First of all, I'm not stating that it was wrong in ME or DA, not at all. And it doesn't occur in the same way in these two franchises. That said, I'd like to point out what I miss in current games, that I consider a success in KotOR.
*Realistic relationships with other characters: the first dialogues with Carth had taken me by surprise. Too used to the DA model of saying what the other character might want to hear in order to gain approval, I wasn't expecting to have arguments without the proper tools to solve them. Not agreeing didn't mean losing points with anybody, it is the way human relationships work. It stroke me as much more realistic than saying "yes, murdering is fine, Zevran" (in a subtler way), along with many other biased comments that would strengthen the character's opinion on you. What I thought is: why does agreeing have to be rewarded when it would be even more constructive (and more interesting) to influence (or fail to influence) each other? (I guess that Garrus' dialogues as a paragon Shepard illustrate my point).
*Tension: I was delighted with the (again) realistic approach to these interactions. I haven't seen many actual arguments between my character and a companion, or between characters (save Miranda/Jack; Tali/Legion), or when I have seen these disagreements, they could be easily solved (and should be, for the sake of 'approval') by apologizing or selecting a moderate response. You really had me enamoured there, BW, when Carth gave Mission a lecture, and then I lectured her too, without fearing the disapproval consequence. My relationship with Bastila was also managed in a humorous way, although she got frequently pissed.
*Amount of banter: It was amazing how much you could chat not only with Carth and Bastila (leading characters) but with pretty much every character in your crew. You just needed to take them with you for them to open up. The more you took them with you, the more confident they felt to give away their stories. That made an excellent pacing for unravelling information about them, and I preferred it to giving them a bunch of gifts, telling them what they wanted to hear and be, all of a sudden, their wing-man. I have experienced this in DA with a couple of characters, and I didn't like it at all, specially since they wouldn't have much to tell me afterwards. One of the things that put me off in ME1 and ME2 was the too few conversations you could have with your companions.
*Companions influencing the story: In KotOR you have several characters that seem to be minor, such as the Wookie, the mercenary..., and a couple of major characters that shape the story or, let's say, lead the plot (Bastila and Carth mainly). In DA that would be Alistair. Well, I was very pleased to see that Bastila left at some point, something I don't recall having seen in either ME or DA. This adds to their uniqueness, the way they are differenced from the other npcs. It made me feel that she was more than some walking piece of plot unrelated to the major events (a feeling I get sometimes when reflecting on ME's characters - they all issue their lines in the same situation (personal mission aside), and sometimes seem to me like a pile of (not so many) dialogues and isolated phrases.
Perhaps the many options that BW handed us have been to the detriment of some of these factors. With the never ending discussion of who would stay and who will be leave the team/make a cameo in ME3, it's easy to realize that none of the companions really matter in the story, plot-wise, and that to some extent that may lead to see them as unintegrated in the story, expendable. Many options mean less work put to each of them. I would rather have a more lineal story than 8 origins that didn't influence the main story at all, or 12 companions, when I can only bring 2 with me at a time. There has to be a compromise, and this compromise worked out amazingly in KotOR. You had choices, which in the end summarized as either turning to the dark side or not, so you actually can replay the game almost new. To me, the little beginning plots in DA were not actual choices, as they didn't carry over that much (I was naïve to think that if I played a non-mage, Jowan couldn't have escaped and, therefore, the Earl wouldn't have been poisoned, but perhaps put off some other way).
On the matter of approval points... I know you would say: "Say what fits your character, regardless of the outcome in points". Alright, but this way you lose possibilities of interacting with your companions, as they are based in how much points you have with them. Perhaps if you disagree now, you won't have enough points to have another conversation until you come up with a gift or, actually, never. I like the KotOR system better, in this case, as it strikes me as less (potentially) artificial.
Modifié par Milady495a, 01 janvier 2011 - 10:11 .
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. And let's see how they manage gifts and party conversations in DA2.
