Good News For Arachnophobes, Dragon Age: The Veilguard Won't Have Any Spiders

Summary

• Dragon Age: The Veilguard won't feature spiders and thus, won't have an arachnophobia mode.
• This is the first time the series won't feature giant spiders.
• Ghilan'nain will likely cook up even more horrifying creatures than the familiar giant spider.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard won't feature any spiders, a blessing for those who suffer from arachnophobia, and also those who want more interesting RPG enemies.

Giant spiders have been a staple enemy of Dragon Age since Origins, where they were heavily used as generic beast enemies you had to wipe out to advance through a cave. Why were there giant spiders all over Ferelden and the Deep Roads? Because the Veil is thin, you dummy. Obviously, the Veilguard has successfully guarded the Veil, consequently eliminating this threat from Thedas.

Spiders Begone

In all seriousness, this information comes courtesy of BioWare associate community manager Violet (blackhairvioleteyes) who revealed Dragon Age: The Veilguard doesn't need an arachnophobia mode because there are no spiders, in response to a question on the topic. BioWare's latest blog post detailed the accessibility options available in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Arachnophobia modes are becoming more common in games that use spiders as enemies, like Grounded and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The arachnophobia mode in Grounded turns spiders into squishy spheres, but they still make terrifying snarling noises, dulling their cuteness factor a bit. Here's a personal anecdote, I used to get my younger brother to play through the spidery bits of Dragon Age: Origins and I'm not even a full-blown arachnophobe.

The wide use of giant spiders in Dragon Age: Origins was likely a technical decision, as BioWare only had so much time to create diverse enemies. They were utilised far less in Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. Still, considering one of our primary antagonists is Ghilan'nain who is famed for creating horrific beasts, it's surprising we aren't going to see anything resembling an arachnid.

The short story, The Horror of Hormak, from the anthology novel Tevinter Nights seems to hint at Ghilan'nain's proclivities for creating horrific creatures, including darkspawn/centipede hybrids.

Dragon Age: Origins likely introduced the giant spider because it's a generic fantasy enemy, originating with the creatures Ungoliant and Shelob from J.R.R Tolkien's work. These days, Dragon Age has enough enemy types without needing to use generic ones.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

WHERE TO PLAY

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the long-awaited fourth game in the fantasy RPG series from BioWare formerly known as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf. A direct sequel to Inquisition, it focuses on red lyrium and Solas, the aforementioned Dread Wolf.