Thoughts from a long time fan after finishing Dragon Age The Veilguard
Hey everyone! I’ve just finished my first playthrough of Veilguard and I thought I’d share my feelings on it!
Some context before I give my thoughts. I’ve been a fan of the Dragon Age series as a whole since 2010 when I first picked up Dragon Age: Origins. I had played few RPGs up until that point, a handful of Final Fantasy games and some other JRPGs on the various Nintendo systems I had owned growing up. So imagine high school me picking up a game that was genuinely tough and confusing! I felt lost a number of times but I was so invested in the story and by the end when I finally beat the archdemon for the first time with an incredibly sub optimal build, I was ready to hop right back in.
Since then I’ve played all the games numerous times throughout the ensuing years. For over a decade I have always found myself drawn back to this series in one way or another. I’ve spent countless hours in the world of Thedas and have had many frustrations and many triumphs. I was there for all the discourse that you could imagine and I’ve probably experienced every bug, frustrating mechanic, and unexpected story beat you can imagine. Despite it all I truly love the setting and the stories I’ve been able to experience. I just…love Dragon Age.
So when Veilguard came around I cared very little about the noise around it. Nothing would dissuade me or excite me more than my own desires to hop back into the world of Thedas. It’s been a long wait since Inquisition and even just hearing the name Dragon Age again meant that it was always destined that I would be playing the game. Know that I am coming from a place of bias, but hopefully in good faith. I also hope that my knowledge of the series will help contextualize some of the things I’ve experienced in Veulguard. I don’t claim to be a lore expert or anything but damn if I don’t know my history.
There are two things I want to get out of the way right now regarding some common discourse I’ve seen around the game. The first is complaints about wokeness. I don’t believe people are acting in good faith with these arguments. Dragon Age Origins is arguably more woke than this game. You’ve got characters who are blatantly bisexual, you run into people with different gender expressions, there is class warfare and disparity displayed as early as Orzammar origins, and racial tension as early as the City Elf origin. I just can’t take this as a serious critique of the game.
The second common critique I see is that the series is sanitized or cleaner than earlier installments. I think maybe visually and in some dialogue this could be true but the world of Thedas is as dark as ever. Anyone who has played through Neve’s personal questline could tell you that there are innocents being held in cages, their shackles wound from the very blood in their veins. The blight is just as grotesque as ever. People are reduced to mindless husks just the same as they were in Origins. The effects of the blight on the land where it appears is somehow rendered even more uncomfortably in this modern style. As for the darkspawn’s more cartoonish appearance? Well, I think I’ll cover that more closely in their section.
With that out of the way, let’s get into my thoughts about Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
I think there are two major themes at play in Veilguard. The first is History, specifically how strongly should we hold onto our past? There is a tension amongst groups like the Veil Jumpers and the Grey Wardens that rings loudly when interacting with these factions as well as our companions that claim them. Nothing screams this more loudly however than our dealings with the Evanuris. Their mere presence is enough to cause a crisis of faith within the Dalish who worship them, as well as twist and bend everything that we know about the world both in and out of universe. Elgar’nan is twisted by his vision of the world that he created. He is not the benevolent shepherd that the Dalish may have once believed him. He escapes from the prison that he was held in and upon looking at the world he forged, he is filled with disgust. He wants to return the status quo as he knows it, and cares little about the strides that his children have made in his absence.
The main conflict around Solas also boils down to his vision of what the world was. He is too busy remembering the glory days to appreciate the way the world is now. He clings to a past that would devastate the current world were it to be brought back. The fact that he is so rigid, so desperate to return things to the way that they are, is the reason he’s our main antagonistic force in the narrative!
But it continues in other ways as well! Harding grapples with the revelations of the Titans and what that means for the Dwarven people. Bellara’s main conflict is whether to uphold the past or completely erase it in favor of new traditions. Neve is challenging the status quo alongside the Shadow Dragons in Minrathous. Davrin grapples with a villain that has literally come from the past to threaten his order’s future. Emmerich is plagued by an old colleague. Taash is constrained by a history they are told and a future they can create. We see it crop up time and time again through our companions and our villains and we’re able to grapple with it in a number of interesting ways and it’s often at the core of our choices we make as a player.
A second overarching theme I’ve noticed throughout my playthrough was that of grief. This is perhaps most obvious in Solas who could just as easily be called the Elven God of Regrets. I think the game shows that grief isn’t always just about death (though there is plenty of that as well in the game). There can be grief over the world changing, people you know who have left your life, or how those same people come back into your life as someone unrecognizable. There is even grief in trying to find your place in the world which I think is beautifully touched upon in Taash’s story.
Rook and their companions lose a lot in their battle against the Evanuris, and surprisingly the antagonists go through the ringer as well. This war causes a lot of pain to both sides which I think is a fascinating choice by the writers. Ghilan’nain literally wallows in pain after killing her Archdemon. It is a blow that she never truly recovers from. Elgar’nan in turn wants to eradicate Rook even more after dealing a killing blow to his companion. As twisted as their minds are, it’s hard to ignore that we could be driven to such extremes given the right circumstances. In fact I think the only reason our protagonists are different is because they have each other. When Bellara loses her brother, Rook and Neve are there to provide support. When Taash loses their mother, Rook is there to pick up their Qunari friend and let them know that they aren’t alone, and we are even able to remind Neve that after everything she has lost she still has family in the Veilguard. Your companions even save you from the brink when you realize that you’ve lost Varric. I don’t think it’s ridiculous to think that any of these things could have turned us and our companions into the very villains we are fighting against.
These were the two themes that I found weaved inextricably throughout the narrative and it really stood out amongst everything that was going on. Dragon Age lore has often been under the shadow of a history that we weren’t privy to in universe and it was a real joy to see how these answers finally came to life in Veilguard, theories that were made as early as 2009. I’m glad that it came in such a thematically satisfying and consistent package.
Ah…our lovely old friends. The Grey Wardens have been at the heart of the series since its inception, and they have come a long way as a faction. I think it was lovely to see their evolution throughout the years. We have seen them through the highs of saving Ferelden from the blight as well as the lows of having their reputation dragged through the mud thanks to the machinations of Corypheus. Nevertheless I think the Grey Wardens we see in the Veilguard helps reconstruct the faction as the more heroic figures that they are said to be in lore. Evka and Antoine go a long way in humanizing the Wardens. We see that the group is not just full of criminals and scum but also just normal people who have been caught up in something bigger than themselves. We also see the other side of the Spectrum in the First Warden as well as the story of Isseya. She is a reminder that the Wardens have committed great atrocities in the name of protecting the greater good, and these things have a devastating impact on the people who make those choices. All in all I like that the first real faction we’ve ever had in the series is given its proper place within the world of Thedas at large. No matter what the problem is, the Grey Wardens always seem to rise to face it even if they stumble along the way.
One of our new factions. I like them, especially as an extension of the Dalish as we know them from the earlier installments. I know that they aren't Dalish fully but I think that’s the point. A large theme in Veilguard is establishing new traditions and values in the face of a world that’s constantly demanding change. The Dalish that are a part of the Veil Jumpers are joining the world in a way that we haven’t seen from the Nomadic people before. The discoveries that they make could very well upheave everything they know about their people and culture yet they do it anyway with bravery in spades. I think it also helps that Arlathan forest is one of the more beautiful areas to explore in the game. As far as content goes they are probably on the thinner end of the spectrum but I can live with it. They are the introductory faction. They give us context for what sorts of things are going on presently before we return to Thedas as a whole. They give a wonderful jumping off point into the game at large and their faction representative in Strife is quite memorable for a side character.
A not so new faction but the first we’ve seen outside of supplementary material. My experiences with them may differ from others as I chose to save Treviso over Minrathous so bear with me as I go through my analysis of them. From what I saw of them in my playthrough I think they make an incredibly good showing! Before the sacking of Minrathous I saw a group of Freedom Fighters who were up against odds that seem impossible. There is something admirable about fighting a battle that should by all means be unwinnable. Maybe it was because Rook and their little band of misfits were facing such things on an even larger scale that I felt a certain kinship with the Dragons. I also found it quite charming exploring their secret base and speaking with some of the more colorful characters in the faction like the Viper. However I think they truly began to shine after Minrathous was destroyed. I saw the faction be reduced to a mere shadow (haha) of itself and yet the crazy thing was that they persisted. The Viper was blighted for crying out loud! Despite this he still fought with his last breath to save the city he loved! When push comes to shove the Shadow Dragons never gave up, even reduced as they were, and it truly made me wonder how scary they would be at full force. It made me feel as if something of great value was lost when Minrathous fell to the Venatori, and made their resilience in the face of loss all the more impressive.
Another returning faction. Obviously the last time they were this involved in the main story was Origins via Zevran. I think it is interesting to see how they have evolved in modern Thedas. They still maintain their shadowy and suave aesthetic which I think is amplified here with advancements in visuals from 2009. As we know, our old elf friend paints a pretty gruesome picture of what life is like under Crow training. We also know that they are consummate professionals and aren’t necessarily malicious when it comes to their contracts. They are painted in a much more heroic light come the time of Veilguard and I think this is for the better. It gives me an “honor amongst thieves” sort of vibe with lots of politicking and backstabbing even amongst members of its own order. I like that they take great pride in cleaning up their own house and I get the sense that Rook is merely the vessel through which we see how the faction operates. I also have no problems with this interpretation of the Crows. Once again, this game is largely concerned with changing and letting go of the past. I think if the Crows were a bunch of villains who so rigidly stuck to their old ways then I would have probably been wondering what the hell they’ve been doing since the fifth Blight. Viago and Teia are also wonderful faction representatives. They each represent the serious operator and the suave playful killer (respectively). I think as far as faction representatives are concerned they play off of each other very well, with some humorous back and forth that made it fun every time I met with them. Thanks for flirting with me, Teia, I needed a win.
As far as critiques with the Veilguard are concerned I think the ones levied at the Lords of Fortune are perhaps the most valid. Their content is perhaps the barest of all factions and I really hate to say it but it makes sense. They are basically a bunch of pirates just hanging out and getting drunk and finding treasure. This doesn’t necessarily lend itself to particularly interesting storylines. Despite it making sense in my mind lorewise, I am a bit disappointed since it means we have a mechanically and narratively uninteresting faction. We have an arena and a tangential connection to them through slaying dragons. We mostly see them through the eyes of Taash and I honestly think if we didn’t have an area for them, we’d still get the same amount of content via Taash’s personal quests. It’s nice to see Isabela return as the faction representative but like the rest of the Lords she is lacking depth. They are even beaten in the charming swashbuckling aesthetic by the Antivan Crows so I just keep returning to the same conclusion that I think a lot of people have regarding them: They’re unnecessary and underdeveloped. In a game that really produced some interesting new lore, it feels like a ball was dropped here. Ah well.
My Rook’s faction, and what an interesting faction it was. Aesthetically they are all very interesting with their dark gothic colors and their jade armor and their smiling skull masks. It’s also great lorewise as we finally get a deeper look into Nevarra and their customs. This was an incredibly pleasant surprise as a longtime fan and frankly it’s the most impressive amongst the newer factions to me. Admittedly their faction representatives are somewhat forgettable. Vorgoth is only interesting in that he’s a cloud of darkness in a robe (What’s going on there?) and Myrna is…well she’s there. I had some cute scenes with Rook acting like a student who saw their principal outside of school when the two of them came to visit Emmerich but otherwise they don’t significantly impact the plot like some of the other faction representatives. The Necropolis is bar none one of the most fascinating areas to explore in the game. It’s just so…weird. Honestly everything about the Mourn Watchers is weird (in a good way). I think they really nailed the very strange morality of the Mortalitasi because almost every time someone from the Mourn Watch opened their mouth (My Rook included a lot of the time) I couldn’t tell whether I should laugh or be horrified. Frankly I think that’s what they were going for. The strange symbiosis between the living and the dead works surprisingly well and confirms things that could only be theorized about from earlier games. We get to see a different side of the Fade through the Mourn Watch, a side that is curious and reacts to positivity with positivity of its own. This has pretty strong implications on how we should view the Fade in the context of the greater narrative. Makes you wonder if incidents like the Mage Tower could have been avoided as well as reinforces some of the things we learned from Solas in Inquisition.
I'll probably make a part 2 sometime later after I write the next part but I wanted to shout into the void so thanks for indulging the long post. If you've read this far thanks for caring about some random person's opinions!