If Dragon Age: The Veilguard got a Remake Should it Tell the Same Story or Change Everything from the Ground up?

[Winter]

I've talked about the idea of making a Remake of Dragon Age II a few times and one thought I've had is that it would have to remain canon to the rest of the series. The same characters, the same plot the same choices, the same outcomes. The reason for this is do to Dragon Age Keep which was designed to allow players to keep and carry over their choices throughout the series, thus allowing players to shape the backstory of the world to their liking.

And since DA2 is included I used it as a blue print to try and reshape the story while maintaining true to what we have. There are original ideas like 2 new characters that weren't in the story but their there to better streamline things and give Hawke more agency and in the end they don't change the story or your choices.

However, due to issues while making the game Veilguard was forced to abandon the keep and only allow players to decide three choices and all of them were rather minor when you get right down to it. And thanks to the, shall we say, hectic development process thanks to EA aka we hate our costumers and employers and them all to suffer a lot of ideas for the game had to be scrapped.

As such DAV is the only game in the series not included in the Keep and given the lack of choices that could carry over is basically none canon to any fans own continuity.

There are so many scrapped ideas that TV Tropes gave its own page and looking at it and other ideas I can't help but pine for what could have been.

Thus the question, if somehow given the chance to remake the fourth game in the series would you remain true to the original game OR remake it completely?

As of right now I would go for a full remake but would carry over a lot of ideas from DAV as there are characters, locations and ideas I like but the scrapped ideas are honestly a lot more interesting to me.

First up is something I've talked about a lot about this series Taash and the inclusion of a non-binary character. I personal just find Taash to be pretty forgettable IMO, they're not bad by any stretch of the imagination, I still consider Anders from DA2 to be the overall worst companion of the series. But I just don't find Taash interesting, I think they're kinda bland and from what little I've seen their original character was a lot more interesting. This femme fatale, who was basically Catwoman but as a giant woman and was just as likely to seduce you as steal from you yet was an utter badass.

The name might have also been changed as I've read that their were called either Toria or Ashia which I do kinda prefer but that's just me.

This overall character honestly sounds like a lot more fun their/her arc was about trying to figure out how much she/they really care about us and our interactions would influence how that works.

I would also include Calpernia, Imshael and the unnamed Saarebas Qunari as your companions and have Neve, Lucanis, Bellara and Taash as supporting characters instead of companions

To sum up the companions would be Calpernia (Mage), Imshael (Rogue), the Saarebas (Mage), Emmrich (Mage), Lace Harding (Rogue), Davrin (Warrior), Toria/Ashia (Rogue), Miriam (Rogue) and the Disciple aka free-willed Darkspawn (Warrior).

I know I don't have many warriors but I prefer the original concept of this being a series of heists/spy thrill with smaller stakes instead of larger ones.

Oh, and to clarify Ashia would be cisgender and I would instead have Imshael. Still not sure on this one so could change to have it where Ashia is non-binary. I will admit that part of the reason I would have the non-binary character be Imshael is to have an excuse to work with Jacob Tobia and basically rework Imshael to be an Expy of Double Trouble.

I just love the idea of having an Expy of Double Trouble and being the full on evil member of our group. Their the ones who are basically our shoulder devil. Encouraging our more darker impulses and for no other reason then it amuses them while also being a complete drama queen.

BioWare has lacked a serious evil teammate with the last real one being HK-47 from Knights of the Old Republic so I want to have one and hopefully be just as fun as HK.

There are a ton of other ideas I would include, a mission to rescue Hawke, Alistair, Loghain or Stroud from DAI, have advisors (Dorian, Magister Maevaris Tilani and Drayden (from Vows and Vengeance)).

I also would have Solas as the main antagonist as originally intended. This is one of the biggest missed opportunities IMO as DAI and all the marketing was setting up the idea of a antagonist that was shaped by our choices in the last game. Either being a uncaring villain whom we must destroy or a tragic villain who, we're trying to save from himself.

One idea I would keep is the link that is forged between Solas and the player character (I would change the PC's name cause I'm sorry Rook is just lame) as it's a fun way to allow players to interact with him and influence his character.

This would work more like the Force Link from The Last Jedi where the two connect to each other seemingly at random, can only see each other and cannot harm one another. While I'm not and never will be a fan of TLJ that is a good idea and I want to use it again and it makes sense in this series given how the Fade works.

But basically you get into a battle or wits with Solas and have to figure out what he's up to while not revealing your own hand. Try to throw him off his game and avoiding letting him get under your skin. Decide if he is trying to trick you or if what you learned about him could be useful.

This could also be used for a mission where we have to work with Solas against mutual enemies who's plans threaten both groups so it becomes a means of working together.

You can either help to further turn Solas from his path or cement that he is unworthy of redemption and must be stopped.

There's also the question of whether the PC should be a new character or the Inquisitor. This is an honest question, while the series has always switched who the main character is I think this time it the character should be changed the character we played last time. I just don't think that the bound between Solas and Rook is strong enough to really influence Solas' character and that having the Inqusitor return would be more interest.

We've gone from being in charge of one of the most powerful organizations in Thedas to just commanding a few people and having no real influence or still having some power but with the spies in the Inquisition that means there are very few people we can trust.

Also give the Inquisitor some cool new arm, one powered by the fade magic that's still with us. This takes the place of the Lyrium dagger from the original game. We can't open or close fade rifts anymore but it has a whole new set of powers.

Finally I would work to have our choices carry over from the other games to make clear that this the would you have shaped and created making it fully canon to all players.

I will admit I still like how the series moved north to avoid dealing with our choices which was always the intent but with this we still see how our choices will play out. Who rules Orlais? Who rules Ferelden? Do mages have more freedom then before or are they still oppressed? Who's alive, who's dead? Who's romanced to whom? Who rules Orzammar? And so many other story threads that are just ignored in DAV.

Again I get why this happened but it's still annoying and I would want to fix it if possible.

And that's all I got for now, I would reboot the game completely with new characters, new plots and new outcomes. I would still make sure that Veilguard remained like if the time came it's getting a remaster because letting old games just die is short sighted ad foolish. I may have my issues with the game but I see no reason to just get rid of it. But like with DA2 I feel that DAIV would get a remake that changes it but just be a more extensive because of the lack of choices that carry over meaning I would have more freedom to do as I saw fit.

Thoughts?

[CharlesPhipps]

I mean the issue with the Keep is a lot of the choices don't actually matter because they're personal ones to the Grey Warden, Inquisitor, and Hawke.

Unlike Mass Effect, it doesn't matter whether Leliana or Morrigan was romanced.

I think the world state doesn't matter either in Fereldan if you are in Tevinter.

But Veilguard did do something clever.

At the end of the game, none of those choices will matter because the world is so radically and completely altered that if the series ever resumes, it'll probably be centuries later after this latest disaster that ended all of the Blights.

[hammerofglass]

Unlike Mass Effect, it doesn't matter whether Leliana or Morrigan was romanced.

I get what you mean but whether Morrigan was romanced and/or did the ritual is one of like three choices that actually did change anything in Inquisition.

[Winter]

I mean the issue with the Keep is a lot of the choices don't actually matter because they're personal ones to the Grey Warden, Inquisitor, and Hawke.

Unlike Mass Effect, it doesn't matter whether Leliana or Morrigan was romanced.

I think the world state doesn't matter either in Fereldan if you are in Tevinter.

But Veilguard did do something clever.

At the end of the game, none of those choices will matter because the world is so radically and completely altered that if the series ever resumes, it'll probably be centuries later after this latest disaster that ended all of the Blights.

I wouldn't call that clever, I'd call that annoying. It's not as bad as Mass Effect 3's ending but it's still up there that all our choices don longer matter because BioWare decided to nullify our choices. This is basically a Rocks Fall Everybody Dies ending, an ending that Dragon Age itself had made fun of in the last game.

I do get it, there's no way to continue a series like this if you keep including player choices but that's why I was behind the idea of moving to Tevinter as while some of our major choices could impact the story on the whole most of our choices wouldn't matter because we were in a place where those choices didn't matter and the only ones that did were already predetermined, the fifth blight, the Mage and Templar War, the conflict with Corypheus and the reactivation of the Eluvians.

All this game would need to really worry about is paying lip service to those choices, a brief mention of who's alive and who's dead. If one character is dead then they don't show up, Dagna can return and doing so will all you to activate new upgrades but if not then you have to unlock these upgrades through less covenant ways.

But the choices that should have carried over that should have impacted the story are, who rules Orlais? Who rules Ferelden? Do mages have more freedom then before or are they still oppressed? Who's alive, who's dead? Who's romanced to whom? Who rules Orzammar? Who is the Divine? And did the Inquisition remain or was disbanded?

I get that they couldn't include the Keep, and I get that the pressure to release the game meant that ideas they wanted to do had to be scrapped but I do think it was still a mistake not to include these choices. Again I get it I likely would have done a worse job at it. This idea for a remake assumes that we would somehow be out of EA's control (I don't know maybe we or someone else buys the IPs for Mass Effect and Dragon Age that actually understand why this is important (god times like these I wish Scrooge McDuck was real he's probably get these series and do so in such a way where he wouldn't even need to buy them)). The people left working on the game did the best they could with what they had and as I've said before, the fact that the game is as fun as it is really is a testament to the talent of those working on it.

[CharlesPhipps]

I dunno, I wouldn't say their choices didn't matter.

I think it's more the case that our choices STOPPED mattering the game world moves on.

How many years has it been in-universe?

Thirty?