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[ButtHurtPunk]

In my opinion, the main problem with DAI is focus. It tries so hard to be an open world game like Skyrim, but without realizing that Skyrim’s appeal is just that it’s a beautifully rendered sandbox -- to achieve this, however, it sacrifices having a tightknit storyline. Meanwhile, BioWare’s raison d’tre is just that, story, and while DAI doesn’t exactly have an awful one, it does have a clumsy, short meandering one that’s surrounded mainly by pointless fetch quests.

 

 

So when I say this is how I would “fix” the game, I’m merely saying, this is how I would have “edited” it to cut away the fat and leave only the delicious story that BioWare is known for. Also this is probably going to be three posts, since I’m re-organizing the entirety of DAI to fit into acts, similar to DAO and DAII.

 

 

Prologue: The introductory mission and Haven

 

Battle for Haven: First off, I believe the Breach should be a constant reminder of the threat we face, and so I’m moving “In Hushed Whispers” to after Haven is sacked by the army of Red Templars. Instead of Corypheus attacking after we close the breach with the help of the five mages we recruited, it should happen after we have failed for the second time to close it. This would prompt him to realize that yes, we’re that dumb and still remain in the area. His army then attacks and everything happens similarly, except Corypheus never shows up personally. The Inquisitor is instead faced by Gereon Alexius who, under the orders of the mysterious “Elder One,” attempts to remove the anchor from you. He, however, realizes that it’s bound to you permanently; you escape his clutches and bring the mountain down on his army again, etc.

 

 

Act 1: Secure Alliances for the Inquisition

 

Val Royeaux: The chantry MUST choose a new Divine! The breach is still going strong and a divided Chantry will certainly fall and cause Orlais to crumble -- so the newly formed Inquisition, now stationed at Skyhold, sends the Inquisitor to help stabilize the political atmosphere. Ideally this city would be the size of a normal zone (IE, huge and fit for a capital), and involve you realizing that the court is not only corrupt, but filled with figureheads, demons, and normal people that are even more dangerous than those demons. So I figure there would be two factions, the hugely popular Traditionalists led by a staunch, intelligent woman who made a literal deal with the devil for power and is thus backed by the Seekers (led by the Envy Demon Lucius Corin) or the Reformers, which is led by a more politically inept woman.

 

 

In the end, after dispatching the demons, you would have the choice of a) Killing or revealing the Traditionalist leader’s demonic pact to the public, deposing her from power or Making a deal with her by helping elevate her to Divine, thus gaining her full support and making the Inquisition infinitely stronger in the process, c) help elevate the weaker Reformer leader to Divine, but gaining little in return yourself, or d) screw both candidates and instead support the lowly Mother Giselle for divine, which makes the Inquisition stronger, but also makes the general public wary of you and their new puppet Divine (also in this world she doesn’t disprove of you and Dorian, because wtf).

       

-       Area Boss: Lucius Corin, the Envy Demon

 

Redcliffe: Recruit the Mages or Templar to join you and help close the Breach! This entire segment would play out similarly, except the “Days of Future Past” segment after you’re transported by Alexius to the future would be infinitely longer (because let’s be honest, that was the best part in the game). In this alternate future you would not only discover that this “Elder One” became a God after the assassination of Empress Celene, but after two other notable events: the disappearance of the Grey Wardens, and the appearance of corrupted Red Templars led by a man named Samson / Tevinter cultists led by a lady named Calpernia.

 

 

-       Area Boss: Gereon Alexius

 

 

Optional Area(s): Crestwood

[ButtHurtPunk]

Act 2: Nowadays of Future Past

 

Western Approach: Your investigation to the disappearance of the Wardens has led you to the Western Approach, and eventually, after trekking through the entire zone, to Adamant Fortress. Instead of finding the Wardens, however, you discover that the ancient keep has been overrun with demons. At the heart of the place you find the Rift, which is guarded by Livius (mostly just because I believe every zone should have an antagonist and a main quest / point for being there). After you close the Rift and leave Livius barely alive, he uses his magic to bring the fortress down on you, but you use the anchor and transport yourself directly to the Fade. Begin that entire quest and the introduction of the terrifying Nightmare demon.       

 

-       Area Boss: Livius Erimond

 

Emprise du Leon: Rumors of these blighted Templars lead you to the bombed out city, where a similar plot to that in the game is unfolding. The area winds you up to believe that you’re going to face Samson / Calpernia themselves as you head through the twists and turns of the quarry, but you soon discover that you’re one step behind, and the bulk of the army has already left, and all that remains is Imshael, who’s been using the remaining Templars and slaves as his playthings.

 

 

-       Area Boss: Imshael

 

 

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Heart: Overall I enjoyed this segment, although the betrayal of her cousin was a little too expected. Instead I feel it would be better if Gaspard is sincerely suing for peace, and everything goes better than expected. Finally, a break after the failures at Emprise du Leon and the Western Approach! But no, Corypheus, being a drama queen, was just waiting for a more public event to reveal himself. There’s nothing you can do and he slaughters the Empress in front of everyone – this isn’t how the grand game is played, but Corypheus has clearly changed the rules. After this you have the option to a) help elect Gaspard to Emperor, which gives Orlais a strong military leader and the Inquisition all of its support, but at the cost of them potentially engaging in future conquests against Ferelden, or Florianne, or a relative who’s a pacifist that won’t be able to provide as much support, but also will be unlikely to wage (or win) many wars.

 

 

Note: Act 2 is traditionally supposed to be the lowest point in the story, which is something I feel is strangely absent in DAI, as Haven is your only real defeat (except it really isn’t, since you still crush his army there) and everything that happens after that is a unanimous victory. But here you don’t. Here you’ve failed to find out about the Wardens, or the Red Templars and you didn’t save the Empress. Everything appears to be turning out like the Future you and Dorian fought through, and are fighting to prevent. Except it’s not, because you’re alive, and as long as you still live you will stand in the way of Corypheus’ apotheosis, and we’re going to find out that that makes ALL the difference.

 

Optional Area(s): Exalted Plains, Emerald Grove 

[ButtHurtPunk]

Act 3: Reappearance of the Wardens

 

 

What Pride Had Wrought: Corypheus is moving on the Arbor Wilds with his army of Red Templars / Tevinter Cultists. Fortunately for you, the Inquisition-Orlesian allied army musters and moves super quickly to that area, because game logic, so while they attack the Templar’s main host, you and your party sneak into the temple to stop the Elder One before he reaches the Eluvian. You discover, however, that there really is no Eluvian, and instead Corypheus is just after the knowledge in the Well, so he can learn to “erupt” the breach and travel through it physically, without the anchor.

 

 

The Inquisitor, however, arrives at the well at the same time as Samson / Calpernia. Before their battle you discover that the Red Templars aren’t Templars at all, but Grey Wardens controlled by Corypheus, and remade in the image of the Templars by Samson (I didn’t like the Wardens grabbing the idiot ball and willfully slaughtering their own men, and Corypheus is a lot more threatening if he can control the Wardens in the same way an Archdemon can control and be reborn within a Darkspawn) or Calpernia. You or Morrigan then drinks from the Well and discovers how to seal the breach once and for all.

 

 

-       Area Boss: Samson / Calpernia

 

The Siege of Skyhold: Surprise, surprise, while your main group was off attacking the Red Templars in the Arbor Wilds, Corypheus sent his secondary army of demons to wipe out the Inquisition once and for all. While your main group is away, you can form a secondary party to defend the keep. You hold off his forces until the Allied army arrives.

 

 

-       Area Boss: How about his dragon? Villains making horcruxes is just too clichéd, so let’s just make it a normal corrupted high dragon.

 

 

Battle in the Valley of Sacred Ashes (The Final Piece): Okay, so I have three different alternative ways to improve (in my opinion) the relatively weak final battle. They all take place after you would lead your army through his host of demons to get to where he is at the Temple of Sacred Ashes, under the breach.

 

 

Choice A: Corypheus reveals that he needed the bloodshed of thousands from the battle to open the breach – an anticlimactic fight ensues. The breach fully opens moments before he is defeated and the Nightmare Demon begins to emerge through. It is then revealed the he is the real Elder One that was revered. Corypheus, believing him to be the spirit of the dead Dumat (or his ally, or something), was merely his voice, and upon seeing it pleads for the demon to SMITE down the Inquisitor, but it, feeling his fear, merely devours him instead. The Nightmare now pulls himself physically into the mortal plane, mirroring the ancient Magisters who did the opposite centuries before, and the fight of your life begins. 

 

 

Choice B: Without the anchor or the knowledge provided by the Well of Sorrows, he wishes to utilize the blood of all those slain in the penultimate battle in the Valley of the Sacred Ashes to open a portal for himself into the past (this is a throwback to the events at Redcliffe, because honestly, time magic? Yeah, how wasn’t that a bigger plot point?) back when the seven Magisters had originally  entered the fade. As the portal closes behind him, possibly forever, you’re given an option: a) the Inquisitor jumps in after him, your love interest embraces you and goes through the portal, or c) other party member of your choice jumps in.

 

-       Then: You arrive in the past and time stands still, except for you and Corypheus. As you arrive you notice the sacrifices of hundreds of Slaves, all before an Eluvian. Corypheus enters it and you follow, discovering that you’ve physically entered not only the fade, but the Golden City itself. This begins a frantic battle between the two of you as he scrambles towards the Throne, but at the last second, before he sits the Throne of Gods, you crush him. Music swells, you’ve won. All is well. And a) as you begin to exit the city you notice your reflection in the Eluvian -- you’re no longer you, you’ve become blighted in the same way Corypheus was. Realizing you can no longer return you turn around and head back to the Golden City, but as you do you notice that the walls around you begin to turn black as seven Tevinter Magisters step through the gates. Or something happy, and you return and kittens!    

 

Choice C: A combination of the above! Corypheus jumps through the time portal and you, or one of your members follows while the rest of your party fights through the hordes of demons (maybe you control your own army, similar to the Battle of Denerim). All the while the Nightmare demon’s spider legs spread through the sky, threatening to pull itself physically into our world. You defeat Corypheus while your party deals with Nightmare.

 

 

Either way, I feel like the Nightmare demon should have been the primary threat, as I find it kind of weird that he just never shows up again after that amazing quest through the Fade… And quite honestly, when the game was over I was expecting it to show up to ruin everyone's day of celebration with a surprise five more hours of story. *shrug*  

[phaonica]

I rather like a lot of this. I like how you've pulled in some of the optional zones and made them part of the story. Choice B has some pretty cool ideas in it. I don't know if I would have liked the Nightmare being the primary baddie, but it would have been nice to have been able to fight that thing at some point.

[Draining Dragon]

Bioware, hire this man!

[Xx Serissia xX]

The big problem is hindsight.  When people come up with a concept for a new game they rarely can do everything that they want to do with it in the allotted time.  In hindsight they probably could've made something like this work had they reconsider what was realistically possible in the time remaining when they were about halfway through with the project.  

[Draining Dragon]

The big problem is hindsight.  When people come up with a concept for a new game they rarely can do everything that they want to do with it in the allotted time.  In hindsight they probably could've made something like this work had they reconsider what was realistically possible in the time remaining when they were about halfway through with the project.

They wasted so many resources on making low-quality MMO filler. That's one of the problems with this game.

[snackrat]

Skyrim has its appeal because it's flexible. You can do whatever you want in it and make your own adventure.

You can ignore quests, and just run around collecting sweetrolls and then dump them all in Belethor's shop. You can bait Rolff Stone-Fist all the way from Windhelm to the Throat of the World and then FUS RO DAH him into the ether. You can run around naked, punching everything to death in battle.

 

I don't think Bioware should EVER try and pursue that. They are loved for their characters, dialogue, and story. To make room for a flexible world you can screw with, Skyrim has little of any of those three. The strongest of those it even possesses is story, which is easily broken, awkwardly paced (as you get easily distracted to sweetroll dump) and doesn't even affect the overall world by more than a line here and there.

 

Plus, I'm not sure the Chantry would respect the decisions of someone who runs around naked, punching demons to death.

[Fufunette]

The big problem is hindsight.  When people come up with a concept for a new game they rarely can do everything that they want to do with it in the allotted time.  In hindsight they probably could've made something like this work had they reconsider what was realistically possible in the time remaining when they were about halfway through with the project.  

I might be wrong but I though Bioware staffs were professional people with experiences ?

[Sanunes]

People were constantly spewing "Make it open world" and "we what BioWare's Skyrim" after Dragon Age 2, now people are complaining the game is open world. The people wanting it more like Skyrim got exactly what they were asking for and now there are people second guessing BioWare because they now know better then those people.

[Xx Serissia xX]

I might be wrong but I though Bioware staffs were professional people with experiences ?

 

Watch any of the footage from E3 or other conventions where games are debuted and you'll see the same thing.  Rarely what they want to happen in their game is what is in the final product.  Maybe the exception of Projekt Red since they have a it will be out when it's out attitude.  However, rarely does that attitude carry over when it comes to games being made by big companies.  They end up having to cut that or this to make the deadline.  

 

What I don't understand is why they added the other races.  I'm all for having choice but that's something that should've happened during the initial design phase and not tacked on to the end when they obviously weren't finished with the main story.

[Fufunette]

People were constantly spewing "Make it open world" and "we what BioWare's Skyrim" after Dragon Age 2, now people are complaining the game is open world. The people wanting it more like Skyrim got exactly what they were asking for and now there are people second guessing BioWare because they now know better then those people.

 

As Buddha said, balance is the key... D:

 

 

Watch any of the footage from E3 or other conventions where games are debuted and you'll see the same thing.  Rarely what they want to happen in their game is what is in the final product.  Maybe the exception of Projekt Red since they have a it will be out when it's out attitude.  However, rarely does that attitude carry over when it comes to games being made by big companies.  They end up having to cut that or this to make the deadline.  

 

What I don't understand is why they added the other races.  I'm all for having choice but that's something that should've happened during the initial design phase and not tacked on to the end when they obviously weren't finished with the main story.

It's a bit strange if they know they can't make everythings they planned, they should prepare better game after game, no ?

[snackrat]

Mmm. My favourite ending is the one with Fear being the Big Bad all along. Bioware can never confirm the Golden City as something that exists one way or the other.

Plus, I REALLY love the idea of Inqi thinking it's a lackey and been dealt with, only for it to just rip open the fade with an I'M BACK, BI***!

 

I like the sound of your WE,WH as well, though in general I despise lose-lose situations because when you get back to home base, all the Inner Circle ****** and moan about how you didn't do a good enough job - no matters WHAT you did, how fast you got there, augh.

 

Also, kudos for being one of the few people to actually offer critiscism and then provide reasonable alternatives, instead of just spawning a rant.

Also, your avatar is adorable.

[Xx Serissia xX]

As Buddha said, balance is the key... D:

 

 

It's a bit strange if they know they can't make everythings they planned, they should prepare better game after game, no ?

 

Probably but ultimately game designers are just people and they make mistakes.  As someone who has worked on time sensitive projects, managing time can be a lot harder than it seems.  My two cents towards further development would be to identify the core traits that makes a successful Dragon Age game and build off of that.  Dragon Age shouldn't strive to be anything other than Dragon Age.  

[NoForgiveness]

It's not perfect but overall yea I think it should've been done like this.

[phaonica]

I never mean to say, "yes, they should have done this" because I wasn't there and I don't know what their limitations were. However, for all that ideas are cheap, I think there is still value in any given one of us offering constructive personal feedback.
 

[Incanus]

People were constantly spewing "Make it open world" and "we what BioWare's Skyrim" after Dragon Age 2, now people are complaining the game is open world. The people wanting it more like Skyrim got exactly what they were asking for and now there are people second guessing BioWare because they now know better then those people.

 

Who are "the people"? When i read these posts from users and devs i was hoping they would stop this nonsense. This is always a point of view thing.

 

But to topic: These posts always makes me a little sad because those great ideas would have seriously improved the game but unfortunately it will never change.

[Calders]

This is definitely an improvement... I would go with choice A

 

I think the biggest thing that this highlights to me is that Bioware should stick to literary conventions (like the second act being the low point), rather than try to do something unexpected.  With the nature of computer games and cuts to content the risk that non-conventional plots will fall flat is far too high.  The actual DAI plot petty much falls apart after the fall of haven as it fails to re-establish direction.  

[Decepticon Leader Sully]

su approves + 10

[Fufunette]

I really wished Cory succeed summoning his darkspawns and demons army. It could have been awesome and more interesting than kill red templars and venatoris. :c

[Ashagar]

So he is going to launch a assault on a physically nearly impossible to assault Castle that is further more protected by Ancient magic?

 

As for the nightmare demons is good that you can't kill it because every series needs something that you can't defeat only flee from and nothing is better suited for that than a nightmare demon sitting next to the black city that's been growing powerful off the fear of a entire continent for over 1400 years caused by Corypheus' and his cohorts actions.

[Rawgrim]

A good quest is one you do because you want to know what happens next. Not one you do because you want 35XP and 10 gold coins and a short "I've been looking for this ring for ages. Thank you!" Done.

[Bad King]

Skyrim has its appeal because it's flexible. You can do whatever you want in it and make your own adventure.

You can ignore quests, and just run around collecting sweetrolls and then dump them all in Belethor's shop. You can bait Rolff Stone-Fist all the way from Windhelm to the Throat of the World and then FUS RO DAH him into the ether. You can run around naked, punching everything to death in battle.

 

I don't think Bioware should EVER try and pursue that. They are loved for their characters, dialogue, and story. To make room for a flexible world you can screw with, Skyrim has little of any of those three. The strongest of those it even possesses is story, which is easily broken, awkwardly paced (as you get easily distracted to sweetroll dump) and doesn't even affect the overall world by more than a line here and there.

 

Plus, I'm not sure the Chantry would respect the decisions of someone who runs around naked, punching demons to death.

 

True, Skyrim's side content is infinitely better and more interesting than DA:I. While DA:I beats Skyrim with its main story, the open world is very poorly utilised. BioWare had three options here:

1). As the OP suggests, they could have made an effort to integrate the open world with the main quest with many important main quest events occurring on these maps (rather than almost exclusively occurring in dungeons separated from the open world maps).

2). They could have fully imitated Skyrim with the open world containing many detailed and interesting sidequests with their own complex stories and characters. IMO this wouldn't have worked in a BioWare game as they tend to be story driven: it would have taken too much of the focus away from the main quest.

3). The approach that they actually took: largely divorcing the main quest from the open world and filling the open world with simplistic and repetitive fetch quests that lacked the character and complexity of the main quest missions.

 

Option 1 would have hands down been the best choice IMO. The Hinterlands map was pretty much this with you experiencing first hand the mage vs templar war and meeting the mages after rescuing them from demonic fade tears. Unfortunately, this blueprint was abandoned in later maps - there's a little bit of integration with the open world in 'Here Lies the Abyss' but not to the same extent, and every other main quest is completely divorced from the open world e.g during 'What Pride had Wrought' why wasn't there an open world map where we experience the massive clash between the forces of the Inquisition and the forces of Corypheus, and fight our way forward establishing Inquisition control over a greater amount of the map? This would have been far better than cramming it all into one linear quest which made the whole final battle seem rather trivial.

 

My main feedback to BioWare for upcoming content would be to integrate the open world more with the main questline, much like they did with the Hinterlands map.