Dragon Age fans have been waiting a long time for the next installment in the franchise. However, something tells me that what they were waiting for all this time wasn’t The Veilguard. Announced on Twitter/X and shown during the Xbox Showcase as part of Summer Game Fest, Dragon Age: The Veilguard looks nothing like the three previous installments making many fans, including myself, wonder what trends conversations went on in Bioware’s meeting rooms. Fans are already aware of the road that’s led up to this point, but were the developers tired of people asking? I think we had a right to ask after nearly a decade of development with nearly no known information besides a project name, Dragon Age: Dreadwolf.
At first glance, the graphics seem to be a step down from previous installments, almost mimicking that of games like Fortnite. There’s also a much sillier nature to how characters and their relationship to one another are portrayed. It’s not very Dragon Age and feels like trends are just being followed, but there’s still hope that fans will be surprised when it does finally release at a later point this year.
The Journey Leading to Summer Game Fest and The Veilguard
After the popularity of Dragon Age: Inquisition, it’s no secret that a lot of pressure was put on the following installment. However, after nearly a decade of development, it’s clear that Bioware has looked towards newer and more popular means of inspiration. Just by watching the trailer above, there is a lot that can be compared to Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3. As mentioned before, the characters feel sillier and the direction of the trailer has a bit of a satirical approach. That compared with the graphical change makes it much clearer why the devs decided not to market the game until so close to release.
Something else I noticed in the trailer is the lack of gameplay, but it’s already been announced that real-time strategy gameplay will be employed. I wasn’t very surprised that it differs greatly from what we’re used to, like everything else shown. In fact, I’m betting that we’ll probably be looking at gameplay similar to BG3. It’s a departure further from the original games than I was expecting but it makes sense if Dragon Age: The Veilguard is appealing to a new generation of gamers and trends. All we can do is wait for the release and see if the years of waiting and the devastation behind Bioware’s massive staff turnovers throughout were worth it.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set to release later this year on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation.
