arlafan-blog

[arlafan-blog]

OKAY

So, you know how Dwarves are afraid of the sky, right? And haha, yeah that’s so funny, silly Dwarves, right?

BUT NO

Dwarves have been around for millenia. Well before the fall of the Elves, since they’re mentioned as being around with Titans when they were alive. So you know, before the Veil was created.

How did the Elves describe the Veil being made? Fen’Harel held back the sky.

The Dwarves were never afraid of the sky.

They were afraid of the Fade.

[arlafan-blog]

Codex Entry: Veilfire Runes in the Deep Roads

In light of the new DA4 mural, bringing this back for its relevance. Bolding is mine.

In the light of the veilfire, the runes seem to shift, coiling and uncoiling like snakes. A thunderous voice shatters the stillness, shouting:

“Hail Mythal, adjudicator and savior! She has struck down the pillars of the earth and rendered their demesne unto the People! Praise her name forever!”

For a moment, the scent of blood fills the air, and there is a vivid image of green vines growing and enveloping a sphere of fire.

The vision grows dark. An aeon seems to pass. Then the runes crackle, as if filled with an angry energy.

A new vision appears: elves collapsing caverns, sealing the Deep Roads with stone and magic. Terror, heart-pounding, ice-cold, as the last of the spells is cast. A voice whispers: “What the Evanuris in their greed could unleash would end us all. Let this place be forgotten. Let no one wake its anger. The People must rise before their false gods destroy them all.”

[arlafan-blog]

Good catch, as a few people were trying to work out whether some of the figures had been reduced in this newer version. Unless the idol was based on something prophetic though, it’s creation predates the first Blight (based on the Primeval Thaig that the one in DA2 was found) which explicitly says it’s been sealed off since before the Darkspawn hordes began their rampaging. More notably, there is no record of it in the Memories, which means the Thaig and the idol also likely predate the creation of the Veil (around the same date as the modern dwarven Memories start. That’s not to say it isn’t prophetic however, just that it’s a very, very old prophecy if it is. Dragon Age does always love a good prophecy... 

I did a quick color overlay of the three figures on the red lyrium idols for it to be easier to see! Also important to note that the figure on the far right’s left arm is partially missing

[arlafan-blog]

okay so solas has gone & corrulted himself with the red lyrium so he could be stronger & open up the veil :)

[arlafan-blog]

#TheDreadWolfRises

One day the magic will come back. All of it.

Everyone will be just like they were.

[arlafan-blog]

I ripped the full version of the mural from the youtube thumbnail for your scrutiny and theorymaking purposes

[arlafan-blog]

Teaser Breakdown

Coming out of stasis to add some thoughts to the meta surrounding the DA4 teaser. There were some great things to pull from the trailer, but for me the main ones were why the idol was included, and some of the imagery in the final fresco artwork. 

The idol’s inclusion is a deliberate if slightly strange choice. The resource had to be remodelled for the purposes of the trailer, so it’s not an accident or absent choice. While bearing resemblance to the idol Hawke found in the deep roads, they’re unlikely to be the same as Meredith shaped it into her sword, Certainty, which is held by Samson in DAI. It’s unclear how it was ‘shaped’ into a sword in the first place, so it could be possible to revert it, but it seems more likely there are multiples of this idol, so what it represents is more important. Which brings us to...

What does it actually depict? The information surrounding the primeval thaig that the DA2 idol was found in states it predates the blights, and was sealed prior to them - meaning it cannot depict Andraste. The codex entries around the thaig also suggest magical architecture and statues of gods that dwarves were not known to worship. This could either be the elves meddling or it could be dwarven gods predating the creation of the veil. Worth noting that the idol does not have particularly elven ears, but in other aspects does pretty well fit the descriptions of Mythal. The idol could be depicting her death and her mourners, though it seems curious that many idols of this kind would be made. 

As the idol condenses into the final image, we’re presented with what looks like a stylised version of the fade, with the corrupted idol at the centre. What stood out to me the most in this panel were two things: the balance being presented between protection and destruction of the left and right figures aka. your friendly neighborhood dread wolf. The second thing that caught my eye were the half circles surrounding the idol, seven in total with all but two greyed out. Given Solas’s reaction to the continued deaths of the (seven) Old Gods at the hands of the wardens, this seems significant.

TIN FOIL HAT TERRITORY BELOW

The Old Gods were sealed away as part of the locking mechanism to keep the Veil in place. There seems to be correlation between them and the Forgotten Ones (it would be ironic punishment). 

They were in part used to power this unnatural separation, and thus as more Old Gods / Archdemons have been destroyed, the Veil has decayed and become weaker.

The Veil was made to keep the Blight / the Evanuris in. With five Old Gods down and the Veil breached, this is no longer a sustainable solution to the problem of the Blight. 

Given the interaction of the Blight with the Old God Souls, it could be that its original creation was part of the Evanuris’ power struggle in an effort to make another of the pantheon mortal enough to kill for good. 

With the growing instability and corruption, taking down the Veil in one way or another seems inevitable at this point. 

It’s going to be very messy. 

I’m very hopeful about the potential that this trailer presents: of the balance between Solas and the Dread Wolf, and whether we can choose to walk a similar line in our approach as protags, whether we can through our actions bring out more of one or the other (the end of Trespasser seems to hint at this). I think having him as a potentially begrudging ally against a larger foe (the Evanuris) would be fascinating, as would be the choice to get personal revenge early and remove him or reject any alliance, and the consequences that would result - would you as the hero do any better than him? 

[arlafan-blog]

TL:DR

The devs admit:

war table wasn’t designed the best - “flavor” missions where it didn’t matter which advisor went let the player lax and not pay attention to when it did matter which advisor went.

some missions would have worked better as playable scenes or cut entirely instead of being on the table. One the flip side, some originally planned playable scenes had to be cut and were still able to be included by ending up on the table instead.

war table missions were made after the rest of the game was done and voice over were complete, so having companions react to the missions couldn’t happen. That’s why many reactions were added into Trespasser.

when writing war table missions they didn’t know if any of those missions would actually be read, what the rewards would be, how much time they would take, etc. Had they known exactly how they were to be used, they might have gone about them differently.

TL:DR 2:

creating games is hard

[arlafan-blog]

[arlafan-blog]

Interactive Map of Thedas v.2.0

An update! A bit later than I anticipated because I discovered that tumblr removes input fields from custom pages and had to find another hosting solution.

New Features:

Ability to hide/show features (borders, labels, etc.)

Deep Roads Map (many thanks to higheverrains, who allowed me to extrapolate from their Deep Roads theory and add it as a feature to the map! It is hidden by default but can be viewed by checking “Show Deep Roads Map” under Show Features.)

Two different distance grids (each with 30km/60km versions based on average walking/riding distance in a day) based on different theories.

Labels on the oceans and seas!

Added a handful of additional locations from DAI

Improvements / Bug Fixes:

Zooming in/out functions more smoothly now

West Hill is now in the correct location (… also thanks to higheverrains)

… Rivain no longer gets chopped in half when you zoom in on it.

Coming Soon(ish):

My next goalpost is to refactor some of the code to make the map load more quickly. Once that is complete, I’ll probably gradually move into adding additional detail based on the location maps from DAI. Let me know if you are interested in helping out! (No coding experience required, just a basic image editor and some patience)

Interested in seeing more?

Let me know what you’d like to see! If you go the extra mile and give me rough coordinates for the location on the map + the zoom factor you were viewing it at when you got the coordinates, I can have it up much more quickly!

Let me know if you see any incorrect/outdated information.

View the New Map Here

[arlafan-blog]

Dragon Age is my favorite IP ever. I'm reading the news that the new DA project was "rebooted" to "implement more live elements". I'm also reading several people saying that DA4 might not happen if Anthem doesn't do well. Is that a fair assessment, and in your professional opinion does "live elements" most likely mean it won't be single-player?

I can’t comment on whether DA4 will or will not make it due to Anthem. I know that EA had scheduled the next Dragon Age for release before 2020 (as of around 2016), but it’s old information and I can’t say anything more specific than that. That said, let’s discuss what “live elements” actually means, since that’s something I know a little more about.

“Live elements” doesn’t necessarily mean multiplayer. “Live elements” means that the game service will be able to push new data to your game over the internet whenever you log in and start it. This way, you can get live updates to your game in the form of new content, featured things, live events, etc. without having to release (and certify) a patch. You can most commonly see this in sports titles, where players can follow along with the season results and play through pivotal moments and scenarios in the game that were broadcast live mere days before. 

If you ever played Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer, you might remember how they had special bonus weekend events. That’s an example of a live update. Other examples of live updates could be hypothetical new war table missions periodically appearing in DAI, ME:A’s N7 day missions, and the like. In fact, what they could even do is provide incentives to play the game (e.g. collectively kill 10,000,000 ogres across all platforms) and provide rewards to everybody if the criteria are met. 

Now… certainly, this can have a large effect on any multiplayer modes, but there’s nothing that restricts it only to multiplayer. It can just as easily affect single player gameplay as well, as long as the developers can track everybody’s collective contributions. Being able to take live data updates and reflect them in game has a lot of potential, like allowing the in-game world to change over real time on a week-to-week basis, or recognizing the collective efforts of players towards a goal. It entirely depends on how the designers at Bioware decide to take advantage of this. If you’ve observed things carefully at all, you’ve probably realized that most of this stuff can and does already happen in a variety of games.

The important thing to remember is that EA’s ultimate goal isn’t to make every game multiplayer. It isn’t even to cram loot boxes into everything, because loot boxes attached to a game that isn’t engaging won’t earn much money. EA’s goal is to maximize player engagement, because maximizing player engagement is the path to more money. EA doesn’t want single-use one-time products anymore because they’re too expensive to build and don’t have enough of a return. Instead, they want games that they can continue to support (since continued support is less expensive than developing an entirely new product), and that players will want to support. This results in a mutually beneficial situation - you, as a player, get a steady stream of content updates of varying type and size to keep you playing the game, and we get more people who are willing to chip in a few bucks because they keep having fun with the game.

We’re going to do a follow-along project, either designing a Game System or Designing a Level! [Click here to vote for which]. I’m surprised at the results of the poll so far. It seems almost exactly evenly divided between both choices!

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent questions: The FAQ

[arlafan-blog]

1,000 followers? Wow! Wow wow wow! Thank you so much for following me. To celebrate such an unexpectedly awesome number, I have some good stuff for this one. Here we go.

Prize • You’d Better Like Art

The prize is one copy of The Art of Dragon Age: Inquisition [x] and one copy of Dragon Age: Inquisition - The Poster Collection [x]. The art book is pretty self-explanatory - lots and lots of art! The poster book is a little different - it’s made up of about twenty prints (12″x16″) that you can pull out and display. It features a lot of the tarot-style pieces from the series. (I love my own copy)

Rules

Like and reblog to enter (one each per person, so up to 2 entries total)

You must be a follower to win

No giveaway blogs

Winning

Giveaway closes Tuesday, October 31 at 8PM EST. One winner will be chosen via random number generator and announced soon after. The winner then has 24 hours to respond to me via Tumblr Messenger. (If I don’t hear from them within that time period, I’ll pick a new one)

[arlafan-blog]

Sexuality and Dragon Age

Or why I have serious issues with DA2

Thedas is kind of wishy-washy on its sexual politics. The general approach across multiple cultures appears to be don’t ask don’t tell, except maybe in Orlais (which is still hard to nail down) and with the Qunari. There is an unwillingness to define or discuss it in the narrative itself that is very telling: in a story that is unafraid to (however successfully or not) take stances on things like slavery, or the regulation of magic, or religion. And the game does this by providing multiple contrasting points of view (whether that’s actually successful or not), but that is something notably absent from LGBTQ themes. 

DAO was just... eeeh? Wishy-washy and not terribly noteworthy when it came to treatment of m/m or f/f relationships, but given that it’s one of the more prominent early examples of those kinds of romances I’m going to give it some props at least. Characters sexualities were part of who they were, and helped shape them (even if I was convinced Morrigan was a lesbian until halfway through the game when I read a guide). The romances largely existed for the player though, which is... fine, in this context. 

Which brings me to DA2. DA2 did some things right, but did a whole bunch of bullshit to cancel it out too. All of the romancable characters in DA2 are bi/pansexual. Would someone who played through the game only once know that? Very unlikely. The term ‘playersexual’ got bandied around a lot, and it bothered me, as a bi person, because to further erase scant bi characters from a game that should have been theirs is quite frankly, a bit shit. I even used the term for a while myself, for want of a better word to try and express exactly what it was about how the game was written that upset me. The closest I can come to is heteronormative.

An attempt was made, yes: Anders will hit on you regardless of gender as will Isabela. However, this is where any kudos stops. Unless prompted, none of the other characters will flirt with someone of the same sex, seemingly without reason. Voicelines were changed depending on gender for Anders, which cuts me to my core, just so that the player can pretend that everyone they’re playing with is straight. If you don’t romance certain characters, they pair off: which I do think is a nice addition. It gives them life outside the player. However, all of the characters are paired off into m/f couples that make absolutely zero sense. Carver regularly makes disparaging comments about elves and he’s potentially a templar, and yet he picks the elven bloodmage? Isabela and Fenris????

DAI to its credit handles things better. Not perfectly but, but better. Having every character available to the player at all times felt very gamey, especially with how it was handled. Realistically, its statistically unlikely that groups of solely bisexual people continue to end up at the centre of major upheavals, unless there’s a conspiracy about it all. Having a character say no to a player helps to make them individuals, helps to make them rounded people. It makes each of them more important representations of diverse groups, and I can only hope that the games continue to improve on this. 

On that note, improvement is something we have to ask for. Yelling and screaming abuse does nothing, and if you think something’s lacking you should definitely let someone know about it: tweet a dev, write a post, talk about it with other people. Modding characters isn’t really the answer either: it discourages change, and enforces that truly awful ‘playersexual’ archetype. We can only expect to see something better if we ask for it. 

[arlafan-blog]

Writing Dragon Age: Part 2

Pacing Problems

Pacing was always going to be an issue in a game as large as DAI. While Origins was masterfully constructed in freeform story arc, the areas it covered were smaller and deceptively linear. Without the driving nature of linear level design, it can be very hard to maintain story pressure, but I think the problem runs deeper than that.

DAI, as confirmed in Blood, Sweat and Pixels, was actually conceived more or less immediately after the release of DAO. The then lead writer David Gaider also commented the game was supposed to be much longer: at least narratively. This is the core of Inquisition’s story woes, because the narrative beats are for a much larger story, a story we don’t get to see the entirety of. We’d be more forgiving if this was a book or a tv series, but that kind of structure just doesn’t fly in a game like DAI, where we expect story arcs being contained. 

The first act is (Hinterlands aside) probably the most polished of the game, with enough tension applied to not abandoning the main storyline. Areas are also blocked so the player can’t wander too far. It forms its own sub-arc, and feels very satisfying as an opening to the world and story. Then everything sags in the middle: mostly due to game mechanics and a lack of imminent threat as Corypheus more or less disappears. The player quickly works out they can delay the main quest indefinitely, and with all the areas in the game immediately available to them there’s far more distraction. 

Picking a canon order of events would have helped here, as the areas available to it could have been better tailored for story purposes (Western Approach before Adamant, then The Exalted Plains / The Emerald Graves before Halamshiral). It would also have helped with the sag in tension the choice between the two brings. 

Then you come to the end of the game, where suddenly everything happens in the last third of it very quickly. It feels rushed, and while that can be a good thing, the revelations feel kind of out of nowhere based on what was going down previously, and while there’s some attempt at foreshadowing made, it’s not nearly enough to justify the sudden right turn into ELVES. There’s a lack of connection between the pace and events of the first sections of the game and the last, and it’s jarring. There’s also dev comments confirming that the final sections of the game weren’t given the same attention as the first act, and it shows. The first act was rewritten, and it benefits greatly from it, whereas the rest of the game was screaming for a good edit. 

Everything was far too spread and slow in the middle, and frantic at the end you’re bound to miss any moment of gravity that would add to the kind of mediocre climax that 100% definitely meant to be in the middle of a story arc, not the end, and that’s ultimately the problem. The story has been written for a larger arc, so what’s left after cuts isn’t quite right when it’s laid out again. They came close to fixing it with Trespasser, but I can’t give a free pass for DLC. 

[arlafan-blog]

Stars and Guarders: Random Thought Blog #6

One of our recent posts had an interesting response from @thereallonelyagain​ .  I was thinking quite a bit about it this week and, naturally, I had to share the results of that thinking.  

I read quite a bit about navigation and astronomy instruments, including astrolabes, while I was in high school and in my early college years.  I was writing fanfiction for a very different fandom at that time that I felt required knowledge of 16th century sailing.  I did notice that the globes in the Brecilian ruins resembled an orrery under glass and the orbs I jokingly called “weird ass whirligigs” do bear a resemblance to a dioptra or an armillary sphere.  So could they be used for astronomy?  

In order to prove a connection to Thedosian astronomy, we should expect to find similar traits to an observatory in our world.  We should find star charts and writings that describe the heavens and the movement of celestial bodies around Thedas (murals, paintings, or starry images would be a start), multiple instruments that can be used to make observations of such things, and an unobstructed view of the sky.  I can’t definitely find any of these things in the Brecilian Forest ruins, but there is a case to be made for all of them being present in the Western Approach, specifically at Coracavus and the Still Ruins.  Items and evidence found there suggests there could also be a connection between the Fade, Time Magic, and Thedas astronomy…maybe.

Here is what I’ve got:

This object looks a lot like an orrery, perhaps showing Thedas and its two moons.  

At least one of these scrolls seems to show a star chart or a map of constellations around Thedas.

Here’s a close up of the chart.  It looks a lot like constellations,especially when you compare it with other Thedosian star charts.  (I haven’t been able to make a match between these and the constellations marked by the astrariums and in World of Thedas, but I’ll keep at it.)

You know…come to think of it, Coracavus and the Still Ruins are hosting some shady shit!  “Prison” my ass!  No “prison” has green marble walls, richly decorated rooms, and a teeny tiny cells for a dozen-ish people at most.  All the evidence points to Coracavus being a well appointed research facility, whose occupants conducted some nasty experiments, fueled by lyrium and their prisoners’ blood, all of which resulted in a Veil breach that required time magic to contain ages before “the Breach” we deal with in Inquisition.  Could astronomy be part of the magic that alters time?  No clue, but it would be interesting to be able to talk with Dorian about his work with Alexius more.

The clearest connection between magic and astronomy is seen in the astrariums scattered across Southern Thedas and the codex entries associated with them.  

It’s pretty clear that armillary spheres inspired the design of the astrariums and suggested their purpose, i.e. mapping the locations of various star clusters. Thedas has the added twist of them being used to magically seal away treasures from an ancient Tevinter cult that seemed a bit obsessed with constellations.

Could these be related to the globes in the Brecilian Forest?  Maybe.  

As you can see in this picture from the basement in Kinloch Hold, there are spheres and planes that resemble the parts of a dioptra and look a lot like a medieval armillary sphere.  Since we have never seen these objects used, however, all we can do is speculate about their purpose.  They do bear a resemblance to an astrarium, but I can’t say for certain that they are related or not.

It is worth noting that the Western Approach does have something in common with the Brecilian Forest; the Veil is very thin in both places.  The book Asunder talks about how thin the Veil is near Adamant as does this codex found at the Ritual Tower where the Inquisitor first confront Erimond.

“Many Tevinter structures litter the wastelands of southwestern Orlais. In the age before the First Blight, the Imperium expanded through the South at an incredible rate, and the lands farthest from Minrathous became home to a great many sites dedicated to magical experimentation, taking advantage of natural weaknesses in the Veil as well as the distance from the Archon’s oversight to try ever more dangerous fields of study. As with Aeonar in Ferelden, the laboratories of Orlais were set upon by the followers of Andraste during the uprising, and little remains of them now save crumbled stone.”

-An excerpt from Empire and Imperium by Sister Petrine, Chantry scholar

There are also aspects about the Western Approach, the Brecilian Forest Ruins, and the Old Temple in the Frostback Basin that are similar.  Tevinter may have conducted magical experiments in all three places, two of which definitely went very wrong.

So let’s get back to the original point: Could the weird ass whirligigs and the ancient elven tree ornaments be astronomy instruments like an astrolabe, orrery, or armillary sphere?  Well, we have seen the Brecilian Forest whirligigs in use in Awakening.  Twice.  Once in a modern context, the other in an ancient one.  

Here’s the modern use.  The Architect was using four whirligigs in his experiments in the Silverite Mine.

They are definitely magical tools of some sort, perhaps serving as conduits and/or collectors of energy.  Turning the apparatus off also releases the magical door lock the Architect put in place to keep the unwanted out (and the wanted in?).  I assumed up to this point that the Architect’s experiments focused on the Blight and individuals who are naturally resistant to it, but this particular experiment doesn’t seem to have much to do with the Blight.  Perhaps the whirligigs themselves may have been the experiment, the unlocking effect merely a side effect of the apparatus being turned off once the room safe to enter.  (A good question to ponder is if the Architect brought the orbs to the room or if they were part of the original construction of the Silverite Mines.)

The other time we see a whirligig used in during the battle with the Dark Theurge.

In this case, even more than with the Architect, we are probably seeing the original purpose for the whirligigs, which I guess we could now call the “Strange Apparatus”.  The Strange Apparatus activates when the Dark Theurge is about to be defeated.  Why is a whole other matter.  It is likely that the whirligig’s strange apparatus’ energy is part of what kept the Dark Theurge from escaping his Deep Roads prison.  By turning it off, we seem to have unleashed it. Hopefully its sorry ass was sent back to the Fade after the Warden-Commander defeated the Avvar lord corpses it raised.  My Warden-Commander doesn’t love the idea of having to deal with that nasty bastard every time the wardens need a turnip from the root cellar.

The elvhen orbs seem to serve a similar purpose.  They also seem to channel energy, such as we can see in the elvhen shrine under the Dead Hand and with the energy “trees” in the Vir Dirthara.

Given the energy associated with all of these artifacts, I still suggest the “strange apparatus” whirligigs have more to do with directing power than they do with astronomy. 

Make of all of this what you will.  :)

-MM 

PS - We actually have seen astrolabes in Dragon Age before or rather, their navigational cousin, the sextant.  In our post about non-magical technology in Thedas, we pointed out that the Warden-Commander can give one to Nathaniel Howe in Awakening.

[arlafan-blog]

A skull set upon a staff, these macabre artifacts cause magical shards in the area to glow with magical radiance when a viewer looks through the eyes of the skull.

Alexius was quite clear in his orders. We must scour the countryside to find more of the shards. Without them, the Venatori cannot claim the treasure our master seeks. For that, we need the oculara. Without them, the shards are nearly impossible to find, even if they are no longer cloaked by whatever magic hid them for all these centuries.

There must be more Tranquil in the area — the rebels abandoned most of them when they fled their Circles. Remember, the skull will only attune properly if the Tranquil is in close proximity to one of the shards when the demon is forced to possess him. Even then, the blow must be delivered immediately. The oculara produced from Tranquil killed even minutes later failed to illuminate the shards when used.

I trust you to continue your efforts in this matter. Our master expects success.

       — A letter found in an abandoned house in Redcliffe Village (x)

[arlafan-blog]

Yup! I mostly agree with the technical aspects: while they’ll definitely have more tools in Frostbite after DAI and MEA, the MEA tools probably won’t be as helpful given the reports that they were fundamentally broken. They could possibly want the systems locked down after DAI’s development kind of had the opposite, but if you want to innovate, yeah, having it so early in any meaningful, polished way seems dubious. 

That sexuality slider thing seemed to be a pretty big red flag really: Bioware has been historically very steadfast in how they want their characters to play out in world, and turning on a button to switch off content rather than simply being able to turn someone down in game seems like something they’d never do. It also seems far too specific to contribute to backstory without overly complicating things. 

I personally left out the fantasy angle since I’m kind of biased on the opposite end of the spectrum: I didn’t like the style / structure of DA2, so me using that argument about fantasies might be kind of hypocritical (DA2 is not my fantasy for DA4). That being said, you’re probably right. From a dev point of view, I think they’d be very cautious to emulate so many DA2 like features given that the game was critically panned across the board, even if it found popularity among fans here on tumblr. You just don’t court fate like that, especially with how MEA was received - they’ll likely be aiming very safe, and I expect something pretty similar to DAI: it made the most money and won all the awards, though hopefully they improve on the criticisms that have come out since then.

News: DA4 ‘Leak’

A new leak has appeared: so is it legit?

Recently there was a thread started on 4chan by a user claiming to have insider knowledge on the upcoming Dragon Age game. You can read the thread in full here: if you’re curious. 

The thread details some of the locations, plot details and characters-SUPPOSEDLY-of DA4. So spoilers, I guess, maybe? Don’t read if you’re at all concerned about spoilers, because we can’t really verify one way or another if its true - the devs certainly wouldn’t confirm it and it’s unlikely they’d debunk it. 

So, without including spoilers as much as possible here: is the leak legit? The verdict: very unlikely. 

The information provided we could use to check if it was legitimate could be easily guessed / made up. I have my own predictions posts planned, and yeah, I expect there to be a lot of gameplay in Minrathous, as well as literally all the other interesting locations in northern Thedas. Not exactly insider information. This applies to a lot of the other claims. 

Few specifics mentioned, like quest names, though character names are provided: again, easy to make up. 

Seems unusual that Bioware would want to return to a single race game, as both DAO and DAI (the two games they wanted to make vs the one they were told to do in a year) included this feature. DAI was originally planned as a single race PC, but they postponed the game to include multiple races.

The title: DA: Retribution, is the same name as a choose your own adventure story produced by a fan as a ‘sequel’ to DAO. It seems highly unlikely Bioware would name their IP the same thing that comes up under a fandom banner in a google search. DA: Retribution site here: for those interested.

The release dates included seem unrealistic given Anthem’s release schedule: Anthem is slated for Fall 2018, barring any delays, which puts it in the Sep-Nov window, aka late in the year. E3, the supposed ‘announcement’ date for DA4, is in June. Pulling press and attention away from Anthem so close to release seems insane, as does releasing a new title in March 2019 (the alleged release for DA4). Releasing two AAA titles within 4 months of each other seems highly unlikely, also given the notoriously long time between announcement / first trailer and a game’s release with Bioware. Not that it’s a bad thing, just the way they seem to operate.