DA could've been more interesting than a lot of what influenced it, but the entire series was shitcanned by the later games. The Qunari were the only interesting thing left by DA2 then DAI turned their homeland into San Francisco.
The setting is one of the most boring I've ever seen, and the game is set in the most boring area of that setting.
2 turns everyone into a massive idiot, shit gets hypersexualized and more grimderp, and the plot is a complete railroad. Origins wasn't the most exciting world but it was serviceable and nothing about it was especially bad. 2's better than Inquisition but it's worse than Origins.
DA:2 made the world of Dragon Age much more Black & White. It's not as bad as DA:I in that regard, but it was the start. Say what you want about DA:O, but it leaves out enough information to where the Chantry can be good or bad based on perspective, the act of making some tranquil can be argued, etc. Then you have the companions, sluts, in your face fags, an anime character, etc. How is that less cliched than a setting that's much more open to interpretation?
In DAO you're the hero who saves the world from the Big Bad. It's about as stereotypical as it gets.
I'd take Alistair over every companion in 2, and though the Origins elf is literally gayer 2's elf is figuratively gayer and marks the point where DA went from a generally serious dark fantasy style to anime.But DAO also had similar problems since alistair and morrigan are both insufferable and it takes a while to get wynne and the dwarf, and the elf in origins is several magnitudes gayer than the one in 2.
In DAO you're the hero who saves the world from the Big Bad. It's about as stereotypical as it gets.
In DA:2 you're some asshole who fucks shit up on his way to riches and power.
The romance is extremely easy to avoid in either game, isabella is the only flamboyantly sexual companion and you can just ignore her(albeit at the cost of a useful buff, but there might be a mod that fixes that). Varric and Aveline are the most well written companions and also the least offensive, and they fulfill key roles so you can bring them along in every playthrough, which I do. Your sister can be your mage for most of the game so you don't have to put up with the awful mage selection until late in the game (or at all if you're the mage). But DAO also had similar problems since alistair and morrigan are both insufferable and it takes a while to get wynne and the dwarf, and the elf in origins is several magnitudes gayer than the one in 2. It boils down to whether you want your shit sandwich front loaded or back loaded.
GOT vs Dragon Age:
I'm not sure what disagreement we have here.
Why not both? Top-down combat with free 3rd person exploration just seems like a no-brainer to me, the perfect combination.
Sure, it's a no-brainer for you and a valid way of doing thing. I heard BG3 can do it, but PC controls aren't adapted to WASD movement (yet).
Even the gay wardens are basically witcher rip-offs btw. witcher 1 managed to have mature themes and content without having shitty art style and everything being 50 shades of brown long before faggot age was ever released.
I love the ideas that DA2 had, how they did is sadly poorly done.. But still being not the Hero to defeat the Big Bad Dragon, it's still refreshing to play as a Poor refugee (not for long but still)
The actual writing was really subpar and Qunari invasion + Mage vs Templar felt really disjointed.
Yeah execution is atrocious. But I like the concept (some rando building up a faction and climbing up the ladder within the city, influencing big events in the course of a wide period - no big save the world plot, no gods or cosmic threat), it was quite ambitious but didn't get the required dev time/resources. Not saying nu-bioware could have pulled it off but one does wonder.
