Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has Over 700 Characters and Tons of Dialogue

The new Dragon Age sounds like it will have a massive, fleshed out world.

When Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases later this year, it sounds like players can expect a massive world filled with characters to interact with. That's to be expected for the series, but it seems like developer BioWare might have outdone themselves with the newest entry. In an interview with GamesRadar+, creative performance director Ashley Barlow offered some insight into all the effort that went into casting and recording for The Veilguard. Barlow states that "we started casting five years ago. The team, the talent has been on for five years." While that might seem like a long time, it makes sense when you consider the scope of the project. 

"It takes a long time to record 700 characters, you know – 80,000 lines or 140,000 lines with all the Rooks. It just takes time to make good," Barlow told GamesRadar+. 

The sheer enormity of that task is hard to imagine, and it will be interesting to see the end result. The worlds in the Dragon Age games have gotten a lot of praise from the very beginning, and a big part of that is due to the dialogue and character interactions. BioWare has previously teased that this entry will feature the "most compelling companions yet," and it stands to reason the game will need a lot of dialogue to flesh those characters out. With the sheer amount of dialogue in The Veilguard, hopefully this will result in a world that players want to spend hundreds of hours in! Unfortunately, Barlow did not offer information about how the number of characters and amount of dialogue compares to previous games in the series. 

At this time, we don't know exactly when Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be released, but the game is slated to arrive sometime this fall. Last week, EA and BioWare confirmed that a more specific release date announcement will be made "later this summer." August is nearly upon us, so that means we should have an announcement sometime very soon. It's been a decade since Dragon Age: Inquisition, and the long wait for a new game in the series is nearly at an end! 

Are you excited for Dragon Age: The Veilguard? How do you feel about the number of characters and the amount of dialogue? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp, on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!