The Veilguard director wants to bring back BioWare's golden age

Important takeaways

  • Dragon Age: The Veilguard's creative director says he wants to bring back the 'golden age' of BioWare.

  • This would be the time when BioWare released hit after hit, with both Mass Effect and Dragon Age going strong.

  • Both series suffered in the 2010s, with Mass Effect fans getting Andromeda and Dragon Age fans getting nothing after Inquisition.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard creative director John Epler says he wants to bring BioWare back to its “golden age” when the studio released “hit after hit.” He adds that The Veilguard was created to get the company back on track, focusing on story and characters.

This comes after BioWare struggled for a decade, with both of its major releases – Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem – being poorly received. Now, Dragon Age management wants to stick to BioWare's single-player roots, after experiments with multiplayer and live service elements failed to win over fans.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Director Reflects on BioWare's 'Golden Age'

Alistair wears armor and sets up camp in Dragon Age: Origins

Epler's comments come from the My Perfect Console podcast, hosted by journalist Simon Parkin.

“For The Veilguard, we really wanted to make sure we got back to the things that made the studio what it was, that contributed to what I would call the golden age of BioWare as hit after hit turned out,” says Epler.

“The Veilguard was a very conscious return to that focus on characters, focus on storytelling and focus on being this really bombastic single-player RPG that allowed you to play through this story as yourself if you wanted to. Or as a idealized version of yourself or as something completely different to yourself.”

Epler joined BioWare around the time of Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood (remember that?), meaning he's been around for every Dragon Age game. BioWare was certainly on a winning streak back then (dip into the Sonic franchise excluded) as it alternated between releasing installments for Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Dragon Age: Inquisition was a high winning game of the year at The Game Awards 2014.

Then we got Mass Effect: Andromeda, and the cracks started to show. It was so poorly received by fans and critics, both for its writing and bugs, that its DLC was cancelled. Then we had Anthem, which took BioWare away from its single-player roots. During this time, the original plans for a fourth Dragon Age game were scrapped so that this could be multiplayer as well, before this too was cancelled. From that we got Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is out now, available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Dragon Age The Veilguard Tag Page Cover Art

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the highly anticipated fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.

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