Dragon Age: The Veilguard isn’t the Dragon Age game fans waited 10 years for. Some have been deeply invested in Dragon Age since 2009, when Dragon Age: Origins released. Everything you did in that game no longer matters though. Everything you did in its 2011 sequel, Dragon Age 2, also is no longer relevant. BioWare has confirmed that not a single decision made in either of these two games is being carried forward with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Characters from these games, such as Morrigan, will be present but it will be irrelevant whether or not she performed The Dark Ritual and had a son with the soul of an old god. This is one of the biggest decisions in the series’ history and it has just been brushed aside like an irrelevant detail.ย
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Surely, all of the major decisions from Dragon Age: Inquisition are accounted for in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, right? After all it is essentially a continuation of that game. Nope, only three decisions are carrying forward: who you romanced, whether you disbanded the Inquisition or not, and whether you attempted to save or stop Solas. That’s it. Fans have been speculating for a literal decade about the implications of various other decisions in the game, like the Well of Sorrows and who drank from it, just for it to be wiped from their world state. Dragon Age fans have made hundreds of decisions, have been waiting over 10 years for BioWare to make good on certain narrative threads, all for the developer to press the reset button. It’s not just not going to make good on any of that content, such as the fate of the Hero of Ferelden, it is going to pretend like none of this content even exists.ย
BioWare knew this decision was not going to be received well, which is why it kept it hidden for so long. Content creators, the press, and more have been gushing about the good parts of Dragon Age: The Veilguard for months. Some have been playing the game behind-the-scenes and offering their feedback for years before this. Yet, there has not been a single mention that BioWare was going to cleanse everyone’s world state; not because it didn’t matter, but because there was clearly instruction not to.
What Dragon Age fan waited 10 years just to have 99% of their world slate wipe cleaned? More than a decade of speculating about the fate of Hero of Ferelden, the fate of Hawke if left in the Fade, the implications of the Well of Sorrows, and so many other decisions and narrative threads all for it just to be snapped out of existence.ย
Of course, it is a calculated risk by BioWare. It knew this decision would be contentious, but it clearly deemed the benefits of dumping world states — and the restrictions and complications they come with — as worth any potential blowback from hardcore fans, who will likely buy the game anyway. This gamble may pay off, but there is a variable not being accounted for.ย
What makes BioWare relevant in 2024 is its past, and not its recent past. Its recent past — Anthem, Mass Effect: Andromeda, development hell — is why there are concerns about this game in the first place. BioWare is living on the spoils and nostalgia of its past. It should be tapping into this past, not washing it down the drain in favor of charting a new course.ย
Dragon Age fans have been waiting for the next game in the series for 10 years. And to reward this wait, to reward the patience and anticipation of fans that have kept BioWare relevant, Dragon Age fans had to stomach a change in art direction that nobody asked for and everyone knows is a downgrade. Dragon Age: The Veilguard already looked unfamiliar, and now it is going to feel unfamiliar as well. Dragon Age: The Veilguard may still end up being a good game, maybe even a great game, but this is not the game any fan ever envisioned.
