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[ShadowLordXII]

The following rant was meant to be a replay to this topic: http://forum.bioware...-fanbase/page-5

 

But since it was off-topic and honestly a bit-disjointed, I made my own OP to share a thought that I've had for the past year.

 

To a degree, I can see the "alienated" OP's sentiment even if I don't completely agree with his point.

 

Subjective views and personal tastes set aside, Dragon Age Origins truly is objectively the strongest game in the series and yet Bioware appears to be deliberately stepping away from the aspects of that game that made it great and made it successful to where the franchise was born.

 

I know that someone is going to try to direct me to the FFXIII objective review to try and tell me that there's no such thing as true objectivity. And while that's technically true, that doesn't mean that it's not possible to judge a game by it's inherent qualities and standards to determine how it compares to other games of greater or lesser quality within it's genre and without prejudice and biased judgement. 

 

For instance, while I personally love Return of the Jedi the best of all of the Star Wars movies, I can acknowledge the Empire is the better crafted, directed and produced movie in the whole trilogy. I can also say that I kind of like the Prequel movies even while acknowledging that there's a lot in those movies that are of low quality.

 

So with that out of the way, I have noted a gradual and not-so gradual shift away from the aspects of Origins that made Dragon Age great for no other good reason than just to be "different" or to try and appeal to other fans of other genres. Change isn't always bad, but when it takes away something from the experience rather than add to it, then the change is not justified and it makes it appear as though you either picked the wrong solution to problem or you broke something that didn't need to be fixed in the first place.

 

The shift is most obvious between Origins and DA2. Some of it makes sense considering that the story was on a smaller scale and BW was rushed by EA to cash in on the success of Origins by making a sequel as quickly as possible. But others simply weakened the game's quality and paint DA2 as a decent/good, but painfully inferior successor to Origins.

 

Worst yet, DA2's gameplay stripped out several features and traits from Origins such as less specializations; Skills are gone; Weaker writing especially in Act 3 as the story relies on heavily restricting player agency and forcing drama into the story for the sake of drama; introduction of class-restricted weapon styles and talents; no party equipment; an art style that made the game seem less realistic and gritty; A central conflict that devolves into a dark vs dark situation without an incentive to be invested; a streamlined inventory system; and need I explain everything wrong with what was done to the darkspawn? Signs of a failed attempt at marketing what should have been a spin-off into a sequel.

 

Then we get to Inquisition which manages to take some steps back to Dragon Age's roots and implement a few welcome changes and refinement of some attempts by DA2 which actually work this time around. All of which accumulates to Inquisition being the second strongest in a series with overall good games. But Inquisition is also deliberately distancing itself from Origins including a lighter tone despite the stakes and danger; restricted abilities; continued class-restricted weapon styles (no dual-wielding warriors for instance); removal of healing magic which is pointless; Skills are still gone; and a deliberate stepping away from the darker aspects of Thedas that made this world so compelling and interesting.

 

Let's see...No Blood Magic specialization; No Brothels; No Desire Demons despite the demon invasion (Imshael doesn't count); Apart from Haven, there's no "All your base are belong to us" moments or threats to the Inquisition or the player; and None of your companions can die with the exception of Blackwall (if you don't rescue him and you can't execute him even though passing as a grey warden sounds like a crime worthy of death or at least heavy punishment) and one other companion in Trespasser depending on your choices (not revealing that one); and despite ample opportunity, your Inquisitor doesn't have the option of dying.

 

Dragon Age Inquisition does have disturbing stuff that's in your face. But most of the darker aspects are either absent or presented in a way which creates distance between the event and the player. For instance, the grey warden sacrifices aren't directly shown, but merely implied. While in Origins and DA2, they take detailed care to show you what's happening or time's taken to show the immediate aftermath.

 

The big difference is that the Inquisitor himself has no option to partake in the darker sides of humanity and is restricted to being neutral at worst. As opposed to DA2 or Origins where your Warden/Hawke could be an evil and selfish murderer who could kill their own companions or even the innocent including at least two instances of deliberate child-endangerment and/or murder.

 

In short, the next Dragon Age game needs to be as deep as both Origins and Inquisition without abandoning the things that made the series great in the first place. To be willing to take risks like DA2 without losing sight of your franchise's roots as an RPG. Without fear of offending people or making people uncomfortable because your content isn't the most "PC". To be willing to look into the darker aspects of the series and explore and show them for all of their ugliness and horror.

 

Also is it too much ask for the developers to be willing to leave something alone that isn't broken rather than changing an aspect of the series just for the sake of change and nothing else?

 

Also, bring back dual-wielding warriors. Seriously. And Spirit Warriors. Both were awesome. They will only make what will be a great game better.

[Mr.House]

Have to disagree that DAI was "light"  Envy, Nightmare? Those are pretty dark demons with some twisted crap they can show or spout. Being able to command someone get turned tranquil is also very brutal along with making a deal with a Forbidden one (first time in any DA game you could)give Vivie a fake heart, who I had made the choice in the abyss quest very difficult and I was very sad, to put a different leader in charge you had to let Celene die ect Also I find it funny you mention brothels yet this game has real nudity, not undy sex like DAO. There's many other parts where DAI is dark, yeah it doesn't have naked monsters anymore, but it does have nudity where it needs it, something DAO failed at spectacular. I don't even have to mention Tresspasser as you should be aware of some of the dark and twisted **** that can happen in there.

 

As fort he PC not dying, yeah there's a reason, so Bioware does not run into the same issue they have with the HoF. They can in fact do stuff with the inquisitor because they are always alive, just disabled.

[Daerog]

Thanks for your opinion.

 

When it comes to criticism, what is being criticized and what features are more important and how to do them right are not the same across the board. There are different schools of criticism, some may say DA:O was the best, some may say DA:I was the best, some may say they were all terrible, and some may exaggerate the Shakespearean qualities (joking) and tragedy that befall Hawke and claim that DA2 was the best.

 

I like how the story was organized in DA:O and it did seem that DA:I's main story was outweighed by the sheer number of optional, needless quests. I have no problem with mmo's, but I thought it an accurate description of DA:I's side quests. However, I do think that DA:I was better (*gasp!*).

 

I would like the next game to be another experiment, just as Origins, DA2, and Inquisition tried different things, I would like DA4 to be different as well. No big organization to run, no advisors, not limited to a city but not always having to camp in the wilderness. Maybe some jousting or mounted combat would be cool. How about choosing to obey or disobey orders in the beginning of the game? Haven't seen that in Dragon Age yet, being a subordinate with the option to disobey a superior or not, you are either forced to obey or disobey as the narrative demands.

[KaiserShep]

I don't see anything about Origins' art style that made it seem more realistic or gritty than its sequels. Origins' method of making the environments "gritty" was basically the constant use of fleshy sacks, even where they didn't really make sense, and brown. Lots and lots of brown. 

[ShadowLordXII]

Have to disagree that DAI was "light"  Envy, Nightmare? Those are pretty dark demons with some twisted crap they can show or spout. Being able to command someone get turned tranquil is also very brutal along with making a deal with a Forbidden one (first time in any DA game you could)give Vivie a fake heart, who I had made the choice in the abyss quest very difficult and I was very sad, to put a different leader in charge you had to let Celene die ect Also I find it funny you mention brothels yet this game has real nudity, not undy sex like DAO. There's many other parts where DAI is dark, yeah it doesn't have naked monsters anymore, but it does have nudity where it needs it, something DAO failed at spectacular. I don't even have to mention Tresspasser as you should be aware of some of the dark and twisted **** that can happen in there.

 

As fort he PC not dying, yeah there's a reason, so Bioware does not run into the same issue they have with the HoF. They can in fact do stuff with the inquisitor because they are always alive, just disabled.

 

I love Inquisition, but it is fairly light compared to it's predecessors. I'm not saying that a light tone is bad either, but it seems like Inquisition's content is begging for an atmosphere and mood that's close to as dark as the past two games and yet it's being restricted for some reason.

 

The art designs of the demons are grotesque and horrible, but you're already mowing down these creatures left and right through most of the game. We hardly ever even see them actually terrorize people or possess mages to become abominations or seduce people for their own desires.

 

The Nightmare Demon and the situation related to it would be a sole exception and that was a good dilemna as I had to choose between Alistair and Hawke. But even after guaranteeing that Alistair/Hawke is being sent to their death, the game chickens out and leaves their fate ambiguous rather than just showing them getting killed or devoured by the nigh-unstoppable demon.

 

As I mention, most of Inquisition's dark aspects are either downplayed, toned down or presented in a way where there's a distance between the player and the event.

 

Examples:

 

The Tranquility punishment actually only happens off-screen and using it presents no more consequence than angering your mage allies who are then quickly pacified despite their valid concerns.

 

The snow white quest isn't too important since the man dies regardless of if you help Viv or not.

 

The Real nudity is a huge plus and I was glad that DA was willing to take the risk. However, the removal of brothels despite their appearance in past games is noteworthy and seems like it was done as to not "offend anyone." As a result, a certain edge is lost and again, it just serves to show that for one step towards grit that's taken, two more are taken to distance from said-grit.

 

Grey Warden sacrifices? The actual killing takes place off-screen and the story hurries past the bloodshed rather than stopping to show just how deprived the actions are.

 

As I haven't played through Trespasser yet, I can't speak for the difference made with that dlc and am mostly basing my OP on the base game itself.

[Steelcan]

I think that overall Inquisition wasa mish better step towards crafting an identity for the franchise than DA:O or DA2.

Origins wanted to be a Baldur's Gate meets ASoIaF with some original bits filtered with other contemporary fantasy. DA2 helped push a more unique artstyle and tone but fell on its face because of the host of issues it had.

Inquisition finally managed to incorporate that new art style and tone of the setting with a much more expansive world. It still has a ways to go on defining a gameplay system but that is another matter.

[LightningPoodle]

"No brothels."

I liked this... until that sentence.

[ShadowLordXII]

"No brothels."

I liked this... until that sentence.

 

Minor point compared to the rest of my OP.

 

Trust me, it's less about being able to have gratuitous sex whenever you want and more about the series distancing itself from the darker aspects of it's own lore and story.

[Shaftell]

How's inquisition light? We deal with demons, gods. The very fabric of heaven and hell is questioned. It has a lot of philosophical undertones. There's blood, gore. The inquisitor can behead his enemies, make them tranquil even. Sacrifices are made. Yes it might be brighter and shinier but it has in fact more dark undertones than it ever did. Just because it isn't in your face like some other game I won't mention it doesn't mean it's not dark.

[ShadowLordXII]

How's inquisition light? We deal with demons, gods. The very fabric of heaven and hell is questioned. It has a lot of philosophical undertones. There's blood, gore. The inquisitor can behead his enemies, make them tranquil even. Sacrifices are made. Yes it might be brighter and shinier but it has in fact more dark undertones than it ever did. Just because it isn't in your face like some other game I won't mention it doesn't mean it's not dark.

 

Long story short, I didn't say that the game doesn't have dark stuff in it. But rather that the game is deliberately setting distance from those darker aspects and other aspects that made Origins great and the quality is decreased as a result.

 

Refer to the OP and other subsequent replies for some specific examples and hopefully you'll understand my viewpoint a bit better even if you disagree.

[Shechinah]

Minor point compared to the rest of my OP.

 

Trust me, it's less about being able to have gratuitous sex whenever you want and more about the series distancing itself from the darker aspects of it's own lore and story.

 

If you would not mind, would you elaborate on why you consider brothels to be a darker aspect because in my opinion, the brothels in the Dragon Age series has never been presented as a dark aspect of the world.

 

The only quest I can think of that would be an exception would be Idunna from the "Enemies Among Us" quest because she was a prostitute who used her position as a cover to find suitable Templars. Jethann from "The First Sacrifice" I would not consider an exception since he has nothing to do with Ninette's disappearance and having him in the role of a prostitute was not necessary for him to provide the information he does to Hawke. He could have been in a different occupation and still have done that.   
 

[Evamitchelle]

Minor point compared to the rest of my OP.

 

Trust me, it's less about being able to have gratuitous sex whenever you want and more about the series distancing itself from the darker aspects of it's own lore and story.

 

The brothels in DAO and DA2 were mostly used as a source of comic relief though (i.e. the 'surprise me' option, the companion banter, NPCs like Gamlen popping up etc.), so I don't really see how the lack of brothels in DAI is indicative of a lighter tone. I'm not really convinced it was a deliberate omission either but more of a side-effect of the lack of any major city hubs. A brothel at Skyhold or Haven would have felt out of place because of the whole Chantry connection, and Val Royeaux is basically nothing but a couple of shops. 

 

As for DAI overall, I don't feel it was significantly lighter than previous games. A lot of the points you brought in the OP as proof of DAI's lightening tone seem more of a case of 'let's not introduce plot points we can't deal with properly' than 'let's make our fantasy world happier' (for example the lack of companion death makes it easier to bring them back as needed in future titles, the blood magic spec would require a good bit of explanation as to why the Inquisitor is allowed to perform forbidden magic etc.) 

 

Overall Inquisition still has a lot of pretty dark moments: Leliana showing up looking like a corpse after having been tortured and experimented on for the past year (and the whole of In Hushed Whispers really), the ability to force Cullen to remain an addict (especially if you take into account the epilogue slides from Trespasser), Blackwall's backstory etc. 

 

Also we do see a few of the Warden sacrifices. How many are required exactly to make it suitably dark ?

[Shechinah]

I believe they have also said that they do not want to implement the blood magic specialization unless they feel they can give it the weight in story that it has in lore.

[ShadowLordXII]

If you would not mind, would you elaborate on why you consider brothels to be a darker aspect because in my opinion, the brothels in the Dragon Age series has never been presented as a dark aspect of the world.

 

The only quest I can think of that would be an exception would be Idunna from the "Enemies Among Us" quest because she was a prostitute who used her position as a cover to find suitable Templars. Jethann from "The First Sacrifice" I would not consider an exception since he has nothing to do with Ninette's disappearance and having him in the role of a prostitute was not necessary for him to provide the information he does to Hawke. He could have been in a different occupation and still have done that.   
 

 

Because a brothel's existence is an unspoken, yet obvious sign of desperation and could be seen as a dead-end for those forced to work in one.

 

Typically, most workers in a brothel do so out of desperation or coercion. Someone (historically, women more often than not) needs money and can't get it anywhere else so they sell their bodies as a means of survival. It also means that they may be in danger from disease, violence, extortion, and other problems, but like crime, the prostitution enabled by brothels is hard to get out of once you're in it.

 

It's an aspect that has historical roots across multiple cultures and is pretty unpleasant to think about, but it also makes one wonder about the implications of a brothels existence and whether avoiding/frequenting one would help or hinder the situations of the courtesans who work there. Leaving the brothels as is just means that the workers forced to go there will continue to be used while shutting it down may leave the workers jobless, without any means of providing of themselves or even more vulnerable.

 

This angle isn't necessarily played up, but neither is it demeaned or treated as inconsequential. You don't have to throw anvils at people, but the existence of a brothel in Denerem and Kirkwall was just one more way of denoting the societal and economic imbalances and inequities that existed in those cities. Just something else that the hero can't "fix" regardless of their power because its a symptom of a wider flawed and unfair society that can't be fixed because it exists per a result of human nature.

 

Plus having brothels in two games only for them to disappear makes the absence more noticeable and questioning. I can see room for a brothel in Orlais, but the opportunity was deliberately skirted for some reason. Lack of resources? Not wanting to offend players? Not wanting to make them uncomfortable? Lack of interest? Hence why I cite the brothel thing as a minor, but still deliberate stepping away from the darker side of Dragon Age's identity that helped make it in the first place because I can't understand why else brothels would be absent or if there's even any harm to their existence?

 

Without anything else to consider, I'm leaning towards the "avoiding discomfort/offense" angle and that seems like a bad route for a mature series.

 

I believe they have also said that they do not want to implement the blood magic specialization unless they feel they can give it the weight in story that it has in lore.

 

Dubious explanation considering the potential amount of leeway, but hopefully they'll work that issue out in the next game.

[KaiserShep]

Dubious explanation considering the potential amount of leeway, but hopefully they'll work that issue out in the next game.

 

The most we've ever seen of it having an impact on the story is a deleted scene from Origins in the Broken Circle quest, where you can potentially kill both Wynne and the Templars. I can see how this sort of thing can easily get out of hand for certain stories. In Inquisition, the entire plot of the game would collapse if it actually accounted for blood magic in the story. People find out that the Inquisitor is a maleficar, and suddenly the Inquisition's ranks begin to quickly thin out as people abandon them, including most of the companions. 

[Bombadyl]

The big difference is that the Inquisitor himself has no option to partake in the darker sides of humanity and is restricted to being neutral at worst. As opposed to DA2 or Origins where your Warden/Hawke could be an evil and selfish murderer who could kill their own companions or even the innocent including at least two instances of deliberate child-endangerment and/or murder.

 

In short, the next Dragon Age game needs to be as deep as both Origins and Inquisition without abandoning the things that made the series great in the first place. To be willing to take risks like DA2 without losing sight of your franchise's roots as an RPG. Without fear of offending people or making people uncomfortable because your content isn't the most "PC". To be willing to look into the darker aspects of the series and explore and show them for all of their ugliness and horror.

 

Also is it too much ask for the developers to be willing to leave something alone that isn't broken rather than changing an aspect of the series just for the sake of change and nothing else?

 

 

Change is probably the only universal constant there is when it comes to life and especially games.   While I respectfully disagree with a number of points, I do get the gist of what you're driving at with the exploration of darker aspects of human nature, moral ambiguity, and just adult themes in general.   However, I highly doubt you will ever find much that is dark or seedy from Bioware, which is one of the most sterile and politically correct developers I can think of off hand.   One look at their employee roster and you get the sense that the darkest aspect of human nature most of them ever came across in suburbs of Pleasantville was a rude barista at Starbucks.

 

While I certainly enjoy the stories and lore of the entire series, it does lack an edge that some other offerings out there have.  I do not see a huge difference between DAO and DAI, but I do see that slow continued trend towards politically correct, please everyone, offend no one, sell to as wide an audience as possible.  Sadly, it is the world we now live in.

[ShadowLordXII]

Change is probably the only universal constant there is when it comes to life and especially games.   While I respectfully disagree with a number of points, I do get the gist of what you're driving at with the exploration of darker aspects of human nature, moral ambiguity, and just adult themes in general.   However, I highly doubt you will ever find much that is dark or seedy from Bioware, which is one of the most sterile and politically correct developers I can think of off hand.   One look at their employee roster and you get the sense that the darkest aspect of human nature most of them ever came across in suburbs of Pleasantville was a rude barista at Starbucks.

 

While I certainly enjoy the stories and lore of the entire series, it does lack an edge that some other offerings out there have.  I do not see a huge difference between DAO and DAI, but I do see that slow continued trend towards politically correct, please everyone, offend no one, sell to as wide an audience as possible.  Sadly, it is the world we now live in.

 

Do elaborate if you want.

[TheExtreamH]

May i ask a question. Why does everyone want a Origins 2? Being a console player i found Origins combat to be sluggish and boring (I mained a mage), I very rarely if at all used to tactical wheel. Yea the amount of content to dive into was there to mess with and the dark spawn looked threatening. Really tho the only thing keeping me interested in Origin was the story and companions. The faster paced combat and voiced protagonist to me was a welcomed change in Dragon Age 2. 

I know i'm probably going to receive some frack for this, But i consider Inquisition and DA2 fair more superior than Origins.

[Bombadyl]

Do elaborate if you want.

 

While I agree that they moved away from the whole blood magic thing, mostly restoring to saying, 'its bad', as Solas mentions on the Storm Coast, "Let us not linger".  Coming from a character who has already plotted to destroy our world and existence.  Oooook...   Lack of brothels is another example, as again, I understand it isn't about merely gratuitous sex but more of an underlying mood of being in the seedy side of some large port town, where you will find underworld figures you might vie to get information.   As someone mentioned, we got the Orlais capital of Val Royeaux, and the offering of fewer shops than a Mennonite village in rural Wyoming.  No taverns, brothels, wretched back alleys, just one fishing net with some dead fish in it.

 

While traveling in this large world with a gang of characters, fighting demons, mages, madmen, beasts and god like figures, we get basically one time choice of who lives or dies, and they are a character from a previous installment and not one of your cast?  I guess if you were really committed to that previous character still, you might find the choice difficult but meh...  Is there no way to offer a scenario where you might be forced to make a choice of whether one of your companions lives or dies or where someone dies and it is up to you to decide which?  What about being betrayed by a romance choice with another character in your companion list because that never happens in real life, right?

 

In another thread on philosophical points, I mentioned that what if during a point in the story we discover that a clan of Dalish elves are going to attack our families village in en-mass.  So we have a choice to act, killing all these elves before they attack the village, is this wrong?  The Dalish elves will certainly think so, but will the people of the village?   We don't see many of these types of scenarios.  To the extent we do, they are more often implicit and off screen than a cut scene of your character rampaging through a village, hacking elves to pieces.  Closest we got to this was DAO between the Dalish and Werewolves.

 

In DAO, as a rogue you could even steal from the public and were encouraged to do so if you wanted to raise coin for that Felons coat.  Loved the name. 

 

As I said before, I still enjoy these games and the lore and will continue to play them, even if they are to me, sunshine on a schtick and a bit fluffy and while I do see DAI being a lighter themed game than DAO, it isn't by a great margin.   I certainly wouldn't mind seeing whores, cut throats, thieves, brothels and bars, and all the very real things that actually exist in our day to day world, but are oddly lacking in this grand world of Thedas that is almost always in a constant state of war.  It isn't for the gratuity, but the grit and the grime.  Everyone's mileage will certainly vary.

[TheRevanchist]

Could DAI have used some darker themes? I believe so. This was very much a "Oh my god, it's the end of world!" type of game. You could say the Blight is as well, and it is. But frankly I feel like this threat was even bigger than The Blight. I believe it could have used more of a theme hopelessness and despair, defiance in the face of overwhelming odds. Defiance of course being very different from Hope and other related things. Haven is the best example of this, that was not hope, it was not a victory, It was Defiance. "Yea, you're probably too much for us, but we're gonna die on our terms, not yours!" This is the tone I feel DAI could have used more of. Not being to see Crime Syndicates and stuff...I mean sure it's kinda weird that they are absent, but I feel, personally, when you are a Head of State, so to speak, you don't really encounter those types of people. That is what you pay your Spies and Soldiers for, to deal with those people discreetly. You can't have your reputation ruined by having someone recognize you while your making a deal with Slavers, for example. I feel it's absence was a deliberate choice due to this train of thought, not due to any political correctness. I may be wrong, We'll never know for sure either way. I feel those particular types of aspects are not too important to this type of set up.  

[Wulfram]

If the next game is set in Tevinter, then it kind of has to be dark. And having blood magic back for the player would fit well, too.

[Bombadyl]

 Not being to see Crime Syndicates and stuff...I mean sure it's kinda weird that they are absent, but I feel, personally, when you are a Head of State, so to speak, you don't really encounter those types of people. That is what you pay your Spies and Soldiers for, to deal with those people discreetly. You can't have your reputation ruined by having someone recognize you while your making a deal with Slavers, for example. I feel it's absence was a deliberate choice due to this train of thought, not due to any political correctness. I may be wrong, We'll never know for sure either way. I feel those particular types of aspects are not too important to this type of set up.  

 

A head of state that spends hours picking elfroot, wading through flooded ruins and begging devs to provide my castle stronghold a footlocker.  :-)

 

If the next game is set in Tevinter, then it kind of has to be dark. And having blood magic back for the player would fit well, too.

 

I sure hope so. 

[The Oracle]

There's plenty of darkness in DA:I, but much of it is in codex's. I think the lack of cutscenes really makes an impact on how we perceive things, as does the camera distance when you're out adventuring.

 

If you play on PC, I really recommend the first-person camera mod. It's really easy in game to run past mountains of bodies, hanging corpses, burnt down houses and ritual sacrifice without giving it a moments notice. Seeing it in first person though, yeesh. You basically spend most of the Hinterlands wading through corpses.

 

Plenty has been said on the "no brothel's" thing on another thread. There were many things in the other two games that are arguably far darker and more important (Alienages for example) but it doesn't mean that they've disappeared or that Bioware doesn't want to upset people who are against the systematic oppression of a race. They just had no quests leading to there and didn't see the need to place it in just because it had been in previous games.

[ArianaGBSA]

@OP

Yes. But, no. Eventually I accepted that Origins is one of a kind, the only DA game. From DA2 and afterwards we have a new and completely different series with absolutely no relation to DAO. Since this new IP borrowing the name of DA also seems interesting I'm learning to love it. But it is unrealistic to think any AAA RPG game will be deep and interesting like DAO again, either go for kickstarters (W2, DOS, PoE, TToN and others) or accept the new world.

I'm trying to help, really, we had plenty of time (5 years since Witch Hunt) to accept that the only way to have DA Origins is playing it again (and I always do). I do not say it with joy in my heart, but that kind of RPG is gone. Every genre had to say goodbye to good games and be restricted to crowdfunding/indies, now it is RPG turn. We have gone the way of Castlevania and Megaman.

[Esmerella]

I understand the Op's position but disagree.  Origins was a great game but had so many flaws.  Primary flaw was allowing the use of Blood Magic.  If the game was true to it's own canon Alistair would never make it to the end with a Blood Mage warden.  He would either attack you or leave either response makes participating in the landsmeet very difficult.  Though Duncan would tolerate Blood Magic Alistair had too much prejudice against it to ever accept it.  Look at his response when you save his nephew with the ritual.  

 

Blood Magic was cool to be honest it shouldn't have been an option at all.