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GAMING FEATURE

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Please, can you give us a brief outline of where the story picks up? So, the story of Dragon Age: The Veilguard picks up around ten years since the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition , and around nine years from the end of the Trespasser DLC for that game. Varric Tethras and Lace Harding have been searching for Solas – who you now know is the elven god Fen’Harel – and trying to stop him from ending the world. You play as Rook, who’s joined the team a little more recently, and the game starts with you hot on Solas’ trail. One of the reasons we structured the story this way is to really pull players in media res – having the first mission of this game feel like the finale of a different game and set both the stakes and the scale of the conflict in the first hour, while onboarding players who may be new to the franchise. What would you say is the biggest new feature in The Veilguard ? Our game director, Corinne, likes to talk about the importance of feeling grounded in the world. And I think the combat helps with that feeling. You have the moment-to-moment combat, which feels very fluid, and where a lot of focus has been put on responsive and

Arriving this month is the long-awaited continuation of BioWare’s epic fantasy adventure series in Dragon Age: The Veilguard .We had the pleasure of chatting with John Epler, creative director on the series, to learn some more about what to expect. Words Amy Flower

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard is out Oct 31

intuitive controls. And with a story that places a premium on quick decisions and being intelligently reactive, the gameplay starts to feel like a real extension of that.

I know Matt does, as I know everyone in leadership does – to do right by the team. And part of that is because so many of the people on the game are fans of the games. They joined BioWare after falling in love with Thedas, and you want to make sure that they can feel proud and satisfied with the game they’re working on. Plus, on a personal level, I want to tell more stories in this world. I owe Dragon Age so much.

It’s been 15 years since we were first introduced to the amazing Dragon Age universe, but ten years since the last entry, Inquisition . Why the long wait for this fourth main entry? Game development is rarely a straight line. We tried a number of different ideas and while there are things in those early versions of the game that I’m incredibly proud of – and I hope we get to revisit someday – they never really coalesced into a game we felt was the right fit as the sequel to Dragon Age: Inquisition . But there was a moment a few years ago when the pieces started falling into place for The Veilguard . We were playing an early version of the Siege of Weisshaupt, and it was still a lot of temp art and assets. But you could feel the game coalescing in that moment into something bigger. And then it just kind of snowballed from there. What sort of pressure do you feel when working on a sequel entry in such a popular franchise? Oh, there’s a tremendous amount of pressure. Both externally – our fans are lovely, but they are, rightfully, hungry for a sequel – but also internally. I don’t even mean studio pressure or publisher pressure, though obviously they want you to make a good game. But personally, I feel a tremendous responsibility – as I know Corinne does, as

How has now developing for the latest generation of consoles aided in adding to the rich world ofThedas and Dragon Age? Our art director Matt Rhodes has a saying about this – ‘Technology has finally caught up to our ambitions’. The newest generation of consoles has let us do some truly incredible things. I don’t think we could’ve done Minrathous, for example, on the last generation, and the same is true for our big set piece moments. Dragon Age – Thedas – is a big, spectacular fantasy world, but it’s one where we could never really get away from ‘tell, don’t show’, simply because we couldn’t always show. And, finally, we can! Not to mention, you can actually play through those big set pieces moments, instead of showing a giant flashy cutscene and then saying, ‘But that’s not where you are, you’re over here, because that’s all that the console can handle’.

SO, WHAT IS A “VEILGUARD”?

We had to ask, and John explains: “They’re a group of people who saw the end of the world coming and decided to do something about it. They’re your allies and, if you want them to be, your found family that has your back as you stand against the greatest threat Thedas has ever faced.”

OCTOBER 2024

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