10 Hidden Video Game Mechanics With MAJOR Consequences

In most RPGs the only thing that changes about your companions is their level and abilities.

However, Dragon Age: Origins secretly allows you to shape more than just their combat statistics with its special, untold mechanic.

Two of the game's most naive and innocent characters, Alistair and Leliana, have a hidden "hardened" script that allows you to make them more assertive and pragmatic with your choices.

Alistair's personality can be hardened when you bring him to his lost sister. After the woman coldly shoos him away, blaming him for their mother's debts and death, instead of consoling him, you have to tell him that everyone is out for themselves and he needs to learn that. To harden Leliana, you have to deliver a similar tough pill to swallow after she confronts her past as a spy.

In both cases, the hardened characters will behave differently and be more willing to do things they would have outright refused to before.

For example, hardened Alistair will be willing to marry Queen Anora and become king, despite hating both ideas normally, and Leliana will be more open to more morally dubious actions.

The mechanic can completely change your ending, so it's useful to know, even if the game doesn't let you in on it.