37 réponses à ce sujet

[Maria Caliban]

That's true for the comics. I don't believe it applies to the novels or the Dawn of the Seeker anime.

[movieguyabw]

I keep hearing good things about Asunder and Masked Empire, I'm probably going to have to pick them up at some point.  But no intention of reading them before playing DA:I.  I feel like knowing exactly who Cole is and knowing all of the events going on behind the scenes, leading up to Inquisition, would really affect my ability to roleplay.

 

As for if they're necessary?  We won't really know until the game comes out...  but I'm betting on them being not.

[AppealToReason]

I doubt it. Anything you "need" to know will be in the codex or you'll have a question chain for it.

[Cylan Cooper]

I doubt there's anything from the novels that can't be explained with more than a minute of dialogue sans Cole, who is a companion and we get a crapton of exposition on companions anyway. Asunder basically just shows us events we already know happened because of Cassandra's dialogue with Varric in DA2. TME will probably be summed up nicely when we meet Celene or Gaspard with the exact details of what happened glossed over. So, no, you don't really need to read any of the novels. If you like the world, you should, but you don't have to.

[Ponendus]

I never read any Mass Effect novels and I fully 'got' Kai-Leng in ME3.

 

If I cared about Kai-Leng or that series as much as I do DA, I would have read the books so I would understand anyone that appeared in a 'deep' sense. But I still 'got' him anyway.

 

The question is: do you care?

[Rawgrim]

Kai Leng was copied and pasted in from some generic anime. Bad character.

[voteDC]

That's true for the comics. I don't believe it applies to the novels or the Dawn of the Seeker anime.

Well it definitely applies to Asunder with Wynne being a pretty important part of that book.

[Ibn_Shisha]

Kai Leng was copied and pasted in from some generic anime. Bad character.

I don't know about that, but it felt like he was inserted into the game out of some sort of obligation, and then granted plot armor for most of the game.  In that regard, I lump him in with Allers and Tallis except a little bit worse, since we can just leave Allers hanging out in the docking bay, and for Tallis we can just skip the dlc.

[Schreckstoff]

I don't like what Bioware is doing mixing book and game continuity. Prequels are fine as they have no relevance to sequels of the games but interquels are annoying. It feels like you're missing out on something when not reading them but as an avid reader of more than few still running or ridiculously long fantasy series I don't have the time read them.

I'm still 3 sundering books behind (Forgotten Realms), haven't finished Raymond Feists Midkemia saga (the 4th or 5th series ), the Sword of Truth saga by Terry Goodkind, nor the Nightside series by Simon R. Green,... More books are incoming during the fall, the continuation of Drizzt after Night if the Hunter, the continuation of Farideh after the Adversary. Not to mention picking up other series like the Witcher source material.

[Rosey]

As someone who's done all the outside media - books and comics -- they are absolutely 100% not needed to enjoy the games.

 

They are all good reads, especially the later books, if you enjoy filling out the world in your head, but absolutely none of it is important -- any must have knowledge is/will be IN the games, and everything else is basic side character development that is unimportant on the large-scale.

 

Now, if you really like side character development, then the first two books flesh out Loghain, Marric, Duncan, and the Architect. The latter two books introduce Cole and give you a general idea of wtf is going on behind the scenes with Orlais and the after effects of the Kirkwall disaster. the new book that is coming out is supposedly about wtf the grey wardens have been up to lately. All behind the scenes stuff that has no impact on your personal game - and anything that MIGHT have an impact, will be absolutely represented within the game.

 

The Comics take a "Bioware Cannon" worldstate and flesh out what Isabela, Varric, Alistair, and even Sten have been up to, and let me bold this, If Your Cannon Playthrough Matches. Bolded because it's a worldstate developed purely for these comics. If you left Sten to die, Alistair ran off to be a drunk, and Isabela was handed to the Arishok then that is what you'll see in your personal story and the comic storyline will never have existed. And I love that.

 

So yeah, if you enjoy reading and really want to flesh out the world a bit and get to know some new and old faces - definitely go check them out. If you're not in to side material, no worries, you don't need them at all.

[Schreckstoff]

The Comics take a "Bioware Cannon" worldstate and flesh out what Isabela, Varric, Alistair, and even Sten have been up to, and let me bold this, If Your Cannon Playthrough Matches. Bolded because it's a worldstate developed purely for these comics. If you left Sten to die, Alistair ran off to be a drunk, and Isabela was handed to the Arishok then that is what you'll see in your personal story and the comic storyline will never have existed. And I love that.

Not exactly true someone from BW said something along the lines of events in EU still unfolding with the same results just in different ways afaik.

[Steppenwolf]

Was it really necessary to know that Kai Leng steals cereal to understand his character in ME3? He's a generic space ninja with no personality. What's to get?

[Rosey]

Not exactly true someone from BW said something along the lines of events in EU still unfolding with the same results just in different ways afaik.

 

Regardless if the events unfold or not - they'll come about differently for you personally if said characters no longer exist within your personal universe. Which means it'll happen within the confines of the game world. Which means that the comics are not necessary. Which is what I meant