Dragon Age: Inquisition Gets Hugs (!!!), 16 Mins Of Footage

As you might have guessed by now, I'm all about hugs in videogames. I'd say I'm RPS' foremost hugsman, but that title probably goes to John, who hugs bears and rhinos into submission in his free time. Even so, the prospect of huggable party members in Dragon Age: Inquisition - which is now a confirmed thing, at least for "some" of them - is tremendously exciting to me. Oh also I guess there's now 16 minutes of raw footage for you to watch. That's pretty neat too. No hugs, though :(

I already wrote at length about this demo shortly after E3, so I won't bore you by rehashing it here.

I will, however, point you in the direction of a huge list of details revealed by BioWare during a recent fan Q&A. A fan collected the best bits, as the Q&A originally appeared on Raptr, which is an Actual Nightmare to navigate.

This bit is especially encouraging:

Companions

• You can hug "some" of them
• "Major characters all track something similar to approval, but the system has changed to put more focus on what you are doing and what you say instead of grinding by constantly giving them gifts. Each follower does have their own set of goals they want to achieve and if you help them, they will appreciate it. And if you piss them off, they might just leave," wrote Laidlaw
• It matters "a lot" who you take with you on quests
• Solas' voice is Welsh
• No Mabari (dog) companion
• No Shale. "Maybe later. No current plans," wrote Darrah

Other tidbits worth highlighting: the Inquisition HQ will be enormous, your character's overall speech tone is "more neutral" except in "reaction hub" moments, you can jump, and while BioWare is "looking into" a mod toolset, it sounds super unlikely.

Inquisition continues to sound solid, I think, though I'm more cautiously optimistic than I am caressing my 20-sided die in anticipation. I have no doubt that BioWare's going all in this time around, but bigger doesn't necessarily mean better. Part of me fears that Inquisition will feel very reactionary, like people vehemently disliked aspects of Dragon Age 2 and BioWare is trying to get as far from those as humanly possible. And doubtless, that game was very much worthy of a few frustrated dragon rages. I just hope BioWare's been able to maintain perspective.

Also, I personally enjoyed Dragon Age: Origins because it was janky and charmingly old-school in its approach. It had tons of unnecessary systems and dialogue options, lots of weird bloat that actually helped me inhabit the world more, not less. Inquisition looks like a massive, meticulously polished production, for better or worse. The original Dragon Age's quaint charm, at least so far, is nowhere to be seen.

So I don't know. I'll definitely play Inquisition, and I'm even looking forward to it. My expectations just aren't sky-high yet. Fingers crossed for something good, though.