Dragon Age
Spoilers through... partway through the game. I have no idea how much is left. Probably a lot left.
I WANT TO MARRY ALISTAIR THE GAME FOREVER AND EVER. I JUST... LOVE ALISTAIR THE GAME SO MUCH. IT'S JUST... ALISTAIR THE GAME IS THE GREATEST.
To give you an idea of how far I am into the game...
1. I did the human noble origin story. (Rogue archer and later Ranger, huzzah!)
2. I did Ostagar, and picked up Morrigan and Alistair.
3. I went to Lothering, and picked up Leliana and Sten. HAHA funny story about the bandits! I am apparently THE WORST. I convinced them to give me silver, then looted the chests behind them without realizing that would trigger an attack (THANKS A LOT, ZELDA), so I ended up killing like 1 or 2 of them, and then when they surrendered, they begged for their life so I was like OKAY JUST RUN AWAY FROM HERE. So yeah, I am apparently the WORST. OOPS!
4. I... idly wondered where the town to get Shale was. I think I have to put in a code or something. So I do not have Shale! Sadness!
5. I went to the Circle Tower (TERRIFYING), and picked up Wynne.
6. Zevran tried to kill me, but I let him join the party instead.
7. Wynne nearly passed out and died! And not much later, got the new superpower.
8. I ran off to Denerim to... deal properly... with Leliana's would-be murderer!
9. I ran off to get the grimoire from Flemeth and WHOOPS LOL DRAGON. o_O After dying of shock and staring at the screen in disbelief... I tried For Real and could not beat her.
10. So I ended up lying to Morrigan because Alistair thought it would be hilarious (+2 approval) (the voice acting on "I'm a bad man!" looool) WHAT IS THIS PERSON I HAVE BECOME???? When Morrigan wondered how I could possibly have battled Flemeth with no hope of reward, I told her "IT'S BECAUSE WE R FRIENDS." I am the worst! But don't worry, Morrigan... I'll... uh... kill Flemeth later. WHEN I AM LESS TERRIFIED OF DRAGONS, that is!
11. I ran off to Redcliffe Village.
12. I agreed to help with the zombie invasion (-2 approval Morrigan) and picked up like 1 sidequest, but that's it so far.
Sooooo my party at this point is Alistair, Leliana, Alistair, Morrigan, Alistair, Sten, Alistair, Zevran, Alistair, Wynne, and Alistair.
Alistair: I... I... I like him. A lot.
Leliana: <3_<3 Amaaaaazing. We would be IRL BFFs SO HARD.
Morrigan: She is full of AWESOME. What more is to be said!? And haha, when she complained last night about having to do these side quests (like saving villagers from undead UGH SUCH A WASTE OF TIME) I lol'd when I realized that she is kind of a lot like CARA. Does that mean that Leliana = Kahlan?? loooooooool
Wynne: I love Wynne. I love that this game is basically "Awesome ladies + Alistair." (Everything ever should be "Awesome ladies + Alistair," always.) I always lol at the constant "YOU ARE SO OLD AND CRICKETY, WYNNE" dialogue choices that always pop up.
Sten: I never have him with me in combat or out and about in the towns, soooo my experience is mostly limited to camp conversations. But my approval with him is at 95, somehow. I generally don't care about RAWR MANLY MAN type characters (see: Wolverine or Batman), but Sten isn't actually that bad, and actually, his "Otherness" is presented in kind of an interesting way too. In conclusion: I like the idea of him being in camp... it kind of fleshes out the world, giving it more versimilitude. But beyond that I don't care too much.
Zevran: I... don't know him that well yet. I'm not terribly motivated to get to know him yet, but I did lol at the way he LUXURIATED ON THE GROUND when begging for his life.
In conclusion, knowing them is my pleassssssurrreeeee. (OH, ALISTAIR'S VOICE ACTOR.) <3
So, um! Overall, what amazes me more than anything is the RICHNESS of the narrative. It is seriously one of the most immersive games I have ever played. I mean... the origin story is so... I actually felt like a noble! And I was actually like HEARTBROKEN when my mom (SPEAKING OF AWESOME LADIES) and dad were dead, and my sister-in-law and nephewwwww ahhhhhhh. =(
And I genuinely hated Arl Howe. Like... villains and me... well... some villains are just fascinating characters. They're just, you know, amazing, particularly the intelligent villains like Magneto. And there's often pathos there, whether it's Magneto or Azula or whoever. Other villains are just terrifying, like they could pop out and kill you. There's a menace lurking in the shadows. And a lot of villains are just "Meh." Like, whatever. Who cares!
But I almost never hate the villain. I almost never feel a personal grudge, like I want to mess up his face for what he did. And yet somehow in the short span of the origin story, I ended up hating Arl Howe for what he did to my family! Amazing. Also, I might add that I loved his shifty eyes when I talked to him at the beginning about what a great friend he was... a nice little touch of guilt about what he was about to do.
So then I get to Ostagar. And it feels like a massing army. It feels ridiculously epic. And I am just feeling things all over the place. And somehow the world lives and breathes so much and feels like real people being really hurt that I actually wanted to go and mess up the Darkspawn, like they're disgusting and terrifying and should stop murdering all those poor farmers and soldiers. Few games make me feel that strongly.
Lothering, of course, amplified all of these emotions.
The amazing thing is that the story delivery is very much a game kind of story delivery. It isn't trying to be a movie or a book. They don't show you all these cutscenes boiling down the story to a few simple points. Instead, it is about immersion and interaction. So they really take the time to deliver the story in a way at a pace much more like real life. They're not afraid to make you sit through long conversation after long conversation, with huge dialogue trees with all kinds of people. You piece everything together from all of these conversations, but, aside from a few obvious This Is A Key Exposition moments aside, people are mostly talking about stuff as if they were real people. By that I mean that they talk about not only the big overarching drama, but take the time to talk about how good the food is, or their mother's pet cat, or whatever. And their conversations are filled with nonchalant references to this ridiculously vast backhistory and world building (political history, ecology, culture, mythology, everything). They're nonchalant about it because they assume you know it because you live in that world already. So the game does a lot more showing rather than telling. They don't outright tell you how the political structure of Ferelden works; you have to kind of infer it and put it together in your mind over the course of the game. And they don't outright tell you because if you were actually in that world, you would already know.
What I dislike about most high fantasy is that is often isn't very down to earth. You don't encounter many characters talking about cleaning the laundry, or reciting a poem or something. But in this game, everyone behaves so much like real people. And also because they act like real people, not only do they chit chat about mundane things, but they talk about their feelings a lot. They're more concerned with how the war affects their mother or brother or sister or whatever than they are with the big mythology stuff happening.
It is, in other words, a game about feelings. It's an action adventure game about feelings with lots of humor and amazing world building, so what's not to love!?!?
I think the last time I was this immersed in a game, or had this particular feeling when playing a game was probably Majora's Mask, which I always talk about in every game-related post ever as my favorite game of all time. I almost started talking about Majora's Mask a bit here, and some similarities to why I like Dragon Age, but I won't for sake of space.
But seriously, I love this game mostly because of the conversations. And the world building... the politics and religion and all feels so incredibly real. Part of that realness is that it's actually presented and constructed in such a way that it doesn't seem forced. A lot of fantasy stories have this made up political history or mythology or whatever, and you're constantly going, "Oh, they got that from xyz real historical event" or whatever. Especially true for an art history/archaeology buff like me! But in this game, I've been so immersed that I haven't thought (very) much about the real world influences.
And I love all the aristocratic intrigue and international politics and everything. It's just fascinating and feels very real, with real people struggling in morally ambiguous (and not so ambiguous) ways.
So anyway, I love it most of all for the conversations and world building. And yet the adventure part is amaaaaaaaaazing too. I felt genuinely terrified going in to the Tower. Honestly, I haven't felt that way in a game in a long time. I was scared to see what I wound find behind the locked doors, and every new coordior was just... scary and exciting.
And the Fade! Ohhhh the Fade! It's been a while since I've gone OH I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE that much. Trying to solo stuff as an archer was amazing... and then I realized that I needed to treat the Fade like I would treat a Zelda dungeon. Then everything not only made much more sense, but it was also sooo fun.
In general, the combat isn't my favorite, but that's just because I'm not AS fond of that kind of gameplay genre. It's actually really, really fun for me. Just not *perfect,* is what I'm saying.
All that said, I love being a ranger and summoning a wolf or bear. And I LOVE Morrigan's weather powers so much, especially the lightning. Tempest is an AMAZING spell, and sometimes I am tempted to change the setting to "Easy" so that I can cancel out friendly fire and just have a big electrical storm on top of the party because it's so amazingly cool. I can't wait to get blizzard and try a blizzard + tempest combo.
My combat team is generally Alistair (tank), myself (archer/ranger), Morrigan (woooo lightniiiiiing), and Wynne (while using health potions to heal was exciting and terrifying, it did get old micromanaging those and pausing so much). When I'm out about in the town, it's Alistair, myself, Morrigan, and Leliana. As much as I'd love to have Leliana with me in combat too, I'm also an archer, so that's kind of redundant. As much as I prefer what is cool over min/maxing (e.g. picking lightning spells for Morrigan before ice/cold spells, which are clearly going to be more "useful"), I have to be at least somewhat tactically smart. And besides, Wynne is amazing and I love her, and wish she could be the 5th party member.
*Random Revelation* Could Aang become an Alistair if he was older and Sokka rubbed off on him more??
Oh, one more random note: the blood spatter was pretty distractingly ridiculous, so I turned it off. :)
Also, I dreamed last night that Hardison, Sokka & older!Aang, and Alistair were hanging out and talking about my amazing weather powers... oh wait did I just type that out loud?
I WANT TO MARRY ALISTAIR THE GAME FOREVER AND EVER. I JUST... LOVE ALISTAIR THE GAME SO MUCH. IT'S JUST... ALISTAIR THE GAME IS THE GREATEST.
To give you an idea of how far I am into the game...
1. I did the human noble origin story. (Rogue archer and later Ranger, huzzah!)
2. I did Ostagar, and picked up Morrigan and Alistair.
3. I went to Lothering, and picked up Leliana and Sten. HAHA funny story about the bandits! I am apparently THE WORST. I convinced them to give me silver, then looted the chests behind them without realizing that would trigger an attack (THANKS A LOT, ZELDA), so I ended up killing like 1 or 2 of them, and then when they surrendered, they begged for their life so I was like OKAY JUST RUN AWAY FROM HERE. So yeah, I am apparently the WORST. OOPS!
4. I... idly wondered where the town to get Shale was. I think I have to put in a code or something. So I do not have Shale! Sadness!
5. I went to the Circle Tower (TERRIFYING), and picked up Wynne.
6. Zevran tried to kill me, but I let him join the party instead.
7. Wynne nearly passed out and died! And not much later, got the new superpower.
8. I ran off to Denerim to... deal properly... with Leliana's would-be murderer!
9. I ran off to get the grimoire from Flemeth and WHOOPS LOL DRAGON. o_O After dying of shock and staring at the screen in disbelief... I tried For Real and could not beat her.
10. So I ended up lying to Morrigan because Alistair thought it would be hilarious (+2 approval) (the voice acting on "I'm a bad man!" looool) WHAT IS THIS PERSON I HAVE BECOME???? When Morrigan wondered how I could possibly have battled Flemeth with no hope of reward, I told her "IT'S BECAUSE WE R FRIENDS." I am the worst! But don't worry, Morrigan... I'll... uh... kill Flemeth later. WHEN I AM LESS TERRIFIED OF DRAGONS, that is!
11. I ran off to Redcliffe Village.
12. I agreed to help with the zombie invasion (-2 approval Morrigan) and picked up like 1 sidequest, but that's it so far.
Sooooo my party at this point is Alistair, Leliana, Alistair, Morrigan, Alistair, Sten, Alistair, Zevran, Alistair, Wynne, and Alistair.
Alistair: I... I... I like him. A lot.
Leliana: <3_<3 Amaaaaazing. We would be IRL BFFs SO HARD.
Morrigan: She is full of AWESOME. What more is to be said!? And haha, when she complained last night about having to do these side quests (like saving villagers from undead UGH SUCH A WASTE OF TIME) I lol'd when I realized that she is kind of a lot like CARA. Does that mean that Leliana = Kahlan?? loooooooool
Wynne: I love Wynne. I love that this game is basically "Awesome ladies + Alistair." (Everything ever should be "Awesome ladies + Alistair," always.) I always lol at the constant "YOU ARE SO OLD AND CRICKETY, WYNNE" dialogue choices that always pop up.
Sten: I never have him with me in combat or out and about in the towns, soooo my experience is mostly limited to camp conversations. But my approval with him is at 95, somehow. I generally don't care about RAWR MANLY MAN type characters (see: Wolverine or Batman), but Sten isn't actually that bad, and actually, his "Otherness" is presented in kind of an interesting way too. In conclusion: I like the idea of him being in camp... it kind of fleshes out the world, giving it more versimilitude. But beyond that I don't care too much.
Zevran: I... don't know him that well yet. I'm not terribly motivated to get to know him yet, but I did lol at the way he LUXURIATED ON THE GROUND when begging for his life.
In conclusion, knowing them is my pleassssssurrreeeee. (OH, ALISTAIR'S VOICE ACTOR.) <3
So, um! Overall, what amazes me more than anything is the RICHNESS of the narrative. It is seriously one of the most immersive games I have ever played. I mean... the origin story is so... I actually felt like a noble! And I was actually like HEARTBROKEN when my mom (SPEAKING OF AWESOME LADIES) and dad were dead, and my sister-in-law and nephewwwww ahhhhhhh. =(
And I genuinely hated Arl Howe. Like... villains and me... well... some villains are just fascinating characters. They're just, you know, amazing, particularly the intelligent villains like Magneto. And there's often pathos there, whether it's Magneto or Azula or whoever. Other villains are just terrifying, like they could pop out and kill you. There's a menace lurking in the shadows. And a lot of villains are just "Meh." Like, whatever. Who cares!
But I almost never hate the villain. I almost never feel a personal grudge, like I want to mess up his face for what he did. And yet somehow in the short span of the origin story, I ended up hating Arl Howe for what he did to my family! Amazing. Also, I might add that I loved his shifty eyes when I talked to him at the beginning about what a great friend he was... a nice little touch of guilt about what he was about to do.
So then I get to Ostagar. And it feels like a massing army. It feels ridiculously epic. And I am just feeling things all over the place. And somehow the world lives and breathes so much and feels like real people being really hurt that I actually wanted to go and mess up the Darkspawn, like they're disgusting and terrifying and should stop murdering all those poor farmers and soldiers. Few games make me feel that strongly.
Lothering, of course, amplified all of these emotions.
The amazing thing is that the story delivery is very much a game kind of story delivery. It isn't trying to be a movie or a book. They don't show you all these cutscenes boiling down the story to a few simple points. Instead, it is about immersion and interaction. So they really take the time to deliver the story in a way at a pace much more like real life. They're not afraid to make you sit through long conversation after long conversation, with huge dialogue trees with all kinds of people. You piece everything together from all of these conversations, but, aside from a few obvious This Is A Key Exposition moments aside, people are mostly talking about stuff as if they were real people. By that I mean that they talk about not only the big overarching drama, but take the time to talk about how good the food is, or their mother's pet cat, or whatever. And their conversations are filled with nonchalant references to this ridiculously vast backhistory and world building (political history, ecology, culture, mythology, everything). They're nonchalant about it because they assume you know it because you live in that world already. So the game does a lot more showing rather than telling. They don't outright tell you how the political structure of Ferelden works; you have to kind of infer it and put it together in your mind over the course of the game. And they don't outright tell you because if you were actually in that world, you would already know.
What I dislike about most high fantasy is that is often isn't very down to earth. You don't encounter many characters talking about cleaning the laundry, or reciting a poem or something. But in this game, everyone behaves so much like real people. And also because they act like real people, not only do they chit chat about mundane things, but they talk about their feelings a lot. They're more concerned with how the war affects their mother or brother or sister or whatever than they are with the big mythology stuff happening.
It is, in other words, a game about feelings. It's an action adventure game about feelings with lots of humor and amazing world building, so what's not to love!?!?
I think the last time I was this immersed in a game, or had this particular feeling when playing a game was probably Majora's Mask, which I always talk about in every game-related post ever as my favorite game of all time. I almost started talking about Majora's Mask a bit here, and some similarities to why I like Dragon Age, but I won't for sake of space.
But seriously, I love this game mostly because of the conversations. And the world building... the politics and religion and all feels so incredibly real. Part of that realness is that it's actually presented and constructed in such a way that it doesn't seem forced. A lot of fantasy stories have this made up political history or mythology or whatever, and you're constantly going, "Oh, they got that from xyz real historical event" or whatever. Especially true for an art history/archaeology buff like me! But in this game, I've been so immersed that I haven't thought (very) much about the real world influences.
And I love all the aristocratic intrigue and international politics and everything. It's just fascinating and feels very real, with real people struggling in morally ambiguous (and not so ambiguous) ways.
So anyway, I love it most of all for the conversations and world building. And yet the adventure part is amaaaaaaaaazing too. I felt genuinely terrified going in to the Tower. Honestly, I haven't felt that way in a game in a long time. I was scared to see what I wound find behind the locked doors, and every new coordior was just... scary and exciting.
And the Fade! Ohhhh the Fade! It's been a while since I've gone OH I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE I'M GONNA DIE that much. Trying to solo stuff as an archer was amazing... and then I realized that I needed to treat the Fade like I would treat a Zelda dungeon. Then everything not only made much more sense, but it was also sooo fun.
In general, the combat isn't my favorite, but that's just because I'm not AS fond of that kind of gameplay genre. It's actually really, really fun for me. Just not *perfect,* is what I'm saying.
All that said, I love being a ranger and summoning a wolf or bear. And I LOVE Morrigan's weather powers so much, especially the lightning. Tempest is an AMAZING spell, and sometimes I am tempted to change the setting to "Easy" so that I can cancel out friendly fire and just have a big electrical storm on top of the party because it's so amazingly cool. I can't wait to get blizzard and try a blizzard + tempest combo.
My combat team is generally Alistair (tank), myself (archer/ranger), Morrigan (woooo lightniiiiiing), and Wynne (while using health potions to heal was exciting and terrifying, it did get old micromanaging those and pausing so much). When I'm out about in the town, it's Alistair, myself, Morrigan, and Leliana. As much as I'd love to have Leliana with me in combat too, I'm also an archer, so that's kind of redundant. As much as I prefer what is cool over min/maxing (e.g. picking lightning spells for Morrigan before ice/cold spells, which are clearly going to be more "useful"), I have to be at least somewhat tactically smart. And besides, Wynne is amazing and I love her, and wish she could be the 5th party member.
*Random Revelation* Could Aang become an Alistair if he was older and Sokka rubbed off on him more??
Oh, one more random note: the blood spatter was pretty distractingly ridiculous, so I turned it off. :)
Also, I dreamed last night that Hardison, Sokka & older!Aang, and Alistair were hanging out and talking about my amazing weather powers... oh wait did I just type that out loud?