Last night I spent a few hours roaming Kirkwall, doing bitch quests. Since it’s Dragon Age, however, I found these bitch quests enjoyable, and even sometimes fascinating as story lore is revealed through them. But most of last night’s progress didn’t evolve the story much, and honestly I found I was jotting down notes of things I noticed were new or different in the game. Therefore this log will be just that..bullet points.
- There’s now a “Sell All Junk” button. That’s convenient. That wasn’t in DA:O was it? Because if it was, I’m the worst self-proclaimed most hardcore fan of all time. Also, while buying/selling items, there isn’t the sound of change upon a transaction. For some reason, that makes me sad.
- While browsing the items for sale in Kirkwall I noticed I PRATICALLY CAN’T BUY ANY OF THEM. Either my constitution was too low, or my dexterity, or my cunning…and so many of them were restricted to Marian.
- Oh, speaking of Marian, I’ve been spelling her name wrong this entire time. My bad.
- To buy things in DA2, you don’t speak to the vendor. You speak to the nearby chest/sack/etc full of goodies. This explains why I couldn’t buy anything from Bodahn earlier.
- Bartrin said the best thing ever—“NUGHUMPING DIRTFARMER” <333
- Bethany also said something that made me giggle. “I miss the old chantry in Lothering. Sister Leliana told the best stories.”
- I figuredout why DA2 was chugging so terribly bad on my PC. I had some setting called “anti-aliasing” on 4x. As soon as I turned that off, all was well. It’s a good thing, too—I was getting motion sickness from the screen tearing and choppy movement. :/
- Here’s a random thought for you—if Bethany doesn’t want to be known as an apostate, why is she carrying around a staff…?
- Aveline was named after that one girl that Leliana told me about. The dalish found her or something, and she was a fierce warrior who hid the fact that she was a girl. She won this tournament, her competitor found out she was a chick and killed her. Maybe that will happen to my Aveleine. God, she’s boring as hell. Maybe she’ll sacrafice herself or some shit. She’s gonna die methinks.
- Funny conversation between Aveleine and Varric (I may have forgotten some words)
Varric: What do you do for fun? Surely you’ve heard of it. What do you do in your off duty hours?
Aveline: These are my activities.
Varric: And the trend of you scaring the piss out of me continues.
- I noticed that words phrases like “Son of a bitch” and “shitless” are used more often in DA2. Maybe it’s because Kirkwall is more advanced culturally then Ferelden.
- I’m totally digging that you’re given an option to swap out party members in certain areas. That was a big pain in DA:O. Also, city map is nice. It alerts you to what quests you have in that area.
- While in the Bar of the Hanged Man or whatever, the bartender relayed some information that made me chuckle, especially “The pigeon population has taken a nose dive in Ferelden. What kind of sick individual preys on those innocent things?” YAY SHALE! Also, he looks like Alistair’s ugly cousin or something.
- Another funny quote from a “talkative man” in the bar “Do you ever feel like you’re part of a story someone else is telilng? Maker, I wish the teller of this story would have made me more handsome.”
- Inside the Blooming Rose, I found the body of a…nug? Anyway, I’m glad they gave it the appropriate…erm, body part holes.
- Inside the Blooming Rose (and in other locations) I FOUND THE CREEPY GUY FROM OCARINA OF TIME’S COUSIN.
- YAY! I came across my first gay character!
- There really isn’t an accompanying story with the side quests. You find an item, a side quest ensues and you drop that item off to its owner. Interesting…
- There’s now a rumor section under quests. I’m not sure how this works….perhaps I have to follow up with the rumor and a quest will instigate.
Okay, I lied. I did progress a bit within the story. I recruited Anders and that white-haired elf dude. I can’t remember his name…is it Frenris? But you know who he kind of reminds me of? Thane from Mass Effect 2. Just saying. Anyway, apparently his slaver is after him, and white-haired elf dude intends to murder the shit out of him. He seems like a badass. But…humble. Kinda freaky. Like Thane.
So, here was my reaction upon finding out that a Grey Warden was in Kirkwall:
THERES A GREY WARDEN IN THE CITY?!?!?!? OMG WHO IS IT? ANDERS? COULD IT BE ANDERS? DID HE EVER…OHGREN!??!?!?!?!? DID ANDERS TAKE THE VIAL? I DON’T THINK HE DID…DID HE? IT HAS TO BE OHGREN.
Came in with other refugees. HMMMM.
He’s a healer…apparently he is not a warden now…heals people, delivers children? ANDERS DELIVERING CHILDREN?! Hahahaha HA! IT IS ANDERS. Bahahahahaha.
So, I’m hoping Anders will be witty, funny, cute, stupid, a badass, pretty much what Alistair is. Will he have ser pounce a lot?!
“THOSE BASTARDS MADE ME GET RID OF MY CAT! Poor Ser Pounce a lot….a noble beast. Swatted a Genlock on the nose.” He gave him to a friend in Amaranthine. He escaped the wardens.
Hahaha…I’m such a spaz. As of right now, I think I’m going to go after Anders. And by go after, I mean force him into my tent or house or whatever it’s called now and have my way with him. Another interesting tidbit on Anders: He joined up with Justice from DA: Awakening. At the end of the fight at Warden’s Keep, the body Justice had been inhabiting was beheaded, and I was hoping I’d find out what happened to him. Now, though, Justice has become “one” with Anders and has turned into Vengeance. I wonder if that’s something I can fix by boinking him—I mean, befriending him.
Also, I clarified what the Qunari are doing in Kirkwall. Are they even in Kirkwall? BAHAHA. Fail. Anyway, their ship was fighting another and they crashed on the reef. They’re currently waiting for a boat back to Par Vollen. WILL I SEE STEN!?!?!
AAAAAND…I think that’s it! I’m about to break into my family’s estate and try to reclaim the will that my uncle left there. That asshat.
There are Stens in the game, but Sten is a title, not a real name, so make sure you know what Sten you are seeing before you get too hyped (like I did) and then groan when it’s not the real Sten (like I did the first of several Stens I seen). You get a chance to chat them up and get a little more insight to them as the game progresses.
So you know this isn’t exactly the same Anders you enjoyed in Awakenings, but he’s still enough for you to enjoy (or so I assume).
FYI: You’re party should end up including Anders, Fenris, Aveline, a sibling (Bethany or Carver depending on the class you had chosen), Varric, Isabela (who you can actually miss picking up), Merril and if you have the DLC Sabatain. Sabastain joins you in Act 2 only, so don’t do what I did and spend an hour wondering around trying to trigger his joining the group, just make sure you do his Chantry Board quest. Dog also is with you as a ‘summoned’ beast if you have that DLC. I love dog!
Side note: your character is the only that can use armor, so don’t buy any for your peeps. you also gain some nice armor through main plot quests, so don’t spend a lot of coin on armor you are going to end up tossing when the quest related armor pops up. Also be careful of ruins. You can not un-ruin anything so once a ruin is assigned it is locked into that weapon and most of the weapons worth keeping pop up later in the game. Save those super sweet ruins for Act 3 weapons.
Origins did have a junk pile and a sell all junk (or store all junk) button. Course I also sold stuff I should have put on one of my Origin peeps, so not using that button might have been a good thing. I used the heck out of it. It is sad that the coin noises are gone.
Another warning you can’t super chat up people like you could in Origins, but you do get to chat them up more that in Awakenings. Make visits to your peeps homes from time to time to ensure you get all the chats. Normally there is an initial chat at the begining of an ‘Act’. Another after a personal / champion mission. Another after giving them a gift (one per act, per peep I believe) and I think one other chance to chat them up, but it just might stop at three chats, per peep, during each act. Some post mission chats are two parts though, so you chat with them and see their little ‘talk with me’ icon still above their head and chat with them again.
Tim