Dragon Age 2, still not riftFollow

Because we like Eske so much, we'll grant his request.

I haven't played dragon age 2 yet though, so I'm going to ask about Origins

So I've done mage tower, and the redcliff quest lines, should my characters all be madly in love with me, or is neutral to warm feeling normal?

Edited, Apr 16th 2012 2:16pm by Xsarus

I hope so. My dog is the only one who's friendly with me. I've been giving the gifts that say things like "hunk of meat on bone" to Alistair.


Edited, Apr 16th 2012 12:23pm by someproteinguy

For all the hate DA2 gets, I did still like it for the most part. Sure there are lots of things that sucked about it, but I finished it and I don't finish many games these days. I'm just really hoping the next game takes a step back towards DA:O in complexity.

is probably an appropriate response to my shenanigans.

That's good to hear protein, I was worried that I was missing something. I did sleep with the elf chick. having full coercion is awesome.

Yeah, I can't stand playing without Coercion. IIRC, you're playing a Mage, so this won't apply to you. But just so you know, if you play a Rogue you'll only need 3 Coercion in Origins and 2 Coercion in Awakenings, to never fail a check.

Coercion = 25 Cunning per point (for purposes of conversation checks).

So if you have over 25 Cunning, which you should if you play a Rogue, then you won't need higher. I usually prioritize Rogue cunning until this point, because of that.

In Awakening, you'll almost certainly end up over 50 Cunning. If you have a respec mod, might as well change it up. Not worth losing for DA:O, if you aren't going to respec, though.

Deft Hands is similar, but it's in multiples of 10. 40 Cunning and you won't need it at all. I don't think Awakening added another difficulty tier. I never take it, to be honest. You might miss a few chests, but you can get to 40 fast enough. Definitely wouldn't toss more than 1 point.

Also, because someone shamelessly locked the other thread.



Which one is that, is that where they come charging down the hill? Or another place? Because if it's the one where they're at the top of the hill I want to say I pulled them one or two at a time for a bit. Everyone using ranged weapons and spells to mow them down at first, until the numbers got up and I moved to CCing them.

Anyway on that thought Morrigan set as a "controller" has been awesome (Thanks Joph). I don't have sleep yet (probably next level as I only need like 2 more magic IIRC, can't wait), but glyph of paralysis (have Wynne with it too now), horror, mind blast, Winter's Grasp. Pretty much enjoying the whole CC chaining thing. Also those NPC mages I was complaining endlessly about convinced me to throw some AoE down when my tank was still at full health. An acid flask under her while all the baddies circled around seems to help things go faster.

TL:DR I'm actually kind of glad I started over, things are going much smoother this time...

You want your party to at least be Neutral to you. It's better to have them liking you since they'll gain stat bonuses as the in-game way of demonstrating what a great leader you are. I wouldn't sweat the minor disapproval you may gain from dialogue choices as you adventure (i.e. Morrigan giving you -3 for pausing the quest to help a townsfolk NPC) since you'll gain a fair amount of approval by completing people's side-quests (Flemeth, Alistar's sister, Margolaine, etc) and through gifts. Even if you don't want to 'cheat' with the big gifts, you'll come across all manner of lesser gifts in your travels.

Two notes worth mentioning...
(1) Racing through Leliana's approval can cause her to miss dialogue options with you as she goes straight into being infatuated with you. She'll skip past telling you about her past with Margolaine if her approval is too high which means you can't do her side quest (or properly fall in love with her). You can fix this by giving her the gag gift from the dwarf in camp (ugly shoes) for -50 approval, have the talk about Margolaine then give her the Fat Lute to restore her feelings (+50).

(2) Spoiler regarding Zevran SpoilerIf you have a low/moderate approval, he will betray you in Denerim and side with the Antivan Crows. With a high approval, he'll side with you and fight against them when they come looking for you.

Also some characters will straight up leave you if you make choices completely counter to their personality, no matter how you were previously seen in their eyes. SpoilerShale if you fight to preserve the Anvil with her in your party, Wynne if you elect to destroy the Mage Circle*, Wynne & Leliana if you defile the Sacred Urn, Alister if you make Loghain a Grey Warden. *There's a way to thread the needle and keep Wynne but generally she'll fight you.

In general, provided you chat with your party semi-regularly and don't say anything obviously stupid (telling Alister to stop crying, calling Morrigan a *****) you should be fine.

Edited, Apr 16th 2012 3:33pm by Jophiel

There's a neat exploit you can use to tease Zevran to gain as much approval from him as you want. Well, I say exploit; but he's such a ****, who knows? Maybe it's intended.

I like them both, but Mass Effect wins hands down. It's the reason I bought an XBox.

DA2 was an odd sequel. In some ways, it made huge steps forward. In others, its like they completely forgot what made DA:O great.

If you compile a list of the stronger and weaker points of one game, you can pretty much just flip it to find the same for the other.

I think DA2 had better characters (and definitely did a better job at building them), but DA:O had the better story. DA2 had more exciting combat, but DA:O's was much more strategic. DA:O had several environments, DA2 only had one. But DA2 more thoroughly fleshed out the feeling of that one area than you see in anything in DA:O (including Awakening, which heavily features just the keep and Amaranthine). Art is better in DA2, but they used many of the models from DA:O (particularly because DA:O required more new models). DA2 will send you to the same dungeon map nonstop, which was less egregious in DA:O.

Only thing that's a solid pro for both, imo, is that the music is great.

So which game you think is better is going to depend on what value you place on various aspects (along with the cons, for instance). The main reason I play RPGs is for the characters, so I like DA2 a lot more than many other people do. The loss of some of the strategy wasn't such an issue for me, because that wasn't my favorite aspect of DA:O. Repeating the same dungeon was irritating, but not something I personally hated enough to detract points for.

I DO think the narrative of DA:O was better overall, primarily because it is a unified plot. DA2's is mainly just about the protagonist, which makes it feel like cobbled together short stories.

But I also prefer Hawke to the Warden by a significant portion. I like how they went out of the way to create 3 distinct personalities for him/her. I like that I have free choice there, and the fact that I actually felt way more like I was making real decisions about characterization.

It's just not as significant to go through DA:O going "lolchantry" or "Die mage!" at every opportunity as it is in DA2, especially if you replay it. Diplomatic Hawke and Sarcastic Hawke actually feel like completely distinct characters.

So, if what you like is the strategic gameplay, diversity of the environment, overarching narrative, ability to choose your Origin (/play as a Dwarf or Elf), and a non-voiced protagonist, you'll prefer DAO.

If what you like is the character development, art, ability to choose your personality, faster combat (like at lower difficulties in DA:O), and a deeper investment into the story of the main character, you'll prefer DA2.

As for the two of them vs. ME2, IDK. I love both series. I guess I'd favor ME, but I have to say that a huge part of my love for the games are because they filled a significant Space-RPG void in my heart. I love DA, but fantasy RPGs are much more common.

I'd really recommend continuing on the PC, because only a few main plot choices will be offered to you (through the Genesis DLC) if you play on the PS3. And everything else defaults to Renegade (as opposed to the "good" Paragon), or isn't transferred at all.

That said, you'd only be missing out on the color stuff. The core game+DLC will give a complete experience. Still, it's nice to see the full spectrum of things, imo.

But if you're opposed to buying ME2 for the PC for the $15 to 20 bucks it will cost you, it isn't going to ruin your experience.

No you wouldn't. SpoilerThere is no PS3 version of ME1.

Kirkwall just feels so dead, though. They really should have included more city traffic.