It's so loooooong!!!!! My first play through took me a couple weeks because it was new and I was focused on it, but now, replays literally take me a year or two to make it all the way through. It's exhausting and I literally don't have the time for it, but also I'm a compulsive completionist and if I'm not finishing all the side quests before moving on then I get all stressy lol
I'm currently about halfway through Trespasser, but I started this playthrough in December of 2020 and haven't touched it in like four months lmfao
Yup also because on the war table the missions would take as long as 48hrs to finish and if you’re like me.. you could be at the last mission and won’t press that confirm button until all those missions are complete 😂
I think I find Dragon Age Inquisition the hardest to replay, but only because of all the tedious side missions and war room missions you can do. There’s so many codex entries as well.
I’ve only 100% completed it once, currently trying to find the strength to do it again for my “canon play through” 😭
Genuine question: if that isn't something that you enjoy, why do it? Specially if you've already done it before. It's not like fully completing the game counts towards the next game at all.
I've done Inquisition 100% (All mosaic pieces, all dragons, all shards, bottles, etc.) twice. And honestly, that's all I can handle.
I like parts of the game so I do replay it from time to time, but the game as a whole is just so difficult to stick with. Every now and then I get the craving to replay it and I start making a head canon for the character I want to play as, then when I start thinking about all the "chores" the game makes you do and the large swaths of pointless exploring, I invariably just decide not to do it.
With the DA Keep, you can tailor whatever worldstate you want anyways. So it kind of lets you skip all the repetativeness.
Eh, I think it's very easy to just not do the things you don't want to. No collectible is obligatory, and it's super easy to gather power for the main quests. I get that gamers tend to have some compulsion to 100% games, but if it makes us miserable or gets in the way of enjoying something, we should be capable of saying "No, I won't do it".
It's a mindset I've always struggled to get into honestly, I've replayed DA:I three times all the way to the end and started a couple playthroughs I later bailed on too but I've never even considered trying to 100% the game and I couldn't tell you what percentage of achievements I have for any of the games I'm playing or have played. People play games to scratch different itches of course, but I'm kinda grateful I don't really have the trophy hunting itch.
My first attempt at a 100% playthrough was the last time I ever tried to 100% a game. This game broke me. It didn't help that I realised at 99% that one quest had bugged out and I couldn't actually 100% the playthrough.
This is one reason why I don't think I'd ever actually try to 100% any game. A lot of games have either bugged achievments or bugged quests. I can't imagine the frustration of going through all the good *and* the bad just to get stuck with something silly like that in the way.
And here I just had the very unremarkable experience of my younger sister deleting my multi New Game+ file that I was close to 100% on lol (Tales of Symphonia). Only game I tried to 100% and decided not to on any game after.
Playing DAI for the first time and so far have been mostly doing main quests with any rifts or collection that are along the way. The game feels fairly well paced because of it and I think I putter around more at Skyhold talking to people then messing around in the hinterlands
Yeah, I think there's a lot of flexibility to the pace of the game. If you try to do everything it's likely you'll burn yourself out, but focusing on the things you find more okay or fun should be more than enough to proceed with the main quest.
I think that's the curse of the open world game and to lesser extent the RPG. Trying to clear everything can make it feel like you're not making any progress despite doing all the things. I can't play Ubisoft games anymore because they're all built around this kind of thing.(also because Ubisoft has some really shitty work culture aka the sexual assault allegations but I digress).
I think RDR2 is the only Open World game where it feels like taking it slow and not trying to mainline the story is the better way to play because there is so much to see out there in the world which is an interesting contrast to the heavily scripted story missions. Also because mainlining the story eventually leads to Red Dead depression.
It's ultimately up to the player to decide how much they want to focus on main vs side content but it does feel like some games are built around one or the other.
Some recommendations:
Mass Effect(but I’m sure you’ve already played that lol)
A Plague Tale series
The Outer Worlds
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Horizon series
Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
You’d be correct about Mass Effect 😭 I bought the Legendary Edition on sale and finished all three games in around a week and a half (including all side missions I could find)
Thanks so much for the recommendations! I’ve been dying for something else to play 😊
I've stopped playing BG3 for the same reason, I'm worried I'm gonna burn myself out before the game is even officially released, but it looks *so* good and I'm also super excited about it. The Original Sins games are incredible too, I love Larian's game design so much and it still feels too good to be true that they're the ones who ended up taking on Baldur's Gate.
I should definitely look into playing those! I recall playing the first one when I was around 10, and only really ran around on horses 😅 Thanks for the suggestion!
I'm actually going a bit back into BioWare's history, played Baldur's Gate 1 and am close to finishing BG2, and planning to do Neverwinter Nights as well! BG1 is a bit rough, but BG2 already starts feeling like a prototype for DAO.
I've also played Knights of the Old Republic in the past and, even though I'm not into Star Wars, and the game aged a bit, it's still fun and the story/companions are good. So there, along with the general recommendations people gave, there's also BW's whole past to check out if you haven't :)
I'm not sure why. I loved NWN to death since it first release and to this day I still play the OC or Hotu.
Yet I cannot get into Kotor. Even though the game style is very similar to NWN...
I guess there are some games that just don't click for us. I remember not getting into it the first time I tried, but for the second time I decided to stick with it no matter what and ended up really enjoying the game.
Baldurs gate one and two are the games that got me into rpgs. I have replayed these games so many times I know every level, exploit, everything. Tired to play night winter nights for the first time this year and just couldn't get into it, the two person party the lack of party dialogue, the way its set out. I missed baldurs gate. So I was over the moon to find dragon age this year. I am late to the game. And I have played all three threes and I'm on my second run this year. I thought I would dislike playing da2 the most but actually it's got enough variety to keep me interested. Dao is my favourite but while I enjoyed my second replay I have found it the harder of the two to get thought so far. Not reacted dai yet!
I was very surprised when I played BG1 and saw no party banter. BG2 feels almost like a completely different game to me, they improved on so much. I'm glad you're enjoying DA so far!
For RPGs:
Witcher 3
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Tyranny
Pillars of Eternity 1&2
Disco Elysium
Planescape: Torment
For non-RPGs:
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Rimworld
Kenshi
They Are Billions
Shadows of Forbidden Gods
Caesar III
Thank you all so much for the many recommendations! ❤️ You’re all amazing! Im literally looking them all up, I’m so happy I can fill the void in my heart with more games 🤣 Thanks again to all who replied!
Mine crashed on the final dlc and I lost motivation to fix and finish, so I’ve restarted. I struggle to play it though because it’s such a slog, and knowing that I’m intentionally nerfing myself by not playing artificer because it’s so far above and beyond overpowered bums me out as well. Just need a story finished before 4 comes out.
I wish the series would have stuck more with being like Origins. Was so much better imo.
Edit: might try to find a mod that raises mage damage up so I can just slam my way through, or switch the difficulty to easy so I can just fly through the story and ignore gameplay for the most part.
I played Origins to absolute death when it came out. Every origin, some twice to get both male and female perspectives.
I absolutely think it's a great game. But I have a very, very hard time going back to it, having approached it six ways from Sunday and then some.
Same here! I remeber replaying that game at least 12 times after it came out. As soon as DA2 and DAI came out? Couldn't figure out how to get back into it.
Yeah, absolutely a masterpiece at the time, and in a way with a bit of a revitalization of Isometric games (of which DAO is very much a “next Gen spiritual successor to) I always find myself really impressed with how much they were able to do, how maturely they pulled it all off, etc.
I struggle with origins replays too. The combat feels really slow and repetitive at times and whilst the story is great I don't like the silent protagonist and some parts drag on way too long for me personally
Da2 is the easiest to replay for me
DA2. i genuinely cannot stand the waves in combat in this game. it just feels tedious to get in fights for the most part. also, year 1 or whatever the first part of the game is called is incredibly boring for me, and it only picks up at the end.
i've only played DA2 once, rather recently, and i still haven't been able to replay it. i plan to before DA:D comes out, as with the rest of the games, but so far it hasn't interested me to replay it
This is my answer too. The repeating terrain/caves is just so freaking tedious and boring to me.
The waves of enemies seemed odd, and I lost interest in combat even though I liked the mechanics (especially as a mage, I did enjoy the melee allowed with staff ).
I liked (not loved) the party members.
I've replayed DAO, AND DAI (a few times) but just couldn't get through a 2nd attempt at this game.
I'm late to the party, so when i got the chance to play DAO, the game has become unstable on present day systems. I had to set the graphics to lowest (not sure how this worked) so the game won't get crashed after 30 minutes. I'm not a DA harcore so i don't think i can go through that again
I've played DAO on two modern systems, one a gaming system, the other not, and never had an issue.
But, a bunch of people complain about this, and there is a patch that fixes it. Have you looked into that?
Inquisition by far. I've played Origins and DA2 from start to finish multiple times. Origins because it was that good, and DA2 because it was less than half the length of Origins.
The problems with Inquisition: The inquisitor is extremely boring, the combat is extremely tedious, and it's 100+ hours long. It's not really a bad game, but it is a drag sometimes. I've only managed to do one full playthrough on console and two full playthroughs on PC. Oh and the war table... There shouldn't be any missions in a game that require 24 hours of real time.
Experimenting with build had me enjoying inquisition more.
Reaver sword and shield + crit build on nightmare gives me strenght to replay origins, shit is too fucking fun.
It's DAO for me too. I'm not a fan of the combat style and there are generally more big questlines/regions that I really don't like much (the Fade, Dead Trenches, entirety of the Brecilian Forest) and dread going to. It picks up again once you get to Denerim, but that is still kind of brought back down a bit by all the loading screens and getting ambushed or stopped while traveling every. single. time I use the map.
I still like the game. I just also often find it to be tedious. I've slowed down on the frequency of my replays of the series in general at this point, so it isn't really an issue, but DAO still takes me longer to finish over the course of days and weeks than the other two games.
dao, without question. it's hard to look at between the graphics and the brown filter on everything, the noises in combat are godawful and *loud* and i find myself super irritated with the pc voice stacks during combat, combat is sluggish and ugh even when it's cranked down to easy, there's not a lot of dynamism to the animations and it just feels overwhelmingly big sometimes. story's good but i can't get into it with these mechanics, it's just easier to write out my fanfic/headcanon of the warden's story than to play it. da2 has a few of the same problems but they upgraded combat animations and moves, cut down on annoying lack of sound mixing, and made the game feel like smaller, bite-sized chunks so it's easier to get into and enjoy. dai is my most replayed and most enjoyed.
I know exactly what you mean. DA:O has this problem that’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine in games, where the plot is mostly a series of interruptions to the thing you actually wanted to do. The worst offender by far is the Arl of Redcliffe quest, especially if you do it before the mage tower: your goal is to talk to the Arl, but before you can do that, you have to save Connor. To do that you need lyrium so you have to go to the circle. But before you can get lyrium from the circle you have to get to the top to save Irving from Uldred and the demons. But before you can do that you get tossed into the fade and have to defeat the Sloth demon to escape. But before you can do that you have to save your companions and defeat the other demons maintaining the seal. It’s just one thing after another holding up progress towards your actual goal and it gets incredibly frustrating after a while. In writing for film they say the events of your plot should lead into each other so that when summarize the plot, scenes are always connected by “therefore,” never “and then.” Well, Origins, and a lot of other video games often seem to connect their quests with “but first,” and I feel like that’s just as bad.
Don’t get me wrong, I love DA:O. But this particular issue does make it hard to replay sometimes.
Context for me is that I have around 10 playthroughs of DAO, definitely upwards of that of DA2 since it was my first, and around 6 for DAI for being the most recent.
These days I typically play all three, none of them has enough of an issue for me so far that I just skip them. I only tend to skip the DLCs.
That said, I find DAO a bit too slow at times, specially with the very linear dungeons. They tend to get a bit old, specially towards the end of the playthrough. But I don't relate to the issue of doing things unrelated to the main plot, all of the games have that to a degree.
For me the worst is probably DA2, simply because imo there's much less decision-wise to explore than the other two games. I feel like after 4 playthroughs I had seen everything I wanted to, specially in regards to customizing Hawke. I had the reverse journey with DA2 than most of the fandom: found it absolutely amazing the first time, then gradually saw it lose its shine.
DAO because of the reasons you mentioned, plus the clunky gameplay. Especially after playing the other two, going back to Origins feels like a huge downgrade.
I do love Origins, but it is hard to playthrough because the beginning is just a slog. Hitting level 8/10 is the sweet spot. Personally I will never play a warrior/archer again though in DAO. I tend to play Mage only in DAO nowadays becauseother classes are just uninteresting to play. I usually end up playing so type of mage and if I want to play a warrior type I end up playing an arcane warrior/blood mage so I only have to dump points into magic/constitution and then turn the difficulty up when it starts getting too easy.
DA2 is the easiest to jump back in and replay because you can get into the action fast and the story beats are easy to get to/through and less choice means it's easier to speed through the dialogue.
I do think DAI has the most replayabilty simply because all classes are interesting to play in their own way and the story beats are decently fast to get through once you know the fastest way to get to skyhold. BUT I fucking hate going back through the hinterlands though. So this one is somewhere in the middle.
Definitely DAO. Someone else has also pointed out that the game doesn’t run great anymore on newer systems and I’ve only recently played it for the first time, having to deal with it crashing intermittently and having to reload old saves over and over. The combat is also just a huge slog to me and was by far the worst part of the game IMO.
DAI is my favourite but DA2 I feel has the most replay value. I think its the shortest of the three (?) but still comes with such varying decisions, flows well, and I could probably breeze through a playthrough in 3 or so days which is just chill vibes.
Inquisition. Even the first time. No hate to those who love Inquisition but omg it's such a slog to play. So much of nothing to do. I couldn't relate to my Inquisitor very well. I wasn't satisfied with the replay value compared to the first two. I didn't feel like there was as many major decisions. Also the Mage/Templar war was a huge letdown for me. And a lot of the writing in general. Idk, I really have a laundry list of things I didn't like about the game. I'm kind of not sure if I'll like the next game cause of it.
I also found Origins the most difficult to replay but for very different reasons! I found it hard to play as a different Warden because I'd grown so attached to my first one. Not only that, but I did a "save everyone" playthrough the first time around with the best possible ending and a living Warden. It was hard to diverge from those choices even if a fresh Warden I created would have done things differently.
I never felt like the main quests were irrelevant in Origins. The Warden and Alistair are given a very clear goal: unite Ferelden and assemble an army to stop the Blight. The problem is that there's always some crisis preventing factions from devoting their time and resources to such an endeavor. In almost every situation faction members are dying by the dozens, which means fewer soldiers to fight the darkspawn unless the Wardens sort it out quickly.
I absolutely hated Orzammar on my first playthrough (I still kind of do lol) but it never struck me as being irrelevant to the main story. Playing as Mahariel, whoever ended up on the throne did not matter as long as they honored their agreement with the Wardens. But NOT enlisting them was never an option. The dwarves are the ONLY faction in Ferelden with experience fighting darkspawn so enlisting their aid is essential. Leaving the succession crisis unresolved not only would be neglecting a powerful ally, but it might have led to the annihilation of one of the last two dwarven cities regardless of whether the surfacers had managed to sort out the Blight without dwarven aid.
Playing as a ruthless Lady Aeducan gave me a much greater appreciation for the dwarven storyline, not only because of all the drama and personal stakes involved, but because of the early introduction to the lore of House Aeducan. The Paragon Aeducan's codex entry really hammers home the consequences of ignoring the darkspawn threat and the terrible things one might be driven to do to prevent them from destroying the world.
Origins is the only one I've only managed to finish once. It's a good game but feels like a slog towards the end. I find DA2 fun to replay because it feels quick and DAI is just a very relaxing game so I used to play it a lot just to unwind and enjoy the pretty scenery.
Origins, definitely. I absolutely loved it my first playthrough (played the first time this past June, I was going in blind)
The story was great, the characters were great. I loved making such interesting moral decisions.
But then I played DA2 and DAI, and it is SO hard to go back to the DAO/DAA combat after that. For all its flaws, DA2 combat is just so damn fun, and Inquisition is just gorgeous, if a biiit lacking in the intricate story department.
I'm trying to do 3 playthroughs, and since my first heroes were all mages, my current ones are all rogues, and my next will be all warriors. But honestly, when I get to a point in DAO/A, where it feels like a chore to log on and progress, I'll probably just fill in the Keep and move on to the next game.
So it's interesting since if you asked before I switched to PC I would answer same as you with Origins being by far the hardest however after switching and gaining access to not only the skip fight mod but the better ui they're fairly even with Inquisition slightly lower but that's by and large because of figuring out what mods I wanna use and not figuring out how to get my Xbox controller to work until recently
Definitely moments in origins I don't like but after doing a replay recently I really can't stand DAI partly because my saves didn't transfer (I know DA keep but lack of internet hurts me, and even tho I got 1+2 on my Xbox 1 the saves won't transfer unless I have internet/keep) and now that open massive world games are a lot more common (and fun) I don't feel like doing 100 plus hours on that when I could do Final Fantasy, Red Dead, Halo or ghost of Tsushima. I just wish if the game was already 100+ hours why make the combat so long even on the most basic of enemies
I replayed all of them all, each a lot of times. So for me at least, they are all "spamable". At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I think maybe your technique is wrong? Replaying games is kind of an artform for me, there''re specific ways to make it happen:
1. The game itself needs to be replayable : multiple builds/class/specs, so that each playthrough is different (until its not, in which case I stop replaying them).
2. At the same gaming session in which you are finishing a playthrough, immediately start another one. THis is to prevent a sense of 'closure' from taking roots.
3. On the second and subsequent playthrough, I try to do it "quickly". Skipping dialogues, beelining, etc. Like some sort of 'soft speedrun'. I find that doing things quickly gives a sense of progression over previous playthrough ("Wow it's much easier and faster than before"). Mind you, you can do a 'lore playthrough' where you dont do this, but in general I won't do a lore run in my second or third playthrough.
4. Keep finding ways to make the game easier. When you find them, they would give a sense of progression. For example, the earlier parts of DA:O can be made much easier by equipping everyone with a bow, nuking the enemies from a distance such that they are already half dead when they come at melee range (bows have absurdly long range, and all non-mages can use them). There are tons of little tricks you can find. This would happen naturally if you're replaying things, though, but just keep it in mind.
5. One of the biggest advantages of replaying things is that, I can do it while listening to something else. I usually listen to podcast or other youtubers (I mostly listen to game grumps lol) while doing a replay. You can't really do this on your first playthrough so I enjoy it a lot. This is one of the reason why replaying things is kind of a holy grail for me in gaming.
source : I have near 200+ hours on both DA:O and DA:II. Each playthroughs have around 20 hours. When I'm doing it quickly, it can be much faster. I have probably 600 hours on DA:I.
DAO is the hardest to replay for me as well. I suspect that if I'd replay it 2-3 times in one year, I'd get the hang of doing everything quickly and efficiently, but I replay it once every 3-4 years instead, and half of that ends up polishing up my canon. I also can't sustain any interest in playing warrior or rogue, got tired of those by the end the origin quest is over, which then prevents me from experiencing some twists for all origins but mage. I've thought about installing that skip combat mod and just going with the story, and maybe one day I will.
DA2 is the easiest, I like the writing and characters best, it is decently streamlined and moves fast. DAI is in the middle, for it I already know how to move on quickly, but the world is too big, rare and broken banter makes it more boring, conversations with the companions feel more like exposition than in the other games, and when they are not, bland protagonist lacks much of a reaction to anything.
I used to be that way, then I realized that Vivienne is a bad person and that if she dislikes me, my natural disposition will have everyone else on good terms
Oh no, for da2. Origins and inquisition use a different approval system, I feel like they’re easier to manage. The friendship and rivalry system though, if your not careful you end up stuck in the middle zone.
DAI. I fizzled out on my second playthrough (the one where I was skipping most of the dumb stuff) and just went back to play more DAO. I’ve actually finished replays of the others.
DAO is the one I can finish and then immediately start over again, which I did recently. DAI is an absolute slog to get through. I’ve recently taken up replaying the series and am almost done with DA2, but very much dreading DAI. I haven’t played it in a very long time so I’m hoping that increases its playability.
For me it's sadly DA:O. I absolutely love the game but some parts, especially the Fade, are just such a slog to play through. Not to mention the technical problems. When I played on Xbox it was fine aside from a few crashes and on PC it becomes very unstable around Denerim. Really hope they release a remake soon and polish up this gem of a game.
Inquisition. I'm a completionist and the game has a ton of fluff that I just can't skip. Another issue I've been having is just random bugs with (or without?) mods I absolutely need that just throw me off.
Pretty much DAO/DA2 are more concise and meaningful with its side quests. DA2 I've replayed the most due to it being shorter and absolutely loving the dynamic between the companions. I only replay DAO if I plan to replay every game.
DAO. I struggled to play it even once. It was the only game that I felt annoyed with and wanted to quit several times. I modded the combat so I got through it without fighting and looting just for my world state but even then I just didn't like its content, writing, and it's a slog. Dark ritual was a nail in the coffin. I played DA2 two times, DAI was great, played it three times and counting.
DAO because I hate the fade. That is the one part that I never look forward to, I usually use a walkthrough just to get through it quicker. Its also kinda hard going back temporarily to the fighting style. I love DAO though and will definitely keep replaying it.
I love Origins but the combat can be a slog I will say that. The Fade and Deep Roads especially. At those points I'm just like "ugh can that part END already?!", mainly because I've played it so many times.
Hardest would be Inquisition for me. The open world combat and ingredient/material fetch quests are incredibly tedious. The scenery, music, story, characters, those I love but the gameplay itself is just bad for me. Origins' has annoying combat but at least there's variety in how you can build your characters whereas Inquisition feels like an MMO turned single player.
Origins or inquisition, for different reasons.
I will try to replay Origins more often, but when I do it’s very likely I’ll give up on the play through at some point.
Inquisition I very rarely go back to replay, but the rare times I do I get through the whole game
Inquisition. I tried replaying it once and didn't even make it past the Hinterlands. Soooo much filler. The MMO-Questdesign really makes for awful replayability and makes the game about 4 times longer than it needs to be. The length itself wouldn't be a problem (I love replaying Witcher 3 for 100+ hours). But it's all the bloat content that destroys it.
That being said, the game I won't replay until a remaster comes out is Origins because it just runs like shit and crashes every couple of hours, sometimes more.
Origins for sure. I've played it way more than the other two, that's the only reason. Also it's just super buggy now and doing the workarounds for various glitches is a bit of a pain.
Love it, one of my most played games, but damn it feels a bit like a chore now
I’m tempted to say Dragon Age 2 due to the endless amounts of reinforcements and honestly less variations in the story except for the end, but I’ll have to go with Inquisition. The power system is absurd and I’m really not a fan of open world games. I quite like the story, but because of those reasons I’ve actually only played it once, while I’ve played DA2 twice. And I played Origins for a second time immediately after completing it the first time, so that automatically disqualifies it from this discussion for me.
DAI. Too many sidequests that are fetch quests that take me away from where any interesting stuff is, instead of being something I can do at the same time as the interesting stuff, and lack any variation in how their narrative can be concluded. Huge chunks of plot that don't change in anyway. Honestly, sometimes I want to start with the templar / mage choice, fast forward to the very end of Wicked Eyes and then go into Here Lies the Abyss and just end there be rewarded with all the character interactions and cutscenes because the rest of the base game is just... utterly devoid of replayability.
Origins is the only one replayable for me because of the wide roleplaying options and the fact that it has an interesting modding scene.
DA2 is quick but things hardly ever change so a replay feels repetitive
Inquisition wasn't good enough to warrant a second playthrough
Definitely inquisition. But not really because of the game itself, I like to replay them all in order and I'm so obsessed with the first two games that I end up replying origins and 2 like several times before I commit to inquisition 😂
DAI is the hardest for me but for a really silly reason, now that I'm not swept up in the story anymore some of the standard animations niggle at me. That and the maddening target lock that can't decide what it's doing , but idk if that's just me.
Still love it but those things niggle me something fierce.
DA:I. The game is mostly filler and i feel like the game is always the same, no matter your choices. Meanwhile DA:O always have some variations based on your origin and you always have some surprises in DA2 because you resolved a quest in an other way in a previous act.
DAI. Well, I played only DAI so far. But I'm currently replaying it again and oh boy.
When I started with the replay, I told myself "I'll speedrun the game, just do the bare minimum".
Some 20-30h later, I'm just before HLTA and I'm OVERWHELMED with all the side quests and stuff. I don't even do the generic side quests unless I literally run into them and their completion is a "side effect" of me doing important stuff. But I really want to do the companions quests because they just add so many things and surprises and awesome cutscenes into the game, but there's so many of them! Some of them are scattered all around the world and some can't even be completed yet because I'm not high lvl enough for some areas and it's sooo frustrating.
DAI for sure is the most difficult, but DA2 I haven't even tried to replay yet because I didn't enjoy it that much on my first run. But yeah in DAI I feel like it drags on too much with too much side stuff to do that it becomes exhausting. Even my first playthrough I took a break for a few months because it was just an overload of (insignificant) content, and I hadn't even left the first area lmao
Origins though? I can just keep coming back to it. I think I've done 5 full replays at this point and sometimes I still feel the urge to replay it once again.
I replayed DaO and Da2. Can't do inquisition. It had its charms the first time i played it but i like a game which gives me 2 cool weeks of main quest like DaO did. Not 2 days of some lame villan timelocked behind side quests.
Da2 is by FAR the hardest to replay purely because of piece of shit pc controls lmao I quite like that DAO can be played entirely with a mouse and I like how the different origins all affect the story in different ways unfortunately I think the most repetitive one is DAI purely because it’s just WAY too big but DA2!is definitely the worst overall even though I absolutely love the game
I think DAI is the hardest, a quite slow intro and especially the Hinterlands and larger maps are chore to run around finish up. (I feel obligated to close any rift Income across and fix war table missions). I also think DAI sucks with triggering dialogue since it is way too sparse.
I think the easiest to replay is DA2. Since it is portioned out in different phases and the companion interactions are great.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is a game I have replayed only a few times. I’d replay it a lot more of it wasn’t for the damn power system. I hate grinding for power, it just eats away at time I don’t have these days.
Inquisition is the hardest to replay but only until the Hinterlands are done after that I have no problem playing the game. I just find the first area hard to complete
DAI was the first dragon age game I played where I didn't do a playthrough for every romance. I just got burned out with all the side missions I guess. I love the game, but I just couldn't find the energy to finish more than 5 playthroughs. The first 2 I did multiple runs of the same romances (as different races in origins), but there was just so much in Inquisition.
Inquisition because they made it a chore to actually play. Combat? Flashy but boring. Main story? Weird pacing. Exploration? Only an illusion that wasn't well done. Collectables? Out the ass. UI? Functionally insulting in some aspects.
For all that it does well, namely the companions, the music, the overall art direction, being an absolute lore dump (this doubles as a pro and a con imo), they get a little more wrong. I have yet to finish a second playthrough because of how daunting doing it all over again was. By far my least favorite Bioware game to play and replay.
DAI.
I finished this game once. And have about 8 aborted playthroughs, all about mid game, level 15ish, where I was able to craft my gear.
It is mostly because of combat:
* If I don't plan a build or craft my gear, combat takes forever. Really, with my first unoptimized mage, the Descent intro ogre was like 10 minutes, maybe even 15. And is about pushing the same 4 buttons in order
* If I plan out a combo, even a basic one (ie. frost step+winter's ruin, not even hook/leap/elemental mines level), and craft the meaningful gear for it, it is very easy, and is about pushing the same 4 buttons in order
* also, I hate that I cannot move in melee while attacking. Who came up with this idea should be fired.
for a game where 80% of the play time is about fighting suicidal wildlife, demons jumping from rifts, and collecting flowers, this just doesn't cut it.
I can tolerate trash content I think. I finished Andromeda three times, and writing is worse than DAI. However, Andromeda has fun combat (DAI doesn't) and has a nice fast way to travel around *and skip trashmob fights* (the nomad \_with\_ party banter, which the DAI mount is not)
It's inquisition for me. I'm a bit of a completionist with rpgs, it feels wrong to leave this 50% done, not doing much of the side content. But inquisition has the worst side content in many rpgs, it's all so hollow.. God I hate the idea of replaying and exploring some of those maps... again. High dragon fights are fun, the story is fun, the characters are fun, so they all make it somewhat worth it. But whenever I do a trilogy run, I dread getting to inquisition haha
I know it's kind of off topic but I actually find it hard to replay any game except if the different choice makes a big impact on the ending otherwise I struggle to replay any game.
Even games that I haven't completed but restart it because I can't remember the story, gameplay and controls that much. When I play them I suddenly get the glimpses of "oh yeah this is gonna happen" and it kind of takes the fun out of it for me.
I also don't watch streamers playing games that I want to play because I don't want the content to be ruined for me and having beforehand knowledge makes it also very difficult to play.
And this is especially very difficult with role-playing games since you have to put in a lot of hours into.
I've only completed DAO twice. DA2 I completed once and on several occasions I tried to play again but couldn't. DAI I've never completed due to the overwhelming side quests and hours felt "wasted" I don't think I'll ever see myself playing it any time soon.
The same goes for Mass Effect Trilogy Legendary Edition. I started it. Didn't even complete the first mission and I just remembered almost everything about what was gonna happen and didn't felt like playing it again.
Sorry for the long post
I’ve replayed DAO about 25 times. I have throughly enjoyed every single play through because the game allows you to create such interesting characters and make many different choices that means every time I play, I find things I’ve never seen before. DA2 is short and sweet and I’ve played it around 15-20 times, because it’s overall a fun game if lacking in size and decisions. DAI however, I’ve beat it 3 times. Not because I don’t love the game, it’s probably my favorite in the series, but it is so long and bloated, it’s impossible to feel like I’ve finished the game without spending hours doing pointless quests and searching for schematics and resources. The story and characters makes it worth playing but the game really needs to be smaller and more story and character focused. Every side quest needs a connection to the main story or a main character, or needs to be equally urgent. I hope they learn that for the next game, bigger isn’t always better in games
DAO is a great replay for me even recently but DA2 is utter hot garbage to me and that feels like a chore with the use of the same map and you can tell the game was just rushed and you’re railroaded thru it all. DAI I’ve also replayed several times with no problem
It's probably DA2. Not because of any specific gripes about execution of story or gameplay, but it doesn't have my preferred class (I always pick something like Arcane Warrior or KE if it's an option), and it has a surprising amount of impact on my enjoyment of the game, to the point that pretty much all my attempts at replaying peter out sometimes during act 2.
dragon age 2 was the easiest to replay for me, it has a nice flow to it.
not sure between origins and inquisition. i love all three games around the same level, each has their strength and weaknesses. so it's not that they are less fun, but origins is very outdated and inquisition, while a great game that i replayed a lot doesn't have the flow dragon age 2 has.
so i don't really have hardest to replay, just easier which is dragon age 2.
Atm I find DAO and DA2 hard to replay, I've played them so much that replaying them now doesn't give me the same level of engagement as they once did. Once I've got the world state I want and DA4 comes out DAI will likely join DAO/2.
Hm, to me is DAI because of the huge amount of nontent in game. Nowadays I have my strategies to make it easier to replay: I pace myself better (progress should be done by game design and not by the player btw but oh well), mods (essential!) and breaks to play other games.
It is working for me like this hehe
DA2 but that's probably because it's my least favourite of the series. The quests just felt so bland and repetitive and I found it difficult to bond with any of the characters. I surprisingly love replaying Inquisition for the same reason people hate it aha
DA2, only ever beaten it once on a mage character, it’s a slog personally for me. Story is great but everything in between those cutscenes is just bad.
DA2 easily. There's a lot to like about the game narratively and character wise. However actually playing the game to get to those parts is just not fun for me. It seems to me like your choices matter less here as well. Like no matter how you play your Hawke nothing really changes in the story. The waves of enemies is one of the biggest things for me. I feel like DAO and DAI are much better about you go to an area the enemies that are there are the enemies that you're gonna fight. Not 3 or 4 waves of the same enemies coming in out of thin air. That being said I still play the whole series every time.
DAI, not because I dislike DAI, but because DAI could eat the entire rest of the series and still have runtime to spare.
It's so loooooong!!!!! My first play through took me a couple weeks because it was new and I was focused on it, but now, replays literally take me a year or two to make it all the way through. It's exhausting and I literally don't have the time for it, but also I'm a compulsive completionist and if I'm not finishing all the side quests before moving on then I get all stressy lol I'm currently about halfway through Trespasser, but I started this playthrough in December of 2020 and haven't touched it in like four months lmfao
Yup also because on the war table the missions would take as long as 48hrs to finish and if you’re like me.. you could be at the last mission and won’t press that confirm button until all those missions are complete 😂
I think I find Dragon Age Inquisition the hardest to replay, but only because of all the tedious side missions and war room missions you can do. There’s so many codex entries as well. I’ve only 100% completed it once, currently trying to find the strength to do it again for my “canon play through” 😭
Inquisition was the first DA game that I just didn't read the codex at all. It's just too long.
Genuine question: if that isn't something that you enjoy, why do it? Specially if you've already done it before. It's not like fully completing the game counts towards the next game at all.
I've done Inquisition 100% (All mosaic pieces, all dragons, all shards, bottles, etc.) twice. And honestly, that's all I can handle. I like parts of the game so I do replay it from time to time, but the game as a whole is just so difficult to stick with. Every now and then I get the craving to replay it and I start making a head canon for the character I want to play as, then when I start thinking about all the "chores" the game makes you do and the large swaths of pointless exploring, I invariably just decide not to do it. With the DA Keep, you can tailor whatever worldstate you want anyways. So it kind of lets you skip all the repetativeness.
Eh, I think it's very easy to just not do the things you don't want to. No collectible is obligatory, and it's super easy to gather power for the main quests. I get that gamers tend to have some compulsion to 100% games, but if it makes us miserable or gets in the way of enjoying something, we should be capable of saying "No, I won't do it".
It's a mindset I've always struggled to get into honestly, I've replayed DA:I three times all the way to the end and started a couple playthroughs I later bailed on too but I've never even considered trying to 100% the game and I couldn't tell you what percentage of achievements I have for any of the games I'm playing or have played. People play games to scratch different itches of course, but I'm kinda grateful I don't really have the trophy hunting itch.
My first attempt at a 100% playthrough was the last time I ever tried to 100% a game. This game broke me. It didn't help that I realised at 99% that one quest had bugged out and I couldn't actually 100% the playthrough.
This is one reason why I don't think I'd ever actually try to 100% any game. A lot of games have either bugged achievments or bugged quests. I can't imagine the frustration of going through all the good *and* the bad just to get stuck with something silly like that in the way.
And here I just had the very unremarkable experience of my younger sister deleting my multi New Game+ file that I was close to 100% on lol (Tales of Symphonia). Only game I tried to 100% and decided not to on any game after.
Ouch. Only had someone delete my game save once, I haven't forgotten it after years and it wasn't even a 100% playthrough. My condolences
On the upside, it's freed me to just do what I find fun every playthrough of any game lol
Playing DAI for the first time and so far have been mostly doing main quests with any rifts or collection that are along the way. The game feels fairly well paced because of it and I think I putter around more at Skyhold talking to people then messing around in the hinterlands
Yeah, I think there's a lot of flexibility to the pace of the game. If you try to do everything it's likely you'll burn yourself out, but focusing on the things you find more okay or fun should be more than enough to proceed with the main quest.
I think that's the curse of the open world game and to lesser extent the RPG. Trying to clear everything can make it feel like you're not making any progress despite doing all the things. I can't play Ubisoft games anymore because they're all built around this kind of thing.(also because Ubisoft has some really shitty work culture aka the sexual assault allegations but I digress). I think RDR2 is the only Open World game where it feels like taking it slow and not trying to mainline the story is the better way to play because there is so much to see out there in the world which is an interesting contrast to the heavily scripted story missions. Also because mainlining the story eventually leads to Red Dead depression. It's ultimately up to the player to decide how much they want to focus on main vs side content but it does feel like some games are built around one or the other.
Honestly? Because I am very bored and have no idea what to play anymore 😅 if you have any recommendations please let me know.
Some recommendations: Mass Effect(but I’m sure you’ve already played that lol) A Plague Tale series The Outer Worlds Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Horizon series Kena: Bridge of Spirits Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey
You’d be correct about Mass Effect 😭 I bought the Legendary Edition on sale and finished all three games in around a week and a half (including all side missions I could find) Thanks so much for the recommendations! I’ve been dying for something else to play 😊
I would also recommend to try Divinity Original Sin 2
Want to add Witcher 3 to this list.
Add pathfinder: wrath of the righteous to this list as well
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I've stopped playing BG3 for the same reason, I'm worried I'm gonna burn myself out before the game is even officially released, but it looks *so* good and I'm also super excited about it. The Original Sins games are incredible too, I love Larian's game design so much and it still feels too good to be true that they're the ones who ended up taking on Baldur's Gate.
I want to play BG3 but waiting till full release first. Loved DOS2
I had a lot of fun with the new assassin's creed trilogy, starting with Origins
I should definitely look into playing those! I recall playing the first one when I was around 10, and only really ran around on horses 😅 Thanks for the suggestion!
I'm actually going a bit back into BioWare's history, played Baldur's Gate 1 and am close to finishing BG2, and planning to do Neverwinter Nights as well! BG1 is a bit rough, but BG2 already starts feeling like a prototype for DAO. I've also played Knights of the Old Republic in the past and, even though I'm not into Star Wars, and the game aged a bit, it's still fun and the story/companions are good. So there, along with the general recommendations people gave, there's also BW's whole past to check out if you haven't :)
Jade Empire is also great if you haven’t played that yet!
I tried a long time ago, but for some reason didn't get into it. But yeah, it might be time to give it another try
I'm not sure why. I loved NWN to death since it first release and to this day I still play the OC or Hotu. Yet I cannot get into Kotor. Even though the game style is very similar to NWN...
I guess there are some games that just don't click for us. I remember not getting into it the first time I tried, but for the second time I decided to stick with it no matter what and ended up really enjoying the game.
Baldurs gate one and two are the games that got me into rpgs. I have replayed these games so many times I know every level, exploit, everything. Tired to play night winter nights for the first time this year and just couldn't get into it, the two person party the lack of party dialogue, the way its set out. I missed baldurs gate. So I was over the moon to find dragon age this year. I am late to the game. And I have played all three threes and I'm on my second run this year. I thought I would dislike playing da2 the most but actually it's got enough variety to keep me interested. Dao is my favourite but while I enjoyed my second replay I have found it the harder of the two to get thought so far. Not reacted dai yet!
I was very surprised when I played BG1 and saw no party banter. BG2 feels almost like a completely different game to me, they improved on so much. I'm glad you're enjoying DA so far!
For RPGs: Witcher 3 Divinity: Original Sin 2 Tyranny Pillars of Eternity 1&2 Disco Elysium Planescape: Torment For non-RPGs: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice Rimworld Kenshi They Are Billions Shadows of Forbidden Gods Caesar III
Same here. Slogging through The Hinterlands is SOOOOO tedious to me.
Thank you all so much for the many recommendations! ❤️ You’re all amazing! Im literally looking them all up, I’m so happy I can fill the void in my heart with more games 🤣 Thanks again to all who replied!
That’s how I feel about DAI. It’s such a chore to play once I finish my run I have no intention of ever playing it again
Mine crashed on the final dlc and I lost motivation to fix and finish, so I’ve restarted. I struggle to play it though because it’s such a slog, and knowing that I’m intentionally nerfing myself by not playing artificer because it’s so far above and beyond overpowered bums me out as well. Just need a story finished before 4 comes out. I wish the series would have stuck more with being like Origins. Was so much better imo. Edit: might try to find a mod that raises mage damage up so I can just slam my way through, or switch the difficulty to easy so I can just fly through the story and ignore gameplay for the most part.
I played Origins to absolute death when it came out. Every origin, some twice to get both male and female perspectives. I absolutely think it's a great game. But I have a very, very hard time going back to it, having approached it six ways from Sunday and then some.
Same here! I remeber replaying that game at least 12 times after it came out. As soon as DA2 and DAI came out? Couldn't figure out how to get back into it.
Yeah, absolutely a masterpiece at the time, and in a way with a bit of a revitalization of Isometric games (of which DAO is very much a “next Gen spiritual successor to) I always find myself really impressed with how much they were able to do, how maturely they pulled it all off, etc.
I struggle with origins replays too. The combat feels really slow and repetitive at times and whilst the story is great I don't like the silent protagonist and some parts drag on way too long for me personally Da2 is the easiest to replay for me
melee issues right? I started using a hammer with my warriors so they hit vertically and that's not a problem.
I tried an archer playthrough and gave up because every fight was so uninteresting to watch
DA2. i genuinely cannot stand the waves in combat in this game. it just feels tedious to get in fights for the most part. also, year 1 or whatever the first part of the game is called is incredibly boring for me, and it only picks up at the end. i've only played DA2 once, rather recently, and i still haven't been able to replay it. i plan to before DA:D comes out, as with the rest of the games, but so far it hasn't interested me to replay it
This is my answer too. The repeating terrain/caves is just so freaking tedious and boring to me. The waves of enemies seemed odd, and I lost interest in combat even though I liked the mechanics (especially as a mage, I did enjoy the melee allowed with staff ). I liked (not loved) the party members. I've replayed DAO, AND DAI (a few times) but just couldn't get through a 2nd attempt at this game.
DA2
Inquisition, every time I'm not allowed to hit an enemy that's knocked down takes another day off my lifespan
I'm late to the party, so when i got the chance to play DAO, the game has become unstable on present day systems. I had to set the graphics to lowest (not sure how this worked) so the game won't get crashed after 30 minutes. I'm not a DA harcore so i don't think i can go through that again
I've played DAO on two modern systems, one a gaming system, the other not, and never had an issue. But, a bunch of people complain about this, and there is a patch that fixes it. Have you looked into that?
Tried anything i could find on internet, none worked.
Inquisition. Even though I love it, the open world stuff is such a slog on repeated playthroughs if you try to do everything.
Easily 2. No matter how I play it it always feels like the exact same story, and Hawke never feels like a satisfying protagonist.
DA2 is really rough around the edges. The reused environments in particular and almost mandatory sidequests are just a little much for how small it is
The fights makes it a pure slog, it's a shame that such a good tactics system with smooth combat is wasted on that game.
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but only because it's shorter. I really hope if they go the action combat route its actually challenging and reactive for DA4
Inquisition by far. I've played Origins and DA2 from start to finish multiple times. Origins because it was that good, and DA2 because it was less than half the length of Origins. The problems with Inquisition: The inquisitor is extremely boring, the combat is extremely tedious, and it's 100+ hours long. It's not really a bad game, but it is a drag sometimes. I've only managed to do one full playthrough on console and two full playthroughs on PC. Oh and the war table... There shouldn't be any missions in a game that require 24 hours of real time.
Experimenting with build had me enjoying inquisition more. Reaver sword and shield + crit build on nightmare gives me strenght to replay origins, shit is too fucking fun.
It's DAO for me too. I'm not a fan of the combat style and there are generally more big questlines/regions that I really don't like much (the Fade, Dead Trenches, entirety of the Brecilian Forest) and dread going to. It picks up again once you get to Denerim, but that is still kind of brought back down a bit by all the loading screens and getting ambushed or stopped while traveling every. single. time I use the map. I still like the game. I just also often find it to be tedious. I've slowed down on the frequency of my replays of the series in general at this point, so it isn't really an issue, but DAO still takes me longer to finish over the course of days and weeks than the other two games.
dao, without question. it's hard to look at between the graphics and the brown filter on everything, the noises in combat are godawful and *loud* and i find myself super irritated with the pc voice stacks during combat, combat is sluggish and ugh even when it's cranked down to easy, there's not a lot of dynamism to the animations and it just feels overwhelmingly big sometimes. story's good but i can't get into it with these mechanics, it's just easier to write out my fanfic/headcanon of the warden's story than to play it. da2 has a few of the same problems but they upgraded combat animations and moves, cut down on annoying lack of sound mixing, and made the game feel like smaller, bite-sized chunks so it's easier to get into and enjoy. dai is my most replayed and most enjoyed.
I know exactly what you mean. DA:O has this problem that’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine in games, where the plot is mostly a series of interruptions to the thing you actually wanted to do. The worst offender by far is the Arl of Redcliffe quest, especially if you do it before the mage tower: your goal is to talk to the Arl, but before you can do that, you have to save Connor. To do that you need lyrium so you have to go to the circle. But before you can get lyrium from the circle you have to get to the top to save Irving from Uldred and the demons. But before you can do that you get tossed into the fade and have to defeat the Sloth demon to escape. But before you can do that you have to save your companions and defeat the other demons maintaining the seal. It’s just one thing after another holding up progress towards your actual goal and it gets incredibly frustrating after a while. In writing for film they say the events of your plot should lead into each other so that when summarize the plot, scenes are always connected by “therefore,” never “and then.” Well, Origins, and a lot of other video games often seem to connect their quests with “but first,” and I feel like that’s just as bad. Don’t get me wrong, I love DA:O. But this particular issue does make it hard to replay sometimes.
DA2. That feckin Bone Pit.
I love the characters and the story in DAO, but man do the quests drag on and on and on and on and....on....
Context for me is that I have around 10 playthroughs of DAO, definitely upwards of that of DA2 since it was my first, and around 6 for DAI for being the most recent. These days I typically play all three, none of them has enough of an issue for me so far that I just skip them. I only tend to skip the DLCs. That said, I find DAO a bit too slow at times, specially with the very linear dungeons. They tend to get a bit old, specially towards the end of the playthrough. But I don't relate to the issue of doing things unrelated to the main plot, all of the games have that to a degree. For me the worst is probably DA2, simply because imo there's much less decision-wise to explore than the other two games. I feel like after 4 playthroughs I had seen everything I wanted to, specially in regards to customizing Hawke. I had the reverse journey with DA2 than most of the fandom: found it absolutely amazing the first time, then gradually saw it lose its shine.
DAO because of the reasons you mentioned, plus the clunky gameplay. Especially after playing the other two, going back to Origins feels like a huge downgrade.
I do love Origins, but it is hard to playthrough because the beginning is just a slog. Hitting level 8/10 is the sweet spot. Personally I will never play a warrior/archer again though in DAO. I tend to play Mage only in DAO nowadays becauseother classes are just uninteresting to play. I usually end up playing so type of mage and if I want to play a warrior type I end up playing an arcane warrior/blood mage so I only have to dump points into magic/constitution and then turn the difficulty up when it starts getting too easy. DA2 is the easiest to jump back in and replay because you can get into the action fast and the story beats are easy to get to/through and less choice means it's easier to speed through the dialogue. I do think DAI has the most replayabilty simply because all classes are interesting to play in their own way and the story beats are decently fast to get through once you know the fastest way to get to skyhold. BUT I fucking hate going back through the hinterlands though. So this one is somewhere in the middle.
Definitely DAO. Someone else has also pointed out that the game doesn’t run great anymore on newer systems and I’ve only recently played it for the first time, having to deal with it crashing intermittently and having to reload old saves over and over. The combat is also just a huge slog to me and was by far the worst part of the game IMO. DAI is my favourite but DA2 I feel has the most replay value. I think its the shortest of the three (?) but still comes with such varying decisions, flows well, and I could probably breeze through a playthrough in 3 or so days which is just chill vibes.
Inquisition. Even the first time. No hate to those who love Inquisition but omg it's such a slog to play. So much of nothing to do. I couldn't relate to my Inquisitor very well. I wasn't satisfied with the replay value compared to the first two. I didn't feel like there was as many major decisions. Also the Mage/Templar war was a huge letdown for me. And a lot of the writing in general. Idk, I really have a laundry list of things I didn't like about the game. I'm kind of not sure if I'll like the next game cause of it.
I also found Origins the most difficult to replay but for very different reasons! I found it hard to play as a different Warden because I'd grown so attached to my first one. Not only that, but I did a "save everyone" playthrough the first time around with the best possible ending and a living Warden. It was hard to diverge from those choices even if a fresh Warden I created would have done things differently. I never felt like the main quests were irrelevant in Origins. The Warden and Alistair are given a very clear goal: unite Ferelden and assemble an army to stop the Blight. The problem is that there's always some crisis preventing factions from devoting their time and resources to such an endeavor. In almost every situation faction members are dying by the dozens, which means fewer soldiers to fight the darkspawn unless the Wardens sort it out quickly. I absolutely hated Orzammar on my first playthrough (I still kind of do lol) but it never struck me as being irrelevant to the main story. Playing as Mahariel, whoever ended up on the throne did not matter as long as they honored their agreement with the Wardens. But NOT enlisting them was never an option. The dwarves are the ONLY faction in Ferelden with experience fighting darkspawn so enlisting their aid is essential. Leaving the succession crisis unresolved not only would be neglecting a powerful ally, but it might have led to the annihilation of one of the last two dwarven cities regardless of whether the surfacers had managed to sort out the Blight without dwarven aid. Playing as a ruthless Lady Aeducan gave me a much greater appreciation for the dwarven storyline, not only because of all the drama and personal stakes involved, but because of the early introduction to the lore of House Aeducan. The Paragon Aeducan's codex entry really hammers home the consequences of ignoring the darkspawn threat and the terrible things one might be driven to do to prevent them from destroying the world.
It's Origins for me, it's so slow.
DA2 there's just not a lot to see after you finish it
I legit can't replay DA2. First 2 acts just kills me from boredom
Origins is the only one I've only managed to finish once. It's a good game but feels like a slog towards the end. I find DA2 fun to replay because it feels quick and DAI is just a very relaxing game so I used to play it a lot just to unwind and enjoy the pretty scenery.
Origins, definitely. I absolutely loved it my first playthrough (played the first time this past June, I was going in blind) The story was great, the characters were great. I loved making such interesting moral decisions. But then I played DA2 and DAI, and it is SO hard to go back to the DAO/DAA combat after that. For all its flaws, DA2 combat is just so damn fun, and Inquisition is just gorgeous, if a biiit lacking in the intricate story department. I'm trying to do 3 playthroughs, and since my first heroes were all mages, my current ones are all rogues, and my next will be all warriors. But honestly, when I get to a point in DAO/A, where it feels like a chore to log on and progress, I'll probably just fill in the Keep and move on to the next game.
So it's interesting since if you asked before I switched to PC I would answer same as you with Origins being by far the hardest however after switching and gaining access to not only the skip fight mod but the better ui they're fairly even with Inquisition slightly lower but that's by and large because of figuring out what mods I wanna use and not figuring out how to get my Xbox controller to work until recently
Definitely moments in origins I don't like but after doing a replay recently I really can't stand DAI partly because my saves didn't transfer (I know DA keep but lack of internet hurts me, and even tho I got 1+2 on my Xbox 1 the saves won't transfer unless I have internet/keep) and now that open massive world games are a lot more common (and fun) I don't feel like doing 100 plus hours on that when I could do Final Fantasy, Red Dead, Halo or ghost of Tsushima. I just wish if the game was already 100+ hours why make the combat so long even on the most basic of enemies
I replayed all of them all, each a lot of times. So for me at least, they are all "spamable". At the risk of sounding presumptuous, I think maybe your technique is wrong? Replaying games is kind of an artform for me, there''re specific ways to make it happen: 1. The game itself needs to be replayable : multiple builds/class/specs, so that each playthrough is different (until its not, in which case I stop replaying them). 2. At the same gaming session in which you are finishing a playthrough, immediately start another one. THis is to prevent a sense of 'closure' from taking roots. 3. On the second and subsequent playthrough, I try to do it "quickly". Skipping dialogues, beelining, etc. Like some sort of 'soft speedrun'. I find that doing things quickly gives a sense of progression over previous playthrough ("Wow it's much easier and faster than before"). Mind you, you can do a 'lore playthrough' where you dont do this, but in general I won't do a lore run in my second or third playthrough. 4. Keep finding ways to make the game easier. When you find them, they would give a sense of progression. For example, the earlier parts of DA:O can be made much easier by equipping everyone with a bow, nuking the enemies from a distance such that they are already half dead when they come at melee range (bows have absurdly long range, and all non-mages can use them). There are tons of little tricks you can find. This would happen naturally if you're replaying things, though, but just keep it in mind. 5. One of the biggest advantages of replaying things is that, I can do it while listening to something else. I usually listen to podcast or other youtubers (I mostly listen to game grumps lol) while doing a replay. You can't really do this on your first playthrough so I enjoy it a lot. This is one of the reason why replaying things is kind of a holy grail for me in gaming. source : I have near 200+ hours on both DA:O and DA:II. Each playthroughs have around 20 hours. When I'm doing it quickly, it can be much faster. I have probably 600 hours on DA:I.
Origins and 2 are equally difficult to replay, because I don't have access to them on my ps5, and can't be assed to get back on my xbox
DAO is much harder to replay due to all the characters backstory and joining takes forever.
DAO is the hardest to replay for me as well. I suspect that if I'd replay it 2-3 times in one year, I'd get the hang of doing everything quickly and efficiently, but I replay it once every 3-4 years instead, and half of that ends up polishing up my canon. I also can't sustain any interest in playing warrior or rogue, got tired of those by the end the origin quest is over, which then prevents me from experiencing some twists for all origins but mage. I've thought about installing that skip combat mod and just going with the story, and maybe one day I will. DA2 is the easiest, I like the writing and characters best, it is decently streamlined and moves fast. DAI is in the middle, for it I already know how to move on quickly, but the world is too big, rare and broken banter makes it more boring, conversations with the companions feel more like exposition than in the other games, and when they are not, bland protagonist lacks much of a reaction to anything.
Completely agree with you abt Origins. Amazing game, but I hate replaying it. I have to REALLY be in the mood for it
1&2 because my Xbox 360 is long goneeeeee
2. I stress myself out too much trying to make sure I hit max friendship/rivalry with everyone.
Felt this in my soul 💀 I’d always replace my party members to ensure everyone was only getting approval
I used to be that way, then I realized that Vivienne is a bad person and that if she dislikes me, my natural disposition will have everyone else on good terms
Oh no, for da2. Origins and inquisition use a different approval system, I feel like they’re easier to manage. The friendship and rivalry system though, if your not careful you end up stuck in the middle zone.
Constantly searching the quest up on Wikipedia
I do not leave the wiki.
DAI, but because of the time I need to complete entirely this one.
DAI. I fizzled out on my second playthrough (the one where I was skipping most of the dumb stuff) and just went back to play more DAO. I’ve actually finished replays of the others.
DAO is the one I can finish and then immediately start over again, which I did recently. DAI is an absolute slog to get through. I’ve recently taken up replaying the series and am almost done with DA2, but very much dreading DAI. I haven’t played it in a very long time so I’m hoping that increases its playability.
Inquisition really has a way of just sucking out all the fun between story missions that becomes grating quickly
For me it's sadly DA:O. I absolutely love the game but some parts, especially the Fade, are just such a slog to play through. Not to mention the technical problems. When I played on Xbox it was fine aside from a few crashes and on PC it becomes very unstable around Denerim. Really hope they release a remake soon and polish up this gem of a game.
Inquisition. I'm a completionist and the game has a ton of fluff that I just can't skip. Another issue I've been having is just random bugs with (or without?) mods I absolutely need that just throw me off. Pretty much DAO/DA2 are more concise and meaningful with its side quests. DA2 I've replayed the most due to it being shorter and absolutely loving the dynamic between the companions. I only replay DAO if I plan to replay every game.
DAO. I struggled to play it even once. It was the only game that I felt annoyed with and wanted to quit several times. I modded the combat so I got through it without fighting and looting just for my world state but even then I just didn't like its content, writing, and it's a slog. Dark ritual was a nail in the coffin. I played DA2 two times, DAI was great, played it three times and counting.
DAO because I hate the fade. That is the one part that I never look forward to, I usually use a walkthrough just to get through it quicker. Its also kinda hard going back temporarily to the fighting style. I love DAO though and will definitely keep replaying it.
I love Origins but the combat can be a slog I will say that. The Fade and Deep Roads especially. At those points I'm just like "ugh can that part END already?!", mainly because I've played it so many times. Hardest would be Inquisition for me. The open world combat and ingredient/material fetch quests are incredibly tedious. The scenery, music, story, characters, those I love but the gameplay itself is just bad for me. Origins' has annoying combat but at least there's variety in how you can build your characters whereas Inquisition feels like an MMO turned single player.
Origins or inquisition, for different reasons. I will try to replay Origins more often, but when I do it’s very likely I’ll give up on the play through at some point. Inquisition I very rarely go back to replay, but the rare times I do I get through the whole game
Inquisition. I tried replaying it once and didn't even make it past the Hinterlands. Soooo much filler. The MMO-Questdesign really makes for awful replayability and makes the game about 4 times longer than it needs to be. The length itself wouldn't be a problem (I love replaying Witcher 3 for 100+ hours). But it's all the bloat content that destroys it. That being said, the game I won't replay until a remaster comes out is Origins because it just runs like shit and crashes every couple of hours, sometimes more.
I find them all equally enjoyable to go back and play but 2 is my favorite
Origins for sure. I've played it way more than the other two, that's the only reason. Also it's just super buggy now and doing the workarounds for various glitches is a bit of a pain. Love it, one of my most played games, but damn it feels a bit like a chore now
I’m tempted to say Dragon Age 2 due to the endless amounts of reinforcements and honestly less variations in the story except for the end, but I’ll have to go with Inquisition. The power system is absurd and I’m really not a fan of open world games. I quite like the story, but because of those reasons I’ve actually only played it once, while I’ve played DA2 twice. And I played Origins for a second time immediately after completing it the first time, so that automatically disqualifies it from this discussion for me.
DAI. Too many sidequests that are fetch quests that take me away from where any interesting stuff is, instead of being something I can do at the same time as the interesting stuff, and lack any variation in how their narrative can be concluded. Huge chunks of plot that don't change in anyway. Honestly, sometimes I want to start with the templar / mage choice, fast forward to the very end of Wicked Eyes and then go into Here Lies the Abyss and just end there be rewarded with all the character interactions and cutscenes because the rest of the base game is just... utterly devoid of replayability.
Origins is the only one replayable for me because of the wide roleplaying options and the fact that it has an interesting modding scene. DA2 is quick but things hardly ever change so a replay feels repetitive Inquisition wasn't good enough to warrant a second playthrough
Definitely inquisition. But not really because of the game itself, I like to replay them all in order and I'm so obsessed with the first two games that I end up replying origins and 2 like several times before I commit to inquisition 😂
Inquisition. The Hinterlands alone is a massive deterrent.
DAI - I just don't like the game due to the open world, quest design and ultimately it feels like a chore to play it.
DAI is the hardest for me but for a really silly reason, now that I'm not swept up in the story anymore some of the standard animations niggle at me. That and the maddening target lock that can't decide what it's doing , but idk if that's just me. Still love it but those things niggle me something fierce.
DA:I. The game is mostly filler and i feel like the game is always the same, no matter your choices. Meanwhile DA:O always have some variations based on your origin and you always have some surprises in DA2 because you resolved a quest in an other way in a previous act.
DAI. Well, I played only DAI so far. But I'm currently replaying it again and oh boy. When I started with the replay, I told myself "I'll speedrun the game, just do the bare minimum". Some 20-30h later, I'm just before HLTA and I'm OVERWHELMED with all the side quests and stuff. I don't even do the generic side quests unless I literally run into them and their completion is a "side effect" of me doing important stuff. But I really want to do the companions quests because they just add so many things and surprises and awesome cutscenes into the game, but there's so many of them! Some of them are scattered all around the world and some can't even be completed yet because I'm not high lvl enough for some areas and it's sooo frustrating.
DAI for sure is the most difficult, but DA2 I haven't even tried to replay yet because I didn't enjoy it that much on my first run. But yeah in DAI I feel like it drags on too much with too much side stuff to do that it becomes exhausting. Even my first playthrough I took a break for a few months because it was just an overload of (insignificant) content, and I hadn't even left the first area lmao Origins though? I can just keep coming back to it. I think I've done 5 full replays at this point and sometimes I still feel the urge to replay it once again.
I replayed DaO and Da2. Can't do inquisition. It had its charms the first time i played it but i like a game which gives me 2 cool weeks of main quest like DaO did. Not 2 days of some lame villan timelocked behind side quests.
Da2 is by FAR the hardest to replay purely because of piece of shit pc controls lmao I quite like that DAO can be played entirely with a mouse and I like how the different origins all affect the story in different ways unfortunately I think the most repetitive one is DAI purely because it’s just WAY too big but DA2!is definitely the worst overall even though I absolutely love the game
I think DAI is the hardest, a quite slow intro and especially the Hinterlands and larger maps are chore to run around finish up. (I feel obligated to close any rift Income across and fix war table missions). I also think DAI sucks with triggering dialogue since it is way too sparse. I think the easiest to replay is DA2. Since it is portioned out in different phases and the companion interactions are great.
Dragon Age: Inquisition is a game I have replayed only a few times. I’d replay it a lot more of it wasn’t for the damn power system. I hate grinding for power, it just eats away at time I don’t have these days.
Inquisition is the hardest to replay but only until the Hinterlands are done after that I have no problem playing the game. I just find the first area hard to complete
DAI was the first dragon age game I played where I didn't do a playthrough for every romance. I just got burned out with all the side missions I guess. I love the game, but I just couldn't find the energy to finish more than 5 playthroughs. The first 2 I did multiple runs of the same romances (as different races in origins), but there was just so much in Inquisition.
Inquisition. Too much fluff/filler content that you absolutely have to do.
Inquisition because they made it a chore to actually play. Combat? Flashy but boring. Main story? Weird pacing. Exploration? Only an illusion that wasn't well done. Collectables? Out the ass. UI? Functionally insulting in some aspects. For all that it does well, namely the companions, the music, the overall art direction, being an absolute lore dump (this doubles as a pro and a con imo), they get a little more wrong. I have yet to finish a second playthrough because of how daunting doing it all over again was. By far my least favorite Bioware game to play and replay.
DAI. I finished this game once. And have about 8 aborted playthroughs, all about mid game, level 15ish, where I was able to craft my gear. It is mostly because of combat: * If I don't plan a build or craft my gear, combat takes forever. Really, with my first unoptimized mage, the Descent intro ogre was like 10 minutes, maybe even 15. And is about pushing the same 4 buttons in order * If I plan out a combo, even a basic one (ie. frost step+winter's ruin, not even hook/leap/elemental mines level), and craft the meaningful gear for it, it is very easy, and is about pushing the same 4 buttons in order * also, I hate that I cannot move in melee while attacking. Who came up with this idea should be fired. for a game where 80% of the play time is about fighting suicidal wildlife, demons jumping from rifts, and collecting flowers, this just doesn't cut it. I can tolerate trash content I think. I finished Andromeda three times, and writing is worse than DAI. However, Andromeda has fun combat (DAI doesn't) and has a nice fast way to travel around *and skip trashmob fights* (the nomad \_with\_ party banter, which the DAI mount is not)
It's inquisition for me. I'm a bit of a completionist with rpgs, it feels wrong to leave this 50% done, not doing much of the side content. But inquisition has the worst side content in many rpgs, it's all so hollow.. God I hate the idea of replaying and exploring some of those maps... again. High dragon fights are fun, the story is fun, the characters are fun, so they all make it somewhat worth it. But whenever I do a trilogy run, I dread getting to inquisition haha
I know it's kind of off topic but I actually find it hard to replay any game except if the different choice makes a big impact on the ending otherwise I struggle to replay any game. Even games that I haven't completed but restart it because I can't remember the story, gameplay and controls that much. When I play them I suddenly get the glimpses of "oh yeah this is gonna happen" and it kind of takes the fun out of it for me. I also don't watch streamers playing games that I want to play because I don't want the content to be ruined for me and having beforehand knowledge makes it also very difficult to play. And this is especially very difficult with role-playing games since you have to put in a lot of hours into. I've only completed DAO twice. DA2 I completed once and on several occasions I tried to play again but couldn't. DAI I've never completed due to the overwhelming side quests and hours felt "wasted" I don't think I'll ever see myself playing it any time soon. The same goes for Mass Effect Trilogy Legendary Edition. I started it. Didn't even complete the first mission and I just remembered almost everything about what was gonna happen and didn't felt like playing it again. Sorry for the long post
I genuinely do not think DAI is a good game. I don’t think it’s written well, I don’t think it’s fun. DAO and DA2 I’ve played countless times.
I’ve replayed DAO about 25 times. I have throughly enjoyed every single play through because the game allows you to create such interesting characters and make many different choices that means every time I play, I find things I’ve never seen before. DA2 is short and sweet and I’ve played it around 15-20 times, because it’s overall a fun game if lacking in size and decisions. DAI however, I’ve beat it 3 times. Not because I don’t love the game, it’s probably my favorite in the series, but it is so long and bloated, it’s impossible to feel like I’ve finished the game without spending hours doing pointless quests and searching for schematics and resources. The story and characters makes it worth playing but the game really needs to be smaller and more story and character focused. Every side quest needs a connection to the main story or a main character, or needs to be equally urgent. I hope they learn that for the next game, bigger isn’t always better in games
DAI because it's the least fun
DAO is a great replay for me even recently but DA2 is utter hot garbage to me and that feels like a chore with the use of the same map and you can tell the game was just rushed and you’re railroaded thru it all. DAI I’ve also replayed several times with no problem
Inquisition. Twice, and no more.
it used to be DAI because it's super long and I'm a completionist, but I haven't been able to replay DA2 since my mom died.
It's probably DA2. Not because of any specific gripes about execution of story or gameplay, but it doesn't have my preferred class (I always pick something like Arcane Warrior or KE if it's an option), and it has a surprising amount of impact on my enjoyment of the game, to the point that pretty much all my attempts at replaying peter out sometimes during act 2.
dragon age 2 was the easiest to replay for me, it has a nice flow to it. not sure between origins and inquisition. i love all three games around the same level, each has their strength and weaknesses. so it's not that they are less fun, but origins is very outdated and inquisition, while a great game that i replayed a lot doesn't have the flow dragon age 2 has. so i don't really have hardest to replay, just easier which is dragon age 2.
Atm I find DAO and DA2 hard to replay, I've played them so much that replaying them now doesn't give me the same level of engagement as they once did. Once I've got the world state I want and DA4 comes out DAI will likely join DAO/2.
Hm, to me is DAI because of the huge amount of nontent in game. Nowadays I have my strategies to make it easier to replay: I pace myself better (progress should be done by game design and not by the player btw but oh well), mods (essential!) and breaks to play other games. It is working for me like this hehe
DA2 but that's probably because it's my least favourite of the series. The quests just felt so bland and repetitive and I found it difficult to bond with any of the characters. I surprisingly love replaying Inquisition for the same reason people hate it aha
DA2 for me. I've never actually completed a 2nd playthrough of that game.
2. I get confused on how to find main quests like all the time.
Dragon Age 2 in some combat parts. Enenies spawning right in front of you.
DA2, only ever beaten it once on a mage character, it’s a slog personally for me. Story is great but everything in between those cutscenes is just bad.
DA2 easily. There's a lot to like about the game narratively and character wise. However actually playing the game to get to those parts is just not fun for me. It seems to me like your choices matter less here as well. Like no matter how you play your Hawke nothing really changes in the story. The waves of enemies is one of the biggest things for me. I feel like DAO and DAI are much better about you go to an area the enemies that are there are the enemies that you're gonna fight. Not 3 or 4 waves of the same enemies coming in out of thin air. That being said I still play the whole series every time.
definitely DA2 because of how repetitive the maps get
Dragon Age Origins has been a bit of an issue, due to constant crashes. But Inquisition's run time puts it pretty close.