BioWare has released a new teaser trailer for Dragon Age 4. Narrated by Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition companion Varric, the trailer reiterates the studio’s focus on telling a unique story about a protagonist who isn’t a “Chosen One” like the Inquisitor from the last game.
However, if Dragon Age 4 wants to center the new player character it its narrative, there’s another huge aspect of the game that is shown in the new trailer that could pose one a huge challenge. Dragon Age 4’s trailer inadvertently reveals one way in which the two main aims of the upcoming game may be at direct odds with each other, and will have to be carefully balanced for the story to succeed.
The focus of Varric’s narration in the trailer is the new player character. Fans are reassured that the next game will be “your story” and will have a main character with “no magic hand, no ancient prophecy.” However, the secondary focus of the new Dragon Age trailer is two returning characters, Varric and Solas.
Varric is a fan-favorite companion from previous Dragon Age games. He entered the series in Dragon Age 2 and then returned as a companion for the Inquisitor in Dragon Age: Inquisition. However, despite his popularity, Varric is also emblematic of a problem the Dragon Age games have faced. By focusing on returning companions but changing the player character for each new game, the developers have slowly increased the distance between the player’s understanding of the series’ overarching story and their PC’s.
For example, when Varric first meets the Inquisitor in Dragon Age: Inquisition, any player who completed Dragon Age 2 will likely struggle to avoid continuing their relationship with the sly dwarf as if they are still playing as Hawke, rather than immersing themselves in their new character. This is brought into particular focus when Hawke themself shows up later in Inquisition and the player is reminded that their level of trust in Varric relies more on a meta understanding of the overarching story of the series than it is related to Varric’s relationship with the Inquisitor in the game’s story so far.
Not only that, but Varric is now supposed to be the Viscount of Kirkwall according to Inquisition’s final DLC, Trespasser. How can the new Dragon Age protagonist explore “what happens when you don’t have power” if the leader of a major city state has already got their back against “demons, dragons, and darkspawn” as Varric claims in the trailer? It’s not clear who the subject of the line “this is your story” even is. The story of Solas and the Dread Wolf has very much been the Inquisitor’s story as well so far – especially one who romanced him. The line appears to be less about the new player character and more about the continuing story of the players themselves.
However, this undermines the promise that the new Dragon Age protagonist will be the focus of the story. Instead, it would suggest that they could be another avatar for the player to experience the unfolding story of Thedas and the resolution of plotlines already set up in previous games.
Dragon Age 4’s attempt to put its player character’s story at the center of events may be the game’s biggest challenge. However, there could still be plenty of parts of the game that do not focus on the meta-narrative of the series so far. Despite this, the prominent inclusion of the Dread Wolf in the trailer suggests much of the story will focus on the new player character resolving plotlines from the Inquisitor’s time at the helm.
There are a few ways Dragon Age 4 could continue the main threads from Inquisition while still creating a compelling main character. How exactly BioWare pulls this off will depend on a few details about the game which have yet to be released.
Will the next protagonist be able to choose their race like in Origins and Inquisition, or will they be playing a character of a pre-set race and origin like Hawke in Dragon Age 2? Will they always be from Tevinter if that’s the setting seen in the trailer? If players are able to control their origins in some way the game could include a Dragon Age: Origins-style prologue act to help players immerse themselves in the life of this new character before their plot joins with the Dread Wolf plotline.
However, too much time spent with the player character away from the main plot could leave some players impatient to engage with some of the world-changing stakes that Inquisition and the Dragon Age 4 trailer have set up. Unlike Origins where the player origin could be interwoven with the main plot – it’s how Duncan the Warden recruits the player – Dragon Age 4 has put itself in a situation where it will need to find ways to develop its main character independently of its series-long plot threads.
The fact that players will already know some of the characters involved in the overarching story and already know about Solas’ plan to tear down the Veil between Thedas in the Fade means that any focus on the main plot early on risks immediately pushing the development of the new player character to the sidelines. Perhaps the best path forward for Dragon Age 4 is to avoid including too many more characters from previous games to allow the new game’s story and characters to stand on their own legs. However, with previous Dragon Age companions in positions of power across the world from the Chantry’s Divine Victoria to the Arishok of the Qunari, that will be no easy task.
Players have never had the chance to visit Tevinter before, and if that is Dragon Age 4‘s new setting it could go some way towards immersing the player in their new character as their only window into some unfamiliar surroundings. This in turn could help make the player character’s fresh perspective on Thedas more immersive, though their story will still have to contend with huge unresolved plotlines. These include the origins of the darkspawn, the Golden City, and the remaining Old Gods on top of the Dread Wolf plot. Only time will tell whether or not Dragon Age 4‘s protagonist will have taken on too much baggage to succeed in their own right.
Dragon Age 4 is in development now.
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