BioWare Dev Explains Why Dragon Age II Is Easier Than Origins

[Shamanic Rhythm]

I had a longer post typed out and everything, but I thought I could easily be condensed to this. How can it be a bad thing for them to adjust their difficulty so that it falls more in line with what the traditional expectations of a difficulty setting are?

I initially loved Dragon Age, but after Lothering I just got fed up with it, and I never finished it. The problem was the terrible imbalance between 'normal' and 'casual' difficulty. Normal was getting to the stage where I would reliably have to reload and retry every.single.fight about five times. Ten for bosses. That blood mage hideout was among the most excruciating of levels I've ever played through in any videogame. But casual was absolutely no challenge whatsoever, it was completely neutered. So either I felt like I wasn't playing the game at all, or I was taking weeks to play through a single area because I had to keep getting up and walking away before a controller went through the TV screen.

It's quite simple really: there's nothing wrong with the idea behind this change. If you're an old school hardcore combat Baulder's Gate II veteran and you can beat Dragon Age while playing Angry Birds: start on Nightmare. Don't whine about them making the game easier for others if they still allow you to play at your own challenge. What you are effectively saying is that they should turn away potential customers, deny themselves revenue and effectively doom their own franchise all so that you can feel like a true elitist.

 

[Worr Monger]

Looks like I'll be sliding mine to "Hard".

One of the things that drew me into DA:O was how challenging it was. I can't play it on Normal anymore because now it's too easy.

I'd prefer not to have a "walk in the park" on DA2.

 

[Azarhac]

I dunno, Normal on DA was pretty hard especially when using a bad setup of 3 mages without any of the good combos combined with a badly built Alistair... But the game got a lot more enjoyable after the first run-through to the point I could run it on Nightmare with no problem.

Just start with Hard, and if you got balls ramp it up to Nightmare, I am looking forward to how much skill and tactics are needed for Nightmare difficulty on DA2, =)

 

[Zom-B]

I didn't find that Origins was actually difficult, per se, on the default difficulty level, it just seemed that there were fairly random and difficulty spikes that came with absolutely no warning. I'd be going along swimmingly and then I'd turn a corner and meet a mob or some sort of sub-boss that would wipe me out.

And when I got to the fight against the dragon, I finally gave up and had to dial the difficulty back to casual because the game really didn't seem to, at least in my opinion, prepare me for the difficulty of that battle.

All in all, I thought the difficulty of the game was inconsistent, and that was the biggest problem.

 

[millertime059]

One big problem with DA:O is that there were skills that were absolutely essential, and often your allies would be built away from them.

For example, I didn't realize how big mana clash was. Mana drain was the most dissapointingly useless spell in the game, so I never specced for mana clash until around level 18. Oh. My. Gosh. It was brokenly powerful against mages. Force field - for when your tank is getting eaten by a dragon. Cone of cold and fireball are musts. The two handed tree for warriors <3.

That said there were other promising spells that were useless. Most of the death magic stuff, animate dead, curse of mortality, shield warrior skills, these were all things which sounded good on paper. In practice though, they were wasted skill points.

No what drove me nuts is learning the system, and taking what seemed to be usefull skills, but ultimately wasting the points because they were useless. Finding out 40+ hours into a game that the build you've been working on is ineffective... highly irritating. I made it through, but was stuck with one very specific party build. No taking different party members because I wanted to. I enjoyed many things about the game (including the need for forethought) but being unable to experiment with different builds or groups because of poorly explained mechaics, not fun.

 

[SyphonX]

Looks like I'm playing on the hardest difficulty then. Will there be a 'Nightmare' or 'Hardcore' difficulty?

Anyway, to the people saying it's "all about the story" and it should be easy lest it take away from the story. Well, their plots generally revolve around 'the struggle' against all odds. Be it some malevolent demon from the hell-dimension or a standing army of cutthroat sociopaths. For me, it takes away from the story if the perceived "difficult" sections are not actually difficult for me. It's not believable if the characters are thrown back by the odds, if I'm just breezing through on observation mode. Takes me out of the game. I need to involved with the character's plight.

I played through on hard in DA:O, for my first play, and it was rather easy. The arch-demon fight was spectacularly disappointing, as I was well prepared for it. I was hoping for something that would crush my soul, leaving me to crawl on my belly, legless, across the finish-line cheering all the way. But it ended up being a checklist of obvious victory-conditions. The character involvement kept it interesting as always though.

 

[dmase]

I feel like i'm missing a huge part of the party dynamics playing on the ps3. I've never been good with this kind of game anyways but i love story and what i wanted when I bought origins was a new world outside of elder scrolls. I haven't had a jrpg i've been able to sink my teeth so i've had to settle for wrpgs... I want dragon quest to come to the ps3 so bad.

 

[Feylynn]

Was never worried, I agreed from the start Origin's was way to hard on normal, hell it was to hard on easy at times. That said I cleared Origins on Nightmare after getting used to the combat and will start of with DA2 on Nightmare.

Not enough people payed attention to the difficulty settings being locked in the demo. =/
For that matter they didn't pay attention to the inventory, half the talents, or the higher graphics setting being locked. Not a lot of context to start bitching in my opinion.

The Demo was just their to showcase the new conversation wheel and the smoothing animations.

 

[Echo136]

DA:O may have been hard, but I tried the demo, and it was ridiculously easy. It was basically button mashing. Ill definetely be playing on hard.

 

[The Lunatic]

Bioware games just seem to get simpler with each sequel.


I'm half expecting Mass Effect 3 to play like Halo.

 

[sosolidshoe]

I'm there for the story, battles in RPG's have always felt tedious and dull to me. Especially when they're done like in the first Dragon Age. I prefer, by far, the more active and dynamic system that actually lets you feel like you're in control that DA2 has.

So casual/normal it is for me, and boy am I glad that Bioware are recognizing the toughness of the first Dragon Age.

Translation: I want to play a challenge-less action RPG, but rather than buy said games and leave the better, more involved RPG games to players who like them, I'm going to join the chorus of whiny gimps who moan "Its tooooo haaaaaaard, I don't wannaaaaa think about a whole paaaaarty, make it easyyyyy for meeeeee!" until the monolithic corporate entities which have final say over game development these days cave in and dumb down the game for the lazy and inept.

 

[CobraX]

I admit my first play through was on casual, because it had been a good 4 years since I played a party style RPG.

But bioware's games seem to be having more and more EA influence as the sequels are released. Which is a bad thing. I played the DA2 demo on normal, and it was too easy.. almost tediously so.

Then bump it up to hard like they said. There's no reason that lighter players should get shafted just because the bettter/more hardcore ones want their optimal difficulty to be called normal.

I second this. Games should have their easy mode be, you know, EASY! At least their will be a harder mode for people who want a challenge.

Agreed - I'm currently playing DA1 for the first time right now and holy hell can it be hard. I was on normal up until i ran into a mini boss that could two shot my characters, screw that. I've been playing on Casual since then. Bioware are really all about the story anyways.

 

[Random Fella]

Really? Origins? Hard? I finished it on hardest difficulty no sweat lol, you just got to set your abilities properly, it's just most be can't be bothered and I can see why.

 

[rickthetrick]

Blah. It wasn't hard. Kids have it too easy nowadays. Back in my day, we had to have our characters eat food and water or they'd DIE. And we had to do it MANUALLY. Through 5 feet of snow, both ways!

No joke When I was a kid we had to pay quarters to the gods of the arcade. So we had to be better or literally pay for it.

 

[chainguns]

Next, in Dragon Age 3, there will be an all-new 'laid back casual' mode where the fights will just play out by themselves, but where victory for the Warden is a foregone certainty. In their new 'casual', victory will depend on how vigorously you press the 'Awesome'TM button (can be mapped to any or all keys).

This is pandering to the instant gratification audience, which has plenty of other 'use once and dispose' game titles to chose from. The sweetness of a victory increases exponentially with the amount of work you had to do achieve it. It was very satisfying once you worked out what the design encounter you're in is supposed to trap you with. An insta-win or one where you just click on an auto-wipeout power rarely makes for replay potential.

The discussion about difficulty in Origins has little meaning without saying what platform you were playing on, and what patch level you applied. 1.02 made the old 'normal' the new 'casual' on the PC. On consoles, despite no tactical view, it was easier on the PC. Consoles had enemies in waves and a whole load of subtle positioning changes, enemy AI reactions etc that made things easier (imho). Eg I was able to solo Flemeth on the 360 with a rogue, whereas on the PC(hard) I had reload 3 times with a full complement of companions.

In Origins the enemies where powerful and overwhelming and there were loads of traps and special powers and nasty terrain that made it look suicidal. What were people expecting - to just see a group of enemies and run in their direction, hoping the AI would take care of it all? All you needed was to look at the powers the game gave the Warden. If you took the time to carefully read their descriptions, try them out, and see the cross combos - it turns out that in fact the Warden is the one who is overpowered.

As an example, some people here complained that Ser Cauthrien fight was impossibly frustrating. Go back to your save game, and cast misdirection and death hex on her. She'll fall in 10 seconds and you won't even need to touch a poultice.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

I'm there for the story, battles in RPG's have always felt tedious and dull to me. Especially when they're done like in the first Dragon Age. I prefer, by far, the more active and dynamic system that actually lets you feel like you're in control that DA2 has.

So casual/normal it is for me, and boy am I glad that Bioware are recognizing the toughness of the first Dragon Age.

Translation: I want to play a challenge-less action RPG, but rather than buy said games and leave the better, more involved RPG games to players who like them, I'm going to join the chorus of whiny gimps who moan "Its tooooo haaaaaaard, I don't wannaaaaa think about a whole paaaaarty, make it easyyyyy for meeeeee!" until the monolithic corporate entities which have final say over game development these days cave in and dumb down the game for the lazy and inept.

Or they could just balance the difficulties for both parties. You know, hard being hard for the masochists out there and easy being easy for the casuals. There's no reason to argue about the difficulty of a game when you have the ability to choose. I can't believe people are so pissed about this. They finally managed to let both groups enjoy the game and now people are pissed because the easy difficulty isn't harder? Jesus Christ, if the game doesn't offer you a challenge them pump it up to hard.

They streamlined Dragon Age 2 in such a way to make it more accessible to other people. I guess it's no surprise the elitists out there are pissed that their little gem is no longer exclusive to them but Jesus Christ people, our goal should be to make games more accessible not to alienate those who enjoy games due to their story.

 

[Eponet]

Guess I'm starting on hard, then.

Seriously, people. Was it really that difficult? I'd hate to see how much trouble you people would have with some of the fights in Baldur's Gate 2. Take DA:O, make the enemies (especially mages) a lot tougher, throw in resource management (beyond potions) and planning (since mages had to prepare their limited, one use spells ahead of time), and take away the autoheal after fights. And if you go back a few years before that, you might actually play a game that's hard.

Well at least graphics have improved over the years.

Baldur's Gate 2 battles weren't that bad, because Sorcerer was an insanely overpowered class that could easily solo the entire game. At least on hardcore and below.

 

[trollnystan]

Er. I thought the DA2 demo was hard... *hides*

But then I played DA:O on casual. And I only tried a rogue in the demo; even though it's my favourite class it's also the class I play the worst.

EDIT:

Next, in Dragon Age 3, there will be an all-new 'laid back casual' mode where the fights will just play out by themselves, but where victory for the Warden is a foregone certainty. In their new 'casual', victory will depend on how vigorously you press the 'Awesome'TM button (can be mapped to any or all keys).

You mean almost like in FF13? *ba-bum-bum-dish*

 

[Realitycrash]

God, thank you! I got tired of DA:O being so tacticts oriented and basicly requiring you to have atleast one support-mage.