Dragon Age's Potential Dirty Dozen(ish)?

Mass Effect 2, for all its critical acclaim, could be said to have one major weakness: plot. Sure, the story sort of moves forward…but the plot regarding the Reapers isn’t really the point of the sequel at all. The real story was behind your “dirty dozen” party members, a term employed by Bioware themselves in regards to the crew. These people, getting to know them and your adventure in recruiting them: this was the real star of Mass Effect 2. Hence, this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owBztzhm7Yk]

Now, a lot of information has been floating around regarding Dragon Age 2 in the last couple of weeks. One of which may have been easily overlooked by everyone is in the revealed boxart:

What? Don’t see it? I suggest you take a closer look at the bottom of the dragon’s wings. Those, right there, are the silhouettes of about 11ish, possibly more (12?!!?!), people (I’m not sure if I should be counting the small, completely disfigured ones inside his arms). You can clearly tell that some of those are heads and arms, though admittedly the bodies are rather thin and twisted.

Could this be a reference to the number of party members in Dragon Age 2? Lord knows. But if recently revealed changes to the franchise are any indication, I wouldn’t put it beyond Bioware to have a similar setup for DA2.

Still not convinced? Well, even Gametrailers is suggesting it.