Okay, I got over the no romances thing. I'm fine with that. But honestly it feels like this was made by people who only read the Cliff's Notes on DAO.
Before I begin, let me say I tried to avoid spoilers, but I did see the names of the groupmates in their respective threads. I knew Velanna was an uptight Dalish, Anders was a wise-cracking apostate, Oghren was coming back, and then I just heard a few more names but didn't (and in some cases still don't) know anything about them: Mhairi, Justice, etc. I stayed away from the Q&A, even after the initial posting. I didn't even read the Penny Arcade comic past page 1.
So in roughly chronological order (except for the stuff that's not):
-Hey, I have no shoes on. That's cool. I really thought I'd get a chance to keep playing after I finished DAO, so I could swap out my DLC armor, but it wouldn't let me, so no, that didn't work out. Maybe you could have given me like some tier 1 sandals or something though? Nah, it's okay. It totally makes sense for the Hero of Ferelden to walk around barefoot.
-Cool prologue, fun first mission (really fast filling up the group though)
-Anders' first scene is probably my favorite ever...I love how he shakes out his hands after he's done casting that huge blast of flame (just a nice, small, subtle touch), and the look on his face when he turns around. "I didn't do it." Bravo...that was awesome. I was worried he was going to be a lame Alistair replacement, but his personality feels all his own.
-OMG LOOK, A KITTY! Finally we cat people get our turn. PLEASE let us have it as a pet, PLEASE--oh, it's a gift. (Yes I admit I had a totally un-manly squee moment when I thought, beyond all hope of reason, I might get to have a cat for a pet. This one is my fault...honestly it was a pretty unrealistic expectation)
-"HEY OGHREN! Okay I was a little harsh on you when I heard you were the returning companion, but in my last DAO playthrough I maxed out your approval and your speech at Denerim was really touching and you're one of my best buds (especially since Alistair and I are forbidden to talk about anything not 100% bland--more on that later), and...oh...your approval of me reset in the couple of weeks, months tops, since the end of DAO? So our bromance meant nothing? What happened to us, where'd the spark go?" Oh, and "you remember anyone named Felsi? No? I was under the impression you, like...had a kid with her. Named it after me. No? Okay."
-Mhairi...doesn't make it? WTF? I know she had a trailer made for her...why would you possibly do that? The explanation I've heard the most is that it adds "realism" or whatever, but if that was the intent, this is an epic fail. She's in the game for like 30 minutes. That's not long enough to form any emotional attachment, even with the tearful vow of revenge scene. So the only "attachment" is the players thought they were getting a cool new companion, and BW went "gotcha!" It's totally OOC. It's us (the real life players) who got screwed, not our characters. Again, why? Go through all that trouble to make us think we were getting this companion only to say "just kidding?" I think someone in another thread summed it up best when they called it a "dick move." I can only hope some way is eventually discovered to avoid it, but it's not looking like that will happen.
-Woo, Alistair, already! Finally I can say "Dude, we need to have a huge bro-mantic conversation." Err, nope. Just a 30 second conversation and he's gone. Can't even ask you how being married to Anora is going? Not so much as a "Hey sorry about sparing Loghain and such?" Oh, you've never heard of anyone named Loghain? (See next)
-Uh, seneschal, what do you mean you only know of 1 Fereldan warden? Loghain was put in charge of recruitment, remember? THAT SEEMS LIKE THE KIND OF THING THAT PEOPLE WOULD TALK ABOUT. HE WAS PRETTY FAMOUS. I mean, come on. That wasn't one of the things that carried over? (I'm hoping I just need to give this time and it was just an oversight...because honestly.)
-"As a matter of fact, Anders, I am something of a fan of apostates. In fact, I'VE BEEN KNOWN TO MAKE GOD-BABIES WITH THEM." Oh, sorry...I mean "yes, I mildly approve of your apostate-ness. Morrigan who?"
-OMG WYNNE! The one who listened to me baring my soul and pouring out all my worries and fears because I had to act strong for the rest of the group (and because no one else hardly bothered to ask me how I was doing)! The one who was a maternal figure for my city elf whose mother was "especially dead!" I didn't know if I'd ever see you again! Gimme a big hug and tell me about what happened with Shale! Err, what's that? All I get is a "hey what's up" and not so much as a handshake? And...you're sending me out on some random errand? Just like...everyone else used to always do?
-REALLY?! Really, Bioware? You're going to put the lady from Weisshaupt's head RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA when the banns are swearing fealty? No one...noticed this? Did no one play an hour of the game on XBox 360?
-Oh, look at that. We can make our own runes. Best part: TONS MORE STUFF TO CLOG UP OUR INVENTORIES! WOOHOO!
-Hey guard captain? Why am I running around catching your crooks for you? I thought I was sort of the boss here. You guys are just standing around. I feel uncomfortable with this situation. I feel like people won't take me seriously if I do this for you. I'm running around in the mud and all the refugees are looking at me. Telling me to stop looking at them. That doesn't seem like something you should tell the Arl of the city you're so desperate to get into. Maybe it's because my behaviour isn't very Arl-like. Just a thought. I doubt Eamon ever had to do anything like this.
A few good things to balance it out (or at least make it slightly less unbalanced):
-Holding court. IS. SWEET. No, I don't know why I love it so much. I feel like Solomon I guess. I hope this happens a lot.
-Thank you for the personal storage chest! Good, good stuff.
-CAM CLARKE back as Herren (among others)! I knew you'd bring him (Clarke) back. Never doubted you for a minute. That's Leonardo, you guys!
-Someone mentioned Bhelen. That was my choice in Orzammar! So that's one thing that carried over.
EDIT: Just remembered another one. What is up with everyone pronouncing "apostate" as "APP-uh-state" instead of "uh-POSS-tate?" I think it shifts in the middle of a conversation in fact, with the templars that travel with Alistair. Anders says "uh-POSS-tate", the templar replies with "APP-uh-state," and then it stays that way after that (so far).
EDIT again: I chose to search for Morrigan at the end of DAO, and Zevran decided to come with me. Would it really have been that hard to toss the prologue voiceover guy a few more bucks to have him say "Oh and by the way, Zevran and the Warden couldn't find Morrigan so they came back to Ferelden and then Zevran went off somewhere." Or have some character (like Oghren) say something like "well at least it's only you two mages since the Commander couldn't find that other one." That can be the end of it. Just the barest hint of an acknowledgement of what I did would be enough.
Okay I'm done. I'm not saying it's bad, or even that I regret purchasing it, but...bleh. It doesn't take lots of voiceover just to MENTION people from the last game. Romances, even friendships, I get it. But come on...just a little name-dropping would go a long way. People loved DAO because they got emotionally involved. And it wouldn't take a lot to give that a nod every once in a while. There's still a chance this improves later in the game...I'm keeping the faith.
I hope that last part was coherent, because that was my main point and I don't feel like much of the rest was coherent at all. I ended up staying up all night last night getting my canon DAO playthrough just perfect, and I'm feeling kind of loopy.
Modifié par SirOccam, 17 mars 2010 - 03:19 .
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