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I don't think it's worth playing the entire game over when choosing different origins. It's a long game and in most cases, the differences are relatively minor. Usually the main differences are in some dialogue choices and how people react to you during conversation. You'll get less respect as a City Elf versus a Human Noble and people will be wary (and sometimes afraid) if you're a Mage.

You've also "played" each class by controlling your party members. Whether you're the Mage or you use Morrigan or Wynne, the end result is you've chosen different spells and used them in battle. The same goes for Rogue and Warrior types.

I would recommend playing through all the character's origin stories, however. They're very different and quite interesting. I've recently completed the City Elf origin and I really liked it. I've read that the City Elf origin is actually better if you're female, which makes sense considering the events that take place.

Probably the most important story-related differences are those that have little-to-nothing to do with your character's origin or class. There are some minor differences in the story based upon your origin, but those don't affect the entire game as a whole.

I'd suggest playing DA:A (make sure to import your character from DA:O) and play that. I didn't feel DA:A was quite as good as DA:O, but DA:A is an expansion and not a full game.

If you're tired of DA and a fantasy setting, I'd say go buy Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. Those games are great (ME2 is better in my opinion) and take place in a purely sci-fi setting, which is unusual for RPGs.

The ME series is more action-based in that you mostly control your character and issue orders in real-time during battles. You CAN pause ME1 and ME2 (which brings up a HUD-like screen and interface) to change weapons, use skills/powers and tell teammates where to go, but it's an entirely different style than DA.

In the ME series, your character is fully voiced instead of remaining oddly silent, like in DA. Plus there are a lot of character creation options and classes with different abilities to choose from.

Go watch some videos on YouTube to check it out if you're interested.

That was quick, Rath! Then again, maybe I just take a long time at games.

I agree about the arch-demon battle. It wasn't as difficult as I was expecting.

I tried starting the game again with an elven mage, but overall I find it doesn't feel that different. I basically put it on hold because it was just getting too repetitive and I couldn't stomach all the same combat over.

It really depends on how much doing the same thing over bothers you. If you don't have a problem with it, then it may be worth it to play through. I get bored quickly when I feel a game is too repetitive (which is why I don't think I'll be going back to TF2 for a while as well).

It may be worth it to play through the different origin stories, though. I'm considering that at least.

AndreaDraco wrote:I merged the threads, Rath! It's tidier this way!

Uh, you did? I still see this as it's own thread and not a part of the DA thread.

EDIT: Now merged.

Tawmis wrote:

AndreaDraco wrote:I merged the threads, Rath! It's tidier this way!

Uh, you did? I still see this as it's own thread and not a part of the DA thread.

EDIT: Now merged.

Rath started a "DA:O - Opinions 2" kind of thread and I merged with the other "DA:O - Opinion" thread he made some days ago.

OooOoo. I missed that. I merged it all to the DAO thread, since it was discussing the game. My bad.

Maybe it's better this way, with only one thread devoted to DA:O

Cracked's article about DA:O... Enjoy!

AndreaDraco wrote:Cracked's article about DA:O... Enjoy!

Wow. That was NOT one of Cracked's better articles. It's a "beta" at least, but even so...

Wow. That article is pretty... er... horribly written? Whoever wrote it seems to have an obsession with nudity for some reason.

Anyway, I have now finished DA:O (again) with a Dwarven Noble (Warrior), and DA:A with my human Noble (Warrior)! Quite worth going through DA:O again with a Dwarven noble, particularly through Orzammar but also since you glean a lot of new information, both from the way that other NPCs react to you and from the fact that new 'culture' markers show up - for instance, as a human noble, you get to learn Dwarven 'culture' in Orzammar, but as a dwarf noble, you don't - but you get to find human 'culture' instead. Nice.

My opinions on DA:A...

Pros:
- Kal'Hirol is fairly amazing, even if it's overly long. (And thank the Maker I don't have to take on THREE Broodmothers at once - I can just squash 'em flat). :p
- The Architect is a fairly nifty NPC.
- Liked all the quests about having to fortify my fort and deal with darkspawn incursions from the cellars...
- Enjoyed quite a lot of the party faithful. (Even Velanna, after a while. Try having a party with Velanna, Oghren and Sigrun - the conversations are HILARIOUS).
- The intelligent darkspawn was a neat twist, as well as getting a darkspawn to aid in the final defence of Amaranthine.

Cons:
- Mhairi wasn't part of the party long enough for me to really feel her loss after she didn't survive the Joining.
- I got Oghren's approval up to 100% in DA:O, but it's back to 0% in DA:A. No fair.
- After being captured and imprisoned by the Architect, I never got my stuff back and had to improvise. This proved particularly tricky during the battle against the twin dragons.
- No Sandal. I miss "Enchantment?" and "Enchantment!" :p
- Ultimate battle (against the Broodmother) was not very challenging, particularly with the Architect's help.

Anyway... I'll leave you with one final thought.

In the frozen depths of the Dead Trenches, they were forced to eat Dwarven minstrels...

and there was much rejoicing. waves a little flag* Yay.

A few points to address:

1. While Oghren's approval rating is set back down to zero, he'll respond to gifts as if his approval never got reset. In other words, any gifts given to him won't have much of an effect. That's a bug that was never resolved, probably because it wasn't considered a major issue.

2. When captured by the Architect, there is a well-known bug that sometimes occurs resulting in you permanently losing anything you had equipped when entering the mine. You can tell if the bug happened to you if your character is in his underwear instead of the prison outfits everyone else is wearing.

Why this happens is due to yet another bug (and one that's quite serious, in my opinion). Your items and those of your party members' are on experimental creatures roaming around the dungeon (you'll know by their name and when they drop loot you previously had for your party members) and in a chest somewhere along the way.

If none of the experimental creatures fits your class EXACTLY, this bug can occur. Sometimes it doesn't even make sense, either. Maia was a Rogue and this happened to her, too.

The way to get around this problem is to load your game and COMPLETELY remove ALL equipped items before entering the mine. Just store them in your inventory. You'll get captured immediately, so you don't have to worry about fighting in your underwear.

You'll then find your items in a chest as you progress through the area. I forget exactly where this chest is, but it's pretty obvious when you see it. You can't miss it as there are only so many places to go.

3. While Sandal isn't in DA:A, he is in the Witch Hunt DLC. You'll find him at the Mage's Tower.

DeadPoolX wrote: 3. While Sandal isn't in DA:A, he is in the Witch Hunt DLC. You'll find him at the Mage's Tower.

Really?

I totally forgot about it!

AndreaDraco wrote:

DeadPoolX wrote: 3. While Sandal isn't in DA:A, he is in the Witch Hunt DLC. You'll find him at the Mage's Tower.

Really?

I totally forgot about it!

Yup. He's in one of the first areas of the Mage Tower. Actually, he's right next to the Templar leader.

Replaying Dragon Age as a Rogue...

And I must say, I still believe THE FADE is the worse part of this game. Where you have to collect the four different forms...

Tawmis wrote:Replaying Dragon Age as a Rogue...

And I must say, I still believe THE FADE is the worse part of this game. Where you have to collect the four different forms...

I think there's a mod on Dragon Age Nexus that let's you bypass the Fade. I never downloaded it, but I've only played through the entire game once.