Dragon Age: The Veilguard's "web-like" skill trees were "heavily influenced" by Final Fantasy 10 and 12's RPG progression

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The Sphere Grid and License Board provided inspiration for BioWare's next romp

A screenshot of Davrin seen in Dragon Age: The Veilguard's reveal trailer.
(Image credit: BioWare)

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set to have sprawling skill trees for each class that take inspiration from Final Fantasy 10's Sphere Grid and Final Fantasy 12's License Board.

In an interview with RPG Site, Dragon Age: The Veilguard director Corinne Busche explained that skill trees unlock a few missions into the game. "The skill tree is absolutely enormous and it is bespoke for your class," Busche said, "...imagine almost a gigantic spider web-like visual, and if I'm a mage right at the very center is the core of the mage kit."

Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Edition is not only Busche's "favorite," but its wildly flexible License Board that lets you mix and match jobs was another big inspiration. "[Final Fantasy 12's] level of ability selection, passives, in our case also traits - I would say the amount of customization is more analogous to that," Busche added. "So Final Fantasy 12 might be in my top three favorite games. I'm highly influenced by that when it comes to progression."

I'm definitely interested in plodding my way through another Sphere Grid lookalike (with the License Board's customization), though I do hope it's not littered with teeny stat increases. There's no bigger buzzkill in games than when you level up, dash to the menu with your new skill points, and can only spend them on a +2 speed upgrade. 

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.