83 replies to this topic

[Kulyok]

I was happy with Dalish elf reactions, but City elf - yep, meh. Even Dalish elves only acknowledged that she was an elf like three times, and dismissed it immediately. How do they know she wasn't Dalish? Do they know all members of all clans? I mean, my second Dalish elf didn't wear any tattoos, either, as she hasn't come of age, but her they liked.

[Qwinn]

Ascension:

Spoiler

It is indeed possible to have Alistair and Anora marry. Worked out that way in my first playthrough. I think if you "hardened" Alistair during his personal quest it may prevent it, not positive. I did not do so. Also, whether or not you let Loghain live may have an effect on it (I killed him). I know for a fact if you let Alistair kill Loghain, she will not marry him. But it -is- possible to have them wed.

Qwinn

[Ascension64]

Cool, good to know. Then at the end,

Spoiler

I suppose you can agree to Morrigan's plan to keep Alistair alive...

, I'll have to try that.

[Undead_Phoenix]

Well I have to say that, despite not living up to expectations in anyway, not enough banter between NPCs, far too few interjections by party members and not enough 'grey'ness, Dragon Age isn't bad. Not bad at all.

Still, I have a few reservations about the ending that my playthrough got me with my Dwarf Commoner. Let's start, shall we?

1. Morrigan:

Spoiler

I shouldn't need to say anything about what happens, but I'm very dissapointed that there was no option to kill, or just even attack her. My Dwarf would have shanked her the moment she tried to step foot outside the room without hesitation.

2. The general heroic ending:

Spoiler

I feel that there should have been some option to tell Anora that you didn't give a damn about what happened to her country, or for a "Lets get this over with" reply to the door guard. All the blood, sweat and tears you poured into saving Fereldan, only to be obstructed by this that and the other at every fecking turn, and not even having the opportunity to point that out?

3. Paragon status and Rika: To me, this was the largest dissapointment in the endings.

Spoiler

My Dwarf should have had the choice to tell her, and the assembly where to shove their opinions and that he didn't care what they did. Paragon? This seems like a joke and an insult; after all the years in dust town just to survive, where a merchant wouldn't have thought him worthy even to spit on. Home and family? The home he knew lived the hard life in dust town, not living it up in the palace. The last thing that connected him to it, Leske, he'd beheaded personally for betraying him.

So, after defeating the Blight, what next?

Spoiler

Alistair dissapeared. Betrayed at the last by Morrigan. Orghen settling down. Leiliana going back on her word to continue travelling with him. All ties to home severed.

Just one sad, bitter Dwarf with nowhere to go, noone to turn to, and nothing to fight for,

Spoiler

accompanying Sten back to his homeland.

But Shale's few sayings are almost worth the game alone.

[darlarosa]

Just a quick question. As I finished the game I wondered:"Do I like Morrigan because of her character or because she's voice by Claudia Black...I DON:T KNOW" did anyone else get that feeling? XD

[Jarno Mikkola]

I am done. Got to do a lot of the quests, got the 'requiter', 'sidetracked' and 'hopeless romantic' from the first play through.

Well I have to say that, despite not living up to expectations in anyway, not enough banter between NPCs, far too few interjections by party members and not enough 'grey'ness, Dragon Age isn't bad. Not bad at all.

Ouh, not enough banters? Did you actually listen the party members chatter about what ever when there was nothing much going on(no enemies at sight, picking up items from holes in cave the deep roads, traveling up the hill at the Red Cliff, etc).

Spoiler

Leiliana going back on her word to continue travelling with him.

...But Shale's few sayings are almost worth the game alone.

Spoiler

Well, you needed to be a woman for the Leliana's friendship.

Hmm, I shall play the game with Shale then-....

Just a quick question. As I finished the game I wondered:"Do I like Morrigan because of her character or because she's voice by Claudia Black...I DON:T KNOW" did anyone else get that feeling?

That's 2 questions...
Do I like Morrigan because of her character or because she's voice by Claudia Black? The obvious answer is: Yeah.
Did anyone else get that feeling? Hell no.

How did I get the hopeless romantic from the first play through? Mods people, mods. The actual fun thing is that when you then disable the polygamy mod and then force load the game, you'll get the right romance conflicts... try it people, you really should.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 13 December 2009 - 11:20 PM.

[Kulyok]

I am done. Got to do a lot of the quests, got the 'requiter', 'sidetracked' and 'hopeless romantic' from the first play through.

Hey! You'd need two playthroughs for "hopeless romantic", a guy and a girl - Morrigan doesn't do girls and Alistair isn't into boys!
You cheater, you!

Ouh, not enough banters? Did you actually listen the party members chatter about what ever when there was nothing much going on(no enemies at sight, picking up items from holes in cave the deep roads, traveling up the mountain at the red cliff, etc).

Actually, yes - there are subtitles for that. And if you have the same party throughout the game, they pretty much run out of banters mid-game.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Hey! You'd need two playthroughs for "hopeless romantic", a guy and a girl - Morrigan doesn't do girls and Alistair isn't into boys!
You cheater, you!

You might think so, but actually no. I did tell you that I used mods.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 13 December 2009 - 11:17 PM.

[Kulyok]

Meaning cheating.

[Kulyok]

I finally completed City Elf origin(I was very curious to see how people would react to my PC who made a decision her family wouldn't like) - and guess what?


Spoiler-y!



City Elf Female's family is IMMORTAL!

- When I met Shianni at the Alienage(Defending the Alienage during the final battle, Hurlock General), I tried killing her with like seven Fireballs and Cones of Cold(friendly fire), and it never worked. Her life just snaps to zero, but she continues fighting that ogre! She could take an Archdemon all on her own, I tell you!

- During the Alienage Slave quest during the Landsmeet, I found out that my heroine's father wouldn't talk to her(whoops!), so I just reloaded and asked the slaver to kill the slaves and give my PC more Con. Guess what? In the epilogue, my heroine's father showed up healthy as you please! Very much alive, too.


So... don't mess with Alienage elves, people. It's blood magic, I tell you. They are EVIL.


(And about money: siding with Lord Vaughn in City Elf origin brings you 120 gold in total(40 in the origin+80 later in prison), while any other origin can only get 40 gold from Lord Vaughn, when you meet him in prison. The negative is, of course, the timing: it happens very close to the end of the game, when you really don't need these kinky rings and daggers That Much).


Oh! A fun thread at GameSpot: Duncan is the Evil Mastermind Behind All This.

[Eleima]

City Elf Female's family is IMMORTAL!

Kudos to you, Kulyok, you get a cookie today, because that post just made me laugh out loud. For real.
I guess I should've asked Shianni to fight with me instead of telling her to head for some shade...

PS. That thread at GameSpot *is* kinda funny: I've always thought that it was kinda odd, but necessary to the story, that Duncan was always in the right place at the right time, but to suggest that he actually instigated the events in the origin story... that goes a bit far. Now to say that Duncan's an *expletive*, that goes **way** too far for my tastes!

Edited by Eleima, 15 December 2009 - 07:33 AM.

[WeeRLegion]

Ugh.
That IGN thing...
I'm allergic to such in-depth speculation (even humorous xD )about characters' motivations.


Duncan is a character, and therefore also a plot device. He is where he needs to be, when he needs to be there. Obviously.
It's a matter of the writers making sense, or not making sense, not of Duncan being nefarious, not unless it's actually written...

[Kulyok]

Bad writing = unintended interpretations. Our minds are attuned to making sense. When something doesn't make sense, a different hypothesis is bound to occur.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Duncan is a character, and therefore also a plot device. He is where he needs to be, when he needs to be there. Obviously.
It's a matter of the writers making sense, or not making sense, not of Duncan being nefarious, not unless it's actually written...

Do you people even know why the Gray Wardens have the Right of Conscription? It's to try to save the unsaveable, to spare their lives of the criminals, so they can die after their crimes have been atoned. Yes the criminal will die after the 30 years after the conscription ritual cause the blood consumed will eventually get them, just like the Legion of the Dead, that openly say they are already dead when they join the legion cause they'll die soon from the blood. So the player is dead from the day they are hired.

And you know, who is to say the Duncan didn't just wish to make the Blight stronger with the help of the player. As it's said in the game, the character will eventually die to the blight, no matter what, unless his/her head is cut already earlier, deeming them unsatisfactory...

Say now, Duncan knows about Flemeth and what she is, what she wants and so forth. Now as he says, he is going to die soon, so he is still partially human, but wants someone to champion for the blight... no body actually even touches him in this fight, it's made to look like he dies, but where is his flying and cut of head, no where.
...and the player will eventually be the most cunning and powerful champion the world has, so when she/he is dead, they'll turn into the most cunning and powerful Blight infected creature in the world, the Hurlocks could be humans reborns, the Genlocks could be dwarf reborns, as the Arch Demon is a high dragon infected with the Blight. That's why there is so many Blighted creatures in the Deep Roads, the dwarves and the Gray Wardens keep sending more in.
The reason why the arch demon takes about 350 years to respawn is that the dragon needs that long to grow adult and die to the Blight. See the plot.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 16 December 2009 - 01:11 AM.

[WeeRLegion]

Bad writing = unintended interpretations. Our minds are attuned to making sense. When something doesn't make sense, a different hypothesis is bound to occur.

Yes. They're quite often known as 'crackpot theories'. Reality isn't that great written either. ^^


@Jarno

You ass. xD

[darlarosa]

>.> Duncan is a bit shady....personally I find him intriguing...mostly because he's just a question mark in the DA universe >.>(to me)

[Cal Jones]

So finally, a month after everyone else, I finished it. First playthrough was my human noble warrior, Viktor, who was very much out and proud. Played the good path, for the most part - tried to be a good friend to all companions, romanced Zevran (faithfully, even - Viktor's not much interested in girls), but

Spoiler

executed Loghain (I actually felt pretty bad about that, despite everything - especially when Anora got splattered with blood) and convinced Alistair and Anora to marry

. Although it went against his better nature, I wanted a happy ending and so

Spoiler

agreed to Morrigan's proposal

. Decided to go back to the Grey Wardens at the end, taking Zevran with him (awww).

I liked the game very much. I think I did most of it - there were a few small quests I didn't manage to finish but I got the bulk of it done. Viktor is the character I'll be most inclined to want to play Awakening with - I was very fond of him. I also made him kinda hot.

And now I've just started a new game with Thorn, a female city elf rogue. I'm not usually a fan of elves - in D&D they're the Mary Sue race - but in DA they're a bit more interesting. I also, despite being female, prefer playing male characters, but I think I'll have some fun with this one. Planning on romaning Leiliana this time. Alistair and Morrigan will have to wait for another game.

[Tempest]

I've now completed DA as every Origin, and all told, I'm pretty pleased with the writing, especially if you choose to sacrifice yourself at the end - I feel it's the most natural and meaningful end. That said, I think I find Anora much more sympathetic than a lot of people do, and my human noble enjoyed the opportunity to

Spoiler

marry Anora and recruit Loghain into the Grey Wardens, then let Loghain sacrifice himself to kill the archdemon. A tarnished hero earns some measure of redemption, Ferelden keeps its beloved queen and a new king from a family with a reputation for justice and compassion who is also well-respected by all of Ferelden's neighbors, there's no imminent threat of an Old God being reborn, and the only loss is one spineless illegitimate child of the old king. Orzammar is flourishing in the modern world, the mages are rebuilding, the Dalish have new lands given to them, a city elf is named to the royal court, and the future looks bright.

Also, getting Anora and Alistair to marry is pretty easy - just have enough Coercion to talk them both into it, don't betray Anora, and if Alistair hasn't been hardened, kill Loghain yourself. If you *have* hardened Alistair, you can even spare Loghain - Alistair will still leave the party, but if he's hardened, he'll stay as Anora's fiance.

[Cal Jones]

I got most of those endings on my last runthrough - my noble had high coercion and was able to talk most people into almost anything. The only thing that didn't end so well in the epilogues was Orzammer (

Spoiler

because I backed Harrowmont and that didn't seem to work out so well - nor did setting up a chantry. But at least it worked out well for the dwarf girl who wanted to study magic

).

I definitely want to try

Spoiler

recruiting Loghain. I want to know what he has to say about his actions, if nothing else!

.

[Cal Jones]

My usual team in my last game (with a male noble warrior) was Alistair, Wynne and Zevran (Zev because my noble was romancing him - plus he's funny).
In my new game I'm playing a city elf rogue so I guess Zev will be replaced by Morrigan or another tank.