Summary
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard prioritizes player choice in romantic relationships while maintaining its character-driven focus.
- Veilguard offers a diverse array of companion relationships, emphasizing organic and gradual romances.
- BioWare's focus on relationship depth in Veilguard may find a balance between player freedom and character individuality.
There’s plenty to love about Dragon Age that has nothing to do with what happens in the tent. However, BioWare’s beloved franchise is also a notorious heartbreaker that fans can’t get enough of. These games are deservedly well-known for their interesting and complicated characters and the bonds players forge with them. Gamers who are hoping Dragon Age: The Veilguard will lean into the franchise’s strengths have had promising glimpses into what the latest adventure in Thedas has to offer. If it lives up to the expectations of the optimists in the fan base, this game will make the heartstrings of fans sing.
Players already picking out their new dark fantasy love interest know that The Veilguard has put a lot of effort into the design with them in mind. Like Dragon Age: Inquisition before it, BioWare is once again attempting something new with the interpersonal relationships of Thedas, without stealing the spotlight from the main plot. Dragon Age is not a dating sim, after all. If the new romance system works as promised, Veilguard could combine the best the previous Dragon Age installments had to offer. Everyone on the team can be romanced, but they’re not pansexual for the convenience of players: they were born this way.
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9 The Interactive Factor
Player Choice Has Always Been A Tenet Of RPGs
The previous Dragon Age titles can make the case for keeping some options dependent on early player choices, and each game works with a different narrative composition. Inquisition would have lost a lot of great content with this model. However, as the franchise has already proven, this design choice doesn’t have to be uniform across games.
Veilguard wouldn’t even be BioWare’s first attempt at catering to players’ interactivity. Dragon Age 2, somewhat infamously, attempted something similar. However, there is something to be said for giving fans a fully customizable experience, even when it comes to romance, so long as it doesn’t detract from the story.
8 No Barriers To Love
The Character Creator Is Only The Start
One of the major downsides to the gated romance model is the regret players sometimes feel about their character designs when they don’t live up to expectations. This is especially true where involved interpersonal relationships are concerned.
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The concept and dialogue choices of the previous Dragon Age heroes haven’t always made it easy to plan around companion romances. Many in the fandom feel that Dragon Age 2 conversely made it too easy, by making all the romanceable companions ready and willing. Considering Veilguard’s scope and character focus, the new game may offer a lot more in this way, with organic opportunities to get to know the companions.
7 Romance Is A Reason
Gradual Romances Were Highlighted In Development
Dragon Age has excelled in this arena before, and is expected to again by many fans moved by its previous romances. Luckily for them, BioWare’s recent press releases indicate they designed The Veilguard with an unprecedented focus on how relationships develop with companions.
Dragon Age’s history with romanceable companions is full of excellence, and there has been plenty of demand for access to fan favorites who either weren’t scripted as romances or were gated. Veilguard won’t have that particular issue if there is as much ample content involving the new companions as promised.
6 A Story About Thedasians
The Most Character-Focused Dragon Age Yet
The character-driven focus of The Veilguard works especially well with a pansexualm cast because there is a lot of material to discover for players who want to try it all with new Rook designs. The rich story it promises suggests an array of relationship combinations and dynamics for fans to explore through multiple playthroughs.
The latest Veilguard highlights mention that the companions will have independent lives, including past relationships and preferences. They may not represent other orientations specifically, but companion relationships can normalize a lot of relationship types even so.
5 The Diversity Within Bisexuality
History & Preferences Are Also A Spectrum
Representation matters, and BioWare has already approached this question from multiple angles. Diversely scripted LGBTQIA+ identities are an essential component that makes Dragon Age stand out, even though not all their examples of representation have historically satisfied their intended audiences.
From the angle of RPG design, a case can also be made for allowing players to experience all their fantasies. It doesn’t have to involve sweeping representation as a whole under the rug. This balance seems to be BioWare’s aim for Veilguard, and unlike Dragon Age 2, the pansexuality and specific preferences of the companions are part of their character design.
4 To Ship Or Not To Ship?
Intimacy Feels Like Family
In the past, a lot of relationships had to be shipped by computer RPG fans, but more and more games, Dragon Age among them, have featured a broader array of complexity. Most memorably, Inquisition’s amorous subplot involving Dorian and Iron Bull captured hearts and minds, not to mention other celebrated couples like Krem and Maryden.
Without knowing the full romantic history of each new companion, and with each of them being canonically pansexual, there’s little that fans have to go on when it comes to romances beyond Rook’s. For players who enjoy watching relationships blossom alongside their own, Veilguard is brimming with potential for wholesome moments.
3 Playersexual Versus Player-Oriented
There’s No Conflict If The Companions Have Lives
BioWare chose a new approach to interactivity with Veilguard, offering more nuance to relationships than ever before. Fans who didn’t appreciate the bisexuality of Dragon Age 2’s cast might feel apprehensive about the all-pansexual cast anyway, but so far, Veilguard seems to prioritize relationship depth over availability.
Naturally, something is lost in choosing the pansexual model over individualizing orientations. As former lead writer and co-creator David Gaider pointed out, these approaches fundamentally conflict. That doesn’t mean the pendulum has to swing the other way by making companions too available after a few heart options, though. Veilguard has plenty of room to find the middle ground.
2 Let Fate Decide!
The Organic Meet-Cute Is Practically Scripted
One of the major benefits of having equal access to all companions is that players don’t have to speculate too far about which companion they want to court, befriend, or shun unless they want to. This will be music to the ears of players who find it impossible to choose because they’re eager to try all the relationship dynamics Veilguard has to offer.
This model might work best of all for players who want to go into Veilguard blind and fall in love with companions through the story. Given how strong BioWare has historically been in scripting friendships, romances, and rivalries, this design suggests players will have plenty of opportunities to shape their relationships mid-game.
1 The Freedom To Change Your Mind
Players Won’t Be Restricted By Their PC’s Design
All romance-oriented gamers can relate to the dilemma of realizing mid-game that another companion piqued their interest over their initial companions of choice. In previous titles, Dragon Age has featured choices that lock out players from romancing — or, on occasion, befriending — companions who don’t align with the race, class, or gender of the player’s character.
If Veilguard is everything fans hope it to be, an abundance of player choices will influence how companions feel about Rook and each other. The ability to substantially shape the given hero’s journey has always been part of the best Dragon Age has to offer, and this time, it’s placed directly in the forefront. So far, it looks like BioWare is in its element.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 80 /100 Critics Rec: 71%
- Released
- October 31, 2024
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ // Blood, Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- BioWare
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
WHERE TO PLAY
- Franchise
- Dragon Age
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X
- Genre(s)
- RPG
