Dragon Age: Blood Mage no Seisen

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.

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.

First of all, if you want to watch the movie, because you are a fan of the games or books - just move on and forget this movie title.

The creator of the game series has created a rich world with much lore, politics, struggles between races, religion and morals considering if magic is a curse or a blessing for the society. It specially focused on the origin of the characters, like a mage will start the game on a different place and will play a different role then for example a knight or a thief.

Without spoilers to the movie I can explain, why this storyline ... completely ignores all game lore and game mechanics:
At least the two countries I know of, are controlled by different powers - usually by the political ruler (in both cases a Kingdom) and the Chantry (church). The Church sees the magic as a threat because it may attract evil in form of demons, and in both countries the chantry constantly seeks children or adults who show signs of magic aptitude. If you show such signs, you will be brought to the circle of magi. That means, they are confined to a safe location which is closely watched and "guarded for safety" by the church through military means and their special units - the Templar. You are not allowed to leave the premises of the Circle unless permission is granted by the chantry. If you use Magic without permission, you are classified as apostate (not desired dangerous mage) and be hunted down by Templar and the regular army, any sign of using blood magic will result in a kill on sight warant - without exeption.
The ability to use magic is really rare, usually you can fit all the mages in a single tower of not more then 10 Levels. The game mechanics show, that an expeirienced mage can get rid of a melee fighter before he can close in, but since there are usually much more armored troups then mages, they will be killed eventually, because they can't use magic unlimited times and they need time to cast the spells. Templars also recieve special training to resist mind control and low level spells, but they are not imune to all battle magics.
Templar usually despise magic users and see it as their duty to get rid of any dangerous magician - if in doubt, kill it.

In the movie they don't even comply with that absolute order, that all involved in blood magic are to be killed on the spot. They seem to be imune to most spells, even their armor is not even dented when they get hit. Mages, especially bloodmages seem to seldom cast spells, they prefer melee combat. Also there are much more "uncontrolled" mages in the field, then in the whole circle of magi. Since bloodmagic is considered evil even by the standards of the circle, the numbers don't add up at all. There is no explanation, why transfiguration and bloodmagic is connected - in the game lore they are seperate arts.

There are rumors about a traitor in the mist of the Templars, but their motives are hard to believe especially because of what they have been taught and how they have been trained.

There is also an event were a solid army apears out of nowhere and they are not noticed be a whole country. Whithout spoiler lets just say, the composition is unbelieveable and the lorebreaking mind control of things that don't even have a mind of their own and are at least lorewise not being effected by bloodmagic.
And on a sidenote, why waste a whole army on that one task, and not recall it for another use, where you really could need some backup?

I could go on about 2 pages on where and when the movie breaks the game mechanics and game lore, but I will return to the movie itself now because it would spoil the story.

The Animation varies, sometimes it's decent and well made, and then there are random slashes and unusal patterns. I can hardly believe, that a knight with plate armor can survive such leaps of faith/jumps, and how easy it seem to tame, hold and kill the very enormous dragons, who could crush a stone wall with their muscles and who can spit fire. There is a time, where a character switches his main weapon from his mainhand for no reason at all. I like some of the blood animations, but have also to agree, that the blood comes off to easily - like the heroes never seem to get their hands dirty or their hair never seem to be out of style. Corpses vanish, Characterdesigns are ok, but for such a bloody adventure, it seems unreal, that the characters are so pale. The degree of violence is also unbalanced. Much too violent for a rating under 16+, but they display the violence only against the bad guys, while the good ones are usually graced with just a hint of violence and then a cut or fade out so that the viewer can fill out the rest by imagination.

Story
It's the second oldest story in the books. Good vs. Bad, a knight in shining armor seeking truth and willing to destroy evil. Problem is just the main lead is not a Knight, but a Templar and as already explained, the Templars are out of characterr. The story has a twist or two, but don't expect much more then the usual straight arrow. Without the violence I would say, best suited for the age of 12-14. Beyond that, the plot is a little to easy to follow, to easy to expect and so only a few surprises are left over. You do not need to have played the game to understand the plot, but everytime you see a design of an armor, weapon or creature, it sure teases your memory about it. There is not much characterdevelopment, but you also may see that as fitting for these two characters, especially if you consider the faith of a Templar vs. the Mage. It is somewhat unusual that a mage is that forthcoming with a Templar right from the start, but after a certain point in the story it becomes much more believeable.

Music
The Soundeffects and Music were on a acceptable level. Not much can be said about it, beside I had never had the need to reach for the volume control. The Voice Actors did seem to know their stuff.

Overall
Not for the fans of the game series, maybe enjoyable for the younger generation between 12-14 if they can stand violence. A pity that they did not even had time to play the origin of the mage or the knight class of DA:O, or they never would have thrown away such potential ...