Saving Thedas, Again.

Ok I've spent way too much time on Dragon Age: Inquisition since its release a little over a week ago. But since I've been off work I've had the hours to play it and unfortunately those have been the same hours that I could have used for doll photography... Not like there has been much sunlight to take photos with though. But anyway, since there's nothing new in the dolly front, I'll give some of my thoughts on this game and how I know I've been playing it too much. Ok, I'll just spoil that one so you won't be disappointed later, I even had a dream where other me was battling some Thedas demon(s) with some familiar entourage.

I'll start with non-spoiler notes, then give a warning for the possible story-spoiler section and then go on to the personal stuff.



So first off, they have indeed improved on some of the issues from DA2. There's no "have they reused the same fucking three maps for all the hundred dungeons I have to loot through?" or "if this handsome grumpy elf is supposed to be so in love with me then why on Thedas hasn't he got anything better than 'I follow you' to say to me?". Gameplay is even more streamlined than with DA2, which infuriates Valentine who would have liked to know which attribute contributes to which statistic (as well as probably assign his own attribute points), but which suits me fine since all my battles are about pushing random buttons anyway. They have gotten ridden of sustained abilities, but powered-up passive abilities, don't really know which is better. There's plenty more to do and the sidequests at least seem a bit more varied than 'found this loot now I'll find who it belongs to'. The main additions on things-to-do are however riding a horse (not really worth it, my Dalish can pretty much run that speed and you can't pick up anything from horseback so that slows you down) and smithing. Now crafting your own armor and weapons is neat and gives balanced results to found loot. But the game is giving you a hard time comparing the craftable items to your equipped items... When thinking of bying a new and kinda expensive schematics you have no easy way of telling how much damage/armor the item is going to have. You'd actually have to jot down the needed amount of materials shown on the schematic and then go through your crafting materials to add them up. And when you have a schematic and you're making a let's say armor, then you can see the armor value it can have with the materials you possess, but it doesn't have a way to peek at your current armor. So I need to go through all my companions, take down the values of their weapons and armor before I even go to the crafting bench... Such a hassle... :( But I've managed to give my girl a nice bloodstone armor that has a nice red sheen to it :)

The maps are huge. I mean I spent a day just running around one of them. Not even getting all the quests done, but at least supposedly finding all the caves and such. But given that hugeness, I would have expected my dear inquisition to provide me with a better map. That actually would show the ridges that I can't cross, the obvious roads that take me easily from A to B. And you know, a blueprint to my own fucking castle so I don't seem like the most sorry inquisitor having gotten lost in my own place when one of my companion's cutscene leaves me stranded on a wall somewhere... I have used up so much time just running around, trying to figure out how to get to that particular spot on the map only to find out that oh, I actually was supposed to be going down and  few miles west to find a cave that leads to a tunnel that goes there.

Then: SPOILER ALERT!!!!

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I'm also a bit underwhelmed by the companions... Maybe I was spoiled by the amazing friends Hawke had, but these guys are bit meh in comparison. Sure they all seem to have intricate backstories, secrets and distinct personalities, but I just can't get too interested in most of them. Vivienne is by far the most interesting, Cole is super in his very peculiar way and Dorian is my new gay bff (I laugh so hard at anything he says!). Sadly, none of them are a match for my inquisitor...

I have to say though that I was positively surprised by many of them, so maybe I just had a bad attitude from the start or something. Vivi and Dory and most glaring. I was thinking the first would have been a stuck-up (well, she kinda is and she still hasn't delivered on her constant promkses to get me better outfits :P ) and the second too sleazy, but no, love them both. I really want to become good friends with Cole who is super sweet, but somehow the dialogue wheel isn't giving me the options I'm looking for. I miss getting the icons from DA2, which told me straight up the tone of the reply I was going to choose, since at times the short version just doesn't tell me enough. Not too many fuck-ups yet with the dialogue though. The tones are in the same averige places than with previous Bioware games so I can pretty much guess what I'm going to say. But at times I've been much more harsh than I had wanted to be... Poor Cullen, I was just trying to ask him nicely to please stay careful and I ended up being all bitchy and 'don't let this happen again'.

And yes, Cullen. I was so determined not to romance him, on the account of all the fangirling around him from the previous games. You know, seemed like too muh bandwagoning or something. But in the end, he lured me in... I was flirting a couple of characters but Cullen with his 'I was worried about you even if it sounds stupid (me being the girl who slays demons for a living)' and that sweet voice of his (I'm a sucker for good voices) just won me over in the end. And comoon, he rushing away from the card table in his birthday suit was priceless. XD He is a sweet guy, who doesn't play too heavy on the 'I was a tortured templar and my new Knight-Commander happened to be driven insane by red lyrium'. So he isn't as angsty about his past like Fenris, who milked that former-slave cow dry (still love him though), although he would have very much equal right to complain about mages. Cute in the scarred rough sort of way. :3

Warning: MAJOR SPOILER!!

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I haven't yet met my hero from DAO, but the first hint of Hawke already put a smile on my lips. And she delivered :) Since the Keep asked me about the way my Hawke used to talk (sarcastic, of course), she kept the same tone in the Inquisition. At times I caught her using a bow instead of her usual daggers, but that I can let slide... Still waiting for Leliana to find my Warden-Queen so that I'll see if she's really mute or will surprise me.

With the choices I've made in Inquisition has meant that I haven't met king Alistair, but I saw him in Valentine's playthrough and I'm not impressed :( He didn't really even sound like himself... Or maybe that was from him standing next to Anora... He is adorable in his letters though. Or his scribes are ;) Something witty something something, wait did that just write itself?! :D

I'm kinda playing with the idea of making a world history with Anora as queen, Ali in the Wardens and some dispensable Hawke, just to see if Alistair will then replace Stroud in the events. But I really mean that then Hawke has to be dispensable. Even though my Inquisitor won't have any attachement to either person, I myself couldn't bare the choice between the sweetest Warden ever and Fenris' lover (nevermind I couldn't sleep while thinking that the tempered elf would come to retaliate, he can be scary when angered!)... But I'm only toying with the idea, since even the thought of replaying all that map scrounging is killing me already. And I simply couldn't skip the sidequests and just go through the main story, I just can't keep those extra missions blinking at me :(

Varric is as cool as ever but the story behind Bianca was a bit underwhelming. At least for now, I dunno if there'll be more still. But Varric pissing off Cassandra has been the single most entertaining scene so far. But he had it coming... I understand why he did it, but really, do not lie to a bloody Seeker if you want to keep your hide intact :D

I'm still a bit sad that none of the DA games have had romanceable dwarves. Unless the character him/herself is a dwarf. Ok, I don't think Ohgren was such a catch, but there are many other dwarves out there, even if Varric wants to be spoken for :( Dwarves have in general been very interesting in the series, not too Tolkieny and with more to them that just lust for gold...

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END OF SPOILERS, and onto the dream bit.

PERSONAL STUFF WARNING :P

So last night reveiled to me that Other-Me had somehow found her way into Thedas as well, and had gotten herself into quite a pickle. This dream was very vivid, but at times it looked like I was still very much playing a game, as in I saw a minimap in the corner of my eye as if I was playing with some sort of virtual glasses. So I knew that Other-Me was about to face the boss. Or bosses, actually. They were twin demons, who could turn into invulnerable smoke and move at very high-speed. Most of my companions were dead, but I know Vivienne and maybe it was Cullen were still with me. But we had no way to match the demons. I needed something to distract them, to make them solid and vulnerable again.

And my saviour appeared. I knew that he was a spirit that was manifesting as a human. A tall (well, taller than I usually imagine him to be, maybe 180-185cm now), very scrawny young man with cheekbones high enough to almost burst through his pale skin which was emphasised by how he had his very deep, bright red hair combed back. (So the human shaped solid-looking spirit was pretty much like Cole and the hair was styled like Sebastian Vael. He was rogueish, but a magic user.) Other-Me recalled that she had herself helped the spirit exit the Fade for the first time and had given him his heartbeat, so making him somewhat alive.

For some reason I couldn't quite grasp his name in the dream, so I think Other-Me was calling him Vael (maybe because of the hair, although the goody boy Sebastian never had that almost murderous grin this guy was continually sporting on his face). As soon as I woke up though I knew who he had been: Fyrd. Sure the hair was a bit different, the voice softer than usually (or maybe it was just his tone), but that might also be because he seemed a bit older than what I usually describe him to be. But lets face it, Fyrd can change appearance at will, so a little different isn't too surprising. Btw, he didn't look anything like the Fyrd-doll I have. He has much sharper features compared to the LM Demetri sculpt. But thenagain, a doll like the real man would be creepy as hell. I sure wouldn't want one to sit on my shelf... So the toned-down cuter version will do just fine for me :) The 'making him solid/living' part gave me a few chuckles though since yeah, technically that is quite true, he wouldn't 'exist' without me.

It was strangely good to see him. Especially with the demon situation going on and him offering to go out as the bait. Out of my options he was surely the one who would most likely survive it. I was still worried sick for him, hugging him tight (hearing that heartbeat I was talking about) before letting him go on his own. And I was fretting so much watching his health bar drop down notch by notch when the demons got to him... But the rest of us flanked their asses off and won! And then I woke up, not getting the chance to say thanks or goodbuy to Fyrd.

But that face... I hope I'll keep on remembering it. He looked quite like what Ford Prefect (one the characters who have been the inspiration to Fyrd) is originally described to look like.

Anyway, having spend the whole day trying to write this up (in pieces when I have had breaks from work), maybe it is time to wrap it up. DA:I, if you're into the series, it is great although lenghty. I (still) have weird dreams.