Dragon Age: The Veilguard is shaping up to be one of the biggest releases of the year. Not only is it the return of the beloved Dragon Age franchise after a ten year long absence, it’s also looking increasingly like the action RPG is going to be the return to form that BioWare fans have been hoping to see from the studio for what has felt like an eternity. Based on everything that we’ve seen of it so far – and we’ve seen quite a bit – there’s no shortage of reasons to be excited about Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and here, that’s exactly what we’re to talk about, as we go over some of the things that we absolutely cannot wait to get to as soon as we hop back into the magical world of Thedas.
DIVE INTO THE CHARACTER CREATOR
The character creator is often such an important part of the experience in RPGs, especially RPGs of this kind, and The Veilguard is making grand promises in this area. Plenty of details have been revealed on it so far, and clearly, the toolset is going to be an expansive one, with a vast amount of options providing players great control over what their Rook looks like. People can often spend literally hours in a truly good character creator, and it’s looking like The Veilguard is going to deliver on that front.
PLAY AS DIFFERENT RACES
Again, this is often a core part of the experience when it comes to Dragon Age in particular. Humans, elves, dwarves, and qunari all have unique places and statuses in the world of Thedas, which means the way the world and its denizens react to them changes accordingly. Having your experience be affected by the race you’re playing as in that fashion is always fascinating to see. Hopefully, The Veilguard will take things further than its predecessors in this area.
PLAY WITH DIFFERENT ORIGINS
Origins are coming back in The Veilguard– sort of. No, you’re not going to have a unique prologue section for each backstory, but there are going to be six unique backstories to choose from. When creating your Rook, you’ll choose between one of six factions that you belong to, and each will affect the story, dialogue, and interactions with characters in various ways, both big and small. BioWare is promising meaningful differences based on what faction you choose, and we’re definitely excited to experience that for ourselves.
EXPERIENCE ALL THE CLASSES
Of course, in addition to your race and faction, you’ll also be choosing your class, and in true Dragon Age fashion, there will be three main classes on offer with Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, with several subclasses that’ll become available later on. As fans of the series will know all too well, the class that you choose also makes a huge difference on your experience, not only where the gameplay is concerned, but, again, also in terms of the story and your interactions with characters. How well The Veilguard will be able to deliver in that area is something we’re very keen to find out.
EXPERIMENT WITH COMBAT COMBOS
Dragon Age started out very much as a CRPG, but over time, the series has moved away from that increasingly. The Veilguard is going to be a much more action-drive game than any of its predecessors (with the exception of Dragon Age 2, maybe), but it’s also promising plenty of pause-and-play tactical action. Party members are no longer controllable, but like in Mass Effect, you’ll be able to pause the action at any time to bring up a radial wheel from where you can issue commands and unleash companion abilities. Specifically in terms of combining attacks and elemental abilities, this is going to be a crucial part of the combat loop, and it’s something that we can’t wait to experiment with, especially as we progress deeper into the skill tree.
FULLY UTILIZE TRANSMOG
Gear and equipment will obviously have a big impact on your build and stats, but clearly, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is all about giving players options, which means you’re not going to be forced to wear ugly armour just because it makes your numbers go up. No, thanks to a transmog system, you’ll be able to equip any gear piece without having to let it affect your look, and you can be sure that we’ll be making full use of that system.
GET TO KNOW AND BEFRIEND ALL THE COMPANIONS
The cast of companions that you meet and travel with are often the most crucial part of any BioWare game, and sure enough, the developer is emphasizing that harder than ever with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. With seven total companions to recruit and get to know, the game is promising a large cast of supposedly the most compelling and engrossing characters BioWare has ever created. That’s something the studio is touting itself, and given its history, that’s mighty high praise. Hopefully, the game will live up to it.
HANG OUT WITH DAVRIN’S GRIFFON
One particular companion – Davrin the Grey Warden – is going to be accompanied by a a griffon companion, and there’s plenty of reasons we’re excited to get to meet the majestic bird-like creature ourselves. Particularly in terms of Dragon Age lore, though griffons were once strongly associated with the Grey Wardens, they have been thought extinct for a long, long time, which is why this particular griffon’s presence in The Veilguard is so fascinating.
HANG OUT WITH MANFRED THE SKELETON
Similar to the aforementioned griffon, Manfred the skeleton is another character who’ll be paired with one of the game’s companions. Emmrich, a necromancer and member of the Mourn Watch, will have a skeletal assistant in the form of Manfred, though the two of them have more of a father-son relationship, interestingly enough. That’s a relationship that we’re curious to dive into, while we also wouldn’t mind just hanging out with Manfred.
EXPLORE THE LITGHHOUSE
BioWare loves creating hub locations that players keep returning to throughout the course of a game, from Skyhold in Dragon Age: Inquisition to, of course, the Normandy in Mass Effect. In The Veilguard, that hub location will take the form of the Lighthouse, and knowing BioWare’s track record in this particular area, we’re more than a little keen to step into this location ourselves. Exploring the Lighthouse, watching it change and expand over the cast of the game, and hanging out with Rook’s companions all over the hub is surely going to be a highlight of the experience.
EXPLORE MINRATHOUS
Dragon Age fans have been hearing about the Tevinter Imperium for as long as the series has existed, but The Veilguard is going to be the first time that we’ll actually get to explore the location ourselves. Understandably enough, series fanatics are excited to do that, which is why we, too, are chomping at the bit to explore every nook and cranny of the Minrathous, which is Tevinter’s capital city. In what we’ve seen of it so far, it’s looking like one of the most visually striking locations in Dragon Age history, so it definitely seems to be taking promising shape.
MEET RETURNING CHARACTERS
Each Dragon Age game tries to be at least sort of standalone, though each game also does bring forward plenty of threads from past entries, and The Veilguard is seemingly looking to strike that same balance, with a number of familiar characters set to return. Varric, of course, is going to be back, and though he isn’t going to be a party member this time, Harding – who fans will remember very well from Inquisition – will be. Meanwhile, fan favourite shapeshifting witch Morrigan is also confirmed to be coming back. While meeting and befriending new characters is obviously something we’re looking forward to, it’s safe to say that seeing familiar faces again is going to be just as exciting.
MEET THE INQUISITOR
Speaking of returning characters, BioWare has also confirmed that The Inquisitor – the protagonist of Dragon Age: Inquisition – will also be returning. Dragon Age games do tend to follow such a pattern – for instance, Dragon Age 2 protagonist Hawke returned in Inquisition – so this isn’t exactly new (or entirely surprising). From a narrative perspective, however, the Inquisitor’s return is quite exciting, not only because of the strong connective tissue with the previous game, but also because we might get some resolution for the character’s story.
FIND OUT WHAT’S GOING ON WITH SOLAS
Of course, the Inquisitor isn’t the only Inquisition bigwig who’s coming back. Solas was a key character in that game as well, and he is coming back, as we’ve known for a while. Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC set him up as the antagonist in the series’ next chapter, and hell, The Veilguard was even originally called Dreadwolf, which is what Solas is often known as. It’s safe to say, then, that he is going to be a critical part of the story in the upcoming action RPG, and given how fascinating of a character he is, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about that.
PLAY AROUND WITH PHOTO MODE
Let’s end with something obvious- because photo modes are always fun, right? Dragon Age: The Veilguard is looking like a beautiful game, and sure enough, we’re going to take every chance we get to hop into photo mode and click a few pictures of its gorgeous environments.