As the long-awaited fourth game in theDragon Ageseries,Dragon Age: The Veilguardhas some fans split on whether it’s a worthy sequel - especially after a 10-year wait since the initial release ofDragon Age: Inquisitionin 2014. For all ofVeilguard’s perceived merits and flaws, however, there’s one area in particular where it can’t quite live up to the promise of a BioWare RPG, as it inherits one of the series' long-running flaws that hampers its ability to tell a continuous story between games.
Since even before the start of BioWare’s two biggest franchises,Mass EffectandDragon Age, the studio’s RPGs have lived by the promise that player choice would heavily impact the games' narratives, deciding the course of major events, relationships between characters, and even which characters live or die. As the games have gone on to receive multiple sequels, however, they no longer just have to account for the decisions made in their own stories, but also for decisions in past games, in an attempt to create a long-running, series-wide story that the player can influence across multiple different titles.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has A Continuity Problem
DAV Feels Disconnected From The Previous Three Games In The Series
Unfortunately, while the decisions inDragon Age: The Veilguardcan influence the game’s story in important ways, the same can’t be said for decisions from past games.In total,Veilguardonly implements three major decisions fromInquisition, all of which can be set during character creation, and none from eitherDragon Age: OriginsorDragon Age 2. The result is that many ofVeilguard’s references to pastDragon Agegames are frustratingly vague, particularly when it comes to legacy characters, likeVeilguard’s versions of Morriganand Dorian, whose histories are unspecified.
Veilguardallows players to set three choices fromInquisitionduring character creation, along withcustomizing the Inquisitor- which character the Inquisitor romanced, the final fate of the Inquisition as a whole, and the Inquisitor’s intentions towards Solas, leaving out important decisions like who drinks from the Well of Sorrows or which character becomes the Divine of the Orlesian Chantry.
So, while players might have certain versions ofDragon Age’s past companions in mind,when they appear inVeilguard, they can’t be committed to any particular version of themselves. Even major choices, like whether Morrigan has a child, have to remain unspecified in-game, leading to versions of characters that feel disconnected from their original stories. In the grand scheme ofVeilguard, this can be seen as a minor issue, especially by newer players who might not have played the previous games, but many longtime fans will feel the disconnect from the versions of these characters that they’re familiar with.
Importantly,Veilguard’s lackluster handling of choices from previous games likely stems from the increasing difficulty of implementing those choices. With each passingDragon Agegame, the variability of past events increases - whereasDragon Age 2only had to account forOriginsto maintain continuity, ifVeilguardwanted to achieve the same effect, it would’ve been left with the tall task of trying to cover events fromOrigins,2, andInquisition, potentially bloating the game and expanding its scope past what BioWare could reasonably develop. Unfortunately, the end result is thatVeilguardfeels particularly disconnected from the other games.
Dragon Age Has Never Represented Past Games Well
However, whileVeilguarddoes perhaps the worst job of keeping continuity with other games,the problem isn’t entirely exclusive to justVeilguardalone. WhileDragon Age 2andInquisitionboth had more comprehensive systems for implementing player choices from past games, the consequences of those choices were largely cosmetic, and didn’t factor much into the overarching narrative of each game. In most cases, these choices served simply as small nods to longtimeDragon Agefans, with minimal impact on the rest of the story.
Dragon Age 2allowed players to import their saves fromDragon Age: Originsto implement their decisions from that game, andDragon Age: Inquisitionused theDragon Age Keepwebsite to allow players to select outcomes for bothOriginsand2.
Moreover, whileDragon Age 2andInquisitiondo a better job of implementing past choices thanVeilguard, the difficulty of keeping each separate storyline in check for every returning character causes some inconsistencies. Hawke’s appearance as an NPC inInquisition, for example, is especially notable, as their dialogue, appearance, and general place in the setting can be jarring for players who previously had full control over almost every aspect of Hawke in the previous game, andInquisition’s Hawke is seen by many players as acting out of character.
Dragon Age Can’t Replicate Mass Effect’s Storytelling
Dragon Age’s Structure Isn’t Conducive To Keeping A Strict Continuity Between Games
Of course, while BioWare has another RPG franchise that generally does a better job of keeping player choices consistent across games inMass Effect,the series has some key differences fromDragon Agethat make for easier implementation. Most notably, whereas eachDragon Agegame tells a mostly standalone story in the setting of Thedas, each starring a different protagonist, theoriginalMass Effecttrilogywas a fully continuous story, detailing the journey of a single protagonist, Commander Shepherd, in their fight against one main enemy faction, the Reapers.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard Endings Explained (In Detail)
Dragon Age: The Veilguard has multiple possible outcomes based on the choices players make along the way, with some life and death consequences.
The result is thatMass Effect 2andMass Effect 3can build on the stories of the games before them in much more natural and meaningful ways, allowing choices from previous games to matter more than they can inDragon Age, where putting too much emphasis on decisions from past games might take away from the current game’s story rather than adding to it.Dragon Age’s story structure means thatthe games have trouble connecting to the stories of past entries, which inVeilguard’s case isn’t helped by the 10-year gap between it andInquisition.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s handling of events from previous games has given it a somewhat mixed reception among longtime fans of the series, as the game fails to address the previous games in a satisfying way. While this flaw is more apparent inVeilguardthough, the issue was already present even inDragon Age 2andInquisition, and if there is another sequel afterDragon Age: The Veilguard, the difficulty of acknowledging past events will only get worse.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is the fourth entry in the Dragon Age franchise and a sequel to 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. A classic character, Solas, will return as the new game’s antagonist. The game will retain many of the series' staples, such as multiple dialogue options, party choices, romantic options, and more. Dreadwolf will act as the first direct sequel in the Dragon Age franchise.
