Gizmo_Duck
blathering blatherskite!
Dragon Age: The Veilguard won't let you control your companions because you can't handle it: "This is a much higher actions-per-minute game"
"It wasn't actually adding to the experience"
Dragon Age: The Veilguard (October 31, 2024)
- Thread starter Responsible Allen Iverson
- Start date
If it's as good as the Mass Effect trilogy, I'll be happy.
They're full of shyt but I love Dragon AgeDragon Age: The Veilguard won't let you control your companions because you can't handle it: "This is a much higher actions-per-minute game"
"It wasn't actually adding to the experience"www.gamesradar.com
Gizmo_Duck
blathering blatherskite!
Edge Magazone September Cover story
About the world and structure of the game
Biggest city in DA history, Tactical Combos, Companion arcs, Mission based benefits, etc
About the world and structure of the game
- They settled on mission-based design cause they wanted a curated experience for the players.
- Mission-based also helps with the pacing which was important for them to get right.
- The team realizes that the absence of the antagonist in Inquisition for a lot of the story was a problem and doesn't want to repeat that in DATV. They comment on how in Inquisition players spent 10 hours doing side quests in Hinterlands without feeling the story's urgency.
- DATV will still have exploration and side quests but the goal is to constantly move the players forward and have their decision feel more immediate with tangible stakes. One very early example is Rook trying to get some information in a bar, which could end in a brawl or you might get the information quietly depending on your choices.
- Minrathous is the biggest city in the franchise. They describe it as lived-in, expansive and sprawling. They mention how Dorian's line in Inquisition about Orlais being quaint and cute compared to Minrathous, acted as a guide for them to realize this big city.
- They mention how not having to do a big open world like Inquisition helps them realize places like Minrathous better and in more detail, since the (development) resources aren't spread too thin.
- Their goal was to create a world that players feel like is worth saving, somewhere they could imagine wanting to stick around after the main story has ended and the world is saved.
- They wanted the opening of this game to feel like the finale of most games and put you right into action. They think the ritual at the prologue of DATV makes the sky tearing open at the beginning of the Inquisition feel like a minor inconvenience.
- Responsiveness was very important for them in regards to the new combat system, so outside of you activating a high risk high reward ability, you can animation cancel out of almost any move.
- They talk about how tactical camera in Inquisition limited them in terms of where they could put the encounters as having a combat scenario inside a building was very challenging for them since they had to make the tactical camera work with that.
- They say the combat is much faster and more technical, from their testing, the players found having to control the party members on top of Rook too demanding so they decided to get rid of that and focus on Rook instead.
- They talk about how the ability to pause the combat is important and how you should use it to see what correct elements you should use against certain enemies and what elements are not desirable as an enemy might have resistance to them. They say matching the right elements is the key to success in the game and that's where some of the RPG depth of the game shines through.
- Each class has its own combat resource and its own way of gaining that resource. A Rogue relies on momentum which is gained by avoiding damage and being aggressive, while a Warrior is rewarded by parrying and blocking. The players then use these resource to preform the abilities from their ability wheel.
- You can use your ability wheel to use Rook's abilities or companion abilities. You can also use it to instruct your companions to attack a specific target.
- The ability wheel also gives the players the ability to focus on making fun combos, and the UI will even let you know when you can combo abilities together:
- "You might tell one companion to unleash a gravity-well effect that gathers enemies together, then have another slow time. Finally, you could drop an AOE attack on your clustered and slowed opponents, dealing maximum damage."
- They know that the players like to stick to 2 or 3 favorite companions during their playthrough, so in some missions they are gonna have some companions as mandatory or some companions won't be available, so you players would have the chance to know these characters better.
- Having the players separated from companions will also let the story show that the companions have a life outside of the main story and their involvement with Rook. You might stumble upon a companion doing something on their own in the world after they are separated from you and if you engage with them, you could go do their unique story arc. These arcs take place through the game in different regions and will have their own villains, stories, characters and the player will share a quite a few intimate moments with the characters during their arcs. While these companion arcs are unique to them and their past and who they are, they will also tie into the main theme and story of the game in some way or form.
- One example of such companion story/arc is you stumbling upon Neve in Minrathous as she is investigating an abduction case.
- While these are optional, the team doesn't really consider them side quest as they are more crucial for these characters. But even if you don't engage with them, they might resolve on their own and some of them might have interesting effects on the story and characters if you have decided to not engage with that person and their story arc.
- The lesson they took from Anthem was that they should focus on what they are good at and not to spread themselves too thin trying to do what they don't have the expertise for. "A lot of the people on this team came here to build a story focused single player RPG", so they are focusing on that.
Gizmo_Duck
blathering blatherskite!
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Dragon Age: The Veilguard won't let you control your companions because you can't handle it: "This is a much higher actions-per-minute game"
"It wasn't actually adding to the experience"
maaaaaaan..... them removing party control significantly decreased my anticipation for this game.Lazy ass devs
Gizmo_Duck
blathering blatherskite!
Looks like an ad went up too early it seems and the release date got leaked: October 31st
Hopeofmypeople
Veteran
Wow much earlier than I thought, there was an article posted a few weeks ago implying there was an incoming delay.
iceberg_is_on_fire
Honolulu Blue Ski Mask Way
Time to Solis to run that fade...don't even ask me how 
Will preorder on Steam if it goes up later on today.
Will preorder on Steam if it goes up later on today.
Lazy ass devs
Inquisition was my first and only DA I ever played, loved it but I dunno how long my interest would last if I were restricted to just my own character’s class/combat abilities. And that sentiment probably applies to most other rpgs, from BG3 to FF7:R, etc.
Will have to see what’s really good with this high level combat ish they’re talking about, and if it’s as technically demanding as they claim.
I'm neutral on the removing party control. I'm pretty sure I stuck to my Inquisitor for all playthroughs like 90% of the time so I can't be mad. Only time I think I touched the other characters was for min/maxing purposes.
OneDeep
Superstar
iceberg_is_on_fire
Honolulu Blue Ski Mask Way
Preordered on Steam. Let's go
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