Dragon Age II Interview

The Escapist has cranked out the latest interview with Dragon Age II lead designer Mike Laidlaw, and while there are only three questions in it, they are fairly expansive and interesting.

Greg Tito: It seemed like Dragon Age: Origins was much more of an epic fantasy along the lines of Tolkien or George R. R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice, whereas Dragon Age II you could say is a sword-and-sorcery personal story of one man’s rise to power. Was that an intentional departure or did you guys think about that as you were crafting the story for the second one?

Mike Laidlaw: We did, actually, quite a bit. There were two reasons behind that change, because you’ve exactly nailed it. One is a piece of epic literature, which is Origins, and the other I think is much more personal, much more intimate and almost a family piece, the idea of the extended family and the extended home. The sense that it’s not just your house but Kirkwall becoming home. The new adopted family of your party and companions.

We want to do two things, I think. First off we wanted to make sure that we established that, since we were doing some pretty fundamental changes, ones that we were trying to put in context of, “it must feel like Dragon Age, but not entirely be Dragon Age.” The story that we’re telling here, one where Varric is providing narration, narration that is inherently established as a little bit, perhaps, exaggerated, is that it was a perfect introduction to the art style changes that our art director wanted to do to support the story, and to look at the story from a personal standpoint.

To say that there’s a tension between wanting to know the ending, wanting to know, “How do things turn out?” and “What happens to the Chantry?” and so on. Versus wanting to know the details so the ending makes sense. It’s like reading a mystery novel, where you could just look at the ending and find out whodunit but it doesn’t matter unless you walk the road. That presented for us, I think a different kind of storytelling, a different kind of challenge. Something that we hadn’t really done before and that, I think has elements of intrigue to it that we couldn’t do if the story were just about, “there is your big enemy, go kill it,” which is Origins.

I think it creates a diversity in both the way we’re telling the story, the kind of stories we’re telling. And it also, I think, sets a note for the franchise, which is, “Dragon Age is not about one character, it’s not about just Wardens and the Blight, it’s about a world, and about a time, and about the way that world evolves and changes over the different iterations of Dragon Age. Because if I had my druthers, in the future we’ll take a look at the changes that happened in II, and explore them and the ramifications of them, which would again be a different kind of game, I think.