I felt a neuron activate in me the moment I saw the mage in Dragon Age: The Veilguard's latest trailer teleport-dodge out of an attack like it was nothing. Mages always bring the flashiest spells to the fight, but if I get to Dark Souls dodge-roll with magic, I will not play another class.
Admittedly, I'm always partial to wizards of any kind in RPGs. Conjuring elements out of thin air never gets old, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard gets it. Although we've seen a good amount of action from the game already, it was exciting to watch a boss fight play out uninterrupted in the trailer shown during today's PlayStation State of Play. Nothing gives you a better look at an RPG's systems coalescing than a fight that takes your entire toolkit to defeat.
When Corius the Icetalon lunges forward and snaps its jaws, you can blink out of thin air to dodge it. The cooldown looks just long enough, however, that you can't spam it like you would a dodge roll in a Souls game. Luckily, there are plenty of other spells to use while it's recharging, like a brief barrier spell that seems to nullify attacks.
You can set up satisfying magical combos with your allies too. In the trailer, we see the mage command her buddies to weaken the dragon before pulling a meteor down from the sky to inflict burning on it—and then later, pull electricity out of the air and engulf the dragon in a massive AoE spell. It all looks potent and sounds like it has a meaningful impact, which is something earlier Dragon Ages lacked for me compared to more action-heavy RPGs at the time.
After reading Lauren Morton's Dragon Age: The Veilguard hands-on preview and now seeing this, I think it's pretty clear that this one has the juice. I'll be donning my robes and staff when it's out on October 31.
