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Speaking of Sebastian, I'd say you got the superior version of the game. The edition with all DLCs I got on steam doesn't let you uninstall individual ones, and I WISH I could remove Sebastian. DA fans will squabble endlessly about who the best companion is, but everyone I know agrees that Sebastian sucks ass lmao He's like that one friend, who's "officially" part of the friend group, but nobody really considers him THEIR friend. And you have a second whatsapp group chat with everyone except him. And regarding Anders, his attempts to manipulate you in act 3 are SO much worse if you're in a romance with him. Ask some perfectly reasonable questions about why you need to distract the grand cleric, and it takes him all of 0.05 seconds to resort to "if you won't help me you don't ACTUALLY love me and you don't REALLY support the mages, etc etc". If you relent, Hawke even says that they'll remember that Anders blackmailed them into this, and Anders goes right back to being all sweet. It's such a disgusting thing he does, but it feels incredibly realistic. I've known people who pull this kind of shit, it's textbook emotional manipulation, and seeing a game portray it so well was genuinely impressive. Anders is one of my favorite characters in the entire DA series because he's just so damn well written. And yes he's a bit of a cunt, but he's a well written cunt!

2:33 Oooh, it's R.O.B.! It's Dee Bradley Baker, btw, not Barker.

Found this video in 2025 I’m only 10 mins in and I’m leaving a comment because it’s amazing. This is my favorite game I love a good retrospective

The warrior Hawke vs. Arishok fight felt truly *epic* to me. Especially on higher difficulty. You have to kind of just accept that you're up against a superior opponent and you will have to use all of your best tricks fo hope to stand a chance. You can't stand toe to toe with him for any length of time, especially considering the limited self-healing available in this game. I found myself baiting his swings and using the hitbox of my larger moves to strike him from relative safety, then immediately repositioning. The pillars played a crucial role for me.

Origins is still the only good Dragon Age

I have formed this opinion of these two games is this, Bioshock One has better villains and Two has better protagonists. Jack is a cypher by design, no shade on Jack but he is tool built for a singular purpose in and out of universe. Johnny Topside is also a tool, but he has a desire. protect Eleanor. It is not much but from his backstory and the way he acts we have a good idea what kind of person he is. Someone who probably would have tried to rescue Elenore even if he was not conditioned to do so. He is more like the Pulp Adventure hero archetype than Jack too, he was a deep sea explorer after all. I could imagine that they could have published Johnny Topside comics in universe. His relationship with Eleanor is compelling as well, it feels like they really felt like family. However Sophia is much less interesting then Ryan. Ryan had an Ideology he believed in, Sophia saw her ideology as a means to an end. It is just a matter of priorities, One needed to set up Rapture and make it compelling, Two could just take Rapture as a given and write a different story where you actually care about what happened to your player character. They are different, not better. If I was making the Bioshock movie I would split the difference, Make Ryan the Villain and Johnny the (or at least a) main character. Place it before the civil war and tell that story, or maybe have Jack and Johnny team up and have flashbacks to who he was before sprinkled through the movie.

This was the last game I ever preordered. I loved aspects of Dragon Age 2... but found the overall execution of the game atrocious.

Orsino turning into an abomination and attacking you, even when you side with the mages, makes absolutely no sense in the story. The reason behind it is the devs (supposedly EA) decided they needed another Boss-fight in Act III. Truly the low point of the story.

I enjoyed DA 2 more than Origins!

While Anders is my favorite character of all time (flaws and all - that guilt-tripping scene you mentioned in the video makes me feel insane), Carver also means so much to me. I have kinda the opposite experience of being the oldest sister to 3 younger brothers, so I've always been a sucker for good sibling relationships in media, and Carver is so wonderful. He cares so much, he's so direct, he's pissed off all the time, he has a massive inferiority complex. That scene where he shows up again during the climax made me genuinely tear up when I saw it for the first time lmao 10/10 I love my stupid annoying little brother

I saw none of carver in myself or someone I would try to associate with. He complains about being in your shadow but he sabotages every attempt at getting out from under it and refuses to every change himself and grow. He rejects any and all help to enable the growth he needs to undertake and whines about how he never grows- then snarks at you for being accomplished. He was a manchild who complained about being immature but refused to grow up. I guess it's human but watching it was painful.

No lie, its the crafting and job quests that have kept me through ARR 😂 but seriously the crafting is the best in any mmo ive played

Abd honestly has ANY game done the Friend/Rival thing? Honest question

12:00 honestly this way of doing dialogue was done better than any similar game ive seen, Mass effect, Fallout 4, even the Witcher 3

I love this game so much❤❤❤

Ive just replayed my DA:O and the DLC and have Started My DA2 play through and given both are 15 and 12 yrs old hold up very well. I found myself enjoying the things i forgot i had the 1st times i played these games 12yrs and 10yrs ago getting ready for each new game to come out so i could change the way the new game would "react" to your choices. I found myself falling in love all over again with the characters and thankful they made such great choices like Cullen being brought through all 3 games but sad as well that they will never see the remake the deserve, that we as gamers deserve. The lost potential in Veilguard makes me glad they left them alone but at the same time when i hear Oblivion is getting remade it makes me want these remade and given more. I like many others stayed up way later than i should have even knowing i had to work in the morning, honestly who am i kidding i stayed up all night went to work then came home and slept lol.

I'm so happy to see some good faith, genuine praise of DA2. It's my favorite in the series, and one of my favorite games ever. the story is *incredible,* and purple/blue Hawke is one of my favorite protagonists in all of media. I found the story of personal suffering and failure to truly matter incredibly engaging. It's companions, minus sebastian, are all incredible. You're a group of friends, and you can tangibly feel the weight of their relationships if you lean into it.

Hits super different. Although technically a downgrade in character customization from inquisition-at least you can make a decent looking hawke. Better companions then veilguard. MEANINGFUL CHOICES. Nothing preachy, you chose the chain of events the way you prefer.

I really enjoyed DA:2. After learning about how rushed it was, I respected what was created here. Just hated the price. This was not a full release!

The green orbs before the master break if you use the sword/drill on them. Destroying all of those orbs yields an extra 1up, which helps greatly if you can make it to the second stage of the Master.

What a beautiful commentary for a game that (at the time I first played it), I thought I was the only one who enjoyed it. And it was because of the narrative most of all. I'm so glad you made this video showcasing what many may have missed. Well done. Subbed!

I loved DA2 when it came out and I'm so glad people are now enjoying it. Of course I loved DAO, but I loved playing something more about the corruption within the city walls rather than this big baddie. It just felt so fun and incredible. Hawke is also an INCREDIBLE character to play. They are just some normal person who's thrust into this chaotic mess of a city. It's definitely one of my top replayed DA games.

Hard disagree on Anders but everything else is Spot Fucking On

I never understood the « hate » against DA2, i always loved it as much as DA Origins even thought they are different. So many beautiful scenes in this one and Hawke is such a nice character to play.

This video was very notalgic to watch and well made, thank you. I watched it while chewing on some salty snacks, enjoying my well-earned rest during Christmas break. It even inspired me to start up the game and make my way into Kirkwall for the first time in twenty years. You hit the nail on the head about all the reasons why the game is so dear to me. I think The Veilguard shies away from themes of tenacity in the face of struggle and hopelessness, perhaps because of the times we live in. The thing is, taking out the darker elements and anxieties in Dragon Age doesn't make me as a player feel empowered, it makes me feel coddled, and sort of feels like the devs and or EA would rather be in denial than do something which may rock the boat even slightly. It kind of feels like they're gaslighting us about everything we're worried about as a society, which is ironic because acknowledging difficult themes about war, xenophobia, and discrimination in a mature, nuanced, and hopeful way WAS what made the franchise so compelling.

DA2: trying to deviate from the qun will make you a pariah and you will be regarded as dead to society Taash in Veilguard: the Qun isn't a prison. You can leave if you want. Players: ???

Running around with Fenris (I can fix him), Merrill, and Anders (I can’t fix him) was so formative as a young teen.

Role playing for one....story, choices, interesting characters, good combat...yes it was, complicated and interesting, not just mashing the button. Music, atmosphere, different than anything, detached from reality, that is what I like...if(when) I like something real I would go out. It is epic. I played every origin story and every option...got 100/100 all achievement too.

Proud to have been one of the folks who helped crowd fund this trilogy. Also proud to have kept my boy Egil alive through all three games! You actually get an achievement for it, as he’s the character with the most opportunities to die! Poor kid. XD

Nothing really. Absolutely nothing except from some extremely rose tinted glasses and the advent of a new game that is so horrifically bad that anything in comparison feels genius. Like this weird Mandella effect that people seem to think Dragon Age was somehow always a "Dark Fantasy." Noooooo... it really wasn't. Unless ones idea of "Dark" is what a Linkin Park listening tween think is "Dark" and "Edgy" Dragon Age: Origins really was just Biowares generic fantasy that just happened to have the theme of "Oh, and btw, there's a lot of blood. And everyone is mean to each other." It's mature in the sense that it uses themes like systemic oppression and racism as central to the narrative. Because other than that it really doesn't have anything to say in the way that other "Darker" franchises might. It's a good game. But people are talking about it as if it was the second coming.

I come back to this game time and time and time again. It’s a beautiful artistic piece. Hard to believe it’s almost 10 years old.

making Carver a Grey Warden was so satisfying!!!

I feel think this game would have benefited if the title did NOT have "2" in the Title, and was named "Dragon Age: Kirkwall" instead. If the game was called DA: Kirkwall, it would have had people primed to see this game for what it was. A more isolated story in the Dragon Age universe, rather than a direct sequel to a behemoth that is Origins. Its a really good game, not great buuuut when you discover how EA had forced Bioware to somehow squeeze this sweet lil' gold nugget out of their ass at a fraction of the time it takes to conceive and birth a child; making DA2 nothing less than a fucking miracle. It still delivered great/complex characters, and extraordinary story with meaningful choices; they even expanded on the world-building (like with the qunari). Man do a miss OG Bioware Devs

I asid it before, I will say it every time, each Dragon Age game has something to offer (Not 100% on Veilguard just yet, from what little I played I actually enjoyed it more then i was expecting, but I am not too far in yet) Origins is an epic story of world changing magnitude, you stat as lone Warden and become the hero of entire country that reignites people's trust in the Grey Wardens and saves them from Blight, be it by your sacrifice, your friend's or by other means It is grand story, full of amazing visuals, politics, characters, lore and more, it is a grand adventure that is not easy to match DA2 while people may rag on it since it is such a big departure from Origins imo is still game that hits the hardest for me, as you say, it is no grand tale of hero in making, it is story of loss, Hawke fights to get by, they, their sibling and few friends they make are scraping by to make it far in the city that honestly brings more misery and gloom then lot of the Origins cities/stories combined, because while there were characters that you should care about and it certainly had weight, in DA2 the story is more personal, you get to know those people better and seeing it all be so... Horrible... It just hits you Not to mention the actual story of Hawke, who looses basically everything they cared for, sure, they become the great hero of Kirkwall, sure they get power, sure they get wealth and huge manor, but that does not change the fact that ehy loose everything else, their whole family essentially - Which by the way leads to a great scene, Gamlen is a piece of shit, everyone knows that. But that scene when he arrives to ask about his sister and you have to tell him she is dead? That hits really hard... (Plus I will say it, I personally like characters in DA2, party characters I mean, sure the Origins characters are amazing but once again, you get to know these people on much more personal level and they just feel more.. Alive, I guess) Inquisition is... Hard to describe... On one hand, I like the game, it has some amazing visuals, going through the areas, seeing the vistas, visiting Redcliffe again and seeing Connor... What a great moment That is the strongest side of the game imo, the visuals, seeing where the world is in that moment and most importantly seeing how your events changed that world, seeing Alistair as either king or Warden both hit heavy, meetting Hawke once more and especially if you have him and Alistair with you in the fade scene... God what a brutal and amazing scene Seeing how the conflict of Mages and Templars escalated, seeing a goddamn DLC boss became big villain? WHO expected that? It is great for the overal feel of the game, for the world, for the events But the gameplay is kinda... Bland, boring... Combat is not satisfying imo and while I do love the characters tehy also feel kinda... Eeeeeh, compared to the previous games, honestly I cared more for example about Harding then I did some of the party character stories (There are exception of course, and even the 'less good' ones have some great moments, it just is very inconsistent) Plus the game is massive slog if you are completionist like me So I will say it once more, DA2 is my fave of the series, that personal story of Hawke just hits different and I cannot get enough of it, each game has something great going on for it, but DA2 will always stand atop for me as far as DA series goes

I'm an inquisition truther but I love da2 story the most because I honestly don't like "save the world" stories. I way prefer having a small but impactful scope. I actually started replaying da2 after finishing veilguard since I saw a lot of people compare the two. And while there are some similarities da2 still feels like an RPG, pretty much every quest let's you make a serious decision. And while you're never truly in control of the narrative you always feel like you have an impact unlike veilguard where there are no choices and no consequences for 90% of the game

>your older brother tfw you realize you've gotten old because the memories you are fond of are now being associated by video makers with older siblings or older cousins. :lol:

What made it special?.... good writing.

it's like if you took the terrifier movies, sprinkled in a bit of ww1, and topped it off with some depression

I always regret passing up on this game. Thanks for the great content. BTW, what was the game you were showing at the very beginning of the video at 1:47?

The intro to this video sucks. Makes me not want to watch the rest of the video. I still am because i like DA2 but you are not off to a good start.

Veilguard is disappointing for me as a Dragon Age fan. Aside from visuals and combat, I don't see anything redeeming about it. But I will always love the first 3 games and with how long the Awakening dlc is, it feels like it should've been the real DA2. Also I love how in Witch Hunt that if you do it with the guy you romanced her with, you can potentially convince her to let you follow her through the Eluvian

Loved this!

When you stand in the little pool of people who've loved DA2 since release and get to watch as the internet finally gets its shit together and realizes you were right.

Origins might as well be a separate series to the other games. DA 2 is a fine game but no origins game.

No it doesn't. DA2 was always a cheap, lazy cash grab of a game and it's where I said goodbye to the franchise.

This is the one you cant play as dwarves isnt it? Ill see what this is about but I know I hard passed on it after that fact and the game itself afterwards. Sucks that they didn't have much you could make Hawke, I like this philosophy of story but I couldn't get into it without making who I wanted and that early game you mentioned

I wanr Bioware to give us a remaster of this game. For 15 years it was the greatest rpg ever made. It was not until BG3 was released that DAO was beaten, and even then, it still remains no. 2.

Dragon Age 2 Hits Different Now - That's coz they made the bar significantly lower.

This was such a great video essay! I'm still holding out hope they'll remake this game to include everything they originally wanted to 🤞

I will admit it took me a week to get over a death in the game. It was this denial where there had to be a way to not have it happen. Like I missed something so it had to be preventable. Except it can’t it was out of my control. It was such a way to keep you guessing and also how senseless life can be.