Dragon Age 2 Writer David Gaider Explains The Game’s Idiosyncrasies

Are you a Dragon Age fan? Have you always wondered about Bioware’s stranger decisions regarding the story of Dragon Age 2? Writer David Gaider shot the breeze on the thinking behind some of the game’s frustrating, and divisive decisions.

Chances are, the first thing you had in mind was the time skip. Gaider explained that they actually chose this early on in development, so that players could feel complete catharsis. Some fans may not have liked it, but it was a necessity given the games have teaser endings and epilogue slides.

Gaider had to cut a lot of content out of the game, including a plot involving the coterie and Varric. Ultimately, these were due to time constraints, but you can see hints of that plot in the game if you play it now, as the coterie gets mentioned several different times.

Gaider also lamented the thematic inconsistency, between trying to tell the story of the Mage Templar War, and the second act, which focused on the Qunari and Arishok. In fact, given hindsight Gaider would have focused the ending on that second act.

Gaider remains proud of the rivalry / friendship system, but laments that they did not communicate the system well enough to players at the time. It took replaying for some fans to realize the nuances Bioware added into the system.

Isabela is another point of contention for the fans, but Gaider argues that the writing for her was strong. He credits her writer, Sheryl Chee, for taking her character type, in his words, a floozy, and making it an asset.

Ultimately, Dragon Age 2 is radically different from the other games for focusing on the characters rather than a sprawling plot, but Gaider sees this as necessary growing pains for the franchise. He wants fans to think of it as laying the groundwork for much of Dragon Age Inquisition.

You can watch the whole interview above. The video comes to us courtesy of VideoGameSophistry, whom you can subscribe to on YouTube here.