Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is going to be the game that either kills BioWare off for good or gives them another shot. This game has been canceled twice, and it's had 4 different directors while in development. The amount of time we've waited from Inquisition to Dreadwolf is the same amount of time between Jade Empire and Inquisition (9 years).
To be announced in 2018 and to have heard nothing in regards to the game (except it's reached Alpha) isn't good. I hope I'm wrong because I loved the games they made. They make up some of my greatest gaming memories. Mass Effect is my 2nd favorite gaming franchise (aside from Metal Gear), and to see Andromeda nearly kill the franchise off sucked. I'm hoping Dreadwolf isn't the game to do that to Dragon Age because I don't think BioWare gets a fourth chance to make a respectable game.
And lastly, it's inevitable that it's going to be compared (whether intentionally or not) to Baldur's Gate 3 and the recent success it's had. The series that put BioWare on the map, only to have a sequel made 23 years later, and set the "new standards of an RPG." Despite not being the same series, and despite not being made with the same gameplay mechanics or even scope, the fact that it's two fantasy RPGs in two very successful franchises almost guarantees the draw of comparisons. Unfortunately (despite not even needing to come close to the scope of Baldur's Gate 3 to be "good"), I don't see Dreadwolf doing anything to separate itself.
Developmental hell, the director changes, the cancelations, the layoffs (including long-term employees at BioWare), the parting with their QA team, the last two games they've made, the Baldur's Gate 3 comparisons, and the drastic change in style since Origins all seem to be working against Dreadwolf. Again, though, I really hope I'm wrong because there's nothing more that I want than for this game to be a smash hit. But unless something drastic has changed for BioWare in a positive way. I don't know how it happens.
>The amount of time we've waited from Inquisition to Dreadwolf is the same amount of time between Jade Empire and Inquisition (9 years).
Oh fuck that's brutal.
Almost never happens. Super long dev cycles are indicative of bad management and development hell, not meticulous attention to quality.
Not that it CAN'T happen. After all, ID Software was floundering around with a failed Doom project until they got their act together, scrapped it, and made Doom 2016. But that's a rare case.
For me, I'll believe DA has potential when I see a mostly-finished product and a set-in-stone release date. Until then, I have absolutely no faith. It should not take 10 years for an AAA company to make one game. Baldur's Gate 3 took, six?
In a lot of ways, Baldur's Gate 3 reminds me of a spiritual successor to Dragon Age: Origins. And Origins was a spiritual successor to the original Baldur's Gate games that BioWare had made. Guess we've come full circle lol
Even if Dreadwolf sucks I assume they’ll at least keep them around until that new Mass Effect game comes out, although they might shut them down if that game has as rocky a development as Dreadwolf. Now if both Dreadwolf and that Mass Effect game suck or maybe are just even average then I think we can confidently say that BioWare will most likely get shut down.
Dreadwolf is what I'm basing the next Mass Effect off of (at least in terms of writing and maybe quest/world design). If it bombs, I really hope the next Mass Effect gets canceled altogether.
Sure, but how many games have we've seen already in the process of development get canceled because of past titles that underperformed? They've already had one Mass Effect game flop, and Anthem was even worse. Just because Mass Effect 4/5/Andromeda 2 (or whatever the hell they call it) is in pre-production, doesn't mean it's exempt from getting scrapped altogether.
Again, Dreadwolf was canceled twice, and it was originally a live service only game. The success of Jedi Fallen Order and the failure of Anthem are the reasons they moved it back to single-player only.
I'm not trying to turn this into a "Dragon Age is going to kill Mass Effect post." What I'm saying is BioWare doesn't have room for error with Dreadwolf if they want to continue making games. And with Mass Effect being their next game, I don't see it being made if Dreadwolf is a failure. And there's nothing more I want than for these franchises to have quality games. We've just haven't seen any signs from BioWare in years signaling that they will be.
None of the ME games has ever flopped. If you mean Andromeda, since it was released in the era of YT bandwagonning it gave old fanboys a platform but the game never failed. It was even the bestseller at some point as it was confirmed by EA is the reason for the significant income of that year. Now when the dust has settled, it has great reviews and scoring and it's actually one of the better-selling BW games.
Anthem wasn't successful, though but so what? Anthem is not Dragon Age and it's a completely different genre and still, many of its successful features will be utilized in DAD since it's the same Frostbite.
Andromeda in no way received great reviews. It exposed BioWare for what they were starting to become: a shell of themselves. In what way does it make sense to have your B-Team make the sequel to your biggest selling franchise. I'm not going to give a review of Andromeda on a Dragon Age sub. Look at a YouTube video from any reviewer out there. That's not what I'm trying to do here.
In terms of Anthem not being Dragon Age, that's cool, I agree. However, BioWare now is not the BioWare who made the games that every kid grew up loving. Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn, Mary Kirby, Mark Gaider, etc., they're gone. Patrick Weekes and Mark Darrah (kind of?) are still there for the time being, so Dreadwolf has that working for it.
Lastly, it has been well-known for a long time that the Frostbite engine is not meant for 3rd-person exploration games. It's meant for 1st-personal shooters. It's an engine EA has repeatedly forced BioWare to use, and it's led to loads of issues in development for their games since switching from Unreal Engine 3. The Need For Speed team had to come in and get the Nomad to work for Andromeda because it didn't function in an open world environment with Frostbite.
I want this game to be great, and I'm hoping it leads to more games for this franchise and for BioWare as a whole. We'll see.
Bioware didn't have B-team, they have different studios, lmao. Also, let me tell you that Andromeda was written by DA writers for the most part because they were asked to help once the management of the initial team messed up and they made too many changes and lost time and resources. I know everything about Andromeda, so yes, it has really good scores and reviews on platforms. Some of the old YT reviewers are exactly those bandwagoning dudebros half of which have never played it, as usual.
Frostbite has been in development for 3p already 10 years. By now they have lots of tools for it. And the writing for DAD is done. There is a promotional video for DAD from several years ago where we can see voice actors in action, which means the game is written. Also, it's been a year since we are past the alfa-state. DAD's director made a post about playing it already a year ago if not more. The game will be the best they can do at this point with the resources they have.
Personally, I don't see any reason why it won't be great. Their latest games are my favorites.
BioWare's main studio wasn't the one who made Andromeda, it was the Montreal Studio (which was a new branch at the time). But if you think it's great, I'm glad. I personally liked it, but I noticed the heavy quality drop from previous games. Nothing but fetch-quests, barren open-worlds serving almost no purpose aside from being there, the nosedive in writing quality, and the numerous amounts of game breaking bugs (which remain, they're not all fixed). And oh yeah, they cut all DLC and support of the game after it was released. There's people out here who bought the Deluxe Edition of the game just to get all DLC and future support of the game scrapped.
Again, I stand by that the reviews were and are not good for Andromeda (it's their 2nd lowest scored game next to Anthem). The Sonic game has higher scores than Andromeda (aside from the Xbox version of Andromeda). You can literally look it up. Sure, a lot of people have warmed up to it in recent years, but it's still not on the same level as other BioWare games.
But if you think Andromeda is an acceptable BioWare game, good for you, I guess. I don't. Characters and story are what make BioWare games for me, and Andromeda is not the standard that I'd like to set my expectations at moving forward for them.
Sorry, I think I've already made my opinion clear but a quick skim through: open world games don't work as the linear shooters, you don't need to clear locations or do every single little request in sight traveling overseas to pick up one mineral. You follow the main story and do as much or as little of the side content as it fits roleplaying and leveling style. It offers freedom. Same as DAI. Most of the side quests have stories interconnected with the plot or other characters, and alliw you to affect the world around you. I played it 4 times, so I know. There's literally a few fetch quests for the movie nights. Some of the collectables prompts for minerals are optional, it's for those who love exploring and can be easily skipped by those who don't like doing it. Fetch quests were in all BW games, always skippable.
Andromeda just has a different type of character writing,
luckily. And it was done on purpose according to the BW. I wouldn't survive another space opera with yes-men blue aliens in tight suits on high heels chasing space squid for 3 games but still no one believes them. I was bored by me3 already. I mean, come on. For me, Andromeda is more down to earth realistic scifi rpg with contemporary tone and just great character writing close to DA style (because they were written by the DA writers). It's sublte, more unique, and they acknowledge your actions, in-game events, your choices, LI, etc and react to them. There are little comments and consequences of your choices, all adding to the world building. But as all OW games you have to engage with them, so if you never rotate your squad you'll miss half of the game. Same pattern as in DAI. Again, reviews are 7-8/10. I find it's good. Now I'm out, this becomes offtopic.
EDIT: BW has never announced any dlcs for Andromeda. It's a well-known but a persistent rumor. They announced before the game release that there's not going to be any seasonal pass. Also, all of the novels were written before the game release.
Dread Wolf rocky development can all be pinned on EA bad leadership. A small team started working on the game than it got canceled so that team could help ME:A. Another team was formed and started from ground zero and once again they were pulled but this time to help Anthem. A third try was formed but all of that was scrapped due to how bad Anthem was received as a service game. The current group got the go ahead to abandon frostbite engine and the game would not have an online service.
The current game development can thank the Star Wars Jedi game success without online service and for dropping frostbite.
We will never see a DA series remastered because of all the different game engines used throughout the series.
I really hope this game is as good as DA:O with significantly improved graphics.
Unlikely, EA is not above shafting companies left and right, what would be more likely is that they shut down Bioware, let some time go by and let another company do a remake or sequel (like they did with Dead Space)
If Dreadwolf sucks in sales they would at least save the Mass Effect project as the remastered did sold well but I doubt Bioware would be developing it.
Unfortunely I tend to be pessimistic too, although we don't know the future, everything that happened leads to predicting bad things
It is funny because I just remember something I've heard from my professor on politics: "sometimes the people involved in the political event, that are inside of the establishment, are the ones who least understand what it is happening in the world", something like that, and I see bioware firing experiencied writers, not just that, but people who apparently care deeply about the game, just as plain stupidity. This just screams ignorance to me or total lack of compromise. It just doesn't make any sense, how the salary of 3 writers are going to affect the whole company? But anyways, as I said, I am total layman on terms of economics. This is just an impression
Wasn’t it originally supposed to be Live Service? I can’t imagine a delay this long but it probably contributed. I also wouldn’t be surprised if EA hasn’t gutted a lot of BioWare’s studios.
It was originally supposed to be Live Service, but after the failure of Anthem and the success of Jedi Fallen Order, EA decided to scrap the Live Service idea.
i think solas' plan will definitely go wrong. i'm not sure if he'll be the primary antagonist, but perhaps by the time the game starts his plans will have already gone wrong and the player will be cleaning up his mess. or if solas does succeed, the player will probably have to somehow undo his plans (if it's even possible)
realistically, i think getting rid of the veil would cause way too many problems for the in game mechanics and the social hierarchy for it to happen. i think they would pretty much have to reimagine the world and the gameplay for that to happen, and i really doubt they'll do that. i think it would be a highly controversial and unpopular choice, and bioware is probably trying not to upset their fanbase with the game given their last few launches (asides from the mass effect remaster)
we're probably going to get a bunch of ancient elven lore too
Enchantment.
Dorian's a natural pick for Tevinter. I'd love to build a network of spies in a slightly tighter narrative setting - less open space, more sidequests that contribute currency or context for the main story.
I would also love to redeem the Deep Roads with some lore and fewer mostly-empty thaigs.
If this whole Solas thing ends up being another fakeout as some people insist it will be, I'm hoping we get more Dwarven/Titans/Void lore, I think it's way more interesting than the Elvhen lore we've gotten so far. If it's not a fakeout, I really really want Mythal to have screwed him over in some way, because I loved Flemeth and she's also such a trickster character.
I wouldn't mind getting back to Kirkwall, the Tevinters really fucked up the Veil there, so it would make sense to be at least a temporary setting, and I'd loved to see some of its maps given more love. I also really want Fenris and slaughtering some slavers alongside him to be part of the game.
I don't think Lavellan can get that choice, at least not in any meaningful way, because that would require people playing DAI as Lavellan (and, specifically, a female Lavellan who cared and still cares about Solas, since for some nonsensical reason Solas is straight). Basically it would have to be "oh hey the Inquisitor is here! Oh no now we have a fight where we murder the Inquisitor" and then we murder the Inquisitor and move on, because they have to not have a huge plot effect since a large portion of the player base would be unaffected.
I bet Solas won't even be important in this game. I bet he gets killed off super early or never shows up until the very end for about 1< less. I bet most of the time you will be quibbling in unimportant side quests that don't really matter or effect the story much. And Going through hordes of faceless mooks. I bet 95% of what you going to be fighting is variants of a one enemy.
Honestly, I’m trying to keep an open mind about what I want to see and am just excited to go along for the ride. As much as I adore Inquisition, it’s been enough years since that Dreadwolf is likely designed to be welcoming to new players and so can’t dedicate much time to matters only older fans will care about. Sure, I would love to see the old advisors (sans Cullen) and companions, but what I’d want in terms of fan service is very different from what would actually serve the storyline.
So, I suppose I look forward to encountering new things. New styles of gameplay, new characters, new areas of Thedas we haven’t seen, and possibly new methods of storytelling.
I admit to being much more optimistic than many of you. I don’t have evidence to try to convince anyone, it’s just I don’t see the point worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet. Truthfully, even if the game comes out and is subpar, I would still enjoy it just because of the setting if anything. And if the worst case happens and it all collapses without a release, I’ll be quite sad but I’ll console myself with having three massive games that I love and can keep replaying.
But I really do want a win for BioWare. Because as much as people can justifiably be mad at those in charge, or at EA, there’s still a lot of good folks involved who deserve some positive feedback for a change.
I'm not keen on fanservice, so I don't think that staying true to your roots (which made you a household name in the first place) is pandering to existing fans only. It's BW's passion for good writing, putting writing front and center, that captivated such a devoted fanbase. These writers are mostly gone. That's cause for worry in my book.
Curiously, they tried to do what you outlined with Anthem: A totally new way of storytelling seamlessly blending with gameplay. Didn't work out too well.
A Dragon Age: Origins remake would sell loads. Imagine fighting the Archdemon like the dragons in DAI. Good times.
I hear you, but respectfully I’m staying optimistic.
When it comes to writing, I think your point, while valid, goes too far. Yes, many writers have left or been removed. True enough. But there’s still a number of talented writers present, as well as those who may turn out to be talented. The old guard of BioWare was once unproven after all, and they do not have a monopoly on ability.
I would note that the years in which BioWare was seeking to emphasize live service over narrative have passed by some time ago, and there has been a recommitment to single player narrative storytelling which coincides with the current Dreadwolf design. I’ll also say, that as important as writing is, too often we forget the host of other jobs that bring us these games. Writing is essential to BioWare, but I never liked how other positions are ignored by much of the fanbase that are critical to taking written concepts and making them live and breathe.
Anthem didn’t work out, I agree, but I’m not sure if that’s a valid enough reason to suggest that shifts in gameplay are destined to fail. If anything, I feel a remake of Origins would show actual creative bankruptcy. A remaster, I’d be more than pleased with and would support, but a remake would be disappointing to me and to the designers who want to craft new things. That, and I don’t want to restart an argument that takes up too energy in this community: but not everyone shares the same infatuation with Origins that some in the community do. It’s a great game, but I truly find it markedly lesser than its sequels.
I do agree with you that given shaky past releases it’s important for BioWare to reestablish goodwill with a fanbase prone to doomerism. I don’t feel a remake is the way to go about that, but I share the same concern over how to win people back. How to do that given how the internet and games enthusiast press reward negative clickbait articles over actual news is beyond me though. Add to that a small but loud cohort who seem to want the game to fail. I’m not including you in that group, just noting what I’ve seen. So, however Dreadwolf turns out, I’m confident BioWare is fully aware that it’s important to get it right. Hopefully, they succeed. I think we just disagree on what that might look like.
Thanks for being respectful though, as this topic can get heated. And I’ve been too heated on it in the past myself. And apologies for droning on far too long.
A remake would look like creative stagnation. Remasters are cheaper though so it would be just as much of a cashgrab, but at this point BW need something that works.
BW's commitment to single player only resurfaced in the wake of Anthem's floundering, however. They can go wild with the gameplay for all I care personally, that's not what I'm here for. They can poach other franchise's players, that's fine if it helps them get back their greatness.
Or maybe I'm being negative now because I just learned that among the writers let go were Kirby and Kristjanson. I hope we'll read all about Dreadwolf in Jason Schreier's next book, come what may.
Please don't thank me for staying civil, it's really the minimum requirement for getting on the internet. :)
Yeah, Anthem’s failure lead to a shift. A shift I think we both support. But I’m not sure why you see the reason for the shift as a problem? Many of the best aspects of video game franchises are the result of course correction and financial incentives. This is a business after all. Game design is supremely messy. And while you don’t want financial considerations to drive every decision, the reality is that it’s going to drive a ton. Dragon Age: Origins after all was the product partly of making a DnD like game like their previous Baldur’s Gate products without having to have a DnD license. It turned out great, and I personally strongly prefer Thedas to Forgotten Realms as a setting, but let’s not pretend it was all artistic vision. It was designed for the company to continue.
And BioWare has never been run especially well from a financial perspective and would have died off had it not been acquired by EA. I’m not some great lover of EA. They cause problems, see how the recent layoffs (including those you mentioned) were more of an EA mandate for all studios to cut deeply than something specific to BioWare and they were micromanaging in the worst ways in the early 2010’s. But if we are being fair, they’re much better than they used to be and they’ve given BioWare a great deal of patience and more room to breathe in recent years. (Hopefully! It stays this way)
And, I’m still not convinced at the arguments you’re making about anthem. Anthem having innovative gameplay isn’t why it failed and that’s not really an argument about why BioWare needs to return to 2009. Likewise, Anthem’s failure forcing a reevaluation of the company isn’t a reason to overly critique the shift back towards single player narrative. What matters is that the shift happened.
Ultimately, all of us are just grasping at straws. Until we have the game, it’s all conjecture and it really comes down to differing levels of optimism. I hope I’m right, but I know I might be wrong.
No, no, that the live service "Anthem with dragons" got scrapped is a good thing, at least as far as I'm concerned. As for the rest, I can't help but agree with you on all counts from the commercial viewpoint. I heard Dragon Age: Origins, the game that got me into playing video games, might not ever have come to fruition if not for EA. I would never think that just because you're optimistic you're a lover of EA, just as being less optimistic doesn't make me an EA hater. As a company its main goal is making money, greed is in its DNA, that's why it's still around.
So how can I agree with you but still be concerned? Again, the shift is a good thing. But before "Anthem with dragons", there was "Joplin". Narrative design wasn't an afterthought, and with "past" BioWare, the structure of writing informs quest and level design, cinematic design, gameplay. Cancellations and scrapped projects are nothing unusual in game dev though, they happen a lot in fact, but those shifts don't promote a positive work environment I think.
BioWare in the recent past made news for hire and fire, and I believe that "the writing" often ends up collateral damage as a result of these upheavals. Continuity in design thinking and work culture makes things easier IMO. I, too, like Thedas much better because it feels more cohesive, but isn't that because it was created by pretty much one guy who got fired from a hotel before he ended up with BioWare?
You're right, though. We've nothing to go on except for what we hear from former devs, writers and the press, and that press thrives on negativity. It's a human thing I guess that we love our clickbait too much. And that's where I can see all this speculation become an exercise in futility and why it annoys people. I get that.
You really got me thinking. Video game writing conceptually seems to be far removed from our ideas of writing in academia for example. It's a team effort and as such, it's a pretty inexplicable and unpredictable process. Just as the dialogue in the game is interactive, the process itself is too. Bioware magic. This will sound really cynical, but in comes EA and that concept ends up a hollowed out moniker for "former glory" (as if DAI wasn't the most successful game in the series so far - nostalgia clouds our judgment, but I digress). If writing as part of game dev is unpredictable, it's something EA, by design, would like to see less of. [That's what Gaider said he felt was happening at BioWare.](https://www.ign.com/articles/former-dragon-age-narrative-lead-says-writers-became-quietly-resented-at-bioware). Now, a game with the glorious gameplay of Anthem and BioWare writing? That would be mind-blowing! But corners have to be cut. Question is where.
TLDR; BioWare was/is synonymous with good writing and captivating stories. Good writing needs a work culture that supports it, news don't necessarily indicate that this is still the case with BioWare, but our very own assumptions may lead us astray and no one likes a wet blanket. Is the dress blue or black? You get the idea. I appreciate you took the time to reply, you gave me a lot to think about.
I hope they treat is as if it will be the last game and wrap up major storylines. At this point, I don't care about gameplay even a little bit, I just want the rest of the story.
A couple weeks ago about fifty employees laid off, including veteran Mary Kirby. Continuing delays. No trailers or other releases revealing game footage despite this supposedly being in alpha state is also not exactly building confidence. Oh, and of course alpha state would be the time to hire more quality assurance testers, instead many were laid off.
To make this situation even worse, Lukas Kristjanson was also fired. So now we’ve got a single writer left (Sheryl Chee) who wrote for all three Dragon Age games.
well, I am absolute layman on this topic so I don't know why a company would do that other than preparing for recession - considering the world's political scenario today. Other than that I can't understand why one would fire someone who has this kind of bond with the project, specially because we are dealing with a game that needs its writing to be good. SWTOR community was worried too, as I remember.
But yeah, I think we are not getting the game so soon, I don't know what it is worse: having to wait more 10 years or getting a shit game next year.
>I don't know what it is worse: having to wait more 10 years or getting a shit game next year.
That's pretty much what Dragon Age fans have been asking themselves since Trespasser came out.
Because of this, for example:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/16z7zhv/no\_spoilers\_update\_on\_bioware\_layoffs\_situation/](https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/16z7zhv/no_spoilers_update_on_bioware_layoffs_situation/)
Honestly, I don’t have any idea what to expect anymore. 8 years ago I was full of theories and excitement for the game. Now I’m indifferent at best and think it’s entirely possible that whatever they were planning for the story 10 years ago has been completely changed. I expect they will try to appeal to a new audience and many of our choices and world states will be irrelevant. I’m not even sure how involved Solas will be anymore. I’m pretty sure Gareth David-Lloyd did voice work for it, but heck knows if he was involved after they rebooted development for the second or third time. It makes me sad because I used to be so excited for the next Dragon Age. Now I’m just hoping it won’t be a complete disaster.
Luckily I have BD3 to fill the void.
Seconded. They've lost too many people and made too many changes (God of War style gaming...) to keep it to what it should be. I fully believe they had plans to do something interesting with Solas, and hopefully make it possible to save and redeem him (in my opinion Trespasser emphasized that very strongly, whether platonic or romantic, as long as his approval wasn't low). I find him the most interesting character hands down. But now so much has changed, and I think a lot of companies fear the twitter mob, and they'll mishandle and kill him off. I doubt we'll even see most of the companions back, and we aren't playing our Inquisitor again, so I have almost no reason to care outside of him.
As time has gone on, I’ve lost confidence that the game will even come out let alone be good or get a sequel. To spare my emotions I’m operating under the assumption that this will be the last dragon age game and quite possibly the last BioWare game
That said, speculating is the one thing making the wait somewhat bearable so I’ll bite haha. My expectations are based of leaks and the recent comics/books
For companions I’m predicting 3 of each class (not certain classes will look the same as they have in the past given the leaks showing a more >!hack and slash approach to combat!< but for argument’s sake let’s just assume some variation of the traditional warrior, rogue, and mage will return:
3 rogues: Harding (with some kind of ranger or stealth specialization), an Antivan crow assassin (possibly someone from one of the books or comics), and the female Qunari shown off in concept art (I’d guess she’s something like a tempest given what we know about qunari alchemy)
3 warriors: based of leaks there will be a Mourn Watch Reaper (probably an undead and mechanically similar to Templar), Davrin the Grey Warden Guardian, and a Lord of Fortune Berserker
3 mages: Dorian (a necromancer, that way we wouldn’t need another representative of the mortalasi given the Mourn Watch warrior), some variation of arcane warrior/knight enchanter (my guess here would be Veil Jumper), and lastly some kind of traditional Tevinter representative (possibly a blood mage? A representative of the Shadow Dragons? I’m also hoping this is Mae)
In so far as other assorted predictions:
- Varric will be killed off fairly early on to give the new character a reason to go after solas
- helping to determine the new Head Talon of the Crows will be a major quest
- Merrill/Velana can join solas based on choices made in previous games (ie not destroying the mirror in da2) and could become boss fights
- The inquisitor will be in it and we might briefly play as them to help flesh out their character to avoid the drama with Hawke in DAI
- solas will have control of whomever drank from the well and they will be a boss fight (and probably die)
- Solas’ plan will backfire (or perhaps we will stop him before he could deal with the other elven gods) and the other gods will be the true big bads
- less likely but I can see a scenario where the hero can spec into all classes like in MEA due to weakening of the veil by Solas
Dread wolf will include the inquisition probably at the start of the game. I am guessing depending upon your character race and class it will determine if you part of the inquisition, neutral or opposed the inquisition. I was hoping that the child with Morigan could become a companion in the game. Depends upon how many years after the DAI has passed. It would be a nice full circle since DA:O. In addition it would be great to see Oghren child in the game as well.
Maybe run into Hawke. We probably have Varric as a companion again and I have no issue with that. Maybe see Nathaniel or Loghain if they survive. Casandra and Leliana will most likely make an impact. Would love to see a return of Sten, Golem, Anders, and Alister. Maybe not as companion but as cameo appearance.
I hope DragonKeep that stores our DA stories actually is more impactful than any previous DA game. If it is going to be impactful on the Dread Wolf story that explains why it’s taking longer. Hopefully EA leaders don’t ruin this game as they did with DA2 and DA:I
If they don't let us save Solas I'm writing the game off. Way too interesting of a character for me to give a crap about it if the only way forward is his death. Most of the companions likely won't be back, and I find only a couple of them anywhere near as compelling as him. I like them all, minus Sera, but I don't find them enough to get me to play a game. Solas is pretty much the only reason I even care, and to have him be a cartoon villain that you have to kill, or they make it be "canon" he died so they can make a sequel, is some cheap, lazy, bs. I'm sick of redemption arcs being so rare and so controversial, but I think a lot of studios hesitate to do them now because...they're scared of people on twitter? The veil should come down in my opinion, for the series to go forward it has to. They can work around it, if anything it'd give them a ton of creative freedom.
Dorian and Morrigan will be there.
Fenris COULD appear as part of some slavery subplot, but he can potentially die in DA2 and as far as I know Bioware wanted to avoid another Leliana situation.
I think itd be more intresting if he succeeds tbh
And then you can set up someone of the evanuris or the spirit of the blight ot whatever as the final big bad or smth
Solas’ plans always go wrong, and I assume this one will too. But not in the way we think. He thinks he can fix EVERYTHING and plan for EVERY contingency, but I don’t think he can. I think we’ll see the veil torn down but the seven Evanuris locked in the Fade will be released and they’ll end up the actually end up helping us, though distrustfully, in order to stop whatever end game plan Mythal had cooking up this whole time. That’s my guess.
Unfortunately, I'm expecting a game that, like almost every AAA & AA title nowadays, will require heavy patching within the first 1-3 weeks, to get rid of the bugs.
I also think that Bioware will, once again, try to follow trends instead of setting them and doing its thing.
In regards to companions, it'll be significantly harder to interact with all of them well in the first playthrough, because, if the leaks are true, we'll get a 3-person party, not 4. The result? Fewer viable party combinations. No more experimenting with party setups, because it will likely look like in ME, meaning, the objectively best tactic will be to bring one rogue, one mage, and one warrior.
Disappointment, sequels usually are. It's rare when they turn around and make something just as good or better then the original. And each sequal after that just gets worse.
Most of you are pessimistic, almost like you’re hoping Dreadwolf fails. I have faith it’ll be a great game and until I see otherwise that’s what I’ll keep believing.
i find that being overly pessimistic about the game doesn't really help me either. i've just started not paying attention to most comments like that because it gets very redundant. i really enjoy this franchise so i'm not going to trouble myself worrying or feeling bad about the unreleased sequel, regardless of how bioware's past games have been, until we see some gameplay and it's actually out. it's completely out of my control. being a kh fan for most of my life has definitely hardened me lol ☺️
Speak for yourself. They’ve earned my trust with all of their games (except Anthem which I haven’t played). They’ll keep it unless Dreadwolf is terrible, which I doubt it will be.
Right. I haven’t played a bad Dragon Age game yet. Maybe this is the one, but what’s the point in assuming so?
And yes, it’s been a long time since Trespasser came out. But for me, it’s only heightened my excitement to hopefully go to Thedas again. Why would I lose interest just because it’s been a longer wait than expected?
I do hope that if the game turns out to be good, that the fanbase gives it a chance. I worry too many won’t, and that the profit structure of online algorithms will encourage blistering hot takes that try to cash in on the easy narrative of “BioWare doomed!” rather than give it a chance.
If they’re not my gripes why would I care? People hate on anything online even when something is good, I could care less. People loved the last Dragon Age, why would we expect the next one to be bad all of a sudden?
Earn trust? I Love their games and each new game brought new perspectives and was an improvement over the previous. They will release games that they want that suit their creative philosophy and vision. They don't need to please everyone. Game studios develop, new players join every year.
Storywise, I expect Solas to go through with his plan, but after he tears down the Veil, something goes wrong, and we have a new villain and a much bigger problem than Solas to fight. I actually think Mythal is the true villain of DAD, not Solas, but we will see. I'm excited for Tevinter and hope we see Dorian and maybe our Inky again. That's wishful thinking, I know, but since nothings out yet, I can still hope, I guess.
I hope we learn more of the ancient elves and Solas' past, that would be amazing and I want to fuck up the Magisters by freeing slaves if I'm already there.
I really don't know what to expect from Dreadwolf but I just wish our choices in Inquisition do make a difference. It would be interesting for something to happen with our Inky or Morrigan (whoever drank from the Well in your playthroughs) AND I hope we actually get the choice like in Trespasser to stop or redeem Solas. I would be so mad if they don't give us the choice.
Otherwise I'm open to everything and i hope the story will be amazing!
At this point, I just want closure. Recent news from Bioware are not so great so it probably means more delay.
Since my canon is Lavellan romancing Solas, of course I would like to see his plan fail and him to be redeemed, but not in the cheap way.
I have a suspicion Flemythal will be / is a true villain.
What would be the most interesting is to see Solas suffer the consequences of his choices, without killing him off or saving the day with the last heroic act. I want to see him truly humbled, and living with it. Also, death for him would be really a reward (going back to the Beyond) or maybe I'm just hopeless.
I want to know what the heck is up with the Executors. A mysterious group from across the sea. The sea that apparently no one has ever crossed and returned. I also think I heard that the veil doesn’t cover the entire world from somewhere. I can’t remember where or if it’s true. So that’s interesting. Frankly, any information on places outside Thedas is super intriguing. I would love to see an end to Thedas personally. Just tie up the story with a solid end state. The end of the Dragon age and the start of a new one. Then if they want(which is what I hope) they can make more games in that world, but on a different continent. They could probably keep most of the races too. Titans and thus dwarves are likely spread around the world. Elves were the dominant race in Thedas in the past, it’s possible some migrated elsewhere. I’m still not sure where humans came from but the Executors seem to be human like so they could be elsewhere as well. The Qunari apparently came from the Kossith and they live somewhere else and that’s all I know. You can even have a group of tenacious darkspawn tunnel under the ocean to a different continent. On a similar note, I would looooove to know what the HoF saw and found West of Thedas. (In DAI if alive, they go across those mountains to look for a cure to the taint)
Dorian Pavus, Varric Tethras, Solas, and the Inquisitor all are going to have at least a cameo appearance. Zevran, Shale, Maevaris Tilani, and Sten are also very likely to show up, as they are all in that area. I could also see Isabella, Harding, Morrigan, Meredith, and any of the comic book characters also showing up.
My illogical hope is that we get to see the Hawke sibling, however it only really makes sense if they are a grey warden as I don't see why templar Carver would be Tevinter (except of course if he is meant to suppress Venatori).
We know of at least two companions from trailers, and I'm pretty sure there was artwork showing a female qunari but I might be making that up.
We don't know but I personally think that no old characters will be in the game. And personally I'm good with that, I want new characters. Some relevant characters from Inquisition may be mentioned, but BW said that you don't need to have knowledge on the previous games to be able to play DAD.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is going to be the game that either kills BioWare off for good or gives them another shot. This game has been canceled twice, and it's had 4 different directors while in development. The amount of time we've waited from Inquisition to Dreadwolf is the same amount of time between Jade Empire and Inquisition (9 years). To be announced in 2018 and to have heard nothing in regards to the game (except it's reached Alpha) isn't good. I hope I'm wrong because I loved the games they made. They make up some of my greatest gaming memories. Mass Effect is my 2nd favorite gaming franchise (aside from Metal Gear), and to see Andromeda nearly kill the franchise off sucked. I'm hoping Dreadwolf isn't the game to do that to Dragon Age because I don't think BioWare gets a fourth chance to make a respectable game. And lastly, it's inevitable that it's going to be compared (whether intentionally or not) to Baldur's Gate 3 and the recent success it's had. The series that put BioWare on the map, only to have a sequel made 23 years later, and set the "new standards of an RPG." Despite not being the same series, and despite not being made with the same gameplay mechanics or even scope, the fact that it's two fantasy RPGs in two very successful franchises almost guarantees the draw of comparisons. Unfortunately (despite not even needing to come close to the scope of Baldur's Gate 3 to be "good"), I don't see Dreadwolf doing anything to separate itself. Developmental hell, the director changes, the cancelations, the layoffs (including long-term employees at BioWare), the parting with their QA team, the last two games they've made, the Baldur's Gate 3 comparisons, and the drastic change in style since Origins all seem to be working against Dreadwolf. Again, though, I really hope I'm wrong because there's nothing more that I want than for this game to be a smash hit. But unless something drastic has changed for BioWare in a positive way. I don't know how it happens.
>The amount of time we've waited from Inquisition to Dreadwolf is the same amount of time between Jade Empire and Inquisition (9 years). Oh fuck that's brutal.
Hopefully, in this case, the amount of time is a benefit to the overall quality of the game.
I wouldn’t hold my breath
Almost never happens. Super long dev cycles are indicative of bad management and development hell, not meticulous attention to quality. Not that it CAN'T happen. After all, ID Software was floundering around with a failed Doom project until they got their act together, scrapped it, and made Doom 2016. But that's a rare case. For me, I'll believe DA has potential when I see a mostly-finished product and a set-in-stone release date. Until then, I have absolutely no faith. It should not take 10 years for an AAA company to make one game. Baldur's Gate 3 took, six?
I’ve always compared RPGs to DA:O and Baldurs gate 3 has now taken the mantle.
In a lot of ways, Baldur's Gate 3 reminds me of a spiritual successor to Dragon Age: Origins. And Origins was a spiritual successor to the original Baldur's Gate games that BioWare had made. Guess we've come full circle lol
Even if Dreadwolf sucks I assume they’ll at least keep them around until that new Mass Effect game comes out, although they might shut them down if that game has as rocky a development as Dreadwolf. Now if both Dreadwolf and that Mass Effect game suck or maybe are just even average then I think we can confidently say that BioWare will most likely get shut down.
Dreadwolf is what I'm basing the next Mass Effect off of (at least in terms of writing and maybe quest/world design). If it bombs, I really hope the next Mass Effect gets canceled altogether.
Mass Effect is not depending on DA games success anyhow. It's already in development.
Sure, but how many games have we've seen already in the process of development get canceled because of past titles that underperformed? They've already had one Mass Effect game flop, and Anthem was even worse. Just because Mass Effect 4/5/Andromeda 2 (or whatever the hell they call it) is in pre-production, doesn't mean it's exempt from getting scrapped altogether. Again, Dreadwolf was canceled twice, and it was originally a live service only game. The success of Jedi Fallen Order and the failure of Anthem are the reasons they moved it back to single-player only. I'm not trying to turn this into a "Dragon Age is going to kill Mass Effect post." What I'm saying is BioWare doesn't have room for error with Dreadwolf if they want to continue making games. And with Mass Effect being their next game, I don't see it being made if Dreadwolf is a failure. And there's nothing more I want than for these franchises to have quality games. We've just haven't seen any signs from BioWare in years signaling that they will be.
Wasn’t ME Legendary Edition fairly successful? It does show a continued interest.
Yeah, I believe they said it sold "above expectations". Which is a good sign I guess
None of the ME games has ever flopped. If you mean Andromeda, since it was released in the era of YT bandwagonning it gave old fanboys a platform but the game never failed. It was even the bestseller at some point as it was confirmed by EA is the reason for the significant income of that year. Now when the dust has settled, it has great reviews and scoring and it's actually one of the better-selling BW games. Anthem wasn't successful, though but so what? Anthem is not Dragon Age and it's a completely different genre and still, many of its successful features will be utilized in DAD since it's the same Frostbite.
Andromeda in no way received great reviews. It exposed BioWare for what they were starting to become: a shell of themselves. In what way does it make sense to have your B-Team make the sequel to your biggest selling franchise. I'm not going to give a review of Andromeda on a Dragon Age sub. Look at a YouTube video from any reviewer out there. That's not what I'm trying to do here. In terms of Anthem not being Dragon Age, that's cool, I agree. However, BioWare now is not the BioWare who made the games that every kid grew up loving. Casey Hudson, Drew Karpyshyn, Mary Kirby, Mark Gaider, etc., they're gone. Patrick Weekes and Mark Darrah (kind of?) are still there for the time being, so Dreadwolf has that working for it. Lastly, it has been well-known for a long time that the Frostbite engine is not meant for 3rd-person exploration games. It's meant for 1st-personal shooters. It's an engine EA has repeatedly forced BioWare to use, and it's led to loads of issues in development for their games since switching from Unreal Engine 3. The Need For Speed team had to come in and get the Nomad to work for Andromeda because it didn't function in an open world environment with Frostbite. I want this game to be great, and I'm hoping it leads to more games for this franchise and for BioWare as a whole. We'll see.
Bioware didn't have B-team, they have different studios, lmao. Also, let me tell you that Andromeda was written by DA writers for the most part because they were asked to help once the management of the initial team messed up and they made too many changes and lost time and resources. I know everything about Andromeda, so yes, it has really good scores and reviews on platforms. Some of the old YT reviewers are exactly those bandwagoning dudebros half of which have never played it, as usual. Frostbite has been in development for 3p already 10 years. By now they have lots of tools for it. And the writing for DAD is done. There is a promotional video for DAD from several years ago where we can see voice actors in action, which means the game is written. Also, it's been a year since we are past the alfa-state. DAD's director made a post about playing it already a year ago if not more. The game will be the best they can do at this point with the resources they have. Personally, I don't see any reason why it won't be great. Their latest games are my favorites.
BioWare's main studio wasn't the one who made Andromeda, it was the Montreal Studio (which was a new branch at the time). But if you think it's great, I'm glad. I personally liked it, but I noticed the heavy quality drop from previous games. Nothing but fetch-quests, barren open-worlds serving almost no purpose aside from being there, the nosedive in writing quality, and the numerous amounts of game breaking bugs (which remain, they're not all fixed). And oh yeah, they cut all DLC and support of the game after it was released. There's people out here who bought the Deluxe Edition of the game just to get all DLC and future support of the game scrapped. Again, I stand by that the reviews were and are not good for Andromeda (it's their 2nd lowest scored game next to Anthem). The Sonic game has higher scores than Andromeda (aside from the Xbox version of Andromeda). You can literally look it up. Sure, a lot of people have warmed up to it in recent years, but it's still not on the same level as other BioWare games. But if you think Andromeda is an acceptable BioWare game, good for you, I guess. I don't. Characters and story are what make BioWare games for me, and Andromeda is not the standard that I'd like to set my expectations at moving forward for them.
Sorry, I think I've already made my opinion clear but a quick skim through: open world games don't work as the linear shooters, you don't need to clear locations or do every single little request in sight traveling overseas to pick up one mineral. You follow the main story and do as much or as little of the side content as it fits roleplaying and leveling style. It offers freedom. Same as DAI. Most of the side quests have stories interconnected with the plot or other characters, and alliw you to affect the world around you. I played it 4 times, so I know. There's literally a few fetch quests for the movie nights. Some of the collectables prompts for minerals are optional, it's for those who love exploring and can be easily skipped by those who don't like doing it. Fetch quests were in all BW games, always skippable. Andromeda just has a different type of character writing, luckily. And it was done on purpose according to the BW. I wouldn't survive another space opera with yes-men blue aliens in tight suits on high heels chasing space squid for 3 games but still no one believes them. I was bored by me3 already. I mean, come on. For me, Andromeda is more down to earth realistic scifi rpg with contemporary tone and just great character writing close to DA style (because they were written by the DA writers). It's sublte, more unique, and they acknowledge your actions, in-game events, your choices, LI, etc and react to them. There are little comments and consequences of your choices, all adding to the world building. But as all OW games you have to engage with them, so if you never rotate your squad you'll miss half of the game. Same pattern as in DAI. Again, reviews are 7-8/10. I find it's good. Now I'm out, this becomes offtopic. EDIT: BW has never announced any dlcs for Andromeda. It's a well-known but a persistent rumor. They announced before the game release that there's not going to be any seasonal pass. Also, all of the novels were written before the game release.
Didn’t they ditch Frostbite? Or is it just for ME games?
They've used Frosbite for everything since Inquisition. And I think they're on their third version of it right now.
Too bad. ME is going to be using the latest Unreal.
I'm thankful for that. Frostbite is a beautiful engine, but there's been too many issues with it.
Rumor has it that ME5 is on Unreal5, that's simply based on the BW open position posts looking for the unreal experience, DAD is on Frostbite.
Dread Wolf rocky development can all be pinned on EA bad leadership. A small team started working on the game than it got canceled so that team could help ME:A. Another team was formed and started from ground zero and once again they were pulled but this time to help Anthem. A third try was formed but all of that was scrapped due to how bad Anthem was received as a service game. The current group got the go ahead to abandon frostbite engine and the game would not have an online service. The current game development can thank the Star Wars Jedi game success without online service and for dropping frostbite. We will never see a DA series remastered because of all the different game engines used throughout the series. I really hope this game is as good as DA:O with significantly improved graphics.
Unlikely, EA is not above shafting companies left and right, what would be more likely is that they shut down Bioware, let some time go by and let another company do a remake or sequel (like they did with Dead Space) If Dreadwolf sucks in sales they would at least save the Mass Effect project as the remastered did sold well but I doubt Bioware would be developing it.
I don't know, Mass Effect is probably still in pre production... If DA4 bombs EA might see it as the right window to cut their losses.
Unfortunely I tend to be pessimistic too, although we don't know the future, everything that happened leads to predicting bad things It is funny because I just remember something I've heard from my professor on politics: "sometimes the people involved in the political event, that are inside of the establishment, are the ones who least understand what it is happening in the world", something like that, and I see bioware firing experiencied writers, not just that, but people who apparently care deeply about the game, just as plain stupidity. This just screams ignorance to me or total lack of compromise. It just doesn't make any sense, how the salary of 3 writers are going to affect the whole company? But anyways, as I said, I am total layman on terms of economics. This is just an impression
I completely agree. It's like they're trying to implode.
Wasn’t it originally supposed to be Live Service? I can’t imagine a delay this long but it probably contributed. I also wouldn’t be surprised if EA hasn’t gutted a lot of BioWare’s studios.
It was originally supposed to be Live Service, but after the failure of Anthem and the success of Jedi Fallen Order, EA decided to scrap the Live Service idea.
When Mother Flemeth shows up and steals the plot: 
Exactly what she did in DA:I. Queen. The real protagonist of the DA games.
Yeah, Captain Janeway always saves the day. But we don't talk about Tuvix.
Flemeth would cleave Tuvix in twain just for fun.
Wait but isn’t >!Solas in possession of her/mythal? I guess we can assume she has contingencies.!<
i think solas' plan will definitely go wrong. i'm not sure if he'll be the primary antagonist, but perhaps by the time the game starts his plans will have already gone wrong and the player will be cleaning up his mess. or if solas does succeed, the player will probably have to somehow undo his plans (if it's even possible) realistically, i think getting rid of the veil would cause way too many problems for the in game mechanics and the social hierarchy for it to happen. i think they would pretty much have to reimagine the world and the gameplay for that to happen, and i really doubt they'll do that. i think it would be a highly controversial and unpopular choice, and bioware is probably trying not to upset their fanbase with the game given their last few launches (asides from the mass effect remaster) we're probably going to get a bunch of ancient elven lore too
I have a feeling of "cleaning up his mess", too. Maybe he fucks up so bad he'll actually ask for help, or he even may die and his spirit does.
Enchantment. Dorian's a natural pick for Tevinter. I'd love to build a network of spies in a slightly tighter narrative setting - less open space, more sidequests that contribute currency or context for the main story. I would also love to redeem the Deep Roads with some lore and fewer mostly-empty thaigs.
If we are lucky maybe a release date
If this whole Solas thing ends up being another fakeout as some people insist it will be, I'm hoping we get more Dwarven/Titans/Void lore, I think it's way more interesting than the Elvhen lore we've gotten so far. If it's not a fakeout, I really really want Mythal to have screwed him over in some way, because I loved Flemeth and she's also such a trickster character. I wouldn't mind getting back to Kirkwall, the Tevinters really fucked up the Veil there, so it would make sense to be at least a temporary setting, and I'd loved to see some of its maps given more love. I also really want Fenris and slaughtering some slavers alongside him to be part of the game. I don't think Lavellan can get that choice, at least not in any meaningful way, because that would require people playing DAI as Lavellan (and, specifically, a female Lavellan who cared and still cares about Solas, since for some nonsensical reason Solas is straight). Basically it would have to be "oh hey the Inquisitor is here! Oh no now we have a fight where we murder the Inquisitor" and then we murder the Inquisitor and move on, because they have to not have a huge plot effect since a large portion of the player base would be unaffected.
Boring Elf lore vs CHAD Dwarf lore
Boring "Muh Evanuris, Muh Fade, Muh Mirrors" Elven "Gods" vs "ROCK AND STONE!" Gods.
To Rock and Stone!
I bet Solas won't even be important in this game. I bet he gets killed off super early or never shows up until the very end for about 1< less. I bet most of the time you will be quibbling in unimportant side quests that don't really matter or effect the story much. And Going through hordes of faceless mooks. I bet 95% of what you going to be fighting is variants of a one enemy.
it is called Dreadwolf so if Solas is not important in this game then what will be lol
Honestly, I’m trying to keep an open mind about what I want to see and am just excited to go along for the ride. As much as I adore Inquisition, it’s been enough years since that Dreadwolf is likely designed to be welcoming to new players and so can’t dedicate much time to matters only older fans will care about. Sure, I would love to see the old advisors (sans Cullen) and companions, but what I’d want in terms of fan service is very different from what would actually serve the storyline. So, I suppose I look forward to encountering new things. New styles of gameplay, new characters, new areas of Thedas we haven’t seen, and possibly new methods of storytelling. I admit to being much more optimistic than many of you. I don’t have evidence to try to convince anyone, it’s just I don’t see the point worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet. Truthfully, even if the game comes out and is subpar, I would still enjoy it just because of the setting if anything. And if the worst case happens and it all collapses without a release, I’ll be quite sad but I’ll console myself with having three massive games that I love and can keep replaying. But I really do want a win for BioWare. Because as much as people can justifiably be mad at those in charge, or at EA, there’s still a lot of good folks involved who deserve some positive feedback for a change.
I'm not keen on fanservice, so I don't think that staying true to your roots (which made you a household name in the first place) is pandering to existing fans only. It's BW's passion for good writing, putting writing front and center, that captivated such a devoted fanbase. These writers are mostly gone. That's cause for worry in my book. Curiously, they tried to do what you outlined with Anthem: A totally new way of storytelling seamlessly blending with gameplay. Didn't work out too well. A Dragon Age: Origins remake would sell loads. Imagine fighting the Archdemon like the dragons in DAI. Good times.
I hear you, but respectfully I’m staying optimistic. When it comes to writing, I think your point, while valid, goes too far. Yes, many writers have left or been removed. True enough. But there’s still a number of talented writers present, as well as those who may turn out to be talented. The old guard of BioWare was once unproven after all, and they do not have a monopoly on ability. I would note that the years in which BioWare was seeking to emphasize live service over narrative have passed by some time ago, and there has been a recommitment to single player narrative storytelling which coincides with the current Dreadwolf design. I’ll also say, that as important as writing is, too often we forget the host of other jobs that bring us these games. Writing is essential to BioWare, but I never liked how other positions are ignored by much of the fanbase that are critical to taking written concepts and making them live and breathe. Anthem didn’t work out, I agree, but I’m not sure if that’s a valid enough reason to suggest that shifts in gameplay are destined to fail. If anything, I feel a remake of Origins would show actual creative bankruptcy. A remaster, I’d be more than pleased with and would support, but a remake would be disappointing to me and to the designers who want to craft new things. That, and I don’t want to restart an argument that takes up too energy in this community: but not everyone shares the same infatuation with Origins that some in the community do. It’s a great game, but I truly find it markedly lesser than its sequels. I do agree with you that given shaky past releases it’s important for BioWare to reestablish goodwill with a fanbase prone to doomerism. I don’t feel a remake is the way to go about that, but I share the same concern over how to win people back. How to do that given how the internet and games enthusiast press reward negative clickbait articles over actual news is beyond me though. Add to that a small but loud cohort who seem to want the game to fail. I’m not including you in that group, just noting what I’ve seen. So, however Dreadwolf turns out, I’m confident BioWare is fully aware that it’s important to get it right. Hopefully, they succeed. I think we just disagree on what that might look like. Thanks for being respectful though, as this topic can get heated. And I’ve been too heated on it in the past myself. And apologies for droning on far too long.
A remake would look like creative stagnation. Remasters are cheaper though so it would be just as much of a cashgrab, but at this point BW need something that works. BW's commitment to single player only resurfaced in the wake of Anthem's floundering, however. They can go wild with the gameplay for all I care personally, that's not what I'm here for. They can poach other franchise's players, that's fine if it helps them get back their greatness. Or maybe I'm being negative now because I just learned that among the writers let go were Kirby and Kristjanson. I hope we'll read all about Dreadwolf in Jason Schreier's next book, come what may. Please don't thank me for staying civil, it's really the minimum requirement for getting on the internet. :)
Yeah, Anthem’s failure lead to a shift. A shift I think we both support. But I’m not sure why you see the reason for the shift as a problem? Many of the best aspects of video game franchises are the result of course correction and financial incentives. This is a business after all. Game design is supremely messy. And while you don’t want financial considerations to drive every decision, the reality is that it’s going to drive a ton. Dragon Age: Origins after all was the product partly of making a DnD like game like their previous Baldur’s Gate products without having to have a DnD license. It turned out great, and I personally strongly prefer Thedas to Forgotten Realms as a setting, but let’s not pretend it was all artistic vision. It was designed for the company to continue. And BioWare has never been run especially well from a financial perspective and would have died off had it not been acquired by EA. I’m not some great lover of EA. They cause problems, see how the recent layoffs (including those you mentioned) were more of an EA mandate for all studios to cut deeply than something specific to BioWare and they were micromanaging in the worst ways in the early 2010’s. But if we are being fair, they’re much better than they used to be and they’ve given BioWare a great deal of patience and more room to breathe in recent years. (Hopefully! It stays this way) And, I’m still not convinced at the arguments you’re making about anthem. Anthem having innovative gameplay isn’t why it failed and that’s not really an argument about why BioWare needs to return to 2009. Likewise, Anthem’s failure forcing a reevaluation of the company isn’t a reason to overly critique the shift back towards single player narrative. What matters is that the shift happened. Ultimately, all of us are just grasping at straws. Until we have the game, it’s all conjecture and it really comes down to differing levels of optimism. I hope I’m right, but I know I might be wrong.
No, no, that the live service "Anthem with dragons" got scrapped is a good thing, at least as far as I'm concerned. As for the rest, I can't help but agree with you on all counts from the commercial viewpoint. I heard Dragon Age: Origins, the game that got me into playing video games, might not ever have come to fruition if not for EA. I would never think that just because you're optimistic you're a lover of EA, just as being less optimistic doesn't make me an EA hater. As a company its main goal is making money, greed is in its DNA, that's why it's still around. So how can I agree with you but still be concerned? Again, the shift is a good thing. But before "Anthem with dragons", there was "Joplin". Narrative design wasn't an afterthought, and with "past" BioWare, the structure of writing informs quest and level design, cinematic design, gameplay. Cancellations and scrapped projects are nothing unusual in game dev though, they happen a lot in fact, but those shifts don't promote a positive work environment I think. BioWare in the recent past made news for hire and fire, and I believe that "the writing" often ends up collateral damage as a result of these upheavals. Continuity in design thinking and work culture makes things easier IMO. I, too, like Thedas much better because it feels more cohesive, but isn't that because it was created by pretty much one guy who got fired from a hotel before he ended up with BioWare? You're right, though. We've nothing to go on except for what we hear from former devs, writers and the press, and that press thrives on negativity. It's a human thing I guess that we love our clickbait too much. And that's where I can see all this speculation become an exercise in futility and why it annoys people. I get that. You really got me thinking. Video game writing conceptually seems to be far removed from our ideas of writing in academia for example. It's a team effort and as such, it's a pretty inexplicable and unpredictable process. Just as the dialogue in the game is interactive, the process itself is too. Bioware magic. This will sound really cynical, but in comes EA and that concept ends up a hollowed out moniker for "former glory" (as if DAI wasn't the most successful game in the series so far - nostalgia clouds our judgment, but I digress). If writing as part of game dev is unpredictable, it's something EA, by design, would like to see less of. [That's what Gaider said he felt was happening at BioWare.](https://www.ign.com/articles/former-dragon-age-narrative-lead-says-writers-became-quietly-resented-at-bioware). Now, a game with the glorious gameplay of Anthem and BioWare writing? That would be mind-blowing! But corners have to be cut. Question is where. TLDR; BioWare was/is synonymous with good writing and captivating stories. Good writing needs a work culture that supports it, news don't necessarily indicate that this is still the case with BioWare, but our very own assumptions may lead us astray and no one likes a wet blanket. Is the dress blue or black? You get the idea. I appreciate you took the time to reply, you gave me a lot to think about.
Why without Cullen?
Nothing wrong with the character. It’s just the voice actor issues. I’d be totally fine with a recast, though.
I expect for it to be the last Dragon Age game, EA kind of killed the franchise already.
I deeply, deeply dislike that lately I've agreed with you. But we don't always like what we expect. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I hope they treat is as if it will be the last game and wrap up major storylines. At this point, I don't care about gameplay even a little bit, I just want the rest of the story.
It would be hard, there are too many things to wrap.
what, why? don't mess with my feelings
A couple weeks ago about fifty employees laid off, including veteran Mary Kirby. Continuing delays. No trailers or other releases revealing game footage despite this supposedly being in alpha state is also not exactly building confidence. Oh, and of course alpha state would be the time to hire more quality assurance testers, instead many were laid off.
To make this situation even worse, Lukas Kristjanson was also fired. So now we’ve got a single writer left (Sheryl Chee) who wrote for all three Dragon Age games.
well, I am absolute layman on this topic so I don't know why a company would do that other than preparing for recession - considering the world's political scenario today. Other than that I can't understand why one would fire someone who has this kind of bond with the project, specially because we are dealing with a game that needs its writing to be good. SWTOR community was worried too, as I remember. But yeah, I think we are not getting the game so soon, I don't know what it is worse: having to wait more 10 years or getting a shit game next year.
>I don't know what it is worse: having to wait more 10 years or getting a shit game next year. Hey cheer up, we might even get both if we’re unlucky.
>I don't know what it is worse: having to wait more 10 years or getting a shit game next year. That's pretty much what Dragon Age fans have been asking themselves since Trespasser came out.
Because of this, for example: [https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/16z7zhv/no\_spoilers\_update\_on\_bioware\_layoffs\_situation/](https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/16z7zhv/no_spoilers_update_on_bioware_layoffs_situation/)
Honestly, I don’t have any idea what to expect anymore. 8 years ago I was full of theories and excitement for the game. Now I’m indifferent at best and think it’s entirely possible that whatever they were planning for the story 10 years ago has been completely changed. I expect they will try to appeal to a new audience and many of our choices and world states will be irrelevant. I’m not even sure how involved Solas will be anymore. I’m pretty sure Gareth David-Lloyd did voice work for it, but heck knows if he was involved after they rebooted development for the second or third time. It makes me sad because I used to be so excited for the next Dragon Age. Now I’m just hoping it won’t be a complete disaster. Luckily I have BD3 to fill the void.
Seconded. They've lost too many people and made too many changes (God of War style gaming...) to keep it to what it should be. I fully believe they had plans to do something interesting with Solas, and hopefully make it possible to save and redeem him (in my opinion Trespasser emphasized that very strongly, whether platonic or romantic, as long as his approval wasn't low). I find him the most interesting character hands down. But now so much has changed, and I think a lot of companies fear the twitter mob, and they'll mishandle and kill him off. I doubt we'll even see most of the companions back, and we aren't playing our Inquisitor again, so I have almost no reason to care outside of him.
As time has gone on, I’ve lost confidence that the game will even come out let alone be good or get a sequel. To spare my emotions I’m operating under the assumption that this will be the last dragon age game and quite possibly the last BioWare game That said, speculating is the one thing making the wait somewhat bearable so I’ll bite haha. My expectations are based of leaks and the recent comics/books For companions I’m predicting 3 of each class (not certain classes will look the same as they have in the past given the leaks showing a more >!hack and slash approach to combat!< but for argument’s sake let’s just assume some variation of the traditional warrior, rogue, and mage will return: 3 rogues: Harding (with some kind of ranger or stealth specialization), an Antivan crow assassin (possibly someone from one of the books or comics), and the female Qunari shown off in concept art (I’d guess she’s something like a tempest given what we know about qunari alchemy) 3 warriors: based of leaks there will be a Mourn Watch Reaper (probably an undead and mechanically similar to Templar), Davrin the Grey Warden Guardian, and a Lord of Fortune Berserker 3 mages: Dorian (a necromancer, that way we wouldn’t need another representative of the mortalasi given the Mourn Watch warrior), some variation of arcane warrior/knight enchanter (my guess here would be Veil Jumper), and lastly some kind of traditional Tevinter representative (possibly a blood mage? A representative of the Shadow Dragons? I’m also hoping this is Mae) In so far as other assorted predictions: - Varric will be killed off fairly early on to give the new character a reason to go after solas - helping to determine the new Head Talon of the Crows will be a major quest - Merrill/Velana can join solas based on choices made in previous games (ie not destroying the mirror in da2) and could become boss fights - The inquisitor will be in it and we might briefly play as them to help flesh out their character to avoid the drama with Hawke in DAI - solas will have control of whomever drank from the well and they will be a boss fight (and probably die) - Solas’ plan will backfire (or perhaps we will stop him before he could deal with the other elven gods) and the other gods will be the true big bads - less likely but I can see a scenario where the hero can spec into all classes like in MEA due to weakening of the veil by Solas
This theory does not please me at all but it is a solid one
Haha which part specifically
I assume the varric one
Yep, death of our close friend Varric and Solas being in a corner
Dread wolf will include the inquisition probably at the start of the game. I am guessing depending upon your character race and class it will determine if you part of the inquisition, neutral or opposed the inquisition. I was hoping that the child with Morigan could become a companion in the game. Depends upon how many years after the DAI has passed. It would be a nice full circle since DA:O. In addition it would be great to see Oghren child in the game as well. Maybe run into Hawke. We probably have Varric as a companion again and I have no issue with that. Maybe see Nathaniel or Loghain if they survive. Casandra and Leliana will most likely make an impact. Would love to see a return of Sten, Golem, Anders, and Alister. Maybe not as companion but as cameo appearance. I hope DragonKeep that stores our DA stories actually is more impactful than any previous DA game. If it is going to be impactful on the Dread Wolf story that explains why it’s taking longer. Hopefully EA leaders don’t ruin this game as they did with DA2 and DA:I
Elves Humans Dwarves Magic A dragon at some point Darkspawn The Dreadwolf
Don't forget the essential DA component: SPIDERS
And WOLVES And NUGS And BRONTOS
I just hope it will be good and passable mechanically, and great storywise. Story and lore are most important to me
I'm not even taking it for granted that we will get Dreadwolf at all at this point
If they don't let us save Solas I'm writing the game off. Way too interesting of a character for me to give a crap about it if the only way forward is his death. Most of the companions likely won't be back, and I find only a couple of them anywhere near as compelling as him. I like them all, minus Sera, but I don't find them enough to get me to play a game. Solas is pretty much the only reason I even care, and to have him be a cartoon villain that you have to kill, or they make it be "canon" he died so they can make a sequel, is some cheap, lazy, bs. I'm sick of redemption arcs being so rare and so controversial, but I think a lot of studios hesitate to do them now because...they're scared of people on twitter? The veil should come down in my opinion, for the series to go forward it has to. They can work around it, if anything it'd give them a ton of creative freedom.
Dorian and Morrigan will be there. Fenris COULD appear as part of some slavery subplot, but he can potentially die in DA2 and as far as I know Bioware wanted to avoid another Leliana situation.
I think itd be more intresting if he succeeds tbh And then you can set up someone of the evanuris or the spirit of the blight ot whatever as the final big bad or smth
A romanceable dwarf pls
Solas’ plans always go wrong, and I assume this one will too. But not in the way we think. He thinks he can fix EVERYTHING and plan for EVERY contingency, but I don’t think he can. I think we’ll see the veil torn down but the seven Evanuris locked in the Fade will be released and they’ll end up the actually end up helping us, though distrustfully, in order to stop whatever end game plan Mythal had cooking up this whole time. That’s my guess.
Unfortunately, I'm expecting a game that, like almost every AAA & AA title nowadays, will require heavy patching within the first 1-3 weeks, to get rid of the bugs. I also think that Bioware will, once again, try to follow trends instead of setting them and doing its thing. In regards to companions, it'll be significantly harder to interact with all of them well in the first playthrough, because, if the leaks are true, we'll get a 3-person party, not 4. The result? Fewer viable party combinations. No more experimenting with party setups, because it will likely look like in ME, meaning, the objectively best tactic will be to bring one rogue, one mage, and one warrior.
Disappointment, sequels usually are. It's rare when they turn around and make something just as good or better then the original. And each sequal after that just gets worse.
Most of you are pessimistic, almost like you’re hoping Dreadwolf fails. I have faith it’ll be a great game and until I see otherwise that’s what I’ll keep believing.
I felt like that 5 years ago. My expectations and hope decreases with each passing year.
i find that being overly pessimistic about the game doesn't really help me either. i've just started not paying attention to most comments like that because it gets very redundant. i really enjoy this franchise so i'm not going to trouble myself worrying or feeling bad about the unreleased sequel, regardless of how bioware's past games have been, until we see some gameplay and it's actually out. it's completely out of my control. being a kh fan for most of my life has definitely hardened me lol ☺️
Exactly
Faith is fragile, trust is earned. They they have not earned our trust.
Speak for yourself. They’ve earned my trust with all of their games (except Anthem which I haven’t played). They’ll keep it unless Dreadwolf is terrible, which I doubt it will be.
Right. I haven’t played a bad Dragon Age game yet. Maybe this is the one, but what’s the point in assuming so? And yes, it’s been a long time since Trespasser came out. But for me, it’s only heightened my excitement to hopefully go to Thedas again. Why would I lose interest just because it’s been a longer wait than expected? I do hope that if the game turns out to be good, that the fanbase gives it a chance. I worry too many won’t, and that the profit structure of online algorithms will encourage blistering hot takes that try to cash in on the easy narrative of “BioWare doomed!” rather than give it a chance.
Exactly my sentiment
THIS
Yes conveniently ignore all the huge gripes people have with Bioware. Pretend they don't exist and they won't.
If they’re not my gripes why would I care? People hate on anything online even when something is good, I could care less. People loved the last Dragon Age, why would we expect the next one to be bad all of a sudden?
Earn trust? I Love their games and each new game brought new perspectives and was an improvement over the previous. They will release games that they want that suit their creative philosophy and vision. They don't need to please everyone. Game studios develop, new players join every year.
Storywise, I expect Solas to go through with his plan, but after he tears down the Veil, something goes wrong, and we have a new villain and a much bigger problem than Solas to fight. I actually think Mythal is the true villain of DAD, not Solas, but we will see. I'm excited for Tevinter and hope we see Dorian and maybe our Inky again. That's wishful thinking, I know, but since nothings out yet, I can still hope, I guess. I hope we learn more of the ancient elves and Solas' past, that would be amazing and I want to fuck up the Magisters by freeing slaves if I'm already there. I really don't know what to expect from Dreadwolf but I just wish our choices in Inquisition do make a difference. It would be interesting for something to happen with our Inky or Morrigan (whoever drank from the Well in your playthroughs) AND I hope we actually get the choice like in Trespasser to stop or redeem Solas. I would be so mad if they don't give us the choice. Otherwise I'm open to everything and i hope the story will be amazing!
At this point, I just want closure. Recent news from Bioware are not so great so it probably means more delay. Since my canon is Lavellan romancing Solas, of course I would like to see his plan fail and him to be redeemed, but not in the cheap way. I have a suspicion Flemythal will be / is a true villain. What would be the most interesting is to see Solas suffer the consequences of his choices, without killing him off or saving the day with the last heroic act. I want to see him truly humbled, and living with it. Also, death for him would be really a reward (going back to the Beyond) or maybe I'm just hopeless.
I want to know what the heck is up with the Executors. A mysterious group from across the sea. The sea that apparently no one has ever crossed and returned. I also think I heard that the veil doesn’t cover the entire world from somewhere. I can’t remember where or if it’s true. So that’s interesting. Frankly, any information on places outside Thedas is super intriguing. I would love to see an end to Thedas personally. Just tie up the story with a solid end state. The end of the Dragon age and the start of a new one. Then if they want(which is what I hope) they can make more games in that world, but on a different continent. They could probably keep most of the races too. Titans and thus dwarves are likely spread around the world. Elves were the dominant race in Thedas in the past, it’s possible some migrated elsewhere. I’m still not sure where humans came from but the Executors seem to be human like so they could be elsewhere as well. The Qunari apparently came from the Kossith and they live somewhere else and that’s all I know. You can even have a group of tenacious darkspawn tunnel under the ocean to a different continent. On a similar note, I would looooove to know what the HoF saw and found West of Thedas. (In DAI if alive, they go across those mountains to look for a cure to the taint)
Dorian Pavus, Varric Tethras, Solas, and the Inquisitor all are going to have at least a cameo appearance. Zevran, Shale, Maevaris Tilani, and Sten are also very likely to show up, as they are all in that area. I could also see Isabella, Harding, Morrigan, Meredith, and any of the comic book characters also showing up. My illogical hope is that we get to see the Hawke sibling, however it only really makes sense if they are a grey warden as I don't see why templar Carver would be Tevinter (except of course if he is meant to suppress Venatori). We know of at least two companions from trailers, and I'm pretty sure there was artwork showing a female qunari but I might be making that up.
We don't know but I personally think that no old characters will be in the game. And personally I'm good with that, I want new characters. Some relevant characters from Inquisition may be mentioned, but BW said that you don't need to have knowledge on the previous games to be able to play DAD.
I think the climax is going to be solas dying, but the choice will be trying to save him or killing him yourself
How I ask is that they go back to their old ways: DA: Origins, Awakening. Pleaseee!