BioWare releases Dragon Age: The Veilguard character creator as free, stand-alone app

BioWare had plenty to share as part of Wednesday’s Dragon Age Day celebrations, including a big new patch for Dragon Age: The Veilguard and a new stand-alone character creator for the game. Players can now spend countless hours finessing the look of their Rook without having to actually pay for the game itself — though, if they do, they can transfer their personalized character to the full version of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

There’s no time limit on how long players can spend customizing their Rook in the stand-alone character creator. So if you, like many other role-playing game enthusiasts, want to spend dozens of hours crafting a virtual person, Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s free character creator is available on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

For Dragon Age Day, BioWare dropped another treat for longtime franchise fans on Wednesday. Owners of Dragon Age: The Veilguard can now get the armor, body paint, and “nose blood smear” of Dragon Age 2 protagonist Hawke for their Rook. These free cosmetics can be found in the Lighthouse after downloading the game’s new patch and completing the mission “The Singing Blade.” (More details on patch 4 for Dragon Age: The Veilguard are available at the game’s official website.)

Character creation in games like Dragon Age: The Veilguard have become major selling points in recent years, as evidenced by the deep and extensive customization tools in games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring. Some publishers, like Capcom, have gone the extra mile for character creation obsessives, giving players pre-release customization access in Dragon’s Dogma 2 and next year’s Monster Hunter Wilds.

Hopefully, by the time the next Mass Effect game arrives, BioWare will follow in Capcom’s steps so we can perfectly hone our commanders in advance of the full game’s release.