Seeing how everyone is participating in this conversation, I wanted to join in and to see what people think. I always wanted to sorta start this out by saying that the reason why I dislike this has nothing to do with the "game going woke", since I've seen that kind of discourse going around, and wanted to let it know from the get-go that I ain't your friend, I am one of those woke boogeyman, and I am coming at this as a leftist.

Long story short, I really don't dig the new art direction. It's not just the style, and it's not just how "colorful" it might look as opposed to how "bleak" it looked before, but...well, first of all, there is the cover and the vibe of the whole trailer. The purple, the name of MC, the dragon in the back - it feels like fortnite cover. It feels like this game will get battle royal mode. It's not that it is bad, but that these were never aesthetics that Dragon Age was known for, or even went for, which is why it is so worrying that they went this way.

It worries me, because to me it feels like it will be another Andromeda deal - and trust me, this is coming from a person that liked and defended the game, but it had major flaws. It feels like the game will go for this "half serious half jokes Marvel-ish" approach to things, which feels like pondering for the masses and killing what made DA, you know, DA in the process. Them showing off companions is worrying too because, like, they sorta did the same thing with Inquisition and we know that companions might've been one of the few things that game was not lacking. But it is not only that, but that companions honestly seem...uninspired and boring?

And all of that aside, there is also the backgrounds; people talk about how we will be able to "choose out past" and how it is cool and all, but we already know that DA4 won't go for this "short gameplay loop, a lot of changes to the world based on your decision" kind of approach, so we can assume that the game will be longer and meant for a single playthrough. I hope for the opposite, but we all know that those "backgrounds" won't add any depth, it will be just minor flavor text, so them advertising it upfront is worrying when they are not addressing the core issue - why go away from the original art direction? And we know why; EA wants them to be like everyone, EA wants their battle royal mode, EA wants their microtransactions, EA wants their mass appeal. I am hoping that DA4 will be good, but looking at it right now, I am just seeing another Andromeda game; decent companions, a lot of potential, and otherwise mismanaged mess.

I simply do not understand how people can ignore everything that has happened over the past, ignore everything that we know EA can do to Bioware, and still get "hyped" without an ounce of worry. The game went through several major overhauls and Bioware itself was butchered to be something else compared to Bioware that made earlier Dragon Age. This is valid worry, I think. I simply see nothing, so far, about DA4 that would make me feel safe or satisfied about the direction the game is going in. Bottom line is this - you can't deny that the shift in artstyle to more flashy and more neon and purple was done because of popularity of modern shooters and attempts to capture younger audience. It betrays the original gothic artstyle of the game; not everything has to be the same looking slop. I am sorry, but watching this trailer, you could've told me this is TES6 and I would go "oh okay" - there is nothing Dragon Age about it.