54 réponses à ce sujet

[CuriousArtemis]

I would say Portal gets a 10/10.

I agree with the OP about the companions. I don't feel anything near the connection I felt between the DA2 companions and Hawke... Ahh, Hawke! He was a real person, with a personality, and faults and flaws but good points, too. My inquisitor is a noble-minded emotionless lump.

The DAO companions also had a closer bond with the Warden (another soulless emotionless lump) than DAI companions have with the Inquisitor. Maybe it's the fact that I spend 5 hours planting flags and hoarding golden halla in between each conversation I have with them. Hmmm.

This game desperately needs mods, which is really sad. In order to appreciate the main story I need to be able to attain power and level up without spending 15 hours in each map doing fetch quests. Casual mode is not casual enough to let me do that. And indeed I don't really want to play on casual; I just want to play through the game at a proper pace so I can enjoy the story and characters.

[Althix]

Related but quickly forgotten except for perhaps a comment here or there.

yeah but if i, as a player, can't remember it, what's the point?

 

three years later i still remember some of Skyrim's side quests and characters. Few weeks after DAI release i hardly remember anything but how average main plot is, and how pale Corypheus looks as a main bad guy.

[Natureguy85]

I haven't finished DA:I yet, so I can't yet comment on the full picture.

 

However! Seeing as I recently replayed DA:O, I feel compelled to point out something: Using DA:O as an example done well is really strange to me.

 

+ For one, you bribed your companions to give you approval via gifts instead of any organic relationship progression. (You can argue that you didn't have to do this, but in general you only earned a few plus points with your story decisions, could still earn massive disapproval points which were hard to earn back -- while the gifts gave you a solid +40 alltogether.)

 

+ Second, in about 85% of all protag-companion talks, there was no organic conversation. Instead, you interviewed them on their backstory. They practically never asked you questions (with the exeption of Wynne) in return. Instead, you ask a question and then get a long tale of backstory. That's it, that's your DA:O relationship building right here. Sure, you know more infomation about them, but it's an uninteresting and impersonal dynamic.

 

+ Third, because it was so difficult to earn approval points outside of gifts+romance, you were highly encouraged to metagame. Take DA2: You can gain a MASSIVE amount of points with Anders, so losing a few by, say, turning him down? Not a big deal. If it's not a big deal, you can actually roleplay and pick the options that are in character for your protag and see where you end up. In DA:O, if you lose 10 points and you know Alistair needs 75+ points to have his hardening conversation which you need for the ending you're going for... well, you're gonna think a lot more carefully about how much your in character reaction will set you back vs. simple metagaming and agreeing with everyone about everything. 10 points in DA:O weren't that easy to earn back outside of the first gifts or a romance.

 

I like some of DA:O's characters, but in-game they don't really feel like they have a soul. I generally have to try hard if I want to imagine that my DA:O protag has an emotional bond with them. They have a lot of potential, sure, but believable friendship? Not so much.

 

DA2 felt a lot more organic: Conversations between Hawke+companion were, in general, an actual back-and-forth organic conversation. The rivalry system didn't always make complete sense but it was a nice way to customise your protag and actually have the companions treat different protags differently. No need for metagaming, too. It also had scenes where you found companions interacting with each other when you arrived! That was really neat. Honestly, I know DA2 gets a lot of hate, but its companion system is just so much better than DA:O.

 

So far DA:I seems to do okay for conversations that have the zoomed in cutscene!camera. Not so much for zoomed out interviews.

 

 

Anyway, point being: You're definitely entitled to your opinion, but I object to the idea that DA:O relationships had more soul.

 

Well thought out, but the big difference between the Warden and Hawke was the Warden was a lot more open the being shaped by the player where Hawke was a more defined character. This may be why there was more back and forth in DA2.

Morrigan will also ask the Warden a question or two.

[Lukas Trevelyan]

DA:O had a much longer main plot than 8 hours. Claiming companions and connection most players had to those were superior in DA:I over DA:O seems outright ridiculous to me, or similar to that previous claim: revisionist. Since these people are not paid a single dime by BW or EA, I wonder whether it's just some minor form of delusion that kicks in, the urge to defend the new over the old while smearing the latter in the process to make the new look better, no matter how ridiculous it seems.

Actually that's not very true. You get the prolouge which is around 1-1:30 hours long. Then you get the 3 treaties quests, each can be completed in an hour, give or take (Orzammar can take a while though). You also have redcliffe which also can take an hour to 2, so that's approximately 6-7 hours. Then you get Landsmeet which can also take an hour to two, and the final battle which can take an hour. Resulting in a grand total of 10-11 hours. That's not really much longer though it does feel a bit longer  The difference is Dragon Age Inquistions doesn't have the Origins quest, and is generally a main quest content behind Origins.

[Lukas Trevelyan]

Whether you connect to your companions can be highly subjective OP. This game's relationship build up is frankly much better than DA:O (I actually liked DA2's build up as well). I honestly have never connected with characters in any game before as much as I have with Cassandra and Cole, and I enjoyed Dorian, Solas, Blackwall and Vivienne's company. But I hated Sera, and I was able to lecture her but she still disapproved so I kicked her out, sad and negative yes but I loved the development and emotional build up.