Dragon Age: The Veilguard Will Push Players to Change Party Members Often, Bioware Explains Why

According to Bioware’s data, Dragon Age players tend to use a fixed or nearly fixed party for the duration of the adventure. It’s not hard to understand why, since many players become attached to certain characters and always want to have them by their side during the adventure. However, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard developers want to change the rules of the game, pushing players to change formations often.

According to Corinne Busche, game director of The Veilguard, this will happen in two ways, one mandatory and the other optional. The first is through portions of the game that force the inclusion of a certain character in the team for narrative reasonsthe other is through some secondary story arcs dedicated to each member of the party, which can evolve and continue even without the player’s interventionwhich could therefore miss out on some interesting interactions.

Words from Cornne Busche of Bioware

“We expect players to have favorite companions that they usually want to adventure with, but sometimes certain companions will be mandatory.”, Busche told Edge magazine. “Others may not always be available. They have a life outside of the mission of Rook, the main character.” The characters “have had past experiences that they will share with you if you allow them to get close to you.”

Since the characters have “a life of their own,” you will also encounter them in the game world. Busche gives the example of how while exploring the port of Minrathous you might come across Neve investigating a kidnapping case.

“If I interact with her, I can stop what I was doing for her arc and go into her part of the story. What’s cool is that all the companion arcs tie into the themes of the main story, but they also have their own unique challenges and antagonists, and they take place over different intimate moments.”

“While they are optional, I would hesitate to call them secondary content in this game,” Busche says. “If you choose not to participate in some of these companion-focused events, they will conclude on their own. And that could have interesting implications.”

Staying on the subject of characters, in Dragon Age: The Veilguard it will not be possible to directly control party members other than the protagonist.