Dragon Age III: InquisitionFollow

I'll just leave this here:

Oh hell. Where am I going to find the time to save the world?

*sigh*

Crossbrace xbow gun? That's a thing.

Who is Mustache Burt Reynolds? Are we talking about Hawke? My Hawke had a beard...

And yeah, the Dwarf (Varric) is holding his crossbow (Bianca).

The Inquisitor is the new main character. Bioware confirmed that the Warden and Hawke's stories are done, at least from the first-person perspective, and they haven't even said if they'd give them cameos in later games like with other characters (probably because, you know, the Warden was silent and both characters were customizable in appearance).

The Inquisitor is the head of the Inquisition (go figure), which has newly formed.

Essentially, when you zoom the timeline back to the Early Chantry, before the Circle and Templars existed, the Inquisition was an organization that hunted down and executed Mages and other perceived heretics. The Chantry, attempting to bring Order and protect the Mages, brought the Inquisition under its dominion, splitting it into the Seekers of Truth and the Templars, and also establishing the Circle of Magi.

The Seekers of Truth were like a combination intelligence/internal affairs division, handling both delicate projects directly on behalf of the Divine, and also policing the Templar Order... to an extent. The Templars were the general military arm of the Chantry, and also the wardens of the Mages.

In the wake of Anders' actions at the end of DA2, and subsequent events that happen in the novel Asunder, a war between Templars and Mages has broken out, and (importantly), the Nevarran Accord was abolished by the head of the Seekers. This Accord was the agreement that created the Seeker/Templar Order, and the Circle, and it's abolition separated that military arm from the Chantry and effectively dismantled the Circle system.

Thing was, loyalties are kind of crazy; you have Templars and Seekers who are loyal to the Divine, and Templars and Seekers who are loyal to the Lord Seeker (who is leading the war against the Mages).

So the Mages have a sort of alliance with the Divine, though that relationship is stressed because the way many of them feel about the Chantry. But the Divine is not a "Kill all mages!" zealot.

In this context, of the Templar and Seeker orders fractured, the Chantry's authority diminished, and the Mages free of the Circle system that bound them, the Inquisition has been reformed as an independent organization to deal with these issues. But it SOUNDS LIKE the player is the one who will get to decide what that means. Are you going to ally with the Seekers and kill all the Mages? Are you going to ally with the Divine and try and return Order? Are you going to do your own thing and gain your own power for your own ends? Etc.

That video showed a bunch of varied environments, which was probably my biggest complaint about DA2. If they truly have made the combat somewhere in between DA:O and DA2, I'll be happy.

So this is what was more important than being my girl on the side for days when I was bored/annoyed with Anora?

Leliana is hotness, but that accent... I find it very off-putting. It's French, but not in the sexy way.

Now, Morrigan, on the other hand... That's crazy hotness and sexy voice in a box.

I have a weakness for crazy hot.

Not sure if it's just because I'm in the Beta, but the Keep is up for me. I'm plotting my choices now.

Blow-by-blow thoughts:

1. I started a great cut-scene scenario, but when I closed the browser and went back, it sent me to "The Tapestry," where I individually customize my choices. The original cut-scenes read my save files and imported a lot of my achievements, etc.

2. My options on the side allowed me to replay the cut-scene, to catch me up on the events from the first game... doing so now...

Images below:

The cut-scene is narrated by Varric, which is nice. Not sure if it goes through all possible choices - checking now. Back in 15ish minutes.

Edit:

Seems beset by bugs

I got to the end of the Origins story and encountered a 500 Error. Went back to the Tapestry, but its's bugged and I can't select anythng. So... they have a few weeks to go, right? Hope it gets worked out!

Edited, Oct 24th 2014 9:41pm by LockeColeMA

You can close out of the movie (there's an X in the corner) and it takes you right to the Win8 Tiles looking interface to set your choices.

It only had one of my previous DA:O characters available, my first one, and was maybe 75% accurate in what it said I did. DA2 is ass so I didn't even bother tinkering with the options there because I never finished the game and didn't remember half of what I did do.

It's still buggy today, but at least I got a better feel for it. The cut-scene selector, as Joph said, is optional. Still lots of these errors:


I also had issues with it not finding my DA:O (and DA:A) characters. However, I read online that the only thing importing a character does is select your looks, race, gender, and origin. I think it also imports a couple other things (see below)



All the other choices need to be manually changed. Which sorta sucks. I know for a fact I didn't fail to recruit Leliana or let Dog die, for example. Having to manually select a couple dozen items is annoying.

It does import your achievements from the prior games, but I don't think they have any effect. It also tells you how much DLC you own... which is weird. Thanks for letting me know I only have 43% of the DLC for DA2, I guess? I can easily see it become a one-stop shop, saying "Oh, you don't own Item Pack 3, buy it now!"


When the video/cut-scene part isn't crashing any more, I'd like to see if I can go to the Tapestry first, select everything I want, and then have Varric narrate the entire thing. That would be pretty neat.

Oh, and one thing this is great for is to remind you of choices you didn't know you had before. For example, I only played the Dwarf Noble origin to get the achievement, and never realized some of the choices that came from it later. I also need to check up on certain things, like why if the Warden kills the Archdemon, Alistair and Anora cannot be wed in the ending. I could have sworn I had a Hardened Alistair marry Anora and I had an old god baby with Morrigan while giving the final blow to the Archdemon myself... maybe I had Loghain do it?