Dragon Age: Inquisition

[HelloRaptor]

Or do archery and just lol your way to victory.

[Tempest]

Obviously not all that far yet, but I'm kind of disappointed in the party selection so far. I only have the original group (Solus, Varric, Cassandra) and Sera, Vivienne, Warden Blackwell. And I am incredibly 'meh' on all of them except Cassandra. I wasn't a huge fan of Varric in DA2, but he kind of worked there since he was so core to the story and his attitude/personality really seemed to mesh with the DA2 city very well. In Inquisition, I'm disappointed they kept him around as a party member over somebody like Leliana (sp?) being turned into a background character. Vivienne rates slightly above 'meh', and that's only because she straight up kills that guy when you meet, if you ask her to. Sera was kind of funny at first, we'll see how quickly that gets old though. Warden Blackwell's recruitment was bland as hell, and felt like something I'd expect from a 90s Suikoden-style 'gotta recruit 'em all' game. Here's to hoping more interesting characters pop up soon?

It's mostly disappointing just because I loved so many characters in the previous 2 games. (I know people hate on DA2, but I really loved the party members in it.)

On another note, I am annoyed by the fact that so far, I hate all of the armor styles except the 'Scout Coat' one (and admittedly, that one looks amazing).

[Roz]

@Tempest said:

I wasn't a huge fan of Varric in DA2

I don't understand.

It's mostly disappointing just because I loved so many characters in the previous 2 games. (I know people hate on DA2, but I really loved the party members in it.)

That I understand. I think overall DAI has the weakest companion makeup. There are specific ones I love, but there's no comparison to the previous games.

[Tempest]

@Roz said:

@Tempest said:

I wasn't a huge fan of Varric in DA2

I don't understand.

I liked him, and he fit the setting of DA2 almost perfectly. My bias for the fact that he meshed so goddamn well with the DA2 protag, and doesn't seem to with this one, has tainted me. I shouldn't have said I wasn't a fan, because I was, but.

I also didn't like him to the point where he would have been on a list of repeat-party-members I wanted from the previous games. The fact that he feels really out of place doesn't help, for me.

[Monogram]

@Tempest Iron Bull and Dorian is probably the biggest redeeming factors in terms of party companions. Personally, I tend to more or less ignore Solas and Vivenne when I have Dorian around.

Blackwall is alright. Not bad, nor good, just lukewarm. He does get a little more interesting in the late part of the game. Cassandra I think has the most growth of all the characters, and I do agree that Varric is not the presence that he was in DA2, which is a shame. And it would've been nice if there was another dwarf character beyond just Varric(personally I was hoping they'd bring back Sigurn from Awakenings, I really liked her).

I could go on a rant about how much I hate Sera, nevermind that you never get the chance to have her go through SOME kind of character growth. She has absolutely zero depth or growth, which only makes it all the more infuriating. Almost all the companions have some kind of crisis moment. She doesn't, and in my mind, that kinda makes her a pointless character.

[Bargle]

I was lukewarm on a lot of companions at first, but found that a lot of them start to shine a lot more when placed in various party configurations with other characters and you start getting their semi-random "exploration dialogue" as I call it.

Standouts off the top of my head: Solas/Iron Bull (especially after Iron Bull's companion quest), Vivienne/Iron Bull, Sera/Iron Bull (OK, pretty much Iron Bull and anyone), Blackwall/Sera, Cassandra/Varric, Solas/Sera, and Dorian and just about everyone. Blackwall/Iron Bull has some good bits, too. Really, Blackwall as a whole shines more for "inter party dialogue" than he does in any of his direct conversations with the Inquisitor.

The only Companion I've almost never used is Cole, but I hear he's got some very interesting dialogue with Solas in light of the game's ending.

Which leads me to another point: A lot of that inter-party dialogue takes on many different shades of meaning after you've played through the game and know more about these characters' stories.

[Tempest]

Iron Bull is definitely my favorite party member at the moment. And he really does have some amusing/interesting inter-party convos. Been using him/Cassandra/Sera (will probably drop Sera for Dorian when he joins up) and they've discussed everything from how the Qunari spy thing is like the Seekers, how nice it is that Cassandra's armor doesn't have sculpted breasts, to fastball-specialing Sera.

I like Cole, but as a party member, he's gonna have to wait for a playthrough where I'm not a rogue and/or didn't already focus Sera on dual-fu.

[Tempest]

My gripes about the party chemistry have been drastically lessened, with Iron Bull/Cassandra/Dorian. Definitely feeling the 'picking flowers/mining' pain now, though. Some skill/inquisition perk where just running over them auto-grabbed them would do miracles for that. Alas. Was sitting at like 80 elfroot for a bit and thinking "yeah, I'm set for like, a long time". Then all this random crap popped up with "you need 30 of this, this, this, this!" I don't get the 'logging stands' thing either. I think I've seen like, one ever, and now I need 2 for something and it says I have 0. Apparently those get treated as 'items' too, rather than permanent structures?

(Paraphrasing below.)
IB : "Nice job Seeker, the way you smashed that guy with your shield and then chopped him in half was great."
Cass : "Thanks."
IB : "Are you as turned on as I am right now?"
Cass : "Am I what?"
IB : "That's probably impossible, anyways."

[Usekh]

It has been a while since I played but IIRC Iron Bull introduces you to a qunari phrase that is more or less "I am going to touch myself tonight thinking of that"

[Thenomain]

@Tempest said:

Alas. Was sitting at like 80 elfroot for a bit and thinking "yeah, I'm set for like, a long time". Then all this random crap popped up with "you need 30 of this, this, this, this!"

Those are probably for the region requests. If you complete them, you get Power, which is only used to unlock new areas on the map. You get it for some quests and closing rifts, too, so with a few exceptions (specializing or quests), they're not really needed. I ended the game with 127 Power and nothing to spend it on.

I don't get the 'logging stands' thing either. I think I've seen like, one ever, and now I need 2 for something and it says I have 0. Apparently those get treated as 'items' too, rather than permanent structures?

The logging stands and stone quarries (stone something, at any rate) are used to improve Skyhold, and I presume that they are "used up" to build the item in question. It seems somewhat trite to me, as well, but it can be explained halfheartedly a few ways. e.g., "You took what we had, and anything we pull in will be used to maintain the structure."

There is an Inquisitor Perk to show all available stone/lumber areas on the map.

---

Cincerning the Jaws of Hakkon DLC that's been out a while, don't play it unless you want to be spoiled about (or know) The Truth About The Seekers. Otherwise, I've been having a blast with it. Almost had a total party kill on the major Hakkonite battle, within scant percents of my hero's health. Neat.

---

Additional: I didn't know Jennifer Hale voiced Krem. She is a voice-acting goddess.

[Roz]

@Thenomain said:

The logging stands and stone quarries (stone something, at any rate) are used to improve Skyhold

"Improve" Skyhold. I was super disappointed that improving Skyhold didn't do anything beyond cosmetic changes.

[Tempest]

There is an almost ridiculous amount of 'flavor' stuff, I'm noticing. I just realized there's like, 4 separate 'breeds' of mounts, and they all have like 10+ varieties of each breed. I'm sitting over here with just the initial horse. o_o Crazy, because it feels like I've got to be at least halfway through the game? Or maybe this is bigger than I was expecting. (Which would be awesome.)

[Three-Eyed Crow]

It's way bigger than any previous BioWare game (I racked up 100 hours - admittedly doing most of the side quests - and wasn't done before I felt like I needed a break for a month and change). And very Skyrim-y in places. Which is what's kept me from fully loving it, but it's also going to be the thing other types of players adore.

ETA: I was disappointed by how kind of useless the mounts ended up being. They look cool, but I kept having to get off to collect more stuff and they ended up being something I ignored.

[Tempest]

Yeah, I've only used the horse once since getting it, and that was a bit ago when I was just trying to run around and spawn this enemy I need for an item. Sitting at 2/3 & 20/20 to unlock the main character's prestige class. Google tells me that apparently the assassin quest is just buggy. Hoping one of these 'fixes' mentioned will do the trick.

The uselessness of the mounts has me baffled as to why there are 2 inquisition perks of 'You ride better!'

P.S. Any thoughts on what level you should be to start messing with dragons? Tried fighting the one in Crestwood. It's leve l 13, and I got it to about half-dead and wiped. And that was with a lot of scrambling/potion use/micromanaging of abilities/cpr'ing/etc.

[Insomnia]

Mounts are immortal when you jump off a mountain. They are a nice quick travel alternative.

[Tempest]

@Insomnia said:

Mounts are immortal when you jump off a mountain. They are a nice quick travel alternative.

Haha, nice to know. Hadn't thought about that.

[Insomnia]

They kinda... squish when they land, but you don't get knocked off like when a mob attacks you.

[Thenomain]

@Roz said:

@Thenomain said:

The logging stands and stone quarries (stone something, at any rate) are used to improve Skyhold

"Improve" Skyhold. I was super disappointed that improving Skyhold didn't do anything beyond cosmetic changes.

My 8 Elfroot per visit begs to differ, and 8 fully upgraded regeneration potions is nothing to sneeze at.

I likewise enjoy the flavor of "my" Skyhold.

[Tempest]

Back to the topic of how pretty this game is...I love the color tint your armor thing.

And holy crap, yeah, I think I just got an idea for how big the game is. I just noticed there's like 4 or 5 maps I haven't even touched (kind of surprised they're open? They weren't mentioned or anything. I guess that's just them trying for 'open world'.). I'd been thinking they were more 'send Leliana/whoever out for an hour' things, not maps.

The only map I've /finished completely/ is Storm Coast.

Do things scale with level, or is there an order you should probably be doing stuff in?

[Roz]

@Tempest said:

Do things scale with level, or is there an order you should probably be doing stuff in?

No scaling. As you open new areas on the map, they tell you what levels the area is recommended for.