Game Director Corinne Busche from Bioware was once again in a chatty mood and revealed why you cannot control your companions in Dragon Age: The Veilguard as extensively as in previous parts.
It will be really interesting to see whether Bioware will return to its former strengths with Dragon Age: The Veilguard after a long dry spell. But one thing is clear: Veilguard (I still liked the name Dreadwolf better) will have some new features compared to its predecessors.
One of them is apparently that you can only have two companions in the group instead of three. Another is that you will have significantly less control over your companions and, according to Corinne Busche, there are reasons for this. And one of them is that you will apparently have enough to do controlling Rook. In an interview with Edge Magazine, Busche explains it as follows:
“We wanted you to feel like you are Rook,” Busche explains. “You’re in this world and you’re really focused on your actions. We wanted you to feel like your companions are full characters in control of their own actions. They make their own choices.”
In addition, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a game with many more actions per minute. It is technically more demanding for the player. “So when we tried to give you full control over your companions, we realized that this didn’t really enrich the gaming experience. In a way, it was even detrimental, because controlling your own character is so demanding,” says Busche.
At first, this sounds like a step backwards compared to earlier parts of the series, but according to Busche, the change was well received in the playtests. Especially since you still have a certain amount of control, because even if the companions have their own behavior, you can still activate their skills, among other things, to accurately execute the new combos and symbioses and have a certain tactical level in the fights.
What we don’t have yet is an official release date for the game. So far, based on EA’s financial reports, the fourth quarter of 2024 is still on the cards.
There’s plenty of early gameplay to see from the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard in this 20-minute video.
