i originally played probably 70% of inquisition (DAI) on the xbox360, this was probably back in 2015. i stopped playing it suddenly when i learned bioware would no longer support the game on the 360 (specifically not release any DLC packs for the platform). i wasn’t too happy about that news at the time. fast forward a few years and i have an xbox one now. it was quite a ripoff that i had to buy the same game yet again on another platform just to play the DLC. at least i was able to buy it heavily discounted while it was on sale. bioware really should have given a copy of the game for free to folks that bought it on the 360 (or close to free). at least they set up a way to transfer your 360 character to the xbox one. the transfer process is fairly inclusive…i just noticed that some map history data was missing and the achievements do not transfer from the 360 to the xbox one.

my memories of the first half of the game are fairly fuzzy now. i do remember enjoying the main quests quite a lot. i also enjoyed the combat a lot early on. i decided to play a rogue in DAI since i played a mage and a warrior in the previous games. i had a lot of fun exploring the massive hinterlands and later on the storm coast. i became less interested in the various regions as the game progressed though. a lot of them seemed hastily thrown together with few truly interesting locations. a lot of it amounted to walking long stretches of barren landscapes to fight the same red templar mobs over and over. so for me, the region exploration went from fun and interesting to stale and tedious. what most likely compounded my negative feelings toward the exploration was the endless supply of find random trinket fetch quests. they should have named this game dragon age: scavenger hunt. i’m fully aware that these aspects of the game are optional just as they are in all the bioware games. however, i feel like this game finally made me throw in the towel on trying to complete all the busy work optional crap. these tasks are rarely fun, consume a lot of time, and often the payoff isn’t worth it. for instance, collecting all the shards in DAI is probably the most time consuming of all the collect quests. the payoff for completing all that unfun busy work is abysmal. i thought that just maybe there’d be some super rare equipment or a unique boss fight once i collected all the shards, but no…lameness. i finished all the astrarium puzzles, killed all the dragons, claimed all the landmarks, and found all the regions. i was missing a few bottles of wine, a song or two, and several mosaic pieces, but i was just like forget it i’m not doing this crap anymore.

the first dragon fight in DAI was utterly amazing. i’d say the dragon fights in DAI are the best i have ever seen in a game period. i was overly eager to kill the first dragon and i remember attempting it at level 10 and then level 12 and still failing. i can’t remember the exact details but i feel like i had to be like level 15 or so to defeat the dragon and i still had a challenging time. the following dragon fights are also a lot of fun. once you kill your 5th dragon or so though it kind of loses the magic. since you’re essentially just refighting the same reskinned mob over and over. my tactics included stocking as many heal potions as possible, using regen potions, bringing a tank or two (blackwall or cassandra…iron bull doesn’t seem to be able to take hits like these two), bring a healer/barrier caster, wear equipment for the appropriate breath weapon protection (or use tonics), put points in guard or use equipment with guard benefits.

i had quit playing DAI after completing the orlais court mission in 2015. i remember the end result of this mission didn’t turn out how i planned and i couldn’t force myself to slog through it again to get the result i desired. i *believe* that i wanted gaspard to rule, but something got messed up and i think he ended up getting exiled while celene stayed on the throne. the collecting of the halla statutes was the most dreadful part of this mission. otherwise, my mind was kind of blown at the potential this game introduced with playing through the court intrigue. i felt like bioware ended up ultimately dropping the ball though in realizing that potential. and by that i mean playing “the game” in the orlais court mostly boiled down to saying out loud the opposite of what you actually wanted i.e. reverse psychology. so once you know that little trick the whole thing ends up seeming a lot less clever…that was my experience at least. the idea of playing through court intrigue is very compelling to me. i hope bioware and other games revisit this concept in the future and improve upon the foundation set in DAI.

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