BioWare somehow does a better job with party-members than moral-choices
You know what I noticed in Dragon Age and Mass Effect? With few exceptions, their moral-choice systems were almost ridiculously black-and-white. In those games, BioWare tried to paint their moral-choices as gray-shaded and ambiguous. Unfortunately, every time they do that, they are almost always -- and at times, unintentionally -- reduced to something so dirt simple, that even an infant would figure it out on his own.
For example, at the end of Mass Effect 2's Legion: A House Divided, there was a choice to either rewrite the geth heretics, or destroy them. The former choice was no better than the latter, because it involved stripping the heretics of their free-will and sense of self, just because they were machines. If any time Shepard were to do that to an organic, it would've been much worse.
Unfortunately, the developers made rewriting the heretics a Paragon option, because it involved "saving" them from Reaper control. They literally took something just as bad as destroying the geth heretics, and make it look like the most logical choice.
Likewise, in Dragon Age Origins, saving the mages was supposed to have some bad sides to it, such as the fact those mages can easily be possessed by demons or turn to blood magic. However, even without a moral-choice bar to determine how "good" or "evil" the player-character was, I'd consider saving the mages the "good" choice, versus killing the mages a "bad" choice.
This is most especially true with DA:O's party-members. For example, Leliana, Wynne, and Alistair mostly approve of morally righteous choices, while the rest are either evil jerks (Morrigan, Shale, and Zevran), or just neutral (Sten, Oghren, Mabari Warhound). Do something good or heroic, and you earn some of Leliana, Alistair, and/or Wynne's approval. Do something questionable, on the other hand, and you could win Morrigan, Shale, Sten, Oghren, and/or Zevran's approval.
However, while those two games, plus other BioWare games I've yet to play, have mediocre/crap moral-choice systems, they seem to compensate for this with strong party-members for players to carry around. I liked the squadmates of the Mass Effect trilogy, and the party-members of Dragon Age Origins, because they had such unique story-arcs and abilities. Hell, the DLC for Mass Effect 3, titled "Citadel", didn't revolve around moral-choices so much as it did Shepard's team, from Urdnot Wrex rejoining the old guard for a gun-fight against an unknown enemy whom I won't spoil, to him, the current ME3 team, and all seven surviving ME2 squadmates coming to Anderson's apartment to throw a party with Shepard as their host.
And to be perfectly honest, I'm the ensemble-cast guy, like Joss Whedon. Having multitudes of different characters can be like telling multiple stories being simultaneously told in the same larger storyline. It's one of the reasons why I became a brony, because of MLP's strong ensemble cast of six mares, plus a baby-dragon and three preschoolers. And, it's why I like party-based RPGs, not just the BioWare ones, but also the ones from Japan, like Final Fantasy, Tales of Symphonia, and Kingdom Hearts.
That, and in the real-world, I'm a pathetic loner without any friends, or even a girlfriend for that matter. Hell, I purchase My Little Pony plush-dolls and cuddle with them to fill the void.
-
1
0 Comments
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Join the herd!Sign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now