Dragon Age: Inquisition News Update (June 20th)

 

 

News has been trickling out slowly since the end of E3 and what follows is all the info I could find along with some thoughts and speculation.  Incidentally, EA has once again pulled down the E3 demo from YouTube (although here's a new link for it), but I'm sure it will go up again soon.  It's an odd insistence from the company given that it's a less comprehensive and story-filled demo than the old one PAX last year that you can watch at your leisure.

 

Freddie Prinze Jr. was announced as the voice of Iron Bull; I quite like what I've heard of the voice he's using for the character.  Much like Claudia Black (Morrigan) Bioware gave Prinze his first chance in the VO business (with Mass Effect).

 

Allan Schumacher explained to Game On why DAI won't have a playable demo (unlike the previous installments of the franchise):

[He] explained that putting together a demo would take time and resources away from the main development of the game. With that in mind, the task of completing Dragon Age: Inquisition itself has been given prominence over taking people off of the project in order to create a demo. [He] clarified that work on both of the series’ previous entries were completed in time to allow the team to build their demos. With Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, the developer is in a much different situation as there is still work to do before the game’s launch. Before the title releases later this fall, fans will get a chance to setup their game save early as Bioware plans to launch the Dragon Age Keep before the game comes out. The Keep will let both new and returning player dictate how past events transpired in the recent history of the Dragon Age universe. The web-based app will be used exclusively to determine player decisions from the first two games in the series as opposed to imported existing save files.

This doesn't bother me, but I can see it as a source of criticism prior to release.  What's interesting is that the game seems to need every last second for completion, with less time for such promotional material as before--given that DAI was originally slatted as a 2013 release, one wonders what elements specifically has the group on such a tight schedule.

 

Mike Laidlaw confirmed that the Skyrim-like compass that was visible in the Crestwood demo has been removed (it was not to be found in the E3 demo), saying:

Wasn’t working for us, so we changed to a radar-style. Better for battles.

I wasn't a fan of the compass in Skyrim so I think it's a good choice.

 

Speaking of Laidlaw, when pressed on Twitter to confirm that there were more romances than Dragon Age 2 including the DLC (Sebastian, Tallis) he backpedaled:

Remind me to never use numbers when discussing the game. They are debated endlessly. Pretend I said, "lots."

Does this mean there are less or the same?  It's not conclusive, since Laidlaw may not remember the exact numbers off the top of his head, but it's worth keeping in mind.  DA2 tops out at 6 romances (Isabella, Merrill, Anders, Fenris, Sebastian, and Tallis), while for DAI we currently know Cassandra, Cullen, and Sera (for female inquisitors) are available.

 

I speculated back in May that Queen Anora would appear in the game and Mika Simmons (her voice actor) has confirmed that's the case.

 

Cameron Lee told Angry Joe that there are currently 20 dragons (high dragons) in DAI.  Lee also revealed (to PlayStation Access) that there's a mount that looks like a cross between a nug and a water buffalo (!), which joins the lizard referenced at E3, the default horse, and the announced mounts from the deluxe edition (red hart (not a halla) and bog unicorn).  From there he discussed the crafting system:

Generally how it works is you have kind of like a template, and that template could be for armour, or it could be for weapons or other pieces of equipment.  You can insert different metals, different materials, into the different slots of that template and that will keep the shape of the item, but it will change the physical characteristics of that item--so it will change the look, it will change the stats, so you can really customise how you look and how you're building your character.

Lee also discussed the World Master system in detail, although it reiterates things we've heard before (the emergent system will reflect the changes you make in the environment).  He also implied that Alistair's appearance in the game depends on your choices, so it does look like his death (if that's what happened in your game) would carry over into DAI.

 

I have a few thoughts on locations: I've been second-guessing gamermd83's Kal'Hirol theory lately and while it's still viable (and interesting), it's worth pointing out that the primary evidence for it (the waterfront shots and the Cadash family background) are easily transported to Orzammar--it's near both Lake Calenhad and the Waking Sea, and survivors of the Cadash family reside there.  Both possibilities remain speculative, but given the known geography of DAI thus far (see below) Amaranthine (Kal'Hirol) seems a bit isolated from the rest of the action as opposed to the confirmed Frostback Pass (which might possibly include Orzammar itself).

A couple of confirmed areas cannot be definitively put on the map yet (the Southern Desolation and the Crestwood Hills), but we can speculate on where they are.  With the former, the name tells us it's in the south and given that southern Ferelden is filled with the Kocari Wilds and Brecilian Forest, that kingdom doesn't enter the equation.  There's not much room in southern Orlais for it, but I'd guess it's sandwiched between the Western Approach and the Dales (perhaps part of the Deauvin Flats).  As for Crestwood, we know it's in a hilled area of Fereldan (as confirmed in last year's demo).  These are the options for hills: the flanks of the Frostback Mountains; the Southron Hills (which has Lothering on one side and the Brecilian Forest on the other), and The Coastlands.  Given that there are huge mountains seen in the demo I'd wager it's near the Frostback's.

 

With ten locations (regions) confirmed, but only eight revealed thus far, it will be interesting to see where else the Inquisition will roam.  Other than Halamshiral (not yet specifically attached to a region) there's no significant urban area, so a city might be one such; it's also possible the Fade, the Deep Roads, or a thaig might be one of the areas (I'm on the fence with the Fade being one--will we truly be able to explore it?  Doesn't quite fit the MO of the Inquisition).

 

 

 

A point about the size of areas is worth emphasizing.  We know from the demo's this year and last (here's the link for E3) that the Crestwood Hills region is bigger than all of Dragon Age 2 combined (apparently 15 minutes in-game to walk from one end to the other), while the Hinterlands are bigger than all of Dragon Age: Origins combined.  Interestingly, the latter is described as medium-sized, which suggests that Crestwood is (relatively) small and that there are much bigger environs yet to be revealed (we know the Western Approach is bigger than Crestwood, again via the old demo, but otherwise there are no specifics).

 

Jenni Lada at Technology Tell is pleased with DAI's diversity, which is worth highlighting in an industry heavily (and rightly) criticised for its default approach.

 

It's early (the game is still Alpha), but I wanted to touch on current (albeit rare) criticism of the game from people like Phil Owen at Game Front.  His critique is not particularly interesting, but I picked it as a fuller version of the what I thought Jesse Cox was referring too when he was Tweeting from E3 (it turns out, from his rambling explanation on the Co-Optional Podcast, that Jesse's main complaint is that the effects don't look next gen to him--comparing them to Skyrim).  Back to Owen, he feels DAI is too generic in its approach--he wants more uniqueness (using DA2 as an example, interestingly enough; something echoed by MrBtongue months ago).  This argument makes a false equivalency--the fact that a game shares traits with others (he compared it to the plot of the Elder Scrolls' Oblivion's) doesn't mean they are the same thing (it's like comparing The Lord of the Rings to the Dragonlance trilogy--they might both be fantasy trilogies, but as works of literature they couldn't be more different).  Even if DAI was self-consciously imitating another game, it's execution of the plot is what matters.  Owens' is also assuming uniqueness is required for something to be good (or better), and there's simply no justification for that.  Uniqueness has nothing to do with quality, but a lot of critics who become over saturated by their exposure to the market are desperate for new experiences and occasionally mistake "new experience for me" as "good".  It's not a surprise that the Dragon Age franchise went with a reliable, high-fantasy plot given the withering criticism they suffered for the less traditional DA2.  This may be self-evident, but it's worth keeping in mind when serious reviews begin in October.

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Dragon Age: Inquisition What we Learned from E3

E3 has come and gone and provided us with a pair of promotional videos (the Lead Them trailer and the Stand Together video; the latter featuring the female Inquisitor and also showing the "war table" as more of a Round Table than a Last Supper imitator), two demos, and a ton of information.  As always, spoilers below.

 

 

 

Mike Laidlaw talked to joystiq's Susan Arendt about the size and scope of the game and wanting to create enough content to give it replay value:

"In each level, I wanted there to be at least one cave, one dungeon, one something that no-one tells you to go to," he explained to me. He said that his design team had to "break some old habits" as they were creating the enormous open world that would become Inquisition. Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 both made sure the player knew about every last thing they could possibly do, and Laidlaw wanted to make sure not everything was quite so obvious. It meant that there might be content in Inquisition that might never be seen, but it also meant that there was a point to exploring the game's stunning locations beyond just hitting the next point of interest on the map. 

The point has been made by the devs that all the discovery and bits of story available relates to the major plots, something I've found lacking in other open worlds.

 

Laidlaw also said there were more romances in DAI than in any previous game, which, given that DA2 had five (including DLC Sebastian) sets the bar.  I'm not sure that means each Inquisitor will have six plus options, but rather there many available in-game in total.

 

[A quick add: Steve Butts at IGN tells us "You’ll be able to claim the banner points in the game in the name of the Hero of Ferelden," which is the first definitive thing I've heard about our prior heroes in the franchise.]

Among the many videos shown at E3 the most engaging was the demo (EA deleted the full version I found [June 17th: at the moment it is back], but you can see a different, truncated version with Mike Laidlaw being interviewed by IGN).  The storyline from the IGN link (which is the follow-up plot to the now-deleted demo, a fairly full description of which can be found here via Gieson Cacho of the Mercury News) takes place in the Hinterlands (which includes Redcliffe) and has the Inquisition attempting to resolve the Mage-Templar conflict (providing a juxtapose to the Crestwood demo from last year, where the Templar's were the main enemy there, while here it's the Mages).  Just this single region is larger than all of Dragon Age: Origins combined.  Ryan Taljonick provides a succinct plot summary:

You must also send operatives from your party of playable characters to embark on missions on your behalf--and these won't always go down as planned. In my demo, a party member [Leliana] is sent to go undercover and infiltrate a Mage stronghold [in the Hinterlands]. Unfortunately, by the time the player's party arrives to mop up [Inquisitor plus Sera, Dorian, and Iron Bull], said party member has been captured and is being tortured. We recover her, but she (understandably) has developed a hatred for Mages--so, during a crucial interaction with the stronghold's Mage leader, she has little patience for words, and goes on a murderous rampage of revenge. Would this have played out differently had another party member been sent in her stead? Oh, yes--or so I'm told.

This emphasizes the consequences of actions, just like the Crestwood demo did before, and focuses on the impact of events on characters (Leliana here, Varric before).  It appears as though the Venatori are the main faction of Mages the inquisition will fight.  Going back to the plot, Taljonick leaves out that the decision to send Leliana is made at the Inquisition table (as Cacho mentions above) and that choosing her is optional--although it seems clear given the story that bringing Dorian along provides extra oomph to the plot (as he has a connection I won't spoil here).  The deleted demo prefaced this with an earlier mission discovering the location Leliana would infiltrate--the group varied in that Vivienne was along instead of Dorian--and its major feature was battling a dragon.

 

It wasn't entirely clear where the exact boundaries for the game location for the Hinterlands was, but assuming the usual north-south orientation of the map shown this is my guess:

 

 

IGN had another interesting reveal:

Stretching over two nations with 10 unique terrains ranging from forests to deserts, swamps to mountains, Dragon Age: Inquisition will be absolutely massive when compared to the previous two games. “This is the biggest game in our studio’s history,” Darrah told us. “It’s the largest RPG we’ve ever made. There is more story-based content in Dragon Age: Inquisition than any other BioWare RPG." Noting that this is the first open-world game from BioWare, Mark also let us know that Inquisition “will set the bar for all of our future games.”

We already knew that it was the largest, most story-intensive game from BioWare, but here we get definitive clarification that we will not be going anywhere outside of Orlais or Ferelden.  From other comments it seems like the ten terrains actually means there are ten areas to explore in the game.  Here are the locations we know of along with one I believe will appear (anything I list as "confirmed" without comment has appeared on the official website, everything else is qualified):

-the Hinterlands (confirmed, includes Redcliffe)

-the Western Approach (confirmed, includes Griffon Wing Keep and the Adamant Fortress)

-the Emerald Graves (confirmed; within the Dales, likely the Arbor Wilds area)

-Emprise du Lion (confirmed; within the Dales)

-Crestwood Hills (confirmed via the Crestwood demo; it's in Ferelden)

-Frostback Pass (confirmed via the Crestwood demo; this area could mean no Kal'Hirol, given its proximity to Orzammar, incidentally)

-Nahashin Marshes (confirmed via the Crestwood demo)

-The Southern Desolation (confirmed via the Crestwood demo)

-Halamshiral (confirmed, presumably part of a larger region)

-Therinfal Redoubt (confirmed, although where in Ferelden is uncertain)

-the Fade (confirmed)

-Kal'Hirol (the Arldom of Amaranthine; this is speculation you can find via the link)

This makes for 10 locations (Therinfal and Halamshiral are within larger areas), although I wouldn't take this list as definitive--name changes could have happened since the Crestwood demo and some areas may be too localised or briefly visited to be full-fledged areas (ala the Fade).

 

E3 also featured several character profiles beginning with Sera:

It’s on the streets of Orlais that the Inquisition finds Sera—or rather, she finds them.Sera‘s an outsider, a rogue elf who senior writer Luke Kristjanson describes as a “troublemaker.” She brings to the Inquisition the perspective of the little people caught between powerful factions as the world spins out of control. “Sera is brash and fun,” Kristjanson says. “She takes nothing seriously until it deserves to be taken seriously, and not much does. She’s only seen power from the underside, a view that gives her an almost complete lack of respect for the arrogance behind authority.” The Inquisition is the fastest Sera's ever seen someone “in power” move. She's never had the chance to get in early and make sure those heading to the top stay humble. But there are also big questions that she needs to answer for herself—“hole in the sky” big—and the Inquisition seems like the place to do it. “The phrase I keep going back to is ‘she's not about what's right, she's about what's right now’,” Kristjanson says. “Doing something for the ‘greater good’ makes her angry, because she thinks that's shorthand for ‘let's hurt people who don't deserve it because it's easier.’ But she's got her own reasons for helping too. Play nice with the vulnerable and you’ve always got friends, and friends are better than power.” “Sera is raw and genuine,” says Kristjanson. “I’ve written plenty of characters who were too clever for their own good. Sera hasn’t had to test her beliefs, so she brings a level of honest discovery that is cutting and refreshing. I had a lot of fun with her voice in particular. The actor nailed it day one. From the first voice test, she was Sera. Her laugh is great.” With the fate of Thedas hanging in the balance and pressures mounting, Sera’s reckless abandon won’t win over every party member she fights alongside. “Sera likes people who try (even if they fail), and is suspicious of people who are so powerful they don’t have to,” Kristjanson says. “There are people she loves, people she hates, and people she loves to hate. That draws a line, in and out of the party.” In short, Sera speaks her mind. “She makes no secret of her feelings,” Kristjanson says. “I don’t think she could if she tried.”

She's also been confirmed as a female-only romance, making her the first known lesbian character in the party. 

 

From Sera we move to the Iron Bull:

Qunari are known across Thedas as the brutal horned giants who descended from the north to nearly conquer the continent. These ruthless followers of a harsh philosophy enforce their will through the Ben-Hassrath: their spies and secret police. One brilliant agent did it all, hunting spies, rebels, and deserters until the day he finally broke. To preserve a valuable asset, his superiors sent him to Orlais to observe and report… and the Iron Bull was born. Today, Bull’s Chargers are famous mercenaries, fiercely loyal to the huge Qunari warrior who leads them into battles and taverns with equal enthusiasm. The Iron Bull still sends the Ben-Hassrath reports, but years of living outside Qunari rules have him wondering which identity is really him. Whoever he is, he’s more than happy to join the Inquisition and get paid to kill demons.

And Blackwall:

The Blight is ten years past. The Grey Wardens' prominence is decreasing again. The Wardens are known for their vigil; they keep watch for the darkspawn, for the Blight. But Blackwall isn't interested in just watching.  He is absolutely invested in the idea of the Grey Wardens of legend: those who place themselves between the people of Thedas and the oncoming Blight, acting as their shield.  To him, that's a Grey Warden, someone who protects others, who takes a hit so someone else doesn't have to. And if that's a Grey Warden, then it's his moral imperative to act, even when there's no Blight. There's more evil in the world than just the darkspawn, and he believes it's his duty to do something about it. He lives by that old saying: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." When the Inquisition tries to get in contact with the Grey Wardens, they find Blackwall. He's traveling on his own, a bit of a loner. But with the world spiraling out of control, Blackwall sees the Inquisition as Thedas's last hope to restore order, and he realizes that he'll probably be able to do more good with its backing than by himself. He's a veteran. He's been through many battles, many conflicts, and he knows their price. He's aware that in wars, the people who call the shots are often safe in their fortresses. It's the soldiers who die. He's seen people with power abuse it and use it to manipulate others, and he absolutely hates that.

We also learned a little bit more about Vivienne [and Cassandra] (mostly just emphasising what we've heard before), and had Dorian Pavus confirmed (he was one of the characters from the 2012 survey leak), but no bio of him has been posted on the DAI website as yet.

 

Cameron Lee explained agents to gamermd83 and the essentials follow:

You earn agents as you essentially build up your Inquisition, and then from that you can use your agents and use that influence and power you built up through the Inquisition to do a variety of things: it could be hey go and get me this rare crafting material, it could be repair this bridge...it could be I want to go and start to look into this main part of the story. ... There are hundreds of operations that you can send your agents on, and those operations will change depending on the actions and decisions you make throughout the course of the game.

He added:

To progress through major parts of the story you have to have a certain amount of influence, your Inquisition needs to have a certain amount of strength.

And then talked about romances:

Romances are not about this sort of gamey approval rating; right so it's not like you can give people flowers and then sleep with them. Romance is a more nuanced and more organic and natural.  There's these characters there with strong personalities with their own goals, [so] how you interact with them and how [you] may help or hinder or whatever their goals plays a part in that--a part in how your relationship builds with them as a "normal" relationship; and then from there what part do I want to take.

Speaking of Lee, he put his foot in his mouth when he told Matthew Codd at NZGamer:

We've got about 40 major endings, and then from that, we tried to calculate it, something like a thousand other smaller variations

This required Mark Darrah to Tweet out the qualification we've heard before that there are only a few unique endings, but about 40ish major variations.  This isn't to pick on Cameron, but the news rekindled the wrong interpretation of the game's ending and a flurry of articles came out afterwards trumpeting it.

 

Speaking of endings, Darrah re-iterated on Twitter that there will be gameplay after the resolution of the main plot (something we first heard back in May).

 

Xbox One will get the first DLC for DAI, although how long it will remain exclusive to that console is unknown (not long I'd guess).  It's also not clear when the DLC will appear, given that just a couple of weeks ago the devs said that content won't be worked on until the game is finished (and we're still in alpha).

 

An interesting tidbit in an unrelated Reddit post related to the latest Assassin's Creed: the timeframes the anonymous insider gives for creating a character in-game fits the DAI release delay last year pretty spot on.  If the game has to be shipped eight weeks prior to release, then we can expect it to be finished in early August.

 

Speaking of shipping, pre-orders of the DAI game guide have popped up on Amazon and the hardcover version includes DLC content (which isn't specified, but I'd guess equipment and that sort of thing as opposed to anything story-related).

 

While the game was well received, there was vague criticism from Jesse Cox:

Dragon Age has the usual bioware story fixins. Cool world...But it just doesn't FEEL new. Like an amalgamation of stuff I've seen before.

Twitter is not the best medium for saying anything substantive, but where does "feel" really takes us?  It's a perfectly appropriate response (we all have a "gut feel"), but useless as informed criticism--I'm not implying that's Cox' intent (although subsequent Tweet's aren't helping), but it begs the question, what new stuff does he want to see?  I have no idea and I imagine he doesn't either--what can they add when he doesn't know what he wants?  Given that DAI is epic fantasy and has changed quite a bit from the previous versions, I'd guess Cox is simply tired of the genre--but my hypothesis is almost as useless as his Tweet.  It will be interesting to read actual critiques once the game is released--I think Tom McShea at GameSpot had one of the most measured reviews from E3.

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

Dragon Age: Inquisition News Update (June 7th)

It's time for another news update--be forewarned of spoilers for all canon material below.  First I thought we'd look at something fun.  Below is an alternate shot of the "last supper" image of the Inquisition that was sent to a few Youtubers--the nug under the table is a nice touch.

 

 

Lady Insanity Tweeted out that the human origin of the Inquisitor will be revealed as a Free Marcher at E3, while the Dwarf is ex-Carta (this is speculation on her part, but interesting nonetheless).  For those have forgotten about the Carta, they are the crime syndicate headquartered in Orzammar, featured in both the Dwarven Commoner origin (DAO), against the Warden doing the A Paragon of Her Virtue quest, and then against Hawke periodically in DA2 (particularly in the Legacy DLC).  The human coming from the Free Marches might form the connection back to Kirkwall and Hawke, although there are many other cities our character might be from.

 

Voice recording was still happening for the game, despite having passed the Alpha stage (Greg Ellis, voice of Cullen, was in the studio June 4th).  Given how devs described what "alpha" means (see the link), the voice work is presumably part of a polish or fix scenario--not a significant add or change.

 

I said a few weeks back that:

Various dangling plots, like the Architect (DAO: Awakening), Morrigan's Old God Baby (Origins), or Corypheus (DA2: Legacy), will not significantly impact the Inquisition storyline given that it can be played without those elements.

The point about the Old God Baby is unchanged (gamermd83 laboriously dynamites why this couldn't be the player's origin via the link), but I have to revise my opinion about both the Architect and Corypheus...to an extent.  The Architect is locked in the canon more firmly than just the Origins DLC, as he's a big part of the novel The Calling which (in the DA timeline) predates Awakening.  Since players can choose to kill the Architect, the character himself is unlikely to appear, but those darkspawn he freed from the calling could well play a part in the story to come (particularly as it seems we'll visit Kal'Hirol where they were encountered in the DLC).  As for Corypheus, whether you've played the Legacy DLC or not has no impact on his potential role (since he cannot truly be killed and thus eliminated); could he have created the rip in the Fade?  It's a possibility.  Corypheus might also be behind the Venatori cultists we've seen in the previews (given his Tevinter origins and their use of the Imperium's symbol by the cult).

 

 

While players will have mounts in the new game, there will be no mounted combat as Mark Darrah explains:

the feature was deemed to be out of focus with the series’ core combat systems. After all, players already have additional party members and Dragon Age’s combat emphasizes the use of tactics to properly utilize the different companion characters. The developer chose to continue to focus on party mechanics instead of adding mounted combat into the mix and potentially altering a setup that is already proven to work. Aside from game design, Darrah also revealed that the inclusion of a mount system in general was something that the developer wanted to be careful with since it is new to the series. Adding mounted combat on top of everything else would also require the new mechanics to be built from the ground up on the game’s Frostbite 3 engine. Ultimately, the time and resources necessary to accomplish the task wouldn’t have been worth the effort for a feature that wasn’t deemed to fit well inside the game to begin with.

Therinfal Redoubt is a new location revealed and here's the blurb about it (presumably a keep to be used by the Inquisition--it appears to be a Ferelden location):

"I have heard the complaints. Some of you do not understand why we train in a castle in the wilderness when you're to seek out corruption among the masses. You question the Seekers' foresight. Doubt assails you. Why have you come to Therinfal? What can you learn here you could not on your own? Patience is what you will learn. With no city to distract or tempt you, you will practice. You will fail. You will suffer. And when we are done, you will be a rock upon which demons break. Now let us begin." This transcription of a speech by Lord Seeker Alderai to a batch of students beginning advanced lessons is dated 7:70 Storm. The Seekers used Therinfal Redoubt as a training ground until around 8:99 Blessed, when their finances were insufficient to keep the fortress in desirable condition.

We get more information about The Hinterlands, a Ferelden setting that I thought might be home to Crestwood (about which we've heard so much), but given it's proximity to Redcliffe makes me dubious.  Here's the bulk of the text: 

My lord Arl Teagan,

I retired to the Hinterlands for peace and quiet away from the politics, and because the wide open spaces were perfect to let my horses run. Instead, the war between the mages and the templars has turned your beautiful hills into a series of burning battlefields. The farmers who live in the Hinterlands are good folk. Many of them left Redcliffe village because they couldn't bear to be there anymore, not after the Blight and the walking dead left so many bad memories. Now we've got apostates running around setting fire to anyone who looks at them sideways, and templars looting houses and cutting down those who protest as mage sympathizers. My wife Elaina sent off our field hands to stay with her family in the east, but there are a lot of poor people here with nowhere to go. We get more refugees every day: this village attacked by mad mages or that farmstead burned to the ground by templars who can't tell a hoe from a staff. I suppose you're stretched thin, but anything you can do to lessen the burden of these poor folk would be much appreciated. I'll do as I can, and if your men need better mounts, say the word.

 

Speaking of Ferelden and Redcliffe, the latter is going to be re-visited in the game (something anticipated last December) and here's the blurb about it:

King Calenhad Theirin once famously declared, "The fate of Redcliffe is the fate of all Ferelden." Certainly, the castle is the first and last defense for the sole land route into Ferelden, and the country has never fallen to any force that did not first capture Redcliffe. The castle, which despite being three times captured is popularly described as "unassailable," also guards one of the largest and most prosperous towns in Ferelden. Redcliffe village is well situated near the mountain pass to Orzammar and the Orlesian border, and so serves as a center of foreign trade. For these reasons, Redcliffe is accounted an arling despite the smallness of the domain. The inhabitants of Redcliffe village are primarily fishermen or merchants who ship Dwarven goods through the pass from Orlais to Denerim. When the entire village smells of smoked fish on certain late-autumn mornings, the merchants in their finery do their utmost to pretend otherwise.

 

This is the first confirmed location from either of the previous games that we'll revisit in Inquisition and it will be interesting to see what it looks like compared to Dragon Age: Origins.  Given that all the recent locations appear to be Ferelden I expect what we'll see at E3 will occur there.

 

The last piece of news before E3 is a number of character reveals are planned--Sera, the Iron Bull, and Blackwall (the formerly nameless grey warden) have been teased on Twitter (all three of whom have only unofficially been unveiled to this point)--and we may get more besides.  E3 will be streamed on Twitch (Ashe offers up a preview of what we'll get from DAI and the schedule).  Ability Drain explains that the character reveals are working this way because Bioware realised the didn't have enough time before release to follow their original Follower Friday plan.  She also mentions that we'll see a female (human) version of the Inquisitor at E3.

 

 

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

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)