Leaks about game direction and pre-alpha (combat and design spoilers)

We're gonna have codenames for our team...there's Rook and Bishop and Knight and Queen...maybe a few pawns too: Pawn 1, Pawn 2, and so on.

DAD was from 2017- 2020 designed as live service game and we suspect that the 2020 trailer belongs to this period. Maybe at best it is a trailer for the change from live service to single player, as the 2018 trailer was.

It wouldn't make much sense as an explanation considering that Mass Effect also came about around the same time that DAO and ME were ARPGs. Granted, you could bring up that they were from different genres, one sci-fi and another fantasy and thus directed toward different audiences. However, there were already successful ARPGs in fantasy settings such as Diablo, Fable, and Morrowind.
   
At first, it seems they actually tried to return to tactical RPGs with regard to DAO, but then EA took over and changed the direction of the franchise. If I recall correctly, DG (I think) said that initially, DAO was thought of as just a single product rather than a franchise, which would explain a number of oddities like impactful epilogues and a fairly large degree of freedom in the choice of how to proceed in the game. So if there was for Bioware slowly to transition to ARPG it was probably with mind for games in a different setting. Transitioning a franchise's genre (at least for major products) is generally not a good idea because it repels a significant number of existing fans of those franchises that were drawn because of genre, and attracting new ones will likely be difficult as you enter the competition as a newcomer as opposed to already famous games within that genre.      

DAO was in development since 2002, its design came before Jade Empire and Mass Effect, but since it had no publisher until EA bought BioWare, it wasn't as actively worked on as the other two that released before it (Jade Empire was by Microsoft/2k Game, Mass Effect was by Microsoft until EA bought BioWare). EA expected DAO to flop and DA2 moved away from DAO's despite the very short dev time - it was made in 18 months - and reusing the same engine because BioWare had changed their internal design paradigms years before DAO released.

DA2 was marketed as a action RPG all the way. It caused many fans to never bother with a BioWare again and start to hate them without even playing the game. It was mocked as Dragon Effect 2 online. There aren't enough DA "is for RtWP only" fans left for it to matter, the majority left with DA2. And Dragon Age could never survive via its fanbase size, it's too small. The next game has to appeal to the mainstream console players and it's not the "tactical cam" and "party member switching" that will appeal to them.

Trouble is, everyone has different ideas about what they've fucked up in previous games, so everyone wants them to learn different lessons.

I mean it looks good? I have a question mark over the combat, imo Bioware's combat in Dragon Age has been pretty bad so hopefully it feels really impactful or at least just fun in this latest release. You can't really tell from a 5 second gif though. Fingers crossed. You spend so much of the game in combat that I feel it really needs to work, and I did not feel happy with what we got in Inquisition. I don't care if it's hack and slash, I just hope it's good hack and slash. But otherwise I like the graphics, the UI, the gear screen looks really clean and nice. I love that the graphics continue to be stylised and not going after a more realistic approach. I don't care that they're moving away from being a Squad RPG, I've been feeling like the Squad part has kinda been tacked on recently anyway. There's always BG3, Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, and Wasteland 3 if people are really looking for Squad RPGs, all of them excellent.

It does feel like it's a 2024 game at the minimum though. The leaks make it feel like it's not close to release.

Not going to read too much about this leak though. IMO it's a couple of years away and I don't want to get hyped so far from release. I'm pleasantly surprised though, I know that there's a lot of doom and gloom around but I feel excited looking at the screenshots and the gif.

If Lenny returns, you know shits about to go down lol

They are given a title and, I assume, a holding in Kirkwall by Varric, which I assumed that the Inquisitor might use as their base for official business, not wanting anyone else to become a target for Solas and his agents. Also, in Tevinter Nights, Varric in Kirkwall seems to be being used as a hub for information, so I presume the Inquisitor can't be far away.  This would apply to any of the Inquisitors, no matter who they romanced. So, whilst they might hang out a fair bit in Antiva with Josephine's family, they would keep in touch with Varric in Kirkwall and return there as necessary. When the Antaam invaded, I could see them evacuating Josephine's family to Kirkwall for safety whilst the threat was dealt with. They were using merchant ships, which wouldn't be much use against Qunari dreadnoughts, so it would be better to move them to a safer port further south as well.

I have to admit to being curious as to where exactly they have decided to base the Inquisitor post Trespasser.    They ruled out Skyhold with the TN story and it would need to be north of the Waking Sea if they anticipated moving their operation into lands beyond those we crossed in the other games.   However, if they are not going to be directly involved in DA:D, then it has to be somewhere away from the main action.   That is why I wondered about the significance of Varric giving us a place in Kirkwall.

True the fonts themselves are very modern looking too. Then again I am not sure if this is the final look. I thought Inquisition was kinda fine, mostly good, some response problems though and maybe tad too big elements overall.