24 réponses à ce sujet

[lord vaalic]

I loved DAO, and was looking forward to DA2. I am quite a bit into it now, and I still have no idea what the hell the main story is or if there even is one. I like the graphics, I like the gameplay, voice acting, etc, but I have zero idea what this game is about yet. I mean, side missions and grinding and all that are fine in any RPG, but usually you at least know what the main story is, even of you arent actually doing anything with it yet. I am finding myself to be getting bored, despite the fact that I like gameplay, etc because its just a bunch of side quests so far. Is there some central plot?

[Ponendus]

Yes there is. Are you skipping dialogue? BioWare games typically play their story out through dialogue and codex entries, so if you aren't reading those or listening to all the lines, you may be missing some things.

How far into it are you? The story is really quite clear around Act 2, which is after you go to the Deep Roads.

[SkittlesKat96]

The game is set up into acts which all have their own main objective(s.)

I'm assuming your in Act I, this is just Hawke living in Kirkwall and saving up money to go on a Deep Roads expedition and become rich.

There are other parts of the plot that are expanded/elaborated on later, like the animosity between the mages and the Templars and the tension of the Qunari. Also I agree with you on the side quests, I think we all wish that they could have made less side quests but made more interesting ones and have less repetitive environments.

I hated having to constantly fight things (I enjoy combat in Rpgs but it can get repetitive.)

After Act I you sort of see the cohesion of the story.

[GavrielKay]

To me, the "main story" can be summed up as following Hawke through several years of his/her life. It's about trying to do better than mere survival in an often hostile environment. It is far less cohesive than DA:O and for many (including me) far less satisfying. But, there is a story of sorts. It's a bit like an interactive biography of a local hero who loves to return lost items to their owners.

[whykikyouwhy]

@lord vaalic - DA2, to me, is essentially a chapter in the grander narrative of the Dragon Age. It has a narrow focus to the events in Kirkwall (as opposed to the map-hopping scope of DA:O), and how Hawke is involved in them (and consequently, as others have said, the story reflects a lot about Hawke's struggle from refugee to nobility). As you move through the Acts, you should see how the various political elements and the actions of several characters reflect Thedan society, and various shifts within it. I consider the events in the game to be a sort of first domino in a big display - knocked over and causing a ripple effect.

At least, that's my take-away from it.

[Shadow of Light Dragon]

lord vaalic wrote...

I loved DAO, and was looking forward to DA2. I am quite a bit into it now, and I still have no idea what the hell the main story is or if there even is one. I like the graphics, I like the gameplay, voice acting, etc, but I have zero idea what this game is about yet. I mean, side missions and grinding and all that are fine in any RPG, but usually you at least know what the main story is, even of you arent actually doing anything with it yet. I am finding myself to be getting bored, despite the fact that I like gameplay, etc because its just a bunch of side quests so far. Is there some central plot?

You'll get hit with the central plot in the second and third acts.

The first act will just give you a lot of foreshadowing you can't do much about until later in the game and introduce a lot of NPCs. Raise your gold, do the side quests you have to do, then advance the plot and it'll get more interesting. Act 2's really good IMO.

[Fast Jimmy]

I didn't have a clear idea what the "main plot" was until the start of Act 3, my first playthrough. And, given how short Act 3 was, that was about five hours before I beat the game.

One of my biggest gripes with DA2.

[thats1evildude]

Long Answer: The plot is seperated into three separate story arcs. The cutscene that begins each act basically tells you what the arc will be about (ie. Act 1 is about gathering money for the expedition, which in turn brings Hawke's family out of the slums). Each of your companions has a story arc that continus throughout all three acts. Other events occur in the first two acts that have significance later in the story, and they all lead to a major conflict that occurs at the end of the game.

Short answer: No, there is no end goal to achieve here.  This is simply the story of one man's life amidst turbulent times.

Modifié par thats1evildude, 29 décembre 2011 - 07:18 .

[Gervaise]

The clue was in the promotional blurb "Rise to power by any means possible." That is essentially your "goal" if you want one. It is the story of your rise from penniless refugee. Along the way you also get to be involved in several major events affecting the city or those nearest to you, plus one with more far reaching effect on the future of Thedas. The side quests are merely padding but if you follow the main plot ones through to the end, you will see how they fit together.

[DarthCaine]

The so-called "plot" is basically 3 unrelated short stories. Each have their own theme and antagonists.

Modifié par DarthCaine, 29 décembre 2011 - 03:07 .

[CuriousArtemis]

DA:O was more traditional storytelling; furthermore, it was a plot that has been seen in many a fantasy novel so it felt very familiar to the player.

DA2 is more postmodern in my opinion; it does not have a defined plot with goals and climaxes. Maybe that's why it appeals to me? It's also more character-driven, as opposed to plot-driven.

[WhiteKnyght]

DarthCaine wrote...

The so-called "plot" is basically 3 unrelated short stories. Each have their own theme and antagonists.

And the situations that lead up to the later plots are shown and heard of in the earlier acts*

You could see the hate and suspicion of the Qunari and the tensions between the Mages and Templars all the way from Act 1.
You see the aftermath of Hawke's expedition, the development of the Mage/Templar conflict, and the culmination of  of the Qunari mistrst in Act 2.
And you see the aftermath of the Qunari uprising, the explosion of the tensions between the Mages and Templars, and see it's impact on the future in Act 3.

You blatantly ignore the flow of the game. Every action Hawke took contributed to his presence at the Gallows that night and his presence is what caused Kirkwall's impact on the future.

As Cassandra said, if Hawke weren't there it wouldn't have ended the way it did.

[Get Magna Carter]

summary
Hawke tries to escort family members out of the blight to rich relatives in Kirkwall (to quote meatloaf "two out of three ain't bad")
Unfortunately, the only remaining relative in Kirkwall is now broke from gambling so Hawke decides to try to rebuild the family fortune by getting involved in a treasure hunting expedition.
But tension is rising in Kirkwall due to the ongoing presence of Qunari which (3 years later) leads to violence. To preserve his/her new home Hawke intervenes resolving this incident and is declared champion of Kirkwall.
Unfortunately, there is another growing problem between the mages and templars (and their over-zealous leader) and 3 years later violence flares up again...

[WhiteKnyght]

Get Magna Carter wrote...

summary
Hawke tries to escort family members out of the blight to rich relatives in Kirkwall (to quote meatloaf "two out of three ain't bad")
Unfortunately, the only remaining relative in Kirkwall is now broke from gambling so Hawke decides to try to rebuild the family fortune by getting involved in a treasure hunting expedition.
But tension is rising in Kirkwall due to the ongoing presence of Qunari which (3 years later) leads to violence. To preserve his/her new home Hawke intervenes resolving this incident and is declared champion of Kirkwall.
Unfortunately, there is another growing problem between the mages and templars (and their over-zealous leader) and 3 years later violence flares up again...

If you listened to Varric's narration between acts, you'd know that tensions were rising between the Mages and Templars ever since Knight-Commander Meredith took the position. The Templars became more powerful under her command and she became strict.

After act 2, tensions kept rising because of an endless cycle of resistence and crackdowns between Meredith and Orsino. And the fact that Meredith's bigotry was amplified by the idol didn't help matters, especially when Anders took advantage of a dispute between Meredith and Orsino and set off his magic bomb in the chantry.

People were also scared and hateful of the Qunari since the beginning.

[Sylvianus]

lord vaalic wrote...

I loved DAO, and was looking forward to DA2. I am quite a bit into it now, and I still have no idea what the hell the main story is or if there even is one. I like the graphics, I like the gameplay, voice acting, etc, but I have zero idea what this game is about yet. I mean, side missions and grinding and all that are fine in any RPG, but usually you at least know what the main story is, even of you arent actually doing anything with it yet. I am finding myself to be getting bored, despite the fact that I like gameplay, etc because its just a bunch of side quests so far. Is there some central plot?

I love what you wrote, op. It summarizes with some words, how the act one is a total failure. I do not understand how someone, a new player can be interested. And worse for those who expected a sequel, and waited to see how DA2 was linked to the first episode.

The player is lost, does not really know what's going on, each side quest follow one another, tirelessly, without real reasons, and we still do not see the main plot on the horizon

The goal, money. Yeah. And all that will take more than 8- 9 hours.

it's a bit late to capture the attention of the player, so the act 2. When I see some people saying, it begins in act 2, or each act is its own story, that just makes me laugh.

What a great story.

Modifié par Sylvianus, 30 décembre 2011 - 03:17 .

[DreamwareStudio]

lord vaalic wrote...

I loved DAO, and was looking forward to DA2. I am quite a bit into it now, and I still have no idea what the hell the main story is or if there even is one. I like the graphics, I like the gameplay, voice acting, etc, but I have zero idea what this game is about yet. I mean, side missions and grinding and all that are fine in any RPG, but usually you at least know what the main story is, even of you arent actually doing anything with it yet. I am finding myself to be getting bored, despite the fact that I like gameplay, etc because its just a bunch of side quests so far. Is there some central plot?

I find myself unable to finish Act I because of what you said: boredom.  Everything to me is really rather blah and there are too many other games out there that offer not only clarity and enticement but also excitement.

Ooh, what's that?

Oh yes.

I hear Origins calling my name.

[FaWa]

Yea, this game really has no direct storyline.
I actually kind of like it. but w/e, yea 2>1>3 in terms of the acts

[Chuvvy]

Not really. More of "OH **** DUDE!" then "DUDE! OH ****!" and then finally "BROOOOOO! ****!"

Modifié par Slidell505, 31 décembre 2011 - 11:08 .

[Sajuro]

It would probably help if you payed attention to the dialogue in the story missions and didn't have the attention span of a demented cricket.

[Fast Jimmy]

Sajuro wrote...

It would probably help if you payed attention to the dialogue in the story missions and didn't have the attention span of a demented cricket.

I'm not sure who this comment was aimed at, but the funny thing? You have no idea what the "story missions" are in this game.

The first mission you have with Sister Patriece looked like a side mission to me until things started unraveling with the Qunari in Act 2. Meanwhile, chosing sides in how you treat the magistrate's son felt like something that would come back and have an impact on how things progressed later in the game, but instead it influences nothing. And collecting all the codex entries for the Enigma of Kirkwall, something that is actually an unlockable Achievement on the 360 version, has no tie in to the main story, despite being one of the most interesting things about Kirkwall.

So... if everything looks like one giant side quest until Act 3 starts and you can see which quests ACTUALLY mattered to the plot? It feels like a big, confusing mess. Yes, the cutscenes discuss the Mage/Templar tension... but they also talk about the Qunari tension. And that turned out to only be the story for one Act. Many aspects of the story are disjointed and it isn't until later that anything Hawke did makes any kind of sense to the overarching story.

Modifié par Fast Jimmy, 03 janvier 2012 - 01:30 .

[Pzykozis]

The game is about Hawke as he lives his life.. bounced between powerful forces and forced to act to survive and sometimes profitting from it along the way.. flee from Blight to save life, Need money to bribe officials and the like who would alert the Templars and lead to Mage Hawke being circlised or being locked up for harbouring apostates (as Cullen said the only reason he didn't get locked up at the end of Act 1 is because Beth mitigated the circumstances) etc. it's about the life of a guy, theres other obvious plots from the first act too the mage / templar friction is mentioned throughout the game.. could have done with more Meredith and Orsino involvement but thems the breaks.

[DarkAmaranth1966]

There is a sort of a story of the chantry seeker thinking Hawke was a subversive, but it was really just hapenstance in his efforts to make money and provide for his family, then being forced to chose sides and asked to do things that he/she likely would not have done otherwise.

What bugs me is that even if you make Hawke a blood mage, there is no reaction to it from anyone in the game, they don't seem to even know he is one despite using the spells openly in any combat scene. Now as anti blood mage as it is in general, you'd expect a blood mage Hawke to be noticed and, you'd expect reactions and possibly even the loss of companions for it.

[WhiteKnyght]

Pzykozis wrote...
(as Cullen said the only reason he didn't get locked up at the end of Act 1 is because Beth mitigated the circumstances)

I would have liked to see Cullen try to lock Hawke up. I imagine it wouldn't have been pretty for him. lol

[Shadowgate203]

I felt the same way the story was very bland and there was to many side quests by the time I got back to the story I lost interest. Also lots of things you think will be important don't mean anything. Flemmeths role was meaningless.... The mirror was meaningless

[Malanu]

Ponendus wrote... BioWare games typically play their story out through dialogue and codex entries, so if you aren't reading those or listening to all the lines, you may be missing some things.

Then Bioware needs to make the text bigger! I have 20/30 (or what ever means really good vision ) and I can hardly read the text on a 60 inch TV from 15' way... I actually have to get up to 3' from the screen to read the dang text! Other than that I have little problem with the game!

Yeah my first time through I had to grind like crazy to get teh gold for the expedition, second time through I equiped stuff that increased the amount of treasure you got, not as bad this time.