Assuming that BioWare either decides to copy or perhaps "follow" one of the dialogue system of one of their previous games for Mass Effect: Andromeda, then which one of those - if one of them do make it for Andromeda - would you prefer?
Let's recapitulate the main features of DA:O, DA2, DA:I, ME, ME2 and ME3's dialogue systems:
Dragon Age: Origins
In Origins the dialogue consists of a top-to-bottom numbered list (sentences) of actions/replies/investigative questions. It was technically effective, although - and perhaps by design (most likely so) - wasn't very clear as to whether or not the purely text-based choice by the player had a specific "alignment" in character behavior/emotion/intention (evil, neutral, sarcastic, political, etc.) unless the NPC you would converse with had a clear reaction that would then indicate it. In the end DA:O's "basic" dialogue system certainly did serve its purpose well enough.
Dragon Age II
In DAII the dialogue system took a considerable turn for the best in my opinion. To me, it is the best of the DA trilogy (admittedly most likely largely in part due to the superb voice acting performance of both male and female Hawke's VAs, especially under a sustained "comical/sarcastic" behavior over time). The best part of DAII's dialogue system is that it directly influences Hawke's personality based on player-favored response types. It even shows in cut-scenes (and sooner rather than later in the game).
With no less than 17 types of dialogue-based choices DAII certainly offered great "personality control" over our protagonist, of course considering the fact that the DAII team themselves took the time to exploit their own created system quite well. A good example would be the "Special Choice" dialogue icon (star icon) which leads to special outcomes directly in relation to your Hawke's "set" personality at specific moments in the story. You are even allowed to attempt a lie.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
On paper, DA:I's 27 types (icons) of dialogue choices is of course indisputably bigger than DAII's. And, ultimately, it should have had a complex impact on our ability / capacity to role-play our Inquisitor's personality. But after completing the game three times so far (once with a Human, another with a Qunari, and finally with an Elf) I would say that the actual effect on our chosen "personality" types over time was almost non-existent, or at the very least inconsistent. That, or perhaps I should say that it was either 1) not well-enough acted and conveyed by the VAs (or that the VAs were not properly informed as they were given the scripts to read) or 2) not properly planned ahead of time before (or during) the writing of the various game's scripts by the writers themselves (but I highly doubt that would be the case). It is only clear to me that something, somewhere, went wrong with either VA and/or writing (not quality-wise, but in relation to how the VAs had to express themselves at specific lines to give a clear indication of our chosen personality type).
As I mentioned above, on paper, it should have had a much greater impact than it successfully did in DAII. And to make it clear here I am not saying that the personality choices of DA:I's system didn't have an impact at all. I am simply referring here to short, medium and especially long-term "lasting" personality on our Inquisitor's ways to express him/herself based on our favored / recurring player dialogue wheel choices, in that regard DAII is the winner. The "fault", however, for DA:I isn't the actual dialogue system in and of itself. It's probably more related to communication issues between the writers, the voice actors/actresses and/or the other folks of the team responsible to direct the VAs as they perform live in the recording studio. Because in and of itself DA:I's dialogue system is complex and merits to have a reevaluated return in a future BioWare game given better direction.
Mass Effect
The original ME's intuitive dialogue wheel was rather simple, but also allowed an appreciable level of complexity at least as far as role-playing our Shepard was concerned (excluding the fact that for some players the "inaccuracy" of the written line versus the spoken response turned them off from the game entirely or at least greatly diminished the efficiency of actual role-play capabilities, and fortunately enough for me it wasn't the case). The left side of the wheel was sometimes used for "charming" or "intimidation" responses, while also often presented a middle branch to start "investigative" conversations to gather information from NPCs or teammates. The right side, on the other hand, was usually reserved for a quicker completion of any given conversation, although of course not without allowing the player to choose between the common RPG "trifecta" of "good/cooperative/diplomatic", neutral, "evil/renegade/selfish" personalities (or merely on-the-spot emotions-based responses without any lasting effect afterwards).
All in all, ME's dialogue system - in my book - was efficient and accurate-enough (for my tastes). The Paragon / Renegade "gauge" system had its uses and memorable moments, although didn't have much of lasting effects on Shepard's actual personality over time (if any, or simply none that I can recall by heart). It was a very "in the now" system, one that showed a specific type of personality/morality "right there, right now" as the response was spoken by Shepard; when afterwards our protagonist would "revert" back to "default".
Mass Effect 2
The sequel followed much of the same dialogue mechanisms, although with a number of changes that were in my opinion good enough. For example, in ME2, the higher (and lower) the Paragon or the Renegade gauge was, the more related-to-them Charming or Intimidation dialogue options would be shown at specific situations. It is an effective system in and of itself.
The major - and best - addition coming from ME2, however, is obviously the famous Dialogue Interruption system. They can probably be (technically) considered a form of semi quick time event, to a certain degree, but contrarily to more full fledged QTE systems of various games ME2's Interruptions did not actually "do 'x' jobs/actions for you", but rather allowed your Shepard to directly act per se, even mimicking both unexpected sudden reactions from the player as well as Shepard him/herself. It was, in my opinion, a brilliant system which was also well executed and wasn't used too often either throughout the game. Even more interesting (and practical for many) was the fact that it was entirely optional.
Mass Effect 3
Similarly to ME2, the last game of the trilogy largely follows the mechanics of the original, keeps most of ME2's system intact, and adds some of its own on top of it all. My personal, and completely-subjective issue, however, with ME3's dialogue system is that some Interruptions and "debates" coming from the unique-to-ME3 "Arguments" system when a conversation (argument) is overheard have frankly an unnecessary link to the War Assets. Instead, in my book, they (Interrupts and "taking sides" in Arguments) should have had a direct impact on Shepard's very personality / morality over time similarly to how Hawke was affected by your choices in DAII. Had that system been reserved for Shepard we would later also most likely hear about our choices or "sides taken" (or argued about) by your teammates when talking to them after missions back on the Normandy (to the highest extent would have had the potential to even break a romance entirely).
On paper, however, the actual Arguments system in itself isn't necessarily well implemented to start with. It wasn't quite necessary to begin with to the franchise. My "problem" with that portion of the game's dialogue system is merely the fact that seeing my Shepard stopping by two strangers arguing about 'x' subject, drops in and leaves his/her ways of thinking to "impose" a final reflection on either of the two arguing persons felt very immersion-breaking, unfitting, unnecessary and frankly looked rather dumb... not to mention that the NPCs themselves weren't reacting to Shepard's presence.
It should have been the evidence incarnate to the development team that suspension of disbelief can only go so far when your Shepard stands right next to one of the two arguing NPCs, as they both continue to argue with each other, without ever turning towards you to politely or aggressively let you know that this conversation is none of your business regardless of who you might be. The actual implementation itself of that segment of the game's dialogue system might - as I see it - have had a better place in an actual scripted cut-scene in which you would actually see how Shepard would overhear the conversation to start with, and would also show the two arguing NPCs' actual physical location and distance in relation to Shepard's to make the whole scene more plausible, at the very least (and under that condition would have probably required more work on the dev team's part, which would have had as a result that such "Argument" scenes would have been rare, but perhaps would have had a much better role to play in the actual game-play and mostly role-play of our Shepard).
But other than some Interrupts conveniently giving War Asset points, and how clunky of an implementation their Argument system had, I found that ME3's dialogue system was generally efficient, mostly acceptable (that is completely excluding the fact that we even have the option to let our Shepard to auto-talk his/her way for most of the game, which in and of itself was in my opinion quite an aberration not only to the franchise but to RPG gaming in general, even if it was purely optional).
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Now, what would I myself like to see for that one...
I am mostly biased when it comes to my current favorite, which as I mentioned happens to be DAII's dialogue system, mostly I would suppose due to its great implementation (even if on paper it has a lesser complexity level when compared to that of Inquisition's). For Andromeda, however, I would definitely love to see the as-well-executed-as-DAII return of the Diplomatic/Charming, Sarcastic/Humorous, Aggressive/Provocative system that was initially created for DAII. A system that has a clear, direct, almost immediate and long-lasting (or permanent) effect on your protagonist throughout the entire game, not only for dialogue-based conversations and investigations, but also for cut-scenes.
I would also definitely like to see a "return" of the Interruption system, similarly to how it was executed for Mass Effect 2, perhaps with the addition of Class-specific Interruptions. I also like to imagine that BioWare could even create more [complex] Romance-based Interruptions (for example, the more "personal-level" romance-related hug-Interrupt we had between Shepard and Liara in the Shadow Broker DLC, but on a newer more complex level). And, as I described for ME3's Argument system, in and of itself wasn't a bad idea at all and I think that if well-scripted, well-situated and with purpose would definitely have its place(s) in ME:Andromeda. Additionally, perhaps take some of the "ineffective" (not to say "failed") types of responses that are unique to Inquisition and give them a much better delivered-by-VA quality (and situational purpose) for our new ME game.
All in all, for Andromeda I don't think that BioWare really has to look too far nor to create something anew and dangerously overly complex without much in returned substance, nor do they need to reinvent their own dialogue system wheel (excuse the pun here, but I had to). I think that they can (and have certainly considered it by now I assume) simply take the "best" parts of the dialogue system of their previous titles, and give us the most delicious directed and perhaps moderated soup of them all in the same package.
If, however, my choice had to be limited to just one of those six games mentioned then I would say that Dragon Age II's would be the clear winner to be implemented in Andromeda.
What About You?
Care to share your thoughts on this? What would you prefer? How do you imagine Andromeda's dialogue system?
Retour en haut
so here's to hoping it goes back to the way it was in the first game.
