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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 9842469" data-attributes="member: 18">[ATTACH=full]427705[/ATTACH]But yes really it did. DA2 is fascinating because it's a good example of how constraints can make for both a stronger product and piece of art, and how they can also do the opposite!Like, DA2's story is stronger because they had to cut out some decisions and possibilities, almost all of which would have made the story "softer" for most people's play-throughs (easiest example - you could stop the serial killer before they got [certain NPC relevant to Hawke]), and because they had to limit where it was set, and who you could be, the storytelling could be much stronger as a result. On top of this, it's a lot shorter than DAO, and much, much more focused as a result, as well as, imho, feeling more interestingly different on repeat playthroughs.Further still, because they only had so many companions, they couldn't have them easily leave, so they could become friends or rivals, which made for more interesting interactions, and more replayability. And also meant you could make story/RP choices relating to companions more freely without having to think "But the game will suck if I don't have character X in the party". The writing of the companions had to be better too, frankly. I'm really bored of games where you just have to suck up to companions to unlock stuff, I feel like "companion likes you" bars kind of need to DIAF or at least do the friend to rival thing like DA2.But the game suffered in a lot of other ways, particularly repetitive maps, and some decisions that got cut definitely hurt the game or made it seem a bit silly - c.f. a certain mage who might be friendly the entire game but is unavoidable boss fight for very dubious reasons, or a certain other mage who you cannot call on his very obvious nonsense.Mostly they're not, but the best certainly tell better and often far more thoughtful stories than a lot of best-selling SF/F genre novels - though in some cases it feels like TV series or movies might be a better comparison. ME1-3 particularly feels like a multi-season TV series epic to me, right down to the classic somewhat fumbled ending (I will name no names lest we get distracted!).</blockquote>

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