Dragon Age: Inquisition Retrospective

Dragon Age: Inquisition is so often maligned for its MMOified systems and weak plot, but is it really that bad ?

A mere three and a half years after Dragon Age II's catastrophic launch, Dragon Age: Inquisition was released. It received a lukewarm reception, with criticisms primarily leveled at the MMOification of its open world and the overall blandness of the story. Today it is generally regarded as the worst game in the series by fanatics.

Even Helen Keller could see that this is a terrible injustice.

Basically every complaint about Inquisition's vapid level design, empty environments, boring combat, and tedious quest-grinds is accurate. Playing the game is much like leveling in Classic WoW, except less exciting. But it's also a very interesting game from a storytelling perspective, and in places expertly written. Here I want to talk about the game's narrative, its amazing unevenness, and why I think it works so much better than II.

The Harold of Andraste, Dialogue Wheels, and Trees

The Inquisitor

For this latest playthrough--my first in six years--I arranged everything as I did when the game first came out. Human mage, male, British voice actor. His name was Harold.

Like pretty much every RPG made post-Mass Effect 2, Inquisition has a voiced protagonist. Those who have read my retrospective on the second Dragon Age will no doubt remember that Hawke's presentation as a voiced protagonist was one of the reasons why I did and do not like that game. Hawke has no personality and no character and is completely uninteresting.

Harold is much better.

As in Origins you can select your race this time around. This naturally means that self-insertion is more viable than it was in II, although the nature of having a voice makes the character categorically less malleable than the Hero of Fereldan in the first game.

And you know what? Harold works for me. The why is best illustrated through the game's dialogue wheel system.

Dialogue Wheels

In II, options for dialogue were always Nice, Snark, Asshole. There was even a little image to remind you which was which when you hovered over each during a conversation, in case you couldn't figure it out for yourself.

The little images have been removed in Inquisition.

In general your options are still Nice, Snark, and Asshole. But it works here, because all three of these options are written with the same character 'voice.' The exact nature of the response changes based on your selection, but they all sound like my Harold. Snark is also far less ridiculous than it is in II, taking more the form of 'light-hearted' than 'aspiring comedian whose shitty jokes have put him on the FBI's most wanted list.' More accurately you might describe the three options in Inquisition as Polite, Witty, and Straightforward.

The resulting effect is that one can choose the response to fit the situation, and even if you flip-flop freely between all options--which the game expects you to do, I think--you'll never feel like you're playing a schizophrenic. The three dialogue choice options in Inquisition work. They help you project yourself onto the Inquisitor while also simultaneously allowing the Inquisitor to seem like a real person, with a consistent personality. This is an extremely impressive accomplishment on the part of the writers. I think Inquisition does voiced protagonist better than any other cRPG, excluding The Witcher.

That isn't to say he's an amazing character. He isn't. His voice actor, or at least the one I used (there are four in the game--two male and two female) is monotone and mediocre. He also asks far too many questions for someone who is supposedly leading this organization through strength of personality, and it's sometimes challenging to understand what the other characters see in him--particularly once you pursue a romance and your chosen partner begins fawning all over you like a 13-year-old girl backstage at a One Direction concert.

Still, the writers pull it off. Harold is a good protagonist.

Dialogue Trees

II barely has dialogue trees. There are a few decent ones, but most conversations are linear. You can only talk to your companions when the game wants you to, and when you do, you choose one option and then that's it.

Inquisition has real, badass, full dialogue trees.

The trees hit me like a log hits an AT-ST after replaying II. The game is full of conversations that are well-written and easily navigable. The options on the right of the screen will always progress the conversation, while the options on the left allow you to dive more deeply--sometimes very deep, taking the discussion in an entirely new direction (after which it will terminate). This might seem small, but it allows players to take dialogue options they want to take. It lends a sense of agency to the talking, which II entirely lacks. The difference between the second and third games in this regard is just stupendous. The design of the dialogue is so much better in Inquisition.

But it's the dialogue trees relative to companions that really makes the game work so well. In fact, it's the companions in general that elevate Inquisition.

Make Me a Match

I've reached sixteen power after doing some adventuring and have returned to Skyhold. Before venturing to the War Room to unlock the next map and progress the story, I decide to pay a visit to Cassandra to see if she's up to anything. It turns out she is! She and Varric are in a fight over finding Hawke, and it's Harold's job to step in and keep them from killing each other--or to do nothing and laugh on the sidelines, if you prefer.

This scene is not marked on the map, as such similar scenes always are in II. It's completely emergent. The game didn't tell me to go do this thing, but it rewarded me for bothering to check in on one of my friends.

This is one of the things that Origins did so well, and it's fantastic to see it returning. Every companion in the game receives this same treatment. They're always up to something if you go to check on them. The scenes that result are dramatic, funny, heartwarming, and, most importantly, always develop the relationship between said character and Harold. They also lend a sense that these NPCs are real people with their own lives beyond your purview. Pay a visit to Cullen and learn that he's undergoing lyrium withdrawl. Talk with Varric and meet the real Bianca. The designers didn't shove this down my throat; they just let it happen.

This is what makes Inquisition work so well. The characters are very good, always likeable, and the ways in which you get to know them are engaging and interesting. They feel real.

And moreover, even if there isn't a hidden scripted event awaiting your discovery, each companion--including your advisors--also has long, continually developing dialogue trees for you to explore, just as in the first game. If you're in the mood to talk to Dorian, go talk to Dorian. The game won't stop you. A real conversation can ensue.

II does not let you do this. II has no dialogue trees.

None of this would work if the game's characters weren't so good. Fortunately, following Origins, I feel safe in my proclamation that Inquisition has the best cast of any cRPG ever made. These characters are nuanced and flawed and none of them are psychotic asshole abominations who deserve to die, in stark contrast with II.

I romanced Cassandra this time around, mostly because she has the most spectacular jawline I've ever seen. Lesser writers would have made her a lesbian because she's tough, dominant, and has short hair, which are obviously only qualities lesbians are allowed to have in media. Fortunately Gaider and his team are smarter than that. In actuality it turns out that Cassandra is not only straight, but that she likes romance novels. She's vulnerable to sappy sentimentality. In fact her strength and self-capability is in no way at odds with her femininity, and although she's business-mannered and face-scarred, her empowerment did not have to come at the expense of her attractiveness. It turns out women can be tough and feminine at the same time!

In short, Cassandra feels like a real person.

Although I haven't replayed the game enough times to romance everyone--and you can romance almost everyone except Leliana, although many (most?) are gender-restricted--everyone else also receives a similar treatment. They all feel like real people with distinct personalities. They do not feel like checkmarks on a diversity quota list. They do not feel like caricatures or stereotypes. They're all great.

Except for Sera, who is annoying as fuck, and the Iron Bull, who's trying too hard to be cool and funny.

The highest praise I can level at Inquisition's companions is that deciding who to fuck was extremely tough. Josephine, Dorian, and Cassandra were all competing choices. This wasn't because I was in love with all three, but because pursuing a romance would unlock additional contact regarding each character, and I liked all three so much that I didn't want to lose out on any fun scenes. I opted for Cassandra because Josephine seemed too sisterly and I didn't want to ruin my friendship with Dorian, and honestly I think I like Cassandra the most anyway, but it was still a close call.

Contrast this with Dragon Age II, where I was actively repulsed by the notion of intimacy with any of the characters, and you can see the difference.

I don't love Cassandra like I love Morrigan as a male Cousland. I don't love Dorian like I love Alistair as a female Amell. But Origins captured something that no other RPG ever will, and when it comes to relationships and romance, Inquisition is about as good as it will ever get. It's much better than any of the Mass Effect games.

But it isn't just the companions. The crew at Skyhold grows all throughout the course of the game, and each addition is a new dialogue tree, a handful of new emergent scenes, and someone else to become invested in. This is what I play cRPGs for--not the combat.

The Game

The main reason why so many people dislike Inquisition is because of the game at large. The combat is tedious and the enemies have far too much HP (and I was playing on easy mode!). This is also the case in the first game, but unlike the first game Inquisition's narrative is rooted 100% in its companions and its main quest.

The sidequests have basically no story.

It's very strange. Inquisition bursts with emergent, engaging storytelling whenever you go to Skyhold and click on a companion. Some missions, like the Winter Palace, are similarly full of well-written narrative, of a sort that most RPGs can only dream of. That Winter Palace quest is the best part of the game and it's not coincidental that it's also the only part of the game with (almost) no combat.

If you wander around the open world doing every quest, you'll experience a handful of dialogue trees, a few bits of story here and there, and that's about it. Most of these quests are fetching something, killing someone, or going someplace, and then a few Power points are distributed directly into your bank account. Again I would compare it unfavorably with leveling in World of Warcraft. It's shocking in places how little narrative is attached to these sidequests; some guy in some village tells me to go kill a thing, so I walk there and kill a thing, and then that's it. No real character or plot, just busywork.

Neither of the other games in the series suffers from this problem, although II's sidequests are similarly horrible and tedious. Mass Effect doesn't suffer from this at all. The result is that Inquisition is bifurcated: the main quest and everything you do at Skyhold is fantastic in its presentation. The characters are great. It handles them with more elegance than any other BioWare game, even if the characters aren't quite as good as Origins'. But most of your time will be slogging around the open world, gathering Power and crafting materials, waiting for War Room missions to complete. The only real exception to this is companion questing, which tends to be significantly more interesting.

(Incidentally the timers on the War Room, which are so often criticized, are based on your system clock. If you tab out, set the clock forward three days, then immediately set it back, all currently active operations will be finished. I recommend doing this.)

The Story

Corypheus is a guy who skipped arm day and is trying to become a god or something. He's like a darkspawn except crystals are growing out of his head. Maybe he used to be human? He put a green thing in the sky somehow and is trying to tear down the veil between the Fade and reality. I think. At the end of the game he makes some islands float and you kill him in an easy boss fight. That's basically the story.

Yes, this is pretty lame. It's mired by plotholes and conveniences and things that don't really make sense--like, why and where did Harold stumble onto the Divine as she was being tortured by Corypheus? Why was he there? What was he doing there? Where was everyone else? I don't get it. Is this ever explained? The narrative feels as though it wants to have an enormous, epic, scale, but it rushes through the set-up too fast. It doesn't work hard enough to earn that scale. The result is less epic, more underwhelming.

But if you recall Mass Effect 2 ends with a big dumb boss fight that makes no sense--I still don't know what a human reaper is--and no one likes the ending of 3. Dragon Age II's story is a horror show without any plot. The only BioWare games that work on a plot-level are KotOR and Origins, and both are far from perfect.

These RPGs are not really about the story. They're about the journey and the characters you meet along the way.

This is why the lame-ass plot about saving the world doesn't offend me in Inquisition. The experience would be better if this story was better, yes, but the game is really about building up the Inquisition, developing relationships, managing an army, and constructing alliances. At all of these things Inquisition does succeed. The narrative could be more interesting, but it's good enough as a framework for the shit we really care about--which is who Harold will be banging this time around.

Where the plot does succeed is in its pay-off of threads set-up in the first and second games. Leliana and Morrigan are great to see again. Both have been developed truthfully and in ways that respect player agency. Watching Cullen, that random Templar from the first game, become a military leader is a lot of fun. Choices made in the past feel relevant to the story, especially as you meet Hawke and King Alistair or Loghain and Warden Alistair. These are mostly small touches, but they matter. They make the game feel like it cares about you as a player.

(As an ironic sidenote, I found Hawke to be a much better character in Inquisition. She was actually worth saving in the end. Although, admittedly, I saved her because the other option was Stroud--I have King Alistair and Human Kieran in my worldstate--and he's like a mustache with legs. This might serve to further demonstrate that the lack of any alignment system in II makes Hawke seem amazingly erratic; with that erraticism removed, she's not a bad character.)

In Summary

I loved Inquisition when it came out. It was far from perfect, but it gave my the Dragon Age fix I was desperate for.

Six and a half years later, I like it even more.

The characters are excellent. The writers make them fun to engage with and deep enough for you to stay engaged. Some of the narrative, particularly that which unfolds in Skyhold, that which comes as a result of companion questing, and the mission at the Winter Palace, is as good as or better than the best moments in any other BioWare game. With the exception of reuniting with Morrigan at the end of the 'Witch Hunt' DLC, befriending Dorian and becoming intimate with Cassandra is just about as good as RPGing gets.

The gameplay is a slog. The plot is weak. But at its worst, Inquisition is merely tedious. It's never boring. And at its best, it's phenomenal. This is better than what I can say for II, which is at its best playable (and at its worst torture).

Origins might be the stronger game on the whole, but Inquisition holds up just fine. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes cRPGs--although you need to play the first game to appreciate it in full.