This fall BioWare is aiming to kickstart the Dragon Age series. Beyond this, it has an even bigger task: reviving Mass Effect, something it has already tried once and failed once with Mass Effect: Andromeda. Once Dragon Age: The Veilguard releases this fall, we will have a pretty good idea if modern BioWare can live up to the heights and achievements of the BioWare of old.ย
In the build-up to Dragon Age: The Veilguard there’s plenty to be excited about though. Unfortunately, this has been curtailed at times by blunders, ย such as the awful reveal trailer. The marketing hasn’t been the only problem though. There are some game design decisions that left us scratching our heads. To this end, here are three things in Dragon Age: The Veilguard we do not want to see replicated by BioWare with the next Mass Effect game.ย
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Romance System
In Dragon Age: The Veilguard every companion is romanceable. Every character is also canonically pansexual to ensure this is true no matter what gender the player character chooses. We have an extensive piece about all the problems with this, but the overarching issue is that the model places limitations when creating and writing characters. Characters like Dorian from Dragon Age: Inquisition are erased, while writers are forced to make each and every companion check many boxes of potential preferences because they have to have a romance arc. Even Dragon Age creator David Gaider doesn’t think it is a good idea.ย
“Great characters exist independent of the player character, not in service to the player character,” reads a snippet from our aforementioned article. “When you make every companion romanceable, you are not just eroding away at believability, but you’re stripping every companion of a considerable amount of agency. Characters like Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Vivienne bring balance to a cast desperate to get into your pants. Giving some companions desires and motivations that don’t include falling in love with the hero trying to save the world goes a long way in offering variety and believability. You want the player character to feel a part — a major part — of a larger world and story, but you don’t want the same world and story to feel completely in service to the player character.”
New Art Direction
A big point of criticism of Dragon Age: The Veilguard detractors has been the new art direction that immediately sticks out as foreign. The Dragon Age art direction has evolved over time, but Veilguard’s subtle cartoon-esq tinge makes familiar faces and locations look a little off. Whether the end product is an improvement or an impediment is up for debate, but there’s no denying it is different. The new Mass Effect should feel familiar, and far more nostalgic. It should do everything possible to evoke the legendary games that made it possible not differentiate itself.ย
All New Companionsย
Speaking of familiar and nostalgic, let’s talk about companions. Not a single companion from any of the three previous Dragon Age games is a companion in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. To this end, Harding is the closet thing we have to a returning companion. Solas, Varric, Morrigan, and many others will obviously also have roles of various sizes in the game, but the characters we will be spending the most time with are brand new. Some players will prefer this, and for what it is worth, this isn’t new for Dragon Age.ย
The Mass Effect series has a shaky history with new companion casts. BioWare obviously got it right with Mass Effect 2, though the most beloved characters in the trilogy were the Mass Effect 1 companions who appropriately returned for Mass Effect 3. More recently with Mass Effect: Andromeda though, it did not get this right. Every companion in Mass Effect: Andromedaย was new at the time and in comparison, they feel lackluster. The cast very much has a ‘we have Mass Effect at home’ feel.ย
If BioWare is going to have me exploring the Milky Way Galaxy again, let me do it with at least some of the characters that are responsible for everyone falling in love with the series in the first place. It’s not a matter of wanting a new Mass Effect, it’s a matter of wanting more Mass Effect. These two things are different. Cameos or secondary narrative roles for characters like Liara T’Soni or Wrex is not going to cut it. Dragon Age is very much a series still in motion, in the middle of its epic saga. As a result, you can more easily get away with expanding its roster. The next Mass Effect is a homecoming though, and it should feel like one.ย
