Good game

This game has come a long way since it first came out, it might be a bit janky but if you can get past that its a unique and fun pirate adventure

Best RPG of the year, calling it now

This is not Dragon Age:Origins, which is a shame since that's one my favourite games of all time, its barely even a sequel to DA:O since there are two other games in this franchise, its more of a sequel to Dragon age inquisition if anything and you go into this with that in mind, it seems we will never get another DAO its a shame but that's not this games fault but the developers so lets try to judge it on its own merit shall we.

This game was sold as an RPG and i bought it thinking it would be an RPG so i will be judging it with that frame of mind and as an RPG its not very good, I wouldnt even call this an RPG its barely an RPGlite it has stats and numbers and choices to be made but as i will elaborate on later these choices are surface level at best

Gameplay:

The combat is flashy but simple which would be okay if this were not a 50+ hour video game, by the time you reach the 10 hour mark you will have seen everything this game has to offer combat wise from that point on there's no new enemies or mechanics and the fact that you will learn a new combo every 15 or so hours doesn't do anything to stave of the monotony that is this games combat, combining that with spongy enemies and lack of mechanical complexity combat becomes a tedious affair.

The World itself looks very good, every location you go to is well made and great to look at and i appreciate that the levels do not waste your time with open world nonsense, traversal is interesting the first time through and mercifully brief on repeat visits, i myself hate puzzles and collectable scavenger hunts so its a point in this games favour in my opinion that the puzzles are few and far between and simple

Story:
The real meat of any good RPG and in this game is a real mixed bag for me, it is aggressively PG there were times in this game where i was genuinely interested in what was happening only for the game to do or say something incredibly lame taking me right out of it,. Most of the villains in this are one dimensional they are either greedy or stupid or just plain evil, solus himself being the only exception which makes it difficult to really connect with any of them. It got to a point where i was simply annoyed at certain villains because c'mon was it really going to go any other way besides the utterly predictable

Dialogue:
In a word Infantile, it remains lighthearted and quipy throughout with no single character willing to talk about things at a deeper level than the surface there is no edge here, everyone is nice and get along and even when the game tries to create conflict between characters it never come of as anything other than some mild sniping before being quickly buried with some verbal compromise and a hug. Friendship is magic, friendship is boring. there are no real disagreements between your companions no clashing personalities or different conflicting opinions your never going to have to choose.

The Wheel:
The Wheel the dreaded wheel. I hate it, i hate how it limits your options i hate how it limits the developers options it is a terrible system if i press the armour man am i going to say something stoic or dismissive if i pick the face am i going to say something witty or uhhhh that just happened. just let me see what im going to say you want to have a voiced protagonist fine but let me see what i'm going to say enough of this ♥♥♥♥

Companions:
No real complaints here i liked em all for the most part, Neve and Emmrich were my favourites Neve was cool and confident and who doesn't like Emmrich hes an eminent gentleman and his struggle with his own mortality really resonated with me, i just wish that we could have explored the issue deeper beyond the surface level
Taash was my least favourite character mostly because in a world where people say "greetings" They say "whats up"

Choices and consequences:
The choices in this game leave a lot to be desired they are often binary and worst of all uncomplicated, i did not have to think about a singe decision i made in this game most were neither meaningful or controversial in any way besides a few at the very end of the game. Not only do you not have to work to get the best outcome for most things but the right answer in this game is often the easy one

The World part 2: electric boogaloo
This world is very nice and i mean that literally, everyone is the best they can be and there not gonna let a thing like the apocalypse get in the way of their better nature, there is no uncomfortable topics in this game and its extremely sanitised given the setting. Take Tevinter for example; the crumbling slave empire run by power hungry blood mages, nary a slave in sight and blood magic is only practices by "evil" mages. Also Antiva these crows are a far cry from how they are described by Zevran and every other piece of media within the franchise. This is all to say that Biwoware really pulled their punches when it came to this game and frankly i'm a bit disappointed they made a game set in the dragon age setting so utterly toothless

Gameplay/Narrative:
One of the best things about a good RPG is its ability to mesh its gameplay and narrative together, E.g you make a character thats good at something and you use that something to solve problems within dialogue or the game world. there is none of that in this game dialouge in this game is purely cosmetic and you cant "build" your character mechanically to do anything besides hit people differently, this limits replayability substantially. I doubt i'll play this game again for a very long time if at all, ive seen everything it has to offer and found it wanting and there is not enough variety in anything you can do in this game to warrant going back and trying something different

In conclusion:
A lot of time, effort, and talent went into this game they did their best but it wasn't enough for me
Bioware holds a special place for me, they were the gold standard for RPG's for a decade and change and i have been playing their games since KOTOR but the people who made those games are gone and the people who took up the mantle have so far made ME:Andromeda, Anthem, and now this. this wasn't the B team, this wasn't brought down by publisher meddling, this was their wheelhouse and there chance to prove to me that they could still provide the product that made them so successful in the first place and they failed. I'm sorry Bioware but i've lost faith

Good luck and farewell