A decade after Inquisition, Dragon Age returns
At Sunday’s Xbox Games Showcase, BioWare premiered a new trailer for Dragon Age: The Veilguard (formerly Dreadwolf), featuring something that fans of the storied role-playing game franchise have awaited for a decade: a release window. Dragon Age: The Veilguard will officially launch sometime this fall, on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
The new trailer for the fourth mainline Dragon Age game was more of a tone-setter, introducing players to the adventurers they’ll fight alongside in The Veilguard. Those allies include:
Harding: The Scout Neve: The Detective Emmrich: The Necromancer Taash: The Dragon Hunter Davrin: The Warden Bellara: The Veil Jumper Lucanis: The Mage Killer
BioWare promises those seven companions will have rich lives and deep backstories, and that you can befriend them, and even fall in love with them, over the course of the single-player narrative. Expect to learn more about Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s companions and how they’ll play during a gameplay reveal livestream on June 11.
Little has been revealed about the follow-up to Polygon’s 2014 game of the year up to this point, other than that it will be set in several nations previously unexplored in a core Dragon Age game, and that it will continue the story of Solas, a rogue mage and companion character from Inquisition who inspired the legendary figure of the Dread Wolf and wants to tear reality apart.
However, BioWare shared in blog post last week, those behind the game felt like naming the game after the Dread Wolf felt a little off. “Naturally, the Dread Wolf still has an important part in this tale, but you and your companions — not your enemies — are the heart of this new experience.”
Dragon Age games are known for their rich companion characters, and The Veilguard boasts a collection of seven, with “deep and compelling storylines where the decisions you make will impact your relationships with them – as well as their lives.”
It’s been a long and rocky road for The Veilguard, especially of late, with layoffs at BioWare, including all members of Canada’s first games industry union in 2023, former employees suing for inadequate severance, and in general a high level of turnover among veteran Dragon Age staff and writers, including creative director Mike Laidlaw in 2017, producer Mark Darrah in 2020 (though he later returned as a consultant), and writer Mary Kirby in 2023.
Only time will tell if The Veilguard can once again reach the heights of its predecessors. But now we know when that time is.