What I'd Like To See In DA Three. (The rest of this post will not rhyme.)

In which I make silly geek-demands that I have no business making.

It was like passing through the tail-end of Willy Wonka's Boatride of Terror: the day when I realized that I'm completely over Dragon Age 2. It was a great fucking day, brought about by BioWare's admission that, hey, the game wasn't all it could've been, that they'd be taking fan feedback seriously and trying to appeal to fans of DA:O a little better. (If you read between the lines, you could also kinda see them explain that some of the changes they made to the franchise were done because they absolutely had to. Possibly even forced to. Possibly. Doesn't matter anyway.)

They've promised a bigger, better, and richer experience with the inevitable sequel, using a proposed map for the next game, which is about 4 or 5x the size of Ferelden, to drive this point home (and they apparently also highlighted the map for DA2, which was about the size of Rhode Island compared to the other two maps).

Yes, talk is cheap, especially after BioWare went on the offensive after the release of DA2, but I don't know; the way they've talked openly about their mistakes, acknowledging the specific little things they could have done differently or better, that really got to me. It was like the BioWare I had supported had finally resurfaced after two years of Facebook games and shitty DLC. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't. We'll see. But the important thing is that I'm hesitantly pulling myself back onto the bandwagon. Kudos to Mike Laidlaw for accomplishing that with his openness and professionalism; it really goes a long way... David...

Anyway, with the load of ideas that have been thrown around by both BioWare and the community, I've thought up a small list of things I'd like to see in the sequel. Some are negotiable, and the inclusion/exclusion of some will probably keep me away for good. Don't mean to sound high or mighty or insinuate that I am in possession of a high horse, but knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have bought Dragon Age 2 on release, so I'll be on the lookout to ensure that doesn't happen again.

1. Multi-Purpose Dungeons (And Dungeons In General)

BioWare have already stated this wouldn't happen again (and also stated the dungeon snafu was one of the things that may, or may not have been, forced upon them), and they've already proven they're not as open to this strategy by releasing DA2: Legacy minus anything resembling that accursed place. But just because they're trending toward variety doesn't mean they shouldn't up the quality of the dungeons while they're at it.

The dungeons were on my list of things that needed to be improved from Dragon Age: Origins. The Deep Roads were arguably the most frequented locations in the whole game - hell, they pop up in both of the books, too - but they weren't very pleasing to the eye. In fact, they were downright bland at times. Lots of claustrophobic tunnels with very little variety beyond which direction they led you.

Why can't these dungeons look a little more stunning at times? Why can't they bleed the lore that's been put behind them? Wouldn't it be great to turn a corner in The Deep Roads and walk right into some long-abandoned capital city of the dwarves? I don't know. Maybe even less dungeons and more unique locations would be a better solution. Whatever they decide, I'd like better visuals, more detail, and fewer places that feel like an honest-to-goodness maze, like Kirkwall.

Also, less Kirkwall.

2. Kirkwall

Seriously, anything resembling Kirkwall will drive me right up the wall and into Bethesda's arms. Look at Kirkwall like Eidos Montreal looked at Deus Ex: Invisible War, as everything that should not go into a sequel.

3. Armor

This has been brought up a lot on the DA Forums, and it's been interesting how much this has made me think. BioWare want to stick with their decision to give companions "iconic" looks, which is what Dragon Age 2 did with mixed results. They essentially cut the player's ability to customize their companions with the armor that could be found along the way. It didn't work because: 1) It meant that unless you found an upgrade for your character, almost all of the armor you looted in the game was useless. 2) Your companions, with the exception of Aveline, wore the same outfits for ten years. 3)

...Wait. What were we talking about? Dragons or some shit?

Oh, yeah. It meant that you had to live with BioWare's shamelessness for the remainder of the game. It was something I wasn't very fond of in Mass Effect 2 and its implementation in Dragon Age 2 didn't make a believer out of me.

But even though BioWare are opting to keep this system, they're going to expand upon it, granting each companion several sets of "iconic" armor, along with reintroducing the time-honored system of customizing your companions' stats. This means that while you can't alter their appearance, you can still equip them with armor and mess with their stats. Giving a companion boots with +2 stamina won't change their boots visually, but they'll still have that +2 stamina.

I went over this in my mind, trying to figure out why BioWare was just soldiering forth with this system with such abandon. But honestly, this system makes sense to me. I'm going back in my mind, reliving the 3d BioWare games that I've played (KotOR, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect), and I can't really remember any armor sets that I particularly loved. I pretty much stuck with the Sith Master Robes in KotOR, the Spectre Armor in Mass Effect, and I wasn't really satisfied with any of the rogue armor in DA:O until I played through Awakening and found the Blackblade Armor.

The customization was always there, but the visuals for the various armor pieces were typically bland, or they were just copies of other armor sets with different colors added. There's a reason for this, though. (I think!) Let's focus on Dragon Age: Origins, and let's say you want to make a set of armor to be used in-game. First you have to design it, write the stats, and model it in-game, but then you have to re-model it to fit the body-types of elves, dwarves, and humans, because unless there are restrictions, all of the races can wear most of the armor. Then you have to remodel that set again to fit the body-types of female elves, dwarves, and humans. So, to make one set of armor in DA:O, you essentially have to make it six times over.

This probably explains why Sten just looked like a bigger human, so they wouldn't have to make each armor seven times.

Thinking of this, and then realizing, "Shit, they usually try and cram a lot of items into the game, too," and "How many other RPGs have customizable companions... or even companions, for that matter?" made me much more open to these "iconic" looks. It frees up the developers to focus on giving companions various looks that make sense within the context of the game, along with unique body-types, and also hopefully gives them more time to focus on the armor sets for the player character. Hopefully. All of this hinges on BioWare's commitment to this system. If it's one big cut corner like Dragon Age 2 was, then I see no redeeming factor there.

And I do hope this system is not applied to the player character. If I find some silly-looking boots that are clear upgrades, I want to have to live with that!

4. Set Character

I did not like Hawke in any way. I didn't like his prefab backstory, how he went on autopilot during the time jumps, and I didn't like his family or his rise to power. (Or that silly blood mark across his face that was never freaking explained!) I didn't like being forced to care about him either. Your sibling dies in the first five minutes: So fucking what? Mass Effect gave you more wiggle room in terms of character creation than DA2 ever did, and the Dragon Age series is the one out of the two that traces its roots back to D&D!

A set character worked for Mass Effect, it worked for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, it worked with The Witcher 2, but it doesn't work (and hasn't worked) with the Dragon Age series. Dragon Age: Origins was unique, in that by the time you got past Orzammar, you could have a character that was almost completely incomparable to a character of another playthrough. The origins made the game an interesting, entertaining, and completely replayable experience. I would hope that DA3 brings this back in some way. Keeping the voiced protagonist, which seems to be the preference of the majority (unfortunately), kinda ensures that a Dragon Age game with multiple playable races isn't very likely.

Even so, multiple origins for a single race wouldn't be out of the question, would it? I don't know; having all that freedom to define my characters the way I wanted was what made DA:O one of my all time favorite games. Losing that freedom in DA2 was heartbreaking. I would love to see it return in some form.

5. Party Banter + Me

Someone brought this up in the forums, and David Gaider said that they're playing with the idea. If so, I would definitely like it. What it seemed like they said concerned the party banter, and being able to somehow contribute to it. That would be a great freaking idea. And heck, it doesn't even have to include the player character; how about if Fenris and Varric say that they're gonna play cards at The Hanged Man that night, you can actually catch them there and drop in on their game. The party banter in DA2 always made me feel like the NPCs were playing a better game than I was.

6. Character Design

After a lot of thought, I think they were on the right track with the redesigns made in DA2, but I still think they need a little tweaking. The elves, specifically. They just weren't very consistent; some bordered on cartoony, others looked like Greys, and at least one looked like he missed the bus to Final Fantasy XIII. The other races worked out pretty well, though.

7. Thedas

This is the big one for me.

The world of Thedas has very rarely felt all that immersive. If it's not the near-barren world zones that ruin the feeling, it's all the load screens you have to pass through to get anywhere. If it's not the uninspired level design, it's the day/night toggle. The Dragon Age Scenario has just never been a place that made me stop and awe at the scenery, take in the sounds, or force me to explore everything. BioWare have gotten by in recent years by crafting stories and situations that kinda make you forget that you've already been down this brown tunnel or that Orzammar only has one path running through it.

BioWare has made some of the most best-selling RPGs of all time, yet it's a company like CDProjekt (with only one previous game to their name) that brings a populated world to life, with NPCs that have jobs, actually perform those jobs, and go home at night. There are conversations, day/night cycles, lush environments, and the lore is always making an appearance. Then you have Eidos Montreal, whose first game ever just happened to be Deus Ex: Human Revolution. My point being, I don't see why BioWare has never tried to go the distance when it comes to their RPGs, specifically with Dragon Age.

Mass Effect has definitely made the attempt. Places like the Citadel from ME1 and Omega from ME2 definitely had some work put into them. I would hope the DA team puts forth equal effort for the eventual Dragon Age 3.

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So, I guess the main point of this article is: I'm dearly hoping that the DA team will actually, I don't know, try and make an RPG worthy of their reputation... and budget. You'd think that a company with six studios to their name would be able to create a product that aspires to rise above stuff like this.