387 réponses à ce sujet

[Reno_Tarshil]

I kind have wished I didn't read what people said about the dialogue wheel, now whenever I play DA2. I end up paying more attention to sarcastic hawke's responses, compared to what the wheel says. And while it's mostly enjoyable some of the lines do wind up out of place.

[Redcoat]

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...

I'm sure many of you have seen the Super Mario Bros. film, then wondered "What the hell is this? How do you go from a cartoonish 2D platformer to a film like this?"  That was my reaction, until someone opened my eyes and told me, "Don't look at it as a video game movie; look at it as a parody of terrible movie adaptations of video games." When I watched the film again, it went from something utterly stupid to bloody brilliant!

I wonder if DA2 could be approached the same way. The game could so easily be made into a Horatian satire of RPGs, both from BioWare and others. It hits all the right notes for a parody; you've got the clueless, incompetent hero, the comical exaggeration of just about  everything, and the art style that seems to borrow from everything from Avatar to Final Fantasy.

The game opens with mockery, presenting Hawke as this bad-ass anti hero, only to give him a stiff British accent! Ho ho! And where does Hawke find himself? In a sea of ugly brown landscapes, a biting satire of the "Real is Brown" trend of modern games. Then there's the combat, where enemies gush fountains of blood from the smallest nick and then explode into a blossoms of gore if someone so much as looks at them the wrong way. Take a commonly used aspect of something (e.g, gore) and exaggerate it to comedic effect - that's a major element of parody right there! And the combat animations, with people swinging two-handed swords like wiffle bats and performing cartwheels, spins, flips, and kicks will surely call to mind a hyper-violent version of the classic Looney Tunes short, Robin Hood Daffy.

You know how BioWare games always present at least two love interests, one of whom is sweet and innocent, and the other who is sultry, dangerous, and wild? Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity, and Isabela, whose whorishness is so ludicriously exaggerated that no one could possibly take her seriously. And Aveline in the middle, as a perfect Straight Man...err...woman. And the other characters are obvious send-ups of cliches, too! Fenris is a clear parody of the typical brooding, bishonen JRPG protagonist (complete with massive, two-handed sword), and Anders is a satire of the Byronic Hero of the Romantic period, with melodrama and angstiness taken up to eleven. And if the player doesn't want any of these  obviously deranged individuals for a love interest, they gave you one sane individual - Bethany - but then BioWare pulls a fast one on the player and makes her YOUR SISTER. A clear parody of the situation with Imoen in Baldur's Gate 2 and all the people who were crushed when they learned she was the protagonist's sister and thus unavailable as a love interest! BRILLIANT!

The game sends up other RPG tropes, like how many RPGs send you on  pointless fetch quests, by giving you those quests in abundance! It also takes to task the notion that "RPGs equal combat" by forcing the player into combat so often that it reaches the level of absurd. Just when you think the fighting is over...BAM! Another wave teleports in! And you  wouldn't think a quest to help your friend hook up with a man she's too socially-inept to approach would involve fighting, but DA2 once again subverts the audience's expectations and turns it into a hack-and-slash affair! Ho ho! And you know how BioWare RPGs have touted "Big Choices" that supposedly affect the entire world? Well, DA2 turns that completely on its head by making your choices utterly meaningless! DA2 surprises and delights at every turn by brilliantly subverting every expectation the player has! Just look at the elves, for example. What do people think of when they think of elves? Someone lithe, slender, and attractive? DA2 turns that right around and gives us elves that are so slender they'd make an anorexic cringe, and utterly inverts the idea of them being "attractive" by making them hideous, fish-eyed, donkey-folk! But this is actually a one-two punch; see, not only are the elves ugly, they strongly resemble the Na'vi from Avatar. Since the Na'vi were portrayed as an insufferably superior species, and the classic fantasy elf is also portrayed as the superior species, DA2 manages to parody the entire notion of "fantasy elves" with one single redesign. BRILLIANT!

But DA2 doesn't limit its satirical bite to just games, oh no, it gets into full-on Juvenalian satire of politics as well! Knight-Commander Meredith is an obvious parody of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the final confrontation with her is clearly meant to evoke the well-known incident where Thatcher obtained Soul Edge, then walked into the British parliament and used it to slaughter members of the opposition parties. Likewise, First Enchanter Orsino is a clear reference to Osama bin Laden, who was reported to have transformed himself into a Lovecraftian abomination before being killed by US special forces. The conflict between the mages and the templars can be thought of as a satire of the polarised American political scene, with several obvious references to that incident where several Republican congressmen summoned demons during a particularly heated debate session.

And the game doesn't stop with the biting satire until the end, oh no! Players of RPGs might expect a long, drawn-out ending, but DA2, like with so many other RPG tropes, utterly inverts it and gives you an ending so brief and pointless that comparisons to the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are sure to be made.

So there you have it. Dragon Age 2, one of the greatest parodies of the RPG genre ever made.

Modifié par Redcoat, 29 août 2011 - 08:52 .

[Reno_Tarshil]

Redcoat, that was too hilarious for words.

[willholt]

Redcoat wrote...

An Absolutely & Stonkingly BRILLIANT post

Thank you for that... I actually laughed out loud several times.!

[KnightofPhoenix]

lol I most certainly agree that its story as it stands, is much better off if seen as a political satire. My attempt to take it seriously resulted in massive disappointment and a headache. Had I seen it as a political parody, I would have gotten a few laughs from it.

Modifié par KnightofPhoenix, 29 août 2011 - 08:44 .

[Xilizhra]

Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity

I stopped reading there.

If the only way you can enjoy this is turning off your brain, disengaging from everything they tried to show it and just mock it, fine. There's no need to spray it around.

[alex90c]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...

I'm sure many of you have seen the Super Mario Bros. film, then wondered "What the hell is this? How do you go from a cartoonish 2D platformer to a film like this?"  That was my reaction, until someone opened my eyes and told me, "Dont'  look at it as a video game movie; look at it as a parody of terrible movie adaptations of video games." When I watched the film again, it went from something utterly stupid to bloody brilliant!

I wonder if DA2 could be approached the same way. The game could so easily be made into a Horatian satire of RPGs, both from BioWare and others. It hits all the right notes for a parody; you've got the clueless, incompetent hero, the comical exaggeration of just about  everything, and the art style that seems to borrow from everything from Avatar to Final Fantasy.

The game opens with mockery, presenting Hawke as this bad-ass anti hero, only to give him a stiff British accent! Ho ho! And where does Hawke find himself? In a sea of ugly brown landscapes, a biting satire of the "Real is Brown" trend of modern games. Then there's the combat, where enemies gush fountains of blood from the smallest nick and then explode into a blossoms of gore if someone so much as looks at them the wrong way. Take an commonly used aspect of something (e.g, gore) and exaggerate it to comedic effect - that's a major element of parody right there! And the combat animations, with people swinging two-handed swords like wiffle bats and performing cartwheels, spins, flips, and kicks will surely call to mind a hyper-violent version of the classic Looney Tunes short, Robin Hood Daffy.

You know how BioWare games always present at least two love interests, one of whom is sweet and innocent, and the other who is sultry, dangerous, and wild? Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity, and Isabela, whose whorishness is so ludicriously exaggerated that no one could possibly take her seriously. And Aveline in the middle, as a perfect Straight Man...err...woman. And the other characters are obvious send-ups of cliches, too! Fenris is a clear parody of the typical brooding, bishonen JRPG protagonist (complete with massive, two-handed sword), and Anders is a satire of the Byronic Hero of the Romantic period, with melodrama and angstiness taken up to eleven. And if the player doesn't want any of these  obviously deranged individuals for a love interest, they gave you one sane individual - Bethany - but then BioWare pulls a fast one on the player and makes her YOUR SISTER. A clear parody of the situation with Imoen in Baldur's Gate 2 and all the people who were crushed when they learned she was the protagonist's sister and thus unavailable as a love interest! BRILLIANT!

The game sends up other RPG tropes, like how many RPGs send you on  pointless fetch quests, by giving you those quests in abundance! It also takes to task the notion that "RPGs equal combat" by forcing the player into combat so often that it reaches the level of absurd. Just when you think the fighting is over...BAM! Another wave teleports in! And you  wouldn't think a quest to help your friend hook up with a man she's too socially-inept to approach would involve fighting, but DA2 once again subverts the audience's expectations and turns it into a hack-and-slash affair! Ho ho! And you know how BioWare RPGs have touted "Big Choices" that supposedly affect the entire world? Well, DA2 turns that completely on its head by making your choices utterly meaningless! DA2 surprises and delights at every turn by brilliantly subverting every expectation the player has! Just look at the elves, for example. What do people think of when they think of elves? Someone lithe, slender, and attractive? DA2 turns that right around and gives us elves that are so slender they'd make an anorexic cringe, and utterly inverts the idea of them being "attractive" by making them hideous, fish-eyed, donkey-folk! But this is actually a one-two punch; see, not only are the elves ugly, they strongly resemble the Na'vi from Avatar. Since the Na'vi were portrayed as an insufferably superior species, and the classic fantasy elf is also portrayed as the superior species, DA2 manages to parody the entire notion of "fantasy elves" with one single redesign. BRILLIANT!

But DA2 doesn't limit its satirical bite to just games, oh no, it gets into full-on Juvenalian satire of politics as well! Knight-Commander Meredith is an obvious parody of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the final confrontation with her is clearly meant to evoke the well-known incident where Thatcher obtained Soul Edge, then walked into the British parliament and used it to slaughter members of the opposition parties. Likewise, First Enchanter Orsino is a clear reference to Osama bin Laden, who was reported to have transformed himself into a Lovecraftian abomination before being killed by US special forces. The conflict between the mages and the templars can be thought of as a satire of the polarised American political scene, with several obvious references to that incident where several Republican congressmen summoned demons during a particularly heated
debate session.

And the game doesn't stop with the biting satire until the end, oh no! Players of RPGs might expect a long, drawn-out ending, but DA2, like with so many other RPG tropes, utterly inverts it and gives you an ending so brief and pointless that comparions to the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are sure to be made.

So there you have it. Dragon Age 2, one of the greatest parodies of the RPG genre ever made.

You have won the internet universe.

[Gotholhorakh]

Cruehitman wrote...

I guess i am one of the select few (maybe even the only one) that really liked the combat in DA:O. It was ok in DA2, but felt too much like an arcade game. People may say it was "slow" in the first game, but after playing it three times myself and watching my wife play it once, it looked more like REAL fighting. For instance... watching Sten or Oghren have to really rear back to swing the giant two handed swords seemed, while at the same time watching Leliana stab quickly with daggers seemed very realistic. The weapons and shields actually seemed to have real weight to them. I don't know... could just be me... but I liked the more realistic approach over the arcade hack-em-up it became.

You're not alone. I thought the combat in DA:O was loads better than the combat in DA2. I very much enjoyed the tactical combat in DA:O, otherwise I wouldn't have enjoyed playing it for many, many hours.

For the record, I also enjoy lots of other games that have action-orientated first/third person combat, and they all do that better than DA2 as well.


@Redcoat - as far as I'm concerned, you're on fire. Excellent, incisive posts.

Modifié par Gotholhorakh, 29 août 2011 - 09:08 .

[rak72]

Xilizhra wrote...

Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity

I stopped reading there.

If the only way you can enjoy this is turning off your brain, disengaging from everything they tried to show it and just mock it, fine. There's no need to spray it around.

I dissagree.  I thoroughly enjoyed Redcoat's post.  I now have a new appreciation for DA2.

Modifié par rak72, 29 août 2011 - 09:16 .

[Xilizhra]

rak72 wrote...

Xilizhra wrote...

Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity

I stopped reading there.

If the only way you can enjoy this is turning off your brain, disengaging from everything they tried to show it and just mock it, fine. There's no need to spray it around.

I dissagree.  I thoroughly enjoyed Redcoat's post.  I now have a new appreciation for DA2.

I'd have enjoyed it if Redcoat had enjoyed the game and it was an affectionate sort of parody. It isn't. Therefore, my response is more in the "cauldron of rage" area.

[KnightofPhoenix]

Could it probably be more because he insulted Merrill?

[Tommy6860]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...
<snipped>

I have to say, I now have a different view of DA2. So, I say "thanks" as that was an awesome spin of giving it being a satire of many elements and intrigues. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get that in my two runs through the game. Had I seen any of the satire, it may have been enjoyable . After reading that exceptional post, I imagined a Benny Hill parody of DA2 running through my head, t'was hilarious indeed.

[Xilizhra]

KnightofPhoenix wrote...

Could it probably be more because he insulted Merrill?

Not just that. There are plenty who do that and in general they're ignorable. However, I hoped better of him, and I'm getting steadily more pissed off at denunciations like this because they seem to inch closer to "everyone who enjoyed this is doing it wrong" with every reiteration.

[billy the squid]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...

I'm sure many of you have seen the Super Mario Bros. film, then wondered "What the hell is this? How do you go from a cartoonish 2D platformer to a film like this?"  That was my reaction, until someone opened my eyes and told me, "Don't look at it as a video game movie; look at it as a parody of terrible movie adaptations of video games." When I watched the film again, it went from something utterly stupid to bloody brilliant!

I wonder if DA2 could be approached the same way. The game could so easily be made into a Horatian satire of RPGs, both from BioWare and others. It hits all the right notes for a parody; you've got the clueless, incompetent hero, the comical exaggeration of just about  everything, and the art style that seems to borrow from everything from Avatar to Final Fantasy.

....

So there you have it. Dragon Age 2, one of the greatest parodies of the RPG genre ever made.

Modifié par billy the squid, 29 août 2011 - 10:00 .

[Elhanan]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way....

... So there you have it. Dragon Age 2, one of the greatest parodies of the RPG genre ever made.

Or not; depending upon one's own POV.
 
I am quite enjoying finding newly excavated dialogue missed from earlier play, as well as viewing story elements that were unexplored. My favorite lines are often the sarcastic barbs, but occasionally snarling out a caustic reply has been refreshingly cathartic, and hearing poignant tales from a friend after the loss of family has been rather touching.

Of course, this was also done with DAO, so I am better able to to look for missed opportunities due to prior experience, but have found the time spent well worth it.

Some see parody; I see the unfolding humor, tragedy, and drama of the Champion.

Now we return you to the meta-critics.....

[phaonica]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...

That was funny, Redcoat. I laughed. Even when you poked fun of things about DA2 that I liked, I was still entertained.

[Gunderic]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...

I'm sure many of you have seen the Super Mario Bros. film, then wondered "What the hell is this? How do you go from a cartoonish 2D platformer to a film like this?"  That was my reaction, until someone opened my eyes and told me, "Don't look at it as a video game movie; look at it as a parody of terrible movie adaptations of video games." When I watched the film again, it went from something utterly stupid to bloody brilliant!

I wonder if DA2 could be approached the same way. The game could so easily be made into a Horatian satire of RPGs, both from BioWare and others. It hits all the right notes for a parody; you've got the clueless, incompetent hero, the comical exaggeration of just about  everything, and the art style that seems to borrow from everything from Avatar to Final Fantasy.

The game opens with mockery, presenting Hawke as this bad-ass anti hero, only to give him a stiff British accent! Ho ho! And where does Hawke find himself? In a sea of ugly brown landscapes, a biting satire of the "Real is Brown" trend of modern games. Then there's the combat, where enemies gush fountains of blood from the smallest nick and then explode into a blossoms of gore if someone so much as looks at them the wrong way. Take a commonly used aspect of something (e.g, gore) and exaggerate it to comedic effect - that's a major element of parody right there! And the combat animations, with people swinging two-handed swords like wiffle bats and performing cartwheels, spins, flips, and kicks will surely call to mind a hyper-violent version of the classic Looney Tunes short, Robin Hood Daffy.

You know how BioWare games always present at least two love interests, one of whom is sweet and innocent, and the other who is sultry, dangerous, and wild? Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity, and Isabela, whose whorishness is so ludicriously exaggerated that no one could possibly take her seriously. And Aveline in the middle, as a perfect Straight Man...err...woman. And the other characters are obvious send-ups of cliches, too! Fenris is a clear parody of the typical brooding, bishonen JRPG protagonist (complete with massive, two-handed sword), and Anders is a satire of the Byronic Hero of the Romantic period, with melodrama and angstiness taken up to eleven. And if the player doesn't want any of these  obviously deranged individuals for a love interest, they gave you one sane individual - Bethany - but then BioWare pulls a fast one on the player and makes her YOUR SISTER. A clear parody of the situation with Imoen in Baldur's Gate 2 and all the people who were crushed when they learned she was the protagonist's sister and thus unavailable as a love interest! BRILLIANT!

The game sends up other RPG tropes, like how many RPGs send you on  pointless fetch quests, by giving you those quests in abundance! It also takes to task the notion that "RPGs equal combat" by forcing the player into combat so often that it reaches the level of absurd. Just when you think the fighting is over...BAM! Another wave teleports in! And you  wouldn't think a quest to help your friend hook up with a man she's too socially-inept to approach would involve fighting, but DA2 once again subverts the audience's expectations and turns it into a hack-and-slash affair! Ho ho! And you know how BioWare RPGs have touted "Big Choices" that supposedly affect the entire world? Well, DA2 turns that completely on its head by making your choices utterly meaningless! DA2 surprises and delights at every turn by brilliantly subverting every expectation the player has! Just look at the elves, for example. What do people think of when they think of elves? Someone lithe, slender, and attractive? DA2 turns that right around and gives us elves that are so slender they'd make an anorexic cringe, and utterly inverts the idea of them being "attractive" by making them hideous, fish-eyed, donkey-folk! But this is actually a one-two punch; see, not only are the elves ugly, they strongly resemble the Na'vi from Avatar. Since the Na'vi were portrayed as an insufferably superior species, and the classic fantasy elf is also portrayed as the superior species, DA2 manages to parody the entire notion of "fantasy elves" with one single redesign. BRILLIANT!

But DA2 doesn't limit its satirical bite to just games, oh no, it gets into full-on Juvenalian satire of politics as well! Knight-Commander Meredith is an obvious parody of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the final confrontation with her is clearly meant to evoke the well-known incident where Thatcher obtained Soul Edge, then walked into the British parliament and used it to slaughter members of the opposition parties. Likewise, First Enchanter Orsino is a clear reference to Osama bin Laden, who was reported to have transformed himself into a Lovecraftian abomination before being killed by US special forces. The conflict between the mages and the templars can be thought of as a satire of the polarised American political scene, with several obvious references to that incident where several Republican congressmen summoned demons during a particularly heated debate session.

And the game doesn't stop with the biting satire until the end, oh no! Players of RPGs might expect a long, drawn-out ending, but DA2, like with so many other RPG tropes, utterly inverts it and gives you an ending so brief and pointless that comparisons to the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are sure to be made.

So there you have it. Dragon Age 2, one of the greatest parodies of the RPG genre ever made.

Brilliant! Awesome! It's just my expectations that were wrong all along! I should have went into Dragon Age 2 expecting a self-parody from BioWare. 

[Complistic]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...

I'm sure many of you have seen the Super Mario Bros. film, then wondered "What the hell is this? How do you go from a cartoonish 2D platformer to a film like this?"  That was my reaction, until someone opened my eyes and told me, "Don't look at it as a video game movie; look at it as a parody of terrible movie adaptations of video games." When I watched the film again, it went from something utterly stupid to bloody brilliant!

I wonder if DA2 could be approached the same way. The game could so easily be made into a Horatian satire of RPGs, both from BioWare and others. It hits all the right notes for a parody; you've got the clueless, incompetent hero, the comical exaggeration of just about  everything, and the art style that seems to borrow from everything from Avatar to Final Fantasy.

The game opens with mockery, presenting Hawke as this bad-ass anti hero, only to give him a stiff British accent! Ho ho! And where does Hawke find himself? In a sea of ugly brown landscapes, a biting satire of the "Real is Brown" trend of modern games. Then there's the combat, where enemies gush fountains of blood from the smallest nick and then explode into a blossoms of gore if someone so much as looks at them the wrong way. Take a commonly used aspect of something (e.g, gore) and exaggerate it to comedic effect - that's a major element of parody right there! And the combat animations, with people swinging two-handed swords like wiffle bats and performing cartwheels, spins, flips, and kicks will surely call to mind a hyper-violent version of the classic Looney Tunes short, Robin Hood Daffy.

You know how BioWare games always present at least two love interests, one of whom is sweet and innocent, and the other who is sultry, dangerous, and wild? Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity, and Isabela, whose whorishness is so ludicriously exaggerated that no one could possibly take her seriously. And Aveline in the middle, as a perfect Straight Man...err...woman. And the other characters are obvious send-ups of cliches, too! Fenris is a clear parody of the typical brooding, bishonen JRPG protagonist (complete with massive, two-handed sword), and Anders is a satire of the Byronic Hero of the Romantic period, with melodrama and angstiness taken up to eleven. And if the player doesn't want any of these  obviously deranged individuals for a love interest, they gave you one sane individual - Bethany - but then BioWare pulls a fast one on the player and makes her YOUR SISTER. A clear parody of the situation with Imoen in Baldur's Gate 2 and all the people who were crushed when they learned she was the protagonist's sister and thus unavailable as a love interest! BRILLIANT!

The game sends up other RPG tropes, like how many RPGs send you on  pointless fetch quests, by giving you those quests in abundance! It also takes to task the notion that "RPGs equal combat" by forcing the player into combat so often that it reaches the level of absurd. Just when you think the fighting is over...BAM! Another wave teleports in! And you  wouldn't think a quest to help your friend hook up with a man she's too socially-inept to approach would involve fighting, but DA2 once again subverts the audience's expectations and turns it into a hack-and-slash affair! Ho ho! And you know how BioWare RPGs have touted "Big Choices" that supposedly affect the entire world? Well, DA2 turns that completely on its head by making your choices utterly meaningless! DA2 surprises and delights at every turn by brilliantly subverting every expectation the player has! Just look at the elves, for example. What do people think of when they think of elves? Someone lithe, slender, and attractive? DA2 turns that right around and gives us elves that are so slender they'd make an anorexic cringe, and utterly inverts the idea of them being "attractive" by making them hideous, fish-eyed, donkey-folk! But this is actually a one-two punch; see, not only are the elves ugly, they strongly resemble the Na'vi from Avatar. Since the Na'vi were portrayed as an insufferably superior species, and the classic fantasy elf is also portrayed as the superior species, DA2 manages to parody the entire notion of "fantasy elves" with one single redesign. BRILLIANT!

But DA2 doesn't limit its satirical bite to just games, oh no, it gets into full-on Juvenalian satire of politics as well! Knight-Commander Meredith is an obvious parody of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the final confrontation with her is clearly meant to evoke the well-known incident where Thatcher obtained Soul Edge, then walked into the British parliament and used it to slaughter members of the opposition parties. Likewise, First Enchanter Orsino is a clear reference to Osama bin Laden, who was reported to have transformed himself into a Lovecraftian abomination before being killed by US special forces. The conflict between the mages and the templars can be thought of as a satire of the polarised American political scene, with several obvious references to that incident where several Republican congressmen summoned demons during a particularly heated debate session.

And the game doesn't stop with the biting satire until the end, oh no! Players of RPGs might expect a long, drawn-out ending, but DA2, like with so many other RPG tropes, utterly inverts it and gives you an ending so brief and pointless that comparisons to the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are sure to be made.

So there you have it. Dragon Age 2, one of the greatest parodies of the RPG genre ever made.

gahhh! Why didn't I see it sooner?

Modifié par Complistic, 30 août 2011 - 12:12 .

[csfteeeer]

Redcoat wrote...

I was thinking of something. I can't play DA2 again, but maybe I'm just looking at it the wrong way...

I'm sure many of you have seen the Super Mario Bros. film, then wondered "What the hell is this? How do you go from a cartoonish 2D platformer to a film like this?"  That was my reaction, until someone opened my eyes and told me, "Don't look at it as a video game movie; look at it as a parody of terrible movie adaptations of video games." When I watched the film again, it went from something utterly stupid to bloody brilliant!

I wonder if DA2 could be approached the same way. The game could so easily be made into a Horatian satire of RPGs, both from BioWare and others. It hits all the right notes for a parody; you've got the clueless, incompetent hero, the comical exaggeration of just about  everything, and the art style that seems to borrow from everything from Avatar to Final Fantasy.

The game opens with mockery, presenting Hawke as this bad-ass anti hero, only to give him a stiff British accent! Ho ho! And where does Hawke find himself? In a sea of ugly brown landscapes, a biting satire of the "Real is Brown" trend of modern games. Then there's the combat, where enemies gush fountains of blood from the smallest nick and then explode into a blossoms of gore if someone so much as looks at them the wrong way. Take a commonly used aspect of something (e.g, gore) and exaggerate it to comedic effect - that's a major element of parody right there! And the combat animations, with people swinging two-handed swords like wiffle bats and performing cartwheels, spins, flips, and kicks will surely call to mind a hyper-violent version of the classic Looney Tunes short, Robin Hood Daffy.

You know how BioWare games always present at least two love interests, one of whom is sweet and innocent, and the other who is sultry, dangerous, and wild? Well, DA2 plays this to hilarious extremes by giving us Merrill, sweet and innocent to the point of comedic stupdity, and Isabela, whose whorishness is so ludicriously exaggerated that no one could possibly take her seriously. And Aveline in the middle, as a perfect Straight Man...err...woman. And the other characters are obvious send-ups of cliches, too! Fenris is a clear parody of the typical brooding, bishonen JRPG protagonist (complete with massive, two-handed sword), and Anders is a satire of the Byronic Hero of the Romantic period, with melodrama and angstiness taken up to eleven. And if the player doesn't want any of these  obviously deranged individuals for a love interest, they gave you one sane individual - Bethany - but then BioWare pulls a fast one on the player and makes her YOUR SISTER. A clear parody of the situation with Imoen in Baldur's Gate 2 and all the people who were crushed when they learned she was the protagonist's sister and thus unavailable as a love interest! BRILLIANT!

The game sends up other RPG tropes, like how many RPGs send you on  pointless fetch quests, by giving you those quests in abundance! It also takes to task the notion that "RPGs equal combat" by forcing the player into combat so often that it reaches the level of absurd. Just when you think the fighting is over...BAM! Another wave teleports in! And you  wouldn't think a quest to help your friend hook up with a man she's too socially-inept to approach would involve fighting, but DA2 once again subverts the audience's expectations and turns it into a hack-and-slash affair! Ho ho! And you know how BioWare RPGs have touted "Big Choices" that supposedly affect the entire world? Well, DA2 turns that completely on its head by making your choices utterly meaningless! DA2 surprises and delights at every turn by brilliantly subverting every expectation the player has! Just look at the elves, for example. What do people think of when they think of elves? Someone lithe, slender, and attractive? DA2 turns that right around and gives us elves that are so slender they'd make an anorexic cringe, and utterly inverts the idea of them being "attractive" by making them hideous, fish-eyed, donkey-folk! But this is actually a one-two punch; see, not only are the elves ugly, they strongly resemble the Na'vi from Avatar. Since the Na'vi were portrayed as an insufferably superior species, and the classic fantasy elf is also portrayed as the superior species, DA2 manages to parody the entire notion of "fantasy elves" with one single redesign. BRILLIANT!

But DA2 doesn't limit its satirical bite to just games, oh no, it gets into full-on Juvenalian satire of politics as well! Knight-Commander Meredith is an obvious parody of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the final confrontation with her is clearly meant to evoke the well-known incident where Thatcher obtained Soul Edge, then walked into the British parliament and used it to slaughter members of the opposition parties. Likewise, First Enchanter Orsino is a clear reference to Osama bin Laden, who was reported to have transformed himself into a Lovecraftian abomination before being killed by US special forces. The conflict between the mages and the templars can be thought of as a satire of the polarised American political scene, with several obvious references to that incident where several Republican congressmen summoned demons during a particularly heated debate session.

And the game doesn't stop with the biting satire until the end, oh no! Players of RPGs might expect a long, drawn-out ending, but DA2, like with so many other RPG tropes, utterly inverts it and gives you an ending so brief and pointless that comparisons to the ending of Monty Python and the Holy Grail are sure to be made.

So there you have it. Dragon Age 2, one of the greatest parodies of the RPG genre ever made.

Funny, after my third playthrough, i play it(for the last time) again, and decided to look at it as a parody... and still didn't enjoyed it.

I Guess theres just something about it that i can't like

[Merilsell]

This post might even tempt me to reinstall the game, only to play it once more under this new, brilliant aspect *snickers*

[Reno_Tarshil]

csfteeeer wrote...

Funny, after my third playthrough, i play it(for the last time) again, and decided to look at it as a parody... and still didn't enjoyed it.

I Guess theres just something about it that i can't like

That's because in your mind it's already been decided that you dislike the game and no amount of different views or changes will change you from disliking DA2.

Modifié par Reno_Tarshil, 30 août 2011 - 01:24 .

[Hurbster]

Kirkwall, 'tis a silly place.

[SirLysander]

Redcoat wrote...

(Snipped to the bit-bucket to save page-space)

BRAVO.  Sheer genius.