What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

DA:I certainly reminds me the Oriental MMOs in terms of weapons and costuming. It's everything goes & whatever looks good. I am divided between wanting to see really cool historically accurate stuff, and knowing that the game is far too tongue in cheek for that. I am a big fan of Forged in Fire show and just how cool the real stuff actually looks like... but fantasy crazy stuff is neat too. I am undecided.

All good in my game! Both laughed and rolled my eyes looking at Varric-Casandra scenes, a fight over Hawke, and Varric's Aveline's fanfiction with Casandra's fangirling over it.

I killed a bunch of stuff in Fallow Mire to get my Knight Enchanter specialization (but did not do the main quest there yet, it is a more annoying area than the Hinterlands), and after I got to the Skyhold, I was able to chat with Dorian about Felix and Alexis and then Giselle moved to the Hall. So, I had time to catch up on my screenshots in peace, without my mind screaming: "Is my game broken?".

Here we go, from Templars to Skyhold:

Figure 1. Team Inquisition fights in the Grand Hall. Sera in dat hat, Vivienne in dat elegance, and... yeah, Sin Fell was there too.



Figure 2. Team Inquisition defends Haven. Solas on board, instead of Vivienne. The trusted crew.



Figure 3. Sin Fell, the Inquisitor. The mage took the sword. Naturally.



Figure 4. Oh, my... did not think Mother Giselle was a secret prevvy Qunari fancier. Sin Fell, the Uncomfortable.



Figure 5 (a through c) Apparently, I was taking tons and tons of emotion-filled screenshots with Cassandra. Compensating for her not making it to the battle shots? Her romance is definitely front and center. Lucky Sin... Sin being inspired by Casandra. Sin and Casandra - plotting. Sin and Casandra... we could be lovers... Sin, Sin, your raison d'etre, your very existence is Dorian, capisce? Oh, it's so much more fun to play a male romance-wise!!!

I never had any problems. But I generally use crafting, store type mods.

Aylin was busy today. She saved the people from Haven, faced Cory and his dragon, listened to a cheesy church song and found Skyhold with Solas help.



Figthing in Haven



Why are they singing?

Those Andrastians creep me a bit out

Solas' moment of (a bit of) truth

How can someone loose a castle? Well, their loss, our win!

Wait - what? Inquisitor? I didn't sign up to this

Blame it on anime that translated into the Final Fantasy series.   They were following that style. Fortunately, they didn't follow the silly spiky thorny hairstyles or make male chars so pretty one can't tell their gender until they talk. This is just me, I know people love those but I don't. I'm sorely tempted to say they were also trying for some bosom action in DAI because the ladies were definitely boob-bastic but not horribly exaggerated in some anime. If they start giving elves ridiculous pixie big eyes or bend the ears into asses, I will bail out.

Bethnay? Which armor are you referring to? All my Hawkes are warriors so I only saw Bethany in mage outfits. 


 

I had to go out of town for work during the weekend, so I haven't played since Thursday. I did, however, purchase and started to read "Last Flight." So far, so good; it makes me want to do another DAO PT!

Also, went out to eat and drink with some comrades and ended up at, what was for me, a very ironic place:


This place was a microbrewery restaurant. I had a good pizza there, but didn't like the drinks much. Even the Boddington's on top wasn't quite right. I do miss the English pubs I used to go to when I lived in England!

Excellent!  I'm glad my info was good!

By the way anime style:

The armor is called Ravens armor - here is the link:

www.nexusmods.com/dragonageinquisition/mods/1706/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fdragonageinquisition%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D1706%26preview%3D&pUp=1

The hair is one of kadusts - the one from the link with bangs:
www.nexusmods.com/dragonageinquisition/mods/1401/?tab=3&selected_game=728&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fdragonageinquisition%2Fajax%2Fmodimages%2F%3Fid%3D1401%26user%3D1%26gid%3D728&pUp=1



Riya helped Leliana yesterday wih finding some peace and recruiting a sister rather than killing her. She freed Griffons Keep and helped with some other trouble at the Western Approach.

Yeah I prefer women with longer hair.

She actually does have long hair, but it is braided and pinned around her head. If they did not let those short strands to run away from her hairdo, it would look worse, because hair texturing is so bad.

Not that companion/advisor appearances could not have used more love. Those pallid, sweaty faces are just bad.

I am just playing DA2, finishing all quests from Act 1 and preparing for the Deep Road expedition. Changing some runes of fortunes with runes of fire protection (for the battle with the dragon), buying some runes of lightning protection to be changed later by Sandal for the battle with the Rock  Wraith.
And of course walking up and down The Hanged Man and to Hightown, Docks, Lowtown, the Gallows entrances with different companions to hear the missed banter. I was never able to hear all the banter in-game, and I forgot some lines - I wasn`t playing DA2 for the last two years.

And I just realized this weekend why I love playing DA2 so much. It`s not about the story, which is unusual and has some nice surprises; nor is just about the companions, who are all well written and very realistic. IT`S THE CITY ITSELF. A similar feeling to the one I have felt while playing Baldur`s Gate II: Shadows of Amn and emerging in Athkatla after escaping Irenicus`s dungeon.

Kirkwall is a strange city, with bizarre buildings and districts, built of a cliff and with the Gallows on a small island. I liked walking on those streets and watching the sights, just like I liked Athkatla, which was also strange in its own way. What is different in the case of DA2 is the sense of familiarity which is growing with each playthrough. When I play Hawke, Kirkwall is my city now. In my first PT everything was new. But now, I also greet Lady Elegant, Worthy and Tomwise as some old friends. Or the merchants from every district - even Hubert. My viewpoint about the city changes during every PT from being centered at Lowtown in Act 1 to revolving around Hightown since Act 2. Because Hawke moves from Lowtown to Hightown.
I have this feeling of being home because Hawke & Co are not just visitors, guests or just passing by like it happened in all previous games. They live in Kirkwall.
So, the limited and repeating areas don`t bother me anymore. And sometimes I just take Hawke out for a stroll around Kirkwall at day or night. Just to see the city and listen to the noises and the banter. Just as I imagine Hawke will do sometimes, in the morning at the start of a new day or in the evening, after a full day. Just a relaxed walk, with nothing to do between two quests or tasks.
I never tried to do such a thing in any other game.
Dragon Age 2 is different.

Erm, a bit late to ask that, but did they do away with the Attributes increase on leveling up? I don’t see any to assign, just more spells?

I am enjoying being a Jedi… erm, Knight Enchanter very much. It’s a good spec. Fireworks, then once the TWACK! with a fully stacked light-saber… ahem, the spirit blade, of course. Now Sin’s name truly makes sense (in SWTOR, one of the subclasses of Sith Inquisitors were Assassins, Sin for short).

Dorian’s quest triggered beautifully, did not have to uninstall the mods, so Dorian looks just like I like him. On the second thought, I should have postponed giving him the Qunari’s man-fish-net of ropes and nots until after meeting the esteemed Magister Pavus. Again, it’s the best armor we have, sorry, Dorian!

Figure 1. Thanks for introducing Sin Fell to your parents, Dorian!



I still don’t get why Mother Giselle swings from “We must help the prodigal son, Inquisitor,” to “Young man, I must warn you to stay away from the Tevinter reprobate. People disapprove.” I’d assign it to the budding romance between Sin and Dorian, but she did exactly the same in Dusk’s game. Why?

Figure 2. What did we do now, Mother Giselle?!



No screenshots of what happened later (privacy, you know) but I have an inkling Sin is in a committed relationship with Dorian now. I did like how BioWARE handled the romances. It was nice that Dorian would come up with stuff to do together, and his greetings changed accordingly.

The amulet romantic sideplot was really sweet, with Dorian acting decidedly like a human being. Well done, BioWARE!

VA handles Dorian material beautifully. My one wish was that Tevinter had German accent, to increase the likeness to the Germanic reinvention of the Roman Empire of Antiquity as a Holy Roman Empire. But I guess it would have automatically triggered the association with the Nazi Germany rather than Holy Roman Empire in a modern player, particularly in North America.

Animations wise, Sin Fell fares better than Dusk. While Solas is unexpectedly forward when he face plants into Dusk’s chest, Dorian is unexpectedly modest, hiding behind the really wide Qunari back. Dorian gets away with losing only his fingers to clipping in the cutscenes (likely so hishands do not just float in space around the slimmer humans and elves) every time he attempts to hold Sin’s waste (as opposite to Solas that literally loses his head in Dusk’s bosom).

Overall Sin Fell has some troubles fitting into the frames, but they did elevate Dorian in a couple of cutscenes so Sin Fell did not have to slouch continuously.

Sorry about going on and on about Dorian. I’ve also finished Josephine’s side-quest, and I am growing very fond of her character. She is a very warm female character, and they are really rare in BioWARE games.

Figure 3. Josephine tells Sin Fell why she is not stringing either lutes or bows. Also... check out those sleeves!!!



Then, according to phoray wonderful guide it was time to check out the Exalted Plains.

I’ve started the quest there, and as I stopped at the second camp, I started to wonder if I should just replace Sera/Cole with Solas. I know there is once in a while a closed door to the treasury room, but I can always bring a rogue for it separately. The only problem is that game gives you enough gear for two of each class… I am worried because Solas did not give me his quests. Hopefully yet (?)

Well, for now, I am doing one map with Sera, one map – with Cole.