What I Like Most About the Dragon Age Series
Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 12:09 am
As Chuck pointed out Dragon Age wasn't written with sequels in mind, it was suppose to be a one and done deal with no plans for a future to the series. But the game was such a huge hit that several DLCs, an expansion Pack and a sequel was green-lit almost immediately right after the first game was released. Which, of course, led to a big issue, there were no plans for a sequel.
Mass Effect was written with the mindset of this being the first chapter in a ongoing story and being big enough to tell any story BUT like DA there was no actual plan or answer to any of the questions the first chapter raised or if there was it got lost along the way. However, one key difference between ME and DA is that DA often builds on what came before and makes sure to have every chapter in this series contribute to the story as a whole, Mass Effect does not.
One of the biggest criticism of ME2 is that it doesn't really contribute anything to the series as a whole aside from the Genophage and Quarian/Geth War (both of which are sadly irrelevant in both ME3's ending and Andromeda). By contrast the three games and DAO's Expansion Pack Awakening, all have contributed something to the series as a whole. The fallout of the Blight and the impact on your companions is STILL be felt in the series and Awakening introduced Architect along with hinting that something else was going on with the Blight.
While DA2 has it's issues I do like how it expanded, for lack of a better term, the series Rogues Gallery. While the main threat is still the Dark Spawn and, by extension, the Blight it's also established the Mage/Templar conflict and the Qunari as threats that could be just as dangerous along with hinting at a conflict with ancient elven culture and that there was more to the history of Thedas then we were aware of.
And DAI helped the further flesh-out Tevinter, expanded on the ideas of Eluvian, further estlished the Qunari as a major threat and established and fleshed out a major antagonist who will likely be a major figure for the next couple of games.
You don't see this very often in Video Game Series, an ongoing story where every major entry is important to the story. The only other game series I can think of that does this is Kingdom Hearts and Resident Evil. Other series have either rebooted their story, tells them in different timelines or has no care for story at all. Again, even BioWare's other major series' Mass Effect and KOTOR don't really have a ongoing story. The Old Republic is a series of stories that take place during the same time period during the same major war but has little to do with the first two games or the stories set within its own game. And Mass Effect, as we covered, makes ME2 irrelevant, the fallout of the events of ME1 are swept under the rug and barely contributes to the series as a whole and MEA was designed to side step the Trilogy altogether in an attempt to have a soft reboot for the series. Time will tell if ME4 manages to make all every game contribute to the story for it's game but given the likely placement of the game it's highly unlikely for that to happen.
From what we've seen in interviews, concept art and teases for the game DA4 intends to continue the trend of the first 3 games and the expansion pack from DAO. I also have to give BioWare props for moving the setting to Northern Thedas as it would allow them to side step many player choices WITHOUT undoing them while also incorporating other choices we made (like who is running the Quin, the nature of our relationship with characters like Dorian, Solas, Sten and possibly Iron Bull) while still continuing the story that started back in 2009.
And on a more darkly hilarious note original Hawke was going to be the protagonist for the series as a whole which is why they were made into such a big deal by both marketing and the game itself. BioWare had intended to make them the next Shepard... But given the mixed reception of the game AND the issues with Hawke as a Player Character they were made demoted to a guest star in DAI with the series returning to it's choose your character of the first game.
This helped to establish the idea that each game would have a new protagonist in each game instead of one ongoing protagonist which I personally think helps the series as it doesn't have to focus on one singular character throughout the series and thanks to DAI a former PC can return so they don't have to be discarded completely.
I honestly think that Mass Effect tied it's hands by having Shepard as The Protagonist of the series even though the story isn't really about them but rather the choices of the player and as DA has shown you can have a new protagonist in the story and fans will mostly except them.
Whether this will truly continue is something we'll have to wait and see but as of right now I do like that Dragon Age is one of those rare game series that tells a ongoing story with each chapter adding something to the main story. You see that often in movie series, TV series, novels and even comic books but game series like this are rare and I hope to see this story go on.
Mass Effect was written with the mindset of this being the first chapter in a ongoing story and being big enough to tell any story BUT like DA there was no actual plan or answer to any of the questions the first chapter raised or if there was it got lost along the way. However, one key difference between ME and DA is that DA often builds on what came before and makes sure to have every chapter in this series contribute to the story as a whole, Mass Effect does not.
One of the biggest criticism of ME2 is that it doesn't really contribute anything to the series as a whole aside from the Genophage and Quarian/Geth War (both of which are sadly irrelevant in both ME3's ending and Andromeda). By contrast the three games and DAO's Expansion Pack Awakening, all have contributed something to the series as a whole. The fallout of the Blight and the impact on your companions is STILL be felt in the series and Awakening introduced Architect along with hinting that something else was going on with the Blight.
While DA2 has it's issues I do like how it expanded, for lack of a better term, the series Rogues Gallery. While the main threat is still the Dark Spawn and, by extension, the Blight it's also established the Mage/Templar conflict and the Qunari as threats that could be just as dangerous along with hinting at a conflict with ancient elven culture and that there was more to the history of Thedas then we were aware of.
And DAI helped the further flesh-out Tevinter, expanded on the ideas of Eluvian, further estlished the Qunari as a major threat and established and fleshed out a major antagonist who will likely be a major figure for the next couple of games.
You don't see this very often in Video Game Series, an ongoing story where every major entry is important to the story. The only other game series I can think of that does this is Kingdom Hearts and Resident Evil. Other series have either rebooted their story, tells them in different timelines or has no care for story at all. Again, even BioWare's other major series' Mass Effect and KOTOR don't really have a ongoing story. The Old Republic is a series of stories that take place during the same time period during the same major war but has little to do with the first two games or the stories set within its own game. And Mass Effect, as we covered, makes ME2 irrelevant, the fallout of the events of ME1 are swept under the rug and barely contributes to the series as a whole and MEA was designed to side step the Trilogy altogether in an attempt to have a soft reboot for the series. Time will tell if ME4 manages to make all every game contribute to the story for it's game but given the likely placement of the game it's highly unlikely for that to happen.
From what we've seen in interviews, concept art and teases for the game DA4 intends to continue the trend of the first 3 games and the expansion pack from DAO. I also have to give BioWare props for moving the setting to Northern Thedas as it would allow them to side step many player choices WITHOUT undoing them while also incorporating other choices we made (like who is running the Quin, the nature of our relationship with characters like Dorian, Solas, Sten and possibly Iron Bull) while still continuing the story that started back in 2009.
And on a more darkly hilarious note original Hawke was going to be the protagonist for the series as a whole which is why they were made into such a big deal by both marketing and the game itself. BioWare had intended to make them the next Shepard... But given the mixed reception of the game AND the issues with Hawke as a Player Character they were made demoted to a guest star in DAI with the series returning to it's choose your character of the first game.
This helped to establish the idea that each game would have a new protagonist in each game instead of one ongoing protagonist which I personally think helps the series as it doesn't have to focus on one singular character throughout the series and thanks to DAI a former PC can return so they don't have to be discarded completely.
I honestly think that Mass Effect tied it's hands by having Shepard as The Protagonist of the series even though the story isn't really about them but rather the choices of the player and as DA has shown you can have a new protagonist in the story and fans will mostly except them.
Whether this will truly continue is something we'll have to wait and see but as of right now I do like that Dragon Age is one of those rare game series that tells a ongoing story with each chapter adding something to the main story. You see that often in movie series, TV series, novels and even comic books but game series like this are rare and I hope to see this story go on.