prisoner_24601 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prisoner_24601) wrote2009-12-17 12:26 pm
prisoner_24601) wrote2009-12-17 12:26 pm
Entry tags:
I finally finished Dragon Age.
I kind of feel like I just ran a marathon or something. I have no idea how you all ended up beating the game so damn quickly, because it took me like 90+ hours to finish it (and I didn't even do everything). True, probably 20 of those hours were spent with the game idle and me afk chasing after the anklebiters or making dinner or whatever, but still, that was a damn long game.
Overall, I thought it was pretty fun. Not the greatest or most original game ever, but pretty consistently entertaining. If I were going to grade it against other Bioware titles, I'd have to say that I didn't enjoy it as much as Knights of the Old Republic or Balder's Gate 2, but thought it was light years better than Jade Empire. I'd put it on the same enjoyment level as Mass Effect, although the strengths of those two games seem to be the opposite from each other. Mass Effect had a more interesting plot line that was much tighter and very well thought out, but the NPC's fell kind of flat. Dragon Age had this sprawley behemoth of a plot that many times was too big and too disorganized and was often really, really contrived, but I liked the NPC interaction much better.
Some thoughts:
The Characters
Bioware really loves those character archtypes don't they? This time we get Canderous (Sten) and HK-47 (Shale) from Knights of the Old Republic and Viconia (Morrigan) from Balder's Gate. If Bioware is going to insist on putting a Canderous analog in every single one of their games, I think we need to start insisting that they finally let us romance him. At least Alistair wasn't giving off Carth vibes, which is a big improvement over the last several games.
Overall, I liked the characters though, even the ones that were regurgitations from past games. I thought that Alistair was a lot of fun to have around and had some of the best banters with everyone in the party. Honestly, I kept waiting for him and Morriagan to just start making out, so I felt vindicated in the end when he sleeps with her for the ritual. True love or whatever with the PC aside, I bet Alistair had been wanting to tap that since they met.
Leliana grew on me too, although she annoyed me at first. Zevran I thought I was going to hate (I hate elves on general principle), but his Antonio Bandares voice and shameless sexual advances and dialogue towards the party as a whole cracked me up. He and Wynne had the best banters of the whole damn game (that shit was hilarious). I wish I could have kept him around more, but I never really got around to making him like me, and he ended up betraying my party which was a bummer. Ogren was really funny to have around as well (loved the line about tattooing his name on your ass in bruises).
As for non party NPC's, I liked both Anora and Logain (although I suspect that there is probably much fangirlish rage directed in Anora's direction). I ended up choosing her for the throne over Alistair, because let's face it - as nice of a guy as Alistair is, he'd make a totally shitty and weak king. So I ended up getting the ending where you both stay together and rebuild the Grey Wardens, which after finding out what all the endings were, made the most sense to me. I may end up going back though and convincing Alistair and Anora to marry to see what happens, because that also made sense too.
The Romances
I thought the Alistair romance was okay. Overall, I liked him as a character, but he's just not my type. I think I understand all of the fangirl squee - he trips all the right buttons (he's young, hot, funny, and has that whole awkward thing that's supposed to be endearing) and on top of it, he doesn't come with baggage that a frustrated a lot of the true love fangirl contingent with Carth (dead wives and hostile kids - although that's why I found Carth interesting myself, lol). Maybe it's my age, or maybe he's just too goofy to be my type, but I was pretty indifferent about the romance angle and really only completed it out of curiosity more than anything else.
Having watched my husband romance Morrigan on his Dwarf Rogue though, I have to say though that the Alistair romance is 100 times better than the goofyness that is the Morrigan romance. I wanted to romance Leliana, but I failed to trigger it one of the early conversations (because I thought I could get to it later) and then it never came up again. And Zevran - he was just way too goofy and over the top for me to really even try.
And omg, I didn't think there was a way to make the sex even sillier than in Mass Effect, but the good people at Bioware have totally proven me wrong.
The Gameplay
Sometimes it was fun, but a lot of times it was a tedious slog. I thought I was NEVER going to get out of the Deep Roads. They should keep the difficulty (I liked that the combat wasn't super easy like other Bioware games) but cut the number of battles and the sizes of the dungeons in half.
Also - wtf, Bioware? Why do you have such a freaking hard time making hair that doesn't look completely ridiculous? And what the hell is up with the mage robes? Please, for the love of god, go over to Mod the Sims, and hire some of those artists to create hairstyles and clothing that doesn't look completely idiotic.
The Fans
Frankly, the Alistair fangirl contingent scares the hell out of me. The rabid devotion that Alistair has inspired is rather amazing, and I think it even tops the Carth fangirls from back in the day.
I found all of the outrage over Mages, Dwarves and Elves not being able to marry Alistair and become queen really hilarious. I mean, the dude so obviously does not want to be king, and here is this woman who would actually make a decent queen who wants the job, but they end up goading Alistair into taking the throne anyway, and then he ends their romance. Whereas if they'd listened to what Alistair actually wanted and gave Anora the throne they'd get to be Grey Wardens with their one true love. I'm sorry, but that's freaking priceless.
All the fangirling inspires evil urges where Alistair and Anora end up getting married and Alistair gets over the PC and lives a happy life with his wife. Or an Alistair/Leliana story or something. I kind of want to write some Sten/Leliana stuff too - they seem like they'd make an interesting pair.
Anyway a fun game, but not super awesome. I may go back and play through the other beginnings just to see those parts, but there's no freaking way I'd play through the whole thing again.
Overall, I thought it was pretty fun. Not the greatest or most original game ever, but pretty consistently entertaining. If I were going to grade it against other Bioware titles, I'd have to say that I didn't enjoy it as much as Knights of the Old Republic or Balder's Gate 2, but thought it was light years better than Jade Empire. I'd put it on the same enjoyment level as Mass Effect, although the strengths of those two games seem to be the opposite from each other. Mass Effect had a more interesting plot line that was much tighter and very well thought out, but the NPC's fell kind of flat. Dragon Age had this sprawley behemoth of a plot that many times was too big and too disorganized and was often really, really contrived, but I liked the NPC interaction much better.
Some thoughts:
The Characters
Bioware really loves those character archtypes don't they? This time we get Canderous (Sten) and HK-47 (Shale) from Knights of the Old Republic and Viconia (Morrigan) from Balder's Gate. If Bioware is going to insist on putting a Canderous analog in every single one of their games, I think we need to start insisting that they finally let us romance him. At least Alistair wasn't giving off Carth vibes, which is a big improvement over the last several games.
Overall, I liked the characters though, even the ones that were regurgitations from past games. I thought that Alistair was a lot of fun to have around and had some of the best banters with everyone in the party. Honestly, I kept waiting for him and Morriagan to just start making out, so I felt vindicated in the end when he sleeps with her for the ritual. True love or whatever with the PC aside, I bet Alistair had been wanting to tap that since they met.
Leliana grew on me too, although she annoyed me at first. Zevran I thought I was going to hate (I hate elves on general principle), but his Antonio Bandares voice and shameless sexual advances and dialogue towards the party as a whole cracked me up. He and Wynne had the best banters of the whole damn game (that shit was hilarious). I wish I could have kept him around more, but I never really got around to making him like me, and he ended up betraying my party which was a bummer. Ogren was really funny to have around as well (loved the line about tattooing his name on your ass in bruises).
As for non party NPC's, I liked both Anora and Logain (although I suspect that there is probably much fangirlish rage directed in Anora's direction). I ended up choosing her for the throne over Alistair, because let's face it - as nice of a guy as Alistair is, he'd make a totally shitty and weak king. So I ended up getting the ending where you both stay together and rebuild the Grey Wardens, which after finding out what all the endings were, made the most sense to me. I may end up going back though and convincing Alistair and Anora to marry to see what happens, because that also made sense too.
The Romances
I thought the Alistair romance was okay. Overall, I liked him as a character, but he's just not my type. I think I understand all of the fangirl squee - he trips all the right buttons (he's young, hot, funny, and has that whole awkward thing that's supposed to be endearing) and on top of it, he doesn't come with baggage that a frustrated a lot of the true love fangirl contingent with Carth (dead wives and hostile kids - although that's why I found Carth interesting myself, lol). Maybe it's my age, or maybe he's just too goofy to be my type, but I was pretty indifferent about the romance angle and really only completed it out of curiosity more than anything else.
Having watched my husband romance Morrigan on his Dwarf Rogue though, I have to say though that the Alistair romance is 100 times better than the goofyness that is the Morrigan romance. I wanted to romance Leliana, but I failed to trigger it one of the early conversations (because I thought I could get to it later) and then it never came up again. And Zevran - he was just way too goofy and over the top for me to really even try.
And omg, I didn't think there was a way to make the sex even sillier than in Mass Effect, but the good people at Bioware have totally proven me wrong.
The Gameplay
Sometimes it was fun, but a lot of times it was a tedious slog. I thought I was NEVER going to get out of the Deep Roads. They should keep the difficulty (I liked that the combat wasn't super easy like other Bioware games) but cut the number of battles and the sizes of the dungeons in half.
Also - wtf, Bioware? Why do you have such a freaking hard time making hair that doesn't look completely ridiculous? And what the hell is up with the mage robes? Please, for the love of god, go over to Mod the Sims, and hire some of those artists to create hairstyles and clothing that doesn't look completely idiotic.
The Fans
Frankly, the Alistair fangirl contingent scares the hell out of me. The rabid devotion that Alistair has inspired is rather amazing, and I think it even tops the Carth fangirls from back in the day.
I found all of the outrage over Mages, Dwarves and Elves not being able to marry Alistair and become queen really hilarious. I mean, the dude so obviously does not want to be king, and here is this woman who would actually make a decent queen who wants the job, but they end up goading Alistair into taking the throne anyway, and then he ends their romance. Whereas if they'd listened to what Alistair actually wanted and gave Anora the throne they'd get to be Grey Wardens with their one true love. I'm sorry, but that's freaking priceless.
All the fangirling inspires evil urges where Alistair and Anora end up getting married and Alistair gets over the PC and lives a happy life with his wife. Or an Alistair/Leliana story or something. I kind of want to write some Sten/Leliana stuff too - they seem like they'd make an interesting pair.
Anyway a fun game, but not super awesome. I may go back and play through the other beginnings just to see those parts, but there's no freaking way I'd play through the whole thing again.
no subject
One of the things that makes me really like this game is that I think it really triggers the imagination. Even though the main story in the game might be called a dull one, compared to Kotor for example, I still think the oppurtunities it provides for the writers are plenty. I find myself much interested in "The Taint" for example. The dreams and "sensing the darkspawn", the boundaries of such a connection and does the Grey Warden who deliver the killing blow have the luxury of walking away as if nothing happened if they are the first one to not die from it in history? What about the Old Gods and Black City? And of course, the consequences of "Morrigan's ritual" but I think it will be handled by the game itself later. Still, like you said, most fics I came across suffer from the problems you mentioned and the plenty plot possibilities the game offers seem to have not attracted many writers' attention yet. Of course, I also enjoy character study fics. If only characters were more in character in more fics.
By the way, I'm no way against the interest in Alistair in the fandom, I find him to be a very interesting character myself - and not such a "light side" or "easy" character either, as he seems to be considered mostly. If there's such big focus on him, one expects there'd be a better grasp on his character. At least some effort to take a look at just one layer under the surface. Therefore, when I see "PC/Alistair" in description I started quietly tiptoeing back, probably missing some good ones along the way. If he's used as a side character however, the "surface" will do of course.
On the other hand, I'm aware how selfish I am as a mere reader. I want this and that but I am no writer. I wish the games did not cause my imagination to go wild like this.
I didn't know there was character bashing to that scale though I knew Morrigan would have her share of course. Her being mostly absent in fem!PC oriented fanfiction was also a hint which is unfortunate for this Morrigan sympathizer. And her storyline makes it all the more easy. I can understand Anora too even though it's pointless but how Isolde and Eamon are guilty? I have my reservations about even lurking the comm you mentioned - not only because the lesson I learned from another fandom is too fresh but also I wouldn't be much welcomed with my own ideas about the subject of desire I guess, even though he's a fave of mine too :)
Thank you muchly for the recs - and how nice to see some familiar pennames there. I will definitely check them out. I came across one of your stories but haven't read it yet. Good to know there are in fact two of them - and one with Morrigan, no less. I can hardly stop myself from drooling.
I am the master of looong comments! And since this is an example where I actually tried to shorten it a little, I'm glad you have no problems with comments taking up such big space on your journal.
no subject
I like Alistair too, actually. I think he's a really interesting character. Like you, I have a total prejudice against stories that pair him up with the PC. For some reasons, the stories that hook him up with other NPC's (like Anora for example) tend to be far more interesting.
I didn't know there was character bashing to that scale though I knew Morrigan would have her share of course. Her being mostly absent in fem!PC oriented fanfiction was also a hint which is unfortunate for this Morrigan sympathizer.
Yeah, I'm not surprised that Morrigan gets her share of hate, although really I am kind of surprised that there aren't more male!PC/Morrigan romances. In KoTOR, even though they were outnumbered there are a ton of Bastila/Male!Revan stories out there. I expected it to be the same for Dragon Age, but sadly, 99% of the time, she only shows up in a fic as an obstacle to the Alistair romance - which is such a waste of an interesting character.
I can understand Anora too even though it's pointless but how Isolde and Eamon are guilty?
Isolde seems to get a ton of hate because it seems like the fangirls see her as an obstacle to any fanfic romance of Bann Tegan (even though she is not married to him). It's rather bizarre, actually. Eamon gets a lot of fanfic blame for Alistair dumping the PC - it's quickly becoming fannon that Eamon talked Alistair into breaking up with the PC, even though there is absolutely no evidence of that in the game. I think it's some kind of desperate attempt at lessening the sting of Alistair breaking up the PC, by pretending it wasn't really his idea.
(And again, no worries about long comments. I love nerding out with other fans of the game, lol.)