so, this game is gorgeous! the soundtrack is wonderful. i liked all of the characters. their introductions were all lovely. the problem is that it's... pretty much just that. the combat is fine. repetitive. the full stories are weak and imo the game suffers GREATLY from having a party system but... no party interactions? their stories don't matter in regards to each other at all. it's just... bland, save for the visual and audible experience. it's sad. if they do a sequel, i hope they implement party interactions as that'll EASILY boost it for me.

here's the thing. i enjoyed it! i think it got a lot of things right ie the way they did a dozen or so large contained areas is infinitely better than open world for me! i think many of the characters are incredibly likable and interesting! i liked a lot of the side quests! that said, it has an incredibly contrived plot and one of the weakest villains in not only dragon age history, or even bioware history, but video games as a whole because of how little sense it actually makes. honestly i could dock a whole nother star off for the hissing wastes existing at all LOL

i hate the way the routes are split up into different games lmao so im just copy pasting my review with minor changes. fates is the weakest of the recent games and its good for mindless fun if you ignore the main story which... sucks. both in terms of it being bad AND it being a shame that it's bad and you're better off ignoring it. i like reading supports and some of these are good and better than the main story LMAO. others feel INCREDIBLY flat and like a waste of space, especially when you find out the localization team DESTROYED many of the supports and changed them entirely, sometimes making characters completely unlikable. this is particularly sad in that they did this to the only gay option for women; her jpn supports were actually rather sweet if a bit basic, unlike in the english where they... changed it entirely and made her very unsettling? i know she's a tharja clone, but come on. the original jp version at least tried to make the relationship actually likable?

this is the "true" happy ending but it's pretty universally acknowledged that short of everyone living, this story just sucks big time. it makes no sense. that's such a shame. as someone who loves collecting supports, i will say the one highlight is being able to mix and match way more units in this route. that's really the only redeeming factor for me and it's the reason i play it by default despite it being the worst route.

i hate the way the routes are split up into different games lmao so im just copy pasting my review with minor changes. fates is the weakest of the recent games and its good for mindless fun if you ignore the main story which... sucks. both in terms of it being bad AND it being a shame that it's bad and you're better off ignoring it. i like reading supports and some of these are good and better than the main story LMAO. others feel INCREDIBLY flat and like a waste of space, especially when you find out the localization team DESTROYED many of the supports and changed them entirely, sometimes making characters completely unlikable. this is particularly sad in that they did this to the only gay option for women; her jpn supports were actually rather sweet if a bit basic, unlike in the english where they... changed it entirely and made her very unsettling? i know she's a tharja clone, but come on. the original jp version at least tried to make the relationship actually likable?

this is the route i enjoyed the most! i liked the gameplay here a lot actually even if it didnt really bring anything new thats very interesting, but the builds you can make are really good! story is frustrating and bland but like... whatever LOL i also did enjoy many of the supports for this set of the cast!

soooo here's the thing. i think this game had a lot of potential! i like how hopeful it is sometimes, despite the things happening! it's kind of wondrous! i really like some of the characters and i do like the way there are multiple personalities you can have (something i liked about da2 but a little more complex here)! vetra <3

that said, this game is just lacking... something. it's hard to explain what. the gameplay is monotonous and a lot of the exploring is just... boring to me, which is such a shame since despite its flaws i thought dai did that aspect very well. it's just kind of boring. i don't know if being attached to such a popular ip helps or harms it. as a standalone it would be fine, but because it's a MASS EFFECT game it feels like a massive letdown compared to the trilogy. on the other hand, i feel like this game would've just been largely ignored if it was a standalone? it's a shame, really.

tentatively put as abandoned because i have no plans to go back to it when there are more interesting things in my backlog, but i'm not opposed to going back eventually?

i hate the way the routes are split up into different games lmao so im just copy pasting my review with minor changes. fates is the weakest of the recent games and its good for mindless fun if you ignore the main story which... sucks. both in terms of it being bad AND it being a shame that it's bad and you're better off ignoring it. i like reading supports and some of these are good and better than the main story LMAO. others feel INCREDIBLY flat and like a waste of space, especially when you find out the localization team DESTROYED many of the supports and changed them entirely, sometimes making characters completely unlikable. this is particularly sad in that they did this to the only gay option for women; her jpn supports were actually rather sweet if a bit basic, unlike in the english where they... changed it entirely and made her very unsettling? i know she's a tharja clone, but come on. the original jp version at least tried to make the relationship actually likable?

i think birthright has the best story of the three routes but unfortunately that isn't saying much LOL