Dragon Age II Q&A with Lead Designer Mike Laidlaw

[Zero=Interrupt]

So Mike, why does the character design look like the same shitty models from DA:O instead of the much better, more stylized concept art? Any comment? No? Is this game going to be a brown mess of bad art direction and boring character design? Yes? Writing still shit, too? Yes,

Alright then. Pass.

 

[manythings]

So Mike, why does the character design look like the same shitty models from DA:O instead of the much better, more stylized concept art? Any comment? No? Is this game going to be a brown mess of bad art direction and boring character design? Yes? Writing still shit, too? Yes,

Alright then. Pass.

Go you, I guess? Enjoy Skyrim or something.

 

[RatRace123]

I really want to know if any of the board-related sidequests are going to have an effect upon save importing. Because there are a lot of them, and they all suck. I'd rather not do them...They're all I have left between me and the endgame of this character I'm doing just for DA2.

Someone else trying to squeeze in a final play-through eh? I am wondering the same thing, I love DA:O but I have played it enough times that doing it again is quite a chore.

From what I can tell only the major decisions will be affected: Who the King of Orzammar is, who rules Fereldan, who slew the ArchDemon, etc.

Not to mention a certain potential bown chika bow wow with a certain Witch of the Wilds.

I'm also trying to pull off another playthrough before the 5 days are up.
Probably not gonna make it.

I'm surprised no romance questions were asked, if one were to visit the Dragon Age Wiki, or the Dragon Age Bioware forums, that seems to be all they can think about.

 

[plugav]

Extremely linear levels (as seen in the demo) - maybe.

No more linear than, say, the origins in DA:O or the mage tower.

I should probably have said "more visibly linear.
And what I meant was specifically the beginning of the game, where you just walk along a very narrow path from one enemy encounter to the next.

Only the level design bothers me, not somuch the linearity but the empyness, there are no enemies in the world prior to reaching a fighting checkpoint, then they spawn from all sides, and maybe some growling cutscenes are thrown in... fells very wooden.

You're right. I really didn't notice that. Origins did have it "the proper way", where the enemies were just there instead of spawning in waves from Maker knows where.

they stop 3 feet from a darkspawn mob and then discuss their life plans, and end it off with "hey we need to move the darkspawn will be here any moment"... well thank you captain obvious.

Also true, that could have been handled more reasonably. Like by, say, not placing a darkspawn mob three feet from them.
But I didn't think of it as characteristic of JRPGs (probably because I haven't played many), just a bit flawed.

why not have a MILF of the wilds

LMAO

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Please god let there be a Dragon Age Origins save site...

 

[Quellist]

I'm so worried this is gonna be dumbed down trash. Yeah i am an old fogey who has been playing bioware since the start but ME 2 was to me a very nasty taste of whats to come....i still wince remembering where i read the article where the bioware rep dismissivly said 'we wont be including any more complex areas like Novaria' and what we got was a shooter with 'rpg elements' imo.

The problem is RPG's were never mainstream, they were cult hits that the average FPS lover would look at, sneer at and ignore, now they seem to want to make RPG's appeal to the mainstream at the cost of their fanbase.

Sure, i get that the dollar is all to these guys but its gonna be a shame if the people that put them were they are now get forgotten

 

[Echo136]

Didnt really answer any of the questions I have for the game. Like, I played the first game on PC, but I wanna get DA2 on PS3. Since theres game changing events that happen if you upload your data from the first game, will it be very noticeable if Im using a fresh game?

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Hey, if Sandal made it all the way to Kirkwall.

Sandal doesn't count, he's just one of those things that HAS to be in the sequel, just because. ENCHANTMENT.

I'm glad they changed the crafting, I always carried around all the ingredients but always ran out of something or didn't want to use my single frostrock. Either way I'm excited, I can't wait to nuke the fucking chantry to hell

 

[Jeronus]

Am I the only one who wants to know what the deal was with Sandal? It was never made clear how a dwarf with no weapons and no armor managed to defeat a room full of darkspawn all by himself. I hope this gets cleared up in DA 2 or better yet make him a party member in future DLC.

 

[Rykka]

I suppose I am just not the kind of person this is geared towards. I loved the first one, but literally every review that comes out makes me less and less interested as they champion notions that I simply don't agree with at all. I'm sure it will be a great game for many, many people. I'm just not certain it is what I am looking for. Which is a shame, as I again really enjoyed the first one.

1. The action elements getting a major push is not something on my paradigm for a game like this. I really, really enjoyed the "Thinking man's" game that was the tactical flow of the original. Mireko above astutely pointed out that they did this with Mass Effect and it worked great. It did! But Mass Effect's combat is largely about a space marine shooting someone. It has a few abilities thrown in, but that is the bare bones of it. For something like that, I see it working great. For something like this, it tends to work in the opposite direction. ME2 got elevated to a tactical shooter. DA:2 Slips down to tactical hack and slash.

2. The art design is, in /my/ opinion... not impressive in the least. I really, really dislike most of what I've seen so far. The sheer amount of repetition in the design is astonishing for something they are advertising so heavily. Both in the wierd, perfectly uniform darkspawn (with nipple armor and head cozies) to the identical NPC's milling around. This seems like a pretty heavy step backwards from the original, which seemed while admittedly a little overly traditional, at least diverse. The alteration of the chaotic, brutal,/disarrayed/ darkspawn into the uniformly comical "Skeletors" is just... wow. All I can think of is that somewhere out there they have an army of darkspawn smiths making identical sets of nipple armor.

3. The difficulty, is.. tricky to me. I understand them wanting to make the "normal" mode "normal" for the average player. But, honestly, the challenge of the first one was perfectly acceptable and lauded by me. Why can't normal /be/ challenging? I am really glad I read this review because if I do end up playing, I would have never known that they changed the curve so dramatically to the point that someone playing it for the first time didn't even wipe once 30 hours in. But I have a pretty big beef with how simple most games are now adays without cranking up the difficulty so that it is hard for silly, unrealistic reasons. I enjoyed the clean difficulty of it being hard based on your choices, not a backdoor HP slider.

Sorry to be such a heavy detractor. I know none of this has anything to do with the story, as I am sure it's going to be well penned either way. But as good as a story might be, it is only one part of a much larger picture. So far, I am not on board with how this one is being painted.

 

[Rickyvantof]

I'm reaaallllyyyy looking forward to this game

 

[Enkidu88]

I was hoping the interview would tell me why they made such a drastic change in the art style. All the other changes are fine with me, the difficulty, changes in story, no more origin stories, but that art style really irks me. The art style alone is going to keep me from pre-ordering, and I probably won't buy it until the price has been slashed considerably.

 

[TheAmazingHobo]

"Other than removing auto-attack to make combat more active (...)"
That is the dumbest statement I have ever heard.

For gods sake, it is a proud day for Biowares marketing department, when I can find absolutely no difference in style and content between vague, nebulous and unhelpful interviews given by a PR person and vague, nebulous and unhelpful interviews given by the f*cking lead designer.
Hammering those bullet points into his head must have been a pain.

BY GOD can´t anyone working in the games industry answer questions in a fashion that is even approaching an approximation of an useful statement ?
I´m actually someone really looking forward to the game, but god that interview was a waste of time.

Edit: Sorry, I am just cranky at the moment and I can´t stand those f*cking interviews anymore. They just feel like they are wasting everyones time.
I go in expecting to hear something interesting from someone who is supposed to be really good at game design and 95 percent of the time they sound like the humanoid avatar of the f*cking marketing blurps at the back of the box.

 

[funksobeefy]

I was hoping for an interview with new information.

What I really want to know about is the item situation, is it gonna be like the change from Mas Effect 1 to Mass Effect 2? Where they just got rid of everything and gave you six differnt weapons the entire game and no armour drops. I hated that I couldnt change the way my party members looked liked in ME2. Really lame when you call your self a rpg and a smaller item selection then most modern age shooters

 

[aashell13]

Have to say i'm firmly in the wait-and-see camp on DA2. then again, i was a latecomer to DA:O, so i have an excuse. I'm also a bit apprehensive about the art. Then again, it is bioware, so i'll probably buy it at some point.

 

[SageRuffin]

If I may go on an aside about the combat, someone answer me these few questions: how many of you have played games like Devil May Cry, [last and current gen] Ninja Gaiden, or hell, even Dante's Inferno?

 

[perpetualburn]

Just finished the demo. As a longtime Bioware fan, I am extremely disappointed.

 

[shaderkul]

I'm very apprehensive about this game. I hope it wont be a stripped down, dumbed down version of the original, like they did with Mass effect. As much as I loved Mass Effect 2, I would not call it an RPG.....depressing times ahead.

 

[adderseal]

This game will go on the 'wait until it's 20 quid on pre-owned' list, like Skyrim. Both those games will drop in price very quickly and from what I've seen it's not going to be worth paying full price on either of them.
I suppose I've just become very cynical about games these days. I spend most of my time playing old games and indie games. It seems that back then, a developer would put their hearts and souls on the line, rather than churning out entertainment for the masses.