Dragon Age: The Veilguard director says the RPG won't repeat Inquisition's most infamous mistake: 'You spent ten hours in the Hinterlands'

Dragon Age: The Veilguard addresses the pacing issues of Dragon Age: Inquisition's Hinterlands by focusing on a crafted and curated experience with a more prominent story.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard has no plans to repeat the missteps of the infamous Hinterlands from Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Speaking to Edge magazine, creative director John Epler says that the team behind Dragon Age: The Veilguard "wanted to build a crafted, curated experience for the player. Pacing is important to us, and making sure that the story stays front and center."

Before Epler was creative director on The Veilguard, he was a cinematic designer on Inquisition. Earlier this week, he acknowledged that the camera system he created for that game might not have been his finest work, but he also says that Inquisition had bigger problems that he's worked to overcome in its successor.

"One of the things we ran into on that project was an absentee antagonist. Corypheus showed up and then disappeared. You spent ten hours in the Hinterlands doing side quests, and there wasn't that sense of urgency." 

Our sister publication Edge sat down with three Dragon Age directors, who also revealed why Veilguard won't let you control your companions and how Dragon Age's biggest-ever city was shaped by a single line.

I've never played Inquisition, and its release predates my current career by several years, but even now, ten years later, I remember how infamous the Hinterlands became after Inquisition's launch. To this day, the aspect of the Dragon Age series I'm most familiar with is the refrain that the best way to play Inquisition was to simply 'Get Out of the Hinterlands' as quickly as possible.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard would always have struggled to follow Inquisition's footsteps exactly since it's a "mission-based" RPG that won't be open-world. Nevertheless, Epler suggests that fans of that formula won't be entirely left behind: "There's still exploration - there's still the ability to go into some of these larger spaces and go off the beaten path to do sidequests. But there's always something in the story propelling you and the action forward, and allowing you to make decisions with these characters where the stakes feel a lot more immediate and present. And also, honestly, more real."

The wait is getting shorter, but to help fill the gap, check out our Dragon Age: The Veilguard preview.