Dragon Age: The Veilguarddoes not integrate a utility called Dragon Age Keep. This online tool connected to your EA Account (formerly Origin) and allowed you to upload save data fromDragon Age: OriginsandDragon Age 2. Many of the games' key player decisions can be viewed or edited. Most importantly, the Keep could greatly alter the events ofDragon Age Inquisition, making big and small decisions matter and increasing replay value. By removing Keep support,Veilguardlacks a genuine connection to the previous three games.
Dragon Age: The Veilguardstill has some great roleplaying on its own. There are a lot ofimportant decisions inVeilguardthat can change the outcome of its narrative. However, these feel isolated to just the events of the fourth game. The actions of the Warden-Commander (who could be an entirely different person inOrigins’Awakeningexpansion), Hawke, and the Inquisitor come off as unimportant and sometimes contradictory. By holding on to this nostalgia, parts ofDATVbecome much weaker or distracting.
How Dragon Age Keep Linked Games Together
An Overview Of All Key Choices
The websiteDragon Age Keephad a few options when starting up:directly uploading your personalDragon Ageseries save files or using the default World States. The former could get a bit buggy with missing or wrong events, but players can fully look over the Tapestry of everything they’ve accomplished and make changes to all kinds of decisions duringDragon Age: OriginsandDragon Age 2. A player could originally romance Leliana inDAO, for instance, but change their first love to Morrigan with Dragon Age Keep, while also having Loghain impregnate her with an Old God baby.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Should You Reason With Or Knock Out The First Warden?
In one of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s later quests, players will come into conflict with the First Warden and have to decide how to handle him.
It wasn’t just simply looking at images and clicking on prompts. The Keep included a World Lore section where you could zoom in on locations and see what had occurred previously inDAOandDA2. In specific cases, for instance,looking at Orzammar had an entry on how the player helped their brother Bhelen Aeudcan regain the throne, despite him leaving them for dead in the Deep Roads during the Dwarven Noble prologue.
There was also an option to have Varric narrate the entire current situation in the Replay Startup. When this reaches an important decision, an Edit prompt appears, allowing you to change the Keep on the fly.
While there was a lot to do inside the Dragon Age Keep website,the payoff came by syncing the data at the start of aDragon Age Inquisitionplaythrough. Some changes were immediate, while others were dozens of hours in. For example, Alistair could live a rather miserable existence having to rule alongside Anora. At the same time, Loghain Mic Tir could still be hailed as a hero of Ferelden, but went into hiding from potential corruption among the Grey Wardens. Hawke had reached out to Loghain to work together, and both followed the Inquisitor for a time.
This particular questline could wind up completely differently. At the time of release, many people, like YouTuberDanaDuchy, had Alistair in Loghain’s role.Other players instead encounter Jean-Marc Stroud, a Grey Warden who had a strained past with Anders and could save Carver or Bethany inDragon Age 2. It all depended on the Dragon Age Keep current World State.
Returning Dragon Age Characters Are Weaker
Morrigan & Harding Have Odd Continuity
Instead of utilizing the full Keep, players canpick a few of the Inquisitor’s decisionsat the start ofDragon Age: The Veilguard. These are big picture events like who they romanced or their disposition towards Solas. However, this lacks the nuance of these characters’ personalities and deeper connections.
One of the more predominant members of the cast is Morrigan, Witch of the Wilds. She played a huge role inDAOand was also important inDAI, butwithout the use of the Keep, she can only really skirt around what happened in those gamesand how they should have greatly affected her current life.
Her son, Kieran, is completely ignored since it is possible for him to not even have been conceived duringDAO. Morrigan will also always be cordial with the Inquisitor, since the latter can’t canonically screw her out of the power of the Well of Sorrows or trap Kieran’s two-out-of-three possible fathers in the Fade. You could chalk it up to nearly a decade passing, but the old Morrigan always seemed like a person to hold a long grudge.
InDragon Age: The Veilguard, Lace Harding comes off as really reckless and inexperienced. This is ahuge downgrade to theInquisitioncharacter, as she grew as a character duringDAIand its expansion,Trespasser. One of the more unnerving moments is whenshe speaks fondly of Cullen Rutherford,who she may have euthanizedin certain playthroughs ofDAI.
Cullen struggled with Lyrium addiction throughout the entireDragon Ageseries. While he is mostly clean, the Inquisitor can push him to substance abuse inDAI. This leads to him becoming an unstable street beggar at the end ofTrespasser. It is Harding that tracks him down, with muddled rumors that she either gave Cullen gold or left him with a knife to kill himself. This, of course, cannot be part of either character’sVeilguardstory without Dragon Age Keep.
Important Characters Are Just Missing
While returning characters are shoe-horned into the story, many more could not even appear inDragon Age: The Veilguard. These are mostly people who could either die or take positions that are too important to leave. As mentioned previously, characters including Alistair, Loghain, Stroud, and Hawke could get involved in the Fade and possibly be trapped within. By forgoing Dragon Age Keep there is no way to factor in these choices.
Three major characters are missing fromDATV: Leliana, Cassandra, and Vivienne. InDAI, all of them werecandidates to become the next Divine, given the moniker of Victoria. Each of their campaigns had different policies and outcomes, whichcould be completely contradictory toDATV’s current lore.
Leliana is the most curious option, asher fate can be edited so that she’s dead inDAO. Thanks to Dragon Age Keep,DAIfactors this into the story. She remembered dying at Haven but somehow reawakening. At the end ofTrespasser, she vanishes like a ghost, as if the Ashes of Andraste had brought her back to guide Hawke and the Inquisitor.
Leliana is progressive and dissolves the Circle of Magi entirely. Cassandra is traditional and reinstates both the Circle of Magi and the Templars. Vivienne is the first Divine mage in history,leading to rebellion which she crushes with brute force; she reinforces the Circle of Magi, but allows mages to ascend through the Chantry. Yet,DATVwants both all and none of these options to be picked.
Other glaring omissions are two of the Inquisitor’s enemies - Calpernia and Samson. Which of those two harassed the Inquisition more depended on whether the player sided with the Mages or Templars. The one that wasn’t recruited wound up bolstering Corypheus’ army inDAI.
Samson had a possible conclusion with a trial to imprison, exile, or redeem him. It would have been a nice follow-up to see what became of him. However, Calpernia could fully escape if spared during her encounter. With a possible survival, BioWare even considered making Calpernia a companion inDragon Age: The Veilguard, according toThe Gamer.It is also theorized that Neve Gallus was made to replace Calperniaas they have similar backgrounds and connections to Tevinter. Still, with such a connection to Corypheus, and in turn Solas, Calpernia deserved a role in the fourth game.
Overall,Dragon Age: The Veilguardis weighed down by only loosely connecting to the other threeDragon Agegames. BioWare should have either severed all ties or embraced its legacy fully. All the tools and data were already in Dragon Age Keep, including all key choices fromDragon Age Inquisition. By omitting this feature,Dragon Age: The Veilguardcould have just been a new IP with no relation tothe franchise.
Sources:Dragon Age Keep,DanaDuchy/YouTube,The Gamer
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is the fourth entry in the Dragon Age franchise and a sequel to 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. A classic character, Solas, will return as the new game’s antagonist. The game will retain many of the series' staples, such as multiple dialogue options, party choices, romantic options, and more. Dreadwolf will act as the first direct sequel in the Dragon Age franchise.
