Thoughts On Tomes

me internally:

I can’t believe people talk so much shit about dragon age 2 when it was made in only 16 months which is not even remotely close to the average time needed to make a video game of this scale, especially one that’s the continuation of a massively critically acclaimed, deep lore, fantasy game. Despite that, it manages to create actually morally grey situations that are debated by fans more than events in any other dragon age game, many fan favourite complex characters who defy stereotypes and reflect the themes of the story, a more relatable protagonist not a savior of the universe who you really feel for and can easily connect to despite being very different depending on your choices, gameplay that is fun and not nearly as useless as people make it out to be, a story that works well on its own and is still relevant today by having refuges of war, conflicts between historically opposing groups, the morality of choosing a side and the tragedy of trying your best while the world and specifically your home crumbles down around you no matter what you do because in the end you cannot change the world. And while I don’t love the binary option of good, funny and direct personality or rivalry vs friendship romance I like the first because once you establish a basic personality the banter adapts to that which makes Hawke less flat and more defined (also your personality can change between acts aka how real life happens) and i can appreciate the second for defying the video game formula of “if I click on enough of the stuff you like you’ll fall in love with me”. Also while the maps and the design for Kirkwall are mostly dreadful, Kirkwall still manages to be a city with character that through its smaller story sets up Inquisition pretty damn well. 

Baba Yaga’s Hut