David Gaider has shared his thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s romance options.
Gaider, the creator of Dragon Age and lead writer of the series’ previous installments, offered a lengthy thread on social media platform X where he compared the romantic approach to the popular Baldur’s Gate 3.
‘I think the move has been completed [Dragon Age: The Veilguard] that “all companions are romantic by everyone” isn’t a huge surprise, considering that [Baldur’s Gate 3]but – unsurprisingly – I have a few thoughts,” he began, before acknowledging that the “fandom is pretty divided on romance design.”
Gaider said that a large portion of the gaming community wants the ability to romance anyone, and therefore felt that not doing so is “akin to a slap in the face.” Others, however, prefer “characters with more agency, even (and perhaps especially) if it doesn’t suit their preferences.”
The developer didn’t specify here whether he’s right or wrong, just saying “it depends on what you want from the game” and “we’re not all here for the same reasons, okay?”. He added that “the one unfortunate aspect, in my experience, is that these two approaches are more or less diametrically opposed from a design point of view”.
The previous Dragon Age writers realized that once a character became romantic, it limited the stories that could be told with that character because they “became beholden to their romantic arc and their need to ultimately be attractive,” Gaider said.
“Why is that a limitation? Because not all character storylines are defined by being appealing to the player. Even if an arc’s appeal is to a relatively limited audience, the appeal requirement inherently limits the potential stories to a fairly limited audience. band,” Gaider continued.
This is why players were unable to romance the series’ dwarf companion Varric in previous entries. “I can already hear fans groaning in disappointment, even though we did it so as not to *destroy Varric’s character*. You can’t have it both ways, I’m afraid,” Gaider said.
He added that Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s approach to defining romance as new was “curious”, considering the “only difference between this and [Dragon Age 2]After all, that’s not all [Dragon Age 2] follower was romance”.
“The ones you could make were pansexual. We were essentially making the *same* argument that they weren’t ‘playersexual’ (ugh),” Gaider said. ‘The call to distance ourselves from that approach has been received [Dragon Age Inquisition] was mine, made with the support of Mike and the team. I didn’t like what taking away the followers’ agencies did, that it turned them into sex dolls whose sole purpose is to have the player mash them together and ‘now kiss!'”
Gaider admitted that this was a “personal (and uncharitable) preference”, before adding that he was also not a fan of what it did for the characters in Baldur’s Gate 3.
“Several characters would have had stronger arcs without romance, and the feeling I got from having this entire huge crew ready to quit if I blinked wrong…meh,” he said.
Despite acknowledging that he’s not the biggest fan of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s approach to romantic characters, he thinks it “should be good” if the developers “lean into it unapologetically” just like Larian did with Baldur’s Gate 3 “It’s a legitimate approach, as I said, and a lot of fans will be upbeat and happy about it,” he said, “which is ultimately not a bad thing.”
Furthermore, if you don’t like a character from The Veilguard, they will find themselves another partner instead.
In a subsequent post, which I have to admit made me chuckle, Gaider said he wouldn’t be sharing any more thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard for a while. His reason? Because he doesn’t want to provide “fodder for news articles that love to talk about what ‘former head writer of Dragon Age’ tweets”.
Sorry, Gaider, we can’t help it – we find what you have to say interesting, and so do our readers! If you’d like to read another Gaider’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard impressions article, we’ve got you covered.
To find out more, our Chris Tapsell went hands-on with Dragon Age: The Veilguard earlier this week, and he came away quite impressed. “Whisper it, but Dragon Age: The Veilguard has me thinking the unthinkable: it looks like BioWare is back,” he wrote Eurogamer’s Dragon Age: The Veilguard preview.