Summary
My favouriteDragon Agecharacter is Morrigan, closely followed by Isabela. One of the many things both of these characters have in common is that they’re both a little bit mean. Isabela is a little more witty and jovial with it, but both are incredibly cutthroat and, unfortunately, a dying breed in gaming. We don’t know the personality of the upcoming companions, aside from Harding and Varric, but I’m a little worried there’s no room for meanness these days.
A lot has been made of the Dragon Age Council, a group of consultant superfans who have played an advisory and playtesting role inThe Veilguard’sdevelopment.BioWare’sdevs mentioned their input repeatedly (though not all that specifically) atmy Summer Game Fest preview, and in the reveals since their impact has been stressed to assuage fan fears. Some ‘council members’ have even identified themselves publicly to let other fans know the game is in safe hands. But are those handstoosafe?
What Was The Role Of The Dragon Age Council In Development?
The only individual element of the game credited to the Council during our preview was the game’s new difficulty systems - specifically, that you can turn off death entirely. If you want to play entirely risk free, you can. On the one hand, it’s not gonna hurt me if I don’t use it, so what’s the point in complaining? On the other, there’s only so much time to do the millions of things required during game development, and the Council will have only had so much time to highlight their desires for the game. I don’t love that making it impossible to die was considered a priority for either, let alone both, of those limited resources.
The game being easy? Sure. Dragon Age has always had difficulty settings and pure challenge is not the draw of the game. But no death at all, no chance of feeling frustrating and therefore no chance of the euphoria of overcoming those feelings? It seems like the mindset of someone who principally views Dragon Age as a dating sim where there’s also some gameplay. Dragon Age does not exist to be made into RedBubble notebooks or Etsy pins or erotic fanart.
Sometimes, a superfan is the worst person to ask. They have a very deep end view of the series, one where the game is indelible from the fanfiction and the memes and the streamers and the cosplay. Those fans are the lifeblood of the community and very valuable, but by no means is that the only, or even the main, perspective of players approaching the game.
The Fanfictionification Of Media
We saw this in real time withBaldur’s Gate 3. As it grew from being just a regular popular video game into a phenomenon, the patches changed. No longer aimed primarily at fixing bugs, adding detail to conversations, ironing out errors that only arose after specific routes through the thousands of potential options offered, the patches became Kisses Are Better Now, then Kisses Are Better Now 2, and Kisses Are Better Now 3.Larianhas finally moved on from Baldur’s Gate 3, not wanting to dwell in the world long enough to create meaningful expansions, but not before a crowd-pleasing party that clarifies blunts some of the sacrifice that comes with Astarion’s and Karlach’s ending specifically.
The power of the non-fan can be seen clearly inStar Wars. Andor, made mostly by writers with limited affection for all things Wookie, isconsidered one of the best Star Wars stories in years. Meanwhile, superfan Dave Filoni is currentlyrifling through his toybox to see which plastic figure can be crammed into a listless cameo next. You can love a series too much and I hope Dragon Age isn’t Flanderised into being all about the funny things Cole says or the exaggerated sarcasm of Fenris' romance or swooping is bad.
Consider Anders: he has been memed into being ‘the cute Dragon Age terrorist’, but the text of the situation is far more complex. He commits an act of terrorism with the express purpose of igniting what amounts to a race war because he feels citizens like him are doomed to a life of discrimination unless they claim their rights back with bloodied fists. The internal struggles of Thedas are layered and often require a far deeper level of soul searching than simply picking between two characters who share the same innate goodness but mildly disagree on a solution. Is there room for this sort of complexity in The Veilguard?
I hope there is, and I admit a lot of this is my own fear talking; not just for Dragon Age but for the moves we seem to have made in our collective pop culture consumption. Not to keep ragging on Baldur’s Gate 3, my Game of the Year for 2023 and the only game from the past five years to enter my all time top ten, but originally to recruit Minthara we needed to align with her evil nature. Because people wanted to draw cute fanart of her, this was changed to let you recruit her while being kinda nice still.
The term ‘problematic’ is in overdrive,frequently used against queer characters depicted as anything other than sweet little cupcakes.Marvelmovies, the dominant force at the box office for a decade and a half, are completely scrubbed of sex or any bite whatsoever. ‘Wholesome’ games are everywhere you look, and people still want them sanitised - the progressive and inclusiveBoyfriend Dungeoncame under fire fornot featuring enough trigger warnings, despite already containing several.
This is a lot to extrapolate from a new difficulty setting, and the glimpses of Neve’s dry personality could yet blossom into a Morrigan-style meanness, some wry Isabela wit, a Vivienne-esque coldness. The characters we haven’t met may force us to face tough decisions and allow us to be uncomfortable in order to absorb the game’s narrative on a deeper level.
It just feels like an overly sensitive era for pop culture, and that can make life tough for a game that typically has explored very dark moments with searching questions about what path of morality you will walk, but ultimately is most popular amongst die-hards because it gives you lots of people to kiss. I hope The Veilguard retains just a little bit of edge, even if some of its biggest fans might not love the things that make it great.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
WHERE TO PLAY
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.
