Dragon Age 4 has been rumored or outright talked about since the closure of Dragon Age Inquisition with the Trespasser DLC in 2015. At the Game Awards, finally, Dragon Age 4 was properly announced.
But that's it. No real title, no release date, no story points, no setting, just a vague trailer you can see below, the nice artwork above - and a line from Trespasser. As big fans of the franchise (we've even seen the movie!) and of BioWare in general, we thought we'd put our minds to listing everything we want to see in Dragon Age 4! No spoilers here, we'll save that for the Everything We Know!
Dragon Age 4 - Less Boring Side Quests
Let's not beat about the Elfroot bush - we loved Dragon Age Inquisition, but one of the biggest reasons why The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (which came out shortly afterwards) is the superior RPG is that CD Projekt RED took the time to make really interesting side quests, which the player actually wanted to complete because they were fun, not to grind XP or get loot.
Dragon Age 4 needs to take this approach. BioWare needs to focus on making intelligent character-based quests, with surprising twists and choices to be made. They need to be proper stories and adventures - not just gathering herbs, clicking on an object, or killing X amount of Qunari. Or after a while we'll just give up exploring.
Dragon Age 4 - A Less MMO-Like Open World
By the same token as the point above, we were all for an open-world Dragon Age game, or even just different open-world sections - a deliberate hark back to Baldur's Gate, which Dragon Age was always a homage to. The world itself looked gorgeous and was always interesting - but there was nothing really in it. Or, at the very least, there would be large open areas with just a few basic monsters in it. That's an MMO, not a single-player RPG.
Having large areas just for the sake of being large, or artificially increasing the amount of time you spend in the game, that's not fun. It's also not particularly good design. We're happy to have open worlds, but they have to feel like a real world, or have plenty of things to do in them - not just XP grinding. Otherwise we'd play The Old Republic, which is Knights of the Old Republic 3 with hours of pointless walking around tagged on to no-one's enjoyment.
Dragon Age 4 - Or, More Like Origins
Having trouble making an open world, or think that's too expensive without silly multiplayer live service stuff? Then do the opposite - make Dragon Age 4 more like Origins, with more designed areas and interesting locations. Origins and Dragon Age II were a bit more confined, but everyone loved Origins nonetheless. We didn't need a flashy open world to impress us.
Better yet, the last piece of Dragon Age we got, Trespasser, was a deliberate nod back to Origins' more confined gameplay style. And it was a lot of fun. We would not object to a "smaller" game like Origins at all, and it'd be cheaper to do, too.
Dragon Age 4 - Focus On The Characters
Now for something more pleasant - the characters. The weird, wonderful, and devilishly multi-layered characters of Dragon Age have always made the series worth playing. Dragon Age II has many, many faults, but people still played that game and enjoyed it (including us) because it had some of the best character moments in the series. We even loved Inquisition for such entertaining friends as Iron Bull and Varric, and even straight-laced companions like Cullen and Cassandra were always fun to talk to and do things for.
Don't let us down with the companions, BioWare. Preferably give Scout Harding a bigger role, allow us to control Morrigan again, and a bigger party roster (or something else for characters to do) would be great. And romance everyone and everything, definitely.
Dragon Age 4 - Do Not Go Anthem On It
An EA mandate has suggested that single-player games are completely out of the question now, and the reason Dragon Age 4 is taking so long is because it has been rebooted to incorporate "live elements" to it. With Anthem being such a focus for BioWare, we're concerned that EA is forcing the studio to make the game more Destiny-like - with groups of people doing the same quests.
As Dragon Age fans, we can say honestly - we don't want that. Co-op? Certainly, we'd love to do a Baldur's Gate and co-op missions with friends at any time. But to have hundreds of Inquisitors running about the world, that kind of breaks the immersion. We do not want an MMO - we've told you already. And we're worried Dragon Age 4 will end up as one anyway, Let's hope not...
