Quote: I was actually shocked to see how uninspired the story in Dragon Age was. Probably one of the most thoroughly uninspired stories I've ever seen in an RPG--and RPGs rarely have inspired stories.Agreed. The story was shit, but I think it was pretty well presented.
Quote: A lot of people complained that you can have sex with women in the game and collect cards for doing so--one card for each woman slept with. I'll never understand this complaint: the system fleshes out Geralt's character--he's not a hero, and he's a bit of an unsympathetic womanizer. It also makes sense that he would be such--in becoming a witcher, he became sterile. Being literally unable to have kids, it is logical that as he grew up he would grow detached from the typical emotions accompanying sex.Well, my gripe isn't about him having casual sex with everyone and their grandmother (which is the impression I got when trying it out for a few minutes a year back) but that childish "high five, you get a collector's card!" thing.
Nonetheless, I think I'll have to give The Witcher a try for real this time. I don't remember why I stopped playing it last time.
Quote: Original post by LockePickThat sounds just like what I'm after; perfect timing, as I just recently bought a PS2 to play all the games I've missed out on these past eight years. Now I just need to find someone who still sells the game.
Tales of the Abyss
The first third of the game can be painful to shoulder through* (although the fun battle system helps) as it exists for the sole purpose of setting up the story for the remaining two thirds which are basically exactly what you described: discovering that the 'good guys' and 'bad guys' are pursuing the same ends through strikingly similar means.
There are a ton of different factions with characters constantly jumping teams, making/breaking alliances, having relationships cross-faction, questioning their own actions, questioning their allies, and understanding the motivations of their enemies. The 'bad guys' all have honourable goals. The 'good guys' do some seriously questionable stuff. Everyone's pasts and motivations overlap in various ways. Conflict makes everyone suffer. There's no evil for the sake of evil.
The story evolves. Plans are made, plans are foiled, characters adapt. Conflicts are resolved only to spurn further conflicts. It sounds simple but how many games actually do this? They can be counted on one hand.
Quote: Just be warned: it is a JRPG. It is bright and colourful, the characters are pretty young (and the older ones look young), there's some poor localization and cheesy dialogue. But if you can handle that, there's very surprising maturity in the plot. It's the opposite of Dragon Age: Genuinely interesting and complex plot with weaker moment-to-moment acting.Not a problem; I've been overdosing on Japanese stuff since I was in high school, so I'm pretty used to it.
