User reviews

Big fan of the Dragon Age franchise. The strength of Dragon Age has always been its characters as in they usually carry their games, from Alistair to Morrigan, from Avaline to Varric to Blackwall to Viviane every game just has strong interesting diverse characters and that's what always keep me hung on.

Unfortunately this show didn't have any good characters, while some had moments, most of the characters had one architype. 'ME ANGRY, ME MAD AT STUFF'. This whole show just came off as super aggressive.

The lead character Mirium is just bitter and one dimensional and unlikable, and while I understand considering her upbringing, it just falls flat and you don't have enough investment to want her to overcome the horrors of her past, and this show actually got me to hate an Ashley Burch performance, I love Ashley Burch, she cannot do no wrong, and its not her fault, she did great with what she was given but I was not a fan of how this female Qunari was portrayed, she came off like some valley girl, or a forgotten cast member of Totally Spies disguised as a Qunari, it felt so out of place.

The other characters are not that great either, the dwarf was your typical headstrong dwarf stereotype, and you already had that with the lead too. Miriums love interest is also bland and has no personality except she loves the main character, also there is the ending that gives her some merit, but I'll get to that later.

The Villain of this show I liked at first before he was revealed as the villain, but his motivations for being a villain felt very weak, it just kind of happened out of nowhere, and I would have believed it if there was more build but it just happened too fast, especially when you consider where he started from and sure he is messing with blood magic and he is a Tavinter mage and Tavinter mages are known to be a-holes, I think they just wanted this charming bad guy, but he was neither convincing at either

The story was also so played out. Its been done to death so many times, while this adds nothing new. Not only that but I would be okay with played out plots but others have done it a lot better than this. A lot of the character motivation pop the hell out of nowhere. Also there is a big twist that happens with one of the characters and it just comes right the hell out of nowhere too, like I felt a lot of these reveals were like a kid writing a story saying 'and wouldn't it be good if this happened, and then this happened' on and on, to which it makes no real sense other than to happen for the sake of happening.

The animation also seemed to verge on many different styles, from bad CGI that looked really dated with the drawn animation and then sometimes the animation would flick to this anime style at times then back to western animation again. The art style really lacked an identity throughout, but I still liked it when it was good, but quality was very inconsistent at times, the backgrounds looked bland too, Dragon Age always has interesting locations, but here it felt like I had seen this in a lot of animations over the last 5 years.

The best part of the show was the ending, I liked Dragon Age 2 and that ending made me at least interested enough to watch season 2. (if it gets another season)

Overall a rough watch with some good animation (stressing 'some') but despite I hope this season is a learning experience for the team and they make something better with season 2.

Another decent game anime on Netflix. It's certainly not up there with Arcane, but it's not bad either.

The animations are great and the fighting is intense.

What bothered me most was the story. It's very cookie cutter where someone has to steal a MacGuffin, someone betrays someone else and there's someone pulling the strings behind the scene.

It's pretty short with only six episodes, so you barely get to know or care about anyone. Most of the cast are pretty one dimensional, even though the voice actors do a good job.

I'll certainly watch it if a second season comes out, but as it stands it's just going to fade into memory like most of the other shows like it.

While I enjoy the thedas-setting, the show itself feels very "generic". Obviously this isn't a project to the level of Arcane, but I was hoping it could contend with the likes of edgerunners or the legend of vox machina, but sadly... It is just lacking in every regard. Everything is "okay" but nothing except maybe the voice acting stands out. The main characters are one-dimensional, with the main character just always being so powerful and almost flawless that it's boring, while the rest of the gang gets very little to contribute outside their party-role.

Worth a watch if you enjoy dragon age, might improve in the future, just don't expect anything special.

I've been a fan of DA universe since Origins was a new thing on the block. To be honest with you all I went into this expecting to hate it. Netflix has disappointed me more times than it pleased me statistically.

Once the credits rolled after the first episode I was ready to stop and leave a terrible review. It really was bad.

The first episode is the absolute definition of RUSHED. The entire episode felt like a recap of the previous season that you haven't watched. The pilot could have easily been split into two or even three episodes to properly establish the characters and what the main quest is. But instead we just got a TLDR of who is who and what the main objective is.

Decided to continue anyway cause I had nothing better to do with my evening. And I am glad I did because the other five episodes are much much better. The pacing is perfect, the story is entertaining, the characters are somewhat fleshed out.

So overall I am glad I decided to continue after the horrible first episode cause I did enjoy this. Is it the best thing since sliced bread? No. Not even close. Is it a fun and quick watch? Yes, it is. Even for the fans of this universe.

I'd give it a higher score if the first episode was split into two or three episodes as I said. But if they only got 6 episodes to work with and something had to be rushed I'm glad they decided to rush the intro so that the actual plot can have the proper pacing.

Now for the cast and VA. I adore Kimberly Brooks (Miriam), but not in this. All of her lines were emotionless and disconnected to what was happening on the screen. It honestly felt like she was bored to be there. And that's sad cause her character is the "protagonist" here.

I checked out the Japanese VA after I was done and that one did a far far far better job than what Kimberly Brooks did here.

Qwydion as a character didn't do it for me. She is only there to be a comic relief and nothing more. Japanese VA sounded marginally better for me.

Lacklon was amazing and I preferred the English VA much more.

Roland I also preferred as an English VA as well cause he had that "vague" French accent that everyone from Orlais has, which the Japanese VA doesn't do.

Rezaren I absolutely adored! Both the character and his English VA. Japanese VA makes Rezaren sound like your generic pure evil guy, which he is not.

And speaking of that, I never saw Rezaren as the villain. In fact I found our cast of characters to be the bad guys in this situation.

They were such troublemakers and an annoyance to a point where Rezaren simply had to resort to "going bad" in order to deal with all the trouble that they have caused.

Rezaren did nothing wrong.

I rated 7.0, which is fine.

The animation is fine. Sometimes lacking detail in movement and set in loops, I have seen several times.

The character exchange is fine. Pretty supervisual with the exception to the rule here and there.

The storyline is fine. Kind of hasty, just go with it I guess.

The voice actors are actually doing a good job!

I get a vox machina vibe off of this one, but lacking on everything named above + missing the witty comedy in comparison to Vox, voice actors excluded in my opinion.

My review may seem a bit bashful because I think they were near enough to "perfect it", but I still would recommend to watch it.

A decent show that edges on an 8th rating from me in thanks to it's expressive animation, the 2D work is just as good as The Witcher Nightmare of the Wolf and way better than the recent works of Studio MIR in Dota and Young Justice also AMCs Pantheon. 3D work is decent to good. The animation studio here is really flexing and advertising it's self for future projects.

The thing that holds the series down is the story compared to Arcane. But if you can stomach Season 3 of Dota the plot here is good. The backstory seems to be a better story to tell with this season should have been some follow up but we fall into this world with developed characters that I personally can't seem to like cause I can't feel their stuggles no matter how many times the show tells me.

Overall it's a good show, I'd come back for 2nd season.

The story is a little light but they pack a lot into the few episodes that there are. It's very short and I managed to watch it all in one session.

The action and animation is really quite good and the voice acting is surprisingly decent. So surely we have the makings of a great show?

I've seen some other reviews perfectly summarising the problem with this show; it feels like joining a DnD campaign halfway through the story. Although the characterisation is good, it's thrown at you all at once and doesn't really give you time to build empathy with the characters. The supposedly emotional scenes just seem to be lacking something, maybe the music? The music always seems so generic and barely appropriate for what is happening on screen.

Having said that the characters are all well written and make for a good dynamic in both action and dialogue.

An enjoyable series with fun action scenes and a compelling narrative. I hope Netflix stick with this one.

Show is decently good.

Great artwork, great voice acting, some of the characters are a bit ham, but fun. The main thing that makes me think of this as a 8/10 rather than 6/10, is the villains.

Because unlike so many shows they are not either soulless enemies (zombies, "evil" demons, robots, etc.) but people. People, who genuinely see themselves as good people. The villains are horrible, disgustingly evil people, but don't consider themselves as anything but good. That's great to see.

I'm not much into Dragon Age, and based on the other reviews, that might be the reason why I enjoy it more..

I was hooked the moment I started watching. I would watch more seasons. I've played the games in the past, so I was excited about this.

I love this style of animation. At first glance, it may look like it's for children, but it definitely is not. This was made for adults.

I thought the characters were great. I liked most of them from the minute I was introduced. The voice acting was decent, but it could have been better in certain scenes. The character development was also a bit weak, but the writers only had 6 episodes each roughly 25 minutes. If more seasons are dropped, hopefully we will get back story on other characters.

The story itself is good. It was something I had seen before, but it still had twists and kept me engaged. I'm a sucker for these kinds of adventures with fun characters. There is also a decent amount of humor with strong action scenes.

Anyone who has played the Dragon Age games will have a better understanding of the world and history.

I haven't played the games, but i liked this. It has fairly good characters and some interisting character interactions. I also enjoyed the action scenes. I don't know why some people feel a need comparing it (or many other shows) with Arcane. Yes, Arcane is an excelent show, but that's it. Why to complain that everything isn't on a par with an exceptionally good show?

But back to the point. It would bee nice if the first season of Absolution (if there are gonna be any more) was longer and we got to know the characters better and if we had a chance to root for them more. But overall still a fun, if a bit rushed show.

Stained with cliche moments at times, some bland characters who have nothing interesting and a not very interesting main character the show makes up with multiple plot twists, some nice graphics and great combat choreography.

I think the show was pretty good overall, it felt quite rushed here and there are without enough backstory but it had an interesting plot, nice characters and a memorable interesting villain.

Animation felt like it could have more frames, while nicely drawn it felt like it was not fluid enough.

The romance part of it felt absolutely unneeded and just took valuable time that could have been filled with more character development.

It's far from perfect but has enough good points to make me recommend it to others.

People that aren't familiar with the source material will be lost with all the lore and names they throw at you, some stuff you can pick up from context but not everything. Fans will be disappointed that its not focusing on the most beloved or interesting part of the Dragon Age lore or characters, there just isn't enough time to properly develop anything, the animation and action looked nice ( minus the cgi dragon) and I found myself invested in the conflict with how quick the pacing had to be, but If I wanted to watch a DnD campaign type story about revenge with characters that are, queer, relatable and enjoyable that has both humor and emotional moments I would just watch The Legend of Vox Machina.

Often these releases of series that are based on games/books get showered with bad reviews because they 'don't do justice to this or that'. If you read the reviews it makes not want to watch it.

Honestly, I think that's a mistake here. Really good animation and fairly good characters. I felt connected with Miriam. It could have been better I admit had they had more time. I honestly think that 6 ep of 25 minutes was the only mistake here.

Other than that, you get thrown into this amazing universe, and follow these characters in what seems like an impossible mission and in the end they make you want to watch a second season.

I didn't know the franchise, have no ideia what it is, and I loved this.

This show was mediocre, at best. I think the main thing that ruined it for me was Mariam, the main character. I found her to be really unlikable, and when her backstory is revealed, it really did little for me. It was underwhelming. It was a mix if recycled storylines that had been done much better before. I think they were trying to make Mariam a female version of Fenris, but it just did not work for me at all.

I had been looking forward to this series, but was totally disappointed after episode one. I forced myself to watch the rest of the episodes, hoping they would get better, but they really didn't. Thankfully they were all short in length because some of them were a chore to get through.

I feel like this series could have been so much better, so much more original, and should have felt more connected into the Dragon Age universe. The big reveal at the end was interesting, but I have to hope that it's not going to be further explored in another series like this one.

Part of what makes Dragon Age so great, are its well developed, flawed yet likable characters. This series missed the mark on that, especially with Mariam.

With excellent action, a compelling and committed voice cast and striking character designs, you'd think Dragon Age Absolution could coast by with merely the Dragon Age aesthetic as a paint job, but as a long time fan of the games and exterior material, Inquisition in particular, by the opening of the fourth episode I was enjoying these factors, but sold by others - that it's a tight, contained and emotional story which aims it's ambition at precisely the right spot in terms of scale and scope is what makes this worth watching.

By keeping the adventure focused on a small group of characters within only a handful of rich environments, Absolution uses contained devices in its approach, speaking to the narrative strengths of the series in the most important ways, paying homage both visual and spiritual to what really makes this series tick; the layered motivations and choices of a cast of diverse characters and how their convictions overlap when thrust into the traditions of family, creed and country.

There's a great pace to the story, including locations which we've long been waiting to see in the franchise, but Absolution doesn't get bogged down in the details of heavy lore or overloading potential new audiences with uneeded details, meaning this could be a great jumping in point before Dreadwolf.

A really enjoyable, digestible chunk of exciting animation with great action and a helping of DA goodness. Nothing to dislike in this at all!

I've played every Bioware game since the 90s including the Dragon Age titles and believe me, this is not Dragon Age. This is a generic medieval animated title just using the license. There is a fair amount of social politics integrated here and the aim of the show isnt to further the lore and characters of the source material. Instead it is poorly written and animated. There are far better animated shows you can watch than this, especially if you are a Bioware or Dragon Age fan. I seriously doubt if the original writers or creators had any part in this save for a mention in the credits which is sad to see.

I was really skeptical of Absolution because I love the Dragon Age series so much, but I was pleasantly surprised.

The story is engaging, the characters are fun, interesting, and reminiscent of the party you play with in any DA game. There were tons of callbacks to the games, past characters and some good twists I wasn't expecting. The writing stays true to the feel of the world we already know and love + does a great job of setting up potential leads into the next game, leaving me eager to start my next DA adventure.

The art style is in line with the comic books, which I personally like. They did a mix of what looks like hand drawn and CGI, with some of the CGI being meh but the hand drawn stuff looking fabulous.

The cast and characters are diverse which is awesome. Anyone complaining that the show is pushing diversity has missed the entire point of the franchise thus far.

I liked Absolution more than the previous Dragon Age movies on Netflix, but I didn't hate those either. In short, I would recommend this to any DA fan or Bioware fan. I even watched this with a friend who is completely clueless about the DA series, and they enjoyed it and were interested in the game afterwards!

Dragon Age Ga ma' lath 😉

As a fan of the Dragon Age videogame series I was very dissappointed because the series didn't really bring justice to the complexity of the characters in the games. Instead, the series felt like watching a cartoon based on a 15-year old's homoerotic fanfiction story. The romantic relationships between the characters seemed very forced and random, and the screen time just could have been used in other things, like making the actual plot more interesting. The series would probably be quite difficult to follow for someone new to the series so maybe there could have been more time for introducing the setup of the story.

As a fan of Dragon Age, I really enjoyed this one. The architecture was really neat to see, and I absolutely adored how they animated the magic. This show actually *feels* like Dragon Age (going back to its dark fantasy roots!) and has a lot of twists and turns.

I think the characters are going to be expanded on more in the future, and I think they did a good job getting us invested in each of their stories.

For a series that hasn't quite yet shown us Tevinter (at least not in the games), I think this was a great introduction. We got a lot of rich lore, more details on the culture, and how different groups view Tevinter as a whole.

Overall, I think it was a great watch.

Epic fantasy this is not. While Dragon Age: Absolution has some redeeming qualities, such as being fairly inoffensive, and an honest attempt at telling a fantasy adventure, for me it ultimately falls flat, and here's why:

The characters all talk as if they are 16-25 teenagers with a mix of fairly unbelievable bravado, or undeserved gravitas, so you just get the feeling that these characters are mediocre D&D Larpers.

Yeah this show just feels like a group of teenagers getting together to play a fairly mediocre D&D campaign. And well that's not very compelling.

Can't the script writers and voice actors make any attempt to sound medieval, instead of a load of 21st century hipsters in fantasy bodies? It just breaks the immersion for me.

The art work is okay though. Over all, inoffensive, but not interesting enough to keep my attention.

The first two episodes were more cheesy-entertaining. They're not bad, but they are filled with lots of fantasy tropes, cliches, and overused one liners. But still a solid, simple amusement. Which IMO, is what made the final 4 episodes all ten out of tens. The unexpected takeoff of plot, character development, twists and intrigue. I binged in an afternoon.

The animation style might take you half an episode or so to get used to (or not, I liked it right away) but has truly breathtaking moments of beautiful sequences. I've seen several adult animated/fantasy series, and I'd confidently put this one near to the top rankings.