77 réponses à ce sujet

[TerraMantis]

@Medhia Nox

A lot of really great constructive criticisms in way less words than the article. It would have been unique to see how they could do a story on the Kirkwall Killer and keep it engaging enough to keep the audience interested. Also, my favorite part in DA2 was the Qun/Arishok chapter and your last tidbit which focuses on that sounds very interesting. I'd like to see someone do a detailed version of that one for certain.

[Faroth]

Plaintiff wrote...

Necessary? I guess not. Personally I think it's more interesting. I think there are options enough in regard to how your sibling leaves you, and I think putting in a way to keep them would've been a mistake.  The point of the choices is that they are supposed to be difficult to make. If they want to maintain "grey & grey" morality, putting in an obvious "right" choice is a cop-out. IE, the situation with Connor. They set up a difficult moral decision only to then tell you "Ooooor you could just go to the Circle tower and get the mages there to help and everyone will be happy. It's cool, we'll totally wait for you."

Why would it have been a mistake?  I'd have honestly found having Bethany worrying about being seen as an apostate alongside her protective (or growing suspicious) sibling equally as interesting.  If your sibling had stayed with you, Carver could have grown concerned about Hawke as a mage in Kirkwall with Templars getting more aggressive and likewise Bethany could have been concerned for herself.

Grey & grey morality kind of falls short when it turns out there's no difference.  For example:  Connor.
So you choose the high ground to get the Circle involved and it makes no difference.  Same thing here, no matter what you choose with your sibling, it makes no difference.  Sure, it's hard the first time through, but when you realize it's irrelevant, it's a squandered opportunity.  I'm in agreement with you, however.  My first Warden used blood magic to sacrifice the mother and save Connor.  My second Warden chose to get the Tower, but I expected to find things far worse when I returned (and disappointed it wasn't, honestly).

Not to mention, that particular fork in the road leads to several branching paths later on. A pro-Templar Hawke can allow Meredith to execute a weeping Bethany, just as an example.

Ah, but would a pro-Templar Hawke allow Meredith to execute the weeping Bethany that's been at his side?  You want a hard choice, there's one that's been squandered.  Having a strongly supportive Bethany and then put you in a position to prove your belief in the Templars by executing her?

Actually, you do get a follow up. On the Rivalry path he may choose to tell you himself in dialogue, but either way it's made pretty clear that Anders was lying and the ingredients he asked you to gather were always going to be for a bomb. Currently there is no known way to separate Anders from Justice, that is the resolution of the plotline, I don't like it either but it's not flawed in a technical, story-telling sense.

The flaw is that Hawke blindly goes merrily along his way until Chantry go boom.  I seriously finished the distraction part, went back to the clinic and was like "okay now what....Anders? Anders!  Hey Anders, ritual...what do we do now?  Ooookay, I guess I'll just go do something else for the rest of whatever."  Not even a little "I'll need time to prepare this" or a scene where he fakes attempting it. Nothing.  I'm accepting of the twist being he was lying the entire time, that's fine. I'm okay with him blowing up the Chantry as a plot point we can't avoid. But follow through on the set up and make his lie more thorough, y'know?

In Origins you have one goal, namely, defeating the Archdemon, and that one missions supercedes all others. Your party members joined you to stop the Blight, and have all essentially pledged to travel with aid you, first and foremost, to the exclusion of personal issues. It makes sense that they wouldn't make a move without your approval.

But in DA2, the associations with your companions are much more informal, they all have their own hangouts when they're not with you and dialogue and party banter makes it clear that they all possess a certain degree of autonomy and have their own lives when they're not following you around. There are other instances where your companions will do things without you if you refuse them. Decide not to give Merrill the arulin'holm? She finds a way aroud that. Refuse to help Aveline expose Jeven? She gets promoted to guard captain anyway.

While I do agree with you that having the companions pursuing their own goals and interests, it again feels like a wasted opportunity for different branches the game could travel.  Instead of Hawke's actions being irrelevant and help or don't they all achieve the same end result with or without you, it's a missed opportunity for more varied, minor, plot changes.

This was frustrating for me too, but I think you're a bit confused on plot details. I didn't see anything to indicate that the mages who kidnap Bethany were "Resolutionists", maybe in terms of their beliefs, but I doubt there's any political affiliation. That they don't recognise you as an ally is annoying, I have nothing to say to that. But as I understand it, they're being led by Grace, who has manipulated the others into believing they're fighting for mage freedom when in reality she's only out for revenge against Hawke. When Thrask attempts to bargain, she kills him to force your hand.

When you first learn of the Resolutionists, you're led to believe that they're a group who sees a different path to the Circle/Templar order and that they're working together (I remember Anders saying he could hardly believe it, but perhaps it was worth investigating. He sounded hopeful).  Instead of following this, they just toss another last second "evil mage was behind it" and destroy the potential.  Had they not decided Grace was behind it plotting revenge the entire time (I'll get you Hawke! I'll get youuuuuu!), it COULD have grown into a political movement.

There's just a lot of squandered opportunities for a more involved and varied game here.  I honestly think it's heavily EA to blame for rushing Bioware to get it out quickly and cash in on DA:O popularity.

[cdtrk65]

I'm pretty sure if you press Anders after his distraction request (or rather after the ingredient fetching quest) Hawke will pretty much call Anders a liar. (I seem to remember that anyway) Anders attempts to blackmail Hawke at that point.

When you first learn of the Resolutionists, you're led to believe that they're a group who sees a different path to the Circle/Templar order and that they're working together (I remember Anders saying he could hardly believe it, but perhaps it was worth investigating. He sounded hopeful). Instead of following this, they just toss another last second "evil mage was behind it" and destroy the potential. Had they not decided Grace was behind it plotting revenge the entire time (I'll get you Hawke! I'll get youuuuuu!), it COULD have grown into a political movement.

Now this I agree with. However, one of the compliants I know Bioware often gets is Paragons never seem to pay for allowing shady people a free pass. Grace is one of the the few that actually does this, however at the expense of a potential progressing storyline toward the climax.