Mark Darrah, who served as a director or executive producer on every main Dragon Age game before departing BioWare in 2021, has shared his thoughts on what he would change about the beloved fantasy series. Darrah returned as a consultant for Dragon Age: The Veilguard during its final development stages and recently discussed potential alterations to the franchise's history in a TikTok Q&A.
When revisiting Dragon Age: Origins, Darrah expressed a desire to cut or significantly reduce the dream sequence content within the Mage Tower, describing it as "filler" and "not great content" that was ultimately rushed. He also noted that he would have liked to add more character origin options, including an additional human origin and potentially the Avvar.
For Dragon Age 2, Darrah focused on the game's ending, where player choices between templars and mages lead to unfavorable outcomes for both factions. He suggested altering the ending so that players do not have to fight Orsino if they side with the mages, as the current conclusion effectively validates Meredith's stance by demonstrating the mages' loss of control.
Darrah's critiques of Dragon Age: Inquisition centered on its pacing and scope. He would streamline the "crit path" to reduce time spent in areas like the Hinterlands and suggested excising an entire zone, such as the Hissing Wastes, due to the game's excessive length. He also believes the amount of "power" required to advance the main story could be reduced by 40-60% to improve pacing. Furthermore, Darrah recalled advocating for the inclusion of a feature that directs players out of the initial level and into the game world sooner, a change that was eventually added post-launch.
Regarding Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Darrah's primary suggestion was to implement the "Keep," BioWare's cloud-based service for tracking player choices across the series. He admitted that adding this feature would be a significant undertaking. When asked about what he would remove from The Veilguard, Darrah stated he had no specific changes in mind.
BioWare is reportedly now a single-project studio, focusing entirely on the development of the next Mass Effect game, which is still years away from release.