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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 9535353" data-attributes="member: 7023887">My post and the one I was quoting said nothing about how meaningful the choices were. And the choices being selfish or stupid doesn't make them less meaningful or present. It's pretty stupid and self-destructive in BG3 to drive a stake through Astarion's heart, or to decapitate Karlach, or to throw rocks at Bear-Halsin, but that doesn't make the choices less meaningful or important to the feel of the game. In my opinion, having access to self-destructive choices is key to making it feel like your decisions matter in an RPG. Some evil decisions can help you, others come back to bite you in the long run. Do you ignore the elven-trafficking to make some money, or do you kill the slavers and set the elves free for a much smaller reward? Do you sell a child's soul to get access to blood magic, or do you kill it to help the Arl? Do you temporarily kill a hag, or give her Mayrina for a +1 to any ability score? Do you easily clear the last level because you still have all your companions, or did you kill/drive off too many of them and have a much harder time fighting the Archfiend?Yes, every Dragon Age game after Origins has less evil options than DAO did. But DAO and DA2 have much more extremely evil options than DAI and DAV. In the first two games you can kill most of your companions. In DAI you can kill, what, 2 of them (Blackwall and Iron Bull)? It is entirely possible to be such a terrible person in DAO and DA2 that you struggle with the final fights because you killed/drove off too many of your companions. You still kill a whole tribe of elves. I admit that I stumbled into that choice the first time I played DA2, but it still felt comparably evil to the option from DAO. To me, the important part was that I felt like I'd done something evil, even if it had happened by accident. DAO lets you kill a dog, BG3 lets you kill a dog. DAO lets you kill children, BG3 lets you kill children. DAO lets you murder/cause the deaths of almost all of your companions, BG3 lets you murder all of your companions. DAO lets you ignore slavery for personal gain, BG3 lets you do the same. DAO lets you massacre a marginalized community, BG3 lets you massacre a marginalized community. DAO lets you side with the scumbag noble that caused the plot of the game, BG3 lets you side with the scumbag noble that caused the plot of the game. I could go on. I stand by my statement that most of the evil choices in DAO are on par with most of the evil choices in BG3. BG3 obviously goes above and beyond by letting you [ISPOILER]dominate the Netherbrain and conquer the world in the name of Bhaal, starting omnicide[/ISPOILER], and in DAO you have to save the world, but the majority of evil choices in both games are broadly comparable up until Act 3. When I first played BG3 I thought on multiple occasions "this reminds me of Dragon Age Origins" in part because of the similarities of evil choices. Now, I'm not arguing that most of these decisions were well written. Some of them felt over the top and like they were put in for no reason other than shock value. But having access to a broad range of endings for every companion based on your choices made the game feel more important and the game feel deeper. Plus, it the games super replayable. In one playthrough, you might marry Alistair and become his queen/mistress. In another you might get him executed by Anora. Maybe you ran away with Morrigan to raise your child together, or maybe you always hated that evil witch and hunted her down to the Eluvian just to stab her in the gut. That diversity of endings based on your choices and relationships with the characters is part of why I fell in love with Dragon Age. Now, I haven't played Dragon Age: the Veilguard yet, but both reviews I watched said that you couldn't be a bad person or even mean to your companions. If that's true, I don't think I'll like the game. In my first Dragon Age Inquisition playthrough I romanced Cassandra and became the Herald that she wanted me to be. In my second playthrough, I was such a scumbag that she went on a drunken rant about how much she despised me. Stuff like that is a major factor in why I loved Bioware RPGs. I'm glad you like Dragon Age: the Veilguard! I love when people like games, especially long-awaited ones like Dragon Age: the Veilguard. I hope I like it when I eventually play it. But based on what I've heard, I doubt I will for many reasons (combat, writing, art style, choices from previous games not mattering, etc). If [USER=1405]@Belen[/USER] is anything like me, this was probably a factor in why they didn't like the game.</blockquote>

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