Welcome back, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den! Today, I tackle the final game in the Dragon Age series to be released on the Xbox 360 and PS3, Dragon Age Inquisition!
But before that, I'm going to bring up the comics and books that happen in between and their importance to the plot, and the characters they reference.
The Silent Groves brings in King Alistair (though the game implies that Warden Alistair goes through the events of these comics as well), Isabela and Varric to adventure through Antiva to rescue Alistair's father, King Marric. During these events, they meet Yavana, one of Flemeth's daughters, who is trying to help bring back the dragon population.
Those Who Speak picks up where Silent Groves leaves off, where they travel into Qunari territory, and we learn that Isabela's connection to the Qunari is deeper than we thought. They also meet the Sten that fought alongside Alistair and the Hero of Ferelden during the Blight, though he is now the Arishok. We also learn why the Blood of Calenhad is so important.
From there, we are led into Until We Sleep, which ends the saga started in Silent Groves, and shows how Alistair rescues his father and kills the Magister who held Marric in stasis with Qunari forces aiding his assault.
Next comes the third novel, but first in the Mage-Templar War era. Asunder introduces Cole, Rhys, Evangeline, brings back Wynne, Shale and Leliana, and shows how the Tranquil cure is learned about and how Cole kills Lord Seeker Lambert. It also shows how Wynne gives up the Spirit of Faith that has "lived" inside her since Origins to Evangeline.
The Masked Empire brings in Empress Celene, Grand Duke Gaspard de Chalons, Briala, Ser Michel de Chevin, the demon Ishmael, and brings back Leliana and Teagan Guerrin, assumed to be the now Arl of Redcliffe, since that's his position in DAI. This one shows the events that are hinted about during the events that we see during Inquisition at the Winter Palace.
And I'm going to mention the Dragon Age Keep, a website that you can set up a world state based on decisions that you "made in the previous games" to shore up your continuity for your playthrough. And while I'm still irritated that there's no save game transfer for the 360, PS3 and PC, the fact that the game was released on both the Xbone and PS4 as well as the 360 and PS3 made it as necessity. Especially since Bioware has cut off DLC for the 360 and PS3 recently.
Now, as for Inquistion itself, it comes in with things coming to a head; Orlais is in the middle of a civil war, and the Mage-Templar war has been in full swing for years, and Divine Justinia V, formerly Revered Mother Dorathea from the Leliana's Song DLC, calls for a peace conference. However, Corypheus, the ancient Magister from the DA2 Legacy DLC, has other plans. One unlucky person, the player character, manages to spoil Corypheus' plans and ends up in the Fade with Justinia, though only the PC escapes.
This sets up the beginning, where you choose your class, gender and race. This game brings back in Elves, Dwarves and introduces Qunari as a playable race, as well as the boring humans. (Why people would want to play as a human in a fantasy setting is beyond me, but I digress.)
As for the classes, they retain their DA2 combat roles; Rogues are either 2 daggers or bow, Warriors are either two handed weapon or weapon and shield, and mages are still the most dynamic, though mages have been revamped again to suite the new specializations. No longer do they have a close attack that uses their staff; a melee ability is reserved exclusively to the Knight Enchanter spec.
Inquisition brings in crafting, which gives you much better weapons, armors and runes than what you normally find as drops. I'm not a fan of crafting, but with some war table missions giving you crafting materials in less than 10 minutes, it's not as painful as it could be.
What is painful, though, is how specializations are handled. No longer are they permanently unlocked, and in order to get them, you have to take on a mission from the war table, then talk to the trainers, then gather crafting materials for their special item, and only then can you take on a single specialization. And it must be done EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. They are NOT permanently unlocked for you like they were in the previous two games. This feels like a step backward to me, and I'm not willing to try out every single on my player character to see what I like due to this fact. No, I tested out the specs on companions, figured out which one I like and which one was easy to get, and then take that one on. So that means that I only go with 1 rogue spec (Tempest), 2 Warrior specs (Templar and Reaver), and all three mage ones, since I have yet to play a mage where I didn't have all the crafting mats I need when I get to Skyhold.
Speaking of Skyhold, that has stuff that needs crafting as well, to "beautify" the keep. In addition to the crafting resources you get from war table gathering missions, you've got to pick up logging stands and quarries, and if you don't know where to find them, you could wander the maps for days.
So yeah, not a fan of crafting.
One other thing that irritates me is the war table itself. I get that they are trying to illustrate the weight of decision. But when you've played the game several times and know the results you want, it becomes tedious. It also makes me play with the system clock to bypass the real world time the game wants me to wait. I don't know about anyone else, but I am not going to send a favored adviser onto a mission that takes 24 hours without doing this.
What adds to this annoyance is that several of these type of missions pop up after completing an important story mission. Finish recruiting the Templars or Mages? Get a lot of these. Finish the mission with the Wardens? Get a lot of these. Winter Palace? Ditto. I've spent almost 2 hours playing with the system clock just to get those war table missions out of the way and back to what's actually fun.
And let's not forget that MANY war table missions are part of chains that sometimes give you nothing to little from most of them until you get to the end. Yes, there's tons of flavor text and many former companions show up via this flavor text. Aveline, Zevran, Sebastian, Tallis...these people show up in flavor text, which almost feels like a slap in the face if you liked them the most.
So yeah, there's a lot that I hate about this game. And when I'm putting up with this stuff, I'm honestly wondering if the fun stuff is worth the boredom. Especially when you consider the load times.
I'm not even joking. On my version of the game, I've waited through several minutes of load times when areas change, with only a few seconds to read the tips and flavor text before the screen goes to black. This is one of the reasons I spend as much time as I can questing in an area without leaving it; I'm trying to have as much fun as I can while I can before the boredom takes over.
The thing is, when it's fun, it's fun. The story is great, the combat system is awesome, the characters are realistic and dynamic, and the choices we make as a player character actually matter now. Hell, even your specializations are brought up by your allies and NPCs.
But honestly, this is my least favorite game in the series. All the problems and all the boredom that I have to slog through makes this game the least enjoyable to play. That said, it's still better than a lot of RPGs on the market.
Next entry will be on the important characters, then a full entry on Flemeth and her importance to the history of the franchise. This will be followed up by a wrap up for the series. For now, stay beautiful freaks!
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