Dragon Age: Inquisition

[Lex]

OK I wanted to give myself some time to cool off from playing the game before I posted any opinions, because when I finished Mass Effect 3 I made posts too quickly about how I didn't think

Spoiler: ME3 Ending Spoilers

the ending was as bad as everyone made it out to be, then I tried to go to sleep and couldn't because of all of the plot holes and awfulness, then over the next few hours came to realise how utterly shitty it was and my opinion changed in about 3 seconds.

So because I really enjoyed this game, I wanted to distance myself from it for a bit to try and give it more of an objective look. This will be the first day I haven't touched it since it came out, and I'm finally at peace with that XD.

So here's some brainvomit, as Satsu put it. Bear in mind this comes from the console perspective, where the controls are less shitty than mouse + keyboard (after reading about the problems with the PC version I understand complaints from the PC point of view) and there are less bugs (although there are still a lot of them).

The below is only spoiler tagged because it's long. Gameplay etc. doesn't actually contain any spoilers, the quest specific ones do.

Spoiler: Gameplay:

I think this is the perfect mix of the updated combat in DAII and the slower, more tactical (but incredibly annoying and clunky) combat of Origins. When I'm hitting something I feel like I'm actually impacting it, and it's not super speedy like it was in DAII. I played as a double dagger rogue. One annoyance I had was that I tended to miss enemies sometimes if they moved slightly. This is a problem for melee DPS characters only, because I started another playthrough as a Mage and I tried archer out and their attacks basically never miss. If an enemy shifts one pixel in any direction all of a sudden your attacks don't frickin count, and it reminded me of Origins in that respect, where you're lucky to even touch the enemy if it's capable of moving.

Also, some of the dragon fights were annoying because moving around the arena which has obstacles in it requires jumping. If the dragon happens to have dragonlings that you need to kill, you will probably find yourself accidentally looting them since X is both the action button and the jump button. It made movement and dodging attacks quite difficult.

Can I say also that I loved the addition of the jump button? And exploration? I also like that elfroot and iron and all of the requisitions for upgrades etc. are scattered about and not too hard to find. When I first started playing I was obsessively collecting everything before I realised that this is thankfully not DA or DA:II where forgetting to pick up one tiny thing will lock you out of nine bajillion quests. The game does not punish you in any way for leaving things til later, and I am super appreciative of that fact. I still spent about 14 hours in the Hinterlands before moving on though.

I fucking hate bears.

Spoiler: Graphics:

This game is beautiful, and I am particularly impressed with the character creator and the characters in the game. The lip-syncing and character's appearances are spot on. Satsu mentioned lip shininess but I turned this right down on my characters and haven't really noticed it.

The actual graphical interface is a bit too.... solid? If that makes sense. Like I think the health bars could have been animated a bit more dynamically rather than just a chunk of it going away when you get hit. Everything is very angular aswell, it kind of put me in mind of the interface of the first Mass Effect. I feel like the next Dragon Age game is going to make this one seem a bit outdated rather easily. Having said that, I think the interface is pretty gorgeous. I particularly like the character avatars next to their health bars, and I like how quick it is to just switch between them. I spent a lot of time playing as Dorian, Viv or Solas and blowing things up with awesome magic. Or lighting veilfire and just walking around in dark areas making everything a creepy green colour.

Spoiler: More gameplay:

I just feel like... we all know how huge this game is by now. I never got bored? I see complaints that a big chunk of the quests are MMO-style fetch quests and I'm like... it's side content. If you don't like it, don't do it. But I just didn't get bored running around, listening to party banter, actually exploring which is something that has been missing from all RPG's for a very very long time, and being rewarded for exploring by little easter eggs like

Spoiler: Crestwood spoiler

the shield that is actually a big wedge of cheese - "the Wedge of Destiny"

and hearing the characters actually talk about things in the environment. It was just super cool and I enjoyed trying to cheat the game by jumping up bits of land you're not supposed to be able to get onto and stuff.

I'm playing on Nightmare now which is a lot more fun than I thought it would be. It doesn't even feel grindy, it's more about making sure all characters are protected. Two mages and cassandra are an absolute necessity for an easy time. If she's specced properly she never dies.

I am a huge fan of the fact that

Spoiler: character card spoilers

character cards change depending on their personal quests or the choices you've made during their quest. I romanced Dorian and his personal quest was <3 and so was his character card when we were in a romance.

I love Dorian. I found it super difficult not to take him with me everywhere. He also has some great dialogue since he's quite relevant to the plot.

Story: Yes, the plot is tropey. I was in a skype call for the first 10 hours of the game and I said "this is quite tropey" and then I went... "but Bioware like to subvert tropes, so let's see what happens" and quite honestly I think they delivered. I won't say more than that (without spoiler tags).

Spoiler: Here Lies the Abyss Spoilers

I like this mission because it's essentially where you find out "you are not the chosen one, this was actually all a big mistake" and since I played my character like "yes, I am the herald of andraste" that was quite the shock. I advocated for telling everyone the truth but everyone else was like this is a super bad idea because people will revolt etc. And it really put me in mind of all current religious organisations and even governments and how they keep things hush hush so that the order can remain without controversy. Yes pawns, just keep believing I'm some chosen one so I can get the job done. They handled this quite well IMO. Also in my import Loghain was alive so it was a choice between him and Hawke. Loghain died obvs XD. I'm super surprised that Loghain actually showed up. The options are Alistair (if he was made a Grey Warden), Loghain (if you recruited him in Origins) or some random. I have to say I'm slightly miffed that they included this choice because it does severely limit the possibility for big roles for Hawke in future games.

Spoiler: Wicked Eyed and Wicked Hearts Spoilers

I fucking loved this mission. Not only is it the first time we see Morrigan in the game, but it masterfully puts you in a mission where the most important thing is dialogue and playing the "Great Game". It's also one of the longest I think, and it's super enjoyable (especially if you bring your love interest with you). Dorian's dialogue on this mission was absolutely brilliant. As was Cassandra's. The introduction scene where they all walk through the ball room to present themselves to Celene was brilliant.

Also I'm really impressed with the number of outcomes you can get depending on what you did and the choices you made. You can:

Have Celene rule alone
Have Gaspard rule alone (causes war between Ferelden and Orlais)
Have Briala rule alone (elves revolt)
Have Celene and Briala reconcile and execute/ exile Gaspard
Have the three of them work together

I ended up with the last option. It requires that you find three different people who have evidence for blackmail against all three candidates, and you need to reveal all of their plots to get them to work together. It's super cool. Reconciling Celene and Briala is also awesome.

It's also a super tricky mission, and I think a lot of people will hate it for that.

BY FAR my favourite mission(s) in the game,

Spoiler: What Pride Had Wrought & The Final Piece Spoilers

I loved this mission so much because I felt like it was an all-rounder. Any character you bring with you (aside from maybe Varric and Sera) has something valuable to say. You fight your way down to the temple which is standard fare, and there's some awesome dialogue, and then there's a choice between puzzles or jumping in and skipping them. Solving the puzzles avoids a shit load of combat and allows you to ally with ancient elves living in the temple!

This is also a kind of "I'm raising my eyebrows at you Morrigan" moment because you can tell how much she wants the power of the well of sorrows. And if you know her character well enough you know that it's not because she's greedy for power - that might be a part of it - but her primary motivation is to protect herself and if she has one, her son, from Flemeth. So obviously not knowing what was going to happen in The Final Piece I chose to let morrigan drink (yes, you can ally with the elves and also drink from the well, someone HAS TO DRINK FROM THE WELL, I've lost count of the number of times I've had to explain that on the BSN) thinking that was the best choice. Obviously in the Final Piece you find out that maybe it's not the best XD. But since we still don't know if Flemeth is evil or what I still don't think letting Morrigan drink is the worst outcome there. On a worldwide scale having Flemeth be able to control the Inquisition is far worse than Morrigan, even though I love her character.

I love that I spent literally ten minutes sitting agonising over the decision through. I've since done both, they both have their merits and downfalls. I think ultimately my canon is going to be that Morrigan drinks until I learn more about the next game, I might change my mind about that. Also there's extra scenes and an extra mission if the Inquisitor drinks, good job on that Bioware!

And The Final Piece is fantastic. Finally learning what Flemeth actually is just blew me away. There's still more I want to know about her though.

Spoiler: Ending, Epilogue etc Spoilers

The last mission was kind of short. I recall talking to Carlie and Joe about it and I think Joe mentioned that it's like they don't want to take risks with it because of the ME3 ending, and I agree with that assessment. It's by no means a bad ending, but killing Corypheus is very... straightforward.

The most impressive and mind bending part is of course Solas. Oh my goodness, I defy any person to tell me they saw that coming. There were times when I was playing (such as the dream sequence at Skyhold with Solas) where I thought there's a bit more to him than meets the eye, but I chalked it up to him being a random fadewalker person and didn't think much of it. Now that I'm playing through again all of his dialogue is super suspicious! I'm REALLY IMPRESSED with what they did there.

I'm just really hoping that Flemeth didn't die in that post-credits scene. People seem to think that the Dread Wolf has taken Mythal's soul. I originally thought "this can't be the end of Flemeth, she's not done yet" and I'm hoping that's the case, but the more I watch it the more final it seems honestly. She is my favourite character so I hope she turns up again.

phew

Will post thoughts on individual characters later.

 

[Hisako]

Inquisition sells 1.14 million units in its first week.

It's interesting to see that almost twice as many copies sold on the PS4 vs. XBox One, even though they target-maketed the game to XBox One consoles (still can't figure out why).

Also really good to see the game doing well.

VGChartz's numbers tend to be a little flakey (eg. no word on digital distribution on PC ) but it's good that the first week had upwind of that many sales.

 

[Carlie]

All Bioware games after Baldur's Gate 2 are tropey. They recycle a lot of their plots and characters but it usually falls under Tropes are Not Bad, as they will be subverted, inverted or deconstructed in other works.

Spoiler: DA:I Ending

It was a safe ending. After what happened with Mass Effect 3 they just seemed like they couldn't get to the credits fast enough. It was fight the big bad, lets celebrate and roll credits. Though they did venture out a bit with The Stinger.

 

[Fangu]

I don't care if they subvert their huge ass trope in the last 10 minutes of the game, if the previous 69 hours and 50 minutes were playing the trope perfectly.

Also, name me examples of inverted trope in the first 30 hours of DA:I because I can't remember any, other than Cassandra being the one wearing the pants. (Which might just be another regular trope.) The game takes itself way too seriously to be deconstructing anything. In my opinion, all of the main quest plots are a series of yawns, as in yawn, I've seen this a million times before. Including the other two games! They expect me to appreciate re-playing parts of Origins and II? It's not even cute, it's dreadful.

Also, this guy explains some of my disappointment.

This does not even get into the weird battle map deal in this game, where you order personality-free automatons to the digital boonies to, like, seek out the blessings of the minor nobility so that you can earn some sort of prestige points that are totally inscrutable. Like literally you look at a map and these guys are like &#8220;I should go talk to this dude,&#8221; and so I click &#8220;OK Bob&#8221; and then they computer is like &#8220;he&#8217;ll be back in 20 minutes&#8221; and in 20 minutes I get a little notification that&#8217;s like &#8220;5 more cool points for you!&#8221; It feels totally arbitrary and made up and dumb. Why am I doing this? None of it is animated or makes me feel like the story is moving along. I&#8217;m not doing anything. It&#8217;s like the developers thought that what I really wanted was the experience of being a middle manager. I expect the next Dragon Age will just have you populate cells on a spreadsheet.

the weird battle map junk

No but seriously,

I don&#8217;t want to worry that I haven&#8217;t sent an emissary to sweet talk Lord Steve in a castle they never bothered to render.

So much of this game seems to happen everywhere my character is not. There's a lot of words and info and stuff happening, but I never seem to be there to see it - I'm expected to read several paragraphs of text - and the game obviously expects me to be interested in all this telling instead of showing. I'm just wandering around areas in Canada picking flowers killing samey-same green things - alone. As someone on DW put it: "DAI feels like a vast open world MMO played solo without any people."

One of my main complaints is that the game throws too much information at you, without the UI and concepts to support it. As the same person said:

Over a year ago they started talking about how the game would focus more on doing stuff in the world and then, "when the player starts to get bored with the open world they could come back to the main plotline." That is the part that isn't working for me. For instance, I can enjoy questing for hours in FFXII to collect the items I need to synthesize a Tournesol or completing the higher level hunts, but those are things I do as a sidepath from the main story. If I want to continue the main story, I know how to stay on that path. If I cannot continue the main story because a boss battle is too difficult, I know that I need to change my strategy or wander off to do something else so I can level up. Some of the side challenges, like the hunts, are rank ordered so you just do which ever one is next. DAI's main path seems obscured under so much information that is told in things we are expected to read.

DA2 at least gave you the option of listing "Main Quests" and "Side Quests", so whenever you were in doubt, you could check. DA:I tries listing the quests the same way, but as there are a million smaller things to do that might help you with your main quests, and you have no idea knowing which ones actually will, you end up repeating tasks you don't know whether will help you or not.

If at least the local (and world) map were any good, but they're not. The local maps expect me to know that a thicker line is a door, and the game also expects me to remember where

Spoiler

the servant's quarters

are. You can get lost in XII, but the maps are good enough you'll always find your way back on track. With DA:I, I run around talking to people not knowing whether talking to them is part of the main quest, or some absurd side quest.

Also there's the fact that the game seems to lead you back to the board room for all kinds of stuff - some of which I haven't even figured out how to pick up or do. I get master training now? Where? Game says I need to go to the war room to pick up some reward - was that one of the "OK Bob" quests? Game says go to the war room to complete main quest, but I don't see any markers? Ah, I was supposed to remember something that I can find in my Journal - but to view my Journal I have to exit the war room.

I don't know if I'm just old and grumpy, but for the budget and hype of this game I expected a well put together package, bugs put aside. Instead we've received a single player MMORPG which doesn't know whether it wants to be Skyrim or Assassin's Creed or something else - middle management, as that blog post suggested.

Shrug.

 

[Joe]

I will say, regarding the middle-management war room, who you send to do what has an effect on what you'll get out of it. It has to do with reading what the actual assignment is and what each advisor is going to do to approach it. I actually got one of my unique swords (which I ended up using for ages) for completing a line of these tasks perfectly, so to speak.

I don't disagree with everything you said, though I do think that it's unfair to complain about these map details. The game has hundreds of hours of sidequests and an explorable map absolutely teeming with rendered and voiced content. All of it's pretty interesting. If they didn't have the War Room management at all this would still be a complete game overflowing with content. The fact that it's their serves to add even more to the game than is already there, rewarding fans that are interested in the lore of the world and its inhabitants.

 

[Fangu]

If they didn't have the War Room management at all this would still be a complete game overflowing with content. The fact that it's their serves to add even more to the game than is already there, rewarding fans that are interested in the lore of the world and its inhabitants.

Yeah, that aligns with my thoughts as well - that it's a gift package for DA book-like nerds, who like to read every little bit of word and doesn't lose their patience from doing so. Sadly they are a small percentage of the audience.

There's a well known term 'less is more'. I'm a fan of that term. I like my content to feel thoughtfully and well packaged. DA:I feels like they shoved in as much as they possibly could, without knowing how to reign it. So, you pick flowers, you kill blobs, you talk to another uninteresting elf with more information that you could possibly wish for (heh), talking about places you can't visit but you're meant to feel nostalgic about because of the previous games, collecting even more words... and that's basically the game. Sure the maps are HUGE, but they feel like one big area repeated ten times. Oh, this one has dinosaurs instead of bears! Rinse and repeat.

 

[Lex]

The only thing I can really say is that any quest you have has a pointer on the map telling you where to go as long as you select it as your active quest in the quest menu.

Also the main plot quests are all activated by spending power on them on the war board. They're always larger "house"-like structures on the board with mini-rifts hanging over them.

Also all of the side content can be left til whenever you feel like it, and serves only to enrich the world or level up your character. The only quests that need to be completed before the end of the game are quests related to your characters or "inner circle" quests in your journal. I didn't really have this not knowing what to do problem even though the level of content was overwhelming... it's at least a shit load clearer than it is in Mass Effect 3.

Just know that anything that isn't in "the Inquisitors path" can be left until whenever you feel like it. The only things that lock out are companion quests and one specific quest later that the game points you to.

 

[Fangu]

Yeah, but it's not nearly intuitive, was my point. Also 'buying' main quests with power is the easy part (they pop up on your main quest list + they're usually more expensive than the rest) - the hard part is staying on the path once you're "in" the main quest itself.

I just gave up on talking to Sera in Skyhold because I couldn't find her. X) She's right there on my map. Right there. But which of the 3 floors in the tavern, hiding behind which stairs or pillar or wall or person is she? (That was a rhetorical question.)

 

[Hisako]

As an addendum, BioWare has always had a terrible time with user interfaces. It doesn't excuse anything, of course, but ever since Mass Effect 2's fucking godawful interface navigation I wasn't going to expect anything else. None of BioWare's recent games have had decent Journals or quest indicators, and really, Inquisition could do with more tutorial-hint-style pop-ups or map legends. Now that's something I never thought I'd end up saying
It feels similar to Skyrim in that respect, in that all the important visual information and feedback is embellished with too much shit.

I like the actual side-questing itself - there are a lot of missteps in it but there's also a huge amount of stuff that actually feels relevant to building the Inquisition as an organisation - but BioWare is not Bethesda and my impression so far is that the strength of their smaller narratives are slightly diminished under the sheer number of them - and I certainly don't want a case like Skyrim where all the NPCs are boring as shit and there's only a handful of interesting characters of note.

Lord Woolsley though.

fucking lol

That said, powering through the main storyline without touching side-content alone seems to be a fairly simple task. I've heard things about players rushing through the game to complete it in 30 hours.

 

[Carlie]

Ugh Lord Woolsley. 30 minutes trying to get that fucking animal back to the farm and then

Spoiler

I accidentally killed it and turns out it was a demon.

So not cool Bioware.

 

[Fangu]

Okay so I was side questing yesterday and it was fun. Mainly because it was Varric and I appreciate Varric's writer. I also discovered a new 'work flow' that makes it easier to keep track of my quests. That doesn't soothe the fact that even the companion quests are fetch quests, and that I need to invent my own system to make sense of the gameplay -_- But at least there was some kind of boss fight at the end of it.

Also, I find it amusing how the game insists on TELLING THE PLAYER VERY LOUDLY THAT THEY HAVE PERCEIVED SOMETHING WRONG. Like with the whole Mage vs Templar thing in the first part of the game 'olol no, you see, if you've been seeing the mage rebellion as justified fighting for mage rights, you have seen it WRONG. The mages are no better or more oppressed than anyone else in Thedas. Sorry if you compared the Circles to mental institutions, that's not what we intended, you got it all wrong, YOUR HEADCANONS ARE WRONG!'

So I kind of laughed when the game went

Spoiler: spoiler for Dorian's romance

'if you thought Dorian and Felix had a thing, omg, you are sooooooooooo wrong, what - you think two young, attractive males with a history who obv care for each other and are side glancing each other constantly and we know at least one is gay NEED TO HAVE A ROMANTIC HISTORY? OMG HOW STEREOTYPICAL OF YOU DEAR PLAYER! DON'T YOU KNOW GAY MALES CAN **BE JUST FRIENDS?**'

Okay.............................. I'm sorry?

 

[Hisako]

Spoiler: Major villain spoilers?

CORYPHEUS? Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.

He was a posturing, ineffectual little shit in Legacy and he really didn't leave very much of a first impression on me in Dragon Age II. It's going to take a lot to make me feel invested in the fight if he's really the top dog in charge.

I honestly didn't find the meta of the storytelling to be all that ham-fisted.

Spoiler: Redcliffe spoilers

I 'conscripted' the mages after the dumb bullshit they pulled off, and the advisors got into a scuffle over whether or not it was the right thing to do - but it wasn't hard to explain the necessity of the action from the Inquisitor's point of view and to convince the others that the player's choice was right.

I mean, even companions specifically involved like Cullen, Vivienne and Solas who have some sort of personal stake or experience in the conflict (Cullen and Vivienne particularly) cover a gamut of different opinions and viewpoints on the conflict and I don't feel the game necessarily champions one stance over another.

I do think BioWare hasn't been the best (or even the most subtle) about decision-making aspects, especially binary choices, but I'm not sure how you construe the game as being actively hostile about the choices you make.

 

[Fangu]

Spoiler: Dorian romance spoilers

Dorian's backside. OH MY GOD. It's almost as if it's worth the $70 alone

 

[Carlie]

So the salt shakers fandom name is well deserved then?

 

[Hisako]

Yeah I hear there are some straight-up tits and ass in this game

Going to look forward to it

 

[Lex]

Spoiler: Dorian romance spoilers

Dorian's backside. OH MY GOD. It's almost as if it's worth the $70 alone

Isn't it just delightful?

 

[Carlie]

Yeah I hear there are some straight-up tits and ass in this game

Going to look forward to it

Can confirm Cassandra has a very nice pair. Well at least when the sex scene wasn't buggy as hell. Sex must have been good.

 

[Lex]

Spoiler: So I went and found a screenshot just because

 

[Carlie]

Did you find that screenshot in your library perchance?

 

[Fangu]

^ It's certainly in mine Screenshot folder, I mean

 

[Hisako]

Ali Hillis <3

Also omg

Spoiler: Arcanist spoilers

Dagna how did they make you even more endearing than you were in Origins how adorable can this get

Why are all the female dwarven NPCs so much more awesome than their male counterparts in this game

 

[Joe]

Why are all the female dwarven NPCs so much more awesome than their male counterparts in this game

Have you met Laura Bailey yet? <3

 

[Fangu]

^ I KNEW it! I thought she sounded familiar Looked her up on imdb, but it only listed her in the game, not as a specific character. But now, discussing her in this context...

 

[Russell]

Also omg

Spoiler: Arcanist spoilers

Dagna how did they make you even more endearing than you were in Origins how adorable can this get

Concur. She's adorable.


I like Sera now, I didn't at first.

Remember when Alistair & the Warden meet Leliana for the first time?

Warden- "Alistair, she's one archdemon short of a blight."
Alistair- "Yeah, but she's more the 'Oooo look at the pretty colors' crazy not the 'Muahaha! I am princess stabby time! STAB STAB STAB! type of crazy."

Sera is the 'I am princess stabby time' type of crazy.
I like it.

 

[Fangu]

I finished the game at 46 hours.

Opinion:



Yeah I'll just go back to pretending this game didn't happen. I was holding on to hope until the very end.

*loads DA2 save file on Hard mode to talk to Aveline and feel good again*