My hopes for PoE after Playing Dragon Age Inquisition

[Rahelron]

I hope this game is not too long 
Playing for 60 hours to finish a game is ok... but having to play for 150 hours is too much. And I didn't even finish everything in DAI. Another reason why it's better to have a medium sized game is the fact that a big part of the fun of playing CRPGs is trying all the different choices and paths. But to do that you need to do multiple playthroughs. I seriously can't put myself through other 150 hours of gameplay just to try a different romance option or to choose a different Emperor of Orlais.

 

I hope this game isn't filled with collection quests and bars to fill
One of the things that pissed me off the most in is the sheer amount of collection quests DAI contains. Collect all the mosaic tiles, complete all the astrariums, collect all the crystal shards to open the temple rooms, close all the rifts to gain influence, find all the pieces to build a key to open a crypt, find X crafting materials to complete the requisition quests. Too much. I know that when developers create big zones they want to give players reasons to explore them, but you know what? If the zones are bautiful enough players will be willing to explore them without any other reason. Hide the dragons and the rarest crafting materials in faraway places and you'll have everyone exploring, all of this without the hassle of having to fill up endless completion bars.

 

I hope this game will offer less choices but better layed out and more important for the plot
DAI made me choose all the time: dialogue choices, choices about missions at the war table, choices during judgements... 90% of them didin't have any impact on the plot, and this is the first downfall: why making you choose if the only difference between them is getting 60 rather than 30 influence ponts? Among the 10% of relevant choices some of the most important are layed down in a confusing manner. During my first (and only) playtrough I ended up with a semi random endig slideshow, because I didn't know what I was doing. Ah: did I really choose Cassandra as the new divine? I didn't know. I think DAI achieves this effect because it confuses choices with puzzles: I think developers thought it was a good idea to hide some endings and have players struggle to find them, but that makes things unclear and frustrating. One example of that is "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts", the quest where you have to choose the new ruler of Orlais: in order to get the result you want you need to collect objects and documents that are hidden behind locked doors. To unlock the doors though you need to use specific keys: there's only a limited amount of those and they are not enough to unlock every door. It's a puzzle more than it is role playing and during your first playthough chances are that you will not be able to achieve the result you want, because during the final confrontation you will not have the information and the objects you need. Another example is the choice of the new divine: you need to stay coherent for your whole playthrough and act with your goal clear in mind in many different dialogues scattered around different stages of the story. It is tricky thing to do.

 

I hope this game reacts to player's behaviour like DAI does
Something that DAI does right in my opinion is letting you roleplay. During my playthrough I chose to roleplay an atheist and non-violent inquisitor and the game allowed me to do so. Ok, I still killed more people than Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson combined, but I was able to preach Leliana about the fact that violence is wrong. I was also able to tell Cassandra that I wasn't the herald of Andraste and I didn't believe in god. The great thing is that the game recorded my behaviour and reacted to it in a coherent way. Towards the end of my playthrough Cassandra knew that I was an atheist and acted accordingly and I was able to teach Leliana the advanteges of not being ruthless. This is great and I hope PoE has this feature too.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Rahelron

[Sedrefilos]

What I mostly look forward in Pillars is the roleplay. It's very promising and if it's done right we'll probably have the best roleplay in a video game so far.

[Emerwyn]

I expect immersive gameplay, and real challenges to tactical combat proficiency and to the player's cunning, at least in the highest difficulty settings. Unlike the OP, I do want a long game, as long as possible. They've said that over half the game is optional, so the option to skip content for those that don't want to take too long is already there.

[NegativeEdge]

Thread reminded me that I actually played DA: I...

 

Jesus wept, it was terrible

[Luckmann]

Thread reminded me that I actually played DA: I...

 

Jesus wept, it was terrible

Dost thou not cherish our great and benevolent social justice overlords?

[Voss]

 

I hope this game reacts to player's behaviour like DAI does

Something that DAI does right in my opinion is letting you roleplay. During my playthrough I chose to roleplay an atheist and non-violent inquisitor and the game allowed me to do so. Ok, I still killed more people than Adolf Hitler and Charles Manson combined, but I was able to preach Leliana about the fact that violence is wrong. I was also able to tell Cassandra that I wasn't the herald of Andraste and I didn't believe in god. The great thing is that the game recorded my behaviour and reacted to it in a coherent way. Towards the end of my playthrough Cassandra knew that I was an atheist and acted accordingly and I was able to teach Leliana the advanteges of not being ruthless. This is great and I hope PoE has this feature too.

Weird.  They told me that despite the fact that I wasn't actually crazy, I was Joan of Arc reborn anyway, and I should just suck it up and be their bloody savior already, and no amount of commentary on how they shouldn't be absolute religious nutjob fanatics in no way altered their belief that I was their Chosen One (despite repeated denials, and once in the Fade, actual evidence) OR offended them in any way whatsoever.  I knew I was in trouble when they started singing at me, and the song involved the fundamental idea that the sun rising every single day was a complete mystery to these people.  It apparently only happened if their personal savior loved them enough, because their god actively doesn't. 

 

But I did have the ability to sexually harass multiple characters until they gave in and agreed to knock boots, so it was pretty much exactly what I expected from Bioware.   

 

Though actually the Josephine romance was a little sweet, and the inversion of the response I expected for defending her honor actually impressed me a little, as did just cuddling on the couch silently, rather than cringeworthy dialogue and 'artful' not-quite-sex scenes.  

 

But mostly I boggled at how little game there was.  If you actually ignore all the collector items to fetch for literally no reason at all, the actual main story is maybe 12 hours, with about 8-12 hours of _pure grinding_ to meet the level requirements.  

 

 

Like Emerwyn, I want a long game, but I also want content to be worthwhile.  The DAI quests were mostly 'read note; collect three bear spleens; automatic quest turn-in; XP++

Seriously, that literally (well, paws and furs) happened.  Twice.  

 

But so many of the quests involved no interaction with anyone in any fashion.  There was maybe 10 hours of decent content in the game, maybe 2 of pretty good content and endless hours of empty meaningless drivel where you are doing everything but confronting the world-ending crisis. Which will, of course, wait entirely on your leisure.  Someone's going to assassinate a ruler?  Eh.  See you in six months, when I've got the time and the painfully incrementally-leveled gear. 

Edited March 14, 2015 by Voss

[NegativeEdge]

Hahahaha Dragon Age: Inquisition

 

Ride the bull

 

The dawn will come *~

 

 

Hahahaha

 

Thank god Pillars is coming out soon to redeem this wretched hobby of ours. It will be the anti - DA: I, full of incline and win.

Edited March 14, 2015 by NegativeEdge

[bronzepoem]

You hope the game is not too long?Oh you heretic

[LordCrash]

Short: I hope that Pillars will be NOTHING like DAI. And based on my experiences with the BB that might very well be the case, lucky me. 

Edited March 14, 2015 by LordCrash

[ruzen]

...well there is no grinding in PoE so you are saved

[GreyFox]

LOL Dragon Age...

 

PoE will be very little like that game and thank god...as much as I complain about this or that..DA:I actually is utter trash.

[zered]

Thread reminded me that I actually played DA: I...

 

Jesus wept, it was terrible

Urgh please not remind me of that disaster...

[Karkarov]

You guys and your hatred of any RPG that isn't an IE game ;p.  DA:I is too long (if you do all the meaningless collection crap), and the combat gets a little samey and lacks any tactical impact (unless you play on a higher setting), but it was still a fun game and enjoyable enough experience.  I am sure Eternity will have a far better plot though.

[Flow]

 

Thread reminded me that I actually played DA: I...

 

Jesus wept, it was terrible

Dost thou not cherish our great and benevolent social justice overlords?

 

 

Couldn't give a damn, actually. There are much better reasons to hate that game.

 

If you're going to make a tactical RPG, you reeeaaaally need to make the combat suck less ass.

[LordCrash]

You guys and your hatred of any RPG that isn't an IE game ;p.  DA:I is too long (if you do all the meaningless collection crap), and the combat gets a little samey and lacks any tactical impact (unless you play on a higher setting), but it was still a fun game and enjoyable enough experience.  I am sure Eternity will have a far better plot though.

 

I love a lot of RPGs that are not an IE game. DAI is still a seriously flawed game that came as a huge disappointment.

Edited March 14, 2015 by LordCrash

[Sensuki]

I will quote Roguey from the RPGCodex again

 

"If you were disappointed with Dragon Age: Inquisition they boy is Josh Sawyer's Pillars of Eternity the game for you!"

[GreyFox]

You guys and your hatred of any RPG that isn't an IE game ;p.  DA:I is too long (if you do all the meaningless collection crap), and the combat gets a little samey and lacks any tactical impact (unless you play on a higher setting), but it was still a fun game and enjoyable enough experience.  I am sure Eternity will have a far better plot though.

 

Na I dislike **** RPGs like DA:I.

 

Even similar games such as Zelda/Dark Souls are good examples of ones I like...since Bioware went the adventure game route....The Witcher is another good one...etc.

Edited March 14, 2015 by GreyFox

[middydj]

Short: I hope that Pillars will be NOTHING like DAI. And based on my experiences with the BB that might very well be the case, lucky me. 

Agreed. If I was interested in playing DAI I would buy it. I want this game to be FAR from anything like games like DA.

 

Also good to hear that coming from someone playing the BB. Good indeed.

[teknoman2]

there is no such thing as inherently too long or too short. a game is either as long as it has to be in order to fulfil it's purpose or it is not. 

[TrueMenace]

DA I wasn't a long game at all, it was filled with 90% filler useless drone tasks and "quests". It's essentially a single player MMORPG like Kingdoms of Amalur was. 

[Voss]

You guys and your hatred of any RPG that isn't an IE game ;p.  DA:I is too long (if you do all the meaningless collection crap), and the combat gets a little samey and lacks any tactical impact (unless you play on a higher setting), but it was still a fun game and enjoyable enough experience.  I am sure Eternity will have a far better plot though.

Nah.  I just want more from an RPG than Loot Simulator 2014 and MMO fetch quests.  And NPC interaction that isn't just 'click all options on the left side of the circle to regurgitate info-dumps, click one option on right side of the circle to progress conversation in slightly different tones for some manner of response that is vaguely related to what you said.' Or rather, to start a voiced interaction that usually loosely relates to what the text on the dialogue circle said, and get a response that might be vaguely related to that.  Now go find 6 hidden objects or kill 4 people and said NPC will like you more.  If you do this enough, when you finally get around to doing the main story and get to vaguely climactic bits of the actual game, they might agree to bang.  

[Emerwyn]

I enjoyed very much DA:I story, the unparalleled voiceovers and the toughest fights were fun and challenging in the hardest difficulty mode.

 

The rest wasn't brilliant, especially disliked how the whole game felt like a console adaptation when DA used to be a PC game first and foremost. But I could live with it because the rest vastly outweighted it. I play RPGs for the story, not for the quests or mechanics, especially those that you aren't even forced to do.

 

That said, I expect many different things from PoE.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Emerwyn

[HozzM]

I thought DAI was a great game, I definitely got my money's worth.  What I did not like though was how it was sold to me as 'By PC Gamers for PC Gamers'.  It was a big budget console RPG that was ported to the PC.

[Zobra]

DA I wasn't a long game at all, it was filled with 90% filler useless drone tasks and "quests". It's essentially a single player MMORPG like Kingdoms of Amalur was. 

 

 

Excactly. Thats not to say it can't be enjoyable though, if combat and scenery is good. But comparing it to EI games is just wrong.

[H0RSE]

Lot's of Dragon Age haters in here... just comes off as ignorant and close-minded. I grew up playing the IE games, and I have been looking forward to playing PoE since it was announced, but I also enjoy the Dragon Age games, but even if I didn't like them, I wouldn't reasult to mocks and insults.

Edited March 14, 2015 by H0RSE