Duration: 22:06

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First things first—I open the in-game Journal and review all the information there. The Journal shows our active quests, but what’s really valuable is the Codex. It’s an in-game encyclopedia of sorts, and as we encounter new areas or opponents it’ll automatically be updated with information about them. The Codex is chock-full of information about the game’s backstory, the cultures of the various people groups, and a variety of other things, so it’s definitely worth reading to get immersed in the Dragon Age world. Besides, checking things out to get new Codex entries also gives us more experience. Next up is our inventory. Since I’m playing the Ultimate edition of the game, we start with a lot of items like rings and amulets that we can equip our character with. Some of these items are surprisingly powerful for the start of the game, but on Nightmare it’s definitely a good idea to take full advantage. I review the items and start equipping; there’s more than we can wear, so decisions need to be made. The Lion’s Paw boots are a huge improvement over our current footwear and the obvious choice, but we have multiple Amulets and Belts (we can only wear one of each at a time) and far more Rings than our permitted two slots. I end up choosing the Lucky Stone and Band of Fire for the rings, the Feral Wolf Charm for the amulet, and the Guildmaster’s Belt for the belt slot.

With our gear selected, it’s time to start exploring. We pick up some Shimmering Orbs of Light from a nearby vase, and I click on a freaky-looking statue to get a Codex entry on demons. From there, we move forward and quickly encounter our first opponents of the game: wisp wraiths. These balls of energy are hostile but weak spirits, and even on Nightmare they’re easy to defeat. I simply continue along the main path and use our offensive spells to defeat wisp wraiths as I go. After dispatching a few of them, we come across a genuine surprise—a talking mouse. He tells us that he was once an apprentice like us who was sent on the Harrowing, but he failed and is still stuck in the Fade. Calling himself “Mouse”, he’s understandably bitter about the experience, but does warn us about the dangers we’ll be facing. Mouse offers to tag along, and he’ll serve as a companion of sorts for the rest of our time in the Fade; he’ll give us tips on what’s coming next and later on fight alongside us. With our new furry friend, I resume advancing and defeat a few more Wisp Wraiths before coming onto an area guarded by an ethereal white knight, who we need to talk to. This is the spirit Valor, who personifies the concept of honorable combat. All spirits in the Fade have a specific human emotion that defines them, and while the most commonly encountered spirits are demons who focus on negative emotions there are also plenty of spirits like Valor on the positive end. The knight wishes us well in our quest, which is nice, but what we really need is one of his weapons. As a Fade spirit, Valor can generate items with his thoughts, and as a warrior he’s created multiple weapons this way. We need to take one to fight the demon—even though we have spells, it’s still not a good idea to fight unarmed if it can be avoided—and as befits Valor’s nature he offers to duel us for our prize. He’s a tougher opponent than the wisps we’ve faced thus far, but he’s still quite beatable and I agree. Our offensive spells reduce his health to zero in short order, after which he concedes defeat and hands us a magic staff which I promptly equip. We’ll lose it after we leave the Fade, but it’ll do for now.