47 réponses à ce sujet

[CronoDragoon]

I posted this elsewhere but I think it fits this forum as well. Crestwood spoilers below.

 

I have two main criticisms of this game. One involves the Companion AI. The other is the main side quest in the optional zones.

 

Personally I don't mind the checklist-style fetch quests. They are needed for a world of this size and expecting the entire world to be filled with side quests that contain dialogue, cutscenes, branching choices, etc is a bit unrealistic.

 

However, I think more effort should have been put into the side quests that do attempt at story. Every zone has a sort of "main side quest" detailed by Scout Harding when you enter. Some of these are done well, like Crestwood and the Emprise. But sometimes there's just nothing to the quest. It's boring, has no twists, very little input from the player. An example here is the Tevinter merchant or whatever in the Western Approach. Or the Blades of Hesserian, which is notable in offering you two paths to success, but does very little to make the Blades themselves interesting. You hear about them, equip the Crest, and go fight the leader, and then it's over. It's not very engaging. Obviously interest in such things will vary with the player, but I think the difference between this and the Crestwood quest is stark.

 

For Crestwood, you begin with a clear goal: close the giant rift causing infinite undead to spawn. Oh by the way, where are the undead spawning from? Old Crestwood which darkspawn flooded by messing with the flood gate controls. Wait, your character asks, darkspawn did that? The mayor of Crestwood fumbles a response. Hmmm. All right, first we need to take over this Keep since the gate controls are past that. Cue exciting Keep capture. Cool, now we move to the bridge over which is the cont- OH SNAP that's a dragon. He's flying south, though. Noted for the future. We go into the tavern and find two love birds hiding from their parents. Aww. So we open the gate. Go back outside and now Old Crestwood is bare. Pick up a few story-related quests (the Spirit of Command being notably interesting here) and go into a long dungeon to solve the rift problem. We do so, and come back out to a Crestwood that looks totes different because of closing the Rift. Go back to Crestwood and the mayor has fled with a confession. You go to your War Table, find him with a mission, bring him back and do a judgment. Then go kill that dragon you saw.

 

This quest is almost perfect in design. It takes you to 3-4 places within the zone, allowing you to do the other fetch quest stuff along the way. It's an interesting story with twists and turns, and it integrates four of Inquisition's game mechanics into it: the War Table, Keep capturing, Agents (one is in Crestwood), and Judgments. Unfortunately other zones suffer from a lack of attention to this degree. I think all that was needed was a quest of this caliber per zone, which I don't think is an unreasonable request.

 

The rest of the game barring some combat quibbles is top-notch.

 

What do you think?

[eyezonlyii]

This is a very accurate and very detailed description of why I liked the zone so much. It felt necessary, even with the side pieces moving around the board so to speak.

[Frond]

I agree. Crestwood is probably my favourite zone becuse of the side quest there. Plus it gets sunny after you finish the rift. Was cool.

[Kai-Sar Adaar]

I would post a longer comment on this topic, but you seem to have covered pretty much anything I might have said.

[Ser Kilroy]

this i can agree with.

[TheJiveDJ]

Agreed. Crestwood was the only zone I felt engaged with because I felt that my actions mattered.

[SongstressKitsune]

Totally agreed. I enjoyed the "main" quests in several of the other zones (clearing the Freemen out of the Emerald Graves, for instance, was fun for me!) but I have literally no interest to do the Hissing Wastes on my second playthrough - it's pretty, but not much else. The quest there feels totally uninteresting and I dread going back, so I might not this time. Crestwood, on the other hand, I was chomping at the bit to get to!

[CronoDragoon]

Totally agreed. I enjoyed the "main" quests in several of the other zones (clearing the Freemen out of the Emerald Graves, for instance, was fun for me!) but I have literally no interest to do the Hissing Wastes on my second playthrough - it's pretty, but not much else. The quest there feels totally uninteresting and I dread going back, so I might not this time. Crestwood, on the other hand, I was chomping at the bit to get to!

The Freeman plot is interesting because it has a good premise, but as far as I recall it doesn't develop as it should.

What I mean is that the Freeman are deserters of both Celene and Gaspard's army, soldiers who said "eff it, not my war" and decided to form what they consider an autonomous entity. Now I understand why the Inquisition can't support the Freeman openly over the other political entities of Orlais, but surely there are more subtle ways we could have fleshed out this plot. What if Celene and Gaspard hatch a scheme to cooperate and destroy them, and you can either support this or try to find alternative methods to save what is surely a worthy goal to some Inquisitors? What if you could conscript the Freeman? Something anything? As far as I can tell they are enemy fodder in the quests in which they are involved. Even if we do ultimately have to destroy them, why not develop a character who is "the face" of the Freeman and paint their destruction as a tragic necessity that also has some personal weight to it?

Even better, make the Graves quest about supporting either Fairbanks or the Freemen, instead of supporting Fairbanks or doing nothing.

[snackrat]

What was Emprise du Lion's main one? See, I thought it would be about 'how did the river freeze so quickly?' 'It got really cold, really quickly' indeed. (I think Harding is sassing me. I approve.)

 

That never seemed to be resolved. It just happened. Although there WAS commentary about it being warm near the red lyrium crystals, so maybe they were sucking out all the heat somehow and are responsible. Just would've been nice to make it clear - I cleared the quarry and the fort, and then the area felt pretty much done, yet ice still everywhere.

 

Made weirder by a War Table mission saying they are sending things DOWNRIVER BY BOAT, I thought that would be a setup for a failed mission when Josie was all "oh wait whoops I forgot why that wouldn't work" but noooope totally went through.

 

It's like 'the river is frozen nooo' was just said as a throwaway line to explain why the area could be snowy close to the forest/plains zones.

[CronoDragoon]

What was Emprise du Lion's main one? See, I thought it would be about 'how did the river freeze so quickly?' 'It got really cold, really quickly' indeed. (I think Harding is sassing me. I approve.)

 

That's a good point. I don't remember if that was ever resolved, but I think the Emprise works anyway because the heart of the zone quest is the villagers being taken by Red Templars, which leads to the revelation that the village leader had been in on the kidnappings in order to get money to buy supplies to save the rest of the village that can't grow or harvest anything because of the sudden weather. My main criticisms about the Emprise quest are that it doesn't serve to take you around the Emprise like Crestwood does, and the gameplay involved is much more boring as it just consists of freeing groups of villagers over and over around a concentrated area.

[Rawgrim]

Crestwood was a very good area. The Western Approach wasn't too bad either.

[earymir]

This is why DA:O areas were so successful. Each one had a main plot that essentially caused you to run into a bunch of side quests that were compelling in their own right. It seems like they *wanted* that to be the case in many of the zones, but like OP said, main quests were almost indistinguishable from side quests in most zones (Emerald Graves, Storm Coast, Western Approach, Hissing Wastes stand out especially as being cool areas but without particularly cool quests).

[Sidney]

Crestwood is very good. I like it visually as well as narratively. I think that or the Western Approaches re my favorite -- and western approach has two unfolding quests (Draconology and finding out what is up the the Darkspawn) along with the Still Ruins area as a side quest.

I think that same why the heck am I here, problem is why I dislike Storm Coast or Forbidden Oasis so much because there is nothing really core to do. Even the Hinterlands has the horse master quest which requires a good amount of the exploration and staging you describe to hunt down the wolves and mark the towers.

[Dominic_910]

This is why crestwood is my favourite zone. Wish there had been a bit more cutscenes but other than that it was great.

[SATG87]

True. Crestwood has been the most interesting zone so far. If only the rest of the game was like it.

[DarkKnightHolmes]

Pretty much agree.

 

Also I think there were way too many desert areas.

[Elsariel]

Lending my support like everyone else here. I loved the main quest in Crestwood. I really wish the rest of the zones were as well done.

I'll also add something I've said before in other threads, I do wish there was a "main story" reason to be in these zones as well. Like, Crestwood, you needed to be there to find Hawkes Warden friend. You also need to go to the Western Approach. You couldn't progress in the story without doing those things. In these other zones, there is hardly a need to go there at all. It's not necessary to the main plot.

[Sidney]

True. Crestwood has been the most interesting zone so far. If only the rest of the game was like it.

A lot of it is like that. I think the Crestowood one is done better but contra the it is all fetch quests most of the region's have the big map spanning quests

hinterlands has the horse master with the wolves and towers.
Hissing wastes has the dwarven ruins that take you around the map, are more lore than combat intensive.
Western approaches has the keep/ Darkspawn quest line and also Draconology.
EDL is about killing Ishmael which takes you across the map.
Emerald Graves has the Freemen issue which is shorter but it also has two bigger side dungeons with the haunted house and Emerald knights
Exalted is about clearing out the undead and the Danish which are both multi stage multi part.

I think Storm Coast and Forbidden Oasis are the worst two maps and that is because narratively there isn't really a good reason to be there.

[ThreeF]

Lending my support like everyone else here. I loved the main quest in Crestwood. I really wish the rest of the zones were as well done.

I'll also add something I've said before in other threads, I do wish there was a "main story" reason to be in these zones as well. Like, Crestwood, you needed to be there to find Hawkes Warden friend. You also need to go to the Western Approach. You couldn't progress in the story without doing those things. In these other zones, there is hardly a need to go there at all. It's not necessary to the main plot.

 

I  saw Fallow Mire to be a necessary areas to go too, it might not have had anything to do with "big-bad" but it had to do with Inquisition as organization and the fact that there were other things going on with your group and needed attention, besides chasing Cory and I really liked this.

 

The FM quest and Crestwood Leliana's spy quests were two things in the game that at least indicated that Inquisition is an actual organization.

[FlyinElk212]

Agreed, OP, the best thing they could've done was link a major zone with the advancement of the main quests in the plot. For Wicked Eyes, Wicked Hearts, why not have us have to take care of the Emprise du Lion stuff first, maybe something like Mistress Poulin is willing to give you her invitation to the Halamshiral Ball should you take care of her Red Templar problem in Emprise du Lion first.

 

For What Pride Had Wrought, have it link to something in the Emerald Graves--maybe you swap the Dalish Tribe from the Exalted Plains and Fairbank's story, so that for What Pride Had Wrought, you must first gain the trust of the Dalish Tribes before they tell you the exact location of the temple Corypheus seeks to obtain the Eluvian from. 

 

Every zone should've followed the Crestwood format. It's such a damn shame that you can conceivably power through this game after visiting only 3 of the 10 zones (Hinterlands, Crestwood, Western Approach).

[Elsariel]

I saw Fallow Mire to be a necessary areas to go too, it might not have had anything to do with "big-bad" but it had to do with Inquisition as organization and the fact that there were other things going on and needed attention, besides chasing Cory and I really liked this.

I like the Fallow Mire quest for sure, but it's not necessary to the main plot. I mean, it doesn't have to be a huge thing but something simple like one of the guys you need to rescue there has information you need before choosing mages or templars. I dunno, just something .

[phaonica]

I agree, OP. Crestwood was designed perfectly. If every zone was designed like Crestwood, then I would probably have no complaints about the game's "filler".

 

I'm sure I'd find something else to complain about, though, because the game can always be better, amirite?

[ThreeF]

I like the Fallow Mire quest for sure, but it's not necessary to the main plot. I mean, it doesn't have to be a huge thing but something simple like one of the guys you need to rescue there has information you need before choosing mages or templars. I dunno, just something .

 

hm... perhaps, but that would imply that the inquisitor only cares about his/her men if they are of some immediate use, unless you could only discover that there is an additional info if you go and actually save them maybe?

[MaxQuartiroli]

I totally agree: Crestwood is by far my favorite part of the game.. I wish they did all the game like it.

[Elsariel]

hm... perhaps, but that would imply that the inquisitor only cares about his/her men if they are of some immediate use, unless you could only discover that there is an additional info if you go and actually save them maybe?

Well, that was not the best example, I admit, but I think you get the idea. I would just like there to be a tie-in to the main plot in some way. Doesn't have to be major, but it must be required to move the plot forward.