A silly fun little project I've been working on for the past few months while I've been replaying Dragon Age Inquisition with my 1st timeline Inquisitor.
It always bothers me when video games get an official soundtrack release and it turns out to be somewhat lackluster. In DAI's case, the official soundtrack was missing some of the best pieces, while other tracks had been re-mastered in a strange way (adding extra instruments, removing instruments, and incurring many more victims of the loudness war).
So, I extracted some audio files from the game using Frosty Tools, and set about trying to rebuild a proper score tracklist. My goal was to aim for something that more closely adheres to the music that is actually heard in the game, using my own gameplay clips as reference for what plays when and in what order. With perhaps a bit of creative freedom for fun and whimsy.
Tracks assembled and edited in Mixcraft 9 Recording Studio. Tags edited with MP3Tag.
Now including scores for The Descent and Trespasser DLCs as well. Might do a "misc" album later on for the few tracks that didn't make the cut.
Triple A game devs really out there showing their asses, huh?
"BaLdUr'S gAtE 3 sHoUlDn'T bE tHe StAnDaRd"
And why the hell not? Why shouldn't players expect more than half-finished, bug-filled games with tons of microtransactions? Why should they settle for playing regurgitated copies of whatever games have been popular for the past ten years when they could be playing games that the devs were actually passionate about making?
When you have access to a bigger budget and more resources than Larian did when they made BG3, what's your excuse for shipping a broken, half-assed mess of a game?
AND forcing your people to crunch near the end when this studio did it without trying to kill their employers? That being the standard of the industry needs a big change as well and being able to have a studio we can point at and go "Ha ha look at them being not horrible and making good games" is making the big studios mad
On the other hand... the sheer naivete present in thinking Larian didn’t rely on a fuck-ton of crunch, a massive budget never seen before in the gaming industry and the inertia of many different things colliding to make a game that would literally destroy any other studio before it was even halfway done
The lesson to take from BG3 is not “you can make bigger games too”, it’s that more studios should accept WAY SMALLER SCOPES and make more games with smaller scopes and smaller budgets.
What are you going to do, Cassandra? Pay him in exposure (to the elements)?
If you want to throw a coin to your artist, you can do so over at Patreon and society6. You'll get the comics early, get regular sneak peeks, and maybe get some cups or shirts that way too.
remember that wild Dragon Age theme park ride (Dragon Age: Flight of the Wardens), originally located in Dubai until it randomly turned up years later (now also oddly-rebranded as "[Not Dragon Age We Swears It]: The Guardian") in, of all places, Skegness England? well, I had to satisfy my curiosity and obsession with obscure pieces of Dragon Age media & archival thereof. and so - actually quite some time ago now - I finally got around to going on a pilgrimage there (which was this whole, like.. heinous harrowing in and of itself, that I will not go into), and I rode it
and to my surprise the original Dragon Age in-ride movie is still part of the ride experience! - complete with references to darkspawn, a Pride demon, dragons, green "rifts", Discount Anders (a Grey Warden[?] mage called 'Eldron'), Discount Yavanna (a Witch of the Wilds called 'Alexia') and Dragon Age: Inquisition soundtrack music. there is also now a new pre-ride movie which replaces the old Dragon Age pre-ride movie as part of the ride's rebranding, and i simply ?¿?
there are also still quite a lot of identifiable Dragon Age props in the fantasy-themed queue-area of the ride (so these must have been part of the whole purchase between parks), including multiple iconic Inquisitor helmets, Grey Warden shields, a Dragon Age dragon (now with DA-dragon identifiable horns.. sawn off??), and several Dragon Age banners, including the Inquisition hairy eyeball, the templar symbol and the Circle symbol. here's some pictures.
[^this image is taken from the video linked below]
I also captured the new pre-ride movie, and you can see it along with the Dragon Age in-ride movie here ⬇️. and so now, with this epilogue to the.. most odyssey of all time, more than two years after the first message about the ride was ever sent to Ghil Dirthalen, this adventure in obscurity and the strange fever-dream meta story of the Dragon Age: Flight of the Wardens era in Dragon Age history is finally complete.
Ghil Dirthalen: The Guardian??? {Overview. - Spoilers All}
[video source & link: Ghil Dirthalen, posted here w/ permission]
some further notes, thoughts and commentary under the cut -
there's a few seconds missing from this capture of the in-ride movie. for the sake of the curious and completion: in them, you're still in the fort and you see lots of 'Wardens' walking and milling around.
a camera in the ride takes two photos of the riders during the ride, which are displayed on a screen on the way out. you can choose to buy these from the Fantasy Island merchandise store. you know those photos of people on log flume rides? it's like those, only of the four riders in a row in the seats. the photos have Fantasy Island branding on them and fire along the bottom, then in two corners there's a bit of a dragon's head and that's about it. the ride photo is the only Guardian-specific merch available at the park.
some of the queue area props appear to be from random other places. like there was a barrel which had something like "1850 distillery" written on it, which is obviously temporally/thematically and universe-ly out of place (not that that's at all unreasonable given the rest of the rideworld lore, there's totally a way it could have gotten there easily hh, see below), and I guess it's a spare or leftover prop from a Western-themed ride or something? others were generic sword'n'sorcery fantasy props (some of these are from the ride's previous life in Dubai though). there are also some pretty random props, like a dead stuffed roe deer's head on the wall and a.. comically large spoon.
there's music playing in the queue area, but it's not DA music, it's generic ye olde fantasy world music.
some folks there mistakenly thought that the long themed lead-up (it was pretty darn long) queue area with the props was the entrance to or start of something completely different, like a haunted house or maze type thing, or was the ride 'experience' in and of itself.
the ride attendant gives you the option of watching the new pre-ride movie or not. I guess they get sick of putting it on and listening to it 9000 times a day (valid), and also cutting it out reduces queue times as it's about five minutes long. it's screened in a little enclosed room at the end of the queue area. you go in and sit down, they show it to you, then you go through another door to the chair machine.
the in-ride movie is blurry and poor quality. I heard someone else who rode it say that it was so blurry that they had no idea what was going on hhh
Now about the new pre-ride movie. in the linked video, the start of the new pre-ride movie isn't included in full at normal speed as it seemed to be a compilation of whatever random fantasy-themed stock footage the video creator could find, stitched together. but again for the curious and the sake of completion: it starts out panning randomly around SPACE, like at the solar system and of planets and at the Milky Way. for a sec I wondered if it was made up of random old Mass Effect assets. then it shows dragons (FROM SPACE) invading an Earth-like planet where I suppose the Ferelden-y kindgom (formerly called "Noathen", now called "Elvia" or something) setting in the rideworld is now supposed to be set. these invading dragons invade either from space or.. another dimension?? or maybe from the future or both?? [see below], entering through a big green rift. (and they still have the green coloring for the rifts and call it/them "rifts" like in DA, which was honestly so funny to me for some reason). the whole panning in from space start to the movie reminded me a lot of the Easter eggs in the DA and ME games that, while they're just Easter eggs for fun and I don't subscribe to this theory myself (as DA is its own great, self-contained thing), could light-heartedly imply that the planet with Thedas on it is a planet in the MEverse (like the krogan head in the Winter Palace in DAI or the ogre in that ME dlc).
in the pre-ride movie, the kingdom of "Elvia" might have actually been called "Albion", which is the earliest-known name for the island of Britain. (it was hard to make out exactly what the king was saying there) the new pre-ride movie seems like it was made in England and ofc thats a common fantasy setting, so I could see it, especially since the king character's name was something like Aethylswyth, which sounded very "Old English". for me personally, if it was "Albion", it adds fuel to the fire of Caitie's cracktheory/"trying to make this fit"-headcanon for the ride story/lore (see Caitie's original video on the ride's previous life for this), that it's set somewhere obscure and backwatery in Ferelden, which is kinda England- or Britain-inspired. (dont take these thoughts or other thoughts in this post about the lore/canon etc too srsly pls hh, it's just crack for fun and I know tis just an off-brand themepark ride)
on the whole the new pre-ride movie is pretty random. there's a giant in it, but it doesn't look like a DAI giant. (is it his big spoon??) it shows a fortress in part of it which looks a bit like Skyhold if you squint, with the long bridge approaching it as the entrance. at one point one of the dragons that pops up is a dragon designed more in the style of a dragon as they are sometimes depicted in, for example, Chinese mythology and folklore. the "communication device" the king described had me rolling, it's exactly like a Dragon Age Skype Crystal or a working set of eluvians from Thedas.. I wondered if the video creator was inspired some by DAI promo images and took cues from the Inquisitor's green hand/the Anchor, since the king has a green glowing thing on (or in?) his chest. and when the king started listing the elements humans are made of, I was reminded of Fullmetal Alchemist.
also, "through a time rift".. I mean technically Dorian's involvement in DAI DOES show green space-time magic right? Where is this other dimension? ofc I know it's not literally Dragon Age, but it's funny to think about and to try and make it "fit" skhskdhfjhe. is it the Fade? the Void? from somewhere in-between like Tevinter Nights implies exists? or is it the dimension which has Thedas's mundane world itself in it - like maybe the dragons are invading this poor guy's kingdom dimension from Thedas? if so what tf is going on in Thedas?? did Solas' explosion at the Conclave ripple through spacetime and rip holes in the fabrics of other worlds as well - like is Solas out here accidentally causing interdimensional Space Dragon invasions? like, theoretically.. the new pre-ride move does reference the in-ride movie, and in turn the in-ride movie is still Dragon Age (!), so technically the new pre-ride movie IS.. kind of.. weirdly.. canon.
((the pre-ride movie references an "outerworld", implying that even in THAT dimension there's an outer world and an inner world, definitely more than one at least. and back on the dimensions thing, I'm not clear - are the dragons coming from Thedas dimension? or are they coming to Thedas dimension? "they came through the rift, human in form but with powers, the ability to fly [that's Eldron] and the ability to transform into dragon-like creatures [that's Alexia]" implies that the dimension on the other side of the rift - if the helpers came through the same rift as the invading dragons - is Thedas, because that's Eldron and Alexia from the Dragon Age in-ride movie being referred to, and Noathen where they're from is in Thedas somewhere. so some Thedosians have travelled to another world to save it?? Dragons are escaping out of Thedas? but.. from space? but also - the narration is telling us that Eldron and Alexia and the other Guardians brought with them from where they came from, as a gift, incredible advanced technology that the people of Elvia have never seen before. he then gives the example of "this communication device" which could be read meta-ly as meaning the television screen, and of plans to build a machine made of metal and advanced technology (meaning the ride machine you go sit on, which is a themepark machine irl obviously and in the 'world' of the ride, some kind of flying machine). so like.. are Eldron and Alexia from Future Thedas (think Avatar Aang/Korra, when by Korra's time there's like lots more machinery and a more modern feel), a Thedas which has advanced complex machines like idk, AEROPLANES? is that what they mean by "time-rift"? because they specifically did say "time". is that to try and explain the modern machinery? does that mean the invading dragons also came from the future, not just from space or another dimension? the other option: Eldron and Alexia came from alternate universe Thedas, which has more modern technology in it. but Thedosians Time-Travelling From The Future And Also Space And Another Dimension is so funny to me so lets go with that. my headcanon is that on the way to Elvia they also timetravelled through a Westernthemed time period and thats why theres a recent-modern period whisky barrel)).
in the ride's previous life, the explanatory hook was that Eldron made you a special harness or saddle thing with which to ride a dragon, which was what the ride machine was simulating. however now, the hook to explain the machine is that it's a gift of advanced technology powered by carbon, hydrogen, organic matter (Big Oil lmao?) etc. (I enjoyed that this explanatory hook got wackier between eras of the ride's life, much like the whole meta story of this piece of media itself. it was already weird because riding dragons isn't really part of DA. though I don't understand meta-ly speaking this convoluted explanation for the machine. dragon-riding isn't an identifiable or key part of the Dragon Age franchise, so they could have kept the idea that you're sitting on a dragon's back and flying around on that in instead of having this wacky explanation about a flying machine gifted from magical strangers from Back To The Future and it would have been fine. I love it though bc its so absurd)
And Tiny Dragon Alexia from the original ride experience is kinda referenced (unintentionally?) when the king introduces the dragon "Guardian" "Mia", as when she comes on-screen her size or scaling looks small/kinda off, so maybe Tiny Dragon lives on. so now we have Tiny Dragon Alexia, Tiny Dragon Mia, and Tiny Dragon queue prop. it's a Tiny Dragon Conference.
and like I just have so many questions. in her original video on the ride, Ghil Dirthalen wondered at length where in Ferelden/Thedas Noathen could be. where is Elvia? why does the pov of the pre-ride movie proceed downstairs into the room where the king is - like why does the king have his throne in a basement? is he in an underground bunker for safety because of the Space Dragon invasion? why does he say we "climbed" up when we have just gone down into his dungeon? why is the tiny dragon introduced as "Mia" when the tiny dragon witch lady in the in-ride movie is called "Alexia"? does the king's green glowing chest thing work like the Anchor - does he have a chest Anchor.. a Chanchor? where did they get Discount Gandalf from the queue area and why is he exactly like the Ghil Dirthalen Stock Theatre Wizards in her original video? why did they change the kingdom's name from "Noathen" to "Elvia" in the pre-ride movie when "Noathen" was already non-existent in Dragon Age lore? why did they scrub Dragon Age from or avoid Dragon Age in the pre-ride movie but leave the whole Dragon Age in-ride movie intact? are the "Guardians" Discount Grey Wardens? is the king's whole schpeel secretly an evil plot so he that can use our bodies for like necromancy-alchemy? why does the ride run on your flesh and are we about to be sacrificed in a blood magic ritual? do we end up like the husks in Mass Effect after our organic forms are broken down into compounds to fuel the King of Elvia's flying anti-dragon defense tank? is the actor of the king a park staffer who is into larping, or someone's fun nerd uncle who likes DnD? does Caitie not in fact agree that I am very handsome and smart, indeed the World's Most Interesting Guy? 😤 why go to the trouble of sawing off the dragon's DA-dragon horns when the in-ride movie is still Dragon Age?? why are the dragons invading from space anyway like what do they want??? how can I obtain the king actor guy's autograph? where are EA's lawyers? and why is there a giant spoon?
Might as well promote my new fanfic, it’s about Solas being a dummy, Lavellan moving on and after the first chapter it’s going to be set concurrently with The Missing comics!
shoutout to all the people who either don’t respond to comments or even take the time to write something positive in response to positivity. nothing sadder than taking the time to wail on someone giving positive feedback because it wasn’t the kind you were expecting
The thought of Merrill and Hawke just having their idyllic home life together and suddenly Solas steps out of the Eluvian and they just stare at each other like “uhh......”
Dust scatters from the tome’s surface, its long slumber ended by an intrusion. It glitters as it floats in a pale moon’s light, threads trickling through time-worn walls of a dilapidated chamber. A deep female voice, soft and caring, echoes in the mind of the intruder.
“I taste your sorrow, Solas.”
The figure runs his hand across the cover of the ancient tome, thumbing at a sun-like symbol. His voice is soft and sad. “I have no time to spare for you, spirit.” He carefully unlocks the latches binding the tome shut.
“Why do you carry it with you? It hangs around you like a miasma.“
The elf turns a page, silent. It is taken for uncertainty; the voice coils about his figure, probing. “You cannot hide these emotions from me.”
“I do not care to, spirit. My desire may be plain to see, but for your own sake, I must ask you to return whence you came.“
His hand searches for the right page, careful and gentle.
“Look at me, Solas.“
His hand trembles. The voice morphs. Gentler. Higher. A voice he still heard in his dreams.
“Not that memory, spirit. Do not toy with me.“
Silence. The spirit coils into a wisp of energy, floating before him.
“But you made me.”
The elf averts his eyes.
“I am your Desire.“
Features all too familiar float in the space between the Waking World and the Dream. The elf Solas sighs deeply and finally allows himself to look.
“Do you deny me? I warn you...“
Lavellan’s lips curl into a sad smile.
“You would only be feeding me.“
Solas meets the spirit’s gaze. The tome glows briefly, whatever power it held absorbed into the elf’s palm. “Even so, spirit.“ Its form withers and wilts, gently melting into a tiny flicker. “I cannot stop. Not even for this.”
He turns back from the moonlit altar. A growing weight trails after him; a warping in the fabric of reality, attached to his long shadow. He does not seem to notice.
It whispers to him as he steps through an ancient mirror, sweet and loving and cruel. And though the words pass him by, far too simple to affect him, as he passes through the veil between worlds he thinks he sees something. Someone. No. No, it must have been a trick of the mind.
Try as he might, he could not get it out of his thoughts. And as it often was, his resolve faltered not with a sigh but with a crack. The healing wound ripped open anew. Regret festered about him. His ancient fortress exhaled softly, giving in with a whimper. *Something* was coming into this world.
