Dragon Age: Inquisition was a massive success for BioWare. It redeemed the franchise after fans were so disappointed in Dragon Age 2, and brought it to new heights. It received rave reviews and even won awards for Game of the Year from several different groups and news outlets.
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In 2012, though, Dragon Age: Inquisition was just an idea, percolating in a few heads. It would take a lot of time, energy, and hard work before it would reach the heights we know today. Here, we discuss some things you might not have known about the process of launching Dragon Age: Inquisition.
They Cancelled A DLC For Dragon Age 2 So That They Could Get The New Engine Ready
Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 used a game engine called Eclipse which BioWare had made itself. However, their dreams for Dragon Age: Inquisition were much bigger than Eclipse could handle. They reached out to DICE, another studio owned by EA, to ask if they could use the Frostbite engine which had produced the Battlefield games.
The Frostbite engine was an entirely new beast and, as they began to work with it, they realized what a huge project it would be to build everything from the ground up. An announced DLC for Dragon Age 2, The Exalted March, actually had to be canceled to free up employees to help with the switch.
Anders The Mad Hermit Only Appears In Concept Art
It's no surprise that the Dragon Age: Inquisition team considered including Anders in the game. He was such a controversial character from the previous game and many fans would have loved to see how the repercussions from his actions played out.
Matt Rhodes shared concept art of Anders as a hermit, seemingly living in a desert, on his art blog. He said that, while this fate of Anders' never saw the light of day, it was "just one of those things that got painted between DA2 and DA:I."
Dragon Age: Inquisition's Central Pillars Of Design
When discussing how they developed Dragon Age: Inquisition, the team cites its core "design pillars" that the project revolved around. The first two were "story" and "characters." This is no surprise – these things have been critical to Dragon Age since the beginning.
The third pillar, "open world," was new to Dragon Age: Inquisition. However, fans seem to agree that the team pulled it off well; Inquisition features open-world maps, but they aren't all clumped together into a mega-map, as it were. They're scattered across Thedas. This allows the maps to be totally unique, means that players don't have to trudge unnecessarily through filler regions, and means that they can save time from developing an overly large world that's only half-full.
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The final pillars are also familiar for Dragon Age games, but took on a special meaning for Inquisition: "choices" and "personalize." Dragon Age: Inquisition took these pillars farther than either of the previous games – so far, indeed, that some players are left wondering how another game can be made to bring them all together. Thankfully, the setting of Dragon Age 4 (Tevinter) is disconnected from the regions we've explored thus far and history can slowly work itself out in the background of your story.
Bisexual Romances That Were Never To Be
The team at BioWare wanted to have a diverse set of romances for the game – gay, lesbian, straight, and bisexual. They certainly accomplished their goal. However, it seems that two of the straight male characters, Cullen and Solas, were actually going to be bisexual. There are unused voice files in the game which prove this.
In Cullen's case, it was probably changed due to running out of time. Solas, however, was purposefully straight in order to avoid making him a "depraved bisexual." This is a trope in popular culture in which bisexual people are portrayed as sociopaths; they're willing to sleep with anyone just because, as an extension of their "craziness." Harley Quinn from the Batman franchise is one well-known example. The BioWare team worried that, considering Solas' controversial ending and motives, some players would think of him as crazy and his character would fulfill this trope.
Inquisitors Could Have Named Themselves The Divine
Choosing a new Divine for the Chantry is something that happens slowly during the course of Dragon Age: Inquisition and its outcome is not confirmed until the very end. Apparently, there was talk at BioWare of allowing you to name yourself the next Divine. With the whole "Herald of Andraste" thing going on, it's less crazy than one might think.
However, there are pretty strict rules about who can be Divine; it's basically always a human female. Players who had an elven, qunari, dwarven, and/or male Inquisitor would have a much harder time (if not outright impossible) advocating for themselves. Eventually, the idea was struck down because, for any character other than a human female Inquisitor, it just seemed too far out of the realm of possibility. Matt Rhodes called it a "lore-breaking act of heresy" that "made for some interesting and heated discussion" among the team, ultimately noting that he was "not even a little bit surprised we backed away from this one."
Iron Bull Was Supposed To Have A Prosthetic Arm
The Iron Bull is everyone's favorite one-eyed Qunari. But, did you know that he was actually supposed to have one arm and two eyes? His initial design featured a prosthetic arm replacing the one he'd lost. It would have had multiple attachments for different situations – one was a canon, another was a set of blades, and so on.
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Unfortunately, having the Iron Bull's own arm be his weapon wasn't easy to get working in-game. A fighting style would have had to have been created just for him, which would have eaten up more time than the concept was worth. All we have to remember it by is the concept art.
The Reason That The Side Quests Are Boring
Each region in Dragon Age: Inquisition is its own mini open-world map. While the layout is fairly linear if you're focusing on the main quests, there's plenty to explore if you're interested in the road less traveled. Unfortunately, while there is technically lots to do – including rifts, side quests, looting, Astrariums, shards, and more – none of it has much depth.
In hindsight, the Dragon Age team has discussed how they failed to flesh out the side-content to the extent that it deserved. Mike Laidlaw has called it "a little hollow." When talking about it, they discuss how there were problems with the new Frostbite engine for a long time during development, so no one could playtest the game. By the time they realized their mistake, there wasn't enough time to go back and make adjustments.
The Team Could Have Started Over, Or Made The Next Jade Empire
Supposedly, before starting the next Dragon Age game, the team at BioWare was offered the choice to make a new Jade Empire game instead, or to make a whole new IP (intellectual property).
In the case of Jade Empire, it was a well-reviewed game but BioWare felt that consumers were more aware of Dragon Age than Jade Empire, so it would have more pull.
Then, why not start over with a new IP? Well, it would have been an immense project to pull off, whereas Dragon Age was just waiting for a game to redeem the franchise after Dragon Age 2.
Open World Environments Were Due To Fans Criticisms Of Dragon Age 2
One of the loudest criticism of Dragon Age 2 was its incessant repeat of mundane areas. Not only do you have to go through the city of Kirkwall (and its outskirts) more times than you can count, but anytime you do get to go somewhere new, it's probably just a cave that has the same layout as every other cave in the game.
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Fans shouted, and the Dragon Age team listened. They looked to games like Skyrim to inspire themselves for Inquisition. The team aimed to create a world that players could explore if they wanted to, but which wouldn't restrict the kind of player that just wanted to blast through the story: they talked about people being able to finish the game in 20 hours or in 200 hours.
Why The Warden Doesn't Have A Cameo
Plenty of fans were disappointed not to see their Warden character in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Hawke gets a cameo, after all, so why not the Hero of Ferelden? Of course, there are little things here and there to make up for it – through letters and dialogue you can learn about what the Warden is up to, depending on who they romanced and what happened to them after the events of Dragon Age: Origins.
Talking to PC Gamer, Mike Laidlaw admitted that they considered including a cameo from the Warden. They stopped short because of the fact that Dragon Age: Origins' protagonist wasn't voiced in their own game. The team didn't want to sever their fans' personal attachments to their own character by not doing the Warden justice. "The disappointment of the Warden not being there is more palatable than the Warden being there and not being right," he said. Unfortunately, this may mean that fans shouldn't hold out hope for a Warden cameo in Dragon Age 4, either.
NEXT: Dragon Age: Things You Didn't Know About The Amell Family
