Planescape: Torment - One Of Dragon Age’s Big Influences?

Couchpotato

Part-Time News-bot
Joined
October 1, 2010
Messages
36,193
Location
Spudlandia
Rock, Paper, Shotgun has a new article about Planescape: Torment, and it's influence on Dragon Age.

If you looked at the two games side-by-side, you wouldn’t necessarily know it. Dragon Age dresses in prim and proper fantasy garb while Planescape Torment slips into gnarled, otherworldly skin and acts like its magnificent eccentricity is as normal as a stroll in the park. And sure, Planescape’s personality is utterly brilliant, but it’s hardly all that defines it.

“I mean, we’re not gonna have a Modron wandering around in Dragon Age,” Laidlaw qualifies. “It won’t fit the world. But we can still look at our characters and say, ‘Are they intriguing enough? Do they offer wildly different perspectives?’”

Perhaps even more exciting, however, is the prospect of choices heavily inspired by Planescape’s exceedingly multifaceted approach. That, claims Laidlaw, is the real meat of this Dragon Age-Planescape sandwich, and he’s quite happy to offer variety and choices with real consequences – even if that means many players won’t see a fourth of the game on their first playthrough. He continues, growing ever more animated:

“The big thing Torment brought to the table was offering a lot of solutions to problems – really cool solutions. Not everything was fighting. Oftentimes being persuasive or having certain stat checks might take care of it. It was like, ‘I have a wisdom stat of 25, so let’s shortcut the entire ending.’ I really like that kind of stuff. It also did a great job of acknowledging the path you chose in the game.”
More information.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,193
Location
Spudlandia
Bioware are trolling the Codex! :D
 
Joined
Apr 13, 2012
Messages
1,901
Location
UK
“The big thing Torment brought to the table was offering a lot of solutions to problems

No, the big thing Torment brought to the table was a heartfelt, thought-provoking story that didn't cater to 14 year old boys who enjoy watching pixelated sex acts. Ugh, what a horrible comparison. "We write some of the most cliche dialogue (with choices!!) in the industry but this is how we've been influenced by Torment!"
 
Joined
Nov 10, 2008
Messages
5,979
Location
Florida, USA
I keep hearing things about this game that make me want to feel positive about it. Then again half the positive sounding things, as well as some of the stupidest are said by Laidlaw. And we all know how much he hyped DAII.

As to this comment, I liked origins, but even in that one I can recall no game conversations like the ones in planescape that he is talking about. Was there anything other than combat that resolved things in origins?
 
Joined
Oct 4, 2011
Messages
236
Location
New Paltz, NY
Wow what a trigger, trying to compare the great PST to most anything is almost guaranteed to bring out the raspberries from a bunch of us.

That said, even this seemed like a big stretch of a post title. It just seemed like talking good stuff about PST, not saying that DA is very similar to it.
 
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
843
"The big thing Torment brought to the table was offering a lot of solutions to problems – really cool solutions."

Um...ok. So how is that reflected in Dragon Age? I don't recall a lot of situations having multiple ways to solve them.
 
Joined
Oct 21, 2006
Messages
39,142
Location
Florida, US
Dragon Age and Planescape Torment have not much in common, so this is nothing more than name dropping.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
19,828
Location
Germany
so this is nothing more than name dropping.

Like this ? :

"Dragon Age : Origins - the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate"
"Dragon Age : Inquisition- the spiritual successor to Planescape : Torment"

Which sounds just absurd to me.
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,915
Location
Old Europe
Saw this on the Obsidian boards and it seemed so apropos...

2eg88ro.jpg
 
Last edited:
Joined
Mar 22, 2012
Messages
5,521
Location
Seattle
Like this ? :

"Dragon Age : Origins - the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate"
"Dragon Age : Inquisition- the spiritual successor to Planescape : Torment"

Which sounds just absurd to me.

this is exactly what I thought.
 
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
5,212
Location
The Uncanny Valley
/cynical mode on
An absurd comparison bordering on the insulting, really. Seems like a very transparent case of playing up to the hardcore RPG crowd to score cheap game association points to turn the cogs of the hype machine.

To think lines like "I want to be a dragon" being compared to reading about the layers of quasi-buddhist Dustmen philosophy…ugh get it out of my head. Does not compute. Besmirchery I say.

Also, that Obsidian pic is very old hat. Not to deny any of its truth or relevance though…
 
Joined
Jul 12, 2009
Messages
1,974
Location
Australia
It is quite remarkable how arrogant and self-absorbed some people can be.
 
Joined
Jun 29, 2012
Messages
201
I really wish they could release a broken english game then we could all seem to like it;)
 
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
5,749
No, the big thing Torment brought to the table was a heartfelt, thought-provoking story that didn't cater to 14 year old boys who enjoy watching pixelated sex acts. Ugh, what a horrible comparison. "We write some of the most cliche dialogue (with choices!!) in the industry but this is how we've been influenced by Torment!"

This. I'm sure if you replayed Torment several times you would marvel at all the choices, but it's not what makes the game great, the atmosphere and story is. At least to me.
 
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
3,216
Location
Sweden
Back
Top Bottom