As BioWare gears up for its fall release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, one of the cast’s voice actors for playable protagonist Rook says they’re “terrified and thrilled” to be taking on the role.

Erika Ishii, the iconic voice behind characters like Apex Legend’s Valkyrie and Destiny 2’s Anastasia Bray, reveals that they’ve spent “over four years” now recording lines for the new Dragon Age game. Introducing themselves as “one of the voices of Rook,” Ishii explains in a video filmed prior to the strike for protection against AI that “this is the first time that I have taken on the role of a protagonist in a big AAA game.”

As a “longtime fan” of BioWare’s RPG series, Ishii admits that they’re “both terrified and thrilled” to act as one of Rook’s four possible voices - and also grateful for how diverse and inclusive of players’ identities The Veilguard is. “As someone who identifies as genderfluid, it means the world to me to have the option to play as a trans or non-binary main character in a Dragon Age game,” says the actor.

“I can look the way that I want and I can speak with my voice in a world that sees me for who I am - Rook,” Ishii continues. “I’ve been working on this game for over four years and as a fan of the series, being even a small part of this game is an honor but a challenge and I did my best to make a game that I would want to play.” The actor concludes, sharing that they hope players will “enjoy my Rook in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.”

As a longtime stan of BioWare’s fantasy series myself, I’m now even more excited for The Veilguard than I thought was possible - Rook customization seems like it’ll stand as part of the best character creator the studio’s ever put in an RPG, inclusive of all flavors of player. Between that and the talented cast of voice actors, including Ishii and Baldur’s Gate 3’s sex noise specialist, the upcoming Dragon Age is shaping up to be my GOTY.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard took “so long” as BioWare “wanted to make sure we got this one right” - that, and “it takes a long time to record 700 characters” and 140,000 lines