If you say so. I honestly think you're drawing a distinction without much difference (especially given that many of the minor characters mentioned -rarely- affect the plot in most of their appearances, regardless of medium). I'm willing to chalk it up to a question of personal taste, though.

"Put the universe's characters to use" in what sense?

How did the game fail to "put the universe's characters to use" any more than the previous games, in which most of the references were brief cameos at best (and, more often, the equivalent of codex entries)?

Again, I can understand Joker fatigue, but I found the Joker's inclusion in Origins a lot less forced than it was in City.

Origins is a story about the transition from organized crime to costumed lunatics in Gotham. It's fitting that Batman's first encounter with the Joker would be a part of that, along with the whole…

I'm not just talking about the inclusion of the assassins. I'm talking about stuff like nods to the Wayne family's history, the inclusion of Harvey Bullock, the stuff about Gordon and the GCPD prior to Gordon's reforms, and so on.

It's a lot better than putting Harley in a "sexy nurse" costume.

I can see that. It's just that, of all of the assassins, Deathstroke is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous. He's not even in the same -league- as Copperhead or Firefly. Lady Shiva is comparable, and Bane gets a pass simply because he's more intimately tied into the Batman mythos. It just felt a little weird to get…

I am persuaded by your calm, nuanced, and detailed argument.

That I can see. There was a definite "bait and switch" thing going on with Black Mask.

While I think that the Arkham version of the first encounter between Batman and the Joker (and, on a larger level, the transition from conventional organized crime to crazy super-criminals) is an interesting story worth telling, I…

Do you have examples? Because the closest thing I can think of offhand is the No Man's Land storyline, and while Arkham City was clearly inspired by that, it wasn't quite the same thing.

See...I thought the story of City was actually pretty sub-par. It's trying to do two big stories at once (the Joker and the Hugo Strange/Ra'as plot), and as a result, it doesn't do either very well. The Joker stuff feels like a tacked-on distraction that doesn't serve much of a purpose.

On the other hand, reimagining…

I actually thought that, on the whole, Origins was a better game than City.

The story was a lot more coherent than City's was; City seemed to be trying to do a few different stories at once, and as a result, none of them were particularly satisfying. It also included Batman acting in some decidedly non-Batman-ish ways.…

Ah, okay. I see what you're saying now. I honestly think the biggest problem with the combat was the waves of enemies spawning in from nowhere. In terms of the actual mechanics, DA2 had at least as much going on as DA:O, but it admittedly often gets obscured because you're so busy dealing with enemies dropping from…

"Gary Stu" is a cutesy, overused term that has been reduced to meaninglessness by its tendency to be tossed around at every opportunity.

I'm mostly interested in some of the shows because of their creative teams. For instance, Aldnoah.Zero has Gen Urobuchi behind it, which means it'll almost certainly be interesting, even if it's not his best work (like Gargantia). Zankyou no Terror is another Shinichiro Watanabe/Yoko Kanno series, which, while not a…

Some of what you're talking about comes down to personal preference, and I'll be the first to acknowledge that DA 2 has some major problems, but...DA: O is -totally- a bog-standard save the world plot. The fact that you assemble a bunch of allies to do it doesn't change that; in fact, that's a key part of the standard…

Watered down in what sense?

Because, I dunno...I could gladly go my entire life without doing another Deep Roads slog or Fade segment like in DA:O again. The combat system was balanced such that spamming healing potions was basically a win button (particularly if you had mages with freeze spells). The story, as much…

What subplot is that? Because DA2 is a much more focused, personal story than pretty much anything in DA:O (which I also like, but for different reasons).

Point 1: No, you're not the "Chosen One", but it's still a bog-standard "Only you can save the world!" empowerment fantasy. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but I'm sick of that being almost all we ever get.

I really don't get the DA2 hate. I mean, it had some huge issues, yes, but I'm personally glad Bioware decided to try something other than yet another empowerment fantasy "save the world" quest.

Man, I genuinely do not get the Dragon Age II hate. Yes, the area re-use was inexcusable, and the enemy wave spawning was ridiculous. But the writing and reactivity is some of the best Bioware has ever done, and frankly, I find it extremely refreshing to have an RPG that -isn't- yet another "You are the chosen one!…

Exactly. The conflation of "criticism" and "censorship" never ceases to annoy me.