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like is bioware going out of their way to put the worst wuotes on these images or are they actually just that shit at writing now? da2 had the same issue all these images have had, where the only voice in the game was snarky while not being intelligent, interesting, or funny. I reslly hope they don't end up doing that again.

 

[SugarDave]

Of all the reasons to bash this saga, the Leliana case must be the most stupid and overblown one. More so when there are so few developers that even try to implement something like the save import.

Wait, Leliana died?

That Solas interview made him sound like he'd be the Mordin of Dragon Age. Or at least I hope so. Weekes is a great writer.

 

[Squire]

Wait, Leliana died?

That Solas interview made him sound like he'd be the Mordin of Dragon Age. Or at least I hope so. Weekes is a great writer.

Leliana can die, in a number of ways. A sect of the community is upset because all those possibilities have been voided as BioWare has deemed her an essential character for Inquisition. (She's your espionage/reconnaissance advisor.)

 

[MikeDown]

These characters are pretty underwhelming even compared to Dragon Age 2. I know they're trying to go for diversity and all but damn.

Dragon Age 2 has some of the best characters I have seen in a game

 

[Renekton]

I have played the first Dragon Age and both Witcher games. In many ways I think DA Origins was better than the Witcher 1. But Witcher 2 blew both away. Better narrative, better characters, more enjoyable combat, far better art visuals, and world design. So far, Inquisition is looking pretty promsing to me, but Witcher 3 looks like it will be incredible. Never seen an open world rpg with such an attractive looking world.

I will always buy the Witcher games. But I'm just miffed that somehow the series just doesn't get nearly the same amount of scrutiny that DA gets.

- People complained about DA streamlining RPG for the masses, but no one complained that W2 has less stat management than DA.
- People complained about DA's combat system, but not many complained about W2's terrible clunky combat whose flaws are disguised by Quen's hit-stun protection.
- People complained about Bioware's characters, no one cared how expressionless Geralt and Triss were.
- People complained about DA's skill trees, but no one thought how messy W2's skill tree is (why is mutagen tree even there?)
- People complained about Bioware fan service, no one complained about random W2 sex scenes (what is up is with that succubus in that hole in the ground or random sex in cave after a frantic chase??)
- People complained about DA/ME's plot, no one complained about Witcher 2's ridiculous exposition-laden GoT geopolitical blurb that only ties loosely to the manhunt.

 

[Laughing Banana]

................Seriously, it seems like all the main cast are hit with the ugly stick. The only attractive looking one so far is Leliana, while the others including Morrigan are like having a competition on who can be the ugliest of the bunch.

 

[LegalEagleMike]

................Seriously, it seems like all the main cast are hit with the ugly stick. The only attractive looking one so far is Leliana, while the others including Morrigan are like having a competition on who can be the ugliest of the bunch.

I think it is refreshing to not have party members be models in scantily clad armor.

 

[LegalEagleMike]

I will always buy the Witcher games. But I'm just miffed that somehow the series just doesn't get nearly the same amount of scrutiny that DA gets.

- People complained about DA streamlining RPG for the masses, but no one complained that W2 has less stat management than DA.
- People complained about DA's combat system, but not many complained about W2's terrible clunky combat whose flaws are disguised by Quen's hit-stun protection.
- People complained about Bioware's characters, no one cared how expressionless Geralt and Triss were.
- People complained about DA's skill trees, but no one thought how messy W2's skill tree is (why is mutagen tree even there?)
- People complained about Bioware fan service, no one complained about random W2 sex scenes (what is up is with that succubus in that hole in the ground or random sex in cave after a frantic chase??)
- People complained about DA/ME's plot, no one complained about Witcher 2's ridiculous exposition-laden GoT geopolitical blurb that only ties loosely to the manhunt.

People are harder on Bioware because they grew up playing their amazing games and have a standard to live up to that few other studios do. I still think their worst games are better than most games. Inquisition is a digital download on xbox for me because I will never trade it in.

 

[Poodlestrike]

I will always buy the Witcher games. But I'm just miffed that somehow the series just doesn't get nearly the same amount of scrutiny that DA gets.

- People complained about DA streamlining RPG for the masses, but no one complained that W2 has less stat management than DA.
- People complained about DA's combat system, but not many complained about W2's terrible clunky combat whose flaws are disguised by Quen's hit-stun protection.
- People complained about Bioware's characters, no one cared how expressionless Geralt and Triss were.
- People complained about DA's skill trees, but no one thought how messy W2's skill tree is (why is mutagen tree even there?)
- People complained about Bioware fan service, no one complained about random W2 sex scenes (what is up is with that succubus in that hole in the ground or random sex in cave after a frantic chase??)
- People complained about DA/ME's plot, no one complained about Witcher 2's ridiculous exposition-laden GoT geopolitical blurb that only ties loosely to the manhunt.

Pretty much this. Bioware's recent output has received a truly immense amount of critical scrutiny compared to... pretty much everything else out there. Hell, I've even seen it go retroactive, with people claiming that Bioware was never any good. DA2 and ME3's ending really do seem to have poisoned the public perception of the company; here's hoping that DAI can turn it around for them.

................Seriously, it seems like all the main cast are hit with the ugly stick. The only attractive looking one so far is Leliana, while the others including Morrigan are like having a competition on who can be the ugliest of the bunch.

They look normal, not ugly. Like... actual-person esque. Other than, as you pointed out, Leilana who looks like a model.

 

[GavinUK86]

................Seriously, it seems like all the main cast are hit with the ugly stick. The only attractive looking one so far is Leliana, while the others including Morrigan are like having a competition on who can be the ugliest of the bunch.

I think Sera is pretty cute

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Wait, Leliana died?

.

She died in my version of Dragon Age...


Bioware seems to find that inconvenient however.

 

[shinobi602]

They look normal, not ugly. Like... actual-person esque. Other than, as you pointed out, Leilana who looks like a model.

So an attractive human being (quite common in real life) isn't 'actual person-esque', they're more like a model? Ugh

 

[foxtrot3d]

I will always buy the Witcher games. But I'm just miffed that somehow the series just doesn't get nearly the same amount of scrutiny that DA gets.

- People complained about DA streamlining RPG for the masses, but no one complained that W2 has less stat management than DA.
- People complained about DA's combat system, but not many complained about W2's terrible clunky combat whose flaws are disguised by Quen's hit-stun protection.
- People complained about Bioware's characters, no one cared how expressionless Geralt and Triss were.
- People complained about DA's skill trees, but no one thought how messy W2's skill tree is (why is mutagen tree even there?)
- People complained about Bioware fan service, no one complained about random W2 sex scenes (what is up is with that succubus in that hole in the ground or random sex in cave after a frantic chase??)
- People complained about DA/ME's plot, no one complained about Witcher 2's ridiculous exposition-laden GoT geopolitical blurb that only ties loosely to the manhunt.

So much this. I being completely honest here I've played DA2 more times than TW2 and I don't think DA2 is anywhere close to a bad game, a poor sequel yes, but not a bad game. However, I'll disagree with your last point the whole "geopolitical blurb" is the real story of TW2 not the manhunt. It's very much similar to GoT whereas DA, at least Origins, was more like LOTR.

 

[Laughing Banana]

I think it is refreshing to not have party members be models in scantily clad armor.

"Attractive" =/= "scantily clad armor"

Leliana and Morrigan were attractive back on DA:O, and they didn't get "here's Ms. Fanservice for ya" treatment. You can argue perhaps with Morrigan with her default costume, but even that had good reasoning behind it, not just-because "here's breast for ya"

Not to mention characters like Anora that you can wed.... Hmm, Anora <3

They look normal, not ugly. Like... actual-person esque. Other than, as you pointed out, Leilana who looks like a model.

Perhaps "ugly stick" is a wrong term, but well they're not a single one that is attractive-looking to me, which is kind of a bummer, hahaha.

And your post insinuate that attractive person is not "normal", that's silly

I think Sera is pretty cute

And then Bioware proceeds to bums me further by announcing that Sera is female-exclusive only

 

[Poodlestrike]

So an attractive human being (quite common in real life) isn't 'normal looking', they're more like a model? Ugh

Eh, perhaps I overstated it Leilana is well above average, but perhaps not really model-esque. The rest of the cast is a lot closer to average, which is unusual for a game (or movie, or TV show).

Perhaps "ugly stick" is a wrong term, but well they're not a single one that is attractive-looking to me, which is kind of a bummer, hahaha.

And your post insinuate that attractive person is not "normal", that's silly

One of the many reasons "normal" is over rated

And honestly, I agree with you on not really feeling any of the romance options, but there's kind of a Hollywood Homely thing going on with the DAI companions

 

[Renekton]

Actually Vivienne clearly looks like a model, just go ahead and google black fashion models. I'm quite curious to see what's the gaming market reaction to her, since she is considered very statuesque and attractive in real world.

Gamer demographic seems to mostly prefer caucasian whites (Anora, Morrigan, Isabelle, Leliana, Miranda, Triss, Elves in general)

 

[GavinUK86]

And then Bioware proceeds to bums me further by announcing that Sera is female-exclusive only

Yep. That sucks. Guess I'll have to chat her up on my second playthrough.

 

[Laughing Banana]

And honestly, I agree with you on not really feeling any of the romance options, but there's kind of a Hollywood Homely thing going on with the DAI companions

Nothing HollywoodHomely about Morrigan, Leliana, or Anora. Even in-world they're acknowledged as being beautiful.

Ah well............................... probably just gonna create a beautiful Female inquisitor to bring some flavor amidst all of these...... "normalcy" and proceeds not to romance anyone, hahaha.

Actually Vivienne clearly looks like a model, just go ahead and google black fashion models. I'm quite curious to see what's the gaming market reaction to her, since she is considered very statuesque and attractive in real world.

Gamer demographic seems to mostly prefer caucasian whites (Anora, Morrigan, Isabelle, Leliana, Miranda, Triss, Elves in general)

She has the stature, true, but I personally wouldn't call her attractive, and not because of her skin color too. Ah well, what can you do.

 

[Razia]

Actually Vivienne clearly looks like a model, just go ahead and google black fashion models. I'm quite curious to see what's the gaming market reaction to her, since she is considered very statuesque and attractive in real world.

Gamer demographic seems to mostly prefer caucasian whites (Anora, Morrigan, Isabelle, Leliana, Miranda, Triss, Elves in general)

Isabela is Caucasian?

 

[Ridesh]

Morrigan is weird.

She looks good here

And here

Aaaand she looks ugly here

 

[Enduin]

We haven't seen Morrigan in a while so her appearance may have been alerted a little, on the whole I don't think she looks bad though. I never cared for her appearance in DAO, she looked far too old compared to her art work version.

As for the rest, I find the companions to be relatively good looking except for the Iron Bull and Cole, they're are not models but they're definitely not ugly either. A lot of it will come down to their personalities and voice actors in their overall attractiveness, because that will go a long way in turning those physical oddities into endearing quirks that are part and parcel of their character.

 

[erawsd]

I think fans generally give Witcher series a free pass on criticism. It doesn't get nearly the same level of scrutiny that Bioware stuff receives.

I don't think that's true. Witcher fans are every bit as critical, maybe even more so since there are those that treat the novel's like the bible and they go ballistic anytime there is a deviation. For instance, there was a lot of outrage after it was revealed Geralt could use a crossbow in Witcher 3. Witcher 2 also got a lot of flak for being "dumbed down" and "consolized" and there's a lot talk on their forums about W3 going further in that direction.

The biggest difference is that there just aren't as many fans, especially on GAF. CDPR is also no where near as prolific. They've released 2 games in 15 years, Bioware is probably close to 20.

 

[Renekton]

Isabela is Caucasian?

Well... either very tanned or Mediterranean (which is still Caucasian I think)

 

[Basketball]

 

[hateradio]

I think the new cast looks decent, but it's not like everyone was extremely attractive in DA:O. Yet, they did pretty everyone in your group for DA2.

Morrigan is weird.

She looks good here

http://25.media.tumblr.com/214051c62450af71b756c274406f0cbe/tumblr_n0ft0t4YYV1s2fqqpo1_500.jpg

And here

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb...ges/4/43/Morrigan_Inquisition_promotional.jpg

Aaaand she looks ugly here

http://www.dragonage.com/media/cach...nquisition/Characters/morrigan-gallery-01.jpg

I think she looks fine in the first one, but weird in the others.

 

[BrassDragon]

I swear, every time a new character quote goes up, I think some enterprising GAFfer has made a mock-up. The quotes are just Trying. So. Hard.

The writer interviews are interesting though and I like this approach to revealing the cast.

 

[Simzyy]

I will always buy the Witcher games. But I'm just miffed that somehow the series just doesn't get nearly the same amount of scrutiny that DA gets.

- People complained about DA streamlining RPG for the masses, but no one complained that W2 has less stat management than DA.
- People complained about DA's combat system, but not many complained about W2's terrible clunky combat whose flaws are disguised by Quen's hit-stun protection.
- People complained about Bioware's characters, no one cared how expressionless Geralt and Triss were.
- People complained about DA's skill trees, but no one thought how messy W2's skill tree is (why is mutagen tree even there?)
- People complained about Bioware fan service, no one complained about random W2 sex scenes (what is up is with that succubus in that hole in the ground or random sex in cave after a frantic chase??)
- People complained about DA/ME's plot, no one complained about Witcher 2's ridiculous exposition-laden GoT geopolitical blurb that only ties loosely to the manhunt.

1. Agreed

2. My main issue with DA2's combat is the wave based nature of it. It was not fun at all. Yes TW2's combat was flawed but it just did not feel as clunky and as button mashy as DA2's did. On consoles at least. When I replayed DA2 on PC it was not quite as monotonous.

3. Here I think the issue people have with BioWare characters (this has been true for their characters even back to Baldurs Gate imo) is that they wear their personalities on their sleeves. Their motives and beliefs are laid bare a lot of the time while Geralt and Triss have a far more reserved personality and I think both approaches are fine. I would argue that Geralt and Triss could use some character development in TW3. BioWare does an excellent job on this regard most of the time.

4. Agreed again.

5. The difference here is Geralt and Triss are established lovers. However Geralt randomly screwing everything he can, while lore appropriate, is a little out of place. Nothing wrong with the stuff BioWare does, it just needs to not be a few clicks away, and they need to not be so worried about pleasing everyone. Which Dragon Age Inquisition seems to be doing with race/gender specific options. Less gift mechanics more dialogue/decision consequences too.

6. Well Geralt got dragged into all the politics of the world against his will really. It's part of the story. I thought it was excellent personally.

 

[Moff]

I will always buy the Witcher games. But I'm just miffed that somehow the series just doesn't get nearly the same amount of scrutiny that DA gets.

- People complained about DA streamlining RPG for the masses, but no one complained that W2 has less stat management than DA.
- People complained about DA's combat system, but not many complained about W2's terrible clunky combat whose flaws are disguised by Quen's hit-stun protection.
- People complained about Bioware's characters, no one cared how expressionless Geralt and Triss were.
- People complained about DA's skill trees, but no one thought how messy W2's skill tree is (why is mutagen tree even there?)
- People complained about Bioware fan service, no one complained about random W2 sex scenes (what is up is with that succubus in that hole in the ground or random sex in cave after a frantic chase??)
- People complained about DA/ME's plot, no one complained about Witcher 2's ridiculous exposition-laden GoT geopolitical blurb that only ties loosely to the manhunt.

witcher 2 was very harshly critiziced for its combat and character level progression.
and I think dragon age gets so much scrutiny because of DA2, wasnt origins well received on GAF?
well anyway, I think origins as well as the witcher games are among the bst RPGS of the last few years, at least before the whole kickstarter started a new wave of classic crpgs.

 

[Some Nobody]

Eh, perhaps I overstated it Leilana is well above average, but perhaps not really model-esque. The rest of the cast is a lot closer to average, which is unusual for a game (or movie, or TV show).



One of the many reasons "normal" is over rated

And honestly, I agree with you on not really feeling any of the romance options, but there's kind of a Hollywood Homely thing going on with the DAI companions

This is a bit off in the definition. Hollywood Homely is when you take an attractive, sometimes gorgeous character, and place them in a universe where everyone believes they are ugly. But no, these characters are just unattractive. I expect there to be no small amount of meaningless thinkpieces about how "great" it is that someone finally created a game where the characters aren't "conventionally attractive", when I suspect the most accurate reason this is the case is that their artists suck at faces.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Wait the elf fucking plays for the home team? Shiiiiiiiiiiit. they couldn't have fucked us over this badly right? Leliana is a romance option right?

 

[Enduin]

This is a bit off in the definition. Hollywood Homely is when you take an attractive, sometimes gorgeous character, and place them in a universe where everyone believes they are ugly. But no, these characters are just unattractive. I expect there to be no small amount of meaningless thinkpieces about how "great" it is that someone finally created a game where the characters aren't "conventionally attractive", when I suspect the most accurate reason this is the case is that their artists suck at faces.

According to BioWare Lead concept artist, Matt Rhodes, it was a concerted effort to make the companions looks like real people and not simply perfect beings. These are his remarks in response to beautified fanart of Solas and Sera.

For those who are interested, we have been very calculated when it comes to engineering our characters imperfections. The development process has a built in erosion mechanism: many stakeholders in many review meetings tend to trim away a characters humanizing flaws and oddities, leaving little more than "pretty" and "safe" . Strip and shave most game characters today and you'd be hard pressed to tell most of them apart. We've worked very hard on Inquisition to safeguard our characters from this erosion process. We want to give them more identity than just their clothes, hairstyle and makeup. It's our hope that after you've spent some time with them, our character's will be as inseparable from their quirks, flaws and oddities as your own friends and family are from theirs.

Like I've said before I think most of the companions look pretty good, but while I'm happy with their appearances for the most part, their character models aren't without issue. A few definitely look odd and slightly unnatural in certain shots and angles, while other times they look really great. They're still likely a work in progress, we've seen what appears to be slight variations in their appearances and more concretely there are numerous shots of the various characters with the same white and grey pattern on their clothes which is BioWare's temp texture for clothes that have not been completed. So we know for sure that things like that aren't totally done just yet.

Wait the elf fucking plays for the home team? Shiiiiiiiiiiit. they couldn't have fucked us over this badly right? Leliana is a romance option right?

Nope, Cassandra and possibly Scribe Girl will be straight romances.

 

[Some Nobody]

Wait the elf fucking plays for the home team? Shiiiiiiiiiiit. they couldn't have fucked us over this badly right? Leliana is a romance option right?

lol, let it go man--romance may not be for you in this game. But yeah, Sera's apparently all about the ladies. (Which isn't a problem with me--for most fantasy games I create a female character anyway.)

 

[Admiral Woofington]

Looks like this will be the first Bioware game I go stag. Unless there's a prominent npc that you can romance ala what's her face in mass effect.

 

[Sanctuary]

Dragon Age 2 has some of the best characters I have seen in a game

I honestly thought the characters from Mass Effect 2 were generally all around better. I thought the characters in Dragon Age 2 were at the very least above average for any random characters among any non Bioware game, but not really specifically Bioware.

The only character that truly stood out as a character you really want to group with just for his dialogue/banter was Varric. To me he was the closest that the sequel had to anyone like Morrigan or Alistair (who IMO gave some of the best performances ever for party members).

I'd also argue that many of the companions from Fallout:NV would give any Bioware companion a run for their money, especially Veronica.

As far as the aesthtics of the characters go; I have no idea what is going on. They somehow look more fake than the character models from last gen, which doesn't make any sense. It's like, at least with last gen you knew you were playing a video game and the characters looked relatively believable and pretty good for a video game. Now, it's like they are trying to go for a more realistic approach, but don't quite have a handle on it yet so everything just looks wrong as far as faces go. Kind of reminds me of the human faces in the first Mass Effect. I'm sure if there's another Dragon Age released on the current gen they will be improved.

 

[MikeDown]

I honestly thought the characters from Mass Effect 2 were generally all around better. I thought the characters in Dragon Age 2 were at the very least above average for any random characters among any non Bioware game, but not really specifically Bioware.

The only character that truly stood out as a character you really want to group with just for his dialogue/banter was Varric. To me he was the closest that the sequel had to anyone like Morrigan or Alistair (who IMO gave some of the best performances ever for party members).

I'd also argue that many of the companions from Fallout:NV would give any Bioware companion a run for their money, especially Veronica.

Eh, I have mixed feelings about ME2's characters, one thing irking me is that alot of their loyalty missions consist of parental issues (

Spoiler

Jacob, Miranda, Tali, Thane, Samara

) and unfortunately I felt alot of them where very similar to each other in terms of their backgrounds and occupation; my main complaint though is a decent amount of them really get nothing out of signing up to help Shepard battle the Collectors. I mean what are their motivations, what do they get out of this?

In Dragon Age 2 the companions felt to me as much more fleshed out, there was banter/interaction between them, they had a reason to stay in Kirkwall besides some since of obligation towards Hawke and each one had a unique and well written backstory that played into the main story in various ways.

Best thing I liked in DA2 about the companions is that their presence played a huge role on the story, it isn't Hawke pulling all the strings.

Spoiler

We see Aveline botch things up as Captain of the City guard, Isabella brought the Qunari to Kirkwall, Varric's expedition into the deep roads ultimately helped Meredith along the path to insanity and paranoia, and Anders someone driven by ideals, eventually sparks a way between mages and templars

. But that is just my two cents worth.

 

[Admiral Woofington]

lol, let it go man--romance may not be for you in this game. But yeah, Sera's apparently all about the ladies. (Which isn't a problem with me--for most fantasy games I create a female character anyway.)

It just seems a shame but I'm not making anything official. They keep swearing this is going to be their game with the most romances outside of old republic. I doubt they'd only have 1 or 2 straight male options. Heck they'll probably have some npcs.

 

[Enduin]

I'm curious to see how companions operate in DAI compared to DA2, not only because I liked how they seemed to be independent and active participants in the world in DA2, but also because BioWare has shown that many of your companions in DAI aren't just random people in the world. Several of them are major players and leaders in their respective fields.

Vivienne is a First Enchanter and possibly one of the last remaining, possibly making her the highest ranking mage in the Circle system. Sera is hinted as being a leader among the theives/Friends of Red Jenny, Blackwall was likely a senior Warden in Orlais, Iron Bull was Ben Hassrath and lead his own mercenary crew, and Cassandra was the right hand of the Divine and a senior member of the Seekers of the Truth. So five of the nine companions aren't just some guys, they're legit players in the world of Thedas.

 

[Complistic]

People worrying about how the characters look are forgetting mods will make them look awesome about 2 days after the game comes out.

 

[Enduin]

People worrying about how the characters look are forgetting mods will make them look awesome about 2 days after the game comes out.

I wouldn't count on it Frostbite isn't very mod friendly. We'll likely see some stuff after a while, much like Mass Effect with different texture mods and the like, but don't hold your breath for seeing anything like what we got in DAO or DA2 in terms of character model changes and the like.

 

[Sanctuary]

In Dragon Age 2 the companions felt to me as much more fleshed out, there was banter/interaction between them, they had a reason to stay in Kirkwall besides some since of obligation towards Hawke and each one had a unique and well written backstory that played into the main story in various ways.

Best thing I liked in DA2 about the companions is that their presence played a huge role on the story, it isn't Hawke pulling all the strings.

Eh, I suppose we are talking about two different things here. I agree that they may have been deeper in DA2 than ME2, but I think ME2 just had more charismatic characters that you generally want to hear talking. Similarly with DA:O. Party interaction wasn't nearly as compelling to me in DA2 and I honestly cared little for what any of them, save Varric had to say. It may have been the quality of the voice actors more than anything though.

People worrying about how the characters look are forgetting mods will make them look awesome about 2 days after the game comes out.

Maybe if they release a toolkit this time. The improvements of the characters in DA:O wasn't earth-shattering by any means (with the toolkit), and there wasn't a toolkit released for DA2. It seems like the best graphical mods for DA2 were mostly terrain/clutter based.

 

[BrassDragon]

According to BioWare Lead concept artist, Matt Rhodes, it was a concerted effort to make the companions looks like real people and not simply perfect beings. These are his remarks in response to beautified fanart of Solas and Sera.

This sounds great on paper but I don't think Bioware's art team is all that accomplished when it comes to faces. There's always something off about their output. Sure, you get used to it, but when you look at the characters Ubisoft, Naughty Dog or CD Projekt Red have been putting in recent titles, Bioware isn't doing so hot.

Deliberately creating imperfections when you start out below the par doesn't seem like a sound strategy for visual appeal.

Art in the fantasy genre is defined by heightened extremes - very beautiful or very ugly with little in-between. It's an interesting aesthetic choice to strive for something more grounded in reality when designing characters (even as they appear to go in a more traditional direction with their high fantasy environments.)

I don't think the images of the DA:I characters make a particularly good first impression - the lack of pretty is not the issue but these deliberate quirks draw way too much attention to themselves. I'm not particularly interested in the romance stuff but even from a standpoint of 'do I want to spend 50+ hours looking at these characters?', only a few hold up.

Anyway, I'm hopeful the writing and voice acting will carry them.

 

[Sanctuary]

I don't think the images of the DA:I characters make a particularly good first impression - the lack of pretty is not the issue but these deliberate quirks draw way too much attention to themselves. I'm not particularly interested in the romance stuff but even from a standpoint of 'do I want to spend 50+ hours looking at these characters?', only a few hold up.

Anyway, I'm hopeful the writing and voice acting will carry them.

Unless you are constantly panning the screen around or zooming in while playing, you probably won't have to look at them much outside of party interaction or cutscenes. Personally, the voice acting and dialogue are what will make or break them for me. I didn't find any of the Origins characters, save Morrigan nice to look at for extended periods of time anyway. A quick full helm took care of that problem. Barely anyone in DA2 looked close to realistic either with all of the angular shit happening all over the screen, including their hair and faces.

 

[Kuse]

Wait the elf fucking plays for the home team? Shiiiiiiiiiiit. they couldn't have fucked us over this badly right? Leliana is a romance option right?

Nope...Male characters wanting a female romance is pretty rare thing, Vivienne is not an option. Cassandra is however...they better have more options cause man all the companions look pretty mediocre in appearance an personality.

 

[Renekton]

But no, these characters are just unattractive. I expect there to be no small amount of meaningless thinkpieces about how "great" it is that someone finally created a game where the characters aren't "conventionally attractive", when I suspect the most accurate reason this is the case is that their artists suck at faces.

But are they flat-out unattractive or just unattractive to certain people?

IMHO Vivienne could easily qualify as an ebony fashion model IRL, but some people may not like that type of look (nothing wrong with that).

 

[Complistic]

I wouldn't count on it Frostbite isn't very mod friendly. We'll likely see some stuff after a while, much like Mass Effect with different texture mods and the like, but don't hold your breath for seeing anything like what we got in DAO or DA2 in terms of character model changes and the like.

desperate fans... find a way.

 

[Poodlestrike]

People worrying about how the characters look are forgetting mods will make them look awesome about 2 days after the game comes out.

This makes me nervous. Has everyone already forgotten the White Isabella stuff?

 

[MartyStu]

I will always buy the Witcher games. But I'm just miffed that somehow the series just doesn't get nearly the same amount of scrutiny that DA gets.

- People complained about DA streamlining RPG for the masses, but no one complained that W2 has less stat management than DA.
- People complained about DA's combat system, but not many complained about W2's terrible clunky combat whose flaws are disguised by Quen's hit-stun protection.
- People complained about Bioware's characters, no one cared how expressionless Geralt and Triss were.
- People complained about DA's skill trees, but no one thought how messy W2's skill tree is (why is mutagen tree even there?)
- People complained about Bioware fan service, no one complained about random W2 sex scenes (what is up is with that succubus in that hole in the ground or random sex in cave after a frantic chase??)
- People complained about DA/ME's plot, no one complained about Witcher 2's ridiculous exposition-laden GoT geopolitical blurb that only ties loosely to the manhunt.

People have complained about most of those. At length.

Especially the Fan Service (remember the Sex Cards from the first game?)

The point at the end of the day is that The Witcher 2 does a better job at succeeding in its niche given its scope and Bioware has been having a hard time satisfactorily doing the same.

Inquisition seems to be a major course correction though.

 

[Ridesh]

I like how all the companions look minus Cassandra, really, is the only one that looks more unnatural than imperfect to me.

Sera looks good, Vivienne looks pretty good, Dorian looks good besides the paint moustache, Leliana looks pretty good, Solas looks ugly-good, but Cassandra eeeeehhh.

 

[Renekton]

People have complained about most of those. At length.

Not nearly as much as DA, not even close. You could say DA2 deserved it, but even DA:O gets a ton.

Discussions involving unrelated RPGs like Eternity, Divinity or Dogma have people taking shots at Dragon Age in all aspects. Stuff like praising DD's combat at DA's expense, but nobody chimed in how clunky W2 was. Mentioning W2's flaws can get downvotes on Reddit.

 

[Ivory Samoan]

I think Sera is pretty cute

I most definitely agree.

So much so, that I'm in throws as to roll a female char just so I can romance her.
That, and the fact the most attractive male-female romance is... wait, none of them.