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.
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.
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u/Emuselg 6h ago
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.