175 réponses à ce sujet

[superdeathdealer14]

DA was never trying to be medieval it's trying to be fantasy although I will admit that DA:O had a darker tone to it than DA2.

[AtreiyaN7]

No, and that should be its (possessive), not it's (a contraction of "it is" ).

Modifié par AtreiyaN7, 11 janvier 2014 - 06:14 .

[superdeathdealer14]

AtreiyaN7 wrote...

No, and that should be its (possessive), not  it's (a contraction of "it is" ).

I stand corrected, very good sir

[KiwiQuiche]

drake heath wrote...

DAO wasn't very medieval, no games show an accurate portrayal of the middle ages, which in of itself it around 1,000 years of human history spread across many diverse cultures and societies.

A lot of people are under the impression Medieval is just "knights, castles "A Knights Tale"!! " crap. Lolnope it's a crapload more diverse than that.

[Chala]

Well... For me, DA seems to take stuff from very different time periods and mix them togheter:
In one place, you have Denerim, a city with a clear "Medieval" flavor on it. But in the other, you have the Felicisima Armada, whose ships and crew look like they came from the 1700 era.

[Dave of Canada]

superdeathdealer14 wrote...

DA was never trying to be medieval it's trying to be fantasy although I will admit that DA:O had a darker tone to it than DA2.

DA:O was closer than DA2, though. Teeth were brown.

It's a must for DA:I.

[slimgrin]

Now don't go and ****** on the exaggerated dynamo brick-cracking awesome of DA:I. Folks round here like their DMC style combats.

[Ravensword]

Semi-confirmed rumor: DA:I is gonna be steampunk-themed.

[Deflagratio]

Nefla wrote...

They did go too JRPG for my taste in DA2, I can do without that stuff.

Have to agree with you there.


More to the topic question: Was Dragon Age ever truly Medieval? If you want a real Medieval game, pick up Mount & Blade: Warband, Dragon Age has always been more of an escapist fantasy with Medieval inspirations.  In a real Medieval game, if you weren't born a human noble (Male), you'd just harvest turnips from age 4 to 19 when you'd finally end up dying from dysentery because of evil spirits in the water. Thus leaving your six children to the mercy of wild animals only slightly less starved than them. Oh, and let's not forget occasional Viking raids along the northern coast, come to pillage the wealth of the monasteries.

Modifié par Deflagratio, 11 janvier 2014 - 06:48 .

[Deebo305]

I gotta say things were darker in Origins. All thar brown, black and gray I could barely see anything

In all seriousness though, both games feel the same to me one is just...slower. Only real difference between them aside from the npc designs

[Mecha Elf]

Medieval? No. Fantasy? Yes.
While Dragon Age has some dark moments it's not really there throughout the whole game.
And even though DA has the ingredients for a bland generic fantasy genre, they don't make it boring or generic at all, I love the world of DA. And as for being realistic I can agree to the crushing floor animation of the bashing of the gate w/ one person, but what can ya do?

[TK514]

Nope. All looks like pretty standard fantasy to me. And I mean that as a compliment. I happen to enjoy standard fantasy now and again.

[Gorkanus]

Zarathiel wrote...

Darth Brotarian wrote...

< Most realistic to the medieval setting is DAO >
> Two handed swords taller then the wielder
> Can use longswords with one hand easily
> Daggers the size of arming swords
> Any armor above Medium grade
> Warcry
> Giant Bows taller then the wielder
> Runes
> 4 species all have a common language
> Everyone in thedas has a universal language
> Everyone is educated and literate
> Atheism is acceptable
> Witchcraft is real
> Nationalism isn't real
> Health and Hygiene aren't problems
> Organized service of mail and messaging

This is just stuff off the top of my head that makes it so not the medieval times. So no, I don't think we're losing touch with the medieval aspects, because they were never there in the first place.

PWNED

[DooomCookie]

Thedas isn't medieval. Ferelden is quasi-medieval. Orlais is more renaissance and Tevinter is Roman/Byzantine.

[Star fury]

Gorkanus wrote...

Zarathiel wrote...

Darth Brotarian wrote...

< Most realistic to the medieval setting is DAO >
> Two handed swords taller then the wielder
> Can use longswords with one hand easily
> Daggers the size of arming swords
> Any armor above Medium grade
> Warcry
> Giant Bows taller then the wielder
> Runes
> 4 species all have a common language
> Everyone in thedas has a universal language
> Everyone is educated and literate
> Atheism is acceptable
> Witchcraft is real
> Nationalism isn't real
> Health and Hygiene aren't problems
> Organized service of mail and messaging

This is just stuff off the top of my head that makes it so not the medieval times. So no, I don't think we're losing touch with the medieval aspects, because they were never there in the first place.

PWNED

Self-yew English longbow, 6 ft 6 in (2 m) long, 470 N (105 lbf) draw force.

[Deflagratio]

The longbow is a bit too cumbersome if you plan on moving around a lot though. They're usually deployed in archer lines for long range, high-volume volleys. Maybe that was the spirit of the comment, or maybe I'm just overthinking again.


Maybe we should just settle on a term like "Dark-Age Fantasy", and be done with it. You've basically got everything interesting from 95C.E. to 1460C.E. in one setting. And wizards.

[Sir JK]

Like most fantasy (that's not hyper-niche) Dragon Age was never particularily mediveal. It had it's trappings and a fair few stereotypes we associate with mediveal life. But in reality, most fantasy is the modern age pretening to be mediveal. Dragon age is no better or worse in this regard really.

Usually it conflates about 1000 years of society, tehcnology and beliefs into a single period. Which leads us to have big round shields, plate harnesses, two-handed swords and throwing axes at the same time. Whereas in reality they were on opposite ends of the period. Guns are usually left out though, despite that a full plate harness was develop in response to firearms.

It also confuses the short average lifespan (due to extreme child mortality rates, up to 1 in 2 children) with total lifespan. In reality, life was fairly long unless an epidemic hit just at that time. I've personally seen tombstones claiming to honour people exceeding 100 years in age. Multiple ones.
Unless you had the extreme misfortune of suffering a plague epidemic, health was not too horrible.

It also has somehow gotten the idea that dyes where invented after the middle ages, whereas in praxis the middle ages were vibrant in colour (just not bright blues or purples). It just happens that colour does not last very well and fades with time. For reference, look at the classic clothing of many indiginous peoples around the globe. Those are usually dyed with mediveal methods.
They also absolutely knew how to and that they should clean clothing as well. It took a lot of time, yes. But labour was cheap. Much cheaper than today.

Ironically... these points makes DA2 more accrate than DAO ever was. Not that it matters, since real middle ages are not anywhere close to what we expect fantasy to be these days.

[MissOuJ]

Don't know, don't care. And the definition of "Medieval" is pretty arbitrary anyway, particularly when we're talking about a setting with magic, demons, and dragons. What are we talking about here? I am all for removing the more ridiculous looking weapons from existence (looking at you, Hayder's Razor and Oath-Breaker), but I don't want "realism" to equal "dull" and "underwhelming" because let's face it - most of the time, realism is usually much more boring than fiction, and I'd rather go with the exiting and cool unrealistic and non-Medieval option than the boring, brown, realistic one.

But what we have seen of DA:I, I am glad we've seen more vivid colours and otherwise visually interesting stuff. I have been playing The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning recently, realized that the problem I have with "realistic" setting is the fact that their colour palet is a mix of dull browns and greys -- both DA:O and DA2 had a bit of a problem with this as well. I'm not saying everything should be neon, but could we please get a bit more colours in? Despite what some people might think, neither ancient Greece and Rome or Medieval Europe were, in fact, completely void of colouring agents.

So, I guess I'd say that the DA franchise has lost its "medieval touch", mostly because it didn't have much to begin with. And I say "Good riddance", because the further away fantacy fiction gets away from the general "Medieval Europe fantacy setting", the better. As a source of inspiration its as good as any other, but letting that chain the universe because of "realism" is the last thing I want to see happenning.

Modifié par MissOuJ, 11 janvier 2014 - 10:02 .

[Cainhurst Crow]

Bows were honestly the lightest thing I could complain about. And I don't see how posting a picture of a poorly rendered tommy wiseau is suppose to pawn me.

I believe that dragon age doesn't have medieval roots, more traditional sword and sorcery fantasy roots which happen to involve castles and old world warfare. You can't really call something "medieval" in my opinion if you only have light inspirations for the setting at best, the approximate of cosmetically looking like a renaissance fair and nothing else.

Three genres, Fantasy for stories of the past, Supernatural for stories of the present, Sci-fi for stories of the future, and that's just how it goes.

[bEVEsthda]

Of course DA is medieval. What nonsense are all this 'it was never medieval'?

It's not an accurate portrayal of medieval times. No it's not. But a magic fantasy world will, of course, never be exactly that. And for narrative reasons, it's always a good idea to anchor things more in modern thinking and ethics.
But if we disregard the considerable complication of magic, then the setting, in terms of socio-economics, literacy, communications, crafts - technology, education, infrastructure, knowledge and understanding of the world, everything is at a medieval state.

Looking more at the artistic depiction, it should lean towards a medieaval state of crafts, otherwise the immersion will fail and the game will be more than acceptably illogical. That doesn't mean that it has to look everywhere as Europe in medieval times. Or that the art style has to be medieval Europe. But there's nothing wrong with Europe as a general cultural flavor.

Considering what DA2 did to the artistic direction, I feel strongly about two things:

1:- You do not change a successful franchise like that!  It always results in massive negative reactions.

2:- Everything that was done to DA art style, in DA2, diminished it greatly. It was shallow, tacky, non-genuine, childish, soul-less and often ridiculous. I can accept the change in rendering and the change in color schemes. Everything else, I despise from the bottom of my heart.

That is not to say that all is already lost. Since there no longer is a fix original pattern, all of it can be tweaked and modified to something I can embrace. I think DA:I looks extremely promising sofar. A bit garish perhaps. But I can easily accept that in places. I have no fears that DA:I will have lost any touch. Because of the break, DA:I task is more to re-establish the - or, 'a' - DA atmosphere and feel. And I'm pretty confident it'll do that just fine.

Modifié par bEVEsthda, 11 janvier 2014 - 11:31 .

[Giubba]

Darth Brotarian wrote...

Rotward wrote...

Yes, absolutely, ever since DAO.

+1

[BraveVesperia]

Dragon Age origins didn't feel very medieval either, unless your only knowledge of medieval history is via fantasy books and games.

[CybAnt1]

It's only loosely based on Earth's own medieval period. As is most fantasy, I mean Tolkien's Middle Earth is too.

If it were really like the Middle Ages, there would be no Avelline, Meredith, or Cassandra. Female knights? Especially leading other warriors? Pshaw. Joan of Arc was an extremely RARE exception.

Plus, the functional equivalent of the Catholic Church (the Chantry) being run by women instead of men? And let's talk about the amazing tolerance and openness for homosexuality and bisexuality shown by the people of Thedas?

The bottom line is there are some games out there that are medieval sims. In them there are no nonhuman races, dragons, demons, or magic, things that people may have believed in then, but didn't really exist. This is not one.

Modifié par CybAnt1, 11 janvier 2014 - 04:54 .

[ames4u]

Nefla wrote...

They did go too JRPG for my taste in DA2, I can do without that stuff.

Complete with linear set piece's and hallways as far as the eye can see!
Although, the quickest way to get my opinion on DA2 would be to ask,"So what did you like about DA2?" Because it's a pretty short effing list let me tell you.

I do see where the OP is coming from, but at the same time, they do have to carve out a niche for themselves in the appearance department. Hopefully they moved away from DA2's questionable armour aesthetics. It always looked as if the lead designers had completely different ideas on what they wanted the armour to look like and decided to meet halfway. Or, started rendering one set of armour only to change their minds halfway and instead of scrapping the idea, they just glued the two halves together. I just keep imagining the scene where Rachel made half a trifle and shepard's pie because the recipe pages were stuck together.