I think the writing is inconsistent. It has a lot of cliches and sometimes feels too modern to be fantasy.
Although, most of the cliches are limited to the first ~5 hours of the game. It feels very YA until you get smacked in the face by the first major story decision. The writing and tone matures a bit from that point on.
Basically, the writing is bad in the unimportant times, and good in the important moments.
The overall plot covers too much ground to dive into any concept/theme with too much depth. Plus the villains are one dimensional. It is paced and executed well for what it is though. Kinda like a brandon sanderson novel. The actual character arcs do have depth though, and are well done.
It has the best combat in any DA game by a mile.
The voice acting is very good.
Its visually stunning, except for the terrible darkspawn models.
The romances are good for what they are, but are somewhat lacking content. This is made up for by the cute romances your squadmates get up to.
Its also incredibly well optimised and polished with no microtransactions or essential story dlc.
It also lets you be trans, one of your squadmates is trans (and their personal arc is about coming out), all your squadmates are cannonically pansexual, and the game doesnt have any monarchy is good, genocide the subhumans, keep the magic bloodline pure nonsense that other fantasy does.
If you want something literary like disco elysium you'll be dissapointed. If you want something tactical like pillars deadfire or DAO or 2 youll be dissapointed. If you want something that is primarily a sequel to the previous DA games with no retcons youll be dissapointed.
If you want a character driven story with writing that is great when it needs to be, a plot that never slacks, good voice acting, with fun combat and fun build making/theorycrafting, that is visually excellent, and optimised wonderfully youll like it.
I cried at least once, which I rarely do, and laughed more than most games I can remember.
I think the writing is inconsistent. It has a lot of cliches and sometimes feels too modern to be fantasy.
Although, most of the cliches are limited to the first ~5 hours of the game. It feels very YA until you get smacked in the face by the first major story decision. The writing and tone matures a bit from that point on.
Basically, the writing is bad in the unimportant times, and good in the important moments.
The overall plot covers too much ground to dive into any concept/theme with too much depth. Plus the villains are one dimensional. It is paced and executed well for what it is though. Kinda like a brandon sanderson novel. The actual character arcs do have depth though, and are well done.
It has the best combat in any DA game by a mile.
The voice acting is very good.
Its visually stunning, except for the terrible darkspawn models.
The romances are good for what they are, but are somewhat lacking content. This is made up for by the cute romances your squadmates get up to.
Its also incredibly well optimised and polished with no microtransactions or essential story dlc.
It also lets you be trans, one of your squadmates is trans (and their personal arc is about coming out), all your squadmates are cannonically pansexual, and the game doesnt have any monarchy is good, genocide the subhumans, keep the magic bloodline pure nonsense that other fantasy does.
If you want something literary like disco elysium you'll be dissapointed. If you want something tactical like pillars deadfire or DAO or 2 youll be dissapointed. If you want something that is primarily a sequel to the previous DA games with no retcons youll be dissapointed.
If you want a character driven story with writing that is great when it needs to be, a plot that never slacks, good voice acting, with fun combat and fun build making/theorycrafting, that is visually excellent, and optimised wonderfully youll like it.
I cried at least once, which I rarely do, and laughed more than most games I can remember.