Dragon Age: The Veilguardsucceeds in many places, but one place it fails pretty clearly is in the party dynamic created by the companions' lack of conflict. From the get-go, the companions are happy to be along for the ride as they face horrible gods in an attempt to save the world with very few questions. This is a deviation from many ofVeilguard’s contemporaries and other games in theDragon Agefranchise.
In previous games, your companions had no problem snipping at each other as you gallivanted around Thedas, but this trend doesn’t continue inVeilguard.Despite being on the same team,companions in pastDrage Agetitlesfought over petty and serious squabbles, and for good reason.With so many different people of different backgrounds all in one squad, it’s no wonder they don’t get along ideally all the time.
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Off the bat, Rook is introduced to Neve through Harding and Varric in Minrathous, and the mysterious and savvy private detective presents a pretty neutral front in terms of flavor. She’s anenemy to the Venatori inDA: The Veilguard, to whom no party member has any inkling of an alliance, so there’s no possibility of her representing an issue to the group. This is a nice, easy start for the companion dynamic,setting future companions up to join an easygoing party.
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However, party members introduced later on in the tutorial should start to raise tensions a bit. Bellara is an elf but somehow has no issue with Neve, who is from Tevinter, the capital of elf slavery. Instead of Neve getting upset at Bellara’s flighty demeanor, she approaches the Veil Jumper with nothing but politeness.Adding Davrin, Taash, Lucanis, and Emmrich adds even more variables to the group, but adding even bigger personalities still doesn’t destabilize the group dynamic.
These odd interactions could partially be explained byVeilguard’s early concepts as a multiplayer game.
Bellara and Neve precisely should, at the very least, mistrust Lucanis; as mages,they’d have been taught their whole lives that demons were uncontrollable and incapable of rational thought.Neve has seen firsthand the damage that demons can do through the work of the Venatori, and Bellara has seen the same thing in Arlathan before and during the game’s events. This isn’t to say that the two should have hated Lucanis the whole time, but any mistrust or hesitation on their part would have added a bit of complexity to their relationship with the party’s resident, Crow.
The Get-Along-Squad that Rook has assembled is unrealistic without adding one important personality.
Instead, these companions can immediately start chatting as if they’d known each other for years, asking personal questions with little to no hesitation, indicating familiarity and comfortdespite having done nothing to warrant that comfort.It’s nice to have all the companions willing to work with Rook, but as more and more characters get added to the Lighthouse, one character archetype seems to be missing. The Get-Along-Squad that Rook has assembled is unrealistic without adding one important personality.
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Many critics have comparedDragon Age: The VeilguardtoBaldur’s Gate 3when discussing the game’s shortcomings, and its hesitance to add any sort of difficult personality is one more place. A few notable points are things likeBG3’s Astarion’s general disdain for selflessnessor Lae’zel’s penchant for violence, even when not strictly necessary. Despite these characters disagreeing with a player’s choices, the writers gave them a reason to stay with the party.
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There’s never a question about whether or notDragon Age: The Veilguard’s heroeswill stay by Rook’s side, and that’s boring.Having such reasonable party members prevents the dialogue choices from feeling like they have stakes, and the “wrong” choice in a conversation is a non-issue.Perhaps this was an intentional choice, an attempt to give Rook a more defined personality than pastDAgames, but in this case, everyone just seems suspiciously well-adjusted for people who have been through horrifying lives. Every character in the party suffers from something, but somehow, they have the fortitude to prevent this from impacting their interactions.
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Varric establishes early on that he is intentionally assembling a team of heroes to stop Solas, somaybe BioWare was unable to reconcile the desire to be a hero with any negativity in a character.Rook themself is an upright, loyal person, and the lack of even slightly mean dialogue options has left a lot of players disgruntled, but from this blueprint, it’s easier to see the limited vision the writers have. If Rook, as the team leader, is perfect, then so must their followers.
After Weisshaupt, Davrin and Lucanis get into arguably one of the most obvious examples of infighting in the game. Davrin, struggling with losing thousands of other Gray Wardens, lashes out at Lucanis for failing to kill Ghilan’nain. Lucanis, in turn, snaps back, causing what could have been an interesting argument. Rook can tell that neither party is truly resentful of the other, buttheir feelings get in the way of their ability to rationalize the horrible ordeal they just went through.
Not only is this not realistic, particularly with the amount of stress the team is under, but it also detracts from the very complex feelings of grief and failure that the two men feel.
This could have been an excellent little journey for each character for players to follow as they process their failures if the writers had committed to it. Unfortunately, this gets sped along and fixed in the very next quest step. Rather than allowing for some time for Lucanis and Davrin to gain some perspective on their own, the writers place Rook in the position of mediator, who forces them to work their problems out immediately.
This interaction is just one example of the writers framing Rook as the consummate hero;through Rook’s reaction to Davrin and Lucanis' conflict, players understand that the writers believe a leader should be capable of solving interpersonal issues immediately.Not only is this not realistic, particularly with the amount of stress the team is under, but it also detracts from the two men’s very complex feelings of grief and failure.
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Lucanis' and Davrin’s feelings are cheapened by the fact that all it takes is one conversation for them to move on. That’s not to say that conflicts don’t get resolved this way in real life. However, the purpose of personal conflict in stories is to send a message or convey a point. With all the party’s arguments being resolved in one or two conversations, what point could the writers ofDragon Age: The Veilguardpossibly be trying to make?
