‘Dragon Age The Veilguard’ is an action-roleplaying game set in the fantasy lands of Thedas. The protagonist takes on the role of Rook to explore a world where corrupt ancient gods have broken free and are trying to wage destruction. Rook must gather a powerful team of companions to save the world.
The game is rated M18 for nudity and sexual references.
From a third-person perspective, the player controls Rook to traverse through varied locations, interact with other characters, undertake quests and battle fantastical enemies (creatures, demons, and humanoids comprising humans, elves and other fantasy races. The player can choose to customise the protagonist’s race, gender, faction and combat class, which determines the weapons, abilities and powers that can be used in combat against enemies. Over the course of the game, the player can recruit companions of various race and gender to the cause. Completing quests and defeating enemies earns the player characters gold and experience to level up, unlock new skills, and purchase items.
Some scenes may depict female characters topless, such as during the character customisation screen or in certain romance scenes. As the narrative progresses, the player can develop relationships with party members, and optionally pursue a romance with some, including with same-sex human and fantasy characters. These may culminate in scenes of intimacy depicting the characters kissing and embracing, with some accompanying suggestive dialogue before the screen fades to black alluding to sexual activity. The M18 Classification Guidelines permit “depictions of same-sex kissing and hugging”, and “some homosexual content, if discreet in treatment and not gratuitous”.
There are scenes of realistic violence depicted during battle sequences and in some cutscenes. Characters are slashed and stabbed by melee weapons or shot by arrows and magic projectiles, with blood splattering and staining surfaces. During exploration, the player may come across bloodstained environments, and carcasses and corpses sprawled about, hung aloft or impaled by objects. A scene depicts an animal being sacrificed during a ritual and exploding in a large burst of blood.
The dialogue contains some use of the expletive “f**k” and its variances, as well as the use of crude words such as “asshole”, “bastard”, “damn” and “shit”.