Dragon Age: Inquisition to Have 40 Different Endings - Update

[BehattedWanderer]

That's cool. Sounds like Origins. But improved? Which, let's face it, is exactly what we wanted. Keep this trend up, Bioware. It's actually good for you to regain some face with us.

Also, the inquisitor's story sounds like a mesh of Oblivion and Skyrim (and other stuff too, obviously). And if the idea of Bioware doing the writing and characters on a gameworld that looks like either of those doesn't appeal to you, you clearly don't like this genre.

 

[Fell]

Oh please. They say it will be over 40 endings but i bet they will just make it blue, azure, teal and ultramarine etc etc. and call them different

 

[The Great JT]

Sounds interesting, Bioware.

Also, anyone who brought up Mass Effect 3's endings, please report to the volcano. The Volcano God will have words with you after you receive the customary boot in the ass.

Why?Bioware made the exact same claim with ME3 so people are justified in bringing it up.

Because people are still spiteful over it. I'm one of those people who didn't hate the endings (I was merely confused by them) and felt the Extended Cut answered the questions I had about them. Most of the people, though, are still "RAAAR ME3 ENDINGS WORST THING EVAR, ALL OF THE GAME BEFORE THAT POINT AND THE ENTIRE SERIES AS A WHOLE IS RUINED FOREVER, RAAAAAAGH!!" I really can't stand the rage and whining, especially since I love the game and series. I just want people to stop complaining and talk about the game as a whole.

 

[Cybylt]

I'm pretty sure they just mean 40 still frames in an American Graffiti style ending like Origins. So cut that by at least half since the majority of them will be between choices A and B of scenarios through the game.

 

[daibakuha]

The most important of a story is the ending,this is no different from talking about a book or movie that had very bad to terrible finales.Like it or not but ME3's endings will always serve as a example of how not to end a series and people will keep reminding everyone including Bioware of what happened last time they made promises that could'nt be kept.

You have no idea what you're talking about. In the entire history of storytelling endings don't really mean squat. There are plenty of award winning films where the entire 3rd act is completely terrible or the last 5 minutes sucked.

 

[lostlambda]

I'm generally looking forward to this game as I'm the only person in the world who like DA 2. This as Persona 5 are the games that are going to keep my PS3 on for some time.

 

[Xelien]

Because people are still spiteful over it. I'm one of those people who didn't hate the endings (I was merely confused by them) and felt the Extended Cut answered the questions I had about them. Most of the people, though, are still "RAAAR ME3 ENDINGS WORST THING EVAR, ALL OF THE GAME BEFORE THAT POINT AND THE ENTIRE SERIES AS A WHOLE IS RUINED FOREVER, RAAAAAAGH!!" I really can't stand the rage and whining, especially since I love the game and series. I just want people to stop complaining and talk about the game as a whole.

High-five The Great JT! I have a huge Garrus poster that's as big as my love for the series and can still replay the games at any time. I do believe Mass Effect is waaay more than the ME3s ending. Which is what I'm hoping for Inquisition. Give me a good experience Bioware and I'll continue supporting the franchise.

 

[Wilco86]

As for what you said about ME3's endings, no, what doomed them wasn't Bioware's writing, it was fans with unrealistically high expectations and perceptions that the ending would play out exactly as they envisioned it and when it wasn't word-for-word the same as their (most likely INCREDIBLY STUPID) idea as to what happened.

You, my good sir, are wrong. (But kudos for using death knight as a profile pic. Stormreaver Clan?)

BioWare stated that choices matter, and I for one spent dozens of hours creating different Shepards with different choices, and all that comes down to RGB. Quite important side characters like Kelly Chambers were ignored in the ending (even in EC) even though she was one of my Sheprad's imported love interest from ME2. (If I'd indeed make a fanfic I'd have grateful Shiala rescue her from the Citadel's explosions.)

Also, there were stupid drama situations, like the the first fight against Kai Leng, where I had to stop using my abilities so I could lose and get the story rolling.

And Liara "I can't fight my own people" T'Soni had no trouble killing indoctrinated asari commandos, but freaks out putting banshees out of their misery. Really stupid writing, if player remembers anything that has happened in earlier games.

 

[Rodolphe Kourkenko]

After ME3, it don't trust Bioware.
I'll wait for players reviews (and no, since DA2 i don't trust The Escapist reviews ^^) and i'll trust what i'll see.
I remember the 16 diffenrent endings of ME3 and the impact of the player's choice (the rachni queen perhaps ?).

As for what you said about ME3's endings, no, what doomed them wasn't Bioware's writing, it was fans with unrealistically high expectations and perceptions that the ending would play out exactly as they envisioned it

Nope, it was Bioware that hyped them and let them think this. They never said otherwise, they always use half truth (like for DAi, they use the buzz words "open world" but the game will NOT be an open world). As i said several times, it's not the game, it's how Bioware managed their marketing and their fanbase after the launch.
You can't say several times "you will not have an A, B, C ending", "your choices will matter" and delivering the exact opposite without expecting a backlash... you can't throw rocks to the fanbase without thinking about this little fact, of course you're right about some fans, but it's Bioware that let the hyping being "too much".
And another thing, they said Hawk and the warden will be in the game, strangly, they didn't said (as it was written on dev blog) that their respective stories will never have any kind of closure... Or the fact that Morrigan will NOT be a companion.


Just look here, 40 differents endings are now only an handfull differents ends... It was just to make their game look better than TW3, nothing more. I prefer one good ending rather than "hundreds variation" that can be bad.
I will buy "arkham knight" day one. DAI ? Bargain bin at best...

I've a hard time for taking them seriously now because since DA2, they over-promise and under-deliver each time.

 

[Kikosemmek]

It's going to have 3 choices at the end where you do a deal with a random new character that was never introduced. They will be color coded, though, so no worries.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I'm not going to get into the ME3 endings again but how did it make it sense?Also Bioware did betray it's fans by basically calling them a bunch of dumb nimrods who just did'nt "get it".

If even I, and I can assure you that I'm NOT a fanboy, get the urge to slap posters who are still crying doom and gloom about the ME3 ending across the ass with a baseball bat. Then it's pretty understandable that writers and developers who get the hordes of internet "activists" spewing vitriol and bile over them day in and day out would defend themselves by making counter statements. Which of course only serves to further fuel more rage, but you can't fault any normal person for attempting to defend themselves somewhat.

I'm not going further into a ME3 lore discussion either. It's like discussing whether Batman or Superman is better, everyone can just make up shit as they go along. But that's the very essence of the discussion: you can find arguments either way if you think about it, that sane discussion is what is completely lost amid all the rage.

With Dragon Age Inquisition, so far I see a dev who has taken the rightful critiques about replicated zones, DLC on launch, bad graphical quality and loss of isometric view in console version to heart. And is at least attempting to fix those things. Now the internet can decide to launch another hate-campaign like they did for DA2 or the ME3 ending and urge the /v/ boards on 4chan to go spam the metacritic user scores with 0's and further hammer on the heads of the devs. Or we can simply judge the game by its merits when it actually comes out.

 

[DSK-]

I just want my Warden back, Bioware. I don't want to play another character I really couldn't give two shakes about, a la Hawke.

Just don't make it terrible, Bioware, for God's sake (and your own).

 

[In Search of Username]

This sounds fantastic, I'm cautiously optimistic. I mean, I didn't even think 2 was as bad as what other people thought, nor did I think Origins was as OMG AMAZING as everyone else. I thought each was about as good as the other, in their own way. And this sounds like an improvement on both.

 

[Zeras]

How about every other game that had PR Q&A before the game was released, that ended up not being exactly what people wanted/thought they wanted? Let's just wipe out the game industry then; there is no perfect game that everyone can agree on.

 

[Zeras]

How about every other game that had PR Q&A before the game was released, that ended up not being exactly what people wanted/thought they wanted? Let's just wipe out the game industry then; there is no perfect game that everyone can agree on.

Most game companies know not to make promises they can't or won't keep.This isn't about a game not ending up like people want. This is about a developer who has made claims in the past about previous games that would amount to false advertising, if people actually applied the same ethics and laws that other industries follow.But in the game industry a game developer or publisher can lie their ass off and not expect to own up to their lies,Bioware has made some BS promises that even they knew would'nt be kept regarding their past game and people are rightfully skeptical of them.

But that hasn't stopped people in the industry from making claims, has it? I remember the excitement from E3 on Killzone 2 - wasn't that later found out to be a pre-rendered scene run on a computer, or when Halo 2 did the same thing (let's not forget the "Finish the Fight"/"Fight for Earth" claims).

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

How about every other game that had PR Q&A before the game was released, that ended up not being exactly what people wanted/thought they wanted? Let's just wipe out the game industry then; there is no perfect game that everyone can agree on.

Most game companies know not to make promises they can't or won't keep.This isn't about a game not ending up like people want. This is about a developer who has made claims in the past about previous games that would amount to false advertising, if people actually applied the same ethics and laws that other industries follow.But in the game industry a game developer or publisher can lie their ass off and not expect to own up to their lies,Bioware has made some BS promises that even they knew would'nt be kept regarding their past game and people are rightfully skeptical of them.

But that hasn't stopped people in the industry from making claims, has it? I remember the excitement from E3 on Killzone 2 - wasn't that later found out to be a pre-rendered scene run on a computer, or when Halo 2 did the same thing (let's not forget the "Finish the Fight"/"Fight for Earth" claims).

Bioware is the new Peter Molyneux. They have become known for promising things like "a ton of choice", "the story evolves around you", and "it has a ton of endings" and delivering a product that isn't really any of those things. Things they say now should be taken with a mountain of salt. Everyone does it a little bit, Bioware takes it to a new level.

 

[Animyr]

The ending is not the most important part of the story. It's AN important piece, but there's plenty of important pieces.

It is in the sense that if you tell a weak story but nail the ending, you're forgiven. Weak storytelling becomes stronger in association with a strong ending. It means you were able to draw something strong out of something weak, an admirable achievement that retroactively validates the whole enterprise. The converse is not true; if the main story is good but the ending is weak, the main story, regardless of it's deft pacing or strong characterization, steams weaker by association. Something weak was drawn out of something strong, which can throw the value of the rest of the story into question somewhat. In my opinion, Mass Effect is a good example of this.

Of course, a truly good story will have both, but if you're going to fail at one thing, the ending is not a good choice.(At least if you look at a story as a whole. Of course, a weak beginning might alienate new readers/players/viewers and hurt the story that way, so in that sense it may make more sense to have a strong beginning and slack off on everything else.)

 

[sumanoskae]

Glad they cleared that up; I suppose somebody in marketing realized that when you advertise 40 different endings, people naturally assume you intend to make all of them distinct beyond what shirt everybody is wearing.

True, you didn't technically SAY that your endings would be any more unique then different shirts, but you imply it by even bothering to bring it up as a selling point.

Anyway, it's good that they made themselves clear.

As for the state of the game: The gameplay looks amazing, but I'm concerned for the direction they're taking the story; the whole Demon thing strikes of over complicating things. We already have plenty of unrest in the world of DA, unrest that comes from more interesting places like mortal flaws and the entropic decay of society, places that have metaphorical applicability to real life and motivation beyond being inherently destructive. What about the Mage/Templar conflict? or the mysterious behavior of the Darkspawn? or the potential war with the Qunari? Why aren't any these problems enough to drive a plot on their own?

I get that relying on the mono myth is supposed to simplify things, but it's not good storytelling to artificially impose a simple conclusion on a complex situation, it robs the conclusion of pathos and weight.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

Someone already made the joke with the 40 different colours?

 

[Flying Pilgrim]

Yea, Sure, 40 different endings. Just like Mass Effect 3 was supposed to have so and so amount of endings.

I think it's probably going to be handled similarly to how they handled DA:O's endings -- or even how the Fallout games have handled that -- you know, with a largely solid, unalterable plot, filled with decisions that don't have much of an actual effect. But once the story is finished, the consequences of those decisions will be shown; along with a ton of slides or narration that explains the "aftermath." Only a few of the major decisions will actually affect it, though. I hope that I'm not sounding like Captain Obvious...