Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s promotional campaign is in full swing after BioWare reintroduced the re-titled RPG at Summer Game Fest earlier this month. While we learned a lot from the gameplay reveal and the behind-closed-doors presentation at the show, BioWare is still drip-feeding information to fans, most recently in the form of a Discord Q&A with game director Corinne Busche, creative director John Epler, and art director Matt Rhodes that took place earlier today, June 14.
Having two party members will change things
Every previous Dragon Age game has used a party of four characters including your player character, whereas The Veilguard has shaved this down to three. You’ll only be able to bring two companions with you at a time, similar to the Mass Effect series, and fans are worried this might affect things like party banter, which has become a staple in the series. Busche explained that lowering the party count came hand-in-hand with a desire to bring everything in gameplay to a more intimate level, and that means commanding more party actions all at once.
“We just found that when you’re playing the combat system, when you’re planning your strategies, two really felt like the right number to manage,” she said. “So keep in mind, [protagonist] Rook has a lot of different types of actions, abilities, and individual attacks that are more fully fleshed out than ever before. Timing and positioning really matter a lot, so this really felt like the right balance. The number of inputs and actions we’re asking you as a player to take, including directing your companions, is higher than ever before. […] I engage with the companions, [and] actively control what they’re doing more than I ever have before in any of the other three games.”
As far as banter goes, Epler said that The Veilguard will still include banter between companions as you travel through the world, even if fewer people are taking part in the conversation at once. He also confirmed that BioWare has gone out of its way to include features like resumable banter to ensure you don’t miss a conversation by accidentally triggering an event that interrupts it. While there will be interactions between characters during your travels, BioWare also confirmed there will be banter at your home base, so you’ll still get a sense of their relationships with one another if you don’t take them out to the field.
“Honestly, I don’t think you could stop the writers from writing banter,” Epler said. “I will say for myself it’s one of the more light but fun things to do. You get to write little stories and little arcs between different characters.”
You can kiss a skeleton, maybe?
Since it was revealed that Emmrich, the old man necromancer party member, would have a skeletal assistant named Manfred, Dragon Age fans have, perhaps predictably, wondered if you can kiss the lipless man. Rhodes shot down any notion of a Manfred romance, but he seems to imply that you’ll be able to do…something….with a skeleton at some point in The Veilguard.
“I would say, ‘not that skeleton,’ but we’re not saying ‘no skeletons,’” Rhodes responded to a fan asking to bone the bones.
There’s no photo mode…yet
BioWare has confirmed that The Veilguard doesn’t have a photo mode, but is open to adding it. This would be the second time the studio has such a feature to its games, as it included it in the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition remasters, but Dragon Age hasn’t had one yet.
“That is a feature that we like the idea of,” Rhodes said. “It’s not just player-facing, but internally it’s a really helpful thing for us as we’re building things out to have that. So we’ll let you know.”
