The Veilguard, the next instalment of BioWare's Dragon Age series, will feature nudity in the style of similarly adult RPGs like Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3. This is important for many reasons, immersion perhaps one of them, but it marks the first time a game developed by the studio will spice up its romance scenes by showing some digital skin.
That's according to essential journalism done by Game Informer, which went hands-on with the game and discovered the revelation. They found that topless nudity was present during character creation, allowing players to customize things like chest size, and game director Corinne Busche assured the outlet that: "This is a mature RPG."
GI asked whether bottom nudity also made it into the game and was told that the studio wanted players to discover that for themselves, likely relegated to the game's romance cutscenes. Previously, BioWare has shied away from full nudity, with scenes depicted in series like Mass Effect implying rather than actually showing it.
Are you surprised to see BioWare going The Full Monty? Is nudity a relevant part of an RPG, or just some additional set-dressing? Let us know in the comments section below.
[source gameinformer.com]
Comments 49
A bit ironic that the first Dragon Age with nudity will be the one with the ugliest art style yet.
@breakneck 🤣 not a puritan but I turned off nudity in BG3 and cyberpunk… not really what I am playing games for. I also stopped GoT in season one because it felt like they just threw it in all the time and it served no purpose. Maybe I am a puritan…
Nudity is good and all in the menu but I want to know if can I walk around town with my bits flopping about.
Bit of an immature piece of news, don't you think? I mean, as a medium, we're focusing too much on irrelevant details that have very little to do with the overall experience. Not portraying a professional/reputable image of the video game industry.
@breakneck either you’re a puritan or “chud incel”! pick your poison!
Ooh now nudity is okay, okay then, stellar blade nude outfit when?
Confirming nudity and following it up with "this is a mature RPG" makes it sound like it's directed by a 16 year old or something.
Nudity is fine when it makes sense but I have no interest in these companions at all. The whole game looks terrible. It will not sell well which will cause a panic meeting and Mass Effect will get shifted. Some suit will get out a checklist and force changes.
I’m guessing that will be censored for us in Japan as usual 😒
Should retroactively apply it to Mass Effect. Would prove that every single part of Kaiden is made of cardboard.
@Ainu20
Whilst you are correct that nudity itself is not mature, the deliberate and irrational avoidance of nudity, or its censorship, is certainly immature.
@Ainu20 Like literally anything else in human history - it depends on the execution. Revenge of the Nerds and Melancholia both contain nudity. One is more mature than the other. It’s not inherently immature to have nudity in media, sex is the oldest pastime in the world, a fact of life. Media reflects humanity, a pretty large proportion of which has had, or will have, sex. The interesting part is whether the nudity is window dressing or whether it has an actual purpose.
@IamJT You mentioning GoT is an interesting one because in some respects the nudity has purpose. Littlefinger having naked prostitutes around with little reaction emphasises his businesslike nature and the way that he views sex as a bargaining chip. However, it’s framed in a way in the show that doesn’t give that justice at all, it’s fairly cheap titillation quite early on in the show due to the directorial style. At times it’s the classic ‘the purpose of a system is what it does’. The purpose is titillation. If it’s setting out to get a reaction from the viewer with no narrative reason then that’s what its purpose is. However, that’s no different from if a show tries to make you cry but with no narrative hook. It feels exploitative of your own emotions. Like with anything, if the writers are good enough then they’ll justify the nudity, same way they can naturally toy with an audience’s grief, or make them cringe.
For nudity scenes, I thought that the Sera 'romance' scene in Inquisition was pretty good only because it suited her cheeky character.
@wiiware It is very interesting to ponder just how controversial toplessness would have been in Stellar Blade huh?
@nessisonett You seem to be misinterpreting my comment as if it says that nudity is immature. It's not that, it's how they present it. It reads almost like "our game is mature, look, it has nudity!".
If it complements actual mature writing and themes, then I'm all for it. With the state of Bioware these days though...
Considering who is making this not surprised
Very important news
Oooh nudity, a sure sign that the medium is maturing facepalm
As with all these design choices, just do it, and if possible have some class, and don't flaunt about with it to get a bunch of mouth breathing gamer types to go all crazy.
So nudity will be acceptable in this game from the journalist eyes but not the same for others. 🤔
Well if there are nude females , we all know the American protests are coming
"nudity is okay as long as the developer isn't asian"
~journalists that follow "the message"
as an aside, thanks Push Square for being open to everyone enjoying different things in their games, no matter where they come from
N.i.c.e. i see booty.dragon age the veilguard is going to be a amazing.word up son
@Veturius whatever gets the clicks
Removed - flaming/arguing; user is banned
"This is important for many reasons, immersion perhaps one of them, but it marks the first time a game developed by the studio will spice up its romance scenes by showing some digital skin."
I'm confused, ME Andromeda and DA:I had plenty of digital skin being showed..
“ The veil comes off” 😄😄😄
I honestly think this is just in response to Larian offering full nudity in Baldur's Gate 3. Yes DA games have always had nudity and sex in them but I don't think they would have allowed DA to have full nudity in the character creator creator if Larian didn't do it first (Yes I know technically CDPR did it with Cyberpunk but you'd never actually see this replicated in the gameplay meaning it felt largely pointless). I'm looking forward to this game but it's clearly another sign that they're out of good ideas at this point and are just following RPG leaders trying to replicate what makes them great
That's cool I guess. Won't change my decision to get it Day 1.
Nudity in games always feels awkward to me. It feels pretty on par with hentai and such. If that's your bag, you do you; and BioWare can do whatever it wants, but having nudity as a marketing beat gets a big eyeroll from me. I'm gonna play the game regardless, but this definitely isn't gonna move the needle... or anything else...
boooooooooooooobs!!!!!!!!!!!
Aww, yeah, this is what I've been waiting for. I wasn't totally sold on the whole cinematic action combat with a cartoon plasticine purple shaded Fortnite clone art style in a Dragon Age RPG, but now that it's got cartoon plasticine purple shaded Fortnite porn I'm onboard! If only they'd thought of this in time for Anthem. If only.
Love how my comment got removed for stating the obvious. These people just don't get over their hate for this game. Having an opinion is fine - just expressing it EVERY time a new article pops up?
You know what, fine - two can play at that game. How about I'll just comment how they don't give it a new chance and need to open their eyes instead of blindly hating. The good way.. or the harsh way <3
Nice weekend everyone!
@IamJT Yeah the use of sex in GoT was ridiculous. It got less as the show went on but the show got considerably worse as it went on. Saved yourself from the pain.
The ironic thing is no western gaming journalist not even from IGN and Kotaku, will make an article where they complaint and make a fuss about this.
Meanwhile, compare to Stellar Blade that got stupid articles from IGN, Forbes, and Kotaku where they mocked the game and director just because Eve looks beauty & fit and showed a bit of skin. The same happened with Bayonetta, Dragon's Crown, or games from Asian devs.
@PuppetMaster I played Dragon's Crown and got second hand embarrassment from the Sorceress' boob physics. It's as if it were designed by a 13 year old.
It's not just the nudity the problem, but how it's portrayed. In Conan Exiles there was plenty of nudity but it felt pretty natural.
My god, all these commenters trying to show themselves as “mature” by talking about “directorial intent” and “mature writing”. I also took “Film 101” at university, I know what you mean, but come on. Your emotions feel exploited if you happen to see a breast in “Revenge of the Nerds”? And, of course, let’s harp on Game of Thrones because that hasn’t been done to death… I barely batted an eyelid over all the so called “sexposition” but a very vocal group of people reacted as if the world was ending. Even though the show was on HBO, nudity was kind of expected.
I mean, I really can’t imagine actually being embarrassed by nudity on screen. Well, unless you’re 12 years old and playing/watching with your mother present.
Nudity is fantastic, an integral part of human existence. Personally, I want more nudity in most movies/series/video games for adults. It can be fantastic for immersion, nuance, depth and character development.
And sometimes a breast is just a breast, a dong is just a dong. No reason to get your knickers in a twist, not all nudity needs to be supported 100% by fancy scripts or be in good taste. You know, exploitation cinema has some stone cold classics. And just because you dig Russ Meyer doesn’t mean you can’t dig Bergman, Von Trier or Scorsese (all directors who like a bit of nudity….)
@Oxy Russ Meyer in the same sentence as Ingmar Bergman... one of the most thoughtful, precise, and purposeful directors of all time to argue this point is weird. Meyer's films were exploitative, that was their entire point. Inclusion of nudity in film for a purpose is far different. Can't compare something like Summer With Monika with GoT or Russ Meyer.
@IamJT Oh, you can’t compare them? Of course you can. There are no “rules” in film criticism or film theory saying you can’t compare x to y.
Anyway, I wasn’t really comparing them and it’s not my intent to start a Bergman vs Meyer debate.
But I will say that when “Sommaren med Monika” was released the cries for censorship and bans were just as loud as they were for GoT. And “Summer with Monika” was, of course, marketed as an exploitation flick in the US. The line between “exploitation” and “art” is in the eye of the beholder.
And let’s not kid ourselves, the movie is hardly one of Bergmans best and the reason the movie did well at the time had much to do with the nudity.
So we have a minor Bergman vs a show that is often included in lists of the best shows ever. Both used sex and nudity to become known worldwide. So they have that in common, if not much more…
And just as I didn’t look away from the screen in shame when Harriet Andersson frolicked across the rocky beach in SwM, I took in every brothel scene in GoT without embarrassment. And just as I enjoy "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!", I’m sure I’ll enjoy every second of nudity in Dragon Age, exploitative or not.
@Oxy You keep bringing up "shame." I am not sure where you are getting that from in anything I am saying. I am aware Summer with Monika was marketed that way in the U.S. but almost all films from Sweden were even when their was no actual nudity. Regardless, I don't feel shame when I see nudity, but nudity for the sake of nudity is wasted on me. I get nothing from movies like "Faster Pussycat" because I don't care about the characters. I have yet to play a game where nudity added anything other than the opening scene in Alan Wake 2, where the use of nudity immediately drew me in because I wanted to know how this person got here and what happened and the presentation was brilliant. So far, games that add nudity (Witcher 3, BG3, Cyberpunk) have done it because it sells games, not because it makes the game more immersive or is crucial to the story. Its just boring to me.
Side note Summer with Monika is actually one of my favorite Bergman movies, probably number four of the 39 I have seen.
@naruball Lol. Another one who's missing the point of Dragon's Crown design, just like Kotaku / Jason Schreier.
@IamJT Well, I mentioned the word “shame” one time but I see what you mean. So nudity without “context” is wasted on you? For me, context can be something as simple as a character taking a bath or two characters having sex. That is something most people do naked in real life. An immersive/realistic movie or game will show those people naked. What really points to the artifice of the movie/game is cutting away or strategically blocking breasts or genitalia to shield our sensitive minds. It just feels fake.
And what I can’t understand is people being totally okay with violence for violences sake. I’m just guessing here but probably over 90% of games (I’m including cartoon violence) contain characters inflicting violence on other characters, often with the flimsiest pretext: “you are good, that bear is evil, kill it” So, is violence for violence sake wasted on you? Is it boring? Because if it is, your selection of games is severely limited…
And do you really need to “care” about the characters to enjoy something. I enjoy JRPGs but do I care about the characters, hell no. Same thing with Mario/Zelda. Love the games, don’t really care if Mario gets immolated for the 40th time.
Side note: I’m more into 60s and 70s Bergman: Persona, Cries and Whispers etc. As a Swede, the way the actors talk in earlier Bergman can be a bit theatrical which immediately makes me think of a particular kind of really bad screwball comedies (Åsa-Nisse). Its just a personal hang-up, I do still enjoy Summer with Monika but I don’t consider it essential.
@PuppetMaster lolZ. Sure, buddy.
Hate to get off topic, but would a longtime fan consider this a decent jumping point into the series?
Good lord this is so much BG3 envy.
@LifeGirl The internet would explode, or at least many of the "journalist" that covering the game lol. Excluding pushsquare of course.
@breakneck
LOL! I logged in solely to like this comment.
Nudity with those cartoony models is gonna be super weird.
@Yousef- Not really. I mean... you can, but you will be missing backstory on the main antagonist and some party members.
Inquisition would be a better entry point.
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...