Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare’s long-awaited sequel to 2014’s Inquisition, finally arrives in October, and one drastic change has already been ridiculed by fans.
First introduced in 2009’s Dragon Age: Origins, the Qunari have undergone design changes in the past, most notably in Dragon Age: Inquisition, where they were depicted as hard-skinned and bestial in appearance. While the race has always canonically sported horns, the ornamentation was absent in their original depiction.
In Veilguard, those extra appendages return, but BioWare has seemingly opted to tone down the rugged nature of male Qunari, in particular. Reactions to the reimagining, especially now that screenshots taken directly from Veilguard’s character creation have started circulating online, have been mixed, to say the least.
“The aesthetic decision to make Qunari just humans with big foreheads is one of the most baffling things to come out of BioWare, especially when they nailed the look in DA2,” one Reddit thread stated.
The heavily upvoted thread was packed with replies mocking the design, with one comparing Veilguard’s iteration to an infamous Dwayne Johnson role: “Left looks like the CGI they did to The Rock as the Scorpion King.”
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“Incredible, I applaud the bravery. It takes a lot of cojones to design, iterate, approve, and release something that godawful,” came another scathing criticism.
For better or worse, numerous comments compared the redesign to Star Trek. “The new character looks like cheap Star Trek props placed on an actor’s head,” one stated.
Outside of controversial character models, Dragon Age: The Veilguard previews paint a positive picture of BioWare’s latest entry in the series. Check out our preview to see what we thought after seven hours of hands-on experience as well as the full cast of voice talent that will be bringing Veilguard’s story to life when release day rolls around on October 31.