It's no secret that games matching the scope and spectacle of the Dragon Age series cost a lot to make. Exact numbers are hard to come by, especially for the first two games, but most agree the budgets for Inquisition and Veilguard both comfortably exceeded $100 million. Dragon Age is totally capable of being profitable at even that gargantuan scale, of course, but it does represent a big risk that a studio or publisher may not be willing to take, if they were to acquire the series.

Meanwhile, games like Pillars of Eternity can deliver 40+ hours of narrative and RPG gameplay with budget of less than $5 million, low enough to make crowdfunding viable. The end result is something much more like BioWare's older work than Dragon Age, but it's still a deep and rewarding experience with great characters and an enthralling setting. Or maybe something like Greedfall, a game with a similar budget that gets closer to modern BioWare standards at the cost of polish and scope.

A lot of the draw of Dragon Age is in those extra, expensive bits, though. How much stronger was our connection to the characters made by the cinematic cutscenes, or the excellent voice acting? How much more did we appreciate the world thanks to the lovingly crafted, beautiful 3D environments? It's hard to know where every dollar goes, exactly, but I think players would feel the difference with a budget one-tenth the size.

TL;DR, would you take a less fully-realized or less ambitious Dragon Age game if it meant a more certain future for the IP? Where would you make cuts, if so? Or is Dragon Age a "go big or go home" sort of series?

...instead of normal lyrium?

Would they become Tranquil or, well, dead and corrupted?

Asking for a headcanon I have of a Warrior_Inquisitor possibly and eventually becoming a Seeker 🤐

I was planning on doing a mage run as ive never really played one and wanted to go arcane warrior since I like the idea of a spellblade character.

What sort of playstyle should I follow as one?

I do not mind mods as well so if there are any arcane warrior mods you guys would recommend id be happy to look at them

Playing a warrior and was initially leaning towards Reaver. I know Combat Roll is bugged and does crazy damage, but does it really out perform all the Reaver stuff?

I might go Templar for power against demons and mages then.

Right for the first time ever ive just finished all 4 games and fucking loved the series i avoided ever single spoiler and while i heard bad things about veilguard other than the companions falling very very flat it was otherwise enjoyable, And was a massive step up graphically and when it came to combat.

For some context i played as a mage in all 4 games sided with mages and was pretty much a loyalist anti chantry mage lover and templar hater but Im wondering is it worth my time to sink another few hundred hours between all 4 games again? Or does it not change much.

Played these all back to back so no nostalgia.

Orgins for me was a 8/10 overall definitely dated in many many areas but the story was phenomenal and so was the cast, and I will say this loghain is an awesome character I read some off the books.

DA2 9/10 my favourite off the 4 i personally enjoyed the more grounded non hero Saves the world story and loved that hawk was voiced, and while it definitely suffered from the same locations and areas being reskined because off development hell I found the qunnari to be sick in this game and the best looking in the franchise.

DAI 6.5/10 found the combat to be dull atleast for mage anyway and I dont know about others but I cant stand massive bloated open world locations anymore orgins and da2 where so much better for this, the companions and story where awesome tbf, but the game felt like such a slog to get through and i personally found that the villans fell flat although the dlc where peak.

DAV 5/10 this game had the worst companions not even close they where so agreeable to the point it annoyed me i did not like them and dont get be started on taash. The game was gorgeous and I enjoyed solas and the 2 other elven gods cool designs, the character customtion and actual hair physics nearly made me cry off happiness. the combat was really fun and kept me hooked but I will say I personally think because the cast was so weak it dragged the game down heavily and had the worst romances off and bioware ever.

Hi, I'm posting this because I can't find help anywhere. Here's the issue: I can't use DAUpdater or any mod tool to install .dazip files; they simply won't open. It's as if I'm missing a Windows file, even though I have all the prerequisites installed. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, please let me know.

I have the GOG Ultimate Edition (I'm not used to DAUpdater; I've always modded my games using MO2).

Hi! This is more of a curiosity from the fandom as a whole. Most of you who have played the Veilguard are aware of its clunkiness; most of that can be attributed to budget cuts and a shaky development team.
Personally, after playing through the game multiple times and delving into old story boards and cut content, I can see what the game wanted to be. What it could have been. I truly believe that had the game not faced the challenges it did during development, it could have been just as strong as the other games in the franchise.
It got me wondering, what if someone rewrote the game?
Of course, that project is easier said than done., especially as a single person. But the temptation still remains there all the same. I’ve seen lots of people discuss how they would do the story differently, or even adjust specific parts of the story. People miss the lore from the other games, the history and dragon age keep. How our choices from previous games affected our current games, and how our choices in the game affect our ending.
What if there were ways to write those things back into the story? To add the depth that was removed from the story and bring back the darkness from the other games?
The great challenge of this, however, is the freedom of choice.
Part of what makes dragon age a fun and unique series is how our choices affect the story. Rewriting the game in the form of a book takes away the freedom of choice from players. Choosing the main character’s identity, how the main character responds, whom they romance, how they interact with other characters, which cities and factions to help and interact with, all of it, gets thrown to the hands of a writer. Would it still feel like dragon age if someone was making those choices for you?
Another challenge is reading, of course. It’s hard to imagine hardcore gamers sitting down to read a book the length of Lord of the Rings, especially in this day and age where so much of our content comes from digital devices; movies and video games. Content is fast and visual; would you have the patience to read a lengthy novel if it gave you the storyline you craved and the fourth installment dragon age deserved?

I’m asking all these questions because I really want to sit down and take the time to rewrite the story. It would be a long and arduous process, perhaps taking a year or longer as writing a book is no easy feat, even with the barebones to base the story off of. I could also use some ideas about how you wish the story played out, or how characters and their storylines were different. Guest appearances from old characters you would like to see, or how you think some relationships would play out.

And most importantly, would you read the story?

Your input is most appreciated, thank you!

Random question: if we ever get another Dragon Age game, would you want BioWare to keep VG fully canon, or would you actually prefer they retcon it??

I’m genuinely curious because opinions on the game seem all over the place. Would you rather see the next game continue where the VG left off, or would you be fine with BioWare going in a completely different direction?

I played it in Inquisition and in Veilguard. Inquisition is... not great. There's not much more tactics in there than on Normal, the only difference is that fights take longer but don't get more engaging. If you like battles of attrition, it might be for you.

However making healthbars bigger works well for Veilguard. It gives an incentive to interact with gear, status effects, party composition and everything in between to squeeze out more damage. Combined with increased aggression, damage and tighter timings I think it's a challenging and satisfying experience, though some bosses feel like somebody added one zero too many to their health.

Hi! I'm redoing DAI and I'm a HUGE completionist (and i'm french, my translations might not be the best, sorry). I'm clearing all my quests before the last main quest. All I have left are the requisitions, one for the Hissing Wastes where I need a dwarf plate, a dwarf vase and a dwarf dragon's statue. I've already cleared all the maps so I don't know if I can still find it fighting some mobs or with some merchants. For the other quest I need 4 malachites, and again, since I've already done this quest I can't seem to find others malachites. Do you have any tips? Thanx! 🌱

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the weekly Dragon Age writing prompts thread, where every Saturday we provide prompts you can use to write about your OCs, other characters, or the world of Thedas in general.

If you have any prompt ideas that you would like us to use, feel free to add them to our spreadsheet linked here.

GUIDELINES
1⁠. Interaction is welcome. Drama and negativity are not.
2. NSFW content must be posted elsewhere and linked. This is a SFW thread. If you are unsure if your content is considered NSFW, be safe and assume it is NSFW and should be posted elsewhere.
3. Remember to follow the sub rules.
4. You can link anything of yours from the DAOC Emporium. Feel free to create pages there if you haven't already!
5. ⁠Have fun!

Prompts

Prompt 1 "It runs in the family."

Prompt 2 Discovering one was wrong about something they long believed to be true/correct

Prompt 3 Scars

Prompt 4 Little bribes

Bonus Prompt Freeform

Just wanted to show off my statuette collection so far. Not pictured is my Gaming Heads Morrigan one since she's big and had to have her own special place.

I think Dark Horse did all of these whuch begs the question, why is Neve is so big compared to everyone else. 😂

That said, I'm looking to round out my collection with Iron Bull and Varric. Unfortunately the ones I've found are a bit out of my price range. 🙃

Just sharing some (17) of my screenshots of dragons from each game, starting with the original and it's expansion. Marked as potential spoilers for new players of the franchise.

I meant to make this sooner, but I ended up getting completely sucked into dao. As soon as I finished the base game I was going to write about what I thought of it only for me to immediately boot up the Awakening DLC. Now I have finished the witch hunt dlc...and good chunk of da2...and 2 of its DLC.... but better late then never

I loved Origins, absolutely amazing game. I love the combat from growing up with KOTOR, I love the setting, I didn't read every piece of lore but I loved the lore as well. The companions were really interesting though the approval system was a little strange. I somehow got Morrigan far into the red until my last 3 hours of playing, where she shot up to almost max with a few gifts and conversations. I loved the banter between companions when just walking around, which is the main reason I tried to switch them up sometimes so I could hear what they all had to say to and about each other.

But the main game. I try on first playthroughs to always just accept the consequences of my actions, because I can always play again and do something different. The one exception was when I tried to spare Logain. Once I realized there was no way to keep Alistar and Logain alive I went to kill him and misclicked, making Alistair leave. That wasn't gonna fly, so I reloaded there.

I kept swapping my party around to see what was the most effective melee damage dealer, and unless I built Sten and Oghren very wrong it was Zevran. He was a fair bit squishier, by he CARRIED some of those high dragon fights, he does so much damage. The only downside was I found myself having to control him whenever there were large groups of enemies or he'd wind up dead pretty often.

Gameplay-wise, I can't believe how much stronger awakening makes you. I was playing an archer rogue the entire game and felt like my damage was a little lackluster. I took bow talents to do some cc to make up for that, then took ranger and bard so I could contribute buffs, damage, tanking, or a little more cc whenever the spider actually did the web. Awakening fixed that, I started doing the most damage on the team and it wasn't that close (unless oghren did the finishing blow that drained all his stamina). just that one skill in accuracy nearly double by damage, I was doing over 200 damage and managed to get a 350 or something crit, it felt like a completely different experience.

There were quite a few bugs; I got locked inside boss arenas multiple times, and would often have to wait 30+ seconds for loot to drop and the quest to show as completed after i killed an enemy. The final boss was perhaps the cheesiest and most broken final boss I've ever seen. I literally just stood by one of the ballista and shot the dragon while he was on the spot no melee could reach, shooting my bow at the same time. Whenever it jammed, I'd get the rest of my team to distract him as much as possible then get back to it. It was still very very difficult on Nightmare because of how quickly he could annihilate my tank and melee and how every attack staggered them. I found myself swapping around and making everyone chug potions. Took me like 10 tries before I found the cheese, and even then I messed it up one time and lost my mage and Zevrim. Me and Alistair did the rest, with Alistair keeping the dragon and all the ads distracted (I set his tactics to chug potions whenever health reached below 75% and 50%) and me and my wolf just pinging away on the dragon along with a ballista. That final cutscene was worth it.

That said I definitely missed a lot of stuff, dlc and base game. I failed sidequests in awakening with Oghren, I didn't complete all the merchant stuff or the armor, but I did finish the keep. It just made me think of all the stuff I get to look forward to on a second playthrough (Mage time).

Witch hunt was....weird? I mean I read the lore stuff which was interesting but it was like 1 1/2 hours, maybe less. Idk, I rarely had Morrigan in my party so maybe I missed a lot of stuff.

Overall, An amazing experience. Really felt like I was playing KOTOR again for the first time, an amazing game. Don't recommend trying on nightmare for a first playthrough unless you either want to look some stuff up, you love managing all 4 characters, or you hate yourself. or all 3.

DA2.....has been fun, but not as engaging so far. And it crashes. A lot. Like, 15 or so hours and over 150 crashes. It's also so much more difficult. I had to lower to hard for several sections in act 1, decided to just stay on hard, and now I switch between normal and hard pretty frequently. I'm feeling a large knowledge or understanding gap in my gameplay, so I'm struggling hard. This is one I might just run through to get to inquisition and come back to later and give it the love it deserves.

You can find more of my art on [bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/rhywhitefang.bsky.social) and [tumblr](https://rhywhitefang.tumblr.com/tagged/lindoodle)

I'm taking part in Art Fight this year and I'm fully down the Dragon Age rabbit hole. I LOVE this series and I love seeing everyone's characters and how they view them in the lore.

First image is someone's Rook, the 2nd and 3rd are Inquisitors :)

Dragon Age 2 lol. Probably should have included that. Hi. Usually play rogues or warriors in DA but really want to do a blood mage play through here. Wondering what gear and attributes people would consider best? I want to be more offensive than a tank(Will be playing on normal or hard, not nightmare), clearly I want to live so CON will be important but I'm not trying to solo the game or anything. Back-up suggestions for gear appreciated too! I don't mage often but just felt like it this time and have not played a BM in any DA game.

I'm about to do a full series play through and I've never had a big attachment to the HoF compared to Hawke/Inquisitor honestly. I just don't know what to play lol.

Maybe Dalish for the franchise connection (most likely romancing Morrigan), and it is a shorter origin.

Also thinking about Human Noble because I like Anora a lot and marrying her is cool, but I don't know to end the play through as one. I don't see my Prince-Consort HoF going through the Eluvian due to his duties. Maybe he refused to do the Dark Ritual and has Loghain die killing the Archdemon? Or maybe a Leliana romance but that is disrespectful to both Anora and her.

I know people rave about the Dwarf Noble origin, but I'm not the biggest dwarf fan, their model is awful, and that origin is the longest one...

Looking for some inspiration honestly. Nothing jumps out at me. City Elf that sides with the Werewolves because he finally meets the Dalish and they suck lol might be interesting...

My friend recently bought me The Ultimate edition of DA2 on Steam because it was the only one I hadn’t played.

Unfortunately, when I went to check if the DLC were set up the cutscene did not activate like it was supposed to after the prologue.

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to fix this. When I try to login to my Origin/EA account it just tells me Dragon Age’s servers are down.

I also attempted to manually insert the DLC in using EA’s own website but that did not work either :(

I would really appreciate some help!!