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.”
Busche continued to say the skill trees were “heavily influenced” by Final Fantasy 10’s Sphere Grid, a massive board of nodes that let you buff stats and unlock abilities, only this time, “to make it more accessible,” the specializations lie on the “outer edges of the grid.” While Veilguard’s “organization is more similar to the Sphere Grid” with a board that you work outwards from, it’s “not an exact match.”
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.