In retrospect, DAII did its job for the greater narrative of the franchise. 🦅 For a game forced to be made in 11-months, it bridges the first and third games extremely well. Hawke is also a great protagonist, and the writing was still well done. Great character redesigns such as Flemeth and the Qunari came out of this as well. As polarizing as this game was for the DA community, I personally enjoyed Hawke's story.
For it's worth, DAII broke the Bioware premise of : Gather up a team, save the world. I really appreciate the more intimate setting of the game compared to their other games.
with all the hate the DAII gets I want to add some love. I came into Dragon Age and Mass Effect by accident EA gave each of the games in the series for free, hence I got hooked on the story of Dragon Age first in 2014. I'd just lost my job, my father had passed away and was dealing with the height of my PTSD. So I dove head first into Dragon Age, then like a true story fan I had to go to the next installment DAII and I loved sarcastic Hawke, I loved the fight sequences how the movement in battle played out, loved the whole aspect of it that I played every possible option I could. Then DAI was announced, I'll admit next to Everquest 2 it was the first RPG game I pre purchased. To date I have logged over 2700 hours of Inquisition alone. When I'm stressed out, and panic attacks come on, The Inquisition game is what I log on and loose myself into, I've utilized this for years now and so much so that I am no longer on PTSD meds, I do not have random Panic attacks and when I feel anxious I loose myself in the stories of Thedas, pivitol to this was DAII and Hawke so for me Hawke is my favorite to play. I see other fans dog the franchise left and right but for me it's a series that has helped me in ways I didn't know a game could, ways that changed my life so I'll be a Dragon Age Fan for life.
DA2: YMMV exemplified. Some people loved it. And if you did, cool. It is striking to me though, looking at Baldur's Gate 3, that there was no need to overhaul the combat system into an action RPG style. We can also see from BG3 that it's not hard to make a completely different story with different characters that still involves past storylines in an interesting way, instead of ignoring everything and going to a completely different locale with mostly different people. --------------- Overall, it is a shame that corporate leadership shortened dev cycles and clearly influenced a change in direction for the entire franchise. In this clip, the executive producer, lead designer, and art director are portrayed as setting a new course for the narrative which abandoned the Grey Wardens. No one explained why they thought Hawk was a "personal story" but following a character in the Grey Wardens for another game wouldn't be "personal." But it certainly cut down on development time since they did not have to consider the lore by going to a new place and making a completely new story. Fewer balls in the air to juggle. Similarly, they narrowed the setting to Kirkwall and recycled assets to save money and meet their shortened deadline. It seems that under pressure, they could not see a way to make a story with the Grey Wardens with a narrower scope. Even though they had literally done so repeatedly with DLC for DA:O. Maybe they knew it was going to be so drastically different that they didn't want to subject the old setting to that kind of treatment.
![Behind the Scenes - Dragon Age: Origins [Making of]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/yXoteXWdGww/mqdefault.jpg)
![Behind the Scenes - Dragon Age: Origins [Making of]](/img/tr.png)
![Behind the Scenes - Dragon Age: Inquisition [Making of]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/uEmBNfb9xD8/mqdefault.jpg)
Absolutely underrated gem. DA2 will always have a special place in my heart.
In retrospect, DAII did its job for the greater narrative of the franchise. 🦅
For a game forced to be made in 11-months, it bridges the first and third games extremely well. Hawke is also a great protagonist, and the writing was still well done. Great character redesigns such as Flemeth and the Qunari came out of this as well. As polarizing as this game was for the DA community, I personally enjoyed Hawke's story.
For it's worth, DAII broke the Bioware premise of : Gather up a team, save the world.
I really appreciate the more intimate setting of the game compared to their other games.
with all the hate the DAII gets I want to add some love. I came into Dragon Age and Mass Effect by accident EA gave each of the games in the series for free, hence I got hooked on the story of Dragon Age first in 2014. I'd just lost my job, my father had passed away and was dealing with the height of my PTSD. So I dove head first into Dragon Age, then like a true story fan I had to go to the next installment DAII and I loved sarcastic Hawke, I loved the fight sequences how the movement in battle played out, loved the whole aspect of it that I played every possible option I could. Then DAI was announced, I'll admit next to Everquest 2 it was the first RPG game I pre purchased. To date I have logged over 2700 hours of Inquisition alone. When I'm stressed out, and panic attacks come on, The Inquisition game is what I log on and loose myself into, I've utilized this for years now and so much so that I am no longer on PTSD meds, I do not have random Panic attacks and when I feel anxious I loose myself in the stories of Thedas, pivitol to this was DAII and Hawke so for me Hawke is my favorite to play. I see other fans dog the franchise left and right but for me it's a series that has helped me in ways I didn't know a game could, ways that changed my life so I'll be a Dragon Age Fan for life.
We need a new Dragon Age it's been too long since DA Inquisition released.
They are already developing a new one.
DA2: YMMV exemplified.
Some people loved it. And if you did, cool.
It is striking to me though, looking at Baldur's Gate 3, that there was no need to overhaul the combat system into an action RPG style.
We can also see from BG3 that it's not hard to make a completely different story with different characters that still involves past storylines in an interesting way, instead of ignoring everything and going to a completely different locale with mostly different people.
---------------
Overall, it is a shame that corporate leadership shortened dev cycles and clearly influenced a change in direction for the entire franchise.
In this clip, the executive producer, lead designer, and art director are portrayed as setting a new course for the narrative which abandoned the Grey Wardens. No one explained why they thought Hawk was a "personal story" but following a character in the Grey Wardens for another game wouldn't be "personal."
But it certainly cut down on development time since they did not have to consider the lore by going to a new place and making a completely new story. Fewer balls in the air to juggle.
Similarly, they narrowed the setting to Kirkwall and recycled assets to save money and meet their shortened deadline.
It seems that under pressure, they could not see a way to make a story with the Grey Wardens with a narrower scope. Even though they had literally done so repeatedly with DLC for DA:O.
Maybe they knew it was going to be so drastically different that they didn't want to subject the old setting to that kind of treatment.
DA2: the glitch in the matrix, the beginning of the end for bioware.
4.7 user score metacritic