On the heels of rumours of a new Dragon Age installment executive producer Mark Darrah took to twitter to hint at upgrading the Dragon Age Keep in a way that would allow players to upload physical appearances of imported heroes from previous games. Although no immediate plans are in the works to implement this hypothetical character creator, Darrah is confident that any technical setbacks that would impede developers to do so could be easily bypassed. As a longtime fan of Dragon Age, I’m excited by any indication that new features are being considered to augment the immersive hallmarks that have made the series a mainstay.
So far, the Dragon Age Keep has proved to be a fun addition to the overall gameplay experience, but has failed to feel meaningful in relation to the scope of the character and narrative. . A large part of the appeal of Dragon Age as a franchise is the satisfying way your choices dictated both the plot and disposition of your party. So it was a bit of a let down to find that said impactful decisions amounted to little more than slightly different dialogue options in 2014’s Inquisition.
A more intuitive Keep opens the door for more efficient world building. I expressed my desire to see the Warden return as a playable character in future entries earlier this year, but it wouldn’t really work without a character creation option in the Keep, saying nothing of Mike Laidlaw permanently retiring the character. The Inquisitor, however, will almost certainly make an appearance and potentially as soon as the next entry in the series. Hawke was restricted to one race so his inclusion in future titles would hardly be an obstacle, as proved by his cameo in Inquisition.
Given the emphasis the devs working on Dragon Age put on world building in particular I think this is something that should be worked on sooner rather than later. I’ve been on the record as saying that the one thing the large overarching story that Dragon Age is trying to weave is lacking, is cohesion, the preservation of customized characters through subsequent could go along way to remedy thi problem.
Although Laidlaw all but confirmed that a follow up to Inquisition is currently the primary focus over at Bioware the title has yet to have a release date.
