As expected from Dragon Age, there are plenty of romance options Dragon Age: The Veil Guard – and the fan debate over which non-player character was romanceable started months before the game even came out.
Unlike previous Dragon Age games, in Veil Guardall recruitable companions are romantic, regardless of your Rook’s race or gender: optimistic scout Lace Harding, confident Gray Warden Davrin, feisty elven historian Bellara Lutare, cynical detective Neve Gallus, erudite necromancer Emmrich Volkarian, tough dragonfighter Taash, and the pragmatic assassin Lucanis Dellamorte. The romances range from steamy to nail-bitingly awkward (gratuitous), but no matter who romances whom, the relationships feel true to the characters and how their arcs develop.
“There are so many different flavors of romance with the characters that even if one doesn’t work for you, one of them probably will,” creative director John Epler told Polygon. “But they’re so connected to the character arcs that they become part of that character development, rather than ‘and you can give them romance on the side too.’”
(Ed. remark: This post contains spoilers for Dragon Age: The Veil Guard.)
For example, Epler said that Bellara’s romance is deliberately awkward and stilted. (“As Bellara’s writer, I’m very familiar with it,” he added.)
“He’s clearly someone who doesn’t see himself as someone people want to romance,” he said. “And so one of my favorite things is giving a compliment to Bellara, and she takes it in the most awkward way. Because she herself as a character, and something that you see through her arc, is having issues with how she sees herself, especially after what happened in her past. And so that romanticism kind of plays into that, because someone who does have, I wouldn’t say necessarily, low self-esteem, but has self-esteem issues. This is how that romance plays out, especially when they’re a very awkward character themselves.
Meanwhile, Lucanis – who joins the party after you rescue him from an underwater prison where he was tortured for a year after someone from his inner circle betrayed him – has a long road ahead of him when it comes to opening up and allowing others. That also means that the results of one big early play choice could cut him off completely.)
“(He) has an arc that is very much about family and letting people get close and see what happens,” Epler said. “And so with his romance you get more of a slow burn where it doesn’t feel like you ever get as close to him as you would like until the end.”
In addition to the player’s chosen romance arcs, some companions you haven’t chosen to romance can form a romantic relationship with each other (or, in the case of one character, with an NPC not in your party). This isn’t the first time non-romanced party members have come together: a fan favorite includes Qunari mercenary Iron Bull and Tevinter mage Dorian Pavus in Dragon Age: Inquisition. But Veil Guard has more opportunities than ever before to see these side novels come to fruition.
Once again, it all came down to what made sense for these characters’ own arcs. Bellara has no romance with anyone outside of Rook because, as Epler said, she is “a very focused person with a very specific obsession.” Romance isn’t exactly her top priority. For Taash and Harding, however, a romance made perfect sense: both characters navigate accepting who they are and how that fits with what they thought they knew about the communities and cultures they come from.
“I think one of my favorite parts of that arc is how much compatibility emerges as you go through their arcs and you realize that these are two people (…) who are broken in ways that are so complementary that they can heal each other ,” Epler said. “They end up developing a really beautiful relationship, a beautiful romance that makes sense for both of them.”
It’s understandable that players want to play the game without spoilers about which characters power come together. But when you’re on your second playthrough and you already know more about what the characters’ relationships are like with each other, decision making can take on a whole new level of significance. That was certainly the case for game director Corinne Busche.
“What I like about these developments is that it gives us really interesting and compelling decision-making about the choices and consequences within the game,” she told us. “(The relationships), I think, have an extra level to decision-making. I don’t want to get into spoilers, but there was a moment where I put down the controller and had to go, Oh my God, how can I make this decision knowing what I know about these two characters and how they feel about each other? Oh, it just really makes it a hit.
A lot of emphasis is placed on the relationships between characters Veil Guard. Not only is there the usual party banter while you’re out and about in the world, but you can also come across conversations between characters on your home base, soothe disagreements between them, and read codex articles about their book club meetings, cooking rotations, and other things. It makes sense that writing interactions between these companions could lead to some ideas for the writers.
“It really comes down to who makes the most sense for these characters and who we enjoy working with as writers,” Epler said. “Because I think that’s something that people have forgotten (…), well, that’s not it technical fanfiction. It’s the same impulse that drives fan fiction where you think: Who do we love most and who do we want to see together? Who do we think makes the most sense as a couple? And then play with that and see if it really makes sense.”