Dragon Age II

[Flying Dagger]

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

That said, most of the story revolves around the issue between the Mages and Templars playing a game of moral-political tennis.

Spoiler:

"Templars are assholes!"
"Because Mages are dangerous!"
"Only Because Templars are assholes!"
"Because Mages are dangerous!"
"But not all Templars are jerks!"
"Not all Mages are evil either!"

can that be really considered as the plot?
Hawke is not directly involved into the mage vs. templar struggle.
None of the decisions or actions you have made in the game really affected the outcome of the inevitable.

I bet 3 of those darktown assassins can kill the arishok without breaking a sweat.


@plot bugs.
Haven't really encountered any game-breaking ones. Most of them are just dialog mismatches when I take to them back to back.
The most confusing one comes from Merril: I refused to give her the thing from the keeper to repair her stupid eluvian mirror. She hated me to the core (went from max friend to rival) and refused to talk to me. Some time later she apologizes. The next thing I know she wanted me to go help her confront the demon at sundermount for her mirror.... but wait... I thought she has given up on the mirror already...

[Von Himmel]

I also got no Fenris quest at all in act 2 - 3, but I managed to get his gift (the sword of mercy(?)) so I still manage to get his friendship points up there. Perhaps that's the reason why

Spoiler:

Fenris join me to fight Meridith even when I sided with Mages

[-KarumA-]

Mod's being mods

Spoiler for for size:

[Kaze]

Originally Posted by -KarumA-

Mod's being mods

Spoiler for for size:

I hate that fucker Stanley


spam.

end of line.



Well done, this made my day!

Originally Posted by Chaos2Frozen

Lol, I notice there are generally four types of complaint thread-

A) The [Arrogance] threads: "I'll forgive you Bioware if you just admit you were wrong..."

B) The [Betrayal] threads: "....WHY Bioware?! WHY?! How can you do this to us?! I've been a loyal fan!!"

C) The [Cocky] threads: "...I knew that 1 1/2 years wasn't enough time to develop the game!"

D) The [Denial] threads: "This is a joke right? DA2 isn't out yet..."

Haha, this summed up 80% of ALL posts in the General Boards 1 week before and after DA2 was released.

The amount of facepalms I had while reading those, uncountable

[Irkalla]

I'll just leave this here. Can't unhear

[Von Himmel]

Originally Posted by Irkalla

I'll just leave this here. Can't unhear

Hail the living paragon of manliness

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by Von Himmel

I also got no Fenris quest at all in act 2 - 3, but I managed to get his gift (the sword of mercy(?)) so I still manage to get his friendship points up there. Perhaps that's the reason why

Spoiler:

Fenris join me to fight Meridith even when I sided with Mages

Actually you don't need friendship. I didn't play with at all but wasn't 50/50 either.



Anyway I am on my 2nd play and I still can't get bored with Isabella meeting in the bar. I love that fighting scene.

[Tom Bombadil]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

I find it hilarious that DA2 has gotten so much hate for not being a world-changing epic high fantasy plot, when, eleven years ago, Planescape: Torment was given ridiculously high amounts of praise for being a personal story. And DA2 is a vastly superior game to PS:T.

(You were grouped with lowlifes in PS:T too!)

Guess peoples' opinions change over time, huh? Except for the fact that people still claim PS:T is the best RPG of all time.

Which I take exception with--Fallout is the best RPG of all time.

Sorry, what?! If your concept of better consists of 3D graphic and fancy combat moves, then probably. But how could this heavily criticized game even be compared to PS:T? PS:T is a personal story: it told an intriguing and thought provoking personal story while building an colorful and exotic world. The world for dragon age 2 is set and done in the origins. All it needs to is to make a good story, and it didn't deliver. You get a tone of dialogues choices in PS:T. How much do you get in dragon age 2? Only three. Using the same map repeatedly but seal off a couple of doors? It didn't happen in PS:T. Both of these things tells you how lazy they are in making da2. I could list a lot more, but I doubt they will change your opinion. However, please do back your claim up if you are going to make such a claim.

[synaesthetic]

Short version:

Torment's combat was atrocious, easily the worst out of any Infinity Engine game--and all Infinity Engine games have frustrating combat.

Torment is full of bugs, specifically a block (when fighting Trias, the game can unavoidably crash, preventing completion) which is the worst sort of bug possible.

Torment's plot is 800,000 words of the developers trying to be profound in the same way hipsters do. The plot is incredibly pretentious and artsy-fartsy--additionally, the game world is just too weird. It's weird for the sake of being weird.

PS:T reminds me of those "classic" novels you have to read in literature class. Chris Avellone should really stick to post-apocalyptia.

[Kyral]

Yeah got those quest bugs with merrill too...

I think I really suspent playing for the moment until it was fixed.

Spoiler for A little about Act II:

Hm... maybe not a bad idea, I load my Act II save, wait for the fix, and use the console to raise Isabella's friendship, so she dosn't just run off with the relic and I can feed her to the Arishok. (Looks like a about 70% friendship wasn't enough for her to change her mind. )

[Flying Dagger]

Torment is not well known for its combat. In fact looking back at games from so many years ago I do not expect much from the combat elements.

@bugs. Every game has their own. I just found out why blood frenzy takes my health to 20% on activation - because of a "bug". DA:O's patch 1.03 (I think) was so terrible that it introduced even more bugs.

I enjoy Torment because of the character development of the main character. Hawke and Co (hawke himself has no real development) pales in comparison to the nameless one.

The Dragon Age series, as defined by DA:O and Awakening, "should have been something else".


Cut a lot of the side quests. Merge Act 1-3. Act 2 can be about the champion trying to defend Kirkwall from the Seekers by requesting aid from other city states and mage circles. Act 3 can be the conquest of Seeker captured areas with a final battle outside of Kirkwall. Epilogue can be a meeting between the champion, multiple first enchanters, knight commanders, and the Divine in Orlais to resolve the matter. I think this will define Hawke as "THE champion of Kirkwall" instead of just some fereldan treasure hunter who bought enough potions to slowly wear down the Arishok. Bethany as a mage/Carver as a templar can be inserted as character development for Hawke.

Also add in sibling romance and Hawke's struggle to "do the right thing" in dealing with the relationship+the sibling's status as a mage/templar

[Von Himmel]

Someone release a mod that gives evolved champion set armor (the stat will also grows according to Hawke's level)...I used it with additem mods so I can get it right at the beginning It's....fun to see my Hawke already use her real armor with 'balance stat' right from the beginning.

[Gamer_2k4]

I only encountered two major bugs (I think). There was a quest in the last act that wouldn't trigger no matter what I did; the guy I was supposed to talk to just sat there. I think it's a confirmed bug on every platform.

The other bug was that I had romanced Merrill, but Varric's end of game dialogue had an anecdote that indicated Isabela was the one that stuck by me (something completely impossible based on the choices I made).

Originally Posted by Flying Dagger

I bet 3 of those darktown assassins can kill the arishok without breaking a sweat.

If you try fighting him one-on-one, you'll quickly realize how false that assumption is.

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Flying Dagger

Cut a lot of the side quests. Merge Act 1-3. Act 2 can be about the champion trying to defend Kirkwall from the Seekers by requesting aid from other city states and mage circles. Act 3 can be the conquest of Seeker captured areas with a final battle outside of Kirkwall. Epilogue can be a meeting between the champion, multiple first enchanters, knight commanders, and the Divine in Orlais to resolve the matter. I think this will define Hawke as "THE champion of Kirkwall" instead of just some fereldan treasure hunter who bought enough potions to slowly wear down the Arishok. Bethany as a mage/Carver as a templar can be inserted as character development for Hawke.

Also add in sibling romance and Hawke's struggle to "do the right thing" in dealing with the relationship+the sibling's status as a mage/templar

A lot of conclusion jumping there... when was it established that the seeker wanted to burn down everything in her path? She was quite willing to let Varric go once he told his tale. Heck, she even said she was looking for a peaceful solution. Dumping the entire worldwide rebellion and other buildups to mere last sprint/epilogue stuff would not enhance the game either, instead it would only serve to make it appear more rushed.

[Kaze]

Wished he was in DA2

Would make it so much better

[synaesthetic]

Yeah... I miss Oghren. Varric's pretty cool and all, but even his chest hair couldn't take the Joining with a belch and a satisfied sigh.

[Key Board]

This game's greatest sin is that it broke it's most sacred promise.

Your choices do in fact.. not matter much at all

Certain characters dead in DA:O? Can't have that... time for retcon magic!
Noticeable changes to the city reflecting your decisions from past chapters? I can't say I've noticed any
Feel strongly about a certain issue in DA2? Don't worry all paths lead to the same ending

you don't have choice, you have an illusion of choice

but I'll give them some slack.. I can see that Dragon Age never really had long term plans and was never meant to be a trilogy unlike Mass Effect

[synaesthetic]

Yup, it's pretty console-RPG linear. But hey, it's fun.

Origins was pretty damned linear, too.

[Key Board]

Well.. the problem is Bioware hyped it up to be a game in which your decisions matter
That's how they brand themselves nowadays.
This is a linear as a typical JPRG which wouldn't be bad.. had they not bash JRPGS for the same "flaws" I see in DA2

You see.. one of their main criticism of JRPGs is that you're character is on a rail and really has not power to change how the story develops.

And that's.. exactly how DA2 plays like

[synaesthetic]

I largely ignore hype, and you know, I'm almost always much happier with games than the people who voraciously devour every blog post and every developer diary.

Companies exaggerate. It's called "marketing." Of course they're not going to say bad things about their game, but honestly too much hype can make a good game seem horrible.

I also am not quite sure your decisions make no difference in DA2. I think people are confusing the fact that DA2 does not have a good ending, regardless of what you choose and decisions making no difference.

People are butthurt because they can't deus ex machina/godmode sue the story into a shiny-happy-kittens-and-rainbows Good End. DA2's story is supremely fucked up, and it doesn't end with a glorious Lord of the Rings-style showdown with an obvious evil where everyone cries manly tears of GAR-ness.

It ends in a very shitty situation that is a lot more like reality than Origins' ending.