62 réponses à ce sujet

[Jagrevi]

"Varric is returning, isn't he?"

 

Yes, but this thread is not about returning old companions, that is merely something that relates.

[BadgerladDK]

I'll go with "no". The DA universe already has that weird "small world" feel, running in to the same people, considering each game has a different main character.

[LonewandererD]

I'm gonna say no. If they spend too much time on adding a variable character than that could potentially take time and resources from fleshing out the new characters. Or they go the other way and make the variable character bland and only serviceable just to appease the fan base, and not even all of it. Quantity is good but not when it detracts from quality.

 

-D-

[Jagrevi]

Re: The "Small World" Comment

 

Firstly, I don't think talking about a better way to bring back characters automatically entails bringing back characters more often. (Talking about better kinds of hammers doesn't necessarily entail more hammering - some times it even means less). I too share some concern of Dragon Age falling back too far into "Star Wars Syndrome" (Vader built C-3P0, Yoda met Chewie, and so on), but given that it's something (character reappearance) that we already do and are bound to do to some degree, I don't see that as entirely relevant here (unless you're claiming that such a thing would take away valuable 'brief-wave-at-the-camera-cameo' time, though honestly that's something I'd rather see diversified and done less artificially).

 

Secondly, though, and as a more minor note, how big is the world of Thedas, really (character make-up wise)? It's an analogue of a medieval society, right? So isn't its population vastly less than the societies we live in, and aren't 90+ % of people peasant farmers we only rarely stop to talk to anyways? Encountering people that already run around in the circles of 'people who are holding back the outside forces' does seem a lot more likely in their world than it would in ours (well, if we got invaded constantly by darkspawn and the like). Still, I fundamentally agree that we don't want to crank up the cameo dial, it's just that I see two parts to that note, one of which I see in favor of the notion (justifying a character's appearance in the story as opposed to their appearance serving little purpose), and the other I don't see as relevant (would it necessitate a greater rate of the return of old characters? - answer: no).

[Jagrevi]

"Quantity is good but not when it detracts from quality."

 

That's funny, as that's largely the philosophy behind my raising of the notion. I feel like we have an overabundance of companions in quantity (not that they won't be well written, but that there is some diminishing returns in having 9 companions), and I am pushing for the idea that we trade some small amount of that quantity for a companion that is more personalized to our individual stories.

[Mykel54]

The result would be something similar to what happened with the virmire survivor: they are no longer kaidan and ashley, they are the virmire survivor. The virmire survivor gets the same dialogue in ME2, and almost the same in ME3. There is no place for the unique kirks that Ashley or Kaidan had in ME1, because they are the same character.

[AlanC9]

and I am pushing for the idea that we trade some small amount of that quantity for a companion that is more personalized to our individual stories.

You sure you want to call a 23% drop "small"?

[Eudaemonium]

I dislike companions coming back for another game. Their story is done, we should have new and fresh characters as companions every game.

 

That's my biggest irk with Mass Effect. Same companions again and again gets boring after a while. I actually wanted new people to work with in ME3. Maybe a female Krogan/Turian squadmate or a batarian squadmate who is trying to change batarian culture. Instead it's just ME1 squad and EDI getting a body. The only two new people were Vega and Javik (Who is locked behind a bloody paywall anyway so not everyone will get to experience him anyway).

 

I actually liked this in ME in general - you were always Shepard, and having a team that carried through the games with you was something I liked. How they handled those companions was another matter, though. Liara had a personality transplant in the second game and Garrus was essentially a one-trick batman pony for the whole trilogy. That said, I thought ME3's companions was a massive faux pas. EDI should have stayed as the ship, Javik was funny but mostly unnecessary, and Vega was… well, Vega. He was alright, but a slot better used elsewhere. I probably would have demoted Liara to an important NPC, akin to the Illusive Man in ME2 who used her Broker resources to get you intel and set things up. I probably would have had some different returning ME2 squaddies (Miranda or Jack is an obvious one, simply due to the massive prominence of Cerberus in the plot), a Batarian to finally get some insight into their culture and 'redeem' them somewhat, like Legion for the Geth in ME2. In general I think the ME2 crew got pretty seriously shafted after we spent an entire game building them up. 

 

*breathes deeply*

 

Regarding DA3, with the new protagonist for each game, I'm okay with an almost entirely new cast for each game. That said, I'm totally up for what DA2 did and have NPCs (Isabela) or small-time party members (Anders, Merrill) come back, because there's always a 'more to tell/incomplete narrative' element there. Cassandra is kinda like this in DA:I, since she was featured but not immensely prominent in DA2. Varric coming back in DA:I makes some sense due to his role as the narrative framework and involvement with Cassandra, but anybody else would really seem massively forced. Also, Varric didn't really *have* an arc in DA2. He basically started the game the same as he left it. In a lot of ways, it's easy to mark the end of DA2 as the start of Varric's journey, since his comfort zone (Kirkwall) has effectively been destroyed, his brother is insane or dead, and he's being interrogated by an angry Seeker.

 

The only returning character I actively hated was Oghren, because, well, they utterly destroyed all of his nuance and development in DAO by doing it.

[InfinitePaths]

I love the idea of variable companions based on your previous choices!

 

Not from previous games though, it would be confusing to new players and I prefer when the writers think of new characters for new games.

 

Anyhow, I like the idea a lot!For example, I would love to see me getting either companion A or companion B based on which faction I save in a quest.One of these is enough for a single game though,  otherwise developers would have to cut too many corners.

 

 

 

Oh, and this is my 1000th post, yay me 

[windsea]

Personally i like the return party member slot, with the rest being new and returning non-party member. it gives you a nice mix of old and new.

 

A variable slot could be fun to play with but it would need to be in between two character where one is alive no matter what, like with Larius/Janeka 

[SofaJockey]

I do get what you mean:

 

Like having Sebastian OR Anders back as a companion. Alastair OR Lothian.

 

The practical issue is that characters are such an intensive effort - voice acting, animations, plots, banter.

 

That if you've gone to that trouble, have them there all the time unless there's a valuable story reason why not.

[boissiere]

That would be too hard, I think, to put in a game... I don't think they will give you that...

[Jagrevi]

"Alastair or Lothian"

 

...

 

Lol, it took me a minute to figure out who "Lothian" was. I guess not everyone was as fond of him as I was, heh =P. (Love his Voice Actor)