Dragon Age players desperate for greatswords in The Veilguard are working through the 5 stages of grief before the RPG even comes out

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Why don't you try a dagger instead?

Dragon Age Veilguard companions
(Image credit: EA)

Before you read any further, I want you to grab a tissue. Okay. You're now ready to hear that Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn't seem to have any greatswords in it. 

BioWare's new RPG — which launches October 31 — has fulfilling combat and a satisfying story about you, the protagonist, once again defending the lush continent Thedas from evil. We said as much in our Dragon Age: The Veilguard review. And that's all great, but it's not a greatsword. 

Fans started worrying about the two-handed warrior weapon about a month ago, after hands-on previews for The Veilguard came out at the end of September. 

"Has anyone seen any footage of a warrior Rook using a greatsword in The Veilguard?" asked one nervous Reddit post. "I combed through a few different preview videos, and I didn't see any greatswords at all."

After that, other people started getting paranoid. "When you're excited for Veilguard, but notice the suspicious lack of greatsword gameplay," one highly upvoted Reddit post says. "I'm not the only one who noticed, right?"

But it wasn't until recently that things got really bad. After posting his own review, YouTuber Norzza told fans in his comments section that "there are no greatswords," accompanied by a very forlorn emoji. We haven't seen a trace of greatswords either, so they're either abnormally well-hidden for heaping hunks of metal, or there's been some sort of greatsword buyback since Inquisition. By my count, fans are at the anger stage of grief. 

"First they came for the dual-wielding warriors, and I was told to shut up because they didn't like dual-wielding warriors," says one popular Reddit comment. "Now they've come for the Greatswords." All right, everyone needs to calm down. This would all be a lot easier if we just accept it. 

Dragon Age: The Veilguard lead celebrates seeing one of his biggest goals for the RPG come true, as he admits it was "the greatest privilege and hardest dev cycle of my career."

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Ashley Bardhan
Ashley Bardhan
Senior Writer

Ashley is a Senior Writer at GamesRadar+. She's been a staff writer at Kotaku and Inverse, too, and she's written freelance pieces about horror and women in games for sites like Rolling Stone, Vulture, IGN, and Polygon. When she's not covering gaming news, she's usually working on expanding her doll collection while watching Saw movies one through 11.

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