Thoughts on the New Dragon Age Trailer
Jun. 10th, 2024 07:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrtl;dr pretty negative but no more than I expected to be.
The trailer (I'm not embedding anything since you need to be logged in to prove you're an adult anyway)
So I know not everyone has been paying much attention to what's happened Bioware over the last few years. But basically, most people responsible for the previous Dragon Age games were fired or quit, most notably lead writer David Gaider. Those who remain are beholden to EA, who repeatedly force everyone at Bioware to chase whatever latest video game trend has caught their eye.
And with the popularity of Baldur's Gate 3, that now means character heavy fantasy games! Hooray! But you can't just bash one of those together from other people's half-finished drafts and have it be good, especially since the directive from on high appears to be "Overwatch but fantasy".
Oh also I suppose some of you might have followed me recently enough not to be aware that I am a MASSIVE fan of Dragon Age, and Bioware in general.
But some time ago I came to terms with the fact that for me, the the Dragon Age series is likely finished, as is Bioware. This is just a new game in that universe created by the umbrella company that owns the IP.
I don't particularly care about the new art style, it's not my favourite but it's fine. I don't like that they changed Scout Harding to look so Chiselled, but can see why they felt it necessary to make her look Definitely Adult to avoid people being weird about a romance with a dwarven, and thus very short, woman. But she and Varric aren't being written as especially in character or interesting, which makes sense since I'm pretty sure their original writers are gone :/
If this was a better game I might care that you probably can't play as a dwarf but ehhh. Also it's funny that up until a few days the name of the game was DreadWolf and now Solas doesn't even appear in the trailer. I mean I'm sure the plan was always to deal with him early on/off-screen and introduce some more straightforwardly evil Big Bad, given that Dragon Age Inquisition handled the huge, world-changing war started at the very end of Dragon Age 2 by going "Yeah it was really intense and morally complicated! But it's over now, phew" and then the actual conflict is An Ancient Evil Opened A Hole In The Sky. But they could at least pretend to care about him a little.
I rolled with Nice Cullen, I can deal with a lack of consistency as long as the story is good on it's own merits, sadly I suspect the odds of that are Low. It's a pity, the trailer mentions killing gods, and I am always down for that (though it's probably just the elven gods, which feels kinda unfortunate given the history. Let me kill the Maker!)
I am not really the market for "Overwatch but fantasy, and you can have sex with everyone" but am sure there is one, alas I doubt it will be very good at being that, either. Still, 7 bi romanceable companions is nice in and of itself.
Certain people on my tumblr dash are very excited for the sexy old man bisexual necromancer and I'm happy for them. I would be happy about the Scout Harding romance if I thought we'd get anything like the character from Inquisition, or decent romance writing at all.
I was curious to compare so looked up some early trailers for the previous Dragon Age games:
Dragon Age Origins (the actual game Did Not Look Like This it was 2009 lol)
Dragon Age 2 Having real trouble finding ANY trailers which show much about the companions even though they're great
Dragon Age Inquisition
Seeing them all together, I am reminded that I miss the old EVERYTHING IS COVERED IN BUCKETS OF BLOOD aesthetic that got dropped for Inquisition. And even the Inquisition trailer promised angst and the chance to Ruin The World even if the game itself didn't fully deliver on that (I liked it, but it was a little bland). Also I am having Morrigan feels. Watching her turn into a spider and kill a bunch of people, ah, my heart.
There's not much in this new trailer that is actively bad, asides from the Vibe being very un Dragon Age, which one could blame on marketing. But there's a notable lack of good things like any signs of an interesting story etc. Without the broader context, I would be cautiously optimistic. But with that context... I went in with low expectations, and nothing here gives me reason to raise them. I might play the game if I hear it's enjoyable on it's own merits, but I'll have to prepare myself to deal with my melancholy about what might have been.
The trailer (I'm not embedding anything since you need to be logged in to prove you're an adult anyway)
So I know not everyone has been paying much attention to what's happened Bioware over the last few years. But basically, most people responsible for the previous Dragon Age games were fired or quit, most notably lead writer David Gaider. Those who remain are beholden to EA, who repeatedly force everyone at Bioware to chase whatever latest video game trend has caught their eye.
And with the popularity of Baldur's Gate 3, that now means character heavy fantasy games! Hooray! But you can't just bash one of those together from other people's half-finished drafts and have it be good, especially since the directive from on high appears to be "Overwatch but fantasy".
Oh also I suppose some of you might have followed me recently enough not to be aware that I am a MASSIVE fan of Dragon Age, and Bioware in general.
But some time ago I came to terms with the fact that for me, the the Dragon Age series is likely finished, as is Bioware. This is just a new game in that universe created by the umbrella company that owns the IP.
I don't particularly care about the new art style, it's not my favourite but it's fine. I don't like that they changed Scout Harding to look so Chiselled, but can see why they felt it necessary to make her look Definitely Adult to avoid people being weird about a romance with a dwarven, and thus very short, woman. But she and Varric aren't being written as especially in character or interesting, which makes sense since I'm pretty sure their original writers are gone :/
If this was a better game I might care that you probably can't play as a dwarf but ehhh. Also it's funny that up until a few days the name of the game was DreadWolf and now Solas doesn't even appear in the trailer. I mean I'm sure the plan was always to deal with him early on/off-screen and introduce some more straightforwardly evil Big Bad, given that Dragon Age Inquisition handled the huge, world-changing war started at the very end of Dragon Age 2 by going "Yeah it was really intense and morally complicated! But it's over now, phew" and then the actual conflict is An Ancient Evil Opened A Hole In The Sky. But they could at least pretend to care about him a little.
I rolled with Nice Cullen, I can deal with a lack of consistency as long as the story is good on it's own merits, sadly I suspect the odds of that are Low. It's a pity, the trailer mentions killing gods, and I am always down for that (though it's probably just the elven gods, which feels kinda unfortunate given the history. Let me kill the Maker!)
I am not really the market for "Overwatch but fantasy, and you can have sex with everyone" but am sure there is one, alas I doubt it will be very good at being that, either. Still, 7 bi romanceable companions is nice in and of itself.
Certain people on my tumblr dash are very excited for the sexy old man bisexual necromancer and I'm happy for them. I would be happy about the Scout Harding romance if I thought we'd get anything like the character from Inquisition, or decent romance writing at all.
I was curious to compare so looked up some early trailers for the previous Dragon Age games:
Dragon Age Origins (the actual game Did Not Look Like This it was 2009 lol)
Dragon Age 2 Having real trouble finding ANY trailers which show much about the companions even though they're great
Dragon Age Inquisition
Seeing them all together, I am reminded that I miss the old EVERYTHING IS COVERED IN BUCKETS OF BLOOD aesthetic that got dropped for Inquisition. And even the Inquisition trailer promised angst and the chance to Ruin The World even if the game itself didn't fully deliver on that (I liked it, but it was a little bland). Also I am having Morrigan feels. Watching her turn into a spider and kill a bunch of people, ah, my heart.
There's not much in this new trailer that is actively bad, asides from the Vibe being very un Dragon Age, which one could blame on marketing. But there's a notable lack of good things like any signs of an interesting story etc. Without the broader context, I would be cautiously optimistic. But with that context... I went in with low expectations, and nothing here gives me reason to raise them. I might play the game if I hear it's enjoyable on it's own merits, but I'll have to prepare myself to deal with my melancholy about what might have been.
