Having beaten DAI two times now, I have to say I enjoyed the central story. I'm also finding my playthroughs get shorter every time. I'm dragon age history I've never skipped quests before, i always do them all... and it's not size that's making me skip them, it's the rewards.
It's not gear rewards or money rewards, but story rewards.
I'm playing DAO right now as well, recently reached redcliff (doing it third instead of first) and I brought the mages to help with the situation and a party composition i never used before. Not only did I get unique dialogue in nearly every quest in redcliff that I'd never heard (and I had 6 wardens before DAI came out, old, but I replayed that game more then probably any other), but I even had the chance to play as first enchanter irving in the fade. It was awesome.
Now, you look at cassandra's unfinished business quest (this is a character quest, this is supposed to be a big deal) and there's no unique banter (one line when we meet these guys, but you never know who they are or much about what they've done). And you kill them, and you get +2 power, and when you finally kill them all in all the optional areas... nothing. Quest complete, I guess.
Varrick's red lyrium quest is the same, varrick approves, varrick has nothing to say about it. My other companions DEFINITELY have nothing to say about it... so where's the replayability? I love replaying DAO because there's new stuff to see and hear every time, I've seen all these quest have to offer already. i saw it the first time I played through.
10 years after starting DAO, I'm bringing wynne to redcliff and seeing scenes i've never seen before. I look Loghain to Ostagar with Wynne, and they have entire banter sessions I didn't know existed. Most of DAI isn't like that, if you skip all of emprise du lion, it doesn't affect the game much, you miss out on little dialogue or scenes.
And that's the problem, that's where most of the core dragon age fans are feeling disappointed, we love bioware and drgaon age, we love the stories and the little touches like seeing people's expressions when they talk (gone from most conversations, replaced with a slight zoom that's JUST like an MMO questgiver). Anyone here can boot up dragon age origins or DA2 and see story they've never seen before, and DA2 for it's recycled maps and waves of bad guys, actually has a lot to offer when you know that's coming (even if it's not world ending stuff, I did enjoy it the second time I tried it).
It's a matter of expectations, and we want bioware titles to be cinematic, personal. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to run 30 miles across the hinterlands to deliver flowers to someone's grave and never tell the guy about it because +2 power and quest complete, and he apparently doesn't need to know.
Dragon age is an amazing IP. I don't want to see it turn into a skyrim or a WOW, because those are different games with a different feel and completely different goals. And when I get back from delivering flowers, Leliana is telling me about great battles against hordes of demons that I wasn't even a part of, about the destruction of entire armies in the arbhor wilds (I saw like 30 guys) or that the warden is knee deep in blood in the deep roads, searching for the source of the calling and the darkspawn, and I'm left thinking "I wish I could have seen that". Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE to see my warden again as a PC updated 10 years in the CC, but not as part of inquisition DLC because this is the inquisitor's game... but it sure sounded interesting.
The dragon fights were amazing, the best in any dragon age game, the bosses were really impersonal... not scenes introducing them, no dialogue in many cases, there were several moments i realized i was fighting a boss halfway through because he had more hit points, and he was a reskinned despair demon etc. The male desire demon offered nothing to tempt me compared to the female one in the fade who i actually had to think about before responding (and his demon forms were just recycled demons from the rifts, he could have been so unique). Now compare that to the broodmother, who had a seriously creepy lead in and was one of the most unique bosses of it's time.
The crafting is well done, I can't stress how much I miss having tactics, I mean sure have a no tactics option for new players if you like but they aren't rocket science, and they were great. The basic AI doesn't compare to the tactics we had in DAO and DA2 and I just think it's SUCH a missed opportunity with modern technology because they could be great. I miss attribute points, and building my own characters (and caring about attribute enhancing gear). I miss having items that were attribute based, which you could build your character towards. I miss a lot of the magic we used to have, that controlled the battlefield allowing us to face more opponents then we face in DAI. Wynne paralyzing a whole room to thin it out and set traps was always a lot of fun. And enemy mages used to be a threat, they had different spells and each encounter was different (barring the use of mana clash, but hey, that spell was unbalanced and I rarely used it). I miss how enemy soldiers weren't just mobs, they were unique npcs with different faces and gear, which ties into the mage thing, now they're just guys with floating books that function the same for every single faction... ice mines and fire mines + barrier, no horror spells or fireballs or cones of electricity to keep you on your toes. They no longer feel like real, living opponents, they just feel like wolves or bears, copied and pasted. With 2-3 spells.
I miss the cities with all the npcs, I hope to see a little less wilderness in the dlc. Some of those huge maps are totally devoid of npcs with dialogue, certainly not cinematic dialogue with facial expressions and such. I miss the economy that had silver and copper, instead of one denomination because EA feels their games are too hard to learn (I promise you, we're living thinking people, basic coins don't intimidate us and elfroot shouldn't cost a sovereign 10 years after origins... it's pretty silly).
What I'm saying, and what I think a lot of people here will agree with, is that we're all really passionate about dragon age both past and present. Bioware tells the best stories in the industry, I mean people attack the ending of ME3, but the game was amazing (and if you disagree, let's focus on dragon age), and in my opinion all the mass effect games were. They tell stories with animated, lively characters that feel real. I hope this will always remain their focus, because it's why we love them, and why their games are better and more memorable then the likes of skyrim and WOW. It's the storytelling that has me thinking about another game of DAO, just to change things a bit, and I look forward to trying DAI with those decisions made. I hope to see some seriously story heavy dlc on the way, because the new maps have breadth, but I think in some ways they took away from the details that make bioware games truly special.
Anyway, that's my thoughts after two playthroughs. Sound off if you agree or disagree, but to me this MMO stuff takes away from an amazing series, and if I wanted that sort of thing, there are other, less memorable series that do it. And if this is your first dragon age, play origins and DA2 (expect recycled maps and waves of enemies, but look past that as inevitable and there's a lot to like) and see what the past games felt like.
I'm going to quote the entire post because it's that good. I still love Inquisition, and with the huge (and amazing 
) environments it makes sense we see more filler quests and some MMO stuff, but even so... Origins is still my favorite, the OP nailed why 
Retour en haut
I really like Inquisition, but I think alot of what has been said in that article I feel the same way. This is what kind of feedback I like to read.
I'd never trust it for my main source of information, only as an addition and one to be read with very critical eyes.
