What an age it has been, with the autumn season coming to a conclusion and marking ten years since the release ofDragon Age: Originsand all its glorious storytelling, lore, world-building, and contributions that it has made to the fantasy RPG genre. November 3rd marked the ten year anniversary, and yesterday,December 4th, was officiallyDragon 4geDay, a grand celebration by fans wishing to commend theDragon Age’s setting and world, Thedas.
In many ways, the first game,Dragon Age: Origins, opened up the doors for the American and European flavor of darker medieval-fantasy RPGs to take hold in the console market and attract mass appeal. Before its release, the genre was mostly exclusive to the PC gaming market, with games such asDiablo,WarcraftandIcewind Daleas the main attractions.
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Meanwhile, in the console market, it wasJapanese developers and their anime-inspired JRPGtitles which vastly dominated the fantasy RPG market. When the first trailers arrived forDragon Age: Origins, it very much caught the attention of gamers with its darker and grittier shade of fantasy in a fully fleshed out 3D world. The start of the trailer clearly resonated characteristics of dark fantasy literature such asA Song of Ice and Fire, with its bleak world and hopelessness.
In medieval-fantasy literature, this darker sub-genre within traditional fantasy has earned the title “grimdark fantasy” in recent times, and often emphasizes a more cynical take onfantasy world-building and character development, with plenty of cut-throat politics. The flavor thatDragon Age: Originspresented was a much more foreign element in the console market, in comparison to the fantasy presented by JRPGs.
Dragon Age: Originsvery much resembled fantasy more akin to literary fantasy trends at the time. It arguably brought the grimmer and darker tones to mainstream video game fantasy in similar fashion to the way in whichGame of Thrones and its literary counterpart,A Song of Ice and Fire, did the same for literature and film.Dragon Age: Originsoffered something uniquely more reminiscent of real-world politics and conflicts, with all its grey areas, in contradiction to J.R.R. Tolkiens' idealism, which emphasized themes of hope and more clearly etched characteristics along the lines of good and evil in his fantasy.
In fact, many people consideredDragon Age: Originsto be a modern spiritual successor toBaldur’s Gate, due to a strategically deep combat system brought to fruition in beautifully rendered 3D environments and real-time. Additionally,Dragon Age’s world drew heavily on graphics with a more dreary-brown color pallet to set the tone of its bitter landscape and setting. It was visually reminiscent ofBaldur’s Gatedarkly lit world and more dystopian take on medieval-fantasy RPGs.
Dragon Age: Originswas able to bring darker fantasy to the console marketwithout compromising or watering down the depth of its combat, customization and narrative choices, while remaining accessible for both invested and casual game players. In other words, it more closely resembled darker fantasy literature and PC fantasy, but created a franchise capable of mass appeal, which some may argue was a risky endeavor.
Dragon Age: Originsshook up the status quo of fantasy RPG’s on consoles normally dominated by Japanese developers such as Squaresoft. For the first time, it appeared that fantasyRPGs created by western developers could finally compete with Japanese RPG’sin the console market, and fit into the mass-appeal of the mainstream. While fans could also argue thatElder Scrolls III: MorrowindandElder Scrolls IV: OblivionbeatDragon Ageto the punch, it is important to take notice of the nuances.
While theElder Scrollsgames may have been extremely influential in the console and PC gaming worlds, they may have played a stronger role in the development of open world and sandbox games, rather than paving the way for strong narrative-driven dark fantasy in the console market. In other words,Elder Scrolls paved the way for vastly expansive open worldsthat transcend different genres and themes including science fiction, butDragon Age: Orginsopened up the doors for darker fantasy themes and storytelling that more closely resembled fantasy literature trends.Dragon Age: Originschanged the type of stories that were told in fantasy RPGs.
Elder Scrollssimilarly offered a dark and grim fantasy world for players to immerse themselves in, but it was not nearly as accessible to casual players or the mass market at the time. Many of which would not have been invested inElder Scrolls' swaths of lore and heavy dialogue, all of which lacked an immersive story-driven journey to traverse through.Dragon Age: Originscaptured a rich story-driven RPGin giving both casual and hardcore players choices with real outcomes, while guiding them on a roller-coaster journey to a pivotal climax.
Dragon Age: Originsmay not be the open world sandbox that the earlierElder Scrollsgames offered invested players, but it was by no means linear or shallow in the least. Furthermore, it would not have been able to take players through such an immersive journey in an open-world sandbox settings. While there is much debate amongplayers regarding preferences for more linear or open-world designs, it is safe to say that there are always trade-offs between the two, especially in terms of storytelling.
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Take the firstWitcher, for instance, which was geared for a PC exclusive market originally. Two years afterDragon Age: Originshit the market,Witcher 2was released on consoles as well.Elder Scrolls V: Skyrimalso followed, and was also designed with more streamlined gameplay than its predecessors, arguably to make it more accessible to to the mass market.Dragon Age: Originsdemonstrated that the mass market was ripe for its style and theme if developed in the right ways.
While there are many inspiring RPGs that have been released since,Dragon Age: Originswas a game changer for the genre, especially for bringing the PC aspects to the console market and normalizing the trend for the years that would follow. When the sequelarrived in 2011, many critics feltDragon Age 2’s combatwas too streamlined and lacked the depth of the first game. In other words, it went too far to appeal to the mass market. While much can be debated about its combat and level-design, it is very clear that its storytelling and world-setting remained intact, without any compromises.
Dragon Age 2delved into deepening political rifts and multi-party relations between warring populaces, much of which draws parallels to real world conflicts, and can feel hopeless or depressing at times. The way in which governing bodies of characters dealt with difficult issues and tribulations within societies clearly drew inspiration from real-world events, demonstratingDragon Age’s maturity and layers of depth.
Dragon Age: Inquisitionarrived in late 2014, and was the most ambitious title yet. It revived much of the strategic depth of the original game’s combat mechanics, while offering enhanced animation fluidity normally observed in more action-oriented games. It offered players accessibility and mass appeal whichDragon Age 2set out to establish originally, while drawing from the inspiration that set the strategic bar for the first game,Origins. Whether or not Inquisition reached the bar of the first game in that regard, many avidDragon Agefans still considerOriginsto be the best the series has to offer. However, that by no means undermines the games that followed. After all,Dragon Age: Originsis simply a classic among the great RPGs in modern history.
Many fans will zealously argue that there has yet to be any game to rivalDragon Age: Origins' combat in terms of its overall strategic depth and mass appeal to casual and invested players alike. There is a case to be made for thestrategic gameplay choices in titles such asDivinity: Original Sin II, and other turn-based or real-time overhead camera RPGs. However, they have yet to demonstrate the sweet spot between mass appeal and maintaining strategic depth, while encapsulating it within a fully fleshed out 3D world to explore.
The current trend in fantasy RPGs is a complete paradigm shift to the status quo that was present a decade ago, and much of it is owed toDragon Age: Originsas it offered a fresh take on the game genre. While many great RPGs will be released in the coming years, the roots of their inspiration can certainly be traced to the flavor of fantasy RPGs whichDragon Age: Originsplanted the seeds for.
One could make the argument that Tolkien lay the foundation for fantasy literature, butA Song of Ice and Fire modernized the genre and brought upon the paradigm shiftwhich has set the current trajectory in literary fantasy trends. In similar fashion,Dragon Age: Originsarguably established the current paradigm shift which has changed the fantasy RPG genre more than any single game in the past decade, and established the mass market appeal for other titles to to take root, such asThe Witcher 3,Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and much more.
