Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s romances are a step backward for queer representation

BioWare has announced that players will be able to romance all available Dragon Age: The Veilguard characters regardless of gender, but what seems like inclusivity is a disappointing step backward for a series that’s usually ahead of the curb regarding LGBTQ+ representation.

After years of waiting and long periods of radio silence, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is finally getting ready to release later this year. However, one announcement regarding the romance options has given me pause.

Unlike Dragon Age: Inquisition, players will be able to romance any companion regardless of their character’s gender or race. However, while this seems inclusive on the surface, it really feels like a step in the wrong direction, especially considering how well Inquisition handled its queer representation.

In an interview with IGN, game director Corinne Busche confirmed that all companions are “specifically pansexual,” a departure from past games.

How Dragon Age got queer representation right

Dragon Age: Origins featured four romance options: a straight man, a straight woman, a bisexual man, and a bisexual woman. The next game featured four bisexual options, plus one straight male romance option added in The Exiled Prince DLC.

BioWare

Inquisition took things further with eight romanceable characters, including, for the first time, characters who can only be romanced by players of the same gender in Dorian and Sera. This wasn’t the first time BioWare included gay romance options; Mass Effect 3 had Steve Cortez and Samantha Traynor, but while they had interesting stories, Inquisition’s options received far more screentime as companions.

Dorian, in particular, felt like an important step for gay representation in gaming, making Dexerto’s own list of the best video game characters of all time for that very reason.

He’s certainly not defined by his sexual orientation, but it plays an important role in his story. It’s revealed that Dorian’s father attempted to change his sexuality using a blood magic ritual analogous to the harmful conversion therapy many LGBT+ youth are subjected to.

If romanced, Dorian will also note that he’s never really been in a relationship before, with his previous experiences with men being strictly physical rather than emotional.

Since Dragon Age: Inquisition released, Dorian’s storyline has been widely praised for depicting an openly gay man as a multi-faceted individual, something that remains all too rare in gaming. And while Sera has been more divisive, criticism of her character centers on her personality and behavior rather than her sexuality — which is refreshing in its own way.

Why Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s approach falls short

With that in mind, The Veilguard taking the “everyone is romanceable” approach feels like a step in the wrong direction for authentic queer representation.

Dragon Age: Inquisition did something fresh and exciting by giving each romance option their own identity. You may not have been able to pursue a relationship with the first character who caught your eye, but their sexualities seemed like parts of who they were rather than a limitation on the player.

BioWare

Making every character romanceable isn’t inherently a bad thing, and that it’s become the norm rather than the exception is certainly an improvement from the heterosexual-only options of the past.

Still, having The Veilguard revert to this approach feels like a betrayal of the strides forward the last game made with its queer characters.

In fairness to BioWare, the developer is aware of player concerns and pushed back on the idea that companions are “playersexual” — a fan-coined term to describe romanceable characters whose sexual orientation is determined by the player’s identity.

As Corinne Busche explained, “It can be really off-putting where these characters are adapting to who you, the player, are.” To combat this, all companions are pansexual, and “[the player] has no bearing on their identities”; characters may mention past relationships or (if not romanced) enter into relationships with other companions, with gender being a nonissue.

But even though this is an improvement from games like Stardew Valley — a game where the gender of one romanceable character’s ex will change to match the player’s — it’s a far cry from the diverse and authentic representation the LGBTQ+ community deserves.

Developers should view Inquisition’s queer characters as the bar they want to live up to, but instead, BioWare itself is backtracking.

Bisexual and pansexual representation is important — and I know I’d love to see explicitly bi and pan characters in gaming overtake playersexual ones. However, that shouldn’t come at the cost of gay and lesbian representation.