I want to be clear: I really think Dragon Age: Veiled Keeper is pretty good. Indeed, it’s a game that’s torn between different ambitions. It hopes to attract new fans while satisfying fans of the series who have been waiting a decade for the resolution of the Inquisition cliffhanger. It wants to be accessible, but also wants to be a pure RPG. It wants to depict a world on a razor’s edge, where the lightest breeze is enough to push it into a deep hole – but it also wants you to have fun.
That last bit is the thing that’s struck me most since finishing Veiled Defenders as part of the review process – it’s a very good game. To be honest, I did feel a little tired.
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I know what some people are going to say, so let me interrupt you here: real world Things are messed up, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to escape the catastrophe outside your real-life window in the form of a cute video game. But let me push back: if I real If I wanted to, I would boot up Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing. Or I’ll tap into the nostalgia of my childhood with something like Sonic 2 or Banjo-Kazooie.
But going into a BioWare game, I kind of wanted some friction. I wanted some shades of gray. I want to make tough decisions. I want a group of companions that I love but don’t like must
It’s probably unfair, but I can’t help but compare it to BioWare’s greatest game, Mass Effect 2. It’s clear that it served as a huge inspiration for Veiled Defenders; you can see it in the structure of the game, the narrative of building the team, and the subsequent gameplay behavior, which feels like the second and third Mass. A mashup of the endings of the “Effect” entries.
At this point, though, I want to focus on the characters. The party you build is the core of both games – when I spoke to people from the Dragon Age team at previews, they described the process of turning their characters into the “load-bearing pillars” of the entire experience. This is something BioWare has never done strictly before, as it was an adjustment of the process – characters have always been a key part of the structure of these games, but this feels like a first for the characters themselves It is the basis of the story. However……
Man, I wish this team knew more about how they interact and interact with each other besides Rook. I know this is a group that needs to work together for the greater good – but there’s nothing divisive about this group of people. There is no such thorny issue as the hostile relationship between Jack and Miranda that the player is forced to mediate. The Veil Guard party banter and bickering over picnics and living spaces – it’s all very charming, something that also happens in Mass Effect – but nothing more.
You recruit a mage, and then a mage-killer, and neither of them really blinks an eye. Anyway, it doesn’t matter because he’s not really a mage killer That Way. He’s good, he’s heroic, he’s selfless.
Once again, I’m back to Mass Effect 2. I’m thinking of Garrus, who is not a great hero when you meet him, but a vigilante with a death wish, ever since the last game. I thought about Zaid, what a disgraceful bastard he is – but you need he. Or what about you? Of course, you could decide he’s a liability and leave him for dead. I want that kind of thing back – but I’m not even sure those stories can exist in the narrative sandbox that Guardians of the Veil places.
Of course, I don’t want to compare it just to Mass Effect, as past Dragon Age games are also rich in this kind of texture. I was reminded of Alistair and Morrigan in Origins; prickly bedfellows who finally came together in a satisfying way. In Veil Defenders, everyone behaves well from the start.
To some extent, so does the world at large. It’s a world where there are beggars on every street corner, but there’s no real talk of poverty or inequality in the world; none of BioWare’s introspective worldbuilding would consider places like Omega or Kirkwall. all is well! Thedas is a good place, even if the raging gods on high threaten to end all existence.
I think the purpose of this is to not offend the sensibilities of anyone who plays the game. But story-driven games and RPGs should challenge players. Not just the exciting character progression options and fist-fighting (Veil Keeper), but the narrative, world, and characters. This overwhelming beauty permeates every aspect of these elements. At the end of the day, kindness is a poison, which is the very definition of kindness killing. Frankly, when everyone is nice, everyone is a bit boring – In fantasy, this doesn’t work.
Worst of all, it works against those good characters, those load-bearing pillars meant to bear the weight of the rest of the experience. I like them all, in fact I think one or two of them are the most charming things BioWare has to offer – but I feel strongly that these details often hold me back really Get to know them.
As the saying goes, “sweet but not sour”. Frustratingly, Dragon Age: Veiled Keeper is as sickeningly sweet as ever.
