Although the behind the scenes trailer delved into preliminary concepts and early prototypes of the next Dragon Age game, we now actually have many moods, themes and other indicators that allude to the game’s overall vision. We have more than just speculation to talk about, but an actual tone of this game’s foundations like potential locations, factions, enemies, plot threads, etc. With that said, I have a couple of questions going forward, all based on what this trailer revealed.
Who will our new hero be?
In the next Dragon Age, we will be playing as someone brand-new, however, this time around, our hero will be dealing with what happens when they don’t have power, and what happens when the people in charge aren’t willing to address the issues.
Unlike the Inquisitor, who was basically a religious figure straight off the bat, with a magical hand that could seal away the realm of spirits and demons… Our new hero will most likely come from humble tidings. An off-the-radar hero not known by Solas, like a Tevinter Slave, a Lord of Fortune, an Antivan Crow, etc. Literally anyone new, who relates to the Northern parts of Thedas.
Considering the new setting of Tevinter and its surrounding nations, something all of us in the fandom would like to see is the return of origin stories, just like Dragon Age: Origins. A character-background prologue that builds and cultivates our hero’s journey as they enter the main narrative. Having many different origins would be a perfect way to introduce many new aspects of this game, like recently introduced factions, characters, and locations. In other words, it’d make for a very welcome return.
As our hero enters the picture, there are going to be powerful characters introduced into the narrative who aren’t willing to address the issues at stake. The next Dragon Age is going to feature many conflicts, like the Qunari Invasion, and Solas’s scheme. The main narrative may pivot between these feuds, however, the ones in-charge who have the power to do something, are instead deciding to do nothing.
Thanks to Tevinter Nights, there are many factions that currently face many issues, yet lack the proper lengths of tackling what’s going on.
For example, perhaps our new hero will delegate with Antiva’s royals who have a pursuing Qunari invasion, yet no means of defending themselves other than the Crows who face their own trouble with losing the majority of their leaders.
Or we could meet with Nevarra’s Mortalitasi, who were recently intercepted and threatened by the Dread Wolf himself, and therefore have decided not to intrude on his plans further.
And then there’s Tevinter’s Magisterium, which is just a cesspool of prideful, incompetent mages, who’d rather boast one’s ego, then actually delegate on political matters, like the Qunari invasion, and the upcoming Elven war with Fen’Harel and his cultists.
And many other factions that would rather bicker amongst themselves than actually deal with the true threat. Take the Warden’s of Weisshaupt for example, they’ve cut ties to the rest of the Southern Wardens, as they remain silent in their stronghold.
In summary, there’s a lot of uproar and drama within many nations and sub-groups of northern Thedas, while amidst their pettiness, real issues and war lingers. Our new hero has presumably got quite the challenge of dealing with each, going forward.
So many locations, what’s the open-world approach this time?
The trailer showcased many conceptual, new locations that show the vision and scope of the next game. We speculated that the main nations of Thedas shown were: Antiva, The Anderfels, Nevarra, Tevinter, and a few Dwarven Thaigs and Kingdoms.
While that is speculation, it reveals that BioWare has a fairly large scope for the next game, as it seems we’ll have a huge chunk of Northern Thedas to explore, however, what is going to be the open-world approach this time around?
While this question is most certainly too early to fully delve into, considering the game is still in the early stages of production, it’s very much a topical conversation that needs to be had.
Dragon Age: Inquisition featured hub-based open-world spaces in which you could freely explore to your own discretion, sealing rifts, defeating dragons, and taking in the sights of Ferelden, The Dales, and Orlais.
While the areas were vastly different and incredibly beautiful with their different styles, and gameplay mechanics, like Crestwood’s entire weather dynamic reacting to the Inquisitor sealing a huge rift. This open-world approach was very much a different direction for the franchise, and frankly, for BioWare as a whole.
Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age 2, and the Mass Effect Trilogy each followed a linear with freedom, hub-based approach. This means that the player follows fairly linear levels, each with a set path, however, there’s plenty of room to explore with side-quests and other content in the level. Look at Redcliffe in Dragon Age: Origins, where you can explore the surrounding area in a limited capacity, complete some side-quests, and then continue with the main narrative.
In contrast, Dragon Age: Inquisition followed an open-world, hub-based approach. This means the player follows an open, hub-based world with many avenues to exploration and an emphasis on side-content. The Hinterlands is the prime example of this, while the main quest is to meet with Mother Gisele, you need to gain power to progress through the story. To meet that criteria, you have to destroy rifts, engage in fetch-quests, and explore the areas. Unlocking one hub at a time, as you progress through the story, and gain more power.
While the worlds are very fun to explore, this approach takes the attention away from the main narrative, and instead makes the player engage with busy-work.
With so many locations potentially planned for Dragon Age 4, how will the game deal with its approach to a hub-based open world? Well, the Trespasser DLC was indicative of Dragon Age’s original linear with freedom, hub-based approach.
None of the levels in this DLC were large, open-world areas locked behind the power mechanic. Instead, you would go through an Eluvian when you wanted to enter the next level, and within each area, there was smaller, meaningful content for the player to discover, like significant codex entries and a new armour set.
The levels themselves were very much linear with freedom, for example, you can explore the Vir Dirthara’s surrounding areas, completing puzzles and finding new lore pieces, however, you were always brought back to the same path, which would continue the main narrative.
So, Trespasser is proof that perhaps Dragon Age 4’s open-world aspect will be stripped back to the game’s original design, allowing for more focussed areas, with less busy-work and clutter.
Not only does this approach affect the design of the game, but how the player themselves are traversing throughout the world. For example, will we use the Eluvian method to levels again? Will we have a pet griffon that we ride to locations, or a pirate ship? Or simply teleport to a new area?
With so many conceptual areas covered in the next game, will the level designs and open world hubs be smaller in scale, but bigger in scope? This is certainly a topic we’ll come back too in the future, for now consider it food for thought.
Are heists going to be in Dragon Age 4?
Three of the concept shots showcased heist-like, stealth missions. The first shot is an underwater treasure hunt with what looks like Isabela and company, as they evade their attackers.
The second shot shows a Tevinter alleyway with multiple agents sneaking around the corner of a most intriguing Tevinter figure.
The third shot shows an Antivan Crow heist, as prevalent characters masquerade as Crows, stealing the hand-held carriage holding a noble lady.
Each of these shots follow an espionage approach, finding treasure beneath the depths of the sea, shadowing ambiguous Tevinter figures across a city, and kidnapping a significant noble while disguised as Crows.
These all could be considered as heists - criminal operations schemed for the greater good, perhaps relating to the fact that our new protagonist will be dealing with characters who aren’t willing to address the issue, so we will handle it ourselves, in the best way we can, without being noticed.
At the end of Trespasser, the Inquisition was judged for its size, and level of corruption from within. This time around, it would make sense to have a smaller crew, tackling stealthy missions, as we hunt Solas without bringing too much attention to ourselves, and facing infiltration from Solas’s agents.
It makes sense for this approach given that Solas has made himself known to many key factions in Thedas, posing as a threat to each. The only way to beat him to the punch, is to penetrate through the cracks of his force with a smaller, tight-knit team who will fulfill the mission the Inquisitor couldn’t do themselves because of their power and reputation.
So, will heists be a major gameplay design of Dragon Age 4? There are plenty of ancient artefacts and knowledge throughout Northern Thedas, many of them could make up for great stealth undertakings.
What about choices and consequences?
Choice and decision-making was touched upon by some of the developers in the trailer. They spoke on how “decision-making can mean that a party member lives, or a party member dies. And it means owning your outcome and reactivity to the choices that you do make.”
In Dragon Age: Inquisition, there were distinct choices we had over a character’s life like the decision of leaving Warden or Hawke in the Fade. A very obvious decision of this character will most likely die if you choose them to stay and fight.
In contrast to that, Inquisition had more subtle decisions that, at the time, didn’t feel like they’d have an impact, but in actuality, ended up in the betrayal and death of a certain character, like Iron Bull’s switch to the Qun, in Trespasser.
In the next Dragon Age, it sounds like BioWare are aiming for more nuanced, subtle approaches to having agency over a character’s life. Perhaps we’ll be dealing with major consequences that affect our party members in the same vein as Mass Effect 2? However, more developed given Inquisition’s improvements.
Mass Effect 2 was a game built around reactivity and agency centred on the player’s decisions. Will the next Dragon Age game follow this same style of choice and consequence? This would make the stakes of every mission that much more tense, if our companions can die and react when we decide to lead a certain path, or pursuit a choice they don’t like.
How much familiarity are we going to have?
The familiarity we are going to have from previous games are close to none. We are travelling to new regions of Thedas that we have never seen before, which is clearly shown in the location's conceptual shots.
With the new locations, comes new characters, new culture, new lore, a new way of life - a completely new Dragon Age game, with a brand-new experience.
While many fans, including ourselves, would love to see the return of companions from the previous games, this is most likely not going to happen. And that’s because our Inquisitor themselves said, we need new people who Solas doesn’t know to defeat him. Because Solas is adept at learning the weakness of characters who are known to him.
Not only that, but there needs to be an actual reason for a character’s return, besides fan’s demands. BioWare wants to tell a different story, with a new hero and new characters alongside them.
While, we will have cameos of previous characters, and I’m sure at least some will return as pivotal roles like Dorian, Scout Harding, The Inquisitor, and so on. There are a lot of faces who just won’t return for many reasons, the first being simply because they don’t have a motivation in the next narrative.
And second, because BioWare will be creating brand new characters for us to experience and fall in love with, we’re no longer stuck in the South, but have an entire new continent to explore, speculatively.
With that being said, we should prepare for an incredibly different experience than the previous games, no more Inquisition comparisons, or how this game will fill that game’s mould. Instead we should expect something completely different, a much smaller role for our hero, yet with an incredibly threatening plot.
The next Dragon Age game is going to feel very different, and I think that’s what we all need going forward for the franchise.
What are the main threats in the next Dragon Age?
While we can’t unravel the entire narrative of the next Dragon Age based on this behind the scenes trailer, we do see a few shots that resemble many key threats we will most likely face.
The most obvious of these, is Solas, as he’ll most certainly act as our antagonist. Whether he’ll have a change of heart, or we’ll redeem him, that’s another topic, but we can assume we’ll face a lot of opposition against Solas and his elven agents.
Another threat for the next Dragon Age will be the conceptual, lovecraftian sea monsters, like the Cetus which we know was contrived by the Elven Goddess Ghilan’nain. She was known to create giants, monsters, and beasts that spanned across the sky, water, and earth.
When she ascended to godhood she had to destroy all her creatures, she only spared her beloved halla, and those who dwell in the seas, as ‘Pride stopped her hand’ from destroying them.
The Horror of Hormak in Tevinter Nights, confirmed that Ghilan’nain’s creations aren’t just Dalish legends, but they actually exist, and dwell in Thedas today. While they roam throughout the land, they’ve recently been discovered in many northern locations like ancient dwarven thaigs buried into mountains, and Tevinter’s capital city Minrathous which is surrounded by the Nocen Sea.
With “Pride” sparing the creatures lives, one can only assume what plans “Pride” has for each of them...
Moving on, there is still the lingering threat of two remaining blights coming for Thedas. We learned in Inquisition from Bianca that red lyrium consists of the Blight, and that red lyrium cannot be simply removed from living things.
From what we can see in the concept art, red lyrium is spreading quickly throughout Thedas’s land by corrupting plant life, organisms, animals, the ecosystem, and eventually, the people of Thedas.
We see a conceptual shot of a Darkspawn Reaper who’s been infected by red lyrium, even the blighted can be affected by this maddening substance, giving them more power, like supernatural abilities.
The Blight seems to be a larger threat when red lyrium and the mysteriously returning idol from Dragon Age 2, are at the course of its corruption. The concept art shows how corrupt Thedas has become because of the growth of red lyrium.
The threat of the next blight may creep up on Thedas before anyone can prevent it from happening.
Other threats include the conflicted Qunari Invasion of Antvia and Northern Tevinter, the Qun will not be denied. Many Tevinter Cults like the remnants of the Venatori. New creatures and monsters like spiders with…. Hands.
And of course, more dragons in Dragon Age!
At least, conceptually, the next Dragon Age is looking very meanincing with the amount of opposing threats we may face. And that’s just based on this trailer.
Summary
With our six main questions shared, we want to know what lingering questions you have based on this behind the scenes trailer. Of course this is just our speculation based on this trailer that is just creating a mood for the next Dragon Age, but we like having fun and tinfoiling away anyways.
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