Yesterday, BioWare revealed Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the official new title for the upcoming installment in the roleplaying game franchise. The studio decided to drop the previous title (Dreadwolf) to place a bigger emphasis on the player character and his seven companions rather than on the villain of the story.
The focus on companions appears clear everywhere in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Speaking to IGN, BioWare General Manager Gary McKay detailed the new companions’ ability wheel players will encounter in combat.
As an RPG, strategy in combat is important as you bring two companions to every fight. Each companion brings unique powers and abilities that have a direct impact on how you choose to take down the enemies at hand. To add another layer to that strategic element, we’re introducing a new ability wheel where you can pause the action and set up your next move – whether it’s your companions’ abilities or your own.
The ability wheel opens up a huge amount of strategic possibilities, giving players the ability to control the flow of combat and link powerful combinations of abilities between players and their companions that can quickly turn the tide of any battle. We think we’ve found an exciting balance between fun, fluidity, and strategy for every encounter.
There’s a couple of notable tidbits here. First, Dragon Age: The Veilguard is reducing the party size from four to three, explaining why the game will have fewer available companions than Inquisition (seven instead of nine). Secondly, while not outright confirmed, the ability wheel appears to corroborate the previous rumor that players would not be able to directly control party members. It sounds like it will be very similar to Mass Effect, which also featured a party of three characters with two companions that could be issued orders.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard will also remove any limitations on companion romances, pivoting from the previous franchise entry, where companions had gender and/or race preferences (and some of them, like Varric and Cole, could not be romanced at all).
We spent a lot of time making our companions feel authentic based on their own unique experiences within this larger fantasy world, which in turn makes the relationships you form with them feel even more meaningful. We’ve tapped into Dragon Age’s deep lore and explored its most iconic factions to bring each of the seven companions and their stories to life. As you accompany your companions to unravel their backstory and earn their loyalty and friendship, you’ll visit more regions of Thedas across a deeper variety of biomes than any Dragon Age before it.
I won’t spoil next week’s reveal but I can say we’ve created a story where you can impact the world and the companions that surround you. Player agency is important to the Dragon Age: The Veilguard experience and allows each player to form unique personal connections with their companions of choice. And, yes, you can romance the companions you want.
The game will be finally revealed with a 15-minute video from the opening scenes on Tuesday, June 11, at 8 AM Pacific Time. Rumors suggest it will be released within 2024, and the developers are confident of its success.
