20 réponses à ce sujet

[N7_Heartfire]

I'll start off by saying that I didn't hate Dragon Age 2. In fact, I loved it. I loved all three games and I never felt the series was degradating or losing its charm as the games went by. I'd arguably say that the companions of Dragon Age 2  were the most closely-knit and had the most diverse relationships with each other. But then again, traveling together for 7+ years with someone will do that to you.

 

Despite my love for Dragon Age 2, I look at Inquisition and while it was a very amazing game, it still had a lot of wasted potential. And cut-content that couldn't be added because of time constraints. I think we can all agree that Inquisition could have used at least another year, or half a year of development. 

 

That thought got me thinking about Dragon Age 2 and how the story of Hawke could have fared better as a three-part novel series than a single game. The developers could have used the time and resources of Dragon Age 2 for Inquisition's development, adding and polishing content that didn't make it into the game, or it did make it at the last minute.

 

I'm not saying Dragon Age 2 should have been a novel series just for the sake of a longer development cycle for Inquisition, but I honestly think it would've fared better. Unlike Origins and Inquisition, Hawke's character didn't have a number of backgrounds or races to choose from and I think we've all seen from the trailers and promotional material for Dragon Age 2 who is the preferred default Hawke for Bioware, blood-mage, who sides with the mages at the end. I won't argue with Bioware here, since my cannon Hawke was just like that, and I honestly say playing as a mage made the whole mage-templar conflict more personal for Hawke.

 

Also, making it a book series could've given Bethany and Carver a bigger role in Hawke's story, both of them could have brought a lot more tragedy and conflict into Hawke's life, with Bethany becoming a Circle mage and Carver a templar. We could see the full potential of both of them as major characters in the story, their own points of view and feelings, not only Hawke, instead of having one of them killed too early in the game due to class/gameplay purposes. 

The companions' stories could have also been delved into a lot deeper, helping us understand them much better and why they did what they did in-game. As for romances, who's to say Hawke must have only one love interest throughout all three books?

 

All in all, while I'm sure there are people who'll disagree and prefer Hawke's story the way it is, being able to make their own choices and choosing what kind of a person their Hawke is, I think the story of Hawke and its characters would've been far more positively received if it was a canonized story by the Bioware writers, not our story. I love my Hawke, especially after Inquistion but I never felt she was my Hawke. I could never shape and role play her personality, backstory and life the way I wanted to, unlike my Warden and Inquisitor.

[Cyonan]

Cut content doesn't mean that they needed more time, as almost every game is going to have cut content. Developers are always going to have "One more thing" that they want to add to the game, and if you gave them an extra year there would still be stuff cut that they wanted to add.

 

Rather than make Dragon Age 2 into a book I would rather them have simply put more time into DA2 and Hawke's story. The idea of being a mage(or having a sister who is one) in a city like Kirkwall is an interesting one, but they really didn't do anything with it. If you play a mage, everybody just kind of accepts that you're a mage who isn't part of the circle.

[Natureguy85]

DA2s problem was it's time skips. The first one was the worst. In a game that is supposedly about "a rise to power" you skip past the time where Hawke first established himself as a "somebody". Instead you skip forward and are told about it. This also ruined Carver, as that first year would have been an opportunity to show him always in Hawke's shadow, getting passed over. This would have made him more sympathetic rather than seeming like a whiny baby. Later skips are even longer so Hawke has years long relationships with the companions that we only get a relatively brief glimpse into. The other main problem is that, despite having fantastic interaction between them, the companions are individually dull, with the exception of Varric and possibly Merrill depending on how funny you find her naivety.

 

Edit: And how could I forget allowing no investigation into Red Lyrium, the single most interesting thing in the game, and ruining the sympathy for both sides of the conflict by having Orsino become a blood magic mutant and Meridith go totally insane due to the red lyrium.

[CronoDragoon]

That's an interesting idea, but the practical concerns outweigh the theoretical benefits. For one, the events of Dragon Age 2 are far too integral to Inquisition to delegate to EU material. Dragon Age with Asunder and Masked Empire is already teetering on that brink as it is, threatening to undermine the games' proclamations of being stand-alone with EU material being mere flavorful supplementary material. Had I not read Masked Empire, I likely would have disliked how briskly we were introduced to all the major players in the Orlais Civil War, and how sparse the game was in establishing their points of view.

 

Similarly, Hawke is too central to the Grey Warden plot in Inquisition to be a book character, even a book series main character. The first concern of the games should always be to offer the best experience they can without relying on EU material to do the heavy lifting for them.

[Aurok]

All DA2 needed was a realistic development schedule. The treatment of that game was strategically retarded on EA's part. Switching media entirely wouldn't have made it 'better' however, it would have just made it a different thing entirely.

Also the books are only trashy fan service cash-ins anyway. They're the book equivalent of movie tie-in video games, ie. terrible.

[Lee T]

Not a book. but if they had decided to go for a trilogy of game and spend the whole DA2 time on developping and fleshing out the first act into a full game, then maybe it would have been more interesting.

[Greenface21]

I'd have to disagree. Without DA2 you skip the a lot of the tension that led to the mage/templar war in DAI. Hawke, Varric, and the discovery of red lyrium are better introduced through a game then being read about in a book.  

 

DA2 suffered mainly from a rushed production. Big ideas but no time to see them through properly.

[Darkly Tranquil]

Maybe it might have worked better as something like a Telltale game? Sort of like what they are doing with Tales From The Borderlands - covering side stories that flesh out the game world, but which don't fit with the design of the main game.

[HeroxMatt]

DA2s problem was it's time skips. The first one was the worst. In a game that is supposedly about "a rise to power" you skip past the time where Hawke first established himself as a "somebody". Instead you skip forward and are told about it. This also ruined Carver, as that first year would have been an opportunity to show him always in Hawke's shadow, getting passed over. This would have made him more sympathetic rather than seeming like a whiny baby. Later skips are even longer so Hawke has years long relationships with the companions that we only get a relatively brief glimpse into. The other main problem is that, despite having fantastic interaction between them, the companions are individually dull, with the exception of Varric and possibly Merrill depending on how funny you find her naivety.

 

 

I agree on the time skips. At least give us a montage! (Even Rocky had a montage)

[SpiritMuse]

I agree on the time skips. At least give us a montage! (Even Rocky had a montage)

And always fade out in a montage. Because it makes it seem like more time has passed...

[teks]

DA2 was never rushed. It was exactly what they intended. They didn't need to make DA2 a full production game because of the success of DAO. The franchise was fully equipped to handle one reskin before the next title. That said, it bothers me that DA2 is even compared to either DAO or DAI. No matter thoughts on the story line, its nothing more then a big expansion pack for DAO.

[KaiserShep]

I'm not a fan of this cross media storytelling myself, so I prefer to have fewer novels comprise the timeline of these stories, not more. It's like having a graphic novel be the prequel to a movie. Do not want.

[KaiserShep]

DA2 was never rushed. It was exactly what they intended. They didn't need to make DA2 a full production game because of the success of DAO. The franchise was fully equipped to handle one reskin before the next title. That said, it bothers me that DA2 is even compared to either DAO or DAI. No matter thoughts on the story line, its nothing more then a big expansion pack for DAO.

They intended for every cave in all of the Free Marches to have the same exact architecture?

[teks]

Oh, I thought the OP was talking about something like what Starcraft did with the three part storyline. This is a game company, they don't write books. Check your codex.

[teks]

They intended for every cave in all of the Free Marches to have the same exact architecture?

Yes $$$

[Frenrihr]

DA2 has better gameplay/combat and spells than inquisition, i never thought i would say this, but well with EA and Bioware this days everything is possible.

[Darkly Tranquil]

They intended for every cave in all of the Free Marches to have the same exact architecture?

The Tevinters were very efficient. They terraformed the entire area so that all caves would be alike for ease of navigation.

[Panda]

I kinda disagree cause I care about my Hawkes much more than my Wardens and find DA2 better than DAO.. I wouldn't liked so much reading of adventures of Garrett or Marian Hawke than playing my own Hawke.

[thebigbad1013]

I can honestly say that I would not want to have gone without the experience of playing through Dragon Age 2. The game has its faults but I have enjoyed every single playthrough so far.

[Rake451]

I've always described the plot of DA2 as a TV series based off of an existing IP.  You have major over arcing themes and plots (MagevTemplar, the Quanari, Hawke having to do everything), several smaller story arcs (serial killers, cults, Fenriel), recurring characters, and the main cast changes and evolves over the run time.  Hell, it's even broken down into 3 seasons and two made for TV movies.

[MonkeyLungs]

DA2 has really grown on me. I went from being 'grumble ...grumble ... this game is only ok' to appreciating it more as time went on. DA:I has made me appreciate DA2 (and DA:O) even more. I'm playing DA2 right now and having a blast.

 

I really wish the story reacted more to you being an Apostate and I think the dynamic between the Arishok and bas saarebas (Mage Hawke) should be WAY different than what we get in game but I have largely let go and just focus more on the parts of the game that I enjoy.