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Dragon Age: Inquisition


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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Having finally finished the game yesterday I gotta say, it's pretty damn good. Bioware definately atoned for all the sins commited in DA2, but holy shit is did that ending sucked or what?

 

 

 

First off - why didn't the final mission include the siege of Skyhold? I thought everything was building up to this event. Final standoff mirroring the massive failure in Heaven. A climactic battle between armies of Coryphenis and combined forces of the Inquisition, key characters performing awesome feats of heroism, Morrigan and Archdemon fighting above the chaos, and massive amounts of ass-kickery, ideally followed by personal standoff between The Old One and Herald in the Black City. Instead there's this absurd stand off among the ruins of sacred ashes and piss-easy fight with the main villain. I almost felt sorry for the guy, because at this point his army of Red Templars was nothing but a Red Spot in the litter of Arbor Wilds, and I was so powerful I didn't even break a sweat to kick his geriatric ass. What a cop out.

 
Epilogue cards were also very brief and didn't expand on choices made throughout the game. Origins had its flaws, but at least the story was very well put together and the ending provided a proper payoff for all your efforts, not to mention very detailed epilogue cards, which explained far reaching consequences of your actions, as well as gave information about all major characters. This is a problem that punctuates the whole game, actually - your choices have no consequences whatsoever and the story, while decent, is placed in a world that doesn't feel alive. It doesn't change at all, no matter how far you are in the game. There are some moments that shine through, like the whole quest in Crestwood (especially the moment when you finally emerge from underground), but otherwise the world remains very static throughout.

 

One thing I found intriguing is the post-credits revelation about Solas, even though I have no idea what the fuck happened. I guess it's nice that Flemeth showed up and there was some closure between her and Morrigan, but first off - what was that whole foreboding she gave to Hawke in Dragon Age 2 about? Secondly - who the fuck is Solas and what was his relationship to Flemeth? Could anyone please explain this to me, because I swear, I could read the whole Dragon Age lore back to back and still don't know what's going on.

 

I love the open-ended design, even though I could survive without so many pointless fetch-quests. The game looks undenaiably beautiful and separate areas just beg to be explored, but somewhere near the end I was fed up with assholes thinking I have nothing better to do than to deliver their fucking mail. I'm the Inquisitor for christ sakes, why do I have to do all the busywork? Lately I had a chance to try out Witcher 3 and boy, does this game knows how to do side quests. Compared to sidequests in W3, Inquisition looks painfully dull, at least in the long shot.

 

Okay, I guess all I'm doing is complaining, but aside from things I mentioned I guess it's a good game. Combat system is cool and requires some actual skill instead of depending on numbers and like I mentioned, open ended areas and sheer size of the game are always a plus. Characters and dialogue are also very good and story provides some truly epic moments - those shivers I felt throughout Haven battle and arrival at Skyhold, so good...

 

 

 

Also, was this actually named GOTY? 2014 must have been a really shitty year for gaming.

Edited by IDDQD
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  • 4 months later...

To anyone who has played the game:

 

There's so much boring stuff to do. And they all seem very, very unimportant, and doesn't add much to the game at all, I found, after spending a few hours in the first area.

 

So, my question is, how do I know if something they ask you to do isn't a filler quest? Will I know instantly it isn't? Are the interesting quests only given by "interesting" people, like those who seem to be important to the story?

 

I'm getting turned off with the amount of silly things to do. And shards, should I collect them? What about those constellation thingies? Should I aim to claim all camps and areas in a map? Do they actually add anything in the sense that I won't be able to do things in the main quest if I don't do those silly things?

 

If I just stick to the main quest, will I lose much? I don't particularly care about lore things, but things that add to the story directly (not indirectly, like most lore is) I'd love to do. If it's stuff that leads to more interaction between my characters those are something I like to do.

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Main quests are clearly marked (and for most part you activate in the War Table with big ass massive blades stabbed in the table so you'll know, compared to the little pins on the war table). You'll want to do quests given to you by companions for loyalty stuff (you'll need to chat with then at home base every now n then which usually starts a quest or something). Some of these are carried out on the war table too. Mainly cos later in the game stuff happens as with most Bioware games of late where loyalty will happen or they'll die/leave.

 

Shards are worthless early on but at somepoint you'll unlock the Forbidden Oasis (or whatever it's called) and there's a temple there with doors the shards open up, which inside after a short fight you'll get bonus fire/cold/spirit resistance so worth chasing if you want those boosts. The astriariaums are mainly loot, same with the mosaics and bottles. Pretty much collectibles there.

 

Mainly quests grant you gear and levelling up. Some score you "Agents" which join Cullen/Josephine/Leliana which speeds up their quests on the war table.

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Hmm.. I haven't seen those "Agents" quests yet, I'll keep an eye out for those. I'm still trying to figure out how those kinds of missions help me, but I'm sending them anyway. I'm mostly just capturing the camps or closing rifts that are near the main quest markers, and gaining power from those. So far it's enough and I have excess power, so I guess I'll just keep on doing that.

 

Good to know about the other collectible stuff. I guess I'll make some effort to grab some shards just so there'd be less shards to collect once I get to that temple.

 

Thanks! Once I stopped caring about the little sidequests it's been really enjoyable exploring around. I never had problems with side quests before, I actually love completing them in other games but I guess that first area just gave you too much too soon.

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It's not explicitly labelled as "agent quest" more a case of you'll end a quest with "Joe Bloggs is now available as an agent" or along those lines. Oh yeah I guess sidequests get power which unlocks the main quest stuff. I have kinda forgotten that as I'd built up so much (I've been doing pretty much all the quests..I think it allows you to unlock new areas iirc too). Getting camps is pretty useful largely for a quick travel point. Especially in the Wastes and the Emerald Graves cos they're both pretty damn huge.

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To my knowledge, you don't have to do anything except what is required of you to move on with the main story. Nothing you do in sidequests affects the main plot of the game. I guess you can do some companion quests, since every major character is actually pretty interesting, but again - no impact on the plot or finale whatsoever. When I did second playthrough I never touched anything except the main story missions and everything played out exactly the same as before. Some companions got different looking cards on the party selection screen, but what did that mean - fuck if I know. I guess they got a little sad.

 

 

I liked the exploration and discovering new, interesting things about different areas, but once I realised that everything I do makes pretty much zero impact on anything - not just the main story, but also the rest of the world - well, it was very disappointing.

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I feel like I'm underleveled so right now I'm trying to do some of the sidequests on my journal. Hoping to get to level 10 (before I get bored) and continue with the main quest. I just finished recruiting the mages and the next quest has a suggested level of 8, and I'm level 8 so I kinda want to grind a bit to make things easier.

 

I like talking to my companions, so I'm definitely going to do their stuff, if I can find them! I know of Varic's red lyrium thing and that Hard in Hightown mission on my table but for the others, I'm not sure what to do. I guess i'll have to check my journal, it's in there somewhere.

 

 

By the way, are the single player dlcs missions that occur after the main quest? And which would you recommend? In my limited reading, Trespasser seems to be the dlc to get. I'm afraid of looking for more info as i feel like i'm gonna get spoiled if i dig in more.

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There are two types of companion quests. Main, which will appear as you progress through story missions - basicaly something like in Mass Effect 2, where you recruit someone and after a while he/she will let you know something needs done when you chat them up at Skyhold. And second is basically fetching shit for them, but that doesn't have any impact beyond the useless influence points and some companions don't have this type of quest at all. Regardless, it's a good idea to have a companion around when you're collecting something they requested - you'll gain more approval. You can also count the romance quests, but that depends on who you'll want to bang. Varric's war table-thing is unique for him, as far as I know. I guess Dorian and Cole also have something similar but with less stages.

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So far I've played The Descent. Not too bad, it was nice to explore a more open ended version of Deep Roads and it's ancient mysteries. But the most entertaining part is the new Dwarf character voiced by David Hayter, which is hilarious because suddenly you feel like you're playing Dragon Age Solid, featuring Dwarven Snake.

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Standard enemies didn't make much problem, sometimes they were numerous but overall nothing I couldn't handle. Boss monsters were a bitch, though. I've defeated the last one just because it glitched out. My whole team died and I was left with a mage so I slowly drained his health from a distance with spells while he was standing there doing nothing. Pretty terrible.

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Are you kidding me with those shards?!? I just opened the door for 6 shards, and saw 3 doors needing 6 shards each. Ok, ran back and collected 8 (because I lost track of my shards) and opened one of the doors. There's another door that needs 12!

 

I think I'll be skipping this one. I got 4 Fire resistance out of it so far. I may collect enough shards just to open the first cold and spirit doors.

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I'm gonna spoiler the whole bit but it contains DA 1, 2 and 3 spoilers, about the three main characters and the Fade. Also I kinda rambled from the middle to the end there as I lost the point I was trying to make.

 

 

 

So earlier I finished the Fade level in Dragon Age Inquisition and when I was prompted to sacrifice Hawke or Stroud, I immediately thought "Hmm.. Maybe Stroud is kind of a placeholder for The Warden/Hero of Ferelden", and gone on to think how cool (if killing yourself is cool!) it would be for the Inquisitor to sacrifice either of your old characters.

 

Anyway, I looked it up and apparently Stroud was in DA2. Couldn't remember any of the story at all, just bits and pieces, since it's been so long since I played them. And I guess they can't work out the story with the possibility of the Warden being dead and all at the end of DA1.

 

I forgot now what point I was supposed to make. I guess I just want to throw out random thoughts.

 

I also messed up with my initial World State, as when I was playing with the Keep, I kind of didn't know if I saved things or not so had to restart, but I was eager to play I just selected a couple things, like romance interests and the ending for both games. I definitely would update this in detail once I do a 2nd playthrough.

 

So now, the only time The Warden gets mentioned is when Leliana mentions him, fondly, reminding me I can't romance her in this game, and also reminding me how little The Warden plays in this story. I feel like I got shafted, both as the Inquisitor or as The Warden.

 

Also, Hawke was all serious business in this game. I don't know if that's because I used default Hawke or not, but I would have loved a witty Hawke talking to my witty Inquisitor. That would have been good to see.

 

Final point: I guess this all just proves that DA2 > DA1.

 

 

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I think Stroud is a placement for Alistair/Loghain if neither ended up in the Grey Wardens. I had Stroud since iirc Loghain got killed and Alistair became king.

 

You do get a mission later on to seek out the Warden though ;)

 

Also I don't think Lelliana is datable either way (mine went with Leliana, but banged Morigan in the end which IIRC can majorly change the end of the game.

 

Anywho I had Hawke stay behind. I'm sure he'd be used to walking around a small repetitive place for the rest of his days.

 

 

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LOL, that's true (about Hawke).

 


Hmm. How does that work with Loghain? I thought he was the big bad and would have died at the end. I never finished DA1 but that's the impression I got from the Keep storytelling. Could Alistair be that Warden if he was alive?

 

Also, is it possible to have The Warden romance Leliana, but pick Morrigan's ending to save himself and Alistair, and then have the Warden become King with Queen Anora? I was waiting for my Warden to show up on Redcliffe when Queen Anora came, but I guess that's not the ending I had picked at the Keep (i really messed it up, I think the end result I got was Alistair dying at the end since he is never mentioned in my story)? This was the state I wanted to get, to have Leliana have the warden romance, but the Warden is King.


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