Dragon Age: Inquisition

That … is a real issue. If you are playing on an SSD, supposedly that helps considerably. But they are ridiculously long.

People keep saying this and I still don’t know why. All that awaits are more bland maps and mmo fetch quests. The only thing worth rushing is the Skyhold and advanced class specialization which requires level 10 if I’m not mistaken. So you might as well stay in Hinterlands until lvl 10, that’s also the point when you run out of level appropriate content in that zone (the leftover content has higher recommended level).

Because the Hinterlands are far blander and far more stuffed with meaningless fetch quests. Also, it made me think that the enemies were going to constantly respawn wherever I went and that’s massively tedious. My experience of the game picked up dramatically as I got into zones like Crestwood and the Emerald Graves and Exalted Plains where I felt like most of the stuff I was doing was actually affecting something besides my XP bar and had real narrative payoff, not to mention cool things to see. And it turned out that while certain things (animals and such) do respawn, the degree of patrolling enemies seemed to be mostly tied to the Hinterlands’ templar/mage conflict questline and the other zones don’t do that to nearly such an obnoxious degree if at all. (Well, there’s a few points with literally endless undead in Exalted Plains, but there’s a very specific off switch and they don’t go patrolling.)

And re: DA2 - yeah, you don’t -have- to have played it to know what’s going on, but there’s a ton of callbacks. The game will fill you in on the needed info but it’s rewarding to have played DA2 first. Not enough to persist if you’re not enjoying it, but I don’t regret having played it myself, much as I will bitch about its many flaws.

Because the story arc and character stuff gets moving after Hinterlands.

I have to say that DAI was one of my favorite rpgs of the last couple of years. The vistas in most areas are amazing. I forgot the name of the area, but the winter one with the frozen lake was a treat. There were areas in the distance that I thought would be cool to explore, but also though there is no way I could get there - they were just background art. I was wrong, and they were worth the trek.

Each area was unique and a blast to visit. I would put the art up there with the Witcher 3. Both games were just lovely to walk around in. I even went and bought the DAI art book, which is a thick hardcover look at everything from costume design to monsters to scenery. Worth checking out if you enjoy the game.

I am enjoying it too, now that all the DLC are out. I think.

I’m in “maybe I’ll try a new spec and class” land so I am not progressing fast. Restarting new characters. I think the mage has turned out the most interesting, but I am playing a quanari warrior with a shield atm and that’s more fun than I thought it would be. Killing dragons never gets old!

Game does seem a little long – and I thought I’d never say that about a game I liked. But since it is not quite a sandbox, I am worried I am going to get bored by the end. Plus I just can’t quite get too involved with the story yet.

Still graphically and exploring are sure there and running with 4 characters who you can control and equip etc – that’s still a strong pull. I’d like to get into the Witcher but he (or the game) doesn’t seem to allow for flexible roleplaying thinking (as in my own character idea)–it just seems like I am playing the devs story. But I aim to try when I am finished with DAI.

Yeah, I’m starting to think this game might be a bit too long as well. I’m about 40 hours in and there are definitely a number of locations left on my map that I have yet to explore. I’m not sick of it yet, but I am kinda hoping that what I see is basically it…

It is a big game, perhaps too much so. Much like Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, I think it’s better savored in bursts (the game even has some parts where it “slows down”, a perfect time for an intermission).

The big moments in DA:I are terrific as well as the main through line story. I really liked the supporting cast of characters and their stories as well. Truthfully I don’t think “open world” stuff is BioWare’s strength though, and well I appreciate that they fleshed out the world, I think it could have been a bit more concise. In the end I kinda just started skipping a lot of stuff and pushing the story forward. I think their hearts were in the right place for sure and I am certainly glad I played the game, but I think maybe some of that stuff should have ended up on the cutting room floor.

On balance though I think DA:I is my favorite of the series so far, and a great comeback from DA2.

I started a second play through since I bought the DLC. I started on nightmare, with the trial of earning 50% less experience, but I’m not sure I have the patience. I’m not losing everyone very frequently, but the battles seem to take a long time. It’s been a long time since I played Origins, but I remember the battle system being more thoughtful.

My first playthrough of Inquisition was on hard and it wasn’t that difficult as a whole, but some battles were very tough. I think because I was experiencing the story and characters for the first time, along with exploration of the beautiful world I was able to overlook the battle system not being that great. I had the same experience with pillars of Eternity. When I went back to start a new game to play The White March DLC, the combat really annoyed me where I was more tolerant of it during the first play through.

Since I want to get to the Inquisition DLC I wonder if I should just load up my original game and get to the new content, or continue my new game and just drop the difficulty back down to hard, or even normal. I don’t want to short change the experience, but I don’t know if I can play the entire game again even though i really liked it the first time through.

Maybe this has already been discussed to death. I don’t know. But for me, that scene where everyone just starts singing, was the most corny moment in any game I have ever seen. They should have just had the singing in the background, like a soundtrack. People actually singing, that was just too much. And okay it was bad enough when that healer lady was singing. But when the paladin joined in, I was like, no, this can not be happening. This is ridiculous. Months later I still think about it in a haunted sort of way, and I just can’t get over it. I mean what was that? I assume this has already been discussed, and everyone agrees, and we just sort of moved on, and I am late to the party. But I had to get that off my chest.

Nah, I loved that moment. Never seen anything like that in a computer game before. It was awesome!

I’m with you. I loved it even though it was corny.

Yeah that was some top tier cringe.

I like affecting moments in RPGs. But the singing thing didn’t affect me at all. It was just something to endure, like that ghastly laughing thing in FF-X. Okay, okay, it wasn’t that bad…

I’ve got to watch this now.

There are some seriously poor balance decisions in trespasser.

I also hate what they did with knight enchanter. They completely removed the unique play style it had and now it is just like any other mage.

How so?

I liked the singing scene as well. I think DA:I had a lot of issues, but the singing wasn’t one of them for me.

I liked the singing scene. Yes, it was corny, but it was cool in a Hollywood kind of way. And Cullen’s singing voice was a cool surprise, too.

For the record, I liked the laugh scene in Final Fantasy X as well, and I think it’s (mostly) unfairly criticized. Yes, it is cringy and somewhat clumsy, but that is kind of the point there.

Ok, back to my “random Internet dude” hole. ;)