BioWare Dev Explains Why Dragon Age II Is Easier Than Origins

[seditary]

lol, I wonder how many of the epeeners played through the game on their first attempt at release (before patches that fixed some things) without a 2-3 mage party.

My first playthrough started on release day was a 2 rogue, tank+Wynne group usually, I played with characters I liked so Leliana and Shale was almost always present even though I was a rogue main. The biggest problem with the difficulty in the first game was it left your party choices EXTREMELY limited. An RPG where you are unable to play with the party you want to is not balanced properly.

Second time I played through it was with a mage and the game was so damn easy compared to the first time I actually facepalmed.

PS I found the Baldur's Gate games easier than DA:O for reference.

 

[infohippie]

DA2 easier? What are they smoking? DA:O was very easy on normal difficulty, and only a minor challenge on hard. Shouldn't people who are new to group-based RPGs simply set it to easy in order to learn? Maybe Bioware should just make the default "easy" so peopl who know what they're doing can increase it from there. We don't need the game simplified further. It's all well and good making RPGs easier to attract new players, but what then? When your new players have had a bit of experience and start to know what they're doing, what's to stop them getting bored because the game is no longer any challenge? Can this be blamed on EA seeing the rise of the "casual gamer" and thinking they need to market to them, and screw anyone who has been playing games for a few years? Or am I just getting old and curmudgeonly?

 

[Bobbity]

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!

Carrying a donkey on our backs!
In retrospect, I'm not entirely sure why we made things so difficult on ourselves.
I like this move, because it means that new players can get into the swing of things without getting smashed to lots of little tiny pieces.

 

[adrian_exec]

What i disliked is that a rogue with backstab and evade can beat an ogre 1 on 1 without taking any damage.

Yeah while a simple Darkspawn Mage would most likely kill the Rogue in seconds. Curse of Misdirection, followed by Curse of Morbility .. yey I'm dying and I can't do anything about it.


While I do agree that Dragon Age: Origins does feel a bit hard on normal difficulty, and even more harder at the beginning when your characters aren't full on stats and gear, unfortunately towards the end of the game things get a lot easier and that would balance out the game.

I think that's something they should address in Dragon Age 2 and not make the game to easy, steamrolling everything the entire game won't be fun either.

 

[DTWolfwood]

ive come to the realization that difficultly in story driven games actually kill immersion for me. So i appreciate them considering normal as enough to keep the player from running into every fight balls to the wall without fear of death, but not so that any large encounter will crush face.

I still haven't manage to beat the orge using the Mage, the Rogue was the EZ button, while the warrior made me pause a few times.

I never finished Origins mostly because the combat really was the most boring part of the game. I just wanted to advance the story but could bring myself to slog through anymore of the combat, even on casual.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Origins was easy. Not every game has to cater to every single crowd. I wish people would accept that already.

That said...I played the demo for 2, and it sealed the deal. I won't be getting it.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Origins was easy. Not every game has to cater to every single crowd. I wish people would accept that already.

That said...I played the demo for 2, and it sealed the deal. I won't be getting it.

Where as it made me go preorder the game despite the negligible difficulty and weird Nightcrawler-like backstabbing. Like I said, I'll be running it on hard, but I liked the demo in general.

 

[Smooth Operator]

What i disliked is that a rogue with backstab and evade can beat an ogre 1 on 1 without taking any damage.

Oh it get's far better, I managed to beat the entire demo with a mage only(using no potions), stuffed all others in a corner and ordered them to wait.
With the new system no melee unit can get a hit on you if you keep moving, ranged units get you but those die quickly so it's not much of a fuss, and with AOE attacks now without friendly fire you can cast them without any danger, simply run around to heard everyone then AOE AOE AOE until everything dead,... rinse and repeat.

It's silly to complain about such things DA2 is now simply an action RPG just like Fable was, but f*ck it I like those too.
Maybe someday someone will make another Baldur's Gate, but it wont be BioWare ever again.

 

[JoshGod]

What i disliked is that a rogue with backstab and evade can beat an ogre 1 on 1 without taking any damage.

Oh it get's far better, I managed to beat the entire demo with a mage only(using no potions), stuffed all others in a corner and ordered them to wait.
With the new system no melee unit can get a hit on you if you keep moving, ranged units get you but those die quickly so it's not much of a fuss, and with AOE attacks now without friendly fire you can cast them without any danger, simply run around to heard everyone then AOE AOE AOE until everything dead,... rinse and repeat.

It's silly to complain about such things DA2 is now simply an action RPG just like Fable was, but f*ck it I like those too.
Maybe someday someone will make another Baldur's Gate, but it wont be BioWare ever again.

I have used that on the ogre when everyone else died, however it is so boring and tedious its worse than death.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Origins was easy. Not every game has to cater to every single crowd. I wish people would accept that already.

That said...I played the demo for 2, and it sealed the deal. I won't be getting it.

Where as it made me go preorder the game despite the negligible difficulty and weird Nightcrawler-like backstabbing. Like I said, I'll be running it on hard, but I liked the demo in general.

It looks great, and the story sounds engaging. I'll probably end up changing my mind at a later date, once all my friends start waxing about it. But that Ogre pissed me off. As a Mage, I couldn't get past it no matter what I did. My roommate loaded the demo on the Xbox, rolled a Warrior and got past it with his eyes closed. It infuriated me.

 

[DefiantWolf]

This whole arguement is silly and pointless as long as their is multiple difficulties. Unless there is a multiplayer aspect of the game which allows us to play our singleplayer characters, the way in which a person finishes the story is moot. None of us will be mixing! As long as there is a difficulty for every type of player, I fail to see an issue to even debate. Just a bunch of incessant epeen-waving from a bunch of underdeveloped babies who look to their hobby for their sense of self-worth! Pathetic, really.

And yes, DA2 demo turned me off from the game completly, but the difficulty had nothing to do with it. They sped the combat up waaay to much for my taste. While I thought DA:0's combat was a bit slow, I didn't want this hypercaffinated hamster known as DA2.

 

[Quellist]

I really dont know what to think of this, i started Dragon Age on hard, feeling myself to be an RPG vet (ever since the days of 'Wasteland') but had to ratchet back to normal a few hours in. I got killed a LOT and found it very frustrating, even on normal, in fact i'm ashamed to admit i had to do the final battle on easy (ofc i hadnt saved any troops for this battle so its my fault i guess).

But now i'm replaying the game as a Mage (was a Rogue before) and finding it pretty easy on normal. Ofc this time i know the system a bit better and play more tactically so i'm leaning toward wanting the old 'normal' mode in DA II stuck between new normal and hard (maybe called 'classic').

Tales of Vesperia killed my interest by being too easy and i hate fights that are just a question of mashing buttons.

Mind you, i can forgive/accept any of this as long as its not as dumbed down as Mass Effect 2 was. RPG's were never meant to be THAT mainstream...The DA II demo has me worried, it looks more like an action game and plays like one (I killed the ogre with my mage by circle strafing it).

 

[twm1709]

I remember being slightly put off by DA:O micromanagement in most battles. I found the Tactics system to be somewhat unreliable too.
I tried both the PC and PS3 demos and so far I'm sticking with PC.

 

[Alfador_VII]

Based on the DA 2 demo (whatever level that's set to), it's definitely NOT easier than Origins on Normal

Warrior and Mage I can't beat the big Ogre guy (which I've since heard is nowhere near the end of the demo), and Rogue is so underpowered I couldn't even get close to that far.

 

[Discon]

Yeah, dude's absolutely right: I have absolutely no idea how to engage in party management. In fact, I found that as the one glaring flaw with the first game. I grew up on beat-em-ups and action games, so having to sit down and figure where to put who as opposed to when to do what came off as agonizingly boring. Sorry if that just gave you all the image of a "Ritalin-popping, Mountain Dew swilling, Halo fanboy", but I much prefer to be hands-on with my games - we're not gonna agree on this, but I will always think there is more skill involved with having to adjust your strategy at a moment's glance than to "pause", take a breath, and reevaluate the situation.

Ergo, I find the combat overhaul (or simplification, your choice) to be a refreshing change - I get to wreck shop with my warrior/rogue and everyone else can do their thing... although I do find it a bit odd (if hilarious) for me to do what's essentially a super move and have the enemy be nothing but boots.

Observation: Jesus! I am literally the only one who thinks this way so far. This almost makes wonder what you guys think about games like DMC and the current gen Ninja Gaiden games.

I agree. Although tactical games can be rewarding, I think this new combat system is refreshing and more fun than the one Origins has.

 

[Carnagath]

Origins? Hard? I want what that guy's smoking, I did it on nightmare first time and it was piss easy, I ain't even that good at team based RPGs.

That's nothing, I beat it using only my left hand and half my screen, since the other half was running Battletoads, and it was piss easy. I actually fell asleep at some point and when I woke up I had somehow cleard 3 zones and had to reload so I wouldn't miss the story :/

 

[chinangel]

I got slaughtered by the Ogre second-time round in DA 2, and I don't mind saying that I played through DA:O on normal but my second playthrough i dropped the difficulty to 'easy'. it was too easy most of the time, but I didn't mind. The final boss though? Nightmare. Absolutely nightmarish, and I was a battlemage, so I wasn't a pushover either.

 

[DannibalG36]

Dragon Age: Origins was ONLY fun for me on the "Casual" setting... I got as far as Redcliffe Castle before abandoning all hope of completing the game on "Normal." And you know what? I actually had a lot of fun on that setting - DA:O ended up being my favorite game of 2009. So I'm glad that DA2 will have scaled down the difficulty curve.

You masochists can play on Nightmare.

 

[MakazeX]

Oh Bioware, I love you, but please, Don't make DAII too easy, Or I'll be forced to complete it on the hardest difficulty and be known as sad for my entire life!~

Nah, on a serious note, I'm not fussed at all about this, I love Bioware to the point that what ever choice they make, I know they're making it to try and make a better game.

Take mass effect 2, A lot of bits in it were miles worse, but they plan to level it out in mass effect 3. I see mass effect 1 and 2 as a Jump to a perfect mass effect 3.

So yeah, Bioware can do what they feel they need to do, I'm going to buy it, play the f... out of it and enjoy it. As long as the story is good, as long as the characters are witty, I'll enjoy it.