On the way there Dragon Age: The Veil Guardian comes as a bit of a shock to long-time fans who have followed the fantasy franchise since its inception. The game doesn’t use Dragon Age Keep, an app that allows players to keep track of their previous decisions in other Dragon Age games – decisions that could pay off in unexpected ways in a new title. This browser app allowed players to induce a save by going through both major and minor decisions that could then influence events in an upcoming game. But Veil Guardian has abandoned the fortress entirely and narrowed the state of the world down to three main questions. This ended up working out better narratively than I expected, and it’s less of a loss than I feared.
The Fortress followed the decisions of the Hero of Ferelden (the protagonist from Dragon Age: Origins) and Hawke (from Dragon Age 2), which could lead to very different scenarios Dragon Age: Inquisition. For example in mine inquisition In the game, Alistair is the King of Ferelden. In Saving Another, he could be a Gray Warden that players encounter on the field – and possibly even sacrifice! I rescued Connor, a possessed child magician in Redcliffe, and he showed up there inquisitionRedcliffe assures me that I made the right choice. On the other hand, I supported King Bhelen in taking the throne of Orzammar Dragon Age: Originsand in Dragon Age 2 I discovered that Bhelen systematically hunted down and murdered the entire family of his rival Harrowmont. Yikes!
It was extremely rewarding, but also compelling, that these decisions carried over and paid off The Veil Guardian It would have been very difficult to respond to the players’ previous cannons. Instead, all three options come from inquisitionis the last DLC, Intruder. They are:
1) Which companion did the Inquisitor have a romance with?
2) Did the Inquisition dissolve or was it incorporated into the Church?
3) Did the Inquisitor condemn Solas or decide that he could be saved?
intruder explains the severity of the second choice very well; The Inquisition is full of spies and prone to corruption, but has access to military power and resources. The dissolution of the Inquisition results in a much smaller group, but one less vulnerable to external machinations. The other two options are much more personal and take place when Rook interacts with the Inquisitor The Veil Guardian. This small selection is actually ideal.
One of the reasons I’m okay with a relatively blank slate is this The Veil Guardian set in the global north; We don’t even go to the familiar lands of Ferelden or Orlais. Ultimately, the decisions players made in previous games about who holds the Sunburst Throne or whether they support Mages or Templars are irrelevant to this new story. That’s fine with me – after three games of arguing about the morality of mage circles and the authority of the Templars, I’m happy to move on to new problems.
It also frees BioWare designers from the complex quantum canon that the Fortress allowed. Is the hero of Ferelden an elf, a human or a dwarf? Are they alive, dead or a monarch? Who serves as Divine: Cassandra, Leliana or Vivienne?
There are choices that I admit I want The Veil Guardian could particularly explain the fate of the Well of Pain, albeit with a gap of 10 years in between inquisition And The Veil GuardianI can understand why BioWare decided to start over. Luckily, there’s still a lot new to discover and I didn’t find myself missing the fortress all that much. Hopefully, as we get more Dragon Age games in the future, we can see BioWare find new ways to incorporate previous choices.
