Has Dragon Age lost its identity, or am I just being grumpy about BioWare’s new take on it?

Let me be very clear right out of the gate, I'm owed absolutely nothing from EA, BioWare or the Dragon Age series. Just because I've played every Dragon Age game to date, and consider the series one of the great videogame events of my life, that doesn't make me entitled to anything—and it's certainly not up to me the direction the next game in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, takes.

However, after watching the new reveal trailer, my personal concerns about this sequel have hit DEFCON 1. I'm worried and deflated, questioning myself if, actually, I'm the problem in this series' roadmap to continued financial success thanks to my expectations and wishes, while also at the same time praying to the Maker right now that this cinematic introduction to The Veilguard is not representative of the actual game.

My colleague here at PC Gamer, and fellow Dragon Age fan, Robin Valentine, upon watching the trailer, asked, «Is it just me, or do the newly revealed companions of Dragon Age: The Veilguard look like they're in a hero shooter?» And he's bang right, they absolutely do. In fact, I'd go as far to say they look like something from a battle pass expansion for a Marvel movie tie-in game. Like, what is going on with the trailer's cartoony, Pixar-lite art style? Or the cheesy freeze frame superhero-style intros? Or the nonchalant-at-best, outright-comedy-at-worst, general tone? It is so far removed from anything we've seen to date in Dragon Age cinematic trailers that, if it didn't show me Varric and Scout Harding briefly and have one of them say 'Darkspawn', I'd have no idea this was actually a Dragon Age game. I mean, was that the plan? Did BioWare and EA want to largely wipe the slate clean with this release, recalibrating the series into something else entirely? If so, then this trailer is mission accomplished.

I'm not mis-remembering things, either. Compare with the Dragon Age: Origins — Sacred Ashes trailer, or the Dragon Age: Inquisition — The Hero of Thedas