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.
Does this sound like a good approach to you? Do you have high hopes for Dragon Age: The Veilguard? Assemble your party in the comments section below.
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 29
Well, I want to believe this suddenly turns out a great game and wonderful experience...
But I loved the original DA:O too much and every new entry in the series seems to stray further and further away from it.
I have little to no hope on this project being anywhere close to the old ones
Not understanding why they dont have a remastered collection like they did for mass effect.
Those are the games i actually want
Hope this is great....mostly because it gives me hope for the next mass effect
Dragon Age: Golden Age
Cool. dragon age inquisition is one of the best video games i ever play.dragon age the veilguard is going to be a amazing video game.word up son
I'm very excited for this game. Till this day Inquisition is one of my most played games.
Wouldn't surprise me if suits barged in and demanded "Make this like Baldur's Gate!!"
There was a time BioWare could say we have a new game and that was all I needed to know. I would absolutely love for them to go on a Capcom type roll. I just don't see it. I hope I'm wrong.
Return to its roots by not including the blood mage (or something similar) class because it’s too evil…. Right because BioWare games don’t let you make choices including evil ones at their roots…
I remain hopeful that the game will be great, yet skeptical of their claims. I am not holding my breath. Wishing them luck!
They say they're going back to their roots despite saying Blood magic won't be included because its "too evil"
Darrah is defending new Dragon Age too much. It will be wokified p.o.s.
I am one of the few that thoroughly enjoyed Inquisition, just as much as prior DA games. I’m not entirely sold on how the game looks aesthetically, but I will give the game a chance. I really hope the story comes together cohesively and brings BioWare back on the map. I’m not entirely optimistic this will be the case, but I’m not going to judge the game before I actually play it myself.
I seem to remember the dialogue from the gameplay reveal being absolutely excruciating, so not sure how strong the characters are going to be if they just make dumb statements upon dumb statements over and over again. BG3 it will not be. It seemed more like an action movie with a bit of magic and purple lighting slapped on in the edit.
I would have put more trust in his praise if he wasn't on Bioware's payroll.
I've just started playing Dragon Age Origins again (it's been a while) and despite it's ageing looks, it's still bloody fantastic.
Origins was great because although it seemed like a generic dark fantasy story on the surface, it was a proper RPG where you could role play a huge number of things and even influence the character arcs of your party members to an enormous degree. The choices you made in Origins impacted so much of the game. From even the simplest of choices like the sex, race, and background of your created character, the dialogue in scenes and story progression opportunities will vary greatly.
I have zero confidence in their ability to create anything close to that again, but wish them the best of luck anyways. It would be nice to have a good Dragon Age game again.
There is no chance this game will do well. The style and companions alone are truly terrible. Bioware already has 3 strikes against it. They are just Bioware in name now. It's soulless. They would be better off remaking Origins but they would screw that up too.
I have very little confidence they will be able to deliver on the promise. I don't believe they understand what made DA:O and other Bioware classics, classics. Hope to be proven wrong.
The more I hear about this game, the better it sounds. I think it might end up surpassing a lot of people's expectations.
@ATaco Thing is Dragon Age before it was called origins was literally meant to be baldurs gate 3 without the wotc license and d&d rule book restrictions on combat. So that actually WOULD be a return to roots!
@Ravix so much this. Except I thought the purple was the point and the action was slapped on later.
Here’s hoping
@NEStalgia yeah, I think it's just a shell of a game and everything was slapped on later tbh 🤢 they are trying to go full PR save mode and lie to trick people into buying it, even though we have literally seen with our own eyes how the choices you make in game do absolutely nothing at all, and the characters are all stinky garbage 😭
I'm half expecting Johnny Gat to be a companion.
@Ravix "I'm half expecting Johnny Gat to be a companion." 🤣🤣🤣
Actually, that might be a huge improvement. What's really amazing to me is how the PR of telling people that what they saw is something other than what they think they saw is actually WORKING! People seriously seem to think this is DAO reborn.
I'm looking forward to it. I'm not expecting it to be anything like Origins, 2 (but who would want that anyway?) or Inquisition, but from what I've seen, it could be solid.
If it's just a step or two ahead of Andromeda, and absolutely nothing like Anthem, then I'm happy with that. Just want to see Tevinter and Minrathous. Anything like the wilds of the Storm Coast would be a huge plus.
There no hope. If this game will be mediocre, it already will be miracle. Why they mentions Dragon Age of how it was? Nostalgia. Why he mentions old Baldurs Gate? Because trend and hype of Baldurs Gate 3. Its all just marketing tricks. This is all what Bioware is capable right now, marketing and pandering. Once they was my favourite developers. Old Bioware is dead, and we need to accept it. This is not (original) Bioware. This is not Dragon Age, just game with lable of it. So judge game only on itself. And its aint looking good at all.
They want to return to an era most of them were not a part of. I hope they succeed but not overly optimistic.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...