Impression: Dragon Age: Origin

So since my PC and the rest of my PS3 games still had not arrived from Aussie even after almost 3 weeks (4 now, damn what the hell did they do to make the deliveries taking so long), I had to content with a few games I brought with me in my luggage (kinda regret giving Valkyria Chronicle to deady during CF lol), and among these few games are Dragon Age Origin, a game I bought from my ex-housemate just a few days prior to me retuning to Malaysia. Though, until last week I kept myself busy with Trinity Universe, FIFA11 and Front Mission Evolved before I finally decided to give Dragon Age: Origin a serious try.

Considering Dragon Age:Origin was an insanely popular game throughout the gaming world, I guess I didn't really have to put much into this entry. But I guess for someone who is so accustomed to generic jrpgs like myself, it was a fresh change of air to play a western RPG game like this, though you might argue games like White Knight Chronicles did has similar vibes. Based on story progression, it looks like I'm nearing the end of my first playthrough, just after recruiting all 4 allies through the Grey Warden Treaties, and midway through the Landsmeet. That's about 25 hours of play, I suppose. So my thoughts about the game, from a jrpg fan's point of view:

Title: Dragon Age: Origin
Developers: Bioware
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PS3), Xbox 360, Windows, Mac
Genre: role-playing
Release date: November 2009

Dragon Age Origin tells a tale of Grey Warden, legendary warriors who picks up swords and allies to battle against demonic creatures called Darkspawn which emerged every few hundred years in worldwide calamity called the Blight. And to start the story, you need to first pick your race (human, elf or dwarf) and class (warrior, rogue or mage), which determine where you start the story, either in the Noble Castle, the Circle's Mage, the Elven Forest etc; called the Origin Story. You are then recruited to be a Grey Warden, and following conflict at each of your Origin, you follow your recruiter, Duncan to be a full-fledged Grey Warded and proceed to the main story. where you're eventually required to gather allies according to the Grey Warden Treaties to fight against the Blight.

Usually in jrpg, I am accustomed with the plot-driven story in which main character's personality, plot and most other things had already been determined and it's a matter of progressing from point A to point B to advance the game. This obviously differs in many western RPG, including Dragon Age: Origin, where in most cases, you are free to shape your own character, free to make your own choice which consequently affect the stories throughout the game. Be a good, evil, polite, rude, it's all up to you to decide. I guess this is what fascinates the general mass gamers. What's they call a "true" role-playing games. Well, it doesn't matter much for me, I do enjoy either way as long as the characters are interesting and the gameplay are enjoyable. In Dragon Age: Origin's case, the characters are indeed interesting (Alistair, Morrigan and Zevran made some nice funny conversation), but, I guess, western character design didn't "quite" hit me in my favorite list.

As for the gameplay, I'm not sure how to precisely describe it, but I'd say the game uses similar combat system typical to most western rpg/mmorpg you might have played. In PS3 version, spells and skills can be assigned to circle, square and triangle button, whilst even more spells/skills/items can be used from the quick-access menu (forgot the name lol) by pressing L2. Various spells can be chained to create devastating effects. From the basic three classes, each character can specialise into 2 further class out of 4 possible options (eg: Mages can specialise into Shapeshifter, Spirit Healer, Arcane Warrior and Blood Mage), which unlocks as you progress into the game. Lots, and and I mean LOTS of spells and skills are available for you to choose, which sometime might cause you to scratch your head on which skill you want to invest in. Oh one more thing, those familiar with the Gambit system in FFXII instantly recognize a similar features in Dragon Age Origin, the Tactic Slot which as you guess, allow you to set up battle priority tactics for your party members. EXACT COPY and MECHANISM of the one used in FFXII, a no-brainer to use. Overall, my impression toward the gameplay? Not really impressed with it, most likely because as jrpg fan, I prefer fast-paced battle with real-time combat used, like those used in Tales series. Not implying the battle in DA:O is slow, it's just that I'm not overly favor this kind of gameplay.

So the originality of Dragon Age:Origin, or things that made this game so famous all around the world? I guess it's because of the epic story and massive options to pick that affect the story. Gameplay? Although I didn't play much western RPG, I personally am not too fond with DA:O's combat system. A matter of taste I guess, considering I'm heavily lean toward JRPGs and cherish the characters that can make me feel closer (or farther) to them because of their personality. But overall I would still say that Dragon Age:Origin is a solid game for a gamer who seek enthralling stories with flexible plot.

p/s: Hopefully I can finish the game by the end of this week, and probably start a new playthrough, this time following proper walkthrough to get all possible allies, quests and Trophies.