After the disastrous release ofAnthemand the lukewarm reception ofMass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare is understandably looking to reclaim the success the studio enjoyed around late 2000s and the first half of the 2010s.Mass Effect 4is taking the series’ story back to the Milky Way, bringing back original trilogy characters like Liara and possibly even Commander Shepard.Dragon Age 4will continue the story of Solas, revealed as the Dread Wolf inInquisition.
BioWare may be turning back to some of its more successful storylines and settings, but there’s one major aspect of the studio’s game design that needs rethinking if its upcoming stories are going to feel fresh in the 2020s.Mass Effect 4andDragon Age 4need to take a chance and shake up BioWare’s usual style of storytelling. Here’s how BioWare’s storytelling style works, and why the studio needs to move on.
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BioWare’s Storytelling Formula
FromStar Wars: Knights of the Old RepublictoMass Effect: Andromeda, BioWare’s style of storytelling uses the same basic structure. The stories themselves can be very different – it’s not like Revan’s plotline in the originalKOTORis reenacted by Shepard across the originalMass Effecttrilogy.
However, BioWare RPG stories are similarly structured in that players can reliably expect certain actions to have certain outcomes at certain times. With romances, for example, most fans familiar with BioWare games know that in order to initiate a romance they should talk to the companion they want to romance while at their base, whether that base is the campsite inDragon Age: Origins, the Normandy inMass Effect, or the Inquisition’s fortress in the thirdDragon Agegame.
From there, theBioWare RPGplayer usually needs to validate that character or help them overcome a particular fear or trauma through dialogue unlocked after each main mission. Eventually a dialogue option presents itself which is directly romantic, sometimes even paired with a heart. After that, the player will get a few extra romance-related dialogue options, and the player character and their romance choice usually spend the night together at least once before the final battle. It’s a predictable and inorganic structure.
Players rarely have to worry about their relationships with their companions in the context of the main story. Instead, relationships, romantic and otherwise, are developed in predictable, isolated pockets. Making every single choice Ashley Williams advises the player against inMass Effect 1’s main story, for example, does not affect the player initiating a romance in any way.
In a similar vein, loyalty missions also make gaining a companion’s trust far less organic than it could be. It’s possible for players to be in situations where loyalty missions will have negative consequences for their relationship with a follower. WithInquisition’s Iron Bull, for example, sacrificing his mercenary band will cause him to betray the character for the Qunari inInquisition’s final DLC, Trespasser.
It’s clear to most players familiar with BioWare games, however, that pursuing the most compassionate route - like sparingIron Bull’s mercenaries - is almost always the way to get the character to remain loyal throughout the story. Either way, once again relationship development is dealt with in isolated quests specifically designed for that purpose, rather than relationships feeling like they develop organically throughout the story.
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The Benefits Of BioWare’s Style
There are some good reasons for this kind of structure. For a start, BioWare RPGs usually only let the player bring a few companions with them when they venture out on missions. It’s possible thatCommander Shepardmight only ever interact with Wrex on the Normandy if they don’t use their Krogan companion in missions, for example.
That separation between roleplay and gameplay can be nice, allowing players to focus on stats without worrying that leaving certain companions back at base will adversely affect the story. At this point, however, the way players are encouraged to engage with the story of BioWare RPGs is getting repetitive. A romance in anew BioWare gamemay be well written, but it’s still going to follow the same basic structure – there’s no chance for a romance story to be sparked organically on a mission. In short, the old structure doesn’t leave much room for the element of surprise.
Mass Effect 4andDragon Age 4might tell stories more ambitious than any BioWare has attempted before, but until BioWare makes its storytelling style more organic, the studio isn’t going to feel like it has made a major step forward sinceStar Wars:Knights of the Old Republicsolidified its RPG style in 2003. Players are never going to be as immersed in the story as they could be if they know that the kinds of interactions they have on missions and the kind they have back at their base are largely separate, even when the same characters are involved.
MostBioWare RPGsdo use an approval and disapproval system, with present followers registering reactions to the player’s choices. Beyond that, however, the connection between actions while on missions and the player’s relationship with their companions feel reliably distinct.
BioWare’s Future
There are a few ways BioWare could directly tackle breaking down its storytelling structure, though they aren’t without their challenges. For a start, decisions made while on quests with certainBioWare companionscould lead to that companion taking action or sparking unique dialogue, rather than simply changing their loyalty on a meter from totally devoted to abandoning the party.
Second, loyalty missions could be less obvious. It seems likely thatDragon Age 4will have afemale Qunaricompanion based on some of the concept art seen so far. Her loyalty could be achieved through certain actions if she’s brought along on quests that deal with the Qunari, especially withDragon Age 4seemingly building up to another Qunari war, rather than an isolated mission triggered back at base.
Solasis a great example of a recent BioWare character whose romantic plotline and main quest plot feel inherently interconnected. The studio should find more opportunities to tell stories like that, which make the player’s relationships with their companions and the overaching mission feel more like part of a single developing story.
The risk is that these kinds of changes could frustrate players who enjoy the predictability of BioWare’s storytelling structure, but if the studio is going to secure a future while relying on the same two IPs it has for over a decade, it needs to figure out something new. BioWare has been one of the most celebratedwestern RPG studiosfor years, but its games won’t feel like they’ve pushed the frontier of interactive storytelling forward until they take more risks and let go of the predictable storytelling structure the studio has come to rely on.
