Bioware DA3:I team and Bioware Community,
I
am wondering on the possibilities of companionship and contextual consistency in
the upcoming game. I love the DA series, through and through Mage forever but
there are some things I wanted to put out to the DA community and see how the
consensus would react:
I
recently read that Orlais would be set as the main/starting location or as a
base of operations, apart from being fantastic that we would get to explore a
new but mentioned continent, this piques interest in several alluded to
elements of previous games, particularly Origins. Should the player be allowed
to pick ethnicity/nationality would there be a level of inherent
racism/distrust from the Orlesian people towards a Fereldan protagonist, or
would we be set as an Orlesian to make our own path outside of past
geopolitical conflicts/battles etc?
As the subtitle is Inquisition, should we be Orlesian seekers of a sort would
the player be able to explore previous game locations e.g. Could I visit
Kirkwall to explore and retrace the steps of Hawke or perhaps cross the sea to
Ferelden to see what became of the place after the final battle with Urthemiel,
taking a moment to explore the personal as we can see the damage dealt ten
years prior to the second game (Not knowing the time setting for the third) and
how the country has changed and rebuilt.
In
early days of the game being announced there was a lot of commotion about the
game being Tevinter-everything, is there any possibility of a journey into the ‘heart
of darkness’? Or perhaps the homeland of the Kossith/Qunari, after Sten, the
Arishok and the Saarebas questline I can’t be the only one who wants to explore
their home and their culture, from a gameplay perspective playing as a Qunari
invasion force would be beyond amazing.
I
have read in many articles that the game is hoped to be more open world now,
allowing for sandbox-esque style of exploration, would this be of a single land
or any of those mentioned (and not mentioned) above?
Is
the protagonist limited to humans again in the third game, and if so why? If
not are there possibilities of playing as another (previously unplayable) race
or ethnicity?
Will the 3 class system be returning and how will it change from previous
iterations? As such will the combat system from DA2 return, giving a faster
pace (in my own opinion more enjoyable aspect) to combat or will we see a return
to a slower, more calculated gameplay, or perhaps the better question an
integration of the two?
Knowing
now that the protagonist in no way can be related to the Amells (Which makes my
Mage Hero/Hawke family very sad) would they be related to anyone of interest or
for the points of anonymity and simplicity be an unknown that rises to
providence?
Will
previous companions remember their relationships? I ask this because Zevran
whom was meant to be with my Hero flirted with Hawke first playthrough, Anders
wasn’t happy, Hawke wasn’t happy, I wasn’t happy it was terrible… should the
previous protagonists return and choices are imported will it have an impact on
the story and those characters should they be featured?
Will Bioware continue its support for ‘gaymers’ with companion characters who
are lgbt, LI or not. Would it be possible for there to be a non-straight
character in the game who is actually of consequence, one that perhaps every
demographic that isn’t white, teenage and male can relate to?
I
chose not to find out who the companions would be in the second game, I wanted
to experience that myself up until I met the Saarebas in that particular
questline. The alluded to backstory was amazing and after seeing his combat abilities
(and I’m pretty sure there was even a dialogue option to invite him to the
party) I was sure I’d gained a powerful new ally, yet found myself utterly
disappointed that it wasn’t possible. So I wonder will there be any companions
in DA3 who differ from the standard dwarf/elf/human construct. Shale was a
great character and addition to any team, and to a degree Wynne and Anders
presented a case for ‘The Other’ but are we likely to see any characters in
this new instalment that would shake up the standard dynamic?
For
example, I’ve been toying with the idea of companion death, choices and
repercussions, imagine if in DA3 we could force a companion to become a Golem,
or a Werewolf. If we could force a mage to go into the fade with us and bind a
spirit to them to fully customise our team. The dev team has been saying that
customisation is something that they want to improve on in the new game as well
as character relationships, so what would shake up your best friend more than
telling them you’re going to bind them down, seal them inside a large metal
suit of armour and then give them a molten lyrium bath in which they’ll feel
every moment of their ‘death’ and retain their memories and disgruntled
attitude thereafter?
The
aspect of hunting down what the gamer would consider their perfect compatible
Fade being to bind to a party member would be an interesting inclusion to say
the least, every second in there would draw in things that are best kept far
away from the party, an element of risk versus reward for the daring player.
The consequences of forcing a party member to do such a thing would provide
story telling elements throughout the entire game, remember that rogue you don’t
use anymore you got at the start of the game? Yeah well she was bitten by a
darkspawn and infected, yeah you probably should have paid more attention to
her because she just attacked your party in the middle of the night.
Creating
a new level of expansiveness to the companion system allows players to truly
customise their playing experience as well as provide an immersive/ emotive
story telling device. If a character dies, would our protagonist do whatever it
takes to try and bring them back, how would the other characters react, would
our character give up everything to do something that could have been avoided
if they made a different choice?
Following
the fifth blight and that there are supposedly only seven old gods, in theory
there’s only two more Archdemons to awaken, but is that really the case? Is
there only seven, or is there only seven that we’ve been told about? Awakening
explored the concept of sentience in the darkspawn while Legacy showed the
commanding power of the calling outside of the Archdemon (Imagine if a player
gained such power…)
In
Origins the child in Redcliffe can be left possessed, will we see what happens
should that choice be made?
Will
we see more of the original Magisters, or Corypheus, perhaps our Player will
hear the call from an untainted God and lead a new march on the Black City. Can
we explore the Fade more, learn its dynamics and structure, finally
traverse/invade the fallen city?
Can
I track down a powerful Fade being and make a bargain with it for
power/knowledge etc?
Witch
Hunt…what happened to my demon-baby-god-child???? I can only take so much
suspense and I need to know what happened to my (super powerful old god spirit)
child.
Flemeth
– really??? We got maybe ten minutes at the start of number two of one of the
most interesting characters in the entire series, there are questions on her
Bioware, what is she, can we find out this game, is she in the game? (My
current bet is is that she’s the same type of being as the one you can spawn
with Morrigan).
How
far is magic going to go? Essentially from the second game and first kind of we
have elemental, a second semi-elemental tree, an underdeveloped arcane, blood
magic (which I am yet to use because I don’t see the appeal), healing,
debuff-meets-aoe and shapeshifting, how will that be expanded on in the new
game? (improved…)
And finally a message that I think many can relate to,
PLEASE DON’T KILL EVERYONE AGAIN!!! It took me six months to finish ME3 because
after the death of a certain singing Salarian I lost all hope for a while in
gaming, then came back a few weeks later to lose my dark knight to an evil
little cybernetic bastard that I took much satisfaction in thinking my Shepard
hunted down… sad but true.
Regards,
A
faithful Bioware player
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