For Shale, keep in mind that she was designed before the game released and there were still references to her in the pre-DLC code. She was striped out to sell later and that is why she fits into the main story well, she was initially a part of it.
For me, one of the best "feels" moments happens when you take Shale into the Deep Roads (base game). When you go to make a rubbing of the inscription at the Anvil, and find Shale's name name on in the list. I don't know why, but it hits me pretty solidly.
That is not exactly true according to Mark Darrah. It wasn't ready for the launch but they finished it shortly after the launch. Also, EA saw an opportunity to still get Shale into the game by selling her as a DLC in order to keep getting money out of DAO.
@@oldmangimp2468 whole that moment is great I never get it, most of my Wardens side with Branka over Caridin meaning I have to kill Shale or not bring her, I never bring her as a result No it's not just for the anvil of the void, I can't see any warden just telling the assembly "yeah we found this centuries old lump of steel that used to be a paragon, he made a crown for you :)" and having them just shrug and say ok. Branka just makes more sense, especially if you want the anvil but also if you want to redeem her
Caridin has a whole thing with Shale where they used to be friends before she became a golem, and she will turn against you if you side with Branka, forcing you to kill her. Also the idea of her being conscious while under the control of the rod is terrifying for it’s implications cuz that would mean all the golems you fight in the deep roads are also conscious, just ordered to guard wherever they are so they can’t make their own choices.
@@tramiel3057 Not if she's in your party, as far as I'm aware, but if you don't have her in your party and you talk to her afterwards, you can talk to her about it and avoid her leaving the party if you withhold information, IIRC.
Oh man this couldn't have dropped at a better time. I'm just about to lay down for a nap and I love listening to Salt get snarky as I drift off to sleep.
@@GearShotgun Correct :) Of course I also do that to absolutely insane things...like dougdoug streams. If I had dreams, they would be absolutely insane XD
From what I remember, Shale's line about getting chipped down because of the wizard's wife was a joke/reference to how the developers had shrink Shale because it was too big for doorways. Shale was originally supposed to be as big as the other golems seen in the game. I also remember hearing that Shale was supposed to come with the base game but was chopped off to be sold as DLC.
I was a Warden who did the ritual with Morrigan after romancing her, and in Witch Hunt I managed to convince Morrigan to let me go with her and our child together through the mirror, and my Warden ending is essentially me just disappearing with her after ending the blight and killing the Architect, and honestly I kind of like that. I found it a Mysterious, but satisfying ending
Same here. Would have been nice to see my Warden with Morrigan when we meet her in Inquisition, but I'm glad she mentions him when the Inquisitor asks about her past.
I always wanted that ending. When finishing the vanilla game, she just took off with the kid. In the end, Alistair asked me what I plan to do and I selected that I want to go after her. I never managed to play her dlc unfortunately...
@@GuessWho7197 It's also cool that by doing that with the Warden, they manage to avoid what happens to the rest of the Wardens during the events of Inquisition. :D
1:03:00 as the wise Seargeant Kylon says after you kill an entire ambush in Denerim: Kylon: "And people actually voluntarily attack you? Are they just stupid?"
In fairness to the whole "the only mirror I know about was shattered because darkspawn" it's a reference to the Daelish Elf origin where you find said mirror, but it was corrupted by the darkspawn taint and you get infected because you didn't know better. So Duncan offers to save you by making you a Grey Warden before breaking the mirror so it wouldn't keep spreading the taint
Also the Dalish Elf who romanced Alistair but chose not to go through with Morrigan’s deal was the original canon ending. Then EA decided they wanted sequels thus male human noble was made canon.
@@TheAndrassa then quite frankly that's dumb. Never been a fan of the idea of devs choosing the "cannon path". If your gonna give the player a choice, but then say "ahh but this is the real path". It just makes me question is it actually the cannon path that was decided when it was in development or was it cuz you needed to make lore changes later down the line.
@@gigabytetech5509 Well to answer your question at least about Origins yes female Dalish Elf was decided as the cannon path at the beginning of development, I can’t quite remember if Alistair was decided as the cannon love interest at the start or midway through production. As for why it was changed EA wanted sequels and DG came up with a lot more lore because of it. EA did have their own guidelines to input though which did restrict the writing team a little so it was just easiest to have male human noble be the new canon. Of course why this is easier is only truely explained in the second season of the graphic novels. Where we learn the Theirin bloodline is infused with dragon blood which makes them a battery for the old gods and why it is especially emphasised that Alistair must have a child. It also further explains that he and others of Theirin blood are immune to the calling. Inquisition unfortunately cut out a lot of backstory that is needed to understand why certain characters are doing what they are doing. Like how Morrigan is not only sucking up to empress Celené to provide safe haven for her son but to also stop an invasion of Ferelden. Or how Sten took over the position of Arishok after the one in Kirkwall committed an unsanctioned takeover. Or that one the other reasons Dorian was in Redcliffe was because Tevinter high magisters had been keeping Maric locked up for decades draining his blood in the hopes of using it to power themselves up and that he felt guilty that his father was involved. But they might correct these things with the next game being set in Tevinter. But they might fix some of these issues in the upcoming fourth game.
The character design in Awakening is absolutely insane. I mean the Darkspawn, Brood Mother, and the Architect are some of the most badass looking characters in the whole series.
There is one ending you missed in Witch Hunt. If you were in a relationship with Morrigan, you can actually decided to go with her and this ending will be mentioned in Dragon Age Inquisition.
@@werewolflover8893 the default world state is literally where it isn't mentioned though, since it doesn't carry over your choices? You have to import your own world state with the keep, default world state doesn't matter for this.
@@werewolflover8893 no she wont. In the default world state the Warden was a Female Dalish that died killing the Archdemon, you need to import your choices into the keep
If memory serves you can save everything in Awakening; you need to do all the companion quests, do all the keep and soldier upgrades and leave Nate, Anders, and Oghren to defend it and take Velana, Sigrun, and Justice with you. That way, you save Amaranthine, and the keep gets defended. Also I regarded Oghren here as a better written character than in the base game, more like a killer, who know what he is, but does try to be something else and fails and is torn between what he is and what he maybe would want to be, as opposed to a drunk comic relief from the base game. Anyway solid work as always man, thank you.
you only have to do all keep and soilder upgrade quests to save the both and don't leave Nate to defend. the epilouge will tell you he survives but the codex and in DA2 he will be dead. so you have to bring him with you to defeat Mother to have him live
Your companion setup for the end works for Awakening on its own, but if you intend to import into DA2, I would leave Justice and take Nathaniel. It makes sense to pair Anders and Justice together at the keep, given events prior to DA2, and as mentioned Nathaniel's got a weird case of his epilogue differing from his import flags.
The human noble origin has a really interesting dynamic with Nathaniel. Howe murdered your family and you murdered Howe in revenge. Now faced with his son you have to deal with the consequences of your vengeance and the relationship starts off really hostile with some really interesting dialogue, but eventually an understanding is reached and it’s really cool to see.
Indeed. Played a female human noble in my first run. The interaction between Cousland and Nathaniel was perfect. I was a staunch Cousland/Alistair shipper, but give me Cousland/Nathaniel any day! But really, even if playing a male character, I would have loved the interaction between Cousland and Nathaniel. After having grown up together, those two characters have a lot of tension to go through.
The look and the short nod you and the son exchange with each other in the cut scene where you walk away from the corpse of the final boss kinda says it all.
Dude I love Shale so much, she’s such an amazing character. Also leaving her behind for the final fight is fun cuz you can set her up behind the door of the main gates and benefit from her stationary buffs with the rest of your companions
Not to mention, if you leave her to fight at the door she tells you "Have fun storming the castle," which is a Princess Bride reference. I love Origins.
Oh, and her "Best Ending" slide is great. Basically it details that her and Wynne become good friends, and together find some manner of method to put Shale's soul back into a dwarf's. It also says that people tell stories about an angry dwarven woman, living in the mountains who hates all forms of birds. Also, if you got that ending and talk to Wynne in Awakening, you can ask after Shale, too.
@@forthemysterians7630 If we're gonna be completely technical, Shale has no gender as a golem, but is still derived specifically from a female dwarf. Meaning that while they don't have an assigned gender, they can be most easily referred as being female still.
Justice doesn’t just “show up” in the sequel, him and Anders basically merge together, and Anders issues warp Justice from a spirit of justice into a spirit of vengeance. He’s a big reason Anders does his actions in the sequel
Yeah, but you only ever interact with Justice himself really in that one side mission about Feynriel if you choose to have Anders in your party when going into the Fade. Otherwise you're only ever really interacting with the new being that is Anders and Justice merged.
@@jchart I wouldn't necessarily consider them a new being. That's just cope coming from Anders. He is clearly out of control. Anders' hatred of the circle, chantry, and templars and need for freedom basically twists Justice's nature until he forgets where Anders started and he begins. Much like how human emotions twist spirits into Demons, Justice is twisted into Vengeance. THAT is the new entity, but it's influence over Anders is clearly the product of possession. Ironically it's just another cage trapping Anders in his own bottled up feelings. It could be worse. Justice was noble, and Anders was a good person at heart, and that's probably the only reason why he doesn't just go full abomination. But in Kirkwall, a city that seems to be literally designed to empower blood magic and madness, their good natures never had a chance of winning.
@@djdaem0nplays I disagree. Anders is essentially "Wynne gone wrong". While the Fade spirit in Wynne was essentially docile, Justice has been shown to be an active being, so merging with Anders would have a profound effect on both. For all of Ander's bad decisions he understood that blood for blood was not the way, hence his hesitant attitude about the Libertarian party splitting off. When the two merged Justice of course inherented the hatred of the Circle and the Chantry for their injustices from Anders and Anders started acting more violent as Justice compelled him to act. Overtime this created Venegance.
Some little fun facts about the content of these DLC (incoming wall of text) : - During Leliana's Song, when you're escaping from the prison you also find and free a named female elf (Adaia) which is supposed to be the mother of the city elf player character - Darkspawn Chronicles happen in the case of the player character not surviving the joining and Alistair having to be the main character and make some questionable choices (keeping the golems and siding with the werewolves 😂 ) - In the Warden's Keep, if you play as human noble, Avernus tells you that one of your ancestors was opposing the king and was a potential ally of the wardens during their coup. - Doing the deep roads with Shale is a whole lot different, especially when you meet Caridin, she also automatically side with him and becomes hostile if you side with Branka - Return to Ostagar have a whole lot different dialogues if you brought Loghain with you and he have some very interesting dialogues, especially when you find the letters and how to deal with Cailan's corpse. The dog also react to some parts of the area and if you didn't bother getting it in the base game, you'll find him here and can decide to either keep him or let him go free. Awakening has to be my favorite part of the game, the atmosphere and the gameplay with the expanded specs are just so good. The story is also much more well structured compared to Origins in term of Darkspawn and how to fight them. Too bad it's shorter than DA:O and also very, buggy because a lot of content doesn't work properly unless you use mods to fix them (Sigrun side quest, some gear you can't get among many). And it has the best antagonist in the Dragon Age series imo, the Architect is so interesting and fascinating and it's a real shame they just shoved him off and didn't bother expanding on him, even more when we had Corypheus twice in the sequels. There's an interesting interaction that I found in subsquent playthroughs with Oghren, if you recruited him early and took him with you in the mage tower questline he'll freak out when you find him in the fade later on (since dwarves aren't supposed to do magic and dream) and during Awakening, if he's with you when you enter the fade again, he'll remember it from Origins and comment on how he doesn't like how it feels because it's so unatural for dwarves to be there. There are also so much stuff from Origins that are well transfered depending on your character's origin : If the warden is human noble, the interactions with Nathaniel Howe are one of the best and you can also remind his sister that you were supposed to get an arranged marriage. If the warden if dalish elf, Velanna will recognize you and be friendlier with you compared to other origins. If the warden is dwarf commoner, Sigrun will recognize you from the slums of Orzammar (don't remember anything if dwarf noble) If the warden is mage, Anders will recognize you from the mage tower. As for the Witch Hunt DLC, there are some nice details that I especially like : If the warden is dalish, Ariane will aknowledge you as a fellow dalish and be more friendly. The dlc also gives some closure to a dalish warden, going back where it all began and discovering the true nature and secrets of the Eluvians. Dalish warden commander will also be mentioned a lot in DA2 during many dialogues through Anders and Merrill. If you romanced Morrigan and kept the ring she offered you in Origins equiped, there will be a cutscene where Ariane will ask you why you keep looking at it and if you tell her it was Morrigan's gift, she'll ask if you were married. Morrigan's interactions at the end are also very touching if she was romanced. Though this dlc is good imo, it's also very short and could have been a little more expanded. The ending especially is a big cliffhanger and cuts abruptly only to be really resolved in Inquisition. TLDR : I just love exploring the details of DA:O and its DLC content compared to the sequels, the general ambience and atmosphere is what hooked me to this franchise, I would liked if they continued with the dark fantasy setting rather than the high fantasy we got now Thank you for this video and for rediscovering what this games were, it reminded me why I loved it so much despite its clunkyness and many bugs and optimization problems 😅😆
@@ZrodyApo “mehh” is to kind in my opinion. I remember how the developers talked about “going back to the roots of the series”, how they would focus on dialogue, story and tactical combat again, how they had learned from their mistakes (DA2). Then the game came out. I played it, and my disappointment was immeasurable. Dumbed down dialogue with illusion of choice, NO way of doing an evil playthrought, an empty open world for the sake of having an open world, same combat system as DA2, no origin stories for your character &c. Man, I was mad.
When Awakening came out it felt less buggy (I don't think I've encountered any bugs). Later updates and "fixes" made it worse and now I need to use community mods and tips to fix it myself.
Having Sigrun be a rogue tank is hilarious. The Legion Scout subclass is high key insanely broken if you also have her be a duelist. Also since I’m talking about rogues, bows are absolutely broken in the dlc. The damage gets to the point where it scales purely on the amount of dex and cunning you have, to ludicrous degrees, and you can literally get crits on your crits. I have seen Nathaniel hit for nearly 1000 damage before. That’s absolutely insane
I'm doing a playthrough with a dalish archer through awakening rn and i can go through the game without having anyone in my party. Rogues are such a broken class in Awakening
That was my first build. I discover it by accident but I finished the entire campaign on insanity without issues. Even the harvester died on my first attempt.
Arcane Warrior/Bloodmage is the most OP combo I found. If you build it right you don't even have to fight anything. You just walk around and stuff dies around you. Companions are completely optional. It's pretty great.
While I may not always agree with your opinion, I really do appreciate the way you structure your videos and give me viewpoints that differ from my own, but are well supported and I can see your side. Sometimes you even manage to bring me over to your way of viewing an aspect of something. All in all, I'm just trying to say that I enjoy your videos. :)
In my opinion, that is the way any debate should go :) I realize there is no back and forth, but even without that he still changed your opinion (regardless of "right or wrong"), and that is fantastic: that you approach with at least a fairly open mind, and that his argument was built well enough to be able to sway someone on the opposite side. As you can tell, irl I really enjoy good-hearted debate :)
@@amsgamingandmusic 100% agreed - I'm not sure why so many choose to believe that a debate is a competition, and you lose if you can't convince the other party. And a large subsection of them couldn't imagine associating with someone that doesn't share and validates their opinions. But hey, to each their own. Personally I get very uncomfortable in unconditional echo chambers.
Encountering Velana (I don’t remember how it’s spelled) as a Dalish is actually really cool cuz she literally acts completely differently. She’s pretty respectful and almost grateful to see you, as she hasn’t been with her people for so long
I wasn’t sure if I remembered that right. Glad to hear it is though. I was an elf in 1 and 3 and really appreciate the way they are fleshed out especially in 3.
I firmly believe that playing as a Dalish in 1 and 3 is the “canon” race for them. The base game of Origins was probably originally intended for a human noble rogue since that has a lot more connection with Howe and stuff, but the dlc favor Dalish heavily. And I don’t need to tell people that a Dalish Mage is by far the most fleshed out character in Inquisition, specifically if you romance Solas
@@Aerowarrier Actually Dalish female rouge who romances Alistair but refuses Morrigan’s deal was the original canon. It only changed to male human warrior noble who romances Morrigan when EA decided they wanted to do sequels. As for Inquisition the canon is female Qunari from what the devs have said.
@@TheAndrassa that just don’t sound right tbh. Human Noble has a lot more connections with the main storyline of Origins. And romancing Solas has such a huge effect on things it’s weird not to have that be canon
@@Aerowarrier Dalish female who biffs it was confirmed by head writer David Gaider himself. He mentioned in several interviews how he was sad he had to make the make human noble the new cannon after EA green lit DA2. As for Inquisition it’s literally confirmed by by the dev interviews in the special interviews they did for game guide for Inquisition.
He mentioned he was disappointed that no one mentioned you have a golum but there a dude in orzimmar who literally does this and tries to persuade you into giving it to him.
@@jimmym3352 Its the same thing as another quest with Leliana, or another with Wynne, or another with Alistair. I like that it gives you a choice and consequence
@@LynxStarAuto It always struck me weird that Oghren is willing to flirt with any kinds of female except your female warden. As if he was afraid or something.
Yeah, I didn't have anything to do for the next 2 hours anyways. I do have a comment, though. At 9:55 you say your party keeps attacking the enemy forces and you need to change their tactics. If you press one of the buttons below your characters at the top left, your party won't move. I had to find this out the hard way when my party didn't do anything after I accidentally pressed that button.
I usually play a Mage so i had to learn that fast, since big AOE Spells like Grease Fire or Storm of the Century can wreck your Party pretty fast if they walk in and try to fight the Enemy there
Also in terms of his weapons disappearing. You can have two weapon sets equipped at the same time. Just click on the little sword icons at the top left of the inventory menu to switch them out.
You ran into a bug at 58:00 you were suposed to lose your inventory too but some character builds causes the bug wich lets you keep your inventory. You were supposed to beat the first group with your fists and salvage the tainted equipments of each darkspawn group until you can recover your partys item sets with each beaten experiment. Your inventory should be stored right at the end in the chest next to the merchant before the dragon fight. Its a nice concept and would be really intriging if the Segment would be much longer and without the bug.
I actually lost my characters gear due to a bug. The thing that was supposed to wear my stuff, couldn't because of the high stats, and thus it vanished into space. So i had to buy myself new equipment lol.
Wardens keep is the only way to get a personal storage chest in the game and sometimes when you put stuff in the chest they'll level up when you leave them by itself
I really like darkspawn chronicles. My favorite part was when you killed a main game party member or npc you'd get a codex entry about how they got there without your character. It also confirmed a fan theory that the blacksmiths assistant was a demon
For what it's worth, there actually is a little bit more content from Warden's Keep that you missed. It was intended to be played early in the playthrough, and provides a secure "home base" for you for the rest of the game. Some of the 'content' comes from that (but that's mostly QoL stuff like a storage box and some easier access to certain merchant types and stuff, and I feel like it's pretty scummy to make people pay for fixes to the dev's bad design decisions in the first place). But there are also a few random encounters that you can get after you finish the main DLC story, which lead into their own little quests, like a quest to forge a super fancy weapon and stuff.
So Justice is Anders. More specifically, he is the Vengeance that inhabits Anders’ body, twisted by both the events of this dlc and the hatred harbored in Anders’ heart. Meaning one companion is DA2 is two companions in Awakening, which is pretty fun
Yeah I was about to make a similar comment. Justice is always there with Anders in 2 and is a big reason why Anders goes as far as he does. This sounds like I’m taking a lot of agency from Anders himself though.
One of my favourite lines from Dragon Age in general comes from Awakening and that's when Oghren sees the experiment wearing his stuff "no one touches Oghren's junk and lives"
I mean, you can go with Morrigan at the end of Witch Hunt as well; which is really nice and does show up in the later titles if you do the weird decision import thing that Inquisition has
Unfortunately, a lot of Justice's more nuanced character development happens in dialogue with your companions - which is obviously missable. It's a real pity, because while Justice isn't my favourite character, I really like his development. He starts out as a very one-dimensional character and I believe we're meant to initially think that spirits of the Fade are truly, objectively the idea that they portray. However, Anders especially delves into what separates spirits from demons (their desires corrupt them, supposedly), with Justice doth protesting too much about how he has no desires. We grow to realise that there is actually nothing intrinsically different between spirits and demons - some just get corrupted and turn 'bad', while others do not. The virtue they carry is not an 'objective', always-correct expression, but merely the spirits' own interpretation of it. Later, Nathaniel brings up possessing a different body, dead or alive - to which Justice recoils in horror, initially. When they talk again, Nathaniel says it could be a mutually beneficial act, or even an act of kindness and mercy - like in Wynne's case - and Justice is drawn to the idea. Velanna gets Justice to admit that he could leave the body if he wanted to - though he's not certain if he would be drawn back to the Fade or remain listless in this world, and he admits he doesn't know if he wants to leave anymore. He agrees that this world has beauty in it and that he has had experiences he never even knew about. Sigrun talks to Justice about death and how spirits can be slain in our world, which disturbs Justice. In a way that completely fits Oghren, through his dialogue we learn some funny haha farts allusions that actually still illuminate how the process of possessing a dead body works. He tries alcohol and can taste it, and he pretends to not know what Oghren is talking about with regards to controlling his body, sex and bodily functions - implying all of that is present, too. Most importantly, Justice admits that he has Kristoff's memories. And there is a small throwaway line by Justice when talking about Kristoff's wife Aura that he has love for her and she has become important to him - whether purely because of the memories he has or because they have grown into something else through his own experiences. And so through every companion's dialogue we are introduced to the two main backstory elements of Anders/Vengeance - consensual merging of a living host with a spirit and the possibility of their corruption. We see Justice grow from a cardboard cutout of an idea into an actual nuanced, fallible character, and I feel like it sets the stage for their eventual corruption soo well! He also prods Anders about his inactivity with helping other mages. I don't think it was Anders' traumas poisoning Justice as much as it was a vicious circle of the sense of justice that uh.. Justice had in him driving Anders to become more radical, and as they simmered in the mistreatment of mages and their misfortunes, it warping their sense of justice into an angry thirst for vengeance. Sorry for the massive wall of text! I'm just really excited to share this with other fans who might have also missed it. It's also really nice to see them setting up the backstory for DA2 already, and it feels like follow-through like that is increasingly rare. Thank you for coming to my TED talk :)
The Witch Hunt DLC is Bioware`s way of informing us that the Morrigan romance is the superior one. Also, glad I got to see Anders in awakening one more time before *the incident* in the dragon age 2.
Nah, it is to give closure if you pick her. I mean she barely is part of it outside chasing her then making her leave. Imo Bioware knew Liliana is the best and most romanced one, which is actually true, why they give you DLC to play her. Plus I always saw Witch Hunt also to show Dalish Wardens are maybe the most likely canon one, and give closure to them
@@omnipotiscience7251 that's irrelevant to what is the best romance lmao. That's like saying Anders is the best character because he is a companion in 2 games. Its a nonsense argument.
When it comes to Justice in DA2, they rolled him into Anders and a lot of Anders changes stem specifically from Justice. Anders in Awakening wouldn't actively fight the chantry to free mages, mostly being fine with escaping on his own and causing problems on purpose, but with Justice, who was becoming a demon called Vengeance, he was influenced to blow up the chantry and start the mage templar war.
What happened in Kirkwall didn't start the Mage Templar war, just added to an already tense situation that's been brewing for years. It was the events in the book Asunder that truly started the war. I agree that the change in Anders is because of Justice, which why I roll my eyes at people who complain that he is different in DA2. The whole demon thing in the end, I call bs. I know they call themselves Vengeance, but sitting down and waiting someone to decided whether you live or die right after destroying the chantry isn't a very demon-y thing to do. It's more of an Anders/Justice thing to do. Acknowledging that they know they crossed the line. I would expect Vengeance to, at the very least, run off and kill some templars. Of course, this part is just my thought.
@@AzraelSoulHunter It's unrealistic to think Anders wouldn't change when he accepted Justice into his body. Justice is named for what he is and embodies it with all his being. Humans are complex beings, full of concepts and ideas that a spirit would attribute to other spirits and demons. Hunger, Rage, Love, Wisdom, Pride, Faith, etc. Justice influence on Anders is only part (a significant part) of why Anders changed. Other part is, Anders wanted to change.
@@sinmajik Doesn't change the fact that writing in DA2 was kind of shit and Anders became more unlikable. The idea MAY have been okay, but it was badly executed and rushed. Like most of DA2.
@@AzraelSoulHunter It certainly needed more time in development. Though, I played DA2 before I played DAO. If I didn't enjoy playing it, I wouldn't have given DAO a chance or given DAI a chance when it was released.
... her? That's a she? Has an awfully manly voice.... and it literally asks to be referred to as "it" ... doesn't it? The bird hate is pretty great though. Oh. Just reached the point where he says shale was a female dwarf... huh. I like "it" better lol
@@I_am_a_cat_ Yeah, I guess it's a bit of a spoiler for Shales quest in Orzammar. But Shale is a she, or atleast was a she, not sure if you can assign a gender to a sentient rock.
@@I_am_a_cat_ Nah, she sounds like an old woman, to me. But as a golem, I honestly think Shale is more of an "it" than a "she", though. Edited to add: When I last played the game (on PC) I thought it sounded a lot like an old woman, but in this video: sounds male. Weird.
Hope you never stop making videos Salt, I get excited for every single one, even for games I haven’t played. You make my favorite long form game videos on the platform, keep up the fantastic work
The Problems you encountered like the weapon disappearing and having to change tactics is a lack of knowledge of mechanics. Your weapons disappeared because they swapped to their secondary weapons, you just needed to swap them back. You also could have ordered your soldiers to hold position and you wouldn't have needed to swap tactics to passive.
I wonder how many times people have given up on games because of human error on their end rather than genuine issues in the game mechanics. I know I have dropped a few games because I thought they were broken only to come back years later to find I was just inept at playing the game.
@@IsaacClodfelter I think in this case it's that the game never communicates these features. I only know the solutions because I had the very same issue the first time I played Dark Spawn Chronicles.
Thank you, is freaking infuriating seeing someone telling to millions of people that the game has this and that issue/bug when in fact he just fucking sucks at the game and doesn't know how to play it.
Awakening probably marks the last time Bioware created a full on expansion as opposed to mere DLC. Expansions used to be a thing but haven't for a long time.
@@mike-7684 DLC is for minor stuff. For example, cosmetics, or a character. An expansion does just that - it expands on the story from the original game. That's at least how it was at the beginning. Nowadays, DLC seems to be used for both expansions and true DLCs.
regarding cailan knowing the battle was a lost cause. but showing naïve confidence at ostagar before the battle, it's a moral thing, if loghain had actually played his part there was a slim chance of driving the darkspawn back into the tunnels to buy more time for reinforcements to arrive from redcliffe (though them being late when denerim is further from ostegar than redcliffe is makes no sense) and possibly elsewhere. but loghain didn't ambush the darkspawn flank as planned so shit went sideways even faster.
A lot of things in Witch hunt are "cooler" if you played the other origin stories The mirror that was corrupted by the darkspawn and the elves living underground? Dalish origin The basement and the statue in the circle of magi? Mage origin Also i really enjoy how if you create a new character for witch hunt, golems and awakening they all have their own backgrounds and stories. Im not sure if its the same person every time, i cant remember but i very much enjoyed it Also if you are a human noble, Howe will tell you how his daughter might be in love with you and when you visit her she will say how she actually hated you withouth noticing you are the same person I dont really agree with a lot of what you said but i respect them, a lot of it i agree with but im just really glad you experianced it all. I cant wait for more content from you and as much as i want to say "i cant wait for dragon age 2" i... still try to pretend most of that game doesnt exist.
I thi k that's the issue with this review of the dlc. The dlc has a different level of effect on your game depending on when you play it, who you use as companions, which origin you chose, what ending you choose. So reviewing it after one random playthrough really isn't effective. Like shale has a lot to do with the deep roads story so if you don't bring her there you miss out on a bunch of dialogue. Witch hunt is more effective if you romance morrigan which makes the entire story out of love instead of just looking for her. The different origins have different effects on the plot of awakening and witch hunt. Wardens keep is much more beneficial if its completed really early. Bringing Wynne and alistair/loghain to ostafar adds a bunch more unique dialogue and depth. Lielianas song has a mich stronger effect if you become close with leliana and complete her side story. These docs arnt really made for one and done playthroughs. They're done to accommodate the rpg world
Salt not capturing the Howe joke by Anders is disappointing Anders: So you're a Howe? Nathaniels: Do you have point mage ? Anders : Hey I'm fond of the Howes, I'm also fond of the why's, who's and the whats. Nathaniel : (sarcastic tone) How clever.
Salt: “It’s pretty nice that Shale will stop calling you ‘it’, and will instead refer to you as ‘you’.” Also Salt: (Continues to refer to Shale as “it” even after finding out that she was a female dwarf.) 🧐
@@LynxStarAuto in their good Origins ending, Wynne calls her she and says they'll be heading to Tevinter to see about (probably definitely through blood magic, which is way less forbidden there) putting Shayle back into a dwarf body.
Really cool thing about Awakening, the Mother’s death animation changes based on how your character fights. Mages burn her alive, archers shoot her I’m pretty sure, that sorta thing
Having all of your equipment in Awakening after being abducted is definitely a bug. I mostly played on console, so I can't speak to PC, but I never had all of my gear. It was in a chest next to the qunari merchant
@@onnashinkan2702 Yeah that was so frustrating. I only made a quick save right before that dungeon, and then wrote over it before I realized my gear was bugged and gone. My last real save was from hours and hours ago, so I ended up just cheating to gain my gold and armor back. That moment really ruined the game for me.
It is crazy that pirating Bioware games is most of the time a better game experience, less bugs, no feeling of being scammed by a dlc, better performance. Idk what ea is thinking
Just finished up another playthrough of DA:O and all of its DLC because of your first video. Brought back lots of fond memories playing through it again. Gonna tackle DA:2 next so I hope you play that one as well.
58:26 You having all your other stuff is a bug, you are supposed to lose everything, get your equipped items back along the way then get everything back near the end.
Alright, but can we speak in Aura’s defense? This shit happens to Grey Wardens all the time. Have you not been paying attention? How many grey wardens have used blood magic or been possessed by demons, or sent into the fade, or eaten by dragons… I mean, he probably literally told her, “Honey, my job is dangerous. I deal with impossible and mythical stuff on the daily. So if I die in some weird ass way, or something horrific and scarring happens to my corpse, don’t be surprised.” I would if I was a warden.
@@IamaPERSON hey bud i appreciate it. The long and skinny of it is that due to covid i lost my job and my family is being evicted and right now while watching this im packing our house to go to family while we find something else. Failure feels like shit :/ and the office at our apartment are asses. Nothing like saying heres 5k in freedom dollars and them filing over 2
To your point about Witch Hunt: the story is much more interesting if you played as a Dalish Elf. Everything with the tainted Eluvian ties back into the Dalish Elf Origin, and Finn and Ariane will even talk about your origin unaware that you are to whom they are referring, though you can point out that they're talking about you. It's super interesting. Great video!
I think the idea of ogran wanting to become a grey warden only after the blight and once the wardens have so much fame in the public eye as saviors is a nice touch
1:07:25 The thing that upset me most about this scene is that the Legion chick didn't even mention that I 1) ignored her advice and went for a full frontal assault and 2) won anyways Figured she'd bring up the fact that I did, casually, what the Legion couldn't.
Nathaniel is one of my favorite characters in the series, I really love the dialogue you get with him if your warden is a noble human because he knew you before all this happened. Your families were close and you all grew up together so there's that added betrayal feel from the warden and Nathaniel that's awesome. Eventually when he comes to terms with the man his father was, you both seem closer for it. I'd love to have him the next game too. Also....where is Ser Pounce-a-Lot?!?! Please tell me you found him for Anders lol the cat meows are the best!! 😆😺
The line about "shrinking Shayle because his wife demanded it" is a meta joke from the devs because Shale was supposed to be bigger. Eagle eyed players might notice Shale is taller/wider in the Fade and in the village where you rescue her The reason was that after designing her, there were several points in the game were she clipped through doorways or ceilings. So they shrunk the model as a stopgap solution
You actually need to take shale with you when you get the sketch in caridins room. She'll remember the location of their home. It's a bit of a slog but does add a bit to it. Although awakening basically demands a guide to see everything. Not because it's hidden, it's just easy to break basically everything.
Keep up the good work man, you’re one of my favorite creators. I listen to videos/podcasts when I work and even to fall asleep to sometimes so I dig the long form content
Awakening was fun as far as I remember, been a super long time since I played it, I play the main campaign every 2-3 years though and I still love it, same with the mass effect trilogy.
I want a salt factory companion. "Could've fought harder, but whatever" "I thought that would've been more climactic, but that's how it goes." "Wow this is the best gift ever! When can we stop by a vendor to sell it?"
the architect is most likely one of the original darkspawn who assaulted the golden city and basically caused the darkspawn to appear.... meaning he is a former colleague of corypheus....
It's probably already been mentioned, but Justice is inside Anders in DA2. Presumably this occurred after Justice drops off his meat puppet back w/ Ms. Meat Puppet. What they might not have mentioned is that one of the gifts you give Anders in Awakening is a cat that he names Sir Pounce-a-Lot. The cat also get's many a mention in DA2 by Anders/Justice who are quite cross at the rest of the wardens for making him give it up to the local animal shelter.
Suddenly glad I spent $40 on the UItimate Edition rather than individually on the DLCs. At those price points, I probably would have felt a bit gipped on everything but Awakening, Amgarak, and Shale.
@@pyromare4879 5. Each Archdemon/Old god has a High Priest. But since 4 blights/arch demons (Counting Urthemiel the archdemon of DAO) happened, only The Architect & Corypheus surfaced the rest are MIA.
@@pyromare4879 More than 2 are confirmed dead, when the darkspawn magisters fled to the deeproads they cannibalized each other. Its unknown how many are left.
If you play as a male human noble, Rendon Howe does have a bit more interaction and you have a personal vendetta against him. Also, this opens the door to the Morrigan romance which allows you to walk through the Eluvian (mirror) with her, providing a solid end to the story of the Hero of Ferelden. That sentiment gets a little messy with Inquisition but in my headcanon it ends well.
Return to Ostagar is only particularly interesting if you bring the "secret companion" along. He reflects on the events and a lot of his mindset back then and after that point is revealed. As for Velanna's sudden disappearance in the epilogue and her sister's story not being concluded, I recall reading something a while back that she was supposed to take Anders' place in Dragon Age 2, being possessed by Justice and fucking everything up in Kirkwall. It's likely things would've been expanded upon if the plan went through. And for Witch Hunt, I find a fair bit is added to it if you romance Morrigan. Not necessarily in the "more dialogue or content" way, it's about the same density overall, but you can feel your character has a reason, a motivation for searching for his lover and child that's reflected through changes (some subtle, some obvious) in their dialogue. The feeling is exacerbated further if you play a Dalish origin, since the first Eluvian you find is where Mahariel caught the blight and lost his friend; they show a lot of reluctance returning to that place since it spawns bad memories, and are very on-edge when you reach the cave, yet are nonetheless willing to carry this out. It becomes very personal in the same fashion I think Dragon Age 2 tells its story with usually smaller, more home-hitting events centered around Hawke and his family.
9:47 When the reviewer don't know the basic mechanics like hold under the party portraits or that there are 2 set of weapons ... ... you cannot be really confident in his ability 2 give a fair review.
Thats why Salt is gpod at reviewing though, especially games he played in the past. He goes back into them with a fresh perspective on its story and mechanics and figures them out and elaborates as a "new" player
@@ijustmakeinflammatorycomme9839 Forgetting/not knowing basic mechanics and complaining that they are not in the game is just a plain misrepresentation of a game... and not a fresh perspective.
The Darkspawn DLC isn't it a what if storyline about the Grey Warden Hero dying during his or her initiation? I remember reading the codex throughout the dlc and finding out Alistair took command of the party, made more golems, sided with werewolves, and accepted dark ritual deal. I remember being heart broken to see Alistair be such a jerk.... Duncan would be ashamed ;)
it gets worse; you have to GO OUT OF YOUR WAY to get werewolf companions. alistair actively talked them INTO genocide. but then also spared Zevran's life? let him go free?
With regards to the Anders part, I think it's because the Templars see themselves as having authority over the crown rather than that legally or practically being the case.
Wondering if you got the cat to give to Anders, his main gift is the adorable ser pounce-a-lot On another note, as I played as the human noble warden, it was fun playing awakening with everyone like "we liked howe" and I responded "he was a bastard that killed my family", with Nathaniel there side eyeing me
Golems of Amgarrak was basically the Dragon Age equivalent of bringing your level 20 D&D character, fresh off a campaign, to play a dungeon module. Flimsy story set up as an excuse to run a a dungeon and fight a difficult boss.
Fun fact! In the climax of Awakening there is a possible bug that marks the Keep as not upgraded enough, which leads to its destruction despite any effort from the player. The only way to avoid your inactive party members’ deaths is to sacrifice the town. Which is very nice and doesn’t ruin player’s impression at all.
I really liked Justice, so much that I think he is the only Dragon Age character who ever passed a Persuasion Check against me. In the conversation with the Architect I initially wanted to let him live until Justice had his little outburst. So I relented and we killed the Architect giving me like +30 approval with him.
Regarding the AIs party members hollowing you, there is an option called "Hold". Which literally does what it says on the box. This is more on you yourself then on the game.
your coverage of dragon age is amazing. I loved my play through of all the dragon age games however find it hard to re-play games like this. one day maybe but in the mean time, i've been digging your videos
1:55:17 Yeah nah,nothing ever comes of Kieran. He just kinda stands around your keep with Morrigan in inquisition if you did the ritual but does not matter in the fucking least.
That is an inventory glitch during velannas quest. Everything is taken from you, you only get it back if you find the right chest prior to the last battle.
After the amount of issues you had with the DLC. I recommend using GOG for future oldies. As that's what I bought the ultimate edition (on sale) on and all the DLC worked perfectly. Probably due to no DRM.
I think the worst part of Golems of Amgarrak is that when you beat the Harvester a rock falls and kills your golem. It's not just a tool, it's an ancient dwarf who gave their life to defend their people, and it feels kinda shitty seeing it just get crushed by a rock.