Dragon Age: The Veilguard game director says Inquisition's epilogue DLC 'should have been part of the base game'

Dragon Age Dreadwolf antogonist, Solas the elf, with a huge wolf walking next to him through smoke
(Image credit: BioWare/EA)

When it launches, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is going to have its work cut out for it when it comes to orienting players in its world. Not just because it's the fourth game in a series whose last game came out 10 years ago, but because the beginning of its story hinges on a DLC chapter from that game. Because of its importance to the story, Veilguard's game director said recently that Dragon Age: Inquisition's final DLC probably should have been included in the base game.

After the recent Veilguard preview sessions—during which I got to play and came away feeling like it could be BioWare's comeback—YouTuber MrMattyPlays asked game director Corinne Busche about DLCs.

"I'm a huge fan of Trespasser," Busche says of Inquisition's final big story DLC. "If I were to give any critique, it would only be that Trespasser is so central to the Dragon Age: Inquisition story that arguably maybe that should have been part of the base game."

(Image credit: BioWare)

This isn't the first critique that BioWare has made of prior Dragon Age games, but this is definitely the most deserved one. At the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition, your magical scholar party member Solas vanishes without explanation. There's a teaser in the ending that gives away his identity as the Dread Wolf (the former title for The Veilguard) but you really don't wind up seeing Solas as an antagonist until he appears in the Trespasser DLC that launched 10 months later. That DLC digs into a lot of Solas' motivations and goals and is pretty important context for The Veilguard.

If you didn't play that DLC and don't make a habit of watching lore explainer YouTube videos, you could come into The Veilguard wondering when the heck Solas turned into a 'destroy the world for the greater good' kind of guy. That really wasn't his vibe in Inquisition. 

This isn't the first time that a Dragon Age game has jumped off from a prior game's DLC either. Something similar happened with Dragon Age 2's DLC Legacy, which introduced Corypheus, who would go on to be Inquisition's main villain.

It sounds like, no matter what, The Veilguard isn't planning to leave a theoretical future Dragon Age game in a similar position. "We wanted to make it the most complete, out of the box package we possibly could—from the player experience to the narrative—everything else," Busche says.

Whether The Veilguard plans to have any DLCs of its own is less clear. MrMatty says in that video interview that BioWare confirmed there weren't any DLC plans for The Veilguard. What Busche actually said was: "Never say never, but right now the entirety of the team is just focused on making sure this is the right game."

Having heard plenty of game directors dance around committing to future plans prior to a game launch, that isn't quite my interpretation. That sounds a lot more like 'we haven't announced that,' than 'we aren't doing that' to me.

Whether or not there are story DLCs for The Veilguard down the line, it sounds like we can at least expect them not to be critical story epilogues. 

TOPICS
Lauren Morton
Associate Editor

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.

Read more
Mass Effect 4 teaser image
Former BioWare vet says the studio is focused on a single game 'for the first time maybe ever' with Mass Effect 5—and whether that's good or bad is anyone's guess
Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds in the Dragon Age serries, shown wielding magic in front of a Darkspawn.
Is this the end of Dragon Age? Veilguard was good, but BioWare needed an all-timer, and I'm nervous about what's next
The Veilguard - Neve grimaces and uses magic to fend off a magical punch
It sure sounds like Electronic Arts thinks cutting Dragon Age: The Veilguard's live service components was a mistake
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Dragon Age: The Veilguard is my third-favorite game of the year, and I don't care who knows
Rook, Neve, Emmrich, Lucanis, and the rest of their alliance stand together
Dragon Age: The Veilguard's latest update sure sounds like its last
Dragon Age character Varric looking confidently forward
Former Dragon Age developers are not happy with EA CEO's suggestion that The Veilguard should have live service features: 'I'd probably quit'
Latest in Dragon Age
Dragon Age Dreadwolf antogonist, Solas the elf, with a huge wolf walking next to him through smoke
Dragon Age voice actor says his favourite way to play Inquisition is as a woman who romances himself, which is apparently 'the best'
BioWare has reportedly lost at least half its staff, with fewer than 100 people left and the studio a ghost of its former self
Dragon Age character Varric looking confidently forward
'Dragon Age isn't dead because it's yours now,' former BioWare writer reassures fans: 'EA/BioWare owns the IP but you can't own an idea'
Morrigan, the Witch of the Wilds in the Dragon Age serries, shown wielding magic in front of a Darkspawn.
Is this the end of Dragon Age? Veilguard was good, but BioWare needed an all-timer, and I'm nervous about what's next
Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Lace Harding looks inquisitive in a dark inn
Dragon Age: The Veilguard game director departs BioWare after 18 years at EA after an offer to build a new RPG she 'couldn't turn down'
Cullen from Dragon Age: Inquisition stares at the player amidst a snow-cloaked backdrop.
Dragon Age voice actor arrested on multiple charges over allegations, including revenge porn and harassment
Latest in News
Crying laughing emoji with disturbing realistic elements for REPO
REPO's first update will add a new map and a 'duck bucket' so we can finally give that pesky quacker a time out
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021