{"id":117658,"date":"2020-11-11T10:28:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T10:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gamerant.com\/dragon-age-4-power-problem-end\/"},"modified":"2020-11-11T10:28:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T10:28:30","slug":"why-dragon-age-4-should-finish-the-series-game-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/2020\/11\/11\/why-dragon-age-4-should-finish-the-series-game-rant\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Dragon Age 4 Should Finish the Series | Game Rant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dragon Age 4<\/em><\/strong> is currently in development at BioWare and will very likely continue the story of Thedas as the Dread Wolf attempts to bring down the Veil between the world and the Fade. Of course, it all began when the\u00a0series launched with the critical success of\u00a0Dragon Age: Origins<\/em> back in 2009. However,\u00a0BioWare’s iconic RPG structure faces a particular problem when it comes to writing sequels, a problem which is compounded as more sequels are released.<\/p>\n

There’s an argument to be had that\u00a0Dragon Age 4<\/a><\/em> should be the final game in the\u00a0series. If the game is the series’ final installment, there are reasons it could make both Dragon Age 4<\/em> and BioWare itself more likely to reach their full potential as gaming enters the next generation of consoles.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Dragon Age 4: The History of Thedas Through the Eyes of the Tevinter Imperium<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Dragon Age 4<\/em>\u2019s story would likely benefit from being the final chapter in the Dragon Age<\/em> series. The Dragon Age<\/em> games have increasingly set up sequel\u00a0hooks that have become more and more central to the plot of the games since Dragon Age: Origins<\/em>. There were sequel hooks in Origins<\/em>, like the Old God Baby<\/a> players were able to bring into being to avoid dying at the hands of the archdemon. However,\u00a0story\u00a0moments like the Old God Baby were also reflections of key decisions in the game’s narrative that had emotional and moral weight regardless of whether the player would see the full consequences\u00a0play out in future games.<\/p>\n

By Dragon Age: Inquisition<\/em>‘s story, there are huge plotlines in the\u00a0main narrative which feel unresolved for the sake of setting up sequels. The big twist in Inquisition<\/em> is that the player\u2019s companion Solas is in fact the ancient elven god known as the Dread Wolf. The problem is that this twist not only undermines the impact\u00a0of Corypheus as\u00a0Inquisition<\/em>‘s main villain<\/a>, but\u00a0is also left unresolved. This risks making the Inquisitor’s story feel like something of a stepping stone on the way to answering more important plotlines.<\/p>\n

Plotlines which follow over into sequels might have the potential to work better if the Dragon Age<\/em> protagonist<\/a> was a single consistent character, but players are instead put in a position where the end of their Inquisition<\/em> character\u2019s story is spent setting up the story of a future, unknown protagonist. This makes the end of the Inquisitor’s story feel\u00a0like less of a send-off and more like a set-up.<\/p>\n

The end of Dragon Age: Origins<\/em><\/a> hinted at possible plotlines for sequels, but none were so pressing that a sequel seemed necessary to resolve the main events of the game. Dragon Age 2<\/em> ended with a cutscene revealing that the Inquisition was reforming. Dragon Age: Inquisition<\/em> had a large portion of its final act dedicated to setting up the\u00a0so-far\u00a0unresolved Dread Wolf plotline. If Dragon Age 4<\/em> continues this pattern of increasingly larger portions of the story setting up sequels, not only does the series risk never coming to a satisfying conclusion, but the individual games risk having less narrative closure.<\/p>\n

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BioWare is relying on Dragon Age 4,\u00a0<\/em>Mass Effect 5<\/em>, and\u00a0the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition<\/em><\/a> as its main upcoming releases for the foreseeable future. After the disappointing reception of \u00a0Mass Effect: Andromeda<\/em> and the extremely rocky launch of Anthem<\/em>, the once-esteemed RPG developer likely needs some sure-fire hits in order to get itself back on track. However, there is another major lesson which BioWare should take away from the difficulties encountered with both Andromeda<\/em> and Anthem<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Andromeda<\/em> showed the importance of exploring new IPs. The story of Mass Effect: Andromeda<\/em><\/a> had to take place far away in both time and space from the events of the original Mass Effect<\/em> trilogy in order to avoid contradictory plot-points. Long-established alien races became necessary to include to keep the game feeling like a\u00a0Mass Effect\u00a0<\/em>game but were less compelling for many players, and there were too few new cultures to explore to keep some fans interested. In short, one of Andromeda<\/em>\u2019s biggest limiting factors was that it had to be another Mass Effect<\/em> game.<\/p>\n

Anthem<\/em><\/a> demonstrated some of the problems BioWare has had launching new IPs, but Anthem<\/em> was far from a typical BioWare game. Anthem<\/em> was a multiplayer shooter, which has its own slew of design challenges. The best path forward for BioWare may be to invest in new IPs, but in the single-player RPG form that made the studio famous.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0How Mass Effect Remastered Can Bring BioWare Back Into the Limelight<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The types of games BioWare is best known for flourish when the player\u2019s actions are able to affect the story in a number of ways. This makes creating sequels increasingly difficult, as new installments need to account for player choices while also trying to tell a clear story in and of themselves. No more is this clear than in Dragon Age: Inquisition<\/em> where Leliana from Origins<\/em> will return as a so-far unexplained lyrium ghost<\/a> if she\u00a0died\u00a0in Dragon Age: Origins<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The more games that are released in each single-player BioWare RPG<\/a> series, the more the player impact on the broad strokes of the story has to be reduced or the more isolated the story needs to become from the wider world. This could even be seen in Mass Effect 3<\/em>, which had to deal with the possible deaths of many different squadmates in Mass Effect 2<\/em>\u2019s suicide mission. While the large variation in Mass Effect 2\u2019<\/em>s possible endings made it a satisfying ending to that game, it also left BioWare\u00a0with the huge challenge of coming up with compelling replacement characters for when those saves were transferred to Mass Effect 3<\/em>. Like Leliana’s return, this made certain choices seem more canonical than others.<\/p>\n

Other studios are investing in new single-player RPG IPs. Bethesda is currently working on Starfield<\/a><\/em>, the studio\u2019s first new IP in 25 years. BioWare should follow suit and embrace the creative freedom\u00a0and player choice that a new RPG IP would allow for.<\/p>\n

Dragon Age 4<\/em> could wrap up many of the big remaining questions in the series, and while some answers are sure to be left behind, the game could make player decisions for the future of Thedas far more impactful than if the series planned to continue. Along with the release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition<\/em><\/a> this could even make Dragon Age 4<\/em> more likely to be the kind of success needed for the company to recover from a rough few years and to raise enough confidence to embark on a new RPG project.<\/p>\n

Dragon Age 4<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is in development now.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0Solas Isn’t the Only Former Companion More Powerful Than The Dragon Age 4 Protagonist<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n

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Dragon Age 4 needs to be the last game in the fantasy franchise if BioWare is going to deliver similarly hard-hitting RPGs in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":625,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"Why Dragon Age 4 Should Finish the Series | Game Rant - ITTeacherITFreelance.hk","description":"Dragon Age 4 needs to be the last game in the fantasy franchise if BioWare is going to deliver similarly hard-hitting RPGs in the future."},"footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/625"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117659,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117658\/revisions\/117659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}