Rath Darkblade wrote:DeadPoolX wrote:From everything I've read, it seems BioWare is trying for something that's somewhere between DAO and DA2. That's a good compromise, as both games had their positives and negatives.
I like the fact that in combat, DAI allows you to be tactical but also control your character in combat. So you can assign actions easily to party members (like in DAO), but you can into the thick of battle (like DA2).
I just hope DAI isn't going for the same old boring and cliched "there's a great evil and you're the only one who can stop it" bullshit of a story.
That was one thing that really shined in DA2: you weren't a world hero and the entire universe didn't revolve around you. There was no "great and powerful enemy" and everything took place on a smaller, more local scale. It was a very welcome change to the extremely worn out and tired Tolkienesque plots that've been recycled for years.
Hmm... I agree with you that the "aah!! You're the only one who can stop the evil" is a cliche by now. However, I'm usually prepared to overlook this cliche if the story is done in an interesting way, or if the side-quests are also interesting, etc. If the main quest is a cliche, that's disappointing, but it won't ruin the entire game for me.
Now I'm curious about your use of the word "Tolkien-esque". I can see what you mean, but Tolkien was hardly the originator of this idea - was he? As far as I'm aware, that idea is as old as time itself.
No, you're right, Tolkien wasn't the originator of that idea, as he based his concepts on mythology and folklore.
That said, just about every entry into high fantasy, regardless of the media used (books, TV shows, movies, video games, etc) has "borrowed" from Tolkien. Because so much is based on Tolkien's works, I used the term "Tolkien-esque" because he did use the "there's a great evil that only you can destroy" plot and invented, or at least widely introduced, many ideas that would become fantasy tropes later on.
BTW, just for reference, I'm not a Tolkien fan. In fact, I usually despise fantasy, including Tolkien and D&D (which itself is heavily influenced by Tolkien). The Dragon Age series is one of the very few fantasy universes that I actually enjoy.