#game glitches

What happens is that the loading screen appears, just black, with the flashing Inquisition symbol in the corner. The romance music started playing. The screen stayed loading... for like a minute or two. Then finally it finishes, and I'm back in front of Cullen in his tower. As if the kiss scene had happened. Except I couldn't talk to Cullen and couldn't interact with the door out of his office either and when I did try, by hitting X on my controller, I got warped. To the battlement next to Cullen's tower. And there was Cullen as well. Ready to kiss me, I guess. Like, I think that's kiss scene Cullen. Except, as I said, it wasn't the cut-scene. I was there in-game. And I couldn't do anything. Whenever I hit X, either to jump or try to interact with a door or with Cullen (which it didn't prompt me to though), I would warp back to a spot right near him.

I was able to walk around on the battlement of course, but it's locked on both sides by towers with doors that I couldn't go through. But I discovered at some point that I could escape, by jumping over the wall into Skyhold's courtyard, landing right in front of the entrance, the gate. I had to make sure I jumped all the way over the wall, though. If I didn't jump far enough and hit the edge of the wall instead, I would be warped back to Cullen. Once I was down in the courtyard, I also wasn't allowed to hit X, to either jump or try to interact with anything, or I would warp back.

So. I'm down in the courtyard. There are a couple of people down there, not many. It's right by the medic's tents. But there was no one else. The merchants weren't there, though their stalls were. Blackwall wasn't in the stables. No one was in the upper courtyard. No Cassandra. I could walk into the keep, since the front doors are open. Completely empty, no tables, no throne, no people. All the doors were closed.

Once I jumped down to the courtyard, leaving kiss scene Cullen on the battlement, unmoving, I obviously could walk up the stairs beside that one merchant to the battlement on the other side of Cullen's office. That door was open, the one to his office. Presumably that's how I got in before asking for a kiss? Or maybe the game assumes that's how you got into his office, because I don't remember if I actually did use that door.

Either way, there was Cullen. I just left him on the battlements, but there he was, in his office, doing his thing, look at his books, bending over his desk etc. Couldn't do anything with him, couldn't talk to him. But it makes you wonder. Who the fuck are you kissing?! Who's the other Cullen??? (It makes sense that they would just spawn in a second Cullen for the kiss scene, but just - there are implications here. This is a world with magic and demons. Who's the second Cullen, Bioware.)

Anyway, that was two months ago. I have it on video, but it's still on my PS4. I didn't take pictures, though, not that time. I just thought, I'll do something with that footage someday.

So here's what happened the other day, and there are pictures.

By the way, throughout all of this, the romance music continues playing. Thankfully it's rather pretty.

So the same thing happens when I ask Cullen for a kiss. Black screen, I end up back in his office, then I get warped to the battlement with kiss scene Cullen standing there. I can only jump off by jumping all the way over the wall, everything is exactly the same as two months ago. No one around except the few people down by the gate and the medic's tents. Walk up back to Cullen's office from the other side, door is open, there is Cullen inside. Creepy. Ser, which one of you is the real Cullen.

Discovered, this time, that the blacksmith's doors by Cassandra's spot were missing, the inside completely empty except for some floating swords and torch. Very peculiar. Also walked all the way to the end of the bridge out of Skyhold, which usually you can't, because it'll prompt you the world map to fast-travel.

And that's when I think. Wait a minute. Can I fast-travel? I can certainly open the map. I can't fast-travel to regions, BUT I can fast-travel within Skyhold.

Obviously fast-travelling to the upper or lower courtyard doesn't do much. I just end up there as if I've just walked there. But there are some fast-travel points beyond doors I couldn't open.

The garden, for example. I fast-travel there, there is grass, but not much else. A few Inquisition banners, the fast-travel point, my potted plants, the walls of the battlement. Except. There are parts of it missing at the bottom. And it just goes to the void. When I jump down there, I just keep falling and falling and falling. Endlessly. I have to fast-travel to get out of there.

And then there is the rotunda. I fast-travel there and there is nothing in the tower. The walls are there, but nothing else, I just fall, since you're at the top where Leliana usually is. Past Solas's murals, which are there, onto the floor at the bottom. Not the floor of the rotunda, which is missing. Just ground.

A bit further, there is a pit to a deeper part. I think that it's the Undercroft. There's nothing there, except a table which I think is the one where you can tint your armour - the symbol for the shop is right next to it. Can't do anything with it though.

But here's the thing. The side is completely open. To the outside of Skyhold. But this time it's not void. The mountains are there.

I escaped the map. I escaped the fortress. I literally got out. Walked in the snow. Snowboarded down mountains. Surfed the glaciers. My Inquisitor was like, "That's it, I'm done! Don't want to be Inquisitor anymore, I'm out of here!"

And here are the pictures:

You know the glacier you can see from the Inquisitor's balcony? Yeah, I stood on that glacier and glanced at those two balconies from below.

You see those two balconies up there? That's the Inquisitor's room. The part of the keep that's missing on this side is, I'm pretty sure, Josephine's office and the war room?

There were also water pools here and there, and Skyhold was reflected in it, which was very pretty.

Just... not very realistic.

Like, not only is Skyhold not supposed to be visible on that side of the pool, it's also... kind of BIG. 😂

Below in the valley, to the front of Skyhold, there were tents and campfires and I wonder if that's supposed to reflect your army or something. You know, surely not everyone can stay in Skyhold itself, so they must be camping in front of it? I don't know if it's possible to glance these from the fortress? I haven't checked yet. There were also these stone towers that didn't have an entrance.

The tents looked a little weird on closer inspection, though. Kind of floating above me and only parts of it were rendered, presumably the parts you can potentially see from Skyhold?

And there were, like, people there?? Enemies?? (Why enemies?? I don't know, maybe they're just part of your forces but they didn't look friendly lmao.) And from that angle, looking back towards Skyhold instead of away from it, the tents disappeared. The campfires didn't though, nor the trees.

And then there are these 'enemies'. Weird and shimmering, dancing towards me before disappearing into thin air and then new ones would spawn in. They were above me, as well, floating in the air, as if I'm stuck below some kind of snow layer or other. And they were BIG too.

And this one really was kind of dancing, jerking towards me in repetitive movements in that one stance. Crossbow in hand, I think?

Eventually I would come to parts where I couldn't walk any further. The whole valley enclosed by mountains too high for me to cross or invisible barriers stopping me from proceeding any further over a hill I thought I could certainly climb.

If I accidentally hit X on my controller, I got teleported back to Skyhold, next to Cullen, and had to start the whole process over again. I escaped five or six times, even a few times I would warp back without hitting X, whenever I fell badly off the mountain or something, I'm not sure what caused it. I'd curse, because I had to make the whole walk back again lmao. Slide down the mountain, walk towards the camp or across the glacier. 🥲

My inquisitor must have definitely reached her 10,000 steps that day. And the WHOLE time the romance music was playing. The whole time.

The only way to get out was load the last autosave. Which was right before asking Cullen for a kiss.