Dragon Age: The Veilguard [Review]

There are two wolves inside my head that have different views about the Veilguard.

The first always loved Dragon Age. A series of games that takes its previous entries as serious as possible, in a world that makes sense, while also reinventing its format every time, creating a unique but still consistent experience in the fantasy genre.

And the Veilguard is, sometimes, full of fantasy. There are different maps to explore and now they've got layers! With maze-like structures that are always gorgeous and different from each other. The maps and their explorations are bigger than they seem at first, and reminded me of games like Demon's Souls; with a hub that teleports you to many vertical worlds.

One of the strongest aspects of the Veilguard is its cast and the sweet conclusion of a now decade old tale of the Blight and the Elven Gods, arguably started in the first Dragon Age. Many other plots from the previous games are also finished in here, and it feels earned. The cast, again, is excellent – while some stories may overstay their welcome in their lack of urgency, no character questline is specially badly written on its own context nor a waste of time.

Every single character changes and have a nice progression and this is the strongest I've ever felt with a cast, when compared with previous entries. Their questlines are amazing and well executed, and almost always have a dungeon and a unique boss to them. Good. Great even.

The other wolf, unfortunately, cannot unsee how light on RPG this game is when compared to, well, any other Bioware game. The “RPG to Action Game” pipeline is real, and DA:V unfortunately suffers from it. While the gear system is great, with many builds to explore, when I've decided on one, the progression somewhat halted, and I've felt that I stopped challenging or upgrading my play style by the middle of the game.

Also, the Veilguard is not a game that has status points or good/evil meters, nor locked dialogue behind the personality, origin, or character statuses – systems that were not only present in some previous titles of the franchise, but key aspects of them. Rook (the MC name) feels like a hero. Like a Marvel Super Hero. And this modern “Disney” vibes is present throughout the game. The dialogue is not as 'dark fantasy' as it was in Origins and II or 'high fantasy' like Inquisition. I was in a ride – a theme park ride.

And that sucks, man. The choices I've made indeed change the course of questlines and exploration, and I had big decisions on what to do until the very last moment of the game, but it is undeniable how weak some dialogues are in the main scenario and how exposition heavy the game is when compared to the previous entries.

In the end, it is a game that runs well while being absolutely gorgeous, with a great overall story plagued with some weird dialogue sometimes and a good battle system that overshadows its RPG roots, full of great sidequests and bosses. It is right behind DA: Origins and DA: Inquisition on my favorites of the series, but it was still a great experience.

Both wolves inside my head agree that it is a good game with some flaws. And yes, both of these said wolves are gay.

8/10