Have so much to say but I can't write much. Have so much to express but I can't find the words. Have so much to elaborate but I don't have the energy. Have so much to expound but I can't be able to convey them.

I became conscious of death when my grandmother had passed, but it wasn't until my grandfather went away a few years after I fully became inundated as to what it meant. I can't think of many people as integral to my well being and personality as they were. I cannot recall a time where I wasn't thinking about that stark, orange colored block of a hospital room where the latter had laid, unknowing it would be the last I would ever see of him. I cannot recall a time where death wasn't something I had feared, an abstraction lay unto forces beyond my control, surrounding me so sickly as I continue to grow older. I was lost during my twilight years in high school where I was slowly accustoming into what adulthood would become like. Even now, it haunts me.

"...I finally began to understand...what it means to live... Thinking for yourself... Not running away... Accepting the inevitable... All things eventually come to an end... Every living thing will one day disappear... Only by accepting this can one discover what they truly want... What the meaning of their life will be..."

I wouldn't say Persona 3 was an answer I needed to these fears, but it helped a lot. It was the first game I had ever purchased second handed, and I remembered just the bare minimum when going into it after seeing an LP. A lot of people postured it as a game exploring death, but it's more about the examinations of life as we know it. Death is constant, but it isn't the weight. Turmoil is abundant, but it shouldn't be the reason for demise. Jealousy and apathy are thorns, which is why compassion and hope for tomorrow need to be accentuated now more than ever. Your actions to the other, no matter how insignificant it may be, can blossom and (re-)kindle something into the heart that they may have forgotten. You are your own person, even as you masquerade various personas in multiple conversations and meetups. You are the pillar and support for people, even if you never realize it.

"I decided that I would continue to protect you. I want to be your strength. I know I'm not the only one who can do this... but that's okay... My life will be worth living if it's for this reason... Thank you..."'

Both FES and Reload's combat mechanics are great to me. Though the AI tactic configuration is but a mere husk of its former design principle, stripped to bareness in each subsequent entry as any nuances and underlying appeal have since dissipated, leaving behind a set of reductions and glaring blemishes that, cumulatively, makes the initial appearance seem worse than it actually was - of which someone’s already making sure to right this wrong, I garnered some enjoyment from it regardless. Theurgy wasn't as intrusive as I had thought it was, instead an extension of person's psyche as well as the idea that the power we wield can be used to secure a better tomorrow. It’s been mocked as “cope” to say the old approach was an intentional decision behind the gameplay, but well, a collective interview between various Double Jump board users and Atlus when 4 was coming out has shown that’s just the truth indeed, and I find merit in how that form factor escalates into the feeling of a group coming together and bonding further and further into becoming a simple family. The relationship between Tartarus Guardians and Full Moon Shadows are intrinsically tied, but now reversed - you are no longer gauging the Dark Arcanas as a check for the Guardians' enforcement atop the higher floors, but are instead compartmentalizing the Guardians in an effort to combat the ephemeral being that can't and won't understand you. It's good. It's cyclical. It's the reverse of the cards we all face at some point.

"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life... Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of. I'll keep on living no matter what , so that I can protect you..."

I don't think this is entirely perfect. I actually much prefer the old Tartarus structure since this one is made much more convenient, and I don't agree with the false notion that the party system was archaic even if I understand not everyone will like it regardless. The presentation has some nice flourishes but, especially in the animation department, there are placements and alterations made that took me away from the intended effect. I also find it incredibly suspect that The Answer has been announced of a faux "expansion pass" relatively sooner than expected with two other "pre order bonus" ass costume DLCs preceding it, all without word on FeMC. At the end of it all, I still find FES to be the experience I'd attain whenever I want to revisit this world. Yet, I am content. It's one of very few things in fiction that has brought me to tears. It was wonderful to revisit this story (twice, even, since I replayed FES beforehand). If it means more people can experience this masterpiece, then so be it. Just another face for the fool to don as it shows itself onto the public.

"You can close your eyes. I'll always remain here by your side."

On Friday, January 5th, I got a ping in a discord server consisted of one friend group about an impromptu Fortnite get-together. Since I admittedly regained an interest in playing it, and because said friend server has yet to really do much for several months, I decided to take the opportunity to see how the game has transformed and evolved over the years. Installed the dreaded EGS launcher, got marginally but not totally surprised by the increased file size, and proceeded to log back into my account from years prior. After all, it's only gonna be just for a few days, and then I’m off to uninstall it...

...but things didn't pan out that way. What has happened instead, was a transformation into becoming an Epic Fortnite Gamer. A near 3-week foray, money spent on the Battle Pass and both Gambit and Rouge skins, and grinding my way towards unlocking Peter Griffin's page, all while accumulating levels, Ranked medals, and other knick-knacks along the way. Life really does come at ya fast when you least expect it!

To go more in-depth into my prior experience: I'm very much someone who first played Fornite's at-the-time new Battle Royale format, played a couple of matches - both with my completely separate and no longer in touch friend group and solo - and thought it was kinda neat but really lacking in staying power. I'm uncertain if I was also one of many that thought it was simply gonna be a fad that'll fade away, since this was nearly 7 years ago now, but it matters naught since it's still here, and about as popular as it was since then. There's no need to cover much of what it's about, cause even if you never played it, you certainly know of it and the appeal, so I'm just gonna make this a thorough dumping ground of my thoughts as someone who finally came back to the bus.

Firstly, and more importantly, I'm glad that Zero Build is a mode that can be opted into. Now, I'm not besmirching the mechanic in its holistic entity, but I will admit one of the reasons I fell off pretty quickly originally was because of the gap between people who can build (especially PC players), and people who can't (especially console players). You can be a quickshot all you want, but as long as the other guy can spontaneously build a Jenga tower or a Minecraft fortress to recuperate quickly, your choices are to either eat shit, continue to pester them, or just give up and bolt out entirely. These types of encounters, to me, are fine in doses - the risk-reward allure is just balanced enough that it isn't entirely irritating, and the satisfaction method is incredible! That, however, begins to dissolve into ruin when it occurs ad nauseum, tying itself into state of the loop, and altogether just demotivates my ass since the most I can do is a stairway to heaven and maybe a few walls despite my flicks of the mouse and sensitivity zones. Even with the practice mentality, there's also the fact that, again, it's been 7 years - if you've played any sort of multiplayer shooter in mind, you'd know that there's a good chance that any sort of tech people know about, will inject and hone their craft to it to days on end, and I've seen plenty opponents do some shit that simultaneously leaves me fascinated and discontented. So, just having a mode where there's little frills to that, is appreciated, even if I do tap back into the regular option every now and then.

The other thing is that there's like... actual POIs and side activities now. I recall these being a thing in 2017, but it was a lot more minimalistic and very much in the vein of "we needed something to have players distract themselves and play the game with". Solid enough base, but combine that with the haphazard loop I had before, it again just made the dull grind even more prevalent. That nagging aspect is still present, but it's way easier to tolerate and avoid now. Vehicles, more movement options when doing on-foot roaming, an entourage group to pick off and reap rewards from to better your gamestate, and just the overall map layout is way, way more satisfying to convey and poke around than ever, even if I'm not entirely sure how prior seasons were like. Hell, this also obfuscates the other big critique that was going on at the time, which was how spacious people could become. Rarely has the thought of "man this is kinda boring" occur now since everything feels more fulfilling to explore and do, especially using grapple blades atop various points and just ZOOOOOOOOMING to where I need to go, or just ramming bogeys and guffawing at how high they get launched, or doing dopey motorbike tricks across hilltops. It's neat! It's exciting! It just about upends most of the issues I had to begin with!

I really don't have much else to like, add at this point, aside from some qualms:

- The bots here are on the opposite spectrum end of TF2's Bot Crisis; instead of being hammered down by some flagrant creations stopping any sort of enjoyment I can muster, there's more of an awe factor over how braindead they can be. I'm not quite sure how the system itself operates, but while I know and understand they're a necessity to fill up empty spaces, that becomes highly questionable when I see these guys fuck up easy picks, do some bizarre pathfinding and routine interactions, and somehow overcompensate within a quarter at most of the 100-player pool. This is the least egregious of the three ire I'm covering, but even then it's just... confounding. Not sure what's going on here!

- Aside from BR, there's now Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, and Festival. I only used LF briefly cause of an XP exploit, but I did at least put actual time into RR and Festival, and I'm thoroughly unimpressed with both. The former's a really dull and barebones arcade racer that couldn't even compete with some of the more straightforward affairs during the 5th Console Gen Boom, and well, Cold_Comfort goes over the woes of Festival even if I'm not that harsh about it. One could say these can be ignored since the main aspect is BR, but since they're easily visible upon the main bar of the lobby, I feel like it's fair game to expect these to be in a commendable quality - especially since Epic Games have been making big talk about user-generated content and have seemingly been in a stronger push in competing with Roblox.

- Since this is an ongoing season, solidifying and boxing the current meta state is tricky. What I can say for now though is that, with the feel of everything being good on a base level, there's a clear power imbalance. There's absolutely no reason to pick up the Hammer Pump variant of the shotgun, since Frenzy Auto has a strictly higher DPS and can easily mulch people by comparison; same goes for the Enforcer AR, being pitifully outclassed in speed and output by the Nemesis and especially Striker variants; I don't have any major beef with the Lock-On Pistol, due to its four-charge shots contains a slight buffer between each piece + all while leaving the player vulnerable should they be careless (especially to someone who Knows What They're Doing)... but the availability of this is perplexes me. I've gone entire games without either my downed foes or myself finding it, meanwhile I can simply trip across Ballistic Shields, a weapon that sounds about as good as it does while also not being nearly as OP as it sounds or others postulate, despite that being in a higher rarity color. Weird little quirks like that making the fights distinct but also just sort of headscratching as to where they could go. Also, maybe an Issue Of Skill, but I’ve seen instances of a bullet from my sniper shots clearly hitting its mark, but then somehow never registering?

I actually can’t recall the last time a multiplayer game had its pull on me quite like this, perhaps Among Us which had faced similar views. May keep this on for the time being until I actually do procure the Griffin or maybe Solid Snake since he’s close to being unleashed upon the world. I’m not sure where and how this chapter will go next, but if nothing else, it at least pulled me back in after years of inquisitive glances and intrigue. It is also carrying one of the most important mantles of any piece of fiction: having multiple patient zeros that will cajole someone into becoming a furry. Truly, this is a blessed time!

Act One: A Promising Start

It isn’t entirely surprising that Dragon Age 2 has managed to garner a cult audience, long after its divisive state in 2011. Diverging from epic/dark heroism of Origins, returning lead writer David Gaider and returning lead designer Mike Laidlaw had come together to conceive a bolder stance within the sequel. As plans went underway and more was being drafted/altered, the finalization bore a three-act sequence broken up as a novella, a rare escape of the serial TV format the studio was known for. Unfolding throughout is the delve concerning the meaning of freedom and security, a root that sprawls everywhere thick and thin, as well as enhancing the melancholic tone already bolstered thanks to Awakening prior. It seems like it was a game that happened to release just a few years before we had RPGs upholding the same appeal; with the Hero Of Ferelden’s story in Origins, you were guiding the preconceived avatar through various perils plaguing the corners of Ferelden, weighing the options of who to conscript upon the army/Wardens against the Darkspawn menace, and ultimately finalize their story at the climactic bout. Hawke, Champion Of Kirkwall, doesn’t do much of that in 2, however. They largely focus on procuring themself, his surviving sibling Bethany or Carver, and their mother a sense of nurturement within the Free Marches’ city-state of Kirkwall - for them, making “a dramatic choice” just means doing whatever they feel is necessary to provide support for their livelihood, opposition and importance be damned. Plenty of cRPGs and other gaming genres had a stab at it before, but it was a trope and idea that had waned during the late 2000s, early 2010s, with the only other title on my mind within this period being tri-Ace’s Resonance Of Fate. It’s part of what makes Kirkwall stand out not only at the time, but compared to Origins and Inquisition. For in this title, simply surviving the moment in hopes of seeing a tomorrow, is its own tale of a hero’s journey.

And the quests, oh man the quests. Laidlaw has expressed in interviews that this is likely their most reactive title at that point in time, and honestly? I can’t help but extend that to their whole catalog nowadays, at least from what I’ve played thus far. Barring the options an Origins world state can have from either the pre-selected histories or your own save files, any quest you can do here is directly affected one way or another within the next period, radically altering ways this would affect play as well as continue the theming of both the city being a character, and strengthen the belief about having to live through the actions we deem vital. Lives are changed for better or for worse, who once was here is now forever gone, and whether they treat you right or wrong is all dependent on whatever your fealty lie under. It doesn’t quite stick the landing at points, and starts to dissipate once you head further and further in, but there’s something here. There’s a beating pulse that tells us that it has its own agenda to proclaim. Sure, I was apprehensive about certain qualities I knew about from before, and I was curious as to whether these strengths would become potent enough to forgive its missteps, but for now, I’m willing to press onward. Perhaps, in due time, I could find it in me to forgive and accept - maybe even see things I had closed off before…

Act Two: Trouble Brews From Within

DA2’s wavering foundation languishes further, cracks beginning to become more visible with old ones becoming more pronounced. It’s easy to notice this with the visuals: often one of their penchants, Bioware has yet again tried to stylize both the art direction and cutscene presentation within a cinema format, as well as attempt to address the issue of genericness while doing so. Matt Goldman is back on art director duty, and with this he brings new sprinkles of Eternal Darkness, Yojimbo, Conan, Pieter Bruegel, and Akira Kurosawa among many others helps sell the atmosphere of an overburdening, dyspneic place wrought with violence, uprisings, and slave labor. Though Kirkwall itself has managed to instill that vibe, and plenty of loading screens are much more provocative than the one in Origins, I wouldn’t quite say it has escaped the rut. This, of course, is due to the most infamous aspect of the title, that being the reused maps. Origins and (especially) ME1 also had this, and while they also garnered some flack, the level wasn’t nearly as severe due to their implementation as side content. Rarely are any revisits and/or perfunct design impeding the player’s main progression state. Even if we were to talk about them within the story, I’ve dabbled into getting back on Resonance Of Fate’s swing, and that too better instills experimentation regarding enemy positions and/or gimmicks, as well as briskness the other two had from concise combat and room layout. DA2, however, doesn’t manage to implement any of that philosophy, with these repeating dungeon areas - which are even more bespoked Stock Fantasy Backgrounds! - with the only thing separating each of them is that sometimes a door is blocked off or open, and maybe you’re plopped into starting out at the opposite end then going in a different direction. The pacing with each of these visits are also excruciatingly poor, I get dragged back to the Docks, Hightown, and the Sundermounts so frequently it becomes mind-numbing. Combine that with how uncomfortably slow Hawke jogs around, and all of these being more rectangular and vertical in nature compared to the boxy, compact nature of before, and mods to both increase the movement speed and cleaning up any and all typos and misleads in the journal becomes an absolute must. Sure, the codices help to remedy the lack of a distinct world flair especially after the previous title, but that’s lore and worldbuilding (which, even then, still suffers the same problem of being tepidly generic), columns that support the narrative currently taking place, rarely serving as the focal point, and regardless it doesn’t mend the dullness pertaining to these prefab locales for each session at a time.

On note of time allocation, this is right around the time each companion’s turmoil and personality start to encroach upon you, a majority being picked up in the first act with but one or two optional pickups being available. This was the angle I was most interested in revisiting, cause I wasn’t sure if I had a FF13-level reformation of realizing my ire were because I was dumb and didn’t think about emotional contexts, or if they truly were underwhelming in their arcs and development. My conclusion to this is… a bit of both? I believe I can say that I’ve grown on most of them at least a little more at least, and my thoughts about the Friendship-Rivalry system have since deepened as well. Opinions on Varric are universally positive, which makes sense since he’s genuinely a swell guy to build rapport over. Laidback, charming, not quite interested in the goings-on but knows when it's time to cut the shit and get into action, he’s the second party member introduced and he’s far away the best one. It feels like the DA team knew that too, considering its much, much easier to garner Friendship than Rivalry across the length of the venture, which even then doesn’t entirely change the dynamic between the two of you unlike the others. Brian Bloom’s performance heightens the appeal immensely, consistently boasting the best performances in the entire package with his various inflections and line deliveries, bar none. It’s nuts to think that he was originally meant to have a far more sleazy and malcontent persona, then retrofitting into being the “dashing and helpful partner-in-crime” when that didn’t work out. The ones that I actually turned around on are Aveline and Isabela, fitting due to their contrasting ideals. Though one is far more stubborn and law-abiding and the other is too lax and self-centered, they both need a sort of grounding agent to keep them on the path, and showing kindness and meticulous support for one keeps her upright attitude in check, while showing friction and repeated platitudes onto the other starts to lighten up the selflessness buried deep within them, to the point they’ll finally come back if your influence on them is strong enough. I feel bad for not giving these two their proper dues, they’re pretty damn cool and it didn’t take long for them to slot onto my party mainstays.

This segways on the influence mechanic in question, the Friendship-Rivalry system. Due to not being a leader of a personal army amassing forces necessary to combat a physical force, the vibe of the party this time is about the unity of other people that are all on the same boat as you are, and your actions dictate whether you’re a trusted friend sided onto the same beliefs, or a belligerent rival that can be called upon to help solve issues, but nothing more. I’m of two minds regarding this. While the Influence system in Origins was largely easy to gain favors for, it still made a distinction of allowing numerous different tallies to accumulate these points over the course of the journey. Understandably, DA2 isn’t able to replicate that notion, and instead pools about the same amount of points for one side or another depending on dialog choices made during the quests, right down to limiting the amount of times you can even give one a gift to just twice overall. This, as a point, I don’t have any troubles with - what arises, however, is the extremely fickle nature they’re wrapped under, to the point metagaming is the only surefire way to succeed. Fenris is the ultimate example of this. A victim of slavery and an abusive magister, he’s extremely poignant about his feelings regarding these subjects, and proving to befriend him while having to juggle the other Mages can prove challenging… or you can just bench him, take him on quests where you can yell “SLAVERY BAD” to the opposition and/or support anyone that are less fortunate than you, and you’re able to quickly cement your status as friends. This cuts into the same problem Mass Effect has and increasingly worsens: if you try and do your best to roleplay given circumstances, you end up making haphazard progress with the relationship bar, thereby limiting the depth of your relationship with a given party member. However, as long as you know what will occur (be it from following a guide or inferring in-game), you can specifically plot who will be brought along, accrue these points for everyone you want on one side of the bar or another, and repeat this until everyone’s bars are where you want them to be. In complete fairness, I did still end up liking Fenris’ arc and presence - even to the point I’d say some of his quests are flat out the best in the game! - and I find that the situations in running against these intents aren’t quite as abundant as I make them out to be. That said, I’m still just not sure if this was the right way to go about it, doubly so on the fact that real life friendships can easily break under extreme circumstances, a gameplay swerve that is hardly ever utilized, at least in terms of potency, compared to its predecessor.

What I do find to be a certifiable negative, however, is yet again the binary status this envelops. Largely speaking, you’re either enabling their habits, or hindering them in the hopes of having them recognize their flaw(s) and proceed to grow from them. Again, this by itself would largely be whatever, in fact half of the companions here don’t even fall victim to this, but the ones that do really stick out like a sore thumb. I’m saving Anders for the Act 3 cover, and I don’t want to repeat myself on why Sebastian Vael is an utter drivel of a character, so instead I’m focusing on Merrill. She’s often derided as Thedas’ Tali’Zorah, and as much as I really wanted to believe otherwise, it’s unfortunate to say this is one of very few generalizations that ended up becoming true. She leans much harder into the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype than her counterpart, but her arc and central quest revolve around the same thing: fascination with ancient history integral to their race’s history, and how this hyper-obsession has wrought havoc upon their state within their community, and incited inquiries as to whether they have the right interest at heart. Thing is, however, the focus is shifted - Tali’s Loyalty mission largely centered around her father with the casualty being about the burgeoning Quarian-Geth war (which you are even able to point out the Council’s motives if enough investigation work was done), while Merrill’s the sole center due to a particular event from years ago affecting her mental state to such a degree she becomes hyperfixated on not only righting this wrong, but uncovering one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Dalish customs - no matter where and how her desires treat and take her. This is a great flip on an idea that was released just a year prior, and the events that follow incorporate this by… making her really, really delirious and unwilling to listen to reason by everyone involved, as well as make it real obvious she’s under a manic control from a demonic entity that’s only after itself, where the choices are to either still enable her actions if you’re trying to befriend her, or point out how doing this is A Bad Idea which weirdly portrays an unnecessarily accost thrown towards her. I have no problem with characters in fiction acting irrationally under emotional distress - in fact I think this is vital ingredient if a story is supposed to keep the tension afloat, despite what seemingly many others try to say - but so much of her arc just feels trite and overbearingly hyperbolized, all because of this push to either exclusively and rampantly enable her to the point her people could become slaughtered at the end of it all, or retort so often she becomes woefully depressed and has no idea if she’ll ever find someone to take her under care and consideration. This point about an overzealous second to the Keeper endangering her community through unforeseen consequences is a fantastic one, and yet I’m just left tugging my shirt and nervously rubbing my neck from how hard it is to take at a base level. And yet that isn’t even the worst part of the narrative, that’s just a supplement to the bigger issue!

Act Three: Bioware Pulls A Bioware

I’ve been vocal about Bioware being ill-mannered when it comes to doing grand quandaries, and this one is no different. The Mage-Templar Conflict is one of the longer spanning debates within Dragon Age, and it’s all set within the foibles of the Circle’s infrastructure, as well as how the Chantry and Templars, preying and mentally harming the Mages they’re overseeing, are the potential factors as to why so many of them run amok and turn to gruesome methods. This was established in Origins, but its delivery had been ambiguous enough aside from a few codex entries and the Mage prologue, relegated to a “trust the members vs enforce the security” dilemma. It wasn’t perfect, and the baggage can be hefted to a degree, but the maintenance withholding the line between real world and fictional was doable enough to overlook the questionable aspects. DA2 ups the ante to a significant degree, consistently making its mark within the acts, party banters and dispositions, (even being the first thing you see on the title screen), cementing itself as the theme’s apex. You learn more about the Mages, their lifestyle and study habits, how they’re ostensibly a standee for a marginalized group (in this case, inferences and allegories pointing towards neurodivergence), how many take to drastic measures due to expectations and temperaments being too much too bear. The Templar’s obscene, tight grip borne amongst the forefront, their security and tolerance within these people generally becoming antagonistic in nature, with but a few genuinely caring for the others in any manner they can are also raised over the course as well. The final mission of Act 3 erupts when Anders commits a terrorist act upon the Chantry’s building, plunging everyone into a civil rebellion. In layman’s terms, pick between an allegorical group stigmatized within the world due to being “different”, or the institution overseeing and stigmatizing the Others, and side with them. Anders becoming a hardcore insurrectionist is already a contentious arc to develop, but it’s made worse since Jennifer Hepler, his new penner, admitted to positing him as one with bipolar disorder, which showcases harmful representation as he’s constantly demonized for his outbursts long before the final climax, stemmed from Justice now inhabiting his body to live in the mortal world to help his friend, becoming warped and twisted from his burning hatred of the institutions into the new form Vengeance. This isn’t even a theoretical analysis, it’s a hard read backed by the game itself a la being a recurring topic in his conversations - this postimage gallery being one instance - as well as the contents of Act 3’s codex entry making it the focal point. Some of the sources pertaining to Hepler’s decree are unfortunately down, but they were preserved via two different Tumblr users that you can find here and here, both also delving more into the topic in question.

I don’t think I need to mention how horrendous this all is, doubly so since I’m speaking as someone that’s on the spectrum. I get the need to have a moral dilemma, especially concerning what’s happening here and before in Origins, but this runs across the X-Men problem of the scenario becoming so close to real life, it’s hard to read it as fictionalized events and drama, worsened by the studio’s stupid need to Both Sides-ing it. Even if you (somehow) disagree about the real-world implication seeping within the Mage V. Templar debacle, the weight of the entire situation matters naught because all pretenses of “making and dealing with choices” are dropped, each side instead being handed woefully undeserved conclusions. In fact, it runs from the opposite directions of what entails in the main/secondary quests prior: The decision regarding the Sibling “not mattering” obfuscates the point of that turmoil about how even after gathering the mettle and funding necessary to rise to the top, your actions dictate the immense cost in the form of either their compromised freedom (forcefully conscripted with the Circle/Templar/Wardens) or be another death toll from the forces you were once trying to flee from (death from the Blight corruption); siding with the mages doesn’t matter because, at a specific point, the leader starts to partake in blood magic in the stupid hackshit of “I SHALL BECOME WHAT THEY FEAR TO SHOW THEM ALL!”, all because plot elements tied to the Mage side were cut without any time available to fix it. The death of Ketojan the Saarebas is fixed, but the intent is not - if you dare to give them a chance at life and free them from their shackle, you witness that the Qun’s mantra and philosophy has seeped so deeply into their inner core, that they would willingly die from a self-inflicted spell than break that vow entirely, culminating in one of the game’s best scenes. From this, you can spur yourself to retort against the Arishok’s fatalistic ways, never able to successfully convince him but the garnered respect evolves into being treated upon equal level shared by almost no one else in Kirkwall, all from a brute that’s more focused on themselves (yet doing nothing to appease their desires) than any ‘reasonable’ measures; siding with the Knight-Commander reveals she’s harbored a Red Lyrium idol from Varric’s brother at some point, infused it within her sword, and from this kickstarted an accelerated rush of her worries and fears clocked into overdrive, therefore becoming one of the factors as to why this all happens to begin with. You’re only barely given any sort of reason as to why she acts the way she does, she spends more time hiding away while the Grand Cleric badly and erroneously struggles to appease the two sides, and even then, siding with such a force has already deigned you as the propagator for the entrapment for the Mages. At least when Mass Effect 3 was crashing down, it stuck to one of its tertiary themes despite all of its own can of worms.

Amongst other things that had wore myself out was the combat, an overhauled and streamlined set of systems and rulesets that devolve into being so undercooked in its mechanics, thoroughly mundane in its design format, and so tediously elongated due to these two factors that, even when using every single DLC item when appropriate, I felt the call of lowering the difficulty from Normal to Casual, and almost but never truly caved in. It isn’t really hard to figure out why the shift to a more action flair happened; around this point, senior producer Fernando Melo had (rather infamously) stated that the studio was looking to bridge the gap between the progression systems trickling within in action/shooter titles such as Call Of Duty with actual-ass RPG systems and mechanics, alongside Laidlaw going over control transition and player responsiveness in an old Playstation blog, and marketing director David Silverman doing a spot for GameTrailers about how now, “when you press a button, something awesome has to happen”. Despite all of that, the end result is a sloppy, incongruent marriage of Origins’ tactful acumen and Mass Effect’s stylized and squad-centric groundwork, without any of the things that made the two work within their own fundamental boundary. The problem lies in the immense homogenization that has plagued the three classes here. The Mages were far away the most powerful class in Origins, so it makes sense they had the heaviest nerf, but this seems to have swerved too hard onto the opposite direction cause now so few of the mages you can have in this game are able to keep to their own line of spell specialities, and step on other boundaries too often with vaguely different support and attack options. Warriors were a bunch that already struggled to really present themselves differently, but this serves to drive the point home further with DPSers and Tanks now being available on both sword-and-boarders and two-wielding berserkers with such a weak appeal for either draw that you likely can just keep the one on you at all times and double up on Mages or Rogues. Speaking of, while Rogues lightly get off easy and keep their bag of trick mein or swashbuckling retorts intact, too often do skills in branches crop up to “inflict Disorient on Target”.

This is all done to incentivize cross-class combos, a technique that does massive damage as well as a bonus effect on a target, but that’s something ME2 was able to do better since the general class system Shepard and his squad generally fall under were largely more dignified in their nature, as well as the important ability of actually being able to do this yourself. Far too often are battles under the attrition warfare where you whack each other with soft sounding weapons as you trickle number values slowly because of how inflated health values have become, droningly clicking the same few abilities so often because potions of any kind have largely been downplayed to heighten this “action” approach, and by the time you have clenched victory, the game throws you Wave 2 of 4 as the illusion of challenge. It’s agonizingly tedious, as if the main goal wasn’t bridging these two aspects together, but really try and throwback to the absolute worst section of KOTOR1 by making it the sole loop of combat. This soils a majority of how these quests are handled, and nowhere is that prevalent then when night has fallen, where you participate in fending off against three different gangs depending on the district you’re traversing in. This is in every act, and these can interfere with the actual quest stuff meaning you spent more fucking time doing this shit than actively sleuthing down the dozen items/POIs you were designated to do, where you’re already doing this to begin with! So your options are to either bear it all and deal with a bunch of enemies at once, or take a detour and solve an obviously fodder line of quests just to get a move on. Because of all of this, pacing in DA2 isn’t just shot, it’s rotting in a ditch. In Origins and ME1&2, completing 10 quests in an arc would roughly take a few hours, effortlessly containing signifiers on whether you’re at the midpoint or endpoint whatever that storyline is covering. In DA2, completing about half that would take that long, and this gnawing feeling of endlessness becoming more or less pronounced depending on what exactly it is you’re doing (this is likely why I’m fond of Act 2 the most, any quests there are almost always intriguing one way or another and lead to something). The idea that Kirkwall is a living character is nullified by how this is all incorporated, and it sort of reinforces a Sick Mentality I have that “all good RPGs should be a little broken”. Even ignoring ME, their 2005 title Jade Empire trounces this in every single way, including how it presents its differing schools under mechanical implementation and design.

All of this came at a boiling point, an about face regarding someone I scoffed as being an annoyance: Hawke. From the offset, the team had created the goal of creating a protagonist with depth, confided with acknowledgement about the differences a voiced protagonist can have compared to that of a blank slate, last saw with Origins’ Grey Warden, and have decided to follow the mold of their sister series’ Commander Shepard, a being with a wholly complete backstory, and infuse the two components together. The result, however, is severely lacking. Because of the dialog wheel being the centralized mechanic of conversations, your options in presenting yourself amongst a group has limited considerably. Origins’ strength was effectively handing you several different ways to convey the same 3-4 personality quirks befitting whatever it was you had crafted that blank slate’s being with. You are as much the arbiter of the narrative and what the Hero Of Ferelden faces in their growth, as you are the face of several different backgrounds that look upon you; Hawke can only ever respond Diplomatically, Charmingly, or Aggressively with little deviations as to the how and why of the prose - said prose, by the way, having the worst of ME’s own paraphrasing problem. The amount of times your class-specific option or even your personality-specific interjection can play out are so pitiful it enlightens how bad this combination was from the start. My demur isn’t actually against the dialog wheel, because the way Mass Effect utilized it is so much more palpable it’s a wonder people at the same company keep getting it wrong. Shepard’s personality is set in stone no matter what; his is about the correspondence to the other party, achieving this in either a bridge into unity and togetherness, or abiding by dogmatic ruling and justifying the means no matter what. Broad strokes, but this ties into the implantation of roleplaying, such as a Renegade Shepard doing what they can to have Feros succeed after much tribulations, or a Paragon Shep not immediately trusting the Legion and either forking them over to Cerberus, or continuously belittling their place in the squad; with DA2 being way more binary in morals compared to those, decisions are revolved around either being Pro-Freedom or Pro-Security, and the wiggle room in deciding between the reaction from the instigator are curtailed in comparison to even Mass Effect 2. Your appeasement to factions comes down to saying The Right Thing at The Right Time, with the Right Members joined at the hips willingly to raise their Special Meter in accordance to what your pre-planning was. Hawke is NOT the blank slate meant to instill personal stories, NOR is he the concrete body that holds to his own beliefs and concerns - he is instead, a blob, that meekly shapes and morphs itself into whatever the person facing him needs to hear. Hard to grasp the influence of Planescape Torment, one of the most beloved RPGs to have graced the medium, when the 30-45 minutes I’ve played of that has the Nameless One expound so much more personality and spice than Hawke ever has in this entire package and a majority of its DLCs.

Epilogue: Contrition And Desolation

So, what the hell happened that caused the package to end up like this? Well, a lot of things. Between the company’s Golden Era and the Huskified Corpse era, there’s a middle point comprising titles that are, for lack of a better word, ‘contentious’: this, Mass Effect 3, Star Wars The Old Republic, and Dragon Age Inquisition. I believe most people have since assuaged the bitterness unto EA for how these have turned out (NOT to say they were entirely blameless, mind), and realize that the developers actually involved were somewhat-mostly causing these issues to begin with. DA2, however, is different since it was conceived as a last-ditch effort for EA to get something within the Q411 fiscal year, showing up on the planning periods before and during production, the latter two docs being available on their Quarterly Results page. Jason Schreier’s book, Blood Sweat & Pixels, has a section for the studio that mainly covers Inq.’s dev process, but there are tidbits related to DA2 that are relevant, so I’ll address that, thanks to a summary I found from another tumblr user. Essentially, SWTOR’s development had continued to trip across numerous snags and trepidations, leaving EA without anything to make up that bulk of the period. Hastily, they focused on Dragon Age to fill this void, and in a meeting had given the task of getting this done to a team planning a potential successor. The deadline? 14-16 months. Mark Darrah has also recalled details surrounding this period in a Twitter thread mid-December 2021, with environmental artist Lee Scheinbeim chiming in to say that his “understanding as someone who wasn't in any meeting rooms was the choice was either lay a bunch of people like me off or make what became DA2 in a year”. Numerous, grandeur ideas for that initial phase had to be cut down and saved for Inq. just to get it by store shelves in time, which is also why the setting of Kirkwall has a habitual love affair of reused assets, such was the case of its canned expansion Exalted March. If you wanted to know why there’s even a “2” despite bearing little, significant connections to Origins, well that too was a marketing tactic forced on by the executives - internally and in a rampant push to have it stick from the team, the original name was pinned as Exodus.

Some of you familiar with Bioware have likely went “Wait, wasn’t DA2 originally an expansion that became a full game?”. While David Gaider has said this at numerous points after the game’s release, it isn’t… exactly true. Er, OK, it kind of is actually. See, in a response to Mark, he shares his perspective; he transferred pretty early on Awakening’s life to do concept work for what, as he noted, “...was initially discussed (to me) as a stand-alone xp”. Once that rapid pitch for DA2 had occurred, he had transferred onto Mark’s team, and in a manner of speaking, “DA 1.5 became DA2, and we expanded what was originally supposed to be a "connective" story into its own thing.” With that in mind, Gaider’s also been adamant about sharing other forms of cut content, such as one time when doing an interview with VGS, and having tweeted about it himself in different intervals back in mid-April, which you can read PCGamer’s cover article about. One of these, in particular, are about a “Synder Cut” exercise going over things he, in retrospect, would’ve added/altered/accentuated upon; these include restoring an actual time passage to reflect Kirkwall’s change, implementing callouts and details centering around a Mage Hawke, an extended prologue where you actually had more time with both Siblings before the main event kicked off, and doing multiple, multiple ideas regarding the Act 3 conflict. While this hypothetical time extension would help out with some of the limped mechanics, I unfortunately doubt that such a thing would drastically improve the game beyond recognition. I’d still find the fundamentals and new direction of combat to be a wimping farce, the quest structure would still largely consist of running around beating shit up for A Thing, and oh yea, that awful Act 3 proposition would still be there, even with these supposed fixes and more “I don’t wanna deal with this shit” callouts. To me, it’s really just a reminder that sometimes, the best course when it comes to bandaging things up, is to just throw it out and go back to the drawing board.

That’s just what I’ve been able to gather during the writing process, there’s likely more stories from the people involved I haven’t found and/or weren’t documented by others. Whatever the full story, it was labelled as a success, being one of many titles in its lineup to reach over a million sales, and as stated before, there’s a following for this that has since brewed larger and prouder years after it was released. In fact, I’ve seen countless, countless fans going “holy cow, it’s amazing how much they were able to get done in such a short time!”, but like… is it really? Is being fed to the grind solely for their publishing company to rake in cash something to be proud of? I’ve hit numerous statements that said this ordeal has brought some of them together, same with sifting through many different people illuminating their joyful experience with the story and the events that unfolded. I’m happy for those folks, and I wouldn’t dare wish for them to rescind any of that at all. I can’t help but continue to feel like I’m just missing whatever is available - KOTOR2 has faced similar and arguably more egregious woes, yet that’s one of my favorite pieces of art ever made. It’s been several months since I’ve touched Tomb Raider Underworld, facing development struggles as well, yet I was able to skirt by with more positive feelings than shackled remorse. What was the difference?

Perhaps, this time, it’s because the hurt was harder to ignore.

I suppose this last bit is the “being real” portion, cause truth be told, I’m exhausted. I’ve largely procrastinated, even to the point finishing the game took longer than it should’ve, solely because I didn’t want to continue. Many times I have fluctuated as to whether or not I even wanted to bother writing a full-length review and figure to opt for a summary style of likes, dislikes, and neutrals, but that wouldn’t satisfy me, that wouldn’t cover all my thoughts. A couple cases I felt like I should’ve wisened up, cut my bond, and stopped giving the game attention, but that would solve nothing but fuel the escapist mentality that has disproportionately affected my headscape, making me forget I like so much of what was on offer despite all the problems. Every time I would sit down and try to focus, I would feel numerous pits swell because I keep hitting stories about hype and reassurance only for those all to fall flat on their faces, matched against . Each time, I’m reminded of the suits maiming and draining the forces of passion harboring inside developers, all for profit that wouldn’t even fucking matter. And now, as I play various CAVE OSTs in the background, recovering from a cold, to finalize this doc, something that has faced more scrapped ideas and reshaped forms than the 70 or so hours I’ve allotted onto the main game, to completion, I’m nagging at myself that I’ll likely never be satisfied by it. It’d be easy to end this whole thing with a generic “I HATE CAPITALISM AND CRUNCH CULTURE” spiel like it’s the greatest goddamn revelation no one’s ever thought of, but I’m already vociferating enough that more would take it less seriously, especially since everyone has bore witness to the failings of The Game Awards’ presentation on how they treat this same group less than the dollar signs of adverts.

I suppose if there is a nugget of relatability Hawke has given me, it’s that both of us just wanted things to be over with before they get any worse, to stop facing reminders that we can never go back to how things once were. A fitting rang for the signaled death knell of a once respected studio.

If Legacy was the good, and Exiled Prince was the bad, this is right in the middle.

In an attempt to do more cross-media outings, the people at Bioware got together with Felicia Day to create the Dragon Age Redemption live series, as well as this add-on, both of which released on the same day and all centering on an Elf character she conceived known as Tallis. I never watched Redemption and don't care to, and my experience with things Felicia Day was in is small, so how does this celebrity-driven new character fair under my circumstances? Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh she's alright. While I think her quip-style nature (in fact this also goes for certain other comedic elements in this campaign's story) can be rather bad, and there's a weird fixation on getting to be Nice™ to her with some unnecessarily amount of romance options, I can't quite say she's super egregious and intrusive regardless. The crux of her dilemma centering on the Qun's Ben-Hassrath philosophy helps flesh both her and the faction out just a bit, she's an adequate enough Rogue to pull some muscle in combat, and I'll admit there were a handful of times she got me to chuckle. I was weary about this, but I think anyone trying to posit this as a Writer's Pet scenario are rather exaggerating the ordeal.

As for the actual content within, it's.... well it's just standard Bioware fair. Walk around a slice of Orlais thanks to the backdrop of Chateau Haine for a bit, participate in numerous events organized by Duke Prosper de Montford alongside offbeaten sidequesting, do more walking around and infiltrating to hit your main goal, go all in on the dungeon combat once caught, I can't exactly say much since all I experienced here isn't all that different than their prior outings. Well, there is an optional stealth section you can partake in, and it sure is a stealth section added onto a game that isn't known for stealth! Don't take all of this as a bad thing though, since this is once again released well after the base game's launch all the tweaks and considerations applied onto Legacy were still done here as well, so again, no stupidly elongated combat sequences and everything goes down as quickly as they should be. This was marked as a 2-4 hour endeavor on HowLongToBeat, and it's sure as hell felt like I spent 2-4 hours doing all of it. The optional Sky Horror encounter and the final bout against the Duke didn't feel all that gruesome, but they're still very much things that can trip you up if you aren't keeping on your toes and doing some level of thinking, which again, felt nice considering what the base game was like.

Usually when Bioware does their final add-on for a game, there's a sense of finality to it, but this is the rare time where the ending is just... that. It closes off suddenly, and not much else reinforces the type of mini-theme that this was about, or even the main theme. Mike Laidlaw did talk about how the work being done on Frostbite, and ostensibly the work for Inquisition, caused them to pull the plug on a big expansion they were tinkering away on, and rework some of its transitory essence into full-on plot points for that title, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was to be the final farewell to this entry. Whatever the case, I suppose it's fitting that this - and hell, this trio of add-ons as a whole - have perfectly encapsulated the rocky, rocky foundation of Dragon Age 2 succinctly and effectively.

For a long while, I considered Zaeed to be the worst of Bioware's companion DLCs, but after finally finishing Sebastian Vael's questlines, I'm now retracting that sentiment. At least Zaeed has a bit of a personality beyond his initial archetype unlike Sebastian who doesn't really feel like he's grown one way or another, and at least his one quest does everything necessary with an indicative moment of character growth for both you and him, compared to the three separate ones Sebastian hands you in each arc that doesn't necessary reach a concrete endstate.

Really, Exiled Prince is a microcosm of all the issues plaguing DA2. His quests revolve around basic dungeon crawling of (majorly) samey environments that (majorly) take too long to finish, his backstory - an evangelical Chantry follower due to the rather belligerent upstart he had as a Starkhaven royal - and the arc that's proposed from this doesn't come into full fruition, the lore and worldbuilding that he and the Chantry introduces never materialize into anything substantial within the context of the main narrative, and the Friendship-Rivalry points regarding these spokes are harder to nab due to complications arising if they happen to contradict with the personality and mindset you established upon Hawke (eg: my Hawke is mainly a mage advocate due to his upbringing and only rebuts if absolutely necessary, yet feels as if the Chantry is not the best place for Sebastian and wants to push him back to Starkhaven; his Act 3 quest is able to give a grand total of 45 extra Rivalry points, but only if I kept besmirching the Mages), and considering you can't even properly recruit him until the start of Act 2, that makes fully cementing him as a Friend or Rival that much harder. This is the second time I had to use console commands to increase the side I wanted, but at least in the other case that was just me being lazy and not wanting to redo hours of progress to gather a measly 5 points before the cutoff point, and doing so got me to better appreciate that companion's ordeal which made it worth the cheat; here I felt like I could've just left the bars as they were, and would've lost absolutely nothing. All of this would simply be a bitter pill to swallow if he was, at the very least, a decent combatant, but even in these terms he falls short. He's the ugly middle of Isabela's DPS hit-and-run approach as well as Varric's jack-of-trades strength/support archery - the same style Sebastian has, btw - meaning I never felt inclined to bring him along unless I absolutely had to.

I read on the DA Wiki that this was supposed to feature Nathaniel Howe, and that the narrative would've revolved around these two, but this had to be dropped due to contingencies regarding his potential passing in the Awakening expansion. I checked its sourced link, and while I've yet to find anything else to back this up, the fact this was released day-and-date with the base game (yea this means this is another awful case of that practice), knowing that ME2 and later ME3 would have similar change of plans, and Nathaniel's Act 3 cameo appearance feeling rather phoned in while occupying space with another, vaguely related Act 2 questline if he didn't make it after Awakening's conclusion, I can't exactly say I'm surprised something like this was theorized to begin with. Would this have helped him? Who knows, but at least it would've been nice to have a bit of chewing on if everything else was this unexciting, aside from the super brief cameo Leliana had at the tailend anyway. Nowadays, on PC, you're able to get every DLC of this game alongside every new purchase, so I can't say it's too frustrating of a deal, but at the same time the content within is so bare, you might as well just pretend it doesn't exist. In fact, here's something comedic: this and Black Emporium were the two D1DLCs for this game, yet the latter is (was too iirc) free with all new copies, it also had more beneficiary gains and inclusions that makes the overall ride a tad smoother to complete. Sebastian got beat out by a dog and an enigmatic old fuck of a Greek allegory. That's just, downright pathetic and hilarious.

Beforehand, I had mentioned that I played Inquisition before DA2, which meant that I never really got a chance to play its Legacy add-on released a few months after its launch. This also means it was another case of seeing someone in a future entry (in this case, Corypheus) in their debut DLC, which like, really stings when you think about it. At least with Anders he was a companion that sported a drastic - and worse, but we'll... unpack that in the main review - personality change, Corypheus is the main baddie that's just plopped into the next game with preceding no fanfare or elaboration, so it's just another Bad DLC Practice scenario that were infesting the early-mid 2010s... but I digress. From the looks of it online, this is best played after the completion of the All That Remains questline in Act 2, which I can agree with due to the contents of the story here. I had a pretty adequate time overall, mainly due to feeling like the DA team making one big apology lap for all the crap decisions regarding DA2's gameplay. I'm saving the full brunt for the main review, but to briefly elucidate and foreshadow, you are

• No longer dealing with inflated health pools, a majority of the enemies here have their stats feel just right.
• No longer having to deal with random enemy reinforcements cropping up when it should've been over already, instead being done if it feels contextually necessary.
• Solving two or three puzzles that do a bit more than the bare Go To X Then Activate Y queries, and even those ones have a smidge more going on like with the Altar Of Dumat and Malcolm's Will side quests.
• Witnessing actual colors, lighting, and other mood setters instead of all the stock presentation plaguing the majority of the base game's dungeons.
• Partaking in fights, both major and minor, that are much, much better designed. The secret fight against Malvernis, especially, had more involved tactics and command planning than literally everything I had brute forced against prior, and it was right around the time I picked up on various cross-class combos too.

As for the rest of the package, they're well enough. Codices are more intriguing this time around, though DA2's lineup of them were already decently handled to begin with. The dungeon dwelling here still doesn't hit quite as much as they do in Origins, but it's also a step above the norm due to all the things I mentioned prior. While I'm not totally into the story being told, especially since Corypheus himself is just a water downed version of The Architect from Awakening (...which now that I'm saying this, also had watered down interactions of the Grey Warden stuff from there too in the form of Janeka and Larius), I will still give credit since it at least delves into and elaborates upon the Hawke Family, doubly so if you decide to bring the Sibling character along for the plot. Good for me, since I'm barely struggling to care about Hawke as-is in this point of the game's narrative. There's a couple of items here that makes the previously-alluded stale combat take up less time and making you bulkier, but a good number of items in other DLCs do an equal or outright better job, especially since these ones are scaled meaning they're potentially worse if you do this too early. At least Hawke's Key has a hilarious exploit, though!

Nothin else to really go over, just a rather solid add-on in the entire Bioware repertoire of these. Any other complaints would be akin to what I have with most: feels too under budgeted in accordance to the main meat within.

Since every epic/dark fantasy setting needs cryptic and mischievous witches, David Gaider penned up Flemeth and Morrigan, two of the big players in the series’ overarching narrative. I kinda don’t want to spend too much time on Flemeth due to this, but she is important for Morrigan’s upbringing, what with the seclusionist mindset and unyielding manner for her to go out and explore much beyond their hut habitat, as well as that whole near-venomous nurture mentorship that he may have likely been influenced from the same sources as before (and maybe some Obsidian roots too, but that could just be me looking far too deep). From the maligned and typically callous background comes a spirited sorceress distanced from societal norms and the expectations that surround them - then, the Wardens come, battered from the failure of Ostagar’s stand, and she’s now transferred over to help them in their quest against the Blight, her arc’s trajectory branching onto different ends from there.

I like Morrigan, a lot, to the point she’s one of my absolute favorites to have come out of the RPG genre, let alone from Bioware’s environment. With the fronts of sarcastic retorts and impish intent lies someone that’s clearly impaired and damaged by not only her upbringing, but her estranged relationship with the one who raised her to begin with. Navigating dialog choices and seeing which ones to choose is an activity I never tire of, simply because it allows me to witness new angles and details about someone I already know so much about. There’s always an option to turn her away, but continue to persist and peel the barriers away, you start to see her open up in the form of a ring doubled as a tracking tool and a gift born from kindling intimacy. Continuously so disproving and malcontent about the feeling of love and kinship that unravels the closer the two develops and the Male Warden continues to perpetuate and express this notion, that the facade breaks off, her reservation and sorrowful mind laid bare and disclouded for the first time. It’s a common thought for one to spout about a character “feeling real”, which is sometimes coinciding with the other thought process of “they’re LITERALLY me fr!!!”, but I don’t want to hyperbolize my position to that degree, especially since to get The Most™ of it you’re nudged into doing the romance even if you’re not into that sort of thing (and considering how Bioware does it, who can blame those). A lot of it just comes from the mere back-and-forth of the dialog, exhausting them every single time yet never feeling worn from it, and also the from how her skillset as a mage is utterly bonkers, being able to dish out damage from the backline with ease. The final confrontation with her in this DLC, where you raise questions and receive vague answers, culminates in three choices: stepping into the ancient elven mirror Eluvian with her, letting her go, or stabbing her as she tumbles into it. While not a major choice that affects succeeding entries, it culminates the type of relationship the Warden and Morrigan have, and somewhat in a meta sense, the type of relationship the player has with her.

So, that’s all well and good, but she’s only a mere subject of the storyline here - the real plot’s about Gaider and Co. setting up a lot of shit for future games. The Eluvian mirrors, stuff about the Inquisition, Kirkwall, even referencing Mage and Dalish origin storylines to build upon the state of the world. This is like, fine? It’s kinda like what Bring Down The Sky and Arrival from Mass Effect did, plus this being the last DLC Origins will ever get meant that it has to be an epilogue and not a quasi-expansion like Lair Of The Shadow Broker was. Thing is, You can kinda tell everyone was antsy to start DA2 up, or maybe it was around then idk I forgot a chunk of the development mess for that game, so the skill and difficulty ceiling has been far, far lower than anything before it. There’s a gimmick about revitalized sentinels powered by Veil Tears that you have to manage by first defeating them and then whacking it away, but that’s it, the rest are some of the most benign and lackadaisical encounters in the entire package. Makes sense, at this point you’ve played Awakening and/or Golems Of Amgarrak (which was my case, don’t recommend it) and have obtained numerous stat growths and high-level gear and skills so there’s no reason to be put up with a challenge, but it, combined with the most amount of reused maps and assets, accentuates that feeling of “getting it over with”. Even the final boss, effectively the last test of strength you will ever face in this, is a joke that can be paralyzed with ease with most of its attacks being minor annoyances. My LV 35 Warden with a 121 Cunning growth was doing triple-digit crit damage the entire time though, so it at least gave me amusement.

Oh yea, on that note, remember what I said about the confrontation? Yea, the weight of that is massively shunted if you let your Ferelden Warden die at the final battle, so instead you’re transferring the Orlesian Warden from Awakening onto this which like… massively deflates the whole point and raises even more questions? I’m not sure why this branch would really care at this point, and it’s not like Morrigan made an effort to establish friendship between other party members before she dipped so that others would wonder what she’s up to, so I guess it’s just like, a menial task they gave to them because idk they really handled that Amaranthine business. It’s a strange thing, in order to get the most out of it you have to import a Dalish Male character, where you decided to romance her for the sentimentality, and finally partook in her ritual, thereby limiting and obfuscating the whole “roleplay” angle the base game was going for. Even the bits of lore, setups, and especially that choice on what to do with her don’t amount to much because the outline the team clearly had in mind at the time was severely affected by a multitude of reasons and factors, resulting in yet more stunted worldstates on their mad quest to Make Every Important Choice Matter. It’s an extremely confusing DLC, and something I suspect would be marginally better if the team decided to pool all effort and focus on expanding this to be more meaty instead of creating GoA prior.

I suppose a quick summary of my thoughts is that it’s the inverse of my feelings on the aforementioned Lair Of The Shadow Broker from ME2. Instead of a really nice storyline with numerous and unique opportunities chronicling a companion I don’t exactly care much about, I got a storyline centered around a companion I really like yet is propped up by the most half-hearted full circle story beats available. As a result, I’m not even sure if I want to replay this in the future; sure, it’s another short add-on that doesn’t require much time with heavy implications for the future, but it doesn’t have the sustenance to bother putting up with it. A damn, damn shame, and what a lackluster capstone to end my month-long endeavor on.

Someone on the DA team was on a Zelda kick, thought the whole dual world approach certain games had was sick, and convinced everyone that DAO should attempt to do the same with the dungeon crawling aspect. Unfortunately, this results in every bad aspect of the game's dungeon design being at their absolute worst. Peekaboo enemy encounters? Check. High level enemy types that soak up damage to waste your time? Check. Tides of AoE talents being spammed that pummel and/or stun your party ad nauseum, almost certainly leading to death unless you utilize cheese tactics? Check. Meandering room-to-room searches where the only way to move forward is hitting an object of importance? You got it. The studio's stupid tendency to throw waves of baddies upon you as a way to feign the sense of challenge and strategy? Obviously!

The whole "changing landscape" gimmick doesn't even go anywhere, all it does is do the barest minimum of "now you can unlock this door/chest to move on!" while it throws up different color filters, which is both super lame and super annoying. There's no sense of progression or escalation, just go here, do the thing necessary, listen to the expository dialog of a group of people Fucking Around Then Finding Out, die because you're swarmed with so many golems and spirit entities, reload then chuck your items around without a care, rinse and repeat until you hit the Harvester boss which might just be one of the worst bosses I’ve ever faced in an RPG of this era. Calling this a war of attrition wouldn’t be accurate cause that implies it’s on the same level of fights that incorporate this state effectively, it’s just an abysmal slog of precise positioning and “aim attack at Big Bad while swarm of Generic Goons hit your tank” fronts while you pray that your intake of specific salves and friendly AI tactics are enough to carry you to the end, a far cry from the bouts that were actually invigorating in the Ultimate Edition package. About half of my time was spent just trying to down the damn thing, pushing this thought some gamers have where intentionally decreasing the difficulty just to complete a task is bad design. And it’s asking you to beat this on Hard (my preferred difficulty for Origins, btw), or god forbid Nightmare, just for an achievement and an item to use in the base game? Jesus, just look up a way to insert it into your game elsewhere, it’s not worth it.

I don’t want to sound like I’m completely infuriated, but it’s jaw-dropping how far below quality this is compared to everything else I’ve gone through, cheap in both difficulty as well as budgetary senses. I knew it was gonna be bad considering talks of it online, but I thought I could walk away with some positive thoughts like I did with some of the lesser add-ons. Darkspawn Chronicles also has some trite combat encounters and broked friendly AI, but at least there the gimmick was enough to carry it both mechanically and in a narrative sense, and it never truly became an immense chore. Warden’s Keep is a rather whatever scenario, but at least it expanded on the Gray Warden’s dubious morality and “by any means necessary” mantra along with giving a boon of a party storage chest with some great equipment. This? Uh… well I think some stuff gets reused for DA2…? Er… the lyrium incorporation was cool…. Can I talk about the item reward High Regard Of House Dace which is an incredible amulet for rogues to have? No? Then yea, nothing of substantial praise to say. The absolute lowest point of not just DAO, but all of Bioware’s DLCs that I've dabbled with and can recall, only rivaling ME2’s Overlord for the most bottom of the barrel sludge to suffer through.

Hoo boy, if you thought the base game was buggy, check out what’s infesting Awakening! You know what that means, alongside most of the mods I had detailed in the base game’s review, there's now additional mods to pick up, those being listed on this entire set over at PCGamingWiki, as well those contained within the Awakening Fixes And Tweaks modular modpack, namely the Missing Codices, Vigil Chars Fix, Grey Warden Justice, and Approval 100 Bugfix folders. Oh yea, you’ll also need this tool to successfully transfer DLC items as well, lest you want your Warden to appear stark and empty-handed. I have like, NO idea why it’s this borked by comparison, I’ve actually faced two quests hitting a dead end just from doing things out of order, repairing one with a folder from another mod and then using a console command for both! What is it with (western-hailed) RPGs and erratic nonsense?

With all that out of the way, I should come clean and say that this is actually my first time playing this. This is another one of those cases where being young sort of cursed me, although this time I’m not exactly sure as to how. Either because I was too young to work out the money necessary to pay for it, I somehow didn’t know about this existing until way after the fact, or perhaps some mixture of the two, all my knowledge and insight about this whenever I learned of its existence had to come from wikidives and whatever the Dragon Age Keep service was talking about in December 2016 due to its requirement for Inquisition. Having to piece together all the whos, whats, and hows blindly meant that the mechanical and moment-to-moment contextes were utterly lost on me, something I should’ve rescinded when picking up the Ultimate Edition on Steam several years ago but have only now done so, remnants of my memory perking up when appropriate. This also meant I had to gauge and adjust my expectations for this one before diving headfirst, since this was now gonna be a callback to their Tales Of The Sword Coast and Throne Of Bhaal releases combined with having a downscaled pool of writers, so I figured that being able to go through this in about 30 or so hours if I wanted to do everything, which was indeed the time I allotted. From all my time spent, I could only come to the summation that, if Origins was the best case scenario of a project’s internal mishaps and compromises affecting the endgoal, then Awakening was the worst of it. It’s not bad or even middling, but it’s… complicated, to say the least.

The setting and focal vibe this time around focuses on a small quadrant of Ferelden, the sinuous arling of Amaranthine located somewhat above where Denerim is. You converse with the people in either the capital or the ramshackled fortress, Vigil’s Keep, to get a clue about where and how the Darkspawn are preoccupying and running rampant despite the Blight having ended half a year prior, and branch off into three peculiar leads, all while juggling responsibilities as the newly appointed Warden-Commander as either your character from the main venture or a new Orlesian Warden should that one be perished (or if you’re initially starting here, but why do that?). This sort of acts as an extension on the Redcliffe Village scenario of solving any qualms to boost morale and reinforce the equipment, and more importantly as a parallel to their sister team’s execution of the same concept as the Suicide Mission ordeal in ME2. As a result, a bulk of the quests pertain to just going around and fulfilling anything that pushes this mentality in both the ruling interjections, and the main trek trots outside these two places’ walls, making for a refreshing change of scenery and motivation from the doomsday clock before. It also switches up the tone, downcasting a melancholic and grim atmosphere trickling with morbid events, which instills the grimdark aesthetic and tone that was sorely needed with the base game mainly exhibiting heroic fantasy outings. Dubious cases of infidelity, the uproot of either guardsmen or smuggling shadows for the capital amidst a miscreant prankster, sycophants hidden amongst the royal crowd you converse with, ominous portends as to who or what will slink above seeping throughout the vapor as you march towards the key tumultuous points, and a mass conscription of ne’er-do-wells and delinquents into the Warden command solely to acclimate and embattle the weakened forces of what’s inevitably about to come. Even potential returning faces, your PC potentially included, seem to have waned and rescinded their drive, focusing more on other duties that are now thrust upon them as the once mighty battle has splintered and driven many away. All of this is a perfect continuation as to what was established in Origins, and once again helps to address the haphazard and lacking uniqueness of the worldstate…

….which makes me even more bummed whenever I felt that I was simply plodding along to the drum, all my needs lacking in meat. For every time I was engaged and attentive, there were others were I was simply lost from how fast everything was chugging along, or zoned out purely from obligation instead of chilled enjoyment, like a Post-Oblivion Bethesda goading me to do the Content because it’s Content in this RPG, and I shouldn’t ever miss out on Content. This time around, hotspots to procure these side quests are in Vigil’s Keep and the Capital. An understandable move, keeping inline with what the expanion’s goals are regarding the Keep and the Capital, but the problem comes in the execution. In Origins, you had two sides of side content: Major Side Quests, pertaining to places within that specific arc or party members, and Side Side Quests, which is everything else like the Blackstone Irregulars, Mage’s Collectives and so on, sometimes being a recurring and ongoing background note as you progress the main story. In Awakening, you now majorly have the former, with very few of the side stuff diverging from it. It’s not this detail that I’m bothered with, it’s mainly that some of these are clearly supposed to be the fodder, menial chores and not the Somewhat Important requests. Maybe I don’t want to go to Wending Woods and pick up silk carpets, maybe I just want to pick up supply crates off the coast and hock them off for big gains, or intimidate some thugs that I’m Tough As Fuck that they piss themselves. What’s that, I need to pay 80 sovereigns to upgrade my walls? Yawn, I’m trying to help the smugglers overtake the city here! What’s that, a group of nobles are conspiring to overtake ME?! Where’s this Grey Wolf - that I’m temporarily lending the mantle due to the circumstances - so that I can handle this! See, those are the ones I’m talking about, and were also the ones I alluded to about the melancholic tone. A better balance of this could’ve been appreciated, especially since it seems like they were onto something regarding how Wade’s armament quests, some of the arc-specific stuff like Queen Of The Blackmarsh and the Avvar Statues in Wending Wood, and Dworkin’s bomb creations are handled.

As for the unusual haste, there seemed to have been some accidental presses of the fast forward button, leading to things feeling undercooked if all the previously established bugs weren’t already an indicator. To kickstart this train are the companions, which might just be the biggest mixed bag I can immediately recall in a Bioware title thus far. Sigrun and Justice are both great outlooks onto the meaning of place and ideals, the former being uprooted from a penurious and troubling youth into joining the Legion all with the perkiest mindset and outlook you could potentially have in mind, and the latter being a benevolent spirit of that exact pursuit unconsciously and irreversibly brought onto the land of the living, inquisitively looking at everything the mortal realm has to offer and struggling to understand the differences between the two, his planted root of being on the corpse of a dead Grey Warden, and what even could justice be delivered as. Oghren’s back, and he’s actually a bit better than he was before. Still stereotypical as ever and his “flirtatious” manner with the women are Awful as usual, but contextualizing them as a burdening anxiety and regret over his failing of becoming a father is a start for some development. Nathaniel was someone I was hoping would be great, especially since I was playing under the Human Noble origin which had connections to the Howe-Cousland squabble, but he doesn’t come into full fruition unfortunately. He’s still a cool guy, and it’s nice to see how he ruminates over what he could do to drag his family name up from the muck that Arl Howe threw them into, but not much was ever really done with this angle, and the amount of unique opportunities for HNs to participate in are shockingly poor. Velanna’s… fine? I don’t really think Sheryl Chee did much to provide a different take on the “elf that hates human” archetype, and other times she becomes quite annoying, but there’s some semblance of regret and turmoil within her interactions that make her alright. Weird to think how distant the power gap is when Sheryl Chee wrote both her and Sigrun though. This was the debut of Anders, someone I first experienced with in DA2, and though my memory about that game is foggy I do remember not being able to stand the man, so it's extremely disappointing to witness his initial personality is being the absolute worst of the entire studio's Whedonism infatuation. For every one interaction with him that was enjoyable and seldom, there were four others containing a stupid, sarcastic, snarky quip at you or someone else, which makes it very, very hard to give a shit about his plight about the Chantry/Templar's iron grip on the regulations at the Mage Circle. Maker's breath, at least Alistair knew when to cut the act and/or got the receiving end of belittlements! Overall, this is the same predicament I faced in Jade Empire; the crew itself is alright, but it’s clear that most could’ve had better arcs if given just a bit more legroom.

And see, that’s the thing I’m so exasperated by when it comes to Awakening. The more time I put into this, the stranger and enigmatic it becomes. Shouldn’t Oghren’s approval meter from Origins have transferred over onto the new one, considering it can be established we knew each other beforehand if he stayed for the entire duration? How is it that I can complete Nathaniel’s and Anders’ personal quest not even 3 hours after recruiting them and making small talk, while everyone else requires more effort for them to open up? On that note, I know Amaranthine’s capital is an important place and all, but surely they wouldn’t have made it so that every single important detail is just connected there on a whim if they made unique encounters and quests. What is it with these cutscenes centered on The Mother doing the barest minimum of telling me “she’s evil and freaky!” when they had raised the interest of a darkspawn civil war between the malcontent and awakened beings? How are there so many reused maps in this yet never a peep about them was uttered, could it be from DA2 becoming more infamous for that scenario? Why is it that we’re retreading the same arc sprouts from the base game, when it’s clear from the codices and sprinkling of info that there could’ve been more to it? Why are the dialog options written in such a way that I’m now goaded into becoming a nice commander, when there’s clearly options and flag checks before and after to allow me to roleplay as anything but, harming one of the best things about the base game? Wait, hold on, why is Velanna’s personal quest triggered via a random encounter on the world map - which, if events were done improperly, has a chance of never activating and thereby requiring a console command to fix? Instead of the alluring writing and strong intrigue superseding the mired implementation and blatantly rushed nature of the package like most other ‘broken’ RPGs I’ve played, including KOTOR2 which I had finished a little over a month prior, the lackadaisical ongoings and this gnawing repetition of what I’ve done before is being setdressed and reused again only serves to heighten the fact that this should’ve had more time to cook in the oven. Considering that they had Golems Of Amgarrak, Witch Hunt, and DA2 all released one by one nearly a whole year after this, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the DA team were on crunch mode the entire time, and all these niggling compromises broke over and stained the franchise, doubly so considering what happened with Inquisition.

It’s not like I don’t have other things to praise. I find that the Architect is a fascinating creature, a hyper-amoralistic being whose agendas and coercion habits has shaded his demeanor that you can’t tell if he’s actually achieving the shared goal of destroying the Blight cycle in his own way, or just a massive self-centered douche. Despite my near-apathetic remark, I welcome that every party member are able to make unique comments on specific objects in the map, instilling more life and personality into them than Combat has better paced encounters and differing scenarios to alleviate the dullness, as well as sporting several new mechanics and branches resulting the OP nature of your entourage becoming even better. Who doesn’t love being able to cast two Storm of Century combos thanks to a cooldown reset, or defeating high-level bosses with but a few techs and little to no damage received? You’re also now able to craft your own runes, with newly leveled tiers and the ability to insert them into your chestplates, allowing your tanks to become tankier and your DPS rogues to have higher (critical) damage outputs! Because of the leaner length, XP and money drops are way more abundant, which means you can go nuts with all the things you want to do, as well as a new respec book in case you want to metagame even further. A majority of the new worldbuilding and specific lore nuggets are better than ever, my eyes glued to the Codex so that I can piece together, learn, or otherwise infer on anything that’s on offer… as I remind myself a good chunk of it is either overhauled or thrown out in succeeding entries and DLCs. Whoops! OK in fairness I can kind of understand it, but still, bit of a bummer nonetheless. Altogether, I’m well and truly satisfied with the amount of time I put into this, and I wouldn’t exactly mind making this one of the few DLC add-ons I redo in my future replays - it’s just a shame that all the cracks are so easy to spot on something that was so desperate and willing in becoming a great bookend to an already great game, and is instead the culmination of how all over the place the quality of these add-ons are.

Will always find it ironic that one of my first exposures to the world of cRPG was on the Xbox 360 port, done by Edge Of Reality. It’s fine enough, but you really should just get it on its initial PC format nowadays, cause it’s a buggy game no matter what and mods will be able to ameliorate, or at least alleviate, most of the problems. It’s not as overbearing as KOTOR1’s steps, but not as lenient and (comparatively) straightforward as Jade Empire’s. Firstly, while Steam isn’t missing any of the essential DLCs, it does lack all the promo items that are bundled in the GOG or even Origin “EA App” versions, so if you’re extremely meticulous about having all DLCs and/or want to make the game a lot easier (seriously some of these are rather OP), follow this guide first and foremost, then install the following: FtG Ui Mod for easier readability; Qwinn’s Ultimate DAO Fixpack, both the main file and the hotfix, for the most extensive fanpatch available; Dain’s Fixes for even more sprucing up on top of that (just the Core and Bug Fixes folder for duct-taping issues, but you can nab the other folders after examining them if you want); a 4GB EXE patch to address the game’s memory leak issue, which Steam users need to follow this install guide on; and finally, Shale’s Talents Fixes Only so that party member Shale’s talents actually function properly. There’s four others I used, but they’re not essentials and are more so recommendations for special cases, such as DLC Item Integration for one example, so I’ll mention them when appropriate. Word to the wise, there’s two types of installs, so it’s imperative that you read the description to know which one you’re doing, alongside any important details to avoid issues.

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BioWare has always been a place where its employees implant their influences into their releases, Dragon Age Origins being no different. Its setting and worldbuilding blend epic and dark fantasy series like Lord Of The Rings and A Song Of Fire And Ice, with obvious callbacks to their roots of creating the Baldur’s Gate duology several years prior. Thing is, it’s also a title developed in about 7 years, and it shows in an egregious fashion. Drafts of ideas being abound but never coming to fruition, such as other origin points for Humans shot down before they were able to go anywhere, Morrigan being the narrator with an expanded Dark Ritual scenario becoming truncated or excised, Grey Wardens and Darkspawn weren’t elements conceived of at first, fictional languages for different races, with help from Wolf Wikeley once again, having to be tossed aside and altered after not panning out well, chaotic rumblings affecting the production and prototype process amongst other roadblocks like whether or not multiplayer should be implemented, hell originally the dragons part of the title weren’t gonna be a thing, yet they were retrofitted onto the story thanks to a name generator giving them ideas, and Thedas being born as the community forum’s shorthand for, well, THE Dragon Age Setting. This notion and wounded stitch can also be felt within the game: an influence system, forgoing the studio’s rising penchant for morality, has systemic benefits for your bonded partners while intense friction can allow them to leave permanently, but with how easy it is to accrue gifts and approval points, and no equal benefits to outweigh the immense drawbacks, there’s little reason to act as enraged towards them; the Broken Circle arc fundamentally has two dungeons, one you’re actively doing as you climb to the top, and another that appears right before the end enacted by a Sloth Demon’s hypnotic spell, that sprawls and elongates the venture to such a degree that those who replay it - myself included - elect to installing the Skip The Fade mod, reaping all the benefits while downscaling all the story bits to the absolute essentials; the Orzammar Assembly has options to coerce higher ups into swaying on the side of either Bhelen or Harrowmont, yet it’s all for naught since this arc ends with you gifting a crown that cements the new ruling; Brecilian Forest and the Denerim Alienage both have strong prologues to help lay the groundwork of worldbuilding and roleplaying potential, yet their inclusion in regards to the main story reeks of either undercooked ideas with any threads to the Dalish Elf’s encampment snipped and handwaved as “a different group”, or an excuse to help the player and their allies progress the Landsmeet plot while giving the City Elf’s birthplace an involved cog in the machine. Even the Dog you recruit, with its maxed influence, niche talent pools, and ho-hum stat fills that seems to have suffered from aborted experimentation and ideas, affecting the combat balance to such little degree that I used the Extra Dog Slot and Dog Gift Tweaks mods with marginal or no errors having cropped up during my entire session. Those are just the ones I can immediately recall, but there’s several more at the forefront.

Even the worldbuilding aspect comes across as moot, containing little deviations and idiosyncrasies that can carve out the title’s unique identity. The prevailing wound bled from all that time spent trying to get the idea a foundation, and it results in executions of tried-and-true cliches at their most bare, few deviations being done to give itself a mein. For the matriarchal belief and religion that Andraste had inspired, there exists Ferelden’s Chantry sect that is very easily inferred as controlling and seclusionary upon the mages. For the caste-based system and underground dwelling that gives the Dwarves a position to call their own, the Elves’ divide between nature and (sub)urban assimilation begins to sketch its mark yet again. It’s not inaccurate to say that DAO’s fantasy outings are “generic”, but it’s perhaps more accurate to say that it isn’t carved enough for genre enthusiasts to sink their teeth into, such as how the Fade exists and intertwines itself with the living or the near-fatalistic ideology that is shared amongst the Qunari, various DLC add-ons upholding that void instead. Also humanoid presentations are just kinda ugly but at this point I feel like that’s just a small issue. I haven't come across an entirely finished title this blatantly troubled and cobbled together since replaying Wind Waker last year. Thing is, much like that game, I'm willing to overlook past all that because the ADVENTURE is pretty damn sick. Bioware writing during this era had one best aspect coupled by the worst. KOTOR1's pacing is sublime and is likely the easiest to (re)play, but the story is so plattered with corn and cheese it makes some of the more awkward moments in the prequels and other Bioware titles become Shakespearian; Jade Empire has an immensely captivating and intricate world and villain, but it's dragged down by hollowed out moments with uncomplacent companions; Mass Effect 1 has the strongest sense of cohesion and scale, yet its lackluster side material holds it back. DAO, meanwhile, pretty comfortably captures that rampant and scattershot feel a TTRPG session has, especially since I recently dabbled into D&D and Pathfinder campaigns.

Despite all my rabbles and censures, David Gaider and his writing cohorts did a superb job at formulating the usual serial TV pacing into the sword and sorcery tale that takes you on wild and differing ventures, all to march and band factions to face against the Darkspawn’s Blight in the upcoming final battle. Sure, I could go for a random B-Movie horror montage about the rising dead seeking to overtake Redcliffe Castle and its village, all concocted from a mage tutorship gone awry. You mean to tell me that after that I have to deal with a random cult in a bygone temple to secure an ancient artifact too? Oh please, I can only handle so much excitement! Talking trees and mad hermits inhabiting Brecilian Forest, alongside a werewolf’s curse? What kind of Point And Click game did I stumble onto? All that political intrigue and history lesson Orzammar unfolds and lets you peruse is great and all, but maybe I just wanna go apeshit about connecting dungeons of time lost so lemme see that Deep Roads real quick. I fucking LOVE towers just like Tsutomu Nihei, so thank god I can climb this desolate institute the Mages and Templars occupy, lemme sidestep those creepy demons and their turmoil real quick. I don’t have anything funny to say about the Alienage. It really is that strange of a detour. Got a funny ass interaction though. My tolerance for BIG choices with HUGE consequences has ultimately simmered down to a cool ambivalence, but I’m glad this team had some restraint when it comes to leveling the impact and weight of this angle. There’s not a whole lot of Golden Options or one-sided ways, and the ones that do exist make enough sense to not feel intrusive such as how to resolve the Demon curse in Redcliffe, or finding the middleground for the Dalish/Werewolf feud, or picking Caridin’s side and dropping an ancient anvil because Branka’s a damn psychopath that lost it years before and thinks using it will somehow better the Dwarven society’s already grueling and trepidatious state. It also helps that being an evil bastard here actually fits the setting this time with various ways to do so, finally instilling that sense of roleplay that the studio has always been skewering with alongside all the reactive elements dependent on the Human, Mage, Elf, and Dwarf backgrounds, but admittedly that was a bit of a given. Not every dialog choice has something that will fit entirely with what you want, but there’s enough leeway available to not feel so limiting by comparison too. Couple that with said backgrounds providing insight to the world as much as they can like mentioned before, and even illuminating and strengthening the involvement in a few key areas (again, sans Dalish and City unfortunately), and it was an immediate bet I’d try out so many options in the future. All of this culminating into the Landsmeet, an event monumental in establishing order before the call of the final defense, with niggling ways to influence the outcome and all belaying upon who you are and what you’re about to do.

Bolstering this is far and away my favorite Bioware cast of this era. Suddenly their desire of Whedonisms and outwardly quips are now tied into peeling layers behind some compatriots’ face, or at least utilized in a way that it doesn’t feel as garishly droning as before. Alistair tends to get the brunt of the criticisms regarding this, but considering the dude’s still a fresh-faced recruit who’s still upholding the view of the world always containing clears good/evil, his way of hiding this turmoil behind bad jokes and snarky comebacks are warranted… mostly. He could stand to cut it out a little. Conversing with Zevran and Leliana has always been a delight, the former bearing all of his assassination background for all to know and slowly starting to unveil his reservation regarding where and how he ended up where he is now, and the latter being someone just now finally getting their life figured out after many hardships and a toxic relationship with one they used to call a partner. It’s kind of astounding to me I missed these two out initially cause they’re sort of the answer to something I had wanted Bioware to actually do, that being about writing (as close as they could to) making normal ass people without feeling like a plank of wood about it, and I always make room for them in the party even if I pick the Rogue build myself. Sten’s ideology and conversations are endlessly fascinating to me, his opposition and confrontational attitude giving way to someone to argue and debate over, which immensely helps give him and this worldstate some much needed variety and spice to keep it refreshing. Being able to fully get along with him and be treated in such a way he considers you worthy of respect has consistently been one of the highlights of my play. Wynne’s great in being the tutoring grandma with a magical girl-ass power coinciding with her flaw of letting down someone due to her arrogant youth, Shale’s equally likable for reasons I already touched upon in their accompanying DLC, Morrigan’s someone I want to gush about when I hit the Witch Hunt DLC but I very much consider her one of my all time favorites with an extraordinary look as to how and why she became the way she is now, really the only character I don’t really like all that much is Oghren. I love Steve Blum and Dwarf Jokes as much as the next guy, but he’s kind of a hunk of wood in this respect with a few occasional cool stuff going on. Then there’s Loghain who’s effectively your main antagonist - not villain, that’s the Archdemon - and he’s also someone I’m fascinated by. A heroic and idolized general, so paranoid and distraught over an enemy country potentially allying themself with his home turf and what King Cailin has been attempting to do, that he succumbs to his overemotional outburst, harming both the kingdom and the Grey Wardens solely to drive his desire of vengeance. So many codices and inferences to pick up on, and different states to delve into his psyche, it’s the studio’s biggest throughline into trying out an ambiguous angle, and for the most part it passes all the marks.

It’s a kind of weird feeling to discuss why I enjoy this as much as I do now, cause it bears all the highs and lows of what makes Bioware, well, Bioware. Sure, I’d like it if they cut it out and actually design enemy encounters that aren’t just peekaboo room holdouts and give me a reason as to why I should bother with all my salves and elemental resources, but I can also do this shit to enemies and guide them along my trap-filled layouts so eh. I wish I had more reasons to use the innate skillset that you’d typically find in these fantasy RPGs, but being able to pickpocket so many people with ease is devilishly sickening. They really need to get a handle on their friendly AI patterns, but this being so easy to fine tune and take control of yourself at least means I don't have to suffer the wrath of stupidity like all their other titles I tried out, though they could do with a lesson on "enemy variety" I'm snoozin from all these same types even if that's the intent. I appreciate this being so busted that a synergy involving dual-wielding rogue with specced out Cunning and Dexterity, a dodge-tanking warrior that draws in all the aggro amongst foes, with a mage that does all my support and cast big “FUCK OFF” spell combinations never truly gets old. They could cut it out with the romances but… actually there’s no but. In fairness DAO does is at least the closest it got to maintaining a sense of a gradual kinship and closeness, even if it’s troubling to sell since the options pertaining to this are pretty easy to please and can yet again be maxed way earlier than intended. Overall it’s just an easy game for me to get lost in, despite again, its gangrene state being so blatant that it can understandably harm others’ enjoyment.

A common thread I see amongst all the arcs available is this sensation of something once thought to be lost in the ages, now coming back to us in unexpected, gratuitous, and downright cataclysmic ways. Something that sort of emboldens our hunger for knowledge or for a path to make things right, or at least confide in as we lose ourselves to our internal pain and suffering. Considering that I coincidentally started going through old Bioware titles (and KOTOR2 but that’s not quite as relevant here) around the time they’re finally at the risk of collapsing, along with the fact that I'm now seeing a lot of people call this their "last good game" if not for ME2 which is increasingly growing my cracked (again, all from what I'm seeing, doesn't mean I believe it), maybe that was just the sort of thing I needed a refresher on, a hallmark and reminder on the type of adventure they used to deliver in my youth. Either that or I just wanted another excuse to pour a hundred and so hours into this title I like a lot, considering it's been on my docket since replaying the original Mass Effect trilogy two years ago. Maybe it’s both! It’s probably both. Perhaps more experience of cRPGs could impact what I gain from this but uhhhhhhhhh idc about that it's kinda lame to think so. Doesn't mean I won't neglect my homework though.

Anyway I gotta do something about this strange rock I found... wonder what I can make from it.

Essentially a more involved iteration of what Normandy Crash Site from ME2 was doing: go back to a fantastical event that affected your PC, do some quick objectives, then reap all the rewards. As for whether it's better or worse than that, I'm not too sure; I like that I have like, stuff to do, and having tangible items instead of an context-sensitive interactive item for your base makes it a little more rewarding, yet NMC was just a walk-around of the area which kept the pace brisk, unlike here where you have combat encounters that really should've been cut down by half, keeping the final one against the Genlock Necromancer and the Risen Orc, while still maintaining the (admittedly, pretty thin) emotional and atmospheric pull.

It's largely made up by the items and conversations you can have here. Reading into the codices helps characterize Cailan and Loghain more, as well as all the interactions you have when bringing Alistiar/Wynne, or Wynne/Loghain together. Not to mention, you can functionally slot this into a solid detour either at midgame or endgame, unlike NMC which is a very awkward and stumbling early mission type beat. The King's armor set and Duncan's items are scaled, meaning that if you do save it for the endgame, you effectively have some of the stronger armaments at your disposal for the rogues or warriors of any type, which is nice. Likely the mid-point of my DAO DLC totem pole at the end of the day, though.

Though my affection for them has waned over the years, I’m still a pretty big fan of Leliana. Sheryl Chee did a great job outlining a character who, clearly being the youngest of the crew, went through a troubling development via toxic relationship with Orlesian bard mastermind Marjolaine coinciding with her increased skill and knowledge of the trade, culminating in a broken bond and fractured belief before finding a new, spirited sect to take refuge under once her tragedy had ran its course, and Corinne Kempa does an equally commendable job at giving her the softspoken yet cunning mannerism that fits the character like a glove. Really, I’m just bummed she’s segued into the Archer line for the main game, cause (cross)bow builds are severely outclassed in every regard when it comes to the Rogue and Warrior options, but it’s not like she didn’t pick up the slack I guess.

I assume her popularity amongst the crowd was large enough to earn her own add-on, cause what you do here is essentially play out that story. It’s not quite 1:1 in detail, since you’re in Denerim and not Orlais like where the betrayal happens for instance, but it doesn’t really matter much. Another thing to note is that Lukas Kristjanson was the main writer for this, which I could somewhat pick up since its vibe and appeal is much more in-line with the Orzammar arc which is where he was one of the penners; saboteurs, parasocial intrigue, various ways to handle a situation (a particularly hilarious one being implicating a knocked out guard for all the crimes you did), things of that nature. This is fun, and thankfully it doesn’t feel like a haphazard plot like Warden’s Keep or overly exhausting as Darkspawn Chronicles, but like… it still shares the same problem of being too short to really mean much. Plus, I don’t know, I think I’d rather have one centered on Zevran’s dilemma. I was very satisfied with what Leliana told that I wasn’t burning for more, meanwhile Zevran’s monologuing on his turning point is vague enough to really make something out of it.

Still though, it’s good enough. This time it actually does feel like a 1-2 hour side adventure for starters, not to mention it really lets you get a feel for how hilariously busted the dual-wielding rogue/dodge-tanking warrior/mage composition is in DAO alongside again, all the quirky funny bits you can partake in. This is already a game with hit-and-miss DLC content, so this standing out as something I can replay after each new session without it being out of obligation means something. Plus, going through this and doing a specific quest unlocks Battledress of the Provocateur, which of all the busted-ass armaments the DLCs inserted onto the base game (and Awakening) through one reason or another, this stands out for being, hands down, the single best armor you could give to a Rogue. I had to willingly stop myself short of equipping it onto my MC on top of every other item I wanted to get some semblance of balancing in a game already uneven in that regard.