I finished Dragon Age: Awakenings last night, which is a bit backwards of me, I know. Hurrah for happy endings! It’s quite satisfying to get your epilogue come up with, ‘And you were awesome, and your Arling was awesome, and your Keep was awesome, dwarven architecture is awesome, all your companions were awesome, except maybe the one you picked up at the last minute, she went off and died.’ We’ll ignore the part where it tried to tell me Deve’s true love was Alistair. Nu-uh. Zevran all the way ♥
The epilogue was especially a relief because I’d looked at the Codex while off hunting the Mother, and all the character entries for people I’d left at the Keep said they’d died D: I thought, I built those walls for nothing? And was so distressed I had to get a cup of tea.
But no, happy ending!
I do prefer the framing device around Dragon Age II. The possibility for lies allows for future games in a way the straight epilogue doesn’t … I’m looking at you, Anders. Although I’m not sad that DAII happened to him. (I am a little confused as to how he possibly could have got to Kirkwall in time to meet Hawke.)
It’s funny, in my second playthrough of DAII I decided to romance Anders so I could have an even more traumatic ending … except I played a mage, so it was actually more triumphant? There was a moment after he blew up the Chantry when I thought, oh god, I could have talked them down! But then I thought about it, and was like, well, it would only happen again next week. Anders is right, down with the Chantry! (Sorry, Sebastian, I’m not going to kill my lover just ’cause you’re not down with the revolution.)
Having gone back to an earlier game, it now clicks why people were so frustrated with the recycled layouts. Awakenings has so many excellent, different settings, more moments of visual gorgeousness/creepiness. But on the other hand, DAII is way easier for me to navigate. Less realistic, maybe, but I like not getting lost, so it’s an acceptable trade-off.
Playing Awakenings also reiterated for me the joy of having a voiced PC. I kept feeling like I should be reading the dialogue out … Voicing means the timing’s better, you get a better sense of character, you get little asides and comments where player choice isn’t necessary … the Warden comes across as a taciturn person, who never even goes ‘huh’ to anything. Even if her dialogue is that of a persuasive, charming person.
This is the Warden I used for my latest DAII run-through (and because Zevran showed up in the battle against Meredith!) so I now have a bunch of head-canon where Hawke and her buddies hop on a boat with Zevran and seek refuge in Amaranthine. Read more »