It’s been a long day. The migration from Haven to Skyhold wore everybody out. Deciding to go deeper into the mountains was a huge oversight on everybody's part, as we’re all clearly underdressed. Now we have a little more than the common cold to worry about.

Cullen insists that we keep working to fortify our new home. I do not blame him, after our first run in with Cory I don’t think I could survive another attack with our group in this state. After a moments rest and a warm bowl of mushroom stew, I went up to Cullen to see if he needed some help.

I hope he didn’t notice.

~~~

There’s a lot of things that I’m not entirely sure about with the Inquisition. Well I mean... I know it’s purpose. An explosion causes a tear in the fade and all manner of demons pop out of it. So Cassandra gets a band of most-likely people together to stare a book down, enlisting the “Inquisition-rule” from the Dragon Age playbook (third edition).

I get all that. It’s all well and good, but what the hell am I doing being the leader? Starting the game as a prisoner to suddenly running the show seems absolutely insane! Turns out, the only reason why I’m head inquisitor is because these people can’t seem to shut up about Andraste. I’ve had to remind them how absurd it is, every single time they bring it up. Can they not see that my character is a Dalish Elf?

So this is the thing that bothers me a bit. There’s just so much to do that isn’t the main story, and I’ve already spent 20+ hours doing absolutely nothing. Perhaps Inquisition is too strong of a title, as I could have been perfectly fine playing “Errand-boy of Thedas.” Helping farmers, and grabbing minerals while closing rifts on the side.

It just reminds me how the consensus for Dragon Age II wasn’t very good, it was vocally decided to be a bad game. And yet I keep looking at it feeling like it was a perfect balance. The only thing DAII was ever really guilty of was being a side story. A small compact game in terms of story (and assets), guiding you along through a narrative that just sits in the middle of Origins and Inquisition.

Regardless of what was thought of it, I played that game 3 times back-to-back because it flowed really well.

With Inquisition though, I just kind of look at the map and say to myself “I guess I’ll go over here or whatever. I’m too lazy to warp back to Skyloft and walk into the keep and walk into the war room and get distracted by all the little figurines.”

Another thing that I really appreciated about the second game, was that everything was more stylized. To put it to you this way. I usually take a liking to DA:O being the first movie in a franchise that didn’t want to worry about it’s costumes and makeup. Just wanted to create a really compelling story that will pull the audience in. Now that they have the audience, the franchise has a bit more money to spend on the costumes and makeup. So everything, though a bit more cartoony, looks really good. It now looks like a world fitting for the narrative.

Inquisition feels like the franchise has decided to go back to the cheap costumes and makeup, and now everyone is looking really ugly again. I guess it’s just the “Realistic look” to the characters, that makes what they look like, and how they move, completely off-putting. (Someone from DAII LOOKS LIKE SUCH A MONSTER NOW.)

And what’s the deal with Orlais? Have those people always looked like 10 generations in the wrong direction? Are they really part of the same game?

I also feel like they’ve recycled character models from Mass Effect and just put ‘em in grubby clothes. I mean, of course they could really just take the art assets off human heads from one game and put them into another... but I think it’s just really strange if I can recognize them.

I guess, this is a game that could benefit from the story chiming in when it needs to, because the fatigue sets in pretty quickly. Not enough to keep me away from the experience mind you. But the amount of side stuff is so overwhelming, (and so easy to do instead) that I can’t help but shrug off the dire-importance that the inquisition faces.

____

On the subject of Dragon Age, I’ve been looking at the games that I’ve played and I’ve managed to make a decent enough list of favourites this year (though I’m debating keeping it just shy of 10.) I bring up Dragon Age, because a part of me feels like it’s too late to consider being part of any game of the year list. I mean yes, I’m sure it is out of principle, But given the time I’ve started playing...

I’m bringing it up as an interesting conversation, because I’d consider it to be too early to tell if it’s a good game. If you compare something like Dragon Age to other games that have come out earlier in the year I would find it difficult to declare DA:I top spot.

You know what I mean? I can’t really put DA:I too high on the list because I’m clearly not doing anything in the game.

Oh the drama of unnecessary dilemmas!