21 réponses à ce sujet

[Hobbes]

Main quests - Great
 
Main companion quests - Great
 
Side quests - What happened?
 
 
The main quests for this game as usual are fairly strong, same goes for the main companion quests we encounter along the way, but for the side quests, at least in my eyes, they seem to have hit a bit of a stumbling block.  
 
 
To me it seems as if the side quests within this game have reduced to nothing more than filler content used to only help get from point A to B in the main quest with power and to "fill" the now larger areas.  The world feels a little lifeless at times, with the parts of the maps that are filled with people only serving to be part of the background.  We need quests like we used to have that had a little more depth and interaction.  I want to be able to get to know these people I'm supposed to be saving, at least to some degree.  Give me a choice like in the past, where I could choose how I deal with a situation; let me talk to these people, not just a fetch/kill quest where in the end the majority of the time I'm just left with some letter to read or some random loot.
 
 
Another thing is that the basic premises for some of these fetch quests isn't all that bad.  I remember being in the Hinterlands and found some letter with a Templar brother challenging his Apostate brother to a duel.  "Fantastic!"  I thought, perfect moment and idea to capitalise on the Mage/Templar conflict with a more personal moment.  I go to the quest marker expecting...something and instead there is a body and of...I guess one of the brothers?  It would be nice if you could grab at least a few of these moments and expand on them.
 
 
Fetch quests of course aren't a new thing to a Bioware games, but in the past they existed alongside the other more involved quests that seem to have gotten lost along the way this time round.  I do agree that fetch quests to some degree are unavoidable and arguably needed in a larger game such as this, but I think a balance needs to be found.  Their MMO SWTOR had fairly large open areas and still managed to have some involving side quests, so I don't think it is impossible for them.
 
 
I play Bioware games for their story; it has always been one of the defining factors of your games.  One thing I loved about them was that it wasn't just the main story, but how, unlike many other RPGS, you seemed to give just as much focus to the smaller moments.  It is this I feel is missing for a large part in the game this time round.  
 
 
 
TL;DR:  Ramble ramble, disappointed in the lack of involved side quests and domination of fetch quests.

[Uriko128]

I agree that there's too useless quests. They should have reduced the amount of trashy quests and make less more-quality quests. But I suppose they needed an excuse to make you wander the enormous maps.

[Hobbes]

I'm with you on that one and giving an excuse to wander the maps is fine to a degree.  I just think it would have been better to also have things that get us more involved in those maps, that would truly make us want to explore, for more than just completionist sake.  Give us a mixture I say.

 

Right til the end I kept holding out hope that a quest would lead to something more but it was just fetch quest after fetch quest, with no heart or meaning behind it.

 

I remember towards the start of the game there was this guy in the Hinterlands from Redcliffe who wanted to find his friend, a ram I believe?  I find it, can't really make heads or tails of it so in the end shoot it, it turns into a demon and I kill it.  I'm then looking around for someone, anyone to comment.  Nobody finds that strange, no one cares about what just happened?  I make my way back to the original guy, finally find him and nothing...he has nothing to say on the matter.  Your ram friend just turned into a demon and I killed it....and you have nothing to say?  

 

It just makes everything just feel so empty.

[Spooky81]

My sentiments too.  TOR had wonderful side quests tied in with the planet/zone's storyline, so BioWare has the capacity to still do this(i hope).  Right now i'm taking back ground in the Emprise Du Lion.  Where it should feel like an epic siege/battle facing the Inquistion vs their enemies, it's feels empty and meaningless - but the environment looks great.

[Tsunami Chef]

You guys ever think why they didn't expand upon those moments is because they already have a 40 hour long main story...10 dragon fights, a deep crafting system, more companion dialogue than has ever been in the history of  a bioware game, as well as more dialogue period than any other bioware game.

 

 

What other game in history that wasn't extremely short can say they were great or even good in all 3 categories? The only game I can think of is Mass Effect 2...and even then it was microscopic in comparison to this game...which Bioware has said all along was open world.  ( if you say Origins I will punch a baby. origins had absolutely horrible sidequests that didn't even have dialogue most of the time.)

[Sprenk]

I have a suggestion. Don't do all the side quests. There are way too many. Just do the ones that fit with your goals and your sense of the story. Having a massive amount of content should be a good thing, not a subject of complaint.

[Requiemslove]

The thing of it is though, they do not NEED to give us an excuse to wander the regions. Give us game and we shall play it Bioware. Filler quest after filler quest more about getting us to go a specific place to see these lands are still filler quests. I very much agree with the OP this game could really do with either less yet more quality quests, or simply modify some of the quests via a patch or whatever to BE MORE INVOLVING. The Templar brother Mage brother quest to continue the OPs sentiment should allow you to witness the brothers either fighting each other, or threatening too, and if given the chance to stop them before they spill each others blood, we then get to go on another quest which ties in with the fighting between the too disparate groups...that's all the better. Heck, maybe we can get some powerful siblings to further strengthen the inquisition? My point is exactly as the OP has said already, too many quests are over before you even really do anything of note, and IMO are not deserving of the word.

[Hobbes]

I have a suggestion. Don't do all the side quests. There are way too many. Just do the ones that fit with your goals and your sense of the story. Having a massive amount of content should be a good thing, not a subject of complaint.

 

It's not a matter of there being too many side-quests to do, but the fact that there are none to do with any substance. 

 

 

You guys ever think why they didn't expand upon those moments is because they already have a 40 hour long main story...10 dragon fights, a deep crafting system, more companion dialogue than has ever been in the history of  a bioware game, as well as more dialogue period than any other bioware game.

 

 

What other game in history that wasn't extremely short can say they were great or even good in all 3 categories? The only game I can think of is Mass Effect 2...and even then it was microscopic in comparison to this game...which Bioware has said all along was open world.  ( if you say Origins I will punch a baby. origins had absolutely horrible sidequests that didn't even have dialogue most of the time.)

Well, I suppose that's a matter of opinion.  I for one really enjoyed the side-quests in DA:O, they were fun and helped expand on the minor characters in the world, showed you more of who these people you were saving were, instead of them being prop pieces like they are now.  I would say take a look at almost any other Bioware RPG for examples of fun side-quests, like I also said SWTOR did a fair job of side quests in an open world setting.  I'm not asking for a big grand tale on the side, just something with a little more depth and interaction than go get this and kill that.

 

Also if the choice is between greater vast areas like we have now and perhaps something on a slightly smaller scale with more depth, then I suppose what I'm suggesting is to perhaps go with that instead.

[Spooky81]

You guys ever think why they didn't expand upon those moments is because they already have a 40 hour long main story...10 dragon fights, a deep crafting system, more companion dialogue than has ever been in the history of  a bioware game, as well as more dialogue period than any other bioware game.

 

 

What other game in history that wasn't extremely short can say they were great or even good in all 3 categories? The only game I can think of is Mass Effect 2...and even then it was microscopic in comparison to this game...which Bioware has said all along was open world.  ( if you say Origins I will punch a baby. origins had absolutely horrible sidequests that didn't even have dialogue most of the time.)

 

As much as I enjoy the custom crafting, unique dragons and vast, open areas, I would have settled for a compromise for more of what makes BioWare stand out from it's competitor's - their epic storytelling.

 

Hope there isn't a baby in sight, but Origins DID have better sidequests.  With the Dalish, you could either help them and earn their goodwill or have fun by annoying them(sabotage Camnen/Gheyna's relationship, tease and torment the elf wanting to find out about his wife, ****** off the keeper's helper by stealing the book).  Orzammar also had meaningful sides(to help or not help Dagna, finding and deciding what to do w/ Ruck, so on and so on).  Point being, they felt fulfilling and meaningful to complete.

[Tsunami Chef]

As much as I enjoy the custom crafting, unique dragons and vast, open areas, I would have settled for a compromise for more of what makes BioWare stand out from it's competitor's - their epic storytelling.

 

Hope there isn't a baby in sight, but Origins DID have better sidequests.  With the Dalish, you could either help them and earn their goodwill or have fun by annoying them(sabotage Camnen/Gheyna's relationship, tease and torment the elf wanting to find out about his wife, ****** off the keeper's helper by stealing the book).  Orzammar also had meaningful sides(to help or not help Dagna, finding and deciding what to do w/ Ruck, so on and so on).  Point being, they felt fulfilling and meaningful to complete.

...

 

Okay. How are those massively better than the Crestwood sidequest Where you have to stop the rift in the lake, while in the process you take over a castle, meet the mayor, find out the old townspeoples fate, and eventually get to sentence the mayor if you so choose. After which the village talks about the changes, the entire area looks completely different and you see villagers out and about.

 

Or the storms coast sidequest where if you craft the medallion you can duel the leader of their bandits and then take over the group for yourself.

 

Or you going to the fallowed mire to save your soldiers and fight the avvar chieftain...after which you get to sentence a goat throwing chasind leader to hilarious different ends.

 

 

 

 

 

The dagna sidequest was literally you talking to her for a minute, walking back to the circle and talking to someone, and then telling her she could go. That sidequest would have had literally NO resonance unless they played it out like they did in Dragon Age inquisition....which if we are calling Dagna's a sidequest in DA:O, she is also a sideuqest in DA;I since she has even more dialogue in DA:I than she does in DA:O, and also plays a much larger role.

 

The ruck quest was you finding an insane Dwarf in the deep roads and then u telling his mom later.

 

I loved DA:O, but the sidequests outside of companion based ones weren't good...or maybe they were at the time, but do you really think if those sidequests were in this game they would be considered good? In reality how is the gheyna quest any better than the quest where you find the inquis soldier having a date with the mage? Other than we hadn't experienced a quest like it before then.

 

People are insulting DA:I like the lack of sidequest "quality" somehow detracted from the main story, which is still ****** massive and perfectly sizeable in comparison to every other Bioware RPG made in history. It's like you got too many fries in your mcdonalds meal and then you complain because you were only going to eat the burger anyways.

Do people realize how much more dialogue/skyhold events there are for each companion even in comparison to the smaller amount of comapions in DA:O? I really think people take this game for granted...as if every bioware game has had as much QUALITY (STORY/DIALOGUE) content as this game...which it hasn't. DA:O's base game without mods/expansions is so small compared to this game (A quality story RPG that was the best game of it's time maybe), but still tiny.

[Hobbes]

Personally I would say where they falter is the interaction with the characters during those quests, you do what you need and then it's done.  That's even within the quests you gave examples for.  Also I mentioned the main companion quests were well done, I'm talking about the quests outside the main characters.  

 

I wanted to also add that the current side quests within DAI do not detract from game in and of themselves, but the lack of the more involved/interactive side quests in addition to those ones do.

[Sand]

In general I find the side quest to be lacking, yes there are a few good ones but for the most part in all the major areas they all followed the same pattern. I think part of the difference with DAO is that while the fetch quest nature of it is similar, many of the side quest in DAO have multiple outcomes, each required thought and understanding and sometimes outcomes were dependent on other quest you did. I could be wrong, but I just felt there was a lot more of that in DAO.

 

Also what I think made the side quest in DAO better was that the side quest often could be completed while pursuing the main quest, since the paths  crossed. This made them easier to complete, and it allowed the momentum of the main quest to still be constant. While in DAI I felt like I often had to go out of my way to solve the multitude of side quest which were often too alike in structure and gameplay and had no relevance to the main plot. I understand that they can be skipped, but the issue here is in improving the side quest and hence the overall quality of the game.

 

I would like also see more of stuff like the bandits at the storm coast, where there was different ways to approach the quest, leading to different gameplay outcomes. And there could also be ways to try to tie this to the main quest in a more substantial manner.

[Samooryesord]

I was extremely disappointed with the side quests in this game. They feel meaningless with the short dialogue of basically "Help me!" and then the quest just shows up in your journal. The quests themselves have no story to them.. it's just go to point A, complete objective (Usually interact with an object or kill a few enemies). I feel like every side quest is straight out of an MMO, because they have no purpose other then to gain +1 power or MAYBE some useless junk.

 

And when completing quests! OMG this is the part that annoys me the most. The NPC basically thanks you and you are on your way. I realize this is probably how events would play out in real life. If I find someones wallet on the streets and I return it to them i'd get a thank you and possibly a small reward for being the honest guy. But this is a fantasy world where rules are munipulated and bent to serve our imaginations! I want a damn novel of a story behind every quest. I want that wallet to have a journey beyond just "Opps I must have left my wallet in said place, can you go fetch it?" I want every side quest to at least feel like i'm completing something or making a visible change in the game.

 

I'm just glad I only ran into one escort quest so far.. that damn Druffalo.. Walks sooooo slooooow!

[Uriko128]

At least Origins had a lot of "choice" involved in the sidequests. It wasn't just "go here, kill/take this, deliver", I feel that in origins there was a lot of ways to do the same quest. In DAI there's really just one way to do most of the sidequets.

[Joxer]

I have a suggestion. Don't do all the side quests. There are way too many. Just do the ones that fit with your goals and your sense of the story. Having a massive amount of content should be a good thing, not a subject of complaint.

I have another suggestion. Do all the side quests. There are definetly not to many of those and some are fun.

 

Don't skip quests, skip grinding. Herbs and mats are cheap at merchants. Don't gather stuff for requisitions (useless +1 power), sell it instead. And definetly wait for norespawn mod.

[Gadarr]

Personally I would say where they falter is the interaction with the characters during those quests, you do what you need and then it's done.

 

I really don't get it. To be sure, DA:O was a great game back then, although I'm generally not too fond of 'save the world'-storylines, but the same is true for DA:I of course.

 

Anyway, every time I look into these forums I get the feeling that I'm playing a completely different game than some people do. You do what needs to be done and it's over? Sure, the same is true for DA:O where your side quest choices didn't matter at all in the end. But it's simply not true that you don't have any deeper interaction or no choices when it comes to side quests - there's at least one in every region that gives you a choice with sometimes very different outcomes, even when it mostly concerns the personal fate of one guy or another - which is in no way different from Origins. There are usually others that, while lacking real choice, let you alter the surroundings. You can build a harbor, build bridges, claim keeps. And all of that ties directly into your main objective, even if it's completely optional and doesn't noticeably have any real effect on your fight against Corypheus. Some of those side quests open up unique dungeons. They're not huge, sure, but I can't remember a single side quest in DA:O that featured anything like this.

 

It's perfectly okay not to like DA:I and the way the game handles quests and other stuff. But to say that there are no meaningful sidequests, no choices, no interaction is a blatant lie. They are quite often much deeper than their counterparts in DA:O back in the day. The difference is probably that you could do those with little to no extra effort while following the main storyline. That has indeed changed and it may very well be that this is the core of the problem.

[duckley]

I have a suggestion. Don't do all the side quests. There are way too many. Just do the ones that fit with your goals and your sense of the story. Having a massive amount of content should be a good thing, not a subject of complaint.

Especially since this was such a big complaint about DA2.  Just goes to show you how hard it is to please people. It is so much easier to chose NOT to do some content, than to want content that doesnt exist!

[Hobbes]

I really don't get it. To be sure, DA:O was a great game back then, although I'm generally not too fond of 'save the world'-storylines, but the same is true for DA:I of course.

 

Anyway, every time I look into these forums I get the feeling that I'm playing a completely different game than some people do. You do what needs to be done and it's over? Sure, the same is true for DA:O where your side quest choices didn't matter at all in the end. But it's simply not true that you don't have any deeper interaction or no choices when it comes to side quests - there's at least one in every region that gives you a choice with sometimes very different outcomes, even when it mostly concerns the personal fate of one guy or another - which is in no way different from Origins. There are usually others that, while lacking real choice, let you alter the surroundings. You can build a harbor, build bridges, claim keeps. And all of that ties directly into your main objective, even if it's completely optional and doesn't noticeably have any real effect on your fight against Corypheus. Some of those side quests open up unique dungeons. They're not huge, sure, but I can't remember a single side quest in DA:O that featured anything like this.

 

It's perfectly okay not to like DA:I and the way the game handles quests and other stuff. But to say that there are no meaningful sidequests, no choices, no interaction is a blatant lie. They are quite often much deeper than their counterparts in DA:O back in the day. The difference is probably that you could do those with little to no extra effort while following the main storyline. That has indeed changed and it may very well be that this is the core of the problem.

I suppose when it really comes down to it, we are just looking for something different from the quests.  I'm looking for something more personal in regards to the interactions with the people within the quest.  Not interactions with items or buildings or herbs or monsters etc.   That is the type of interaction I am looking for, that is what is missing for the most part.

 

I'll give you a small example where I had a nice pleasant surprise.  I can't remember the exact area and I'm going off my memory, but it involved finding a dying/dead man, getting a confession from him on how he wanted to make amends by telling the truth on how accidentally killed a loved ones brother.  Then when you find the person you can tell the truth or choose not to tell them about her brother.  Sure it was still a little short and  simple, but it had a bit more finality to it and I got little more insight and input.

 

Also to make it clear, I never said I didn't like DA:I as a whole, I just find the side-quests for the largest part, incredibly lacking and impersonal.  They for me personally, were a big part of what I loved about Bioware and Dragon Age games in particular.  Maybe with feedback they'll think about changing the way they do some side-quests in future games...well probably not....but one can hope lol. 

[Sartoz]

What happened is that you will miss much because of the paths you take. This game requires multiple playthroughs to see everything.

 

I've done three incomplete playthroughs, so far. One I just conquesred a KEEP the remaining two I'm in the Hiterlands and just opened up the Storm Coast.

 

Already I noticed some differences between the three.

[DarkKnightHolmes]

Agreed. These side quests don't even have any bloody choices to make in them. Just an excuse to get higher level really.

[Gadarr]

 

Also to make it clear, I never said I didn't like DA:I as a whole, I just find the side-quests for the largest part, incredibly lacking and impersonal.  They for me personally, were a big part of what I loved about Bioware and Dragon Age games in particular.  Maybe with feedback they'll think about changing the way they do some side-quests in future games...well probably not....but one can hope lol. 

 

Thanks for the clarification. I'm not sure I'd agree, but it's probably true that DA:I has fewer side quests that are both 'personal' in the way you describe it and at the same time memorable. There are exceptions though, like that guy in the Emerald Graves and the rumors about his noble background. Or the mayor of Crestwood, if you catch him via the war table later.

[Hobbes]

There are for sure, I'd just like to see more of it.

 

Another example of something I thought was fun, while perhaps not a side quest exactly, but a series of War Table missions, was the series of missions with Sutherland.  It was really cool picking him up out on the field and then slowly growing him as he eventually got stronger, built his own group up and in the end started up his own Keep (I think that's what it was).  That was really engaging and I'd absolutely love to see more of things like that.

 

What happened is that you will miss much because of the paths you take. This game requires multiple playthroughs to see everything.

 

I've done three incomplete playthroughs, so far. One I just conquesred a KEEP the remaining two I'm in the Hiterlands and just opened up the Storm Coast.

 

Already I noticed some differences between the three.

I'll have to keep an eye out for it.  I'm starting my second playthrough tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.