I'd actually rank DA2 last among all the main series ME and DA games. But I didn't play the latest DA so not sure about that one. DA2 was just bad in all the ways that DAO was good imo.
DA2 is a massively flawed game, regularly fails as an RPG, and is a textbook example of why rushing a game out for a quick cash grab is always a terrible idea. That said though, it does have far and away the best character work and personal scale storytelling of any of the Dragon Age games. It's the only Dragon Age entry that makes me feel as strongly emotionally about the story and the characters as Mass Effect does.
In an age where every single "rpg" or "jrpg" starts with you being a dude who inevitably has to kill God's to save the world by himself cause you are the super secret special dude who somehow has super secret special dude juice, DA2 did something at the time that I still respect. It's probably my favorite story in the the entire franchise. You end on high stakes, but it's high stakes for you, because of the choices and story you experience getting there, not because of the state of the world or anything like that, and the world is still overall effected by your actions.
If they would've given it another year to cook, and actually finished the game it probably wouldve been the best in the franchise.
YES. Exactly my thought on DA: 2. I loved that it was focused mostly on that city, on more personal stakes. It was flawed, sure, but is actually made me feel connected to the characters in a way only the Mass Effect trilogy has allowed me to. I was really rooting for the Hero of Kirkwall to pull it off in the end, and I liked that they didn't. But damn, they tried.
Exactly this! I know that DA:O just is a better game, but I don't feel as much when playing it. I mean it impresses me a hell of a lot with the sheer scale, insane level of player choice and consequences, wealth of interesting characters, and extremely accomplished world-building, but I just don't feel that special something from the overall story or emotional beats that I do from DA2/ME.
Yeah I'm anxious for ES6 at this point, I'm also tired of the chosen one narratives we've had shoved down our throats since the 2000s. If I have to be another "dragon born, the only human who can see the reapers, the herald who is the only guy to shut gates, John halo, the only survivor of vault tec experiments etc etc" I'm probably going to be incredibly disappointed. Tell me a story where my character is a dude in the universe, and the choices they make effect themselves and not the universe.
This. I suffered through finishing DA2 and its endless repeating labyrinth cave rooms. But the character and narrative writing I have to admit are absolutely amazing. Probably the most mature writing in any DA game, and I don't mean in an Audience-Rating sort of way. It just feels properly emotionally and situationally complex for the events that are being covered. The characters may not be as amusingly stereotypical as some of the other entries, but I'll be damned if they don't feel like actual, fully fleshed-out people. And the situation between the mages and the Templars is done extremely well, imo. You really do feel conflicted about what to do. Ironically, the one place where I didn't end up actually feeling much connection to the character was the player/main character, Hawke, and that's entirely due to the game's switch to the ME-style dialogue system, which ends up really stunting the development of the main character via dialogue.
I'd rank it last too. But it had a solid, down-to-earth story (only one out of those 6 not to have a world-ending chosen one plotline) with some great characters, plus tons of reactivity to your choices in DA Origins.
According to a lot of insider reports, there are many within Bioware who felt that Origins being both good and a massive financial success was the worst thing that ever happened to the company, because that's when management threw all due diligence into the wind in order to ride solely on faith on Bioware Magic.
I am sad but this is honestly for the best. The last game that felt like a "real" Bioware game was 12 years ago. And let's be real the next Mass Effect game probably would be just another let down.
it was a good run...not everything needs to last forever
Veilguard wasn't that bad. Still the fact that it's been this long since the game's announcement and it was classified as early development was a bad sign.
I dunno. If Veilguard wasn't such a miserable failure, Bioware could very well still be in business. However, Bioware was such a shell of it's former self so it's been dead for a while IMO.
Their last truly great game was ME2. I liked ME3 for all its flaws, but it definitely wasn't as good as 2. Inquisition was fine, DA2 was bad, Anthem was historically bad, ME4 was fine at best but too many bugs and weak story/characters plus they fucked up the online mode, Veilguard was trash, and i have no doubt the next Mass Effect would've been the same.
Bioware is long gone and finally the coffin can be closed and lowered down
You could just disregard it like I do. The other day one of my friends said there was four Mass Effect's and i was like, no? And he pulled up Andromeda on google lol. Genuinely forgot it existed. Replayed the trilogy a few times now, still haven't played thru andromeda even once. IMHO the 'last note' is the trilogy remaster.
From memory, I would say it has held up about as well as KOTOR. Graphics, Gameplay, Dialogue, and Story from Bioware in those days were all very similar. The companions probably are the weakest of any of the early games, but still quite good. Especially the archetype of Big Strong Warrior, like Wrex and Canderous Ordo.
The run they had from 1998 to 2014 (Baldur's Gate 1 to Dragon Age: Inquisition) is up there as one of the best ever. So many classic and award winning games that helped to define and craft Western RPGs.
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u/rcs799 8h ago
Well fuck.
But still we got KOTOR and the best damn RPG trilogy of all time.
Thank you Bioware