Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn’t have the identical broad, sweeping decisions on the finish of each chapter as its predecessors, but it surely does spend fairly a little bit of time permitting the participant to determine how they really feel about their Rook. Does your Rook consider within the Maker, the Dragon Age equal of God? What’s your Rook’s favourite espresso, or are they extra of a tea enjoyer? One route that stunned me is that you would be able to set up your Rook as trans and/or nonbinary, and dialogue choices referring to which are sprinkled all through the sport in surprising locations.
Early on within the sport, Rook unpacks their room on the Lighthouse and ponders 4 gadgets: an merchandise referring to their heritage; instruments of the commerce for his or her class as a rogue, mage, or warrior; a token from their background faction; and a handheld mirror. The hand-held mirror permits Rook to mirror on their very own identification as a hero. This contains some extra bushes for scars, tattoos, and a trans/nonbinary identification. (For instance, a Dalish Rook would possibly take the chance to touch upon the satisfaction they really feel over their vallaslin facial tattoos.)
The wording of those choices could be a bit complicated. If I choose an choice referring to being trans whereas gazing into Varric’s mirror, I get a message: “Establishes transgender identification and unlocks new dialogue choices in future conversations.” I didn’t choose these choices, and so I assumed that I is likely to be locked out of all future branches. This isn’t true; even in case you don’t determine as trans whereas analyzing the mirror, you may nonetheless select trans and nonbinary dialogue choices later within the sport.
Picture: BioWare/Digital Arts by way of gamerjive
I’ve to confess, I used to be skeptical once I first noticed this department come up. I’ve had the choice to determine a trans identification throughout character creation in different RPGs, like Saints Row 2 or Cyberpunk 2077, however I haven’t skilled a giant RPG the place that comes into play throughout conversations. Trans illustration in RPGs may be hit and miss; when accomplished properly, it rounds out the world and provides depth to the supporting forged. When it’s accomplished poorly, it’s clunky or maybe a bit cringe. The Veilguard is a sport about preventing gods and saving the world. When would the occasion even have time to say these questions of inside identification?
Because it seems, The Veilguard’s writers did an awesome job at setting the stage for these dialog choices. The primary few hours of the sport are a dash, the place Rook collects a celebration of adventurers, confronts the gods, and fights their approach by means of hordes of Darkspawn and Venatori. As soon as the total occasion is collectively, the narrative slows down, and the occasion members every notice that all of them have their very own inside struggles to handle. That is the place The Veilguard shines — I don’t actually care an excessive amount of concerning the elven gods, however I like my workforce and relish the chance to spend extra time with them.
It’s throughout these low-stakes moments, once I’m commiserating with the Antivan Crow Lucanis concerning the stresses of rising up because the inheritor to an murderer empire, or flirting with the Gray Warden Davrin, that I’ve the chance to have Rook consult with their nonbinary or trans identification. These choices are maybe probably the most helpful with Taash, a Qunari who’s battling their very own gender identification and relationship to each the Qun and Rivain.
Picture: BioWare/Digital Arts by way of gamerjive
The Qun, just like some real-world theocratic societies, is ok with binary trans people; their identification is acknowledged, and they’re assigned to the appropriately gendered function underneath the Qun. Nonbinary people, nonetheless, usually are not acknowledged. This places Taash in a troublesome place, one which I clearly sympathized with as a nonbinary participant. As soon as once more, that particular dialog tree opened up — and I used to be stunned to seek out that it led to a touching dialog that was natural, clearly written with empathy, and each true to my expertise and pure to the Dragon Age fiction.
In the long run, these choices don’t considerably change The Veilguard. However this can be a sport the place the journey is as necessary as, if no more so than, the vacation spot. Hanging out with my friends, serving to them kind by means of their points, and fostering these bonds is a big a part of the sport. It has at all times been a giant pillar of the Dragon Age franchise. The Veilguard simply takes {that a} step additional, and delves deeper into a specific wrinkle of illustration. I’m glad this experiment was a hit, and I’d like to see this care put into future RPGs.
