During Kai’s trip to San Francisco to play Dragon Age: The Veilguard, he was able to secure an exclusive interview with BioWare’s Francois Chaput (Missions and Level Design Director) and Matt Rhodes (Art Director). Later, though, he also participated in a roundtable Q&A with Game Directors Corinne Busche and John Epler where various colleagues from the press were able to ask their questions.
One of the most interesting answers came on the topic of companions, which are the very focus of Dragon Age: The Veilguard and even prompted the title change from Dreadwolf. When asked when they decided companions wouldn’t be directly controllable (unlike previous installments), they said:
Corinne Busche: I think I can start this one and then maybe John if you want to jump in. Dragon Age has such an amazing, rich lore and history behind it. The worldbuilding, I really think it’s what’s kept this franchise alive and people discussing it 10 years after Inquisition. So our North Star was that we wanted you to embody Rook, to step into Rook’s shoes, to experience this world on the ground as this character. And what that meant is giving you more autonomy, more control of the character, putting you in control of every single swing, and really making it feel like you’re a part of this world.
What’s more, we’ve talked a lot about the companions. I know a lot of the questions that came up today about Dragon Age: The Veilguard were about the depth and authenticity of the companions. We really felt like there was a big opportunity here to make the companions feel more realized, more like their characters who fight alongside you and have their own styles, motivations, and interactions if you’re not actually embodying them.
But of course, throughout all of that, we do know in the combat system, that sense of teamwork, of pause and play, tactical depth. That has been the throughline through every single edition of Dragon Age. So we wanted to walk the fine line of making that teamwork and that sense of strategy show up but also make you feel like you’re in this world.
John Epler: Yeah, and Corinne touched on autonomy as far as Rook goes, but also part of making the companions feel like their own people, like their own characters, is giving them that autonomy as well on the battlefield. Again, you are the leader of this group. They have their own personalities and their own stories, and we wanted to make sure that you felt that through the gameplay as well.
It’s not the first time BioWare has talked about companions being ‘fully realized‘, though it is the first time they’ve linked that to the decision to remove direct player control of the party, which remains controversial for some fans.
We won’t have too much to wait until we can play Dragon Age: The Veilguard for ourselves and decide whether it was the right choice. In the meantime, stay tuned for the full transcript of the roundtable Q&A.
