According to BioWare, the size of the skill tree in the new Dragon Age will be huge, not just the player’s freedom (of course, you have to reach a certain point in the story).

Corinne Busche, one of the game’s directors, has already revealed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be mostly mission-based, and the other director, John Epler, told Stephen Totilo at Summer Game Fest that we’ll have “more room to maneuver” in the story once we reach a certain point: “Once you get past a certain point, the game opens up dramatically. Dragon Age Inquisition was a very open world game and this is not. And part of that is because we wanted to make sure that all of the content mattered and that it was a more structured, sculpted experience for the player. That said… there’s exploration. There are opportunities to go off the beaten path. Some areas are quite wide.”

In another interview (with RPG Site), Busche said that character progression will also be specifically deep, and we also learned that we’ll be able to progress up to level 50 in Dragon Age: The Veilguard: “If I were to contrast Mass Effect versus Dragon Age, for example… I really see Mass Effect as an ARPG. Big action, little RPG. We’re almost the complete opposite of that. So a few missions in, you unlock the skill tree, every level up, you get skill points, of course. The skill tree is absolutely huge and it is tailored to your class. So when we talk about specializations, we know that skill trees can be overwhelming for players. When it is unlocked, imagine almost a giant spider web-like visual. And if I’m a mage, right in the middle is the core of the Mage kit.

It is divided into three sections in addition to the specializations. In the case of Warrior, for example, you have a section that’s more defense oriented, one that’s more weapon oriented, and one that’s more skill oriented. So what you might do if you’re trying to get to, say, the Reaper specialization is instead of going up through defense to get to Reaper, I’m going to go down through ability to get to Reaper. The skills are unique per class. We have a level cap of 50. One of my frustrations with some of the other games that have similar skill tree systems is that if you go up to specialization, it can take absolutely all of your skill points and then you have nothing left. We’re the exact opposite. You get into your specialization about halfway through the game, and then you can really branch out,” Busche said.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard will have five core abilities for each of our companions, and the game will launch sometime this fall for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC.

Source: WCCFTech, Game File, RPG Site