BioWare has revealed why companions can’t be managed in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. regardless of this being a key a part of the expertise in earlier video games. Regardless of reducing the variety of companions to make up the occasion from three to 2, the developer felt like controlling companions in Veilguard was turning into detrimental to the participant’s expertise.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard companions had been too technically demanding
Companions have turn out to be an important a part of the expertise in The Veilguard to the purpose the place gamers “actually can not save the world with out these characters.” Nonetheless, BioWare needs gamers to fall into the function of the brand new playable character Rook and concentrate on his actions, which creates some issues.
Sport director Corinne Busche informed Edge journal that Dragon Age: The Veilguard “is a a lot increased actions-per-minute sport. It’s extra technically demanding on the participant. So after we tried permitting you full management of your companions as effectively, what we’ve discovered is it wasn’t truly including to the expertise. In reality, in some methods, it was detrimental, given the demanding nature of simply controlling your personal character.” She added that gamers had been “extra engaged than ever” when management over occasion members was eliminated.
Gamers will nonetheless be capable of have some say in how companions behave throughout fight, although. Busche used returning companion Lace Harding for example: “She’s obtained her personal behaviors; how she prioritizes targets, whether or not she will get up shut and attracts aggro or stays additional again at vary. However you’ll be capable of direct her in fight by activating her skills from the wheel.”
The shortage of management over characters does have some advantages. Companions can proceed to have their very own lives and paths on the planet. They’ll have their very own story arcs with completely different villains and characters unfold all through the sport’s areas. Gamers can encounter these cases; you’ll find Neve investigating an abduction case in Minrathous, for instance. Gamers can interact with these story arcs, but when they don’t, the arcs may resolve on their very own with results on the story and character relationships sooner or later.