We’ve heard a lot of talk about how expansive and detailed the character creator is in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. With sneak peeks and cheeky hints from the Bioware team on social media, hype is understandably building for what promises to be a hugely in-depth element of the game. Having now had the opportunity to play the beginning of the game, I can promise you one thing: they’re still underselling how deep it goes.
Character sliders aren’t anything particularly new to games. We’ve seen how well they can be implemented across this past year or two, in games like Dragon’s Dogma 2, Rise of the Ronin and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. We know that layers upon layers of tiny tweaks can come together beautifully, for a character that feels wholly unique.
But credit where credit is due, the Dragon Age: The Veilguard character creator adds a level of specificity and nuance that builds on the legacy of the slider. As I noted in my preview coverage, my first step in this character creator was to create myself, ripe with the knowledge that statistically, most players will do so.
But even after going through and using every slider possible to render my own image, the depth and breadth of what’s possible still surprised me – not simply in how easy the character creator was to use, but how extensive the options were. In my preview I stated:
“Representation has always been so integral to the franchise (and to games more generally) that seeing things like age sliders, vitiligo sliders and heterochromia didn’t really surprise me. These are, or at least should be, mainstays in any good creator. But in all my years of playing, I’ve never seen any button in a character creator that goes to the depth of asking, ‘hey, do you want to give your character cataracts?’ and have them look legitimate.”
In a late afternoon Q&A session with the game developers, I got the opportunity to ask them about how granular the character creator really is, and how they decided its depth.
“Of our three core design pillars, ‘be who you want to be’ was the first, that was the starting point,” said Corinne Busche, Game Director. “We wanted everyone to feel like they belong in this game to the best of our ability, that you could relate to the characters the options – so that meant sclera color, it meant cataracts, it meant vitiligo, freckles, respectful skin tones that react to light properly.”
It’s easy to see how much detail and devotion has been put into those elements when you’re knee-deep in the character creator – and it’s even easier to see how you could spend hours playing around in it. It’s almost a game unto itself.
Farewell and good riddance to the green glow
The most common complaint about the character creator in the game’s predecessor, Dragon Age: Inquisition, was that the pervasive green lighting in the creation screen made it extremely difficult to render your character in a way that looked good in the stark light of day.
I for one can’t begin to count the amount of times I’d re-rolled my character from scratch after realising that a stray makeup choice or slightly-off skin texture had ruined the vision I had for the character I’d be spending hours with.
Thankfully, the Dragon Age: The Veilguard character creation system involves a dynamic lighting option, which alters the light straight from the creation menu. No longer will the green glow ruin your day – now, you can view how your character might look at high noon, while half-obscured in shadow, and more.
Though, in the case of NPCs and companions, sometimes the green glow is still welcome. Shout out to Manfred, the skeleton, who rocks the green glow spectacularly.
Let’s talk about the mane event
We also have to take a moment to appreciate the game’s hair. From gifs and clips of swooshing manes, the hair options and physics in Dragon Age: The Veilguard character creator are already widely discussed – and for good reason. I won’t pretend there isn’t still the occasional instance of clipping when you’ve got a lengthy do and are laden with armour, but it’s entirely reasonable to look past that given how well the strands move and settle 95% of the time.
As someone who has a whole lot of hair in real life, I’m well aware that choosing the option where it’s all out and swishing down the length of your back is an impractical choice for battle. Would I put it up in a braid or bun if I myself was facing down an army of darkspawn? Sure, without a doubt. Will my awesome character do so? Not on your life.
Read: Dragon Age: The Veilguard officially launches in October 2024
Will the character creator be available before launch?
One of the very last questions of the Q&A session had the entire hall of media representatives waiting with bated breath – will Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s extensive character creator be made available prior to the game’s launch, à la Dragon’s Dogma 2?
“It’s a much requested feature,” said Busche. “We’re TBD on that, but [it] could be pretty stinking cool.”
Electronic Arts provided flights and accommodation to GamesHub in order to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard and interview developers. Electronic Arts did not have oversight of this article.
