Dragon Age II Interview

Destructoid offers an article style interview with Mike Laidlaw and David Gaidar talking about the “framed narrative” employed in the game.

Instead of the “walk and talk,” Gaider and the rest of the DA II team settled on a more novelistic approach. “[The game] takes place over a time span where you’re looking at the most significant moments of a character or story,” he notes. “And [videogame developers] don’t do that.”

The idea of a frame narrative isn’t new at all — lead designer Mike Laidlaw mentions The Usual Suspects as an example of one, and Gaider points out that The Canterbury Tales featured over a dozen tightly-nestled stories — “but doing it in an RPG, at least for us, it’s nothing we’ve tried before,” says Gaider.

Given Dragon Age II’s structure, it’s unsurprising that the game is more character-driven than its predecessor, Origins, trading Ferelden macro-politics for one person’s rise to power. The Blight is no longer a threat to Thedas, and Hawke lives — if not happily, then at least peacefully — in Kirkwall for some time. (That’s not to say, though, that Hawke is apolitical — don’t forget that the Chantry is after her.)

Even the surface-level changes suggest a strong narrative shift: Hawke is given a name, a voice, and a backstory — a far cry from Origins’ Build-A-Bear Warden. “Where I think Dragon Age II kind of stands out is that we don’t do it with the impetus of the world needing to be saved again,” Laidlaw asserts. “There isn’t necessarily the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head, where failure will result in everyone’s death.