380 réponses à ce sujet

[jds1bio]

This thread has a terrible title but has been really interesting to read.

 

If you think that Bioware is making you fetch things purely for XP or "just because", that's just not so.  The herald has to be the one to get the medicine or the herbs because the surrounding environs are too dangerous, with rifts open all over the place and mages and templars both out of their minds running amok, not to mention cultists and the possessed.  Plus the people have been displaced, making it harder for them to conduct normal business.  You are often charged with closing a rift or two on your way to collecting some materials, the rift-closing is what will give you the XP. 

 

Everything on the map has a purpose, even the astrariums and the shards.  It is up to you to discover what their purpose is, and then decide whether you want to continue pursuing them, once you know.   The rewards for completing quests like these, and war table missions where you are sending someone in your place, are not immediately clear, so some come as a surprise.  But there's little XP to be gained from them, so this is an arrangement that just may be challenging your expectations.  I understand that later in the game you can simply purchase the Power points you want instead of, say, filling requisitions by fetching materials, which narratively makes sense since your character's status grows during the game.

 

I've noticed with this game (having just reached Skyhold after 30 hours) that it really does require you to "head-canon" who your herald is and what is his/her world view, not just build a warrior/mage/rogue and "build" your way to the end.  Even your origin isn't completely handed to you - I remember Josephine asking about my inquisitor's relationship to his family, and I had to provide the answer all on my own.  You can speak with the companions and advisors for HOURS about all this - if you want to.  This game is doing a great job of not telling you how you should feel about the chantry, templars, belief systems, any of it.  Your character is Jesus only if you want him/her to believe it, or have others believe it.

 

But - want to build an inquisition posse?  You can.  Want to tell people to stay away, and go it alone?  You can.  What's really great, and not always seen in other games, is that your companions actually have an opinion on what you say and do, and from there you can decide if your herald cares about how they feel, or not.    For instance, I agonized over saying whether mages should be free or conscripted, and boy did my choice ****** some people off! 

[Sylvius the Mad]

The herald is definitely a juinor member of the team at the start. Some don't even want him/her around, seeing him/her as a necessary evil because of the ability to close rifts. The herald isn't even expected to handle the major planning of closing the breach, i.e. which of the mages/templars to ask for help, but has to step in because the advisors can't decide amongst themselves. There's a conflict that concludes the first major part of the game, and even there the herald only plays a supporting role, up to a certain point. In DAI you definitely need to earn your status as Inquisitor, and even after that people still won't necessarily approve of you.

Yes, and I love that. Too often, games give the PC authority and infuence for no reason (DAO, for example).

On this point, DAI is expertly done.

[RedLens37]

The herald has to be the one to get the medicine or the herbs because the surrounding environs are too dangerous, with rifts open all over the place and mages and templars both out of their minds running amok, not to mention cultists and the possessed.  Plus the people have been displaced, making it harder for them to conduct normal business.  You are often charged with closing a rift or two on your way to collecting some materials, the rift-closing is what will give you the XP.

 

But, I don't get it. I thought this was a fantasy war simulator, where I could click a couple buttons and then sit back and watch my minions do that stuff, giving me time to do constructive work, like picking Doritos crumbs out of my tummy folds, or something.

[MegaIllusiveMan]

The game started slow for me too. But it improved A LOT since the beggining, especially in the Quest "In Your Heart Shall Burn".

 

As for the fetch quests, I'm getting bored of them, but don't complain because the completionist in me won't let me skip any of those quests, lol. But if you're not a completionist, not doing those Fetch Quests will reduce lots of play time. Skip those quests, go straight to the story, completing as minimum side quests you can so you can have more "Inquisition Power" which will allow you to unlock future story quests.

[Aquarius121]

Even so, many people here completely undermine the importance those little fetch quests have on shaping the character of your Inquisitor. Sure, fulfilling a random woman's wish to release her son's ashes at the edge of the Emerald Graves may seem a trivial task, but it's still a task undertaken by your Inquisitor to realize a characteristic you have assigned for them.

 

In one playthrough, my Andrastian warrior did it out of respect for the Maker. In another, my elven mage pitied the woman despite not believing in the Maker. In a third, my dwarven rogue scoffed at the idea of doing this menial task and moved along.

 

They're even recognized by your characters. Incremental relationship changes as they see a side of your Inquisitor.

 

Honestly it feels that many people here who claim to want immersion don't even bother to do so, failing to even attempt to involve themselves in the quests as trivial as they seem.

 

First let me start by saying that despite most of my comments in this forum, I actually don't hate DAI.

 

However...this reasoning right here irritates the hell out of me. If the side-quests actually were efficient, well-thought out ways to "realize a characteristic" of the PC, then the number of people complaining about them would be slim to none. But that's not the case.

 

Sure, I can tell myself that my elf Inquisitor ignored that woman's request because, "screw the Maker," but does anybody in the game react to that at all? No. Cassandra does not ask you why that quest sits unfinished in your journal. You don't get to elaborate on the majority of your in-the-field decisions, to the quest-giver or to your companions. You just say "nah" and move along, or simply ignore them if the chain begins with a note, of which there are many. No one asks for your reasoning if you kill the golden halla or herd it back to the Dalish. You don't get to express any hidden agendas you've head-cannoned yourself into having if you decide to complete a quest for reasons other than the obvious.

 

Having to concoct a purpose to your actions that nobody besides yourself will know nor comment on is not roleplaying, it's:

 

                                                                               

 

And that's fine, every once in a while. DAO and DAII had it's fair share. But DAI really takes that concept and runs with it far past the point of fun IMO. 

 

I have to say though that reading most of your comments (except for that part) has surprisingly made me kind of excited about the game again. You have a lot of good points - I never really thought of the Inquisitor and his/her party as an "elite band of operatives," so that's helpful when I'm feeling a bit like, "why the eff am I even in the Hissing Wastes right now?" and fortunately doesn't require rainbows of imagination xD

[CosmicGnosis]

In my first playthrough, I skipped much of the Hinterlands so I could continue the story in Val Royeaux. I returned later, but my point is that I breezed through it at the beginning of the game.

 

Now I'm on my second playthrough, and this time I did everything I could in the Hinterlands before I went to Val Royeaux. I'll say this: I felt so much more connected to the refugees and the region in general. The Inquisition is a small, heretical faction that has to prove itself. The organization has established a strong presence in southern Ferelden by helping everyone and gathering resources. By the end of it all, I felt like my Inquisitor earned that meeting with the Chantry in Val Royeaux.

 

I'm not against the small quests, but there really should be more traditional BioWare quests to balance them out. 

[KaiserShep]

In my first playthrough, I skipped much of the Hinterlands so I could continue the story in Val Royeaux. I returned later, but my point is that I breezed through it at the beginning of the game.

 

Now I'm on my second playthrough, and this time I did everything I could in the Hinterlands before I went to Val Royeaux. I'll say this: I felt so much more connected to the refugees and the region in general. The Inquisition is a small, heretical faction that has to prove itself. The organization has established a strong presence in southern Ferelden by helping everyone and gathering resources. By the end of it all, I felt like my Inquisitor earned that meeting with the Chantry in Val Royeaux.

 

I'm not against the small quests, but there really should be more traditional BioWare quests to balance them out. 

 

What I do before hitting Val Royeaux is just sealing most of the rifts in the northern parts of the Hinterlands, getting rid of the rogue factions and getting horses from Master Dennet. The ram meat quest has become kind of the poster child of fetchiness around here, but I just get meat from the rams outside Haven. They spawn so often that you'll just spend a couple of minutes harvesting them and you're good to go.

[correctamundo]

First let me start by saying that despite most of my comments in this forum, I actually don't hate DAI.

 

However...this reasoning right here irritates the hell out of me. If the side-quests actually were efficient, well-thought out ways to "realize a characteristic" of the PC, then the number of people complaining about them would be slim to none. But that's not the case.

 

Sure, I can tell myself that my elf Inquisitor ignored that woman's request because, "screw the Maker," but does anybody in the game react to that at all? No. Cassandra does not ask you why that quest sits unfinished in your journal. You don't get to elaborate on the majority of your in-the-field decisions, to the quest-giver or to your companions. You just say "nah" and move along, or simply ignore them if the chain begins with a note, of which there are many. No one asks for your reasoning if you kill the golden halla or herd it back to the Dalish. You don't get to express any hidden agendas you've head-cannoned yourself into having if you decide to complete a quest for reasons other than the obvious.

 

Having to concoct a purpose to your actions that nobody besides yourself will know nor comment on is not roleplaying, it's:

 

                                                                               

 

And that's fine, every once in a while. DAO and DAII had it's fair share. But DAI really takes that concept and runs with it far past the point of fun IMO. 

 

I have to say though that reading most of your comments (except for that part) has surprisingly made me kind of excited about the game again. You have a lot of good points - I never really thought of the Inquisitor and his/her party as an "elite band of operatives," so that's helpful when I'm feeling a bit like, "why the eff am I even in the Hissing Wastes right now?" and fortunately doesn't require rainbows of imagination xD

 

Since when was imagination not a part of fantasy role-playing? "Concocting" your own character and that characters personality has always been central to role-playing.

[Aquarius121]

Since when was imagination not a part of fantasy role-playing? "Concocting" your own character and that characters personality has always been central to role-playing.

 

I agree, definitely, and I even like doing that, to an extent. But part of the fun of creating a personality is that the in-game world reacts to it. Not every little decision or action needs to be treated like that, but the quests mentioned were used as examples of "fantasy role playing" when they have literally two options in most: complete or ignore. And in some cases you can't even say you're doing the latter or why, so what's the point?

 

I personally just don't believe those kinds of things contribute to a character. We can agree to disagree though 'cause that's all a matter of opinion and I don't like shouting mine as if it's the truth!11!!!

[CronoDragoon]

If the side quests had incorporated just one of any number of wrinkles, they'd be much better received. If they had cinematic conversations, or multiple paths to completion (such as picking locks instead of fighting, or using dialogue options), or twists, or role-playing opportunities, etc. The majority of side quests serve as a small part of a greater story being told for the zone and the rise of the Inquisition, but in their own right, examined on a micro level, they aren't terribly interesting.

[pdusen]

As many others have mentioned, there are power requirements. I think I calculated 124 power required in total to progress the main story, and when you don't enjoy any of the random pointless tasks (tent pitching, rift closing, goat finding, etc...) it's a huge chore at 1-2 power per task.

 

Once I realized that there were way more sidequests than I actually needed to do, I basically just only did sidequests that I happened to run into on the way to main plot stuff. I still finished the game with 50 excess power.

 

So, yeah. Just do that.

[b09boy]

Since when was imagination not a part of fantasy role-playing? "Concocting" your own character and that characters personality has always been central to role-playing.

Imagination is a prime part of role-playing, but a world what is completely non-reactive to you is a poor role playing world.

[Thandal N'Lyman]

As I've said many times on many other threads, the whole premise of your Inquisitor doing any of this stuff is utterly absurd. To the best knowledge available, your Inquisitor's mark is the only way to close the rifts - the *only* way in the whole world! Certainly the only way they know of. Whilst the rifts remain, demons will come forth and there is no telling whether they will expand etc. So clearly you must deal with it, yes?

 

So far, so good. However...

 

<tl:dr>

 

Because then its just a lot - A LOT - of fetching and carrying, and collecting and depositing, and planting flags and watching real time counters go down... for what? Its own sake?

 

As has been noted elsewhere, you don't have to any of the "fetch quests" if you don't want.  Just stick to the "Inquisitor's Path" missions and you'll not be bothered by any of that. 

 

So being bored by the pointless side quests (if that's how you see them) is totally your own doing! 

 

There's just waaaaay more to possibly do in this game than in any I can think of.  Is that a mark against?  I don't think so .

[Marshal Moriarty]

Not only does that assume that the Main Quests are any better (they are, but only by virtue of not being as utterly banal as the side quests - very much a 'least worst' option), but its depressing beyond words to think that someone is suggesting that ignoring most of the content in the game could be any kind of solution! To quote the OP, I just don't get it. Is it so wrong to want side quests and narrative content that makes sense, and which is actually fulfulling rather than just tiresome busy work? What are all these interesting side quests that you seem to be finding? Please, enlighten me because I sure never found any!

 

And if they aren't pointless, then tell me, what are they for? You have just admitted they aren't necessary to access the main quests. So what else do they do? Nothing. I had hundreds of points in Power by the halfway stage, and nowhere to use them. So what was the point of doing those quests again? The sheer joy of doing the quests themselves?! lol!

 

The whole premise of the game does not make any sense. Even leaving aside the 'You alone of all the people in the world can seal the rifts', you would not send such small groups out into warzones, unless they had specific training in that field (i,e they were scouts). The bulk of the 'missions' you do in this game, are things which your scouts and soldiers should be doing. And if not for the unique aspect to your character, the thing which makes you actually indispensable (because again, this is the *only* way to close the rifts), then yes there would be no reason why you couldn't occasionally do some of this work yourself (Fable 3 for example, had your King or Queen embarking on small excursions and quests from time to time).

 

But that simply could not be an option for your character under the narrative restrictions the game has set. Your presence is required, but only to seal the rifts, and they would never send you in such a small group. You are simply too valuable to risk letting you roam free just to let you stretch your legs. There is *no* chance they would let you do that, because if you die then the world is doomed, because of the silly narrative cop-out that they enforce on you in the intro to explain why you are given such authority and are so special. You would under be 24 hour guard, both in the field and at Haven/Skyhold etc. The world's safety depends on it - you could not simply go roaming about as happy as you please with only a couple of guys. It would make absolutely no sense at all, and if the enemy couldn't defeat you under those circumstances, then it would be his own fault!

 

A small group will eventually find itself ambushed and/or overwhelmed if you keep visiting such dangerous places. It happened to the Warden at Ostagar, it happened to Hawke and co when they were blindsided near the end of Act 2 etc, If that happened to your Inquisitor, it would be GAME OVER for the world, There is no way that such a risk would be taken. So whilst the rifts obviously need to be sealed, they would not send ypu alone or in such a small group. Nor would they allow you to go assaulting Forts on your own, or tackle High Dragons. Not when they have soldiers who could come with you, and are usually just a small distance away anyway!!!

 

To be clear, I'm not saying this is how the gameplay should have worked. I'm not blind or stupid, and I know that wouldn't work at all. My point is that the narrative they have set up, the mark and its status as being literally the only hope for resolving this situation, demands that the game would have to work like that. That evidently would not be acceptable to enforce in game, because nobody would want the game to have you constantly surrounded by about 15-20 guys, with units of archers and such lurking nearby as reserves - yet that is how it *would* be. You'd feel stifled,  crowded, there would be no party intimacy or banter, and its just completely not what people want from a Bioware game. Yet to not do that, is to completely fly in the face of the narrative they have set up. They simply could not let you attack Dragons unaided, or charge into enemy forts and encampments. Its nothing to do with not believing in your skill as a fighter - they simply couldn't take the risk, when its literally the world that is at stake!

 

Ergo, the narrative was flawed from the very start by pushing that ridiculous Macguffin 'This is your VIP pass' nonsense with the Mark. It created more narrative problems than it solved. Because there is simply no way they could risk sending you out with anything less than a full complement of soldiers, to close the rifts and then march you straight back again. It would be too dangerous to do anything else, when there was no reason to do so. Its just common sense anyway that if they want to close the rifts, then sending more than just 4 guys would probably be a good idea. Who knows what or how many demons will come out of each rift?

 

And again, if they hadn't made you the *only* person who could do it, the one who cannot be lost or else, then it wouldn't be so bad. Because then you could just make the 'Oh we'll be fine, we know what we're doing, we;re the best of the best etc etc' excuses. But under the narrative conditions they have set, it doesn;t work. The disconnect also between you having soldiers under your command and never being able to use them is also jarring. Areas like Crestwood, The Hissing Wastes, The Western Approach, Emprise Du Lyon, these areas should all be prime targets for you to move units of soldiers in to secure the area. Yet bizarrely you don't, choosing instead to simply set up camps, then tackle all the enemies yourself.

 

Send people to defend the village? No, why bother? Have them help you lay siege to this Fort? No, the 4 of us will just walk through the front door and take the whole place by ourselves! Even when you have a camp of soldiers *right next* to the place!

 

The game's various aspects from the actual gameplay, to the overall narrative, and you supposedly being in charge... it just doesn';t hang together. Everything feels loose and badly connected. When you;re in the field, it just feels like you're a regular band of wandering adventurers who are on your own, at base it feels like you have suddenly become some kind of King, throne and all, You do side quests with no substance to get Power you don't need, You do operations to get Influence which doesn't actually give you any narrative influence or make any differenace to anything, The best thing I can say about that is at least I enjoy doing the War Table Operations, because whilst they don;t have any consequences, you can at least head canon that they do!

 

This game was a decent first attempt. But for all its lengthy development time, I still consider it to be at least 2 years short of where it needed to be. The bare bones of a good game were there, but it needed flesh on those bones. It needed going over again and again and again, beefing up the narrative, the connection between characters, giving more substance (and some cases any substance at all) to the quests, both side and Main.

[Majestic Jazz]

 

Not only does that assume that the Main Quests are any better (they are, but only by virtue of not being as utterly banal as the side quests - very much a 'least worst' option), but its depressing beyond words to think that someone is suggesting that ignoring most of the content in the game could be any kind of solution! To quote the OP, I just don't get it. Is it so wrong to want side quests and narrative content that makes sense, and which is actually fulfulling rather than just tiresome busy work? What are all these interesting side quests that you seem to be finding? Please, enlighten me because I sure never found any!

 

And if they aren't pointless, then tell me, what are they for? You have just admitted they aren't necessary to access the main quests. So what else do they do? Nothing. I had hundreds of points in Power by the halfway stage, and nowhere to use them. So what was the point of doing those quests again? The sheer joy of doing the quests themselves?! lol!

 

The whole premise of the game does not make any sense. You would not send such small groups out into warzones, unless they had specific training in that field (i,e they were scouts). The bulk of the \missions' you do in this game, are things which your scouts and soldiers should be doing. And if not for the unique aspect to your character, the thing which makes you actually indispensable, yes there would be no reason why you couldn't occasionally do such things (Fable 3 for example, had your King or Queen embarking on small excursions and quests from time to time).But that isn't the case here. You are simply too valuable to risk letting you roam free. There is no chance they would let you do that, because if you die then the world is doomed, because of the silly narrative cop-out that they enforce on you in the intro to explain why you are given such authority and are so special.

 

You would under be 24 hour guard, both in the field and at Haven/Skyhold etc. The world's safety depends on it - you could not simply go roaming about as happy as you please with only a couple of guys. It would make absolutely no sense at all, and if the enemy couldn't defeat you under those circumstances, then it would be his own fault! A small group will eventually find itself ambushed and/or overwhelmed if you keep visiting such dangerous places. It happened to the Warden at Ostagar, it happened to Hawke and co when they were blindsided near the end of Act 2 etc, If that happened to your Inquisitor, it would be GAME OVER for the world, There is no way that such a risk would be taken.

 

I'm not saying this is how the gameplay should have worked. I'm not blind or stupid, and I know that wouldn't work at all. My point is that the narrative they have set up demands that the game work like that. The narrative was flawed from the very start by pushing that ridiculous Macguffin 'This is your VIP pass' nonsense. It created more narrative problems than it solved. Because there is simply no way they could risk sending you out with anything less than a full complement of soldiers, to close the rifts and then march you straight back again. It would be too dangerous to do anything else, when there was no reason to do so. Its just common sense anyway that if they want to close the rifts, then sending more than just 4 guys would probably be a good idea. Who knows what or how many demons will come out of each rift?

 

And again, if they hadn't made you the *only* person who could do it, the one who cannot be lost or else, then it wouldn't be so bad. Because then you could just make the 'Oh we'll be fine, we know what we're doing, we;re the best of the best etc etc' excuses. But under the narrative conditions they have set, it doesn;t work. The disconnect also between you having soldiers under your command and never being able to use them is also jarring. Areas like Crestwood, The Hissing Wastes, The Western Approach, Emprise Du Lyon, these areas should all be prime targets for you to move units of soldiers in to secure the area. Yet bizarrely you don't, choosing instead to simply set up camps, then tackle all the enemies yourself.

 

Send people to defend the village? No, why bother? Have them help you lay siege to this Fort? No, the 4 of us will just walk through the front door and take the whole place by ourselves! Even when you have a camp of soldiers *right next* to the place!

 

The game's various aspects from the actual gameplay, to the overall narrative, and you supposedly being in charge... it just doesn';t hang together. Everything feels loose and badly connected. When you;re in the field, it just feels like you're a regular band of wandering adventurers who are on your own, at base it feels like you have suddenly become some kind of King, throne and all, You do side quests with no substance to get Power you don't need, You do operations to get Influence which doesn't actually give you any narrative influence or make any differenace to anything, The best thing I can say about that is at least I enjoy doing the War Table Operations, because whilst they don;t have any consequences, you can at least head canon that they do!

 

This game was a decent first attempt. But for all its lengthy development time, I still consider it to be at least 2 years short of where it needed to be. The bare bones of a good game were there, but it needed flesh on those bones. It needed going over again and again and again, beefing up the narrative, the connection between characters, giving more substance (and some cases any substance at all) to the quests, both side and Main.

 

 

 

Well put. Now lets see the DAI Defense force come in for their.....rebuttal. 

 

[jds1bio]

Is it so wrong to want side quests and narrative content that makes sense, and which is actually fulfulling rather than just tiresome busy work? What are all these interesting side quests that you seem to be finding? Please, enlighten me because I sure never found any!

Did you talk with the companions and advisors for any length of time? When I first got to Haven I spoke with people for at least an hour and a half, and when I first got to Skyhold I must have spent a good 6 hours with everyone there. These conversations set up a lot, and I wish the game steered people towards them sooner.

In this game some of the major side quests ARE the non-main-story places (Forbidden Oasis, etc.). If you're not so keen on this type of arrangement, there is a Dragon Age game that focuses far less on places but has lots of side quest narrative content that makes a lot of sense - it's called Dragon Age 2.
 

So what was the point of doing those quests again? The sheer joy of doing the quests themselves?! lol!

For me, the sheer joy of exploring the areas counts for quite a bit. But if at some point you are not enjoying yourself playing the game, it is ok to stop playing.
 

...you would not send such small groups out into warzones, unless they had specific training in that field (i,e they were scouts). The bulk of the 'missions' you do in this game, are things which your scouts and soldiers should be doing...

 
But that's what they were doing before "you" came along, and look what happened - inquisition soldiers (went missing), Grey Wardens (went missing), refugee relief workers (under attack), request horses (can't get through to horsemaster). It's become too dangerous out there even for the average Warden - and it's not a mage/templar warzone anymore - the remaining mages and templars run amok while demons pour in through the rifts - it's chaos.
 

...they would never send you in such a small group. You are simply too valuable to risk letting you roam free...You would under be 24 hour guard, both in the field and at Haven/Skyhold etc....you could not simply go roaming about as happy as you please with only a couple of guys...

You ARE under 24 hour guard in the field, unless you are soloing the game without a party. You cannot go roaming about as happy as you please because you are attacked quite often in this game.
 

A small group will eventually find itself ambushed and/or overwhelmed if you keep visiting such dangerous places...If that happened to your Inquisitor, it would be GAME OVER for the world, There is no way that such a risk would be taken...Not when they have soldiers who could come with you...

If they risk nothing or don't close rifts, it's still GAME OVER for the world. And an escort of soldiers just paints a target on the back of the Inquisitor for the elder one to see.  Everything you mention is addressed in conversations with companions/advisors in the game.
 

...these areas should all be prime targets for you to move units of soldiers in to secure the area...

Martial law is the answer?
 

The game's various aspects from the actual gameplay, to the overall narrative, and you supposedly being in charge... it just doesn';t hang together. Everything feels loose and badly connected...You do operations to get Influence which doesn't actually give you any narrative influence or make any differenace to anything...

Of course it doesn't hang together...and the characters in the game learn this the hard way, but they improve. Also, your dialogue options change depending on which perks you choose, and where you stand with approval ratings and such - big difference.

[JeffZero]

If the side quests had incorporated just one of any number of wrinkles, they'd be much better received. If they had cinematic conversations, or multiple paths to completion (such as picking locks instead of fighting, or using dialogue options), or twists, or role-playing opportunities, etc. The majority of side quests serve as a small part of a greater story being told for the zone and the rise of the Inquisition, but in their own right, examined on a micro level, they aren't terribly interesting.

Well said.

[Lebanese Dude]

First let me start by saying that despite most of my comments in this forum, I actually don't hate DAI.

 

However...this reasoning right here irritates the hell out of me. If the side-quests actually were efficient, well-thought out ways to "realize a characteristic" of the PC, then the number of people complaining about them would be slim to none. But that's not the case.

 

Sure, I can tell myself that my elf Inquisitor ignored that woman's request because, "screw the Maker," but does anybody in the game react to that at all? No. Cassandra does not ask you why that quest sits unfinished in your journal. You don't get to elaborate on the majority of your in-the-field decisions, to the quest-giver or to your companions. You just say "nah" and move along, or simply ignore them if the chain begins with a note, of which there are many. No one asks for your reasoning if you kill the golden halla or herd it back to the Dalish. You don't get to express any hidden agendas you've head-cannoned yourself into having if you decide to complete a quest for reasons other than the obvious.

 

Having to concoct a purpose to your actions that nobody besides yourself will know nor comment on is not roleplaying, it's:

 

                                                                               

 

 

You're asking too much. 

 

Requiring that every action be acknowledged in a role-playing game of this scope is preposterous. Head-canon has always been required. Just look at pen & paper RPGs.

 

First of all, companions do react to some of your decisions. Help the elf put flowers on the grave? Solas++. Spread the ashes? Cassandra++.

 

Are you asking for every unfinished quest to be questioned by people? When has this ever happened? Maybe if it's timed and plot-critical, but DAI goes out of its way to make the game non-linear as possible. Putting time limits on when certain things can be completed goes against this goal. Still, companions do mention their quests and wonder when you will complete them if you talk to them.

 

People could have hundreds of reasons for why they do something. That's why it's called roleplaying. Expecting BioWare to be able to account for every potential reason for every quest is inane. Your inquisitor can have millions of different personalities and goals. Having a character and being able to justify their character via their actions and dialogue is exactly what role-playing aims to achieve. 

 

Where do these incredibly high expectations and standards come from? It's not as if BioWare has ever done it before, nor any other game for that matter.

 

It's as if BioWare is judged on some metaphysical level that supersedes all logic and reason.

[correctamundo]

Snip for massive wall of text.

 

When reading your criticism I get the feeling you never did finish the Lord of the rings?

 

Anyway, Cassandra can do what the chancellor wants and execute the PC for game over. What you want and imprison him/her for game over OR what the narrative does and trust the Herald. The last choice make for a fun game =).

 

As usual in a game the most part of restoring order is abstracted, which is fine by me, if I want to play a full scale strategy game I have got Vic2, EU4 and CK2 ready to be booted up.

[Lebanese Dude]

When reading your criticism I get the feeling you never did finish the Lord of the rings?

 

Anyway, Cassandra can do what the chancellor wants and execute the PC for game over. What you want and imprison him/her for game over OR what the narrative does and trust the Herald. The last choice make for a fun game =).

 

As usual in a game the most part of restoring order is abstracted, which is fine by me, if I want to play a full scale strategy game I have got Vic2, EU4 and CK2 ready to be booted up.

 

On Game to be it all, One Game to grind them

One Game with all the genres and in perfection bind them.

[Darkly Tranquil]

Once I realized that there were way more sidequests than I actually needed to do, I basically just only did sidequests that I happened to run into on the way to main plot stuff. I still finished the game with 50 excess power.
 
So, yeah. Just do that.

I did pretty much every quest in the game (I'm OCD about that sort of thing) and ended up with 271 extra power at the end. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't wasted most of my 105 hours doing it all. When I got to the end, I just felt completely deflated.

[MB123]

Honestly, I love this game so much, but I also felt something was absent that made it subpar to the Bioware I fell in love with. For me, I felt that it was a reduction in the depth of npc interaction. Sure, Skyhold was filled with people to converse with, but every other region relied so heavily on codex entries to follow what was going on. Take Orzammar for a contrasting example. The deep roads were pretty straight forward dungeon crawling, but quests were mostly tied to the very unique and interesting political system, and usually revolved around a quest giver involved in said political system and had a meaningful impact on it (e.g. helping to establish a chantry there, helping reinstate a noble family, or exploring the social status of a mother with an illegitimate child). In this game, not only are we bombarded with fetch quests, but they also do very little to immerse is in or inform us about the world we fell in love with, and also have no observable impact. Another thing I felt was absent was an rpg mainstay: the questline. Skyrim, for instance (as a noted influence on this game) contains storylines both supplementary to the main quest, intertwined with it (the mage college), or entirely separate (e.g. thieves' guild, companions, etc.). Every region within origins had some complex facet like this to explore (dwarven caste system, denerim politics, circle life). In inquisition, we get glimpses of stuff like this, but the side quests never fully involve us in them like they did in origins. Sure, we could discover very interesting lore-related stuff, like in the culmination of cassandra's quests or the main archeology-esque quest of the hissing wastes, but the most we would ever get is a couple codex entries or a companion remark. Even the main quests were less involved. I mentioned denerim politics earlier in this post, which I think was so much better executed than the halamshiral quest. In denerim, we were given several different quest lines (the crows, the crime wave, arl howe, etc.) That were seemingly unrelated but totalled up to an outcome in the landsmeet and meant something. In this game, we run around a palace in a couple forbidden wings, press the a button in some red circles, run into a certain someone from the previous game, and then suddenly solve the civil war crisis. It felt like a much quicker, less-comprehensive, and disconnected process. Again, here we have a complicated political issue that David Gaider needed an entire book to set up, and we solve it in the course of a half an hour. I understand that Bioware felt the need to follow through on the promise of a large, semi-open world, but I hope they realized that there was a tradeoff for doing so, and that a middle ground would be a better option in the future

[RedLens37]

I give up. You're right. This game really does just bombard you with mindless fetch quests. Just look at this list of boring, uninteresting minutiae we're forced to deal with. Burning all my Bioware games now in protest.

• Seek out the Wilds Flower for the Kennel Master to help cure a sick mabari.
• Look for seven hidden trail signs scattered throughout the Wilds to find the old Chasind cache.
• Missionary Rigby has hidden a lockbox in a campfire. Bring the lockbox to Jetta in Redcliffe Village to fulfill Rigby's final wish.
• After sprinkling some ashes you found from the dead soldier on the pile of stones, Gazarath will come forth and you must defeat him.
• Deliver the amulet from the dead Templar on the bridge to Ser Donall in the Chantry.
• Deliver the lesser health poultices to Elder Miriam to help sick and injured refugees.
• Barlin wants to place poison in his traps to keep out the darkspawn and trespassers, but he needs you to craft some venom.
• Allison has heard that Barlin is setting traps around his land to protect himself from the darkspawn, and she would like you to make some traps for her.
• Goodwife Sarha has gone missing; locate her remains.
• Investigate the fate of a caravan, and return with news.
• Collect nine samples of corpse gall. If, by chance, you have an abundance of corpse gall, the Chantry will pay extra for them.
• In order to ensure the continued smooth operation of the Irregulars, you have to deliver thanks to several hooded couriers around Denerim.
• The Irregulars have suffered as of late, and they require 20 Health Poultices.
• Deliver death notification letters to the wives of four deceased soldiers.
• The Collective requires 10 Deep Mushrooms.
• Deliver notices of termination to three mage apprentices.
• Seek out love letters from illicit lovers for "R".
• Some business dealings have gone wrong. Help out by disposing of the bodies in the well by the Chantry for unnamed.
• "K" requests 15 toxin extracts to be delivered to the bartender.
• Gather 10 pieces of Garnet and deliver it to the bartender as an investment for "K".
• "K" has asked you to deliver some just deserved payments.
• Boermor is about to quit the nug business. Wrangle up all the nugs you can find in the Commons.
• Orta's house was once recognized as nobles. track down the lost documents in Ortan Thaig to prove her lineage.
• collect scrolls that are scattered throughout Orzammar to obtain the Key to the City.
• Find 3 rune stones and document them in the Memories of the Shaperate.
• Take the ancient encrypted scrolls found in the library of the Ruined Temple to Sister Justine.
• Deliver a small painted box to a mysterious door that's past the Wonders of Thedas.

[CronoDragoon]

Oh, you.