Most YouTube essays about video games dig into a single popular title. Some bring together a bundle of games to unpack a trend in design or culture. Noah Caldwell-Gervais’s latest critique takes on the entirety of Dragon Age, a long-running, long-winded franchise of fantasy role-playing games. No wonder he needed 6.5 hours.
“[Playing the complete Dragon Age series] is a similar experience to reading a massive fantasy epic with hefty sequel following hefty sequel,” says Caldwell-Gervais as he sets the table for his thoughtful monologue. “The kind of thing that takes up an entire goddamn bookshelf by the time it’s done. Taken as just a script alone, Dragon Age is just as ambitious as George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones or Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time or Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber”
Noah Caldwell-Gervais has been creating sprawling video essays for over a decade, long before the exhaustive critical breakdown became a YouTube trend. The latest video is a recreation and evolution of one of his first creations, a 45-minute deep dive into Dragon Age: Acquisition. But the opening title card — “A Thorough Look at Dragon Age (Revised, Expanded, HD)” — promises something much meatier and considered.
I’m still in the first hour of my quest through Caldwell-Gervias’ latest video essay, but I can already say it’s a pleasure to follow a critic for so long that I get to see them revisit their ideas. Behold, a skilled analytic mind engaging with how a piece of art, the critic, and the culture that houses them both will perpetually change. It’s not just the game clips that now appear in a clearer, more beautiful resolution, but the ideas themselves.
The timing of the video celebrating the Dragon Age franchise sadly captures the lack of stability at many of the games industry’s largest studios. Yesterday, IGN reported that “BioWare had moved a number of the studio’s developers onto other projects within EA” and today reported that “a smaller number of Dragon Age team members are also seeing their roles terminated, and are being offered time to apply to other roles within the company if they so choose.” The corporate changes follow news that Dragon Age: The Veilguard sold 1.5 million copies in its first quarter, dramatically missing the company’s expectations.
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