Dragon Age


Dragon Age is a fantasy role-playing video game series developed by Canadian developer BioWare and released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, and OS X, with the third installment also released on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A fourth installment was announced on December 6, 2018 at the 5th annual The Game Awards show in December 2018.
The first game in the series was ', released in late 2009, which follows the story of a recent recruit to a legendary order of warriors known as the Grey Wardens. Their mission is to save the world from being overrun by the darkspawn, a monstrous race of subterranean-dwelling beings known for swarming the surface world every few hundred years in a movement known as a Blight, by slaying their leaders, powerful dragons with total control over the darkspawn hordes known as Archdemons. The sequel Dragon Age II was released in March 2011, which revolves around the last head of the Hawke family, a Ferelden refugee who flees the Blight and settles down in the city state of Kirkwall, eventually rising up to become its Champion. 2014's ' centers on the Inquisition, an organization tasked with restoring peace and order to the world, which is ravaged by a demonic invasion from beyond the mortal realm over a decade after the events of the first game. All three main series games have been joined by a variety of expansions and downloadable content add-ons.
The main series games have all met with commercial success as well as mostly positive acclaim. The Dragon Age series is highly regarded for its narrative, character development, voice acting, the universe, and emphasis on player choices affecting the experience.

Premise

The Dragon Age franchise media take place in Thedas, a world that has been described as a dark fantasy setting, with events from the main series games taking place primarily in southern Thedas. The Dragon Age series utilizes many common fantasy tropes, and also takes inspiration from A Song of Ice and Fire, a fantasy novel series by George R. R. Martin, particularly in its morally ambiguous world where characters are often embroiled in no-win scenarios and treacherous political machinations.
Thedas is the only continent of the known world and consists of various clans, nations and states inhabited by multiple humanoid peoples. Their various kingdoms and countries have emerged over nine centuries of a calendar era based on the traditionally reckoned year of the
founding of The Chantry, the dominant religious organization in the Dragon Age series, and each century is referred to as a separate "Age". Three out of several human nations playing a more prominent role in the series: the kingdom of Ferelden to the southeast, based on medieval England; Orlais to the west of Ferelden is based on Renaissance-era France, where its nobility undermine each other with intrigue and subterfuge in their jostling for favor and patronage with the ruler of the Orlesian Empire; and the Tevinter Imperium situated in the northern region of Thedas, which once subjugated southern Thedas during ancient times, and is governed by a powerful oligarchy of magic-wielding magisters led by an Imperial Archon.
Thedas is a world where race, class and heritage combine to determine the social class and political dynamics. The recurring theme in the Dragon Age series sees the power struggle and internal conflict between and within various factions. Tevinter society practices slavery, which is outlawed in other human societies. Human nobility are treated with deference and respect across Thedas, while elves live within overpopulated ghettos in human cities called alienages and are often viewed as second-class citizens. A significant portion of the elven population of Thedas call themselves the Dalish, who proudly live a nomadic lifestyle away from the urban settlements of their city elf counterparts, and attempt to preserve and reclaim their cultural heritage that was mostly wiped out long ago when the ancient elven empire that spanned most of Thedas mysteriously collapsed. Most of the dwarven race live in scattered city states within the Deep Roads deep beneath the surface of Thedas, an underground highway system created by the dwarves long ago; their civilization a shadow of what it once was a millenia ago due to the constant darkspawn threat, and their society is rooted in conservative values and a rigid caste system. Some dwarves live on the surface, voluntarily or otherwise; they are considered "casteless" and are usually unwelcome within dwarven societies in the Deep Roads.
Mages in southern Thedas are cloistered into training facilities called Circles of Magi by The Chantry, which teaches that "magic must serve man, not rule over him". The Chantry is a monotheistic religion who worship a personal god known as the Maker and venerates the prophet Andraste, a former slave who led an uprising against the Tevinter Imperium in a movement called an "Exalted March". The Chantry is led by the Divine, a supreme leader who is exclusively female and considered one of the world's most powerful people because of her extensive cultural, diplomatic, political and spiritual influence over the peoples of Thedas. Mages have access to the Fade, the metaphysical realm that is tied to Thedas which is home to various spirits and normally accessible only through dreaming; a single lapse in judgment or vigilance may result in the mage being unwittingly possessed by demonic spirits. Apostate mages, who live outside the Chantry's control and includes the Dalish clan chieftains known as Keepers, are considered to be extremely dangerous; the Chantry has a military wing, the Templar Order, who are specially trained to seek out and subdue them by any means necessary. This is in contrast to the more tolerant views of mages in Tevinter society, which is influenced by the Imperial Chantry denomination which broke away from the mainline Andrastrian Chantry centuries before, where they practice their talent for magic without sanction and templars serve as law enforcement under the authority of the magisters.
Ever since the first Blight, Thedas has relied on the Grey Wardens to drive the darkspawn hordes back and slay the Archdemons, supposedly the corrupted Old Gods of the Tevinter Imperium. The first game in the series, Dragon Age: Origins, begins on the eve of Thedas's fifth Blight. Other threats faced by the nations of Thedas include the Qunari, an umbrella term used to describe a metallic-skinned race of large humanoids who live in the northern part of Thedas, as well as their strictly regimented society which is governed in accordance with the teachings of a fundamentalist civil religion known as "The Qun"; demons from the Fade, who emerge as a major threat to Thedas during the events of Dragon Age: Inquisition; and dragons, long thought to have been extinct for many centuries, but a notable rampage by a high dragon during the end of the Blessed Age caused the then-ruling Divine to name the next Age as the Dragon Age, the century in which the vast majority of the Dragon Age series takes place.

Gameplay

Various features of gameplay varied across the Dragon Age series; Origins was considered to be traditional RPG's, while subsequent entries are story-driven action role-playing games. The player assumes control of one primary character as the protagonist of the story of each main series game and customizes them based on gender, race, physical appearance, and one of three character classes, with one or two specializations centered around the three class archetypes being made available to the player later in each game. This establishes a skill tree that the player can advance through killing enemies or completing quests until a preset value is met, whereupon they level up. Players usually conduct each main series game from a third-person perspective; control is done through a user interface that allows a player to move characters and give them actions to undertake, review information on on-going quests and the statistics of characters in their party, manage their inventories, and organize the formation of the party. Each game generally follows a main story pathway with points of branching narratives and multiple side missions, allowing the player to proceed through the game as they desire. Secondary characters could be recruited as permanent or temporary companions by the player-controlled character over the course of the plot in each game. The player has the option to bring up to three of their companions with them whenever their traverse the game setting, and the player will have some degree of control over these companions, usually for combat sequences.
Origins present the player character almost as a blank canvas, whose visage, hairstyle, voice, race, first name, origin, gender, and class are chosen by the player. The point of view can be shifted from the third person view to a top-down isometric view, where friendly and hostile units are labelled with different colours to distinguish them. A party companion's approval or disapproval of the player character is represented by a scaling slider which appears on the specific character's individual screen. A companion character's scaling slider can be affected by dialogue choices, by the player character's actions, or by the giving of gift items which could be found throughout the game's narrative. The player character's standing on the scaling slider determines whether certain dialogue options are available; choosing the right dialogue options may potentially lead to higher approval, and unlock quests which the player character otherwise have no opportunity to perform. In lieu of a one-off loyalty check implemented in certain RPG games, the Warden's companions always take note of the decisions the player character makes, with their approval rising and falling in response to each decision. High approval may lead to a potential romance, while low approval might result in a companion leaving or even turning on the Warden and dying as a result.
In Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition, the player engages in dialogue trees with non-player characters through story encounters and missions to learn information and progress the story. This is presented through what BioWare called a Dialogue Wheel, with the fully voice acted player-character reply options shown as choices extending radially outward from a circle at the bottom of the screen. Most of these choices are simple questions and responses, but in some dialogues, they offer additional choices that either influence how the game plays out from there, or are as a result from those previous choices.
Dragon Age Keep, launched in October 2014, is an online platform that allows players to save their in-game choices in a "world state." If their gaming platform is connected to the internet, then a player's major decisions will be saved and can be imported into new games. This affects the events and characters that are present in-game, most noticeably so in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Dragon Age Keep incorporates decisions made in prior DLCs as well as the major games. The platform also allows for players to customize their world states by choosing the preferred outcome for any given choice, and unlock various in-game items for Origins and Dragon Age II which were previously only available through limited promotional opportunities such as pre-order bonuses, platform exclusives and as rewards from participation in special events.
Throughout the series, certain characters could enter into a romantic relationship with the player character: these included both hetero- and homosexual relationships as well as intra-species romances. This requires certain pre-requisite conditions such as gender and race being met, and possibly securing a high approval rating of the companion through the player character's actions and/or words. Successfully romancing a character would typically lead to scenes leading up to a sexual encounter though otherwise not showing anything inappropriate for the game's rating. The romance subplots in the series often take the form of side missions; they are not designed to be one-size-fits-all, and are entirely optional content.

Game series

Releases

Main series

''Dragon Age: Origins''

Dragon Age: Origins is the first game in the series, and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in November 2009, and for Mac OS X in December 2009. Set in the kingdom of Ferelden during a period of civil unrest, the game puts the player in the role of a warrior, mage, or rogue coming from an elven, human, or dwarven background. The player character is recruited into the Grey Wardens, an ancient order that stands against demonic forces known as "Darkspawn", and is tasked with defeating the Archdemon that commands them and ending their invasion. BioWare described Origins as a spiritual successor to their previous Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights franchises. Origins has received critical and public praise since its release, for its characters, story, voice acting, and traditional RPG combat and gameplay.
Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening is the expansion for the role-playing video game . Origins – Awakening adds a new campaign that takes place during the aftermath of Dragon Age: Origins. It was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 16, 2010, in North America, March 18 in Europe, and March 19 in the United Kingdom, and for the Mac OS X on August 31, 2010. It was later bundled with Origins and various DLC packs as Dragon Age: Origins – Ultimate Edition, released on October 26, 2010.

''Dragon Age: II''

Dragon Age II is the sequel to Dragon Age: Origins, released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in North America and Europe on March 8, 2011 and March 11, 2011, respectively. BioWare's Edmonton office began development of Dragon Age II during the production of Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. The game puts the players in the role of Hawke, a human mage, rogue, or warrior who arrives in the city of Kirkwall as a lowly refugee, and becomes its legendary champion over a turbulent decade of political and social conflict. Hawke is accompanied by various companions, who play major roles in the game's plot and gameplay, and will either recognize Hawke as a friend or a rival depending on players' decisions and dialogue.

''Dragon Age: Inquisition''

Dragon Age: Inquisition is the sequel to Dragon Age II, released worldwide in November 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game puts the players in the role of the Inquisitor, a warrior, mage, or rogue coming from an elven, human, dwarven or Qunari background, who survived a cataclysmic event which led to the creation of a mysterious tear in the sky called the "Breach", which is unleashing dangerous demons upon the world. The Inquisitor is viewed by some as the 'chosen one', as they have a 'Mark' on their hand capable of closing the Breach, and eventually becomes the leader of the titular Inquisition in an attempt to stop Corypheus, an ancient darkspawn, who opened the Breach in the course of his attempt to conquer Thedas and achieve godhood. Dragon Age: Inquisition received critical acclaim since its release, with critics praising its story, voice acting, soundtrack, detailed environments, and engaging combat. It was awarded over 150 year-end accolades and nominated for more, including Game of the Year and Best Role-playing awards from several gaming publications.

''Dragon Age 4''

The fourth main entry in the series is under development as of 2020. Development of this game, code-named "Joplin", began in 2015. It was originally intended to be a smaller, more narrative-focused game set in the Tevinter Imperium region of the game's world. Problems with the development of Bioware's other games and Anthem led to repeated interruptions as "Joplin" staff was shifted to these games. In October 2018, Bioware and its parent company EA cancelled "Joplin" altogether, reportedly because it did not provide for a "live service" component providing ongoing monetization opportunities. Development of Dragon Age 4 was restarted under the code-name "Morrison", this time with a live-service component and based on Anthems code. At an EA Play event in June, 2020, screenshots revealed the presence of red lyrium as a significant part of the upcoming game's plot.

Spin-offs

''Dragon Age Journeys''

Dragon Age Journeys was planned to be a three-chapter Flash game spin-off by EA 2D. The first chapter of the game, The Deep Roads was released for free in 2009. Players can unlock achievements in the game, which will unlock unique items in Dragon Age: Origins. The second and third chapters were to be purchase-only, but have been cancelled.

''Dragon Age Legends''

Dragon Age Legends is a strategy role-playing game developed by EA for the Facebook Platform. Dragon Age Legends gives players their experience of the Free Marches, the setting of Dragon Age II. Dragon Age Legends gameplay will unlock items within Dragon Age II. The game features character customization and an upgrade system that is not similar to Dragon Age II.

''Heroes of Dragon Age''

In 2013, EA released Heroes of Dragon Age, a free-to-play game for mobile devices. The game is battle-based, featuring digital 3D figurines of characters from the Dragon Age universe. Rather than introducing new lore, the game is based on "what if?" scenarios drawn from plotlines in the existing games.

''Dragon Age: The Last Court''

Dragon Age: The Last Court is a browser turn-based title released in 2014, which can be accessed from the online platform Dragon Age Keep. It is a free-to-play title which focuses on drawing cards and managing resources. It takes place between Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition. The player takes on the role of the Marquis of Serault, a marquisate located on the western edge of Orlais.

Adaptations

The Dragon Age franchise includes various types of trans media adaptations and merchandise outside of the video games. It setting has been used by a variety of other media, including novels, comics, graphic novels, and licensed products such as a tabletop role-playing game, action figures, and statues.

Books

There are currently six novels set in the Dragon Age universe.
Dragon Age has been adapted into a tabletop role-playing game by Green Ronin. The game uses a new game system using three six-sided dice, called the "AGE System". The game's initial release was as a boxed set including a Player's Guide, Game Master's Guide, map of Ferelden and three dice released on January 25, 2010. Two more boxed sets were released to carry characters to higher levels. The complete game has also been released as a hardcover book called the Dragon Age RPG Core Rulebook.

Anime film

An anime film adaptation was announced on June 7, 2010. It was co-produced by BioWare, EA and anime company Funimation Entertainment. It was released in Japanese theaters on February 11, 2012. The film is called Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker with Funimation Entertainment releasing a teaser trailer on their website. The plot of this film provides backstory for a young Cassandra Pentaghast, who is on a quest to save the Chantry from a group of blood mages that has gained the ability to control dragons.

Comics

A series of four action figures was released by DC Direct. Series one includes action figures of Morrigan, Duncan, Loghain and a Genlock. Each highly detailed figure features game-accurate accessories and can be found in game and hobby shops and various online retailers.

Web series

Dragon Age: Warden's Fall is a canonical five-part webseries, produced by Machinima in partnership with BioWare, and created on the Dragon Age: Origins toolset. Warden's Fall is an introduction to the events described in the expansion pack Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. Its story depicts the beginning of the Grey Wardens' investigation into why the darkspawn have not returned to the Deep Roads in the aftermath of the Battle of Denerim and the end of the Fifth Blight. It also explains how Kristoff came to the Blackmarsh, where he is found in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening. The first episode aired on YouTube on 22 May 2010. The series features its own original soundtrack composed by Pakk Hui.
Actress Felicia Day, in partnership with BioWare, released a six-part webseries called . The web series premiered on October 10, 2011, one day before the release of the Dragon Age II DLC Mark of the Assassin, which features quests based around Day's character. The series is written by Day, who also serves as a co-producer. Filming took place over a dozen days in January 2011 in the L.A. area, with associate producer Peter Winther as director and John Bartley as cinematographer. It was teased as #mysteryproject on Day's Twitter feed for several weeks before the announcement of the project.

Reception

Critical Reception

The main Dragon Age series games have mostly received positive acclaim. Areej from TechQuila stated that "The Dragon Age franchise is one of the most popular RPG series of our time", noting that it has become a signature property of BioWare. He observed that "Dragon Age started out as a traditional RPG following in the footsteps of Baldur's Gate and other DnD games, but with every successive game the franchise was molded more and more into an action-RPG with little to no player choice or consequences". Sam Roberts from Gamesradar noted that unlike the Mass Effect series and its second entry, he does not believe that BioWare has made "a truly great Dragon Age game yet" and that each main series game is flawed in some way. He stated that "BioWare keeps reinventing the mould, carrying across certain elements of the combat and remaining faithful to the fiction, but throwing a lot of stuff out. It’s an approach that may eventually lead to a world-beating RPG".
Dragon Age: Origins has received universal acclaim. Roberts consider Origins to be "an exhaustingly detailed RPG, with intricate combat and extensive ways to customise your party behind the scene", though "complex storytelling and characters" only occur in "infrequent flashes". He noted that "Origins did so much heavy lifting for building the world of Dragon Age that subsequent games have managed to find more interesting angles on its world." Richard Cobbett from Eurogamer described Origins as "a half-way house between the hardcore RPGs of old and a more modern style that was taking over, with an emphasis on the former". Its expansion pack, Origins - Awakening is very well received with both critics and fans across all three platforms.
Dragon Age II was released to generally favorable reviews from video game media outlets, but received a divisive reception from series fans. Most of their criticism were directed at the game's wave-based enemies, excessively reused environments, and the lack of origin choices. Several critics praised the game's faster-paced combat and the companions featured in the game, while the game's dialogue system and storytelling received mixed responses, and
its use of a single setting with recycled assets and environments attracted some criticism.
Dragon Age: Inquisition garnered numerous game of the year awards and nominations from gaming publications for the year 2014. Roberts felt that Inquisition’s "side quest-heavy open-worlds" went in a very distant direction from where the series began.

Sales

Dragon Age: Origins topped Steam's sales chart on November 10, 2009. The Digital Deluxe version of the game was ranked first place, with the standard edition ranked second. The Xbox 360 version of the game was the ninth-best-selling game in the US according to the NPD Group, selling approximately 362,100 copies. According to John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, the company is very satisfied with the sales of Origins; more than 1 million DLC packs for the game were sold before the end of 2009. In February 2010, Electronic Arts announced that more than 3.2 million copies of the game had been sold.
Dragon Age II sold more than one million copies in less than two weeks following its launch on March 8, 2011, a faster sales pace than its predecessor when it was released in 2009. By May 2011, it has sold over two million copies.
is the most successful video game launch in BioWare's history based on units sold.
Inquisition debuted at No. 5 in UK in its first launch week. According to retail monitor Chart-Track, it had sold almost the exact amount of launch week copies as 2011's Dragon Age II. This does not take into account direct digital download sales however, which have been noted to be a "significant percentage of sales" by BioWare and thus the true number of sales is higher.

Legacy

Origins marked the point at which western RPGs properly moved into the spotlight, according to Cobbett. He stated that the success of Origins proved that "a hardcore, older-fashioned game could still find a devoted audience", and that it "established a new baseline for the genre in much the same way as the original Baldur's Gate back in 1998".
The characters of the series have remained popular with both critics and fans, particularly the party companions; they have often been compared to characters from Bioware's Mass Effect series in critic and reader lists, and are considered some of the most memorable characters in video game history.
Van Allen of US Gamer claimed that Bioware's work in character-driven AAA RPG Games has inspired "imitators in games like GreedFall, which feel like the continuation of so many of Dragon Age's concepts".