I’m currently playing W3 for the first time (just hit level 17 in Skellige) and while I’ll always love Dragon Age I must say I’m truly enjoying how W3 has, like, REAL consequences. You can fail quests and people can die and that affects the rest of your story. Honestly I know it’s going to color my perception of Inquisition now because the stakes seem so much lower in Inquisition in comparison...
I thought the same thing when I finally played Witcher 3. There are so much consequences in the story itself but sometimes because of stuff you don’t even notice while playing so you always have to try to do the ‘right’ thing (whatever that may be) and it’s not... idk thrown in your face as it is in Inquisition. There you mostly have this: well decide now, what will it be? It’s so much more subtle in Witcher and compared to Inquisition can have an effect on so many parts of the story AND the actual ending and not only on this person or that part of the story where the decision happened. I mean they sold Inquisition with the slogan “Lead them or fall” but like... you can’t? You are not allowed to fuck up and NONE of your decisions have a real impact on how the game ends, which is completely different in Witcher. And what makes me the saddest about all this is that the first DA game was the only one where you kinda got there? Where your decisions had an impact and everything (maybe not as much as in W3 but it’s older so you can’t really compare them) whereas the Witcher games clearly went somewhere from the first game. They made their games better, their stories, their characters and everything. The games evolved so much that sometimes I can’t even grasp how they’re all part of the same series. Of course there are some parts that Bioware managed to evolve as well in the DA series but... for me personally Inquisition is still my least favourite game of the series because it drags on forever and if it weren’t for some of the excellent characters and character stories I wouldn’t have bothered to play it, (or at least not again) because the main story is hella boring and unsatisfying and the side quests don’t give you enough to continue... (I won’t even talk about the sorry excuse for an attempt on an open world game....)
