Current Events > What's this I'm hearing about Dragon Age having trash dialogue >_>

(+) Yeah! (+)

Apparently everyone talks to each other and resolves problems like they're literal children and no one has the maturity and sense of an actual adult in a lot of scenes? wtf is this true?

lol Bioware

Haven't played it. Maybe just an overreaction(see: lie)because of the trans character?

Pronouns

I didn't know there was. I just saw a clip on twitter that someone wanted to bring a bunch of books to a camping trip and the other party member throwing a hissy fit over it for no reason. And then another scene where someone has to teach 2 characters about how different people have different interests and shit, (1 person likes dragons and another likes necromancy I think it was), but the mediator talks to them like they're kindergarteners learning about sharing for the 1st time lol

It was so stilted cuz all of these people are adults talking to other adults >_>

It's a major criticism, yeah. None of the dialogue has the edge or grit of past games and everyone is so happy and friendly with each other, no conflict, and the dialogue is incredibly basic. And you can only make your PC good, there's no opportunities to be evil or even morally gray.

You can't be evil? what

I too miss the serious grit and depth of licking lampposts, swooping and big boats.

DA has always had plenty of 'marvel quip' to it with silly humour.

Funkydog posted...

I too miss the serious grit and depth of licking lampposts, swooping and big boats.

DA has always had plenty of 'marvel quip' to it with silly humour.

Yes, the previous games lightened the mood with silly humor pleny of times. The major criticism is that Veilguard, the mood is more or less completely light, with lots more Marvel-style quip humor all over the place.

Like comparing drizzling syrup on your pancakes to drenching that shit so your pancakes are like 80% syrup. >_>

Ivynn posted...

Yes, the previous games lightened the mood with silly humor pleny of times. The major criticism is that Veilguard, the mood is more or less completely light, with lots more Marvel-style quip humor all over the place.

Like comparing drizzling syrup on your pancakes to drenching that shit so your pancakes are like 80% syrup. >_>

The first mission has plenty of horror though.

A blight infested town, mutilated bodies,blood magic enthralled people and get to see the blight kill someone in front of you. Plus the blight is far more visceral this time in appearance and sound.

The quips only come from when you act like purple hawke I've found. Othwerwise it takes what is happenning seriously. I do wish the 'harsh' response was more harsh though as feels far too mild so far.

Funkydog posted...

The first mission has plenty of horror though.

A blight infested town, mutilated bodies,blood magic enthralled people and get to see the blight kill someone in front of you. Plus the blight is far more visceral this time in appearance and sound.

The quips only come from when you act like purple hawke I've found. Othwerwise it takes what is happenning seriously. I do wish the 'harsh' response was more harsh though as feels far too mild so far.

All of this.

https://youtu.be/ZlxIMlaQxww?si=Mm9RO9Pb5S7Bi6Ao

Funkydog posted...

The first mission has plenty of horror though.

A blight infested town, mutilated bodies,blood magic enthralled people and get to see the blight kill someone in front of you. Plus the blight is far more visceral this time in appearance and sound.

The quips only come from when you act like purple hawke I've found. Othwerwise it takes what is happenning seriously. I do wish the 'harsh' response was more harsh though as feels far too mild so far.

It's nice to hear there is some darkness present. I should mention, these aren't necessarily my opinions, just reporting what the criticisms are. >_> I've seen tons of clips tho and the dialogue still looks pretty basic and lacking the nuance of I'm used to in Dragon Age writing.

There are a few things I've found off but otherwise it seems very much like origins to me, dialogue wise. I'm still very early in so maybe it will get worse later on.

I've played probably ~15 hours of it so far and I'd agree that the dialogue is rather basic, especially compared to Origins. It's not a total quipfest, though, or at least I don't feel that way, but I do wish it took some things more seriously and had a bit more depth to it at times. There's a world-ending threat that's likely on a level beyond anything in the other games on the loose, but most of the game so far feels more "small stakes" to me, more akin to Dragon Age II, if that makes sense. I want things to feel more serious and dire, I guess you could say.

Still, I don't hate the game, but I do think it does the story from the previous games, especially Origins, a bit of a disservice. Ignoring 99% of the series' previous choices probably didn't help that, either, but that's a whole other conversation.

tremain07 posted...

Pronouns

I have tried talking without using pronouns it's not easy.

NeonPhoenix posted...

Apparently everyone talks to each other and resolves problems like they're literal children and no one has the maturity and sense of an actual adult in a lot of scenes? wtf is this true?

lol Bioware

https://x.com/SophiaNarwitz/status/1852781920674799805

Yup...

SpiritSephiroth posted...

https://x.com/SophiaNarwitz/status/1852781920674799805

Yup...

lol wow, halfway thru that video, it really is like trying to teach children lol

Im only 4 hours in but most of the voice acting feels..off so far. Like they were all just reading lines with no real direction to give them an idea of the context or emotion in the moment.

Morrigans voice acting and dialogue was good though

thronedfire2 posted...

Im only 4 hours in but most of the voice acting feels..off so far. Like they were all just reading lines with no real direction to give them an idea of the context or emotion in the moment.

I give them a pass for that one, since most of the dialogue was recorded during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

That "I'm not drunk, you're drunk" is an early-2000-game-tier line read, unless there's some context for why she sounds like that lol.

SpiritSephiroth posted...

https://x.com/SophiaNarwitz/status/1852781920674799805

Yup...

Man, the body language here is just... The opposite of stiff.

It's so loose it feels hard to take seriously.

Which is in stark contrast to some other EA titles like Jedi Survivor where most characters are stone blocks

wackyteen posted...

Man, the body language here is just... The opposite of stiff.

It's so loose it feels hard to take seriously.

Which is in stark contrast to some other EA titles like Jedi Survivor where most characters are stone blocks

BG3 with its mocap has ruined me. I can't go back to Bioware stiff animations. >_>

Found this picture. Quite the number of choices you get in dialogue:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/96e0cffb.jpg

Those are all the same choices

More like Woke Age!!

That is a problem with mainstream RPGs they target casuals at the expense of roll playing.

This is why I only play JRPGs

MagiMarthKoopa posted...

This is why I only play JRPGs

lol

From what I've played the dialogue is eh but not gamebreaking. It's on par with Dragon Age 2 imo which I also remember being very lackluster compared to Origins.

My friend is a casual gamer and he can't stop talking about this game. Gonna pick it up black Friday.

Dunno if it's of any help to anyone here, but if someone's curious about the game and the price tag is scaring you off, you can do what I did and subscribe to EA Play Pro for $17 and have a month to play it (well, at least for PC; a quick googling tells me it's not available for consoles). Honestly, I still balked a little at that price, but I started the series back when Origins launched and my curiosity got the better of me, and I wasn't going to find a better price to play it right now.

The dialogue wheel was the worst thing to happen to western rpgs

Bioware hasn't exactly been great with dragon age dialogue to begin with. Origins was pretty bad, but damnit if its not one of my favorite games ever.

YellowSUV posted...

Found this picture. Quite the number of choices you get in dialogue:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/96e0cffb.jpg

People can complain about the trans/non binary dialogue all they want, but personally I just don't think they have to include an option to be a transphobic piece of shit. Could the 'infamous' scene have been handled better? Probably, but not letting you be transphobic doesn't seem to be the horrendous crime many are trying to make it out to be.

I never played any of the Dragon Age games, but I had a friend talk my ear off about them. They were tumblr famous for a bit for fan scripts between the Annoying Bald Elf and Not A Tsundere Woman. Wonder how they feel about it.

Crushed515151 posted...

Bioware hasn't exactly been great with dragon age dialogue to begin with. Origins was pretty bad, but damnit if its not one of my favorite games ever.

Id have to hard disagree. Sten, Morrigan, Zevran, and Wynne were all great companions to have dialogues with imo.

Looks like a grab while on sale kind of game.

SpiritSephiroth posted...

https://x.com/SophiaNarwitz/status/1852781920674799805

Yup...

This is atrocious.

The dialogue is so sterile and safe not to mention just bad. It doesn't even read or sound like people having conversations, there's so many weird breaks and pauses.

Crushed515151 posted...

Bioware hasn't exactly been great with dragon age dialogue to begin with. Origins was pretty bad,

You take that back!

UnfairRepresent disapproves-15

Apparently the game is fun though

Wait, you can't be an evil Rook in the game? Damn, that sucks. I was having a helluva time doing an evil playthrough in BG3.

Well BG3 is an actual RPG that isn't afraid to let you be an asshole or just plain evil.

Shotgunnova posted...

Wait, you can't be an evil Rook in the game? Damn, that sucks. I was having a helluva time doing an evil playthrough in BG3.

The three dialogue options are "be nice" "tell a joke" or "be serious." You can't even be an aggressive dick like Red Hawke. Though tbf, I think Inquisition also had this problem? You couldn't really be a full blown evil Inquisitor. You could still be a dick tho.

I've been watching my gf play Veilguard because she's a big Dragon Age fan. Like a year ago I watched her play DA2 and Inquisition.

I would say, so far, Veilguard is beautiful to look at. Some of the characters have awesome voice acting.

Others... not so much. I think it's less a problem of dialog being bad, more a problem of characters being introduced who have lame/boring personalities who have bad dialog as a consequence of their personality.

Like most of the talent that was at BioWare while the Mass Effect trilogy and the 1st 3 DA games were being created are gone, so its no surprise to me that the writing has gotten worse.

NeonPhoenix posted...

You can't be evil? what

No surprise there. inquisition was very light on evil choices, and I feel like there have been less and less opportunities to be evil with each game in the series.

Funkydog posted...

People can complain about the trans/non binary dialogue all they want, but personally I just don't think they have to include an option to be a transphobic piece of shit. Could the 'infamous' scene have been handled better? Probably, but not letting you be transphobic doesn't seem to be the horrendous crime many are trying to make it out to be.

If they make an in-game problem and plot point, having only positive resolutions is silly. They shouldn't have even included making it a player-focused choice it in the first place if they're just going to railroad the player. If they felt including the dialogue was necessary, they easily could have just had it be between two NPCs and then the player could maybe influence whether they resolve it or not.

Nemu posted...

If they make an in-game problem and plot point, having only positive resolutions is silly. They shouldn't have even included making it a player-focused choice it in the first place if they're just going to railroad the player. If they felt including the dialogue was necessary, they easily could have just had it be between two NPCs and then the player could maybe influence whether they resolve it or not.

Or gamers could just not be transphobic. I know they struggle with that, though.

I haven't played it because it just looks bad to me (which is nuts, I've played every DA game on day one because I love the series).

So I can't say for certain because I haven't played. But I have seen youtube videos, and the dialogue looks absolutely, shockingly atrocious.

"Why can't I be tranphobic?" isn't the argument I was expecting anyone to make