A Deep Dive Into Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Expansive Character Creator

As BioWare ready to point out me the character creator for Dragon Age: The Veilguard in its Edmonton, Canada, workplaces, I anticipated one thing sturdy – it is 2024, character creators have come a great distance, and Bioware has a wealthy historical past of excellent customization. Regardless of my expectations, I used to be not ready for a way sturdy it really is in Veilguard. Strong sufficient, even, that BioWare used it to create many of the NPCs within the sport, save for mainline characters like companions. Setting hyperbole apart, it’s a staggeringly wealthy creation system, and I look ahead to seeing player-created near-replicas of celebrities and monstrous creations that’d be extra at dwelling in a horror sport. 

However I am additionally trying ahead to the neighborhood’s response to the Dragon Age collection’ finest character creator but. On the coronary heart of it’s inclusivity, Veilguard sport director Corinne Busche tells me earlier than letting me information her by creating my very own character. 

As is common, there are 4 races to select from: Elves, Qunari, People, and Dwarves. After choosing Qunari, Busche pages by varied presets, explaining the sport permits for extra detailed appears to be like at every and the flexibility to decide on pronouns with she/her, he/him, they usually/them individually from gender, choose completely different physique sorts, and extra. You’ll be able to view your character, known as Rook in-Game, in 4 completely different lighting scenes at any time, together with The Veilguard’s keynote purple hue, a vivid and sunny tropical day, and a gothic night time. 

I joke with the staff that after spending upwards of an hour creating my Dragon Age: Inquisition character in 2014, I instantly restarted the sport after seeing him within the first cutscene; the in-Game lighting made my hair colour look horrible amongst different points I had with my Inquisitor. Veilguard artistic director John Epler says the staff is conscious of numerous tales like that with Inquisition and its green-hued character creator, including BioWare labored exhausting to squash that concern in Veilguard. 

Head and physique presets could be chosen individually and customised to your liking with 40 completely different complexions that embrace clean, rugged, youthful, and freckled pores and skin tones, pores and skin hues starting from cool to impartial to heat, undertones to these pores and skin tones, and even a melanin slider. Busche tells me BioWare relied on session to characterize all individuals authentically. There is a Vitiligo slider (the place you possibly can alter the depth and quantity of it) and sliders in your brow, forehead, cheeks, jaw, chin, larynx, and scalp. You’ll be able to choose your undergarments, with nudity as properly as a result of “this can be a mature RPG,” Busche provides, and use the “Physique Morpher” to pick out three presets for every nook of a triangle after which transfer a cursor inside it to morph your physique or head into a mixture of these presets. It is a formidable expertise I would wish to see adopted in different video Games. 

I can maintain going: You’ll be able to alter top, shoulder width, chest dimension, glute and bulge dimension, hip width, how bloodshot your eyes are, how seen cataracts are, the sclera colour, how crooked your nostril is, how huge its bridge is, the scale of nostrils and the nostril tip, and there are as many sliders, if no more, for issues like Rook’s mouth and ears. On ears alone, I see you possibly can alter asymmetry, depth, rotation, earlobe dimension, and even add cauliflower ear to your Rook. Busche says make-up blends trendy stylings with the fantasy of Dragon Age with greater than 30 choices, together with eyeliner depth, colour, glitter, eye shadow, lips, and blush.

Tattoos are simply as customizable alongside choices for scars and paint. Tattoos, scars, and paint are very culturally related to some lineages, BioWare tells me, with distinctive tattoos for elves, for instance. You’ll be able to add tattoos to Rook’s face, physique, arms, and legs, and you may alter issues like depth, too. 

Im most impressed, nonetheless, by the hair choices on show; there are a ton, and as somebody with lengthy hair, I am particularly excited in regards to the enjoyable choices I could make. You’ll be able to lastly dye your hair with non-traditional colours, and it is beautiful. EA’s Frostbite engine makes use of the Strand system to render every type absolutely with physics. “The expertise has lastly caught as much as our ambition,” Dragon Age collection artwork director Matt Rhodes says.

After customizing all of that and choosing our Qunari’s horn sort and materials (of which there are greater than 40 choices to select from), it is time to choose a category out of the Rogue, Mage, and Warrior – learn extra about Veilguard’s courses right here. Since we constructed a Qunari, we went with Warrior. For the penultimate step of the character creator, at the least throughout the demo BioWare exhibits me, we choose a faction. Out of the six choices, we choose the pirate-themed Lords of Fortune. 

“Rook ascends due to comPetency, not due to a magical McGuffin,” BioWare core lead and Mass Impact govt producer Michael Gamble tells me in distinction to Inquisition’s destiny-has-chosen-you-characterization.

“Rook is right here as a result of they select to be and that speaks to the sort of character that we have constructed,” Busche provides. “Somebody must cease this, and Rook says, ‘I suppose that’s me.'”

Prepared to start our Rook’s journey, we choose a primary and final identify and one in all 4 voices out of English masculine, English female, American masculine, or American female choices. There is a pitch shifter for every voice, too, permitting you to tweak it to your liking additional.

Do not stress an excessive amount of about locking in your character creations earlier than starting the sport – the Mirror of Transformation, which is present in Veilguard’s foremost hub, The Lighthouse, lets you change your bodily look at any time. Nonetheless, class, lineage, and identification are locked in and can’t be modified after you choose them within the sport’s character creator. 

From right here, we’re off to Minrathous, and you may learn extra about that famed metropolis in our cowl story, which is on the market right here.

For extra in regards to the sport, together with unique particulars, interviews, video options, and extra, click on the Dragon Age: The Veilguard hub button under.