Dalisclock plays through the Dragon Age Trilogy and makes a lot of running commentary along the way. Spoilers abound.
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Luckily Dragon Age 2 Deluxe version just went on sale on Steam for like $8, so I snapped that up to be ready to go once I finish origins. So that's convenient. No idea if the added DLC is worth it because bioware DLC can be really good and really meh in my experience. One one had you have stuff like the Citadel DLC and on the other....I guess Omega? Firewalker? I barely remember playing firewalker(you had a jumpy hovercraft on a lava planet) and skipped Omega entirely.
I already own Inquistion from a sale....I have no idea when I bought it. I see them on sale, I have a moment of weakness, it goes into the "I'll play it someday" pile in the steam/gog library. Which is like 90% of my digital library.
I already own Inquistion from a sale....I have no idea when I bought it. I see them on sale, I have a moment of weakness, it goes into the "I'll play it someday" pile in the steam/gog library. Which is like 90% of my digital library.
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Truthfully most of DAII’s DLC is really good; Legacy gives plenty of background for Malcolm Hawke and gives context for the main villain of Inquisition. Mark of the Assassin plays very well and is your first look at Orlesian culture and some additional insight to Qunari tactics. However full enjoyment depends on how much you’re going to like Felicia Day since the guest party member is her original character (do not steal) and….well mileage varied at the time, so the passage of may have made it better or worse.
The nicest part about each of them is you can bring your sibling along if they’re alive.
The only other story DLC was just the Day 1 that added Sebastian and it’s fine. It’s not a seamless integration to the main story but it’s not hideously out of place either. The rest of it is just the Black Emporium and the weapon and armour packs.
I know there's a sibling Hawke invovled but not much about it beyond that. I hadn't heard anything Felicia Day's character and...well, that's gonna be interesting.
Oh god, is it gonna be a reference to THE GUILD?
I can't say it doesn't reference it but the actual context is that Felicia Day made a web mini-series (I presume in cooperation with BioWare) called DragonAge Redemption.
Its supposed to give the backstory to her character, Tallis, but I've never actually watched it so I can't speak to its production values, but that's a thing that happened.
Did almost all of Redcliffe last night, which went strangely fast considering the Mage Tower and the Fade. Then again, Redcliffe can direct you to the Mage tower at the end, as noted before. It starts with a village under siege by undead who come out of the castle every night and each night has gotten progressively worse on the few remaining inhabitants, so without your help there's little chance they'll survive till morning once this night comes. Either stand together and maybe survive or die separately for sure. It's an abbreviated version of "Training the villagers" trope though more of convincing everyone who can fight they need to get skin in the game, including the blacksmith, who is busy drinking himself stupid rather then help arm the villagers for the upcoming battle. In a way it's also a microcosm of the "Gather allies for the blight" main storyline, but it can also be done in 30 minutes so it's fine.
After that, into the haunted Recliffe castle and man, there's a lot going on in there. The Erl was poisoned by Jowen(oh, Jowen) that BLUD mage guy from the Mage Origin, his son Connor was showing potential for magic but mom didn't want the circle to take him so she had the BLUD mage Jowen tutor him and Connor fell prey to a Pride Demon, who he willingly made a deal with, it seems. And thus now Redcliffe has a demon/undead problem. As Morrigan points out "Everyone decides that a blight is the best time to start killing each other!" (Morrigan disapproves -10). Seriously, Ferelden has a serious problem with:
1.) Demons
2.) Darkspawn
3.) CIVIL WAR!
As if just one of these wasn't a major problem, apparently someone wanted to play on Super Hard Mode, so enabled all the catastrophes in the option menu. I get the feeling the writers of Dragon Age were GRR Martin fans, just saying because some of this is sounding very familiar.
But since I already did the Mage circle I just ran over there, got Irving to bring his boys instead of doing the blood mage thing(that sounds like a bad idea, just saying). So I stopped at the point I'm gonna send someone into the Fade to kill the demon so Connor doesn't die, which will at least fix the haunted castle problem
Zevran finally decided to join the party. It's weird because despite not making it this far in previous playthroughs I SWEAR I had the bit where you fight(and a dozen of his "friends") and recruit him happen to me earlier in the game. And he does make an interesting case that he was basically sold into the order as a child, raised with no other option and doesn't actually make much coin from his deeds because all the money goes to his employers, he's just contracted out by the Crows and of course, since he failed, he's also on the chopping block so he has no particular reason to screw you over. So, sure, why not? We've got every other variety of wierdo and loser in this group already, join the party good sir! It's definitely got that Bioware vibe of recruiting a colorful gang of misfits and reprobates.
Oh, and Alister is actually a Royal Bastard, child of the previous king before Cailan. That's gonna be fun for the succession crisis at hand. Don't worry, Crusader Kings II has prepared me for this eventuality. All I have to do is ensure everyone with a better (ANY) claim to the throne then Alister meets an unfortunate "accident" by falling out of a window or getting polonium poisoning. Then I"LL BE KING...oh, wait, the Darkspawn problem. Also, hi Alister.
After that, into the haunted Recliffe castle and man, there's a lot going on in there. The Erl was poisoned by Jowen(oh, Jowen) that BLUD mage guy from the Mage Origin, his son Connor was showing potential for magic but mom didn't want the circle to take him so she had the BLUD mage Jowen tutor him and Connor fell prey to a Pride Demon, who he willingly made a deal with, it seems. And thus now Redcliffe has a demon/undead problem. As Morrigan points out "Everyone decides that a blight is the best time to start killing each other!" (Morrigan disapproves -10). Seriously, Ferelden has a serious problem with:
1.) Demons
2.) Darkspawn
3.) CIVIL WAR!
As if just one of these wasn't a major problem, apparently someone wanted to play on Super Hard Mode, so enabled all the catastrophes in the option menu. I get the feeling the writers of Dragon Age were GRR Martin fans, just saying because some of this is sounding very familiar.
But since I already did the Mage circle I just ran over there, got Irving to bring his boys instead of doing the blood mage thing(that sounds like a bad idea, just saying). So I stopped at the point I'm gonna send someone into the Fade to kill the demon so Connor doesn't die, which will at least fix the haunted castle problem
Zevran finally decided to join the party. It's weird because despite not making it this far in previous playthroughs I SWEAR I had the bit where you fight(and a dozen of his "friends") and recruit him happen to me earlier in the game. And he does make an interesting case that he was basically sold into the order as a child, raised with no other option and doesn't actually make much coin from his deeds because all the money goes to his employers, he's just contracted out by the Crows and of course, since he failed, he's also on the chopping block so he has no particular reason to screw you over. So, sure, why not? We've got every other variety of wierdo and loser in this group already, join the party good sir! It's definitely got that Bioware vibe of recruiting a colorful gang of misfits and reprobates.
Oh, and Alister is actually a Royal Bastard, child of the previous king before Cailan. That's gonna be fun for the succession crisis at hand. Don't worry, Crusader Kings II has prepared me for this eventuality. All I have to do is ensure everyone with a better (ANY) claim to the throne then Alister meets an unfortunate "accident" by falling out of a window or getting polonium poisoning. Then I"LL BE KING...oh, wait, the Darkspawn problem. Also, hi Alister.
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Well redcliff is only half of that quest, you'll get the other half soon, so that's why it feel short.
I think the implication with the demon/civil war stuff is that with the blight happening a bunch of people are jumping the gun on their various plan (the whole chaos bring opportunity thing) and its not normally this busy (also it would be boring to only fight darkspawn the entire game). DA2 happens over like a decades so it doesn't have that problem of everything happening everywhere all at once.
Zevran randomly join you after starting one quest and moving around the map, so if you started redcliff before and then headed for the mage tower, he probably ambushed/joined you then.
I think the implication with the demon/civil war stuff is that with the blight happening a bunch of people are jumping the gun on their various plan (the whole chaos bring opportunity thing) and its not normally this busy (also it would be boring to only fight darkspawn the entire game). DA2 happens over like a decades so it doesn't have that problem of everything happening everywhere all at once.
Zevran randomly join you after starting one quest and moving around the map, so if you started redcliff before and then headed for the mage tower, he probably ambushed/joined you then.
That sounds about right. I think I encountered him after I'd done much of Redcliffe in another playthrough.
And are you talking about the Sacred Ashes thing? Because that's been getting talked up a lot lately. I have a feeling that's my next stop on this whole quest. I think that's the Dalish Elves and I'm a city elf, we're practically paisano.
Wait, is that racist? Against Elves or Italians? Italian Elves? I honestly don't know. I guess if the Elf Mafia comes after me I'll know I fucked up.
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I think Zevran may be one of my favorite party members, because he is completely open that he is joining you because if he doesn't, you'll kill him, or his employer will, and he's also just got such a fun energy about him. Also, fun fact: there was originally an opportunity to recruit Jowan after Redcliffe, but they cut it to keep the number of each class balanced out: two rogues, two mages, two warriors, and a dog. Personally, I'm glad, because Jowan is a classic example of "reverse Midas touch", where everything he touches just goes to shit.
More or less done with Redcliffe. Everyone is safe except the Erl, who I need to cure with the urn of sacred ashes, which I need to go to Denerim to follow up on.
Did some of the side quests for coin and XP which are fine. Me at every single quest board in this game. Hope nobody else needed any money or XP.
People are starting to give me their personal quests now. Pretty much every time I come back to camp somebody is opening up to me about their personal quest. Alister has a sister in Denerim we need to visit, so I guess that'll happen soon. Morrigan wants me to kill her "mom" who apparently has been body surfing her "daughters" for ages now and Morrigan is the next one in line. Wynne apparently is bonded to a spirit so that's interesting. And Sten is still a narrow minded jerk who does nothing but criticize all I do but won't talk to me so.....yeah, he doesn't go out with me on adventures. Sten is also a two handed guy so I can only imagine he sucks as a tank also plays into it.
Did some of the side quests for coin and XP which are fine. Me at every single quest board in this game. Hope nobody else needed any money or XP.
People are starting to give me their personal quests now. Pretty much every time I come back to camp somebody is opening up to me about their personal quest. Alister has a sister in Denerim we need to visit, so I guess that'll happen soon. Morrigan wants me to kill her "mom" who apparently has been body surfing her "daughters" for ages now and Morrigan is the next one in line. Wynne apparently is bonded to a spirit so that's interesting. And Sten is still a narrow minded jerk who does nothing but criticize all I do but won't talk to me so.....yeah, he doesn't go out with me on adventures. Sten is also a two handed guy so I can only imagine he sucks as a tank also plays into it.
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FYI you should leave morrigan quest for later for *reason*
I wasn't planning to do it just yet, since i can only imagine Flemeth isn't an easy fight.
You don't have to go to the Mage Circle to finish that quest. There's like 3 or 4 different ways of completing the quest, only one of which requires the Circle Mages.
True, finishing the Redcliffe quest(or at least the demon part of it) I realized you can do it without the circle mages. I guess if you want the "golden" resolution where Connor and his mom live and are demon free, then you have to use the circle mages and have to do the mage tower.
Previously I was going off memories one of my previous playthroughs, playing it now I see there are more ways to resolve issues though clearly some could be seen as better then others.
I'm pretty much past the point I've ended all my previous playthroughs so everything now will be new to me and not reliving decayed decade old memories.
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Deep into the Body of Christ/Piece of the True Cross Urn of Sacred Ashes quest. Visited Denerim for the first time for realses and I haven't done everything there but it's an interesting experience. One minute I'm bouncing people out of taverns for the guards, the next I'm whacking people for the crows and dumping bodies into the well near the chantry....wait, isn't that bad for the water supply? Anyway, my alignment is officially a roulette wheel now because apparently you can work for the mob and the cops and neither Alistair or Morrigan or Wynne will say a fucking word about how wierd or morally inconsistent that is.
I also did Alisters Personal quest in the market and man, that was pretty awful for him. I even let him give away 15 fucking gold coins and she still showed NO appreciation at all. I told Alister he was right to stand up for himself because the man needs some confidence and not be pushed around so much. Unfortunately my city elf warden was unable to go into the alienage to see how it's doing but I guess it's not doing well.
So after a bit of sidequesting in Denerim, I made my way to the mountains to a charming little village....no, wait it's full of creepy cultists because of course it fucking is. At least I don't have to feel bad about murdering my way through them MAN there's a lot of them. After working through the ruined temple and the caverns to Kolgrim, the leader of the cult, I'm convinced this village has aprox 27,000 inbred residents who all sleep in a whole 3 houses that the village contains.
Oh, and they apparently Worship a dragon that is the apparent 2nd coming of Lady Jesus. Catholicism would probably be a lot cooler if Jesus came back as a Dragon. (No, I'm not allowed back in the Vatican, why do you ask?). Which honestly I'm fine with but the whole xenophobia and human sacrifice is a bit much. Alos, FUCK THOSE MAGES in the temple and the caverns. Seriously, fuck those guys.
I stopped for the night at Kolgrim because I either have to fight him(which I've tried several times and I die pretty fast because those two mages are a pain to deal with) and apparently the alternative is defile the urn with dragon blood, and not only is that a dick move(and Sacrilegious to boot), I kind of need it for the whole Redcliffe Quest that hopefully I'm almost done with. Please please be the last step once I get the Urn. I feel like the Redcliffe quest has been like half the game so far(if you count the mage tower and the fade as part of the quest). And its wierd because while the Temple and the Caverns don't seem to be that big, the fact I've had to fight big groups like every 2 minutes makes it feel really long. It's taken me a couple hours to push through those two maps and now there's talk of a gauntlet of some sort and god I hope it's not another few hours plus having to deal with Jim Jones and his bros here. And then maybe a dragon fight.....Please not a fucking dragon fight. I just want to be done with this shit, okay?
On and unrelated note, the 70 items of inventory limit is a bit annoying. Every dungeon I end up running out of room and have to start dropping stuff because I'm trying to pick up everything in sight to either use or sell later but there's a lot of it. The Item box at Warden's keep helps but it's annoying to get to and I think there's one more party member to recruit so I don't want to dump stuff that he might need. Not to mention I have RPG hoarder syndrome going on because, hey, that dragon scale might be useful later? Maybe?
I also did Alisters Personal quest in the market and man, that was pretty awful for him. I even let him give away 15 fucking gold coins and she still showed NO appreciation at all. I told Alister he was right to stand up for himself because the man needs some confidence and not be pushed around so much. Unfortunately my city elf warden was unable to go into the alienage to see how it's doing but I guess it's not doing well.
So after a bit of sidequesting in Denerim, I made my way to the mountains to a charming little village....no, wait it's full of creepy cultists because of course it fucking is. At least I don't have to feel bad about murdering my way through them MAN there's a lot of them. After working through the ruined temple and the caverns to Kolgrim, the leader of the cult, I'm convinced this village has aprox 27,000 inbred residents who all sleep in a whole 3 houses that the village contains.
Oh, and they apparently Worship a dragon that is the apparent 2nd coming of Lady Jesus. Catholicism would probably be a lot cooler if Jesus came back as a Dragon. (No, I'm not allowed back in the Vatican, why do you ask?). Which honestly I'm fine with but the whole xenophobia and human sacrifice is a bit much. Alos, FUCK THOSE MAGES in the temple and the caverns. Seriously, fuck those guys.
I stopped for the night at Kolgrim because I either have to fight him(which I've tried several times and I die pretty fast because those two mages are a pain to deal with) and apparently the alternative is defile the urn with dragon blood, and not only is that a dick move(and Sacrilegious to boot), I kind of need it for the whole Redcliffe Quest that hopefully I'm almost done with. Please please be the last step once I get the Urn. I feel like the Redcliffe quest has been like half the game so far(if you count the mage tower and the fade as part of the quest). And its wierd because while the Temple and the Caverns don't seem to be that big, the fact I've had to fight big groups like every 2 minutes makes it feel really long. It's taken me a couple hours to push through those two maps and now there's talk of a gauntlet of some sort and god I hope it's not another few hours plus having to deal with Jim Jones and his bros here. And then maybe a dragon fight.....Please not a fucking dragon fight. I just want to be done with this shit, okay?
On and unrelated note, the 70 items of inventory limit is a bit annoying. Every dungeon I end up running out of room and have to start dropping stuff because I'm trying to pick up everything in sight to either use or sell later but there's a lot of it. The Item box at Warden's keep helps but it's annoying to get to and I think there's one more party member to recruit so I don't want to dump stuff that he might need. Not to mention I have RPG hoarder syndrome going on because, hey, that dragon scale might be useful later? Maybe?
I don't remember crafting being really that important in the game, so you might not need to take everything in sight. Plus most of the loot is just vendor trash. I think you might be able to buy upgrade to increase inventory space?
Redcliff quest is almost done, you're about half way trough the game with two more big quest before the endgame begin.
Denerim is imo too busy at once with too many menial side quest, it would be nicer if they were slowly introduced after every big quest you finish.
Redcliff quest is almost done, you're about half way trough the game with two more big quest before the endgame begin.
Denerim is imo too busy at once with too many menial side quest, it would be nicer if they were slowly introduced after every big quest you finish.
I saw a backpack for sale in ostagar but didn't grab it. I've got that ingrained habit of " I might need this later or at very least sell it to afford something better" from years of playing such games and since you can't grind money in this game best sell whatever you can.
Yeah, the job boards can be overwhelming but I grab them anyway because he'll, I might be on the area or something.
Update: Finished the Urn quest and cured Arl Emon. The gauntlet was a lot more interesting than the dungeon crawl before it and I did get that "This is the most sacred relic" mood from it so well done there.
This seems to be where the plot officially starts kicking into gear, because he explains they need to call a Landsmeet to end the Civil War quickly without it grinding everyone down because nobody has the numbers for a quick victory and there's still the darkspawn invasion to be worried about. Also, Alister is pegged to be king because....there's really nobody else. Sure, he's a bastard but in absence of anyone else of blood relation, a bastard is good enough and while I don't know the specifics of Ferelden primogeniture succession laws, it tracks well enough. Also like how Redcliffe has nicely cleaned up since I first entered it and now there's people gathering and training there, giving it a sense of progress. But man, it feels like the whole Arl Emon quest is probably the most invovled quest, unless there's another one like that in this game.
Also, weirdly enough, I noticed the merchant in camp "sells" gifts that give a MASSIVE approval boost to all of my companions (except Shale, for some reason) and by sells, I mean they cost nothing and there's a lot of them and I have no idea if they've been there the entire time. But all my companions except shale are now maxed out approval and I got the Sten quest now, which actually sheds some light on his personality that I've been waiting for a while now.
Gonna do some side quests and then off to the Dalish Elves for the next quest.
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Kind of late, but you still take the pinch of ashes you need for the quest if you defile the urn. In fact, if you have a save that's close you should do it once just to unlock the Reaver subclass for warriors.
That's gotta be a DLC thing.
Yeah, I checked into it and it was a DLC that game with the ultimate edition. I guess it's to make it easier to change their opinions around since there's one that does +50 and one that does -50 per character and you can use them as needed. Most of them are silly, like an Unsquishable pigeon for Shale or a Alistor voodoo doll for Morrigan.