I want to get into Dragon Age

But I've heard so many negative things about 2 that I'm thinking about skipping it. Should I play it or nah?

do it as a sarcastic femhawke
set difficulty to pleb so you don't have to bother with godawful combat
also fuck up all your companions' shit, give the pirate bitch to qunari, sell silver faggot elf to his master, etc.

2 and Inquisition are shit, but if you really like Origins like I do then they're worth a try.
2 is the most tolerable. Play as a sarcastic faggot and bully Merrill. Really bully her, shit on her whenever possible. The one good thing about DA2 is the companion affection system which is kind of innovative in its own way (but was dumped in DA:I because that's too hard for Bioware to implement again).

I suggest you don't bother.
2 isn't as bad as people say but it's still worse than Origins, and Inquisition is even worse than that.
This franchise is in a downwards spiral and, with the current state of Bioware, it's not going to get better.
Just play Origins and forget it ever had sequels.

2's biggest offense is that you literally go back and forth the same 5 or so dungeons for the entire game. The DLC makes up for this though.

really? I thought the general opinion was that inquisition was at least good. I've seen some of the infamous webm's of the shit animation but what other major problems does DAI have?

it's a single player MMO by gameplay design
also story is shit (yes, worse than DA2) and party members are simply godawful

>what other major problems does DAI have?
Pretty much everything about it's design is awful.
>single player MMO
>garbage sidequests
>collect x number of worthless resource
>simplistic crafting recipes make better gear than epic loot drops you get off dragons and shit
>combat is grindy and difficulty is based off damage sponges
>half the companions are boring or unlikable
>main villain is cliche as fuck
The only thing this game has going for it is pretty environments and cool particle effects but that's down to the Frostbite engine.

>main villain was introduced in a FUCKING DLC FROM THE SECOND GAME

origins is one of the blandest entires in the crpg genre
it basically goes to show that wizards of the coast constantly breathing down their necks about what's right/wrong was the driving force behind bioware's previous successes

dragon age 2 is fucking amazingly bad, it's a marvel, a milestone event in shitty out of touch developers that is difficult to rival
if you have the time to waste, which you probably do since videogames are basically by definition just wasting time, i'd highly recommend playing origins and 2, just to experience what people have been talking about

i didn't play inquisition at all because 2 is that bad of a game where i won't give bioware any more chances
it's fucking impressive

Dragon Age 2 is actually pretty fun, don't listen to the contrarians. They're just bad at video games and couldn't handle the fact that you can't win every fight by funneling 20 enemies through a door.

the more games you've played in a series, the more you understand the general design philosophies, and are more able to point out the failings of the game.
if you've never played any of the games in the series, there's no basis for comparison, and you're likely to judge it lightly because you are not comparing to an actual standard for what it sought out to do.

so if Origins is the standard what did it do well that the rest of the series fell short on?

How can you possibly say that? Baldur's gate is the most bland, barebone style, generic D&D setting. Dragon Age has a unique spell system, original story and setting, and is a novel crpg in times when the crpg genre was thought to be dead. How can you even think that DA: O is blander than games like Divinity or Betrayal at Krondor???

DA2 was good? What fucking game were you playing.

If you want to understand the full story then play it. Be warned its really crap compared to Origins.

>origins is one of the blandest entires in the crpg genre

I actually don't know why everyone starting a new IP does that. You can make literally anything, especially if you're kickstarting the game, and yet devs still make the blandest fantasy possible. obsidian is also guilty of this with pillars of eternity.

The story is shit. It's bloated with filler content. The War Table is something that anyone with a lick of sense in game design would not put in their game. There are no good or memorable side quests. Map design is terrible. Mounts (the best way to get around these maps) are beyond terrible and are actually worse than standard MMO mounts. The gameplay is the worst in the series. The protagonist is the worst in the series. The armor design is absolutely terrible. Like DA2, the game does not give a shit about established lore and will stomp all over it. Redcliffe got a retarded, unnecessary redesign to the point where it barely resembles the old village. The antagonist fails to be threatening at all. The tone of the game is the lightest yet.
I could go on and on.

well, that's just like your opinion man.
baldurs gate 1 was great and i really liked it.
i also played it for the first time in 2016, so you can't say it was nostalgia either.
just think of it this way, with every iteration things got more stripped down and became easier. there are no dead ends. the game is artificially lengthened because healers are moved and potions are now on cooldowns and in limited quantity. D&D gets chipped down and eventually doesn't seem to be exist in Inquisition.

>Betrayal at Krondor
It was pretty original though, at least in terms of setting. Like elves (moredhel) being mostly evil fuckers who live in the north and are planning humanity's downfall.

because you need the game to actually SELL aka target existing demographic who are into fantasy rpgs. contrary to what you might hear on Sup Forums and rpg codex most people are perfectly content with bland fantasy because to them it's not bland considering they haven't played all rpgs under the sun. speaking of which, I think nuemenera's "weird for weirdness' sake" approach will backfire and you'll see the reason why we'll never get another planescape proper - it's simply too weird to most people.

combat's the best in the series

Tyranny isn't that generic of a setting, dunno how well it sold though.

This game is the reason I never preorder anything anymore. It was so bad that it made me distrustful of all other video games.

Sounds like you need to stick with your nonsensical nipponese fantasy worlds with zero depth.

it actually is, they just hide it well in the first chapter. black company's influence falls off pretty fast and game turns into another fantasy rpg except with somewhat rougher aesthetics.

ah okay then
didn't play it past first chapter

Da2 is skippable, just watch the tail end part on youtube to see what matters before inquisition