The Exalted Plains is probably the worst offender as far as DAI zones go. You're basically there to...beat up some undead? Then, I dunno chat up the Dalish I guess.
I would l have loved to have taken up the opportunity to explore the civil war and its effects on Orlais more. Alas, it was not to be
sigh... the dalish, missed opportunity there. i wanted something Brecilian forest's dalish elves, a story with some thought
Rescue your captured soldiers held hostage by the Avarr, to investiagate what the Venatori were doing, Forbidden Oasis was to investigate the Shards, Storm Coast was to investigate more into the missing Wardens, and to make contact with Fairbanks.
Those are such paper thin reasons to have the Inquisitor go there at all and none of those events have even the slightest effect on the rest of the story or the world for that matter. 
Same with The Exalted Plains ... you go there to find out why communications have broken down to find out that an arbitrary third faction of soldiers (and hordes of undead) are the reasons. Even if you solve the problem it is never addressed at all and the soldiers still remain primarily the same even after "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" when the Civil War is over (imagine how bizarre it is to do that zone after you finished that quest?). When you go into a warzone and the longest lasting benefit/effect you get out of it is a Dalish Agent for Cullen ... that makes that zone irrelevant.
LOL guys u are similar to the ppl on ME A forums. Every person here is correct, since what ever u write here is ur personal opinion. And opinion isnt a fact.
For me story base the 3 games are excellent. Hawck story was good, same as the warden, and the inquisitor and the 3 have weak point during the main story.
Mechanic wise Inquisition for me is a step foward, why? bc IN MY OPINION, the combat feel more real that it feel on Origins where it work alot more like a isometric game and combat on isometric game IN MY OPINION dont feel real.
What relevance are shards to the Inquisition/closing the Breach/stopping Corypheus? I guess we can say the Venatori are investigating so we want to learn what they're up to, same in the Hissing Wastes, but there in no narrative payoff to either of these zones. For both of them, turns out the Venatori are just looking for gear that has been out leveled by our crafted gear by the time we complete the zones.
It feels like a Saturday morning cartoon: the bad guys are searching a cave! We'd better try to stop them from uncovering anything. Oh, turns out it was nothing relevant to anything and will never be referenced to in the future. But at least we got those meddling Venatori!
DAI relied way too much on every problem in the world being Corypheus' fault. That's why JOH is refreshing, there are no red Templars or Venatori, it's a zone related to the Inqusition but not Plot #473 that we have to stop.
a map without purpose is fine. i LOVE storm coast a lot, i also like hissing wastes as it has interesting lore all over the place. Also fallow mire is great imo too.
I'm not saying all of them are good reasons I am merely telling what the reason was. The one thing Origins did better then Inquisition was to connect the plot of each of its zones to the main story plot and just structure the rest of the quests in those zones from there.
One of Inquisition's main problems was really only the Hinterlands, Crestwood, WA, and...well I think that's it...had any relation to the main plot. 3. Out of ten maps. That is inexcusable the ratio should have been more like 9 to 1. And its kinda amazing how easy it would have been to add some more of that kind of meat to the story. Make each zone Plot Relevant.
Those are such paper thin reasons to have the Inquisitor go there at all and none of those events have even the slightest effect on the rest of the story or the world for that matter.
Same with The Exalted Plains ... you go there to find out why communications have broken down to find out that an arbitrary third faction of soldiers (and hordes of undead) are the reasons. Even if you solve the problem it is never addressed at all and the soldiers still remain primarily the same even after "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" when the Civil War is over (imagine how bizarre it is to do that zone after you finish that quest?). When you go into a warzone and the longest lasting benefit/effect you get out of it is a Dalish Agent for Cullen ... that makes that zone irrelevant.
Not every zone on a game need to be irrelevant to the main story. The exalted plains is like a sidequest zone, base on what u discover on the winter palace (true u can go there early. But i my quest when i go to the war table and i hear there is a undeath army marching trow it i will go investigate bc the last Undeath i fight on cresswood were related to a rift, and as the Inquisitor ur job isnt just stop Cory, is to bring order to the world, they tell u that like 100 times till u become Inquisitor.
So yeah the exalted plain isnt really relevant for the story, it work as a side quest zone, that u can or cant do. That is why i dont get why ppl rage about it.
One of Inquisition's main problems was really only the Hinterlands, Crestwood, WA, and...well I think that's it...had any relation to the main plot. 3. Out of ten maps. That is inexcusable the ratio should have been more like 9 to 1. And its kinda amazing how easy it would have been to add some more of that kind of meat to the story. Make each zone Plot Relevant.
i dont know, i think Inquisition balance well the zones. More if u are one of those that read everything since most of the zone are connected through missions or War table stories.
LOL guys u are similar to the ppl on ME A forums. Every person here is correct, since what ever u write here is ur personal opinion. And opinion isnt a fact.
For me story base the 3 games are excellent. Hawck story was good, same as the warden, and the inquisitor and the 3 have weak point during the main story.
Mechanic wise Inquisition for me is a step foward, why? bc IN MY OPINION, the combat feel more real that it feel on Origins where it work alot more like a isometric game and combat on isometric game IN MY OPINION dont feel real.
Amen Bro. Yet discussing some DaI flaws is what we do here. I love DaI but yeah some zones really ought to be better. Crestwood-himterlands is fantastic, imagine if more zones were like crestwood . JoH did that and hence it was a great DLC i enjoyed despite the negative comments here.
You should see how much flak the great ME3 got in these forums a game whose sidequests were all excellent (not speaking about eavesdrop but for the likes of Jack's, grunt's, samara;s etc)
i dont know, i think Inquisition balance well the zones. More if u are one of those that read everything since most of the zone are connected through missions or War table stories.
Yeah I know this is kinda one of those things I keep on going back and forth on. And is just more relvance of...not a problem with the game I have, just an observation. Inquisition is a game that depends greatly on what you put into it will effect your enjoyment of the game tremendously. Its still my personal favorite game of all time so I do love it to death and I know the ones are connected to each other which I like, and the over all story of the over all war agains the Elder One...but on the other hand it could have really tied into the main plot better.
Side quests should be designed to support character, story, theme, or setting. For the most part, You can have random side quests but they should have had a lot more which would have actually explained what was going on in Halamshiral. Or even have your efforts noticed, which they were at times. I mean think of it just as an example off the top of my head imagine doing the Exalted Plains before going to Halamshiral and getting ten extra court approval to start?
One of Inquisition's main problems was really only the Hinterlands, Crestwood, WA, and...well I think that's it...had any relation to the main plot. 3. Out of ten maps. That is inexcusable the ratio should have been more like 9 to 1. And its kinda amazing how easy it would have been to add some more of that kind of meat to the story. Make each zone Plot Relevant.
Yet i LOVE fallowmire and storm coast. every game has quests irrelevant to the main plot, Even the Wicther3 EXCELLENT sidequests are irellevant sometimes. it is totally acceptable. For me a serious problem with DaI is the lack of cinematic dialogue more than zones.
There are a lot of more interesting ways the Exalted Plains quest could have gone. They could have given us a better idea which candidate for Orlesian supremacy we wanted before Wicked Hearts. They could have fleshed out the Freeman of the Dales or whatever they were called: why did they desert their armies and are their reasons legitimate? Do we want to kill them or help them? Who is their leader and what are they trying to accomplish. Instead you kill seemingly endless waves of undead.
It coulda been a microcasm for the macrocasm. You should have been there and stumbled upon the undead situation along with three armies fighting each other, and then it would be up to the Inquisition to find out and investigate who the guilty party was. Shades of grey, and of the game.
Yet i LOVE fallowmire and storm coast. every game has quests irrelevant to the main plot, Even the Wicther3 EXCELLENT sidequests are irellevant sometimes. it is totally acceptable. For me a serious problem with DaI is the lack of cinematic dialogue more than zones.
Most of the zones I hated had the least to do with the plot. Fallowmire is probably my least favorite zone in the game, that and Forbidden Oasis.
There are a lot of more interesting ways the Exalted Plains quest could have gone. They could have given us a better idea which candidate for Orlesian supremacy we wanted before Wicked Hearts. They could have fleshed out the Freeman of the Dales or whatever they were called: why did they desert their armies and are their reasons legitimate? Do we want to kill them or help them? Who is their leader and what are they trying to accomplish. Instead you kill seemingly endless waves of undead.
Excellent point. There are ways to make exploration zones have some larger meaning and to tie side quests with general themes of the game. They are still optional, they don't railroad players, but they can provide additional flavour to the main path.
One of Inquisition's main problems was really only the Hinterlands, Crestwood, WA, and...well I think that's it...had any relation to the main plot. 3. Out of ten maps. That is inexcusable the ratio should have been more like 9 to 1. And its kinda amazing how easy it would have been to add some more of that kind of meat to the story. Make each zone Plot Relevant.
What makes it extra weird is that the vast majority of the Story Quests were completely removed from those zones. They are their own things and with the exception of Redcliffe Castle which is visible in the Hinterlands ... the other big story locations could be in space for all I know? I know where they are by looking at the War Table Map, that does little to connect them to explorable areas I will be spending most of the game.
What makes it extra weird is that the vast majority of the Story Quests were completely removed from those zones. They are their own things and with the exception of Redcliffe Castle which is visible in the Hinterlands ... the other big story locations could be in space for all I know? I know where they are by looking at the War Table Map, that does little to connect them to explorable areas I will be spending most of the game.
Exactly. I get the why and the reasons they did it. But they should stuck to the model that worked so well in Origins. Which granted I don't like Origins much at all but how they handled its story and its story-side quest integreation is probably the best example I can think of in any game that I have played. It is probably the game which has the best side quests I have played though Witcher 3 is up there.
Most of the zones I hated had the least to do with the plot. Fallowmire is probably my least favorite zone in the game, that and Forbidden Oasis.
i dig the atmosphere in Fallow mire and the final confrontation in the avvar fortress, all this zone does is biuld up untill the fortress, it is best to approach this zone in One sitting. One take. this way is enjoyable i think.
i dig the atmosphere in Fallow mire and the final confrontation in the avvar fortress, all this zone does is biuld up untill the fortress, it is best to approach this zone in One sitting. One take. this way is enjoyable i think.
Whereas I dig the the EP for the same reasons I think. 
Another one of my fav zones is the Empise Du Lion, I really like both the warfare zones, and Hissing Wastes.
Ooo, a story discussion. I love Bioware story discussions because their level of quality varies so extraordinarily for different reasons. They make fantastic examples.
Origins, for instance, is a great example of why cliche isn't bad by default. It hits every other cliche in the book, but the execution is (mostly) phenomenal, with a surprising amount of subtlety and depth...to much, in fact, for its own good. There's plenty of examples to pull from, but Loghain is the centerpiece here. It can be argued convincingly and easily that he's either a despicable, crazed villain or the unsung hero of the story, but you can only reach these conclusions by digging into the details of what's happening. The plot as a whole takes a great angle on an age-old tale as well by treating the major threat as more of a force of nature in which the focus turns to how to stop it rather than stopping it. This allows us to explore the politics of the region, the greys instead of the straight black and white of we are good, they are bad, which in turn allows us to explore a far greater range of personality types and morality than...most any other game, really.
Inquisition, on the other hand, is an example of why you cannot rely on cliches or the same old, that you have to take the extra step, and that you should remain consistent within your own lore. Like Origins, the centerpiece here is the focused-upon villain of the game. See, Corypheus wasn't a bad idea for a villain. Back before news came out I frequently stated Corypheus SHOULD be the main villain, to bring Bioware a step back from the mediocre stories they'd been telling with weak antagonists since Origins was realeased, to a sort of callback to Irenicus. You have this man, a powerful wizard in his own right, who reached beyond his means and fell further than any would think possible, only to return. There's a lot of history there to explore, a lot of personality. Instead we had a villain who was treated more like the archdemon of Origins - a pure evil given no depth or further insight. That worked for the archdemon, though. The archdemon wasn't a character, it was a force of nature. It was an entity we needed to figure out how to face off against. Corypheus is never treated like that, and just falls flat.
But Inquisition goes so much further than that. Like the entire plot revolving around a plot hole. There was no reason to sacrifice the Divine. Kill her, sure. Sacrifice to give power to the orb, sure. But both didn't have to happen at once, in such a compromising position. The wonder wasn't that the situation backfired, the wonder is that nobody would think it wouldn't backfire at all, and it weakens the story the longer it goes unadressed...which it never is. There extreme pacing issues. Story is often told in a matter of minutes with hours in between of little to nothing. Example is losing your base of operations a third of the way through the game, being left as a wandering, ragtag army in the wilderness, only to come across an even bigger and better fortress, and all of this in the space of a cutscene. There's no sense of loss here. You just lost a battle, barely managed to get your army away and retreat yourself, and the pacing allows for no sense of this. There's fanservice getting in the way of good storytelling. Cullen should never have been in a game beyond Origins. It made no sense with his story being what it was. But people ignored that and loved his little forbidden love story and his voice actor, and Bioware gave in and forgot everything else, just like his squeeing fans. That's poor storytelling. You cannot tell me the story would not have been better served having the same character from DA2 onward be something as simple as called a different name. Stretching the bounds of a story for the sake of fan service is never a good thing, and Bioware has become notorious for it, and it has weakened every sequel they've created after the Baldur's Gate series. I could go on and on, but I think the point is clear. Inquisition is a lesson of depth, of execution, for even with a solid basic plot you still need to execute.
DA2 is just awesome though. I hold it up there as one of the great stories to show writers what NOT to do. I've said it time and again, but if I asked a person to write a worse story than Dragon Age 2, they'd more than likely fail. Thing is, we all have a very basic understanding of structure, to the point we don't think twice about following key parts of it, and DA2 breaks this so completely it's actually funny. How, you might ask? For starts the story outright tells you, or heavily insinuates, Hawke is the only person who can stop some great incoming war, and we are then treated to a story about how that is possible. We then begin the story at a random piece of time which has no baring on anything. It's after a major battle, before going to Kirkwall, when Hawke meets Flemeth and loses a family member. So wait...is the story then about Flemeth? Or about Hawke and family? Or about this save the world thing? Whatever, we get to Kirkwall, and immediately skip a year into the future, and have somehow dodged every single piece of character development of the Hawke family excepting the loss of a sibling. This includes, loss at Ostagar, loss of longstanding home in Lothering, introducing the new city proper that the setting is based around, and time of servitude which we are for some reason supposed to not like. No character has been developed, the setting hasn't been developed, and we've dealt with a lot of baggage. And which of those plots I mentioned is the story actually about? Well, none, actually. See, nothing Hawke does actually has anything to do with the coming war or could further effect it (or, if you want to really stretch things, nothing until the third and final act of the game), so that's not it. It's not about family since they're all gone by the middle of the second act. It's not about Flemeth since we see the last of her in the first act...wait, what was the point of that prologue again? Why did Varric start there and not at any other point? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS STORY ABOUT?!?! The entire thing is a bunch of nonsensical ramblings which makes like it's supposed to have a point...but doesn't. It might be fine, just having some wandering stories about a guy, but then you need development, and the game consistently fails this completely. It is the single most broken published story I've ever experienced.
And no, no amount of "finishing" would have fixed this. A lot of the choices made here were early on in development, and the game would have required a significant rewrite to put itself back together.
Of course the other big flaw in Inquistion was there weren't enough reversals in the game. Cory really shoulda won at the Temple of Mythal and made it into the Fade.
Of course the other big flaw in Inquistion was there weren't enough reversals in the game. Cory really shoulda won at the Temple of Mythal and made it into the Fade.
He did win at haven though.
As for the Da2 response aboe you: Hawkes story was Personal and epic. this is why i loved da2 story. it was about the tragic events hawke and his companions got into. The ore you play Da2 the better it becomes. Fact is i really HATED da2 until i gave it another chanceand it clicked!! ti played it 5 times. Never regretted it. Always liked it after the initial bad impression
Those are such paper thin reasons to have the Inquisitor go there at all and none of those events have even the slightest effect on the rest of the story or the world for that matter.
Same with The Exalted Plains ... you go there to find out why communications have broken down to find out that an arbitrary third faction of soldiers (and hordes of undead) are the reasons. Even if you solve the problem it is never addressed at all and the soldiers still remain primarily the same even after "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" when the Civil War is over (imagine how bizarre it is to do that zone after you finished that quest?). When you go into a warzone and the longest lasting benefit/effect you get out of it is a Dalish Agent for Cullen ... that makes that zone irrelevant.
But it is the same thing for every side-quest out there. If all of your motivation to do anything is besides the "main" story is if it moves the main story ahead you may as well more or less drop the whole roleplaying act. Meta- and powergaming ftw.
The reasons are not paperthin, they are real IF you put yourself into the role of the character you are playing. If you are just in it to "beat" the game. well, I can concede a point.
He did win at haven though.
As for the Da2 response aboe you: Hawkes story was Personal and epic. this is why i loved da2 story. it was about the tragic events hawke and his companions got into. The ore you play Da2 the better it becomes. Fact is i really HATED da2 until i gave it another chanceand it clicked!! ti played it 5 times. Never regretted it. Always liked it after the initial bad impression
I loved the hell out of it PT 1 but PT 2. Meh. Still a great game but I do not think me and that Hawk got along. On the flip side though there shoulda been more give and take. Yes he won at Haven, which the Inquisitor countered by winning at Adamant and Halamshiral. Cory shoulda done the upswing setting up one final epic confrontation. On the steps of the Black City.
Of course the other big flaw in Inquistion was there weren't enough reversals in the game. Cory really shoulda won at the Temple of Mythal and made it into the Fade.
That would probably reveal to much about the fade and the city a this point in the story. The chance of losing at Adamant would fit better imo. Or we could lose the battle in the wilds but beat him to the well.
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