The "you lose" scenario is very difficult to write in a medium that is about "you win or game over"
Exactly. That is why you die. And your LI dies. And your crew dies (probably). And you are left with nothing, not even answers. As I said, I felt the pain, too. But I see what the authors meant to do and I respect that.
The whole game is battling to put him out of commission. By the final fight, he's spent. Your advisors assume he will go to ground. He has lost as you have parried his every thrust. i don't expect him to be that much of a bad muther shut your mouth, and really the AD wasn't either since you spent more time shooting him with a ballista than actually grappling with his overwhelming might.
That's not the point. He's still the antagonist, no matter how weak or crippled he is. I can think of plenty of stories where the antagonist is much weaker than the protagonist and would stand no chance against him in a fair fight. You still can't have the protagonist just walk up to the antagonist and gank him or shoot him in the chest with no struggle or challenge like he's done to a thousand other mooks and have the story be over.
That's not the point. He's still the antagonist. I can think of plenty of stories where the antagonist is much weaker than the protagonist and would stand no chance against him in a fair fight. You still can't have the protagonist just walk up to the antagonist and gank him or shoot him in the chest with no struggle or challenge like he's done to a thousand other mooks and have the story be over.
...and you don't. He is by far the longest fight in the game. What he no longer has a waves of bad guys to row at you because you have continuously weakened him and his armies. He is no longer dealing from a position of strength this is his last failing gasp. It is dramatic but doomed. The AD clearly wasn't the toughest monster in the game either, he's a bit of push over as well. He just has an endless seam of trash to throw at you.
It doesn't make any difference how long it is. What matters is if it's a struggle and challenge or not. And Corypheus is never shown to be. So no, it's not dramatic at all because there's no real conflict. The battle is never demonstrated to be anything more than a chore for the Inquisitor.
The origins of Skyhold are explored a bit in codex and in Morrigan's dialogue. And this again ties in to Solas. He's the one who guided you to Skyhold, yes? Morrigan says that the place was protected by magic, and that it's where the elves "brought down the sky" or "held back the sky." It relates somehow to the placement of the Veil between the Fade and physical realm, with which Solas was possibly also involved.I agree with it being lackluster. There were really only two points in the entire game I was really impressed or excited.
One is hearing the bard singing "I am the One," the credit of which goes mostly to the voice actress. The other is the shot of the Inquisitor climbing the mountains to find Skyfold, which was soured somewhat by me immediately wondering why there's a castle here nobody's bothered to claim. A good moment, but nothing on the reveal of the Normandy in ME 2.
Aside from those two, no real jaw dropping emotional moments or triumphs. No great music or cinematics or even gameplay. Unless the next game gets absolutely amazing reviews, I think I'm done with the Dragon Age franchise. Mass Effect certainly has its share of problems, but its been able to consistently provide those moments.
The ending itself was alright and generally what I expected but I felt the second half of the game was a bit bland compared to first half. It really felt like the Inquisition just couldn't lose to Corypheus after Haven is destroyed. The climatic final battle was the major disappointment for me because I was expecting some sort of challenge to get to Corpyheus.
At least the Devs didn't get death-threats this time..
...and you don't. He is by far the longest fight in the game. What he no longer has a waves of bad guys to row at you because you have continuously weakened him and his armies. He is no longer dealing from a position of strength this is his last failing gasp. It is dramatic but doomed. The AD clearly wasn't the toughest monster in the game either, he's a bit of push over as well. He just has an endless seam of trash to throw at you.
He sort of does throw some enemies at you, but just a paltry sum of demons. In the initial cut scene, he summons horrors to kill the small group of Inquisition soldiers in front of the Temple, but then he only summons a bunch of shades to fight you.
Exactly. That is why you die. And your LI dies. And your crew dies (probably). And you are left with nothing, not even answers. As I said, I felt the pain, too. But I see what the authors meant to do and I respect that.
Yep and it's a "game over you lose" ending, when video games as medium are build around "you win" mentality. I find it normal that many didn't like it, it's not what your average player aims for when playing. Video game is the only game where players expect to win.
I'm not big fan of tragedy, but I do wish games had endings and characters like in Robbin Hobb's "Fool's Fate" or Dorothy Dunnett's "Pawn in Frankincense" (that chess game was brutal and in the end you don't know if you got good ending or bad) but I do get the feeling that no matter the initial idea plots in games get all mangled in the process
In my opinion, it could have been better but I consider it a "safe" ending excluding the bit with Solas and the sliders. It could have benefitted from the inclusion of all your companions participated in one way or another by motivating and leading what part of your forces that were not in the Abor Wilds since your companions are at Skyhold always when the final battle triggers. It is nothing fantastic and I agree with those who say it is rather lackluster which is why I call it a safe ending. Not a bad one, just not an amazing one either. The after party is a nice touch as is talking with your companions and advisors before retreating to the balcony with your love interest or for some of us, glaring at the sunset.
I do not consider it worse than the ME3 ending and I agree with dsI08002, that the ending is a class of its own. The lead-up was fine but like the DAI could have benefitted from seeing the use of your aquired ground forces in action but you got to see a space battle with the united fleet so that made it up to me. The conversation with the Illusive Man was fine as was Anderson's death.
Everything after the elevator sequence is, in my opinion, terrible and takes away from my enjoyment of playing through the Mass Effect trilogy. Since the Dragon Age Inquisition ending do not do the same, I cannot consider it worse than ME3 ending.
I mean, that ending drove people to shoot at something that had the shape of a child, paragon, renegades and paragades alike. Something had to implemented to discourage them from doing so!
I don't think the ending is bad.
To me, it was the timing that was off. We should never have been allowed to break in between Mythal's Temple and the grand finale. It threw off the timing, reduced the tension and diminished the drama. And maybe we should have lost a few battles along the way to make us get serious. That's basically what was wrong. And yeah, I want more answers, but I've wanted more answers since the whole series began, and hooray that we're finally getting a glimpse .
The ending's not bad, it just needed better tension building to get the adrenaline flowing.
Yeah, the whole Corypheus plot fizzled out by the end. The problem with the story is made apparent when you compare it with DA:O's story, specifically its primary antagonists (the darkspawn):
In DA:O the darkspawn begin as a growing threat that is still containable. After Ostagar, the odds are thrown against the Warden, and though s/he succeeds in gradually putting together an army, the darkspawn also grow stronger and stronger with the Blight gradually consuming more and more of the world map as the story continues. By the end of the game, the darkspawn are at their most powerful, as is the Warden, which makes the final battle an epic, nail biting contest between the Warden's armies and the Archdemon's armies: a final battle that is colossal in scale.
DA:I progresses very differently. The 'Elder One' has everything at the beginning of the game: the mages and templars are at war, the Chantry divided and the kingdoms of southern Thedas are in turmoil while the Wardens, Venatori and Red Templars pledge their service to him. Furthermore, nobody understands who or what his goals are, so he retains the element of secrecy. While the crescendo of your struggle is at the end of the game in DA:O, for me the crescendo in DA:I was fought early in the game during 'In Your Heart Shall Burn' when Corypheus at the height of his power. After that, Corypheus' strength is gradually sapped while the Inquisition rises to power. By 'What Pride Hath Wrought', I didn't feel that Corypheus was any threat - he had a few Red Templars and Wardens left while the Inquisition was commanding an enormous military force supported by the Orlesians, mages/templars and possibly the remaining Wardens.
So while in Origins, the antagonists were at the height of their power at the end of the game (making the ending more exciting and satisfying), in Inquisition, the antagonist had largely fizzled out by the time you confront him at the end: this is made particularly clear when he starts to resort to trolling/attempts to destroy the world in an infantile tantrum.
That being said, I did love the elven god thread in the main quest and its conclusion (particularly the awesome plot twist regarding Solas).
But that was the point. The story is about you growing in power and surpassing Cory. The game make it a point the 2 of you are equals with you just learning your power and Cory already having it. The ending was about a battle of equals.
I don't think the ending is bad.
To me, it was the timing that was off. We should never have been allowed to break in between Mythal's Temple and the grand finale. It threw off the timing, reduced the tension and diminished the drama. And maybe we should have lost a few battles along the way to make us get serious. That's basically what was wrong. And yeah, I want more answers, but I've wanted more answers since the whole series began, and hooray that we're finally getting a glimpse .
The ending's not bad, it just needed better tension building to get the adrenaline flowing.
The ending isn't bad , it's just lacking.
We never get the full party to fight , well you can see them in short cutscenes , but erf...
Cory fight is really short .
The Inquisitor makes no speech , I think you speak one line with Cory .
There's not much going on , except well kill the end boss (no loss , no choice ...)
The epilogue is great but again the Inquisitor isn't involved in it.
ME3 ending problem , imho , was purely a case of bad writing .Antagonist appearing out of nowhere , with grey choices for the sake of drama , but not making much sense with the overall theme of the games.
DAI ending lacks content , I guess it got cut .Storywise it's not great , you just defeat the big bad , but it's not terrible either.
I didn't find the ending bad as much as it was unimpressive and it really just felt very timid.
DA:I's ending is nowhere near ME 3's ending. The problem with this ending simply was that it was rushed.
Guest_Evenstar_*
I totally agree with the OP. I guess that's because when I played DA:O and Mass Effect 2, I knew what was at stake. I knew the struggle was real. In DA:O, I was wholeheartedly devastated when I ran into that battle knowing that I was going to die and in Mass Effect 2, I knew some of us wouldn't make it out. I actually had to have a sit down and cup of tea to let that all settle in. Corypheus was a blank-antagonist and I was originally so impressed by him in the beginning (Haven was very well done IMO) and I felt there would be a certain amount of fighting or sacrifice to cripple him. But that was it you finish, you celebrate and that's it. No one died, no one left your party, no one disagreed with you, no one tempted you, no one did anything. And Corypheus was kind of carbon-copy bad guy, he was like a Bond-villain.
Solas was the only saving grace and I felt quite cheated that the revelation came only at the end of the game, it was like oh and we've built this game up for another sequel! Basically a big -**** you to you guys.
I was fine with the ending. I only wish that Skyhold got attacked or I had to make on the field decisions like Shepard does in ME2's suicide mission where your choices or how much you upgraded Skyhold could end up with people dying.
Not a big deal overall.
(to dragonflight288) It would have been neat especially since your army is away so it would largely depend on your fortifications, companions and maybe even a speech to motivate the civilians.
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