Dragon Age: The Veilguardtakes you to a lot of different places. It’s broader, in both variety and distance covered across Thedas, than even Inquisition, especially when you factor in the one-off locations we head to for specific companion quests. Whether its bustling cities, enchanted forests, gothic palaces, or grimdark fantasy battlefields, The Veilguard has it all.
It even has tropical beaches on the Rivain Coast, and this feels like the setting with the most potential. While Rivain Coast isnot my personal favourite setting (that would be the Necropolis Halls), it is the one I am most eager to go back to. We’ve not seen a lot of settings like this inDragon Agebefore, and it helps flesh out the world of Thedas even more than Tevinter’s Minrathous, a setting frequently mentioned in previous background lore. And it could point towards the series' future.
Games Take Too Long To Make These Days
Something has got to give in video games. The current pathwe are heading down isn’t sustainable. Games are too expensive to make and to buy, and they take too long to make and to play. Dragon Age has always been a series with a long runtime, and if anything The Veilguard is a little more streamlined with its quest-based focus over exploration. But it’s ten years in the making. It feels like every game we play these days is. And they can’t be.
The access to greater technology has not led to us making the same sorts of games we used to make faster, but instead making games that are ostensibly ‘better’ and take even longer. As a major Dragon Age fan who likes The Veilguard enough, I would politely suggest it fell short of the goal of being the best Dragon Age game ever. There were other issues atBioWare, with the upheaval caused byAnthemand underwhelming reception toAndromeda, but most games have a similar development time, and they all need to be the best ever or else they’re a failure.
This is not to say games shouldn’t be aiming for greatness. But it’s odd that so few studios have gone for what seems like relatively easy wins of smaller scope, shorter development time, cheaper price point, more profit more often. We may see more ‘half-step’ games in the future, in the style ofSpider-Man: Miles Morales. Not quite a sequel, not quite a spin-off. A smaller course in between the main meals. Dragon Age’s half-step future should be on the Rivain Coast.
Rivain Coast Is Dragon Age’s Most Varied Setting
The Rivain Coast is the least ‘Dragon Age’ of every region, aesthetically speaking. Previous coasts we’ve visited have been windswept locations of stormy chills, not lush tropics. But it’s not just a beach and some waves. It has the most secrets of any of them. While the cityscapes have more individual locations, they’re all just basic buildings. Some may hide quests, but the layout pales in comparison to Rivain Coast.
As well as the beach itself, there are the ruins to the castle to explore, and to discoverthe mysteries of its vault. There is another secret location tucked away inside a quest that later becomes available to free roam in the form ofa shark-shaped lava mountain lair. Pirate skeletonsguard buried treasure. The Lords of Fortunehost their tournaments here. It is the most rich with narrative potential that the focused nature of The Veilguard can’t fully account for.
There’s also the fact you want a half-step game to do something a little different. With Spider-Man: Miles Morales, that thing was playing as Miles and learning his powers. Another popular example in gaming would beBorderlands: The Pre-Sequel, where we abandon the Vault Hunter arc to explore the rise of Handsome Jack. Dragon Age’s next game, if it is to be a smaller title, shouldn’t be another world ending threat we simply deal with in half the time.
I’m not sure how likely this is to come to pass. Gaming has been reluctant at large to pivot towards more manageable scope in favour of realising a series' full potential, but it makes every game into a gamble. I love the massive adventures Dragon Age offers, but The Veilguard already deliberately strips this down into a leaner experience anyway. The next step may be a half-step, and hopefully that half-step lets us feel the sand between our toes.
