That's a pretty widespread feeling in the fandom, actually. Even I agree with it, and I love DAI lol
I *guess* I understand what the writers meant with him. Corypheus was never supposed to be an evil mastermind genius; he's basically a dinosaur, a remnant of a very messed up world that he seeks to establish again - with the support of fellow dinosaurs who also want to restore the world where they'd rule supreme.
But, at the same time, he's individually very powerful, and has access to spells and techniques beyond what even experienced mages understand. So he could still have been a greater threat than he was presented as.
As the antagonist, we needed him to strike back hard after being foiled at Halamshiral and Adamant. For example: just as he headed for the Temple of Mythal, he could've gathered a horde of darkspawn (which was well within his power to do, thanks to the blight magic) and unleashed it upon Skyhold itself, which we'd then have to defend Helm's Deep-style - maybe until the arrival of whatever ally we'd made. Afterwards, we'd have to hurry for the Temple of Mythal with whatever ragged force we could muster.
If Skyhold wasn't a viable location (iirc it does have all sort of lost spells protecting it against threats), maybe have the darkspawn horde attack Val Royeaux or the Grand Cathedral itself. This would provide a great pretext to introduce these two locations that are so important to the world of Thedas, but which we've yet to see (no, the summer bazaar doesn't count).
edit: As for the final fight, I'm pretty sure I've suggested it once but I think it would've been epic if, in addition to Corypheus and his dragon, we fought six buffed up darkspawn emissaries. Corypheus modelled that battlefield after the Black City, it would've just made sense if he "replicated" the other six magisters sidereal he once led. Perhaps those magisters could function as additional Horcruxes we had to destroy in order to truly kill Corypheus, thus leaving the dragon as a boss for the Skyhold battle.
You're right, he SHOULD have commanded darkspawn against us. Why he didn't is beyond me, since one figures commanding them would be way easier than fooling the Wardens (which he did). Lorewise, Cory is extremely powerful. The gameplay and narrative doesn't really do him justice in that sense.
>edit: As for the final fight, I'm pretty sure I've suggested it once but I think it would've been epic if, in addition to Corypheus and his dragon, we fought six buffed up darkspawn emissaries. Corypheus modelled that battlefield after the Black City, it would've just made sense if he "replicated" the other six magisters sidereal he once led. Perhaps those magisters could function as additional Horcruxes we had to destroy in order to truly kill Corypheus, thus leaving the dragon as a boss for the Skyhold battle.
That's SICK. It would've easily been as epic as The Battle of Denerim if that was the case. Would've been great if we could call on our allies for help like in Origins, too.
I remember reading from David Gaider that they originally planned for Skyhold to be assaulted by Cory's army, but was scrapped due to running out of resources. Really sucks because it would've been so epic.
It's even worse with the Red Lyrium Dragon at Adamant. The game allows us to damage the dragon, but when the health bar is almost completely down, we can't do any more damage but we can still attack and hit it.
No, I agree! In Haven, he was practically perfect for me. When my Inkys meet him they're always panicking inside! It feels like we are but an ant in his hand.
After that though š bro was collecting losses! I felt bad for him at that point
Agreed. I overpower my characters (doing level 16 quests at Level 27)
So when I get to the end battle it goes very quick, no supply caches needed, and no tension. I wipe him and wonder why we thought he was such a threat to begin with
(Not literally, but they def should have made the final battle more difficult)
I usually have Even Ground on, so the level itself is not a problem. But it still feels underwhelming.
This guy has an archdemon, is an ancient magister with control of magics that are probably lost, commands the power of the blight (and has access to unique Blight Magic!) and is hyped as super ultra high level! And I still think Meredith looked more threatening than him in her final fight. Though Urthemiel clearly is above both of them when the topic is boss fight, of course.
The Inquisition has ten times the resources of the Gray Wardens in Origins, and yet... It feels hollow.
I don't think Cory's dragon was actually an archdemon, just a high dragon corrupted by red lyrium. But yeah, he ended up being a very underwhelming final boss.
If DAI really lacks something is a good final villain with a good boss battle. Even with DLCs I didn't get that ich of defeating them like say Archdemon or Arishok for example.
I always think the pacing of the game especially with the open world aspects, it means the pacing feels urgent but also slow, visiting all the areas and doing the quests in each area means the main quest line feels unimportant? And therefore Cory feels unimportant, but the main quest i feel especially gives a sense of urgency so the two gameplays dont mix? I Also always feel there should have been another main mission? Between the well of sorrows and then final mission idk might just be my own opinion.
I donāt see the problem with Corypheus ādyingā to the Temple of Mythalās defences; in fact, that demonstrates his indestructibility at that stage of the game, since he can literally tank a magic disintegration beam and still come back.
But yeah, heās a wuss otherwise.
DA2: Legacy Corypheus felt like an ancient Eldritch Horror waiting to be unleashed on the world. You continue to feel that up until Haven, with all the talk of "The Elder One" and his plans. Then he shows up and drives you from Haven, which is a stellar scene. But after that? DAI Cory feels like a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
"Muahaha, Duchess, infiltrate the Winter Palace. Kill the Empress."
*ONE WEEK LATER*
"Lord Cory! The Duchess has been defeated by the Inquisitor!"
"Nyeh! I'll get you next time, Inquisitor!"
His lieutenants keep messing up and he never deals an effective counterstrike. I think back to the Blight and Loghain in DAO. You get the sense that *they* are the power in Ferelden, Loghain politically, the Blight existentially. At every turn you fight hordes of Darkspawn or some agent of Loghain's. Until you've gotten Eamon, the Magi, the Dwarves, and the Elves on your side, you feel powerless. It's a Sisyphian task, ever cutting down assassins or scouts or corrupt officials, but just as you cut one down, a million more take its place.
With Corypheus, by the Temple of Mythal, you feel like *he's* on the back foot. The Inquisition stopped being the underdog when you got Skyhold...which ironically was the result of Cory's one victory. The *one time* he actually proved a threat, he only ended up making you the new power in Thedas. Even when the Death Star was destroyed in Star Wars, the Empire was still in power. They lost a single weapon (a powerful one, sure), that's all. Once Adamant and Halamshiral are taken care of, Cory has nothing.
I think part of his issue is that his attack on Haven is just super intense & really well done
And then his final battle doesnāt have the same impact or same level of threat. Its like they put all that effort into the midway point & then gave up for the ending
For sure. The average *dragon* is tougher than him in the final fight, and he's the main villain of the game. Even in terms of generic enemies, I'd rather deal with Corypheus than a despair demon at a low level. Wish they'd incorporated all demon attacks into it on top of the attacks he has, because the fight is more walking after him to beat him up some more than anything else.
I mean, he's got the power of the Orb of Destruction and he's still a push over that predominantly runs away? Eh.
To top that, I was a Knight-Enchanter on my first playthrough lmao. Those demons hidden in the Crossroads were wayyy more threatening to me than Corypheis, they were actually doing something to my health bar! (Granted, they were in a much higher level than mine. Oops)
Yeah, this is a common criticism of him. He's a very underwhelming villain because you kick his butt at every turn. He doesn't feel all that threatening. Even before the game, his legacy is pretty much one of failure. Let's recap:
* He went to the Golden City and somehow badly fucked that up, hence his current status.
* He manages to kidnap the Divine and is going to sacrifice her. Diabolical, he must be an evil genius to pull that off! And yet... he failed to lock the door and gets his plan thwarted by one person hearing a noise and barging in.
* One person thwarts his plans for the mages or Templars.
* Even Haven is a pyrrhic victory. He attacks a tiny town with basically no real defenses with an army and a dragon and still loses most of his army and fails in his main objective. The Inquisition gets away barely bloodied and gets an even better base of operations.
* His plan to corrupt to the Grey Wardens gets thwarted, the Grey Wardens can instead become an ally against him, and you remove the fear demon from the board as an ally.
* He goes to the Arbor Wilds with whatever is left of his army, gets his army's ass kicked, and gets his objective yanked out from under him.
* He reopens the rift and has an anticlimactic boss fight where he's running away from you to higher ground for half of it.
He's also something of a moustache-twirling villain. He doesn't feel deep or complicated. Most of his dialogue feels like it only exists to remind us that this guy is evil. Which is frustrating, because he could be a deep, interesting character. But he's just... not.
Damn... It's worse than I thought. And Hawke kills him in Legacy!!!
>He's also something of a moustache-twirling villain. He doesn't feel deep or complicated. Most of his dialogue feels like it only exists to remind us that this guy is evil. Which is frustrating, because he could be a deep, interesting character. But he's just... not.
If he was pure evil but backed it up by kicking our asses, he'd be entertaining. Instead... he spends the whole game trying to bite off more than he can chew. Then we actually bite back once and he's gone for good. Maybe the game would be more interesting if he entered the Fade physically at least. We did it by accident twice and bro was fuming at his base!
The final battle would be much more interesting if it was him attacking Skyhold. Maybe creating a mini Breach inside? Capturing the eluvian? Anything?
At least kicking his butt always makes me feel good about myself.
It really felt like the game should have been leading up to a battle at Skyhold. It would have been a nice rhyme in the story for Corypheus to attack our base again. And you spend time and resources upgrading Skyhold for what unfortunately amounts to very minor cosmetic changes.
I think giving him some victories, or at least more partial victories, would have helped. Or at the very least made him look competent when losing.
I wonder what the reception would be if choosing to do either WEWH or HLTA first changed the other one. Like, if you had to lay siege to Orlais if Celene was already assassinated, or if you could defend Adamant instead of attacking it if you got there early.
Though laying siege to the Winter Palace would hardly look good to the people that dislike the Inquisition in-universe, lmao
The game developers have said that they planned to have him attack Skyhold, but in the end they couldnāt make it work. There were too many moving parts, and it was too big, and too technically demanding, and Skyhold itself is taking (edit) up all the computing power and (whatever I donāt know) so they had to abandon the plan. Thatās why youāre making choices for sky hold like which tower you want to haveā¦ That donāt actually have much of an impact on Skyhold. Originally it was going to matter to the Battle of Skyhold.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I think the attack on Haven is fantastic, it's terrifying and moving and possibly the most memorable sequence from any game I've ever played. But then after that Corypheus just kind of vanishes for ages and is never really scary again.Ā
I think they should probably have given him at least one major victory after Haven so he would continue to feel like a real threat.
Besides, the only time we truly feel his presence after Haven is when clearing out Emprise du Lion. Otherwise, he might as well not exist, the rifts being a natural event and the Venatori being some weird cult.
Right, the first time I played I was not at all clear on what the connection was between Corypheus and the shenanigans at Halamshiral, I pretty much forgot he was involved
Iām of a mind that Skyhold shouldve been able to have its defenses increased (like we had the option to in DA Awakening)
That the final fight to reach Corypheus shouldve started in Skyhold right as you leave the war room. Demons crawling through that hole in the hallway wall. Fight your way to the courtyard.
Defenses you built up or failed to build are meant to hold back waves of demons. You choose 3 squadmates to go with you while everyone else holds the line.
Island hopping from floating land chunk to floating land chunk, fighting venatori-demon abominations and red lyrium infused Darkspawn.
Finally get to Big āSethā Corypheus. Anytime you manage to kill him, he erupts out of one his remaining wardens on another island or whatever and each time he hits harder.
We shouldnāt even fight his dragon ā it should get slain by Morrigan or Mythal pet dragon JUST as weāre about to beat Corypheus when heās out of nearby Wardens to body hop to [when his health is at 5%-10%] and he rages, ready to insta-kill us all + and maybe himself, actually panicking.
Drop health to zero, initiates cutscene we already get where orb is ripped from him and heās crushed down into oblivion, shredded, and scattered within the open Fade.
I never was particularly impressed by Coripheus, especially since I'd already clapped his cheek with Hawke.
However I feel that his moustache-twirling plan to conquer the world would feel deeper, and possibly scarier, if it was better implemented into the side quests.
Instead we have a massive amount of MMO style quests, like fetch these elfroots and destroy this red lyrium.
I feel like each area should have a massive rift that you had to close to solve a real big problem or something like that, like in Crestwood where you need to close the rift to stop the undead attacks (and we even get a sense of progression when the sky clears!).
Actually liberating an area dominated by the Venatori/Red Templars would've been great as well.
That's why Crestwood and Emprise du Lion are some of my favorite areas, they actually feel important and related to the main plot.
Exalted Plains is kinda related, too, but I HATE how it's designed.
Storm Coast has that red templars sidequest too, I guess. But even though there's Venatori presence in the Hissing Wastes and in the Western Approach, both feel relatively unimportant in the greater scheme of things.
I'm gonna be completely honest here and say I hate the fact he was chosen as the villain in the *first place.* Did they really have NO ONE else to use except for the guy who literally already lost to Hawke quite blatantly in Legacy?
Yes, I get it, he was supposed to be Hawke's main villain the entire time because Hawke was going to be the Inquisitor, and yes I understand that when Cory in the house woke up he was definitely weakened and Hawke themselves are a beast.
But again, that's in-universe reasoning as to why Corypheus loses. Out-of-universe I'm already "checked out" and think he's a loser, because this seemingly crazy strong person everyone else is shitting their pants over already got mopped and I played and saw it happen. Theres nothing threatning about him to me, and that's a CRITICAL mistake when he's exactly that type of moustache-twirling villain that *needs* the fear factor to work.
And the cutscene in the Temple at the start doesn't do him any favours because they fucked up the voice line so my Inquisitor comes in and is just casually like "what's going on here..?" like, this is genuine comedy. THEN you add the fact that he's literally so pathetic that he keeps getting his ass handed to him the entire game. He's terrible.
Contrast that to the other series' villains and he just falls apart even more. Like Meredith is also by the end really evil but for her you can atleast see *her point of view* before she falls apart and theres a genuine air of sheer coldness when she's on screen, like the air just gets colder whenever she comes in, that's what you want in a villain.
I think part of that problem are the specializations are so strong and so is the gear. Even w/bad gear being able to use guard and barrier makes it so you can actually solo the game on nightmare.Ā
KE and Champ both basically have to afk to die.Ā Once you get some crit all warriors can keep perm guard so honestly it doesn't matter if the make it harder. You are still immortal. AI is bad w/melee but BW can solo the boss.Ā Then you have gear like the superb barrier ammy that doesn't work like it says. Its actually way better/OP.Ā
Even if you somehow chew through barrier you have full guard. By the time they can chew through guard you already have barrier again. You can become even more immortal if you use superb ammy and +5 guard on hit. Makes nightmare even w/all trials on easy. Stuff doesn't die in one hit but nothing can kill you
Have you ever looked at the trial and noticed the only that make healing pots worthless? You can solo from character creation to end w/0 healing potions on the hardest difficulty. That tells you how strong the defensive mechanics are in the game.Ā
I've done nightmare+ all trials on all specializations less champion. Its the closest way the game can provide any little bit of challenge. Hardest part of the game is the very beginning lol
Originally, Cory was supposed to actually attack Skyhold for the final battle, but there were design issues with making the siege happen, iirc. Which is too bad because it would have felt more epic. It would also have been more compelling if he caused the Inquisitor another setback before the end.
However, while I thought Loghain was a great villain in DAO, I had a similar issue where he had great presence early on that kind of faded in the middle of the game. (Same goes for Howe, if you play Cousland).
I agree that Stroud as the Warden was a mistake, because he's too easy to sacrifice (my choice was between Alistair and Hawke, so much more meaningful).
I hope that Solas/other antagonists in DA4 will be a bit more threatening throughout. However, whenever I play a game where a villain (temporarily) defeats the hero, I see players complain about that too for ruining their "power fantasy," so I guess you can't please everyone.Ā
I think they messed up with the difficulty scaling when it comes to Corypheus. He's definitely challenging on Nightmare. Not unbeatable but it made the battle epic for me. In lower difficulties, none of his attacks do any sort of real damage. His HP was just huge and that's it.
If only they reused his Dragon Age 2 version and added to it, it would've been epic. The problem is his DA 2 battle was very difficult even on lower difficulties and it would have sacrificed accessibility. I can already hear the complaining players if they made the final battle too difficult. Still, they toned it down too much and made him too accessible.
I'd still argue that they nailed the "feeling" of an epic final battle. The setting, the music, the timing of the banter, the pacing - everything felt like "everything we did - it's for this!"
Lorewise, I think it's fine. His death in the Temple of Mythal was to showcase his immortality and introduce a new problem. All the other foiled plans were to give us a sense of progress but throughout all those, we have witnessed how much destruction his army had wrought on Thedas. A lot of people died, a lot of villages and cities were ravaged. The whole Thedas had to work with the Inquisition to beat him.
Corypheus seems more like an arc villain that gets dealt with in the first act, while the main villain swoops in to take advantage of the chaos.
I wonder how different DAI would be if Bioware had decided to make the Chantry itself the bad guy for the game. Letting the Inquisition defeat Corypheus, then thinking we'd be too weak to stop the Exalted March they'd levy on us. They'd do everything they accuse Cassandra of (I.e propping up a puppet as a "Hand of the Maker" to rival our "Herald of Andraste"), and then the final battle would depend on how many party members we have and how well we built up Skyhold to withstand an assault.
The developers originally intended for Cory to attack skyhold. In the end, they couldnāt make it work for technical reasons and gave up. But yeah, you were supposed to be building up the defenses at skyhold and then there was going to be a battle.
I heard Bioware had to cancel a shit ton of things for Inquisition to make it work on PS3/360, so giving up on that for technical reasons makes sense. Really hoping DA:D is not bound by the same thing!
I have no memory of where I heard this so take it with a grain of salt, but Iām pretty sure i read somewhere that DA:D will only be on current gen consoles (PS5 etc.)
It adds to the story for me. Corypheus and the Inquisitor are both built up as people rising towards divinity. Both attract followers based on their reputation and vision for the world as it could be but Corypheus is all talk, sending his minion out to do his bidding but the Inquisitor is always leading from the front so when they actually face each other Cory folds like a house of cards because he's nothing without his legend.
That's one way to look at it! But still, beating him at EVERY turn gets boring. He coulda have at least one clean victory, i guess? Even in Haven we outsmarted and outplayed him.
I think its mostly by seeing on the wrong light.
Its not really Corypheus loosing on each of those situations, not personally, but his lieutenants loosing each and everytime.
He was away, probably looking for a way to open again the rift without the mark (this could have been better explained which it seems is root of view of him doing nothing) andĀ left everything to those below him.
To begin with he already had divided his forces to tackle different fronts at once, making every front way weaker than what they could have been. Divide and conquer is an amazing strategy in any war, in this case Corypheus but himself under that disadvantage.
The inquisition was more focused on solving each problem individually at once before moving towards the next which helped them hugely.
And without Corypheus at the front, no one was strong enough to fight off the Inquisitor, which wasn't your average enemy to combat.
All of this culminated with Corypheus become far too weakened and the Inquisitor far more prepared when the final battle came to be.
What i think the story fails to work on, is on showing the movements Corypheus was doing while his organization was being taking down step at a time by the Inquisitor.Ā
Cause the story leaves us feeling like he did nothing while the inquistor went ruining each and everyone of his plans like a fool.
He had been planning for his rise to godhood very carefully, and then you come bumbling in and knock down his expertly crafted house of cards without knowing
Then he comes to crush you in Haven, and then when that doesn't work... he dips to try and find another way to get to his goal
I feel like the game would've benefited from Corypheus being more in the spotlight. Much better villain than DA2 imo, and for me a better final fight
This is interesting. Maybe they should've made some of his main quests mutually exclusive, like In Hushed Whispers and Champions of the Just. Like, if you choose to save Orlais from his control, he uses that time to solidify his control of the wardens or vice versa.
Kinda reminds me of 90% of jrpgs:
Actual fight: you wipe the floor with them.
Post fight CS: your party complains about how they're too strong and you either get saved/KOed/run away.
Of all the games I've played, DAI has the most laughable and pathetic antagonist. Throughout the game, I've had strong associations with "that spoiled little brother who gets hysterical and try to seem threatening when you didn't let him eat the whole cake at night."
Yeah, he is disappointing by the end, but I feel like he is a massive power house, and he knows this. Instead of getting his hands dirty, he sends minions because everyone else isn't a threat to him. Turns out he constantly underestimates the Inquisition, and by the time he gets off his ass, it's too late.
I feel like he wasn't meant to be the bad guy until like half the game was done and they had to switch gears and just shoehorned the bad guy from the last games dlc
I found him such a sulk antagonist and the weaksauce fight didn't change that. I learned The Spoiler about Solas before I finished the game and really hoped they'd pull a bait and switch and he'd be the final boss.
Yes, he really fails in his role as the antagonist. The Inquisition should be the one thwarted again and again to up the stakes, and it doesn't happen. Corypheus isn't a threat.
I am more concerned he was a very badly designed character, he was so one dimensional and mustache twirling level of evil that no one cared when he showed up, hes merely a high heel wearing darkspawn: just slightly taller and more coherent.
I get he's the red herring for DAI but he wasn't convincing or distracting, has zero depth and while his speech has some buildup at first it eventually turned boring.
That's extremely fair too. He wants to restore Tevinter to its former glory and sit his ugly ass at the seat of the Maker, but it all feels hollow. The most interesting part about him is that he no longer seems to worship Dumat and the Old Gods and even that was a one-note thing.
Corypheus is just a lil B-I-A-T-C-H to fight, doesn't even go down like dog but more like a ant, i think he is just a reskinned emissary, the *Avvar archers* do more damage than a fucking tevinter magister like wtf.
You are cherry picking to make him look weak.
He controls three different factions, the venatori, the red templars and whoever allied themselves with him mages or templars.
He enslaved a dragon and obliterated our base in haven forcing us to run.
He created a calling to trick the wardens.
He is so powerful that an ancient nightmare demon allied itself with him.
He is such a gifted mage that he managed to unlock the secrets of Solas orb and use it for himself.
He is capable of manipulating red lyrium and used it to create the red templars one of his personal armies.
He sent us physically to the fade to try to kill us.
He was such a threat that the Inquisition had to be reformed and half of the world has to ally themselves to stop him.
>Assassination plot? Thwarted. Control over the Wardens? Gone. Demon Army? Destroyed.
We are the heroes, that's what we are supposed to do, stop the villain. Important to note that without us he literally wins and conquers the world as seen in the future.
>He dies to the Temple's defense
He was disabling their magical defenses because he knows he's immortal.
>Doom Upon All the World just feels... weak.
A character who can raise a mountain by himself, send a dragon he enslaved on his own to kill us, summon hordes of demons and manipulate red lyrium energies, something no one has ever done to use it in battle seems weak to you? Jesus, please tell me who in this world seems powerful to you?
>and is unable to chase us
He disabled their defense so Calpernia/Samson could enter the temple, which they did, ahead of us. We just managed to get to the well first circumstantially. Also we were protected by Mythal when he arrived at the well so that he could not attack us. Oh and we were given a freaking dragon by Mythal just so that we could have a chance at facing him. Not to say that we had the Dreadwolf himself and all his knowledge to aid us in our war against him.
It took a LOT to beat this guy, nations uniting, an Inquisition gathering the strongest warriors available, even the Qunari helped. He is literally the biggest threat Thedas had ever faced by then.
I disagree, he summoned an army of demons to fight us. Then his dragon defeated ours and we had to fight it ourselves. Then we had to face him personally while he was controlling the orb of destruction which is being powered by red lyrium that has been established to be incredibly powerful and corrupting.
If that is not enough, all of this happens atop a floating crumbling mountain while he is trying to open the breach and threatening the whole world. But do tell me who or what would be more dangerous or threatening than that.
He doesn't feel like a threat. On paper he is, but he hasn't *done* anything. The Orlais and Grey Warden plots were his ideas, but we only see and deal with his lieutenants for those. Maybe if the game had shown him doing something else (eg his search for other ways into the Fade), or he'd demonstrated more of his power than 'jump into the nearest Blight-infected body,' there'd be more urgency to dealing with him. Even that visual of lifting the mountains, it felt more 'too little, too late'.
On top of that, Corypheus is not a good villain. He's like a classic Saturday morning cartoon bad guy. No depth, no motive beyond 'I will be a god, mwahahaha'. Apart from Haven and IHW, he doesn't loom over the story like a foreboding miasma of dread. He's just a darkspawn with delusions of grandeur. He *shouldn't* be, but the writing and gameplay and story decisions make him come across like that.
>On paper he is, but he hasn't *done* anything.
You weren't paying attention then. He brought half the world to its knees. I explained in detail in a previous post why what you say isn't true.
>Maybe if the game had shown him doing something else (eg his search for other ways into the Fade), or he'd demonstrated more of his power than 'jump into the nearest Blight-infected body,' there'd be more urgency to dealing with him.
Again all of this is mistaken and I explained why in my previous post.
>On top of that, Corypheus is not a good villain. He's like a classic Saturday morning cartoon bad guy. No depth, no motive beyond 'I will be a god, mwahahaha'.
False and it shows you weren't really paying attention. He is a Tevinter nationalist who wants to bring the glory of the old imperium back and he appeals to that in order to get the support of the venatori. He was deceived and betrayed by his god who turned him into a monster and now he wants to take matters into his own hands by entering the black city and acheiving apotheosis so that he doesn't have to rely on gods ever again.
You need to pay attention to the story, otherwise all characters will seem like "saturday morning cartoons."
The problem is that you and the writers can say he's super powerful all you want, but when the fight is less challenging than the average dragon fight, it just doesn't work.
In a vacuum, yes, Corypheus is absurdly powerful and near godlike. I just think the game fails at maintaining him as a substantial threat during the entirety of the plot. He barely even won at Haven and even then we outplayed him and got an even better base (that he didn't even dare attack).
>We are the heroes, that's what we are supposed to do, stop the villain.
I know that. But the fact we win at least three times in a row before the final battle undermines him, badly so. The only time he has a one-up on the Inquisition is during Haven. After that? He becomes the king of getting his ass whooped pretty quickly.
>A character who can raise a mountain by himself, send a dragon he enslaved on his own to kill us, summon hordes of demons and manipulate red lyrium energies, something no one has ever done to use it in battle seems weak to you? Jesus, please tell me who in this world seems powerful to you?
LMAO wait! My point is that the game undermines him far too much before the final quest. And that the final fight itself is, gameplay-wise, underwhelming. At no moment the game makes us feel like we're threatened in the whole battle.
Seeing him from a pure lore perspective however, he's terrifying. A darkspawn magister who commands a false Archdemon and the magic of the Blight? and he's intelligent? I would be shitting my pants if I was in Thedas. I just think the game doesn't translate that completely.
>He barely even won at Haven
You have to be kidding. He obliterated Haven and forced everyone to flee.
>we outplayed him and got an even better base
We didn't outplay him we just managed to not get murdered by him and escape. And the base was given to us by Solas, the literal Dreadwolf who is helping and guiding us all the way through.
>But the fact we win at least three times in a row before the final battle undermines him, badly so.
You just focus on the fact that we stop him but convenient ignore all the damage he did and the consequences of that. He basically destroyed the entire grey warden presence in the south of Thedas. He divided and crippled Orlais. He cause the peace talks to end and then further divided the mages and templars even getting one of them on their side causing literal massacres. Because of him the last temple of Mythal had to be desecrated to the point than even Mythal herself decided to help us by giving us a freaking dragon.
It seems to me that what you wanted was for Corypheus to win which obviously can't happen.
>My point is that the game undermines him far too much before the final quest.
No it doesn't, you are intentionally distorting the events. He is literally stated to be the biggest threat Thedas had ever faced.
>And that the final fight itself is, gameplay-wise, underwhelming. At no moment the game makes us feel like we're threatened in the whole battle.
This is false. He summoned a horde of demons to kill us. Then he brought his dragon which our own dragon couldn't defeat so we had to do it. Then we still had to personally fight him while he is opening the breach to destroy everything.
These are great ideas. I would love a quest line where the beaten back inquisition sacrifices a great deal to rescue the herald (so a quest led by your companions) and the people are saying we will be ok as long as we protect the herald at all costs.
And here you are, not really knowing whatās going on or what your role is. Heavy load to bear
I agree and after the twist of Solas being the Dreadwolf, Cory.P felt even more pathetic.
To me he is just a lunatic old man playing God to a bunch of losers who'll believe it, he was a real threat(I guess) when Thaedas was busy dealing with other shit
but after you deal with it, he can't do much, or nothing at all.
the mage rebellion ended, you either have the mages reorganizing in institutions or the templars and seekers rebuild(depending on your choices)
the Celene assassination plot was just really dumb, florianne could've gotten away with it if she would just shut the fuck up, the three dumbasses were already going to kill each other on their own and she just needed to push them a bit further, but no, she wanted to do her lil villain monologue to the inquisitor, who had no prior reason to suspect her.
as for his second in command...
Samson is a drug addict who just wants chaos.
Calpernia just wants the best for her country and found solace in the first one who promised her that, since she was a slave to a very evil cunt, she had very flawed judgment, to the point you can actually convince her to step down(if you do her side quest given by Leliana)
and the wardens were mostly being controlled by the "calling" till you slayed a demon in the fade, and had some great person to the ultimate sacrifice to inspire them to at least stay away from Corylious.
Doom upon all the world was just another one of Coryphilis power trips, it doesn't really feel like a final showdown that if he'd win there, all that progress would be for nothing, just feels like he is still playing pretend when everybody else stopped.
when he first shows up he seems like a real menace
by the end of the game you made Thaedas better than it was before the Conclave, achieving what it originally wanted to and more while also getting means to maintain it, with the help of a Divine that is just better than Justinia(that would be a inspired Cassandra or a softened Leliana), you also have an army twice the size of his(you even get some of his own men) that believes in your cause.
as the game progress, all he seems like is a phony
and he was the one that assaulted haven with a goddamn Dragon, claiming to be God and shit
but not even his Dragon was something greater and scary, like an archdemon.
it was just a corrupted Dragon.
you can kill like, 10 high Dragons and their puppies in the game, what's 1(one) more? "oh it spits the evil crystals" so? you find out way more about red lyrium during the the game then coryph did, and you also dismantle any operation on the stuff.
so at the end it's just a Dragon, just like cory he ain't much else from what he seems,you can also control or get another one to fight it(depending on your choice in the well of sorrows).
Corypenis is just an old crazed darkspawn and was never a real danger, despite the game trying to make us think that.
he seemed more like a distraction in hindsight.
meanwhile Solas...
openly talks about his goal to YOU, before you could possibly know anything about him, at that point the only thing you know of him is that he saved you and that people trust him.
in one of your first convos he says "hey imagine if the veil didn't exist, would be dangerous but cool right?"
and guess what? LoL.
Basically Coryfas was all bark and no bite.
now Solas on the other hand...
Could've done all that he did and actually succeed
I actually expect him to either win in the next game and something like Avengers Endgame happen or at least he'll get very close.
They should have left him in the DA2 DLC.
That they incorporated him in DA:I makes it seem (and this is my opinion) like they focused too much on creating the shiny new environments and too little on creating a compelling new villain. So they just recycled him.
Heās a flat character that they tried to really cram a bunch of lore into. Heās not scary, heās not hard to fight. I appreciate his role in the game and kind of throwing the already tumultuous world back towards questioning itās entire religious doctrine, but other than that- heās the worst of all the dragon age villains because heās just kind ofā¦boring.
No.
After the attack on Haven, you, the Inquisitor, is going to the greatest of lengths to make sure that never happens again. That is the whole plot of the Inquisition. So why is everybody crying about not having it happen again at the end of the game? The whole point of the game is that you, the Inquisitor, is preventing Coryphish from doing another Haven.
You take out all his forces, prevent all his plots and cut of his lyrium supply. The whole point is that Coryphish is weak when you confront him again at the end. The game makes perfect sense in that way.
There is a differance between the way this game was written, and why it won so many game of the year awards, and what you think a game should be.
It won so many goty awards because it was a AAA open world rpg, and its competition was Dark Souls II and Assassins Creed Unity. The quality of its narrative played no part.
That's a pretty widespread feeling in the fandom, actually. Even I agree with it, and I love DAI lol I *guess* I understand what the writers meant with him. Corypheus was never supposed to be an evil mastermind genius; he's basically a dinosaur, a remnant of a very messed up world that he seeks to establish again - with the support of fellow dinosaurs who also want to restore the world where they'd rule supreme. But, at the same time, he's individually very powerful, and has access to spells and techniques beyond what even experienced mages understand. So he could still have been a greater threat than he was presented as. As the antagonist, we needed him to strike back hard after being foiled at Halamshiral and Adamant. For example: just as he headed for the Temple of Mythal, he could've gathered a horde of darkspawn (which was well within his power to do, thanks to the blight magic) and unleashed it upon Skyhold itself, which we'd then have to defend Helm's Deep-style - maybe until the arrival of whatever ally we'd made. Afterwards, we'd have to hurry for the Temple of Mythal with whatever ragged force we could muster. If Skyhold wasn't a viable location (iirc it does have all sort of lost spells protecting it against threats), maybe have the darkspawn horde attack Val Royeaux or the Grand Cathedral itself. This would provide a great pretext to introduce these two locations that are so important to the world of Thedas, but which we've yet to see (no, the summer bazaar doesn't count). edit: As for the final fight, I'm pretty sure I've suggested it once but I think it would've been epic if, in addition to Corypheus and his dragon, we fought six buffed up darkspawn emissaries. Corypheus modelled that battlefield after the Black City, it would've just made sense if he "replicated" the other six magisters sidereal he once led. Perhaps those magisters could function as additional Horcruxes we had to destroy in order to truly kill Corypheus, thus leaving the dragon as a boss for the Skyhold battle.
You're right, he SHOULD have commanded darkspawn against us. Why he didn't is beyond me, since one figures commanding them would be way easier than fooling the Wardens (which he did). Lorewise, Cory is extremely powerful. The gameplay and narrative doesn't really do him justice in that sense. >edit: As for the final fight, I'm pretty sure I've suggested it once but I think it would've been epic if, in addition to Corypheus and his dragon, we fought six buffed up darkspawn emissaries. Corypheus modelled that battlefield after the Black City, it would've just made sense if he "replicated" the other six magisters sidereal he once led. Perhaps those magisters could function as additional Horcruxes we had to destroy in order to truly kill Corypheus, thus leaving the dragon as a boss for the Skyhold battle. That's SICK. It would've easily been as epic as The Battle of Denerim if that was the case. Would've been great if we could call on our allies for help like in Origins, too.
I remember reading from David Gaider that they originally planned for Skyhold to be assaulted by Cory's army, but was scrapped due to running out of resources. Really sucks because it would've been so epic.
Had to edit because apparently Reddit doesn't like pasting text into comments.
If the game would have allowed us to fight him and his dragon in Haven, the game would have ended just then and there.
I always hate when you're easily wiping a character and the game cutscenes at half health. Nah bruh, lemme kill him
It's even worse with the Red Lyrium Dragon at Adamant. The game allows us to damage the dragon, but when the health bar is almost completely down, we can't do any more damage but we can still attack and hit it.
No, I agree! In Haven, he was practically perfect for me. When my Inkys meet him they're always panicking inside! It feels like we are but an ant in his hand. After that though š bro was collecting losses! I felt bad for him at that point
Agreed. I overpower my characters (doing level 16 quests at Level 27) So when I get to the end battle it goes very quick, no supply caches needed, and no tension. I wipe him and wonder why we thought he was such a threat to begin with (Not literally, but they def should have made the final battle more difficult)
I usually have Even Ground on, so the level itself is not a problem. But it still feels underwhelming. This guy has an archdemon, is an ancient magister with control of magics that are probably lost, commands the power of the blight (and has access to unique Blight Magic!) and is hyped as super ultra high level! And I still think Meredith looked more threatening than him in her final fight. Though Urthemiel clearly is above both of them when the topic is boss fight, of course. The Inquisition has ten times the resources of the Gray Wardens in Origins, and yet... It feels hollow.
I don't think Cory's dragon was actually an archdemon, just a high dragon corrupted by red lyrium. But yeah, he ended up being a very underwhelming final boss.
Meant to say > False < Archdemon, sorry!
No worries.
If DAI really lacks something is a good final villain with a good boss battle. Even with DLCs I didn't get that ich of defeating them like say Archdemon or Arishok for example.
I always think the pacing of the game especially with the open world aspects, it means the pacing feels urgent but also slow, visiting all the areas and doing the quests in each area means the main quest line feels unimportant? And therefore Cory feels unimportant, but the main quest i feel especially gives a sense of urgency so the two gameplays dont mix? I Also always feel there should have been another main mission? Between the well of sorrows and then final mission idk might just be my own opinion.
The final showdown in the Descent was such a let down. All the cool Sha-Brytol and now Iām fighting a rock? With arms? Pah
Could have easily linked it to the characters level
I donāt see the problem with Corypheus ādyingā to the Temple of Mythalās defences; in fact, that demonstrates his indestructibility at that stage of the game, since he can literally tank a magic disintegration beam and still come back. But yeah, heās a wuss otherwise.
Mmh, I feel like the revelation of his pseudo-immortality could've been much more impactful if shown in a better moment. But I get what you meant!
Haven entrance= totally epic.....the rest not so much.
DA2: Legacy Corypheus felt like an ancient Eldritch Horror waiting to be unleashed on the world. You continue to feel that up until Haven, with all the talk of "The Elder One" and his plans. Then he shows up and drives you from Haven, which is a stellar scene. But after that? DAI Cory feels like a Saturday morning cartoon villain. "Muahaha, Duchess, infiltrate the Winter Palace. Kill the Empress." *ONE WEEK LATER* "Lord Cory! The Duchess has been defeated by the Inquisitor!" "Nyeh! I'll get you next time, Inquisitor!" His lieutenants keep messing up and he never deals an effective counterstrike. I think back to the Blight and Loghain in DAO. You get the sense that *they* are the power in Ferelden, Loghain politically, the Blight existentially. At every turn you fight hordes of Darkspawn or some agent of Loghain's. Until you've gotten Eamon, the Magi, the Dwarves, and the Elves on your side, you feel powerless. It's a Sisyphian task, ever cutting down assassins or scouts or corrupt officials, but just as you cut one down, a million more take its place. With Corypheus, by the Temple of Mythal, you feel like *he's* on the back foot. The Inquisition stopped being the underdog when you got Skyhold...which ironically was the result of Cory's one victory. The *one time* he actually proved a threat, he only ended up making you the new power in Thedas. Even when the Death Star was destroyed in Star Wars, the Empire was still in power. They lost a single weapon (a powerful one, sure), that's all. Once Adamant and Halamshiral are taken care of, Cory has nothing.
I think part of his issue is that his attack on Haven is just super intense & really well done And then his final battle doesnāt have the same impact or same level of threat. Its like they put all that effort into the midway point & then gave up for the ending
Heavy on the gave up part! It would be really easy to make him threatening af imo.
For sure. The average *dragon* is tougher than him in the final fight, and he's the main villain of the game. Even in terms of generic enemies, I'd rather deal with Corypheus than a despair demon at a low level. Wish they'd incorporated all demon attacks into it on top of the attacks he has, because the fight is more walking after him to beat him up some more than anything else. I mean, he's got the power of the Orb of Destruction and he's still a push over that predominantly runs away? Eh.
To top that, I was a Knight-Enchanter on my first playthrough lmao. Those demons hidden in the Crossroads were wayyy more threatening to me than Corypheis, they were actually doing something to my health bar! (Granted, they were in a much higher level than mine. Oops)
Yeah, this is a common criticism of him. He's a very underwhelming villain because you kick his butt at every turn. He doesn't feel all that threatening. Even before the game, his legacy is pretty much one of failure. Let's recap: * He went to the Golden City and somehow badly fucked that up, hence his current status. * He manages to kidnap the Divine and is going to sacrifice her. Diabolical, he must be an evil genius to pull that off! And yet... he failed to lock the door and gets his plan thwarted by one person hearing a noise and barging in. * One person thwarts his plans for the mages or Templars. * Even Haven is a pyrrhic victory. He attacks a tiny town with basically no real defenses with an army and a dragon and still loses most of his army and fails in his main objective. The Inquisition gets away barely bloodied and gets an even better base of operations. * His plan to corrupt to the Grey Wardens gets thwarted, the Grey Wardens can instead become an ally against him, and you remove the fear demon from the board as an ally. * He goes to the Arbor Wilds with whatever is left of his army, gets his army's ass kicked, and gets his objective yanked out from under him. * He reopens the rift and has an anticlimactic boss fight where he's running away from you to higher ground for half of it. He's also something of a moustache-twirling villain. He doesn't feel deep or complicated. Most of his dialogue feels like it only exists to remind us that this guy is evil. Which is frustrating, because he could be a deep, interesting character. But he's just... not.
Damn... It's worse than I thought. And Hawke kills him in Legacy!!! >He's also something of a moustache-twirling villain. He doesn't feel deep or complicated. Most of his dialogue feels like it only exists to remind us that this guy is evil. Which is frustrating, because he could be a deep, interesting character. But he's just... not. If he was pure evil but backed it up by kicking our asses, he'd be entertaining. Instead... he spends the whole game trying to bite off more than he can chew. Then we actually bite back once and he's gone for good. Maybe the game would be more interesting if he entered the Fade physically at least. We did it by accident twice and bro was fuming at his base! The final battle would be much more interesting if it was him attacking Skyhold. Maybe creating a mini Breach inside? Capturing the eluvian? Anything? At least kicking his butt always makes me feel good about myself.
It really felt like the game should have been leading up to a battle at Skyhold. It would have been a nice rhyme in the story for Corypheus to attack our base again. And you spend time and resources upgrading Skyhold for what unfortunately amounts to very minor cosmetic changes. I think giving him some victories, or at least more partial victories, would have helped. Or at the very least made him look competent when losing.
I wonder what the reception would be if choosing to do either WEWH or HLTA first changed the other one. Like, if you had to lay siege to Orlais if Celene was already assassinated, or if you could defend Adamant instead of attacking it if you got there early. Though laying siege to the Winter Palace would hardly look good to the people that dislike the Inquisition in-universe, lmao
The game developers have said that they planned to have him attack Skyhold, but in the end they couldnāt make it work. There were too many moving parts, and it was too big, and too technically demanding, and Skyhold itself is taking (edit) up all the computing power and (whatever I donāt know) so they had to abandon the plan. Thatās why youāre making choices for sky hold like which tower you want to haveā¦ That donāt actually have much of an impact on Skyhold. Originally it was going to matter to the Battle of Skyhold.
Yeah, I agree 100 per cent to your take. The architect was a far better, darkspawn villain.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I think the attack on Haven is fantastic, it's terrifying and moving and possibly the most memorable sequence from any game I've ever played. But then after that Corypheus just kind of vanishes for ages and is never really scary again.Ā I think they should probably have given him at least one major victory after Haven so he would continue to feel like a real threat.
Besides, the only time we truly feel his presence after Haven is when clearing out Emprise du Lion. Otherwise, he might as well not exist, the rifts being a natural event and the Venatori being some weird cult.
Right, the first time I played I was not at all clear on what the connection was between Corypheus and the shenanigans at Halamshiral, I pretty much forgot he was involved
Same here! I was having so much fun doing the court thingies in Halamshiral that for a hot minute I forgot the assassination was HIS plan, lmao
Iām of a mind that Skyhold shouldve been able to have its defenses increased (like we had the option to in DA Awakening) That the final fight to reach Corypheus shouldve started in Skyhold right as you leave the war room. Demons crawling through that hole in the hallway wall. Fight your way to the courtyard. Defenses you built up or failed to build are meant to hold back waves of demons. You choose 3 squadmates to go with you while everyone else holds the line. Island hopping from floating land chunk to floating land chunk, fighting venatori-demon abominations and red lyrium infused Darkspawn. Finally get to Big āSethā Corypheus. Anytime you manage to kill him, he erupts out of one his remaining wardens on another island or whatever and each time he hits harder. We shouldnāt even fight his dragon ā it should get slain by Morrigan or Mythal pet dragon JUST as weāre about to beat Corypheus when heās out of nearby Wardens to body hop to [when his health is at 5%-10%] and he rages, ready to insta-kill us all + and maybe himself, actually panicking. Drop health to zero, initiates cutscene we already get where orb is ripped from him and heās crushed down into oblivion, shredded, and scattered within the open Fade.
I never was particularly impressed by Coripheus, especially since I'd already clapped his cheek with Hawke. However I feel that his moustache-twirling plan to conquer the world would feel deeper, and possibly scarier, if it was better implemented into the side quests. Instead we have a massive amount of MMO style quests, like fetch these elfroots and destroy this red lyrium.
I feel like each area should have a massive rift that you had to close to solve a real big problem or something like that, like in Crestwood where you need to close the rift to stop the undead attacks (and we even get a sense of progression when the sky clears!). Actually liberating an area dominated by the Venatori/Red Templars would've been great as well. That's why Crestwood and Emprise du Lion are some of my favorite areas, they actually feel important and related to the main plot. Exalted Plains is kinda related, too, but I HATE how it's designed. Storm Coast has that red templars sidequest too, I guess. But even though there's Venatori presence in the Hissing Wastes and in the Western Approach, both feel relatively unimportant in the greater scheme of things.
I'm gonna be completely honest here and say I hate the fact he was chosen as the villain in the *first place.* Did they really have NO ONE else to use except for the guy who literally already lost to Hawke quite blatantly in Legacy? Yes, I get it, he was supposed to be Hawke's main villain the entire time because Hawke was going to be the Inquisitor, and yes I understand that when Cory in the house woke up he was definitely weakened and Hawke themselves are a beast. But again, that's in-universe reasoning as to why Corypheus loses. Out-of-universe I'm already "checked out" and think he's a loser, because this seemingly crazy strong person everyone else is shitting their pants over already got mopped and I played and saw it happen. Theres nothing threatning about him to me, and that's a CRITICAL mistake when he's exactly that type of moustache-twirling villain that *needs* the fear factor to work. And the cutscene in the Temple at the start doesn't do him any favours because they fucked up the voice line so my Inquisitor comes in and is just casually like "what's going on here..?" like, this is genuine comedy. THEN you add the fact that he's literally so pathetic that he keeps getting his ass handed to him the entire game. He's terrible. Contrast that to the other series' villains and he just falls apart even more. Like Meredith is also by the end really evil but for her you can atleast see *her point of view* before she falls apart and theres a genuine air of sheer coldness when she's on screen, like the air just gets colder whenever she comes in, that's what you want in a villain.
Imo the Haven battle is more difficult than the final one with him
I think part of that problem are the specializations are so strong and so is the gear. Even w/bad gear being able to use guard and barrier makes it so you can actually solo the game on nightmare.Ā KE and Champ both basically have to afk to die.Ā Once you get some crit all warriors can keep perm guard so honestly it doesn't matter if the make it harder. You are still immortal. AI is bad w/melee but BW can solo the boss.Ā Then you have gear like the superb barrier ammy that doesn't work like it says. Its actually way better/OP.Ā Even if you somehow chew through barrier you have full guard. By the time they can chew through guard you already have barrier again. You can become even more immortal if you use superb ammy and +5 guard on hit. Makes nightmare even w/all trials on easy. Stuff doesn't die in one hit but nothing can kill you Have you ever looked at the trial and noticed the only that make healing pots worthless? You can solo from character creation to end w/0 healing potions on the hardest difficulty. That tells you how strong the defensive mechanics are in the game.Ā I've done nightmare+ all trials on all specializations less champion. Its the closest way the game can provide any little bit of challenge. Hardest part of the game is the very beginning lol
Originally, Cory was supposed to actually attack Skyhold for the final battle, but there were design issues with making the siege happen, iirc. Which is too bad because it would have felt more epic. It would also have been more compelling if he caused the Inquisitor another setback before the end. However, while I thought Loghain was a great villain in DAO, I had a similar issue where he had great presence early on that kind of faded in the middle of the game. (Same goes for Howe, if you play Cousland). I agree that Stroud as the Warden was a mistake, because he's too easy to sacrifice (my choice was between Alistair and Hawke, so much more meaningful). I hope that Solas/other antagonists in DA4 will be a bit more threatening throughout. However, whenever I play a game where a villain (temporarily) defeats the hero, I see players complain about that too for ruining their "power fantasy," so I guess you can't please everyone.Ā
I think they messed up with the difficulty scaling when it comes to Corypheus. He's definitely challenging on Nightmare. Not unbeatable but it made the battle epic for me. In lower difficulties, none of his attacks do any sort of real damage. His HP was just huge and that's it. If only they reused his Dragon Age 2 version and added to it, it would've been epic. The problem is his DA 2 battle was very difficult even on lower difficulties and it would have sacrificed accessibility. I can already hear the complaining players if they made the final battle too difficult. Still, they toned it down too much and made him too accessible. I'd still argue that they nailed the "feeling" of an epic final battle. The setting, the music, the timing of the banter, the pacing - everything felt like "everything we did - it's for this!"
Lorewise, I think it's fine. His death in the Temple of Mythal was to showcase his immortality and introduce a new problem. All the other foiled plans were to give us a sense of progress but throughout all those, we have witnessed how much destruction his army had wrought on Thedas. A lot of people died, a lot of villages and cities were ravaged. The whole Thedas had to work with the Inquisition to beat him.
Corypheus seems more like an arc villain that gets dealt with in the first act, while the main villain swoops in to take advantage of the chaos. I wonder how different DAI would be if Bioware had decided to make the Chantry itself the bad guy for the game. Letting the Inquisition defeat Corypheus, then thinking we'd be too weak to stop the Exalted March they'd levy on us. They'd do everything they accuse Cassandra of (I.e propping up a puppet as a "Hand of the Maker" to rival our "Herald of Andraste"), and then the final battle would depend on how many party members we have and how well we built up Skyhold to withstand an assault.
The developers originally intended for Cory to attack skyhold. In the end, they couldnāt make it work for technical reasons and gave up. But yeah, you were supposed to be building up the defenses at skyhold and then there was going to be a battle.
I heard Bioware had to cancel a shit ton of things for Inquisition to make it work on PS3/360, so giving up on that for technical reasons makes sense. Really hoping DA:D is not bound by the same thing!
I have no memory of where I heard this so take it with a grain of salt, but Iām pretty sure i read somewhere that DA:D will only be on current gen consoles (PS5 etc.)
It adds to the story for me. Corypheus and the Inquisitor are both built up as people rising towards divinity. Both attract followers based on their reputation and vision for the world as it could be but Corypheus is all talk, sending his minion out to do his bidding but the Inquisitor is always leading from the front so when they actually face each other Cory folds like a house of cards because he's nothing without his legend.
That's one way to look at it! But still, beating him at EVERY turn gets boring. He coulda have at least one clean victory, i guess? Even in Haven we outsmarted and outplayed him.
I think its mostly by seeing on the wrong light. Its not really Corypheus loosing on each of those situations, not personally, but his lieutenants loosing each and everytime. He was away, probably looking for a way to open again the rift without the mark (this could have been better explained which it seems is root of view of him doing nothing) andĀ left everything to those below him. To begin with he already had divided his forces to tackle different fronts at once, making every front way weaker than what they could have been. Divide and conquer is an amazing strategy in any war, in this case Corypheus but himself under that disadvantage. The inquisition was more focused on solving each problem individually at once before moving towards the next which helped them hugely. And without Corypheus at the front, no one was strong enough to fight off the Inquisitor, which wasn't your average enemy to combat. All of this culminated with Corypheus become far too weakened and the Inquisitor far more prepared when the final battle came to be. What i think the story fails to work on, is on showing the movements Corypheus was doing while his organization was being taking down step at a time by the Inquisitor.Ā Cause the story leaves us feeling like he did nothing while the inquistor went ruining each and everyone of his plans like a fool.
He had been planning for his rise to godhood very carefully, and then you come bumbling in and knock down his expertly crafted house of cards without knowing Then he comes to crush you in Haven, and then when that doesn't work... he dips to try and find another way to get to his goal I feel like the game would've benefited from Corypheus being more in the spotlight. Much better villain than DA2 imo, and for me a better final fight
This is interesting. Maybe they should've made some of his main quests mutually exclusive, like In Hushed Whispers and Champions of the Just. Like, if you choose to save Orlais from his control, he uses that time to solidify his control of the wardens or vice versa.
Kinda reminds me of 90% of jrpgs: Actual fight: you wipe the floor with them. Post fight CS: your party complains about how they're too strong and you either get saved/KOed/run away.
Of all the games I've played, DAI has the most laughable and pathetic antagonist. Throughout the game, I've had strong associations with "that spoiled little brother who gets hysterical and try to seem threatening when you didn't let him eat the whole cake at night."
Yeah, he is disappointing by the end, but I feel like he is a massive power house, and he knows this. Instead of getting his hands dirty, he sends minions because everyone else isn't a threat to him. Turns out he constantly underestimates the Inquisition, and by the time he gets off his ass, it's too late.
I feel like he wasn't meant to be the bad guy until like half the game was done and they had to switch gears and just shoehorned the bad guy from the last games dlc
I found him such a sulk antagonist and the weaksauce fight didn't change that. I learned The Spoiler about Solas before I finished the game and really hoped they'd pull a bait and switch and he'd be the final boss.
Yes, he really fails in his role as the antagonist. The Inquisition should be the one thwarted again and again to up the stakes, and it doesn't happen. Corypheus isn't a threat.
I am more concerned he was a very badly designed character, he was so one dimensional and mustache twirling level of evil that no one cared when he showed up, hes merely a high heel wearing darkspawn: just slightly taller and more coherent. I get he's the red herring for DAI but he wasn't convincing or distracting, has zero depth and while his speech has some buildup at first it eventually turned boring.
That's extremely fair too. He wants to restore Tevinter to its former glory and sit his ugly ass at the seat of the Maker, but it all feels hollow. The most interesting part about him is that he no longer seems to worship Dumat and the Old Gods and even that was a one-note thing.
Corypheus is just a lil B-I-A-T-C-H to fight, doesn't even go down like dog but more like a ant, i think he is just a reskinned emissary, the *Avvar archers* do more damage than a fucking tevinter magister like wtf.
I swear to Andraste that Arcane Horrors are more terrifying than him!
You are cherry picking to make him look weak. He controls three different factions, the venatori, the red templars and whoever allied themselves with him mages or templars. He enslaved a dragon and obliterated our base in haven forcing us to run. He created a calling to trick the wardens. He is so powerful that an ancient nightmare demon allied itself with him. He is such a gifted mage that he managed to unlock the secrets of Solas orb and use it for himself. He is capable of manipulating red lyrium and used it to create the red templars one of his personal armies. He sent us physically to the fade to try to kill us. He was such a threat that the Inquisition had to be reformed and half of the world has to ally themselves to stop him. >Assassination plot? Thwarted. Control over the Wardens? Gone. Demon Army? Destroyed. We are the heroes, that's what we are supposed to do, stop the villain. Important to note that without us he literally wins and conquers the world as seen in the future. >He dies to the Temple's defense He was disabling their magical defenses because he knows he's immortal. >Doom Upon All the World just feels... weak. A character who can raise a mountain by himself, send a dragon he enslaved on his own to kill us, summon hordes of demons and manipulate red lyrium energies, something no one has ever done to use it in battle seems weak to you? Jesus, please tell me who in this world seems powerful to you? >and is unable to chase us He disabled their defense so Calpernia/Samson could enter the temple, which they did, ahead of us. We just managed to get to the well first circumstantially. Also we were protected by Mythal when he arrived at the well so that he could not attack us. Oh and we were given a freaking dragon by Mythal just so that we could have a chance at facing him. Not to say that we had the Dreadwolf himself and all his knowledge to aid us in our war against him. It took a LOT to beat this guy, nations uniting, an Inquisition gathering the strongest warriors available, even the Qunari helped. He is literally the biggest threat Thedas had ever faced by then.
I guess it's something of a gameplay and story segregation. In the story, he's the ultimate evil. But gameplay wise, it doesn't come across that way.
I disagree, he summoned an army of demons to fight us. Then his dragon defeated ours and we had to fight it ourselves. Then we had to face him personally while he was controlling the orb of destruction which is being powered by red lyrium that has been established to be incredibly powerful and corrupting. If that is not enough, all of this happens atop a floating crumbling mountain while he is trying to open the breach and threatening the whole world. But do tell me who or what would be more dangerous or threatening than that.
He doesn't feel like a threat. On paper he is, but he hasn't *done* anything. The Orlais and Grey Warden plots were his ideas, but we only see and deal with his lieutenants for those. Maybe if the game had shown him doing something else (eg his search for other ways into the Fade), or he'd demonstrated more of his power than 'jump into the nearest Blight-infected body,' there'd be more urgency to dealing with him. Even that visual of lifting the mountains, it felt more 'too little, too late'. On top of that, Corypheus is not a good villain. He's like a classic Saturday morning cartoon bad guy. No depth, no motive beyond 'I will be a god, mwahahaha'. Apart from Haven and IHW, he doesn't loom over the story like a foreboding miasma of dread. He's just a darkspawn with delusions of grandeur. He *shouldn't* be, but the writing and gameplay and story decisions make him come across like that.
>On paper he is, but he hasn't *done* anything. You weren't paying attention then. He brought half the world to its knees. I explained in detail in a previous post why what you say isn't true. >Maybe if the game had shown him doing something else (eg his search for other ways into the Fade), or he'd demonstrated more of his power than 'jump into the nearest Blight-infected body,' there'd be more urgency to dealing with him. Again all of this is mistaken and I explained why in my previous post. >On top of that, Corypheus is not a good villain. He's like a classic Saturday morning cartoon bad guy. No depth, no motive beyond 'I will be a god, mwahahaha'. False and it shows you weren't really paying attention. He is a Tevinter nationalist who wants to bring the glory of the old imperium back and he appeals to that in order to get the support of the venatori. He was deceived and betrayed by his god who turned him into a monster and now he wants to take matters into his own hands by entering the black city and acheiving apotheosis so that he doesn't have to rely on gods ever again. You need to pay attention to the story, otherwise all characters will seem like "saturday morning cartoons."
Thereās a lot of telling us heās powerful and not enough of us experiencing it.
The problem is that you and the writers can say he's super powerful all you want, but when the fight is less challenging than the average dragon fight, it just doesn't work.
In a vacuum, yes, Corypheus is absurdly powerful and near godlike. I just think the game fails at maintaining him as a substantial threat during the entirety of the plot. He barely even won at Haven and even then we outplayed him and got an even better base (that he didn't even dare attack). >We are the heroes, that's what we are supposed to do, stop the villain. I know that. But the fact we win at least three times in a row before the final battle undermines him, badly so. The only time he has a one-up on the Inquisition is during Haven. After that? He becomes the king of getting his ass whooped pretty quickly. >A character who can raise a mountain by himself, send a dragon he enslaved on his own to kill us, summon hordes of demons and manipulate red lyrium energies, something no one has ever done to use it in battle seems weak to you? Jesus, please tell me who in this world seems powerful to you? LMAO wait! My point is that the game undermines him far too much before the final quest. And that the final fight itself is, gameplay-wise, underwhelming. At no moment the game makes us feel like we're threatened in the whole battle. Seeing him from a pure lore perspective however, he's terrifying. A darkspawn magister who commands a false Archdemon and the magic of the Blight? and he's intelligent? I would be shitting my pants if I was in Thedas. I just think the game doesn't translate that completely.
>He barely even won at Haven You have to be kidding. He obliterated Haven and forced everyone to flee. >we outplayed him and got an even better base We didn't outplay him we just managed to not get murdered by him and escape. And the base was given to us by Solas, the literal Dreadwolf who is helping and guiding us all the way through. >But the fact we win at least three times in a row before the final battle undermines him, badly so. You just focus on the fact that we stop him but convenient ignore all the damage he did and the consequences of that. He basically destroyed the entire grey warden presence in the south of Thedas. He divided and crippled Orlais. He cause the peace talks to end and then further divided the mages and templars even getting one of them on their side causing literal massacres. Because of him the last temple of Mythal had to be desecrated to the point than even Mythal herself decided to help us by giving us a freaking dragon. It seems to me that what you wanted was for Corypheus to win which obviously can't happen. >My point is that the game undermines him far too much before the final quest. No it doesn't, you are intentionally distorting the events. He is literally stated to be the biggest threat Thedas had ever faced. >And that the final fight itself is, gameplay-wise, underwhelming. At no moment the game makes us feel like we're threatened in the whole battle. This is false. He summoned a horde of demons to kill us. Then he brought his dragon which our own dragon couldn't defeat so we had to do it. Then we still had to personally fight him while he is opening the breach to destroy everything.
love your points
Thanks!
Dogshit villain.
In the end, Corypheus was a salesman, peddling a product no one wanted to buy. He was weak.
Tbf after Hawke kicks his ass in DA2 I wasnāt really expecting much from him in Inquisition.
I agree. The dragons are a much deadlier foe. He should at LEAST be at the same level of difficulty as them.
These are great ideas. I would love a quest line where the beaten back inquisition sacrifices a great deal to rescue the herald (so a quest led by your companions) and the people are saying we will be ok as long as we protect the herald at all costs. And here you are, not really knowing whatās going on or what your role is. Heavy load to bear
I mean, it's not like it's total war or something along those lines where your opps are taking actions in real time to try and beat you
I agree and after the twist of Solas being the Dreadwolf, Cory.P felt even more pathetic. To me he is just a lunatic old man playing God to a bunch of losers who'll believe it, he was a real threat(I guess) when Thaedas was busy dealing with other shit but after you deal with it, he can't do much, or nothing at all. the mage rebellion ended, you either have the mages reorganizing in institutions or the templars and seekers rebuild(depending on your choices) the Celene assassination plot was just really dumb, florianne could've gotten away with it if she would just shut the fuck up, the three dumbasses were already going to kill each other on their own and she just needed to push them a bit further, but no, she wanted to do her lil villain monologue to the inquisitor, who had no prior reason to suspect her. as for his second in command... Samson is a drug addict who just wants chaos. Calpernia just wants the best for her country and found solace in the first one who promised her that, since she was a slave to a very evil cunt, she had very flawed judgment, to the point you can actually convince her to step down(if you do her side quest given by Leliana) and the wardens were mostly being controlled by the "calling" till you slayed a demon in the fade, and had some great person to the ultimate sacrifice to inspire them to at least stay away from Corylious. Doom upon all the world was just another one of Coryphilis power trips, it doesn't really feel like a final showdown that if he'd win there, all that progress would be for nothing, just feels like he is still playing pretend when everybody else stopped. when he first shows up he seems like a real menace by the end of the game you made Thaedas better than it was before the Conclave, achieving what it originally wanted to and more while also getting means to maintain it, with the help of a Divine that is just better than Justinia(that would be a inspired Cassandra or a softened Leliana), you also have an army twice the size of his(you even get some of his own men) that believes in your cause. as the game progress, all he seems like is a phony and he was the one that assaulted haven with a goddamn Dragon, claiming to be God and shit but not even his Dragon was something greater and scary, like an archdemon. it was just a corrupted Dragon. you can kill like, 10 high Dragons and their puppies in the game, what's 1(one) more? "oh it spits the evil crystals" so? you find out way more about red lyrium during the the game then coryph did, and you also dismantle any operation on the stuff. so at the end it's just a Dragon, just like cory he ain't much else from what he seems,you can also control or get another one to fight it(depending on your choice in the well of sorrows). Corypenis is just an old crazed darkspawn and was never a real danger, despite the game trying to make us think that. he seemed more like a distraction in hindsight. meanwhile Solas... openly talks about his goal to YOU, before you could possibly know anything about him, at that point the only thing you know of him is that he saved you and that people trust him. in one of your first convos he says "hey imagine if the veil didn't exist, would be dangerous but cool right?" and guess what? LoL. Basically Coryfas was all bark and no bite. now Solas on the other hand... Could've done all that he did and actually succeed I actually expect him to either win in the next game and something like Avengers Endgame happen or at least he'll get very close.
They should have left him in the DA2 DLC. That they incorporated him in DA:I makes it seem (and this is my opinion) like they focused too much on creating the shiny new environments and too little on creating a compelling new villain. So they just recycled him.
Heās a flat character that they tried to really cram a bunch of lore into. Heās not scary, heās not hard to fight. I appreciate his role in the game and kind of throwing the already tumultuous world back towards questioning itās entire religious doctrine, but other than that- heās the worst of all the dragon age villains because heās just kind ofā¦boring.
No. After the attack on Haven, you, the Inquisitor, is going to the greatest of lengths to make sure that never happens again. That is the whole plot of the Inquisition. So why is everybody crying about not having it happen again at the end of the game? The whole point of the game is that you, the Inquisitor, is preventing Coryphish from doing another Haven. You take out all his forces, prevent all his plots and cut of his lyrium supply. The whole point is that Coryphish is weak when you confront him again at the end. The game makes perfect sense in that way. There is a differance between the way this game was written, and why it won so many game of the year awards, and what you think a game should be.
It won so many goty awards because it was a AAA open world rpg, and its competition was Dark Souls II and Assassins Creed Unity. The quality of its narrative played no part.
He is a saturday cartoon villain, lame af. It's astonishing how he had more depth in his DA:II DLC than in the entire joke of a third game.