Enchantment: Dragon Age Let's Play Podcast is a podcast by the duo Brandon & Manny, where they play through every game of BioWare's Dragon Age franchise of video games.
Beginning with Enchantment: Origins, Brandon and Manny control a Grey Warden named Steván, who finds himself in a Last of His Kind situation. As one of only two surviving Grey Wardens, along with his trusty companions, Steván must navigate Ferelden's fractured political landscape and end the apocalyptic Blight.
The podcast premiered on October 1, 2018. Each episode features audio from the gameplay sessions of a Dragon Age video game, stitched together with traditional podcast-style commentary from the present day. This format is credited to and derives from No One Can Know About This, a Final Fantasy podcast which adopts the same format.
The series can be listened to on iTunes
, Google Play, and Stitcher. There is also a podcast Patreon where listeners can donate monthly to the show, in exchange for bonus episodes and exclusive privileges on the Enchantment Discord Server. The show also has a forum discussion board on the Real Dragon Age Fans Forum and social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
This page contains unmarked spoilers for the Dragon Age games.
This podcast provides examples of...
- Audio Play: The podcast is a serial adventure through the Dragon Age franchise of video games. Each episode progresses sequentially from the previous episodes, with brief recaps during the podcast intro segments.
- Butt-Monkey: Despite being fond of the character, Brandon inadvertently treated Leliana as this in early episodes.Leliana: Something I can help with?
Brandon: You can help... but not by talking. - Christmas Episode: In episode OR015, Brandon and Manny visit the snowy Soldier's Peak just in time for the end of the 2018 holiday season. Coincidentally, this mission also features ghosts of Grey Wardens past!
- Defeat Means Friendship: Zevran is met after numerous difficult confrontations with his band of Antivan Crows. This friendship turns to romance with Steván within their first few interactions.
- Didn't Think This Through: In OR022, Manny and Brandon share this thought after being thoroughly and easily defeated by Flemeth.
- Fan Boy: Manny is unapologetically a fan of Tim Curry.
- Funny Foreigner:
- In OR014, the mere mention of Marjolaine sparks jokes about the name being a fancy Orlesian margarine brand.
- In OR016, upon meeting Marjolaine, Manny can't help but accidentally adopt her French accent after a single conversation.
- Interspecies Romance: Steván and Zevran share one, as he is the only male character eligible to romance another male.
- Let's Play: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The podcast is structured as a Let's Play throughout the Dragon Age series, with traditional podcast-style commentary interstitched.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: When reading Steván's lines aloud, Brandon and Manny's interpretation of his voice can vary from The Stoic to Valley Girl, and everything in between.
- Male Gaze: Subverted throughout the show. Though both hosts are gay, they are quick to mention the sight of overly sexualized female characters, with varying degrees of satisfaction.
- The Maze: Episode OR012 is entirely dedicated to Steván's journey through a nightmare labyrinth in the Fade.
- My Greatest Failure: In OR007, Manny and Brandon mourn the death of Amalia, a young girl who becomes a victim of possession by a Desire Demon. This becomes a common reference when recounting previous failures of their journey.
- Nightmare Sequence: As listed above, OR012 is entirely dedicated to a nightmare labyrinth in the Fade.
- Brandon experiences his own nightmare, as he has an inexplicable phobia of glitches, which occur often throughout the episode.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Manny is the more passionate and empathetic of the two hosts, while Brandon is more subdued and observing.
- Shout-Out: Numerous cases:
- In OR010, Manny describes the climax to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in detail.
- In OR015, Manny recounts the plot to A Diva's Christmas Carol.
- In OR021, Manny relates the DLC mission Return to Ostagar to the film Return to Oz.
- This results in Brandon referring to the character Tik-Tok as a Smash-style Echo Character of the original Tin Man.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Brandon and Manny will often accidentally select a companion while in the middle of dramatic missions, sometimes prompting lengthy or plot-important conversations at inopportune moments.
- In OR009, Alistair asks Steván to help him find his long lost half-sister as they are about to invade Redcliffe Castle from a secret underground passage.
- In OR020, Manny accidentally sparks conversation with Wynne about Steván's relationship with Zevran while standing on dead spiders' bodies.
- Title Drop: Inverted. Most episodes take their titles from a quote or event featured in the episode (rather than the opposite).
- Trauma Button: The death of Steván's father is this for Steván. Manny even delivers the same pained scream of "Daddy!!" that he delivered during the death, when faced with a spectral imitation of Steván's father in OR017.
Enjoy the rest of your stay at Disney's Magic Kingdom.
