BioWare’s Dragon Age series is very addicting believe me I’ve spent a week passing Dragon Age 2 and two weeks passing Dragon Age: Origins. Though what had me so excited to replay both titles including DLCs was the E3 announcement of Dragon Age: Inquisition. The shear excitement I had when seeing Morrigan in that teaser emulating villainy and her being ever so the seductress we know she is, all the while we see eye-popping visuals of the third entry of the Dragon Age series. Now ever since that trailer fanboys and girls have been speculating as to what we would be actually be seeing or playing in the game, so I thought for today’s Top 5 we’ll give five “recommendations” to BioWare for the still in production game of Dragon Age: Inquisition.
5: Traveling Through Out Thedas
So far in Dragon Age: Origins/Awakening we traveled through Ferelden and Amaranthine, in Dragon Age 2 we where in the Free Marches/Kirkwall. For Inquisition its rumored that we’ll get to travel to Orlais, but why not go further? Like Antiva and according to Duncan the most terrible place of all Thedas, or the famous Tevinter Imperium where there isn’t any real structure or order against the Mages that run around that capital. Also I would like to see BioWare travel back to Ferelden and see the fallout or “outcome” of happens to that part of Thedas Mages since Dragon Age: 2 directly dealt with the fallout between the Mages and Templars. On the map above we see the Anderfels, the home of the Grey Wardens and the site of their headquarters, the Weisshaupt Fortress. Wouldn’t it be cool if we can travel to Weisshaupt Fortress or better yet play a new Grey Warden coming from Weisshaupt? With that, it’ll lead me into number four.
4. The Warden, The Hawke, The Player.
Now Dragon Age writer David Gaider has said that DA: Origins main character “Warden” is over as well as Dragon Age 2 story of Hawke. What sucks about the Dragon Age series is that, yes it’s not like BioWare’s other hit the Mass Effect series where we are only controlling and deciding the fate of Commander Shepard, but when you get from Origins into Dragon Age 2, it’s understandable to take the point of view away from the Warden and focus on another character, but here’s the problem with that. With Origins we had a wealth of DLC and Awakening to see our character the Grey Warden grow, but with Hawke we didn’t get any form of closure only for the fact that he’s missing.
Now that Dragon Age: Inquisition is coming soon we’ll once again take control of another character whose thrust upon a great evil that this new character has to deal with, well how about letting us fans control the Warden and Hawke again. Why? Here’s why: We can get a sense of closure with Hawke and see what really happen to him going into Inquisition. 2. Since the next game will have a fully formed main character, something that is similar to how the Mass Effect character system worked for example, It’ll be awesome if we can import our Warden from the previous Dragon Age games, fully voice, with charisma and emotions so we can have that extra vitality to the reason why we love our created characters so much. Speaking of created characters……
3. More Character Creations and Classes.
What set Dragon Age apart from Mass Effect was the fact you can play not only play as a human but different characters too, like Elves and Dwarfs. Though it would be awesome to play as a Qunari male or female (pictured above & below) Cause that sort of unique character creation was sorely missing in Dragon Age 2 plus with sketches of a Qunari female out there, it would be nice to see that character placed into the next Dragon Age game be it we controlling the character as a party member, which also can be a love interest or a character we can use at the start of the game.
Also wouldn’t be awesome if we have more choices than the main three? Playing as a Rouge, Warrior and Mage is awesome but, instead of having Berserker, Assassin, Blood Mage, and Legionnaire as specializations how about they become character class choices too. Think about it a we don’t have to wait till we hit level 7 or 14 to pick a specialization we can already be that class right out the gate. So more diversity please!
2. Keep Armor Customization Simple.
Going into the Inquisition we should have armor that we can only customize the color and add stats to, cause looking for armor pieces is tedious and the armor takes up too much room in the inventory. Plus what’s annoying is, if you find a new armor piece you either have to be a specific level or your character(s) strength, dexterity, magic, cunning or willpower have to be high enough to actually use them that goes for weapons too. So here’s a thought; The class we use should reflect what type of armor we get. So if you’re a Mage or Rouge you get light armor and the armor pieces you find throughout the game will be made specifically for your armor type, same can go for someone who becomes a Warrior with heavy/medium type armor.
Now weapons I understand the need to be at a specific skill set to actually use a certain type of blade, mage staff, greatsword, and ax, but when it comes to armors, give the player some lead way, just a little. In Mass Effect we add stats to Shepard and is team armor skill set and plus the armor pieces we discover throughout Mass Effect is automatically unlocked, so having the option of customizing the armor that we’re already using is a lot more better than getting different pieces of armor we can’t use until we level up two to three more times to use.
1. WANTED: New Party Members (sorta)
Going into Dragon Age: Inquisition it’s already customary that we get new party member to travel with us to save Thedas and the world. While Dragon Age 2 didn’t actually let us have any of the Origins party members in our party besides Anders but he was a party member from Awakening. In the Inquisition teaser we are shown Varric from Dragon Age 2 and Cassandra Pentaghast also from Dragon Age 2 and a NPC and from the Dragon Age anime Legend of the Seeker, now Cassandra is also hinted as a party member too. It’ll just be awesome to have this awesome Dragon Slayer/Seeker for the Divine in our party. To make a return to the series I would like to see the Qunari Sten come back and maybe if BioWare is cool they can use the Those Who Speak story line where Sten(which isn’t his real name) is one of the three Arishoks for his people. Also last but not lease my buddy King Alistair!
If King Calian can go out into the battlefield and fight the good fight why not let former Grey Warden Alistair come back into the fight for Thedas?
So that is my Top 5, are you looking forward to Dragon Age: Inquisition? Like or dislike this week’s Top 5? Let us know in the comments below, we would love to know your thoughts and opinions.
Dragon Age: Inquisition will be out Fall 2014 for the PS4, PS3, XboxOne, Xbox 360 and PC
(Photo Sources: destructoid, BioWare, and DragonAge2,NexusMods )
Nerds Against The World 
I don’t care to revisit anything that has to do with Hawke. I miss my very first customizable character from Origins. 😦 I would however, absolutely freaking LOVE to play as a Qunari female!!!
What no love for Hawke? Well you should hear me and my brother’s alternate take on Dragon Age 2 featuring our Warden from Origins. Thanks reading a commenting 🙂
Reblogged this on The Muses Guild:2014.
Dragon Age is not about the player characters, it’s about the setting and the times. Unlike Mass Effect where Shepard is a key player who was designed as the savior of the galaxy, the protagonists of each game are important within the context of the greater picture. Each of them impacts the world and changes it within the context of the greater picture. I repeat this because bioware fans seems to think the Warden is like the Bhaalspawn from BG. Bioware for better or worse setup Dragon Age to be about the world and the key events each protagonist influenced in their individual story.
The Warden is not Shepard. Each Dragon Age game focuses on a certain aspect of the world. DAI was about the Wardens and the Blight. DAII was about the Templars and Mages conflict within the context of a family’s struggle to propser. DAIII expands on that concept of Templar-Mage conflict while seemingly focusing on elements of the Fade and magic.
I’m actually glad Bioware went this route with DA. Mass Effect was fun because you shaped your Shepard according to your ideas and saved the galaxy. But DA isn’t Mass Effect. To make a poor analogy, DA is like Discworld in that it has individual stories that contribute to part and history of the universe. Mass Effect is like your standard epic trilogy of saving the world.
First off thanks for reading the article. Second I feel that the game can benefit with some cohesion between some of the DA titles it doesn’t mean we have to play as the same character over and over.
Ok i dont want to sound mean but your an idiot, Dragon Age is not Mass Effect (which is one of my favourite games of all time,) it annoys me how everyone compares the two. The problem is if it was so similar people would complain they are too alike. Mass Effect was about Commander Shepard Dragon Age, is about following people who have a huge impact on the world and create events that lead up to something big. Think of it as if Mass Effect followed three different characters instead of just Shepard but the story was the same which they could have easily done in the second one. Also your idea with the armour is stupid, you can tell you hardly play RPGs, the whole collecting armour and weapons then seeing which one works best is all part of an RPG. It wouldn’t be very realistic if all your character picked up was light armour because that is all they wear and the idea that you character wears the same armour all the way through the game and just adds stats completely takes away one of the main concepts that people love about Dragon Age and RPGs. Also the reason you pick up armour that you cannot wear for a while is because of character growth, it would be stupid to always pick up armour your characters level when you are happy with the one you have on. This allows you to know that in 2 to 3 levels you have a upgrade. Your idea for more starter classes is ok but your examples are stupid and there is a reason Bioware have not done this because it is hard to get round those three main classes everything branches off them. You say lets have the chance to pick Berserker, Assassin or Blood Mage at the start so basically a Warrior, Rogue and Mage then. If you add more classes is should be a Shaman (which is nothing like an mage honest) or Death Knight (again nothing like a warrior well maybe a little,) but again you can get round these by adding them as specialisation for mage and warrior so sorry there is not getting round it. So all in all i have to say STOP COMPARING DRAGON AGE TO MASS EFFECT THEY ARE NOT THE SAME ,MASS EFFGET WAS AND ACTION EPIC DRAGON AGE IS AN RPG, WE RPG LOVERS HAVE VERY LITTLE AS IT IS ON CONSOLES AND WE DONT NEED PEOPLE LIKE YOU COMING AND MESSING THEM UP BY SIMPLIFYING THEM AND TURNING THEM IT TO SOMETHING ELSE. IF YOU DONT LIKE THE RPG SET UP AND COMPLICATED ARMOUR COLLECTING, WEAPON HOARDING BEAUTY OF IT, THEN STOP PLAYING THEM AND GO PLAY BORING MIND NUMBING GAMES LIKE CALL OF DUTY THAT NEVER CHANGES. ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS BIOWARE CHANGED DRAGON AGE 2 AND MASS EFFECT 2 SO MUCH FROM THE FRIST AND SIMPLIFIED IT WAS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU.
THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT
Thank you for taking the time reading the article and you are right I’m not really into RPGs, but I’m not into Call of Duty either. I’ve played enough rpg’s to know what I like and what I would like to see in future games. This article is just me being a fan of BioWare’s games, though I must ask are you a avid PC gamer? I always find that PC gamers are more passionate than console gamers.
And just to add. There is a reason so many people love World of Warcraft and they all contradicted the ideas you have put in your article. I mean come on please simplify the armour what is wrong with you!
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