It’s weird that one of the best RPGs of all time ends with a weird sex ritual, right? Like, that’s a weird thing, and it’s okay to find it weird, right?

Morrigan Approves

Dragon Age: Origins is a dark fantasy RPG in which you, the protagonist, must gather allies to defend the kingdom of Ferelden from an invasion of monsters, known as the Blight.

It is also widely lauded as one of the best RPGs, if not best games of all time. I’m not here to go against that grain. Dragon Age: Origins is a very good game, though it is also one that shows its age in a variety of ways. That it shows its age, though, is not a bad thing, but rather, an interesting thing, and one that makes analysing the game in 2026 an interesting exercise.

Take, for example, the plot itself. You play as one of seven possible protagonists - the titular “origins” - any of whom eventually fulfil the role of the overall protagonist. This is not a similar situation to Divinity, where all of the potential protagonists have their stories told. Rather, elements of each potential origin pop up here and there, but there is ultimately one protagonist and one true origin. The chosen protagonist gets recruited into a special order known as the Grey Wardens where they are tasked with helping fight the Blight. Things go wrong, as they inevitably do, and it’s up to the newly minted Grey Warden and her band of loyal companions to save Ferelden.

It is, in many ways, these companions and their stories that make Origins the game that it is. Each companion has their own storyline, morality, and goals, some of which the Warden may agree with, others which she may not, and ideas she may or may not adopt as their own. Beyond their combat abilities - which are also unique to each character - the companions flesh out the world and story in a way that the Warden’s story on its own never could. They present a weight to the stakes of the story, and how the Warden chooses to address each of them makes each playthrough unique.

Plus, some are love interests, and who doesn’t want that?

Look, if I don't get to be queen at the end, what's even the point?

In focusing both the gameplay and narrative around the Warden and her companions, Origins makes an interesting statement about games themselves and what they could be. While Origins is a dark fantasy RPG, replete with blood, gore, and combat, it is companionship and the value of companions that undergirds the game’s narrative foundations. It is, the game argues, only through understanding difference and embracing one another that anyone is able to be saved. It’s not that there’s a predetermined hero, or a great man waiting for the moment to rise. Rather, the ability to save the world around us resides in all of us, and is reliant on all of us working together to surge to the fore. Anyone can be the Hero of Ferelden, but they can only do it through trusting in their companions surrounding them.

And in this particular moment, in January 2026, that sentiment feels really, really nice to hear.

bless you alistair you absolute himbo

This is not to say that Origins is a perfect game. It is very, very far from perfect, particularly in its gameplay and how it integrates its DLC content into the basegame. When I can spam my companions with gifts from the outset and skip past most of the work of relationship-building due to the DLCs hurling gift options at me, something is fundamentally lost from the experience of playing the game and learning who these motley allies are. The experience of sitting around a campfire and having a conversation may still be there, but it feels cheapened by the knowledge that, should I get tired of chatting, I can chuck a puppet at someone to make them fall in love with me.

Multiple elements of the side content cheapen the main narrative and its strengths. While Ferelden is full of stories to explore, the random fetch quests offered by the Mages Collective and the Blackstone Mercenaries undermine the idea that invasion is imminent and time is precious through insisting the Warden criss-cross Ferelden to deliver notes and fetch lost supplies. While it’s easy to say to not engage with questlines that are shallow and pointless, for new players, there’s not a way to know which questlines will have pay-offs and which won’t. Similarly, while Ferelden is full of lore, having to hunt down specific pixels in, say, the Mage Tower’s library to complete a summoning ritual for an unknown reward again undermines the sense of fun and tension built by the overall narrative. If I can stop to hunt down a random book so I can complete a ritual and get a rune, is the tower in danger? Was it ever?

These are, of course, consequences of this being a video game, and of video games needing to include content to entertain their players, while also ensuring players have a chance to engage with the content without feeling like they’re going to miss something. That said, there is a difference between content that builds the world or narrative, and content that feels like filler. There is filler in Origins, and it’s filler that feels very particular in how it’s designed and implemented that reflects an older understanding of what video games are meant to be.

Dogs, however, are timeless.

The gameplay itself is also a relic of an older model of tactical video game design. This has its pros and cons, with its pros being that it’s fun and easy to understand, and its cons being that if Morrigan runs off into the middle of a mob to cast Horror one more time, I will bury her in a pit.

Origins’ combat system is a party-based tactical system, with players being free to pause the game, switch to a tactical view, and rearrange their party and their commands at any and every point in combat. In theory, this leads to rich, dynamic approaches to a wide variety of situations, with players able to adapt on the fly. In practice, it leads to me doing most combat on autopilot while I press the same three buttons on my main character’s abilities and occasionally check to make sure my mages aren’t doing something stupid (they usually are). The ability to have deep and well-thought out tactical approaches is limited at best, which, for veterans of the genre or people who got through a game like Divinity by cheesing every single combat, can make the game tedious, if not outright annoying.

The level design, too, favours a particular character or party build that isn’t always helpful for what the player wants to do. The constant array of locked doors and chests with rogues being the only way to open them, for instance, means there’s a heavy bias towards the player playing as a rogue, or at least having one in the party. While Origins offers a wide array of potential companions and starting classes, in practice, there are correct answers and characters who will always be in the party, regardless of the situation.

Sten is eternal.

At the same time, there’s a certain charm to these quirks. When playing through Origins and hearing the banter between Morrigan and Alistair, there is a distinct sense that I am exploring Ferelden alongside friends. When they nag at each other, it brings a smile to my face. That I’ve heard this nagging and ribbing a thousand times before, and that I know where it ends up isn’t the point. There’s a cosiness to Origins that is rare in RPGs, and is a consequence specifically of both the centring of companionship and of the party-based combat system. When I threaten to bury Morrigan in a pit, it isn’t just me, the player, threatening it. It’s the Warden, engaging in the same banter, worried for her friend, but snarking with the best of them.

It’s this centring of friendship and the power of unity that is what makes Dragon Age: Origins one of the best games of all time. As outdated as its quest design and elements of combat are, the banter and the joy of being beside friends at a campfire is eternal. When I load up Origins, I know the world of Thedas is there for me to explore, and that while I do so, I am never alone.

Ironically, I would argue one of the darker fantasy RPGs of the era is also one of the cosiest. It’s still a good game, and I still understand how it went on to become one of the defining games of the genre.

Developer: Bioware
Genre: RPG
Year: 2009
Country: Canada
Language: English
Time to Complete: 40 hours
Playthrough: https://youtu.be/idG5gRYwdSg