What is your opinion about Dragon Age's artstyle and identity?

  • DA's artstyle is incredible and that universe has a very strong identity.

    Votes: 44 13.4%
  • DA's artstyle is very good and that universe has a recognizable identity.

    Votes: 41 12.5%
  • DA's artstyle is good and that universe generally has a recognizable identity.

    Votes: 49 14.9%
  • DA's artstyle is just ok, and it often struggles to have an identity.

    Votes: 119 36.3%
  • DA's arstyle is bad, and only small parts of it have a sense of identity to them.

    Votes: 28 8.5%
  • DA's artstyle is very bad, and I can count of my fingers aspects of it that feel remarkable.

    Votes: 21 6.4%
  • DA's artstyle is horrible, and it has no identity at all.

    Votes: 26 7.9%

  • Total voters
    328

KamenRiderEra

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,181
DA's artstyle is horrible, and it has no identity at all.
Never finished the games because of this. (And the gameplay also).
 

Raigor

Member
May 14, 2020
15,358
I just want DA4 to be more dark-fantasy and close to Origins than Inquisition colorful world.
 

fontguy

Avenger
Oct 8, 2018
16,321
I think 2 easily had the most going for it, contrasting lots of dinge and grime with bright and oddly serene scorched landscapes. It's a shame the game itself was junk.
 
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Linus815

Member
Oct 29, 2017
20,236
DAI has AMAZING 2d art. The actaul ingame stuff is pretty meh
Origins may be "generic" but I like it. As someone said before, it's like a dirty LOTR.
 

Garlador

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
14,131
none of those is actually translated to the models and in game at all
The only one who I feel really DOES do her art justice is Vivienne.
dragon_age_inquisition_vivienne_laksnd.png
 

DealWithIt

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,852
DA's art style is pretty generic but you can still always tell it's DA because of Qunari and a few other things.
 

Enduin

You look 40
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,829
New York
DAO was the epitome of bland generic fantasy, not bad but not at all identifiable. DA2 moved into a more distinct and identifiable style and feel but was a bit too edgy, literally. DAI cemented and refined that style overall into a more palatable and interesting take.

It's still fairly generic fantasy, but I find it unique and interesting enough and it works with the lore and setting overall quite well. 2D artwork is especially amazing and if they can infuse that more into the 3D all the better.
 

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,892
All that stood out to me with Dragon ages artstyle was that Inquisition was graphically decent but every texture in Inquisition was far more shiny than they probbaly wanted it to be.
 
OP
OP
SofNascimento

SofNascimento

cursed
Member
Oct 28, 2017
21,894
SĂŁo Paulo - Brazil
As much as I love the games, they're... not very pretty.

Granted, much of Bioware's other games are just very bold and colorful that the muted grays, browns, and earthen tones of Dragon Age feel hohum by comparison.
jadeEmpire.jpg

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Granted, I think Inquisition had the best use of color thus far.
dragon-age-inquisition-halamshiral.jpg

DragonAgeTrespasser.jpg

I think Inquistion has its moments. The ball quest for example is probably one of my favorites parts of that game. And it does feel vibrant and alive, the masks and costume design for the orlesians was great. This is what Dragon Age should be. But then, the vila itself looks awful. Like the Tevinter fortificaiton I posted early, it looks blocky and bland. Sure this one is a bit more colorful but still feels like it's just a bunch of rectangles on top of each other. Val Royeaux is probably the worst city I ever seen in a RPG, and that's not an overstatment. You have this open world game, you go what might be the single biggest city in the continent and what do you find? A small hub without anything remotely remarkable. And dead, it feels dead.

Another thing: those Inquisition armors are awful. You have soldiers you're gonna be looking at for the majority of the game, and what do they make? Boring and bland armors and costumes.
 

Darkstorne

Member
Oct 26, 2017
7,064
England
If the actual game looked like this it'd be great.
The thing is, we all know the game isn't gonna look anything like that. They could stylize it, they could make it look like that stuff. It'd be amazing, but there's no chance they'll do it.
none of those is actually translated to the models and in game at all
I'm amazed at the reading skills of Era sometimes =P
 

Rainer516

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,011
Pre-Inquisition DA games aside, Dragon Age: Inquisition has incredible art direction. The concept art is gorgeous and its influence on the in-game visuals is apparent during action, exploration, and the story sequences quite readily.

I am very happy with the direction the series was heading in in terms of visuals, and I hope Bioware keeps it up for DA4.

People that are upset that the art doesn't moredirectly influence the visuals should maybe consider that the art is only there to guide and set a tone for the in-game asset development teams.

We never got made when Amano's art didn't get translated more closely for the FF games, why not give this team the same benefit of the doubt.

I just hope they can get their quest design and pacing in order, because that's what was lacking most from Inquisition.
 
Feb 24, 2018
5,543
From an artstyle perspective, Dragon Age 2 is by far the best when it comes to making all the species look unique rather then being differently sized humans with different ears like Origins and a lot of fantasy does.

The glass eyes and slightly off skin of a lot of surface dwarves made them feel like a species that had lived a lot of their time underground and made me wonder what a DA2 Orzammar Dwarf would have been like. The elves look truly unique and I loved to truly alien look of them and the Qunari that made them truly look like ox/dragon humanoids. Inquisition felt like a massive regress in that unique look but I'm in a minority because I remember a lot of fans hated the DA2 elves.

Of course DA2 map and asset reuse for dungeons, allies etc kind of underminded it lot and is where I feel inquisition improved.
 

EVIL

Senior Concept Artist
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
2,819
You can take all of dragon age 1, 2 and 3 and just shove it in any other fantasy game of the time and it would not stick out at all. I have never been a fan of the art style, always felt a bit cheap to me. Its like taking all fantasy games and just chop it into small pieces, and then use that to make something new. That, combined with very average character art and you have yourself a dragon age title.