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Will imminent mobile game Heroes of Dragon Age interact with Inquisition?

"That would make a lot of sense," dev tells me.

Heroes of Dragon Age is a beefy Android and iOS tablet and phone game that's coming out in a few weeks - "very soon" this autumn, according to the game's producer Tim Lander, who spoke to me on the phone earlier.

In fact, it's already soft-launched on Google Play, and YouTuber TouchGameplay has already filmed a 40-minute video showing Heroes in all its glory (video embedded in this article). And you know what? It looks quite good.

But what I wanted to know straight away was how - if - Heroes of Dragon Age would interact with Dragon Age: Inquisition next autumn?

"I can't technically answer that yet," Lander told me, suggesting a 'yes', "but I would say that we're definitely working a lot with that team [BioWare] and that would make a lot of sense."

Some mobile spin-offs add a more colour to a series' over-arching storyline, but others - BioWare's Mass Effect 3 Datapad app included - can actually affect elements within another game.

Heroes of Dragon Age is not of the story-enhancing breed, because Heroes developer EA Capital Games thought story was best left to BioWare. "There wouldn't be a story-based tie [to Inquisition]," he said, inferring that the tie would probably be a gamey one.

That leaves the open-ended possibility that by playing Heroes of Dragon Age you'll get a leg up or a boost in Dragon Age: Inquisition, although fortunately it being free means you won't have to invest before you find out.

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Heroes of Dragon Age is a squad-based strategy game. All battles are played out automatically - out of your direct control - the outcome dependent on the make-up of your five-person team, their abilities, their formation and the runes that are buffing them.

There are more than 100 heroes to collect in the game and they're pulled from all corners of the Dragon Age lore: good, evil, past, present - even the books are mined for inspiration. Favourites like Morrigan and Alistair are in, but so are darkspawn characters, demons and even dragons wonderful dragons.

You can collect all the heroes, even rare ones, without spending a penny - via grinding - but you can also, of course, buy them at an in-game store. They'll cost about $2 or $3 and which hero you'll receive is a bit of a lottery - it's a random pick.

"Nothing is behind a pay-wall in this game," stressed Lander, but spend some money and "we can give you a lot higher chance of getting a really awesome character".

"It's like a time versus money thing," he added. "If they want to put the time in, they don't have to pay, if they want to speed it up there's an opportunity there."

It's by collecting more heroes that you'll widen your strategies, because each hero has a unique ability - say, attacking a row of characters or getting more powerful with each attack - that gets more powerful as the character feeds on XP. They don't have great versatility, so changing your tactics means swapping heroes.

There are 10 single-player quests that are based on one map with a questline that explores a story already written in Dragon Age lore. The other side to the game is PVP, where you'll win and lose trophies depending on how successful you are.

It's a little unusual for a complimentary mobile game to appear so far from its bigger sibling, but perhaps Inquisition being delayed buckled the plan a bit.

Nevertheless, Tim Lander is confident his 30-person team, who've spent a year making Heroes of Dragon Age, have made a confident standalone mobile entry in BioWare's dark fantasy series.

He even thinks it could be running for years to come.

"We're very committed to this game," he said. "So, while it comes out this fall, we're going to continue to add new characters, new features and support that for well over a year - several years I would say.

"We've got community managers who'll be engaging with the community, figuring it out what it is that gets them most excited, so this is very much a standalone title that we believe players could play for years."

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