Dragon Age: Inquisition - The Bear and Badger

Tempy

I wouldn't class Dark Souls, Dragon Age, Skyrim, The Witcher, Fallout, Legends of Grimrock Baldur's Gate, Planescape, Final Fantasy 7, and Dragon Quest together as stable mates - They just exist within the vast, vast spectrum of the RPG genre (which by its definition you could expand to any game where you make or play a specific character...)

To compare a fairly short, action based game with stats, levelling, and a secretive story, to the party based, dungeons and dragons inspired combat and heady lore filled epic of Dragon Age would be utterly remiss. If you went into DS looking for DA, you'd be as disappointed as if you expected vice versa.

And, as Brooks has said before - DS is closer to metroidvania than the olde RPG standard.

stonechalice

Dark Souls is definitely an RPG. In the truest sense of the definition 'role playing game'.

The whole genre description in videogames needs a fucking good shake up.

Dark Soldier

Then Sonic is an RPG, you play the role of a blue hedgehog. Aayy lad.

Tempy

I'd stick it in the action adventure category. You're barely a role, more a cypher in a dead world. There's no speech or charisma category, which a lot of people would argue is integral to a 'role playing' game otherwise you're restricted to a mute person who can only interact with the world via violence - something that for me heftily strips out a vast number of 'roles'

Imagine Baldurs Gate with no dialogue. The whole genre comes from attempts to match D&D, a game system entirely built around talking. Dark Souls is Talisman, or Mage Knight. All business.

hylian_elf

Difficult (and pointless??) to shoehorn a game into a genre nowadays, but interesting to see what a genre means to different people. Dark Souls has enough NPC chatting and side questing, and vast amounts of levelling and shaping your character and number wanging... That I can't place it into any other genre than RPG myself.

TheDJR

Dark Souls is a racing game.

Tempy

The thing about the NPC chatting is that it's not a trad dialogue exchange, it's cryptic lore, it's one way. Your character is voiceless, and folk soliloquy to him. Never wanging doth not the RPG make either, tweaking stats isn't playing a role, and I dunno why it seems to be a genre hang up. Zelda/Metroid is the game's heritage, it just happens to look like a gothic western RPG.

@DJR besides the point but I'd argue a lot of racing games are RPGs if it's all about numbers. Race, level up, get new cars, new courses, get better, rinse repeat.

And yes, it is pointless - as pointless as treating Dark Souls and Dragon Origins as any kind of reference points to each other - they're so vastly opposed it's almost redundant, bar a call for tighter mechanics overall. DA:I has books and books of lore. It is a gilded tapestry to Dark Soul's Turin Shroud of faint perspiration and venerated lore.

[Deleted User]

Gonzo wrote:

If I like mass effect will I like this?

If previous Dragon Age games are anything to go by, no. Coming off of ME last time onto DA: O I found it wasn't my thing. It's not just the high fantasy stuff, it's also the change in tone and shizzle - Shepherd was a hero and a character, but DA lead was a blank mute who people talked at. But I've heard good things about this so maybe they've switched it up.

Kernowgaz

So has anyone tried the mp Yet ?

Bought the deluxe edition for £40 from Game Collection but waiting for delivery. This should be great for remote play on my phone.

Played the trial on the Bone, when you fight you can freeze play and issue orders - is that correct?

stonechalice

Dark Souls has lore flowing all through it's game world. If you like, you can pick any of the NPC's and play through the game as that character on NG+, even down to wearing their armour and using their weapons. You can play as them in a sense. I think that's as true to what an RPG should be as any game.

Each character has an interesting story that you actually want to know about, and you meet them occasionaly through the game, until they meet their inevitable demise. It's one of the things that Dark Souls 2 got so wrong. With the exception of the masked lady, (I forget her name) in Dark Souls 2, you meet an NPC, then they warp back to Majula where they stay forever more, with nothing else to say or do. Their stories were never developed further.

I loved playing as Tarkus and actually making it through the rafters in Anor Londo, instead of falling to his death. There are not enough games that enable you to do this kind of thing.

Watch Vaatis youtube vids on the lore behind the characters and you can get quite into it. The whole cosplay thing in Dark Souls was massive for a while. I feel like I'm fulfilling a role as a character more in Dark Souls than in any other 'RPG'; particularly shite like Skyrim.

That is my idea of what an RPG should be.

stonechalice

Kernowgaz wrote:

So has anyone tried the mp Yet ? Bought the deluxe edition for £40 from Game Collection but waiting for delivery. This should be great for remote play on my phone. Played the trial on the Bone, when you fight you can freeze play and issue orders - is that correct?

What is this remote play and how do I get it to work on my phone????

Kernowgaz

Has to be with a Sony Xperia Z2 or Z3, stream the Ps4 to your phone and you can use your Ps4 controller

stonechalice

Balls. Only Sony then. Cheers Gaz.

Blocks100

While the side-quests are plentiful, I'm not really finding them to be up to the usual Bioware standard. I search for a

Spoiler:

and the rest of the stuff has been fetch quest fodder. Perhaps the companion side quests will offer a bit more depth. I jolly well hope so.

Kernowgaz

Well, played a couple of hours and just got to the Hinterlands, it looks very pretty but I can't wait till most games are next gen only and don't have to consider the older consoles.

Played it via remote play for a bit and it was no major lag, but the writing is quite small. This is going to be great when the wife is watching shite on TV.

Did this star puzzle thing and pressed x and blue beams shot out from the machine, what's that all about?

Chief

Find and complete all Astrarium puzzles on the map and it'll open something...

Skondo

Not feeling this at all so I traded it in at Game today. £41.00 price matched to CEX. Marvellous.

Kernowgaz

Chief wrote:

Find and complete all Astrarium puzzles on the map and it'll open something...

Cheers, are they easy to find?

Spoiler:

acemuzzy

Anyone "finished" this yet? How long to crack through the story?

Chief

Kernowgaz wrote:

Chief wrote:

Find and complete all Astrarium puzzles on the map and it'll open something...

Cheers, are they easy to find?

Spoiler:

I'm guessing there's as many puzzles as stars per each map and they're in the direction your lights shine?

I'm honestly not sure. I think the light shines in the direction of its lock, but I think the Astrariums are actually already on each map as standard.

Dark Soldier

There are 2/3/4/5 of the things on a map, do all of them and it 'unlocks' something on the map which you can go investigate and LOOT.

Raiziel

Gave this another shot this weekend. Switched to playing mostly as Sera and am now having a lot more fun with it. Still has issues such as some Mass Effect Makoesque pain-in-the-arsery when trying to get up some hills, and the whole thing feels a little disjointed. A proper open world and a day/night and weather system would have done wonders.

Blocks100

I think it's often a case of you can't have your cake and eat it with these titles. You either get a grand open world but duff npcs a la Skyrim or a more restricted playground but with better more well-rounded characters.

A question of where the resources go really - do you build worlds (and let the players' imaginary musing paint a tale on the blank canvas npcs that stalk the lands) or do you build believable beings? Despite the advances that DA:I has brought to the series with its semi-open world, Bioware has always been focused on character creation.

Raiziel

I'm not really sure why we can't have both, but if it is a case of resources then fair enough. I'll always prefer a better, more cohesive and immersive world over characters, and so far the characters in this are nothing to write home about.

Dark Soldier

I'm loving the world (24 hours in), loving exploring and fighting and discovering, but I've barely any fucking idea what's going on with the plot. I skip most of the reading/listening, I have zero fucking time for fantasy wank.

stonechalice

Dark Soldier wrote:

I'm loving the world (24 hours in), loving exploring and fighting and discovering, but I've barely any fucking idea what's going on with the plot. I skip most of the reading/listening, I have zero fucking time for fantasy wank.

And you're playing this???

Holy hell.

Dark Soldier

Yes, because I'm enjoying the fact I can play it at my own pace, the hubs are large with a shit ton to do, the combat is Diablo level relaxing easiness and its just a solid world to inhabit. That and I'm trying to fuck every NPC I find, been rejected twice by two hulking men of phwoar.

Chief

I could spend weeks just wandering around the Hinterlands. I'm on my second visit to the area and I still have so much unexplored map space, it's immense.

Kernowgaz

Chief wrote:

I could spend weeks just wandering around the Hinterlands. I'm on my second visit to the area and I still have so much unexplored map space, it's immense.

I've played 8 hrs and only been there and only done the first mission

Spoiler:

.

Saw my first dragon and died within seconds. Really enjoying it though but not sure of the plot already

Bollockoff

Dark Soldier wrote:

Yes, because I'm enjoying the fact I can play it at my own pace, the hubs are large with a shit ton to do, the combat is Diablo level relaxing easiness and its just a solid world to inhabit. That and I'm trying to fuck every NPC I find, been rejected twice by two hulking men of phwoar.

They could probably tell you don't care about their character depth.

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