Dragon Age: Blood Mage no Seisen

The anime reaffirmed my dislikes of some aspects of western role playing games, that is, their tendency to have characters so old. That was something I disliked in Skyrim, everyone all elderly. However at least in Mass Effect I could have characters look kind of younger and in dragon age. That is to say, the anime had some pretty nice designs for characters. Regalyan D'Marcall was pretty cool for the main male protagonists, Fenric, while old and such, was actually an epic antagonist. Mages are always superior characters when faced with sword only users, and he and the other blood mages were like no ... other. Regular mages too were cool too, such flashy and powerful skills. Cassandra took awhile to like for me. Her english VA sounded weird trying to get an accent (I didn't know she even has an accent, you can't tell when she voices Monkey D Luffy...) and she was so ]hardened against mages, which is against my own beliefs. However the backstory was believable and understandable for her. I also liked the High Seeker.

The plot felt like a nice addition to the world and I think this anime highlights excellent design of dragons. These dragons actually looked believable, powerful, and non cartoony and terrible like other media and mainstream movies and books. I haven't seen dragons look this good since Mashima's Fairy Tail.

The story had lots of low points but they were worth it alone for the tension among factions and traitors, as well as the action interspersed.

Animation was decent. Backgrounds and environments were stunning, the dragons were cool. Blood felt awkward. It sometimes felt really cheesy and distracting. It had weird fluid physics. I would have been alright if blood was omitted, especially since, its so prevalent that it becomes annoying to see and laughable.

BioWare's first movie Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker (English title), or Dragon Age: Blood Mage no Seisen (Japanese title), and the movie was alright. They could have done a few things differently in my opinion but it was still good and it does expand upon the Dragon Age lore.

Story 6/10: Don't get me wrong the story is good. It is well developed and it does stay true to the lore. However, the only problem I had with this is that they already used this story. The games and books both have dealings with magic and the Chantry. Non-magic ... users is afraid of the unknown (mainly magic), magic users want their independence, and somewhere down the line both sides take it too far. That is the plot they always use when it comes to those to subjects. If they have to use them, then just do something else with it. However, I am happy that they are focused on a character and her perspective on the subject (briefly touched), but I felt like they could have gone in other directions with it.

Art 8/10: The art style for this is amazing. In here it feels a lot more alive in a way. There is a lot going on in the scenes and their attention to detail is focus on where it needs to be. It is certainly a new interesting style that I wouldn't mind seeing in the near future. But more than likely this will be used for movies as supposed to regular shows. However, the animation seems out of sync at times. If you really pay attention you would see some of the dialogue out of sync at times, but it doesn’t happen too often to make the animation lousy. The funny thing is that this was made for an English cast and the Japanese cast would need to dub this, there it is definitely noticeable for dialogue being out of sync.

Sound 6/10: The sound is pretty solid, the cast of both versions do a very good job. The sound effect matches the environment very well. However, there isn't really any background music. The movie knows it and doesn't really rely on it, but when it does try the characters speak so loud that you can't hear it. So, it might have been better if either they had more music in the backgrounds or if the characters toned it down. However, if you watch the Japanese version they do add a bit more to the background music that does add to the enjoyment.

Character 6/10: Again am not saying that the characters are bad, we just only follow two and possibly a political situation. The two are Cassandra Pentaghast and Regalyan d'Marcall (or Galyan), but even then it's mainly about Cassandra. The only reason that this didn't score higher was because I wanted more development on the other characters, like the villains. I wanted to see what the reason behind their actions were or at least a better one, one of the characters seemed too simple for a complex world like Dragon Age, but that might be going back to the story part. It is solid enough, but I just wanted more. Also the things that Cassandra did are simply unbelievable, I mean really unbelievable. Spoiler alert, an example is her killing stone golems and ogres, at least a dozen of them, and by using a common sword and slashing on their legs. I know that they wanted to make her a badass, but she isn't that badass.

Enjoyment 7/10: Despite its flaws, it is still an entertaining film. Not made for a consent watch, but once and a while, I'll watch it again.

Overall 6/10: BioWare first attempt they did an alright job. If they just added a little bit more content (both in the movie and special features) it would have scored a bit higher, maybe an 8. However, any fan of Dragon Age should give this a look if they want more from the Dragon Age universe. It is worth a rent at the least.

Dragon Age: Origins by far one of the best games I have ever played.
I have all the DLC.
I played as a mage, had a baby with Morrigan, kicked the blights ass while being the good guy and rocking some pretty high stats.
Moving on from the epic events of DA:O, we come to DA:O:A, I was now the Gray Warden Commander, still kicking darkspawn ass with even higher stats than before.
I chased after Morrigan, to confront the mother of my child and love of my life. We walked through a portal never to be seen again.

DONE! Finished! That was it! My RPG hunger was satisfied! BioWare ... did it again!

Then they announced DA II.
I was exited out of my mind.
The legendary mage who stood with his friends against the impossible blight had more to give.
Boy, was I wrong.
DA II never lived up to the hype that I got after DA:O
Even with it's expansions, which I mindlessly brought by the way, I was still craving more.
Luckily my RPG hunger was quenched with BioWare's other RPG franchise Masseffect.

But then ... this ... this thing came.
I questioned it at first but my love of anime overshadowed my love for DA.
Yet again, my heart crushed.
It was so bad, there was a few references to the Dragon Age universe.
Animation was ok. But for those who love the Dragon Age franchise like me.
Turn your head from this monstrosity. I beg of you.

I mindlessly await Dragon Age III which will most likely be produced after BioWare finishes up with the DLC phase of Masseffect 3.
The lead designer is asking the audience for it's opinions and ideas.
Which is good ... but my heat can't take any more damage from this monster boss.