Poll: Dragon Age Inquisition - Calpernia or Samson?

[TheTwelve]

I've only personally done the Mage storyline to date, but the general consensus I've seen has very strongly indicated that it is far superior to the Templar story.

It is, and it's because siding with the Templars changes nothing! I sided with the mages on my first run, so naturally, I sided with the Templars on my second one. I thought things would be different. I thought I'd get different enemies, different quests, something. But no. You still get the quests involving Red Templars, despite the fact that these guys are on your side now. You still fight Red Templars nearly everywhere, you still get that mission in the quarry how they're taking people, and you still find freaking reports written by them. Where are all these Templars coming from if they're supposed to be on my side?

Ugh. Sad news. Those guys are a pain in the neck at the hardest difficulty setting. I sided with the Templars and yep, I had to deal with these guys too often. I was hoping that by somehow siding with the mages I wouldn't have to deal with this.

Oh well. Second playthrough coming up at some point.

 

[Joseph Harrison]

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I definitely liked the Templars quest, the trippy dream sequence and meeting Cole were all pretty awesome and the Envy Demon was a really cool enemy. On the other hand, I still do think the Mages have a better questline with the Templars as their enemies, there's alot more investment since you already knew Samson and Cullen has a personal connection to him too. Maybe this was my imagination, but I also felt like the Samson quest line was much more substantial and longer. Like, I only remember maybe 2 quests for Calpernia and Leliana didn't really seem to care that much. For Cullen, Samson represented everything wrong with the Templar Order and was a big motivator for his personal quest. Additionally, if Alistair was your King then you don't even get to meet him in the Templar questline.

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Obviously, everyone's gameplay experience is different but I played the game first with the Venatori as my enemy and I thought that the difference was huge. The Venatori are hardly in the game at all if you side with the Mages, even in the Hissing Wastes which has the Operation "Venatori Activity" you still have virtually no Venatori. The Red Templars are also noticeably less present if you side with the Templars, I even remember reading all these War Table missions and hearing banter about Red Templars but I hadn't even seen them yet. I understand how it would be fruustrating if you thought your choice didn't matter but you have to remember that Lucius was corrupting the Templar order for a while and the entire order split off from the Chantry, so there were many fragmented groups that Corypheus could draw recurits from so it's understandable that he still had quite a few under his control.

 

[ArcaneGamer]

I always felt bad for the mages. Yes blood magic is bad and the Circles are very useful, but the Templars are just dicks. I've never seen Templars act reasonable, for any reasons.

"HOLD IT!" Now while I agree with you, Thrask and later on, Cullen were good Templars. At he was after I agreed to not tell anyone about what happened to his daughter.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Isn't Calpernia supposed to be redeemable though? I felt as though the side-business with Leliana spying on her and informing the Inquisitor of her sympathy for slaves was building up to a "Don't serve Corypheus, he's a slaving bastard!" moment at the ancient Elven temple but I lost my temper at the end and opted to slaughter her and her compatriots. I do recall a lot of information telling us that she was just a hardcore Tevinter nationalist and didn't necessarily believe in storming heaven....

Yes, although I don't know if I would choose 'redeem'. You can talk her down and make her leave, make her see that she is being used. But without a foil, without some other way to get to know her (like Cullen constantly talking about how Samson used to be a good man), the moment just falls flat. It felt more like my character was removing her not out of a sense of pity, but more like, "Ugh. Look, just get out of my way, okay? I have work to do." I didn't feel like I was saving her so much as I felt like I was saving time, and that's not how that moment should have felt.

snip

Obviously, everyone's gameplay experience is different but I played the game first with the Venatori as my enemy and I thought that the difference was huge. The Venatori are hardly in the game at all if you side with the Mages, even in the Hissing Wastes which has the Operation "Venatori Activity" you still have virtually no Venatori. The Red Templars are also noticeably less present if you side with the Templars, I even remember reading all these War Table missions and hearing banter about Red Templars but I hadn't even seen them yet. I understand how it would be fruustrating if you thought your choice didn't matter but you have to remember that Lucius was corrupting the Templar order for a while and the entire order split off from the Chantry, so there were many fragmented groups that Corypheus could draw recurits from so it's understandable that he still had quite a few under his control.

I do admit that some of the Templars no doubt fall to Coryphy-spit (love that name), but the amount that I fought on my Templar siding run just felt like too many. And I still ran into plenty of Vents when I sided with the mages, but I could accept that because they were from Tevintar. When I sided with the Templars, I was expecting to come across enslaved mages, or lots more abominations, or have to go up against entire units of mages like I did against Templars. Instead, I still only fought one, maybe two, Vents and their guards. It seemed to me that the effect of siding with the Templars does not measure up to what it should have been, whereas siding with the mages seemed to an impact on the world.

 

[soren7550]

I like siding with the mages, as I'm completely biased because this nets you a whole lot more Cullen, and because this is the only one I've seen so far.