The Veilguard drops Dragon Age Keep to “focus on choices that matter”

Dragon Age The Veilguard will not use Bioware's age-old Dragon Age Keep system to ensure that you "focus" on "decisions that matter."

I remember the moment when my Hawke from Dragon Age 2 appeared in Dragon Age Inquisition. I was obsessed with the female base model’s spiked hair and bloody nose, so hadn’t even customized her. As she approached me on the ramparts of Skyhold, it was as though everything just came flooding back – my relationship with Fenris, siding with Anders, defeating the Arishock; a tidal wave of tingly nostalgia. But, unfortunately, Dragon Age: The Veilguard won’t feature Dragon Age Keep – the system that Bioware has used to import old characters – and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

If there are whispers of the Hero of Ferelden or the Champion of Kirkwall in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, they won’t relate to your previous characters. Instead, the upcoming RPG will let you make a series of relevant world state choices in-game, abandoning Dragon Age Keep for a more streamlined experience.

I’m given a glimpse at the new system during my hands-on preview with The Veilguard in San Francisco, and while I won’t spoil it here, it’ll have some interesting implications on how the game plays out. During a creator roundtable, however, game director Corinne Bushe and creative director John Epler are asked about Bioware’s decision to remove the Dragon Age Keep functionality, and their response is certainly intriguing.

“This project has been in development for a while, so one of the things we did investigate is how far we wanted [previous game choices] to go,” Epler states. “For us, the core philosophy was that we want you to make choices that matter; choices that we can actually reflect.

“Part of going to northern Thedas is that a lot of stuff that matters tremendously if you’re in Ferelden and Orlais doesn’t matter as much in Tevinter. A great example is that The Divine is hugely important if you’re Adrastian in the south of Thedas, but they have their own Divine up in Minrathous. We really wanted to focus on decisions we knew would matter; that we knew we could do something interesting with.”

“It’s been a long time since Inquisition,” Busche adds. “Even if you’re a die-hard fan, unless you’re going to watch a YouTube replay of the [games], you may have some cobwebs on the choices you made or the implications of them. So not only did we want an in-game feature that would allow you to replicate [previous games’] choices that are contextually appropriate to [The Veilguard], but we also view it as a dual-purpose onboarding tool.

“If I’m a player that doesn’t remember, or hasn’t played, the past games, you’re going to see those choices – those beautiful tarot cards – with all the context of what they meant and why they mattered. So I view it as a beautiful onboarding tool as well.”

It’s a decision that leaves me conflicted. As a historian and a tragic nostalgist, losing Dragon Age Keep feels like a blow. It provided the perfect throughline, but also allowed you to veer away from old choices if you wanted to – it was the best of both worlds. But, as the series progresses and we write new stories with every choice, I can see how the system could get horrendously bloated and how, in turn, developing a game around it could get complicated.

The Dragon Age: The Veilguard release date certainly marks a brave new dawn for the franchise, and you can see what I thought of it in our Dragon Age: The Veilguard preview. Alternatively, get to know its protagonists with our Dragon Age: The Veilguard companion list.

You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.