BioWare – Epic Nooblet

First off: Spoilers ahead! Please do not continue reading if you have not finished Trespasser. It’s all spoilers from here on out! You have been warned! 😛

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So I finally got around to finishing a full DA:I playthrough, but I honestly don’t know how I feel about it. I find that I’m very conflicted because I didn’t dislike the ending. Overall I thought it ended well and I thought the overall feel of the DLC was great. I loved the conversations I had with all my party members, I absolutely loved that Cullen got himself a Mabari and that we ended up getting married. Personally, I could have used a lot more of this throughout the DLCs and the main game.

That being said, I do have some issues with the overall story of the DLC and where it leads. For starters, why is Teagan such an ass? What happened in the last 12 years that suddenly turned him into an angry old man? I just didn’t feel like I was talking to Teagan at all. My second issue is why is Teagan there instead of Alistair at all. I just don’t see a compelling reason for doing this. Alistair has already had dealings with the Inquisition, in my case mostly favorable. I helped him flush out Venatori from the castle and then I helped him with his treaty negotiations with Orlais. All of which he appeared grateful for. So why is it that suddenly Ferelden is afraid of the Inquisition and asking for it to be disbanded. Is this really all because we took over Caer Bronach in Crestwood? Which, as my Inquisitor took the time to point out, was previously occupied by bandits. It’s not like I forcibly took it over from Fereldan soldiers. Something just feels somewhat disjointed here, like I missed part of the story.

As for the Orlesians, well….they’re Orlesian. It’s all part of the game. I do, however, resent the fact that Celene owes me her crown and she can’t be bothered to show up to the council. I could have let her die, but instead, she owes her continued rule to the Inquisition yet is allowing this council to continue. Though in her case, it could be argued that knowing that she owes the Inquisition it’s only obvious that eventually she’d want control of it. Otherwise, there will always be a looming power over her and no good monarch or politician would really want this.

Of Mass Effect and other things

So I don’t know what got into me, but I suddenly felt the need to replay Mass Effect. However, I was one of the people that weren’t OK with the endings as they were. Not necessarily because they weren’t happy endings, but simply because I felt they weren’t well written. They were jarring against the rest of the games and the story to me. But luckily I discovered that there were several mods already that changed the ending of the game completely and so I decided to do that. I ended up deciding on MEHEM because I still thought it fairly reasonable. It didn’t seem too much of a stretch to get the happy ending, and overall it made many of the characters’ actions make more sense and stay in line with their personalities. The main thing that I love about this mod is that it eliminates the star child scene altogether, and that makes it all worth it! (I hate that star child…) It had been years since I played Mass Effect. Actually hadn’t replayed any of the games since playing through ME3 the first, and only, time. After watching those endings I felt I just couldn’t replay the games at all. So, in turn, I had also never played any of the ME3 DLCs aside for From Ashes which had been included when I bought the game.

Anyway, so I’ve been pretty silent because I spent the better part of the last week and a half buried in Mass Effect. I played all 3 games in quick succession. Before that, I was in the middle of another Inquisition playthrough. This time taking my time, though. So now that Mass Effect is done, I can go back to finishing that, though I’m not sure if I’ll get it done before the holidays come around. December will be getting pretty busy and I’ll be gone for the better part of 2 weeks around Christmas, so I’ll be away from my computer. 🙁