Do you like Rook as an MC? Do you think the Inquisitor from 3 would have been better?

[surly king]

I think Rook is a bland and really boring main character with little to offer in terms of player expression. BioWare seems to be struggling hard with allowing your character some freedom to actually say "no" sometimes or not be the nicest person in the room at any given moment.
What happend to evil roleplaying in BioWare games? The single morally questionable choice I found in 20+ hours of gameplay was leaving behind that mayor in the blighted town at the start. Why? I want to tell those Veil Jumpers to stop being such useless ♥♥♥♥ ups, instead of just constantly coddling them. There is 0 nuance to any of it. It´s BORING and it doesn´t make me think

I believe BioWare shot themselves in the foot hard, going from DA Dread Wolf to DA Veilguard and all that this change implies. Solas would have made a much better main antagonist than those 2 generic bad guys we actually got.
Adding onto that: by making it a direct sequel with the Inquisitor as MC, you would have had a storied protagonist with a much more personal connection to the main villain, something potentially really interesting to explore.
It´s not like the Inquisitor was such a great protagonist, but starting completely fresh is infinitely worse in my opinion. Especially when you decide to ham up the stakes to 11, going from a goofy red crystal person to 2 ancient blight spreading demon gods.

[Bravo]

Originally posted by kaffeend:

Originally posted by surly king:

How can you have any hope for ME5 after Andromeda?

The main issue with Andromeda was that BioWare weren't used to the Frostbite engine then. They clearly have a handle on it now.

It also functionally wasn't developed by Bioware. That was the single largest problem with Andromeda, it was developed by a subsidiary junior team (Because lol, EA thought it was a good idea to put a junior team on their biggest single player franchise? On an entirely new engine for the studio, no less?) with minimal input from the senior team who were all on... Anthem? I think it was at the time.

Andromeda also wasn't that terrible of a game, frankly, it was primarily let down by godawful animations and the fact absolutely none of it was even relevant to Mass Effect beyond the use of some of the lore as a back story.

On topic, I quite like Rook, I agree that they're a better character than the Inquisitor, who was the biggest weakness in DA:I, whilst in this game it's generally the clumsy writing in general that is the biggest weakness, along with some rather lacklustre companions.

[Ursus007]

I think Rook is stuck between between the writers' desire to make him/her the player insert character vs a predefined character.

Most of Rook's dialogue only works if Rook has a pre-established personality (e.g. Geralt). As written - Rook only works as a nice, uplifting MC.

By making us fully customise our background, skills and face and without a proper introduction story (Origin story one might say? hehehe) Rook unfortunately also functions as player insert which really doesn't work. The first scene at the bar literally gives us a choice to be more aggressive vs talkative once again making the same mistake.

You don't have real agency in most of the dialogue so when big choices come they feel weird as one would not fit the preestablished Rook's personality while trying to give you a choice.

I think it's a miss for me unfortunately. You have to choose a line and walk it, but, like with most of this game, Bioware decided to choose the middle.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Rook seems relatively unseasoned and under-geared at the start for somebody who is part of a team that's been knowingly chasing a god for a year and doesn't have an excuse for starting over like amnesia (Geralt in TW2...) or being stuck in prison for years (*cough* Kiryu *cough*), but... a weirdly fresh start is hardly uncommon in games.

[JFK]

Originally posted by Portico:

Rook is good. He's clearly a lovable rogue. Male voice 2 works wonders for him. Far better than the garbage inquisitor, who's easily rated as Biowares worst protagonist to date.

Voice 2 Male Rook sounds like a sassy twink no offense.

[surly king]

Originally posted by Ultima:

Because EA was smart enough to let Gamble hire back several OG Mass Effect devs to direct the game. It's not being made by the people who called Andromeda's shots, it's being made by people who were instrumental in making the OG trilogy amazing. They don't have Hudson and a lot of other people there, but it's possible they'll be able to make a ME5 that is at least trying to respect it's fans.

https://www.gamesradar.com/mass-effect-5-is-in-good-hands-as-its-director-confirms-the-long-awaited-rpg-sequel-is-being-led-by-four-bioware-veterans/

This was first confirmed back in 2020, which means that from the beginning, ME5 was being worked on and produced by OG ME veterans. I'm being cautiously optimistic about it, because we're going to get ME5 regardless of whether it's ass or not. Gamble, unprovoked, distinguished ME5 from Veilguard a couple days before release. He's not stupid, he's seen VG, he knew this was going to happen. I'm sure a lot of people at EA and Bioware knew this was going to happen. I think both EA and Bioware might be going for the moon shot with ME5. It's their last chance to get it right.

That´s at least somewhat promising, but I won´t hold my breath. They need better writers period

[Caveman]

Originally posted by kaffeend:

Originally posted by Caveman:

boo hoo

Dude, wtf? Grow up ffs.

Originally posted by Three-Headed-Monkey:

Originally posted by surly king:

So what do you mean, "at least" the female voice comes off as overly nice? Is that a good thing for you?

i could have probably worded it better, non native english speaker here ;)
what i was basically getting at is that i can only speak for the female voice of rook, maybe the male VA is done in a better way like Ultimate mentioned.

Originally posted by Caveman:

boo hoo

great comeback, you know you started that argument right?

It's all people do these days is cry way too much over a game.
Like it's their only child getting bullied at school.
How about You "Grow up ffs" maybe take your own advice hmm

[Cassian]

Rook is okay, I liked the inquisitor better, Hawke was best.

[Vahnin Varlerian]

I like Rook. Took me a bit to get used to him but he's cool. Still enjoyed beeing the inquisitor much much more.

/e:
Having a few lower male voice lines would have been great tho

[GreyWarden]

Inquisitor was brilliant, because you could shape him/her up as pee your choices. With a position of power you could be the ideal moral ruler or a pure evil jerk ans alao could be as grey as possible. He was done well.

Rook ? Nah he doesnt hold a candle, easily the weakest in series.

[Lori37]

Rook is better than the Inquisitor ever was imo

[Handsome_WombatX6969]

I wouldve liked the MC better if I could actually mold his personality. but DA:TVG isnt that kind of game.