ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- In part 69 ending of this Dragon Age II blind PC gameplay/walkthrough, Kirkwall's issues come to a head.
► Playlist: • Dragon Age 2 Ultimate ... | If you enjoyed the video, consider leaving a like/comment as support!
► Dragon Age: Origins playthrough: • Dragon Age: Origins Ul...
-------
Hi, I'm Welonz! I love games with great stories, and on this channel, I primarily play titles with engaging and immersive narrative-driven experiences: anything from medieval fantasy to futuristic sci-fi, from hidden indie gems to high-profile AAA hits.
♦ Subscribe: bit.ly/Materwelonz
♦ Twitter: / materwelonz
Support me
♦ / materwelonz
♦ paypal.me/Mater...
---
► Dragon Age II
Official website: www.ea.com/gam...
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Steam: store.steampow...
► Dragon Age II Story Synopsis
You are Hawke, a refugee seeking to escape the darkspawn-plagued land of Ferelden and become Champion of Kirkwall. Rise to power and fight epic battles while making decisions that determine the course of civilization.
► Mods:
Better Map and Minimap: www.nexusmods....
Import Vault Fixes: www.nexusmods....
#DragonAge2 #DragonAgeII #DragonAge
#Bioware #ElectronicArts
I always loved how Sebastian is having a mental breakdown about the grand cleric dying and everyone ignores him bc hes a dlc character
Yea one of the weakest followers in the series.
@@jasonflake6893 And has such a lame personality. Really, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
He was awesome. Better than some of the others.
Ngl I'd ignore his tantrum too lol
Poor Varic. No wonder he makes up so many lies. He was barely in the story because Hawke never takes him anywhere.
Oh yeah, speaking of scenery -- Inquisition took that repeating maps thing TO HEART, so you definitely won't have to worry about lacking places to explore in the next one. Rather, the problem is the opposite; but you'll see when you play it
DAI can be brutal for completionist exploration playstyles. 😂
Imagine what can you achieve by giving the developer studio enough time and funds to actually create a sequel xD xD xD
@@andrews.5212 true dat, but I'd say Inquisition was perhaps a bit too ambitious
already spoiling stuff jfc wait
Get out of the 🌲!
1:10:39: You can tell you've built Aveline correctly when she shrugs of Meredith's "Stun everyone so I can monologue" ability, kills a statue on her own, then beats the crap out of Meredith' while she's talking.
It pays to equip your party with stun immunity items. I had two of my party wailing on Meredith during her speech in my latest playthrough. Unintentional, but it was the best.
"I am the Knight-Commander!"
"City guard is not your jurisdiction!" \You have no power here meme\
Still think it should have had a post credits scene with Isabella leaning over Merediths body to take the red lyrium idol, whispering to herself one last time “if we kill them, we get their stuff…”
Fenris stayed because you got his rivalry to 100 and did his final "Questioning Beliefs" segment. It's like if someone is your rivals to such a great extent, they develop more respect for you...maybe like a Goku-Vegeta situation? Otherwise, if Fenris was a 50-99 rival, then it would have been necessary to fight and kill him. I'm happy Fenris didn't die in your playthrough. BioWare released a comics featuring him in 2020; so in BioWare's non-games canon, Fenris survived the events of this episode.
If you are 100% rival with Anders and you've convinced him to not go through with this, Justice takes him over and is the cause of this (which I would say suggests they are still separate entities despite what he believed). You can then convince Anders to atone by fighting alongside the Templars.
One can also guilt Anders into fighting against the mages by maxing out rivalry.
Yeah, on my first run I failed that as I was bouncing back and forth cause too pro-mage but also anti-slave so didn't get him to max. Interesting world state at least.
As I recall, even without him being maxed rivalry, you don't have to fight Fenris - there's a later section where he shows up, and you can still convince him to be on your side.
I know that, because that's usually how it goes for me.
@@ZT1ST maybe it shows up if your Rivalry is not 100, but high enough?
You may not remember it, but Quentin was the one who ... stitched your mother up with other corpses. You found a letter in his lair from an -O, discussing his 'research'. So no, Orsino didn't just turn at this moment. Powerful as one can be as a regular mage, you don't just 'dabble' in blood magic and turn into this at first try.
Someone once even suggested that Orsino's weird transformation might have been self-defense against Hawke herself, who realized Orsino's connection to Quentin and was now out for blood. It was not presented like that, but the story established early on that Varric is not always completely truthful in how he describes the events.
Even with the story reasons you state, the Orsino moment in the concluding moments there is awful. The devs have even said as much that they regretted it and only added it for another boss fight. I imagine it's one of those things that with a longer dev cycle, they would have polished out and come up with something better since they didn't even like it.
@@plants.plants Thats Dragon Age 2 in general. It was barely compiled together within a year before shipping
That's one thing that always annoys me about those among the mage supporters in the fandom who will die on their "the Kirkwall mages only resorted to blood magic because they were given no other choice/had to defend themselves" hill. It's well established that blood magic is a school like any other, that needs to be studied. It's not just a "cut your veins open on a whim and go full abomination" thing. I am a very strong mage supporter. But the Kirkwall Circle absolutely was corrupt to the literal core. Historically speaking, even before Meredith. That place simply should never have been used for a Circle to begin with, considering its bloody past.
@@DerLetzteMonarch tbf its often very difficult to try and convince players that the 2nd class citizens confined to prisons dont in any way deserve some "freedom". It also doesnt help that bioware often will bend over backwards to justify and rationalize Mage "reasonings" while doing poorly or just straight up comically evil for any templar or religious people because at the end of rhe day, some bioware writers, write based on their real life beliefs.
This can be seen with the way they write conflict in Mass Effect aswell
Meredith saw the chance to eliminate the “mage problem” and jumped at the chance. Orsino was pouring gasoline on the trash fire by supporting people like Quentin and practicing blood magic himself. Anders was stewing in his own wrath and justice’s vengeance until he hit boiling point, and Elthina was a fence-sitter who refused to take decisive action.
Kirkwall was failed by its leaders and its revolutionaries. Hawke was the only one holding this mess of a city together by the end of it.
Seems more like Meredith was influenced by the red lyrium to be super paranoid.
Though with every other mage seemingly using blood magic it's no wonder.
54:35 Typical Sandal. He wasn't trapped in this tiny room with all those abominations, all those abominations were trapped in this tiny room with him.
I love this game and this ending.
Also can't wait for you to start Inquisition.
16:41 well, consider this: Sebastian found his peace in the Chantry... and then his family is mudered. Then you show up, follow his friendship route, he desides that ruling is overrated and he returns to Chantry ways with yours and Elthina's help, finds peace once again... and then Elthina is murdered and the Chantry is blown up. I say its a valid reason to go "F this, now I see why a man of faith needs a big fkn army".
37:42 Had you questioned Fenris after he met his sister about whether he still blames magic for his plights, he would've admitted that no, his views grew more nuanced - so yeah, there is some character developement on the bloke's part.
Welcome to exhibit A of "sometimes rivalry is better than friendship".
The thing Orsino had turned into is not an abomination, it's a flesh golem. Basically, not something one can make unprepared. So... yeah, Orsino is a proficient blood mage. Makes you wonder how much he had to do with the numbers of blood magrs un Kurkwall.
Welonz: I cant kill him, I cant forgive him, I choose the Let him go option.
Anders: walks away
Welonz: *surprized Pikachu face* Do I just let him go???
Lol
Anders: I'd rather die fighting. I am the voice of all mages. Also Anders: Hey Hawke, it's cool if you kill me now, the other mages can fight for freedom without me I'm sure they can handle it, even the ones who don't want to fight 🙂.
And thus we get to the end, hell of a journey. Was gonna ask if you wanted to do the Templar side just to see what it was like, but oh well. Main difference is that Meredith calls out Orsino more about his whole blood magic issue.
And as much as Seb gets flak here, he ain't wrong Anders committed one of the biggest atrocities of the Age and killed basically his second mother and Hawke just lets him go/agrees with him, not surprising he would take issue with that and consider that the line in the sand.
Seb should not get any flak for this. People are biased and stupid and lacking in sense of justice and foresight of future dangers of not putting harm causing people out of commission, as usual. This is the most correct he could have been. "There's the criminal, he did a massive crime that is also personal to me. Why on earth would you just let him go?"
I'm surprised he didn't just put an arrow through Anders' neck right then and there. That's what I would have done in his position.
A lot of the problems of this game can be explained by one phrase. "18months of TOTAL development"
While the writing was there the rushed deadline meant barebone enviroments, ugly UI. skipped scene, subpar enviromental and quest dialogues, reused assets and an entire third act rushed as hell to the finish line.
Somehow is still the Dragon Age game i have replayed the most.. maybe is the small scale of the story, maybe is the 3acts nature that split it nicely maybe the charm of purple hawke..
Looking at it from that perspective, I have to say it's a good game for something put together in 18 months under a lot of stress
@@Amicitia- especially considering that this is a different version of the eclipse engine (the one used in DAO) and ence they couldn't reuse any asset, everything had to be rebuilt from scratch!
I enjoyed watching this more than when I played it. The only thing I would recommend for DAI is maybe install the mod that removes the loot animation.
This game has many great things going for it. But the very best is the fact that the really surprised me, even more than once. First, there was a horrible situation with Merril's clan. And then there was Anders' deed. I never thought that a game could do that. It was very cool and powerful back then, and it still holds today.
I think they did Orsino dirty. He turns into the weird monster thing regardless if you side with or against him; at least when its against him it makes sense given that he is desperate and knows he is going to die. By the by he was the "O" who was corrisponding with the guy who murdered Hawke's mother.
Well earlier in development it was fairly straightforward. You aided with the Templars you fought Orsino, you side with the mages you fought Meridith. But somewhere they decided that no matter what you should get both boss battles. Hence this.
@@Ravenite456 And it's dumb. Orsino all but admitted to saying he knew about Quentin's stuff IN FRONT OF HAWKE and just turned into a monster just because. I blame EA more than I do the Bioware team at the time.
I blame orsino. He's evil and a monster. Literally orsino did orsino dirty. Blaming the writers or whatever is a cop out because you can blame everything on the writers. Lol
@@volourn9764 Okay first, who is Iraino. Second, what are stiters? And third, did you have a stroke?
@@LukaBlight69 I blame blood magic. Or demons.
Since i i think you didnt noticed. Zevran is actually helping you on your fight with meredith. You can see a dual wielding elf npc attacking one of the statues.
Also congrats
I almost always choose to kill Anders. This...its a hell of a crime, even if he saved Bethany. If he was locked up, he'd hang anyway. He started a war, killed ubtold amount of innocent people, and started a war that will kill thousands more. I just couldnt let him walk.
This moment always makes me think that Anders is dead anyway, and so is justice. What's left is a perversion of both, a demon of Vengeance in human skin. What's gonna happen if I let him go, is he going to get worse? What illogical and extreme "justice" will he inflict next? That's on Hawke.
If you go full rivalry with him, he sees hes wrongs in the end and iirc volunteers to help you in attempt to fix things and after game ends kills himself. Probably the best outcome I was able to find.
one of the good things about both DA:2 and DA:O is that they force you to make tough decisions. Just like in real life, often trying to avoid making a choice can leave everyone angry and unsatisfied and I think that has bitten you a few times during this playthrough. I definitely think Sebastion was in the right in this situation. Anders just murdered dozens, if not hundreds, of people in cold blood and set off a war that could potentially kill thousands on both sides, as well as countless non-combatants. Locking him up would be extremely difficult and resource-consuming in the middle of an emergency/war and letting him go unpunished was pretty much the worst option.
Also, the templars didn't leave Anders alone to your judgment. Meredith ordered the templars who were there to kill everyone, which included Anders. You just happened to kill them first.
If you side with the templars Meredith will leave and have Hawke deal with Anders anyways, so the complaint still stands. DA2 handles choice and consequence worse than Origins and Inquisition. I'd rather be offered no choice than a nonchoice.
DA2 has cool ideas, such as the time skips, single city setting and stylistic aesthetics but Bioware didn't have the time or the effort to do any of them great.
What a journey 😢 Can't believe it's already over :') Looking forward to Inquisition :3
1:14:35 You're getting confused because of the DLCs. Cassandra was turning nicer over the chapters, however during the DLC missions she reverted to her most hostile initial position. So basically what you saw was: Hostile Cassandra->somewhat friendlier Cassandra->2x hostile Cassandra again->"suddenly" friendly Cassandra.
The actual main story progression would have been hostile->somewhat friendlier->friendly. Which would have made more sense.
Cassandra was just doing what a lot of interrogators do - try to keep you scared until they have finished with you then assuming you are innocent they shake your hand, pat you on the head and let you go.
It's nothing personal, they just want any information.
I wish Bethany didn't leave midway the game. Usually the video games siblings are annoying but she was neat
The statues are likely a Tevinter defence system against slave uprisings
So, remember how in Anders’ quest he asked you to gather something called sela petre? Its a clear reference to saltpeter, also called potassium nitrate. It’s the oxidizer for gunpowder, a hint that it’s for something dangerous.
Wait, what? Why is it so early? I'M NOT MENTALLY PREPARED LOL
I like how Cullen sticks with the DA:O sword and shield animations.
I noticed that! A nice reminder I guess that he originated in, well, Origins! 😆
I have a few mod recommendations and a heads-up for a very annoying bug you will encounter in DA: Inquisition. Slight spoilers but only for game mechanics and such, nothing about the storyline.
One mod I recommend looking for is something to fix the party banter since it's extremely glitchy and on a 15 minute timer that seems to reset for no reason. Another is an option to skip the waiting time on War Table missions, which make you wait real life hours for resolutions. (I swear I'm not making this up, this is an actual mechanic for some reason. You can do other things in the meantime but waiting 10 hours for the mission to end is one of the worst designed things I've seen in a videogame.)
About the bug, the description for the War Table mission that unlocks the Black Emporium DLC has a massive spoiler. It's only supposed to be accessible after the main quest "In Your Heart Shall Burn" but due to a bug you can do it as soon as you unlock the War Table. I would recommend not touching that mission until after that main quest is over or it'll ruin a very cool moment.
Hope you enjoy the next DA game!
Also the mod to skip looting animations
What's the point in the table operation timer skip? It's not like she's planning to complete DAI in one sitting. At least the timer paces the operations out instead of letting you do all of them in, like, three batches tops.
@@vaspeter2600 Completely agree. At least let her experience it for herself first. Personally, I loved the way the tabletop missions took real time. If they didn't, it'd be so grindy and you could complete them all in like one sitting. The whole point is to keep it concurrent with your time playing through the game, which takes a lot of hours.
Did you guys just skip the word "recommendation" when reading the comment? You talk like it's a demand. She can choose to use the mod, or not. Like you said, her choice.
@@watchthis8O What? We're not up in arms, just pointing out why we don't think it's a good idea. I don't see anybody on this thread getting belligerent.
8:10 Sebastian is just about the only major character around here with a good sense of justice that both recognizes crimes correctly and targets the correct individuals.
targets the correct individuals by bringing an entire army to attack kirkwall to find one man? Yeah not sure about that one.
@@CommanderNam in the hypothetical situation where the mages have taken over Kirkwall and are sheltering that man if not outright being ruled by him and his friends.
"I will bring Anders to Justice"
* does a Vengeance instead*
I just started the video and have been so excited for when we get to the end. And I'm one minute in and see the party is Fenris, Merrill, and Anders. Buckle up! 😀
For inquisition you gotta bit the bullet and play a mage Wellonz. You did Warrior in origins, rogue in DA2, it's fate!
My thoughts exactly!
I killed him in my playthrough. He might have saved your sister but he still mass murdered tons of people with all the implication on whole world and effectively made you an accomplice. And the worst - he was basically lying to you all the time and betrayed your trust. There is simply no excuse for what he did.
Agreed. Personal favors, even huge ones are no commit crimes for free card. Crimes are still crimes and need to have the appropriate consequences, fully independently of whatever that person did or is. Crime X = Consequence Y. That's the full formula. Simple as that and how it has to be. It's only justice if it's the same rules for everybody. That's why all these non-related factors must never go into it. If you cure cancer and the aging process, saving billions of people over time, you're still not allowed to murder even a single person.
Same here. Which, considering he had been my main (and only!) healer for most of the game, made it an even harder decision from a meta perspective. Fortunately I had begun giving my mage Hawke a few healing skills as well just before the climax.
Ok just some random trivia and opinions now that I've gotten through the whole video;
* There are supposed to be around 100-200 mages per circle tower. The Templar order is a strong military power in itself separate from each country's local army and each branch would have thousands of templars available.
* lethallan is a dalish term used by women (lethallin for men) for somene that are close to, for example a fellow clan member.
* You lost Anders and Sebastian. However, if you didn't achieve 100 loyalty or rivalry with Fenris then he would have turned on you as well for supporting the mages. Aveline can also turn but its much harder to hit the conditions for her to do so.
* The desperation in the battles vs the templars (or mages) is felt more on higher difficulties. On normal difficulty, the fights finish so fast they just seem like a regular encounter, but on nightmare the fights are a lot more difficult. Bioware games in general are made to be quite easy on normal mode (so players can focus on the story) but DA:2's nightmare mode was probably the hardest in the whole DA series. Especially due to the constant friendly fire issues.
* Orsino's quick turn at the end was definitely part of the rushed development. It seems there was supposed to be a subplot earlier involving the research he mentioned that was never implemented. Quitin's research was the one that involved Hawke's mother dying and the game really needed something more to tie that storyline in with Orsino's.
* you can actually see that Meredith was carrying the red lyrium sword earlier in chapter 3 so it's likely she was under its influence for quite a while.
* it's never really talked about much directly but there are a few hints throughout the game (and legacy DLC) about the veil being thinner in kirkwall and mages there being far more prone to possession and using blood magic. I suspect that one of the ideas for DA:2 that got lost in the rushed production was to have a stronger integration of the weekend veil & the red lyrium find influencing the tension and aggression between the mages and templars. The legacy DLC was probably added afterwards to make this connection more clear but it was also not as fleshed out as it could have been.
* DA:2 had a fairly negative reaction on its initial release but opinions softened over time. DA:O had a far more positive reception and opinions remained strong over years. DA:I sold well and was praised initially, but user reviews over time became a lot more negative. Basically both are flawed games that are good in different areas but suffered a lot of internal development issues. Generally, people who started with DA:O prefer DA:2, but those who were new to the series often remained more positive about DA:I.
I started with Origins and Inquisition is far and away my favorite game of the series. Contender for top 10 even. I find a lot of people's criticisms of Inquisition boil down to a matter of taste (which is completely subjective) or valid points that also hold true for Origins.
@@MIrfanPerdana Whether someone likes and/or enjoys a game is a matter of preference. It mostly comes down to whether the positives for you personally outweigh the negatives. Hower objectively speaking DA:I is a very flawed game, and as a result, has one of the lowest user ratings of all Bioware releases. I love DA:2 and sometimes people hate on it for weak reasons. However, there is also a lot of valid criticism against it that shouldn't be ignored and could have made it a genuinely good experience for most people. DA:I got a slightly better reception than DA:2 but for me personally I would rate it about the same as ME:A. Basically, a game that does some things well but has a lot of stuff that should have been done much better considering the amount of money put into the project.
44:20 - "Is it possible for a Mage Hawke to support the Templars?"
Yes it is. My second Hawke was an aggressive (red) mage who romanced Merrill and supported the Templars. That decision led to an... elevation of my rank in Kirkwall. It was a great playthrough and is the ending I love the most.
46:18 - And now you know who "O." is on those letters you found in the lair of your mum's killer (Quentin).
I assume the statues just work like golems. Dwarves essentially just put together stones in a humanoid shape and animate them with lyrium, so it is possible for Meredith to do the same, since the idol is made out of pure lyrium. Normal golems have souls in them, so maybe these ones just attack whatever closest to them.
Great LP as always! As much as the game was rushed, and Act 3 was a bit poorly written, I still like the overall story. Can't wait for the Inquisition playthrough!
I find it really weird how Meredith just debated while Anders was right there, you'd think that she would have attacked him straight away.
The statues are just statues, red lyrium just does ultramegaÜberwierd stuff to inanimate objects such as making them float or just make them move.
Anders should have been killed. Either by Metedith or Sebastian. Then Hawke can choose how to act in response to that. Espicially Sebastienm no way he just stands there and let's Hawke decide Ander's fate. Meredith can be excused because her focus turns to destroying the circle.
It's fun when replaying this game because you can see Meredith just walking around with the red lyrium sword.
So ends Dragon Age 2.
Like many others I feel like this is the weakest entry in the series but I still thoroughly enjoyed watching your play through, looking forward to Inquisition.
Fenris always abandons me, as rival, it's cool to see full rival Fenris support, maybe full rivalry has different outcome, idk. It could be much worse, I don't know if Aveline could also adandon you in this scenario.
She can but it's unlikely. You'd have to treat her like a complete dick. Lol
58:50 Madness! Why would you not want to go crazy on that. Double firestorm with double tempest. What's not to like?
More seriously though, it actually would not be a bad investment. That way you're less likely to be on cooldown when you need another AOE.
Thank you for playing this series, i was a big Mass Effect fan and like BioWare, but never got far in Dragon Age. Thank you for letting me enjoy the series through your work.
At the time, I had a lot of issues with a lot of the oft cited problems mentioned at release (repeated use of maps etc) but as time has gone by my opinion has mellowed quite a bit. I think a lot has to do with the fact that it was going to be a much more tragic story and a more blatant setup for a sequel.
So excited for Inquisition!! You'll love it I'm sure🥰
Looking forward to seeing what kind of character you'll create!
1:18:25 They definitely could have rolled out that finale also much slower. We barely got to interact with eventually major characters like Cullen and Orsino. It also escalated rapidly pretty much out of nowhere, rather than a few quest events leading to that.
Finally the ending of Dragon Age 2. I've been waiting for your reaction to this since the series started. Loved watching it all the way through. A humble request for when you finally play Dragon Age: Inquisition: You should react to the various cinematic trailers of DAI, would love to hear your speculations on what the next game will be about. I think you did it during your Witcher 3 playthrough before.
12:35 In a way Meredith not just immediately stabbing Anders makes her appear even more unhinged. Like Sebastian said. She straight went to kill all the circle people over there while completely ignoring the person standing right in front of her, who actually did it.
so she just wanted an excuse to kill all the mages which would've happened eventually with or without the Chantry being destroyed
if u have full rivalty with Anders you can make him join you with the templar and destroy the mage. Ironic right?
Say what you will about the game's flaws due to it's rushed production, at least it's complete and playable, compared to most games nowadays that are far from finished with far more years in development and still release broken anyway.
6:20 Hawke's party is quite something. One almost starts a war with the qunari and does start a qunari uprising in a major city, the other one blows up an entire church and kicks off a local mage-templar war. And captain of the guard/nepotism Aveline would probably refuse to arrest either.
Oh yeah, and another one got her entire dalish clan killed too. Who would have guessed that Fenris was actually one of the lesser troublemakers in the party.
oh, you think it's local war he has started? xD
This is why we love Varric. He's funny, unproblematic, a good businessman, a caring brother, and is in a loving, committed relationship with his crossbow. What's not to love!
Merrill"s clan doesn't have to die. That outcome can be avoided.
Kirkwall is the embodiment of Murphy’s Law. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong.
When first presented with the end game, and who to support. It was a zero sum choice, bottom line, Meredith was going to commit genocide, I could not and would not support that. And you cannot change her mind. Regardless of what Anders did. What Anders did was a over reaction. And Meredith's reaction was another over reaction, placing me in the center of it, there was only one clear choice, I believe you chosen correctly.
This game was better than I remembered, especially with the characters stories and the choices in the first two acts.
It seems the devs prepared an ending where your choices matter, but eventually did not have the time to do it, so we got disappointment like in Mass Effect 3's original ending.
Congratulations I enjoyed your let's play tremendously. Okay now let's skip forward 3 months and let's start your let's play of Inquisition can't wait.
Sebastian really should have been better integrated. As it is now its hilarious watching him threaten to invade and no one apart from Hawke reacts.
OOOw, how I would love for us that you'd jump right into Inquisition! You'd keep the immersion going. But I understand if you'd like a break. Especially before the god damed longest of all games. It took me more then 200h to finish it! :-) And I don't even read the lore so carefully :-)
@@ogami7661 Iiii don't really know. It just happened :-) I had a few... Issues. At first I didn't realize what I can or should do. Sometimes I was looking for an entrence that was supposed to be open at the table for like 5 hours :p and I spend a lot of time crafting etc. Some fights (like a titan in the DLC) took me like 15 times to win :p
I had a lot of fun. But it just took me a lot of time :-)
@@ogami7661 Wow, that is super efficient. I'm a collector. I pick up every plant, I take time listening to songs in the tavern and I love how sea looks like in DAI.
But, if I'm not mistaken, other youtubers (like Living Sun and Private Idaho) also spend something like 200 hours (or more) in the game. That is what I would guess @Materwelonz can expect :-)
200 hours?! And here's me thinking that 140 hours for my first (and so far only) playthrough of Inquisition was long...
6:20 In my view, this is the BEST moment in any BioWare game!
Instead of the typical cliched villains, we're shown a much more realistic picture of evil, banal and systemic. I'd say that Elthina is the worst villain in the story. She isn't keeping things in balance, but presiding in a position of authority over a genocidal process that has imprisoned and lobotomized mages in torture-Hogwarts (the Circle) for decades -- all because they were born a certain way. Even if Elthina comes in the form of a kindly faith leader calling for peace, she is much more insidious than Meredith. She empowered Meredith to do all that she did, and she would have continued the human rights abuses long after Meredith was gone.
Anders, on the other hand, did everything he could to avoid violence and, when that didn't work, only resorted to extreme measure after decades of struggle and community support, all while people close to him suffered or died. I'm not celebrating violence, but also I've never been in that situation, so I can't cast judgment! In a lot of "safe" fiction, when characters have a legit systemic critique and take understandably extreme measures against abusive institutions, they're almost always made out to be horrible people in some other way (the "Killmonger Effect"). I thought it was bold of BioWare to mostly-refrain from that with Anders -- though DA:I retcons it a bit early on and ups the death toll. In DA2, Hawke can unambiguously say that Anders is justified; they're just irritated they weren't in on it. In the end, I feel Anders is vindicated, so I'm glad Wellens Hawke let him live, despite some meta fence-sitting.
Thanks Welonz for another great LP!
It really doesn't feel like there are any good choices at the end of this story. Assuming that was Bioware's intent, then they did a pretty good job of that. When I first played DA2, the ending left me pretty bummed out. But a little over a decade later, I have more appreciation for DA2 as a story, and for its part in the larger plot of Dragon Age. I still think Origins is the best standalone game, but honestly with every game the whole 'saga' and the lore just get more amazing and exciting
Yeah, Welonz said that you save the world on a smaller scale here, but you actually don't, this is just a clusterf*ck in which you take side based on {insert reasons} and kinda see it through and run
Finished with the second game, good job!
Yeah, the Orsino thing really didn't make much sense in the end. Mark Darrah, Lead Developer on DA2, said it was one of his biggest regrets for the game. Back then, he said, making encounters that were not gonna be seen in 50% of the cases was still considered a "waste" in the gaming industry. So, since they needed the Orsino-Fight for the scenario where you would go with the Templars, they wanted to have it in the Mages as well. Now, though, he says that he sees the error of those ways and admits that he would rather just have left that thing out completely. Especially since the End Credits said, that many of the Mages survived, it was not really clear how he was allegedly pushed so far by the Templars to commit something like that.
As for the Anders thing, I see the situation a little differently. It is not at all that they forgot about him. But when the Templars moved to attack, Hawke repelled their attempt, so they physically COULD NOT get to Anders and had to retreat. And Orsino, at this point, had bigger problems to deal with so he left Anders to you. Like you said during the fight, the Explosion of the Chantry was only the last excuse they needed anyway. Noone besides Sebastian really cared about the lives that were lost in that attack.
a Wonderful playthrough. Been following you since Origins and have enjoyed the daily uploads. I rarely comment but wanted to express my thanks here. Looking forward to your playthrough of Inquisition!
Also she wasn't possessed the who time, it just made her worse and at the end it overcame her. It's the worst of the 3 but still good as well.
I think she only starts walking around with the lyrium sword at the start of the last chapter. It's pretty noticeable when you're replaying the game.
She likely had the lyrium after deep roads buying it from bertrand.
i'm soooo happy you finished!!! what a ride has getting into dragon age been for you, huh?
i adore dragon age 2. a game shipping is a miracle at all, and considering how little time they had, i think this game is such an achievement. the characters are wonderful, i like them more than origins' cast, and the worldbuilding -- especially between societal groups -- is fantastic. it's a way smaller scale than origins, but it finds a way to thrive within the constraints. so excited for you to play inquisition, it's the best one imo!
it's been such a joy watching your journey through these games! it's always something i looked forward to each day
Thank you so much for this playthrough Welonz! I had tons of fun watching you play and hearing your thoughts :)
Regarding the Red lyrium idol i agree 100%. The whole red lyrium stuff always just irked me a little bit, like it takes away agency from the characters. Demons/possession as a repeated plot device have the same effect imho. I don't think it's that bad in Meredith's case though since we do learn about her background and motivations beforehand. The red lyrium seems more like a catalyst here.
Anyway if you decide to play DAI im gonna tag along again! I'm super excited to see your takes on the lore, thank you so much for this
To be fair if I was one of the Templars and knew all the things Hawke has done in Kirkwall, I wouldn't be inclined to get involved with anything I didn't have to.
And you're quite right, some of the things that happened in the last act of DA2 were written to set things up for the start of Inquisition. I think that made it a worse game overall as the natural course of the game could have taken had to shift into something that set things up for Inquisition.
I would have preferred that they pushed it into more of a political game, Hawke trying to arrange for someone (possibly herself) to become Viscount and get Kirkwall back on a more settled footing. Make alliances, get the noble houses, the merchants and population and guards and even the mages on your side, while opposed by Meredith if she has to be the ultimate boss. It could even have led to a massacre of the mages if Meredith decided their support for the Champion was treasonous nad required punishment, kill Elthina as she tried to stop it, and have that spark off a general revolt among the mages and templars. But make the last act about the Champion and what they wanted for Kirkwall rather than have them be a bystander unable to have any influence on other people's plans. You The Protagonist should feel significant instead of constantly being blind-sided by others and overtaken by events.
Yeah, that's I think my biggest gripe with DAII's writing: Hawke has very little agency in the game. For the supposed "Champion of Kirkwall" they really don't get to effect any meaningful change.
When this game came out, everyone was expecting Origins 2.0, but then you were reduced to human only, no real armour selection, waves of enemies just falling from the sky, (which just came across as nonsensical), and reused environments.
This was a bit of a shock when compared to the crafting enhancements in Awakenings.
The story was almost unrelated to the first game there were only a few locations, no Dwarves, limited Elven interaction.
Certainly felt much more linear and less involved for the player.
If it wasn't called DA2 it might have been regarded more highly.
A bit like when Star Wars came out, then they had the Star Wars Christmas Special...Guess which one DA2 would be.
Inquisition is more involved, though I have to admit to not completing that game.
>"no dwarves"
>the game's framing device is your dwarven companion's narration
What
@@MIrfanPerdana I meant you didn't go to Dwarven towns.
Having a few Dwarves kicking around town isn't the same - and how would the story be different if it was not told by Varric? A Dwarf that hasn't been to Orzammar and lived his whole life on the surface.
Or do you think this is on par with going to Orzammar in the first game?
Technically a Dwarf but no cultural connection - he disparages Dwarven culture many times.
To me him being a dwarf is just a novelty, I guess for variation in recruitable characters
I played this on release and i already loved it back then. Already in 2011 i liked DAII far more than i liked Origins. Story and characters are so much better here. Also gameplay is far superior. I replayed it last year on hard, right after replaying Origins and my opinion stands. DAII for me is the best game in this series. I think most people hated DA II because it was not Origins 2.
So you were doing all this gangs quest and wondering who that "friend" who was paying you was and at the end you didn't go for your last payment and you didn't learn who she was...
congratulation for finishing Dragon Age 2,
I can't wait for your Dragon Age Inquisition playthrough Next.
No matter what playthrough I have, I always kill Anders here. Whatever character I am roleplaying, I can't not do. Only one exception I had, when I played a fanatical Blood Mage who would've done what he had if it were possible.
While Inquisition is a fine game, DA2 marks the beginning of BioWare's decline.
I don't think the idol can be blamed for Meredith's actions. When you arrive in Kirkwall, before the idol is even found, the rumors of how ruthless, strict and power-trippy she has gotten are already all over the city. If the idol can be blamed for anything it's only accelerating and enabling her paranoid insanity.
And the game was, as you mentioned seeing even now, pretty polarizing back when it released as well. I suppose the reason that hasn't changed is because the gameplay and graphics were already kind sub-par even then, but the world and characters were very engaging. So the look and feel haven't diminished that much since they started kinda low and writing quality doesn't really age so people's opinions haven't changed much.
My only real gripe with the writing is that those last 45-ish minutes do get a bit GoT Season 8 with how character arcs that needed more time to progress sort of jumped to their end points too quickly and thus didn't seem to make much sense.
And finally, Inquisition does do a good job of bringing the player up to speed on most things that happen between 2 and it considering there were two novels and (I think) two multi-part comics that came out in between. Asunder and The Masked Empire certainly provide the most insight into *how* we get to the start of Inquisition, but the game does contain everything you need to understand what's going on even if it can- especially in the early game, feel a bit like you turned over two pages at once.
Edit: I forgot about that Dawn of the Seeker movie that also came out between games. That whole thing is acknowledged with like one dialogue line, though. Watch-along?
I really liked this game overall, and I liked your commentary on it. It's really refreshing to hear someone who hasn't been part of the Dragon Age community for a decade's opinion on Anders and the mage v templar fight. (it's gotten very toxic in certain parts of fandom)
Hell, some of that toxicity has even spilled over to the comments section here on occasion! 😅 Which, depending on how you look at it, could be seen as a major win on BioWare's end for writing a conflict that a lot of people are invested in, and have strong opinions about.
If you think back, there are no less than three characters in DAO who were permanently turned into fully conscious statues by Tevinter magisters. So to tell what those statues in the Gallows courtyard were... who knows?
Well if they were some kind of defence mechanism, then they may have been imbued with magic but the Magisters.
42:02 Bethany really became that stoic silent Warden type lol
16:30 Now that's interesting. Sebastian is taking your neutral option away. I really like that. I also wonder if you could take that route if you don't have him, seeing as he is an optional DLC character.
17:50 Almost a shame Sebastian didn't push it even further so that you have to kill either him or Anders, instead of both just walking away. This way the middle of the road option wasn't really taken away. You just pay for it with 1 party member.
About the Orsino fight, that was not originally planned to happen - EA, however, demanded another boss-fight in that segment, so Bioware had to follow through on it even if they weren't too happy about it. Btw, did you recognize his monster form as the one you encounter in the Golems of Amgarrak?
About Meredith, because you tended to side with the mages you didn't get a special dialogue with her where you learn that her fear of mages stems from her own sister escaping the templars, hiding with her family, then turning into an abomination and slaughtering most of them. It's why she feels so strongly that they need to be held in check (although the idol is what pushed her beyond any reason). I wished everyone could have gotten that dialogue piece, it would have made people see her in a more nuanced light.
In my humble opinion, given the circumstances (very little dev time primarily) DA2 is actually an excellent game. It has an interesting twist with the "tragic hero" (and I think a lot of people struggled with not being the grand hero) and I think centering the story around a family and a city is interesting (it just should have been more varied with maps etc.).
@maggiemanor It's been a long time, I recall you got it if you were sympathetic with her and you went back to talk with her. Sad story that really did a lot to make her seem less of a zealot and more like someone struggling dealing with a trauma.
Ended the series at 69😏😎
As the Maker intended.
1:04:50 Now that's really interesting. That pretty much means that Meredith getting even more extreme over the years was almost certainly because of the idol. We've seen plenty of what that thing does to people. Basically turns you into an extremist of whatever your strongest desire is. For Bartrend greed, for Varric saving Bartrend, for Meredith keeping the mages under control. If Anders had gotten it he... pretty much would have done the exact same things he was already doing.
He'd be like a super juiced abomination and slaughter everyone, template for abuse, mages for complying, others for not caring.
A mage Hawke can in fact side with the Templars; in fact it's what I did in my first playthrough. There's some lines here and there that help rationalize it within the setting but it definitely is a bit oxymoronic given the pace of the last act.
anders just walking away at first ?? he could have went directly after Meredith but no, let's k word the innocent poor people seeking shelter in the chantry lol
Absolutely LOVED this let's play! I'm really looking forward to Inquisition, it's my favourite of the series so I can't wait honestly!
I absolutely cannot wait for Welonz to meet some of the companions in Inquisition!
And of course... the ending. And the DLCs.
@@MIrfanPerdanaYesss the companions are amazing!!!
27:27 Read the room, Bethany!
*Fun fact:* You can get Anders to side with the templars, if you rival him. It's pretty interesting and gives alot more insight in the Vengeance-Anders situation and who is really in the driver's seat.
Here's a video covering that: th-cam.com/video/CGWon2Qer7g/w-d-xo.html
@@Moonlight-fh7yo I honestly can't find any rational reasons to siding with templars, regardless of what Anders did and how my Hawke feels about it
Would the same have happened if you hadn't done what Anders asked of you?
This whole game is such a journey, well done!
Regarding Anders' actions. I'm sorry, but as edgy and badass blowing up the chantry is, at the end of the day, such extremism can only stem from narcissism and saviour complex. At that point, whatever genuine kindness and empathy you may have (had) are heavily compromised by an obsessive desire for acceptance and validation-"justice". But objectively, on paper, trying to justify the sacrifice of innocents in the name of a subjective greater good is really just incredibly selfish and pathetic. No amount of mental gymnastics can ever change that. If anything you're resorting to your enemy's exact same methods; you just think your side is more righteous. In the end, you're not solving anything; you're merely just turning tides. An ephemeral solution at best. I don't think Anders should die for what he did, but he certainly doesn't deserve any kind of acceptance or validation.
There is some banter between Anders and Isabela at some point where she lowkey exposes his BS. What she says, to me, is some of the greatest wisdom there is.
I: "Has it occured to you that maybe there's no justice in the world? Other than that voice you keep in your head.
A: "There is justice in the world."
I: "Is there? You want to free the mages. Let's say you do. But to get there, you kill a bunch of innocent people. What about then? Don't they then deserve justice?
A: "Yes".
I: "And then what? Where does it end? It's like a bar brawl. People are continuously pulled into the fray and nobody remembers why it started. Justice is an idea. It makes sense in a world of ideas! But not in our world."
To be fair, his "saviour complex" is mostly because of that literal spirit of Justice inside of him. It's easy to tell that's the case because pre-Justice Anders (i.e. the guy we meet in Awakening) did not have anything resembling a saviour complex. He was just a cat-loving goofball who, at most, just wanted to live away from the Circle for his own sake.
Best play through ever! Thank you! ❤
Great playthrough. I think you're going to Enjoy the next game even more.
so the rival path does apparently show the other person the other side better for every companion but again, my problem with is you can only change their way of thinking by arguing and being a rival instead of it being like da:o and it's more of a dialogue thing
so yes, i think fenris somehow does get it about mages to an extent here though i still do think he mostly is here for hawke
you have to have high friendship or rivalry at this point for every character for them to be there or you might have to fight them if they don't agree (for example if you chose templars you have to fight merrill and if you chose mages you have to fight aveline and/or fenris)
anders likely came back because of his high approval too, i think if you let him live and he doesn't have high approval either way (which i'm sure that's rare) he doesn't come back
sebastian's main thing is killing or not killing anders, he only joins if you kill him
your sibling and varric always join unless your sibling dies obviously
isabela always comes too if she comes back and gives the relic, that was her proof of loyalty where you have to pass an approval/rivalry check
and this is why people say it's good to go either way, not only for combat perks but the possibility of death
i don't think aveline ever dies though if you go against her it's more you fight her and save her life because she helped you and your family (kind of like the reason you let anders live)
46:00 I really didn't like that no matter what you do, Orsino decides it is a great idea to purposely turn himself into a monster. It goes against everything he has said and done previously and to me made no sense at all, even with the desperate situation. It should have been a causal link with previous events...his calm slowly but noticeably erodes due to the constant abuse by the templars so he loses it at the end, or he is able to remain centered and under control like he repeatedly preaches that the mages can do. Instead, no matter what choices are made during the game we get monster Orsino.
Fun/stupid fact: the fight with Orsino was only added to this path because EA wanted another boss fight. Bah.
Things are added to games in development for all sorts of reasons. Orsino is evil. Period.
Younger me pooped all over DA2.
Older me decided to do a full PT of all three games and finally give DA2 a chance and started DA2 around the time, out of the blue, Welonz started DA:O and was leagues hyped. Being hella honest, was hooked from start to end ❤
A terrorist will never be a hero =/
25:55 Oh wow, they fill out a full line. Did not a single one of those circle mages die? Looks like it. Maker be thanked. And with maker I mean firestorm and tempest.
did you spy zervan helped you in the final fight? (near the end, he took a while lol)
Heh, she beat Meredith too quickly to notice xD If I remember correctly, Nathaniel and Donnic would've shown up as well, given the time.
Well done. Don't forget to set up your world state in the Dragon Age Keep before you start Inquisition... and all of your questions will be answered. Well, some of them. lol.
Ah DA2 is fnished, all in all i see this as less of a sequel to origins and more of a proloque to Inquisition. That was it helps set the scene for the third game and the stakes. The DLC was interesting, especially Legacy. Fun fact if you brought Anders with you to Legacy, he has some extra scenes that flesh out the boss's power, as well as the huge revelation regarding him. But all in all this was a fun game, wish they had more time to work on it more.
@@ogami7661 oh it does, they should have given them the time to really make it into a proper game and while they did they could still have used it to add more to it
4:56 - Hammerhead, NOOOOOOOO!!! Mako, NOOOOOOOO!!!
So, now we know why Anders snuck gunpowder into the Chantry!
now to the next dating sim DAI
The *best* dating sim!