Dragon Age II

[StarTouch]

Oh boy, just finished the game a hour ago. Dragon Age 2 is actually a fairly good game, in my opinion, but if one were to compare it to its predecessor...one's opinion may be unfavorable. Regardless, I had some good fun on my first play-through.

I normally start my first play-through (as a male Hawke) taking a helpful stance (with the occasional wisecrack comments) and being an overall "good hero". I'm going to start up my second play-through with a ton more...aggressive / "evil" approaches *grins*. There were some reasonably tough boss encounters (holy crap, Ancient Rock Wraith did make me sweat, I admit hehe) but overall, boss encounters seem rather tame...at least below Nightmare.

Without spoiling anything, favorite two companions would be Bethany and Merrill. Did I mention Merrill? She totally made me go "awwww, this girl needs a hug NOW" (...and I followed that up...with some "action" ). Bethany was pretty cool, I wasn't expecting much out of a sister character but was pleasantly surprised. Varric would come in third, he's not bad but...why did he shave the beard .

While I thought DA : O is a superior game to DA2, I definitely had fun playing through and would definitely do so again (just to be an evil lady Hawke). DA2 is still a solid RPG, comparisons aside. I especially loved the voice-acting and the dialogue wheel was alright in my opinion. Combat seems fine to me but I disliked the...lack of "equipment options" for my companions (namely, main body equipment pieces). Ending was rather short and abrupt, I felt, and left a few questions unanswered but I guess Bioware is whipping up a continuation to all this in Dragon Age 3 (or future DLCs).

[Keroko]

*snort* Merrill is not even trying to get me to like her, is she?

Spoiler for Merrill and the Night Terrors quest:

I picked Merrill instead of Fenris to head into the Fade to help Feynriel (since Fenris obviously did not like the idea of going into the Fade) and after the boy managed to throw away his desires with a little nudge from me, the demon offered his power to Merrill, telling her she could save her people. She said yes, and attacked me.

Let me summarize this. A demon, a clear and obvious demon it's demonic form, offered a flimsy speech of power right after we stopped him from deceiving a boy, offered his clearly untrustworthy powers, and just that was enough to get her to try and kill me.

Wow. She really is an idealistic, brainless little airhead, isn't she?

Though having said that, it was perfectly in character for her, so no complaints about the writing. Aside from the massive facepalm.

[jedinat]

Originally Posted by Keroko

*snort* Merrill is not even trying to get me to like her, is she?

Spoiler for Merrill and the Night Terrors quest:

I picked Merrill instead of Fenris to head into the Fade to help Feynriel (since Fenris obviously did not like the idea of going into the Fade) and after the boy managed to throw away his desires with a little nudge from me, the demon offered his power to Merrill, telling her she could save her people. She said yes, and attacked me.

Let me summarize this. A demon, a clear and obvious demon it's demonic form, offered a flimsy speech of power right after we stopped him from deceiving a boy, offered his clearly untrustworthy powers, and just that was enough to get her to try and kill me.

Wow. She really is an idealistic, brainless little airhead, isn't she?

Though having said that, it was perfectly in character for her, so no complaints about the writing.

lol, I did think that was kind of lame.

Spoiler for :

I'm romancing her so I had to reload and tell her that the demon's argument was rather convincing, or else I lost friendship points... lost points because I ask her not to betray and try to kill me. lol. I actually thought it was pretty far off her character. But afterwards when you meet her for an apology it comes out that it didn't really matter how weak the demon's argument was, he was forcing her to believe his words with his demonic pull or whatever.

Isabela betrayed me too, lol. I wonder if only certain characters betray you, or if it's always two of them.

[Who]

Originally Posted by jedinat

lol, I did think that was kind of lame.

Spoiler for :

I'm romancing her so I had to reload and tell her that the demon's argument was rather convincing, or else I lost friendship points... lost points because I ask her not to betray and try to kill me. lol. I actually thought it was pretty far off her character. But afterwards when you meet her for an apology it comes out that it didn't really matter how weak the demon's argument was, he was forcing her to believe his words with his demonic pull or whatever.

Isabela betrayed me too, lol. I wonder if only certain characters betray you, or if it's always two of them.

Spoiler for Betrayers:

Fenris can betray you as well, at the Mage vs Templar showdown. If you side with Anders, Sebtastian will leave you. And we all know with Anders.

[Skane]

Merrill Spoilers for Night Terrors

Spoiler for Quest Spoilers:

I totally facepalmed when she went hostile, not at her, but at me, because I totally forgot that she was a Bloodmage at that point. I so freaked out when I had to kill her, because I was trying to romance her character at that time.

Was kicking myself over my lapse in judgement, and was so relieved when she didn't actually die in the real world.

When the Pride Demon made his offer to her, I had a real "OH S***!" moment as my braincells finally put two and two together.

Heh.

[Kyero Fox]

Weird, I beat the game and the only person to leave me

Spoiler for spoil:

was isabela, but she came back

Guess you guys don't have the charm I do

[synaesthetic]

Characters betraying you is based on how good a friend you are (how blue you are on the Sliding Scale of Blue vs. Red) and what you say to them.

During the Fade quest, both Merrill and Aveline listened to the demon and betrayed me, and had to get the beatdown. Because I had not solidified our friendship (since both of the characters' friendship boosting quests hadn't come up yet). Very much like the loyalties in Mass Effect 2.

Anders didn't listen to the demon, for obvious reasons... lol

Originally Posted by Skane

Serious End-Game Spoilers, do not open/quote if you have not completed the game yet.

Spoiler for End-Game Spoilers:

I kinda disagree with that. The whole reason why this mess even existed in the first place is because of ignorance, fear and a crippling acceptance of generalisations of other races/organisations.

I don't agree with everything the Chantry does, but I do know that there are good people in it. I may not agree with the Grand Cleric on everything, but I respect her for her conviction and her unwavering devotion to peace.

I felt really bad deceiving her for Ander's shenanigans, and when it was revealed what Anders was doing, I literally had a WTH moment as he blew up the Grand Cleric, a friend of mine, one I had made during the course of the game. One of the few sane people left in the whole damned forsaken city.

It was like, the FINAL straw the broke the camel's back. Fine, you want the city to burn? Let it burn. I stabbed Ander's spine with my own hands.

Even then, EVEN THEN, up till the absolute very last moment, I offered a helping hand to both sides and all they did in response was to swat my hand away and choose to drown in their self-made filthy sea of mistrust.

I like to think I sailed away with Merrill, and maybe Varric, to somewhere else and settled down to a new life. Kirkwall can erode in the sea for all I care now.

Oh I agree, don't get me wrong... the Chantry just pissed me off bad in the first game. For various offenses. Their stupidity in DA2 just compounded it, and I was already predisposed to killing templars after listening to Alistair's stories in DAO.

The problems in Kirkwall were a massive case of everyone--the templars, the mages, the rest of the city and most of Hawke's companions to boot!--all of them holding the Idiot Ball ALL AT ONCE!

Loads of fear, ignorance, prejudice and simple stupidity.

And the stupidest person of all is Hawke, for not just saying FUCK THIS STUPID SHIT and going back to Ferelden.

I swear I have never played an RPG with NPCs and companions as singularly frustrating as Dragon Age II!

[jedinat]

Actually I think all the characters who can betray you in that Fade sequence do so no matter how much they like you. I had Merrill almost maxed out in friendliness.

[synaesthetic]

Wow, the Internet hate for DA2 is staggering!

And the reason?

As far as I can tell, a huge chunk of the greater Internet hates Dragon Age II for not being Dragon Age: Origins With Better Graphics.

*facepalm*

[Keroko]

I love how the internet complains about the stagnation of the gaming industry at one moment, then bitches whenever any game tries to actually change things.

[Chaos2Frozen]

A causal gamer likes many things, to be a hardcore gamer you have to hate everything

[Kyero Fox]

i just hate the armor being dumbed down to only your character again. it worked well in Mass effect....mmm not so much with this game

unless they come out with a few alternate costumes for a few,mainly people who didnt change after the deep roads. like Isabel and fanris

[kujoe]

Originally Posted by Nightengale

I've got a few questions regarding the 'transfer-overs' from Origins.

1. Are there anything significant relating back to anything from the Leliana sidestory, Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt? Because these were 3 DLCs I did not purchase with Origins... and well, I kinda lack the motivation to play through them.

2. On a scale of 1-10, how badly did Bioware mess up the 'carry-overs' from DA:Origins to DA2? As in 'it turns out to be entirely meaningless at the end' as well as 'Hey, I did not make these choices!!' Even with Mass Effect 1 => 2, there were obvious failings in how smoothly they've made the linking storyline and subplots between 2 games, and with DA2... I kinda doubt it's been much better.

There are a bunch of continuity transfer bugs apparently. If you had Witch Hunt and Golems, it's best to play the latter first, then Witch Hunt, then import. Otherwise, some details or conditions won't be recognized. I'm not sure about Leliana's Song. Go figure.

The imported conditions only reflect on the background of your playthrough. Who is the current king of Ferelden, and so on.

Spoiler for one ending scene:

Depending on what you did in Origins, it seems Leliana will also appear, and mention that she has been searching for the Warden and the Champion as well.

I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of Bioware going the KOTOR route and pull out an MMO out of nowhere instead of doing a proper sequel.

I haven't played the game yet, but already I'm seeing criticisms and praise for the game. The dumbing down criticism is what worries me more. DA: O was built as a PC game ported to the consoles, and it shows. That's what I would expect for its sequel; instead, it seems like the opposite has happened. It's more of a console game now, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, the complaints seem to be more about it being dumbed down instead of streamlined. It just seems so dumb that you can't give your tank a specific armour set for his/her role. I don't even see why this would be called a good thing in a party-oriented RPG.

The most damning revelation is the claim of one composer that EA wanted the game rushed to the market. And let's not even get to the way EA has reacted to some of the criticism from the community.

There were folks who were worried about a Bioware being owned by EA... It looks like, at least for DA2, their worries are starting to be realized.

I'm starting to worry for ME3.

[Keroko]

Dragon Age doesn't have the fanbase to justify an MMO.

On armor, I actually like it. I rarely bothered with the constant min-maxing of my party beyond my character anyway. Every now and then I'd swap out a weapon or a shiny piece. Maybe. Sometimes I didn't even bother at all. This was just one headache less.

[synaesthetic]

I think my favorite part of DA2 is that the "McGrey Warden" feel of the first game is gone, gone, gone. I swear in the first game, the Wardens were like a Mary Sue Secret Society. And everything was about the Wardens! Warden this, Warden that, darkspawn this and that. Yeah, I know the PC is a Grey Warden, but having everything lean so heavily upon it felt like lazy storytelling to me.

Originally Posted by Keroko

Dragon Age doesn't have the fanbase to justify an MMO.

On armor, I actually like it. I rarely bothered with the constant min-maxing of my party beyond my character anyway. Every now and then I'd swap out a weapon or a shiny piece. Maybe. Sometimes I didn't even bother at all. This was just one headache less.

Agreeing with this. ME2 has been one of my favorite games for essentially dispensing with the idea of playing the equipment-juggling game.

DA2 didn't totally remove the idea of an inventory, but it came close. I still had problems with running out of room, carrying too much junk, having to destroy items one at a time. Something I did not have to do in ME2 and loved it.

I like how DA2 is not terribly item/equipment-centric. You can focus more on the game and less on doing an Excel spreadsheet.

Edit: I wouldn't worry for ME3. Mass Effect has always been console first, PC second. We just lucked out and got a great port with ME2 (the ME1 PC port is a mess).

[Chaos2Frozen]

I strongly dislike the criticism that the game has been 'dumbed down'. Is it really such a bad thing to have a game be more simplified, streamline and accessible? Sounds more like the hardcore gamers just wants to stroke their ego.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

I strongly dislike the criticism that the game has been 'dumbed down'. Is it really such a bad thing to have a game be more simplified, streamline and accessible? Sounds more like the hardcore gamers just wants to stroke their ego.

No, it's not, and the older I get, the less time I have to spend on games. The more time I have to dedicate to the boring shit. So streamlining a game is not a bad thing at all.

Though I think Bioware really could have done a better job streamlining DA2. I wish they would have just ditched all elements of the DAO system instead of trying to hold onto the "tactical combat system" which is an ancient relic of an ancient game engine from eleven years ago.

I think I would have enjoyed DA2 even more if it was more third-person-actiony like ME2, with companion control much like that in ME2.

[kujoe]

I don't think streamlining is bad, but that it should be applied with some thought. I haven't seen how 'streamlined' DA2 is yet, but I feel that certain genres can benefit more from this compared to others.

Streamlining a game like Final Fantasy Tactics would be received negatively if done in an awful way (dumbed down job system, etc.) but an RPG shooter like ME was just calling for it.

But one thing I do like, is attention to detail. No matter how complex or accessible a game is, something has to be said about immersion and art direction.

[Westlo]

Hey I'm thinking of getting the asian region versions of DA:O Ultimate & DA2 for the 360 (got DA:O on ps3 but lost my save when hard drive died.. yay for retarded save locking...), now I'm in the Australian region so I'm wondering how does the DA:O Ultimate Edition DLC work? Is in on disc? Is it just a bunch of codes?

If it's the later do you know if it will work in any marketplace region?

[Nightengale]

Originally Posted by kujoe

There are a bunch of continuity transfer bugs apparently. If you had Witch Hunt and Golems, it's best to play the latter first, then Witch Hunt, then import. Otherwise, some details or conditions won't be recognized. I'm not sure about Leliana's Song. Go figure.

The imported conditions only reflect on the background of your playthrough. Who is the current king of Ferelden, and so on.

That's the thing. I don't have said DLCs because I never bought them. And I'd rather not reinstall Origins all over again and reinstalling the 5gb or so mods I had with my save file directories of Origins.

If it's insignificant, I'd continue on with my save file that has only up to Awakenings. If it has, then I'd probably be better off with a 95% similar save file that I could get from Dragon Age Nexus, with the only difference that I didn't choose Harrowmont as the next dwarf leader.