- 22 hours ago
- #dragonage
- #bioware
- #opinion
- #commentary
- #review
My take and analysis of the state of Dragon Age franchise.
#dragonage #bioware #opinion #commentary #review
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Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:26 Part 1 – The Golden Age
02:45 Part 2 – The First Cracks
05:59 Part 3 – The Identity Crisis
08:32 Part 4 – The Long Silence
10:41 Part 5 – The Enshittification is complete
12:52 Part 6 – The Uncertain Future
15:31 Outro
#dragonage #bioware #opinion #commentary #review
Like, share, sub and all that good stuff!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:26 Part 1 – The Golden Age
02:45 Part 2 – The First Cracks
05:59 Part 3 – The Identity Crisis
08:32 Part 4 – The Long Silence
10:41 Part 5 – The Enshittification is complete
12:52 Part 6 – The Uncertain Future
15:31 Outro
Category
🎮️
GamingTranscript
00:00In 2009, Dragon Age Origins launched and instantly became one of the greatest RPGs ever made.
00:07It had dark storytelling, deep choices, tactical combat, branching decisions,
00:12amazing characters. You name it, it had it. Fast forward a decade or so,
00:17and the franchise barely resembles what fans fell in love with.
00:21So what exactly happened to Dragon Age? Well, we are about to find out.
00:27Dragon Age Origins wasn't just another RPG. It felt like a return to something that had been
00:34missing for years. Developed by BioWare, this was a game that fully embraced what made classic
00:40role-playing games special. It took heavy inspiration from titles like Baldur's Gate,
00:45and you could feel that DNA in everything it did. The tone was dark, not just visually,
00:50but thematically. This wasn't a power fantasy where you save the world and everyone cheers.
00:56This was a world full of political tension, moral ambiguity, and genuinely difficult decisions.
01:03There were moments where no matter what you chose, someone suffered. And that's where Origins really
01:09stood out because your choices actually mattered. And not in a surface level, mind you. The illusion
01:15of choice kind of way. But in a way that you could completely change how the story played out.
01:21Characters could live or die based on your decision, and entire storylines could unfold differently
01:26depending on how you approached them. Then there was the combat. Unlike what the series would later
01:32become, Origins leaned heavily into tactical gameplay. You weren't just button mashing your way
01:38through enemies. You had to pause, think, position your party, and actually plan your approach.
01:44It felt closer to a strategy game at times, and for a lot of players that was a huge part
01:49of the appeal.
01:50But what really made the game unforgettable were the companions. Characters like Alistair,
01:56Morrigan, and Liliana weren't just party members. They felt like real people. They had their own
02:02personalities, their own beliefs, and their own reactions to your choices. And they could like you,
02:08disagree with you, or even turn against you depending on how you played.
02:12That alone made every playthrough feel personal. And speaking of playthroughs, this game had insane
02:19replayability. Different origins, different choices, different outcomes, different builds.
02:25You could finish the game and immediately want to start over just to see how things could change.
02:31I suppose you could say Dragon Age Origins wasn't just a great RPG. As far as I'm concerned,
02:37it was the standard. And not in a million years would you expect to witness what would happen next.
02:47Then came 2011. And with that, Dragon Age 2. At first glance, it looked like Dragon Age. The same
02:55world, familiar faces, and a story set in the same universe. But the moment you started playing,
03:01something felt off. Unlike Origins, which had years behind it, Dragon Age 2 was reportedly developed,
03:08or rather crunched roughly, in 14 to 16 months. And you could feel that, not in one specific moment,
03:15but everywhere. Let's start with the most obvious thing, which is reused environments. You'd enter the
03:21cave, then enter another cave later, and realize it's the same exact layout. The same corridors, the same
03:28rooms, just slightly blocked off in different places. Now multiply this by 50 times. And I don't
03:36know about you guys, but it made the world feel small. And that was another major shift. Scale.
03:42Instead of sprawling, epic journey across multiple regions, like we had in Origins,
03:48Dragon Age 2 focused almost entirely on a single city, Kirkwall. That's not a bad idea on its own,
03:54but combined with the reused environments and limited variety, it made the game feel constrained.
04:00I could say that I felt like everything was happening in a loop. The only difference was
04:06that you could change night and day cycle, but it was still the same city. And yes, you had the
04:11outskirts, but again, same same, but different, but still the same. Then there was the combat. Origins had
04:18this slow, tactical system where every decision mattered. Dragon Age 2, however, went in the
04:24totally opposite direction. Faster, flashier, and more action focused. I remember when I played it
04:31for the first time as a warrior. It was so fast paced and button mashy, I thought I was playing
04:37some
04:38sort of a JRPG. Abilities looked bigger, enemies came in waves and spawned literally out of thin air,
04:44and the overall pace was much quicker. And let's not forget that we only had three specializations
04:50per class. I always wanted to play Arcane Warrior in Dragon Age 2, but sadly, that never came to be.
04:56Basically, the depth we had in Origins was gone. It started to feel less like a tactical RPG,
05:03and more like a hack and slash game wearing Dragon Age's skin. The writing also took a hit. Everything
05:10felt cheesy, and the main character, Hawk, sounded disinterested. That abomination of a conversation
05:16wheel thing didn't help a lot in that department. Either you were mega heroic, sarcastic, or simply an
05:23asshole. And that was basically it. The companions were kinda forgettable, but there was still a hint of
05:30what made Origins special, particularly in the form of everyone's favorite dwarf, Varric. But that's what
05:36makes this moment so important, in my opinion. Because Dragon Age 2 wasn't where the series fell apart.
05:43It was there where the cracks first started to show. Still, hope yet remained. All was not lost.
05:49It's true that the franchise took a hit, but it wasn't something you couldn't recover from.
05:54Or at least, that's what I thought. And oh boy, was I wrong.
06:01In 2014 Dragon Age Inquisition was released, and on paper it looked like a comeback. It reviewed incredibly
06:08well. At least when you see the critics' reviews. It even won Game of the Year award. And for many
06:15players it was their first Dragon Age game. But for long-time fans, this was the moment things started
06:21to feel completely different. And I would argue the explanation is rather simple. Inquisition didn't
06:27build on what came before. It practically changed direction. Instead of the more focused, handcrafted
06:34design of earlier games, Inquisition leaned heavily into open-world structure. Suddenly,
06:39you weren't moving through tightly designed areas with meaningful choices. You were basically dropped
06:45into massive zones filled with things to do. On the surface, that sounded great. But the problem was
06:51what you were actually doing there. And one word describes this perfectly. Busy work. Go collect
06:58shards. Go close rifts. Go gather resources. And then run back and forth across huge maps just to check
07:04off objectives. It started to feel less like a classic RPG and more like an MMO, but without the multiplayer
07:11component. And that shift didn't just affect exploration. It affected the entire experience. Once again,
07:17combat became less tactical. Less about planning and positioning, and more about real-time action
07:23and ability cooldowns. The depth was still there in some form, but it wasn't the focus anymore. And then
07:30there were the maps themselves. They were massive. Visually impressive, sure, but often filled with not
07:37much of a real substance. Large stretches of land that looked beautiful, but didn't offer the same level of
07:44meaningful interaction or storytelling that earlier games were known for. Devs even said that they
07:50learned from Dragon Age 2. But they did the same mistakes again. Plot felt less focused than earlier
07:56games. The main villain lacked impact, and there was too much filler content between story missions.
08:02From a certain point of view, you could say it was a different kind of design philosophy. Bigger worlds,
08:08more content, more hours, but not necessarily better experience. And that's really what defined this
08:15stage of Dragon Age. It's also worth mentioning that this is the moment where the series clearly started
08:20chasing industry trends, instead of focusing on what made it unique in the first place. And for many fans,
08:27me included, that's where Dragon Age lost its identity.
08:34After Dragon Age Inquisition, something strange happened. The whole franchise just went quiet.
08:41Years passed with almost no concrete updates, no clear direction, basically just silence. But behind
08:48the scenes, however, at BioWare that is, things weren't going well. The first major warning sign came
08:54with Mass Effect Andromeda. When it launched in 2017, it was met with heavy criticism, awkward animations,
09:02technical issues, and a general feeling that it lacked the polish and depth people expected from BioWare.
09:08It wasn't a complete failure, some aspects of that game were relatively okay, for example combat,
09:15at least in my opinion. But it damaged the studio's reputation in a big way. Then came Anthem. Anthem was
09:22supposed to be BioWare's next big thing. A live-service, multiplayer-focused game,
09:27backed by Electronic Arts. But when it released in 2019, it was a colossal disaster. Broken systems,
09:36repetitive gameplay, a lack of meaningful content, and worst of all, it felt nothing like the kind of
09:42games BioWare was known for. It's safe to say that Anthem shook people's confidence in the studio
09:48entirely, and while all of this was happening, the next Dragon Age was stuck in development.
09:54Not moving forward, but restarting. Multiple times. Reports suggested that the game was rebooted more
10:00than once, shifting from a traditional single-player RPG to a live-service model, and then back again.
10:07Every time that happened, progress was lost, and direction was reset. And with this instability
10:12came another major problem. People started leaving. Key developers who had helped define Dragon Age
10:18were no longer there. Writers, directors, long-time veterans, all of them gone. And with them,
10:25a lot of the identity that made these games special in the first place. So while fans were waiting for
10:30the next Dragon Age, the studio behind was struggling to figure out what it even wanted to be.
10:36If this isn't foreshadowing for what's gonna happen next, I don't know what is.
10:42Which brings us to today, and to Dragon Age, The Whale Guard. After years of silence, restarts,
10:49and uncertainty, this is the game that's supposed to define the future of the franchise? I say hell no.
10:57I'm not gonna sugarcoat this, let's be real. The game is utter shit. You could see it immediately from
11:04the trailer itself, because when I first saw it, it immediately screamed hard pass to me. I mean,
11:10just look at it. It doesn't look like Dragon Age at all. It's only a Dragon Age game, because they
11:16named it so. Without it, you would never associate this turd to Dragon Age. But let's say you were a
11:22bit
11:23dumb, you were super hyped and optimistic about it, that you actually abandoned common sense and you
11:28decided to buy this abortion. This metacritic quote will tell you everything about it. I cannot help but
11:35consider it an insult. It has absolutely nothing of Dragon Age, neither in the writing, nor in the
11:41art style, nor in the gameplay, and it is forcibly stuffed with political agenda. Which Dragon Age
11:47does not need, since it has always been extremely inclusive. Watching the battle of Ostagar from the
11:54Dragon Age and then looking at any cutscene from this is simply painful. If you compare it to Dragon Age
12:00Origins, the difference is immediately noticeable. Origins was dark, grounded, and often brutal in
12:07its storytelling. The Vailguard, however, is shallow, simplistic, and woke as fuck. Better not misgender
12:13someone or you might end up doing gazillion pushups. Choices you make are meaningless. Combat is action
12:20focused and repetitive as hell, and companions are so fucking annoying you are actively working to get
12:27rid of them instead of working together with them. I could go on and on how shitty this game is,
12:33but the best thing you can do about Vailguard is to forget it, never play it, and wait for another
12:39Dragon Age game. However, considering what the situation in Bioware is, as well as the colossal
12:46diarrhea Vailguard turn out to be, I don't think this is gonna happen anytime soon.
12:53Now comes the most important question of them all. What is next in store for Dragon Age as a franchise?
13:00This is how I see it. Vailguard underperformed in comparison to EA's expectations, because they
13:07roughly had around 1.5 million players versus double expected from EA. It seems EA was optimistic as
13:15fuck. Well, sucks to be them. Anyway, we all know development was messy. Multiple reboots,
13:21live service pivots, staff turnover, stuff like that, and post-launch support was basically killed
13:26immediately. No DLC planned, no expansions, and no long-term support roadmap. This alone is a huge
13:34red flag because Dragon Age games historically always had expansions. Also, this is the part people
13:40underestimate. Reports say Vailguard's failure led to layoffs and restructuring at Bioware,
13:46EA was already skeptical about investing further, and a proposed Dragon Age remaster trilogy was rejected.
13:54And that last one is brutal because remasters are low-risk money and EA still said no. So pretty much
14:00Dragon Age is not dead, not officially anyway, but realistically speaking, we could look at this in
14:05three timeframes. If you look at its short term, which is next three to five years, there is no
14:10new Dragon Age game in development, at least publicly, no DLC for Vailguard, thank fuck for that,
14:16and no remasters approved, which basically means the franchise is on thin ice. If you look at this
14:22problem medium term, Dragon Age's future now depends almost entirely on how well Mass Effect 5 will
14:29perform. If it succeeds, EA might greenlight another Dragon Age project, but if it fails,
14:34Bioware itself could be in serious trouble. And finally, when we are talking about long-term
14:39possibilities, these are the only realistic paths I can see. Number one would be soft reboot, which
14:45again, it's most likely. New Dragon Age with completely different direction, and probably less
14:51classic RPG and more action focused. Number two is dormancy. The franchise will disappear for a decade,
14:58and number three is external revival, which means that another studio eventually gets the IP,
15:04and they make Dragon Age like that. Long story short, don't expect anything and pray that Mass Effect
15:105 does really good. And given what was happening with Bioware over the last couple of years,
15:15I am not optimistic at all. I reckon we'll just have to wait and see what happens. All I know
15:21is that
15:22the tragedy of Dragon Age isn't that it failed, it's that we've already seen how incredible it could be.
15:28And that's just fucking sad. Right, it seems I already talked way too much, so I'm gonna end here.
15:36Thanks for watching, and if you like what you heard, like, share, subscribe, all that good stuff.
15:42That's it from me, until the next one.
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