Dragon Age: Inquisition should have seen your Origins character returning for what would be the most painful choice BioWare has ever made.

Eurogamer reported that Dragon Age: Inquisition featured the return of the protagonist, Hawke, from 2009's Origins. This was similar to the appearance of Hawke in Dragon Age 2 or the Inquisitor in this year's Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Spoilers for Inquisition are ahead.

David Gaider, a former Dragon Age scribe, recently mentioned the plan in a Bluesky thread about the difficulty in making player choices count across multiple games. "'Here Lies the Abyss" in DAI was as good as it got," Gaider wrote. "And even that wasn't how I originally envisioned it (hello, last-minute addition of Stroud after a DAO Warden was cut)."

In the Inquisition quest Gaider mentions, Hawke will be reunited with one of three Grey Wardens based on the choices made by the player in the world state of the save: either the companions Alistair or Loghain (from Origins) or the minor character Stroud (from Dragon Age 2). Gaider explained in 2020 why Stroud eventually replaced Origins' Warden during a stream he shared with Summerfall Games developer Liam Esler.

Gaider said, "We can't change the Hero of Ferelden to look like the character from DAO." "We'd need to give them voices, and everyone would be really upset." We had to cut them very late in the day, and boy did [BioWare's Trick Weekes] have to do some fancy dancing to write it differently."

I have to admit, I would've been blown away (in a positive way) if BioWare managed to pull it off, even if Warden didn't quite sound like I imagined in my mind. Getting some big-name VOs, such as Mark Meer from Mass Effect (a player option in Origins, already!) Jennifer Hale would have certainly softened the blow. I understand the concerns about pacing and logistics, especially when it comes to players who are new to the series. They're asked to create a protagonist for a game that they've never played before for the second time. This could have turned a quest that was already a highlight into a slam-dunk.

You have to decide whether Hawke or the world state Warden will die at the end of Here Lies the Abyss when the game is shipped. It's brutal to have to choose between Alistair, the fan favorite companion of Hawke and his previous protagonist. It could have been worse: Imagine if you were forced to choose between Hawke and a character you'd invested dozens of time into.