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pyrokinesis) wrote2011-03-15 11:45 am
pyrokinesis) wrote2011-03-15 11:45 am
Dragon Age II - Here there be spoilers!
First of all, an apology to my WoW friends that have probably been missing me since the game came out. I completely lack the ability to focus on more than one game (among other things) in my life, and thus.. I've been absorbed. That and I really enjoyed the game. *cough*
So before I start my wrap-up, a story! I originally pre-ordered my game through Steam, because I wanted to make sure I had the dog. Seriously, it was mostly the dog I was after. When the game unlocked, however, comedy ensued. For some reason I have two Bioware Social accounts. I think it has something to do with wondering why I would ever use email account A for something like that, and then when email account B didn't work, I created a new account because well, something must be wrong.
Naturally I had logged into the wrong account when it came time to apply the DLC codes. I suppose normally this wouldn't matter so much except for the part where my ME2 and DA:O stuff is all on the first account. And I like to keep it all together. So I waited most of the night to petition someone via live chat (being far too impatient for email). I figured it was a long shot but maybe if I asked someone nice they'd fix me up, right?
Well, Victor (if that was really his name) was pretty amazing. Basically he made new codes for me to put in. The fun part is where he asked if I had the Signature Edition. I suspected I didn't, but I told him I had whatever Steam had on pre-order. I got Signature Edition stuff anyway.
Overall, I spent a huge amount of time in game - though on reflection a good part of that was vendor bugging, exploration, afk time, and "god dammit I didn't want to lose 15 approval need to redo that".
Basically my game ended a mess. Though, given the nature of things have to wonder if that part was avoidable at all. *cough*
To start, I played a female rogue (Yes that's Leliana hair. It was... disorienting when she showed up.) Dual Weapon/Assassin/Shadow with a couple points in Sabotage and Subterfuge for utility.
Default party was Aveline, Merrill, Anders. I'd bring Varric and/or Isabela for some of the shadier things, rather than the Captain of the Guard.
Major things:
Bethany stayed behind for Deep Roads. Frankly, I was finding her boring as a character already. In the end I guess it worked out ok for her as I don't remember her dying in the final battle. :P I do wonder who the templars would have kidnapped to get my attention otherwise, though.
Romance: Anders. I know some of you guys are hating on him, but, well, maybe it is indicative of my tastes. *sigh* To that end, I did spare him after the Chantry mess . So, now Seb has vowed vengeance on me and all of Kirkwall. I'm sure that will end well somewhere. To complete the romance, I told Anders I'd run off with him after the whole mess was sorted. I guess Aveline missed that when she said he'd have to turn himself in when the battle was over.
Isabela also fucked off on me. I hadn't been nurturing our friendship very well, and when I told her she couldn't keep the relic, she pissed off. And then never returned. This combined with a lack of the Arishok's respect (I'm assuming) meant having to kill every damn Qunari in the keep. OMG. I was not happy with that outcome.
Aveline's romance was so so so painful. It was one of the few things I did have Isabela around for, though I had to kick her out of the party at a couple points because she was antagonizing Aveline so much. As LG as Aveline is, her loyalty grew on me, and once she was locked in as a friend, it was all sweet.
Killing the elves made me sad. And the keeper. OMG. If Anders is in the party with you when you take care of all that, he tells Merrill off hardcore. They're usually bickering a little anyway because of the blood magic (where Merrill will sweetly remind him he's probably closer to being an abomination than her), but that was a little intense.
By Act III I was very staunchly anti-Meredith, so it frustrated me that despite speaking very openly about that, so many of the Templars/Circle Mages wanted to kill me. Was like, can't we talk first?
Back to the Chantry mess, that mostly pissed me off because the Grand Cleric, for all the faults of the organisation, was a genuinely good woman, and I was really liking her level-headed perspective on things. She was to me what the church SHOULD be. I really wish she had left Kirkwall when Seb implored her to. Favourite was when she told Meredith to go back to the Templar area "like a good girl".
Sebastian, augh. Too too Chantry. Add in that I liked having Anders in the party (for healing and general supporter of the mages angle), and it was painful. Seb + Anders = So much bickering in party banter. So... Seb was also mostly ignored. I'd have felt worse about that if I actually paid for him. >_<
Other things:
Little cut-scenes in the house involving the party and the dog were pretty awesome. I especially enjoyed Sandal's conversation with him. (Speaking of Sandal - uh, anyone else rather amused how matter-of-fact his placement was during the final battle?)
I think the haunted house quest (Varric, Act III) was my favourite. I squeed so much whilst I was in there. So much love for the floating barrels/chairs and character commentary. Anders: "Andraste's flaming knickers!"
I have a lot of love for the rogue combat animations. I really enjoyed jumping around the battlefield. That said, similar to DA:O, I spent a lot of time controlling my healer to make sure the heals went off properly. (And in this case that he could play as Vengeance when the healing wasn't needed.) There were also several cursings of Merrill. It took a bit for me to realise just HOW AWESOME her spell that lets her port to a party member is for getting her out of trouble.
Managed most of the game on normal difficulty, which is probably a step up for me. High dragon was the only part I turned down to casual, and that was for frustration of having attempted it so many times. In retrospect, if I had given my rogue a bow for the parts where the dragon was on the ground sooner, I probably could have had it.
Merrill made a crack somewhere in there about missing the Qunari because she found them easy on the eyes. I lolled.
I think that's most of it? I might edit more in or mention it in comments if I think of it.
One last completely non spoilery note: All my DA/ME Kaidra's look really similar I realised. Short red hair (bob, not pixie), green eyes. My ME2 Kaidra has some renegade scarring... DAII Kaidra has nice tattoos. But otherwise.. yeah... Cousland, Shepard and Hawke... I'm a creature of habit.
So before I start my wrap-up, a story! I originally pre-ordered my game through Steam, because I wanted to make sure I had the dog. Seriously, it was mostly the dog I was after. When the game unlocked, however, comedy ensued. For some reason I have two Bioware Social accounts. I think it has something to do with wondering why I would ever use email account A for something like that, and then when email account B didn't work, I created a new account because well, something must be wrong.
Naturally I had logged into the wrong account when it came time to apply the DLC codes. I suppose normally this wouldn't matter so much except for the part where my ME2 and DA:O stuff is all on the first account. And I like to keep it all together. So I waited most of the night to petition someone via live chat (being far too impatient for email). I figured it was a long shot but maybe if I asked someone nice they'd fix me up, right?
Well, Victor (if that was really his name) was pretty amazing. Basically he made new codes for me to put in. The fun part is where he asked if I had the Signature Edition. I suspected I didn't, but I told him I had whatever Steam had on pre-order. I got Signature Edition stuff anyway.
Overall, I spent a huge amount of time in game - though on reflection a good part of that was vendor bugging, exploration, afk time, and "god dammit I didn't want to lose 15 approval need to redo that".
Basically my game ended a mess. Though, given the nature of things have to wonder if that part was avoidable at all. *cough*
To start, I played a female rogue (Yes that's Leliana hair. It was... disorienting when she showed up.) Dual Weapon/Assassin/Shadow with a couple points in Sabotage and Subterfuge for utility.
Default party was Aveline, Merrill, Anders. I'd bring Varric and/or Isabela for some of the shadier things, rather than the Captain of the Guard.
Major things:
Bethany stayed behind for Deep Roads. Frankly, I was finding her boring as a character already. In the end I guess it worked out ok for her as I don't remember her dying in the final battle. :P I do wonder who the templars would have kidnapped to get my attention otherwise, though.
Romance: Anders. I know some of you guys are hating on him, but, well, maybe it is indicative of my tastes. *sigh* To that end, I did spare him after the Chantry mess . So, now Seb has vowed vengeance on me and all of Kirkwall. I'm sure that will end well somewhere. To complete the romance, I told Anders I'd run off with him after the whole mess was sorted. I guess Aveline missed that when she said he'd have to turn himself in when the battle was over.
Isabela also fucked off on me. I hadn't been nurturing our friendship very well, and when I told her she couldn't keep the relic, she pissed off. And then never returned. This combined with a lack of the Arishok's respect (I'm assuming) meant having to kill every damn Qunari in the keep. OMG. I was not happy with that outcome.
Aveline's romance was so so so painful. It was one of the few things I did have Isabela around for, though I had to kick her out of the party at a couple points because she was antagonizing Aveline so much. As LG as Aveline is, her loyalty grew on me, and once she was locked in as a friend, it was all sweet.
Killing the elves made me sad. And the keeper. OMG. If Anders is in the party with you when you take care of all that, he tells Merrill off hardcore. They're usually bickering a little anyway because of the blood magic (where Merrill will sweetly remind him he's probably closer to being an abomination than her), but that was a little intense.
By Act III I was very staunchly anti-Meredith, so it frustrated me that despite speaking very openly about that, so many of the Templars/Circle Mages wanted to kill me. Was like, can't we talk first?
Back to the Chantry mess, that mostly pissed me off because the Grand Cleric, for all the faults of the organisation, was a genuinely good woman, and I was really liking her level-headed perspective on things. She was to me what the church SHOULD be. I really wish she had left Kirkwall when Seb implored her to. Favourite was when she told Meredith to go back to the Templar area "like a good girl".
Sebastian, augh. Too too Chantry. Add in that I liked having Anders in the party (for healing and general supporter of the mages angle), and it was painful. Seb + Anders = So much bickering in party banter. So... Seb was also mostly ignored. I'd have felt worse about that if I actually paid for him. >_<
Other things:
Little cut-scenes in the house involving the party and the dog were pretty awesome. I especially enjoyed Sandal's conversation with him. (Speaking of Sandal - uh, anyone else rather amused how matter-of-fact his placement was during the final battle?)
I think the haunted house quest (Varric, Act III) was my favourite. I squeed so much whilst I was in there. So much love for the floating barrels/chairs and character commentary. Anders: "Andraste's flaming knickers!"
I have a lot of love for the rogue combat animations. I really enjoyed jumping around the battlefield. That said, similar to DA:O, I spent a lot of time controlling my healer to make sure the heals went off properly. (And in this case that he could play as Vengeance when the healing wasn't needed.) There were also several cursings of Merrill. It took a bit for me to realise just HOW AWESOME her spell that lets her port to a party member is for getting her out of trouble.
Managed most of the game on normal difficulty, which is probably a step up for me. High dragon was the only part I turned down to casual, and that was for frustration of having attempted it so many times. In retrospect, if I had given my rogue a bow for the parts where the dragon was on the ground sooner, I probably could have had it.
Merrill made a crack somewhere in there about missing the Qunari because she found them easy on the eyes. I lolled.
I think that's most of it? I might edit more in or mention it in comments if I think of it.
One last completely non spoilery note: All my DA/ME Kaidra's look really similar I realised. Short red hair (bob, not pixie), green eyes. My ME2 Kaidra has some renegade scarring... DAII Kaidra has nice tattoos. But otherwise.. yeah... Cousland, Shepard and Hawke... I'm a creature of habit.
no subject
I guess overall though she may have been the most harmless person to kidnap. Fenris may have just ripped their hearts out :P
Killing the Dalish made me super sad... I read later that if you take blame for what happened that they don't all attack you and you can get out without murdering every single elf lol. I haven't tried it for myself though.
The thing with Anders at the end upset me SO MUCH. So not cool, Anders. I was really displeased with that whole thing, and killing the Grand Cleric was pretty much the worst possible thing he could have done. Yeah, because it was the Chantry specifically that was causing you so much trouble. Right. I ended up killing him though because I didn't want Sebastian to leave my party, and I wasn't cool with harboring a terrorist in my group :( I didn't romance Anders though and his radicalism was really driving me crazy the longer the game went on. I'm all for mage rights but... dude... taking it too far there mister.
no subject
I guess I could tolerate some of the radicalism a little more on the understanding that a good many of his views were being warped by Justice (who was always a bit of a hardass, from memory). Like Mitch (dear god my head), I almost want to play through Origins/Awakening again for some of that. There were other moments throughout the game that if he was along you got a little more insight on just how much of him was Anders and how much was Justice/Vengeance. :/
Well that and Merrill was usually pretty quick to take him down a peg during general party banter.
Of course, one could also argue that Sebastian's reaction (harbouring war on an entire city for one person's actions - vs hunting down the individual for his own justice) is a bit extreme and probably no better than the crime Anders committed.
Honestly in a second play through, I'd still have a hard time allying with the Templars for anything. Even knowing about the source of Meredith's crazy, since I figure the corruption was only being augmented by it (from earlier commentary before the Deep Roads)
RE: The Dalish... If I did a real save (curse you quick save) I might take a peek at that to see if it works. Else, well, second play through incoming. The decision then is mage or warrior! (And do I import the same game or take different choices :P Or just play Origins/Awakening again for all new ones!)
Also.. I'm surprised Aveline didn't rip their hearts out either, though I suppose she's got more politics to think of as well. XD
no subject
Anders did change a lot from Awakening and it was pretty sad to see. I mean, he was just a normal apostate in Awakening and then became a Grey Warden and pretty much avoided his fate there. But then he ran away from the wardens and took Justice into himself and then fucked up Justice pretty bad lol. I actually don't remember Justice being particularly extreme in Awakening but I'm honestly not sure how much I used him, because I ended up respeccing my warden warrior into a tank because otherwise I didn't have one!
Glad to hear that you can indeed avoid the disaster with the Dalish... I'll have to give it a try next time!
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Mental note for next time then!
no subject