Hey guys,
Whether you like DA:I combat or not, it is quite apparent that Bioware does not consider tactical party RPG's to be financially feasible for this generation of hardware. Right now, most people will have to agree that the combat system in DA:I is 'acceptable' at best. It doesn't have quite the weight of Dark Souls combat or the accuracy/timing of Skyrim combat. A large reason the combat is like this is because it allows for some degree of tactical control utilizing all your party members.
To me, the next logical step which could actually improve the combat greatly, is removing party members (who can be controlled manually) from the equation. I know, Bioware games usually lean heavily on party banters and such - that's why I think it might still be feasible to have perhaps one non controllable NPC with you in the next DA games. It would be a heckuva lot easier to make responsive, skill based combat when Bioware only has to consider one or two party members in all.
The Mass Effect series has the benefit of FPS mechanics which invoke skill. The Dragon Age series used to have it's (old school) tactical mechanics - which have since then been stripped away. I'm trying to form a concept in my head on how this will evolve over their next games. Again, I'm not trying to say it's inherently bad they they aimed for more action oriented combat, I just think they should go the full mile.
What do you guys think?
EDIT: added my second post (which is on the first page) here because people didn't notice it
I had a lot of fun reading through the comments and it seems clear that the vast majority of you guys/gals see party based combat as something integral to the Bioware/DA experience, and that's fine. The lack of my own opinion in the OP was intentional because I didn't want to completely derail the thread from the start.
Personally I'm a huge fan of party based RPG's such as the older Infinity Engine games and DA:O was a fine addition to that list. Action RPG's like Skyrim (I agree, it's combat is the worst part of it even though I've been a fan of the series FPS like controls since Daggerfall) and Dark Souls also rank highly on my 'best of' lists. Dragon Age Inquisition however doesn't have a combat system that I can thoroughly enjoy, it doesn't give me the feeling that I'm actually in control of my party members. The tactical camera usually doesn't zoom out enough to give a full overview of the battle which forces me to use the 'action view', which I wouldn't really mind if the combat was more visceral and had more weight to it.
Be mindful everyone, I'm -only- talking about the combat here (as in the opening post). I know combat in Bioware games isn't something everyone thinks is important, that's fine. However, a lot of people, myself included, really like the tactical part of RPG's and probably feel that Bioware might not be making those type of games in the future. Which is fine to me as long as they manage to make the more action oriented combat (this meaning manually placing your attacks by doing button presses in contrast to auto attacking and queuing commands) feel more responsive and accurate like in Dark Souls. I felt like the reason that hadn't been done in DA:I is because Bioware sticked to having a party - I wasn't aware on how Dragon's Dogma was doing this the right way. Hence my opening post.
As you see I'm not really in favor of either action or tactical combat. I just hope they manage to create a more interesting combat system in the next installment of the DA franchise.
Retour en haut
(You should totally join the Dragon's Dogma pawn sharing thread on GameFAQs) The story in DD is original although like Skyrim it's a background thing (Which sucks. I'd love a more rich and involved story with the kind of gameplay that DD has.) The gameplay however is damn near flawless. I LOVE the combat system, I love the way you can have a single player experience and yet still a community experience through pawn-sharing. And did I mention how damn amazing their character creator is? HOLY CRAP THE OPTIONS!
