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Post by colfoley on Feb 28, 2024 1:59:39 GMT
R as in Rebirth? I suppose that is something I need to consider if/when I get along to playing the demo for the game. Remake. The first of the FFVII trilogy. Rebirth is the one releasing this week. It is likely very similar though, but I can’t say until the full game drops. Fascinating. I remember being vaguely frustrated by how ATB worked since it seemed like a really weird way to handle that sort of thing an oddly restrictive system where you just ran out of it with no real way to restock it. I guess the spell slots of D&D is also a pretty good one to one example to. But then I don't think I've ever considered it in these terms either.
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Kabraxal
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Post by Kabraxal on Feb 28, 2024 2:16:51 GMT
Remake. The first of the FFVII trilogy. Rebirth is the one releasing this week. It is likely very similar though, but I can’t say until the full game drops. Fascinating. I remember being vaguely frustrated by how ATB worked since it seemed like a really weird way to handle that sort of thing an oddly restrictive system where you just ran out of it with no real way to restock it. I guess the spell slots of D&D is also a pretty good one to one example to. But then I don't think I've ever considered it in these terms either. In many ways, VIIR is s similar system to Inquisition: you can do normal attacks (and dodge/counters normally) but spells and abilities are tied to a gauge that fills. However, VIIR heavily uses a stagger system with a fairly complex affinity/weakness targeting and party switching… some of the most difficult bosses have to be strategically played or they will eat you alive. It’s one of the few games I will replay on its hardest difficulty because the systems are engaging. Very few real time action games are anywhere close to VIIR in my opinion. But, you can then play it on easy (or slap on gatterdamerung sp?!) and bitch slap everything to just enjoy the story. Surprised Square is the company that really nailed difficulty levels.
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Post by colfoley on Feb 28, 2024 2:33:29 GMT
Fascinating. I remember being vaguely frustrated by how ATB worked since it seemed like a really weird way to handle that sort of thing an oddly restrictive system where you just ran out of it with no real way to restock it. I guess the spell slots of D&D is also a pretty good one to one example to. But then I don't think I've ever considered it in these terms either. In many ways, VIIR is s similar system to Inquisition: you can do normal attacks (and dodge/counters normally) but spells and abilities are tied to a gauge that fills. However, VIIR heavily uses a stagger system with a fairly complex affinity/weakness targeting and party switching… some of the most difficult bosses have to be strategically played or they will eat you alive. It’s one of the few games I will replay on its hardest difficulty because the systems are engaging. Very few real time action games are anywhere close to VIIR in my opinion. But, you can then play it on easy (or slap on gatterdamerung sp?!) and bitch slap everything to just enjoy the story. Surprised Square is the company that really nailed difficulty levels. Fascinating. I played Remake on low difficulty because I did not expect to like the combat design because I expcted it to be closer to the original's turn based combat...and then it kind of became an issue where it wasn't jivving with me so I just kept it on easy because I just wanted to enjoy what was their in the story...and one of my complaints was it did seem kind of easy despite that. Only really had trouble in like three boss fights during the entire game and yeah just something I wanted to go with so its an interesting mind set to have. Of course it also sounds like that maybe they turn up the difficulty too much for me to handle which was kind of my fear to so not sure how much I will investigate on my own, but interesting perspective to have given my thoughts on the Remake's combat.
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Kabraxal
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquistion, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Kabraxal on Feb 28, 2024 5:05:53 GMT
In many ways, VIIR is s similar system to Inquisition: you can do normal attacks (and dodge/counters normally) but spells and abilities are tied to a gauge that fills. However, VIIR heavily uses a stagger system with a fairly complex affinity/weakness targeting and party switching… some of the most difficult bosses have to be strategically played or they will eat you alive. It’s one of the few games I will replay on its hardest difficulty because the systems are engaging. Very few real time action games are anywhere close to VIIR in my opinion. But, you can then play it on easy (or slap on gatterdamerung sp?!) and bitch slap everything to just enjoy the story. Surprised Square is the company that really nailed difficulty levels. Fascinating. I played Remake on low difficulty because I did not expect to like the combat design because I expcted it to be closer to the original's turn based combat...and then it kind of became an issue where it wasn't jivving with me so I just kept it on easy because I just wanted to enjoy what was their in the story...and one of my complaints was it did seem kind of easy despite that. Only really had trouble in like three boss fights during the entire game and yeah just something I wanted to go with so its an interesting mind set to have. Of course it also sounds like that maybe they turn up the difficulty too much for me to handle which was kind of my fear to so not sure how much I will investigate on my own, but interesting perspective to have given my thoughts on the Remake's combat. It’s not really a make them a damage sponge and your characters weaker spike, but a spike of “affinity matters, proper materia/equipment set up matters, and paying attention to attacks matters”. And the only frustrating bosses (ie multiple runs likely) are Hell House and Absu… unless you tackle the superbosses (I hate you Bahamut and Weiss….. go away forever). But luckily, chapter selection post game with maxed everything can make it slightly less annoying. The only real gripe is the item/bench removal in the hardest mode. One needed to stay.
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Post by vonuber on Feb 28, 2024 9:15:46 GMT
The biggest turnoff for me of playing DA:I again is the combat, and it doesn't help there is so much of it.
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Cyberstrike
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is wanting to have some fun!
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, Mass Effect Legendary Edition
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Post by Cyberstrike on Feb 28, 2024 22:12:31 GMT
The biggest turnoff for me of playing DA:I again is the combat, and it doesn't help there is so much of it.
Honestly for me, DAI has the best combat in the series.
DAO the combat is slow, dull, boring, and it's hard to control party members.
DA2 is bit too fast for me now of days (but that is life), but I still do like the idea of "thinking fast on your feet" approach though the execution leaves much to be desired. It's still more fun than than the combat in DAO but then watching paint dry is more fun that the combat in DAO.
DAI is a nice middle ground also it's the first game in the series that I actually like to play as a mage which is still my least favorite class in all of fantasy RPGs. Even in BG3 I hate playing as a mage and/or having to deal with mage companions is not fun for me. The combat in DAI is fun, challenging without being impossible to master, isn't headache inducing with the Inquisitor running, jumping, and spell casting around like the game is in fast forward mode or something and has enough variety in the classes to make each one a different playthrough. Is it perfect? No, but it's better than trying not to fall asleep in the middle of fighting undead in DAO (which has happened to me several times over the years) or getting a fucking headache trying to keep up with Hawke and company over the top antics.
Now I hate and still fucking hate that motherfucking god damn piece of shit real time War Table, something that MEA got 100% right and did better in every way.
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Shattered Steel, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem
Origin: ShinobiKillfist
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Post by ahglock on Feb 29, 2024 3:03:05 GMT
Fascinating. I played Remake on low difficulty because I did not expect to like the combat design because I expcted it to be closer to the original's turn based combat...and then it kind of became an issue where it wasn't jivving with me so I just kept it on easy because I just wanted to enjoy what was their in the story...and one of my complaints was it did seem kind of easy despite that. Only really had trouble in like three boss fights during the entire game and yeah just something I wanted to go with so its an interesting mind set to have. Of course it also sounds like that maybe they turn up the difficulty too much for me to handle which was kind of my fear to so not sure how much I will investigate on my own, but interesting perspective to have given my thoughts on the Remake's combat. It’s not really a make them a damage sponge and your characters weaker spike, but a spike of “affinity matters, proper materia/equipment set up matters, and paying attention to attacks matters”. And the only frustrating bosses (ie multiple runs likely) are Hell House and Absu… unless you tackle the superbosses (I hate you Bahamut and Weiss….. go away forever). But luckily, chapter selection post game with maxed everything can make it slightly less annoying. The only real gripe is the item/bench removal in the hardest mode. One needed to stay.
Items should have stayed, things like Phoenix Down are so integral to the setting having a difficulty that basically removed them felt off. Sure you technically had them you just could not use them. It kind of removed some of the feeling of it being a final fantasy. Still it was maybe the most fun I've had in a ARPG combat system. I really had to plan out some of the VR boss fights.
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Post by colfoley on Feb 29, 2024 8:01:18 GMT
The biggest turnoff for me of playing DA:I again is the combat, and it doesn't help there is so much of it.
Honestly for me, DAI has the best combat in the series.
DAO the combat is slow, dull, boring, and it's hard to control party members.
DA2 is bit too fast for me now of days (but that is life), but I still do like the idea of "thinking fast on your feet" approach though the execution leaves much to be desired. It's still more fun than than the combat in DAO but then watching paint dry is more fun that the combat in DAO.
DAI is a nice middle ground also it's the first game in the series that I actually like to play as a mage which is still my least favorite class in all of fantasy RPGs. Even in BG3 I hate playing as a mage and/or having to deal with mage companions is not fun for me. The combat in DAI is fun, challenging without being impossible to master, isn't headache inducing with the Inquisitor running, jumping, and spell casting around like the game is in fast forward mode or something and has enough variety in the classes to make each one a different playthrough. Is it perfect? No, but it's better than trying not to fall asleep in the middle of fighting undead in DAO (which has happened to me several times over the years) or getting a fucking headache trying to keep up with Hawke and company over the top antics.
Now I hate and still fucking hate that motherfucking god damn piece of shit real time War Table, something that MEA got 100% right and did better in every way.
I can't say Origins combat ever put me to sleep but other then that I really agree. DAOs problem was it tended to have a few very tanky baddies running around that took a while to kill. This problem was exasperated by the really silly defensive metrics and how they handled it. Just standing there in the middle of a hallway and *miss* *miss* *miss* *miss* without any real control or input by the player and on top of it it never made sense given that it was the enemies defensive rating which made it work. DA 2 meanwhile just had way too many bad guys in any one encounter and they just kept coming...and coming...and coming...and coming. Till the point fi you did die in an enocunter you just had to go back to the beginning of the enocunter and have to do it all over again. DAI meanwhile was the perfect balance between these two concepts...other then maybe a few bosses and there were occasional moments where if you didn't have the right gear you could lag behind but most of your combat encounters, except for a few really noteworthy ones...especially in the DLCs...were purely on the squad level. Your four man team versus like maybe a 10 man team or something like that. If that. And you could easily build your characters where your basic mooks could go down in a few hits most of the time. I even got my Inquisitor to the point where she could one hit some of the game in the...game...if she got a critcal hit. And things like Mark of Death could really be used to even help bring down some bosses very quickly. Yeah, had its issues but pound for pound bases...best user control over your character's builds, best balance of mook size and health...Inquisition was indeed the best.
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Post by Ravenfeeder on Mar 1, 2024 12:03:27 GMT
Pretty much this, yeah. The it's raining men thing in DA2 in what was a pretty superficial action system, and the trying to appease tactical fans in DA:I when they in hindsight should have just gone straight action. I for one am really glad they didn't. I enjoyed DAI a lot and wouldn't have been able to had they gone all action. I used zoom out and pause all the time, every single combat including all the trash ones.
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Post by themikefest on Mar 1, 2024 13:37:04 GMT
ah yes, combat in DA. I agree with the poster above. DAO combat was a bit slow, but I didn't mind. DA2 combat took steroids. It was a step too fast for me. In regards to the enemies jumping out of nowhere. What really happened is they all joined the 82nd Airborne unit. A C17 would fly over Kirkwall circling around until Hawke showed up. Then the baddies would parachute out of the plane releasing their chute before reaching the edge of the player's screen. DAI combat I liked. A good balance of the previous two games. Hopefully the next game will be similar to the combat of DAI.
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Post by wickedcool on Mar 5, 2024 16:30:23 GMT
Just watched a da2 video on fools gold. This is basically where dai failed
Fools gold to rescue all or some of the dwarves has multiple options/endings alone. It shows how much effort went into this tiny quest. This is Bg3 quality and this was dumped in dai
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Post by dis_Op2399 on Apr 30, 2024 22:27:15 GMT
Now that the dust has settled somewhat on BG3 I find my opinion on it a bit divided. Some of that is being an Early Access burn out, I put roughly 300 hours in before the game released proper (albeit over nearly 3 years). I think my biggest gripe is the pace. The city should have been Act 2 and something like the Shadowlands should have been the final Act. DOS2 had a similar problem with pacing, but if anything it's worse in BG3. The city is both trying to be the chill out and take a breath place, where you can enjoy a proper inn and some goofy circus stuff, but also it's the end of the world and an army is at the gates and a blood crazed shapeshifter is kidnapping your party members. This messy tone is all over the game, talk to the cwute animals one minute but the next here's a child being murdered. It just feels muddled. Granted some of that is about freedom and non-linearity, which is a good thing, and nor would I want a purely dour or upbeat tone, but I think the Dragon Age games generally just handle tone consistency a little better.
Characters I give to Dragon Age. I just don't particularly care for BG3's characters, and there's too few of them. At least when you consider Jaheira and Halsin are Act 3 only and Minsc is basically an extended cameo. Minthara doesn't have much content, especially on a neutral run. During early access we knew that Karlach was coming, but there was a bit of a presumption on my part that we'd get a bunch of morally good companions on release, but in the end it was just Karlach. And they gutted Wyll, the character I was most keen to see progress. Makes you wonder what you might've missed if a DA game had ever been early access experienced. I'm only really interested in romance options if they give good lore, and Gale had some stuff going on with the Netheril connection, but it just felt like tidbits. Makes something like the Solas romance across into Trespasser look epic in comparison. Some of that FreeLC with new endings from Larian recently was nice though. Cynically you could call adding that in 5 months later "live service" but whatever, it was free at least.
Dark Urge was too edgy for my blood. I did genuinely enjoy Jaheira though, even if it was only for Act 3. By no means were the companions bad, but something feels off at times. It's almost like you can see the game's wheels turning at times. I'm replaying DA2 at the moment and it occurred to me how, for example, having Fenris with you during Arishok and qun scenes and he just fluidly joins the conversation to offer translations and insights. I feel like BG3 never has strong control of group dialogue scenes in such a seemingly effortless way. All that said, the BG3 performances and mocap nuances coming through, plus all the animal animation and NPC banter that Larian do so well, it's really a joy to behold.
Gameplay is simple answer, Larian knock it out of the park. Their encounter design is just phenomenal. The depth of builds, while being true to 5e rules afaik, expands so well with unique gear effects and a just rich enough exploration-reward system. Dragon Age's encounter design has ranged from serviceable (Origins), to open world (Inquisition), to non-existent (DA2). I know it's considered terribly gauche in the Dragon Age fandom to talk about the combat, but I would like it if DA4 could do what BG3 did and make me wake up in the middle of the night thinking about build ideas. Dragon Age can do its RTwP + settiting up companion tactics well though, and it's a very different beast for that. I still have some hope it can evolve well, even if people's definitions of "action RPG" differ from mine. All that's without even getting into BG3's batshit "kill an enemy with a salami at 200ft" stuff that you can multiplay with the bros. It's no wonder it did so well. None of that multiplayer stuff harms the single player narrative game either. It's kind of win-win that way.
For soundtrack BG3 joins DAI's soundtrack as one of my all time favs, the GOATs. Both are too great to compare.
Overall world and story goes to Dragon Age. I'm not a tabletop D&D player, nor familiar with Forgotten Realms. I caught up on lore in the prelude to BG3, and while there's a lot of great stuff there like Netheril history that you get bits of in BG3, it's nothing to where Dragon Age is now in terms of videogame suspense and NEED TO KNOW mysteries and old magics. How soulful the series has rendered those tropes is what makes it special for me. BG3 is an anarchic and absurdly fun videogame, but I wish it could do what Dragon Age did and make me wake up in the middle of the night thinking about lore.
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Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Shattered Steel, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem
Origin: ShinobiKillfist
Posts: 2,868 Likes: 3,483
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Shattered Steel, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda, SWTOR, Anthem
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Post by ahglock on May 2, 2024 15:04:49 GMT
Now that the dust has settled somewhat on BG3 I find my opinion on it a bit divided. Some of that is being an Early Access burn out, I put roughly 300 hours in before the game released proper (albeit over nearly 3 years). I think my biggest gripe is the pace. The city should have been Act 2 and something like the Shadowlands should have been the final Act. DOS2 had a similar problem with pacing, but if anything it's worse in BG3. The city is both trying to be the chill out and take a breath place, where you can enjoy a proper inn and some goofy circus stuff, but also it's the end of the world and an army is at the gates and a blood crazed shapeshifter is kidnapping your party members. This messy tone is all over the game, talk to the cwute animals one minute but the next here's a child being murdered. It just feels muddled. Granted some of that is about freedom and non-linearity, which is a good thing, and nor would I want a purely dour or upbeat tone, but I think the Dragon Age games generally just handle tone consistency a little better. Characters I give to Dragon Age. I just don't particularly care for BG3's characters, and there's too few of them. At least when you consider Jaheira and Halsin are Act 3 only and Minsc is basically an extended cameo. Minthara doesn't have much content, especially on a neutral run. During early access we knew that Karlach was coming, but there was a bit of a presumption on my part that we'd get a bunch of morally good companions on release, but in the end it was just Karlach. And they gutted Wyll, the character I was most keen to see progress. Makes you wonder what you might've missed if a DA game had ever been early access experienced. I'm only really interested in romance options if they give good lore, and Gale had some stuff going on with the Netheril connection, but it just felt like tidbits. Makes something like the Solas romance across into Trespasser look epic in comparison. Some of that FreeLC with new endings from Larian recently was nice though. Cynically you could call adding that in 5 months later "live service" but whatever, it was free at least. Dark Urge was too edgy for my blood. I did genuinely enjoy Jaheira though, even if it was only for Act 3. By no means were the companions bad, but something feels off at times. It's almost like you can see the game's wheels turning at times. I'm replaying DA2 at the moment and it occurred to me how, for example, having Fenris with you during Arishok and qun scenes and he just fluidly joins the conversation to offer translations and insights. I feel like BG3 never has strong control of group dialogue scenes in such a seemingly effortless way. All that said, the BG3 performances and mocap nuances coming through, plus all the animal animation and NPC banter that Larian do so well, it's really a joy to behold. Gameplay is simple answer, Larian knock it out of the park. Their encounter design is just phenomenal. The depth of builds, while being true to 5e rules afaik, expands so well with unique gear effects and a just rich enough exploration-reward system. Dragon Age's encounter design has ranged from serviceable (Origins), to open world (Inquisition), to non-existent (DA2). I know it's considered terribly gauche in the Dragon Age fandom to talk about the combat, but I would like it if DA4 could do what BG3 did and make me wake up in the middle of the night thinking about build ideas. Dragon Age can do its RTwP + settiting up companion tactics well though, and it's a very different beast for that. I still have some hope it can evolve well, even if people's definitions of "action RPG" differ from mine. All that's without even getting into BG3's batshit "kill an enemy with a salami at 200ft" stuff that you can multiplay with the bros. It's no wonder it did so well. None of that multiplayer stuff harms the single player narrative game either. It's kind of win-win that way. For soundtrack BG3 joins DAI's soundtrack as one of my all time favs, the GOATs. Both are too great to compare. Overall world and story goes to Dragon Age. I'm not a tabletop D&D player, nor familiar with Forgotten Realms. I caught up on lore in the prelude to BG3, and while there's a lot of great stuff there like Netheril history that you get bits of in BG3, it's nothing to where Dragon Age is now in terms of videogame suspense and NEED TO KNOW mysteries and old magics. How soulful the series has rendered those tropes is what makes it special for me. BG3 is an anarchic and absurdly fun videogame, but I wish it could do what Dragon Age did and make me wake up in the middle of the night thinking about lore.
I agree with pretty much all of this, the game play with encounter design though I think comes down to it being turn based. The game is really small, if it were a action game non speed runs would be like 2 hours of game play with 100 hours of cut scenes. But with a turn based game people take longer for each fight, take longer to just walk from point A to point B, take longer to check out a room.(especially with how perception checks work) This means though they can spend the time in that smaller map making it incredible dense, every encounter will have it tricks and gimmicks, they can make every encounter special because unlike in a action game you aren't having 400 of them you have like 20 per act.
It is something the dragon age team will have to deal with. The faster the combat the more combats you s need, and therefore the less effort you can put into each fight. They will probably try and split the difference, make most fights quick and meaningless effectively a random encounter, but make sure story point fights have more meat to them.
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Post by wickedcool on May 2, 2024 15:18:52 GMT
Ahglock-I like your review and I agree on a lot of your points
Waking up for builds-I do it all the time Lore- both dai and Bg3 you stumble over a book or mosaic etc. it bugs me the developers put these there and sometimes there’s no follow up or mention
Dai there wasn’t much downtime or I guess it’s similar to dai. Dai you get the haven celebration which quickly turns into an attack
Da4 has big shoes to fill. Bg3 won every award and I mean every award and more than 1/2 my gamer friends don’t know or have never played these games
Fallout tv show shocked me on how many people are now going back to play both the video games and the rpg. Dragon age could use a fallout moment
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Post by witchcocktor on May 2, 2024 21:33:25 GMT
Now that the dust has settled somewhat on BG3 I find my opinion on it a bit divided. Some of that is being an Early Access burn out, I put roughly 300 hours in before the game released proper (albeit over nearly 3 years). I think my biggest gripe is the pace. The city should have been Act 2 and something like the Shadowlands should have been the final Act. DOS2 had a similar problem with pacing, but if anything it's worse in BG3. The city is both trying to be the chill out and take a breath place, where you can enjoy a proper inn and some goofy circus stuff, but also it's the end of the world and an army is at the gates and a blood crazed shapeshifter is kidnapping your party members. This messy tone is all over the game, talk to the cwute animals one minute but the next here's a child being murdered. It just feels muddled. Granted some of that is about freedom and non-linearity, which is a good thing, and nor would I want a purely dour or upbeat tone, but I think the Dragon Age games generally just handle tone consistency a little better. Characters I give to Dragon Age. I just don't particularly care for BG3's characters, and there's too few of them. At least when you consider Jaheira and Halsin are Act 3 only and Minsc is basically an extended cameo. Minthara doesn't have much content, especially on a neutral run. During early access we knew that Karlach was coming, but there was a bit of a presumption on my part that we'd get a bunch of morally good companions on release, but in the end it was just Karlach. And they gutted Wyll, the character I was most keen to see progress. Makes you wonder what you might've missed if a DA game had ever been early access experienced. I'm only really interested in romance options if they give good lore, and Gale had some stuff going on with the Netheril connection, but it just felt like tidbits. Makes something like the Solas romance across into Trespasser look epic in comparison. Some of that FreeLC with new endings from Larian recently was nice though. Cynically you could call adding that in 5 months later "live service" but whatever, it was free at least. Dark Urge was too edgy for my blood. I did genuinely enjoy Jaheira though, even if it was only for Act 3. By no means were the companions bad, but something feels off at times. It's almost like you can see the game's wheels turning at times. I'm replaying DA2 at the moment and it occurred to me how, for example, having Fenris with you during Arishok and qun scenes and he just fluidly joins the conversation to offer translations and insights. I feel like BG3 never has strong control of group dialogue scenes in such a seemingly effortless way. All that said, the BG3 performances and mocap nuances coming through, plus all the animal animation and NPC banter that Larian do so well, it's really a joy to behold. Gameplay is simple answer, Larian knock it out of the park. Their encounter design is just phenomenal. The depth of builds, while being true to 5e rules afaik, expands so well with unique gear effects and a just rich enough exploration-reward system. Dragon Age's encounter design has ranged from serviceable (Origins), to open world (Inquisition), to non-existent (DA2). I know it's considered terribly gauche in the Dragon Age fandom to talk about the combat, but I would like it if DA4 could do what BG3 did and make me wake up in the middle of the night thinking about build ideas. Dragon Age can do its RTwP + settiting up companion tactics well though, and it's a very different beast for that. I still have some hope it can evolve well, even if people's definitions of "action RPG" differ from mine. All that's without even getting into BG3's batshit "kill an enemy with a salami at 200ft" stuff that you can multiplay with the bros. It's no wonder it did so well. None of that multiplayer stuff harms the single player narrative game either. It's kind of win-win that way. For soundtrack BG3 joins DAI's soundtrack as one of my all time favs, the GOATs. Both are too great to compare. Overall world and story goes to Dragon Age. I'm not a tabletop D&D player, nor familiar with Forgotten Realms. I caught up on lore in the prelude to BG3, and while there's a lot of great stuff there like Netheril history that you get bits of in BG3, it's nothing to where Dragon Age is now in terms of videogame suspense and NEED TO KNOW mysteries and old magics. How soulful the series has rendered those tropes is what makes it special for me. BG3 is an anarchic and absurdly fun videogame, but I wish it could do what Dragon Age did and make me wake up in the middle of the night thinking about lore. Pretty much agreed with all of this. BG3, as good as it is, doesn't present a very immersive RPG world with boatloads of interesting lore that'll keep people talking for ages. It's immersive in its gameplay and freedom of choice, absolutely, but the world itself I found quite uninteresting. One big thing that makes a huge difference in how the world and lore are presented in BG3 and DAI is the choices you make. The choices you make BG3 affect the world and your gameplay in a wonderful way, giving you lots of replayability and potential for future runs, but overall the (big) choices boil down to good vs evil. The choices in DA:I, while they don't affect the gameplay as much which is a shame, there aren't really any '' right '' answers to the choices you make, and you really have to justify why your character would choose the things they do, because the choices usually aren't just a black and white good or bad. You really have to immerse yourself into the world and your character in order to make an informed decision, and that really adds to the immersion. I encountered very little of this in BG3.
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Andraste_Reborn
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Post by Andraste_Reborn on May 2, 2024 23:36:02 GMT
Pretty much agreed with all of this. BG3, as good as it is, doesn't present a very immersive RPG world with boatloads of interesting lore that'll keep people talking for ages. It's immersive in its gameplay and freedom of choice, absolutely, but the world itself I found quite uninteresting. One big thing that makes a huge difference in how the world and lore are presented in BG3 and DAI is the choices you make. The choices you make BG3 affect the world and your gameplay in a wonderful way, giving you lots of replayability and potential for future runs, but overall the (big) choices boil down to good vs evil. The choices in DA:I, while they don't affect the gameplay as much which is a shame, there aren't really any '' right '' answers to the choices you make, and you really have to justify why your character would choose the things they do, because the choices usually aren't just a black and white good or bad. You really have to immerse yourself into the world and your character in order to make an informed decision, and that really adds to the immersion. I encountered very little of this in BG3. BG3 (while a masterpiece of a game in many ways) is held back in that respect by taking place in the Forgotten Realms, a kitchen sink fantasy setting where Good and Evil objectively exist. Even if Larian wanted to do something more interesting with the lore, both the drag from decades of history and Hasbro oversight inevitably limit the possibilities. Thedas is also a collection of fantasy clichés, but at least the Dragon Age writers got to pick which ones they wanted to engage with instead of having to fit literally all of them into the same world even if it means jamming disparate elements in with a crow bar. They can also take advantage of a sense of mystery that is long, long gone from the Forgotten Realms. At this point these boards have spent ten years speculating about things like the nature of the Titans and the identity of the Forgotten Ones, I don't think anything in the BG3 lore could fuel ten days of discussion.
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Post by fairdragon on May 3, 2024 7:44:34 GMT
Pretty much agreed with all of this. BG3, as good as it is, doesn't present a very immersive RPG world with boatloads of interesting lore that'll keep people talking for ages. It's immersive in its gameplay and freedom of choice, absolutely, but the world itself I found quite uninteresting. One big thing that makes a huge difference in how the world and lore are presented in BG3 and DAI is the choices you make. The choices you make BG3 affect the world and your gameplay in a wonderful way, giving you lots of replayability and potential for future runs, but overall the (big) choices boil down to good vs evil. The choices in DA:I, while they don't affect the gameplay as much which is a shame, there aren't really any '' right '' answers to the choices you make, and you really have to justify why your character would choose the things they do, because the choices usually aren't just a black and white good or bad. You really have to immerse yourself into the world and your character in order to make an informed decision, and that really adds to the immersion. I encountered very little of this in BG3. BG3 (while a masterpiece of a game in many ways) is held back in that respect by taking place in the Forgotten Realms, a kitchen sink fantasy setting where Good and Evil objectively exist. Even if Larian wanted to do something more interesting with the lore, both the drag from decades of history and Hasbro oversight inevitably limit the possibilities. Thedas is also a collection of fantasy clichés, but at least the Dragon Age writers got to pick which ones they wanted to engage with instead of having to fit literally all of them into the same world even if it means jamming disparate elements in with a crow bar. They can also take advantage of a sense of mystery that is long, long gone from the Forgotten Realms. At this point these boards have spent ten years speculating about things like the nature of the Titans and the identity of the Forgotten Ones, I don't think anything in the BG3 lore could fuel ten days of discussion. I think the problem is: That Larian try so hard not to give a good vs evil story. If they would have gone with the setting and play with clichés, that would have been so much better. It would also be better if you couldn't kill every NPC. Then the story could been written with more influence in some parts. Also the Conection to BG hurt more than it helps.
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