#I just played origins and da2 last year

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Every once in a while I'm like. Well I should play Inquisition again. Prepare myself for dragon age dreadwolf (which doesn't exist and is never coming out). I barely remember what Solas' deal was shouldn't I refresh. Etc. Well that's the devil talking.

[strixhaven]

pc players talking about missing the combat of dao and how good it is as if they don’t have twenty million quality of life improvements and still constantly use skip combat mods. you do not want dao combat again. you hate it. take it from a console player who is forced to endure dao as it actually is: you do not want this again. you are not playing dao and you can’t even begin to understand how little you know it nor how good you have it

[eruscreaminginthedistance]

Finally got around to watching some post-embargo vids and I have some now updated Veilguard thoughts.

Stuff I liked:

Character creator is a standout as always. This has consistently been the strong point of Bioware's games in the last 10 years so no surprises there. The pronoun and other gender-related options are a welcome addition.

Companions all seem great. I'm sad we haven't got more Davrin or Bellara content yet, since those are the two I'm most interested in learning about. Their initial introduction in that terrible cinematic trailer didn't do these guys any favours, but seeing them in gameplay footage gives a much better impression of them. It's also exciting to see more companion-on-companion interactions and relationships.

I was put off by the voice acting in the 10 minute gameplay reveal months ago, but what I've heard so far has been much better.

Main menu looks pretty.

As an ME fan, I'm pro dialogue wheel; it's unfortunate that Inquisition turned that whole mechanic into a massive drip. This is less a thing I notice but something I hope, that this game's dialogue wheel will have a more DA2 or ME1 vibe.

Hngnggn vfjddjgfnbhn oooowowo o cloaks.

Stuff I didn't like:

The art style is not redeeming itself. Wolfheart made a very insightful point that it might be a holdover from when Veilguard was going to be a live service multiplayer game, and it definitely does give that impression. Everything is still incredibly smooth and it's clear there was a lot of effort put into making things "nice" looking. It's giving very "everyone's beautiful but no one is horny" to me. I'm on the haters' side with the Qunari; where are their textures?

On that note, oh my god. The UI and the VFX. This must have also been a result of live service elements. As someone who hates playing late-game mages in Origins because all of the VFX gives me a headache this game looks actively hostile. Does literally every single ability require flashing neon lights? Why does the UI look like a World of Warcraft meme? Why does every single interactive object glow? Wolfheart noted that even after turning everything off, a bunch of VFX elements were still present, which is tremendously disappointing. Bioware can miss me with this cocomelon for adults visual style; I just do not need all of these annoying tricks to try and keep my attention.

Also on the UI - idk man. Remember when fantasy games weren't embarrassed about looking fantasy? Remember when all of Origins menus opened up in a little book with parchment pages? Character selection took place in a little castle? I just don't get this Thing Bioware has had since 2 to make DA's game UI look cool and slick by taking all the fun out of its visual elements. I've heard it before but I've got to agree, Veilguard's UI looks like a mobile game. And again, it's so busy it's 100% gonna give me headaches.

The combat is.... I won't call it "bad". I just hate it. See above for one of the reasons why. I think I could write a whole essay on how discomfiting it is. The very very clear push (likely from EA) to have the game resemble big name titles like Breath of the Wild and God of War has taken the game in the direction of just kind of a generic hack and slash; at least DA2 married its action elements with its party mechanics and has its own unique voice. There's something in particular that sets my teeth on edge tbh. I'm watching gameplay of warriors and rogues in combat and they're pretty much indistinguishable from mages. Teleporting, fire and lightning flying about in basic attacks, just a ton of stuff that makes me cringe to look at. There's a complete lack of class fantasy there for me - why would I want to play a warrior that isn't just a big guy with a big sword? Is this a result of story elements? Why is my low level rogue demolishing entire groups of enemies ala Dynasty Warriors? In a world where the distinction between a magic person and a non-magic person is incredibly important, could cost you your life, watching a rogue shoot lightning out of their knives makes me groan. Are Bioware's efforts to make the player feel like the coolest specialist person that ever lived going to be addressed in-game? We'll have to see.

Lack of control over your own companions ala Mass Effect. I don't wanna talk about it it's too depressing.

I've noted this in the past but obviously the tonal departure from low/dark fantasy to classic high fantasy. The character backgrounds for the Rooks pretty much lock you into playing a good guy, which is a huge shame. Even if you want to pick a faction that is canonically shady or morally neutral AT BEST like the Crows, they make sure to tell you that the other Crows don't like you because you're just that good-hearted. In a faction like the Grey Wardens, notorious for taking in criminals of all stripes, you spend your background saving helpless villagers. What are the options going to be like for people who want to play morally grey or potentially evil Rooks? It's starting to look like Bioware isn't going to give you a much wiggle room to define your character out of what they need you to be.

Lip flap looks like a very mixed bag. Maybe it's just the footage but voices and mouths look out of sync.

Can't make a post without reminding everyone that Bioware isn't our friend; they've fired half the people who worked on this game and greedy producers like EA don't deserve our money.

Update: Only just came across this but phasing out inventory management? Yeah welcome back Mass Effect trilogy :/

Neutral opinions:

Other shit like the Darkspawn and overall mob designs have been a problem since DA2 so I don't see the point in rehashing it here, other than to say that I can't wait for the "DLC with the good Darkspawn designs in it" this time around.

Opening scene gives me huge Mass Effect vibes; the bar fight and the music in that scene felt very "Lair of the Shadow Broker", which I guess is a compliment.

Varric still not dead yet. Kill that old man!

Ultimately, I'm putting in prediction now that Veilguard is going to go the DA2 route of having a decent and well-loved story, but with massive issues regarding its gameplay and aesthetic that players will just have to get over in order to enjoy the game.

I'm not gonna be buying on release - first time that's been the case for a Dragon Age game since Origins; the current plan is to wait until the Christmas sales, which gives plenty of time for the fandom to either assuage my fears or implode cos the game is shit. Either that or the Solavellan content is so crisp and juicy I'll have to learn to pirate.

[inquiscissors]

!!!!!

LOVED the gameplay trailer! Now that it's been a minute, so for posterity, here's my first take on it all:

- I'm choosing to enjoy the stylized-realistic art style, glad everyone looks like they belong in the same game (was a little confused after the trailer, bc especially Harding and Emmrich kind if seemed to be in pretty different styles? but all seems to be in order after all✌️)

- to be entirely honest, I was a little worried that it would be hard to take things seriously in a more stylized game (despite origins looking, well... like it's from 2009, DA2 looking like it was made in about a year, and inquisition's over the top sad face™️, but somehow my nervous shit brain chose to completely ignore all that and worry anyway), but that scene at the temple hit me HARD.... I could write a whole thing about how Varric goes into it so boldly and jokingly and how this persona just evaporates when he sees how serious and SAD Solas is... All that just to say, I'm not worried about that anymore🙏

- so excited to see all the different ways we can move compared to earlier games!! balancing! vaulting!! (climbing and swimming, maybe?? hopefully??👀)

- incredible scenery, VERY cool atmosphere in Minrathous - it feels big and imposing, and like you could really get lost there

- on that note, I'm really hoping for day/night and weather cycles, though I'll be fine with keeping to the zones rather than an open world - but I hope we get to see Minrathous in daylight as well❤️

- I could honestly do without the sci-fi leaning design elements, but I don't mind them - I am hoping for a creative in-game explanation for them though👀

- LOVE the return to having both short and long range weapons equipped! I've really missed this since Origins, so it's cool to see it return🙏

- You actually have to aim with a bow! And you have limited ammo! in general the combat felt more up-close and personal than inquisition, and I feel like things like limited ammo lends itself really well to the small, grassroots-like group like the Veilguard, where you don't have the unlimited resources of an organization like the Inquisition (the Inquisitor can't really be seen running out of arrows in the middle of their heroic moment, surely), as well as from a game design standpoint where you can do limited ammo BECAUSE you have the option of melee, which you couldn't do in DA2 or inquisition

- the ability/tactics screen seems a bit daunting, and I'm glad the game pauses when you go to use it😅 I'm confident it'll be easy enough to get familiar with though, as figuring out the mechanics hasn't really been part of the challenge of beating the game before

once again, my most pressing concerns have been put to rest, and I'm so excited for this game🙏 completely unrelated to the game-play trailer, one of the biggest assurances I've seen these last few days is that BioWare has been keeping council with a selection of prominent fans of the franchise for the last few years(!) of development, meaning that they have made a big effort to actually stay in touch with what the fans want from the game, which was HUGE news (to me at least, idk I'd this was kind of an open secret that I hadn't picked up on or smth, but I had no idea lol)

[shift-shaping]

Rewatching trailers: a midnight analysis

Long post ahead.

On the recommendation of some folks in the fandom on tumblr, I went back and watched the game trailers for every other DA game to compare them with the Veilguard trailer.

There are definitely some tropes in these trailers that have always been a mix of cringe and effective --especially the pop song over cutscene footage. In that sense this trailer is exactly like many of the other ones (DAI: A Wonderful World, DAO: This Is War). Also, the quips are unfunny in trailers for both DAI and DAV, and I think that's intentional: the quips aren't really there to make you laugh, just to give a specific type of levity to certain moments and specific vibes to certain characters. If you listen to the Veilguard trailer instead of watching it, the biggest difference in tone between this and the Inquisition trailers is the amount of in-character narration, but I think that's serving a very functional purpose here and even though some of the lines are cringy ("you KNOW there will be dragons" yes I understand the title of the video game implies as much thank you), I get it.

Moving on to visuals: some shots are almost identical. These are from the DA2 Launch trailer, the DAI Breach trailer, and obv the Veilguard trailer.

The DAO Sacred Ashes trailer has a few similar moments, but nothing that shows off your entire possible party like this, as it adheres much closer to the gameplay conceptually (i.e., you have three companions in that trailer, you can have three companions in the game at one time).

Every game trailer since DA2 has had individual shots showing off your companions fighting. They don't have big fancy titles over them, but they all have them. The difference here, I think, is that the DAV trailer that we saw on 6/9 (nice) is specifically meant to introduce the companions. With that in mind, it's not particularly interesting or noteworthy that this trailer looks like it's for an Overwatch update. Like yeah, sure, it's introducing the characters, of course it's going to look like other modern trailers that are introducing characters.

Another familiar visual aspect is the color saturation. DAI is green, DAV is purple/pink. Rewatch the A Wonderful World trailer for DAI and look for how bright and vibrant the green shades are compared to the red, and then rewatch the Veilguard trailer and look for the vibrance of the purples/pinks. This is not surprising, Bioware have been telling us this game will be Purple for years. DA2 might have some extra yellow/gold in its trailers but ehhh I think it and DAO are just brown af.

So this is all to say that some of the things setting the tone of this trailer are things that have been present since Inquisition, if not earlier. Some of the tropes in its presentation are to be expected if you actually played Inquisition, and frankly if you played DA2 as well. There are definitely people in the YouTube comments of the Veilguard trailer whose idea of "Dragon Age" is Origins as their nostalgia recalls it. Origins came out 15 years ago. If you want to go play Origins so bad, fucking play Origins. Or Balder's Gate, whatever. If you didn't like the last installment of a franchise like this, and you REALLY didn't like the one before that, you are probably not going to like the new one.

These are some of the tamer ones, I'd encourage you to go look at the comments yourself to get a feel for what people are saying.

I don't know what to tell these people. Your expectations for this trailer were unrealistic; DAO is not coming back. Sorry. I liked it too.

However.

What most people are complaining about in the comments is not that this is a drastic shift from the specific type of Dark Fantasy of DAO. The vast majority of complaints are about the art style. For me, the most jarring moment of the trailer, when I actually realized the art style is different, is this one:

Emmrich looks like Handsome Jack from Borderlands. His face is cartoonishly angular and his eyes are animated in a dead eyed stare that just looks cheap. I don't know how else to describe it, sorry. The other two characters have this weird stare too, and it looks really, uh, bad.

But to me, the worse model is the skeleton. It looks very far from any kind of realism. The cheekbones are too wide, the ribcage is oddly triangular? Compare it to the Darkspawn in the Warden's Calling DAO trailer, or the various demons in the Breach trailer for DAI (linked above). It looks like the Wizards 101 skeleton pet.

It's a bad sequence of shots, and there are other bad ones after that. Davrin and the griffon look good, the dragon looks good, but Taash looks like plastic/gelatin. What material is her armor made of? It's very matte-looking. Rook looks fine.

Varric and Harding look. Uh. Bad. Their models are simplistic, and the hair physics are chunky and awkward. I know I initially said they look good, but upon further review: I was wrong.

The clothing looks kind of low poly, too. The lighting on Varric's collar is... wrong? Neither of them look like they're wearing fluffy fur, so I hope that wasn't the intention.

I don't know why they would choose this art style for a trailer that's showing the game for the first time. It looks at best unfinished, and at worst cheap. This is not an art style to present to people who have been waiting for a game for ten years, or to new players unfamiliar with the alleged tone (a la Tevinter Nights) the game is going for. Like, compare Harding in 2014 with the above shot.

This is not about aging a character, this is a clear difference in how a character is modeled. Inquisition has aged beautifully and still looks fantastic. I'm still taken aback by how wonderful that game looks.

Looking at the other trailers, what sticks out the most in the context of the art style is that the graphics of the trailers look as good or better than the gameplay. This is usually how game trailers work. I can't imagine why you would show a trailer with worse graphics/art style than you have in the actual game. Like, someone (do not recall who, sorry) brought up Morrigan from the DAO Sacred Ashes trailer as if she looks terrible and is an example of trailers being worse than in-game, but if you watch that trailer, she looks really good for 2009. She looks objectively more realistic and impressive than the in-game model. The models and art style in the Veilguard trailer would also look really good for 2009. They look very bad for 2024.

Maybe the wonkiness of these models is being exacerbated by the lighting. That would explain why Bellara and Davrin look better than Varric and Harding, but Emmrich is fairly well-lit. Maybe his model is especially odd and will look better in the gameplay? This was definitely the case with Varric (and solas lmao) in his own Inquisition trailer.

So, TL;DR:

Dragon Age Origins is dead and is not coming back. This is not news.

The Veilguard trailer is primarily a character intro video, so obviously it focuses on the characters.

Much of the tone re: shot composition, overall structure, and music is in-keeping with previous DA trailers.

The art style/graphics are both visually bad and what people are primarily complaining about, but the degree of badness could be the result of some odd lighting/modelling choices.

As has been the case for the last ten-ish years, we'll just have to wait and see.

6/10/24

[hellslayersomething]

thoughts on all the DA4 news this past week, from a tired old veteran who's been wandering the bloodied plains of the DA fandom since Origins' release:

I still don't believe that this game actually exists and won't until it's in my hand, in my PS5, I've clocked 50 hours, and I hit credits.

After the news came out that there were 7 companions, I told a friend I would need a solid 4/7 of them to be pre-existing characters in the canon. Harding, Neve, Lucanis, and Emmerich put it at exactly that number, so good show there.

The "Hero Shooter" character reveal trailer was a massive mistake. BioWare and the influencers they're paying had to spend the past two days doing frantic PR to convince people that the game doesn't actually look like that, it's not indicative of the game's tone, it definitely feels like Tevinter Nights and not Fortnite, and it's not a fee-to-pay live service game. They should have led with the gameplay video.

All of the people freaking out about Lucanis being labelled a "Mage Killer" just goes to show that DA discourse truly is a circle. (Also, read "The Wigmaker Job", it's so good.)

The dialogue suuuuucks. Wow, it's been a while since I've encountered a game that respects its audience's intelligence this little. [Earthquake] Harding: "The tremors are getting worse!" [demons show up] Neve: "And we've got demons!" Is BioWare expecting the core player base to consist of people who have never encountered media before? The extent to which the game over-exposits is quite actually mind boggling. I'm genuinely curious if there's anyone who watched this video who didn't come out of it feeling insulted by the game's lack of trust that you have basic cause-and-effect recognition skills. I know people like to bandy about "media literacy is dead", but surely it hasn't gotten so bad that players need to be told out loud "Watch out for lightning" when a boss shoots lightning at them. I'm hoping this was just included for the sake of the gameplay video, but several of these very bad lines seem pretty integral to what's happening on screen, so I guess we'll see.

The dialogue and voicing for the trash mobs is especially bad. I hate to say the word, but I truly think "cringe" is applicable here.

Nice FFXIV reference. (Listen, if this game is going to play follow-the-leader with any one other game, since apparently DA can't get away from that habit, FFXIV is the one I'd want them to chase. Certainly a better fit than Overwatch.)

The battle system seems fine. Reminds me of DA2's, which was perfectly cromulent. Sincerely, I don't expect deeply satisfying gameplay from DA, they've never delivered it before, no need to start now. Passable is fine.

Happy to see the DA2 dialogue wheel return too. Hope that means the invisible personality system comes along with it.

No rivalry system :( Again :(((((

Seriously though, the marketing for this game is a massive mess and their marketing lead should probably be out of the job. All of the news from this week has led to increased confusion about what the game is, what it's called, whether it is DA4 or not, whether it's a single player RPG or not, whether it's an effective franchise reboot or not--and they're all but shadow-dropping it (theoretically) after 10 full years of releasing no other Dragon Age games. This franchise has close to no momentum (many people considered it outright dead until this week), and now that they're ready to start actually talking about DA4, they've completely stumbled out of the gate and given themselves only 3-6 months to come up with a PR plan to correct for that. Embarrassing, frankly.

I guess that's it. The new gameplay video has returned my mood on DA4 from "absolutely the fuck not" after the character reveal video back to a resounding "I nothing this game", which is...actually maybe a worse place for me to be. The last time I went into game feeling a hollow nothing from the promotional materials, it was FFXVI, and we all know how that turned out for me. Anyway, in conclusion:

[mozzawind]

Characters I think are going to come back in Dreadwolf. are half of these not going to happen? you bet but a girl can dream

Varric Tehtras I mean...come on, my man has voiced like 3 different cinematics for Dreadwolf Teasers He's gonna come back- How the Viscount of Kirkwall is gonna end up in Tevinter isn't important.

Dorian Pavus another obvious one, we're going to Tevinter, Dorian's become a fully-fledged Magister, he's no doubt going to play a role in some way.

Fenris Getting a little ambitious now but it'd be great to see some more DA2 companions come back and who better to bring back in Tevinter than the Blue Wraith himself? Just imagine the banter between him and Dorian that could unfold if the two of them got to interact.

Sten/Arishok Our favourite no-horned Qunari from Origins could possibly return given that Qunari's seem to be there left and right in concept art for DA4, and seeing the now-named Arishok return with knowledge from the blight and being 10 years wiser would be great fun!

Cole This is based purely on the line-up of Companion concept art where the last in the lineup looks shockingly like our fade spirit

what exactly Cole's reasons/purpose for being in Tevinter or involved with the conflict of the game is up to debate but i'd certainly love to see him come back.

[mithrilhearts]

Where is your favorite Dragon Age place? Do you have a favorite romance?

Mine would have to be Skyhold just because all our friends are there and it's home. My spouse and I have played all the romances in Inquisition and I love them all sooooo very much that I couldn't choose a favorite and I just wish you could romance every last one of them at the same time.

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer.

SOMEONE IS TALKING TO ME ABOUT DRAGON AGE??? SIGN ME UP.

Okay, so I have to agree that across the games, I really do love Skyhold - but if we're talking about an environment that you get to run around in, I am very partial to Emprise du Lion for whatever reason. Maybe it's the sheer terror of knowing there are three dragons out there? Or that when under-leveled, the mobs can rock my world into the afterlife?

I just find it pretty out there, and the Emerald Graves. There are so many beautiful places within Inquisition, it's almost hard to pick - the music makes a big impact too!

Now for romances, I've dabbled in handfuls of them over the years of playing all three games, and I just think they're all really well written and amazing. But my basic set up for each game is...

Origins: Fem!Mage x Alistair

DA2: Male!Mage x Fenris

Inquisition: Fem!Mage x Cullen

There's just something about the "mage hater x mage" (even if they don't exactly HATE them, the concept is still there) dynamic that has me in a chokehold.

Honorable mention: Inquisitor x Blackwall, because I love a tortured bearded man, and his romance/story is so tragic and emotional, I cry.

I can already tell you what I plan to play for DA4, Unless something drastic catches my attention and just changes all gears for me. But I fully intend to make a Male Rook (Still undecided between mage and rogue), and romance Lucanis (the mage killer....see the trend?? Rogue just looks so fun to play imo lol, so I may break my trend for that), but regardless, I am stoked!!

Thanks for the ask!

[chronurgy]

For Dragon Age: The Veilguard HYPE Q&A - 1, 6, and 13!

What was the first dragon age game you played?

Inquisition was the first game I played, but it wasn't the first game I finished! I got about halfway through inquisition before a friend of mine found out I was playing it and went "oh shit you gotta play the first two games first, here you can borrow them from me!" So I stopped halfway through inquisition and played origins then da2 and then finally came back, started a new playthrough, and finished inquisition. So technically inquisition, but also sort of origins?

Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

I'm trying not to plan out too too much before we get more confirmed details about the factions and the backgrounds so I don't end up getting too invested in something that the game won't support, but I've got some loose ideas -

I'm thinking a human Laetan mage involved with the shadow dragons, with two possible back stories. Either they're a first generation Laetan (the first mage in their family) and are struggling to make their way through this new world they've been thrust into and carry all their family's hopes or they're from an old and well established Laetan family, related to a former archon even, and are looking to disrupt the imperium's power structure for their own gain since they're tired of being a second class citizen compared to Altus mages. I think it could be interesting for them to have some common ground with Neve or possibly even know her! I've also kicked around the idea of a mournwatch mage but I just don't know enough about what our background for that faction will look like to commit (but that could change as we learn more). Same with the wardens.

What's one thing you've seen confirmed so far that you're a fan of?

Minrathous looks fucking incredible. Genuinely fantastic. I saw that piece of concept art of a massive neon lit Minrathous with floating buildings that they put out like eighty million years ago and just instantly fell in love. I was so afraid that they wouldn't commit to the bit but they did!!! I really love the massive contrast it creates between Ferelden and Tevinter and how it changes the way we see the last three games! They all really were set in some provincial backwater! It's fucking crazy! And also I just love terrible horrible cities and the blood they're built on so much so this is genuinely like a dream come true to me. If the whole game had been set in Minrathous I think I would've died of joy on the spot lol

[musicismymoirail]

Ohhh fellow dragon age player???

Tell me more about your protags 👀👀👀

Oh, yes! :D It feels like I've been playing it forever at this point. But, okay! I do have sideblog for my da bullshit here but I haven't chatted about my protags in ages, so let's go! Apologies for the length ahead of time. ^^;;;

The Wardens: Left to Right.

Suibhne Tabris, the pragmatic & polite rogue whose always up to teach folks the old alienage proverb of 'no child of Adaia Tabris makes empty threats'. Push him if you dare. He's my technically canon warden and the leader of Origins ragtag group. Mainly because he's very stoic and chill. Mhm. He was left at the Chantry as an infant before the Tabris family adopted him. He loves his family dearly, and took Adaia's death very hard. Like he didn't speak for years after and people feel like he ended up as very muted version of his chaotic child self. But grief can change you, and that's okay. He romances Zevran (utterly smitten~), Morrigan is basically his sister, is the one that does the Dark Ritual, and he'd love to meet his son but respects Morrigan's wishes to keep away. He's just a chill sweetheart who will murder a whole castle of nobles to save his loved ones~. I love him. c: <3

Nari Aeducan, the iconoclastic & favored former princess of House Aeducan. Oh, Bhelen. You can keep the throne but you will never feel safe within the walls of Orzammar again. <3 Nari is... my newest Warden, and not super fleshed yet. She lost her eye in her childhood during a training match, and asked Daddy Dearest to get her a lyrium prosthetic eye. Because it neat. In my canon, she misses out on meeting Duncan and gets to roam around the Deep Roads until the Origins group finally stumbles over her like two months later? She's a survivor~~~ She also enjoys sweetly terrorizing her baby back-stabbing brother. <3 No idea who she'd romance, honestly? Probably no one. Her mind is just set on causing chaos in Orzammar. Bless her.

Raniel Surana, the tempestuous and diligent mage that lasted like four days outside of the circle before she turned to blood magic. To be fair, she was dying at the time & Mouse is cool. Raniel was my very first Warden~~~ Sooo. Her and Tabris both met Duncan before going to Ostagar, and she's both enthralled and terrified and so bitter at Jowan, so she's just bouncing in every direction. During the first fight, the orge atop the Tower bites off her arm and Rani, not wanting to die with her new friends, asks Mouse for help. She's Super Bitter and Pissed for most of the story, as losing your home and arm will do to someone. No one really questions the weird white mouse that travels on her shoulder. But Leliana and the others sloooooooowly bring back her old romantic self. Stories and stars do the soul so much good. She ends up as the Teryna of Gwaren, is a happy little blood mage and since Leliana is my canon Divine, is basically married to the highest religious figure in Southern Thedas. Go Raniel~~~~

I never got as attached to my Hawke as my Wardens or Inquisitor (weird as DA2 is my favorite game so far), buuuuuuut this is my current one.

Revelry Hawke, the stepford-smiling put-upon third parent of the Highly Dysfunctional Hawke family. All they wanted in life was to keep their family together and safe, and they Failed! Constantly! Carver died in Lothering! Bethany died in the Deep Roads! Leandra died in Kirkwall! And Revelry blames themself fully. :'D They're technically a rouge, but personal headcanon is they have magic too but just for Entropy spells and this goes unnoticed by all until the Arishok stabs them in Act Two. Losing one's family does have a way of letting you let go of a lot of things, does it~~? Forever sides with the mages, I do imagine they got offered the Viscountship post-game (because it's dumb that's Templar-locked) but Revelry stepped down after like five days. They're known as the Five-Day Viscount now. And they, idk, probably ended up in a polycule with everyone accidently. That seems like a very Revelry thing to do. o:

Do I have a favorite protag of the lot? Yes, it's Mir. :D

Mir'uvenan Ruoho Lavellan, aka Mir, aka Miracles, my beloved and endlessly chaotic Inquisitor. Left his clan because of his toxic and deeply codependent relationship with his twin brother, Mir is basically a shattered mosaic of trauma, impulse and passion. He doesn't know why he's here, he wants to burn the Chantry to the ground and steal its foundation to boot, and people are! Praising him?!? Him? Why! Whhhhhhhy!?! He's not a leader! TToTT!! Except, that's all the gaslighting talking. Mir is stupidly clever and intelligent, endlessly caring and absolutely has no issues telling off Ancient Tevinter Gods and their Fake Archdemons. He lost all his fucks when he got the Anchor, so fuck it. He'll do his best because he's kinda stuck here anyways. TT____TT

(And Bull's like 'this is why you're the Inquisitor, Kadan~~')

Mir's an absolute little nerd who adores mixing his own alchemical concoctions because smashing highly volatile flasks against his skin is just Heaven~~~ He ends up losing his hearing Quite A Bit because of all the explosions, but whatcha gonna do~? Dagna and Rocky teached him Dwarven Sign Language to help. He likes hanging around Dagna to learn magic in the non-magic way too because It's Fascinating! o: <333

Mhm. Romances Bull but it's pretty open. Sera is his BFF, and Dorian a close second. Never gets comfortable being the Herald or the Inquisitor, doubly so after the Jaws of Hakkon, triply so after Trespasser. He disbands it, and is happier for it just being a Red Jenny with Sera and just finally enjoying life at long last with a good support system of friends and connections. I always play the game as Mir slowly working through his miserable self-worth and healing through all the trauma his brother put him through, so I like him ending the game having more neutral-positive outlook. He is actually Not The Worst, and ain't that nice? c:

(He's still gonna punch Solas in the face if they meet again tho. Because friends don't let friends destroy worlds, and he already proved people are just as worthwhile now as long ago.)

And if anyone actually read through all of that, thank you and bless you for reading about my silly little protags I've put Far Too Much Thought into over the years! ;;v;; <3

Also, enjoy a silly comic of Mir buying 57 hand puppets. <3

[rivaindaisies]

some dragon age music headcanons bc it’s fucking late and i feel extra neurodivergent today

origins

morrigan is such a fucking edge lord in this game, she absolutely gatekeeps what she listens to but it’s pretty basic alternative stuff. arctic monkeys but only am and fsvorite worst nightmare, mindless self indulgence, a lot of joy division (she absolutely is the type of person to go up to someone in an unknown pleasures shirt and ask them to name three songs), some nirvana, pixies, etc. her favorite songs are arabella by arctic monkeys, back to the old house by the smiths, and probably mascara by deftones. she doesn’t listen to metal a lot but has a few deftones and lamb of god songs on her playlists.

leliana is trying to recreate her life in this game. she’s running from a lot of things, but also beginning to reflect. since she hasn’t been through as much as she has in inquisition, her music taste is much more relaxed here. i think she’d love dreamy shit, like the cocteau twins and the sundays especially. she listens to some lana del rey as well, mostly just nfr/lust for life. there’s a band called another sunny day i feel like she’d fuck with a lot too. her favorite songs are goodbye by the sundays and white mustang by lana del rey.

alistair listens to top 40 and nothing else

origins is my least favorite so i can’t think of much else for companions, i have the lowest time played as well so 🤷‍♂️

da2

varric has the most dad music taste you could imagine. all classic rock, nothing else. i can very clearly imagine him cruising around blasting ac/dc and kiss.

fenris doesn’t listen to music, he just sort of goes along with what the others are playing. he likes slower songs, they help calm him down. if romanced, he ends up listening to the songs hawke likes and developing the same music taste as them and i think it would be a connection for them

isabela has some rare genuine self awareness in the music she listens to. she listens to lana del rey and marina and the diamonds, and that’s about it. her favorite albums from lana are born to die, paradise, and ultraviolence. her favorite marina albums are electra heart and froot. her favorite songs are i’m a ruin/rootless by marina, ride by ldr, and the other woman by ldr as well. hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have is the only later lana song she like LOVES. basically 2014 tumblr taste but oh well

merrill listens to mainly instrumental music, either classical guitar or orchestral music. it helps her focus and calms her down quite a bit. she also really enjoys folk music. some of her favorite albums are shaken by a low sound by crooked still, someday we will foresee obstacles by syd matters, and dear wormwood by the oh hellos.

anders is also an angst fest. he listens to a lot of the smiths, mother mother (and hes very particular about being a “real fan” and knowing them before they blew up) and some nu metal as well. his favorite songs are this charming man by the smiths, 7 words by deftones, and you should all be murdered by another sunny day. calm me down by mother mother as well.

aveline listens to ed sheeran and coldplay exclusively. i don’t know why i feel this way but i do and im gonna leave it at that

inquisition

leliana has been through so much over the last ten years, and the music she listens to reflects that. she doesn’t listen to music much anymore, but has a couple songs that she listens to. her taste is a lot heavier now- deftones, lamb of god, and some death metal as well. no specific bands, just whatever is the loudest and heaviest. i hc that morrigan showed her a few smiths songs during origins, and the one that stuck with her most is that joke isn’t funny anymore. she listens to it a lot, and relates to it a lot. it’s her favorite song. a few honorable mentions to that are sextape by deftones, and blood of the scribe by lamb of god. sometimes, she listens to the songs she loved back in dao times and gets lost in the memories of that time. her favorite song for that is the greatest by lana del rey.

josephine is mainly a classical/opera listener. i cannot picture her listening to anything else. maybe sometimes she gets angry, or exhausted/fed up with her job, and listens to the things she considers to be “heavy” but it’s something like acdc which she considers to be basically death metal because it has an audible electric guitar.

the chargers just blast dad music 24/7, along with varric/sera/blackwell.

cassandra absolutely listens to love songs all the time. she falls asleep listening to a playlist filled with songs like video games/love song/without you/lucky ones by lana. i feel like she was absolutely a tumblr girl and never grew out of that music taste despite presenting as an absolute hardass.

dorian adores artists like kylie minogue, lady gaga, etc. his favorite songs are shampain by marina, aura by lady gaga, and 911 also by gaga lmao. he also for SURE owns a justice for artpop shirt.

i have a lot more but don’t want to type any more out if this gets any attention i’ll add more tho- if you’ve somehow read this far into my adhd rambles thank you 🙏🙏 and comment ur thoughts/ideas of what characters would listen to

[mapsosaa]

Here am I, obsessed with a new game.

I bought Dragon Age Inquisition 3 years ago and finally decided to play it last month. I finished the game in a week and obviously, ended up playing Origins and DA2 quickly after.

So, here my Inky (Ysak Lavellan). I drew him with short hair first, like in game but I wanted to see him with long hair so I ended up drawing a new version of it instead of sleeping.

I also tried to do some earring, with his pointy ears, I felt it would be so pretty. It's a wolf, Fen'Harel, for obvious reasons (Solas my beloved) and I love what I succeeded to do, I didn't expect it to look this good.

I'mma say that long hair ver. is the Inky before he was send to the conclave so it makes sense.

Currently working on Hawke but I want to draw Inky with Dorian so BAD. Like went crazy over Dorian, his love story is just marvellous, it's not often that I'm this moved by a character.

[sarasa-cat]

re: this post and this comment from @sarahawke

Interesting approach!! Really looking forward to hearing more about how this goes ☺️

As I mentioned in a prior post (buried somewhere in this past week's avalanche of tumblring, live and queued) I have been meaning to play with a pile of e-zines I found in a massive itch.io charity bundle I originally purchased a year or two ago.

I had never heard of solo table top rpgs much less journaling ttrpgs until I looked through that massive game bundle and found these zines mixed in with digital/computer-based games.

Immediately, I WAS INTRIGUED!!!! (★^O^★)

But it took me a long while to get around to actually using any of them.

I love prompt-based writing. Better yet, I love the synergy that occurs when I need to combine a couple of prompts. Add a picture to the prompt mix and even better. Songs/poetry are also excellent too. (Actually I need to remember that last one as it is something missing from this solo journaling rpgs).

I also like mixing an element of surprise/randomness with an element of choice. Roll the dice or pick a card provides useful randomness so long as the interpretation of the associated prompts gives me choices across multiple pathways of exploration.

For quite a while (before finding these solo journaling RPGs) I have been thinking about how to use tarot cards for a system for prompting creativity. Or a "creative person's tarot of muse energy."

As of this week, my thinking is becoming broader and deeper.

Thinking about how to create many different things, all based on a similar idea: this idea of randomly selecting a series of prompts in combination that allow for choice in interpretation (choice also includes discards/re-rolls).

In a sense, this is my response to what I don't really like about bingo card challenges. For some reason, bingo cards have always fascinated me but when I get my bingo card, 80% of the time it fails to inspire me. Obviously, I could just generate my own bingo cards and create a self-challenge but ... I think the problem is deeper. I want something with a little more structure which is what these solo journalling TTRPGs provide -- you are given a format via the TTRPG's rules that allow you to structure a series of prompts that play off of each other, that connect. But it isn't overly structured. These TTRPG rule sets are always flexible on purpose. Thus, flexible structure for telling a story rather than, say, my stack of incomplete bingo cards over the years.

Have been thinking about making a few of these rule sets myself.

It is always easiest to start off with something designed to be used by fandom for fannish storytelling because that is --- well, interesting to me and guaranteed feedback. ;)

Honestly, I have many other thoughts but I am not quite ready/capable of stringing words together.

But, fwiw, the first solo storytelling/storywriting experimental "tool" in the form of one of these ttrpgs I want create will be for use with DA2 for a variety of reasons-of-convenience.

Perhaps it might shape itself into something that can be run as a fandom challenge and/or as an ongoing prompt-set that people make fanfic for and add to an AO3 collection.

[disasterdrvid]

6, 15, 17

Long time follower first time caller! I've been wary to get excited cause bioware has been playing with my emotions for over a decade at this point. I avoid most news and stuff about DA at this point but I appreciate your takes

Awww thank you so much! I've gone through cycles of wariness and excitement over the years, but tbh what's been coming out lately has me generally hopeful

6. Do you have your Rook(s) planned out to any degree? If so, would you share some details or ideas you have?

I have a canon worldstate and I've had my "canon" Rook locked in since December 2020 when the Game Awards trailer dropped! Iori (last name currently redacted) is a city elf born in southern Orlais who left following the civil war. She wound up in Rivain where she became a Lord of Fortune! (I've had her planned as one since I started writing her concept, well before any factions were confirmed. I just really loved Hollix in "Luck in the Gardens.") I've taken a lot of inspiration for her character from Long John Silver in Black Sails and, more recently, Izutsumi from Dungeon Meshi!

She has an older brother who disappeared after they left their village. Iori thought he went to join the Inquisition but he actually joined the Agents of Fen'Harel. I'm hoping some of Rook's story is open-ended enough that Bioware lets me get away with keeping that aspect because I find their rivalry really interesting--especially with how that plays into her and Solas' relationship.

If you want to see more of her I currently have her tagged on my blog under "#iori dragon age"!

15. Do you have any unpopular opinions about DAV so far?

Not many given that we don't really know much about the story. But I've been pretty vocal that I think the 10 year timeskip is a huge mistake. Trespasser ended with a massive thread of tension hanging over the story, and I genuinely feel that jump cutting to Solas already starting the ritual within the game's prologue feels anticlimactic. Like, Bioware had 10 years to build up this plot point and to me the writing indicated they were going to stretch this a little further into Veilguard. I'd even speculated the better way to handle it would be to treat Solas like Origins treated Loghain, and make his confrontation a late act 2 plot point and then make him a late game companion. Hell, I even wanted them to bring back DA2's structure where the game takes place over multiple years. The technology has caught up where something that ambitious should be at least achievable now.

I also think as time goes on the Game Informer articles are going to get reevaluated. Some of them are a little silly and I think the reporter is highlighting things that are just part and parcel for the series. I get that this is marketing to build hype (probably leading up to GamesCom in August) but just... idk. I think specifically the one about companions and romances rubbed me the wrong way. Companions from previous games also had rich inner lives and romanced each other when not romancing the PC. So yeah I think some of them are a little silly to write whole pieces about like they're brand new ideas.

17. Are you interested in all the lore and speculation or do you focus more on the games and stories themselves?

Sometimes? I don't go out of my way to read meta and speculation since I think speculation just builds hopes for things that were never going to exist in the first place. (Like my bitterness about no multi-year story in Veilguard.) I've done speculation in the past and I even did a bit of speculative fic for Iori. I was wildly off base for a lot but I found it to be a fun exercise to finding her character. I've also posted my own speculation here but that was more for fun than anything serious.

As for lore I have way too much brain space dedicated to this series than a person should 😅 I've been meaning to re-read my copy of World of Thedas vol 2 in preparation for the game. I think lore is a fun thing to learn so I can play around with it for my characters. I'll also say that I've read a majority of the ancillary works (thus far the only ones I haven't read are The Calling and The Missing) because I like seeing the world of DA outside of what the games have established!

Send me DAV hype questions!

[saremina]

Thank you for reblogging the Dragon Age discount!!! Everyone posting about Veilguard coming out soon had me going 👀

People online recommend Origins to start, but I wanted a second opinion. For a beginner in DA (but not new to D&D like combat) which one would you recommend starting with?

So the thing with DA is that you can pick up any game and go from there fairly easily, so if there's a specific game you really want to experience first, you can just pick it up and go out of order. That being said, I do like to recommend Origins first but with a but added to it since it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

If you can deal with stat management and tactics etc., then Origins is a great game to start with since it's the first installment, and in terms of modern comparisons bg3 emulates this game pretty decently. It does have it's drawbacks -- the fact that it's 15 years old being the main one, so the graphics and mechanics can be a bit outdated --, but it has a great story and characters, and it is a lot of fun to play. And you can fix the look with a couple of graphics mods if you want very easily.

DA2 irons out a lot of kinks from Origins, and if Origins feels too old etc. it's a great starting point since it leads directly into Inquisition. (Origins does lead to DA2, too, but the effect of that game on DA2 isn't quite as big as DA2 and DAI since DA2 is basically the prologue to DAI). This is also probably my favorite of the three we have so far (though Inquisition has my favorite romance). The combat is more fun, Hawke is amazing, and so are the companions. It did have a bit of a disaster of a production and it can bother some since it does show somewhat, but I honestly barely notice it.

Inquisition is the most streamlined in terms of stat and combat management (as in technically* you don't select attributes and you don't have actual tactics) of the three and it has an open world that can be a hassle (Hinterland memes are a thing for a reason; the way to avoid that area becoming so exhausting is to just leave it as soon as you can and come back and open it up bit by bit btw), but it's really beautiful. And it has a lot of dragons! You can also port your choices from the last two games into DAI with the Keep if you want. A lot of people have started with it, and they haven't had any issues getting into the world. It's a good starting point if you want a more modern game or less management.

* You can chase attributes in the skill tree, but you don't assign points anymore

So I suppose the dl;dr of it is that if you don't mind the older graphics and general janikess (affectionate) of a 15 year old game with stat management and tactics, Origins is a good place to start. If you want something newer and more streamlined, I'd go with DA2 or DAI, depending on how new of a game you want to play (DA2 gets my vote tho).

[taevbears]

dragon age mentioned!!!! tbh i've only ever played like 80% of da inquisition and then i lowkey forgot abt it bc i got gifted bg3 but ! fun. have u played bg3?? who'd u romance (and in da?)? opinions?? what other games do u like??

YESSS!! i played through all 3 dragon age games once, but origins is still my favorite 🤧 i’ve probably replayed that one a handful of times bc i really liked alistair (EVEN THO HE BROKE MY HEART AS AN ELVEN MAGE) and i really like how developed the warden is compared to hawks + inquisitor. (and the first few chapters of magic shop are loosely based off the mage origin story 🤧)

for DA2 i romanced anders bc i liked him in awakening but 🥴 if i ever replay it, i’d probably pick fenris or isabela tho. and lmao this is so basic but i picked cullen for DA:I (it’s funny bc my friend who got me into this series romanced solas, and let’s just say our endings were drastically different from each other lol)

LOL me too! i started playing BG3.. i think earlier this year or late last year?? I’m still in Act 1 tho 🥲 i became really fond of astarion (even tho he killed me once, but i punched him, so we kinda evened out 💀) so we’re like.. kinda together?? i think?? but tbh i like all the characters in BG3 (even gale) so whenever i finish this playthrough i might go back and explore romances with the others lol

as for other games 🤔🤔 i used to be really into the kingdom hearts + final fantasy franchise. and i like those cozy games like animal crossing, harvest moon, sims, etc. but i definitely like watching playthroughs more than i do playing them myself, especially with horror games 😅 (it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the controls for BG3 bc i actually really suck at video games 😭)

what about you anon?? who are you romancing + what’s your favorite da game? (also i’m stuck in gymforge in BG3 so if u can help a girl out)