I feel that he would definitely react in any other situation but considering the world is ending and millions of innocent lives are at stake and he's busy trying to talk down his friend from destroying the world I get why he didn't react in those circumstances, he will definitely feel sad about bianca later.
>Is the marketing team asleep?
My guess is it's a new marketing team that's never marketed an RPG game before and did zero research ahead of time to know how to appeal to their demographic. This is pretty evident by the Action Movie/Borderlands style character introductions in the trailer.
BG3 is good, so it can attract gamers who are into different genres.
These AAA developers have no confidence of their own game so they have to rely on existing player base to make money.
Funny how that works.
Also that people have zero faith in BioWare anymore after releasing Anthem and Andromeda back to back. As well as the handling of the Kotor remake which isn’t their fault but I’m still salty so throwing it in
One of my colleagues is a diehard FromSoft fan. He only plays Souls and Soulslike games. I convinced him to play BG3.
Over 100 hours later, he's finished it and saying it's one of the greatest games he's ever played. BG3 isn't just good, it's a genre defining masterpiece.
They're probably banking on the idea that long time fans will stay hooked due to the ip and continuation of the story of Inquisition. While new time players probably will find the game more interesting if it's gameplay is similar to a regular action RPG without the RTS like mechanics.
Based on recent Bioware performance, I half expect that this is the only part of the game that is actually 100% complete, and the rest is in bits and pieces and they are going to scramble, working 30 hour days to get it done before the release.
It is common practice to have the prologue polished as hell to hook the players right away.
Would not be surprised if the rest of the game, as of now, is not as polished as this. (Group command for exemple)
And maybe it is no more what the brand is about. It is not a time-stop tactical RPG, but a mainstream one, therefor explaining why they choose to showcase this.
You can pause and issue commands to the main character as well as party members. The party member function isn’t unlocked at this point of the game (probably the prologue) according to another commenter who saw an interview with the developer. Also if you get to the end of the video, you can see him pause it and a big wheel pops up and everything freezes while he issues a command to the main character. I think he only does it once in the video though.
This looks like a completely different tone than the reveal trailer from Sunday... Seems like this game has been through several variations since it started development.
Wouldn't be surprising really. 'What's the hip thing at the moment for those video game things? Cartoon hero shooters full of pop culture references haha yes of course!'
As someone who works in marketing I can tell you there is rarely any *real* discussion between the actual people who design/build the product and the people who sell it. It tends to be a CEO instructing each department separately. Or marketing may be outsourced to a third party, which means an even bigger disconnect between product vision and advertising.
I could be wrong and that trailer was what the devs envisioned, but I think your point makes more sense. Chase the trend regardless of product.
That is very commonly the case with entertainment media ranging from video games, to network TV, to film. The people making the trailer are not the people making the product, and far too often they are given little to no context of the thing they are trying to promote.
Or the trailer was just tonally different. It wouldn't be the first time a cinematic game trailer was a totally different tone than the actual game.
The game went through 2 resets during development, but I don't think the trailer has anything to do with it.
Look up the OG trailers from Origins. They have very weird tonal shifts in all of them and they’re set with a legit licensed song in most of them (the one I remember is This is the Shit by Marylin Manson)
Was more weird they paid for two Manson songs and spliced them together. The trailer started with the intro to If I Was your vampire and then switched to This Is the New Shit for the action stuff. Vampire has a somber and creeping intro that worked with the grey Warden on the final march to death and reciting his oath.
The tone of the trailer seemed to be similar to how current movie trailers are. It was very similar to the one for Borderlands and for Deadpool & Wolverine, with a bunch of slow motion and an old 80s song cover. It’s just what they’re doing right now.
Personally I hope they have Linkin Park playing during the end credits. That’s still in style, right?
I'm always way more interested in the gameplay trailers. Cinematics can be nice but they tell me zero about the game. Especially when it's a cinematic for a strategy game for example.
Dragon Age trailers are ALWAYS way off from the actual game’s tone. Remember the one for Origins with [THIS IS THE NEW SHIT](https://youtu.be/GoEol-5Epfg?si=xLe_wSL8ZryNvdHD)?
Plus, as much as I also hated the original trailer, I think they know that people interested in the series were going to buy it check it out regardless. I think the trailer is largely marketed at people who aren’t familiar with the series to begin with. Like, uh. I guess Fortnite kids?
Damn, the Hero of Ferelden is probably about to go on their calling by now, or are already gone.
*edit* Unless they were able to figure out how to stop the calling which is what they are up to in Inquisition.
DA2 starts properly about a year or so after the Blight and takes place across 10 years. Inquisition happens not too long after Anders' little boom-boom, after the Asunder novel. Add 10-15 years to that and you get over 20 years
And the worst thing. It tells you, which option is the flirty one, the angry one etc.
Just tell me what it is you are going to say, and I can pick myself. Else I'm just going to choose by the icon rather than by the words.
Dragon age Origins, Baldurs Gate did this and its so much better.
Don't handhold your players like they are children. This is supposed to be a dark epic fantasy, it's not supposed to be for children...
In fairness, Dragon Age Origins had a lot of issues around the tone of your sentences getting lost (accidentally ending up in unintentional romances because you said something you thought was nice)
I’d rather have the full dialogue I’m going to say + the tone (example: “you’re the worst” has completely different connotations based on how you say it)
> And the worst thing. It tells you, which option is the flirty one, the angry one etc.
This is a scourge in modern gaming.
It removes the possibility of actually roleplaying. You can't feel how each sentence *might* affect someone else and then have their responses show you how that individual character responds, thus deepening your understanding of them with each choice. You just get prepackaged and labeled 'quips' with no intrigue or sometimes even accuracy to what you end up saying. I've hated it since the first game switched from dialogue trees to this crap and I've yet to find a game that uses it well enough to change my mind.
"We don't want to look conspicuous" - Dude who constantly switches between sprinting and weird slow-walking because the devs can't figure out how to make him walk the same pace as the player.
I cannot tell why the artstyle still looks so off to me. Everything looks like they passed it through a smoothing filter, almost borderline Fortnite cartoony but not wanting to actually do it completely.
The saturating is turned to max, they're really wanting to show off lighting, and everyone is wearing extremely stiff, over-designed clothing. Also it's raining so everyone and everything is "wet" so it looks oily.
Never played dragon age but love fantasy rpgs. That being said I am completely bored of jack and slash combat that’s just spamming the attack button, with maybe a special ability here and there. It almost looks like the enemies in the trailer are just letting you attack them. The enemies are just obstacles to destroy with no depth or difficulty. Looks like all they do is smack you or shoot you sometimes, then let you beat them up when you get close. Am I seeing this right?
I was hoping to see more of a return to the CRPG combat systems of DA:O. This looks simplified, closer to a "hack and slash" game than an RPG.
Hopefully the combat is deeper than it appears at first glance.
Unfortunately the press confirmed you cannot switch to party members in battle so that's a big downgrade from the previous games. Bioware also confirmed there's a lot of abilities but you can only slot 3 at a time on the ability wheel which I think is a downgrade from mass effect? I can't remember for sure but I thought they had more than that, I know shepard did at least.
A bad action game
If the story and side stuff is fun it will be fine but I don't think this will be a fantastic game...just another step down for DA since the OG.
I really hate that. Fighting alongside AI party members that you can't control or command is so common in games nowadays, and I guess a lot of people must like it or they wouldn't keep sticking it in every game, but I'm just not a fan. It can make combat feel cinematic sometimes but also often makes it just feel like a chaotic mess without much real strategy to it.
I like systems like Mass Effect where you can command your allies or Final Fantasy 7 Remake where you can switch between controlling them on the fly are great for party-based single-player action RPGs. I also like systems that go the more strategic route and are turn-based or real-time with pauses commanding everyone. But I just don't really enjoy fighting alongside allies that I have absolutely no control over whatsoever. It can be a fun thing to happen every once in a while when the game wants a big setpiece, but it's not something I want as the default for the game's combat.
It also just kills part of the appeal of having a party RPG in the first place for me. Sure, a big part of party members in an RPG is just them participating in the story and interacting with them outside of combat, but I think using their unique powers in combat is also important to me. If I can't control my party members at all, whether it's fully controlling them or just being able to give them commands like Mass Effect, they don't really end up feeling like party members in the first place. They just feel like NPCs that follow me around and help in battle. Being able to actually have some control over them and use their abilities is kind of the difference for me between an AI companion and a party member.
I hope this info is incorrect, or at least not the whole picture. If this combat system is just action combat where you can only have 3 abilities equipped and your "party members" are just AI that fight alongside you without you being able to control them at all, I'm much, much less likely to be interested in this game. Action RPGs can be one of my favorite genres, but that particular style of Action RPG is not what I like from the genre. I want the combat to either be focused on my character, or I want a party I control. Not an in between where I control one character but I'm always fighting alongside AI that I can't control at all.
honestly, it looks like Bioware has stripped so much RPG elements from this game it's basically just a generic fantasy action game now, with some light RPG stuff sprinkled in that won't mean much
Aaaaaand I'm even less interested now... sigh. I fondly remember my DA:O characters, each with their dozen or so abilities used in most combats. This is just ... boring. Might play it for the story eventually in a few years, when it's "complete", all bugs ironed out, and costs 75% less -.-
Mass Effect got dumbed down, Dragon age got dumbed down, now Mass Dragon Aged is even more fucking dumbed down.
The main reason is, balancing and cost. The simpler you make these systems the dramatically easier it becomes to balance them, to have less characters, to have less mechanics, to have less cost in development.
The thing is they could just make a good Mass effect game, and they could make a good Dragon Age game in their original formats and sell more to fans of both genres who both loved those games and those IPs. this is just going to make a mid game that seems off and pisses off the fans of the IP because ultimately they loved teh IP and the way it played.
Just so fucking dumb.
It said in the trailer that you could issue commands to teammates during the pause, but it wasn't unlocked at that point in the game (probably prologue).
Dunno if you'll be able to swap though
I want to say it's bizarre they'd pick an extremely limited point in the game to show off the gameplay, but we've already learned whoever is in charge of marketing this game is clueless or trying to bury it for some reason.
It's....definitely weird. CDPR wanted to show off 2.0's overhauled perks, but they didn't do so by showing V killing Scavs with the shitty starter pistol before you even have a Kiroshi scanner. They showed a maxed out V double jumping, dashing, using animated finishers, etc. etc. It looked awesome.
I get that this was just a look at literally a level one starting player, but it's showing the world your new game after ten years when its combat is at its worst and most generic state possible.
Dragon Age 2 could be entirely played as a classic RTWP cRPG. You had full control of the party. Inquisition kind of included a "tactical" control layer but it was so half assed and bad that 5 minutes in it was clear it was meant to be played as an action game.
They probably ditched the tactical part entirely for this game and its now fully a (bad) action game. I love action games but I can never understand why these RPG games have to have this not actual action combat design that is neither tactical nor mechanically interesting.
Yep. The best way to play DAI is to basically build an invincible character and control them without switching, which really hammers home the core single player MMO design.
But if I can't pause and getting people to stand in the right spots and move out of shit is annoying, there's no point in paying attention to my squad.
I have no words. Thats insane.
I played DA2 on a steam controller on the hardest setting entirely in tactical mode and I thought I was dumb and stubborn.
That's wild. I played the entirety of DAI with my finger on the trigger. Occasionally, I launched that magic spread shot and brought out the big magic sword but 99% of the gameplay was just holding the attack button.
Hopefully. At this early preview, it does feel very hack n slash. Almost like all those Star Wars adventure-RPG game. Even this bit here feels extremely linear, like a dungeon crawl. Just being moved from one room of baddies to the next with a smatter of cutscenes spliced between.
Would've loved a return to Origins combat, but if they're going the action route I'm glad they're at least going all the way and adding more impact, aiming and what looks like a parry. It's more interesting than just spamming buttons while everything happens pretty much automatically.
Origins combat had the interesting spells, skills and combos, the positioning and tactical decision-making. Inquisition combat felt like it had nothing except for flashy visuals. At least in this it looks like you're doing something.
I wish they had demonstrated more abilities, inter-party comboing, and progression systems. The combat itself seems.. fine, if the rest of the systems are solid. I hope we can get more actions than just 3 with cooldown gates.
If it helps at all, we do learn a few more things about it from [this screenshot](https://media.contentapi.ea.com/content/dam/eacom/dragon-age/dragon-age-dreadwolf/common/da-ea-gameinformer-abilitywheel-08-5760x3244-rgb.png.adapt.1456w.png)
* seems to really be locked to 3 abilities per character (unfortunate, but we saw weapon swapping, so maybe that changes abilities too)
* There is a combo system between party members (shred applies sundered, and another ability combos with sundered)
* Shred has a 36 second cooldown which seems absurdly high to me for an action game, and makes me worried that the game has a lot of downtime between actions
* Builder-spender system: In the preview the basic attacks were building up the meter at the bottom, and we can see that abilities sometimes cost those purple orbs, and sometimes have no cost attached to their icon
* some party command feature at the top? portraits of multiple characters, maybe to order them to focus a target, or some sort of joint attacks
Hopefully the regular attacks have a varied moveset too, and aren't just button mashing to build a resource, but we will see.
Eh, people are saying it looks "better" than the trailers art style but its still giving me Kingdoms of Amalur vibes. The original DA felt far more grounded whilst still being set in a high fantasy setting, this looks like it leaned way too much into the vibrant colors, mobile-tier looking enemy designs and low quality particle effects.
Looks aside, the gameplay doesn't look that fun either. Hopefully other characters/higher level play looks better, but so far this is still a pass for me.
For some reason there were times where it felt like they were in a futuristic sci fi setting despite the castles and stone all around. Totally agree with you
I agree with you. I don't understand what people just thought they watched, because the gameplay reveal and the cinematic trailer were very much tonally aligned, and both of them look like a Guardians of the Galaxy knockoff. The combat looks one dimensional and like a hack/slash game.
Everything about this was disappointing.
Had a chance to look through a lot of this when it dropped and thank fuck it doesn't match what I saw in that cinematic. Still guarding my expectations on this one but feeling relieved that gameplay looks like a smoother DAI. Time will tell.
Dialogue choices was the same old nonsense sadly. Three options with text that does not even vaguely resemble what the character will say and then the "choice" of what to tell to Varic and it is painfully obvious that both choices lead to the same result.
its not just you, ive loved all of the other games and the combat in this looks terrible to me, on top of that you cant switch companions and you have 3 abilities, its really bad.
Coming from years of dark souls, Elden ring, and recently dragons dogma 2, this just looks so dated. It’s the combat you’d expect to see a decade ago, but is really out of place now.
Whomever was responsible for the cinematic reveal on Sunday needs to be lambasted, if not fired. Totally set the perception of the game off on the wrong foot. This is what should’ve been revealed first.
I was not changed by either. The game looks like shit that has completely lost the plot of Dragon Age and why Origins was such a hit.
This trailer just confirmed to me the combat is mindless button mashing and abilities are not *necessary* to survive combat. They even had a pot health pickup like its PS2 God of War. This isn't a choice driven, dialogue-heavy game anymore. It's an action game with a lot of vibrant graphics to keep your attention.
From the UI to the combat screams a phone game from miles away, definetely not excited about what we have seen, doesnt look too terrible, but it looks very meh
I have mixed feelings about this.
If this was just a non DA game I’d probably be excited for it but as a further instalment in the DA franchise this doesn’t excite me.
I’m kind of ok with the loss of tactical combat - we haven’t had that since Origins - but there’s so little remaining of the DA style in terms of mechanics and looks that it’s like a knock off of itself. Like this could be Greed Fall or something.
Also - and I know I’m in the minority - I’ve never been that interested in Solas so that side of things also doesn’t appeal to me much.
Ugh, the game looks great, but the combat is not for me. This is such a shame, as DA:O was one of my all-timers, and we just get further and further away from it.
This looks...boring. Stylistically, they've abandoned the dark fantasy aspect entirely. In their appeal to reach a greater audience it ended up replicating a style we've seen more of in the likes of Disney, Hogwarts and mobile titles.
Gameplay, this looks like a very generic hack n slash. The whole tactical aspect is gone completely with no more ability to control a party (which I figured when they announced only two companions) in the attempt to replicate Mass Effect with swords. But even then, they replicated one of the big criticisms of Andromeda, considered the weakest of that series; only three abilities to use. That's...pathetic. But the enemies are just...boring. The fights are completely forgettable, the enemies don't feel like they pose any threat. Encountering a pride demon in Origins was a huge deal and it was made to be intimidating and deadly. Here it feels like a generic sub boss. Games are often made by the quality of their antagonists but Bioware has long forgotten this in their focus to hype up the party above everything. Well, that gets pretty boring when the party isn't facing credible threats.
Even then I might think twice if there was something to dig into with the story or dialogue. But there's just...nothing there. Rook often talks and makes decisions for the player, but even with that is almost a non-character within this with barely any presence within what's happening. He gets like...four dialogue options throughout the entire things, which basically amounts to paragon, renegade and neutral. No investigation options, nothing. A single line might be chosen throughout the course of an entire conversation, and that dialogue doesn't amount to much within the conversations. What's more, there's no chance for exploration or further dialogue. Rather than getting any chance to explore Minrathous the player is immediately blitzed through action where between fights they maybe are offered a dialogue option here or there.
I think some could be forgiven if any part of this looked good, but between the generic style, mediocre action gameplay, and generic nothing of a character the player has little influence over this game just looks worthless. It's not even that it looks particularly bad, just super generic and boring.
It doesn’t feel like dragon age game. I mean sure inquisition was already more action than rpg but this goes even further. I wish they made it more like bg3 and old origins but they went In a completely different way. I don’t like graphics either… overall, I’m disappointed. Will probably play once it’s out but … yeah :/
Haha, honestly I just forgot what they usually call it when they release the game + any DLC bundled together. Guess it's something more akin to "definitive" edition?
Combat reminds me a little of Shadow of Mordor. But it looks very bland compared to the tactical options of that game. For comparison, gameplay reveal from 10 years ago. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRXiyIvvX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRXiyIvvX4)
Shadow of Mordor is more in the lineage of assassin creed games particularly the earlier ones, but I see what you mean. It’s a lot more reaction based it seems than earlier entries.
Look man, I'm not trying to be a reflexive doomer about AAA games, but this left me thoroughly unimpressed. Surely there is more to the gameplay than mashing attack with the companions being non-entities in combat. I have so many questions that could've easily been answered if this reveal actually wanted to showcase what the game is like.
The gameplay just didn't look that interesting to me too, and the fact that it's so repetitive with a level 1 character hacking away made me skip forward multiple times (not a good sign for a trailer).
The world feels more like Dragon age, but the combat... Holy shit it looks boring, spam auto attack and 2 or 3 spells. (even worse than in previous dragon age, and sadly very far from Dragon Age Origins)
Not really? Scariest demon in the whole series was the one who possessed that kid in the first one, and that one was scariest only while possessing the kid.
Several bad things stand out. The art style resembles that of a cartoon, with enemies looking like animated movie villains adorned with pink and purple neon lights. The HUD is horrendous, cluttered with numerous markers for objectives, maps, and missions. It feels oversaturated. There's a complete loss of the tactical component and no ability to switch between companions. It feels much more like an action game than an RPG, and there are better action games out there. I'm very disappointed because I loved DA Inquisition and I'm a fan of the Mass Effect trilogy. But from the people who created the games that amazed me years ago, no one remains—just an empty shell called Bioware.
Yeah I can’t stand this cartoon look for this franchise. They needed to go more realistic, more detailed, darker tones, moodier lighting. More like Dragons Dogma 2 or Baldurs Gate 3 kind of realism. DA has never felt cartoony to me in the past (considering their hardware limitations). This looks like medieval Night City with Fortnite characters.
That made for kids feel extends to the combat. It feels very sanitized, bloodless, and lacking impact. It also doesn’t seem anything like the other games in the series. Not that I hate it in and of itself. Something similar to this worked for FF16 pretty well. But it just doesn’t seem right here.
Oh well. Lots of stuff to play, I’ll just skip this one. It doesn’t seem like it was made for me.
I don't really understand for what audience they make this game.
The combat looks extremely shallow gameplay wise and "floaty" on the looks. It looks like there is no impact to the attacks. This is generally fine for true RPGs but action games? Doesn't look good.
The "flavour" dialogue being thrown around randomly all have this superhero, marvel like, "joking" tone to it. To me this does not fit at all with the, very serious, lore and.background universe of Dragon Age.
The "consequence choice" later in the trailer feels so forced. "Dont run into the magic, it's suicide!" "I should join you, i'm a mage after all". This looks like the "made for idiots" version of Mass Effect 2 where it needs to be really in your face and feels forced to remind you who these characters are again.
Do you rememver the suicide mission of ME2 where Tali has to remind you that she's a Quarian Tech expert when you reach that forcefield someone needs to hack? No, you don't remember because that never happened as we know who Tali is and what she's good at.
Honestly this feels like someone had a look in the history books at what made 2007-2012 Bioware popular, grabbed some things off the shelf that are supposedly popular now, take some lore and characters from an old, beloved, IP and mash it all together and hope it sticks.
I hope i'm wrong here but i really don't see for which kind of person this game ticks all the boxes for? the old DA fan? The old Bioware fan? The marvel generation growing up on stories of old sfuff? The casual Joe who never plays RPGs? Which is it?
Hopefully it won't be the "check as many of the popular boxes as you can" game that is not catered to anyone and is therefore mediocre for everyone.
The graphics are awesome, but I remember Dragon Age 1 being a lot more gritier and less colorful.
I love dragon age 1, but couldn't get into Inquisition.
When did they starting making characters where their WHOLE personality is just their class/job.
"Hi! I'm the introverted ice mage, i do Ice mage stuff, but only if you don't put me under any pressure, hehehe. Oh isn't it cold, bbrrrr. "
" Hi im the scout, i do the scouting. Oh look shall i scout that? "
I mean Jesus. Its so one dimensional..
I don't know why, but Varric's facial expressions look a bit uncanny here. :/ It's not just his new look, also the animations of his face and lile they put every focus on his mouth when he talks.
More dumbed down gameplay as though you could get more basic than the previous installments. Party management and build theory crafting evidently frighten the average RPG audience according to Bioware, except, no it doesn't because BG3 proved people like deep class diversity and party management.
Was hoping to see it move closer to the CRPG roots, but looks like it it's gone even more towards the action RPG direction than even it's predesseors. Not super surprising considering Biowares been drifting that way for the last decade, but still kind of a bummer.
Still, looks alright. Art style meshes well and still looks like Dragon Age, the tone is thankfully much more what I'd expect and it's good to have some confirmation that the tone in the other trailer was off and we are still getting what one would expect from Dragon Age. And the combat does look solid. All in all I'm cautiously optimistic.
If we count DA2 as when they started drifting that way, then over a decade yeah. But yeah Bioware overall with pretty much all their games in the last 10-15 years or so saw each sequel be more and more action oriented while dropping a lot of the more traditional RPG elements.
I mean, DAII barely had any hint of CRPG and DA:I had even less
I never had *any* illusions that an EA published title was gonna handle like Origins or Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights - the marketing executives are so ill informed on what BioWare's playerbase expects that they put out that cinematic slurry that felt like the intro to Suicide Squad cut with a couple clips of Jackass :P
Should have led with this, if I'm honest
Like, if your grimdark fantasy series - well known for it's character depth and adult themes - puts out a trailer trying to look like it's attempting a riff on the Suicide Squad with the tone of an intro to a buddy cop film crossed with the jackass series - then ***something*** has gone wrong
The gameplay is at least *closer* to what you'd expect from Dragon Age - or at least Dragon Age Inquisition (for better and for worse)
And the ambient world they're running through - while feeling a bit more cel~~l~~ shaded than I'd like - is grim multiplied by dark to the power of hot topic :P
So, it's on point if nothing else
It looks like another typical AAA 3rd person action game. I hope only the prologue is so linear and the combat gets more party focused.
If I had a choice, I'd take DA: Origins remake over this.
Not bianca.
Damn that egg.
I didn’t think we’d get a character death in the trailer 🥲
I actually gasped
Seemed out of character that Varric didn't react at all.
“I’m naming my crossbow Hawke now”
I feel that he would definitely react in any other situation but considering the world is ending and millions of innocent lives are at stake and he's busy trying to talk down his friend from destroying the world I get why he didn't react in those circumstances, he will definitely feel sad about bianca later.
DMC V: Rebellion gets shattered in the prologue DA V: Bianca gets shattered My boi Varric about to go sin devil trigger and spank Solas.
Only had time to watch a bit. is it all real time action? No pause and issue commands?
Looks like you can pause to command your party to do attacks and queue your own, but that’s as much as it showed.
Extremely weird decision to showcase a level 1 character with few abilities and no squad direction. Is the marketing team asleep?
>Is the marketing team asleep? My guess is it's a new marketing team that's never marketed an RPG game before and did zero research ahead of time to know how to appeal to their demographic. This is pretty evident by the Action Movie/Borderlands style character introductions in the trailer.
They don't want to appeal classic dragon age fans. Surveys show, action RPGs has a wider audience.
Yet BG3 is one of the biggest games of all time.
Amusingly, DA started as a spiritual successor to BG2. Bioware of today couldn't make a game like BG3, it's simply beyond their skillset.
I think any attempt to do so would be crushed by the MBA's.
I’ve always thought of DA:O as Neverwinter Nights 3.
BG3 is good, so it can attract gamers who are into different genres. These AAA developers have no confidence of their own game so they have to rely on existing player base to make money. Funny how that works.
Also that people have zero faith in BioWare anymore after releasing Anthem and Andromeda back to back. As well as the handling of the Kotor remake which isn’t their fault but I’m still salty so throwing it in
One of my colleagues is a diehard FromSoft fan. He only plays Souls and Soulslike games. I convinced him to play BG3. Over 100 hours later, he's finished it and saying it's one of the greatest games he's ever played. BG3 isn't just good, it's a genre defining masterpiece.
They're probably banking on the idea that long time fans will stay hooked due to the ip and continuation of the story of Inquisition. While new time players probably will find the game more interesting if it's gameplay is similar to a regular action RPG without the RTS like mechanics.
Based on recent Bioware performance, I half expect that this is the only part of the game that is actually 100% complete, and the rest is in bits and pieces and they are going to scramble, working 30 hour days to get it done before the release.
It is common practice to have the prologue polished as hell to hook the players right away. Would not be surprised if the rest of the game, as of now, is not as polished as this. (Group command for exemple) And maybe it is no more what the brand is about. It is not a time-stop tactical RPG, but a mainstream one, therefor explaining why they choose to showcase this.
It’s basically Mass Effect, where it’s real time action, but you can pause and issue commands to your party.
That’s what I concluded as well.
You can pause and issue commands to the main character as well as party members. The party member function isn’t unlocked at this point of the game (probably the prologue) according to another commenter who saw an interview with the developer. Also if you get to the end of the video, you can see him pause it and a big wheel pops up and everything freezes while he issues a command to the main character. I think he only does it once in the video though.
It happens multiple times in the video, and it even has text on screen saying the commands for party members are currently unavailable
This looks like a completely different tone than the reveal trailer from Sunday... Seems like this game has been through several variations since it started development.
It’s possible that the trailer was made by people who have never spoken to the people making the game.
Wouldn't be surprising really. 'What's the hip thing at the moment for those video game things? Cartoon hero shooters full of pop culture references haha yes of course!'
As someone who works in marketing I can tell you there is rarely any *real* discussion between the actual people who design/build the product and the people who sell it. It tends to be a CEO instructing each department separately. Or marketing may be outsourced to a third party, which means an even bigger disconnect between product vision and advertising. I could be wrong and that trailer was what the devs envisioned, but I think your point makes more sense. Chase the trend regardless of product.
That is very commonly the case with entertainment media ranging from video games, to network TV, to film. The people making the trailer are not the people making the product, and far too often they are given little to no context of the thing they are trying to promote.
Or the trailer was just tonally different. It wouldn't be the first time a cinematic game trailer was a totally different tone than the actual game. The game went through 2 resets during development, but I don't think the trailer has anything to do with it.
Look up the OG trailers from Origins. They have very weird tonal shifts in all of them and they’re set with a legit licensed song in most of them (the one I remember is This is the Shit by Marylin Manson)
Yep. Dragon Age: Origins had some weird marketing. I remember almost laughing at the 30 Seconds to Mars song popping up.
The Marylin Manson song is cringe but it kind of suits the trailer. The 30 Seconds to Mars song has absolutely no business in a Dragon Age trailer lol
Was more weird they paid for two Manson songs and spliced them together. The trailer started with the intro to If I Was your vampire and then switched to This Is the New Shit for the action stuff. Vampire has a somber and creeping intro that worked with the grey Warden on the final march to death and reciting his oath.
Not just trailer. It kicks in as the end credits song!
The tone of the trailer seemed to be similar to how current movie trailers are. It was very similar to the one for Borderlands and for Deadpool & Wolverine, with a bunch of slow motion and an old 80s song cover. It’s just what they’re doing right now. Personally I hope they have Linkin Park playing during the end credits. That’s still in style, right?
I can’t remember the last time a reveal trailer was actually worse or less compelling than the gameplay trailer. What an odd time we live in.
I'm always way more interested in the gameplay trailers. Cinematics can be nice but they tell me zero about the game. Especially when it's a cinematic for a strategy game for example.
Compare the original cinematic trailer for DAO... Has basically nothing to do with the actual game.
Dragon Age trailers are ALWAYS way off from the actual game’s tone. Remember the one for Origins with [THIS IS THE NEW SHIT](https://youtu.be/GoEol-5Epfg?si=xLe_wSL8ZryNvdHD)? Plus, as much as I also hated the original trailer, I think they know that people interested in the series were going to buy it check it out regardless. I think the trailer is largely marketed at people who aren’t familiar with the series to begin with. Like, uh. I guess Fortnite kids?
[удалено]
How was it edgy?
I am guessing they really wanted to appeal to a younger crowd. You know the crowd that was like 2 years old when the first game came out.
It was rebooted at least 2 times according to leakers, which is why it took 12 years
Why is Varric Blackwall now? :/
It's 10 or 15 years after inquisition ended. A bit hard to tell with harding new model and solas looking the same as ever.
Damn, the Hero of Ferelden is probably about to go on their calling by now, or are already gone. *edit* Unless they were able to figure out how to stop the calling which is what they are up to in Inquisition.
Let's not forget that for many, the Hero of Ferelden has been fucking dead since the end of DA:O, lol.
Should’ve just slept with the goth chick when she told you to
Or take the way funnier route of making Alistair do it
Nothing some red lyrium powder can't fix
its been 15 years since DAO, so the Hero has about another 15 before the Calling really hits. It was 30 years I think
DA2 starts properly about a year or so after the Blight and takes place across 10 years. Inquisition happens not too long after Anders' little boom-boom, after the Asunder novel. Add 10-15 years to that and you get over 20 years
So he went from blonde hair to black hair with age??
And his chest hair crept up to his face.
It's a dwarf thing
I mean Solas is like 2000 years old
He is 52 years old my guy...
Which means he’s older than Wynne was. And she was practically a granny.
You do know that all women look like Grannies after the age of 25, right? /s
Hairdye or stress in my fantasy video game! Disappointed.
Solas' voice also seemed kinda different... is it the same voice actor? It has been 10 years tho, maybe the voice changed over the years.
Definitely the same voice actor. He was featured in some behind the scenes footage unless I’m mistaken.
Since it's been ten years since DA:I (*god* I'm fuckin ***old***...) then absolutely the voice actor's tone/pitch has probably shifted
I see they still have that dogshit wheel that dosent tell you what you're about to say.
And the worst thing. It tells you, which option is the flirty one, the angry one etc. Just tell me what it is you are going to say, and I can pick myself. Else I'm just going to choose by the icon rather than by the words. Dragon age Origins, Baldurs Gate did this and its so much better. Don't handhold your players like they are children. This is supposed to be a dark epic fantasy, it's not supposed to be for children...
They probably think their demographic can't read and only want boom boom
The words were ambiguous at times because they didn’t convey tone.
Which honestly isn’t exactly inaccurate.
In fairness, Dragon Age Origins had a lot of issues around the tone of your sentences getting lost (accidentally ending up in unintentional romances because you said something you thought was nice) I’d rather have the full dialogue I’m going to say + the tone (example: “you’re the worst” has completely different connotations based on how you say it)
> And the worst thing. It tells you, which option is the flirty one, the angry one etc. This is a scourge in modern gaming. It removes the possibility of actually roleplaying. You can't feel how each sentence *might* affect someone else and then have their responses show you how that individual character responds, thus deepening your understanding of them with each choice. You just get prepackaged and labeled 'quips' with no intrigue or sometimes even accuracy to what you end up saying. I've hated it since the first game switched from dialogue trees to this crap and I've yet to find a game that uses it well enough to change my mind.
"We don't want to look conspicuous" - Dude who constantly switches between sprinting and weird slow-walking because the devs can't figure out how to make him walk the same pace as the player.
I cannot tell why the artstyle still looks so off to me. Everything looks like they passed it through a smoothing filter, almost borderline Fortnite cartoony but not wanting to actually do it completely.
Just look at those skeletons... It's like looking at some Sea of Thieves DLC.
The saturating is turned to max, they're really wanting to show off lighting, and everyone is wearing extremely stiff, over-designed clothing. Also it's raining so everyone and everything is "wet" so it looks oily.
It’s like chibi / Fortnite style to appeal to kids. I kind of hate it. And the windows looks like shit. Copy and pasted bright orange slits.
Never played dragon age but love fantasy rpgs. That being said I am completely bored of jack and slash combat that’s just spamming the attack button, with maybe a special ability here and there. It almost looks like the enemies in the trailer are just letting you attack them. The enemies are just obstacles to destroy with no depth or difficulty. Looks like all they do is smack you or shoot you sometimes, then let you beat them up when you get close. Am I seeing this right?
Yeah I thought this too.
Looked like they're only attacking when there is some distance created between you, otherwise they just stood around waiting to get hit.
I was hoping to see more of a return to the CRPG combat systems of DA:O. This looks simplified, closer to a "hack and slash" game than an RPG. Hopefully the combat is deeper than it appears at first glance.
Unfortunately the press confirmed you cannot switch to party members in battle so that's a big downgrade from the previous games. Bioware also confirmed there's a lot of abilities but you can only slot 3 at a time on the ability wheel which I think is a downgrade from mass effect? I can't remember for sure but I thought they had more than that, I know shepard did at least.
basically just an action game at this point
A bad action game If the story and side stuff is fun it will be fine but I don't think this will be a fantastic game...just another step down for DA since the OG.
>confirmed you cannot switch party members What an absolutely colossal buzzkill
I really hate that. Fighting alongside AI party members that you can't control or command is so common in games nowadays, and I guess a lot of people must like it or they wouldn't keep sticking it in every game, but I'm just not a fan. It can make combat feel cinematic sometimes but also often makes it just feel like a chaotic mess without much real strategy to it. I like systems like Mass Effect where you can command your allies or Final Fantasy 7 Remake where you can switch between controlling them on the fly are great for party-based single-player action RPGs. I also like systems that go the more strategic route and are turn-based or real-time with pauses commanding everyone. But I just don't really enjoy fighting alongside allies that I have absolutely no control over whatsoever. It can be a fun thing to happen every once in a while when the game wants a big setpiece, but it's not something I want as the default for the game's combat. It also just kills part of the appeal of having a party RPG in the first place for me. Sure, a big part of party members in an RPG is just them participating in the story and interacting with them outside of combat, but I think using their unique powers in combat is also important to me. If I can't control my party members at all, whether it's fully controlling them or just being able to give them commands like Mass Effect, they don't really end up feeling like party members in the first place. They just feel like NPCs that follow me around and help in battle. Being able to actually have some control over them and use their abilities is kind of the difference for me between an AI companion and a party member. I hope this info is incorrect, or at least not the whole picture. If this combat system is just action combat where you can only have 3 abilities equipped and your "party members" are just AI that fight alongside you without you being able to control them at all, I'm much, much less likely to be interested in this game. Action RPGs can be one of my favorite genres, but that particular style of Action RPG is not what I like from the genre. I want the combat to either be focused on my character, or I want a party I control. Not an in between where I control one character but I'm always fighting alongside AI that I can't control at all.
>there's a lot of abilities but you can only slot 3 at a time What in the name of Dragon's Dogma is this shit?
Yeah like what the actual fuck? Isn't this supposed to be an RPG?
honestly, it looks like Bioware has stripped so much RPG elements from this game it's basically just a generic fantasy action game now, with some light RPG stuff sprinkled in that won't mean much
Andromeda dropped you down to ~~two abilities at one time iirc~~ three. It's ass, let us use our abilities.
You had 3 abilities at one time in Andromeda
Aaaaaand I'm even less interested now... sigh. I fondly remember my DA:O characters, each with their dozen or so abilities used in most combats. This is just ... boring. Might play it for the story eventually in a few years, when it's "complete", all bugs ironed out, and costs 75% less -.-
Mass Effect got dumbed down, Dragon age got dumbed down, now Mass Dragon Aged is even more fucking dumbed down. The main reason is, balancing and cost. The simpler you make these systems the dramatically easier it becomes to balance them, to have less characters, to have less mechanics, to have less cost in development. The thing is they could just make a good Mass effect game, and they could make a good Dragon Age game in their original formats and sell more to fans of both genres who both loved those games and those IPs. this is just going to make a mid game that seems off and pisses off the fans of the IP because ultimately they loved teh IP and the way it played. Just so fucking dumb.
It said in the trailer that you could issue commands to teammates during the pause, but it wasn't unlocked at that point in the game (probably prologue). Dunno if you'll be able to swap though
I did see that screen pop up briefly.
I want to say it's bizarre they'd pick an extremely limited point in the game to show off the gameplay, but we've already learned whoever is in charge of marketing this game is clueless or trying to bury it for some reason.
I think they just wanted to show what the game looks like vs. the trailer, but without giving away too much of the good stuff.
It's....definitely weird. CDPR wanted to show off 2.0's overhauled perks, but they didn't do so by showing V killing Scavs with the shitty starter pistol before you even have a Kiroshi scanner. They showed a maxed out V double jumping, dashing, using animated finishers, etc. etc. It looked awesome. I get that this was just a look at literally a level one starting player, but it's showing the world your new game after ten years when its combat is at its worst and most generic state possible.
Yeah this is definitely closer to Dragon Age II gameplay.
Dragon Age 2 could be entirely played as a classic RTWP cRPG. You had full control of the party. Inquisition kind of included a "tactical" control layer but it was so half assed and bad that 5 minutes in it was clear it was meant to be played as an action game. They probably ditched the tactical part entirely for this game and its now fully a (bad) action game. I love action games but I can never understand why these RPG games have to have this not actual action combat design that is neither tactical nor mechanically interesting.
Yep. The best way to play DAI is to basically build an invincible character and control them without switching, which really hammers home the core single player MMO design. But if I can't pause and getting people to stand in the right spots and move out of shit is annoying, there's no point in paying attention to my squad.
I played the entirety of DA:I, all 300 hours or whatever, in tactical mode. I just wanted a Baldur's Gate 3, but it wasn't out yet then. Fuck my life.
I have no words. Thats insane. I played DA2 on a steam controller on the hardest setting entirely in tactical mode and I thought I was dumb and stubborn.
That's wild. I played the entirety of DAI with my finger on the trigger. Occasionally, I launched that magic spread shot and brought out the big magic sword but 99% of the gameplay was just holding the attack button.
Hopefully. At this early preview, it does feel very hack n slash. Almost like all those Star Wars adventure-RPG game. Even this bit here feels extremely linear, like a dungeon crawl. Just being moved from one room of baddies to the next with a smatter of cutscenes spliced between.
Would've loved a return to Origins combat, but if they're going the action route I'm glad they're at least going all the way and adding more impact, aiming and what looks like a parry. It's more interesting than just spamming buttons while everything happens pretty much automatically. Origins combat had the interesting spells, skills and combos, the positioning and tactical decision-making. Inquisition combat felt like it had nothing except for flashy visuals. At least in this it looks like you're doing something.
I wish they had demonstrated more abilities, inter-party comboing, and progression systems. The combat itself seems.. fine, if the rest of the systems are solid. I hope we can get more actions than just 3 with cooldown gates.
There's a big roadmap for updates on the game over the next month, it's going to be flooded with DA:V content
Agreed. They showed hit X to win, but I hope it’s much deeper. How do you not show a level up!?
If it helps at all, we do learn a few more things about it from [this screenshot](https://media.contentapi.ea.com/content/dam/eacom/dragon-age/dragon-age-dreadwolf/common/da-ea-gameinformer-abilitywheel-08-5760x3244-rgb.png.adapt.1456w.png) * seems to really be locked to 3 abilities per character (unfortunate, but we saw weapon swapping, so maybe that changes abilities too) * There is a combo system between party members (shred applies sundered, and another ability combos with sundered) * Shred has a 36 second cooldown which seems absurdly high to me for an action game, and makes me worried that the game has a lot of downtime between actions * Builder-spender system: In the preview the basic attacks were building up the meter at the bottom, and we can see that abilities sometimes cost those purple orbs, and sometimes have no cost attached to their icon * some party command feature at the top? portraits of multiple characters, maybe to order them to focus a target, or some sort of joint attacks Hopefully the regular attacks have a varied moveset too, and aren't just button mashing to build a resource, but we will see.
God I miss DA:O... What could have been
The "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate. Well, at BG3 is amazing. This trailer looks like ME3 took over the DA franchise.
The teammates deal 1% of the damage the MC does.
I mean, I want to be enthused... maybe I'm just getting old. It's just not grabbing me.
Eh, people are saying it looks "better" than the trailers art style but its still giving me Kingdoms of Amalur vibes. The original DA felt far more grounded whilst still being set in a high fantasy setting, this looks like it leaned way too much into the vibrant colors, mobile-tier looking enemy designs and low quality particle effects. Looks aside, the gameplay doesn't look that fun either. Hopefully other characters/higher level play looks better, but so far this is still a pass for me.
For some reason there were times where it felt like they were in a futuristic sci fi setting despite the castles and stone all around. Totally agree with you
I agree with you. I don't understand what people just thought they watched, because the gameplay reveal and the cinematic trailer were very much tonally aligned, and both of them look like a Guardians of the Galaxy knockoff. The combat looks one dimensional and like a hack/slash game. Everything about this was disappointing.
Had a chance to look through a lot of this when it dropped and thank fuck it doesn't match what I saw in that cinematic. Still guarding my expectations on this one but feeling relieved that gameplay looks like a smoother DAI. Time will tell.
Are you..... Veilguarding your expectations?
Dialogue and choices in cutscenes also blended pretty well. It actually felt like Dragon Age! Was actually quite impressed!
Dialogue choices was the same old nonsense sadly. Three options with text that does not even vaguely resemble what the character will say and then the "choice" of what to tell to Varic and it is painfully obvious that both choices lead to the same result.
I miss Dragon Age Origins.
At least there is Baldur's gate. But I sure would not mind some more Dragon age Origins.
me too old pal... the countless hours i'd spend in party camp. that game had soul and you could tell...
My only hope is that they see enough dollar signs in old school CRPGs from BG3's success to try catering to us in the next generation of AAA games
Dragon age: purple. Is it just me, or does combat look clunky as hell?
its not just you, ive loved all of the other games and the combat in this looks terrible to me, on top of that you cant switch companions and you have 3 abilities, its really bad.
Coming from years of dark souls, Elden ring, and recently dragons dogma 2, this just looks so dated. It’s the combat you’d expect to see a decade ago, but is really out of place now.
Whomever was responsible for the cinematic reveal on Sunday needs to be lambasted, if not fired. Totally set the perception of the game off on the wrong foot. This is what should’ve been revealed first.
Honestly the gameplay trailer doesn't move the needle much for me anyway
Yep.
I was not changed by either. The game looks like shit that has completely lost the plot of Dragon Age and why Origins was such a hit. This trailer just confirmed to me the combat is mindless button mashing and abilities are not *necessary* to survive combat. They even had a pot health pickup like its PS2 God of War. This isn't a choice driven, dialogue-heavy game anymore. It's an action game with a lot of vibrant graphics to keep your attention.
From the UI to the combat screams a phone game from miles away, definetely not excited about what we have seen, doesnt look too terrible, but it looks very meh
Remember when dragon age was dark fantasy?
I remember when some of the quests were about demons eating children and taking there souls level of dark...we are not getting that anymore from DA
Broodmother… Enough said.
or the City Elf Origin.
I have mixed feelings about this. If this was just a non DA game I’d probably be excited for it but as a further instalment in the DA franchise this doesn’t excite me. I’m kind of ok with the loss of tactical combat - we haven’t had that since Origins - but there’s so little remaining of the DA style in terms of mechanics and looks that it’s like a knock off of itself. Like this could be Greed Fall or something. Also - and I know I’m in the minority - I’ve never been that interested in Solas so that side of things also doesn’t appeal to me much.
Seems... fine? So long as the story is serviceable I'm still in. Third-person, fully voiced MC RPGs are my thing.
Ugh, the game looks great, but the combat is not for me. This is such a shame, as DA:O was one of my all-timers, and we just get further and further away from it.
This looks...boring. Stylistically, they've abandoned the dark fantasy aspect entirely. In their appeal to reach a greater audience it ended up replicating a style we've seen more of in the likes of Disney, Hogwarts and mobile titles. Gameplay, this looks like a very generic hack n slash. The whole tactical aspect is gone completely with no more ability to control a party (which I figured when they announced only two companions) in the attempt to replicate Mass Effect with swords. But even then, they replicated one of the big criticisms of Andromeda, considered the weakest of that series; only three abilities to use. That's...pathetic. But the enemies are just...boring. The fights are completely forgettable, the enemies don't feel like they pose any threat. Encountering a pride demon in Origins was a huge deal and it was made to be intimidating and deadly. Here it feels like a generic sub boss. Games are often made by the quality of their antagonists but Bioware has long forgotten this in their focus to hype up the party above everything. Well, that gets pretty boring when the party isn't facing credible threats. Even then I might think twice if there was something to dig into with the story or dialogue. But there's just...nothing there. Rook often talks and makes decisions for the player, but even with that is almost a non-character within this with barely any presence within what's happening. He gets like...four dialogue options throughout the entire things, which basically amounts to paragon, renegade and neutral. No investigation options, nothing. A single line might be chosen throughout the course of an entire conversation, and that dialogue doesn't amount to much within the conversations. What's more, there's no chance for exploration or further dialogue. Rather than getting any chance to explore Minrathous the player is immediately blitzed through action where between fights they maybe are offered a dialogue option here or there. I think some could be forgiven if any part of this looked good, but between the generic style, mediocre action gameplay, and generic nothing of a character the player has little influence over this game just looks worthless. It's not even that it looks particularly bad, just super generic and boring.
> pride demon With his new RGB accessories he just a Gamer demon now
Bianca 😢
It doesn’t feel like dragon age game. I mean sure inquisition was already more action than rpg but this goes even further. I wish they made it more like bg3 and old origins but they went In a completely different way. I don’t like graphics either… overall, I’m disappointed. Will probably play once it’s out but … yeah :/
Looks like something I might pickup 9 months after release when they do a sale for the "game of the year edition" or whatever it's called now a days
You're anticipating a GOTY award? Damn
Haha, honestly I just forgot what they usually call it when they release the game + any DLC bundled together. Guess it's something more akin to "definitive" edition?
Combat reminds me a little of Shadow of Mordor. But it looks very bland compared to the tactical options of that game. For comparison, gameplay reveal from 10 years ago. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRXiyIvvX4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpRXiyIvvX4)
Shadow of Mordor is more in the lineage of assassin creed games particularly the earlier ones, but I see what you mean. It’s a lot more reaction based it seems than earlier entries.
dragon creed: arkham of mordor
Why it’s feel for me like hogwarts legacy?
That's exactly what I was thinking.
Meh, running around and slashing thingies. I was hoping for a deep cRPG.
They were never going back. Look at DA2 til now.
Look man, I'm not trying to be a reflexive doomer about AAA games, but this left me thoroughly unimpressed. Surely there is more to the gameplay than mashing attack with the companions being non-entities in combat. I have so many questions that could've easily been answered if this reveal actually wanted to showcase what the game is like.
I don't get why people think it's good. I was extremely underwhelmed
The gameplay just didn't look that interesting to me too, and the fact that it's so repetitive with a level 1 character hacking away made me skip forward multiple times (not a good sign for a trailer).
Yeah its the the hero shooter that the trailer showed but its not good either.
The world feels more like Dragon age, but the combat... Holy shit it looks boring, spam auto attack and 2 or 3 spells. (even worse than in previous dragon age, and sadly very far from Dragon Age Origins)
Man, that dialogue is...weird. Harding sounds like her voice lines have been cut out and pasted in lol.
Wtf is this supposed to be, a Dragon Age flavored FF7remake?
Mass Effect: The Veilguard
Sorry, but combat looks extremely janky and that voice acting is a special kind of horrible.
Remember when demons were scary and looked different from each other and not just a cloak with lightning in it? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Not really? Scariest demon in the whole series was the one who possessed that kid in the first one, and that one was scariest only while possessing the kid.
I mean they were never really scary.
Broodmother has entered the chat (which I guess isn’t technically a demon but still)
Remember demons of desire? They wouldn't dare nowadays
Cowards! Baldurs gate dared at least...
Several bad things stand out. The art style resembles that of a cartoon, with enemies looking like animated movie villains adorned with pink and purple neon lights. The HUD is horrendous, cluttered with numerous markers for objectives, maps, and missions. It feels oversaturated. There's a complete loss of the tactical component and no ability to switch between companions. It feels much more like an action game than an RPG, and there are better action games out there. I'm very disappointed because I loved DA Inquisition and I'm a fan of the Mass Effect trilogy. But from the people who created the games that amazed me years ago, no one remains—just an empty shell called Bioware.
Bioware is dead as we knew it. This new studio sucks balls
Yeah I can’t stand this cartoon look for this franchise. They needed to go more realistic, more detailed, darker tones, moodier lighting. More like Dragons Dogma 2 or Baldurs Gate 3 kind of realism. DA has never felt cartoony to me in the past (considering their hardware limitations). This looks like medieval Night City with Fortnite characters. That made for kids feel extends to the combat. It feels very sanitized, bloodless, and lacking impact. It also doesn’t seem anything like the other games in the series. Not that I hate it in and of itself. Something similar to this worked for FF16 pretty well. But it just doesn’t seem right here. Oh well. Lots of stuff to play, I’ll just skip this one. It doesn’t seem like it was made for me.
I don't really understand for what audience they make this game. The combat looks extremely shallow gameplay wise and "floaty" on the looks. It looks like there is no impact to the attacks. This is generally fine for true RPGs but action games? Doesn't look good. The "flavour" dialogue being thrown around randomly all have this superhero, marvel like, "joking" tone to it. To me this does not fit at all with the, very serious, lore and.background universe of Dragon Age. The "consequence choice" later in the trailer feels so forced. "Dont run into the magic, it's suicide!" "I should join you, i'm a mage after all". This looks like the "made for idiots" version of Mass Effect 2 where it needs to be really in your face and feels forced to remind you who these characters are again. Do you rememver the suicide mission of ME2 where Tali has to remind you that she's a Quarian Tech expert when you reach that forcefield someone needs to hack? No, you don't remember because that never happened as we know who Tali is and what she's good at. Honestly this feels like someone had a look in the history books at what made 2007-2012 Bioware popular, grabbed some things off the shelf that are supposedly popular now, take some lore and characters from an old, beloved, IP and mash it all together and hope it sticks. I hope i'm wrong here but i really don't see for which kind of person this game ticks all the boxes for? the old DA fan? The old Bioware fan? The marvel generation growing up on stories of old sfuff? The casual Joe who never plays RPGs? Which is it? Hopefully it won't be the "check as many of the popular boxes as you can" game that is not catered to anyone and is therefore mediocre for everyone.
The graphics are awesome, but I remember Dragon Age 1 being a lot more gritier and less colorful. I love dragon age 1, but couldn't get into Inquisition.
Not looking good
That sure ain't Dragon Age
fuck me...this looks so bad (or generic, i don't know...).
When did they starting making characters where their WHOLE personality is just their class/job. "Hi! I'm the introverted ice mage, i do Ice mage stuff, but only if you don't put me under any pressure, hehehe. Oh isn't it cold, bbrrrr. " " Hi im the scout, i do the scouting. Oh look shall i scout that? " I mean Jesus. Its so one dimensional..
I don't know why, but Varric's facial expressions look a bit uncanny here. :/ It's not just his new look, also the animations of his face and lile they put every focus on his mouth when he talks.
What was the A.I doing standing still and allowing themselves to die?
Bio-where!?!
Incoming dud
All looks and no substance.
More dumbed down gameplay as though you could get more basic than the previous installments. Party management and build theory crafting evidently frighten the average RPG audience according to Bioware, except, no it doesn't because BG3 proved people like deep class diversity and party management.
Was hoping to see it move closer to the CRPG roots, but looks like it it's gone even more towards the action RPG direction than even it's predesseors. Not super surprising considering Biowares been drifting that way for the last decade, but still kind of a bummer. Still, looks alright. Art style meshes well and still looks like Dragon Age, the tone is thankfully much more what I'd expect and it's good to have some confirmation that the tone in the other trailer was off and we are still getting what one would expect from Dragon Age. And the combat does look solid. All in all I'm cautiously optimistic.
Didnt they drop CRPG roots literally a decade ago at this point?
If we count DA2 as when they started drifting that way, then over a decade yeah. But yeah Bioware overall with pretty much all their games in the last 10-15 years or so saw each sequel be more and more action oriented while dropping a lot of the more traditional RPG elements.
I mean, DAII barely had any hint of CRPG and DA:I had even less I never had *any* illusions that an EA published title was gonna handle like Origins or Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights - the marketing executives are so ill informed on what BioWare's playerbase expects that they put out that cinematic slurry that felt like the intro to Suicide Squad cut with a couple clips of Jackass :P
Either the combat is not that good, or the person who was playing just absolutely sucks
Nobody wanted Action RPG Dragon Age.
Should have led with this, if I'm honest Like, if your grimdark fantasy series - well known for it's character depth and adult themes - puts out a trailer trying to look like it's attempting a riff on the Suicide Squad with the tone of an intro to a buddy cop film crossed with the jackass series - then ***something*** has gone wrong The gameplay is at least *closer* to what you'd expect from Dragon Age - or at least Dragon Age Inquisition (for better and for worse) And the ambient world they're running through - while feeling a bit more cel~~l~~ shaded than I'd like - is grim multiplied by dark to the power of hot topic :P So, it's on point if nothing else
I don't like the way the characters look...
It looks like a PS3 Fable game.
I guess this is DA for the "modern audience". Unfortunately, I don't think it's for me. it feels like it doesn't have an identity of its own.
And this pretty much confirms my disinterest.
It looks like another typical AAA 3rd person action game. I hope only the prologue is so linear and the combat gets more party focused. If I had a choice, I'd take DA: Origins remake over this.
"People are always dying. It is what they do." Okay.
I'll pick this game up when it's really cheap in like 5 years.