Dragon Age 3 speculation

Remember Dragon Age? The first game, Origins, was very rapidly followed by Dragon Age 2, but the third instalment (sub-titled Inquisition) has yet to emerge despite a lengthy wait.

Origins was widely praised and DA2 was less well-received. Thankfully, many of the problems with 2 (repetitive rooms being a big one) were clearly due to not having enough time. Given DA3 has had loads of time (it’s due out late this year, perhaps early next) this bodes well.

Before I get onto my own speculation, here’s a great video which runs down, concisely, what we know and probably know already. Some of it I was aware of it, other bits I was not (obviously the video and my own musings below will have some light spoilers):

I’d like to add a spot of speculation regarding companions. Now, Cassandra (inquisitor in DA2) was rumoured a while ago to be one. I’ve not heard anything since, but that’s a possibility, and I’d be very pleased were it to be the case. Leliana will almost certainly appear in the game (if you killed her in Origins it turns out her decapitation was merely a setback) but I personally doubt that she’ll be a companion.

It’s near certain that we’ll have party members who are elves/dwarves, and I hope we get a Qunari/Tal-Vashoth as well. The elves are going to be halfway between the humans with pointy ears of Origins and the, um, distinctive appearance they had in DA2 (just about all of them except Fenris and Merrill were ugly). Given the nature of the story (Chantry falling to bits, Templars and mages at one another’s throats and, I would guess, the Inquisition attempting to put everything back together) it seems probably that we’ll get a Templar party member (we’re near certain to have a couple of mages).

I’m not a fan of day one DLC, but I’d also suppose that Dragon Age will continue to have an extra party member as DLC (included as a pre-order bonus, as per Origins and DA2).

It’ll be interesting to see if we get a Mabari war hound as a full-blown companion, as a limited extra helper or not at all. I think it could work as a proper companion, but would need a far more substantial skill tree than in Origins.

I’m very pleased to hear about each piece of armour being personalised for each party member, allowing a persistent sense of identity/style without compromising customisation.

With all the news about the PS4 and the Xbox One EA has stated it’ll continue to support the Xbox 360 and PS3 for the next few years. This is good news, as we still don’t know what platforms DA3 will be released on. A dual generation release (PS3/Xbox 360 and PS4/Xbox One) seems entirely possible.

Excepting The Last Of Us, out in a little over a fortnight, there aren’t any other games that really have my interest at this stage. Hopefully DA3 will be out later this year.

Thaddeus