May the dread wolf never hear your footsteps

2015-10-16T07:31:34Z

Both encounters with Flemeth in DA2, the entire Merrill recruitment quest, various dialogue during act 1 with the Dalish, and lore found around Sundermount feel so much more interesting after playing DAI.

So much OOOOOHHHHHHHHHH.

And Merrill showing up at Gamlen's place to tell Hawke's Mabari a story about the dread wolf. THAT STORY.

The world's lore becomes so very interesting when examined across the games and other various media.

(That said, I doubt they had everything worked out from the start but the writers leveraged this aspect of their lore very well, imho)

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DAII Officially Ends Development

2012-03-20T03:04:00Z

Some of you may have already seen this: Today Bioware officially scrapped development of DA2 DLC to shift those developers over to "something else" -- presumably DA3.

All of the discussion on that second link is a bear to get through, but it seems that there is talk about creating closure for the EVENTS that Hawke was involved in via a non-game/non-interactive media. :(

The only plus about the above is that perhaps the characters and events in Kirkwall now get to live on mostly in fan artist/writer headcanon, which is *not* a bad thing given the talent in fandom.

Meanwhile, Dragon Age's Executive Producer, Mark Darrah addressed one person's lengthy concerns/dislikes by saying that DA3 will have:

1. More customization (Let's me change follower armor. More equipment upgrades)
2. More traditional fantasy story (Epic enemy, clear villain)
3. More areas and areas variety
4. More control over my story.

I'm not surprised. I'm most happy with 4 and least happy with 2. I know I'm in the minority. I had a ton of fun playing DA:O but that was because of the characters far more than the story. It was a little too b&w heroic for my tastes. DA2's ambiguity is far more satisfying for me. Again, I know I'm in the minority. I am far more into realism over fantasy, and no good moral choice over obvious moral-driven heroics.

As for 1, more customization, I hope they strike a balance between equipment management overload (DA:O) and the highly streamlined system in DA2 where at least one party character is quite literally wedded to his crossbow (oh, Varric, I still love you anyway). DA2's system annoying me at first but after 20 hours of play I actually preferred focusing on PLAYING THE GAME rather than spending hours at a time (!!) messing about with a half dozen characters' armor, accessories, and primary & second weapons. :|

And then there is 3, more areas and areas variety. More variety in each after is, obviously, a big win. I don't want to visit the same warehouse. mansion, cave ninety-eight times. But... what I love about DA2 is how well I got to know Kirkwall. Kirkwall mattered to me by the time Act II ended. Hawke was invested in the city and I felt like I lived there. While skipping through all four corners of Ferelden in DA2, I only had that same sense of "living somewhere" in Awakening's Arling of Amaranthine (again, my Warden became invested) and, to a lesser extent in the Circle Tower (but *ONLY* with a mage origin and also revisiting after it is rebuilt in WitchHunt), and in Orzammar. I like getting to know the feel of a place rather than merely blowing through to save the day.

In DA3 would like to revisit Kirkwall and some of the places in Ferelden that we saw in DA:O/A but, of course, I am looking forward to the large map that was announced a month or so ago, and the potential of visiting Orlais plus other fabled places.

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sarasa_cat

May the dread wolf never hear your footsteps

DAII Officially Ends Development