Dragon Age: Inquisition Director on DLC, Side Quests, Scrapped Features

Eurogamer has recently had the chance to chat with Mike Laidlaw, the creative director of the Dragon Age franchise, about Dragon Age: Inquisition. The interview runs a gamut of interesting subjects, from the critical reception of the title Laidlaw expresses some very slight disappointment at missing the 90 metacritic mark but is otherwise satisfied with the title’s reception, especially after the Dragon Age II backlash to the possibility of single-player DLC. On top of that, the interview also touches upon the criticism BioWare received for the game’s side content and the features that were originally planned and shown during development but ultimately had to be scrapped.

A couple of excerpts, concerning the side content and possible single-player downloadable content for the title:

“One of things that I think was a miscalibration is a lot of players wanting to do all of it – even to the point where they say ‘I’m bored of collecting shards’. But they want them all because they’re there. It’s almost like a compulsive need. It’s almost like ‘Doctor, it hurts when I do this’. So don’t do this!”

Inquisition’s shard collectables cover each area of the game and contribute to a major side-quest, where you progressively unlock new areas of an underground temple. Collecting all of the shards in a particular area will also reward you with dollops of XP, while clearing wings of the temple awards progressively higher amounts of elemental resistance, and culminates in a particularly difficult boss fight.

“There’s more XP and money in the game than you need to win. But it’s a good insight for us, and something as a team we’ve been discussing. Myself, while those areas thematically tie into the Inquisition, what people were hoping for is they had more meaty story content built into them.

“So while the [starting area] Hinterlands had fetch quests it also had other things to do to enhance that zone, but in other lighter places people have said they weren’t really feeling them as much. That becomes another data point, and a huge opportunity for the game to grow, presuming we move into something in the future.”

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“It’s interesting – it’s very different to a few years ago!” Laidlaw says of the current fan demand for information. “I wouldn’t say it’s a conscious decision [to not talk about Inquisition’s DLC] so much as us making sure anything we’re working on is locked down before we talk about it,” Laidlaw reasons. “I don’t have anything official to announce but I’d say you won’t have to wait too much longer.”

And BioWare is well aware of what its fans want: a mix of more game areas and a healthy dose of new story – especially something that can expand upon Inquisition’s post-game stinger.

“The two big pulls are – ‘I want more of this game’ and ‘I’ve reached the ending and I want to know more about the characters, or one specific character’,” Laidlaw says. “I don’t want to go into too much detail but I’m well aware of both of those camps and I’d like to see both of those groups satisfied before we’re done.”