News & Notes (May 29th)

It's been another week since my last Dragon Age: Inquisition update, so here's the latest collection of news about the game.  As always, be aware there are spoilers for the previous games and other canon material below.

 

DAI reached the Alpha stage on May 24th; it's difficult to judge what "alpha" means in the industry anymore, as the game was playable from beginning to end back in December and was cutting content a few weeks ago.  David Gaider sheds some light when explaining the cuts:

While new content is still in development, "at this point it's more about dealing with the content we have and getting it all to work," writes Gaider. "This is also the stage where most of the big cuts happen, since we can still create new content to deal with those cuts (as in "change the writing to accommodate a change in the story flow"). Once we hit Alpha, cuts are generally things that are simply excised in their entirety, without any ability to really work around them for the sake of logic or flow." Likewise, the game's writers are now moving on from creating the game's voiced dialogue and are developing "non-VO text," including codex entries, item and talent descriptions and GUI text. "Still, we have to handle all bugs that come our way, and be responsive to any cuts that are occurring."

Cameron Lee attempts to further explains what terms like Alpha means to the developers:

Pre-alpha = In production

Alpha = Feature complete (fix bugs & polish, last minute changes)

Beta = Feature & content complete (fix bugs & polish)

Final = Pray to the old gods you guys love the game

 

So Alpha indicates the main phase of cuts is complete and all VO elements are included.  Cuts can still occur, but rather than tweaks these would be complete excises of content.

 

The official website provided more information about Halamshiral and why the Inquisition is there:

"The civil war is now at an impasse," explains level designer Chris Corfe. "The faction leaders are at a peace talk at the Winter Palace in Halamshiral, a magnificent Orlesian structure built on ancient elven grounds. The Inquisition is here to find and stop an assassin. Combat is not the main focus here. Intrigue and social interactions rule the day, so the gameplay has unique elements."

"We are about to attend a costume party," adds senior environment artist Ryan Love. "Get your mask on and your dancing shoes ready, but don't let your guard down. There's more to this party than meets the eye."

This news fit my expectations for the location and I'm excited to see how diplomacy and intrigue work in the game.  It's also worth noting that most of the images of Morrigan we've seen are in this setting, so it's without question that she will be here.

 

 

The website also discussed the Fade:

The relationship of dreamers to the Fade is complex. Even when entering the Fade through the use of lyrium, mortals are not able to control or affect it. The spirits who dwell there, however, can, and as the Chantry teaches us, the great flaw of the spirits is that they have neither imagination nor ambition. They create what they see through their sleeping visitors, building elaborate copies of our cities, people, and events, which, like the reflections in a mirror, ultimately lack context or life of their own. Even the most powerful demons merely plagiarize the worst thoughts and fears of mortals, and build their realms with no other ambition than to taste life.

 

The Fade has looked speculator throughout, although we know very little about how much we'll interact with it in the story.  The Inquisitor comes out of the Fade at the beginning of the game and with all the visuals we'll assuredly be entering it again--but how much is unknown.

 

gamermd83 offered an interesting theory about the thaig we've seen in the previews and made a conclusion I think is absolutely spot on: it's Kal'Hirol (beneath the Arl of Amaranthine in Ferelden), the clues being the ocean shots with a Dwarven statue, along with the player's connection (if Dwarven) to the Cadash family.  The thaig appeared in the Dragon Age: Origins DLC Awakening, with connections not just to Cadash, but ancient Tevinter, golems, and the Elves as well.  This is a location that could involve Shale and/or the Architect, as well as meaning we won't just see the Frostback side of Ferelden.

 

 

For those interested, here's the background of Kal'Hirol:

[Kal'Hirol]'s workshops are where Paragon Hirol conceived his famous improvements to golem resilience and power, and where Hirol's favorite student developed a method for storing refined lyrium that is still used centuries after its conception. These breakthroughs brought Kal'Hirol great prosperity; its passageways are said to have glittered with gold and silver. This didn't last long however, as it fell to the darkspawn during or shortly after the First Blight. As the dwarves of Kal'Hirol were evacuating the thaig, five hundred casteless were left behind.

In the aftermath of Awakening Kal'Hirol is cleared of darkspawn, and eventually the dwarves of Orzammar reclaim it via House Helmi.

 

Kimberly Wallace (of Game Informer) has written her thoughts about Cassandra and Varric's role in the game and they're both engaging and worth checking out.

 

A quick add from the original post: here is an interesting comparison of the Grey Wardens to the Night's Watch from Game of Thrones.

 

I'm not sure if we'll finally get another Follower's Friday tomorrow (a background reveal of one of the Inquisitor's companions), but if so I'll update this with that information.

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)