What are you playing 4: HD Remaster Gold Collector's Edition Thread of the Year

[Zevox]

Okay, big, sudden glut of new characters unlocked in Age of Calamity.

Sidon: Might give Urbosa a run for her money as one of my favorite characters. I like the timing element on his special ability to give him big power boosts to his heavy attacks, nice feature, and he's got plenty of satisfying, flashing moves.
Yunobo: Eh, just like Daruk, he's too slow and awkward for my liking.
Teba: "Crowd Control: the Character." Yeah, he's probably better for actually playing than Revali, since he doesn't mess with the camera nearly as much. I like the idea of Revali's flight mode better than Teba's more straightforward moveset, but will probably play Teba more. I hope one of his later-unlocked heavy combos is more focused for taking down single strong targets though, feels like all of them are just massive AoEs as-is.
Riju: I had high hopes for her given I like Urbosa so much, but unfortunately, she's another in the Zelda/Hestu category of "my god, this is awkward." Probably not as bad Hestu, but worse than Zelda, sadly. All of her moves send her flying across the screen, since they're all just done by her danged pet, which makes controlling her a pain. And honestly, it's hard for me to tell which move is which visually, since it's just her pet flailing around 99% of the time.

So apparently Hyrule Warriors is teaching me that Zoras are wonderful and always a blast to play, while Gorons will never get to be fun, since I've quite liked playing all three Zoras and disliked playing all three Gorons across the two games.

[Razade]

Once you unlock a few moves for Yanobo he gets to a be a little better but right out the gate's he's really not good. Learning how to use his food also makes him a lot better as they are good for different situations. He's far too dependent on his special however and he's also really slow.

I personally find Riju to be a total delight, the trick is to move in circles and spam her heavy attacks as often as possible. She's nowhere near as good as Urbosa who is absolutely top tier, but once you get a handle on her speed and the fact that her attacks are ahead of her character model she can be devastating to large groups.

The big lesson is (if you're not just using one character for all the story maps...) to load up on one key person to take down the mini-bosses and big enemies like Lynels and the like and bring along a few characters that are good for mowing down big swathes of enemies. I found Link was good at doing all of that...so I never really had to use anyone else but you are going to have to use and level every character if you want to 100% the game. I've held off on a few trials just because of how much I dislike the characters.

Interesting to see what you'll think of the last two core characters. The King (I found) to be easily one of the most fun to play. The other....not really so much.

[Zevox]

I personally find Riju to be a total delight, the trick is to move in circles and spam her heavy attacks as often as possible. She's nowhere near as good as Urbosa who is absolutely top tier, but once you get a handle on her speed and the fact that her attacks are ahead of her character model she can be devastating to large groups.

I don't know if getting a handle on Riju's speed is going to happen. Even after playing her initial missions, with big open areas, it is extremely tough to tell what is going on when using some of her moves, due to how fast she's zipping around the screen. And when I've wound up in an even slightly enclosed area, it gets even worse, as then her movement screws with the camera when she gets anywhere near a wall. Don't think I'll be using her, personally.

The big lesson is (if you're not just using one character for all the story maps...) to load up on one key person to take down the mini-bosses and big enemies like Lynels and the like and bring along a few characters that are good for mowing down big swathes of enemies. I found Link was good at doing all of that...so I never really had to use anyone else but you are going to have to use and level every character if you want to 100% the game. I've held off on a few trials just because of how much I dislike the characters.

Well, I don't intend to 100% the game - I've never 100%ed a Warriors game (though I might eventually do so with Fire Emblem Warriors, I've come closest with that one), and in any event I'm hoping to wrap up at least the main story, possibly whatever after it strikes me as appealing within the next week here. With Persona 5 Strikers due out in around three weeks, I'm intending to make sure there's at least two weeks in between me playing Age of Calamity and that, so that there's no chance I'm feeling like I've had my fill of Warriors-style gameplay when that hits.

As far as my character usage goes, I have been spreading it out, but with fairly substantial focus on my preferred characters. Up until recently I had Urbosa as my highest-level character, Link as my second (and usually technically my strongest since the Master Sword is just a stronger weapon than Urbosa's), and Mipha as my third. Zelda's often been my fourth, since I was kind of forcing myself to keep her leveled since story missions often want her, but she's fallen off as I've unlocked more that I actually wanted to play. Now, with that period where Urbosa wasn't usable and the influx of new characters all at about the same level as my highest, that's been thrown off a bit. Broadly, right now most of my characters are around the same level, though with the newcomers having weaker weapons than the older ones. The exceptions are Zelda, who is about 5 levels behind (but with a decent weapon); Revali and the Great Fairies, who around around 15 levels behind and with slightly underpowered weapons; and Impa, Daruk, and Hetsu, who are around 20 levels behind with definitely underpowered weapons.

In-battle, I do tend to swap characters around, but not for role changes so much as because I tend to order them off to different parts of the map, so as to clear things quicker. I don't swap when a map forces me to use one of my seriously under-leveled characters but it's not a solo mission though, I just power through it with a properly-leveled ally.

Interesting to see what you'll think of the last two core characters. The King (I found) to be easily one of the most fun to play. The other....not really so much.

Ah, you do get to play as King Rhoam (I think that was his name), eh? I was wondering that after that cutscene where he showed up and sliced that Guardian up to give Zelda time to get away. Nice, I hope I find him fun.

[factotum]

Huh, I do not remember any trans characters in Catherine. Maybe those were additions in Full Body? I only played the original release. Or maybe I've just forgotten that much of the game, I suppose.

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One (Rin) was definitely added in Full Body, and he's more of a cross-dresser than out-and-out trans, but the other (Erica) pretty sure was there in the original. Admittedly, there's only one moment in the ending I got where you realise that's what she is, when Toby says to her "The other guys called you 'Eric' at school!", but apparently it's made a bit more obvious in some of the other endings.

[DeTess]

Been playing some Star Sector, finally feel like I've got a handle on the game. Does anyone have any recommended mods for it? Since I've heard it's got a great modding community.

All of them? :P

Most of the faction mods in particular are great and fun. I'd just take al look through the index and add what looks cool to you: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/i...hp?topic=177.0

[Anonymouswizard]

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One (Rin) was definitely added in Full Body, and he's more of a cross-dresser than out-and-out trans, but the other (Erica) pretty sure was there in the original. Admittedly, there's only one moment in the ending I got where you realise that's what she is, when Toby says to her "The other guys called you 'Eric' at school!", but apparently it's made a bit more obvious in some of the other endings.

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Ouch, deadnaming makes me less willing to pick up that game. I mean for the time it was made it's relatively harmless, and I know trans people who'd treat such a comment from a friend as just banter, but I also know others who'll get incredibly offended. I can overlook it existing because the game came out long ago enough that I'd just about accept 'we didn't realise it was an issue', but it means I'm just so much less likely to buy it.

I wanted some platforming, and was just not up to the difficulty of Sonic Mania, so I played the first three worlds of Thomas Was Alone. Probably the best platformer I've played, due to it's focus on puzzling out the level and simple but meaningful definition of characters.

Side note, I've been discovering that the use of direct input controllers via Steam is a bit hit and miss. For some it works fine, for some the buttons seem to be remapped and some just don't recognise certain buttons. On the other hand it works perfectly for the classic Tomb Raider games while xinput devices don't, so I'm happy I picked up the controller.

[factotum]

Side note, I've been discovering that the use of direct input controllers via Steam is a bit hit and miss. For some it works fine, for some the buttons seem to be remapped and some just don't recognise certain buttons.

You might want to check your controller settings in Big Picture mode...yes, they hide the per-game controller settings in there for some reason, I have no idea why!

[Spacewolf]

All of them? :P

Most of the faction mods in particular are great and fun. I'd just take al look through the index and add what looks cool to you: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/i...hp?topic=177.0

I went for afew of the factions mods for pirates like Junk pirates and underworld as well as the Nexerelin mod plus afew basic ship packs. I dont really want to alter the game to put in a bunch of super powerful factions just yet, I just want the galaxy to feel abit more alive which apparently is what Nexerelin is for.

[Anonymouswizard]

You might want to check your controller settings in Big Picture mode...yes, they hide the per-game controller settings in there for some reason, I have no idea why!

Urgh, I hate Big Picture Mode, I'll have a look at it ffor a couple of games that just weren't working though.

[DeTess]

I went for afew of the factions mods for pirates like Junk pirates and underworld as well as the Nexerelin mod plus afew basic ship packs. I dont really want to alter the game to put in a bunch of super powerful factions just yet, I just want the galaxy to feel abit more alive which apparently is what Nexerelin is for.

If you're looking for stuff that is reasonably balanced with vanilla, you could take a look at the factions included here: https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/i...?topic=19267.0 (or page 7 and 8 of this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...LMZv0s7fE/edit ) The mods included in the fleet building tournament are generally regarded as being pretty balanced, or they wouldn't have been in there to begin with. But yeah, to avoid overload of content you'd probably not want to run more than 5-6 faction packs at once.

Also, watching the tournaments can just be fun to watch some explosions, and get an idea about how people with a bit of experience at the game look at ship and fleet loadouts.

[Starbuck_II]

Finishing Dragon Warrior 11: beat last boss, so guess I am in epologue, I saved.

Really great game, best one so far I felt.

[Lord Raziere]

Played Monster Hunter Worlds again. this time I actually figured a few things out that make this game easier and made some good progress! I figured out that melding can give me gems, which allowed me to accelerate getting the Xeno-Cypher immensely and now I have it after fighting Xeno'jiva again this time without fainting once! awesome. due to taking notes and prior planning on armor I've gotten a good early iceborne armor loudout, and also gotten the astral set which looks awesome and beautiful. but I also discovered that investigations are even more profitable than I thought because you can take what you get there and sell them for more than the reward money you get, which gets rid of the money problems I've been having in this game.

also I think I'm getting the more advanced parts of longsword combat down after so long of learning how to dodge: I think every time I do my special attack routine and successfully hit with the last strike, it raises my ....whatever it is by a level or something and the max is level 3 which has this red color so I assume its maxing out my damage in some manner but I don't know how. just that if I'm supposed to whack with normal attack just to fill up the sword meter then to try and use special attacks on the monsters. somehow in this session, I think I stumbled across all the things I've been missing to make the experience work for me and it feels good to finally know how this game works better.

[LibraryOgre]

Still on Dragon Age 2. Still enjoying it, though I wish I had a warrior who was a bit less straight-laced... Aveline is pretty easy to work around, but Fenris is not working well with my "Actually, I think mages should be treated as people" style.

Post Act 1, my go-to team is Varric, Anders, and either Aveline or Isabel (when I'm doing something shady).

[Anteros]

I never managed to like any of the characters in DA2. They all felt like just cardboard cutouts of generic tropes. Even moreso than usual for a Bioware game. The only one who feels like a real person to me is Anders, and he obviously gets a lot more customization than the others.

It's really a Bioware issue in general though. They haven't released a game with characters that felt like real people since DA1 or Mass Effect. I don't know what happened to the writing team over there, but the writing in their games took a huge hit in quality somewhere around 2010 between ME2 and DA2 and they never recovered.

[Zevox]

So, I'm fairly sure I'm set up just before the final story mission of Age of Calamity - if not, maybe it's only the second-to-last, but I already went through one of those, so I'm guessing this is the last. So I've unlocked those last few characters at this point.

Zelda (Light Magic): Definitely a big improvement over the Sheikah Slate moveset, this actually makes Zelda fun to play. Though I kind of wish I could switch her back to her earlier outfit - I get that the toga look kind of gives her a Greco-Roman Goddess look in some of her super animations, but still, it looks off on her most of the time.
Master Khoga: Geez, this guy was a surprise, and not the most pleasant sort. Why couldn't we have gotten Sooga instead? He was the competent one. Oh well, Khoga's moveset is odd, but flavorful I guess, and it's not nearly as awkward as Zelda's Sheikah Slate, Riju, or Hetsu. Still, aside from those three, the only characters I'd pick this guy over are the Great Fairies, and maybe the Gorons.
King Rhoam: Quite fun, actually. It's neat to have a stance-switching character who can functionally use two different movesets at will (even if in some regards they're similar). I do wonder why he even has that disguise and axe, though, he never used them during the story.

So, without the post-game unlocks, I'd say my personal ranking of how much I like playing the characters ends up at:
Favorites: Urbosa, Sidon.
Like: Zelda (Light Magic), Mipha, King Rhoam, Link.
Moderately Like: Teba, Monk Maz Koshia.
Would Like, but he messes with the camera too much: Revali
Not a Fan: Impa, Master Khoga, Yanobo, Daruk, The Great Fairies, Zelda (Sheikah Slate), Riju, Hetsu. In that order.

Spoiler

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One (Rin) was definitely added in Full Body, and he's more of a cross-dresser than out-and-out trans, but the other (Erica) pretty sure was there in the original. Admittedly, there's only one moment in the ending I got where you realise that's what she is, when Toby says to her "The other guys called you 'Eric' at school!", but apparently it's made a bit more obvious in some of the other endings.

Huh, guess I just forgot, then. Or maybe never noticed it - especially if the endings you mentioned that make it more obvious were additions in Full Body. IIRC there were far fewer in the original than the 13 you mentioned there being now.

I never managed to like any of the characters in DA2. They all felt like just cardboard cutouts of generic tropes. Even moreso than usual for a Bioware game. The only one who feels like a real person to me is Anders, and he obviously gets a lot more customization than the others.

It's really a Bioware issue in general though. They haven't released a game with characters that felt like real people since DA1 or Mass Effect. I don't know what happened to the writing team over there, but the writing in their games took a huge hit in quality somewhere around 2010 between ME2 and DA2 and they never recovered.

Oh, I have to hard disagree with that. ME2 was the pinnacle of Bioware's character writing, IMO, with characters like Mordin and Jack being their best work, and the game making ME1 characters like Garrus and Tali a lot more likable and interesting than they were in the first game. And Dragon Age 2 introduced that series' best companion character, Varric, plus it had Aveline and Anders. And damn what anyone else says, I liked Merrill too .

DA:O was certainly great in that department too, but ME1... not so much, I'd say. Its best characters were improved upon in later games, and its weakest are the weakest of that entire series (Kaiden and Ashley - the only post-ME1 companion who is near their level is Jacob).

[Razade]

Zelda (Light Magic): Definitely a big improvement over the Sheikah Slate moveset, this actually makes Zelda fun to play. Though I kind of wish I could switch her back to her earlier outfit - I get that the toga look kind of gives her a Greco-Roman Goddess look in some of her super animations, but still, it looks off on her most of the time.

And the real bummer is you can't. I hate her second outfit. It looks like someone took curtains and made a dress out of them. It's going for a ritual, clean, virginal look and it just looks shabby and cheap compared to her previous outfit.

Master Khoga: Geez, this guy was a surprise, and not the most pleasant sort. Why couldn't we have gotten Sooga instead? He was the competent one. Oh well, Khoga's moveset is odd, but flavorful I guess, and it's not nearly as awkward as Zelda's Sheikah Slate, Riju, or Hetsu. Still, aside from those three, the only characters I'd pick this guy over are the Great Fairies, and maybe the Gorons.

This was the response I expected. He's not very great but he's flavorful. Sooga has unused voice lines in the data. Lines that are lines he'd give if used in combat so he was planned and dropped or is planned for a DLC if it comes. He also has a moveset chart and animations for a character. So does the main villain. Purah and Robbie also have voice lines but no character models. So they were either planned as well or they'll be in DLC if it comes.

King Rhoam: Quite fun, actually. It's neat to have a stance-switching character who can functionally use two different movesets at will (even if in some regards they're similar). I do wonder why he even has that disguise and axe, though, he never used them during the story.

I really enjoy Rhoam. He just flows so well when you get in the zone. He has the costume because in Breath of the Wild he leads the tutorial as a mysterious lumberjack in the tutorial area.

[Anteros]

Oh, I have to hard disagree with that. ME2 was the pinnacle of Bioware's character writing, IMO, with characters like Mordin and Jack being their best work, and the game making ME1 characters like Garrus and Tali a lot more likable and interesting than they were in the first game. And Dragon Age 2 introduced that series' best companion character, Varric, plus it had Aveline and Anders. And damn what anyone else says, I liked Merrill too .

DA:O was certainly great in that department too, but ME1... not so much, I'd say. Its best characters were improved upon in later games, and its weakest are the weakest of that entire series (Kaiden and Ashley - the only post-ME1 companion who is near their level is Jacob).

The implication in my post was that Bioware's writing began to decline immediately after ME2. So you aren't actually disagreeing with me on that front.

I never really got the Varric love either. It always felt more like Bioware telling me that I should like the character and that they're popular than making them actually likable. They took the tvtropes rogue page and said..."but what if we make him a dwarf!? Brilliant. Pack it up boys, we're done writing for this character forever." Which is basically what they do for every character. He only stands out at all because everyone else is so damn generic that making him an unexpected race is actually notable.

[Cespenar]

It's really a Bioware issue in general though. They haven't released a game with characters that felt like real people since DA1 or Mass Effect. I don't know what happened to the writing team over there, but the writing in their games took a huge hit in quality somewhere around 2010 between ME2 and DA2 and they never recovered.

They went kinda on an overdrive right after ME2, if I recall correctly. DA2, ME3 and the Old Republic all in 2 years, or something? Could be something to do with that. And some key figures left at the end of that overdrive, around 2012, as I recall.

[Lord Raziere]

They went kinda on an overdrive right after ME2, if I recall correctly. DA2, ME3 and the Old Republic all in 2 years, or something? Could be something to do with that. And some key figures left at the end of that overdrive, around 2012, as I recall.

EA bought out Bioware in 2008. and EA is known for squeezing videogame franchises into oblivion for a quick buck, so maybe thats when they saw Bioware was getting successful and really started milking them dry?

EA buys out Bioware, over four years following that their quality takes a hit......I think we know what happened.

[warty goblin]

EA bought out Bioware in 2008. and EA is known for squeezing videogame franchises into oblivion for a quick buck, so maybe thats when they saw Bioware was getting successful and really started milking them dry?

EA buys out Bioware, over four years following that their quality takes a hit......I think we know what happened.

The decline of Bioware is, unusually enough in the video game industry, pretty well documented. And mostly it looks like post ME3 their management were just really, really bad at their jobs. Even using Frostbite for everything was a Bioware decision, not an EA mandate. And while Andromeda and Anthem were absolutely rushed out the door in terrible work conditions, EA had given Bioware years that they'd more or less pissed away building a whole lot of nothing. Flying, the only thing in Anthem that isn't completely half-assed, is only there because of EA executive meddling.

Mostly it seems like the upper management bought into their own hype about "Bioware magic" and tried to use that plus enormous crunch instead of effective leadership. Which they mostly got away with in the case of Inquisition, but has absolutely caught up with them since.

[Taevyr]

They went kinda on an overdrive right after ME2, if I recall correctly. DA2, ME3 and the Old Republic all in 2 years, or something? Could be something to do with that. And some key figures left at the end of that overdrive, around 2012, as I recall.

EA bought out Bioware in 2008. and EA is known for squeezing videogame franchises into oblivion for a quick buck, so maybe thats when they saw Bioware was getting successful and really started milking them dry?

EA buys out Bioware, over four years following that their quality takes a hit......I think we know what happened.

Those early years still did relatively well: ME2 was pretty great, though quite a switch in focus from the original: far more focus on being a shooter/dating sim than the rpg/mild lovecraftian elements than ME1. And TOR is still one of the most immersive, well-written star wars games I've played, to the point where I'd be willing to pay for a single-player version that didn't have it's level curve and balance ruined when the focus shifted to "get players to endgame as quick as possible".

DA2 got shafted completely though: EA mandated them to churn it out in 16 months, which resulted in the repetitive, simplified mess we got. Still a fun game, but you can clearly see where they cut corners, and wonder tearfully what might have been if they'd been given proper development time.

After that though... ME3 was lucky that it could just "wrap up" the storylines of the previous games for most of its own story while improving on ME2 mechanically, and Inquisition had that nostalgia/continuity factor as well despite its MMO-fication. But quality was clearly declining.

And Anthem and Andromeda were just messes from what I saw and heard, though I never played them myself; Inquisition was enough to stop believing "It's a Bioware RPG, of course it'll be good". EA definitely played a role in that, but I doubt local management/the gradual bleedout of old talent isn't to blame either.

[factotum]

After that though... ME3 was lucky that it could just "wrap up" the storylines of the previous games for most of its own story while improving on ME2 mechanically, and Inquisition had that nostalgia/continuity factor as well despite its MMO-fication. But quality was clearly declining.

I've said it before, but the decline in quality was already there in ME2. It's a better game than ME1, it's more fun (apart from the probe scanning minigame that can die in a fire) and it has the best written characters and side quests of pretty much any game Bioware ever produced. But the main plot was *garbage*--we start by completely resetting everything that was established in the first game because reasons, then spend the entire runtime dealing with a secondary threat that really bear no relevance to the main issue, namely, the Reapers out in deep space. Not to mention that the entire thing ends with a mission in which nearly all of the NPCs we've come to know and love can actually die, meaning ME3 has to introduce new characters we don't care about just in case we have to replace the ones we lost.

I weep for the ME2 that should have been, the one that follows up the ending of ME1 with a proper search for an answer to the Reaper problem across the galaxy, using the Prothean knowledge implanted in Shepard and the fact he has a Prothean expert among his crew (Liara).

[Rodin]

I've said it before, but the decline in quality was already there in ME2. It's a better game than ME1, it's more fun (apart from the probe scanning minigame that can die in a fire) and it has the best written characters and side quests of pretty much any game Bioware ever produced. But the main plot was *garbage*--we start by completely resetting everything that was established in the first game because reasons, then spend the entire runtime dealing with a secondary threat that really bear no relevance to the main issue, namely, the Reapers out in deep space. Not to mention that the entire thing ends with a mission in which nearly all of the NPCs we've come to know and love can actually die, meaning ME3 has to introduce new characters we don't care about just in case we have to replace the ones we lost.

I weep for the ME2 that should have been, the one that follows up the ending of ME1 with a proper search for an answer to the Reaper problem across the galaxy, using the Prothean knowledge implanted in Shepard and the fact he has a Prothean expert among his crew (Liara).

Mileage may vary I guess. The Suicide Mission is my favorite thing that Bioware has ever done. The entire game building up to it makes it feel epic, and the threat of all your characters dying makes it extremely tense. The losses had a lasting impact too - I didn't get the best ending to the Quarian/Geth conflict in 3 because Legion died. The stakes in the Suicide Mission felt far higher than those in the battle for the Catalyst.

The Collectors were also awesome. This is possibly because I hadn't played the first game, but I was quite disappointed that they were dropped entirely for ME3. I found the regular Reapers boring by comparison.

The complaint I can agree with was the new characters for ME3. You had 3 characters guaranteed to survive ME2, and two more characters guaranteed to survive ME1 (Liara and Ashley/Kaidan). Add guaranteed EDI and that's 6. Write proper parts for some of the ME2 characters and it doesn't matter that you can lose most of the cast in ME2.

Heck, worst case scenario Padox Wicks it.

[Taevyr]

I've said it before, but the decline in quality was already there in ME2. It's a better game than ME1, it's more fun (apart from the probe scanning minigame that can die in a fire) and it has the best written characters and side quests of pretty much any game Bioware ever produced. But the main plot was *garbage*--we start by completely resetting everything that was established in the first game because reasons, then spend the entire runtime dealing with a secondary threat that really bear no relevance to the main issue, namely, the Reapers out in deep space. Not to mention that the entire thing ends with a mission in which nearly all of the NPCs we've come to know and love can actually die, meaning ME3 has to introduce new characters we don't care about just in case we have to replace the ones we lost.

I weep for the ME2 that should have been, the one that follows up the ending of ME1 with a proper search for an answer to the Reaper problem across the galaxy, using the Prothean knowledge implanted in Shepard and the fact he has a Prothean expert among his crew (Liara).

I don't disagree that the main plot was far worse in ME2 than ME1: we essentially went from a vaguely lovecraftian "unknown space" exploration to a heist movie, kept together by the same things that keeps other heist movies together: awesome crew introductions, great character moments and action scenes. And while it's a pretty great heist movie, that doesn't excuse throwing out most of what made ME such an interesting sci-fi setting for the sake of setting up a freaking heist movie in that 'verse.

[Anonymouswizard]

The decline of Bioware is, unusually enough in the video game industry, pretty well documented. And mostly it looks like post ME3 their management were just really, really bad at their jobs.

To be fair the evidence suggest that they'd been bad at their jobs for a lot longer, but that having an actual vision for the games stopped Anthem-level messes.

I'd also argue that one of Bioware's generally quoted strengths, the writing, was never that amazing. The writing was solid and the worldbuilding can be amazing (although I laugh at the idea that the Anthem setting wouldn't have transistors), but never really rose above solid partially due to the for,ulaic aspects. Probably their best game IMO was Jade Empire, but I like martial arts.

Man I want to replay Jade Empire now.


On ME2, to me it feels like they cut out the middle half of the game and replaced it with more beginning and twelve sidequests. If instead of a second recruitment phase we'd had an arc where we're chasing after the Collectors trying to dig up information on them or searching for a Reaper to salvage it's IFF device I feel like it would have been a lot better, Still picking new crew members up, but now it's not actively seeking them out, and having the loyalty missions come a bit more slowly during a longer arc.

[Zevox]

Wrapped up Age of Calamity's story. All in all, I enjoyed it. They did quite a good job of making the missions after Calamity Ganon returned feel epic, and build up nicely to the finale. Also, I like that a lot of the story actually focuses on Zelda - it's kind of ironic that that only happens in a spin-off which doesn't have her name in the title like the series normally does, but hey, it's something.

I was kind of disappointed by Calamity Ganon himself though. He kind of loses something when you make him this speechless monster, and the design for him is so underwhelming compared to the giant monstrous cloud you see around Hyrule Castle when he first wakes up.

Guess I'll see how much of the post-game stuff I can through by the end of the week. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to unlock the little R2-D2 knock-off.

And the real bummer is you can't. I hate her second outfit. It looks like someone took curtains and made a dress out of them. It's going for a ritual, clean, virginal look and it just looks shabby and cheap compared to her previous outfit.

Uh, yes you can, actually. Not until completing the main story apparently, but when I hopped back in after the final cutscene, besides spawning a ton of new fights and upgrade spots, it informed me that I'd unlocked Zelda and the four Champions' alternate outfits. So now I can switch Zelda between her three outfits (main two plus the winter wear she only wore during the mission where you meet Revali), and toggle the sash on the Champions.

Sooga has unused voice lines in the data. Lines that are lines he'd give if used in combat so he was planned and dropped or is planned for a DLC if it comes. He also has a moveset chart and animations for a character. So does the main villain. Purah and Robbie also have voice lines but no character models. So they were either planned as well or they'll be in DLC if it comes.

Honestly, I'm quite surprised that the main villain guy isn't playable already. The Warriors developers sure do like to stick their OCs into these spin-offs. Actually, come to think of it, this is the only Warriors spin-off I've played which didn't feature an OC who was either the star or co-star of the main story. Fire Emblem Warriors and Dragon Quest Heroes had twin OCs as their leads, and the first Hyrule Warriors had that Lana girl acting as Link and Zelda's co-star. Kind of nice for them to just stick to the series' characters for once, honestly.

Though I guess you could count mini-R2 as an OC sort-of-lead (the game sure does treat what happens with him in the final mission as crazy important...), but since it can't even talk and isn't playable until the post-game, it doesn't feel anything like past Warriors OC leads.

I really enjoy Rhoam. He just flows so well when you get in the zone. He has the costume because in Breath of the Wild he leads the tutorial as a mysterious lumberjack in the tutorial area.

The implication in my post was that Bioware's writing began to decline immediately after ME2. So you aren't actually disagreeing with me on that front.

I never really got the Varric love either. It always felt more like Bioware telling me that I should like the character and that they're popular than making them actually likable. They took the tvtropes rogue page and said..."but what if we make him a dwarf!? Brilliant. Pack it up boys, we're done writing for this character forever." Which is basically what they do for every character. He only stands out at all because everyone else is so damn generic that making him an unexpected race is actually notable.

Okay, I did misinterpret you a little bit as far as where you put the cutoff, but still have to disagree on the whole. I feel like the characters in Dragon Age 2 were quite strong, aside from perhaps Sebastian. I'm not a big fan of Fenris personally, but more because he's just not the type of character that I enjoy than because he was poorly written. And as far as Varric goes, I certainly don't agree at all. When you try to make a generic Rogue character you get either a half-assed Han Solo knockoff or an edgelord assassin, not a character with Varric's legitimate charm and charisma.

Heck, even some of the characters in Dragon Age: Inquisition were still good. Cassandra, Dorian, Solas, and of course Varric again. Sure, it also had Serra, or forgettable characters like Cole and Vivian (who I had actually forgotten were in the game until I looked up the companion list), and nobody was on the level of most of ME2's companions, but there was still plenty of good there even at that point.

I don't disagree that the main plot was far worse in ME2 than ME1: we essentially went from a vaguely lovecraftian "unknown space" exploration to a heist movie, kept together by the same things that keeps other heist movies together: awesome crew introductions, great character moments and action scenes. And while it's a pretty great heist movie, that doesn't excuse throwing out most of what made ME such an interesting sci-fi setting for the sake of setting up a freaking heist movie in that 'verse.

Eh, ME 1's plot was never what made the setting interesting to begin with. The Reapers were always a rather dull concept for antagonists, and ME2 was likely much better off for sidelining them, IMO.

[Razade]

Wrapped up Age of Calamity's story. All in all, I enjoyed it. They did quite a good job of making the missions after Calamity Ganon returned feel epic, and build up nicely to the finale. Also, I like that a lot of the story actually focuses on Zelda - it's kind of ironic that that only happens in a spin-off which doesn't have her name in the title like the series normally does, but hey, it's something.

Breath of the Wild focuses a great deal, maybe more than Link, on Zelda. Almost all the memories relate to her, she's what spurs you on. She's a central character and the story that's revealed is her inability to unlock her powers until it's too late. Link is just sorta exploring what happened after the fact. Breath of the Wild is very much Zelda's story even though she's not present. BotW2, if rumors are true, will have her as a playable character for parts of the game that Link cannot do so she'll be even more central to the gameplay.

Guess I'll see how much of the post-game stuff I can through by the end of the week. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be able to unlock the little R2-D2 knock-off.

It's a pain.

Uh, yes you can, actually. Not until completing the main story apparently, but when I hopped back in after the final cutscene, besides spawning a ton of new fights and upgrade spots, it informed me that I'd unlocked Zelda and the four Champions' alternate outfits. So now I can switch Zelda between her three outfits (main two plus the winter wear she only wore during the mission where you meet Revali), and toggle the sash on the Champions.

I meant in the main story. Not post-game.

Honestly, I'm quite surprised that the main villain guy isn't playable already. The Warriors developers sure do like to stick their OCs into these spin-offs. Actually, come to think of it, this is the only Warriors spin-off I've played which didn't feature an OC who was either the star or co-star of the main story. Fire Emblem Warriors and Dragon Quest Heroes had twin OCs as their leads, and the first Hyrule Warriors had that Lana girl acting as Link and Zelda's co-star. Kind of nice for them to just stick to the series' characters for once, honestly.

Though I guess you could count mini-R2 as an OC sort-of-lead (the game sure does treat what happens with him in the final mission as crazy important...), but since it can't even talk and isn't playable until the post-game, it doesn't feel anything like past Warriors OC leads.

Probably because it's a spin off from another game rather than "It's this IP but a Warriors game". I wouldn't count Terrako as an OC really or all the reasons you gave. It's a plot mcguffin that has some personality. That's really about it.

As for Astor...I'm surprised too. His moveset is interesting so I'd have liked to get to play him. He's a shoe in for DLC if they do it but I am, as I've said before, dubious we'll be getting any. I've all but 100%'d AoC so it'd be nice for some more content but I'm sure I'll be too busy with Strikers to care immediately.

[factotum]

Mileage may vary I guess. The Suicide Mission is my favorite thing that Bioware has ever done.

Oh, it was undoubtedly cool (apart from the whole Human Reaper cobblers at the end), but where it belonged was at the end of ME3--there, it would have made sense, you're in a last desperate rush to save the galaxy from the Reapers and so people dying during that process is probably to be expected. Plus, it would hit that much harder because you've known them that much longer.

I guess the issue I have with ME2 is that it could have been missed out entirely and not changed anything at all. It was like it was some random standalone game, not part of a trilogy that should have been following on from the first plot and setting things up for the third.

[Anonymouswizard]

ME2 is basically a pointless main plot that doesn't matter by the start of the next game put alongside the beginning of several subplots from ME3. However most of that setup could have been moved to ME3 without problem, and the bits that couldn't are things that could be left out.

Despite the suicide mission ME2 is a forty hour prologue to ME3. The cast is great and I'm annoyed that only Garrus returned as a squamate in ME3. People claim Tali did as well, but I remember her leaping off a cliff, and even then not having one or two of the others along would feel like a waste of a game.

The problem with ME2 is that 90% of it is recruitment and loyalty missions. Which is fine until I get to ME3 and have to recruit a team all over again.

[Kitten Champion]

Oh, it was undoubtedly cool (apart from the whole Human Reaper cobblers at the end), but where it belonged was at the end of ME3--there, it would have made sense, you're in a last desperate rush to save the galaxy from the Reapers and so people dying during that process is probably to be expected. Plus, it would hit that much harder because you've known them that much longer.

I guess the issue I have with ME2 is that it could have been missed out entirely and not changed anything at all. It was like it was some random standalone game, not part of a trilogy that should have been following on from the first plot and setting things up for the third.

That was the intention apparently, the focus of ME2 by the game designers was on gathering these companions for a big galaxy-altering mission and all the work and experiences that entailed and less on pushing forward the overarching plot.

I think ME2 should have been much more integrated into ME3 - setting up the cast of characters and building momentum for the final conflict - but that's not how Bioware/EA has decided to do things with its sequels. Regardless of whether it makes sense, you're going to have to retread what you just did in the last game and most of your achievements are completely arbitrary, since, ya'know, that character you let die in the last game has an identical twin with a mustache that you'll need to get anyways.

Though ME3 is particularly odd for how it moves the tone from "we're gonna bring the fight to the Reapers and nothing in the 'Verse can stop us!" in ME2 to "we're desperately clinging to the faint hope we can do anything to survive this horrifying apocalypse, but probably not".