Dragon Age players desperate for greatswords in The Veilguard are working through the 5 stages of grief before the RPG even comes out
Why don't you try a dagger instead?
Before you read any further, I want you to grab a tissue. Okay. You're now ready to hear that Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn't seem to have any greatswords in it.
BioWare's new RPG — which launches October 31 — has fulfilling combat and a satisfying story about you, the protagonist, once again defending the lush continent Thedas from evil. We said as much in our Dragon Age: The Veilguard review. And that's all great, but it's not a greatsword.
Fans started worrying about the two-handed warrior weapon about a month ago, after hands-on previews for The Veilguard came out at the end of September.
"Has anyone seen any footage of a warrior Rook using a greatsword in The Veilguard?" asked one nervous Reddit post. "I combed through a few different preview videos, and I didn't see any greatswords at all."
After that, other people started getting paranoid. "When you're excited for Veilguard, but notice the suspicious lack of greatsword gameplay," one highly upvoted Reddit post says. "I'm not the only one who noticed, right?"
But it wasn't until recently that things got really bad. After posting his own review, YouTuber Norzza told fans in his comments section that "there are no greatswords," accompanied by a very forlorn emoji. We haven't seen a trace of greatswords either, so they're either abnormally well-hidden for heaping hunks of metal, or there's been some sort of greatsword buyback since Inquisition. By my count, fans are at the anger stage of grief.
"First they came for the dual-wielding warriors, and I was told to shut up because they didn't like dual-wielding warriors," says one popular Reddit comment. "Now they've come for the Greatswords." All right, everyone needs to calm down. This would all be a lot easier if we just accept it.
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Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.