Dragon Age: The Veilguard was supposed to be BioWare’s big comeback. What fans got instead felt like a confused project caught between a rebrand and a reboot.
After ten years in the making, the final Dragon Age left more confusion than clarity about its identity. If the series is going to survive, it can’t keep losing itself.
Why Did Dragon Age: The Veilguard Feel So Disconnected from the Series?
Veilguard’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t feel like Dragon Age. Following years of upheaval and strategy shifts, it turned into a combination of legacy ideas and new trends.
It started as a live-service multiplayer project before being reworked into a single-player game, and you can feel that disconnect everywhere—from how its maps are structured to how linear many quests feel.
Visually, it abandoned the grounded realism of earlier games in favor of a more cartoonish look. That could have worked alone, but combined with basic gameplay and stripped-down choice systems, it left fans wondering where the soul of the franchise went.
One of the main critiques is that Veilguard feels less gritty. Dragon Age used to be about tough moral choices, ethical dilemmas, and uncomfortable questions about faith, power, and identity.
On the other hand, Veilguard plays it too safe, with most choices pushing you to act like a noble hero and leaving little room for moral ambiguity. This was especially disappointing, given the setting.
Tevinter, known in Dragon Age lore for slavery and systemic corruption, should have been fertile ground for conflict and consequence. But most of that edge was blunted, and those themes were either glossed over or sanitized for broader appeal.
Was the Backlash Really About Representation?
No, while the game includes options for a transgender player character and features a nonbinary companion named Taash, the controversy wasn’t about the presence of inclusivity—it was about how poorly it was implemented.
Players didn’t reject diverse representation. They criticized how the writing reduced those characters to token moments instead of giving them layered and believable arcs. There’s a difference between representation and writing. Veilguard didn’t deliver the depth fans were hoping for.
In earlier games, characters like Krem and Dorian were praised not just for their identities but for the strength and realism of their stories. In Veilguard, similar efforts often felt hollow or forced, which ended up disappointing both the audience craving representation and those looking for strong storytelling.
Did Fans Really Want Veilguard to Fail?
Absolutely not; the idea that fans were rooting for failure is a myth. Most people criticizing Veilguard were the same ones who preordered it, waited 10 years, and hoped against hope that BioWare would deliver something worthy of the name.
But that didn’t happen. Yes, there were bad-faith voices online. That’s true for every game with hype, but the majority of pushback came from real fans who gave the game a shot and felt disappointed.
Suggesting they wanted the game to flop not only misses the point but also disrespects the people who kept the franchise alive in the first place.
Why Didn’t Veilguard Resonate with Its Core Audience?
Because it wasn’t made for them, many players walked away feeling disappointed. The game felt designed for newcomers unfamiliar with Origins or Inquisition, making longtime fans question why their past choices and history had little impact.
Legacy features like world-state imports were reduced or removed entirely. The tone leaned lighter, the writing felt younger, and the game didn’t trust players to handle complexity.
Rather than growing the franchise’s identity, Veilguard shifted to something that looked and sounded familiar but didn’t really feel like Dragon Age. For a series built on hard choices and strong character bonds, that break in connection was unacceptable.
Is There Still Hope for Dragon Age?
There can be—but only if BioWare course-corrects. The studio doesn’t need to chase trends or soften the edges. The magic of Dragon Age was never about graphics or combat polish.
It was in the worldbuilding, the consequences, and the depth of its characters. If there’s another entry coming, it has to stick to solid storytelling, not just chase trends. But to being Dragon Age—messy, bold, political, brutal, and beautiful.
That’s the version fans waited for. That’s the version the series still has a chance to become again. If BioWare is serious about reviving the franchise, it needs to stop reinventing the wheel and start listening.
They don’t want a generic fantasy game with a Dragon Age label slapped on top. You can’t win back trust with slick trailers or rehearsed interviews—it takes a game that gets Dragon Age’s core right.
Stick with us here at Gfinityesports.com: the best site for Dragon Age coverage.