32 replies to this topic

[Kulyok]

Oh. I think I'll try to bring his approval to -100 in Origins and see what happens then. I've heard he is supposed to fight with you then - and die, naturally.

And Dragon Age Wiki says that Oghren has a "he's dead" epilogue in Awakening, so there must be something. Maybe leaving him at "neutral" approval?

[Eleima]

I know I'm super late to this party, but I just got around to finishing Awakening today (took me about 10-11 hours tops), and while I felt it had a lot of good things (Anders and Ser Pounce-A-Lot... But also Nathaniel ), it still had some flaws.
I ended up recruiting Velanna last, and never got the opportunity to have her undergo the Joining. Indeed, as Kulyok pointed out in one of her earlier posts, by the time you gather up everyone, it's time for the final showdown, and you don't get to pick the appropriate dialog option. Too bad, since my Warden had promised her she'd make her a Warden, but... oh well.
The story seemed a bit rushed and shaky. I understand the temptation of putting an end to the so-called "Blight-Old God" cycle, but I'm not sure that putting the Architect in charge of this is such a brilliant idea. It's been said before, but I feel I need to emphasize this... Helloooo! He created the Mother, for starters! Darkspawn are twisted creatures, I really wasn't touched by this attempt to redeem them. "Ooh, intelligent talking darkspawn, let's give them a second chance" and the only time I actually caved and did that (letting the talking darkspawn messenger go), that decision comes back to bite you in the hindquarters, so to speak: sure, he's helped travelers, but he also infected people with the taint. Well done!
I was a bit surprised at my Warden's epilogue: Anora was queen, and I never heard so much as a whisper about Alistair, and yet my epilogue stated that she had perhaps, maybe, been reunited with her one true love, Alistair, and that they had been spotted running around the country doing good deeds, and all that. Oops! My Warden had spent the entire Awakening shamelessly flirting with Anders and Nathaniel. Oopsies!
I was a bit upset at Oghren leaving Felsi and the toddler like that, it really clashed with the epilogue we had been given in Origins... Velanna's body vanished, Sigrun went to die in the Deeps, Justice got his head chopped off, but thank the Maker, I still had Nathaniel and Anders stay to rebuild the Keep, which seemed to have fared pretty well, with its stout walls, and silverite armed troops (The order of the silver knights? Now *there's* a cliché!).
I do have one major complaint, however, regarding the rune crafting. I wanted to keep my Warden's leveling points for extra health and mana, so I made Anders my official rune crafter. Oh golly, what a mistake that was. I found myself running back and forth between the Keep's courtyard and the "throne room". First, I'd buy a bunch of supplies from that mage girl (Cera was her name, maybe?), then I'd run back out with Anders to have him craft the stuff, and nine times out of ten, I'd figure I was missing something, run back in, buy the missing etching potion or whatever, then run back out... and so on and so forth. Drove me absolutely insane. There's gotta be a way to access the skill while "in camp", but just like in Origins (when I used Morrigan for potion-making), if there is one, I never found it.

All in all, it was fun (aside from that runecrafting bit), but I didn't really manage to get sucked in (in fact, a whole week went by without me playing it, I had stopped playing after the defense of Amaranthine. Guess I wasn't too stressed out about the outcome, yes?). So, all in all, it's not a bad game, but it's not extraordinary either. (But of course, it is "just" an expansion, after all)

[Kulyok]

Runecrafting was annoying, yep! But at my second playthrough I decided to use evasion runes for the aromr and paralyze runes for the weapons, so it went relatively easy - just six or so trips back and forth. It was REALLY annoying the first time around, though - I wanted to try all runes, and it took me hours to get the necessary recpies and components from Amaranthine and the emissary.

What surprised me in the epilogue was the thief (When the Warden plays the judge) - if I enlist him in the army, he becomes a great hero and his deeds are remembered for a thousand years to come, blahblahblah. Hells, my Warden will be forgotten faster! Hmph. Next time I played, I executed him on purpose. Evil me.

[Eleima]

*chuckles* Kulyok, you're sooo bad! Yeah, I noticed that about the sheepherder-turned-knight! I spared him on my playthrough, with a bit of wincing and trepidation (I figured he'd get chopped into bits at the first sign of darkspawn). But noooo, he goes on to save the day, yada yada yada... Yeah, that wasn't very believable, the farmer becoming a hero in less than two weeks...
Ooh, I forgot to add in my last post: yeah, the Blight Orphans were kinda fun. I was glad to see in the epilogue that they cleaned up their act, though. (My stingy Warden, however, wasn't too happy to discover that her treasury had been bled dry for a bunch of drunks, not hungry orphans )

[Gomb]

I don't remember my epilogue mentioning anything about the thief guy, even though I enlisted him too. I'm also surprised that my Nathaniel ending was different than what I see here in people's posts - in my epilogue he left the Wardens, because he decided 'this life was not for him', which I find pretty dumb since you can't really make your life much different after the Joining. Anders also left, but good riddance, I say.

[Archmage Silver]

Spoiler & Wall of Text Warnings Apply

Ok, I'm finished now - I clocked in 32 hours for one playthrough with my male human mage, from level 24 to 35. Here are my thoughts on Awakening: Initially the game started off as somewhat boring for me, but it picked up after I got the keep cleared out. I was surprised when I saw that Mhairi died during the Joining, but hey, life has to go on. Awakening is basically "more of the same" as said in many reviews, but since I personally like more of the same, I was set to go.

When it comes to the companions, I liked Oghren, Nathaniel and Anders the best, which was a huge surprise for me, as I was previously ready to feed Anders and Nathaniel to a hungry ogre. Sigrun wasn't as interesting as I thought she'd be, and Velanna was just as annoying as I thought she'd be. Justice was kind of bland, he seemed very interesting in his Fade spirit form, but once he possessed Kristoff's body, he became as dry as a desert.

I finished the companion quests for Oghren, Anders, Nathaniel, Justice and Velanna, but I had to skip Sigrun's, because of the bug where you can't do her quest if you have previously started either the Law and Order or the Smuggler's Run quest. I had to use the debugger to get Velanna's random encounter to trigger. I ended up with 90-100 approval with everyone except Sigrun.

Another very annoying bug was the jumpy approval bars - e.g. I got +100 approval with Justice right off the bat when I defeated the Baroness. I had to use the console to fix it, just like I had to make a script to get the missing gloves and boots in for the Blackblade armor set.

Runecrafting seemed interesting at first glance, but I was so wrong... because after the umpteenth batch of Novice to Journeyman rune conversions, I was ready to kick some developer butt for great justice. What did they think, that I'd settle for anything less than Paragon runes?

And damn was the runecrafting expensive, not to mention the other items for sale - I had to get into the Potent Lyrium Potion and Menacing Rune market to make some gold to cover my expenses. RP-wise I reasoned I could do it since I had invested in permanent Master Herbalism and Master Runecrafting on my mage. Interesting factoid: Menacing Runes have a 74% return-on-investment.

The story in Awakening was indeed more of the same, but new enough for me to dive into, although the game did feel very unpolished. Maybe BioWare outsourced their QA to Bethesda?

The choice between saving the City of Amaranthine or Vigil's Keep was somewhat annoying, but I did both in separate save games for the achievements, and afterwards I settled for saving the city for my canon storyline.

Apparently the codex and world map entries will always show Vigil's Keep as destroyed and the companions left there as dead, but the epilogue reveals the real truth if you got all the upgrades for the keep. I set my guards to protect the entire arling. I left Oghren, Nathaniel and Anders at Vigil's Keep for the endgame - other companions end up dead there.

When it came to negotiating with the Architect, I thought "I'm the bloody Commander of the Grey, is this darkspawn more insane than usual?", after which I proceeded to send his pompous ass into the dirt. Nice magi loot for my trouble as well.

Killing the Mother was pretty darn easy, although the entire expansion was a cakewalk from the beginning. The Queen of the Blackmarsh was a much more interesting encounter. Enter epilogue (only the most important events, this post is way too long as it is already).

• Oghren, Sigrun, Anders, Nathaniel, Justice and Velanna all survived, and the keep was built even stronger in the next five years. The City of Amaranthine was rebuilt in a year, and the residents came to revere the Warden-Commander and the Grey Wardens for saving them.
  
  
• My Warden moved on, the Blight ended for good. Apparently he was reunited with Leliana, and went on adventuring with her, never to return to Vigil's Keep. Last sighting was in Denerim a year later.
  
  
• Oghren remained with the Grey Wardens, but also kept in touch with his family.
  
• Sigrun left to follow her Calling, to finish what she had started in Kal'Hirol.
  
• Anders remained with the Grey Wardens for good, even though he left for two months to the Circle of Magi.
  
• Nathaniel remained with the Grey Wardens and saved Teyrn Fergus Cousland, redeeming his family name.
  
• Justice remained with the Grey Wardens for many years, keeping in touch with Aura, until she grew uncomfortable with Kristoff's body's decay, after which Justice bid his companions farewell and his body slumped to the ground, dead.
  
• Velanna remained with the Grey Wardens for several years, but then she disappeared into the Deep Roads to find her sister.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 09 April 2010 - 06:51 AM.

[Kulyok]

Practically my epilogue, except that Velanna disappeared and Sigrun died in the Keep. (And I didn't romance Leliana, obviously) Did you save a peasant thief who went to become a super-famous knight?


And it seems that Oghren is immortal. In DA:O, anyway: after I finished the Orzammar quests, I fed him 20 "-10" gifts, had him at "hostile" and triggered the "I'm leaving" dialogue. We fought, he died(well, his body disappeared, but codex said he was killed), and I immediately imported to Awakening to make sure. And guess what? Oghren was there, alive as anything. When I asked "Aren't you dead, dwarf?" he just said something about waking up naked with a splitting headache and being okay with me killing him. No approval drop, even. Gah!

[Archmage Silver]

Did you save a peasant thief who went to become a super-famous knight?

Yes, and I'm starting to regret it. An order of silver knights for a thousand years? I provided Wade with the Silverite! I, the Commander of the Grey! My next character is a dwarf noble rogue, and when he gets into Awakening we'll see about who's a hero then. Oh, we'll see indeed...

And it seems that Oghren is immortal. In DA:O, anyway: after I finished the Orzammar quests, I fed him 20 "-10" gifts, had him at "hostile" and triggered the "I'm leaving" dialogue. We fought, he died(well, his body disappeared, but codex said he was killed), and I immediately imported to Awakening to make sure. And guess what? Oghren was there, alive as anything. When I asked "Aren't you dead, dwarf?" he just said something about waking up naked with a splitting headache and being okay with me killing him. No approval drop, even. Gah!

I think Oghren might eventually play a larger part in something, the way he keeps showing up... we'll probably see him in DA2 as well, even if we have to start a new character then.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 09 April 2010 - 06:51 AM.

[Kulyok]

Heheheh. (But there must be a way to deal with Oghren! I just have to find it... I must!)

It'll probably be a Grandpa Narrator Oghren in Dragon Age 30, the way things are going.

[Archmage Silver]

No doubt he'll end up as the King of Orzammar as well. Then he can be used as a quest giver in Dragon Age 31 when he's 100. Or something. Races have comparable lifespans, makes things difficult, but I'm sure BioWare will pull through!

[berelinde]

As long as I don't have to have him in the party anymore, I don't care.

[Jarno Mikkola]

No doubt he'll end up as the King of Orzammar as well. Then he can be used as a quest giver in Dragon Age 31 when he's 100. Or something. Races have comparable lifespans, makes things difficult, but I'm sure BioWare will pull through!

Are you sure Oghren is not already 120 years old already?

SPOILERS:

Now about the Architect, if you 'take' him into the final fight, and respond the right way to the mother, she says that he was the original source of the last blight at least, so he was responsible for the whole mess, but then he can quiet the war after you kill the mother and the blight is not heard after that... for a while at least.

[Yovaneth]

Necroposting.... I found the final battle vs the Mother far too easy as well. I'd spent a lot of Awakenings building up huge stocks of Potent Lirium/Health/Injury Kits and found I just didn't need most of them. Nor did I use a single one of Mad Dworkin's (sp?) bombs - actually, I forgot all about them.

Spoiler

I lost Nathaniel, Velanna and Sigrun early so I backed my arcane battlemage into a corner, ensured she was always full of health and lirium and fireballed anything that came close. That took down the childer pretty rapidly. I then raised each of the other three in turn (taking almost un-noticed damage from Spit), walked out into the open and kept dumping inferno, tempest and blizzard on the Mother. Sigrun had a good crossbow+sureshot bolts , Nathaniel the Howe bow+ice arrows and Velanna kept launching arcane bolt/stonefist/whatever. Down the fat pile of Darkspawn went in less than five minutes.

I too found the Queen of Blackmarsh and even the first Armoured Ogre more of a challenge than the Mother. And like Berelinde, I couldn't care less if I never saw Oghren again. He was just too coarse this time round - as if Bioware were trying to compensate for lack of backstory (or time). I didn't use Justice at all (next time, maybe). Like Archmage Silver, I felt that the game was very unpolished. I really missed the ability to hold conversations with your companions as opposed to those annoying holding responses you get in the Throne Room.

I also found one annoying bug. When dealing with Ser Timmerly the journal entries are always 'one out' e.g. letting him go gives the inside for a long stretch entry, inside for a long stretch gives the killing him entry etc. etc.. Plus those bloody random CTDs...! One finger was never far from the Quicksave button the whole way through.

I intend to try an all-mage party next time round (or the nearest I can get to it) after replaying KotOR, KotOR II and ME 1 and 2. So, some time away.... unless Lelianna can tempt me back before then!

-Y-