I’ve just discovered that the pair of elven gods I’m hunting have spread the Blight all across Thedas, Qunari traitors are wrecking my hometown, my mentor can barely get out of bed, one of my mates was almost kidnapped by the demon possessing him, and a gigantic dragon hunter just tried to sex me up in my office. I have a lot on my mind. But instead of dealing with any of this, I am instead giving myself a haircut and trying out a new outfit. Again.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard might not be my favourite BioWare RPG, but it’s definitely the one that best taps into my crippling addiction to outfit changes. I have left the flat three times today, and each time I picked a different pair of shoes—for no practical reason. When I went to a wedding last month, I packed three different pairs of spectacles, not including sunglasses. I once missed a flight because I was too busy trying on different trousers. I have a problem, and The Veilguard is only too happy to feed it.
Now, Rook’s hoard of outfits is not as pointlessly expansive as mine—I don’t think even BioWare could justify including 20 pairs of jeans—but you will find yourself picking up all sorts of clobber. Since these outfits cannot be given to companions (they all have their own specific armour and cosmetic appearances), you might assume that most of them will just end up collecting dust. But you’d be very wrong.
This is all thanks to your wardrobe, which is a significant upgrade over the very limited wardrobe BioWare introduced in one of Inquisition’s later patches. Rook can not only wear any piece of armour regardless of class, they can also use their appearance, regardless of what they are actually wearing. So no longer will you have to sacrifice your slickest look for some horrible, over-designed plate monstrosity just because it has better stats—instead you get the best of both worlds.
This feels like even more of a necessity than it would be in other BioWare games, because, well, BioWare has made some tweaks to Dragon Age’s art direction, which means there’s a significant chance that anything you pick up is going to look goofy as hell. I had to give up on my quest to find a decent helmet for my Antivan Crow Spellblade, for instance, because everything the game dumped in my inventory looked absolutely mental.
Like, I get it, BioWare. Antivan Crows. Crows have beaks. Let’s give this helmet a beak too. But what sort of assassin is going to go to work looking like this?
I’ll give BioWare this, though: it’s committed to the bit.
Good helmets are hard to come by, especially if you aren’t going for a warrior vibe. For a wee while, I did try a more armoured fit, which I still quite like, but increasingly I’ve been going hat-free. You can choose to have your headgear show up all the time, remove it during conversations, or just make it invisible entirely.
The Veilguard even cares about your casualwear. Remember the awful pyjamas you had to wear in Inquisition when you were wandering around Skyhold? Good news: they’re not Rook’s style. Instead, what you wear off the clock is determined by the faction you pick at the start of the game. As an Antivan Crow, I get to look hot as fuck. Who would want to change this?
Well, me, it turns out, because as I’ve already established: I have a serious problem. Thankfully, The Veilguard slowly doles out more casual outfits, and you can actually use any outfit you’ve unlocked, even if it’s full plate armour. The game will warn you when an outfit wasn’t designed to be worn casually, which means you might encounter some clipping in cutscenes, but thus far I’ve not noticed anything particularly egregious. And now I’m swanning around the Lighthouse looking like a very dapper boy.
More looks can be picked up in shops all over the map, or doled out as quest rewards or loot. Some outfits are exclusively cosmetic, but every piece of armour you pick up can also be applied to your look when visiting the wardrobe. The same goes for your weapons, and I like to think the countless darkspawn I’ve murdered appreciate the thought I put into the cause of their demise.
For a more extreme makeover, you can also hit up the mirror in the room where Varric is recovering. This will appear right after the prologue, letting you change your physical appearance whenever you want—at no cost. After a particularly tough battle I like to give myself some nasty-looking wounds, and after getting some depressing news about the state of the world, I recuperate by changing up my hair. It’s all very therapeutic.
The roleplaying opportunities might be lacking in The Veilguard, but at least I’ll always have my beloved magical wardrobe.