Key Takeaways
- A BioWare dev says player choices from earlier Dragon Age games will still impact the world of Thedas in future games.
- Dragon Age: The Veilguard has been met with mixed reviews, partly due to how it downplayed choices made in earlier games.
- Choices from Dragon Age: Origins in particular may have lasting effects on future games.
A leading member of the Dragon Age development team has indicated that player choices from earlier games in the series will continue to affect the state of the world of Thedas moving forward. While the most recent Dragon Age game included far fewer consequences for the actions of past games’ protagonists than its predecessor, the team leader at BioWare seems to be hinting that the branching paths of the series’ story will continue to play a role moving forward.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was released on October 31, ushering in a new chapter and a fourth major protagonist in the form of Rook, the leader of the titular task force bent on stopping Solas from tearing down the veil. Despite heavy review bombing of Dragon Age: The Veilguard due to the perceived inclusion of “woke” content, the action RPG still managed decent review scores and currently registers at 85, 82, and 76 on MetaCritic for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and PC, respectively. But aside from the review bombing, some players have been disenchanted with The Veilguard‘s drift away from the heavy choices-matter nature that the series had previously established across multiple games.
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The prior installment included a companion website called The Keep, which tracks nearly 120 decisions from Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, and their expansions, weaving those decisions into the story of Dragon Age: Inquisition and leaving effects ranging from which characters can show up to casual asides in conversations. That system was heavily reduced in the fourth mainline game, as it only carries over three big decisions from Dragon Age: Inquisition. Now, in an interview with IGN, Game Director Corrine Busche has indicated that while future Dragon Age games won’t necessarily be as in-depth with choices as Inquisition was, those choices will continue to affect the ongoing story.
Dragon Age Choices Will Still Impact Future Games
Specifically, Busche singled out the choices in Dragon Age: Origins as ones that she believes will continue to affect future games. “One thing that we could have stated more clearly or maybe alluded to more clearly in the game is the idea that just because these choices from the past library of games didn’t necessarily impact this particular story, that doesn’t mean they’re gone,” she noted during the interview. Inquisition and The Veilguard are linked closely, probably more so than any other two Dragon Age games, as Inquisition‘s Tresspasser DLC revealed that Solas, one of the Inquisitor’s closest companions, was actually the catalyst behind the events of that game, and The Veilguard opens on the culmination of his insidious plans. Busche seems to indicate that encapsulation drives the events of the other two Dragon Age games into the background, but only for The Veilguard‘s story.
Although nearly 10 years separated the releases of Inquisition and The Veilguard, the Dragon Age Keep is still operational and can still be used to customize a world state in Inquisition. There’s no indication whether BioWare will ever use it again, though it does still track both major and minor decisions made during the first three games in the series.
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