Evaluating Dragon Age II - The RPG with no role to play

Ah yes, Dragon Age 2. The game where every criminal rents the same 3 locations.

As someone who played the Ariashok fight as a mage: Boy oh boy was it 90% running away 10% chipping away at his big as fuck health bar.

Actually Merrill's obsession with the mirror stems from the Dalish Elf Origin in Origins, where a member of the clan was lost through one of the mirrors, she's convinced that fixing the mirror will be able to save him. Why she got that idea locked in her head is unknown and how she'd not give up on him possibly being alive after so many years I can't think of. To be honest I feel it's a bit of shoddy writing, but it's a better motivation than just "It's part of our history."

It's actually amazing how good this game is considering how short of a dev time they were handed.

I like to imagine the Mark of The Assassin was just Varric getting very bored of telling Cassandra his story, so he just decided to completely mess with her by creating the most non-sensical story and character possible, just to see how she reacts to that much bullshit.

As a mage I can confirm that I spent most of my time running away from the Arisok. Thank God for those pillars.

They developed DA2 in 11 months. A miracle that they got as much done as they did. It is most likely why there is cave #101 and warehouse #2002 in the game.

Another detail that I don't remember you mentioning. When you face the Blood mage who kills Hawke's mother, you find various letters from a certain O. This "O" is Orsino, meaning he very much AT LEAST knew about a dangerous crazy blood mage running around killing women trying to recreate his wife, and AT WORST he was a blood mage even then before the final battle

Someone should make a whole game out of the unreliable dialogue wheel. Imagine a BioWare rpg where your character is fully unhinged and you have to try to do damage control as much as you can. I want single, vague dialogue options to end up in romance options and shit like that

There literally was no reason for Orsino to go evil in the Pro Mage ending. The developers have admitted that they originally designed it so that you only fought him if you sided with the Templars but you fought Meredith no matter what. It was decided that the mage ending needed another fight and so Orsino was sacrificed.

I'd never played Mark of the Assassin but the immediate "she was given a role that she was bad at" seems insane because the whole point of the Qun is that you're given a role you'll be good at. That's why they're so successful as a society.

DA2 is my "Bad game I can't help but appreciate" I will forever remember when my young self was faced with the Mage/Templar debate and having to choose a side and seemingly having world shaking consequences going forward in the franchise (not knowing of course that it wouldn't matter in the later games) It still has pretty good moments and characters, I don't mind Hawk&Pals adventures and I REALLY like the way they told the story. Especially the time skips are very unique and its awesome seeing some story line span across years, something not many games do

One thing I wished you had touched on more was the rivalry system. It's the one thing I wish was in the other games because god damn it I just want the ability to challenge my companion's views without them throwing a fit and leaving. Also it really changes how you view them. Especially Anders, rivalry with him shows just how much time he is losing and how often Vengeance takes over - it even suggests that he wasn't in control when he made the bomb. Also you got a couple things wrong with the character stories - Merril's eluvian isn't a 'telephone', it's a 'door'. Fenris was not a part of a dalish clan, he was always a slave. "I don't know anything about inquisition, but it wouldn't surprise me to see corypheus show up there" LMAO please I can't wait for an inquisition review.

Anders merging with Justice changed both of them. He straight up says that the merging corrupted him just as much as it corrupted Justice.

I’m really excited to see what Salt has to say about Inquisition

"Drakestone and a crystal made of manure and urine" Yknow if you know your chemistry and history this is actually a huge hint to what Anders is actually planning Never realized that til now (Basically it's similar to an old recipe for gunpowder)

Despite its shortcomings, the whole hooking your mom up with a serial killer plot line was one of the craziest things I've ever seen in a game.

The only reason the first enchanter goes the blood magic route was because ea said "there needs to be another boss for the mage route" unfortunately

I fucking love dragon age 2, even if it objectively has many flaws. It's probably the most connected I've felt to a fantasy game because you're actually living the life of this person. The companions aren't just npc's that tag along to help you complete quests, they're your friends, and they hang out together. You meet many people across the story and, as it takes place over many years, you see how their fortunes have changed, the characters aren't just static blocks that wait for you to give them quests. You have a family who all have different goals and motivations, and genuinely care for Hawke. The writing makes Kirkwall feel alive, even if the presentation and level design isn't at the same level.

Can't wait for the 8 hour Inquisition video.