arcelonious wrote...
@ The Ethereal Writer Redux
I wouldn't mind the "hover over" for full dialogue, as long as it's optional (i.e., something you can toggle on or off in the option menu), as I'm one of the people that prefers paraphrasing for voiced characters. I simply could not stand reading Geralt's lines in the first Witcher game, and then have him repeat them in verbatim immediately after selection.
Toggle would be fine. Though I have to say I don't understand why people dislike "I just read this and now I heard it".
I don't understand it myself. If people are reading the dialogue out loud before choosing the option, why not just read it to yourself? Don't say it out loud and maybe it won't be as bad.
I dunno. As I said I don't really understand what makes people hate it so much.
I understand why people can prefer a silent protagonist (as it can often give you more "perceived" agency over your character with imagination, as well as self-insertion), but unfortunately I am one of those people that prefer a voiced protagonist, at least when everyone else in the game is voiced. For me, it is important for my character to react, both verbally and physically in dialogue, as it creates more realism in conversations between the characters of the game.
Yup I enjoy voiced characters as well. I just hate the paraphrases and the restrictions on the story and roleplaying that Bioware did with DAII.
alex90c wrote...
Your Warden stays in Ferelden because that's just the way the game is. You might as well complain that we weren't able to take a boat to Rivain and just go travelling around the country doing ... stuff - the point of the game is to stop the Blight ASAP, not go to Orlais while Ferelden gets absolutely steamrollered.
I think what gets people is that they don't have the option to
attempt to leave Ferelden, only for them to maybe come across Darkspawn attacking a village and then the game would require you to say "Fine. I'll do it. It's pointless methinks, but I'll do it."
Or DAO could have the Warden express their pessimism and disdain for Ferelden throughout the game, at least up until the Landsmeet at the latest.
Fast Jimmy wrote...
don't prefer one method over the other... but I don't want the method of how I roleplay to be the determiner if I can enjoy the story.
If I have to roleplay motivations, scenarios and "off-camera" thoughts, conversations, actions and options in my head for the story to make sense, regardless of how my character is presented to me, then that is a game with poor story.
DAO did not do this. I knew what the Blight was and WANTED to stop it.
DA2 did this, in aggravating fashion. I didn't know who or what I was struggling against.
I think that the ultimate threat of the game -- the Blight of the game if you will -- should've been up to the player to decide in Act II by either joining the Mage Underground or assisting the Templars. The player could see either Meredith, the Templars, the Chantry, the Mages, or a combination of those as the Blight of the game.
And then take it from there.
I think this is why a politically involved Hawke was needed in the game. For the reasons you described. For the story to even make some semblance of sense -- and it still doesn't anyway -- you have to make your Hawke do things off-screen.
Which actually kills immersion once you find out that what your headcanon was turns out to be invalidated by the game.
Even before I became a "rich" citizen, I was well on my of gathering 50 sovereigns, which is more than most refugees would come across in their lifetime. So it never felt that I was "struggling to survive." Without the trip the Deep Roads, I was on my way to getting back my family manor and if I had a few more weeks/months, I could have gathered enough gold to last me through the game without the Expedition.
You'd need a title though to shelter you from the Templars. Coin isn't enough. It's only one part of it. Not to mention it probably takes more than a few hundred sovereigns to buy back the estate.
You'd also need the estate back which would involve dealings with Kirkwall's nobility. Let's face it, if you stay in Lowtown your whole life you're going to choke on all that foundry air and ash.
That said, I think the game does a horrible job of conveying the sense that Hawke becomes rich. He can become a part of the Bone Pit's operations only for him to gain.... absolutely nothing. Some investment.
I knew the Qunari would be a threat, but their plot line, which is the best in the game, is resolved far too early. Meanwhile, Mages and Templars, which are portrayed as the flimsiest plot that only serves to give me mooks to kill for no reason other than they are crazy, turns out to be the "main" plot and is supposed to show a "flawed, tragic" tale in the story. Bull honky.
I can certainly agree that the Qunari tale is resolved a bit too early. And the Arishok, for all of his fame as a military savant, doesn't use the Saar-Qamek or Kirkwall's defensive points when he attacks the city. Nor does he deal with the real power in Kirkwall: Meredith. I don't mind him dealing with the Viscount, but he should also deal with Meredith.
And by deal, I mean just meeting with her prior to the climax. Not like "Deal with her".
And I definitely agree at how pathetic the Mage-Templar storyline was. I'm not sure how Bioware thought they portrayed that well. I've often said that the Expedition and the Qunari conflict should've been the background plots, which while important to the individual years aren't as important as the Mage-Templar conflict, which would've been displayed and strengthened in the first two Acts.
And the time with Athenril/Meeran if it was there.
Role play how you want, without a dozen self-given motivations, my Hawke would have either had the motivation to get involved with the conflict seven years ago when he first landed on the shore or he would have stayed out of it, saying "screw being the Champion, fix this problem yourselves." He wouldn't have sat on the sidelines for almost a decade, then hopped in like it was his duty all of a sudden. The lack of agency and immediacy is terrible
Regarding the bolded: I think that Hawke's involvement during Act I -- and if the prologue covered the time with Athenril/Meeran -- would've been minimal and restricted to him only helping a little bit.
But in Act II, Hawke definitely could've done some work in the conflict. Either he joins the Mage Underground and becomes its Champion and its Saviour; or he assists the Templars and vanquishes the Mage Underground -- though I'm still trying to figure out how Anders would've played into this* -- and receives a commendation from the Templars.
Either way though, Templar authority in the city-state would weaken because of what Hawke did. Either he showed that the Templars can't do their job at all, or he showed that they can't do it without assistance from an outsider.
*I guess for Anders after doing Justice if you've sided with the Templar quest chain he'd say he can't be with you -- Rivalry or Friendship -- because you've been killing his friends and brothers.*
Modifié par The Ethereal Writer Redux, 23 janvier 2012 - 12:09 .
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