I got the chance recently to play Dragon Age: Origins
I really liked the Origins concept but I think it could have been taken way further.
I wish BioWare did a different take on this, who knows, they might read this and get some ideas for a future RPG?
Imagine the origins stories as they are...but...
At character creation in the start you create, let's say 6 characters, they can not be the same class/overlap in their origin story.
You chose one of them to start with, play through the origin, then you "interact" with the other characters you created and play through the story,
you reach the end of the game.
At this point you can replay the game, but only with one of the other characters you created, this time their origin and, the main story will be as seen through their eyes.
Any choices you did when playing with the 1st character can not be overturned or altered, but there will be various side stories specific to the 2nd character you can do, and there will be many "off camera" situations that you never saw when playing with character 1.
Each time you complete the game with 1 character you can choose one of the remaining ones. THe ones you have already played through with is locked. Events/choices etc. made with a previous character will be shown as a cutscene when playing through with the next character.
Only after having played through with all 6 characters you created will the fully epic story emerge and you will get a epilogue ending based on the choices all your 6 characters did.
Funny thing is that the choices your 1st character did might screw up some things for the other characters you made, but that's kinda realistic now isn't it?
I'm sure Bioware has the skill to pull something like this off, the key is to make sure each of the 6 created characters tells 1/6th of key parts of the main story.
And that when playing through with character 2-6 that certain things done with the 1st character is skipped, the player hopefully remembers these, as it would be boring to slay the same monsters again or go to the same places again, unless those are story areas in which case a different point of view should be shown.
As most RPG's stories take place over many days it should be possible for all 6 characters to go to the same city, the 1st character chosen/played sets the main story choices obviously, but the other characters would let you see what happen on the "other" days your party stayed in the town for example.
The 6th character would obviously have way less influence on affecting the story/side stories, but would also have the opportunity to fill in all story holes, to conclude a romance with say character 1 etc. And since the last character would have less main story action it would be more relaxing, more cutscenes and coherent story exposition.
People that do not want to play through with more than just the 1st character can do so, and still have a satisfying end but will miss out on what happen on all those "other days" and misses out on the overall epilogue of all 6 characters.
It would also be cool if one could unlock a "replay story" choice after having played through with all 6 characters, which is basically a cutscene replay of all the story highlights for all 6 characters, presented almost as a "movie" of your exploits, which might give a sort of nice 2hr "popcorn movie" to enjoy and show off to your friends. "This is my story of the game".
*pokes BioWare* Taking notes I hope? *grin* |
