[Intro.]
I’m not hear to **** about the combat. I myself liked the combat, [I played on the console flame away] the graphics were decent enough. The repetitive dungeons are the only thing that annoyed me, but if the story was good enough I could look past that. Sadly it wasn’t
Dragon Age 2’s story was nothing what I imagined it would be. When screen shots, and trailer stared poring out of the wood works. I got this sense that Dragon Age 2 was going to be epic. A story that was to span 10 years, dealing with the lives we touch, in this rise to power. Companions would come and go, romances would evolve, and die etc. Not only would we see Hawk grow, but we would see the World form around him, and to a degree some of that happened. To a very miniscule degree.
I also got the impression that Flemeth would play a big role, after all she was the first concept released, she’s on the cover art, her part is rather small, if nothing more than to retcon the choice of killing her.
We don’t get this epic tail of a man/woman taking hold of destiny, we get this tail of a person, who’s too weak willed to say no, or at least carry trough with a no, we play a character who is more of less shoehorned into every quest, with the exception of most the first act [Because you need your fetch quest to earn 50 gold]. He’s/she’s not taking hold of destiny, he/she just wants to feel self important.
Now the point of this topic is to post what we thought Dragon Age 2’s story was going to be like, and talk about some of the more knee jerk part in DA2 that just kinda felt out of place. I don’t hope for anything, I don’t think Bioware will read this and see the error of there way’s. I don’t expect them to come in here and use these ideas for DLC, or a new game. This is just talking about what we thought we were getting VS what we got.
[WHAT I THOUGHT WE WERE GETTING, VS WHAT WE GOT.]
Like I said before I thought Flemeth would play a much bigger role in DA2. Honestly it seemed like a mist opportunity.
WHAT THEY DID:
At the beginning of DA2, your running for your life, you run into a templar and his wife, your sibling is killed, and Flemeth helps you for a price.
The only problem I honestly have with this is that your sibling dies. What’s the point party balance? If they wanted balance than why give me the ability to have a party full of rouges? Frankly it’s a bit forced. And doesn’t really work for me.
WHAT I THOUGHT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED:
I really wouldn’t have changed much with the exception of the sibling dying. We need to get to Kirkwall, because the plot dictates it. This for me works for me in that way of it couldn’t have really been done any other way.
Its once we get to Kirkwall that things start falling apart for me.
WHAT WE DID:
We spent a year working for mercenaries/smugglers -don’t worry will skip over that, because oops it didn’t happen. [It did, but that would have been game play we could have played, can't have that can we?]
WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE:
We should have gone to Sundermount first. A powerful witch, swoops down, and we all know how bad swooping is. She swoops down and fries Darkspawn helps you get to Kirkwall and your going to put her off a year? For no other reason that-nope I can’t even blame it on plot convenience. Sundermount should have been the first thing we did and the plot could have taken off from there.
From Varric’s POV:
“ Hawk and crew reached the summit of Sundermount; an ancient and foreboding place, so wrong that words can’t describe the feeling of being there, everything from the ground you walk on, to the wind blowing, down to the vary air you breath felt tainted. Hawk would go on to tell me that it felt as if horror after horror had been committed there until, even the smallest fleck of, joy, or hope or anything that resembles life was gone, or twisted and perverted. They treaded carefully, in the hope of not disturbing what dormant horrors lie in wait, sleeping hoping for the moment someone would be careless enough to be there next feast. But they made it with out much incident, it was odd, Hawk told me. At first he didn’t know what to think of the situation. A Witch, a legend swooped out of the sky saved him and his family, got him to Kirkwall, and all that she asked was that he take this amulet here. And now here he was, and this place was wrong. His stomach clenched as he thought about turning back, something possessed him to keep moving. Maybe it was nothing, maybe it was the amulet and the witch herself controlling his actions now, maybe it was a morbid curiosity to see just what would happen at the end of his journey. Hawk didn’t know, but no amount of thinking could prepare him for what was to come.
The Keeper Marethari first, Merrill a thin skittish little thing even for an Elf, placed the amulet on the mantel, and spoke a rite in Dalish, the ancient Elvin tongue. As she finished the amulet fell to the ground in front of the mantel shaking violently. A blinding light poured out of it and when it subsided there sat a beautiful woman curled into a ball, hair so long and raven dark that it would make the night envious, skin softer than the fines ,Orlesian silks and velvets, with eyes of amber suns. She lied on the ground naked shaking and crying, tears matted her hair to her face franticly mumbling in a language no one understood. All anyone could do was just look on in shock, no one was ready for this, and no one knew just what to make of her. ”
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but won’t something like that have been more interesting than Flemeth just appearing, babbling on about the world changing. [In 10 years for no apparent reason other than Deus Ex Stupid.] And flying off?
Maybe I’m alone in this, but I think so. This woman would be Flemeth the younger Flemeth, that’s talked about in legends. She would become a party member, one that for all intense and purposes, would be pivotal to the story.
WHAT THEY DID WITH THE OVER ALL PLOT:
See I had a hard time believing Meredith being driven insane by The Lyrium Idol for an end boss, and Mr. Martin Luther Mage Anders being the key factors that starts the war. [What if I killed him in Awakening?] There’s really no explanation to ANY OF IT, evil maguffin of doom made her paranoid, and she decided she needed to kill things ??? Profit? I mean think about this Logically. Any sign of erratic behavior would have flagged something, with someone [and it does] your telling me there’s not checks and balances in the Order. [Because of Deus Ex Stupid] Didn’t the Grand Claric see it fit to I don’t know give Meredith a mandatory leave of absence? I mean think about it, really think about it. Meredith goes form being a 7 on the ****’o’meter to a full blown 11, in the matter of months. And you don’t think that something might be wrong?
I mean my first thought were, she was being controlled by a blood mage, or a demon, to break mages to the point it started a war. But nope it was only her own paranoia caused by a totally unexplained maguffin. That mind you when we get to use a piece later as a rune for our own weapon does not make us crazy, go figure right?
And than there is Anders, Mr. FREE my PEOPL!!! Martin Luther Mage. I find it hard to believe that I have any central control or even use in the plot when you think that honestly the war would have started with out Hawk. If Hawk had never been there, hell if the Idol had never been there, how long till Anders decided to blow something up?
*Hawk never goes to Kirkwall.
*Anders STILL takes Justice into himself.
*Anders is STILL in Kirkwall.
*Anders STILL loses it over Karl.
* Anders plots revenge, deciding there can never be piece and blows up the chantry.
Okay so Meredith isn’t crazy, she’s level headed about this and doesn’t try to kill the Circle. How long to people scared out of there minds start burning Circles themselves? How long till Mages start fighting back.
Hawk becomes a pointless character once you look at it this way.
Anders started the war, and he does it with out with out your help. [It will still happen if you never do the Justice quest, line talk about railroading the plot.]
Now I guess this plot works, but really they butchered a character, and made the main protagonist useless in his own story, [Oh I get to decide which side I want to side with, even though it doesn’t matter, because I fight them both.]
HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN PLAYED OUT:
Again I go back to Flemeth. Why, simply because she’s been a driving force in Dragon Age since her first appearance in The Stolen Throne.
In the Stolen Throne:While on the run from Orlesian sympathizers, Maric and Loghain are captured by the Dalish, who deliver them to Flemeth. She tells Maric that Loghain will betray him if he keeps him close, "Each time worse than the last." She also tells him that a Blight will come to Ferelden after his death. In exchange for leading them out of the Wilds, she requests that Maric make a promise to her that he may not share that knowledge with anyone.”
She knew about the events in Origins and how they would play out, before they did. And I would be willing to bet she created the Architect to find the Old God. Kind of convenient that not only did she have the Dark Ritual on hand, but a Daughter, at the same time The Architect finds the old God. Just sayin.
Now lets use out imaginations again, rewind back to Sundermount and my version of “NEW” Flemeth. This weak, pathetic looking confused woman, who just appeared out of the amulet. [Flemeth] Hawk takes pity on her and takes her with him. They finish out there first year in Kirkwall with your party consisting of Aveline, Bethany, Carver and Flemeth [Named something else of course] and Merrill. Next you meet Varric, get your other party members.
Now there are two possible path. The Idol in the current story is pointless- OH, but it made Meredith go crazy BLA BLA BLA! One: She was half cocked to begin with. Two: Even with out the Idol, Anders would have started the war and she would have been forced to act.
But we do have a hand full of mages that somehow having power in Kirkwall will protect against going to the Circle. [Even though this goes against everything that’s been stated before in Origins and even things stated in this game. Mages can not own anything, not a title or lands- Kind of part of that Magic is to serve man and never rule over him.] But we’ve got to get rich, and a fancy home for a mother who will die before she has a chance to paint the walls.
Okay this whole plot point sees quite stupid to me-skip it. Other than the Idol there is no real point to going to the Deep Roads once we rule out the Idols importance the Deep Roads become pointless. Hawk wants power right? A title and something he can hid behind eh? The Qunnari provide that in spades.
The beginning of Act 2 the Qunnari invade, instead of waiting 6 or so years to start tearing Kirkwall apart to find there lost book, they do what any sensible person who has had something stolen would to, they start turning Kirkwall upside down looking for it.
With the help and/or guidance of Flemeth, instead of fleeing Kirkwall they Hawk fights. BOOM! Champion of Kirkwall. And of course this new Hero would take up rule with the Viscount dead.
In the beginning, I got the impression that most of the game would take place with Hawk ruling Kirkwall, and his influence in the Free Marches. Being used as a puppet by Flemeth-with out knowing it, in her hunt to find Morrigan, or reclaimed some other magical maguffin. And in this 10 year quest Hawks choices, would shape the war to come.
Choices like; getting rid of the Templar’s from Kirkwall. With Hawk being a Mage ruling a city and outing the Templar’s as he could turn Kirkwall in to a ’Mage Sanctuary’ the fear of The Free Marches becoming an Imperium would force the Devine to march against Kirkwall.
Kirkwall actively warring against cities, and taking them over.
Deals and dealings. And in the shadows of the decisions you have Flemeth, always watching and planting seeds of darkness in Hawks mind, till profit I guess [Hadn’t thought that far ahead.]
Point being in Dragon Age 2 there seemed like a lot of build up and such, but nothing really came of it. It was a wasted opportunity to really portray how the World goes to war with itself. What we got was underwhelming, it didn’t feel like Hawk took hold of destiny, so much as he was just kind of there, and was forced into situations because he was the guy on the box art.
TL;DR
Dragon Age 2 was a missed opportunity to really see the political struggles of the world, and the decent into madness we have at the end of the game. From all the ’hype’ I thought the story would have been much better, because the story ideas I’d pieced together was much better. [In my opinion] I just kind of want to know what everyone else thought the plot was going to be like, and what bothered them about the main plot, that just felt out of place, or stupid.
Like Orsino turning into the Harvester. . . WTF?
Modifié par wikkedjoker, 30 mars 2011 - 05:20 .
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