Mark said before in a tweet that the DA team loves their acronyms. He’s not on the team any longer, but who knows.
I used to joke with some of my FFXIV playing friends that DA4 could be called Fadewalker. (Endwalker is the latest FFIXV expansion - sorry, the joke ain't that funny after I explain it )
(it's still funny )
That said, I like the title not just cause it spells DAD but cause it's easy to remember after all those #The Dread Wolf Rises tags Tho I bet I will often mis-read/pronounce it as Dadwolf now
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Gotta say, not a fan of the title. It ain't punchy enough and it hones the story in a very specific, singular point, which may be detrimental to the other themes and plot elements that we'll get to explore in the game. Not to mention it makes Solas out to be the protagonist of the game. I mean, yeah, we know he's the main big bad but the title makes me think the game is going to be about him a lot.
Great!
I've been expecting it since Inquisition turned out to be A LOT about him in the end, which is entirely separate to me liking or disliking the character - he's simply the pivotal character both from storytelling and lore perspective (the effective creator of modern Thedas) and they've clearly been preparing to tell this story for a while now. So, it would be quite strange if the opposite happened and he wasn't at the center of this ongoing story (although I don't expect *everything* in DA4 to be about him).
Sure, but there's a reason Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire isn't called "The Jon Snow Show". Pivotal or not, the title does make him out to be the main character and give him the entire spotlight, not leaving any for anything/anyone else besides. For a game on a more small and intimate scale this could work extremely well but Dragon Age is epic in the narrative sense, it has broad-ranging themes it explores, myriad of characters with colorful backgrounds and different story arcs, it's larger than life; this title limits everything in the game to always comes back to Solas. I suppose part of the strategy of releasing the official title over a year before the game comes out is to have people get used to it, plus the lack of pomp surrounding the reveal is very strange, a tweet and a blogpost thrown out into the sea and that's it? I doubt that State of Play is going to have more than this.
Last Edit: Jun 2, 2022 21:21:19 GMT by Grog Muffins
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I would like to say that I am sure that will stop being funny shortly...but who am I kidding?
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Sorry if I missed it, but have we discussed what's actually pictured with the title? It kinda looks like a dwarven vault or something...
I'm fairly certain the decorative elements are based on Solas' murals aesthetic. I can see halved orbs with eight-pronged star drawn inside (+it has stylized cracks), same way it's been drawn on his ancient murals.
I'm more intrigued that the thing is PURPLE (I can't say I'm associating purple with DA much), which to me seems they're going into some sort of connection/combination of ancient elven magic (blue) and the Blight (red).
Last Edit: Jun 3, 2022 0:36:47 GMT by midnight tea
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That is the point I was trying to make. Purple is not as Solas is now but as he was way back in the past. If you can force/persuade him to remember his true self, he will realise the folly of his plan. Remember that Rasaan was searching for his true name because she claimed that it was not Solas, despite what he said to the Inquisitor. May be he was equivocating as usual, so Solas came before the Dread Wolf but someone else came before them both, or may be he had genuinely forgotten what he was before Solas. We know that elves change their names on taking up a new role in life, just as the Qunari do, so Rasaan could simply be working to Qun philosophy or she could know something more about his origins. What is the elven word for Wisdom?
Ah, I see. Not a fan of that at all, though it would be better than how a lot of other media's been going lately where atrocities are treated as good things and the person committing them was the true victim (I still expect this in DAD). But I see what you mean now.
The sympathetic villain trope has become much more common in recent media, including in games like The Witcher 3 (as it was with the Bloody Baron questline), Assassins Creed Odyssey/Valhalla, as well as the more recent Marvel Movies. Problem is, I think people see this type of character design as more worthwhile for storytelling, when you can have just as well told an enemy faction who fits the role of a wholly malicious force.
Take, for example, The Hive in Destiny. Through multiple character interactions and lore books surrounding their race, they became much more fleshed out as an enemy faction. This included details surrounding how they existed on their homework (Fundament), how they ultimately came to be servants of the Worm Gods/Darkness, and the motivations of their leaders who are essentially demigods in their own right. I wish we could go back to this style of storytelling, as it was basically what the Darkspawn embodied.
To me that’s terrible news, since at least if his plot was a minor side one it being a mere shadow of what it could have been would have been more tolerable. Front and center though just makes it all the more insufferable. And he’s absolutely going to be another Corypheus. If only we were to play a character who saw him as something other than a genocidal old mage who wants to destroy the world to restore his own.
Yeah, I can see why that’s a problem for you. For me, having him as a bait and switch would be an issue, but I was also one that would’ve been perfectly fine with the Inquisitor back as a protagonist.
I get your point on Cory-2, although I don’t think it’s necessarily out of the question for him to be nuanced…but we can only wait and see at this point. It’d have definitely be easier to do that with the Inquisitor.
My point was more about him being actually a dangerous antagonist, which Corypheus kind of stopped being after Haven.
I don't see how. There's no way the new protagonist will have an entire game's worth, or a year and a half in-universe time, of developing a bond with him as either a comrade, friend, or lover. And Solas has seemingly sworn off that persona now that his plan is underway. So the only Solas the new protagonist will experience is the one of a man who plans to genocide millions. Not much room for nuance there.
Not a fan of the name myself, especially with it being a single word. That's just seem silly since Dread Wolf has always been 2 words. What's the point of changing it now?
My biggest concern with the protag likely not being the Inquisitor again is that we, the players, will know way more about what's going on than the PC will. This was bad enough just in Trespasser knowing Solas was really Fen'harel while the Inq and everyone else had no clue until the very end. I'm not looking forward to playing an entire game where I have more info than the PC does. All it does is breed frustration when you know your PC is making a huge mistake but have no way to stop them from making it because they don't know any better. If I don't know any better either, then bad choices are on me, but I fear the ignorance being forced on us, to pretend we don't know what has already been revealed, and being unable to act on what we (the players) do know.
Corinne Busche 🏳️⚧️ @corinnebusche I just finished a Knight Enchater run, a build which I’d never played before and really enjoyed it as well! Such a great power fantasy for a mage to rush in with Spirit Blade ✨🗡✨
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes In one playthrough I was a Knight Enchanter who also had Fade-Touched Silverite-upgraded somethingorother that gave me Guard on every hit.
I considered it a moral failing if I ever took actual health damage.
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Ah, I see. Not a fan of that at all, though it would be better than how a lot of other media's been going lately where atrocities are treated as good things and the person committing them was the true victim (I still expect this in DAD). But I see what you mean now.
The sympathetic villain trope has become much more common in recent media, including in games like The Witcher 3 (as it was with the Bloody Baron questline), Assassins Creed Odyssey/Valhalla, as well as the more recent Marvel Movies. Problem is, I think people see this type of character design as more worthwhile for storytelling, when you can have just as well told an enemy faction who fits the role of a wholly malicious force.
Take, for example, The Hive in Destiny. Through multiple character interactions and lore books surrounding their race, they became much more fleshed out as an enemy faction. This included details surrounding how they existed on their homework (Fundament), how they ultimately came to be servants of the Worm Gods/Darkness, and the motivations of their leaders who are essentially demigods in their own right. I wish we could go back to this style of storytelling, as it was basically what the Darkspawn embodied.
Yeah, I can see why that’s a problem for you. For me, having him as a bait and switch would be an issue, but I was also one that would’ve been perfectly fine with the Inquisitor back as a protagonist.
I get your point on Cory-2, although I don’t think it’s necessarily out of the question for him to be nuanced…but we can only wait and see at this point. It’d have definitely be easier to do that with the Inquisitor.
My point was more about him being actually a dangerous antagonist, which Corypheus kind of stopped being after Haven.
I don't see how. There's no way the new protagonist will have an entire game's worth, or a year and a half in-universe time, of developing a bond with him as either a comrade, friend, or lover. And Solas has seemingly sworn off that persona now that his plan is underway. So the only Solas the new protagonist will experience is the one of a man who plans to genocide millions. Not much room for nuance there.
Not a fan of the name myself, especially with it being a single word. That's just seem silly since Dread Wolf has always been 2 words. What's the point of changing it now?
My biggest concern with the protag likely not being the Inquisitor again is that we, the players, will know way more about what's going on than the PC will. This was bad enough just in Trespasser knowing Solas was really Fen'harel while the Inq and everyone else had no clue until the very end. I'm not looking forward to playing an entire game where I have more info than the PC does. All it does is breed frustration when you know your PC is making a huge mistake but have no way to stop them from making it because they don't know any better. If I don't know any better either, then bad choices are on me, but I fear the ignorance being forced on us, to pretend we don't know what has already been revealed, and being unable to act on what we (the players) do know.
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Not a fan of the name myself, especially with it being a single word. That's just seem silly since Dread Wolf has always been 2 words. What's the point of changing it now?
My biggest concern with the protag likely not being the Inquisitor again is that we, the players, will know way more about what's going on than the PC will. This was bad enough just in Trespasser knowing Solas was really Fen'harel while the Inq and everyone else had no clue until the very end.
Perhaps you need to drink to forget ... I wonder if drinking from the River Styx ala Planescape Torment might help?
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My biggest concern with the protag likely not being the Inquisitor again is that we, the players, will know way more about what's going on than the PC will. This was bad enough just in Trespasser knowing Solas was really Fen'harel while the Inq and everyone else had no clue until the very end. I'm not looking forward to playing an entire game where I have more info than the PC does. All it does is breed frustration when you know your PC is making a huge mistake but have no way to stop them from making it because they don't know any better. If I don't know any better either, then bad choices are on me, but I fear the ignorance being forced on us, to pretend we don't know what has already been revealed, and being unable to act on what we (the players) do know.
Yeah. Though I don't know where Moffat Suspense (i.e. Doctor Who series 5&6 and the Silence's "special features") ends and where legit Idiot Ball starts.
Corinne Busche 🏳️⚧️ @corinnebusche I just finished a Knight Enchater run, a build which I’d never played before and really enjoyed it as well! Such a great power fantasy for a mage to rush in with Spirit Blade ✨🗡✨
Patrick Weekes @patrickweekes In one playthrough I was a Knight Enchanter who also had Fade-Touched Silverite-upgraded somethingorother that gave me Guard on every hit.
I considered it a moral failing if I ever took actual health damage.
- I know the feeling...
Nah, two masterworks can stack an effect if it is not exactly the same as I recall. So FT Silverite doesn't stack with itself, but with other (lesser) guard-on-hit materials.