Of all the recent game announcements via the weekend that was not E3, the one I’m most excited about is Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I had thought we wouldn’t see it until next year, but no…it’s promised to be out this fall, and I cannot wait! The prospect of seeing this new entry in the series prompted me to play through the current trio of Dragon Age games earlier this year. So far, I’m almost through Origins; and at this point, the jury’s out on what paths I’ll carve through the second game and Inquisition. Because of the connections between these three games, and the fact that you can keep track of progress and decisions made through the site, Dragon Age Keep, I figured that the fourth game would be connected, too. It turns out that it is…but it also isn’t, at least not through the Keep.
One of the reasons Dragon Age has become my most favorite RPG series is because they live on continuum that actually feels like it matters. In other words, in choosing to keep track of my choices and import the from game to game, it make each playthrough new, different, and unique. As these choices manifest, they affect my engagement and the outcomes of my individual wardens, champions, and inquisitors. At least, that’s how it feels when I’m playing, and when I decide to “play Dragon Age,” it’s with the intention of playing through the three games in sequence. Maybe I’m in a diminished group of players here, but it’s my preference. Learning that Veilguard will not be part of the Keep (with the tangential thought that the Keep is probably on borrowed time, anyway), is disappointing. Instead, as the game’s director reported in an IGN interview, players will choose the state their pre-Veilguard world (if they want, as I imagine a default world state will be available) in the game’s character creator. Further, Veilguard won’t read saves from previous games. This detachment is disheartening news. It reads as if Veilguard will sit in camp with Mass Effect: Andromeda, in that it’s while strongly related to what came before, it’s its own separate entity.
While this fact makes me frown, it comes with a huge upside in terms of accessibility – Dragon Age: The Veilguard can be fully played offline. Add that it’s a single-player game with no microtransactions and no account-linking nonsense, and it’s enough to melt away any negativity. In the end, do I really care if my warden might be alive and retired? Or if Alastair might still be king or something? Or if my inquisitor convinced companion Cole to be more human? Or if Varric and Hawke was still friends? (Actually, yeah, I do care about that a little.) It took hindsight for me to realize that one of the best things about Andromeda, to continue drawing on that inevitable comparison, is it’s detachment from Commander Shepard’s universe. I will admit that in playing the current Dragon Age trilogy, I sometime get caught up in seeking out the ways my Origin choices manifested; same with linking games one and two to Inquisition. Rather than just enjoying the game for what it is, I verge off to find the world as I think I made it. It’s not the best approach, as it often leads to unnecessary wandering and the dashing of futile hopes. I definitely like to stop and smell the roses during grand RPG adventures, but there’s no need to go off hoping to find roses where there are none. Even I know that I need to get over myself sometimes.
In the end, Veilguard’s offline availability with truncated world state choices outweighs my need for continuity. The disappointment that remains over the game’s separation from the original trilogy, and the potential and likely eventual loss of Dragon Age Keep will probably stick around for a while, maybe for as long as I continue playing the old games. I’m sure it’ll dissipate, especially as more Veilguard news is revealed.Though, I’m gong to force myself away from any spoilers, as my best approach to the game might be to go in as “sight unseen” as possible.
Lede image captured by author from Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveal trailer (© Electronic Arts, BioWare.)
VIRTUAL BASTION 
I get your perspective on this and am hopeful that you’ll that your Dragon Age journey will continue to be fun with this this next entry. As for me though, well I suppose I’ll try to keep focused here. I’m very disappointed by just about everything I’ve seen of this game so far, with the odd lack of story continuation being one of the prime reasons. See, I’m very disappointed that we’re not picking things up again as the Inquisitor. And, yes, I’m very much aware that every Dragon Age game thus far has had a new main character. DA: O – The Warden, DAII: – Hawke, DA:I – The Inquisitor and now DA: V – Rook.
However, I’d argue that whereas it made sense in the previous entries, here it doesn’t. By the end of DA:O and all its DLC, the Warden’s story was pretty well wrapped up, so it was enough to just have a fun nod to them in the other games. More or less can be said for Hawke, but only because Bioware decided not to develop the mage/templar blood war in any significant way in Inquisition (which I hated too. That development was alluded to in DA:O, quite literally exploded in DAII, and, just when that story was going to enter its most exciting and dramatic phase, they pretty much just shelved it! WTH?! All we got from that plotline was a glorified “now kiss and make up” cutscene.)
But, fine, okay. At least we got Corypheus and then Solas, and with the cliffhanger at the end of Tresspasser, the stage was set for a great story of betrayal and revenge with the very nature of the world hanging in the balance! I mean the drama practically writes itself (especially if your Inquisitor was a female Dalish Elf who romanced Solas in DA:I)! Oh man! I can’t wait to see how things play out as we chase down our one-time friend (or more) and ally!
Oh, wait. We’re not playing as our Inquisitor on a quest to confront and stop their betrayer? We’re some rando with absolutely no connection to Solas who’s apparently only on the team because they’re good in a fight and Varric doesn’t want to be the leader for some reason? Oh….crud. So, once again, all of that drama is wasted and we’re just starting from square one for the third time. Okay then. My fault for getting invested in the story, I guess. (lame.)
I get series traditions and stuff, I really do, but there are times when it makes a heck of a lot more sense to break them. And I really think this was one of those times.
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Good points, all around. Even though I’m remaining positive about Veilguard, the overall problems with the series rest firmly in the back of my mind. As much as I enjoy tying together loose threads between the games (through the Keep and my own notes, ha!), I’ve come to see them as three separate adventures set in the same universe. This certainly doesn’t forgive its many sins — I, too, dislike that the resounding events in DAII led absolutely nowhere, or at least not in a meaningful way — but the mindset helps me overlook most.
I’m definitely not 100% sold on Rook, Varric’s role (and even that of Scout Harding), or the new set of companions. My little conspiracy theory is that the trailer as shown is a red herring, and that players will actually get to start out playing as their former inquisitors. Because, yes, it makes zero sense for Varric to be rushing off to find Solas in Tevinter with some random newbie. After that first confrontation with Solas, we “start over” at another point on the timeline, Rook enters the picture, and off adventuring we go. That would be nice. Will it be reality? No, probably not.
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That would definitely make the shift to Rook more palatable. Absolutely. Like, maybe the Inquisitor is doing their own thing (perhaps something more important but indirect) while you help out by holding Solas’ attention or something. That’d definitely feel better. I still think this should be an Inquisitor and Solas story, but that’s not happening, so gotta move on I suppose.
You know, BioWare has talked about these games like they’re supposed to be separate tales in the same world, I think. That would be fine if each of these games had been handled like DA:O. That one was nice and wrapped up, and the results of its story fed into and set up the situation in DAII. In DA: I and (as things currently look) DA:V, they aren’t pulling it off. As much as I like DA:I’s plot as something self-contained, as a sequel to DAII it wasn’t good. The ongoing mage/templar war should have been the focus for at least half-with the conflict bringing about Corypheus or even just Solas’ stuff somehow.
With this new game, they seem to have gotten that part right, but they ended DA:I in a way that demands that the Inquisitor be in the center of the story again. They either needed to end Tresspasser differently or had Solas and the Inquisitor fight it out in the background while this new crew does its own thing in the midst of a world that’s dealing with it, perhaps even getting hooked into the main conflict after happening upon something game changing. It wouldn’t be as satisfying, but it would make more sense I think.
Still too early to tell of course. Perhaps they just REALLY dropped the ball revealing the game. I’m going to need convincing, but never say never, right?
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I wonder if BioWare might have shot themselves in the foot with Veilguard with having even created Trespasser’s story? If that DLC didn’t exist, if it hadn’t so strongly solidified the relationship between Solas and the Inquisitor and Solas’s further intentions, then maybe we’d actually still be talking about “Dragon Age: Dreadwolf” and just be picking up with things as they were at the vanilla end of Inquisition. Because Trespasser set such a firm stage for a direct sequel about Solas and the Inquisitor, it’s hard not to see what they showed of Veilguard as a confusing disappointment. But, you’re right, at this early stage, who knows what’s to come.
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That really is what it comes down to, isn’t it? A new character absolutely would be much more exciting had Inquisition not had the Trespasser ending.
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