BioWare is relying on Dragon Age 4 to help with its reputation on the upcoming generation of consoles. After difficulties with Mass Effect: Andromeda and the critical, commercial failure of Anthem, the game will need to make some changes from previous installments if it’s going to feel fresh and attract new players on the new platforms.
One of the difficulties Dragon Age has always had had been in its character customization. Dragon Age: Origins’ customization was varied but the outcomes were often so grim looking that players had to find mods to make a normal looking character. Inquisition made strides in this regard, but there’s still one big place Dragon Age 4 needs to improve: hairstyle.
The available hairstyles in Dragon Age: Inquisition are extremely limited. Of the 27 hairstyles available for a human Inquisitor, for example, 12 are different degrees of shaved or extremely close cropped hairstyles while only one goes down to the shoulders. A part of this design choice is likely in order to avoid clipping problems with hairstyles, helmets, and chest armor, but it’s clear from games like The Witcher 3 than the technology to make realistic and dynamic hairstyles which don’t clip through clothing does exist and can be pulled off.
Dragon Age is going to have to provide better character customization if it’s going to compete with series that have preset characters where the developers can fine-tune the design. In Inquisition, a lot of the hairstyles and beards also don’t fade naturally into the face, making them look blocky and chock-full of mousse rather than resembling actual hair.
Furthermore, there are limitations to the hairstyles available to the different races. For example, while there are a few cropped hairstyles that resemble curly hair, there are very few hairstyles for humans that resemble Afro-textured hair. There are, however, cornrows available for the Qunari.
Of the available hairstyles, most of them simply don’t look as good or as varied as hairstyles in games like Fallout 4, which released around the same time. The hairstyles in Dragon Age: Inquisition have a clear divide between the static and movable parts of the hair, with the top of the hair always seeming totally fixed in place like a helmet while a few ringlets will wobble around like 2-dimensional jelly.
Character customization is extremely important in these games for more than aesthetic reasons. Aside from Hawke, who was slightly more of a fixed characters within the parameters of the choices players could make in Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age players need to be able to identify very closely with the protagonist.
Through both Dragon Age: Origins’ Warden and Inquisition’s Inquisitor, the player is presented with a blank slate which they must be able to totally project themselves or a clear idea of what sort of character they want to roleplay as onto for the game to be immersive and for the stakes of their character to feel real. While limited hair doesn’t ruin this, lackluster character customization can undermine this immersion.
While previous installments may have been able to get away with lackluster character customization, this is less likely on the next generation of consoles. With The Witcher 3’s studio CD Projekt Red already promising a huge array of character customization options for its hotly anticipated upcoming RPG Cyberpunk 2077, a failure to match that level of customization in BioWare games could lead to the studio being left behind by new IPs on the next generation of consoles.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.
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