Given Mass Effect: Legendary Edition’s huge success, I figured I’d finally throw my hat into the ring and discuss a potential Dragon Age: Origins remaster. This conversation has been a long-time coming, and so, to compensate, I figured I’d plunge in and dive deep into everything that can possibly be discussed about a hypothetical Dragon Age: Origins remaster.
I should preface that, currently, there have been no official plans or announcements regarding any Dragon Age remaster of any type. Nevertheless, thanks to an EA 2019 earnings call, we’ve known for a while that EA do have plans for other products within the Dragon Age franchise, whatever they may be.
Adding more to the mix, back in 2018, someone asked former Dragon Age Executive Producer Mark Darrah if a Dragon Age: Origins Remaster would ever be possible. Mark Darrah replied and said, “Hopefully, however, it would be an involved job.”
So, we can confidently say that there is hope for a potential Dragon Age remaster, one day. Something that gives me hope is Mass Effect: Legendary Edition’s success which surpassed EA’s sales expectations and proved many things, like the fact that single-player games are a worthy investment, and so are remasters. It also showed that BioWare and EA are listening to the fans, even though the Mass Effect fandom has been asking for a remaster since 2013, EA and BioWare finally caved in.
Immediately after replaying the trilogy and witnessing the excitement and success of Mass Effect again, many people like myself wondered will Dragon Age get this same treatment? And that’s just one of the questions I’d like to explore and discuss throughout this video. But let’s start with a simpler question, being why am I only rooting for a remastered Dragon Age: Origins and not an entire Dragon Age trilogy legendary edition?
Well, I’ve got many reasons for that. Firstly, I think Dragon Age: Origins is an instant win for EA. While the fandom obviously varies in their opinions of their favourite Dragon Age entry - on a mainstream level, Dragon Age: Origins is an iconic, 10/10 must-play dark fantasy RPG, and some would say the best, most definitive Dragon Age experience. It’s an immediate success for EA if they repackaged Origins, it’d sell incredibly well just because of the amount of players who love Origins for nostalgic reasons.
Whereas, I know for a fact, if Dragon Age 2 was repackaged in a legendary edition remaster, there would be a huge outcry from many people asking for significant reworks and changes to the game like more level variations, the addition of cut-content, the creation of unfinished DLC’s, etc. It wouldn’t be an easy sell for BioWare - while I’m sure a repackaged and uprezzed Dragon Age 2 would be wholeheartedly beloved in the hardcore fandom. The mainstream audiences would most likely still take issue with Dragon Age 2‘s flaws despite how bloody epic it is.
And then there’s Inquisition, which was created on a completely different engine - the Frostbite engine. I think it would be a monolithic task to rework all three games and put them on the same launcher, especially with Inquisition created on Frostbite. And, just like reworking Dragon Age 2, I don't think BioWare would want to put that much time and effort into this remaster.
Therefore, I think a Dragon Age: Origins remaster is a more realistic expectation. It's a single remaster of the most critically acclaimed Dragon Age experience. The teams could polish the game just like Mass Effect 1’s rework with combat improvements, visual enchantments and all DLC’s repackaged, then EA and BioWare could be off selling Origins like fresh, hot cupcakes.
But why do we need a Dragon Age: Origins remaster, you may ask?
When Mass Effect: Legendary Edition released, the reception to the Mass Effect games completely changed. People were excited about Mass Effect again and the mainstream opinion was healthier compared to Andromeda’s release. MELE helped Mass Effect move on by reminding everyone of what defined the Mass Effect series. Regardless of personal opinions of Andromeda, the general perception of that game was not good at launch. MELE helped transform that. Since then, people are excited about Mass Effect again, not just the next future entry, but Shepard’s journey and everything wonderful that the trilogy brought out.
In conjunction to that, I would very much like that same level of appreciation and love for Dragon Age because the general perception of the Dragon Age games and its future is a rather mixed one. Here on YouTube, you can’t avoid the hate bait and cynicism. Some of it, I can completely understand, skepticism is a good thing, however, the majority of it is just pure tripe. At times, it can be intolerable, especially when you just want to hope for the best and talk about Dragon Age lore or your unhealthy love for Solas.
I think with a Dragon Age: Origins remaster, it would help a lot of the mainstream audiences find the love they had for Dragon Age again, rediscovering what Dragon Age is all about, while bringing in new excitement for the next future entry. It could help calm the storm a little bit, creating some positivity for the franchise, just like MELE did.
Other than that, a re-release of Origins can help introduce new fans to the series, and like I said, it would sell like beautiful butterfly cakes at a bake sale. It really would be a missed opportunity if EA didn’t jump on it, like seriously.
Also, it'd be nice to play Dragon Age: Origins again with significant improvements to its gameplay. While it's alright to play in 2021, it certainly shows its age. If remastered with reworked combat, more accessibility options and better visual enhancements, it'd be a swell, updated experience.
Moving on to the next question, how could this remaster happen?
For those wondering if BioWare has all their fingers in too many pies. MELE was actually created with the help of a third-party studio known as Abstraction.
So, what’s stopping BioWare from hiring this team again, but this time to work on a Dragon Age: Origins remaster? Abstraction has shown that they can do a fabulous job with remasters, so why not give them a new project?
It’s been stated that MELE started production in 2019, of course, I imagine the pandemic delayed the project by a fair bit. Regardless, the project was in production for a year and a half, which isn’t too bad, all things considered. If BioWare have plans for a Dragon Age: Origins remaster with MELE’s success, we could totally see this sort of project release just before Dragon Age 4 if they desired.
I suppose like usual, we are just going to have to wait and see.
What about you folks, what are your expectations on a potential Dragon Age remaster? What other Dragon Age products do you think could be in the works? Let me know all your thoughts down below!
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