RPG Site spoke with director Corinne Busche about the RPG systems of Dragon Age: The Veilguard:
More information.
Thanks Couchpotato!Dragon Age: The Veilguard's director talks RPG systems, skill trees, and being inspired by Final Fantasy XII
Dragon Age: The Veilguard was fully revealed with a flurry of exciting activity this week, with BioWare putting out a trailer, some gameplay footage, and a bunch of information. But as the promotional material focuses on courting the mainstream with dazzling action-led footage and its cast of characters, it of course has led to one key fan outcry: is it still a role-playing game?
Naturally, we were interested in that too. The hands-on offered glimpses of an incredible character creator, interesting dialogue choices, and some consequences for those choices - all role-playing staples. But what about combat? What about good old-fashioned RPG character progression and growth, which in many ways is the bedrock of the genre?
After seeing the hands-off demo, we got a chance to briefly chat with Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche - who right away gushes about being a real RPG system nerd. I get the impression we could've sat and talked about classic RPGs and their mechanics for hours; she is one of us. In our brief chat, she expands on how The Veilguard's progression, growth, and skill tree work - revealing granular information not present in the demo shown so far. Here's our chat.
RPG Site: So, can you just broadly talk to me about... in that preview, we don't even see the menu, right? So can you talk to me about where the game sits and what it's like in terms of that RPG progression, from the perspective of hardcore RPG fans?
Corinne Busche: Incredibly deep! So if I were to contrast Mass Effect versus Dragon Age, for instance... I really view Mass Effect as an ARPG. Big action, minor RPG. We're almost the total inverse of that.
So a few missions in, you unlock the skill tree right away, Every level up, you get skill points, of course. The skill tree is absolutely enormous and it is bespoke for your class. So when we talk about the specializations, we know that skill trees can be overwhelming to players as well. So what I love - I'll try to paint a picture for you....
When it is unlocked, imagine almost a gigantic spider web-like visual. And if I'm a mage right at the very center is the core of the Mage kit.
[...]
More information.