Dragon Age 4 - Before and after GaaS

It was always about the BG-style party based tactical set piece combat. Dragon Age Origins I consider the last BioWare game that I feel is almost pure from EA taint. Even though it obviously had EA taint out of the gate. DLC NPCs in my camp!

It was also pretty hard if everyone forgets unless you ran two mages. There were some very good choices/consequence too. The town under siege, the child possessed by a demon, the elves vs the wild, the she-dwarf antagonist you almost wanted to side with…and I totally forget the rest because I haven’t played the game in such a long time. I do remember NWN2 did beat it to it’s landsraad moment if that is any possible cultural touchstone that still resonates in 2023. Doubtful.

Dragon Age 2 was dogshit combat with fodder enemies in copypasta environs over and over ad nauseum, MMO bosses that sucked, arughgh. And Anders. Fucking worst character ever produced. Fucking Anders! Nothing in the game mattered. I want to burn it out of my memory.

That’s never been the draw for me with RPGs. I accept that they’re pretty much all going to have combat, but I’m more into them for the world building, the characters, the plot, the whole package basically. I’ll play an FPS just for the combat, but I can’t think of any RPG where the combat has been the main attraction.

Loved DA2. Enjoyed the characters and story. The combat of DA1 was a bit of a slog for me. Shrug.

I think I’ll give DA2 another shot. I can’t remember how far I got last time. I never got past the Archdemon in DA:Huge Hands, starting that from scratch isn’t an appealing prospect. I’ve also got a DLC/side mission save going for DA:I but the damage sponges in the Deep Roads are pissing me off.

wnod

I love a good crunchy TBS combat system. Mostly older games or Indie stuff these days.

Tons of RPG’s I play just for their good turn based combat. Tons of RPGS turn me off with their bad real time combat. Too each their own :)

Well yes, of course, not trying to invalidate anyone’s options. I’m just pointing out that the things I look for in a good RPG, and I do in fact find them in the Dragon Age sequels. I’m hopeful that Dread Wolf will continue giving me the good stuff.

DA2 contains my favourite questline; where Aveline wants your help to set her up on a date with some dumb boy and you sorta stalk them around the coast or something. The gameplay sucks (as it does for all of DA2) but it was about a bajillion miles away in tone from the blight/world-saving derring-do of the rest of the series.

My (f) Hawke hit on her the entire time, but she was completely oblivious and/or dismissive of Hawke’s advances.

11/10, I have been seen by a Bioware writer.

IIRC DA2 was under the height of “console-ization?” period and rushed out by EA in 18 months. The original was a legacy PC title in development for six years that started during NWN (2002) when BioWare was still an independant studio.

What matters though is I have a hard time thinking of a sequel to a game that totally betrayed the original so much. That is really it.

Other than the parachutist enemies and the reuse of environments I enjoyed DA2. I like DA:I but on PC it is difficult to get full party control.

Put me down in the “enjoyed DA2” camp (up until the stupid finale).

The respawning enemies bothered me as much as invisible random encounters do in JRPGs: not at all. I liked the whole game taking place in one city

DAI I’ve never been able to finish, though I pick it up once in a while. They went too far in the other direction from DA2’s more streamlined design. There’s an enjoyable game in there, but you have to ignore all the fetch and minor quests.

DAO was almost perfect. The small, linear areas in the game (very reminiscent of the KOTOR games), took it down a notch or two for me.

If DA4 has God of War style combat it may be the first Bioware game I can’t even finish.

Not don’t. Can’t. Putting action-oriented combat in would be the final betrayal of the strong combat design that the series started with and has never wanted to recreate, but I could live with it if it’s standard action-RPG mashing-friendly nonsense. Make me have to be good at it and the game goes on the shelf.

Its probably best to think of DA:O as a one-off game and all of these others as experimental action spin offs.

I would very much like a remastered version of that in lieu of Dragon God Age Of War.

I think DA:2 is the best DA. I really enjoyed it, even if the combat was sub-par. I love that it took place over 10 years.

That’s cute precious.

I love games that take place in one town, and over a long period of time. Pentiment does both! DA2 is still dogshit.

The premise of DA2 is great, and I like some of the characters and the interactions that premise lends itself to, like being an awkward wingman to Aveline. But the rushed development really squanders most of its potential. Not only in the sloppy and recycled combat encounters, but Kirkwall never really becomes a believable, lived in space that you see those ten years play out in.

Yeah, exactly. DA2 has a lot of great ideas. The tight focus, the longer timescale, a lot of the companions, the stuff with the Qunari, heck even red lyrium could be good. The problem is the execution, especially mechanical but not limited to that. I’ll complain about act 3’s writing forever.

If you want a great story set in a single place (for the most part) that has solid combat and incredible characters and interaction, play Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward. You’ll have to get through A Realm Reborn first, but it’ll be worth it. Ishgard is brilliantly realized.

Dragon Age is a franchise that as noted above is kind of one great original game and a whole lot of spinoffs.