@Demonic.
Games developers can push as hard a hitting background behind the character as they like, if they don't manage to make me care about the chracters or the sub plots and overarching stories in the game, then it is all Disney as far as i am concerned. Dragon Age was every bit as stale and boring as Mass Effect was. To me, it was just Mass Effect in a fantasy setting (which ever game actually came first? I am not even motivated to find out). An RPG is not the same as a book. With an RPG, it is not so important how good or complex a story there is. What is important in an RPG is how the story is told and that involves engaging dialogue between characters that is also easy to digest, and most importantly, also pertains to the various tasks and activities involved with playing the game, thus being of direct interest to the gamer who is motivated towards finding a magic sword for example.
Mass Effect wasn't that great to me. I found the characters of Mass Effect 2 more interesting but learning everything about the characters and the universe wasn't really that relevant to me. Dragon Age: Origins on the other-hand was more interesting and dialogue wasn't sci-fi "mumbo jumbo" and was actually worth listening to.
Quite frankly a game featuring companions only talking about their tasks and nothing else leads to the characters being unbelievable and unrealistic especially in the case of Origins where you're travelling with these companions for months it makes sense that your character would get to know them. Nonetheless you can choose to ignore them and the only time they will talk to will concern plot-related subjects.
A huge complex and 'heartbreaking' background that has no bearing on the things that actually have to be done in the game is superfluous and imo, damages the game. Bioware games are full of this sort of extensive 'filler material' that is totally irrelevant to the actual gameplay itself.
How else can they make you "connect" to the characters? If they only speak about the task at hand then we get the pawns from Dragon's Dogma which lack personality. You're not forced to speak to the companions anyway once you recruit them so if you wasted your time talking to them knowing you wouldn't like what they have to say then that's your own fault there.
In a game like Risen or indeed Divinity II, the characters are actually all pretty simple with not a great deal of background behind any of them. But what the developers of those games do well (I play only on PC so cant speak for ugliness of console versions) is implement a bit of intrigue into the actual gameplay interactions between characters and factions, that are directly relevant to the flow and progress of the game.
What intrigue? The only character worth mentioning from Risen is the Inquistor. Now with Divinity 2 why should I even bother saving a world when the developers can't make me care for the characters? Even if there is some intrigue behind them how can that make me care when they are lacking in personality and history? Origins is one of the few RPG's that actually had me caring about the world and characters.
