Dragon Age: Origins: Why Put This Shit In?

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Samurai Goomba

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Oct 7, 2008
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Omega NZ said:
Samurai Goomba said:
geddydisciple said:
You purchased an rpg and expected instant gratification? Go buy MW2.
Now, now. There are RPGs and then there are RPGs. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is a survival RPG where pretty much every enemy in the entire game appears ONCE and NEVER respawns. You're always working forwards and hardly ever revisiting the same places. The battle system is fast, fluid and strategic, but also legitimately difficult to master.

Granted, it's rather unique in the genre, but there are other RPGs which also eschew conventional RPG design decisions.
Finally! Someone metioned this gem! These are the type of RPG's I prefer, level grinding in my opinion should be slightly more optional, instead of a nessacity to progress. I haven't played Dragon Age yet, but are the repeative battles bad enough to ruin it? Also, got any other recommendations for RPG's simialar to Breath of Fire? (sorry slightly off topic)

Also, at the OP, I'm guessing you will be like me and not like MMORPG's?
Well, Jade Empire only has a few levels where enemies respawn, and grinding is pretty much an impossibility. You have to decide early on what you want to upgrade (or upgrade nothing and save your points, if you plan to upgrade late-game styles). That said, it has loads and loads of dialogue, is fairly linear and too easy for the skill point conservation stuff to really matter. But it's still a fun game.

Valkyrie Profile 2 is another I would look into. It's quite excellent. The battle system is somewhat similar to Dragon Quarter, but maybe not quite as good. But then, I can't think of any RPG with a BETTER battle system than Dragon Quarter. But VP2 has an interesting story, loads of characters, great music, great combat... It's just all-around awesome.

Finally, I would recommend Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics on the grounds that both games rule. CT is easy enough that you don't need to grind at all except in maybe two spots in the entire game (Magus' Castle for Heal and near the first Nizbel for Volt Bite), and levels in FFT are utterly worthless, although there's a fair bit of JP grinding. But it's pretty fun anyway.

There aren't many games like Dragon Quarter. It was sort of an experiment. And since it was such a commercial failure, we probably won't see many other survival JRPGs with a depressing atmosphere, amazing combat and personal story of loss and the power of hope anytime soon.
 

Kajin

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Apr 13, 2008
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geddydisciple said:
You purchased an rpg and expected instant gratification? Go buy MW2.
Listen to this guy, he's a smart cookie.

Seriously? Are you joking or what? RPG's have always been about the grind.
 

Dradiin

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Mar 4, 2008
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Is the OP honestly asking for endless monster graphical options ?

Can you even come back to the land of reasonableness ?
 

Red|Zombie

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Nov 8, 2009
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I agree with the OP, but a major downfall of the game for me was the extreme lack of items and weapons, well, rather not the lack of, but the fact that you always end up picking the same shit at level 15, that you do at level 1. There is no variety in weapons or loot at all in Dragon Age =/
 

Mad max 20

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Oct 18, 2009
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I was looking for the fights to grind some EXP, so it wasn't a big problem for me, though they still coulda used more monster types.

The two temples/dungeons, you talking about the temple and the guardians you can walk past before that?

Red|Zombie said:
There is no variety in weapons or loot at all in Dragon Age =/
Totally agree, armor enchantments might've added some variety and maybe pieces upgradeable with skills or rewards
 

Socius

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Dec 26, 2008
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Its the same in every game, dragon age owned, even though they could have done better texture work on enemies, places etc etc.
but they don't have unlimmited rescourses do they now?
they do the best they can and even with secondrate graphic it is a good game
 

teh_gunslinger

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. did it better.
Dec 6, 2007
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Kajin said:
geddydisciple said:
You purchased an rpg and expected instant gratification? Go buy MW2.
Listen to this guy, he's a smart cookie.

Seriously? Are you joking or what? RPG's have always been about the grind.
I don't know. I replayed Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast while I waited for Dragon Age to arrive in the mail. The game is pretty long and does not dole out instant gratification but there is very little grind.

I think the reliance on grind is a MMORPG inspired thing and if there is one thing I dislike about DAO it's the MMORPG feel. Thank goodness that you can disable quest markers.

The closest to that kind of grind in BG was Durlag's Tower but there at least was a lot of different enemies.

Temple mentioned by OP was just about making me insane. Every time I thought it was finally over it just threw a new load of boring crap in my face. There is a difference between a dungeon crawl and an annoying grind fest. And I feel that DAO has a bit too much of the latter. Baldur's Gate it surely is not.
 

Lt. Vinciti

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Red|Zombie said:
I agree with the OP, but a major downfall of the game for me was the extreme lack of items and weapons, well, rather not the lack of, but the fact that you always end up picking the same shit at level 15, that you do at level 1. There is no variety in weapons or loot at all in Dragon Age =/
The fact that in the Human Story you get the Family Sword and its retardly OP'd?

or

The fact some choices give you crap for loot? (Killing the Golem and not Branka)
 

Mezrev

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I admit getting a bit tired at certain points, but since I like the combat (though it could use a bit wider selection of abilities) I didn't really mind. Though then again I've always preferred turn-based things to fast action (with all the pausing, Dragon Age almost could be turn based).

I also admit getting pretty annoyed when my elf rogue archer looked the same through the whole goddamn game. Or well, I managed to change my brown leather items for exactly identical looking grey leather items around level 20.

Still, it's a good enough game that I've started another playthrough almost immediately after the first.
 

WaderiAAA

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Aug 11, 2009
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I too hate the combat system in Dragon Age because it gets VERY repetitive. It is just fighting one horde, then the next, and it all comes down to four kinds of enemies. Those who use ranged weapons, those who know magic, those that are rogue-like and the normal ones.

I actually enjoyed Mario and Luigi BIS' gameplay more, because the enemies felt different from each other, meaning that even though it is turn-based combat, it was much less repetitve and much more fun.
 

Gontear

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Mar 29, 2009
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Red|Zombie said:
I agree with the OP, but a major downfall of the game for me was the extreme lack of items and weapons, well, rather not the lack of, but the fact that you always end up picking the same shit at level 15, that you do at level 1. There is no variety in weapons or loot at all in Dragon Age =/
"OMG A BIG CHEST I BET IT HAS SOME GOOD GEAR YOU GET 1 ELFROOT."

Seriously though, in Bioware's defense the story revolves around a huge army of those enemies and you fighting that army - so it's understandable that... you know... you fight an army of them. For my DA has bigger problems than that. Like the approval system that doesn't seem to matter?


I mean I've been giving gifts to this rogue to beef up his approval of me then he betrays me in a RANDOM ENCOUNTER? whereas the guy I've been acting like a total ass to sticks with me till the end?
 

Amnestic

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Aug 22, 2008
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Gontear said:
Red|Zombie said:
I agree with the OP, but a major downfall of the game for me was the extreme lack of items and weapons, well, rather not the lack of, but the fact that you always end up picking the same shit at level 15, that you do at level 1. There is no variety in weapons or loot at all in Dragon Age =/
"OMG A BIG CHEST I BET IT HAS SOME GOOD GEAR YOU GET 1 ELFROOT."

Seriously though, in Bioware's defense the story revolves around a huge army of those enemies and you fighting that army - so it's understandable that... you know... you fight an army of them. For my DA has bigger problems than that. Like the approval system that doesn't seem to matter?


I mean I've been giving gifts to this rogue to beef up his approval of me then he betrays me in a RANDOM ENCOUNTER? whereas the guy I've been acting like a total ass to sticks with me till the end?
You didn't give him enough gifts/get his approval high enough. You need at least +33 (as I recall) for him not to betray you.
 

TPiddy

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Aug 28, 2009
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Grinding is mostly done for two reasons:

1. To extend the length of the game and make the reward for leveling that much better. If you got a level up every 5 minutes the game would suck.

2. Pitting you against the same enemies will also give you a feeling of getting stronger. If you faced a group of enemies before and then came back with better equipment and levels and totally whooped their ass it's an indicator of progression and growth in the characters that you're playing. Borderlands does this really well even though the entire game only has 7-8 enemy types.