Larian's publishing chief has some kind words to say about BioWare's return to Dragon Age.
This week, BioWare is releasing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, an RPG that is sure to see endless comparisons to Baldur’s Gate 3, the Larian Studios-developed sequel in a series started by BioWare 26 years ago. Larian’s publishing chief Michael Douse has been playing The Veilguard alongside reviewers for the last few weeks and went on X to call it “the first Dragon Age game that truly knows what it wants to be.”
He went on to say that it’s “a well-made, character driven, binge-worthy Netflix series,” compared to the “heavy, nine-season long show” that is Baldur’s Gate 3. He praised the action-heavy combat—a “giga-brain genius” mix of Xenoblade and Hogwarts Legacy—and said he’s happy that the positive response so far suggests BioWare will “stick around—presumably—in these uncertain (because of moronic corporate greed) times.”
Just like Lauren Morton, who wrote our Dragon Age: The Veilguard review, Douse is particularly fond of where the series started, way back in 2009 with Dragon Age: Origins. I’m not surprised: Origins translated Baldur’s Gate’s tactical combat and eccentric companions from the isometric perspective of classic PC RPGs into full 3D for a new audience of RPG fans. It’s the first time I ever played anything like it, and I only learned about Baldur’s Gate afterward. However, the series steadily lost most of its Baldur’s Gate influences as time went on and became more of an action RPG.
“I’ll always be a Dragon Age: Origins guy, and this is not that,” Douse said. “But at least it’s something it wants to be, and not a mishmash of everything. I respect that.”
Douse was careful to say that his comments are directed at any Baldur’s Gate 3 fans wondering if they’d find something to like in The Veilguard. “I’m just a dev-adjacent man happy to play a new DA and happy the team—ostensibly—will get to make more,” he said.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is destined to come up around any major RPG release for the foreseeable future. And for good reason. But instead of pitting it against every new RPG like some kind of fight to the death, it’s a lot more interesting to talk about their different approaches to a familiar genre. Douse’s comments echo many of the reviews I’ve seen today and, if anything, underscore how good it is to be an RPG fan right now.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is out on Thursday, October 31.
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