Nightingale is an upcoming shared-world survival game where players seek the titular city across various realms, and it is being developed by Inflexion Games, a studio with former BioWare leadership including Aaryn Flynn. Flynn was the BioWare general manager during the development of games such as Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, and Dragon Age: Inquisition, with production and engineering credits on prior titles in each franchise.
Because of this, it is only natural that former BioWare fans look to Nightingale and expect great things ahead of its early access release on PC early this year. That doesn't mean fans should expect the exact same thing, however, and Flynn recently discussed how it differs Edge magazine issue 379 (via GamesRadar+).
One thing, Flynn discusses, is the setting. Whereas Dragon Age was "sword-and-board fantasy" and Mass Effect is "high sci-fi," Nightingale is an alternate timeline game with magical influences on its world, settled into a Victorian Gaslamp setting. Victorian settings in video games are seemingly becoming more popular, which Flynn previously explained in a The Best War Games interview as something tied to how relatable it is. Nightingale' s Victorian setting is infused with magic, but at the core of it, it's still a simpler time with tons of mystery that fans can immediately recognize and relate to, but that is also foreign enough to be enticing.
Story-wise, however, fans can expect Nightingale's story to not be as "sophisticated" as Dragon Age or Mass Effect's, per Flynn. He explained that Nightingale is a giant sandbox designed for players to live out their own stories, with perhaps a good comparison being Minecraft or Sea of Thieves rather than BioWare games, and that's because of the storytelling difference. When it comes to BioWare games, Flynn explains that each game had a "well-written story that had branches but ultimately all ended up coming to the same conclusion. Maybe there's a few variations there, but broadly speaking you're all enjoying a similar story. Whereas [Nightingale] is meant to be a sandbox where players are going to engineer and create their own stories and ultimately cohabit."
The emphasis above should also be placed on "cohabit," as it is meant to be a cooperative adventure, a digital "place" for folks to come to, and has no PVP as a result. Combine this with Nightingale's antagonistic Fae enemies, generated worlds through realm cards, and a home that players must build up, and it's clear that Inflexion's game is nothing like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, which can only be a good thing.
Nightingale releases in Early Access in the first half of 2023 for PC.
Source: Edge Magazine (via GamesRadar+)