Dragon Age 4 News Update | New Protagonist, Plot Direction, Miscellaneous Details & More! [BioFan Vi

I liked what they did with Shepard and playing them over three games. The romance part worked well for me as at least it made sense why you might move on (because you never swore undying love in the first game and then things happened). So if you remained loyal to your original LI through the second game you got a different response from them than if you didn't and even that varied according to the person being romanced (Kaidan seemed way more understanding than Ashley was). You don't have to romance someone new every game, particularly if you are playing the same person and you know your original LI is still out there but it allowed for different attitudes and role playing on the part of the player.

The main aspect about having just Shepard the whole way through though was the fact that they had originally brought the Reaper threat to light and was the one person who knew something needed to be done about it from personal experience. The same applied to your loyal companions. A new protagonist would just not that degree of knowledge or sense of urgency, particularly since the ruling Council had a tendency to put their heads in the sand and hope it would all go away. Obviously by the 3rd game the danger is very obvious, which is why if you killed off your Shepard in the 2nd game I assume you could approach it from the perspective of someone new (never did this myself so only assuming here).

Now in terms of continuing protagonist in the DA universe, whilst people keep wanting the HoF to return, even if they lived essentially their story was done in that the threat they were asked to deal with (the 5th Blight and the Archdemon) had been resolved by the end of the game. A second threat emerged in Awakening which was connected to the first but it was not essential to be the HoF to deal with it (which is why you could continue with a completely new Warden if they were dead). However, the writers didn't explain adequately why, if the HoF was still alive, they were not involved with the Warden plot in DAI. In that case they would have been in charge of the Warden experiment at Vigil's Keep, made adequate provision for a decent second in command in their absence (so negating any need for Clarel to write to Teagan asking to be let in) and seeing as it turned out various people did know how to contact them, would surely have taken a personal interest in the chaos that seemed to have afflicted the Wardens in both Ferelden and Orlais. (Personally I think that Hawke's Warden contact was originally meant to have been the HoF if still alive, or the substitute Orlesian Warden if dead, as that would have made more sense story wise, but that the writers decided against it).

With DA2 we had Anders (and Hawke by association if nothing else) being responsible for the collapse of the Circles and the mage/Templar conflict. At the end of the game they even had a connection being made by Leliana between the disappearance of Hawke and the disappearance of the Warden (which would have been the case had the Warden returned as the contact in DAI) but then for some reason it was decided to play down Hawke's involvement with the mage plot and make the events of Asunder (and Fiona) the true cause of the breakdown in relations between the two. So the personal connection with the on-going plot by Hawke was with regard to the discovery red lyrium and the release of Corypheus. Fair enough because they were personally connected with both these events but it did rather overlook their stated involvement with the destruction of the Circles. At least they did make a cameo appearance, even if many people seemed unhappy how this was dealt with (the explanation for the absence of the LI wasn't convincing for me).

So whilst it would be in keeping with previous DA games to have a new PC, it would be odd if the Inquisitor was not involved in at least a similar fashion to Hawke. They have a personal reason for wanting to deal with Solas that is pretty similar to the scenario with Shepard and the Reapers. The Inquisitor dealt with the threat of Corypheus only to discover down the line that the danger to the world was anything but over and the person who had really been responsible for the original problem was still out there at large (even though the epilogue hints that not everyone outside their inner circle believes their story, which was after all witnessed by no one else). Plus that person was known to them personally. So the idea that the Inquisitor (ex-Inquisitor) would not take it upon themselves to do something about it and get actively involved personally with the quest against Solas doesn't make sense. In any case the epilogue to the epilogue in Trespasser suggests that they will be involved but they will be recruiting new agents that Solas doesn't know to work on their behalf. Which is where the new PC is likely to come in. So the Inquisitor will be directing things from behind the scenes (probably a bit like TIM in ME2) and the new PC will be doing the donkey work on the ground.

Interestingly enough, when it comes to the final confrontation with Solas, it may be that will be handled to a similar way to the end of ME2, with the Inquisitor saying what they want done (based off your choices in the Keep) but with the new PC left to decide whether or not they want to comply with this instruction.