When you play a lot of companion heavy-RPGs, you learn to spot the patterns amongst the cast. Despite the most annoying people on the internet (it’s a close race) complaining about cliches and tropes, these are mostly a good thing. Fantasy stories have always been full of recognisable and relatable patterns, and they help us connect more deeply with stories and the traditions behind them. But there’s one trope I’ve never been interested in, until Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
My least favourite companions across the three previous Dragon Age games are Alister, Carver, and Blackwell. In Mass Effect, it’s Kaidan, Jacob, Kaidan again, and Liam. In Baldur’s Gate 3, it’s Wyll. In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, it’s Ferdinand. These all fill similar roles in the party – they are the Good Men. They do The Right Thing.
RPGs Need Boring Characters To Make The Rest Shine
Typically, these characters are a little boring by design. You can point to various elements of their individual narratives as evidence to the contrary, and I know they are a lot of players’ favourites. But I’ve always found them dull. Less so their actual backstories or personal quests, and more just their personality. They’re the straight man in a gang of wise cracking wits, and so get a little lost in the shuffle. Enter The Veilguard’s Good Man: Davrin.
Davrin is the Grey Warden of the bunch, and if you were paying attention to my ‘least favourite characters’ list, you’d see that’s a bad omen. And things start off as I expected with Davrin. While he’s presented as a mildly rebellious figure who objects to the pigheaded ruling of the current First Warden, he’s generally a stoic, honourable soldier.
That makes Davrin an important figure within The Veilguard, both in terms of the sense of order and legitimacy he brings to the outfit that thieves, assassins, and dragon hunters can’t offer, and in terms of his link to the Grey Warden storyline. But then Alistair is very important to the plot of Origins, maybe the most crucial member of this cast. I still didn’t really like talking to him.
Davrin Gets More Complex As The Veilguard Goes On
That’s how it goes at first. He talks about doing his duty, about how his pet griffon needs discipline and firm training, about being a light into the darkness. He’s nice but overly serious, and it’s hard to get emotionally invested in him. It’s the aforementioned griffon that does a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of getting to know Davrin, and wanting to go on his personal quests.
And yet, as the game continues, Davrin shows more layers. This is not unusual for these sorts of characters – Wyll is the tragic hero of a deal with a devil. Kaidan is the subject of biological experimentation. Blackwall is… not really Blackwall. There’s just something about Davrin that made me care about the person beneath the honour.
Does the fact Davrin’s blue and burgundy cape is reminiscent of Newcastle United’s famous Ginola Kit have anything to do with it? Perhaps.
Maybe it’s because we do really see the person. His story is less interesting than any of the characters mentioned. He doesn’t really have a backstory at all, in that sense. Instead, we get to connect with him on a human level. Or elven, at least.
Assan Is Key To Understanding Davrin
We see his relationship with Assan the griffon develop from beast of war and reluctant master to pet and best friend. We meet his uncle who raised him in the forest, and learn how his life lessons of honour were instilled into him. We also see him talk to the rest of the companions, another subtle improvement The Veilguard makes on other games in the genre.
While there are specific cutscenes back at the Lighthouse involving conversations, and of course the usual on-location banter between whoever you take into the field, things are more natural too. If you wander around the Lighthouse, you’ll also see them off in pairs having small conversations. These are less dramatic than the cutscenes – you can ignore them entirely and very little of substance is lost in the game. But by engaging with them, you get a more rounded view of your companions.
In my playthrough, Davrin was the first to speak to Taash after they came out as non-binary. And he kinda gets it wrong. But he means to get it right, and he gets it wrong in the way you’d expect a straight laced Good Man to. It’s in these conversations that you see a deeper character, even if most of the exchanges are shallow.
Even his personal mission feels plugged into this view of Davrin as nothing special. Most of these intentionally normal characters have something hidden beneath the surface to MacGyver them into something interesting. Davrin wants to get the kidnapped griffons back, which has nothing to do with his past and is just a regular part of his role as a Grey Warden. It’s a good arc with an interesting villain, but it doesn’t have much to say about Davrin.
He’s just a Good Man doing The Right Thing. That’s a core part of the fantasy genre as a whole, and basically a requirement to feature in these squad-based RPGs. He’s also the first character in that mold to land with me – mostly because he doesn’t try to break it.
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OpenCritic
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Top Critic Rating:
82/100
- Released
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October 31, 2024