Just before the release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the community is discussing all sorts of topics surrounding their favorite franchise. One discussion keeps coming up: The Veilguard does not use the player’s established world state. What does that mean and why does it leave so many fans feeling melancholic?
What kind of feature is this?
- Since Origins, players in Dragon Age could literally build their own world. Important decisions affect the current game as well as sequels.
- The feature is often simply called world state (or “World State”). The games take on slightly different paths depending on who survived earlier or how certain situations were resolved.
- Some fans have therefore speedrun through all predecessors before The Veilguard – but it doesn’t benefit them much for the new Dragon Age.
This is how The Veilguard handles it: Unlike all predecessors, The Veilguard does not utilize world state from the previous games. Instead, you can choose from a few decisions when creating your character.
The selection is not nearly as extensive as the old games would have provided. The player world states are saved in the Dragon Age Keep. There you see a tapestry with various important decisions from Origins, Dragon Age 2, Inquisition, and all DLCs.
Therefore, this ability to build a continuous world is missing in The Veilguard and makes fans sad.
“My world is gone and will never come back”
In a large thread on Reddit, a long-time fan of Dragon Age complains about his feelings toward the new Veilguard. He says that Origins changed how he plays video games and even made him want to become an author of creative texts.
It was the world that made Dragon Age so unique – from the story of the first part, which is closely linked to part 2, to Inquisition:
The world in which my Hawke lives WAS the world in which my hero from Ferelden existed. And the world in which my Inquisitor lives WAS the exact same world. Now it feels as if this world is gone and will never return. The reason I felt as if it was a continuous world are these callbacks, big and small.
In over 400 comments, hundreds of other users agree with this sentiment. Of all the things that could have been sacrificed, the world state was the one that was least expected. Even the subjectively weaker parts were very much enjoyed due to this feature. And even players who only later delved into the franchise were enthusiastic about the continuous world state.
Cameos that are seen in The Veilguard would also suffer: “They have little substance without reference to previous adventures.” Another user wonders: Why should he feel connected to his decisions in Veilguard when the old decisions already don’t matter?
Fans still agree that they will have fun with The Veilguard and will love it. It’s annoying that the world state is missing, but it isn’t “game breaking.” And many believe: As The Veilguard is structured, even completely new players would be picked up. We feel the same: The latest Dragon Age in review: The Veilguard is the ideal Dragon Age for everyone who doesn’t know Dragon Age at all
