Dragon Age 4 was announced a few years ago as Dragon Age: Dread Wolf. But now, just months away from its Fall 2024 release, Bioware has announced that it will be changing the name to Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Game Informer For our cover story on Dragon Age: The Veilguard, we visited BioWare’s Edmonton offices to get an exclusive tour of the game, where we learned the name has changed.
I interviewed various leaders at Veilguard for my cover story, and one of the first questions I asked them was, ‘Why did the name change?’ Here’s what each leader told me:
BioWare announces name change to Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Corinne Bouchet, Game Director of Veilguard“First and foremost, these games are a reflection of the team that makes them. Part of that is that as you develop them, you learn a lot about what the game is about. And we quickly learned and understood that the absolute heart of this game is these authentic, diverse friends. Taking a step back, as we always do, we always check our decisions and see if they still represent the game we’re trying to make. We felt we needed a title that represented what this game is truly about.”
Let me be clear: I worship Solas. [and] While he plays a significant role in the game, this is not a game about Solas, so we strive to capture that authentic experience in everything we do and felt we needed to really change up the title.”
John Eppler, creative director at Veilguard“Dragon Age has always been about characters – not just the villains, but the team, the allies, and the other characters that exist in this world. When we were developing Dragon Age: The Veilguard, there was an analogy I like to use: ‘If you want to carve an elephant out of marble, just take a piece of marble and remove everything that doesn’t look like an elephant.’ It became clear while we were developing the game that rather than us trying to make The Veilguard, The Veilguard was just taking shape as we were developing the game.”
Solas is still the central character, he’s still an important character, but the focus really shifts to the team, and it’s the people that you recruit that matter, and it’s this group of experts that you recruit onto your team, this incredibly interesting and diverse cast of characters, and the objective is to stop the end of the world. [We] While Dreadwolf hints at a title that focuses on specific individuals, I find The Veilguard to have a similar focus on teams as Inquisition.”
BioWare General Manager Gary McKay“First of all, I want to say that Solas is still an integral part of the game. I’m not saying he’s become a supporting character. But when you think about what the essence of the game was, the companions have come to prominence. [these companions] is the best entry in the series to date. It features seven incredibly unique characters, each with their own personality, motivations and deep story. Players have the opportunity to really interact with these characters and not only shape their stories, but also impact the main storyline and even influence their fates.
It’s not just about the story. They’re also essential to the gameplay. So if you think about what the essence of this game is, what the core of the game is, it’s about the companions, the Veilguard. We felt that the core of the game needed to be reflected in the title.
Former Dragon Age executive producer and Veilguard consultant Mark Darragh: “I think that’s absolutely the right choice. The name carries momentum. The game has probably been called Dread Wolf in some sense since the early days. As the game has evolved, [BioWare] It’s very mature to understand exactly what it is and then take a step back and say, ‘We called it something, does it really reflect the essence of the game?’ I think the fact that the team was willing to take that step is great and I think this is absolutely the right decision.”
Solas in his room
When asked about Solas’ role in the story after learning that his namesake would no longer appear in the game’s title, Darar responded that Veilguard still tells the elven god’s story in a good way. He added, “I think we’re able to give a good ending to the different attitudes towards Solas: those who love him, those who are for him, those who hate him, those who want to get Solas out of the building. We’re going to give that ending a chance to finish, and then we’re going to tell a greater story about Veilguard and the world at large.”
Talking with Eppler, I realize that Solas isn’t quite the bad guy I expected him to be before seeing Veilgard’s opening. There’s a lot more nuance to everyone’s favorite bald elf.
“The most interesting villains, to me, and honestly to most people, are not just villains who are like, ‘I want to end the world.’ To them, they’re the hero of the story, and Solas is no exception,” Epler told me. “Solas has always felt that he’s a tragic hero, but a hero nonetheless. So he comes into this world firmly believing that what he did, what you stopped was the right thing, that you made a mistake. But now he’s trapped and unable to reach out and positively affect it. [Thedas]So he needs to work with you.
“This allows for a lot of nuance in the relationship,” Eppler said.
If you’re wondering what Eppler means when he says “Solas is trapped,” that’s literally what he means. In the game’s prologue, which is part of BioWare’s recently released 20-minute gameplay segment (video above), player character Luke and allies Race Harding, Varric Teslas, and Neve Garus thwart Solas’s attempt to destroy the Veil, the barrier between the magical Fade and Thedas. We won’t reveal the details of what happens here, but Luke passes out a few seconds later, waking up in a dreamscape hearing the voice of Solas himself… because he’s trapped here.
He explains that they were trying to move Elgarnan and Ghirannain to a new prison. They are both part of the Evanuris, or ancient Elven pantheon. The old prison no longer adequately contained them. Unfortunately for Solas, we’ve trapped him here in the Fade, while Elgarnan and Ghirannain are free, ruined, and wandering Thedas. It’s up to Luke to stop them, but it looks like he’ll need to work with Solas (or at least listen to his guidance and advice) to do so.
“One of the principles we adopted when we were early on building Veilgard’s story was to make the beginning of the game feel like the final chapter of the previous story, as if the player was entering the game at the very end and had been chasing Solas. [Solas at the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC] He said he was going to end the world and destroy the Veil,” Eppler added.
Eppler says players will realize early on (and as the story unfolds throughout Veilguard) that Solas sees a lot of himself in the player’s character, Luke — especially “the parts of him that he doesn’t want to face.” This results in an interesting dynamic between Solas and Luke, and he says players can define the relationship between the two characters through their dialogue choices.
“You can continue to be suspicious and hostile towards him, or you can begin to understand him and find common ground and connections between the two of you and develop a really different relationship as the story progresses,” Eppler says.
For more information on the game, including exclusive info, interviews, and video features, be sure to click our Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button below.