the companion characters from dragon age: the veilguard

It’s been 10 years since Bioware last released a Dragon Age game. Once the standard for other Western RPG’s to compare themselves to. dont let the revisionist’s tell you different - people liked Inquisition. it has now been a full decade since they have dipped their toes into the RPG world (we DON’T talk about anthem.)

Since then, we have had the likes of Larian Studios and ZA/UM, among others, redefine what it means to create a modern western RPG to define the genre with titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Disco elysium respectively. Now Bioware have returned from the fade to re-enter the world of single player stories with Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Was it worth the wait? Or did they take too long to get to the good stuff?

Firstly, this game is beautiful. From the stunning towns, the explosive combat, all the way down to the freckles on harding’s face. This game set out with a particular art style in mind and almost certainly sticks the landing. While the art style of inquisition leans a little more stylised for the most part, compared to preveious entries - I liked the choices made here.

Each of the various towns you visit have their own distinct feel. From Treviso’s vertical high rise parlours connected with ziplines above the squalor below, to the winding back streets of minrathous. Each area feels wholy unique, making searching for those hidden chested a joy.

This also translates well to the characters too. With each of the new companions feeling unique, not just in abilities but also in design. From harding’s previously mentioned freckled dwarf to lucanis’ coffee drinking, goth assassin. Each of the characters have their own unique look and feel that helps them stand out in the crowd.

then there’s the character creator. I love the chance to play around with a good character creator, and on that front Bioware nailed it. There are plenty of options for deciding your look, gender, hair colour (or lack thereof) all the way dowN to whether you want to be A chubby lil man or a hulking great qunari.

As you can see above, the player character has the same level of detail available to them as the NPC’s in the game, right down to the bags under my eyes (I’m so tired.) Also, the hair physics in this game are phenomenal! You best believe that beard waved in the breeze.

This level of details stretches out to the combat in the game too. I was initially worried by the combat in this game. You only directly control the 1 main character - known as ‘Rook’ throughout. While the rest of the people in your party will fight of their own accord, only triggering specific attacks when selected via a combat wheel. If you have played any classic bioware game before, you will be familiar with this concept. but after 10 years of modern RPG’s expanding on the various methods of party based combat I was worried this would feel a bit slow and dated in 2024.

a solidier being beaten with an explosive attack

luckily my fears were quickly brushed away. The moment to moment combat is a fast paced affair. With the combination of quick and heavy attacks mixed in with various unique skills leaving you with a lot of variety in taking on enemies. Each of your companions can trigger 3 unique abilities to them that when used together in specific combinations would trigger a large magic detonation. Being able to trigger combination attacks with your companions for large explosive attacks always felt powerful.

There is also plenty of scope for build-crafting in Veilguard. With various different attack effects allowing you to create health sapping killing machines. My particular playthrough saw me running a necrosis based dual wielding rogue to great effect.

Enemy wise, this becomes a slighlty different affair. There are maybe 4-5 different factions in the game all with the same archetypes within - standard, heavy, ranged, stealth and the odd dragon thrown in for funsies.

Each of these enemies could also feature 2 different shield types. 1 weak to ranged and the other to heavy. while the game expects you to use the different attacks to weaken these foes, I found half the time I could just keep slashing away until all that was left was a body and a pouch of gold.

While everything so far sounds like a pretty glowing review I havent touched on one particular section of this game - the story.

the story isn’t bad per se, but it takes a hell of a long time to get great! As someone who never managed to get to the end of Inquisition for one reason or another, this game does not do a good job of explaining why you are even here in the first place (dread wolf bad, veil in danger, yada yada yada) It’s not until a good ways in the game starts giving you some much needed exposition.

once i was upto speed it was time to start building out my crew of companions to make up the titular veilguard. to say I struggled to connect with anyone at the beginning would be an understatement. Everyone seemed so light on character I didn’t feel any connection to any of the characters at all. Everyone was just so happy to be there regardless of the dangers and motivations. at about 10 hours in I was almost just going through the motions completing missions for these people without a care of their reaction or result.

thankfully this did start to improve. there is a certain point in the story, which I wont spoil here, that has a major impact on the world. at this point these thin pretenses for joining suddenly had a life changing motivation behind them. At this point, the writing i was looking for from a bioware game started to tentatively make itself known. As I continued on my journey, there were a few more moments like this - some world altering and others more personal to my companions. Each of these moments started to get me more invested in each characters story where, by the end, I finally felt like my decisions matter (And they did) and that choices weren’t just being made for the sake of continuing the story but because I actually cared about what happened to these people.

Dragon age: the veilguard is a fantastic game. From a gorgeous world and combat to stories that (Finally) held me captive by their choices. bioware have created a marvelous game here with all the hallmarks oF one of their greatest. I just wish it didn’t take so long to get to the good stuff.

p.s. Manfred is the best!

Dragon Age: The Veilguard review

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