Dragon Age: Veilguard AMA confirms further departures from the series’ tone

Table of Contents

Intro

BioWare has been borderline bashing previous Dragon Age entries in their blog posts promoting Veilguard and as such, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the latest instalment is taking further steps away from the series’ tone.

This much was made apparent with previous reveals and now cemented with a recent Discord AMA where the devs shone light on a substantial amount of Veilguard details, including the transmog system, writing style and other changes coming to base systems.

In this article, the discussion revolves around a handful of highlights from the AMA.

You can see all of them in a compilation made by Shinobi602 since Discord is so bad at keeping internet history visible.

Anyone can wear anything

Besides the Qunari Vitaars, all of the armor in Veilguard can be worn by anyone. There will be no race-based restrictions so if you want to wear Legion of the Dead armor on a horned creature that is twice the size of a dwarf, you can.

This might sound like nitpicking but it is one of those details that made Dragon Age: Origins such a standout hit. Amazing writing and storytelling was indeed what launched Origins into the stars but can you really have that degree of story quality without a mountain of details that give each object or living thing a distinctive identity that might resonate with a player?

As Dragon Age progressed through sequels, it gradually shed such details in favor of more visual spectacle that can be better showcased in promotional material, losing depth in the process. The same depth that caused countless players to become enamored with Origins 15 years ago.

Race-restricted armor is just one of such details and it happens to be one in the latest batch to be due to BioWare’s new direction.

Dragon Age UI used to be kept to the edges of the screen

Transmog

Armor continues to lose its identity in Dragon Age: Veilguard with the introduction of the transmog system. Transmog saw a lot of success in MMOs because it skips the grind for alts but in singleplayer games that don’t require hacking away at countless enemies to get an armor piece, it doesn’t have the same shine to it.

On the contrary, completing the likes of Effort, Juggernaut or Sentinel set in Origins wouldn’t hit the same if you could just apply a different look to them. Or even worse, apply their appearance any other gear. Without transmog, these sets could inspire a completely new playthrough to give the player an opportunity to roleplay through their identity.

Having options is great but there is no denying it also takes something away from the game’s depth once the system is implemented. I’m not against transmog in general and it’s not necessarily a bad thing but it is definitely a lateral move by BioWare in this case. Players will have fewer obstacles in dressing their Barbie the way they want but those dresses will not be as meaningful as they were before.

Veil Jumpers

Having saved the best for last, the writing style is probably my biggest gripe with the direction of Dragon Age, ever since the first sequel. Dragon Age: Origins immersed the players into the dark fantasy setting better than all the sequels combined, and even though it didn’t even launch yet, I’m betting Veilguard will be in that pool as well.

Many players probably noticed it by now but the writing just feels so different in these games they might as well be different franchises. The reason is that Origins was written in a style that made a proper effort to mimic archaic English, be it with single words, phrases or entire speeches that fit the atmosphere perfectly.

As Dragon Age progressed through the sequels, it consistently moved towards a modern English style that made it feel closer to Marvel slop and sometimes just situations from real life pretending to be a video game. The feeling of a mystical world of Thedas is gone now that it feels like something we could see on daily news with a coat of fantasy paint over it.

Veil Jumpers are a faction in Veilguard and the perfect example of what I’m talking about.

Back in Origins, such a faction would be called something along the lines of Fade Callers, Veil Trekkers or something as simple as Pathfinders. It would be something with at least a shred of mystique around the name.

Veil Jumpers just sounds like a teenage gang from around the block and not even remotely something inspired by medieval fantasy. Then again, the name may as well be a minor issue compared to literal police gunships floating around Minrathous.