168 réponses à ce sujet

[DTKT]

If there was a rep system, you would have some!

I have the same opinion regarding Kirkwall. It feels lifeless. With the same NPC model standing in the same corner. How many times have I seen the exact same model copied. How many times have I seen pairs of the same model with synced animations...

[Malanek]

I thought the writing was excellent. It made the story feel real. Politics, greed, lust, sorrow, discrimination. The storylines touched real human emotions and motivations and leveraged the lore that had been built up when they designed the setting. It was also significantly more original than origins and collectively the characters were exceptional. Origins tended more to the cliche and it tended to be more a story that younger readers would enjoy.

[Axis Swordarm]

kozzy420420 wrote...

I agree with your points about some of the design, but definatly dont agree with your opinion on teh writing. I though the writing of the dialogue and story was very well done.

The problem is the dialogue was presented as being an evolution in the genre and mature.  When in truth it's absolutely fine as soft story and Teen Rated angst, but just not engaging on a level higher than that which is what the Dragon Age franchise promised.

In most cases it's all played for very cheap and childish laughs.  There is no player agency in your conversations you're either a saint, throwing out a burn so weak it has less impact than an 8 year olds uppercut or being plain blunt.  What Mass Effect managed with the wheel was to create a character that had some complexity to him and gave the impression he was a badass no matter the option.

What Dragon Age did was tame it, most likely out of fear and confusion over what they wanted Hawke to be.  When I first heard of Hawke I had the image of a Conanesque character.  A genuine titan striding the world and gaining recognition for his feats be they vile or heroic.  Instead Hawke is very much a two dimensional failure to capitalise on any kind of personality.  Someone described him as being David Brent from the UK office with a sword.  Which has been a hilarious way to play.

Likewise the story, it is lacking.  You can edge out some story if you fill in blanks, but it really does not feel like years pass or that time hs any effec except to trigger an event in what could just be called Chapter II.

I want to take an example here, though I'm always loathe to compare personal improvements to what actually happens:

Actually happens:

You walk into Hightown and get attached by a wave of twenty random bandits as a woman leans against a wall.  You slaughter them indiscriminately with magical might on the steps of the Chantry and wander off to your quest point.  Nothing is ever heard of again.  You spent 2 minutes right clicking or hitting X to make men explode for no reason.

How to use an event to grow character

You walk into hightown and get accosted by five drunks staggering out of the brothel.  They start to pick a fight but you can avoid it if you wish with some choice interaction such as sparking out the ring leader.

The fight kicks off and you unleash holy hell, the woman against the wall flees screaming in terror.  The drunks if you're using magic (a key part of the narrative) stop fighting and beg for their lives.  If you let them live, then they initially give off that they've learned Mages aren't monsters before scattering.  In five years time you come across the same drunks beating a mage to death in the street, the leader having started a small band of fanatics.  Kill them and instead you have a brother seeking vengeance.

This is an example of a story that has impact and change with player agency.  They can let someone live and then be horrified when they see the outcome wasn't positive or encounter a man seeking vengeance with them as a villain.  This does not happen at any point of the game, it's all completely linear progression of the kind David Gaider claims they have been moving toward.

Dragon Age promised maturity, advances in role playing and telling a story.  In actuality Dragon Age II is very much a teen fantasy novel that is padded out in the ways that provide depth only to those who don't want it to advance or improve and are happy simply to have more stories in the world, regardless of whether it's what this world has been promoted to be. 

I'm very happy to see Bioware providing same sex romances, however I'm not impressed by the execution at all.  It's stilted, much like the straight romances and very much a sign of poor writing that only passes muster in cases where the desire to see it outweighs the desire to see it done right.

EDIT:  Let's just say frm a design and atmosphere POV that every civilian should flee in terror when a fight kicks off and the fact they don't speaks volumes about the lack of detail on display.

Modifié par Axis Swordarm, 14 mars 2011 - 04:33 .

[Jaws_Victim]

DTKT wrote...

If there was a rep system, you would have some!

I have the same opinion regarding Kirkwall. It feels lifeless. With the same NPC model standing in the same corner. How many times have I seen the exact same model copied. How many times have I seen pairs of the same model with synced animations...

Or how about how there is absolutely NO feeling of the passage of time? Even Fable II and III made you feel like your actions had consequences. Some town might turn into a seedy brothel ridden area, or you might renovate it and make it a beautiful town.

Then there's DA2. Go into Fenris' mansion, 6 years later, and that stupid portrait is STILL on the ground and all the trash is still littered everywhere. CLEAN UP YOUR DAMN HOUSE FENRIS. Same with Merrill. Same with Ander's clinic. 

[DTKT]

Jaws_Victim wrote...

DTKT wrote...

If there was a rep system, you would have some!

I have the same opinion regarding Kirkwall. It feels lifeless. With the same NPC model standing in the same corner. How many times have I seen the exact same model copied. How many times have I seen pairs of the same model with synced animations...

Or how about how there is absolutely NO feeling of the passage of time? Even Fable II and III made you feel like your actions had consequences. Some town might turn into a seedy brothel ridden area, or you might renovate it and make it a beautiful town.

Then there's DA2. Go into Fenris' mansion, 6 years later, and that stupid portrait is STILL on the ground and all the trash is still littered everywhere. CLEAN UP YOUR DAMN HOUSE FENRIS. Same with Merrill. Same with Ander's clinic. 

Very good point. 

All those corpses in Fenris mansions are probably quite ripe by now. I bet Hawke would pass out just stepping inside.

I would have been great if Lowtown, Hightown had actually changed. Move merchants around, change the stands, new guard uniforms. Or the Qunari compound could have expanded.

You cannot rely on only characters changing. 70%(random number made up but feels about right) of your time is spend running from NPC to NPC. And since everything is always the same, something always feel wrong.

So many ways to make a world interesting with change. Yet, they did nothing.

Modifié par DTKT, 14 mars 2011 - 04:30 .

[Jaws_Victim]

DTKT wrote...

Jaws_Victim wrote...

DTKT wrote...

If there was a rep system, you would have some!

I have the same opinion regarding Kirkwall. It feels lifeless. With the same NPC model standing in the same corner. How many times have I seen the exact same model copied. How many times have I seen pairs of the same model with synced animations...

Or how about how there is absolutely NO feeling of the passage of time? Even Fable II and III made you feel like your actions had consequences. Some town might turn into a seedy brothel ridden area, or you might renovate it and make it a beautiful town.

Then there's DA2. Go into Fenris' mansion, 6 years later, and that stupid portrait is STILL on the ground and all the trash is still littered everywhere. CLEAN UP YOUR DAMN HOUSE FENRIS. Same with Merrill. Same with Ander's clinic. 

Very good point. 

All those corpses in Fenris mansions are probably quite ripe by now. I bet Hawke would pass out just stepping inside.

I would have been great if Lowtown, Hightown had actually changed. Move merchants around, change the stands, new guard uniforms. Or the Qunari compound could have expanded.

So many ways to make a world interesting with change. Yet, they did nothing.

I can't believe I used FABLE as a SUPERIOR example to a BIOWARE game. Hello, Hell? I'll have a vanilla ice cream please. But try to thaw it out a little first.

[Upset Goldfish]

Jaws_Victim wrote...
I can't believe I used FABLE as a SUPERIOR example to a BIOWARE game. Hello, Hell? I'll have a vanilla ice cream please. But try to thaw it out a little first.

HEY, Don't rip on the Fable series too hard  

They are great games in their own right, but there are so many ideas that are constantly crammed in that they are all a little under-developed.

But you can't say that they aren't humorous as hell though. 

[Jaws_Victim]

Upset Goldfish wrote...

Jaws_Victim wrote...
I can't believe I used FABLE as a SUPERIOR example to a BIOWARE game. Hello, Hell? I'll have a vanilla ice cream please. But try to thaw it out a little first.

HEY, Don't rip on the Fable series too hard  

They are great games in their own right, but there are so many ideas that are constantly crammed in that they are all a little under-developed.

But you can't say that they aren't humorous as hell though. 

They are always super forgetable. But they out-dragon age'd Dragon Age II this time, I am very sad to say.

[Foolsfolly]

Your companions simply say they'll stick around, in most cases there is no reason for you even to be friends except to play the suck up minigame that guarantees a poorly thought out romp in your rumpus room.

That completely sums up the Fenris friendship. I have no idea how Hawke and Fenris became friends. It's just kinda happens because he's supposed to be a companion. I also have no idea why Isabella's around once we help her take care of Hayder. She's always on the move, has no cause but her own, and longs to return to the sea. Why is she here? She has no motivation at all in staying, and actually at least two for leaving.

Why do characters talk about the Templars with fear and worry because they're mages as they stagger through the streets blowing fire from their gigantic permanently on display Wizard Staffs in full view of their apparent ennemies?

I played a mage for my first playthrough because I liked the gameplay as a mage in the demo. I rolled my eyes a lot at how everyone was overlooking the massive AoE spells I constantly rained down on the streets of Kirkwall. And then the story forces you to work with the Templar Commander...and she gives a platitude for working with you but it's not very good. I get that I'm the 'Champion' a title that seems to mean that I made a lot of money that one time; but I've broken the law multiple times and I was an apostate. It's not like it would have been hard for the Templar to clamp down and say all mages, regardless of their status, need to be trained and kept in the Circle.

Wasn't that the exact moral of the Eamon story in the last game?

I must also say that there are multiple unfired Chekhov's Guns lying around in this game. Things that feel like they'll mean something later on and don't. Flemeth being the largest one, but even small things like killing the Magister's murdering son....there's no consequence for that. I could restart the game and write down all the storylines that failed to wrap up.

[Xx B3RT0 xX]

Very well written post. I commend you on keeping this from becoming a room full of monkeys flinging there feces everywhere just because. With that, I have to say that I agree with every single point the OP made. I stated much of the same in my own. No GM response for little old me though.

[CubbieBlue66]

I love the risk that the writing staff took... but ultimately, I was polishing off the last quests in Act 2 earlier and I found myself asking "why the hell is my character doing all this? And why are these guys still helping me out?"

[Axis Swordarm]

CubbieBlue66 wrote...

I love the risk that the writing staff took... but ultimately, I was polishing off the last quests in Act 2 earlier and I found myself asking "why the hell is my character doing all this? And why are these guys still helping me out?"

The why is the worst part, in my opinion.  There should always be motivation and drive beyond fedex quests just to see if anything does actually happen.

This was to me where you can consider things not just to go wrong but create the kind of resentment and backlash you see from people right now.  They played this game for an epic tale of one persons rise to power and there is no tale there, it's a series of sidequests unrelated to the protagonist.

He's not important.

I don't think it was a risk to tell this kind of story, the execution of it and the story itself are not a result of risk but bad planning and failure to respect their own universe alongside shifting the values of that universe while still presenting it as mature, dark and epic in scope.

Modifié par Axis Swordarm, 14 mars 2011 - 05:05 .

[Hathur]

My god, that OP was a very well thought out and intelligent piece of work. A rare gem here unfortunately.

Can't say I agree with all the points (although I do with many of the point), but I definitely appreciate the careful thought put into it.. and also especially for writing it in a very civil manner.

[Foolsfolly]

What Dragon Age did was tame it, most likely out of fear and confusion over what they wanted Hawke to be. When I first heard of Hawke I had the image of a Conanesque character.

Actually, I don't think we can comment on the conversation wheel if we've only done one play through. I'd heard before the game, and since, that your dialogue choices change the tone and words Hawke says....but I assumed it was all PR or over stated.

It's a touch over-stated but it is interesting. I think this added bit of complexity actually causes the sometimes bland dialogue from Hawke. I played a diplomatic mage Hawke first and now I'm a smart-ass Rogue and the Rogue is actually funny. I've laughed many times at the different dialogue I didn't hear the first time around.

Of course, now I'm afraid to be too nice and loose the funny dialogue...unexpected problem of the system, you have to stick to one type of response to keep that personality.

Shepard doesn't have to worry about friendship/rivalry, has the one personality (he's Commander Shepard, he's here to save your life and kill Robo-Space Gods). Hawke has to worry about friendship (not strickly the game rewards either way) and he has three personalities. I think juggling that, making dialogue evolve through the player's actions, made up for some of the dull dialogue.

Maybe even the random bits too.

[Katzen]

I have to strongly agree with the opinions expressed in this thread. In DA:O and Mass Effect 1 and 2 I was blown away at how strong the writing and characters were. I thought "Wow, Bioware gets it! They're doing something so innovative, immersive with their story telling!"

That spark is completely gone from DA:II I can barely believe it was produced by the same company. 

A game taking place in a city over ten years has so much potential for growth of environment, yet we see none! In DA:O even random people you would stop to interact with would play a small role later on in the story. Look at the templar who has a crush on you if you play a female mage? You see him years later and still feel a connection with him. In DA:II you help some random people, do some random things, and then never really hear about them, or the results of your actions again! What's the point of having a game span 10 years if your actions don't contribute any major change to your environment or your relationships during that time?

Another thing is the city of Kirkwall - it's a city not a hallway right? Where are the markets? The wide open spaces with interesting people to talk to? Why are the streets laid out like a platform game instead of a city? Why do random people attack you in waves for no reason and no one notices or comments on it? 

The levels were all so bland and soulless. I was never once hit with a sense of wonder, or amazement or even a "wow, that's pretty cool" moment when looking at the environment. Most of the time it just felt draining and irritating navigating the same brown and grey landscapes through repetitive passageways just felt like they were added to make the environment seem larger than it was. Did you really need to add multiple side streets that just lead to dead ends or serve to increase travel time? And how many staircases should a city realistically have? 

I've but the game down halfway through the second act. It's hasn't drawn me in or made me care about the story in any way. Overall it's just left me with a sense of bored frustration. Maybe just one more quest and it will get interesting- ?

I'm left scratching my head. How can the company who produced three of the best games I have ever played (DA:O, ME1, ME2) have produced this?

Modifié par Katzen, 14 mars 2011 - 05:19 .

[CubbieBlue66]

Axis Swordarm wrote...

CubbieBlue66 wrote...

I love the risk that the writing staff took... but ultimately, I was polishing off the last quests in Act 2 earlier and I found myself asking "why the hell is my character doing all this? And why are these guys still helping me out?"

The why is the worst part, in my opinion.  There should always be motivation and drive beyond fedex quests just to see if anything does actually happen.

This was to me where you can consider things not just to go wrong but create the kind of resentment and backlash you see from people right now.  They played this game for an epic tale of one persons rise to power and there is no tale there, it's a series of sidequests unrelated to the protagonist.

He's not important.

I don't think it was a risk to tell this kind of story, the execution of it and the story itself are not a result of risk but bad planning and failure to respect their own universe alongside shifting the values of that universe while still presenting it as mature, dark and epic in scope.

There's a reason the supervillan is a staple. He's a one-stop shop for motivation and that much needed sense of urgency. Simply by virtue of opting for a morally ambiguous central conflict instead of a big bad evil as the focus of the story, they took a risk. They were simply betting on their ability to make it work despite all the difficulties it would add.

But I agree, the execution was off the mark. I don't know if it was a time thing, or a budget thing, or what... 

All I know is that in no point of this story have I really felt I was a part of something epic... and that's never been a problem I've encountered in any other Bioware games.

[Kingofdragoons]

Ive got to say I was really starting to get depressed as I was looking at the forums here. Alot of it is just bashing without giving a real reason... but this... this is something that is carefully considered as far as I can read. Its something that is incredibly true as well... Ive spent the past two days reading these forums because I dont want to go back to that game. I dont want to go back and feel like I have no real motivation for playing it... heck I played through Dragon Age Origins about three times. This game... well I feel like Im just going to be playing the same exact game as a different gender.

Out of all things though it was just the lack of... how should I put this. The game felt like a movie where they dont give you any time where you see the character really grow, like one action scene after another. No time like in the original where I go back to camp after sacrificing the Arlessa for the blood ritual and Alistair is genuinely pissed about it, and it hurts the relationship of your characters quite a bit. There just isnt really any of that in this game, they still respect you even if they hate your guts for some reason.

Again, its good too see someone really hit this where I felt the problem was... and to see Bioware actually respond to it.

[Thalorin1919]

I think the writing is one of the stronger weakpoints of this game as well.

The combat, graphics, and maybe even the reused maps would be better recieved or pushed aside by the fans if the story was actually epic. Mass Effect - though had great graphics, reused a TON of the same dungeon maps, but you hardly hear anyone call it a crappy game and it has critical acclaim - because of it's story.

DA:O is another example. Not so great graphics or gameplay, but the story and characters were great enough that not many people took it into consideration and called it an awesome game.

With DA2, it's story is not strong or gripping. I enjoyed the characters alot, especially Merril, but I could see where other people were coming from. I'm guessing the writers were used to the typical "Join fabled order and defeat great evil." formula, and when they tried writing something original and a more thematic based story...they couldn't really pull it off.

For DA3, they need to either really sit down and come up with a great story that it is gripping all the way through. The climax for DA2 was great, I thought, but leading up to that point...kind of have to drag yourself through it.

So...sit down and come up with a great story, and add better RPG elements, and incorporate decisions better into the game - or some people like Gaider are going to have to step down from the lead writing decision and have someone else competent enough to take place.

[Axis Swordarm]

SmokePants wrote...

The writing was awesome. It's a dynamic, variable game, rather than a static, linear book. They have so much more to consider. I don't know how they pull off what they do and I find it outrageous for people to question their competence. I have to assume it stems from extreme ignorance of the entire process.

It's more a knowledge of the kind of processes involved that makes me actually question how the issues came about.

The linearity of Dragon Age II and illusion of choice in numerous aspects of the game actually remove much of the complexity.  It still requires a steady hand to keep on track, but to be honest there was nothing overly complex that needed to be followed.  Dynamism as a whole is very much lacking in Dragon Age II.

I do quest in act 1.

I get letter in act 2.

The writing simply was not improved from earlier games and is now to my mind getting stale because it has not evolved or matched with what the world suggests.  Exposition is not awesome writing and acting twee and pushing upto but avoiding "bad words" while also trying to keep concepts such as cuteness and a poor attempt at a Joss Whedon style is written for a specific audience,

Good writing is not something that only a few people get, it's something the vast majority can enjoy, because people as a whole love a good story and good dialogue.  Writing with the style of DA2 however is video gamey beyond video gamey, with in jokes and whackiness that appeals mostly to a certain type of person and does not match the world they presented to the player.  I'm not surprised to see people saying they enjoyed it or that it was brilliant, but that is because they are the people the writers had in mind.

The writers are writing to please these people, who I would also say likely match the writers in personality/interests, and not to create a story, character or world that lives up to potential.  The writers need to sever that need to self satisfy and actually provide characters with very real motivations beyond Ally/NPC/villain that have motivation dictated by plot.

Modifié par Axis Swordarm, 14 mars 2011 - 05:36 .

[Axis Swordarm]

EDIT:  Double Post!

Apologies.

Modifié par Axis Swordarm, 14 mars 2011 - 05:34 .

[Thalorin1919]

Axis Swordarm wrote...

SmokePants wrote...

The writing was awesome. It's a dynamic, variable game, rather than a static, linear book. They have so much more to consider. I don't know how they pull off what they do and I find it outrageous for people to question their competence. I have to assume it stems from extreme ignorance of the entire process.

It's more a knowledge of the process that makes me actually question how the issues came about.

The linearity of Dragon Age II and illusion of choice in numerous aspects of the game actually remove much of the complexity.  It still requires a steady hand to keep on track, but to be honest there was nothing overly complex that needed to be followed.  Dynamism as a whole is very much lacking in Dragon Age II.

I do quest in act 1.

I get letter in act 2.

The writing simply was not improved from earlier games and is now to my mind getting stale because it has not evolved or matched with what the world suggests.  Exposition is not awesome writing and acting twee and pushing upto but avoiding "bad words" while also trying to keep concepts such as cuteness and a poor attempt at a Joss Whedon style is written for a specific audience,

Good writing is not something that only a few people get, it's something the vast majority can enjoy, because people as a whole love a good story and good dialogue.  Writing with the style of DA2 however is video gamey beyond video gamey, with in jokes and whackiness that appeals mostly to a certain type of person and does not match the world they presented to the player.  I'm not surprised to see people saying they enjoyed it or that it was brilliant, but that is because they are the people the writers had in mind.

The writers are writing to please these people, who I would also say likely match the writers in personality/interests, and not to create a story, character or world that lives up to potential.  The writers need to sever that need to self satisfy and actually provide characters with very real motivations beyond Ally/NPC/villain that have motivation dictated by plot.

I agree with you on when you were saying the writers are writing dialogue that doesn't fit the world, but is more focused to please the players. Or at least, thats what I think you were saying?

Maybe I'm spoiled by reading GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and his world IS different. But the writers have said that DAO was influenced heavily by this series. And the writing in that game closely mirrored more to the series then DA2 did. 

Now I can understand them wanting to go in a different direction with how characters act in their world with Dragon Age. But some of it is a bit...ridiculous sometimes. And at the same time, if GRRM wrote Dragon Age - I'm not sure the average person would enjoy the dialogue in a video game, despite it's smoothness and awesomeness.

[Jaduggar]

Axis Swordarm wrote...
 Exposition is not awesome writing and acting twee and pushing upto but avoiding "bad words" while also trying to keep concepts such as cuteness and a poor attempt at a Joss Whedon style is written for a specific audience,

...What?

EDIT:


As far as I'm concerned, Bioware just needs to work on their animation so that the voice acting and writing are giving a more appealing presentation.

From what I've seen, the writing is just fine--it just plays off awkwardly.

(They could also express the world through the environment instead of pages of text. The latter doesn't do much for the gaming medium)

Modifié par Jaduggar, 14 mars 2011 - 05:43 .

[Foolsfolly]

Another thing is the city of Kirkwall - it's a city not a hallway right? Where are the markets? The wide open spaces with interesting people to talk to? Why are the streets laid out like a platform game instead of a city?

For my 10 cents, only Rockstar and Bethesda have ever built realistic fully realized cities. Everywhere else it's the bare minimum of a city while giving you whatever the gameplay requires a Hub to be.

It's just a part of suspending your disbelief. You have to belief that there's more to a city than the Hub before you.

Amaranthine wasn't bad though. Neither was Vigil's Keep for that opening. That place looked cool.

I was never once hit with a sense of wonder, or amazement or even a "wow, that's pretty cool" moment when looking at the environment.

I liked the level design of this game. I like it a lot. However, there's no way anything outside of Deathmatches online will hold up to that many replays. I personally hated the Cove map the most, but it appears many players hated the cave more. I thought the cave was varied and interesting...they cut it into pieces for many maps which kinda kept some of the exploration from being ruined before the first act break.

I've but the game down halfway through the second act. It's hasn't drawn me in or made me care about the story in any way.

I feel like I have to say this. Act 2's story is the best stories out of the acts...and Act 3 is only 3 missions long. One for the Mage, one for the Templar, and then the finale. The Templar one is the point of no return since you can't ever walk into the Gallows again without auto-starting the finale.

Simply by virtue of opting for a morally ambiguous central conflict instead of a big bad evil as the focus of the story, they took a risk.

I agree it was a risk. But they messed it up by hiding the major players. Take BioShock for example. It pits you against two morally ambiguous characters; Objectivist Andrew Ryan and Criminal Mastermind Fontaine. BioShock tells you about Ryan in the first 5 minutes, he talks to you soon after that. You meet Fontaine soon after that. Then you spend the game in contact with them and hearing about their actions from others. Despite never meeting face-to-face until that one EPIC moment you feel like you know and have known the two characters.

We knew nothing about the Knight Commander or the First Enchanter. Since we don't know them we don't care about them.

We knew a lot about Loghain and we knew his exact motivations. I couldn't tell you what the First Enchanter's motivation was and I can only guess what the Knight-Commander's motivation was...although I could poke holes in that too. (Power hungry; hole poked by the fact that she doesn't seize the throne ever even after a four year vacancy).

[Axis Swordarm]

Thalorin1919 wrote...

I agree with you on when you were saying the writers are writing dialogue that doesn't fit the world, but is more focused to please the players. Or at least, thats what I think you were saying?

Maybe I'm spoiled by reading GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and his world IS different. But the writers have said that DAO was influenced heavily by this series. And the writing in that game closely mirrored more to the series then DA2 did. 

Now I can understand them wanting to go in a different direction with how characters act in their world with Dragon Age. But some of it is a bit...ridiculous sometimes. And at the same time, if GRRM wrote Dragon Age - I'm not sure the average person would enjoy the dialogue in a video game, despite it's smoothness and awesomeness.

That's what I mean, it fits in with notions of what would be funny for the player or something very middling to the point that it can't actually make you question a persons motives and sincerity. 

For example in ASOIAF people lie, they lie and they cheat, but they all act towards their personal goals and you can respect the characters because of that.  You may not like them at all, but you are gripped by their manouvering.

Compare this to Hawke who is never controversial, his statements are either saintlike, rude or blunt and almost always bland.  He is not a real character, even one the player has control over, that we can share enthusiasm for or have empathy for because the writers want him to be a voiced character but are afraid to make him a real character.  Events in game pass him by and mean nothing at all no matter how personal, because he does not react like you would expect a person to react.

The same goes for the supporting cast, they only ever react in ways dictated by plot or worse what is funny to say at a given time.  They're written for moments and not as individuals.  There's no real emotion there because characters are simply telling you their story or acting out a set path that in many cases isn't logical and isn't impacted by anything but the railway line the narrative is on.

In Dragon Age II you can never feel truly emotionally involved unless you're one of those people the writers touch upon with their quirks.  Varric is not a real character, Aveline is not a real character, despite one liners or  sudden set pieces you may like, because outside of your influence they are nothing but scenery.

Even worse is that Kirkwall should be a character too, but it isn't.  The City exists as a location and has no personality beyond history.

Modifié par Axis Swordarm, 14 mars 2011 - 05:54 .