It seems fair to say that a lot is riding on Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and Mass Effect 4. Neither franchise has had a new game in quite some time, with Dragon Age: Inquisition launching in 2014 and Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017. Andromeda and Anthem also both fell well short of expectations. Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and Mass Effect 4 represent an opportunity to get both the franchises and the studio back on track.
There are many things that BioWare could do to improve both games, and one vital but easily overlooked aspect is the dialogue system. Modern BioWare games all use a version of the dialogue wheel introduced in Mass Effect in 2007, though these specific mechanics have varied widely. The new Mass Effect and Dragon Age games have a chance to freshen up this system by revamping the underappreciated Personality mechanics from Dragon Age 2.
Dragon Age 2's Personality System
Mass Effect's Paragon/Renegade morality system was a core part of the series. However, Dragon Age emphasizes how characters react to the player's decision rather than adding points to a morality scoreboard. The closest Dragon Age ever got to something like Mass Effect's morality system was the personality mechanics from Dragon Age 2. The dialogue wheel would often split dialogue options into six color-coded categories, corresponding to three Personalities that Hawke can develop. Diplomatic and Helpful options were green and blue, Humorous and Charming choices were purple, and Aggressive or Direct statements were red.
Whether Dragon Age 2's protagonist Hawke has a Diplomatic, Humorous, or Aggressive Personality determines what they will say during scenes where the player doesn't have control. It also unlocks new dialogue choices that allow players to talk their way past some enemies or gain an advantage in combat. Players could change Hawke's Personality by picking enough dialogue choices from one of the other Personalities. However, the longer players stuck to one Personality, the harder it was to switch to another one. The idea was that this allowed Hawke to have a consistent Personality reflecting how they act most of the time while still allowing for emotional appeals or outbursts when the situation warrants.
One of the main advantages compared to Mass Effect's Paragon/Renegade system is that Dragon Age 2 doesn't push players into sticking with a Personality. The persuasion options in Mass Effect games are tied to the player's Paragon/Renegade score, and it could be difficult to unlock some of them without committing fully to one path or the other. Dragon Age 2 has no such problem, so players can worry more about individual choices and conversations rather than maximizing their score. The new dialogue choices each Personality unlocked also felt more like bonuses that add flavor instead of checks players need to pass to get the endings they want.
Dragon Age 2's Personality system was not flawless. Some Dragon Age: Origins fans didn't like that it made Hawke less of a blank slate than DAO's protagonist, though that’s been true of subsequent BioWare games as well. The exact mechanics were also not as well explained in-game as they could have been. Also, Dragon Age 2 didn't have much extra dialogue to unlock and didn't distribute it evenly. The bonus options are primarily concentrated in the game's first Act, and the Aggressive Personality has more than the other two combined.
Still, the new Mass Effect and Dragon Age games have a chance to take the Personality system and rework it into something better. Inquisition and Andromeda already gave players opportunities to respond in ways that conveyed specific tones or emotions, with Andromeda even tracking them in Ryder's psychological profile. Combining these with Mass Effect 2's Personality mechanics would greatly improve both systems in Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf and Mass Effect 4 are in development.