The biggest draw to Dragon Age for its fans, arguably even more so than Mass Effect, is its companions. Dragon Age's companions across all three of its games have been incredibly important, shaping the events of Thedas' history and the lives of the player characters in fundamental ways, both good and bad. Whether the player character's companions are well-received or not, most of them are certainly memorable and, no matter the quality of the other features of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, will be the feature players will be paying the most attention to in the lead-up to the game.

While previous Dragon Age games have had an emphasis on its companions, with Dragon Age 2 being a largely character-focused campaign and Dragon Age: Inquisition having high-ranking members of elite organizations join the Inquisitor, BioWare has gone out of its way to identify the people who will be brought together to fight Solas in Dragon Age: Dreadwolf as "people he doesn't know" being the key to his defeat. This places an emphasis on the companions that even previous games didn't have and creates an expectation before any of them have been revealed.

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Dragon Age: Dreadwolf Will Require Finding People Solas Doesn't Know

The companions will likely not be members of the Inquisition due to the repeated emphasis that Solas cannot know them, and so they're likely to come from countries like Rivain, Tevinter, and the Anderfels; places that are far afield and had little to do with the Breach. Unlike Dragon Age: Inquisition, the companions are unlikely to be famous as this would run the risk of being known by Solas, and thus having their actions predicted by him.

This narrows down the kind of people the companions can be, and they're more likely to be like the companions from Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 than the important, high-ranking individuals from Dragon Age: Inquisition. At the same time, they're going to have to be incredibly skilled at what they do if they're going to be in a group that's been assigned to take down Solas.

The New Mass Effect 2

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf may end up structured like Mass Effect 2, where building a team became the core of the story. Assigning a leader to gather a team of experts and specialists to capture Solas sounds more feasible than facing him outright in a war, especially if he has no idea who he's facing. It's highly possible the next Dragon Age game could be focused on building the perfect team, including honing their skills and building relationships with them and navigating team dynamics, something BioWare has experimented with in the past.

These characters could develop different kinds of relationships with each other with varying levels of success depending on player input, while characters like Dorian and Varric remain as advisors. With the companions being so important in the effort to neutralize Solas, hopefully there will be new mechanics and gameplay for them, such as new interactions, better animations, and a better approval system than in previous games.

While the approval system was fine for previous games, something more in-depth and responsive would be more appropriate, even something more aligned to the approval/rivalry system that was in place for Dragon Age 2, where companions would grudgingly respect the player character even if they disagreed with them. Considering Mass Effect 2's emphasis on character made it one of BioWare's most beloved games and considered one of the greatest games ever made, approaching Dreadwolf's companions as the most important part of the game could be a winning strategy. If BioWare delivers the compelling characters it's known for, Dreadwolf could become one of its greatest hits.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is in development.

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