Did you not catch how the oculara are created? I still become nauseated thinking about it.
Yeah, I caught that. And sure it's terrible. But all we really get to do is read about it in a codex entry. It's extremely pale in comparison to Hepsith's chant, and a load of other things in Origins.
The deep roads sure. But nothing else in DAO was really dark.
Are you forgetting the Orphanage in the Alienage? That was pretty danged dark. Or the desire demon and the templar? The Tevinter's enslaving the elves in Denerim? Haven and it's cult? Origins was full of dark moments.
Yeah, I caught that. And sure it's terrible. But all we really get to do is read about it in a codex entry. It's extremely pale in comparison to Hepsith's chant, and a load of other things in Origins.
Yes, quite. Having it be in text (and irritating-to-read ALL CAPS FONT, at that) puts distance between the player and the circumstance they're reading about, instead of having them be an unavoidable part of it (Deep Roads DA:O, mother's death DA2, etc. etc.).
Edit to add: Hearing Hespith's chant in DA:O made me want to slowly creep my party forward while warily keeping my eyes out to all corners of my screen. Reading about how the occularum were created made me go 'ew, ick'. The immediacy of the situation your character was in vs. reading about something you never have even the chance to encounter happening = Big difference. I would have liked to have had more of that immediacy in Inquisition.
Are you forgetting the Orphanage in the Alienage? That was pretty danged dark. Or the desire demon and the templar? The Tevinter's enslaving the elves in Denerim? Haven and it's cult? Origins was full of dark moments.
Yes.
Bring back the Dark Fantasy.
The goofy cartoony combat in DA:I keeps me from taking the story seriously.
None of that was dark. Not more dark than any other run of the mill RPG.
I have played a lot of RPGs. Very, very, very few of them have anything even half as dark as the moments I mentioned.
Ultima 7 was a damn dark rpg, I remember. The first thing you run into is a guy having been ritually sacrificed in a stable. head + limbs sliced off.
Ultima 7 was a damn dark rpg, I remember. The first thing you run into is a guy having been ritually sacrificed in a stable. head + limbs sliced off.
Oh I didn't say there are not other dark RPGs. There are, just not very many of them. However, to call the things that happen in Origins run of the mill...when a lot of them hold a lot of emotional impact, is just just silly. Okay, maybe Haven's cult was a little run of the mill, but still darker than most RPGs.
Oh I didn't say there are not other dark RPGs. There are, just not very many of them. However, to call the things that happen in Origins run of the mill...when a lot of them hold a lot of emotional impact, is just just silly. Okay, maybe Haven's cult was a little run of the mill, but still darker than most RPGs.
Ohh I wasn't having a go at you. I was just musing. Thinking about dark stuff in rpgs, and Ultima 7 popped into my mind right away.
Scary doesn't really equal "mature" to me. In fact the entire genre of "scary movies" is just modern day fairy tales (morality tales about children who don't act morally and the consequences of it).
You cannot possibly have a mature story with as much fantasy as runs around in the DA universe.
Like mature horror - mature fantasy uses the supernatural elements sparingly (think Alien vs. Aliens - the later is not a horror movie).
For DA... that ship sailed when Darkspawn started chatting and demons became next door neighbors - also known as "Every expansion after the initial release of DA:O".
To be fair - there's nothing really dark gritty fantasy about DA:O. The hero is never in peril... he's given a get out of jail free card at the end of the game - none of your companions die and killing them just because you're a colossal douchebag isn't "mature" it really is the opposite. In a mature game the rest of your companions would be flipping their **** the moment you turned on a friend - but the paper dolls just stand there ignoring the fact you're a psychotic murderer.
"Mature" things have consequences... that's never been an element of Bioware RPGs really (or most gaming in general).
I have never viewed any DA game as a dark fantasy, high fantasy or any other specific subset of fantasy. All the games have elements from multiple subsets. DA:O's story was darker because it need to be darker. To make a story dark just for the sake of it being dark is kind of lame. I think they provide the amount of dark that they want for each story. The Warden is betrayed, fighting against an unthinking apocalyptic horde and forced to make many hard decisions for the sake of victory despite never being in a position of true leadership until awakening. Hawke for the most part is just constantly being thrown into bad situations that he has no direct control over. The Inquisitor is building, leading and inspiring a force to defeat a false god. Each has substantially different stories and to require them to follow the exact same structure is just not creative.
I thought they took it in a different direction, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and doesn't mean they'll never return to the ways of old. Did anyone else here find that one haunted house in the Emerald Graves? I thought that was pretty well done in terms of being creepy, but not necessarily scary. I've always enjoyed games with some horror, so I definitely wouldn't complain if they included more creepy stuff ^.^ but I thought they did a nice job with the game as it is anyway.
The brood mother wasn't scary, just go to a fast food restaurant once and you will see there are worse things in there. That whole scene seemed like a parody of fast food restaurants honestly, just eating and eating and turning into.. a cancerous blob.
I would report you for being a fat people shaming douchebag, but the moderators on this forum are terrible.
I have played a lot of RPGs. Very, very, very few of them have anything even half as dark as the moments I mentioned.
Dragon Age Origins never really had an gravity to it, the Archdemon sat back in his armchair and opened a paper while you went to complete all of the quests. There was no gravity in Origins.
I'll agree that parts of DA:O were pretty creepy, but so were parts of DA:I. The abandoned mansion in the Northeast part of the Emerald Graves definitely had me jumping at points.
I went to a cathedral/tomb in the Emerald Graves...that was a big place, not really scary---is the mansions some place different?
DA:I is a PG13 game. It's no longer the "adult" universe DA:O started with, it's more like Baldur's Gate now.
Lolwut? Baldur's Gate isn't an adult universe?
I find the vision of a future in Redcliffe to be very creepy. I don't get creeped out easily but seeing
Dragon Age has always had darker elements, and still does. Where it lacks is in it's presentation. All of this dark stuff is going on, but none of it has any impact on the player, because we're too busy constantly making jokes or flirting with our companions. I've said this before but DA (origins aside) is like somebody took some really dark themes and condensed them into an episode of Scooby Doo so that kids can enjoy it. Cartoony, full of humour, complete with references to pop culture.
It also doesn't help that most of the really dark stuff in DA:I is relegated to the codex, through letters and such.
Spoiler
Nah all the brutal stuff is only told never shown now. Hell even executions are not shown. Just told and hinted at. Leliana's scene in mage quest line againt its told to you via a codex entry. Anything horrible is now always told never shown.
This game is so sanitized that i cannot even call it dark anymore.
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