"Dragon Age" franchise discussion/appreciation thread

[gotthammer]

Qunari!

Nah. Aren't they 'too Zen' or 'Tao' for that?
(tho' w/ the new 'horny' look, and their size, I guess they're half-way there...)

re: the Warden
I'd prefer a new game w/ him/her as the protagonist altogether.
*still has fingers crossed for DA3...or even later, if the franchise does well enough*
I can wait.

[DigiFluid]

Been putting in some time in Awakening now; definitely not as engaging as Origins was.

I mean it's still fun, I'm always up for my warden making hamburger out of darkspawn, but still. I like the arling of Amaranthine, but all of the areas in it seem either really small or else big but sparse. I find it a lot easier than Origins was too. Haven't died (like, my entire party) once since starting it.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

You're just ignoring all the similarities and picking out the small number of differences.

Here are the similarities:

The Warp is a metaphysical realm that parallels the real world, just like the Fade.

The Warp is shaped by the emotions of the creatures in the material world, just like the Fade.

Warp entities can coalesce based on certain emotions, just like demons and spirits in the Fade. The difference here is that there are much more powerful Warp entities that are created from the emotions of billions of living beings.

Psykers are are people with greater connections to the Warp and can harness Warp powers in the real world, just like Mages.

Psykers are vulnerable to predation by daemons of the Warp, just like how Mages are vulnerable to predation by demons of the Fade.

Daemons of the Warp can use Psykers to enter the real world, just like how demons of the Fade can use Mages to enter the real world.

There are creatures that do not "register" in the Warp like the Tau. There are creatures that do not "register" in the Fade like the Dwarves. Interestingly enough, WH40K used to have a species called the Squats, which were basically space dwarves, and they were resistant to the powers of the Warp as well.

As I said before, the Fade is like an earlier version of the Warp. Numerous other Warp entities existed before the Chaos Gods. Before the Chaos Gods, there were the Eldar gods, who had both good and bad qualities. Before the Eldar gods, the Warp was just like the Fade, inhabited by all sorts of entities, some good, some bad.

Concerning how they'll develop the Fade, maybe they will go in a different direction than the Warp but that hasn't happened yet and it's entirely possible that they could go in the same direction as the Warp and have powerful godlike entities coalesce in the Fade. In fact, the Pride Demons are very similar to Greater Daemons in WH40K.



Again, they may very well go in a different direction, but that hasn't happened yet. There was some promise of peace for the elves in The Witcher too. They were even given their own land to rule.

Also, I forgot to mention this before but the elves in Dragon Age did not begin the war against humans. They began to age after having children with the humans, which only produced human children, so they withdrew in fear and the humans took it as a sign of hostility and attacked. The elves in The Witcher suffered a similar fate in which humans betrayed the elves after the first union between the two races.

You’re picking out the similarities and ignoring the differences. Everything has similarity to something in one form or another. Farscape and Stargate both feature a mystical and powerful race called the ancients; both of them have technology that harnesses wormholes. Are Stargate and Farscape copies of each other? Empathically no. Neither is Dragon Age. It seems unlikely that the Fade will ever be corrupted in Dragon Age, the story as I said is going in a completely different direction. Indeed ones view of the fade at the start of the game is that it is a dark and scary place, over time the story develops clearly away from that, introducing the fact that Wynne is saved by a spirit, or the character Justice in Awakening. In Warhammer the Warp is dark and corrupted and while the background material says it might have been uncorrupted in the past for all intents and purposes to the story in Warhammer it’s this great looming threat, a place of lathering horrors. In Dragon Age, it’s a dream world where otherworldly things with their own agendas appear. Characters like Flemeth really are representative of that. She’s an abomination, a person possessed by a spirit, apparently a demon. But she isn’t a lathering horror bent on destruction and eating eyeballs, she is a mysterious character who agenda is very much uncertain.

Many fantasy worlds feature dream worlds affected by emotion, Warhammer is not new in this, neither is Dragon Age. In Warhammer due to the Grimdark nature of the story and the setting the Warp is there as a threat, something to dump otherworldly horrors on reality so that Space Marines can shout “FOR THE EMPEROR!!!!!!” and fire bolters at it. Dragon Age is not Warhammer though, and while the Fade represents a realm for things to come through, rather than being horrors to stick a chainsword in to, they represent mystery. Much of Dragon Age’s story is dedicated to how murky the world is morally speaking. There’s no morality meter, many characters are much more complex than simple good or evil monikers, myths, legends and history turn out to be distorted. What comes out of the fade in Dragon Age often is an enigma rapped up by mystery, something that is endemic in Dragon Age.

As for the Elves you need to look up your Dragon Age lore. The Elves have myths and legends about a homeland Elvhenan in which they were immortal before being conquered by Tevinter Imperium. This is hinted at by the game to be at least partly untrue. Elves are supposed to live longer away from Humans, the cause of the original mythical conflict between humans and elves is supposed to be that the Elves quicken and die. The Dalish Elves who wish to return to the old ways seek to be away from humans, partly so that they can live longer. Supposed proof of this ability to live longer is shown by Keeper Zatherien who is supposed to have lived for hundreds of years. As it turns out his long life is due to his connection to the Werewolf curse and once that’s lifted he keels over faster than an old man on a treadmill.

As for their recent history the Elves bone of contention with the humans is with the destruction of the Dales. Evnhanen was quite literally ancient history that fell more than 2000 years ago in the game conquered by a nation that the other humans also despised and who helped free the elves from captivity subsequently. Arguably this isn’t even history, it’s myth and legend. Just like in real life it’s acknowledged in Dragon Age that there is history before a certain point that is unrecorded or has been lost.

Following their liberation by the Prophet Andraste the Elves were given a home, the Dales. This is where in the game there is actually recorded history. Relations soured over a number of reasons. Firstly the Elves became xenophobic, killing missionaries and emissaries, this is arguably understandable, the Chantry were going powerful and wanted more converts. However what actually caused the humans to attack the Dales was a series of events during the second Blight when the Elves refused to help the human kingdoms, during the battle at the city of Montsimmard the Elf army stood and watched while humans and Darkspawn battle it out. There then followed a series of border skirmished between the Elves and the Orleisans before the elves full on invaded, sacked the town of Red Crossing and performed countless atrocities upon the populace and then going on to capture several towns and cities including Monstsimmard and were threatening the Capital, Val Royeaux. Now not only was this an important city, being the capital of one of the most powerful nations on Thedas, it was also the home city of the Chantry, who reacted aversively. At this point, the Chantry called for a holy war against the elves that became known as the Exalted March of the Dales and kicked the **** out of the elves.

The ancient myths don’t really have much effect on human- elf relations. That would be like the Roman conquest of Judea having an effect on Israeli and Italian relations today. What the Elves are unhappy about is having their recent homeland, the Dales destroyed, though as careful reading of the history tells you, it’s rather a case of them bringing it down on themselves. Such is Dragon Age where a myth that is told to you at the beginning of the game will often turn out to be totally subverted by the end.

And with that I think have proved myself the biggest Dragon Age geek on the thread.

[DigiFluid]

Just finished Awakening a few minutes ago. Quite surprised at how short (and easy) it was. Origins took me ~75 hours, Awakening only took 14! On to Witch Hunt, then I can go play something else for a while

[gotthammer]

And with that I think have proved myself the biggest Dragon Age geek on the thread.

Gah. I really should get around to finishing my current playthrough(s). Damn that Steam sale!

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Now then class next week I shall cover the Fereldan Rebellion, reading is on the Orlesian occupation.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Tasty new video, a devloper diary on the story of Dragon Age 2, lots of tasty new tidbits.
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/unname.../video/6286136

[DigiFluid]

Now then class next week I shall cover the Fereldan Rebellion, reading is on the Orlesian occupation.

Tasty new video, a devloper diary on the story of Dragon Age 2, lots of tasty new tidbits.
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/unname.../video/6286136

Interesting....I'm not sure I like the idea of a framed narrative in a videogame, but I am very much looking forward to seeing how they do the 10 year timeframe. I'd heard about that a while back and was wondering how they'd do it, this vid shed a bit of light on that



Incidentally, I finished Witch Hunt already. Holy short DLC, Batman. And it ends up posing more questions than it answered! Argh!

[Oranos]

Tasty new video, a devloper diary on the story of Dragon Age 2, lots of tasty new tidbits.
http://uk.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/unname.../video/6286136

Having seen that, I'm not sure I feel about the voice actor for Male Hawke. The voice just doesn't seem to fit.

[DigiFluid]

Having seen that, I'm not sure I feel about the voice actor for Male Hawke. The voice just doesn't seem to fit.

I thought the same, but I'll give it a pass for now. The player mdl (the face in particular) doesn't look like it's completely finished in a lot of places in the video.

I'm glad to have a fully voiced main character this time though. The lack of voice (except for the generic "right!", "this should be easy!" etc) for the main character was really disconcerting in DAO/DAA.

[Oranos]

I thought the same, but I'll give it a pass for now. The player mdl (the face in particular) doesn't look like it's completely finished in a lot of places in the video.

Just a little concerned is all. Besides, I can always break out a Fem Hawke if I have to. Find a dwarf or something to romance. Fun, fun.

I'm glad to have a fully voiced main character this time though. The lack of voice (except for the generic "right!", "this should be easy!" etc) for the main character was really disconcerting in DAO/DAA.

I actually wasn't that bothered by it, to tell you the truth. But maybe I'm just strange.

[gotthammer]

I'm glad to have a fully voiced main character this time though. The lack of voice (except for the generic "right!", "this should be easy!" etc) for the main character was really disconcerting in DAO/DAA.

Having played a fair amount of RPGs w/ NO voices, I don't mind playing a protagonist w/ no voice for dialogue (better than one w/ a voice I don't like. Example: Mass Effect's ManShep). The great voice acting made up for that 'lack', anyway.

As for DA2 and a voiced protagonist: I guess it's ok, as it's another character anyway.

[DigiFluid]

I actually wasn't that bothered by it, to tell you the truth. But maybe I'm just strange.

Having played a fair amount of RPGs w/ NO voices, I don't mind playing a protagonist w/ no voice for dialogue (better than one w/ a voice I don't like. Example: Mass Effect's ManShep). The great voice acting made up for that 'lack', anyway.

Yeah fair points. I guess I just found it a bit strange/off-putting that in a game where EVERYONE has a voice (even the NPCs), your main character does not. Stood out like a sore thumb to me.

[gotthammer]

Yeah fair points. I guess I just found it a bit strange/off-putting that in a game where EVERYONE has a voice (even the NPCs), your main character does not. Stood out like a sore thumb to me.

Since I played Mass Effect first (since it, well, came out first... ), I found it a bit 'odd', too, that my protagonist didn't have a voice. After a few minutes in, tho', I didn't mind (I mean, it's the same case w/ KotOR, anyway...that and I wouldn't have to wait for my protagonist to finish speaking. Yes. I know one can usually skip it, in games where the protagonist has a voice, but... ).

Also, it kinda made sense. For example: Mass Effect basically has only two protagonists that needed voicing: ManShep or FemShep. DA:O, on the other hand, had HumanMaleWarden, HumanFemaleWarden, DwarfMaleWarden, DwarfFemaleWarden, ElfMaleWarden and ElfFemaleWarden...and it'd be 'odd' if HumanMaleWarden and ElfMale and/or DwarfMaleWardens sounded the same (worse so if HumanMaleWarden and HumanFemaleWarden shared the same voice! ).
I guess it was a practicality issue? In any case, I was fine with it. (heck, I was kinda initially put off with the idea that the upcoming protagonist has a voice )

Again, better than having a voice I didn't care for.
(at least Jennifer Hale did an awesome job as FemShep)

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Again, better than having a voice I didn't care for.
(at least Jennifer Hale did an awesome job as FemShep)

Time for me to be the Giantevilhead of the thread. I’ve never understood why people cream themselves over Hale, I actually find her quite grating as Shepard, can’t stand listening to her, I much prefer Mark Meer and thought he did a damn good job. But that’s the great thing about being able to chose the various aspects of your character in rpgs, I don’t have to listen to her, but everyone who still wants to can choose to play as a female Shepard.