There's a crystal clear emphasis on character-driven storytelling in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. From the actual name of the game through to the (admittedly terrible) reveal trailer, and then the fairly promising gameplay demonstration, The Veilguard's party members are in the spotlight. And this is exactly what BioWare should be doing, according to veteran Mark Darrah.
Speaking to Game Informer, Darrah — now a consultant on the upcoming RPG — gifts us some pretty eye-opening quotes. "The thing that is so amazing about Veilguard is this is the game where we finally said out loud that BioWare's greatest strength is telling stories through characters," he explains, suggesting that the longstanding studio has once again found its footing.
Indeed, the developer has been on an incredibly disappointing streak for the best part of a decade now. Dragon Age Inquisition was close to ten years ago, and outside of 2021's fantastic Mass Effect Legendary Edition — which is essentially a remastered collection of three great games anyway — BioWare has really missed the mark with ANTHEM and Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Darrah continues: "If you go all the way back to Baldur's Gate 1, Baldur's Gate 2, these games are telling stories through characters, but there wasn't an intentionality behind that. And in [The Veilguard], we're finally putting that intentionality first and foremost, putting the characters first, building the game around that, around those character moments, which is really the best way that BioWare knows how to tell stories."
In other words, BioWare's trying to go back to what made its best games so memorable — and we think that's probably a good thing. Again, the studio's been in a slump for what feels like an age, and sometimes, a reset is the best way forward.
Darrah's comments are especially interesting because we know that The Veilguard has been overhauled at least once. At one point, years ago now, the project was meant to incorporate multiplayer and possibly even live service elements, but BioWare threw that stuff out and eventually settled on making a single-player RPG — just like the titles that the developer built its reputation on.