12 Years Later, the Best Fantasy Video Game Quote of the 2010s Still Hits Hard
Dragon Age: Inquisition remains recognised as a landmark fantasy game largely due to its outstanding dialogue and characterisation, with the antagonist Corypheus delivering particularly striking lines that encapsulate the series' storytelling quality. The game has sustained critical appreciation over more than a decade since its release.
The narrative unfolds in Thedas, a medieval-inspired continent torn by conflict between mages and their military oppressors. The player character, an Inquisitor, survives a mysterious explosion at a peace summit and becomes responsible for closing a breach in the Veil—a barrier separating the physical world from the spiritual Fade—while pursuing the culprit, an ancient magister named Corypheus who seeks godhood.
- Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) is celebrated for exceptional writing, particularly the villain Corypheus's dialogue that exemplifies the saga's narrative complexity
- The game centres on an Inquisitor investigating a catastrophic rift in reality and confronting Corypheus, an ancient sorcerer attempting to reshape the world by breaching the boundary between the physical and spiritual realms
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Thedas is a fantasy continent whose stability rests on the Veil, a barrier separating the everyday world from a spirit realm called the Fade. Dragon Age: Inquisition, released by developer BioWare in 2014, put players in charge of the Inquisition, an organisation formed after a catastrophic explosion tears a hole in that barrier and kills the leaders gathered to broker peace between warring mage and templar factions. The player's character survives and is left with the power to seal the resulting rifts.
The game's central villain is Corypheus, an ancient, corrupted magic-user seeking to become a god by exploiting the breach. Much of Inquisition's lasting reputation comes not from its combat or setting alone, but from its writing, and Corypheus in particular is remembered for lines of dialogue that critics and fans still quote today.
More than a decade after its release, the game continues to be cited in discussions of the best writing in fantasy video games, which is the context for renewed attention to one of Corypheus's quotes.