Dragon Age plot has 'too many loose ends,' says creative director

Dragon Age: Inquisition creative director Mike Laidlaw says he thinks the series has gathered "a few too many loose ends" in the past few installments, and says the studio needs to clean some up even as it introduces new ones.

6

Dragon Age: Inquisition is the third major release in the franchise, and has gained some heavy plot baggage along the way. Creative director Mike Laidlaw explained how important it is to wrap up some of those dangling plot threads even as it introduces new ones to lead toward more sequels.

"Loose ends are a constant problem," Laidlaw told Game Informer. "You have to look at it as an evolving thing. It's like a plant you have to grow--a bonsai tree, essentially, where I want to bring a branch over here but I probably can't have branches to the right as well."

He said to accomplish that, the team regroups after every release and reviews what's been resolved and what's still hanging out there. Right now, though, he thinks the plot has gotten a bit burdened with unresolved questions.

"I think right now the franchise is in a place where there's a few too many loose ends, and that we need to resolve more of them," he said. "We will be introducing new mysteries, that's the joy of having a world where the narrators, the history, the lore books--they're all fundamentally written from the perspective of someone in the world so there are no absolutes. But while we can explore new stuff I think we have a resolution to say, 'well, what is up with red lyrium?' We have some stuff to pay forward but we wrap up the old stuff as we go. As long as you're cleaning up after yourself it works out pretty well."

And he might continue to clean up after himself for a while. He says the series could "theoretically go on forever," since eternal conflicts like human greed and intolerance are ongoing themes for the series.

Editor-In-Chief
From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 30, 2013 1:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Dragon Age plot has 'too many loose ends,' says creative director.

    Dragon Age: Inquisition creative director Mike Laidlaw says he thinks the series has gathered "a few too many loose ends" in the past few installments, and says the studio needs to clean some up even as it introduces new ones.

    • reply
      August 30, 2013 1:08 PM

      Translation: still considering DA canon. (Haven't played it except for the demo, but that story bit was beyond retarded)

      • reply
        August 30, 2013 4:15 PM

        DA 2, d'oh.

      • reply
        August 30, 2013 4:19 PM

        yeah, especially the end. It really jumped the fucking shark

    • reply
      August 30, 2013 1:10 PM

      DA2 I meant. Da 1 was pretty solid.

      • reply
        August 31, 2013 2:37 PM

        DA2 had some right ideas... just executed waaaay wrong.

        It annoys me thoroughly that no matter what happens, you get Deus Ex Machina'd into the same events at the end. They could have at least changed who would be the last boss between the Knight Commander and the head of the Mages.

        The fact that Meredith (if you side with templars) pretty much turns on you for NO GOOD REASON AT ALL infuriates me to no end.

    • reply
      August 30, 2013 2:59 PM

      The lore of Dragon Age isn't the problem at all. I rather liked the DA:O branching character stories and meandering story-lines as it gave a bit of replayability and uniqueness to the playthroughs. I sadly can't say the same thing for Dragon Age 2 where you spent half the game hardly doing anything important and exploring the same four dungeon/caverns and stuck in same setting. Dragon Age 2 could have been amazing game but the presentation and reuse/recycling ruined it for me.

      • reply
        August 30, 2013 4:18 PM

        I thought the lore in Dragon Age 1 was incredibly generic for the most part.

    • reply
      August 30, 2013 4:44 PM

      I liked the general setup from DA1 to DA2, story wise. DA1 was this big epic story that setup the lore of the universe. DA2 came in and told a story st some where else in that established universe. More game series should take that approach.

    • reply
      August 30, 2013 6:39 PM

      With all the DAI stories coming out right now has anyone seen a release window for this game?

    • reply
      August 31, 2013 3:17 PM

      I loved DA:O but after DA:2, there is no way in hell I will ever buy a DA game again.. and after ME3, I am pretty damn unlikely to ever buy any Bioware game again.

    • reply
      September 1, 2013 12:16 PM

      I almost choked on my coffee when I read the title of this article. Anyway on to another article.

      • reply
        September 2, 2013 5:06 PM

        If theyd start making sequels and banking off of these "loose ends" instead of coming up with uninteresting, monotonous, side stories and putting a 2 in their title...

Hello, Meet Lola