blights it should be pointed out) has elves on it.
This is also why I think the Titans were destroying the first Elven cities when they left to Fade to colonise Thedas. Magic isn't from Thedas but the fade and I believe that so does the blight taint and given how people close to the Titans (Dwarves and Templars) are immune to magic, I believe the Titans were trying to stop the taint and/or magic from taking hold on Thedas and considered the Elves who's goals were to "tame" Thedas as a threat to the well being of the world.
This is also why when Corypheus states the Golden/Black city was already corrupted when they got there, he wasn't lying, I believe the taint is from Fade originally, made by the Elves/Spirits or just a part of it and something happened over on that side, possibly a result of the Elven gods trying to get back into ours.
This is also why I think the Titans were destroying the first Elven cities when they left to Fade to colonise Thedas. Magic isn't from Thedas but the fade and I believe that so does the blight taint and given how people close to the Titans (Dwarves and Templars) are immune to magic, I believe the Titans were trying to stop the taint and/or magic from taking hold on Thedas and considered the Elves who's goals were to "tame" Thedas as a threat to the well being of the world.
This is also why when Corypheus states the Golden/Black city was already corrupted when they got there, he wasn't lying, I believe the taint is from Fade originally, made by the Elves/Spirits or just a part of it and something happened over on that side, possibly a result of the Elven gods trying to get back into ours.
I replayed this (on PS3, no less) earlier this year after seeing what a turd Anthem was
Even though the PS3 version runs like ass, the game is really good. The fade still sucks, but the world and characters are charming and the combat is still really fun
If only BioWare still made games like this
Even though the PS3 version runs like ass, the game is really good. The fade still sucks, but the world and characters are charming and the combat is still really fun
If only BioWare still made games like this
Every conversation involving Zevran is hilarious, one the best RPG characters ever.
So much personality on most of those characters, man the writting and VO was amazing..
Yes, and it's Dragon Age 2. Despite all of the cut and paste location nonsense, it had better characters, a more interesting story and far more engaging combat.
I can't honestly see what any of the things wrong with DA2 or Inquisition have to do with being designed for console
I played, I think, six different characters on my playstation before moving to PC. Safe to say origins did something right. I didn't think 2 was that bad. A couple steps down from Origins, yes, but I thought the main story was okay.
And I don't like how they pivoted from linear/semi-open to fully open world with Inquisitions. How they spawned enemies in made no sense and exploring the areas was tedious.
And I don't like how they pivoted from linear/semi-open to fully open world with Inquisitions. How they spawned enemies in made no sense and exploring the areas was tedious.
I think Origins is one of the best RPG's ever made - a beautiful blend of the best of the genre's past mechanics with then-modern-day presentation values.
Then the series got caught up in chasing trends - and I think believe it has gone downhill since. It didn't need 'faster' combat (DA2). It didn't need a quasi-open-world structure (DA:I). I actually wanted both of those things before the games came out - only to realize they had it right with the first game. ...I'm part of the fanbase, backseat driving problem with Bioware, perhaps?
Then the series got caught up in chasing trends - and I think believe it has gone downhill since. It didn't need 'faster' combat (DA2). It didn't need a quasi-open-world structure (DA:I). I actually wanted both of those things before the games came out - only to realize they had it right with the first game. ...I'm part of the fanbase, backseat driving problem with Bioware, perhaps?
I love all three (and xpacs/dlc) in the mainline series. If I had to rank them I would go DA2 >= DAO == DAI. I am a huge fan of what the team did with DA2 given the production constraints. It is a concentrated dose of what I love in BioWare games and without as much of the padding as Origins and Inquisition.
Great franchise, with 3 great games. Dragon Age 2 holds a special place in my heart. Can't wait to see what they do next!
I really liked the first one back in the day, finished it and played the expansion as well (haven't finished that tho).
I played 2 long after it came out, and I thought the complaints were justified, but I somehow still put a lot of hours into it.
At some point I grew tired of it and I swear I remember just fast forwarding the combat and or dialogue? Was that an option or did I install some mod? I think I reached the end of the game but I have no idea what happened.
The third one, well, I bought close to launch for $30 and thought I got a killer deal but I've only played it for a few hours of it until today.
I don't know if it was all the criticism about the game at the time making me not want to play it or it just didn't grab me at the start.
Looking back, you could say the setting is kinda generic but for me the first one was the first of its kind that I've played so it was special, and it did do some cool things with the different backgrounds to choose from.
Also, the mystery of wtf happened with Morrigan..
I played 2 long after it came out, and I thought the complaints were justified, but I somehow still put a lot of hours into it.
At some point I grew tired of it and I swear I remember just fast forwarding the combat and or dialogue? Was that an option or did I install some mod? I think I reached the end of the game but I have no idea what happened.
The third one, well, I bought close to launch for $30 and thought I got a killer deal but I've only played it for a few hours of it until today.
I don't know if it was all the criticism about the game at the time making me not want to play it or it just didn't grab me at the start.
Looking back, you could say the setting is kinda generic but for me the first one was the first of its kind that I've played so it was special, and it did do some cool things with the different backgrounds to choose from.
Also, the mystery of wtf happened with Morrigan..
Something something Origins is the best, 2 sucked, inquisition meh. In all seriousness though, Origins and Awakening are my all time favorite bioware games. I enjoyed 2 and the cast and story despite the other obvious flaws. I put in over 80 hours into Inquisition, so its safe to say I have enjoyed all the Dragon Ages so far. I REALLY should do the DLCs for Inquisition though... I haven't even touched them yet.
Origins is 10/10. It have the best story and gameplay in the series, literally my favorite RPG of all time.
2 is 7/10. It have the most interesting premise in the series and Hawke is awesome.
Inquisition is 8/10 (9/10 with Trespasser). It have the best cast in the series and Trespasser is easily one of the highest point in the series
Bioware pls don't butcher DA4.
Also lol despite the hate Inquisition have, it managed to get 1/3 of Origins vote.
2 is 7/10. It have the most interesting premise in the series and Hawke is awesome.
Inquisition is 8/10 (9/10 with Trespasser). It have the best cast in the series and Trespasser is easily one of the highest point in the series
Bioware pls don't butcher DA4.
Also lol despite the hate Inquisition have, it managed to get 1/3 of Origins vote.