229 réponses à ce sujet

[AWTEW]

A wet blanket of boring.

Yes, we exist..the much feared people who like a mostly set protagonist in RPGs. I constantly, see people going on, and on ,about how their inquiisitor is this, this, and this, and that's fine, and good for you. But for those of us who like more set protagonists, this game felt rather disconnected from the main character..

The Warden had their origin story, and other things that made them fine in DAO, but in Inquisition it was just meh. No matter, what type of response you picked: nine times out of ten, it was bland and boring.(Which was obviously done, as not to upset people who head canon).



Hawke, had enough of both ways, (but could have, maybe, a little bit more headcannon room for those who like that.)

Yes, I'm aware its a role playing game. But a role does not nesscarily mean, that all of us want to think so much about it. Some of us just want to get to know a protagonist, switch them up a little bit, and not think of the entire thing ourselves. (And yes I'm using plurals because i know people who feel the same way, but I'm not saying that the entireity of the world does, or the whole fanbase)

It just felt like, the entire game, did not take those of us how like more set characters into consideration, at all. Hawke I liked, because it satisfied me enough that i could enjoy getting to know hawke, but with the inquisitor its like, 'meh, who is this person why should I care?'

So in DA4 it would be nice, if those of us who mostly don't headcannon could have a more set protagonist, but have enough 'choice' for those who like headcannoning.

Thoughts?

Note: I mean more balanced, and not for a completly set character.

[Nefla]

I feel like they didn't give us much variation as far as personality choices (and you couldn't be evil) also none of the side quests (aside from companion quests if you consider them in the same category) allowed for any kind of character building or choice.

[Hobbes]

I agree.

I mean, I try to headcanon, but I need more to build from.  A number of the choices for the dialogue feel like the same things with a tiny variation and like Nefla said, the side quests didn't allow for a lot of character building.  Also it's hard to explain and put my finger on it, but they felt a bit...blank?  Like sometimes it felt as if they didn't really exist in the world.  For example, Josie would ask you a few questions, so did Cass I think...but then it was never referenced again...so what was the point?  It definitely felt something similar to an experience we'd get in a game such as the Elder Scrolls.

 

They didn't feel alive, at least not to me.  

[ReiKokoFuuu]

i actually felt that hawke was very much a blank slate (as far as personality went) and didn't feel very connected to him/her until i came across a fanfic that i fell in love with.  the author used the sarcastic hawke as a basis for his personality and really fleshed it out.  from that point on, i liked hawke as a character in their own right and i guess that's when i actually started roleplaying more, trying to flesh out my characters, make them feel more "real".  i've always been one to enjoy using imagination though.

 

i think that, as long as you're the type of person who likes to give your characters their own background and personality, the inquisitor leaves you plenty of creative room and i don't see that as necessarily a bad thing.

[ArtemisMoons]

If you talk to josephine in haven, you can give yourself some additional back story other than the starting stuff.

[AWTEW]

I agree.
I mean, I try to headcannon, but I need more to build from.  A number of the choices for the dialogue feel like the same things with a tiny variation and like Nefla said, the side quests didn't allow for a lot of character building.  Also it's hard to explain and put my finger one, but they felt a bit...blank?  Like sometimes it felt as if they didn't really exist in the world.  For example, Josie would ask you a few questions, so did Cass I think...but then it was never referenced again...so what was the point?  It definitely felt something similar to an experience we'd get in a game such as the Elder Scrolls.
 
They didn't feel alive, at least not to me.

I noticed that with Cass and Josie too, as well as the other companions, and I felt that it also impacted the companions in a way. Like they felt distant from the inquisitor, even though they weren't, and I dont know how to describe it better than that.  

i actually felt that hawke was very much a blank slate (as far as personality went) and didn't feel very connected to him/her until i came across a fanfic that i fell in love with.  the author used the sarcastic hawke as a basis for his personality and really fleshed it out.  from that point on, i liked hawke as a character in their own right and i guess that's when i actually started roleplaying more, trying to flesh out my characters, make them feel more "real".  i've always been one to enjoy using imagination though.
 
i think that, as long as you're the type of person who likes to give your characters their own background and personality, the inquisitor leaves you plenty of creative room and i don't see that as necessarily a bad thing.

I never said it was a bad thing, for those type of people who like to do that, but not all of us do.

I don't have much of an imagination for game protagonists, and I just can't game like that. I and others like me/similar to me need to be given more than a 90% blank state. I respect those that can headcannon , and I even agree that hawke needed more room for that style, but meh the inquisitor leans to far in the other direction.

Hawke had personalities that helped me understand them, and the wardens origin gave me enough story interaction to understand. But the inquisitor, is just a random character who got a mark on their hand, all interactions and their icons sound the same. I would play skyrim if I wanted that blankness, and I personally hate skyrim.

[AlexMBrennan]

Thoughts?

You get to establish your character's backstory through optional conversations after some time playing the game - that sounds like a bad idea to me, but I guess that's why my day job isn't making games.

[Gothfather]

I have no idea what the original poster is talking about.

 

There is not a single example given to get  frame of reference and all we get is a, "in Origins I could..." comment that doesn't actually further the topic at hand.

 

I found LOTS of choice in how I reacted to becoming the Herald of Andraste, and how I would respond to this title on MULTIPLE situations. I have no idea how you played tha game but I found if I picked a path of the inquisition and played my character based on that direction/goal/belief I got an enjoyable game even when I didn't pick the best mechanic results. I played my first game as a true believer which was really enjoyable and I am playing my second game as someone who has no idea if it is chance or divine providence.

 

I could be sarcastic in many dialogue, I could be an angry individual or stoic. I could play the scholar type granted it required me to invest my perks into dialogue options. The fact remains that you have choice in the game. I think people look back on Origins with rose colour glasses and forget that one of the first quests you get after the fall of Ostagar is a go kill X spiders to collect X glands for my traps. A mechanically 100% identical quest to go kill X rams for X ram meat to feed the starving refugees. But somehow DA:I quests are sucky and MMO-esque and Origins has these deep and meaningful side quests. I can't think of a single SIDE quest in Origins that had meaningful choice. The quests that gave you meaningful choice were all part of the main quest getting the treaties. Even the much reference talking tree/ mad hermit was part of the main questline to get deeper into the woods to resolve the Dalish treaty main questline. I do agree that in Inquisition you are more retrained in your options but that is a direct result in the fact that you are trying to help create and then helm a new quasi-religious / quasi-military organization. The psychotic warden/hawke option doesn't work in this game because you'd be locked up by the very organization you are set to lead.

 

I get some people are just NOT going to like the story and/or the game. Thats just the way games are they can't be all things to all people, but if you can't find a way to make the Inquisitor intresting that isn't because Bioware hasn't given you options to explore, its simple because the game just doesn't resonate with you. But bare in mind that the game resonates with LOTS of people, It has done well in game reviews and has been well recieved by the industry.

 

So just accept that the game isn't for you even if you wanted it to be.

[AEve1]

I remember just one line that gave me any insight into my Inquisitor's personality. I was on my second playthrough, trying out an aggressive Mquisitor, and had the option (during In Your Heart Shall Burn) of choosing an angry-fist line that was supposed to carry the meaning, "i'm not afraid of you!" My (British) Mquisitor opened his mouth and stammered out, "I'm not.. I'm not afraid of you..." and I thought, wow, he's freaking terrified. Considered reloading and choosing a more stoic option, but it was actually the first time in about 13 hours I'd had an actual emotion about my character, and suddenly I felt really protective of him. I wish there were more moments like that. I know people disliked being surprised by what their Hawke said in DA2, but I really enjoyed it. I'm delighted when my character shows flashes of personality beyond my micromanaging control, and when I'm not delighted, I just reload the conversation and choose a different option.

 

Of course, after that scene, I just played for another 10+ hours without anything like that happening again till I triggered a romance. Sigh.

[Xx Serissia xX]

I was actually just thinking about this.  I want to love my Inquisitor like I love my Warden or Hawke but I just don't.  I don't feel a connection with her.  I've been trying to build up the character in my head but it's so hard to do with the limited hairstyles and attire.  I really hope they put out a hairstyles dlc.  I'd shamelessly pay $10 for more hairstyles and an alternative to the horrible pajamas.

[Korhiann]

The game doesn't really allow you to roleplay your main character to a significant degree. You flesh out your backstory, a bit, as the story progresses. Most of the choices center around faith, presumably because of how that will tie into future DLC/titles. Yet you never get to feel any connection to your backstory, why should I care about people that I only ever hear about and never get to see or interact with? (Oh no, the dalish clan that I never saw has died... Now, what do I want my throne to look like...)

You're forced to play a "good" Inquisitor. You can be a very strict/douchy leader, but you cannot roleplay an "evil" Inquisitor. 

In the end Origins handled this aspect far better and it seems like Bioware sacrificed backstory for the sake of the storyline, especially the beginning.  

[r.anger]

I agree....never really made a connection with my inquisitor...perhaps because his Intro was a blurb on the screen. I chose a character path, did not see any development of it, and quickly became the Inquisitor.....there was no lead in story to who I was, the info came later during questions with the team. In DAO you knew who you were, you had your story.....in DAI you had a blurb, a brief description of who you were....then after the intro you were the Inquisitor.

[KaiserShep]

I recall Shepard being accused of this very same thing.

[atamajakki]

I couldn't honestly describe my Inquisitor's personality. Kind of jarring after Shepard and Hawke.

[HereticDante]

My question is, why am i the only one who can spell "Canon" correctly.

[Korhiann]

My question is, why am i the only one who can spell "Canon" correctly.

 

Because everyone else secretly wants to be a pirate. 

[Hiemoth]

I agree to an extent with the OP, as I just finished DAI yesterday and as I try to think of things/situations which defined my Inquisitor in it, I cannot think of many. I really loved the romance she had with Josie and the scenes in that, the ball worked surprisingly well in that regard and there was her wavering on faith and was what happened to her a miracle, but even having played with her for close to 100 hours, she still feels a lot like an empty space to me. And it isn't even the voice actress, since I did feel she did a great job.

 

To me, it kind of felt like they were trying to find a balance between the quietness of DAO and the established character of DA2, and by the way I loved Hawke so that is not meant as a bash, and, for me personally, didn't succeed in that. I mean, most lines outside the emotion wheel were read close to the same tone and as neutrally as possible in most situations, which I assumed was the direction given to them, and I don't feel, again personally, that you get the most out of a voiced protagonist that way. Once that line is spoken, there should be something behind, some person saying those things. This made Hawke and Shepard such powerful characters, and also controversial to some, as they felt like people in those interactions as they did react to things said. Here, the only time the Inquisitor is not subdued is the emotion wheel, which also suffers from the general neutrality as in order to keep the character consistent, I feel they were slightly subdued in those as well.

 

With given somewhat neutral readings to lines, I felt they were trying to give more room to those who headcanoned and wanted to impose their own reasonings for the reactions on the characters, but I also think it took a lot more from the stronger character type than they had intended while not really hitting that headcanon crowd as the character is still speaking and they might not want their comments to be neutral. As has been said here, the end result felt just really flat to me.

[Kinsz]

Well to be fair Bioware didnt plan to have an Inquisitor of different races initially, he was supposed to be human only, had they decided to go with that im sure he'd have a richer background. The whole different race thing got introduced in the last year of development which probably didnt give them much room to add meaningful backgrounds to each and everyone of them.

[LiquidLyrium]

Hawke hit that sweet spot really well for me. There was enough going on that I could for the most part control what they had to say (or imagine that they said something else in a given situation if I really disliked a certain response or felt that they would respond differently. There was enough meat to see what my character's personality, ethics, and fortitude were like, and there was enough stuff that happened off-screen that I could fill in the blanks myself. (And boy have I...)

 

The Warden also felt really blank to me, especially because I could honestly never tell what any of their emotional responses were supposed to be, really, and they had the weird soulless expressionless face 24/7 which didn't help either.

 

I mean, the Inquisitor is still fairly bland and empty to me--though I did finally hit on the concept of a character I like--but it's... very very flat in-game. And this is something that happens to me a LOT in sandbox style games. The PC feels flat and empty and is a cipher with which to explore the world. And that works for stuff like Elder Scrolls and Saints Row, but it's not what I'm looking for when I boot up Dragon Age.

 

Like, I really liked the idea of the "emotional response" system but the delivery for most of the lines either felt flat or else... wildly disproportionate in some places.

 

I was honestly expecting the personality system for Hawke to make a comeback because it seemed to be one of the better liked features of the game. (Also the whole "no auto-dialogue/auto-banter/timed banter" thing REALLY kills me tbh, bc sometimes I'm wrestling with the controls to get them to respond in time, and it just feels so strange--and then the responses are so similar it doesn't feel like there was much point in giving those options most of the time.) And the fact that Hawke's personality could change and that it wasn't set in stone is part of what really appealed to me. Quinntus Hawke starts out as Green/blue with a dash of purple, but after Leandra, his personality sort of warped a bit and it became Purple with a dash of red--especially when his friends and loved ones were threatened. (And I don't get that with the Inquisitor tbh. I'm not sure what makes them upset most of the time or what makes them feel protective or feel emotion outside of the romances/companion sidequests. Like... that's how blank they are. I have no clue how they'd respond to a situation because... there is a serious lack of variety there that allows me to choose something... a bit more concrete. Or at least.. different.)

 

But yeah, I was expecting to like my Inquisitors a lot more than I do. I've sort of stumbled on one that really clicks with me, but I feel like it was an accident--and frankly he's a pale imitation of my Hawke in a lot of ways. 

 

I mean, imagine having the personality crafting system of DA2--where your inquisitor's personality can change, the emotional response system (with lines delivered with more emotions), and the responsiveness the game has in other areas. (Like there could even be two different aspects, your social responses--helpful, funny, direct--and your emotional responses (upbeat, stoic, brash, angry, sad, surprised, etc)

 

Say you started out Stoic and Direct but later on your PC changed to Sarcastic. Cass might remark in passing/in response to a quip of the PC's "I miss the person I met at Haven" or "Varric has certainly rubbed off on you, hasn't he."

 

Or like, if you go from Upbeat/Helpful to Direct and Brash/Angry one of your party members might approach you and ask if the stress has been taking its toll on you.

[Precursor Meta]

Hey I like my inquisitors. All 5 of them!

[Korhiann]

Well to be fair Bioware didnt plan to have an Inquisitor of different races initially, he was supposed to be human only, had they decided to go with that im sure he'd have a richer background. The whole different race thing got introduced in the last year of development which probably didnt give them much room to add meaningful backgrounds to each and everyone of them.

 

You are most probably correct. 

[lil yonce]

[snip]

I mean, imagine having the personality crafting system of DA2--where your inquisitor's personality can change, the emotional response system (with lines delivered with more emotions), and the responsiveness the game has in other areas. (Like there could even be two different aspects, your social responses--helpful, funny, direct--and your emotional responses (upbeat, stoic, brash, angry, sad, surprised, etc)

Agree with everything but the bit about the Warden. I feel very connected to my Warden, but I would imagine in my mind they'd speak about two or three lines presented on the screen rather than just one. I loved Hawke too. But the inquisitor feels very bland. DA2's flavor of diplomatic, sarcastic, aggressive personalities merged with DAI's reaction wheel would have been perfect to me.