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.
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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