It was a "more personal story" only in half measures.
Yes. You have a family. Yes that family has an impact. But the story isn't so focused on Hawke that you can say it's really a personal story about Hawke.
If I have to define what the story's about it would be Mage/Templar. The first people you meet are Aveline and her Templar husband who regardless of your class has something against Bethany and yourself (if mage). This introduces you the conflict. Your first introduction to Kirkwall is the Gallows which reinforces the conflict. There's also more dialogue, quests, and just time in general devoted to the Templar/Mage argument than anything else.
Now it's not impossible for a personal story to be told within a Templar/Mage story. That's completely possible. I just think BioWare didn't go far enough to make it deeper. One problem is how there's no complexity with those involved in the story. Meredeth's crazy, Orsino's angry, Elthina's indecisive.
They never grow beyond that. When ****'s hit the fan in Act 3 you're railroaded into getting the same three quests (the first is always from Meredith the last two are either her or Orsino) if you support the Templars Orsino has nothing to say to you. There's no discussion about the mage point of view, or even what the man wants. To this day I have no idea what the man wanted. His actions and his words don't gel well together. He wants to protect his mages but allows a known blood mage serial killer to converse with him and skirt the law... why? Quentin's actions speak poorly on the people he's trying to protect.
More over there's no evidence to support that Quentin was a Circle Mage. He was an apostate blood mage. Helping track down and stop him HELPS the image of the Circle because it shows they're willing to police blood mages if there's evidence of maleficarum.
So yeah. We don't get nuanced characters to show the sides. Grace in particular is simply insane because insane is insane. Thrask and Cullen are decent Templars who aren't crazy evil rapists. And they both end up defying Meredith and their oaths for what they believe is right in the end. But you don't get a personal relationship with these people.
The people we do get personal relationships with? Anders a guy so pro-mage he goes terrorist and Fenris a man so anti-mage that cursing magic and mages are like 60% of his dialogue. These characters give their reasons and then they're set in stone. Fenris gets a little more nuanced if Friended but he's still decidedly anti-mage.
For this 'more personal' story to happen within this frame we needed stronger characters on both sides of the argument. We needed stronger characters on neither side. We needed complex relationships and multifaceted characters not just spewing the same rhetoric.
The sad thing is they did this within the game in Act 2. You had the Qunari headed by the Arishok a man torn between his emotions (rage at the societal injustices of Kirkwall, vengeance for the murders of his men, disgust at thieves and nobility) and his duty (recover the relic, it's not his job to enlighten bas, he cannot bring the qunari people to war lightly). On the side of Kirkwall you have the Viscount who has a balancing act of pleasing all the various sects in the city all while avoiding war while in the midst of private father-son dilemma.
Eventually the Viscount's personal life comes crashing down because he's put his public responsibilities above his personal life. When this happens he's so paralyzed and devastated that he now fails his public responsibilities. An utterly tragic character I grew to both admire and feel sorry for.
The Arishok's emotions eventually overrule his reason and his duty. He lashes out at the city that for years has tormented and abused him and his people. He starts what could easily be considered an act of war against Thedas. This ultimately proves his undoing (in Mark of the Assassin even Tallis says the Arishok overstepped his bounds...not in so many words but it's obvious he abandoned his duty).
Those were characters in conflict with themselves and each other. They were in a situation that was out of their control. And Hawke was caught in the middle. The Templar/Mage story never had that. The sides were one dimensional and the whole thing felt forced. And because they were so one dimensional I felt nothing for either side. When Meredith forces you to take a side I originally took neither side for that reason! I couldn't think of why I would. If given the option I'd have supported Aveline and helped the Kirkwall City Guard contain this crazy nonsense.
If the game had focused on characters in conflict with themselves and each other while trying to find battle lines in the coming war. All while we focus on Hawke rising to Champion (something else the game did miserably off-camera and for no discernible reason if you sell Isabela to the Arishok). Then it would have been a much better game.
Building your reputation, alliances with nobles, mages, templars, apostates and making enemies with those as well. All while rising in power all towards a focused ending that reflected your efforts throughout the game.
Yes.
Yes, I wanted that. We didn't get that. We got three dislocated stories (if you can call Act 1 a story) with some characters and themes carried over. Then when the credits start crawling all you know for certain is that there better be a DA3 because this was as unfinished of a story as you can make.
Modifié par Foolsfolly, 01 septembre 2012 - 06:50 .
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