After months of not much but speculation, a new teaser for Dragon Age 4 was released at The Game Awards this week. Narrated by the voice of fan-favorite dwarven companion Varric Tethras, the teaser restated one main goal that BioWare had already expressed as its focus at Gamescom earlier this year.
Namely, the Dragon Age 4 teaser goes to great lengths to build anticipation for the new player character above all else. At Gamescom, the studio claimed that the new Dragon Age protagonist would explore “what happens when you don’t have power.” The new teaser doubles down on that message, with some interesting implications for the next game.
The New Dragon Age Trailer
Varric Tethras’ voice over in the new trailer is short, but revealing:
“I’ve faced tyrants and would-be gods. Seen friends lose life and limb. But there’s always someone bent on breaking the world. It’s time for a new hero. No magic hand, no ancient prophecy. The kind of person they’ll never see coming. We’ve got your back. I’ve got your back. Demons, dragons, darkspawn, even the Dread Wolf. This is your story.”
It’s clear that BioWare wants fans of the franchise to focus on the studio’s rendition of the new player character this time around, specifically the fact that the character isn’t going to fulfill a "Chosen One" archetype. However, the Warden in Dragon Age: Origins didn’t make use of that cliche either.
The Warden only had the main quest of Origins thrust upon them because they were one of two Grey Wardens to survive the Battle of Ostagar. It’s primarily framed as a coincidence – though Flemeth suggests she would have rescued some of the Wardens to prevent the Fifth Blight, it’s seemingly only by chance that the player character happened to meet her while collecting darkspawn blood for the Joining ritual.
It’s not clear how Hawke was ever a Chosen One either, falling into a story of a city and just having a bunch of friends pull him/her into all the wrong things. The fact that the trailer makes reference to a “magic hand” seems to suggest that BioWare is trying to create a very specific gap between Dragon Age 4’s new protagonist and the Inquisitor, the player character from Dragon Age: Inquisition.
DA: I's Inquisition vs. DA4's New Hero
The Inquisitor wasn’t poorly received as a character, though certainly hasn’t enjoyed the same acclaim as other BioWare protagonists like Commander Shepard. The biggest criticism many fans would have of the Inquisitor is that they aren’t particularly memorable outside of their role as Inquisitor itself. It’s possible BioWare is trying to suggest that Dragon Age 4 will have a more tightly constructed and believable narrative – one which explains how the protagonist ends up with the fate of the world in their hands (less literally this time) without using magic or destiny as a storytelling shortcut.
However, despite how much the trailer appears to want fans to focus on the new protagonist, its actual description of that protagonist is pretty vague. Fans know they won’t be a Chosen One from a prophecy, but that's basically it. The idea could be that by making sure Dragon Age 4’s protagonist isn’t a Chosen One, BioWare can give players more ownership over the story of a customizable and immersive player character.
The promise that the Dragon Age 4 teaser makes about its new protagonist is vague, but essentially appears to boil down to the suggestion that Dragon Age 4 will try to rely less on convenient fantasy tropes than the last game. This would imply that Dragon Age 4 will attempt to tell a more character-driven story, though with the Dread Wolf threatening reality itself by trying to tear down the veil between Thedas and the magical realm of the Fade, keeping the focus on character development will be no small task.
Implications for Dragon Age 4
It’s possible that one reason the studio felt it was important to distinguish between the new protagonist and the Inquisitor is because, ironically, the presence of Solas and Varric in the trailer indicates that the new game will pick up the main story around where Inquisition left off.
The winding streets of a magical city are shown in the trailer, likely somewhere in the Tevinter Imperium, the game’s presumed setting. A hooded figure who appears to be the new protagonist moves through the city with ease. This could imply that Dragon Age 4’s story will try to encompass more of the life of the protagonist, and that their story will only intersect with the Dread Wolf plotline at a certain point in order to make sure that the game feels like “your story” overall.
The fact that the Inquisitor getting the Anchor on their hand kicked off the events of Inquisition certainly didn’t leave as much time at the start of the story for players’ to get to know their characters or their place in the world. This is particularly noticeable with the game’s playable qunari, who are thrown straight into the action with very little context for their unique place as Vashoth outside the Qun.
The way Inquisition handled its rising action lay in sharp contrast to Dragon Age: Origins, where players got to experience one of six prologues limited by race and class. However, it still seems strange that BioWare would choose to publicly focus on course-correcting from an aspect of Inquisition that wasn’t the main focus of the game’s criticism.
It is unclear how exactly fans can expect BioWare’s promises about its new protagonist to manifest themselves in-game, but if nothing else, the trailer from The Game Awards suggests a desire to create a more compelling player protagonist on BioWare’s part. The Dragon Age games are better known for their companions, so figuring how to make the player character compelling while remaining customizable could be a triumph for the next game. Whether or not Dragon Age 4 can focus on its player character enough to pull that off when it has to contend with so many unresolved plotlines remains to be seen.
Dragon Age 4 is in development.