So I just finished Dragon Age Inquisition and thought that Bioware once again used the same conventional design that they've used throughout most if not all their games. The player character is always the Chosen One that everybody worships and wants to have sex with and defeats the Evil Bad Guys with ease. Then the game ends with a big farewell party where all your party members are there to congratulate and cherish the player. It's almost as if Bioware has a core design principle that states that players should always have their ego stroked and should never face negative consequences to their actions. It is always possible to have your cake and eat it too in a Bioware game.
There's hardly any opposition to your player character, hardly anyone ever really questions you or disagrees with you, and there are never any repercussions to crossing other characters. There might be that "approval/disapproval" party system in DA:I, but they never amounted to something that actually mattered or had consequences (at least in my playthrough). I.e. it is always easy to win or have everybody like you.
I know, Bioware is basically just AAA popcorn RPG developer where you turn off your brain, and obviously there are other games that fulfill what I am talking about, but it would be interesting to have one of the premier and noteworthy RPG developers try to push the envelope a bit more than always providing the same safe and tired power fantasy experience that only aims to please the player. It would be cool to have some scenarios that challenge the player. The only real challenge I can recall in their contemporary output is deciding between
in Mass Effect 1 (and that's hardly a complex decision) - otherwise everything else is just straight forward as far as I can recall.
There's hardly any opposition to your player character, hardly anyone ever really questions you or disagrees with you, and there are never any repercussions to crossing other characters. There might be that "approval/disapproval" party system in DA:I, but they never amounted to something that actually mattered or had consequences (at least in my playthrough). I.e. it is always easy to win or have everybody like you.
I know, Bioware is basically just AAA popcorn RPG developer where you turn off your brain, and obviously there are other games that fulfill what I am talking about, but it would be interesting to have one of the premier and noteworthy RPG developers try to push the envelope a bit more than always providing the same safe and tired power fantasy experience that only aims to please the player. It would be cool to have some scenarios that challenge the player. The only real challenge I can recall in their contemporary output is deciding between
Kaiden or Ashley
