- BioWare listened to feedback on previous games
- “A lot of the decisions we’re making are about Dragon Age and what this generation of RPGs will look like.”
Story
- Game begins as Thedas is in chaos
- Chantry and the mages are at war
- The Seekers of the Truth and Templars are no longer tied to Chantry rule
- Ferelden continues to recover from the darkspwan Blight that ended 10 years ago
- Orlais is involved with a civil war
- Tear in the sky links the real world to the Fade
- Magic and demons come from Fade
- Rip allows demons to cross freely instead of using a mage host
- Demons/abominations are running free all over
- With everything going on, “there is a suspicious level of chaos in anticipation of this event”
- Reinstitute the Inquisition
- This is an organization that doesn’t answer to any outside power
- Inquisition puts aside politics and extracts answers
- “…about looking into what conspiracies happen, what kind of dastardly deeds could occur, when people are weak and naturally torn apart”
Inquisitor
- Your hero acts as the head of the Inquisition
- Lead the organization rather than controlling a foot soldier
- You’re left as the only survivor early on, which leads to this ascension
- Create and guide the Inquisitor however you please
- 3 classes: warrior, rogue, and mage
- At least 3 races: human, elf, dwarf
- No pre-set name
- Fully voiced
- Can be male/female
- Events take place as you perform them, not being relayed by another character
- Will need to overcome resistance, but this becomes easier as the Inquisition gains more power/respect
- Inquisition’s reputation/strength go up as you finish objectives, gain items, help others
World
- Inquisition has a long reach
- Visit multiple large locations
- Several different regions
- Structural style like Dragon Age: Origins
- Access key story beats by reaching certain levels of power
- Explore to achieve that power
- Collect magical relics, solve mysteries, fight dragons, help others
- Don’t need to do everything
- Different resources to acquire better equipment and continue the story
- Won’t always be able to move from one area to another seamlessly
- “each of the areas we’re building is larger than anything we’ve built before”
- No repetitive environments
- Areas include a bog, desert, mountain range, can be explored freely in third-person
- Can take on unique quests by coming across things like an arcane device that lets you pinpoint the location of magic items
- Locations are like self-contained open worlds
- Each has a bunch of items to find and content to experience during day and night
- Game will have a mount system
- This will be more involved than just riding a horse around
- Very little is scaled to your level
- Can encounter monsters that are much more powerful than you
- Freedom is big, but BioWare as a story to tell
Frostbite
- Huge areas are made possible due to the move to Frostbite
- “We’re very happy with what we can do with the technology.”
- Will have some destructibility, game has a bigger focus on building
- Having a mage allows you to reassemble a crumbled footbridge to reach a new area
- Convert a ruined desert outpost into an Inquisition stronghold
- “If you destroy something, you can construct something.”
- Frostbite 3 allows the team to develop more easily on five platforms at once
- Better visuals on PS4/Xbox One than PS3/360
- Content being kept the same
- “Frostbite 3 is intended to bridge the gap between current-gen and next-gen”
PC
- Will be optimized for the platform
- “The PC actually is different, especially from a controls standpoint.”
- Caters to mouse and keyboard, unlike its predecessor’s tradition
Battles
- Will encounter lots of resistance
- Battle pace lies between Dragon Age 1/2
- Not always a pause-and-play affair, but not always filled with tons of action
- Directly control a character and you’ll notice control similarities to Dragon Age II
- Switch between all characters in your party at will
- Choose AI behaviors for allies if you’d like
- Commands are performed right away with a button push
- BioWare looking to make things less frantic and more deliberate
- Slowing down the speed of attacks while also creating enemies that force players to examine the battlefield
- “We’ve got that mesh of action and RPG.”
- Enemies have specialized roles that work together
- Better AI for enemies
- Enemies seem to make planned attacks based on their strengths and work together logically
- Players have a number of skill trees, specializations, abilities
- Classes have their own powers with tactical significance
- Party members can work together
More world details
- Areas will change based on what time it is
- Weather impacts exploration
- Rain can make a bog muddy, making travel slower
- Still has classic enemies including ogres, elves, qunari
Friends/foes
- Dialogue/story sequences are the best way to learn about your allies and their abilities
- This can also be done to a lesser extent in battle
- Vivienne: Inquisitor mage who was in line to hold the position of first encharter in the Circle of Orlais
- She wasn’t able to take the osition due to the Orlesian civil war
- Writers analyze the story’s main themes and conflicts, then create certain characters around them
- Not all characters are created so that you’ll like them
- Other allies and their loyalties are currently unknown
- Learn early on that there’s someone behind the demon breach and resulting chaos
- Won’t learn who you’re dealing with early on
- Cassandra and Varric from Dragon Age II are playable party members
- Morrigan won’t be a party member
- Morrigan’s role seems to be more than just a cameo
Crafting system
- Use materials from around the world and enemies you defeat to make customized armor
- “Crafting in Inquisition is about customizing yourself, your character, your looks…”
- You can, technically, eventually create any colored version of the armor your start out with on par with what you find late in the game
- Characters will keep their look, but the armor will have huge influence on how they look
Choices
- Will need to make choices as problems develop
- Not always about dark choices
- BioWare is looking for players to think about potential consequences and deal with them if they happen
- Dialogue wheel similar to that of Dragon age II lets you make choices
- Some improvements
- Optional addition being added to the wheel for more clarity
- Choices have an impact throughout the world
- “Loose ends are a constant problem… We have a responsibility to resolve at least some of them if we’re going to introduce new ones…”
- Choices involve themes, mysteries from previous Dragon Age games
- Game will offer clarity on things such as Red Lyrium, Grey Wardens’ activities, Flemeth, Morrigan’s fate
- BioWare working on the issue of bringing over previous choices in Inquisition
- “It’s very important to people, and it’s very important to us. We don’t want people to feel like they can’t buy a new console or change the platform they’re buying this game on simply because they want to make sure their saves are maintained.”
Multiplayer
- Not confirmed/denied
- “it was surprising how well it was received in Mass Effect, and we were really happy with how that worked out…”
