Like many I'm sure, I've been spending an awful lot of my time in Dragon Age's land of Thedas. I was pretty pumped to return leading up to release; many of the gameplay videos, trailers, interviews and the like proved that BioWare had actually taken feedback and the many criticisms of Dragon Age II to heart.

I should preface this all by saying that I don't think Inquisition is a bad game, far from it in fact, and that I am enjoying myself... yet at the same time there are so many nagging issues in the back of my mind that I simply can't escape, no doubt akin to the very Calling that haunts the Grey Wardens............................. >_>

...Anywhoo I haven't actually even finished the game yet, which is partly because I'm not quite as engaged as I was hoping to be. Though there's also the fact that I've already got two simultaneous playthroughs going on... That's a thing with me I'm afraid. I just can't help myself when I'm greeted with character creators or multiple classes in games, and I invariably end up playing multiple characters at once. It took me forever to actually get a single completion out of Diablo III in particular as I was playing through with every single class. I would have ideally gotten at least one playthrough before I post this, but the game is of course so damn long that I want to at least express my current thoughts before I reach the end.

In any case, while there's a lot left to be seen, I've invested more than enough hours for my problems to stick out. So, to begin with:

Single Player MMO-itis

To put it bluntly, many of the side-quests in the game are pretty dull and wholly predictable. The majority play out as a bunch of piecemeal fetch quests that involve you talking to Quest Giver, heading over yonder to collect Item or kill Thing, and then returning for your Reward. What they notably lack is typically what I would assume most come to BioWare games for, and that's character interaction. There's very little actual discussion or diplomacy going on amidst these quests; you'll simply talk to person, ask what they want, then go and do it. Once you return you simply note that you've done what they asked and accept your reward. It's all rather straightforward and completely clashes with the way quests could pan out in games like the KOTOR series or, more importantly, Dragon Age: Origins.

Origins in particular often allowed you to steer many of the game's quests and character interactions in pretty drastic directions. This would typically mean you could potentially kill the quest giver, or demand more of a reward; you could blackmail, lie, persuade, or even turn away your reward for the more altruistic playthroughs. Inquisition seemingly has none of that, however. The only one example I can think of is the quest with Solas where you meet some Dalish mage; upon working with her in killing the demons in a dungeon, she collects a trinket to keep for herself. From there you're given the prompt to kill her, or could alternatively have Solas persuade her to give it to you, or... just end the quest then and there with her keeping the trinket.

This is particularly disappointing for the slightly more involved quests, such as one that had me invade this secret dwarven carta base. As a dwarf character myself, with a history in the carta at that, that should have spelled out excitement as I perhaps use my history to... I dunno, do something other than just slaughter my way through everything? Unfortunately, no, that's all the quest entailed, as do the rest of them. Sometimes a person of importance may instead be brought to you to be judged back at homebase, but that there's zero potential for diplomacy out in the field itself is still unfortunate regardless.

Another good example is with my alternate Qunari character after encountering some spirit in Old Crestwood. It's all pissy because it doesn't have the freedom of manipulation in our world as it does in The Fade. Now, I've been roleplaying my Qunari as someone that doesn't trust spirits/demons and as such even decided to cast Cole away -- I'd have killed him if it was possible. But for this specific quest, there's no actual option besides doing as the spirit says and heading to this dungeon and killing a Rage Demon. I could alternatively just decline the quest... but there should be a better method of being able to wrap the quest up without simply declining the quest; there should be a way to be ticked off and ostensibly 'completed' without bending to the quest giver's demands. With the way I've played my Qunari she would have reactively attempted to cut the spirit down if possible; even if the spirit flees or what have you or is invulnerable for whatever reason, at least give me the option. Part of what I love about Origins in particular is how you can define your character not only with the bigger decisions, but the smaller ones you're constantly having to make as well.

As I wander about the vast expanse of the game's many environments and uncover a new town and the like, I should be excited at the prospect of seeing what I could find! What stories I could uncover and take part in, but instead it's usually a sense of preempted exhaustion. When I unlock a new area I already know what's in store: collecting stuff and killing things. Attack first, ask questions maybe. And given the many other inspirations Dragon Age has taken from Mass Effect, how did they somehow miss to incorporate the Renegade mid-scene prompts??

Now don't get me wrong, killing things is a lot of fun in this game and I'm enjoying the combat a good deal. However when that's pretty much exclusively what you can expect from anything besides the major story beats... it can feel rather one-note. It brings to mind the Deep Roads segment of Origins, as it's one, long stretch of what is essentially pure combat, with some story stuff at the end. Now I actually liked this segment a fair bit to the contrary of most, as I enjoy the combat of these games and relished the chance to explore and fight my way through this huge dungeon. However with Inquisition the 'Deep Roads' is encompassing far more of the game than even I am happy with.

Which is a shame, because the areas themselves are beautiful and indeed expansive. The Hinterlands alone feels like it's larger than the entirety of Kirkwall. And to that I do still enjoy exploring around, but it's only for the simple pleasures of taking in the environments and not for picking up new quests.

Either do exactly what I say, or don't do anything at all...?

I'm no doubt preaching to the choir on this one, but it simply baffles me as to why they would completely nerf your party scripting and AI pattern setting potential. Playing on Hard mode, it has forced a significant amount of micromanagement as leaving your party to their own devices is usually a direct path to annihilation. I have turned off near all of my party's abilities as they rarely ever use them when they're the most appropriate and often left me waiting on cooldowns to use an ability when I wanted to use it.

It also results in situations like with Vivienne's melee slash spell ability. When turned on this will mean that Vivienne will actually sometimes charge into the fray and start slashing at people... which is not where you'd perhaps want your mage to be. But with it turned off, that means that I always have to pause and then switch to her myself and mash the appointed button to use it. Varrick's poison cloud ability is another good example.

Having to constantly tell my party where to go and/or telling them to hold position can be annoying at times, too. Especially when my Qunari rogue has low health yet continues to charge right towards the flaming Rage Demon. With so much to manage I will sometimes forget to tell a party member to do so-and-so, which may invariably lead to their demise. Like, why can't I assign formations and the like?

Basically I just want to be able to have my tank choose to taunt when he's surrounded by three enemies rather than doing it myself, or allowing him to use it himself, which will inevitably lead to him using it as soon as a fight erupts regardless of how many enemies he's near. I don't mind having to essentially play complete battles from the tactical camera and meticulously pausing and unpausing... but it can at times feel like there's more busy work involved than is necessary.

That even Dragon Age II allows more party customisation just leaves me scratching my head as to why they'd water it down to such a degree for an RPG of such a larger scope.

It's the little things

I will admit that the lack of decent side quests and party scripting are my primary complaints thus far and takes up the bulk of the blog, but there's still many more such little cuts spread throughout this thing. Each one on their own isn't anything much to be dismayed by, but when viewed altogether they start to form a pretty significant gash...

The character creator isn't their best

I quite liked the DAII character creator. It isn't as diverse as what you would find in Dragon's Dogma for example, but it allowed me to create characters I liked to look at with surprising ease. The lack of selectable races was pretty damning, but by and large it was a character creator I enjoyed tinkering with.

Inquisition I can't say the same. For starters, the hair and beard selection isn't nearly up to the standards set by DAII, and it also looks ugly as sin at that. There's like 6 different varieties of buzzcuts, and many of the beards look like the plastic novelty kind really; stubble also looks like little coloured specs that have been dotted on as well.

That there's no way (AFAIK) for you to be able to tweak your character mid-game is insane. Even DAII allowed you the option to edit your Hawke, albeit through a preorder bonus... Letting you choose from a number of races again, including the debut of Qunari, is mighty appreciative all the same. Still, much like in Mass Effect in particular, even if the character itself may look fine in the creator, actually seeing your character in-game may perhaps tell a different story.

I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to character creators personally and I always enjoy making the odd tweak here and there, and that you're literally stuck with your character looking the exact same for a 100 or so hours seems like a massive oversight.

Lack of cosmetic armour variety

Still on the cosmetic side of things, the armour variety has been dreadfully slim from what I've seen. Despite putting in a good 30 or so hours into my main playthrough, I've only encountered like 3 or 4 different armour styles. The most common being that hideous coat. Furthermore, these armour types seemingly carry over across different classes! As my rogue has also often been restricted to the same few armour styles, including that same damn coat and the piece of armour that's just like 60% chainmail.

I do at least like how adding in new attachments will edit your armour's look at least, but still, the bulk of the armour pieces themselves have left me wanting for so long now. Part of why I enjoy playing as warriors in these games is due to the awesome armour you're likely to find and wear, yet with no such luck so far despite hitting around level 14.

Say what I want you to say when I say it.

One of my primary issues with how BioWare design their RPGs these days is the increase in having your character talk for themselves. It was particularly egregious in Mass Effect, as Shepard became more and more of a defined character across the series. Though with a series like Dragon Age it sticks out all the more. The whole idea behind Inquisition with the multiple races should be that you are creating your own character. Hawke was essentially Dragon Age's own Shepard, but with the different races--each with their own backstory you can tailor slightly during conversation--your character is supposed to be your character.

On some occasions the game will at least allow you to choose how to respond mid-travel by pressing R3 to bring up the dialogue wheel, but more often than not your character will simply talk for themselves. It's nowhere near as prevalent as in Mass Effect 3 for example--where Shepard quite literally seems to talk for him/herself for like 40% of the dialogue--but every time it occurs it's like adding another penny to the jar.

Furthermore, and this is a problem with the dialogue wheel in general, what I choose my character to say and what will actually come out of their mouths often isn't 1-1. And I don't mean because your dialogue wheel option is typically 3-4 words whereas the dialogue is of course whole sentences, but rather the direction it may go in and the way my character delivers the line isn't always what I intended.

No more Rivalries?

One of the genuine innovations Dragon Age II brought to the series was the concept of Rivalries. These existed alongside Friendships, so as to allow you to still 'unlock' a party members dialogue despite this character potentially disagreeing with the majority of your actions. It's especially important for how it defeated the possible pressure of having to pander to characters so they'll like you, as you'll now still establish a relationship with a character... just not one that isn't entirely friendly is all!

For Inquisition however, it doesn't look like that's still a thing? Hell, I have no idea how you're supposed to track your character relationships in general. Perhaps they wanted it to feel more organic overall by not giving each party member a bar to measure their like/dislike of you? If that's the case then why in the Hell do they still pamper the screen with Approval and Disapproval notices?

Oh! Conclusion!

It once again need be said that first: I am still mostly enjoying my time with Inquisition, and second: I've still got many hours to go before I hit the credit scroll. I again enjoy the combat, the game's environments look stunning, many of your party members are likeable, and the story is... a BioWare story, I guess. Least as of where I am now. There's a great sense of progression as you're just constantly benefiting and building up the inquisition throughout. Also, the soundtrack's pretty grand; the campfire scene (you know the one) legitimately gave me goosebumps!

The openness of the environments also allows for a little bit of emergent gameplay. Nothing that'll rival the kings of the open world genre, but witnessing bandits fighting off wildlife helps in establishing the world around you. The more busier environments are also just that -- busy! There's often more people on screen doing whatever, and when the game wants to look cluttered, it will do so.

All the same, Inquisition still hasn't quite matched what I'd want to see out of a successor to Origins -- which only continues to look all the more impressive and ballsy by each passing year. Inquisition has certainly at the very least aspired and succeeded in remedying many of the ails brought about from DAII... But similar such issues still persist, and the Mass Effect influence is as invasive as ever.

Unfortunately what the 50 or so hours in Inquisition has told me is that Dragon Age is likely never going to match the crazy amount of flexibility that Origins offered, and that's... unfortunate, to say the least. Still, I will assuredly complete this game -- twice even most likely! Even DAII managed to wrangle two playthroughs out of me. Whether I'll actually bother to partake in more of the game's outer activities and explore many more of the open areas that are available is a little more ambiguous, however. Perhaps the side quests get a little more interesting as the game continues? While I would at least appreciate it, that there are so many huge areas full of boring junk quests is still a criticism that can't be ignored.

The one bright spot amongst all this is that I now suddenly have a real hankering for giving Origins (and maybe even DAII) another run through one day. Never did finish a playthrough with the dwarven commoner Origin.

MUSIC TO OUTRO BLOG WITH

Well done that sums it up very good.

Quite an impressive write-up.

The thing that interests me most is the Rivalry thing. That was a pretty neat feature in DA2, because, like you said, it eliminated the pressure to butter up your followers to unlock dialogue and stat bonuses. But the system still only rewarded consistency; you got tangible rewards for full friendship or rivalry, but if you landed somewhere in the middle - in the manner of, say, genuine human relationships - your story with that character stalled, you missed out on a cool stat bonus, and you could potentially have to murder that character in the endgame. Hardly a flawless system.

Bioware could've improved DA2's system by having two separate bars; then the game could've just noted which was higher at crucial junctures, or default to Friendship in the case of a tie. But that Friendship and Rivalry were on a single continuum made it so that each dialogue choice could potentially unravel the progress of the one previous, which undermined the purpose of designing that system in the first place.

Inquisition seems to have moved about halfway to where I want them to be, which is obscuring the systemic bits completely to remove the temptation to min-max. Unfortunately, I feel like going halfway is even worse. I appreciate that the approval is at least partially opaque: there's no big "approval bar" to fret about. But there's clearly still math running under the hood, as evidenced by the Telltale-style approval prompts. So it's an invisible approval bar?

When I finished my 85-hour odyssey, there were three or four followers who, despite chatting them up as much as possible, I felt like I was missing some huge part of their character arc, including personal quests. Characters like Bull, with whom I had no real ideological scruples. I can't really say why, but it's probably because they didn't like me enough? If that's the case, is it like Origins where you have to be everyone's buddy to get their full story? Sometimes opacity has its drawbacks too, I guess.

Bioware gating character stuff behind rigid systems but not giving me clear feedback on my progress therein is pretty much the worst option. I'd rather they handle relationships like Mass Effect, where it just doesn't matter. In ME2 Garrus would just talk his cute little mandibles off. He'd give me his loyalty quest, and we'd go snipe that traitor dude ever time... Boy, was that a load off my mind.

Great read, I pretty much agree with every point, especially the side quests. Bioware didn't even bother to use the "cinematic" camera angle when talking to NPCs, not even your party members.

I'm still enjoying the game, but the small issues really do add up, especially when the game is as lengthy as it is.

My main issues so far would be the awful equipment menu that's right out of ME1 and the unnecessarily giant hub worlds.

I mean, I'm someone who has no problem collecting all the goodies in a Ubisoft game, but that's because how easy it is to get around, whether it's Renaissance parkour or gliding through the Himalayas. In DA though, it's just slow ass walking, made worse that I seem to be suffering from that banter bug that reduces party chatter. The Skyrim influence is clear, but when there's nothing interesting to do in the said world, it's all for nothing. Did The Hinterlands really have to be so large, when it's mostly filled with boring side quests and useless collectibles?

@mustainium:

I look at the size of the Hinterlands as a training ground. I used it to try builds and different teams and to learn the combat and tactical controls. I was glad to have so much to do and the time to progress my characters before I felt ready to progress the story. It certainly isn't necessary to stay there if you're ready to move on. There are some things there that you'll end up coming back for later if you ignore them though(shards and Grey Warden items for example). And as far as collectibles go, I have to say Bioware got this stuff nailed in DAI. Every ingredient you'll need and/or make use of in the game at some point, especially if you play on hard or nightmare. The crafting system insures that. And things that are just found and converted to money, you'll be glad to have them ducats when you inevitably find a great and expensive weapon for sale. I feel the economy is very balanced and all the loot has meaning, unlike most other rpgs.

As far as the op, I agree the friendly AI and the tactical control is lacking some. I also wondered about the rivalry stuff, but to be honest I'll be glad if it has no more impact than just insight to the characters beliefs and perspectives. Also the character creator is huge and bad ass, except maybe like you mentioned hair style choices and beards. There's a thread here about people's created characters and they look pretty great.

Felicia Day was streaming DAI yesterday and her created character was just hideous. I mean scary. Anybody see her monster? :D

Interesting read. I disagree on some of the points.

Whilst I also find the AI limited, Having Vivienne charge in to use spirit blade is exactly what you want out of a KE especially combined with the barrier building abilities. What I personally found annoying is the placement of archer rouges that always placed themselves in harms way (even with meleeish abilities disabled), with friendly fire enabled I could see this as a nightmare (cough).

I also think that the expectations of the character creator are a bit lofty. Of course DA2 was better in some aspects, this primarily because they only had focus on a single race. Given that many complaints were lobbed at the Human only DA2, I think the right decision was made. I do however think that the lighting in the creator area could give the wrong impression and that It would be nice to have lighting options there.

The dialogue wheel exists because of consoles. Old crpgs had much more space to put full sentences but here they can't really give two different options because the wheel is exactly meant to give tone and not simply have the characters redundantly speak out the contents of the wheel. 1-1 dialogue only really works if the MC is silent.

The approval notices are there to give you a sense of what the characters believe and they provide options depending on their approval. I think bars have been removed so it is more organic. The rivalries system would function in a similar manner, but only if characters saw you as an equal, and not "subjects" to you as "The Inquisitor".

Alas Junk quests, regardless of how people feel about them are popular and easy to implement. I suspect that given the problems they had with this tech they were time limited in interesting quests. I recall an early demo of a feature where they had to raid a keep and choices had to be made instantly like burning boats thus affecting future enemy capability, as well as having the choice to save towns or directly raid the keeps.

@mustainium: The cinematic camera is there for important conversations. More general missable conversations use the regular camera. This is preferable as one can simply walk away from more general conversations.

I just saw the "single player MMO" thing and checked out. I'll never understand that complaint. This is pretty much all RPG's. Sidequests are almost always pointless and just for gaining some extra loot and levels.

Couldn't agree more regarding the side quests in the game. SUPER boring and super numerous at the same time. Took me like 30+ hours to get to sky hold just doing all of the side quests I could. Otherwise, I am still really enjoying it. I have encountered a few glitches which have caused me to start from a previous save, but not too often as of yet.

I forgot all about rivalries. Truthfully though them generally playing down that whole aspect of the game is fine for me. It was a big deal in DA2 cus there was nothing else to do but romance or piss off allies.

Not having a loot chest, though, kind of inexcusable. Because they're going to package it with DLC like they always do. Annoying.

At what point do you take self accountability for doing every single quest in the game? I did the main quests and side stuff on the way, then the inner circle quests and stuff on the side. Then near the endgame, fought every dragon and wrapped up any lingering quests on the way. Had a fine time with the quests doing it that way cus I never bothered with shards or mosaics, etc. And left the rest alone, had power to spare and hit level 20 easily. Side content is optional and people compulsively doing it all and hating it, well that's kind of on you. The collectable quests are there because they're easy to make not because they're fun to do, that's why every open world game has them. Its super easy to recognize "I wont enjoy this" and never do that kind of quest again.

@veggiesbro: I'd have to agree with @bargainben. These quests are optional and can be done pretty much at any time. It isn't like the game is forcing you to grind on these quests in order to progress.

You should be able to get by just doing some of the more interesting stuff.

Cheers!

You're right, the Friendship/Rivalry system is still far from flawless. Though at the same time I still want to feel as if I have to earn a character's trust, rather than everyone just automatically sharing their life stories because why not. I think like you said they could feature multiple bars; one could track how much a character likes/dislikes you, and the other could track how much of a history you've had together dependant on how often you're tagging so-and-so with you for skirmishes and story events ect. That way you can still establish a bond with a character, even if they perhaps don't entirely agree with your methods.

Yeah, regular conversations can also be really boring to listen to and I'll find that certain conversations can lead to me zoning out at times because of how blandly they're presented. I don't necessarily have too much of a problem with the size of the locations, but the game could definitely benefit from being a little tighter. Like, Origins was the sweet spot I think. None of the environments were overly large but they were big enough and full of people to interact with that it still gave the sense that you're covering a lot of ground.

Yeah, as I mentioned there's a great sense of progression of things at least. Feels like I'm constantly acquiring something new to put towards my Inquisition or upgrading something or other.

Ehhhh, I would have to disagree in that regard. I would prefer that Vivienne only uses her blade when an enemy is right in her face and that she would otherwise stay completely out of range. I want it to function as a defensive maneuver rather an offensive one. Though you're also right that archers do have an annoying habit of running into the middle of a battle for some reason. I think that's because their pathfinding is getting a little screwy as it does, so when their view is obstructed they inadvertently end up right in an enemy's face amidst their attempts to get a clear shot.

I don't really see how adding in new races would have affected the lack of hair styles, especially since every race (beyond Qunari) and even gender share the same hairstyles. And even facial hair in some cases!

Origins and the KOTOR games before them presented your dialogue options as a list EDIT: even on consoles I mean to say. The addition of a voiced protagonist only really affects the delivery; the line of dialogue itself could still be spoken word for word if they formatted things better as to let you know exactly what you're going to say.

That's awfully kneejerk of you. Also, no, Mass Effect 1 + 2 and Origins all featured many well done side-quests. That they're also mandatory to an extent in Inquisition due to requiring the Power currency to unlock main missions is precisely why the side-quests stand out all the more. Plus, you have to do side quests to level up otherwise you would be severely underleveled for main story missions anyway regardless of the Power currency, least on Hard mode.

Again, I see Origins as being the sweet spot. Most of what you're doing is specifically linked to the main story or current crisis of the location you're in, whereas in Inquisition the side stuff easily outnumbers actual story stuff.

Korra? Distrust and antagonism of Spirits? Mhhh someones been watching Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

Joking aside, I'm a bit disappointed to hear all of this. I've been considering picking this game up, but not I'm not so sure. I've just recently gotten into PRG's, and that's thanks to Kingdoms of Amalure:Reckoning, which was piss poor game to be quite honest. Yet it still managed to suck 40 hours out of me and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun playing it. So if a game as bland as KoA:R managed to keep me captivated for such a long time, I think I'd still enjoy DA:I, regardless of the flaws you pointed out. My primary concern is the lore( I like reading and getting acquainted with the "who's?" and "what's?" of any game)gameplay( I don't mind slow methodical gameplay, but the micromanaging you mention really struck the wrong cord), and enemy diversity, all of which I have heard to be great. What would you say? Should I pick it for these reasons alone?

I haven't played the previous Dragon Age games either, so this would be a completely new experience for me.

And this has been a very well written and informative blog. Thank you for sharing.

I might believe the general consensus over a random internet stranger who admitted to not playing a ton of the game, but that's me.

The complaint is generally that many sidequests are "Go kill X things and return to me for a reward." Not all RPGs have that.

If you want to get really, truly redundant, then you can say that almost everything you do in an RPG increases the strength or options of your party. Which is even more true in that killing things generally gives you XP or an XP-like currency. But then there are the optional sidequests that are purely challenge (Final Fantasy 7, Dark Souls) and the sidequests that let you learn more about your companions (Mass Effect 2, Planescape: Torment). Some sidequests give you new locations or buildings (Baldur's Gate 2, Dark Cloud) and then there are they many that give you aesthetics as a reward (Fable, et cetera).

To say that all sidequests are "Go kill X things for loot" is disingenuous.

@yummylee: Given the more mass market focus of this game, I'd say there is a snowballs chance in hell that they would go full dialogue, too many people would just click whatever.

KOTOR and Origins are from different times and still primarily PC based franchises. Jade Empire is the exception but it shares the KOTOR engine.

People liked the way Mass Effect streamlined things so they stuck with it.

The KE is primarily a DPS class. However, if they had a more robust AI and tactics system such a thing might have been possible. Frankly the best compromise between a deep tactics and console friendly system is in my opinion the FF12 gambit system (coincidentally another game that people attack as a single player MMO).

I spent an awful lot of time doing side stuff too before the Heart Shall Burn quest. I was blown away by how huge The Hinterlands was at first... weird how it's perhaps the biggest environment of the game thus far. As I've gone on I've definitely opted to ignore more side content rather than legitimately attempting to take it all on, though. Kinda brings me back to Kingdoms of Amalur in fact, which was totally just a single-player MMORPG right down to the everything.

There's no loot chest? I never even realised actually. I wanna say even DAII gave you a loot chest at home, though I can't recall if that too was a preorder bonus or not. I definitely remember for a fact that Origins was slimy enough to tuck it away behind DLC, though.

While it is up to the player to take on as much side content as so they please, again some of it may be mandatory to a degree because of the Power currency and level balancing. Plus, it's in the game... simply shrugging it off as ''well, it's optional'' isn't very good criticism. If it's in the game it deserves to be critiqued, especially for how much of the game encompasses nothing but the junk quests. Entire areas are dedicated to nothing but the same 'Go Here Kill/Collect Thing' quests.

I do plan to try and better divide my time between side stuff and actually progressing through the story at least, but still. I don't think we should give the game a pass purely because it's optional, as it all makes for a significant chunk of the game. I bought this game with the belief that I'd be able to explore many huge environments with stuff to do, and while that's still technically true... most of the actual stuff kinda sucks.

lol purely a coincidence actually. Korra was the first name it gave to me I think. And yes, Amalur was awfully mediocre, yet at the same time I also invested an obscene amount of time into it... Games like that hav a weird pull to them, no doubt like how Destiny roped in so many people into playing a game they seemingly hated for hours of a time.

And I dunno, it's hard for me to recommend or unrecommend it wholly as I haven't completed it yet.

I've invested like 40 hours into my main playthrough, and story wise I've just finished the Hawke/Grey Warden plot line. I've put in another 30 or so into my alternate playthrough as well. Is that not enough for you or is my opinion still completely irrelevant?

You're right that the mass market focus is why the dialogue wheel exists and will continue to... doesn't mean I have to be happy about it ;) It's just something that'll never sit well with me completely, least not in Dragon Age anyway.

@yummylee: You got to admit though, it was an awesome coincidence. :P And yeah, mediocre games wierdly hook you. I spent an inordinate amount of time with Destiny.

Okay, makes sense :).

Personally the only thing really grinding my gears with Inquisition is that they dumbed down the A.I. routine system. Everything else mentioned really hasn't become an issue for me. I think this is about as perfect a sequel I'd had realistically hoped for considering they are trying to capture both the hardcore DA fans and the casual players.

Trying to appeal to both sides at once usually ends up in not being able to satisfy either side but I think other than a few little niggling issues they accomplished their goal. They really do need to work on making hair not look atrocious though. Literally no women in the game have long hair because they didn't' want to have to deal with making it. Which, I mean hair is actually more complex than you'd think but still like c'mon Bioware make some goddamn long hair.

@yummylee: I guess I can understand your wanting to earn a follower's trust. I just hate when the character stuff intersects with the systemic stuff, because for me the systems will take precedence every time.

I like your idea about a "time spent together" meter, though.

Think my biggest problem with Dragon Age:Inquisition at the moment is that for some reason the enemies in the main questline dont seem to level up with my characters.

So I am level 23 at the moment and most of my opponents are between level 15 to 19. This is especially strange since the enemies in most of the games zones (western approach, hissing wastes etc.) did scale up along with my character .

This difference between levels means that I kinda massacre my way through most of the storyline making it a bit unchallenging. I still like the story elements but it is a weird design decision on the part of Bioware since the games level system seems to go way beyond level 20.

@nardak: Enemies soft scale. They have a lower and upper bound in each zone. AFAIK no regular enemy scales above 19 (which I think is also the upper bound on the recommended levels for the last story mission). The dragons have fixed levels, where the highest is the last dragon in Emprise at level 23.

If you do too much in the game you blow past these limits quite easily by the end of the game.

@tuxfool: That explains the difference then. It is a bit of a pity though that they couldnt make the storyline to scale to the players level.

The game is awesome otherwise. Bioware really redeemed themselves in my eyes with this game after the much smaller scale Dragon Age 2.

@nardak: Yeah, the lack of story level scaling is somewhat baffling to me too, especially as they allow you to change the difficulty at any time.

Personally I had no problem with the smaller scale of the story in DA2, not enough RPGs consider scenarios that aren't about saving the world. My problem was with the repetitious locations and lack of scale in that aspect (as well as being human only etc) as well as being almost pure action.

I also thought it interesting that the story in DA2 takes place across 10 years, which is another thing that isn't often done in an RPG (off the top of my head).

Here they have returned to the end of the world scenario and large scale with a cypher being the PC. I often see people complain that RPGs are always about the end of the world, but nobody ever thinks of DA2 (flawed as it was otherwise).

I kind of agree on just about every point except for the problems the OP has with the main character. There are precious few games I have enjoyed playing a silent protagonist, Chrono Trigger and Persona 4 being the two I can think of at the moment.

What I was constantly thinking to myself while playing DA: Origins on the other hand was "wow all the other characters are so expressive, but the character I created is a robot." Not only that but the character I made (grizzled old mage) was completely at odds with his backstory I only learned after creating him, that he was supposedly a brash young lad. What was the point of being able to make my dude look old?

Doesn't really matter though because regardless of the backstory, I felt like my dude was a robot the whole time. I understand that silent protagonists affect people differently, and many people really get pulled in and inject their own personality into their character (even if it's all in your head and not reflected in the game), but my guy never pulled me in at all, it was very hard for me to think of him as me. And because of that, due to him never talking except for some occasional player choices, I felt he was a robot that never spoke unless someone asked him a direct question.

I agree about the AI. The rest not as much, sorta kinda maybe. But seriously, I cant even fight dragons with a full party. I play on nightmare, so the dragons hit so hard (even if you outlevel them massively) they will kill a party member other than the tank in seconds. NPC controlled dudes just won't stand where they need to, wont move out of fires or electric bombs, or whatever else fast enough, and just don't behave intelligently enough unless you micro manage them. The challenge level on the dragons is so rough though and the mechanics so different and gimmicky I would say it is like playing a 5 man dungeon boss from an MMO except you have to 4 box. It is a major pain in the ass and insanely hard.

@yummylee phrased it better than I did in my original post. So I thank him for that. And just to be clear, I am not the person you are describing in your post. I am stating that my opinion is that there are too many side quests, and that they are for the most part, hot garbage.

That's not true at all. DA:O and older CRPGs like BG2 etc felt completely different. The MMO-lite complaint comes from two things which plague DA:I. One is the fact that a vast percentage of the sidequests consist of meaningless fetch quests and busywork rather than properly thought-out and compelling quest chains with branching paths etc. The second is that the combat feels like a clunkier version of WoW. It feels incredibly mindless and spammy. All you really do is hit abilities as they come off cooldown to maximise DPS while holding down the R button.

I just don't get the complaints mainly for this game, when say, Skyrim did it constantly. That game was full of bullshit sidequests. Didn't hear it then.

Also throwing a little flavor text or a small bit of story doesn't really change the fact that you are in fact going to location X and killing Y. It's just how you dress it up.

By volume this game has as many or more significant side quests where you're not just collecting things as the games you mentioned. It just has, in addition to that, a bunch of collectible quests that anyone with self control can easily avoid. So let's not misremember these old games as if Baldur's Gate and the original Dragon Age didnt have filler quests. This game just has more and certain people are choosing to concentrate on the negative.

That's certainly your prerogative on whose opinion you want to value.

though fwiw @yummylee is not some mere random stranger around these parts, He is one of the most respected and popular users on this site. Just take a look a cursory look at his review, wiki and blog history to see for yourself (and I encourage you to do so especially if you are looking for a really thorough and fair opinion on Survival Horror games). His reputation speaks for itself.

@yummylee: i pretty much agree with all of this except for the mmo thing.im not going to use the argument that all rpgs do this,because thats not the case.however,i will say what others have said and say thats its almost completely optional,and that there are just as many great side quests as there used to be,theres just way more side quests in general so its seems alot worse then it is.now even if you would disagree with either of those points,i would just say that i loved the side quests and really like the mmoish feel that it has,almost like xenoblade chronicles in a way.ive done all the content of every zone except for like two of the areas and im still not bored with the side quests.so i would just say that if you dont like them thats ok,but there really optional.i would focus on the good side quests and storys quests since theres plenty of that in the game as well.

I love Bioware RPG's; Mass Effect and KOTOR were awesome games in my opinion. After the high praise Dragon Age got all around I just had no choice but to buy this. And I think it's kind of disappointing.

The world looks beautiful, the story is pretty cool as well so far, but the core gameplay is just not fun to play. I have a feeling there's way too much management going on (I have to manage skill trees, armor, weapons, upgrades, wearables for ALL characters, christ..) and the AI is so endlessly stupid in combat that you have to manage them to get something done. Which is a big pain, because you can't queue up actions.
The 8 potions for all system is baffling. When you've got 2 or less potions left and you still need to get into a fight then there's no way to succeed. When you are unlucky the game autosaved it at a bad point and there's no way to gain potions again, you'll have to load up a manual save.

Result; I have set the game to EASY now and will enjoy the story. If it was not possible to change difficulty on the fly, then I probably would've stopped playing at all.

@dussck: If you look at the legacy of Bioware managing skill trees, armor, upgrades etc, is sort of integral to that history. If you saw the high praise for Dragon Age then surely you would know what it is about.

Many would argue that there isn't enough management like the excellent tactics systems in the previous games. I agree that it has been the tactical system is clunky this time around, but it doesn't mean it shouldn't be there in a Dragon Age game.

I have managed fine with 2 potions, just sometime you have to work a bit harder than simply mashing through the combat. Either way fast travelling to a camp to replenish potions isn't that big a deal.

@tuxfool: In some (boss) fights there's no way (on Hard) you'll survive with only 2 potions. They'll get hit either way and the potions are the only way to heal. I just wish there was a more intelligent system to either replenish the potions or just heal your squad.

I rather have the combat a bit more turn-based (like KOTOR), where you can have some real tactics played out, instead of giving some commands and then 1 second later the AI is doing their random thing again. Either that or make it a full fleshed action combat system that works (like Mass Effect).

The first Dragon Age wasn't turn based. Also you can do that sort of pseudo turn based stuff in the tactical camera mode. I'm fairly sure potions are there because people complained that using mages for healing was too complicated.

I should point out that Boss fights are supposed to be difficult and that in most instances where you cannot go back to camp they have boxes that allow you to replenish your potions.

But yes, the AI sucks, the tactical camera is clunky. Unfortunately they're going to struggle because the DA hardcore is all about that tactical camera, but there aren't enough people to get those mass market sales. They tried the full action stuff in DA2 and was among the reasons that game was panned.

@tuxfool said:

The ''smaller scale'' of DAII was a problem because of how often they kept reusing environments. Setting the game almost exclusively in one city isn't the problem, it's that the city itself is small and lacks enough detail and variety to carry a 50 hour RPG. Also, while DAII tells you it progresses over 10 years, the characters never age nor does the city itself ever change, making its supposed 10 year span meaningless. Generic civilian NPCs could be heard saying the same lines of dialogue from the very beginning as they would in the third act.

I haven't played Skyrim. Though on that note, I've heard many complaints from people saying that the missions weren't as creative as they were in Oblivion, specifically how nothing matched the dark brotherhood mission tree or whatever.

I haven't encountered very many side quests beyond the boring open-world junk quests. There's been a couple so far involving your party members, but by and large the game primarily restricts its conversations (conversations that are most than just ''feed me exposition'' I mean) to the main story missions. Much of the game surrounding it is precisely what I've already detailed, with little player interactivity beyond collecting and/or killing stuff, which can at times clash against the way you're roleplaying your character at that.

That's not entirely true. I've been playing through the Empress Celene mission and am currently fighting a boss, however the game has dumped me into the fight with literally no potions and my party wasn't even fully healed at that. There are no crates of potions nearby and the boss is seemingly impossible lest I crank the difficulty down. This is on Hard mode I should add, and the boss is 2 levels above my characters. If only I had done more completely optional side-quests, eh!

Man, I would hate to try and play this game on Nightmare.

I did say for the most part, as there are one or two other instances of this. Unless I'm confusing this particular incident, I managed to avoid this boss fight...

It involves the decision to halt the assassination attempt or not. I opted to save the Empress and am now fighting Grand Duchess. Are you saying that if I let the assassination happen, there would be no boss fight whatsoever? That'd be really neat if so! I would assume that you'd simply fight someone else instead.

Great write-up, I agree with most of your points. What this game really needs are engaging questlines for each of the areas. You can still have the random sidestuff but have one quest that ivolves dialogue scenes, decisions and companion interactions that brings me to all/most of the camps in that area. Crestwood does the best job with that, taking over the fortress, draining the lake capturing and judging the mayor but it's the only one. Inquisition is a long game except that it's not. Most of the areas are optional and when you only look at the main story missions, it's actually fairly short. How they tried to get around that is by locking the story missions behind power ratings that you need to unlock them. Unfortunately the story is where the meat should be in Bioware RPGs, at least for me. Yes these areas are big and they sure look pretty but there is not enough worthwile in them. I still love the game and the story missions are engaging but I had hoped Bioware would be able to avoid the open world trap.

I also agree that there aren't as many choices as in for example Mass Effect though I think the ones that you do have to make are interesting (even if they probably don't change the story much). There still should be more of them.

Regarding Vivienne's spirit blade: if you want to go Knight Enchater with her (and you should) then she should always be in the middle of things, even on higher difficulties. The passives in her KE tree and the ability to craft gear that gives guard on hit make sure that she is basically unkillable. She can't taunt enemies but the survivability is better than that of actual tanks like Cassandra or Blackwall. If you don't want her in that role, don't use the KE tree because that's what it's for. You are still right though. The tactics and micromanagement options in Inquisition are severely lacking as is the tactical cam. Bioware really messed that up.

As for the character speaking without you having the ability to choose that option I have to say that I had a much bigger problem with that in ME3 (it's certainly more prevalent as you pointed out). I had no issue with what my character was saying at all but I can see why people would dislike that even if it rarely occurs.

As far as rivalries and interactions with your companions go I actually prefer the more organic conversations to the meter that fills up. I think certain dialogue options are still tied to approval and I wish you could turn off the option to see it but it's not as mechanical as it was in the previous games. You can do stuff your companions disagree with but they will still help you or appreciate you if you stand up for them from time to time and when it comes to decisions that affect them directly. It's far from perfect of course but I like it.

The difficulty is also kind of messed up, certain classes and gear combos are ridiculously overpowered to the point where you can solo dragons on nightmare or kill them extremely fast but I guess balancing issues were to be expected. At this point I enjoy steamrolling everything after spending the time to plan out builds and gear combos. Inquisition is my GotY but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Edit: @yummylee: If you expose her you can save Celene without having to fight her. That's what I did.

@yummylee: Yup for me it was different. I had the political perk? So I chose to shame her in front of the whole court. So she got arrested and then later I judged her to become a peasant. Celene was saved and I fought nobody (I then got Celene to exile Gaspard).

You pretty much nailed it. 'Single player MMO-itis' nicely sums up most of what's wrong with it.

@yummylee: Just my personal experience, but does your character still go away even if you tell them to just hold position? I also have a Qunari dual dagger rogue as my MC and when I tell her to just hold position in a spot (clicking/pressing A on spot twice), I've never had an experience where she would just run off. Same thing goes for any of my other long range characters. Even when I command them to do just a basic attack after holding position, they'd never run off. Only time it happens is if a single target skill is out of range.

I'm also playing on Hard though I actually like micro managing and did the same thing you did and turned off most (not all) of my members' skills. The only ones I'd keep enabled/preferred are skills like Parry, Shield Wall, Block and Slash, Mind Blast, or Poisoned Weapons. The only times I'd ever need to go out of tactical mode is to use a certain skill where it requires you to hold down the button for it to last longer like Whirlwind. Sometimes, I like to just directly control the MC when I feel like micromanaging isn't needed at that point since there is only one guy or two left though most of the time I prefer to be in tactical mode.

(SPOILERS: Apparently I've played over 40 hours of this game and my MC is level 10 now and the most recent milestone I have is making contact with mages in Redcliffe. I spent too much time in the Hinterlands and the Storm Coast before heading to Val Royeaux. 0_o)

I have my own list of complaints about this game (while also liking it very much) but it doesn't overlap very much with yours. I do think that the character interaction is too low, though. When you go to DA Keep in preparation for this game, you're bombarded with minor characters and how you treated them. I don't know that they'd be able to do that if they tried to build on Inquisition - sure, I decided the fate of a number of enemies, but I never talked to them at enough length to care what became of them. That isn't really any worse than having a bunch of fully fleshed out side characters who are written to be totally boring, which was how DA:O was. Mass Effect, as usual, is the golden standard.

I think that the biggest bummer for me has been the loot. I'm not sure exactly when I got the gear that I did (a good amount was crafted) but I got a bunch of decent armor and weapons around level 12 or 13 and only now, at level 21 am I beginning to replace a significant portion of it. Way too much of the game's content is in a narrow level range, meaning I was constantly disappointed as I cleared out a new dungeon or treasure room only to find that the only useful things I got from it were a a couple schematics and some mats, if I was lucky. I feel like this is a problem a single player game shouldn't have.

I'm 45 hours in and while I understand your complaints, I'm more forgiving.

My only real complaint is about the loot. I'm level 15 and I don't feel like I'm getting anything worth while. Most of my weapons are awesome, but my armor seems weak (Maybe its not and its just me?)

I love open world games, and I feel like the random side quests in DA:I are great. Yeah, collecting 10 ram skins is filler, but the context is gives me and the way it goes about it, I love it.

I haven't played a game this much to completion since, well, probably Skyrim. I'll probably get near 100 hours for this game. I fucking love it.

My biggest criticism of the game is that the box art shows the anchor on the right hand. But in game you don't have a choice of this, its always on your left hand.

My biggest criticism would be that the loot system is kind of terrible.

It's seeded wrong it seems. I'm not the only one that gets unique daggers at a 20 to 1 ratio to any other weapon class. It's difficult to at all find 1h swords let alone good ones. I'm on my first purple sword which I was able to buff a little with a rune. I got it at level 14, now level 18 and still found no more swords or axes. That's around 20-25 hours and 3 100% areas.

Meanwhile there are unique daggers literally everywhere I look. I have completely honestly found around 8 "unique" daggers with the same name even. Hook Blade in every chest.

@honkalot: For every person that says the loot system is terrible you will get somebody who says it isn't. I had no problems whatsoever finding unique items every so often.

If you're lacking in unique items, you can always craft pretty hefty weapons...