Dalisclock plays through the Dragon Age Trilogy and makes a lot of running commentary along the way. Spoilers abound.
- Thread starter Dalisclock
- Start date
So I'm gonna admit I never really watched much Babylon 5 so please elaborate for me.
Finally got done with sidequesting in Act 1 and having got enough money and sufficent leveling, went on the Deep Roads expedition. And I got to admit, the deep roads are looking really good in this game, which makes it kind of a shame they're basically one long linear path like most of the other locations are as well. And yes, I'm really starting to know the maps well because there's not many of them and I've done all of them at least 3 times by this point. I'm honestly shocked when I see a new map anymore.
Anyway, I guess I'm happy that the Deep roads aren't nearly as long and obnoxious as they were in Origins, though I kind of expected it would be longer. I've gone through one dungeon map and found the primeval thiag, which isn't creepy as fuck /s Oh, and also Sandal, who once again keeps teasing us with the idea he's the most powerful character in the setting but seemingly only as a running joke, which at this point feels like it's starting to get a little old. It was funny the first time, now I have to wonder just what the fuck is going on with this guy who just wanders off into the deep roads and be perfectly fine, surrounded by dead darkspawn like it was nothing.
Hawke: "What about that?"
*Points to a frozen Orge*
Sandal "Not Enchantment"
Moving on from that, Found the crypt with the evil looking idol in it, which promptly gets Varric's brother to betray everyone for it and the location of the thiag, and...seriously, did none of them notice it was super sus looking? I'm assuming the red glowy bits were for the benefit for the player but still, that idol LOOKS evil. And then there's the fact this place is so old that the dwarves actually have a religion, which the modern ones kinda don't, feels both fascinating and creepy on it's own. There's some really interesting implications that the ancient dwarves had temples and idols but no paragons and none of the modern dwarves even acknowledge this could be a thing and it raises the question: Why? Beyond historical retconning for the sake of the elite(an oldie but goodie), of course.
Had to end my play session there because it was getting late but I think I'm nearly done with Act 1.
Anyway, I guess I'm happy that the Deep roads aren't nearly as long and obnoxious as they were in Origins, though I kind of expected it would be longer. I've gone through one dungeon map and found the primeval thiag, which isn't creepy as fuck /s Oh, and also Sandal, who once again keeps teasing us with the idea he's the most powerful character in the setting but seemingly only as a running joke, which at this point feels like it's starting to get a little old. It was funny the first time, now I have to wonder just what the fuck is going on with this guy who just wanders off into the deep roads and be perfectly fine, surrounded by dead darkspawn like it was nothing.
Hawke: "What about that?"
*Points to a frozen Orge*
Sandal "Not Enchantment"
Moving on from that, Found the crypt with the evil looking idol in it, which promptly gets Varric's brother to betray everyone for it and the location of the thiag, and...seriously, did none of them notice it was super sus looking? I'm assuming the red glowy bits were for the benefit for the player but still, that idol LOOKS evil. And then there's the fact this place is so old that the dwarves actually have a religion, which the modern ones kinda don't, feels both fascinating and creepy on it's own. There's some really interesting implications that the ancient dwarves had temples and idols but no paragons and none of the modern dwarves even acknowledge this could be a thing and it raises the question: Why? Beyond historical retconning for the sake of the elite(an oldie but goodie), of course.
Had to end my play session there because it was getting late but I think I'm nearly done with Act 1.
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I think the idea with the idol is that dwarf are supposed to be immune to Lyrium, so they didn't think it could affect either of them.
They still haven't pulled the plug with what's up with Sandal (afaik, maybe in a tie novel/graphic novel since I never touch those), I'm guessing they didn't know even back in origin and just left it as something to use later.
They still haven't pulled the plug with what's up with Sandal (afaik, maybe in a tie novel/graphic novel since I never touch those), I'm guessing they didn't know even back in origin and just left it as something to use later.
I most certainly do not! *shuffles Ivanova/Talia stories under desk* What?
Well, you know how it goes... The devs introduced the Fade expansion, not everything in the base installment was compatible. But hey, that's what hotfixes are for, even if they do result in orphaned references to the content that was cut after it bugged out.
Act 1 is done and I'm rolling into Act 2. After a run through a dwarf crypt and a boss fight, Hawke and co found a bunch of treasure and returned to Kirkwall stinky, filthy and stinking filthy rich. 3 years pass and Hawke has gotten a nice mansion, Aveline is Capt of the guard, and Fenris apparently has spent 3 years squatting in an abandoned house. Also, apparently Pirate Captain Isabella was in Origins, in the brothel but I only remembered after being told that because I talked to her for like 2 minutes in origins.
But yeah, Varric's brother vanished with the idol, Bodahn and Sandal are living in Hawke's house, which is nice. And apparently the Qunari leader the Arishok wants Hawke to do some kind of dirty work for him because apparently his own people aren't capable or something(I don't remember the exact excuse). Some of the early Sidequests are pretty good, one with Sebastian who finally becomes playable character and involes delving into some creepy ass demon ruins below a mansion in the middle of kirkwall(fancy that) and that was pretty good, but then i remembered that's part of the "Exiled Prince" dlc so of course it had more effort put into it.
There's also a quest invovling the fade, which is a lead off from an act 1 quest where you can take a magic sensitive boy and possibly send him to live with the Dalish instead of the circle. I don't know if it's different if you send him to the circle but I sent him to the Dalish only to be told he was haunted by demons in the fade and had to go in after him, which was interesting and thankfully not incredibly long and annoying. I also appreciated how this time you could see his visions that you had to convince him weren't real. Isebella, Anders and Avaline came with me, and Anders basically became Justice for the whole thing, Aveline didn't do much and Isabella sold me out for a damn boat to a desire demon. A fucking boat!
Anyway, at least so far act 2 is more interesting then act one and going as a faster pace, so we'll see if that lasts.
But yeah, Varric's brother vanished with the idol, Bodahn and Sandal are living in Hawke's house, which is nice. And apparently the Qunari leader the Arishok wants Hawke to do some kind of dirty work for him because apparently his own people aren't capable or something(I don't remember the exact excuse). Some of the early Sidequests are pretty good, one with Sebastian who finally becomes playable character and involes delving into some creepy ass demon ruins below a mansion in the middle of kirkwall(fancy that) and that was pretty good, but then i remembered that's part of the "Exiled Prince" dlc so of course it had more effort put into it.
There's also a quest invovling the fade, which is a lead off from an act 1 quest where you can take a magic sensitive boy and possibly send him to live with the Dalish instead of the circle. I don't know if it's different if you send him to the circle but I sent him to the Dalish only to be told he was haunted by demons in the fade and had to go in after him, which was interesting and thankfully not incredibly long and annoying. I also appreciated how this time you could see his visions that you had to convince him weren't real. Isebella, Anders and Avaline came with me, and Anders basically became Justice for the whole thing, Aveline didn't do much and Isabella sold me out for a damn boat to a desire demon. A fucking boat!
Anyway, at least so far act 2 is more interesting then act one and going as a faster pace, so we'll see if that lasts.
This is one of the mission that I think is better if you play on higher difficulty cause the demon in the fade will offer you a deal where he'll give you power if you let him haut the boy, and what he give you is the full benefit of a level up without actually increasing your level, which is super tempting when most fight come down to the wire.
In that mission, I think the only party members who DON'T sell you out are Varric and Anders. As for Feyinrial (probably spelt that wrong), as much as I know it would have to involve retcons for lots of players, I am really hoping he's a party member in DragonAge 4 when it eventually becomes corporeal.
Still plugging away at Act 2. It feels like act 2 is flowing a bit faster then act 1, because the focus is no longer "Earn a bunch of money" and "Recruit party members". The Party is set up, the setting is established and the Qunari and Mage/Templar plots are coming into sharp focus. I've also been doing a bunch of companion quests in the past day or so and honestly they're pretty good so far, probably on par with the ones in ME2.
The Varric one had a cool "Scarface" moment in there that threw me for a minute until it became obviously he was spinning one of his yarns again, though shit, Berthold has totally fucking lost it and I let Varric put him out of his misery. I also liked Avelines, as fucking awkward as that was, trying to help her date one of her co-workers. Working on Merril's now and I think I just realized she's one of the NPCs from the Dalish Origin of DAO, but since she's barely in it I didn't even notice at the time. And she's trying to fix that damn mirror from the creepy forest temple. I don't think this is a good idea Merill, but I also want to help you so we're doing this.
Also there's Anders attempt to help mages from being made Tranquil en masse, through the ominously named "Tranquil Solution" and holy shit, Anders. I understand how he feels but he's losing control here. I'm not entirely convinced "Justice" is still a good spirit at this point, and while he insists in awakening that he could never become a demon, Anders is starting to look suspiciously like he's being possessed by a demon. And this is the kind of shit the Templars are there to police, so while I have a lot of sympathy for the mages and want the abuses of the templars to stop, this shit isn't a joke.
If I wasn't already aware of Anders does later, this would be more than enough to telegraph he's gonna do something incredibly rash if he continues this path.
Really, the focus on Hawke and her friends is probably one of the best things this game has going for it for sure and makes the really lackluster mission and level design(and passable combat worth it. I do feel like I'm getting to know these people and wanting to help them and just go on fun adventures with them in kirkwall. I also like how a number of the sidequests feel like they follow on from one another, so a side quest in act one has a follow on in act two, like the Templar is looking into missing women, which leads him to tracking down a serial killer who targets women(and even sends them followers ahead of time).
As far as the main plot goes, it turns out the Qunari are apparently stuck here until they find....something. They are apparently wanting for a ship, but the ship will not come or they won't board it until they find the thingy they lost because it sounds like their lives would be forfeit if they returned without it. Or something to that effect. It's unclear just how much they've been really trying because mostly they seem to hang out in their very spartan compound...for years at a time. I don't know what they're doing to fix the situation but It sounds like whatever they're doing isn't helping very much.
The more that's revealed about the Qunari, the more interesting it is, because the Arishok clearly hates being stuck in Kirkwall, with it's chaos and crime and everything and it sounds like he's used to a much more ordered society, where everyone and everything has it's place. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it sounds like the most extreme caste system imaginable, where you have a role and you better learn to love your role because there's no escaping it. At the same time, the Quanrai are apparently not shy about imposing the Qun on others, by force if needed, and there's some references to "re-education" camps which sounds pretty horrific based on how Authoritarian the Qunari are. So it's clear this whole Qunari situation in Kirkwall is held in very careful balance and there are people doing their best to escalate the situation rather then calm it down.
The Varric one had a cool "Scarface" moment in there that threw me for a minute until it became obviously he was spinning one of his yarns again, though shit, Berthold has totally fucking lost it and I let Varric put him out of his misery. I also liked Avelines, as fucking awkward as that was, trying to help her date one of her co-workers. Working on Merril's now and I think I just realized she's one of the NPCs from the Dalish Origin of DAO, but since she's barely in it I didn't even notice at the time. And she's trying to fix that damn mirror from the creepy forest temple. I don't think this is a good idea Merill, but I also want to help you so we're doing this.
Also there's Anders attempt to help mages from being made Tranquil en masse, through the ominously named "Tranquil Solution" and holy shit, Anders. I understand how he feels but he's losing control here. I'm not entirely convinced "Justice" is still a good spirit at this point, and while he insists in awakening that he could never become a demon, Anders is starting to look suspiciously like he's being possessed by a demon. And this is the kind of shit the Templars are there to police, so while I have a lot of sympathy for the mages and want the abuses of the templars to stop, this shit isn't a joke.
If I wasn't already aware of Anders does later, this would be more than enough to telegraph he's gonna do something incredibly rash if he continues this path.
Really, the focus on Hawke and her friends is probably one of the best things this game has going for it for sure and makes the really lackluster mission and level design(and passable combat worth it. I do feel like I'm getting to know these people and wanting to help them and just go on fun adventures with them in kirkwall. I also like how a number of the sidequests feel like they follow on from one another, so a side quest in act one has a follow on in act two, like the Templar is looking into missing women, which leads him to tracking down a serial killer who targets women(and even sends them followers ahead of time).
As far as the main plot goes, it turns out the Qunari are apparently stuck here until they find....something. They are apparently wanting for a ship, but the ship will not come or they won't board it until they find the thingy they lost because it sounds like their lives would be forfeit if they returned without it. Or something to that effect. It's unclear just how much they've been really trying because mostly they seem to hang out in their very spartan compound...for years at a time. I don't know what they're doing to fix the situation but It sounds like whatever they're doing isn't helping very much.
The more that's revealed about the Qunari, the more interesting it is, because the Arishok clearly hates being stuck in Kirkwall, with it's chaos and crime and everything and it sounds like he's used to a much more ordered society, where everyone and everything has it's place. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it sounds like the most extreme caste system imaginable, where you have a role and you better learn to love your role because there's no escaping it. At the same time, the Quanrai are apparently not shy about imposing the Qun on others, by force if needed, and there's some references to "re-education" camps which sounds pretty horrific based on how Authoritarian the Qunari are. So it's clear this whole Qunari situation in Kirkwall is held in very careful balance and there are people doing their best to escalate the situation rather then calm it down.
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The problem is that the combat really isn't doing much for me on normal and making it harder doesn't sound like it would do anything but make the fights take longer and thus more annoying. There are plenty of games where the combat is compelling or fun for its own sake but this isn't one of them.
This is basically a flashier, faster take on the combat in origins but it's still basically babysitting the hotbar and deploying the special attacks in the right order against the right targets. Positioning doesn't make much difference considering the rooms you normally fight in and the fact enemies will drop reinforcements in from fucking nowhere means it doesn't really matter. I complained about Origins combat but origins combat did feel like it had some more tactics to it at the expense of the battles taking longer, so it's a trade off. Battles in DA2 are less tactically interesting but at least they can be done quicker and it feels like the tactics setup generally works without much tweaking.
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Positioning is incredibly important on higher difficulty because you don't want to cause friendly fire, there's also usually a few spot you can have your guy in to avoid getting swarm by reinforcement, but its true the game doesn't telegraph those, you usually need to be very good at managing threat with your tank. The enemy don't have that much more health on higher diff, but they hit a lot harder so it's more about quickly burning the right enemy and managing threat with the tank. Not sure if the number of enemy is increased.
The Qunari re education camp are from the war they had with the empirium, territory that were taken over after the war were re educated. An interesting tidbit that's buried in the codex is that when the Empirium tried to take back territory they wouldn't differentiate between combatant and converted civilian and this would kill a lot of people, and this is the main reason the Qunari would leave area they had taken over, to avoid too many casualty. They also add that there wasn't much success at de programming convert.
The Qunari re education camp are from the war they had with the empirium, territory that were taken over after the war were re educated. An interesting tidbit that's buried in the codex is that when the Empirium tried to take back territory they wouldn't differentiate between combatant and converted civilian and this would kill a lot of people, and this is the main reason the Qunari would leave area they had taken over, to avoid too many casualty. They also add that there wasn't much success at de programming convert.
Despite not really meaning to I think I've chewed through all the sidequests in Act 2 because most of them seemed kind of interesting sounding or related to the characters, or some were literally just on the way to other quests(the Wounded coast pretty much). There's one side quest about groups of assassins hunting Sketch from the Leliana DLC in DAO but I have no idea where to find them, even when marking the quest as active, so that implies I have to comb all the maps to trigger them and somehow I doubt it's worth the trouble to do so. If I happen to stumble into them while doing other things that's fine but I'm not wasting an hour trying to get jumped in the streets. At this point all I really have left are main quests as far as I can tell, because I've done all the companion quests available
Merills quest was interesting, especially learning she's really not liked by the other elves because of her blood magic and she really doesn't seem to get why. There's a bit of dialogue with Aveline where she asks if the evil magic mirror is a danger and her responses are all pretty much "It is if it fell on someone", which feels like she keeps missing the point entirely. Of course, according to her codex entry, she keeps getting lost in kirkwall despite living there for years and ending up in the strangest places without realizing it, giving it an almost Mr. Bean like quality. She's a really weird duck but I like her. Any other blood mage I'd be wanting to stay the hell away from but she's so weirdly sweet that I bring her with me a lot of the time.
Some random notes:
-I'm digging the fact the Hanged Man isn't just a bar, it's the social hangout for Hawke and her friends. Isabella practically lives there, Varric has a permanent room there(despite being able to afford something far nicer) and half the time when you talk to your buddies in the Hanged man, they're often hanging out with someone else and giving the impression they have a life outside of doing stuff with you. Hell, it may not seem like it, but Aveline at one point says doing stuff with Hawke is what she does outside her work hours.
-Kirkwall has a serious evil mage/demon problem. Like I'm not shocked anymore then I ender a random area and there's just a group of demons showing up because reasons. I guess it's it's a side effect of all the slavery in the past because in the DA universe bad things makes the veil really thin and weak and a LOT of bad things happened in kirkwall in it's history. The entire city is one big graveyard and torture pit, if I'm reading the codex correctly. So yeah, that's bad.
-Speaking of which, so Kirkwall was a HUGE slaving hub until a massive slave revolt ended the rule of the Imperium and also slavery in the city, so it sounds like nobody is really pining for the old days of slavery. Yet there's still big ass Cowering Slave Statues all over the place and they look to be made of bronze or something. My question is: If nobody is particularly protective of the idea of slavery, and there's these big bronze slave statues just sitting there unattended, why have those big chunks of bronze not been long since carted off by opportunistic salvagers? I mean, in our world people strip the copper wiring from unattended electronics, steal stones from Roman Roads after the Empire fell, stripped the Limestone coating from the Egyption Pyramids and will steal the tires from your car if you park in the wrong neighborhood, so why are these big chunks of bronze still intact in Kirkwall? Fuck, you'd think one of the first thing they would have done during the slave revolt would have been to topple the statues and deface all the slave artwork.
On a lesser note, you know all those metal spikes in lowtown? That's a lot of FREE metal for the determined scrap dealer with a big enough hammer and it's not like the guards really care much about lowtown to begin with. I get it looks really imposing and no doubt was meant to inspire fear in the slaves but, it's also a bunch of unattended iron that could be melted down and used for other things, and again, people steal copper wiring from fucking streetlights if you let them.
-Not a big thing, but I'm amused that a pajorative for Felerden in Kirkwall is "Dog Lords".
Merills quest was interesting, especially learning she's really not liked by the other elves because of her blood magic and she really doesn't seem to get why. There's a bit of dialogue with Aveline where she asks if the evil magic mirror is a danger and her responses are all pretty much "It is if it fell on someone", which feels like she keeps missing the point entirely. Of course, according to her codex entry, she keeps getting lost in kirkwall despite living there for years and ending up in the strangest places without realizing it, giving it an almost Mr. Bean like quality. She's a really weird duck but I like her. Any other blood mage I'd be wanting to stay the hell away from but she's so weirdly sweet that I bring her with me a lot of the time.
Some random notes:
-I'm digging the fact the Hanged Man isn't just a bar, it's the social hangout for Hawke and her friends. Isabella practically lives there, Varric has a permanent room there(despite being able to afford something far nicer) and half the time when you talk to your buddies in the Hanged man, they're often hanging out with someone else and giving the impression they have a life outside of doing stuff with you. Hell, it may not seem like it, but Aveline at one point says doing stuff with Hawke is what she does outside her work hours.
-Kirkwall has a serious evil mage/demon problem. Like I'm not shocked anymore then I ender a random area and there's just a group of demons showing up because reasons. I guess it's it's a side effect of all the slavery in the past because in the DA universe bad things makes the veil really thin and weak and a LOT of bad things happened in kirkwall in it's history. The entire city is one big graveyard and torture pit, if I'm reading the codex correctly. So yeah, that's bad.
-Speaking of which, so Kirkwall was a HUGE slaving hub until a massive slave revolt ended the rule of the Imperium and also slavery in the city, so it sounds like nobody is really pining for the old days of slavery. Yet there's still big ass Cowering Slave Statues all over the place and they look to be made of bronze or something. My question is: If nobody is particularly protective of the idea of slavery, and there's these big bronze slave statues just sitting there unattended, why have those big chunks of bronze not been long since carted off by opportunistic salvagers? I mean, in our world people strip the copper wiring from unattended electronics, steal stones from Roman Roads after the Empire fell, stripped the Limestone coating from the Egyption Pyramids and will steal the tires from your car if you park in the wrong neighborhood, so why are these big chunks of bronze still intact in Kirkwall? Fuck, you'd think one of the first thing they would have done during the slave revolt would have been to topple the statues and deface all the slave artwork.
On a lesser note, you know all those metal spikes in lowtown? That's a lot of FREE metal for the determined scrap dealer with a big enough hammer and it's not like the guards really care much about lowtown to begin with. I get it looks really imposing and no doubt was meant to inspire fear in the slaves but, it's also a bunch of unattended iron that could be melted down and used for other things, and again, people steal copper wiring from fucking streetlights if you let them.
-Not a big thing, but I'm amused that a pajorative for Felerden in Kirkwall is "Dog Lords".
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Bronze isn't copper and there might not really be a market for recycled bronze since they probably don't use it for tool anymore and statue that have been left outside for long probably oxidize quite a bit, which might make it hard to recycle them. I could see a situation where they started removing them, but the city probably had much bigger things to deal with right after the rebellion that they left it on the backburner and now its just part of the decor.
Dunno if you did it, but the mine side quest really show how more death = really bad stuff happening there.
I think saying Merill isn't liked by the other elf is a bit of an understatement considering she was exiled. Her point of view seems to be more about how elf extensively used magic, including the mirror, and they seem to have had a massive empire before human showed up. So she doesn't understand why the other elf would be against researching artifact of the old empire. I'm not sure if its meant that way, but a lot of old society that were conquered or colonized are held up as some sort of lost golden age when in actuality they were just as bad for commoner as the new regime that took over. So maybe the common story shared among elf is that their old empire was awesome and Merill fully believe that, but in reality it might have been pretty bad and they were getting into all kinds of problem with demon and blood mage, just like the imperium, and the elder elf might more or less understand that.
Dunno if you did it, but the mine side quest really show how more death = really bad stuff happening there.
I think saying Merill isn't liked by the other elf is a bit of an understatement considering she was exiled. Her point of view seems to be more about how elf extensively used magic, including the mirror, and they seem to have had a massive empire before human showed up. So she doesn't understand why the other elf would be against researching artifact of the old empire. I'm not sure if its meant that way, but a lot of old society that were conquered or colonized are held up as some sort of lost golden age when in actuality they were just as bad for commoner as the new regime that took over. So maybe the common story shared among elf is that their old empire was awesome and Merill fully believe that, but in reality it might have been pretty bad and they were getting into all kinds of problem with demon and blood mage, just like the imperium, and the elder elf might more or less understand that.
If by the elder Elf you mean Marethari, well……yes and no. And if you mean the ancient Elven, it’s also both yes and no.
Also Merrill and Marethari are one of the worst cases of the left hand not talking to the right hand in all of gaming.
Which is weird as pejoratives go because it hinges on the Ferelden love of the Mabari who have constantly proven themselves as the most able breed of dog at basically anything you want a dog to do. I mean fucking hell, Varric only (kinda sorta) beats Hawke’s own Mabari at Diamondback and Wicked Grace because his tail wags when he gets a good hand, implying lesser observant inmates of that little adventurers asylum have in fact lost to the dog.
Damn right we’re Dog Lords, you whinging Marchers and Orlesian fops.
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As a reminder, the legend goes that the Tevinter Imperium created the Mabari to help with their conquest of the lands that would eventually become Fereldan. The dogs defected to Fereldan. Fereldan in turn is so fond of them that one head of state quips that all it would take for that country to declare war would be for someone to insult their dogs.
I mean, between dying in some war because some guys disagree about who the watery tart lobbed a scimitar at or dying in a war because someone insulted all good boys, I know what I'm choosing.
……It has just occurred to me that perhaps John Wick is a Ferelden
Dragon Age 4 should be Varric recounting the adventures of a pack of mabari.