535 réponses à ce sujet

[Crackseed]

Of course DA:I beats Skyrim on main plot as well as companions and companion quests, that was never in doubt. Skyrim just did a much better job of making a world that feels alive than DA:I did. Also, while Skyrim has plenty of fetch quests as well 1) they're not required to advance the story (in DA:I you have to farm these fetch quests to get power to continue the story) and 2)Skyrim also has a ton of interesting, long, and fun, often multipart questlines that actually have story while DA:I only has the fetch quest with the occasional small dungeon but you're never really given a reason to care about any of the quests and any "story" they might involve is given through journal pages and letters you find on the ground. Telling, not showing basically which is bad storytelling. It's hard not to compare the two when BioWare did say they were looking at Skyrim for inspiration.

 

One thing I want to correct you on here Nefla - you don't have to really touch the tiny fetch/kill quests scattered to get more than enough power to move through the game.

 

If you do the large story threads in each zone as well as war table missions and requisitions, you can easily generate enough power to complete the game. I'm doing a complete playthrough (or as much of one as I can my first time through) and even counting the upcoming story mission at 40 power, I am sitting on 160 power right now.

 

There's definitely room to ignore them if you wish to do so and not hurt your enjoyment 

[Nefla]

One thing I want to correct you on here Nefla - you don't have to really touch the tiny fetch/kill quests scattered to get more than enough power to move through the game.

 

If you do the large story threads in each zone as well as war table missions and requisitions, you can easily generate enough power to complete the game. I'm doing a complete playthrough (or as much of one as I can my first time through) and even counting the upcoming story mission at 40 power, I am sitting on 160 power right now.

 

There's definitely room to ignore them if you wish to do so and not hurt your enjoyment 

Except the main zone missions aren't interesting or motivating to me either. The one ok-ish one was Crestwood but most of them seem to be just a string of boring quests instead of one boring quest. Kill some guys at point A, find a letter, kill some guys at point B, find a letter, kill some guys at point C, find a letter, yay. I don't want to those any more than I want to do the shorter ones. What I want is something interesting with a human element (sympathy, revenge, even the promise of awesome and unique treasure, etc...) I don't want the entirety of the quest "story" to be found in letters and codex entries. These generic, bland quests remind me of the typical MMO quests (which I hate) but at least with an MMO you're playing with other real people. I'm just so disappointed, this doesn't seem like BioWare at all.   

[Crackseed]

Except the main zone missions aren't interesting or motivating to me either. The one ok-ish one was Crestwood but most of them seem to be just a string of boring quests instead of one boring quest. Kill some guys at point A, find a letter, kill some guys at point B, find a letter, kill some guys at point C, find a letter, yay. I don't want to those any more than I want to do the shorter ones. What I want is something interesting with a human element (sympathy, revenge, even the promise of awesome and unique treasure, etc...) I don't want the entirety of the quest "story" to be found in letters and codex entries. These generic, bland quests remind me of the typical MMO quests (which I hate) but at least with an MMO you're playing with other real people. I'm just so disappointed, this doesn't seem like BioWare at all.   

 

Ahh I'm sorry you were let down by it.

 

I found quite a few interesting "human elements" in some of the quests - ousting the Templars from Emprise made my blood boil a bit and I legitimately took glee in dismantling all the problems in the Emerald Graves zone story. Crestwood was definitely a highlight.

 

I do think Hinterlands/Storm Coast were...eh in terms of generating much of a reaction. Fallow Mire was neither here nor there.

[Nefla]

Ahh I'm sorry you were let down by it.

 

I found quite a few interesting "human elements" in some of the quests - ousting the Templars from Emprise made my blood boil a bit and I legitimately took glee in dismantling all the problems in the Emerald Graves zone story. Crestwood was definitely a highlight.

 

I do think Hinterlands/Storm Coast were...eh in terms of generating much of a reaction. Fallow Mire was neither here nor there.

It just had so much potential, I wish they'd done more with it

[Firky]

I was in this thread a few pages back having a minor gripe about levels and how I'm not really into them.

But, I'm just popping back in to say I think that the fallow mire is great. I like that there is incentive to stay on the path, and occasional incentive to wade in the water, as it were.

It's also a clear quest, the side quests you find when you get there make sense. I've just found the castle and had my butt handed to me a bunch of times, but this area is my favourite so far.

Not really into the storm coast and the desert place, but I dig this one a lot.

Also, elemental resistances have forced me to take a melee party. I like that a lot.

[Festivus]

Go read a choose your own adventure book if you want a "story driven game".  I like Inquisition and the big, open world.

[DragonAgeLegend]

Go read a choose your own adventure book if you want a "story driven game".  I like Inquisition and the big, open world.

And this is your first post? Nice. 

[Vinitchz]

That's a good start, but were those problems visible? Did it feel like a real village with problems? Could you see or feel the effects of your help? Or was it just an NPC saying "hey we need stuff" and "thank you"? These things can make all the difference.

 

If you complete all the quests in crossroad some of the villagers join the inquisition as agents and, that's it..it's something, but I think it could be more

[mfmaxpower]

I agree with OP. Open world games and strong central narratives don't mix well. 

[In Exile]

Of course DA:I beats Skyrim on main plot as well as companions and companion quests, that was never in doubt. Skyrim just did a much better job of making a world that feels alive than DA:I did. Also, while Skyrim has plenty of fetch quests as well 1) they're not required to advance the story (in DA:I you have to farm these fetch quests to get power to continue the story) and 2)Skyrim also has a ton of interesting, long, and fun, often multipart questlines that actually have story while DA:I only has the fetch quest with the occasional small dungeon but you're never really given a reason to care about any of the quests and any "story" they might involve is given through journal pages and letters you find on the ground. Telling, not showing basically which is bad storytelling. It's hard not to compare the two when BioWare did say they were looking at Skyrim for inspiration.

Again, I think you're completely wrong. Skyrim has some solid side quests, true. But again these quests pale in comparison the the DAI main quest. And Skyrim doesn't have anything that could even come close to rivaling that quest.

As for the living world part, there are just no words to express how much I disagree. Haven and Skyhold are more alive - as in filled with the actual stuff that real humans as opposed to worker ants do - than anything Skyrim has ever done. There are few zones with people in the beside Haven and Skyhold and that's disappointing, and those zones have less scripted ambient dialogues, but what makes a world alive is people hanging out and talking about mundane stuff in their lives, not getting buckets of water and marching around town on a night-day cycle.

While I appreciate you don't like DAI, I just can't agree with you on the substance. I liked DAI when I was in the Hinterlands - the sequence leading to Skyhold IMO is the greatest part of any Bioware game ever. DAI might be my favourite Bioware game over KoTOR and JE. It takes all the parts I didn't like in DAO and fixes them brilliantly.

[byeshoe]

I loved skyrim's sidequests.

The initiation into the thieves guild, the werewolf quest via the companions questline, "The Hangover" quest featuring sam the demigod who wasn't lying about the grotto lit up by lanterns. the quest where you meet a talking dog who kept pushing you off the edge of cliffs! >3> i mean, who you had to bring to the vampire god guy..demigod guy. these are just a few of the sidequests and I'm sure that everyone knows at least one skyrim quest that has stuck with them.

you can't compare skyrim's sidequests to inquisitions lmfao. inquisition has like..fetchquest xD not sidequests. literally all I remember from the quests from the game are saving the people trapped in cages, the companions personals, and that's it. unless we're including the mages vs templars questline and celene ? those are apart of the main quest. not sides. inquisition is its own game and so is skyrim. the only thing they have in common is "open world" gettin real tired of people saying that skyrim's sidequests were shallow, give me a break

[In Exile]

I loved skyrim's sidequests.
The initiation into the thieves guild, the werewolf quest via the companions questline, "The Hangover" quest featuring sam the demigod who wasn't lying about the grotto lit up by lanterns. the quest where you meet a talking dog who kept pushing you off the edge of cliffs! >3> i mean, who you had to bring to the vampire god guy..demigod guy. these are just a few of the sidequests and I'm sure that everyone knows at least one skyrim quest that has stuck with them.
you can't compare skyrim's sidequests to inquisitions lmfao. inquisition has like..fetchquest xD not sidequests. literally all I remember from the quests from the game are saving the people trapped in cages, the companions personals, and that's it. unless we're including the mages vs templars questline and celene ? those are apart of the main quest. not sides. inquisition is its own game and so is skyrim. the only thing they have in common is "open world" gettin real tired of people saying that skyrim's sidequests were shallow, give me a break

The initiative werewolf quest was nothing special. It was a kill quest with a short scene where you became a werewolf. That was it. It's totally the equivalent of the Hinterlands quest where you meet the cult at the fortress.

Like I said: it's one thing to say you prefer the atmosphere in Skyrim, or the writing on the quests, or even the interaction between the quests and Skyrim mechanics. But it's another to say the design varied. 95% of Skyrim quests are fetch or kill quests.

And DAI companion and advisor quests are 100% side quests, not main quests.

[Aaleel]

Never understand why Skyrim side quests catch so much flack.  The guild quests were great IMHO.  The Dark Brotherhood quest line is one of favorite side quest lines in any game I've played.  The story, the characters, Astrid was an awesome character.  Even ones like the break of dawn quest where to woman speaks to you until you bring the crystal you picked up to her shrine, then the quest starts.  The black star quest, and some of the the other daedric quests.  The werewolf quest where you had to hunt down that white stag, then go on to find the werewolf, and finally make a decision at the end.

 

I thought the game did a good job with the side quests.   

[zeypher]

I disagree with the OP. I am loving the fact that this game is more open. If you want only story i suggest you go for story only games like telltale games.

[DragonAgeLegend]

I disagree with the OP. I am loving the fact that this game is more open. If you want only story i suggest you go for story only games like telltale games.

I love telltale games!

[DragonAgeLegend]

Criticising Inquisition for the amount of "fetch quests" and praising Skyrim for lacking that type of quest is laughable.

 

 

Bethesda's writers are... confusing. Some sidequests and the odd character here and there are flashed out and very well written. In comparison, the vast majority of the game's narrative content is very much average.

 

The lore is what puts TES in its own pedestal.

 

I've never really played a Bethesda game, are they that bad?

[Neon Rising Winter]

I've never really played a Bethesda game, are they that bad?

Do you like exploration? They are wonderful for that. Take Skyrim, it's basically a hiking simulator for me. It gives me a plot, I wander off in the general direction of the plot related waypoint. Ooh, something interesting looking in the distance, let's go look at that. Off I go, hike hike, kill kill, explore explore, read books, collect junk, 3 hours later there's now a mountain between me and the plot waypoint, and I've had a wonderful time not getting there. Next session, rinse and repeat. Eventually by some Brownian motion type process I get to the next bit of the plot, I dutifully do plot, and the cycle begins anew.

 

Storywise it's standard fantasy fare. I doubt it will awe and amaze, but I doubt you'll be cringing at it either. That's not what it's about though. It's a brilliant game environment for exploring upon which someone has tacked a story. Honestly, it would have been just as much fun if they hadn't bothered.

 

Short version. If you like exploring - even a tiny bit - try Skyrim. If you are a pure story person pass on it.

[NedPepper]

I'm going to summarize my feelings on a comment that was posted quite a few pages ago.

"Imagine if the Brecilian Forest looked like the Emerald Graves!"

That would be great, sure.  Now, name me one NPC (I won't even get into a an actual quest) as imaginative and entertaining in the Emerald Graves as the Rhyming Tree in Origins.   I'll wait.  Actually, I won't.  Because there isn't one.

 

There is so little connection between the maps and an actual story driven RPG that I almost feel like there were two different development teams.  Which makes sense, because I've never played a Bioware game where I have so many mixed feelings.  It's two games.  An MMO side quest open world attempt that, while very pretty to look at, feels oddly empty and pointless.  And then there's the Bioware game in the main quests with great character, story, and emotion.

How do you fix this game?  You put the Rhyming Tree in the pretty , vast Emerald Graves.  It's such a basic idea...I don't get, for the life of me, how Bioware couldn't see this.  Put the Bioware story in the semi open world.  Give us a reason to WANT to explore.  I hate being negative about the game.  But this thread pretty much captured everything that's been bothering me about this game.  There's such a big disconnect between the maps and the story.  

[tmp7704]

That would be great, sure.  Now, name me one NPC (I won't even get into a an actual quest) as imaginative and entertaining in the Emerald Graves as the Rhyming Tree in Origins.   I'll wait.  Actually, I won't.  Because there isn't one.

Personally I got more chuckle out of the complaining elf in the refugee camp, than the Rhyming Tree ever gave me. Does it count? Also I don't know if I'd call "go fetch me an acorn" an imaginative quest.

While there's no Rhyming Tree in the Emerald Graves I appreciated some nuance put in the Freemen leader's backstory, and some of the vignettes (like that rift researcher) were downright depressing.

[Rahelron]

 

What I'm trying to say is that since Dragon Age Inquisition was a semi open world game I believe that it impacted the length of the story negatively. I really, really hope the next game is filled with smaller areas with a deeper and extremely longer story. There can be a balance with exploration and story, sadly, I don't think DAI found that balance. 

 

I agree with you, but I don't wish there were less areas: I wish there were the same areas with less missions based on finding objects, places and collectibles and more story driven quests.

 

Big areas are great: you get lost while exploring them, you are not forced to do what the game wants you to do and you can progress at your own pace. The problem is that all areas I visited so far in DAI feel empty and boring. This is due to two reasons:

• Almost all side quests are based on finding X objects or places and have no cutscenes. They have no emotional stake and are there only to force the player to explore (something he would probably do anyways).
• Even quests related to the main story of an area have no cutscenes and feel like they are there just to satisfy a point in the required game features list (every area has to have a self-contained story). 

Let me explain the second point with an example. The area-related quest of the Hinterlands is the apostates vs rogue templars struggle. But what does this quest consist in? You have to progress thorugh some templar vs mages fights, then you have to find two camps, clear them and you're done. No cutscene, backstory is delivered by some dialogues and some codex entries you can collect. You don't know why templars went rogue or why apostates aren't in Redcliffe with the other mages. You could argue that in this case you get the context of the mages vs templars struggle progressing through the main quest, but that is not the point. All area related quests are more or less connected to the main storyline and that allows the player to understand what's going on. What is lacking is depth in the quests themselves: emotional stakes, meaningful choices, some cutscene.

 

Please Bioware: in your next DA installment keep it up with your semi open world philosophy, but get rid of at least half of your boring find X object quests and replace them with interesting story driven missions. If you have to make the world a little bit smaller because story driven missions are expansive to make then do it, I prefer it that way.

[Darkly Tranquil]

I disagree with the OP. I am loving the fact that this game is more open. If you want only story i suggest you go for story only games like telltale games.

What about those of us who liked the style of the first two games in the Dragon Age series and who are displeased that by the fact that our preferred game style has been cast aside to cater to the sandbox crowd? I guess we should all just shove off, eh?

[RSX Titan]

What about those of us who liked the style of the first two games in the Dragon Age series and who are displeased that by the fact that our preferred game style has been cast aside to cater to the sandbox crowd? I guess we should all just shove off, eh?

Game developers adapt from time to time and so should gamers. If you don't like the direction then save your $60 bucks and move onto something else. I say that as someone who doesn't love DAI and is having trouble even being motivated enough to finish the game. That's a first for me playing a Bioware game. It wasn't a bad first attempt at a semi-open world game but their lack of experience with this format shows.

[tmp7704]

What about those of us who liked the style of the first two games in the Dragon Age series and who are displeased that by the fact that our preferred game style has been cast aside to cater to the sandbox crowd? I guess we should all just shove off, eh?

Basically yes, if you dislike the new elements to the point it prevents you from enjoying the game then you're pretty much out of luck.

But since it's perfectly possible to enjoy both DAO style and this new one (I know I did) you may be focusing on these sandbox elements more than they're worth.

[Kalas82]

I loved the "open world" in this game. The art-direction was just amazing, sure there are games with real open worlds, but Bioware created in my humble opinion the most "organic" feeling enviroments in this game (they just need to improve on their desert-enviroments).

Besides i realy liked having my group and the OPTION to get to know them better (by banter) and the OPTION to grind/lvl-up while still getting somewhat to know the Dragon Age world better.

Thinking how this was Biowares first attemp to an semi open world in 3D, it was just amazing. If they build on this fundament and include more side-quest like in Origins (with real npc-conversations) and a more dynamic approach to your Actions affecting the story-line i'd be just amazing.

I'm currently nearing my 200hours played with this game -> sure a lot of things could've been done better, but my addiction is mostly grounded in the fact that i get a somewhat virtual rpg-world to explore, just like in the good ol Baldurs Gate days.

 

And frankly i don't want anymore corridor games from Bioware, ME and DA up untill now are enough, imho the DA:I approach can provide alot more Immersion than the previous "onrails"-gamedesign. I understand some people will always like their sequels to just be a slightly improved version of the original...but that get's old pretty quick  for me atleast.