229 réponses à ce sujet

[Xx Serissia xX]

What relationship? He saved me, brought me somewhere, and basically instantly died. I'm totally fine with that, but how was Duncan any PC's mentor? I barely got to ask him a few questions. I always honor Alistair's relationship with Duncan, but in none of my playthroughs did I imagine he had any with me, besides saving me right when I needed it (for his own ends). 

 

Although, in this case, the Duncan part (if there is one) is Cassandra, except she doesn't die and stays the whole game. Duncan isn't part of the origin - he is the part that brings you out of it and gets you started on the actual quest. 

 

Now, as to whether the origins made it easier to imagine the background, I suppose it did for some, but whatever happened pre-origin still has the same problem. I knew not to trust Jowan because the mage playthrough was not my first, but otherwise, I really should've had an opinion of him but had no information to go off of when I had to make the decision. Etc. Now, there are a few, where the decisions are simply very clear (survive or don't) and that's fine, but I feel like every game where you aren't a complete tabula rasa has this issue. I guess the origins hid it well for some people. 

 

I liked the origins because they were small stories I could play. I disliked them because they barely mattered later in game and their quality was very variable. I think it was cool DA:O did it, but I think it would be annoying if every DA game does it. Then again, I like the way ME handles things. You pick one of a few backgrounds, it gives you some key flavour, and you just begin as an officer, already. 

 

But I definitely had to quibble with the idea of a relationship with Duncan. He was a really cool character, but the PC barely gets to talk to him and most of the cool stuff he does is either told to you by someone else or shown in cut scenes where you're not present. 

 

Regardless of what you consider Duncan he's still a NPC whom you meet and impacts you for better or worse.  Having Vivienne throw out a name of the first enchanter at the circle who you never meet does nothing for me in trying to establish a personality and background for my Inquisitor.  It's not like meeting Irving and getting a feel of him in the mage origin.  I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. 

[Lukas Trevelyan]

Regardless of what you consider Duncan he's still a NPC whom you meet and impacts you for better or worse.  Having Vivienne throw out a name of the first enchanter at the circle who you never meet does nothing for me in trying to establish a personality and background for my Inquisitor.  It's not like meeting Irving and getting a feel of him in the mage origin.  I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. 

 

So what. That's ONE aspect of the things that define your character. What have you to say about the rest of my character's 'personality'? 

[Arl Raylen]

To be fair, you can be pretty evil if you really want to given some of the choices. I struggled to see the Inquisition as the 'good guys' after seeing the option to allow Empress Celene to be assassinated. Sure, she wasn't the purest of people but such a move is essentially treason of the highest order. A necessity, perhaps, given the circumstances but still pretty evil regardless.

 

I didn't see that option as evil. In fact if you do have her killed all the emotional responses afterwards are about regret over not choosing to save her. And it's not like the Inquisitor makes that option with an evil grin on his face, the cutscene plays out with him still trying to save the Empress, but being too late to do anything. It's not really an evil choice so much as "let's see what the Duchess actually does and go from there."

 

A real evil choice would be to blast Celene with magic instead of having to do that stupid "game" of picking the most netural dialogue options you have.

[Arl Raylen]

To be fair, you can be pretty evil if you really want to given some of the choices. I struggled to see the Inquisition as the 'good guys' after seeing the option to allow Empress Celene to be assassinated. Sure, she wasn't the purest of people but such a move is essentially treason of the highest order. A necessity, perhaps, given the circumstances but still pretty evil regardless.

 

I didn't see that option as evil. In fact if you do have her killed all the emotional responses afterwards are about regret over not choosing to save her. And it's not like the Inquisitor makes that option with an evil grin on his face, the cutscene plays out with him still trying to save the Empress, but being too late to do anything. It's not really an evil choice so much as "let's see what the Duchess actually does and go from there."

 

A real evil choice would be to blast Celene with magic instead of having to do that stupid "game" of picked the most netural dialogue options you have.

[Melca36]

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.

 

Exactly. I personally am enjoying my inquisitors but if you think they are boring or not as in depth.......look to those who wanted  multiple races.  

[Xx Serissia xX]

So what. That's ONE aspect of the things that define your character. What have you to say about the rest of my character's 'personality'? 

 

I'm not sure what you want me to say.  I've played through the game.  I encountered that dialog but it just wasn't enough for me.  I just don't feel a connection with my Inquisitor the way I do with my Warden or Hawke.  

 

My first play through I played as HNFM who was skeptical/unsure about the whole Herald thing.  Due to her family's influence she was able to visit regularly and maintain a relationship with them.  (I wouldn't go this route again since your heritage as a mage isn't actually reflected at Ball if I recall correctly.)  The war table missions just make the whole Trevelyan house out to be petty squabbling nobles that don't care about anything but status.  Said I might go back to Ostwick eventually.  I romanced Cullen (most fulfilling part of the story IMO).  I told Vivienne yes, I knew the miscellaneous name she threw out in some fashion that I don't recall.  I went whatever the arcane warrior equivalent was since I thought it would be more fun (a mistake).  People seemed over all pleased with the choice though since those types of mages generally worked hand and hand with the chantry.  Having leadership heaped upon her she tries lead as an example of mages in wake of all the chaos.  

 

I've tried to build off of that, really, I have.  It just feels empty somehow.

[PunchySporkk]

I think what bothered me most wasn't that I lack the imagination to headcanon my own personality and backstory, but rather that I had little to no ability to actually express any of that in game.  

 

I wish I could make a character as lively and entertaining as purple Hawke.  I was all set to come up with my own interesting backstory for my circle mage, but nope, they covered that for me in the codex.  I had a safe and boring time in the circle.  Awesome.  All the drama.  The only game I managed to successfully feel like my character had a personality was when I decided that stoic attitude was a cover for borderline panic.

 

It gives is too much and not enough at the same time.  

[Hiemoth]

Exactly. I personally am enjoying my inquisitors but if you think they are boring or not as in depth.......look to those who wanted  multiple races.  

 

I don't think that is exactly fair, as Bioware had already stated that they would have backgrounds which would not be played through as an origin story, but would be spread out over the game. So when they added the races, what they did was to distribute those background to instead come from the races. The mercenary background became the Qunari background, the nobility/circle mage background became the Human background and so forth. There was never going to be an intricate story origin and actually the main story would not have allowed that either. If the race selection affected anything, it was probably that those resources could have been put to something else, but there is no guarantee that that something would have allowed more depth for the character.

 

I still maintain this was more of a choice of direction, but at the same it something I'm still kind struggling to understand. Now any discussion about DA2 is really difficult, because for some reason a bunch of people will hate all aspects just because it is DA2, but overall from what I have seen I did not feel that most people had huge problems with the three tones, with most arguments being that voice acting destroys role playing, there should be more tones or the issue with the dominant tone in cut scenes. The first two arguments the current solution addresses in no way and the reaction wheel is in response to the third argument and I actually did like it to a degree although it felt very limited in use. On the tones themselves, I mean I often read people praising sarcastic Hawke or discussing of their Diplomatic/Angry Hawke or how they mixed those responses depending on the situation.

 

Bioware has a more organized access to a much larger pool of feedback than I do, so I assume they know what they were reacting to, but the more I think on it, the weirder the solution feels. And I really I hope that they come up with something else, because here it partially worked because of genericness of the story itself, but I just imagine a story taking place in the Qunari/Tevinter conflict and the suffering and war of everyone there. In such a situation being forced to be such a neutral character would just drive me crazy.

[KainD]

The protagonist in this game has a full preset personality. You can find out more about them from all the views they express through out the game, which most of them are out of players control.

[berrieh]

Regardless of what you consider Duncan he's still a NPC whom you meet and impacts you for better or worse.  Having Vivienne throw out a name of the first enchanter at the circle who you never meet does nothing for me in trying to establish a personality and background for my Inquisitor.  It's not like meeting Irving and getting a feel of him in the mage origin.  I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. 

 

I don't understand the connection between those two things. I don't think the two experiences are good correlations, no. But I also don't think Duncan is a character in your background. He's more like Cassandra (though he has the untimely death). He's a character in the meat of the story they are telling. Albeit briefly. 

 

Why would the woman Viv brings up be likened to Duncan at all? Of course, she's not supposed to be a Duncan-level character. I never meet my Mother in the City Elf origin of DAO either, and I can still form an opinion about her (though I don't remember if I can express it or not). 

 

Now, there are characters in your background that you get to interact with. Let's take Shianni, from what I consider the very BEST origin in DAO (City elf, female - never played the male but as you likely don't get taken prisoner based on what I understand of it, doubt it's as good). Not only do I not know very much about Shianni when I meet her, I don't even get to decide if I like her. She's my best friend. I still don't even know her favourite color, let alone most of hopes and dreams outside of better stuff for City Elves (which, duh, especially after her experiences), potential revenge, and, before all that goes down, to marry someone good, so I'm not sure how to use that as a definitive character aspect. I'm not meant to either. It all has to be vague enough that I can headcanon (and DAO was very strong for allowing headcanon). Now I think the City Elf origin is great - truly, though I wouldn't call any other origin "great" - but the fact that it basically barely matters in-game in most situations kind of frustrates me. Whereas I'm playing a Qunari mage right now, and it seems to come up a lot - and the merc thing comes up sometimes too. 

 

I definitely didn't feel like my Warden was defined outside of my headcanon. And I didn't feel like she was really supposed to be. Now, in all 3 games you get to make choices that help define you, but if we're talking "from the start" - only Hawke starts with any kind of a defined feel. Neither the Warden, nor the Inquisitor do. What the origin did for many people, it seems, was give them a specified place to define their personality that they then carried over - that is headcanon, if you ask me; I don't see the difference or how it is any more defined. And you can define yourself just as easily in the first 2 hours (about the length of an origin) of DAI's story, plus you get a little blurb about your backstory to help you from minute 1, which was something you weren't give in DAO. I had to replay my initial origin over once I knew the story of it to come up with a character personality beyond just being a disenfranchised, half-orphaned elf, because it gave me very little to start with - they all do, except the human noble story which gives you very little but which you don't need personality for ("your family and you are being slaughtered - try to stop it and escape" basically fits every potential personality). 

[Xx Serissia xX]

I don't understand the connection between those two things. I don't think the two experiences are good correlations, no. But I also don't think Duncan is a character in your background. He's more like Cassandra (though he has the untimely death). He's a character in the meat of the story they are telling. Albeit briefly. 

 

Why would the woman Viv brings up be likened to Duncan at all? Of course, she's not supposed to be a Duncan-level character. I never meet my Mother in the City Elf origin of DAO either, and I can still form an opinion about her (though I don't remember if I can express it or not). 

 

Now, there are characters in your background that you get to interact with. Let's take Shianni, from what I consider the very BEST origin in DAO (City elf, female - never played the male but as you likely don't get taken prisoner based on what I understand of it, doubt it's as good). Not only do I not know very much about Shianni when I meet her, I don't even get to decide if I like her. She's my best friend. I still don't even know her favourite color, let alone most of hopes and dreams outside of better stuff for City Elves (which, duh, especially after her experiences), potential revenge, and, before all that goes down, to marry someone good, so I'm not sure how to use that as a definitive character aspect. I'm not meant to either. It all has to be vague enough that I can headcanon (and DAO was very strong for allowing headcanon). Now I think the City Elf origin is great - truly, though I wouldn't call any other origin "great" - but the fact that it basically barely matters in-game in most situations kind of frustrates me. Whereas I'm playing a Qunari mage right now, and it seems to come up a lot - and the merc thing comes up sometimes too. 

 

I definitely didn't feel like my Warden was defined outside of my headcanon. And I didn't feel like she was really supposed to be. Now, in all 3 games you get to make choices that help define you, but if we're talking "from the start" - only Hawke starts with any kind of a defined feel. Neither the Warden, nor the Inquisitor do. What the origin did for many people, it seems, was give them a specified place to define their personality that they then carried over - that is headcanon, if you ask me; I don't see the difference or how it is any more defined. And you can define yourself just as easily in the first 2 hours (about the length of an origin) of DAI's story, plus you get a little blurb about your backstory to help you from minute 1, which was something you weren't give in DAO. I had to replay my initial origin over once I knew the story of it to come up with a character personality beyond just being a disenfranchised, half-orphaned elf, because it gave me very little to start with - they all do, except the human noble story which gives you very little but which you don't need personality for ("your family and you are being slaughtered - try to stop it and escape" basically fits every potential personality). 

 

To each their own.  I personally thought the HN origin was the best.  The reason I made the correlation with Duncan is he would've been your mentor had he not died.  There's an option to say the woman that Vivienne mentions had been your mentor.  I don't personally see Cassandra as a mentor what-so-ever in DAI.  What is she mentoring?  All of the conversation with her from Haven on are as peers.  At least that's how I saw it.

[berrieh]

To each their own.  I personally thought the HN origin was the best.  The reason I made the correlation with Duncan is he would've been your mentor had he not died.  There's an option to say the woman that Vivienne mentions had been your mentor.  I don't personally see Cassandra as a mentor what-so-ever in DAI.  What is she mentoring?  All of the conversation with her from Haven on are as peers.  At least that's how I saw it.

 

You could maybe say he could have been your mentor had he not died. Would seems a leap. You can view Duncan as a savior, a jailer, or anything in between, but at no point does he teach you anything. I don't see Cassandra as a mentor either (though she is what keeps you from execution, much like Duncan in many scenarios, which was the correlation I was making), but it never occurred to me that Duncan would be a mentor either.

 

I agree Cassandra is a peer. Though she is the one who gets you to join, just as Duncan is. To me, Duncan is more a mystery, a symbol, and a deus ex machina than a mentor, though. 

[Mr.House]

Inquisitor>>Warden>Hawke

[Tremere]

I think it's kind of funny how this game, in some respects, makes people appreciate DA2 more. *smh & laughing*

[Trickshaw]

Headcannon?

[Tremere]

Headcannon?

 

 

[Gaz83]

The only thing that really annoyed me was the lack of options to be a renegade or evil character.

 

I think I know why they did it, too.  Choice is a selling point they don't want to lose, but requires a lot of work to implement. 

 

As such, they keep it illusionary, often amounting to little more than a few different lines of dialogue at best.

 

See Mass Effect. But the idea sells the game. 

[Cheech 2.0]

As an unabashed Hawke/DA2 I'm just glad there are these discussions. Maybe I'm not the only one who doesn't think DAI is the be all end all greatest thing since sliced bread game the internet thinks it is. Hawke FTW always

[Xx Serissia xX]

You could maybe say he could have been your mentor had he not died. Would seems a leap. You can view Duncan as a savior, a jailer, or anything in between, but at no point does he teach you anything. I don't see Cassandra as a mentor either (though she is what keeps you from execution, much like Duncan in many scenarios, which was the correlation I was making), but it never occurred to me that Duncan would be a mentor either.

 

I agree Cassandra is a peer. Though she is the one who gets you to join, just as Duncan is. To me, Duncan is more a mystery, a symbol, and a deus ex machina than a mentor, though. 

 

I look at him as being a teacher.  Had he lived he would've passed on at least basic knowledge of what it is to be a Warden, darkspawn types, techniques for killing darkspawn, etc.  In that regard I see him as would've been being a mentor.  Just as the Warden would've been in Amaranthine to her new charges had all hell not broken loose.  

 

I think it's great that people can enjoy their Inquisitor.  I'm just personally not there yet.  

[Bizantura]

Protagonist and all NPC's are rather empty vessels.  The only thing they are very distinct about seems there sexual preference/orientation.  Even previous personalities like Varric / Leliana and Morrigan are butchered to become ......  nothing and extends to what is socially/politically correct.

 

It has nothing to do with being able to headcanon or not since I can headcanon just fine.  There all just uninteresting empty vessels and as a result I can't bond with them and the appeal of the previous Bioware magic is evaporated to nearly nothing.  

 

Open vibrant world and the overarching story without the usual Bioware magic of various interesting personalities can't save this game in my opinion.  The decline of interesting protagonist / NPC's has been prevalent since DA2.  DAO had excellent written protagonist / party members.

 

Crossing my fingers ME will not go the bland politically/socially corect route with empty vessels as a result.  I like the mishmash of personalities they served in the ME trilogy and DAO.

[LiquidLyrium]

I think what bothered me most wasn't that I lack the imagination to headcanon my own personality and backstory, but rather that I had little to no ability to actually express any of that in game.  

 

I wish I could make a character as lively and entertaining as purple Hawke.  I was all set to come up with my own interesting backstory for my circle mage, but nope, they covered that for me in the codex.  I had a safe and boring time in the circle.  Awesome.  All the drama.  The only game I managed to successfully feel like my character had a personality was when I decided that stoic attitude was a cover for borderline panic.

 

It gives is too much and not enough at the same time.  

 

I felt the same way. My Circle Mage Cahir sort of... came to me in a flash and suddenly I had a good idea of who he was and where he came from, but it was difficult to get there.

 

I basically decided that Ostwick's love for peace, "being sedate", and otherwise uneventful meant that it was heavily regulated. Perhaps not with the iron fist of Meredith, but just.. in a thousand small soul crushing ways. Like, there's a certain and very strict idea of what is a proper way to conduct a romantic , but if you go beyond what is acceptable, then smaller punishments happen like being kept in separate wings during the day, assigning someone to work directly under an Enchanter, but in more severe cases solitary confinement for a week or even sending someone else to another Circle might happen.

 

But yeah it still took me way too long to find an Inquisitor to connect with on a personal/emotional level and it almost didn't really happen

[Mr.House]

 

But yeah it still took me way too long to find an Inquisitor to connect with on a personal/emotional level and it almost didn't really happen

That was pretty much me and Hawke. To me she is just a good character, not a good PC.

[Nerevar-as]

I thought people were only complaining about the male VA for this. Femshep shows loads of emotion in ME2 in particular. 

I had kind of the opposite problem. mShep was fine but I found fShep overacted most of the time. Good for when she was pissed off renegade, but as a paragon she came acrosss as lacking warmth and empathy.

[WildOrchid]

I had no problem headcanoning my inquisitor. I found her pretty easy to do actually.

 

I found the inquisitor to be far, far better than warden for sure but on par with Hawke. Even the snarky comments were pleasing to me. Not as snarky as Hawke (and im glad tbh since i headcanon my Hawke to be the sassiest/charming heroine ever sassed) and i headcanon my qunari to be that way she was in game so i didn't had any problem... I put my qunari's background from in-game and it was easy from there to headcanon.

[Mr.House]

I had no problem headcanoning my inquisitor. I found her pretty easy to do actually.

 

I found the inquisitor to be far, far better than warden for sure but on par with Hawke. Even the snarky comments were pleasing to me. Not as snarky as Hawke (and im glad tbh since i headcanon my Hawke to be the sassiest/charming heroine ever sassed) and i headcanon my qunari to be that way she was in game so i didn't had any problem... I put my qunari's background from in-game and it was easy from there to headcanon.

Snarky Hawke is indeed the best, no one can match her humor.