Dragon Age The Joyguard (formerly Hype Train) [Spoilers]

When I'm completely uninterested in DA, Bioware ends up pulling me back in. I'm not majorly hype about any of the concept art but I am excited to know that oh wow, this is really happening! And that's nice to know.

I like to look on the positive side. They have finally given us something more than that teaser trailer with the idol and definitely confirmed DA4 is in production, not just pre-production but production. They have even started recording VA dialogue, so the story and main characters have been finalised. This is all good.

I've also pointed out on the video thread that we had multi-player with DAI and more than 12 characters only associated with that, apart from very small cameos at Skyhold and in War Table missions in the main game. Multi-player campaigns also featured previous characters, like Isabella, so I'm guessing that the shots with Dorian and possibly Isabella, plus the multitude of concept character shots, may not be of single player companions at all. Focus on the two VA clips. We can only guess at what race they are but I'm pretty sure those two are single player companions and they sound good, plus we have their names.

Come on, glass half full folks, the concept art looks awesome and I'm guessing we are finally going to see some of the iconic places we have only previously heard about, for example, Minrathous, Weisshaupt and Kal-Sharok. Since they were all on my wish list, I'm feeling very upbeat today.

There is a good chance those two VA characters are both dwarves. In any case, I think there is going to be a big reveal when it comes to Kal-Sharok and they need to keep the dwarven characters under wraps if they come from there because I think it is going to be something major. However, those screen shots with the dwarf statue in the mountains and dwarven architecture suggest to me that we are going to Kal-sharok. Remember is was the ancient capital of the dwarves, long before Orzammar, so even without the mystery of how they survived on their own, it is likely to hold some secrets.

I’m somewhat hyped by the presence of what i’d consider more conventionally beautiful women being in concept art.

I see this topic going up, and all I can think of is lenny laughing at the prospects of someone being hyped for this game.

For me, I'm just skeptical. That said, I wont ruin anyone's parade here. Hopefully the game turns out well for those who want to play. I want to wait and see before purchasing though.

I feel the same.. I had pretty much forgotten about it, losing hope it would ever be made. I still don't want to raise my expectations too much, as there is no release date and I'm not expecting it soon. But I admit, the concept art got me interested again.

I'm curious where they will take the story next. It has always been speculated the game would be about stopping Solas from unleashing the end of the world (as humans know it at least), somehow that zeitgeist doesn't feel quite right so many years later, post 2020. Which makes me wonder if it  could possibly take place after the veil has already more or less dropped. Just like DAI took place in the aftermath of the war. The theme about "what happens when you don't have power" makes me curious as well. 

I know. I personally dont hang out threads such as those, or these. I just watch from afar.

As long as we're doing this, they actually said quite a few things I find promising:

• New hero! Yayyyyyyyyyy.
• The whole deal about playing a powerless person let down by those in power, which is the complete opposite of Inquisition.
• Based on the concept art, they seem to be taking advantage of the switch to Northern Thedas to shake up the setting and get creative.

That's all stuff I was hoping for, and which I like on a conceptual level. Thing is, coming up with cool ideas is the easy part of the creative process. Whether the game will be fun or not will ultimately depend on the quality of the execution.

I really liked that there was a focus on cities and urban developments in the concept art. I'm hoping they learnt from the criticisms of Orlais in DAI.

I am here on the first page of the hype train. I've wanted to be part of the hype train since I've joined the Bioware fan forum and heard the nostalgic stories of other fans about what it was like to be on the DA2 and DAI hype trains. And I was like, there is where I want to be.

So:

• I'm hyped for the Warden stuff, 100%. 
• FLYING? I saw pink butterfly wings! I agree with Hrungr about floating base!
• I want to kill a Dread Wolf in as tragic a way as possible- absolutely want to cry, make it happen. 
• So far haven't seen any battle stuff that looks super interesting, but glad to see more movement that doesn't require using a skill.
• don't want to outright bang anyone, I need more than sexy woman pics to swing my attention that way, and the men look a bit scrawny "I don't often shave" types. 
• Can I be an ex Tevinter Slave? PLEEEEEEAAAASSSSEEE
• Can I at least be a City Elf?
• A smaller story with family vibes, ala Hawke! and weekly off screen card games! and real friends instead of COWORKERS

ALL ABOARD THE HYYYYYYYYYYYYPE TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!

In addition to being hyped about all the cool art, actually getting some new character names and so on, I am also delighted to be back here (for given qualities of 'here' anyway) with everyone. My favourite part of the dev cycle is where they give us something to chew over but not so much that I'm worried about being spoiled, so this is delicious. Hopefully we'll start to get updates a bit more often.

(I realise they don't want to ruin anything, especially at this stage, but imagine if they just did a little video every couple of months with 'here is an area you'll be visiting' or 'here is some of the mocap we're doing' or even 'here is some more voice acting' since they're already doing some of that.)