Its great. You meet treasure hunters who share artifacts with the cultures they're from so that those cultural leaders can decide what to do with them. You help a character come to terms with their gender identity. You encourage people to build community in more than just a "we can win with the power of friendship" kinda way. I'm only on the first half of the game too.

It reviewed kinda mid but honestly these touches have totally sold me. It's actually feels like the writers of this game were a multicultural group of people who put thought into making it inclusive.

Is anyone else playing? Is this the experience others are having? Is all this based-ness why people are review bombing it?

  • socialnuju [she/her]
    ·
    11 days ago

    I'm playing it too rn, and I agree with the stuff you said. Also, yes, the review bombing is all-out based-ness for the most part (~90% from what I've seen). But there are other criticisms that I think are valid.

    I'm personally not enjoying the game, to put it mildly, for multiple reasons:

    • the writing: the dialogs are flat, the lines are so repetitive that at some points I'm just zoning out, bc I don't want to hear again that "dwarves don't dream" or that "Elgar'nan and Ghilan'hanin" escaped their prison. I got the impression that there's little love or even interest in the stuff they've been writing. It feels heartless and lifeless, which is incredibly sad given how interesting the plot actually is (bunch of guys trying to prevent the end of the world)
    • the lore inaccuracies: it's as if they started writing this game and went like "All that lore we created for and in the first 3 games? Shredd it, we don't need that". One instance would be the "dwarves don't dream" thing. Dwarves sleep and dream. They just can't enter the Fade in their dreams. (That's just one, but there's so much more.)
    • the (voice) acting/tone of the game: I'm blaming this mostly on the dialog, but some voice lines are delivered in such unfitting tones of voice. Like, guys, how tf are you so cheery, you're trying to stop the end of the world? That's not per se a bad idea, but given that dragon age has always been so dark and sarcastic, it feels so out of place for all these characters being so annoyingly cheery. (Maybe I'll get used to this, Idk)
    • Bellara: perfect example of how to butcher a potentially amazing character. First of all, this character feels like a horrible stereotype of someone with ADHD, like "omg, sorry, I'm rambling and so random", like fr, this is not how it works. Second, her backstory is actually great which really doesn't shine through enough. And third, whoever decided to give her the Garrus line ("calibrations")??? It feels so out of place and not funny at all.

    I like the combat system, it's somewhat refreshing to see an action rpg setup in dragon age, so that your mage finally doesn't die immediately in close combat scenarios. I'm also madly in love with the hair animations. I keep entering the character creator to swoosh around the hair lol.

    All in all, I wouldn't recommend (buying) the game, but it definitely has its moments.

    • whatnots [he/him, it/its]
      ·
      11 days ago

      for voice acting i really recommend setting the audio to a dub in a different language and using english subtitles. I haven't tried the french audio but I've been using the german one and I've found that the voice acting and tone is much more appropriate and natural sounding in most of the contexts.

    • Infamousblt [any]
      ·
      11 days ago

      I find the Bellara criticism funny. As someone with ADHD she's one of my favorites. A bit off putting at first but honestly I think she's great.

      Overall the writing isn't great but I think it's pretty consistent in tone. It feels a bit lighthearted and I don't mind it.

      • socialnuju [she/her]
        ·
        7 days ago

        I decided to continue playing before I reply to you, and now after roughly 60 hours and progressing Bellara's story, I agree with you, my criticism was funny. i-cant She turns out quite alright and becomes very intriguing after a few more hours.

        I honestly have to say tho, they really butchered the beginning of the game, and the more you progress, the more it seems to find it's footing, or dare I say, a Dragon Age-esque tone.

        • Infamousblt [any]
          ·
          7 days ago

          Yeah the start is kinda rough but I think it finds its form. Glad it's growing on you!