Dragon Age: The Veilguard has side quests—a lot of them, side quests you should probably do if you want to say appropriately levelled for harder difficulties. You ought to tackle them right away, as well, since the game doesn't really warn you that you're about to cross them off your list as you progress the main story.
I'm here to tell you that you extra shouldn't miss out on one side quest, though: Regrets of the Dread Wolf. You get this quest pretty early on in the game, and while it might scan as an optional Crossroads-themed treasure-hunt, it actually has a massive impact on the game's main story. To the point where I'm shocked it isn't really a part of the main quest (although you do get one of the statuettes you need from the main questline).
Spoiling as little as I possibly can, here, but Regrets of the Dread Wolf develops both major elven god antagonists, fully fleshes out Solas' journey, includes several world-changing lore-drops, and features a conversation I can only assume plays into the ending in some way—I'm 50 hours in but I still haven't scraped the finale. I've got chests to collect.
What I can confirm however is that, unlike other time-gated side quests, this one seems to be forgiving. Its overall arc is designed to carry you to the cap of 50, so don't fret if you're bashing your head against an over-levelled boss. You can always come back later and, as mentioned, will actually have to in order to receive one of the last wolf statues.
You also can't finish this quest until you've gathered your full roster of companions—Harding, Neve, Bellara, Lucanis, Davrin, Emmrich, and Taash. You gotta catch 'em all, as a certain pocket monster game might say.
To be honest, I'm a little surprised this thing is optional. Regrets of the Dread Wolf does a better job of developing Solas, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain than the first 10 or so hours do. Considering I have some very withering thoughts on a story I am now otherwise quite enjoying, I remember feeling a little baffled that these conversations were happening all at once when I had the chance to place these statues down. The core conflicts here are actually super interesting, but they get relegated to side quest territory and, if you've been keeping up with them, delivered all in one expositional heap. Go get your doggy statues—it's worth it, I promise.
