Seriously, why don’t you like Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

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In the time since I last wrote a Kaser Focus, we’ve wrapped up Summer Game Fest, with Ubisoft bringing up the rear for major showcases. But one final straggler came in at the end on June 11: Electronic Arts and Bioware’s showcase for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. In addition to the teaser trailer we saw last week, we also got a lengthy gameplay showcase showing one of the game’s first missions. The reaction from Dragon Age fans has been decidedly mixed, with the loudest reactions being negative. And I’m genuinely trying to understand why.

To be clear, I’m not one of those people who thinks a gamer should be grateful for any scrap the publisher throws them from their favorite series. If Bioware screws up Dragon Age 4 after making us wait 10 years for the damn thing, I’ll scream as loud as anyone. I’m just not sure what it is about the teaser trailer that seems to have rubbed everyone the wrong way. Mike Minotti described it as “a bit more Fortnite than Dragon Age,” and I didn’t really get the same vibe. It’s more bright and colorful than previous games, but every Dragon Age game’s art design and vibe has been different than the one before.

I’m choosing to be optimistic, based on the gameplay shown, that Veilguard is going to do what Bioware games are best at: Make you fall in love with a diverse cast of characters while putting you into heartwrenching scenarios where there’s no good path and sacrifices have to be made. Based on the ending of the gameplay demo, I already suspect Bioware knows what strings to pull to make this as emotionally crushing as possible. The only real issue I have with Veilguard so far is that awkward unnecessary “The” in the title. Begone, article!

In personal news, I’m going to take advantage of Steam Next Fest to try out several new games. There weren’t very many shadow-drops during Summer Game Fest for me to enjoy, though four games from the Wholesome Games Direct launched at the time of that showcase. There aren’t too many games launching at the moment, which means it’s either time to play demos of something new, or go back and finish older games — one or the other.

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