Halo.

[SoonDragon67]

Dec 2, 2013 23:14:34 GMT -5 miketheratguy said:

Without getting spoilers (and I'm really trying not to read most of these posts for that very reason) what did DAO do so well that DA2 did so poorly? It seems universally accepted that DAO was amazing and the follow-up was a wretched insult to the franchise.

Also, is DAO the first chronological title in the series?

In DA:O every decision you made in the game had an affect on the ending, the boss battle, your allies in the boss battle, the massive amounts of endings...

In DA:2 not a single one of your decisions does anything.

[SoonDragon67]

Dec 2, 2013 23:17:48 GMT -5 wildknight said:

I don't care to do the math on all of the different possibilities for wrapping up DA:O... but to be fair, most of them are more or less the same with a detail here or there changed. Still, a pretty satisfying experience.

If I counted those things added in at the end on how the world was affected by your decisions...

The ending combinations would go well into the thousands.

[wildknight]

Dec 2, 2013 23:17:51 GMT -5 SoonDragon67 said:

In DA:2 not a single one of your decisions does anything.

... except decide who you have sex with which the designers CLEARLY believed was the most important element of the game. Your paramour even gets a new $#@!ing outfit after hooking up with you.

[miketheratguy]

About how long is an average completion of DAO? If one is to do all available side quests and so forth are we looking at A Final Fantasy experience of like 40-60 hours or more of an Elder Scrolls thing and in the realm of several hundred?

I guess it could also be like Fable and last maybe 20 hours but somehow I doubt it, Fable sucks.

[SoonDragon67]

Dec 2, 2013 23:19:01 GMT -5 wildknight said:

Dec 2, 2013 23:17:51 GMT -5 SoonDragon67 said:

In DA:2 not a single one of your decisions does anything.

... except decide who you have *** with which the designers CLEARLY believed was the most important element of the game. Your paramour even gets a new $#@!ing outfit after hooking up with you.

Also if you make bad choices you may not become the ruler of the city. Not that it matters because whether you become the ruler or not doesn't affect the story in anyway at all. You just get an extra cutscene and a nicer house which you never use.

[wildknight]

Dec 2, 2013 23:20:06 GMT -5 miketheratguy said:

About how long is an average completion of DAO? If one is to do all available side quests and so forth are we looking at A Final Fantasy experience of like 40-60 hours or more of an Elder Scrolls thing and in the realm of several hundred?

I guess it could also be like Fable and last maybe 20 hours but somehow I doubt it, Fable sucks.

You can blow through the campaign in like 20-some hours, but if you poke into everything you could easily log 40+ hours. Someone told me they took over 70 hours playing it, but I cannot imagine how.

[wildknight]

Dec 2, 2013 23:20:23 GMT -5 SoonDragon67 said:

Also if you make bad choices you may not become the ruler of the city. Not that it matters because whether you become the ruler or not doesn't affect the story in anyway at all. You just get an extra cutscene and a nicer house which you never use.

Wait, what??? You can become the ruler of the city? I thought that no matter what happened, you always split in the end.

[SoonDragon67]

Dec 2, 2013 23:20:06 GMT -5 miketheratguy said:

About how long is an average completion of DAO? If one is to do all available side quests and so forth are we looking at A Final Fantasy experience of like 40-60 hours or more of an Elder Scrolls thing and in the realm of several hundred?

I guess it could also be like Fable and last maybe 20 hours but somehow I doubt it, Fable sucks.

In a single playthrough doing every side quest?

Well you can't do every side quest because of all the choices(Unless you played 5 times through making completely different choices in each game from your last ones), but I know what you mean. A playthrough doing all the possible side quests you could do in a single playthrough would take around 60-70 hours.

[SoonDragon67]

Dec 2, 2013 23:22:04 GMT -5 wildknight said:

Dec 2, 2013 23:20:23 GMT -5 SoonDragon67 said:

Also if you make bad choices you may not become the ruler of the city. Not that it matters because whether you become the ruler or not doesn't affect the story in anyway at all. You just get an extra cutscene and a nicer house which you never use.

Wait, what??? You can become the ruler of the city? I thought that no matter what happened, you always split in the end.

It doesn't happen at the end. It happens in the end of the act where you fight that Arishok guy.

Don't worry though, it doesn't actually do anything in regards to...

anything.

[ethanm1834]

I need to replay it. I was just satisfied with the story I set up and played through that I didn't believe I wanted to do anything else.

[wildknight]

Dec 2, 2013 23:24:19 GMT -5 SoonDragon67 said:

Dec 2, 2013 23:22:04 GMT -5 wildknight said:

Wait, what??? You can become the ruler of the city? I thought that no matter what happened, you always split in the end.

It doesn't happen at the end. It happens in the end of the act where you fight that Arishok guy.

Don't worry though, it doesn't actually do anything in regards to...

anything.

I never got that you were the ruler though... just that you were the "Champion of Kirkwall." As far as I know, you always get that stupid house.

[wildknight]

I've played through DA:O at least a dozen times at this point. I'm pretty sure I've gone through every possible permutation, but it's still a ton of fun.

[miketheratguy]

Hmm, I guess the game sounds like it's slightly on the short side but more or less average for a role-playing game. It's nice to hear that there's narrative incentive to play through more than once.

[setokaiba]

Okay I'm confused about the topic of this thread.

[miketheratguy]

The topic of this thread is fuck Halo.

[setokaiba]

I only played two Halo games but only the online. I thought it was boring

[ethanm1834]

And those that enjoy the smooth and warm touch that is Halo.

[SoonDragon67]

Dec 2, 2013 23:25:40 GMT -5 wildknight said:

Dec 2, 2013 23:24:19 GMT -5 SoonDragon67 said:

It doesn't happen at the end. It happens in the end of the act where you fight that Arishok guy.

Don't worry though, it doesn't actually do anything in regards to...

anything.

I never got that you were the ruler though... just that you were the "Champion of Kirkwall." As far as I know, you always get that stupid house.

There's an achievement called "Crowned Glory" that says you have to become viscount(Ruler of the city) of Kirkwall to gain it.

[BaneTheDestroyer]

Dec 2, 2013 22:40:15 GMT -5 SoonDragon67 said:

Dec 2, 2013 22:36:55 GMT -5 wildknight said:

Not IMO, though I suppose one could make the argument.

At least every single one of the fetch quests in DA:O has quite a bit of depth to it.

I really find it hilarious when huge fans of Skyrim and Fallout and other RPGs hate on DA:O for having a "Crappy generic story."

I usually just laugh them off and tell them to go ahead and play Final Fantasy 7.(That was an insult to FF7 by the way)

I like the story so far and I'm doing a bunch of origin missions (I think that's what they're called. The very first mission) to see which story I like the best and what character I like to use more. Any suggestions what to try and who is the best to use story wise? Also, is the story different for each person/skill/background (human/mage/magi for example)?

So far I have a human/warrior/I really don't know, lol
and an Elf/mage/magi

[BaneTheDestroyer]

Dec 2, 2013 23:05:49 GMT -5 miketheratguy said:

All jokes and my own unabashed love of the Elder Scrolls games aside, I actually believe I'd probably enjoy Dragon Age. Origins is the one everyone loves right? I got a copy of it years ago and just never bothered to try it yet.

lol you and I are alike. I bought it when it first came out and just played it for the first time like a day or two ago, lol.