Dragon Age

[plutospawn]

Finished it. Went back and read all the other flist comments from those who finished it and am pretty much in agreement with folks. Spoilers ahoy.

Comments

[siujerkjai]

I loved that first dialogue(?) between Sten and the dog when they're growling at each other. Just about made my day.

I'm trying a city elf warrior now, and I find the recruiting scenario fairly believable. It's another you know things and do things that you definitely shouldn't be doing and Duncan recruits you to keep you from getting smacked down for it.

But anyone who goes for a city elf/Alistair romance is off their rocker if you ask me.

[prisoner__24601]

In the beginning, I totally wanted to hate Sten. I was so irritated that they put another obvious take on Canderous yet another one of their games. But then, you find out all this shit that makes him really entertaining. Like all the stuff about the cookies (especially the bit about stealing the cookie from the fat kid), his interactions with the dog, his hilarious banters with Morrigan where he shows this fantastic dry humor, the way he loves paintings, all the dialogue with Leliana and Shale (he and Shale = OTP). The way that you gain points with him if you just stop talking. I ended up getting suckered into liking him despite myself, which is probably why they put a Canderous type in every game, because he's cool.

I also have to admit that I have totally done what Sten did with the dog to my own dogs, and when my husband and I saw that, we couldn't stop laughing.

[plutospawn]

All the party interactions with the dog are my favorites, I think. They ring more true to me, than say, Alistair's "I'M GOING TO KISS YOU NOW" or "I WANT TO SPEND THE NIGHT WITH YOU" which sound more a function of game mechanics of, "start softcore love scene now" than him being awkward.

Also, just discovered a dog cutscene in Denerim and totally lost my shit. He just bolts off and leaves the rest of the party and then returns with a little boy like, "Look what I found! Aren't you proud of me? Can I keep him?"

[prisoner__24601]

Oh yeah, that's my favorite dog one. My husband got that cut scene when I was watching and we both died laughing.

I also loved the Oghren/Dog banters where he wants to ride the dog or make him pull a chariot. I admit, I would totally love to see dog riding/charioteer Oghren.

[prisoner__24601]

I have to try the dwarf commoner origin. My husband played that one and he really liked it. I've only played human mage and human noble so far, but I want to play through the other beginnings

[siujerkjai]

I bought virgin Alistair. He says he was a kid when they dumped him at the monastery and then he was there until six months before the game. Since then he's been chilling with the Grey Wardens and he even says they aren't really many women among them.

What I don't but is that he's been saving himself for one tru wuv. First off, the monastery and all was against his will. Secondly, I laughed (really, really hard) at how quickly he jumps in the sack with you.

I've found a few interesting stories, but there are way too many trying to "correct" Alistair dumping you after being made king. That was the first time I respected the guy, honestly, lol.

[prisoner__24601]

There's some good stuff out there, but boy do you have to dig for it. And I keep running into stuff that just totally irritates me. Like there's this one Arl Eamon fic where Eamon pushes Alistair into dumping the PC for duty. It's like, goddamn, this is one of the few choices that Alistair makes himself (and a really interesting and smart one) and the fangirls have to push the decision onto someone else.

[siujerkjai]

There's so many about the poor PC's broken heart, too. Because, you know, she has nothing else to think about or occupy her time.

[noneko]

I have to say that out of all the origins, the Human Noble was the least interesting to me. I liked the Magi one, but that was my first play through and my first impression of the game.

Actually, all the non-human origins are tons of fun. And they all show a good reason for Duncan to recruit you. Dwarven Noble really pulled at my heartstrings, and Dalish Elf was kind of fun too. Basically, non-human is the way to go.

Zevran grew on me too. I tried to see if I could complete his romance in between Alistair dumping me and the final battle (which I did, haha!), and I found myself really enjoying it, despite, well, his obvious whorishness. By the end, it's actually rather poignant, IMO. Especially if you leave him behind at the end and tell him that you love him (and, you know, sacrifice yourself. or something). I rather like the fellow.

[rose70]

I think if I had to rank the origins, I would go:

(1) City Elf/Human Noble/Dwarf Noble
(2) Dwarf Commoner (I liked it, I just think it works perfectly if you are a male character, and much less perfectly if you are a female character.)
(3) Mage
(4) Dalish Elf

**SPOILERS***

The Mage had so much cool stuff to work with, but it just seemed totally lame to me (though I love all the stuff with Jowan.) The Harrowing was not exactly harrowing either, lol.

The Dalish Elf...I guess I don't like it because I don't really feel like I have a compelling reason to become a Grey Warden, and I am not really an agent in the events that compel me to leave. They just happen; I get sick, so I have to become a Grey Warden to get a cure...and yet I never act sick, appear sick, nothing bad happens because I am sick, etc. At the very least they could have shown my buddy sick, so I could see what I was in for, but instead I got everyone telling me I was ill and dangerous and had to go, when I felt fine and didn't endanger anyone, lol.

[plutospawn]

Agree about the dwarf commoner. I played it as a female, just because, but there's no good explanation as to why your female dwarf isn't a prostitute like your sister.

[rose70]

The only impression I got from a few lines was that I was regarded as "freaky" because I was good with weapons, which didn't really make sense with the rest of dwarven culture. And not that I don't appreciate tough girls, beauty isn't everything, being a whore is not something to aspire to, etc, I kind of felt like I was regarded as too ugly/awkward/coarse to be pimped out like my sister, and who wants to be a ugly heroine?

[nivenus]

You found the game really easy? Really? I've found it (so far) much harder than KotOR. But then again, I thought Darth Malak's final boss battle was ludicrously easy and Kreia was one tough grandma.

[plutospawn]

There were complaints that earlier Bioware games were easy, like KotOR. I never minded that because I'm a diehard button masher. Dragon Age is hella hard! I switched it to Casual (read: Easy) very early on.

[nivenus]

Ah, my mistake! For some reason I thought you'd said the opposite.

And yes, I found DA:O much more difficult than most other RPGs I've played recently, with the exception of Baldur's Gate. Definitely harder than KotOR or Mass Effect.