Dragon Age director says every RPG in the series "reinvents itself," so The Veilguard takes "fan favorite features" from Origins, DA2, and Inquisition

Dragon Age: The Veilguard
(Image credit: EA)

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is apparently looking back on the series' long, eventual history, and taking inspiration from its many reinventions.

Speaking to Gamesradar+, Dragon Age: The Veilguard game director Corinne Busche says that "both the greatest challenge and the most interesting opportunity" in working on the game comes from dealing with how flexible the series has always been. "Every single edition of Dragon Age reinvents itself in some ways; the combat system, how we approach the world, the levels," she says.

"What it allowed us to do is look back on 'what are those fan favorite features spanning all the previous Dragon Age games, and do they make sense to pull them forward?'" Busche then explains that BioWare's newest foray is taking bits from every generation of Dragon Age to bring the series together.

For example, The Veilguard's "quick weapon swapping mid-combat" is pulled right from Dragon Age: Origins, and its backgrounds are "a love letter to Origins." Meanwhile, "you can see a lot of Dragon Age 2 in there" from the upcoming game's fast, hefty action-orientated combat. And finally, the "Inquisition DNA" comes in via the "depth of the companion and character arcs and how they integrate into the world."

"I think I can speak for the entirety of the team, that our hope is that this all comes together to respect where we've been, but also advance the franchise into this next adventure," Busche notes.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard's creative director John Epler also recently dived into how the fourquel differs from its older siblings, explaining that "technological restrictions" meant past games would frequently rely on cutscenes - but The Veilguard aims to give us "much more immediate control" more often.

Here’s everything you need to know about Dragon Age’s lore and history in the lead up to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. 

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

Read more
Dragon Age: The Veilguard art showing the RPG's companions grouped together
Dragon Age: The Veilguard director is leading an unannounced game for Wizards of the Coast, which recently hinted at more Baldur's Gate
Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshot of Solas
As BioWare's focus shifts to Mass Effect 5 amid layoffs, it feels like the bittersweet end of an era for Dragon Age
Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshot showing Solas, a pale bald Elven mage, wielding lightning-like powers while grimacing
Dragon Age The Veilguard's playtesters were initially confused about almost every aspect of the game's combat: "It's OK, sometimes we have to let it go"
Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshot of Solas
EA says Dragon Age: The Veilguard sales are "down nearly 50% from the company’s expectations"
Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveal trailer screenshot showing Lace Harding, a dwarven woman with long red hair and a freckled face
Legendary Dragon Age writer looks to Baldur's Gate 3 devs while giving EA advice after The Veilguard: "Follow Larian's lead and double down on that"
Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveal trailer screenshot showing Lace Harding, a dwarven woman with long red hair and a freckled face
Not even 3 months after releasing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, game director Corinne Busche is leaving BioWare following an 18-year career with EA
Latest in Dragon Age
Dragon Age: The Veilguard art showing the RPG's companions grouped together
Dragon Age: The Veilguard director is leading an unannounced game for Wizards of the Coast, which recently hinted at more Baldur's Gate
A Dragon Age character stares out against a blue background.
BioWare makes a return to Dragon Age: The Veilguard with a surprise PC update, months after layoffs and a seemingly final patch
Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshot showing the RPG's companions standing as a united group, the main protagonist at front wielding a sword
Weeks after EA said Dragon Age: The Veilguard "did not resonate with a broad enough audience," BioWare's RPG is coming to PlayStation Plus as a free monthly game
Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshot of Solas
Dragon Age and Anthem producer says stop harassing developers "because you don't know the circumstances that resulted in the thing that you're mad at"
BioWare's Sonic The Hedgehog RPG "actually uses Dragon Age: Origins dialogue system heavily streamlined to fit on the Nintendo DS"
Dragon Age: The Veilguard screenshot showing Solas, a pale bald Elven mage, wielding lightning-like powers while grimacing
As EA hints The Veilguard's low sales could be due to a lack of live service elements, former Dragon Age lead calls out "silly" demands to "fundamentally change the DNA of what people loved"
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"