Learning EA passed on a Dragon Age Remaster "soft-pitch" has ruined me, because Mass Effect Legendary Edition proved how much it could do for the RPG series

Ever since the launch of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, I've dreamed about someday seeing Dragon Age get the same treatment. Bringing together Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and every expansion in a remastered collection would not only give my favorite RPGs the opportunity to shine all over again, but it'd also preserve their magic for future generations – not to mention the fact that it would make it a hell of a lot easier to access the games for years to come.

I know I'm far from alone in such a wish. I've seen many other longtime Dragon Age fans share the same hope for a long time, and it's once again at the forefront of my mind thanks to a recent interview with former BioWare developer, Mark Darrah. As a veteran who worked at the studio for over two decades before he departed in 2022, Darrah was asked by YouTuber MrMattyPlays what he, in an ideal world, would like to see happen next for the Dragon Age series. The answer he gave is now living rent free in my mind, because it came with the revelation that a conceptual pitch was bounced around that just makes me want a remaster all the more:

"I don't think they will, but I think they should do a remaster of the first three [Dragon Age games]," Darrah says. "I mean, one of the things that we pitched at one point – pretty softly, so pitched it may be an overstatement – was to kind of retroactively rebrand the three games as if they were a trilogy and call it like the 'Champions trilogy'".

We are the champions

Dragon Age is a funny series in the sense that each game is distinct, with a separate protagonist leading the charge in every entry. While there are interconnected story beats and similar ingredients that tie them all together, they aren't as closely connected as Mass Effect, which is more of a true trilogy in the traditional sense. In fact, Darrah even touches on this in the interview by explaining that Origins was originally intended to be a standalone — and even if the game to follow it was called Dragon Age 2, it was by no means "Dragon Age: Origins 2".

So, the "softly" pitched idea of rebranding the trilogy under "Champions" is such a perfect fit. By packaging up a remaster around "the larger than life heroes" that shape each experience, with The Hero of Ferelden in Origins, Hawke in 2, and the Inquisitor in Inquisition, it unifies the games, and feels like such an apt celebration of the characters we get to bring to life and shape – which is a core component in every BioWare RPG.

Regardless how it could be packaged, though, seeing a remaster of the earlier games would be such a huge win. Sure, it would be wonderful for diehard fans like me who frequently revisit the games, but it feels all the more important that it happens for newcomers and future players. I can guarantee (given the lengthy development cycle) that Dragon Age: The Veilguard was the first Dragon Age game for a whole generation, and it could have piqued their interest in what came before. So, a remastered collection would open the door to the past RPGs for so many, just as Mass Effect Legendary Edition did.

Plus, Origins is almost 16 years old at this point, and Dragon Age 2 isn't that far behind. As much as I adored the original Mass Effect when it released, Legendary Edition made revisiting it more enjoyable by today's standards. In later years, the first game started to feel more aged than those that followed, and it was noticeably clunkier (which is not so surprising given that it came out in 2007). The same can also be said about Origins; it may be one of my favorite games of all-time, but it shows its age.

The Legendary Edition really uplifted the first Mass Effect, and while it still retained its identity (ammo, elevator rides, and all), improvements and important editions (like default female Shepard) made it feel more in-tuned with 2 and 3. I could see Origins benefiting in a similar way – nothing needs to drastically change, it could just do with some nice polish for modern audiences.

Sweet blood of Andraste

As of right now, Xbox backwards compatibility and PC are the two main ways you can play either Origins and 2 in terms of modern hardware, which shuts out some audiences already, so a remaster would address that problem, too. But I know I'm getting ahead of myself here. I'm talking about a "softly" pitched idea, after all, and it already feels like a losing game to get my hopes up that a remaster will see the light of day. As Darrah goes on to share, it seems "EA is kind of against remasters", and that, coupled with difficulties that come with making it into a reality for Dragon Age, make it feel like a pipedream.

"Dragon Age is harder than Mass Effect to do, to some degree unknowably harder. Maybe only a little bit harder, maybe a lot harder," Darrah says. "One of the advantages Mass Effect has for a remaster over Dragon Age is, I mean [there's] a bunch of advantages. One, it's all on Unreal instead of two different engines, but actually just the fact that it's Unreal means that you can remaster Mass Effect essentially for money. If you're willing to spend money on it you can go to an external house and they can do most of the work."

That's essentially what happened to make Legendary Edition, Darrah notes, with some BioWare developers also working on the remasters of the three games with an external team. But it's a different story when it comes to what Dragon Age would require, with Darrah explaining that a new team would need to be trained on "really, really crotchety old tech", or that you'd need to "do it in-house".

The "crotchety tech" is likely in reference to the proprietary Eclipse engine, which was created for Dragon Age: Origins and used to develop DA2. Dragon Age: Inquisition was then created using the Frostbite engine, so a remaster would have to contend with an older engine on top of Frostbite for a remaster of all three.

Last year, Veilguard's creative director and BioWare veteran John Epler shared a similar sentiment to Darrah about the idea of a remaster. Also expressing that it wouldn't be as easy as Mass Effect, he also said that he was maybe one of 20 people left at the studio at that point who had used the old Dragon Age Eclipse engine. This came before more layoffs reportedly hit the studio at the beginning of this year, and with the loss of so much talent that helped to make Dragon Age what it is, it's hard to know how small that number has become in-house.

It's been fascinating to listen to Darrah talk about all things BioWare recently, from the mention of a bygone idea to make a Dragon Age: Origins remake, to touching on the forthcoming end of support for Anthem, and more. But the "Champions" remaster is something I'll have a hard time letting go of. Only time will tell if we'll ever see a Dragon Age remaster, but I really hope we do someday. I would love to know that future generations will be able to easily access and enjoy some of my favorite RPGs of all-time… and I'm always looking for another excuse to step back into Thedas.

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