The Old Guard (Ye Olde Cullen Thread v4.0 + gen discussion)

Yeah, it's so easy to blame the shortness of Solas's romance, for example, on being a late addition, but Cullen's was added just as late. I guess Cullen's romance is at least one example of the fans asking and yea verily, they receive. 

Hey, I'm not one to judge. Some people like that Harby "Bad Boy" vibe.

*snort*

Yes, yes I did... I'll just be over there... quietly squeeing... 

Well, some of them. And NO I'm NOT just talking about myself So many disappointed people by all that ridiculous gating. 

Nothing says Fashionista of Ferelden like decorating your mage hat with a row of giant pointy teeth from some terrifying beast. 

Very good point. aaaaand... I'll go there and say that the devs *thinking* they know what the fans want can also be troublesome. And then you get devs stereotyping Cullen fans as all straight squeeing fangirls (complete with demonstrations!) and brushing aside the character's more problematic traits (while simultaneously embracing flimsily evidenced race gating), and harlequin-romance-esque shirtless Cullen promos.

Yeah, I think it was Laidlaw who has already acknowledged some of their problems with balancing the scale of the world and the story. I'd gladly sacrifice a whole desert -- even two! -- for more companion interaction. The sheer number of companions also reduced their per-person content, then of course the romance content is a fraction thereof. 

With Cullen, yeah, it's an interesting balance given that so much more content was added in expanding Cullen's role compared to Solas's. Solas's is also buggy, and there's a whole (non-romance) quest that didn't even trigger until the latest patch. But the woo breaks make a big difference. And Cullen's romance has several additional cutscenes, beyond anything you encounter from him as an advisor. I didn't even get the Samson quest the first time (:shakes fist again at unhelpful gameguide:).

It's ironic that we were so worried that Cullen as stay at home LI would feel less than the other companions, but the devs really put the bulk of *all* interaction into the Haven/Skyhold scenes, so in that sense the advisor model really worked. 

Now that the frostbite engine is built, I'm hopeful that BW will be more mindful of the balance between *yawn* exploration of empty areas and story. Seeing now how the side quests in the equally vast The Witcher 3 feel far more meaningful, I think my expectations are now higher for the next Dragon Age property. Altho, BW romances still blow the socks of TW3 IMO.

And how freaking beautiful is this?? by lehira-rutherford.tumblr.com



lehira-rutherford.tumblr.com/post/149842071006/commander-cullen-im-trying-to-learn-how-to-draw

I've only seen the Dorian one for preorder (and totally plan to get it ). Are the others coming later?

Cullen was always going to be race gated. The evidence is pretty clear, I think, in the Broken Circle quest. As for also being gender gated, well, he didn't have the same interaction with a male mage that there could be with a female mage. I guess you could consider that flimsy.

Iron Bull's has considerably more in the way of cutscenes and actual romance content than Blackwall's too, and they were both supposed to be planned from the beginning. Frankly, I think it had much more to do with what they think fans want, though in Solas's case, they've admitted time was an issue too.

They said they made sure the advisors got extra content since they weren't in the field with you, but even they feel unbalanced to me at times. The banter in the field fills in a lot for companions, but a lot depends on who you have in a party (and no one's going to play enough times for every combination of companions...) And, frankly, those banters tend to trigger just as combat starts and I miss a lot.

What evidence? They said that the race gating specifically would be "story based." In Solas's, it makes some sense, though vaguely implied at best by the way he talks to non-elves. But there is literally nothing in Cullen's to explain it. It was probably time based, not story, but all we have to go on in writing is a statement that is vague on whether time was a reason for the race gating. I'm sure I saw an interview where a dev responded to a question about what happened to the story based reason for race gating by stating they didn't have time, but I don't have your genius-class ability to recall where I saw things And I really no longer care enough to devote the time to try to track down every interview I listened to. I personally think it would have shown some respect for the dwarf/qunari fans to come out and be explicit about why after we had to put up with such poor quality animations throughout the game. When people complained about no one saying anything to a Dalish IQ whose clan was wiped out, they came out and said that the missions were added after the VAing had already been recorded, so why not explain this just as clearly?

I agree, I think the devs have serious issues when it comes to stereotyping fans and romances. And now they've gotten rid of their boards, so they can avoid hearing anything that isn't fan-squeeing over what they did.

I'm impressed you made it through that many playthroughs before getting fatigued. I had to temporarily abandon my third PT because I was sick to death of all the wandering. Now I'm doing my second Origins run instead, and that actually feels even more tedious. (Though at least I'm making some different decisions, because I'm playing as a total jerk.) I should probably go try to finish Witcher 3 instead, but I'd miss the DA characters so I haven't done that.