Dragon Age: The Veilguard Won't Let You Control Companion Characters

So it’s the opposite of every RPG where you can’t control your party members from doing stupid things. Yeah, gonna pass on this.

They're so going to blow this

You don't need to keep selling me on not buying it, I'm already skipping it

To be fair i only played the main character, so this specifically is not what will set me back.

This is going to be upset the people like having the precise control over their party. But BioWare probably have the numbers showing the most people didn't do that or cared.

@Nem Yup! Me too... Why spend hour customizing my main character then swap around to other characters in the middle of combat

I'm confused why we still don't have a release date. They've been saying so much, but I just don't know when I'll get to play it

No big deal for me. I always only use my main. Also, Cassandra better be my day one like in Inquisition.

When I see people saying they’re gonna skip a game for some little reason I feel like they weren’t gonna get it no matter what.

This is sending up so many red flags. Better question is will they lay off half the staff before or after it's released?

@AhmadSumadi there's been several reasons but you do you. Maybe it will surprise everyone but haven't seen a single reason to believe that.

I think I used the other characters in ME1 because they were so dumb and Dragon fights In Inquisition because of how long those fights were. Otherwise I only command them in the tutorial then forget they exist the rest of the time.

This is going to get murdered by BG3 comparisons.

The more I hear about combat the less interesting this game gets. It is frustrating that news related to this game is 50/50 discouragement and vague attempts at appealing to old fans like me.

A shame to see a series that once was made for you slowly turn into someone else's game.

I don’t have a problem with this IF my companions aren’t absolute I’m imbeciles, getting stuck in corners or on ledges. I feel like they’re putting more weight on the AI with this, but happy to see, it’s not something I’ve ever cared about myself.

I just had PTSD flashbacks of the original Persona 3. No Mitsuru! Stop using Marin Karin! The boss is immune!!

Yet more of what made Dragon Age great taken away.

The use of language here is interesting. They say players felt more “engaged”, but what does that mean exactly? That they liked it? Or that when asked specifically about how involved they felt combat was with the main character, they responded “very much so”, because those are two different things in my mind. You can feel engaged, whatever that means, without really liking something.

This would be my first DragonAge game if I decide to buy it. I don’t really care, if I control the other party members or not. As long as the gameplay is fun, I’m happy.

Let’s see what the reviews say.

Having just finished DA Origins, this will seem frustrating in tougher encounters, especially if your Ai controlled companions are hopeless.

Don't want to take away from anyone else's enjoyment but in games like this I always just control my MC, it's only really turn based games that I switch.

Even took me a while in BG to realize it's better to switch to companions to do some stuff like lockpicking

This is sounding more and more like Mass Effect Andromeda with elves.

I must say it is a bit concerning when it seems like they are taking away more features than adding new ones. No control over teammates outside of the "Use this ability" option? A much more linear level design than previous games?

I say all this as someone who genuinely hopes this game does well. I just hope they know what they are doing.

I prefer to push as few buttons as necessary, rather than pause-switch and micromanage every character and ability. As long as the rest of the team can look after themselves and act appropriately, and the combat with the main character is fun and engaging, I'm all for it!

"Starting to sound like a proper dragon age game"

But not look or feel like one 💀

Moving further and further from what I want out of DA (which is essentially that they go back to DA:O). Oh well, there's plenty to play.

Does anybody care at this point?

Yup, after this game fail EA will take bioware to the back of the barn and finish it, like they finish other developers.

I know this game will fail after I looks the characters design, this type of design usually followed by the game failure in the market and the developer getting shutdown. Like saint row remake and concord.

i can see bioware being closed, all the talent left a long time ago

Play Dragon Age:Origins,not sequels,all are dogshit,new one looks to take the crown as biggest pile of dogshit! Cheers

After reading some comments on here i am not sure what the fuss is about. It sounds like you control your main only outside of battle. Which for me is what I was hoping. If I am rook then I play as rook and the companions are with you. Once battle starts you can pause and play as much as you want to order your companion actions, set up skill chains between them and rook.

You have the option to be as involved as you want when it matters…combat. Outside of combat what is the point? Want to be a tank then change the skills of rook to do so. Want to heal more…the same. Then manage your battles.

Personally this is sounding really good for me. As for Ai during battles i will say that FFXIV does such an amazing job with the ai during dungeons that sometimes it is more fun running a dungeon with the AI team then actual people especially when doing a run for the first time. Get to learn the basics on the bosses and then run your daily with real people.

I am super excited for Veilgaurd the more iI hear about it!

@AhmadSumadi I don't agree some people like to have full control of a party. It is kinda special but sometimes people don't all want to do the same thing.

The more I hear about veilguard the worse it sounds...

Party driven CRPGs are dead and never coming back. It's smart to streamline for modern audiences who will never, ever bother with a proper CRPG in this day and age. I, for one, believe Baldur's Gate III is doomed, it'll never hit 1 million copies.

People on the internet like to complain about meaningless things, news at 11.

So its like andromeda, a dumbed down, casual big market product. Companions will be interesting by their so cool self contributions like quips saying ' good shot' etc..
Sure more engaging, in a mcdo generic product ment for global easy market way..

That's a big strike against it. If I wanted to play Mass Effect, I would play Mass Effect. The more I see and hear, the less I want to play this.

Why are people surprised at this? It's exactly like DA2 and DA:I

I always wanted the decision tree from Origins to be retooled so that it worked. That was my favorite concept for party members but it was just abandoned.

That's perfect for me. That's why you create your main character the way you want.
It's like in Mass Effect.

@Athrum

I'm not against this change but in all the Dragon Age games you could control them manually.

@Lup Are you sure mate? I was pretty certain that in DA:I I didn't control my party, I had a small AI system like gambits from FF12.

edit: Seems like you were right and I was wrong. I swear I didn't control anyone else in DA:I just gave them suggestions on where to attack.

Is this a genuine 'Bioware being bold' or is this because EA executives thought they'd streamline the game to attract a bigger market?

People don't know the incredible company that was lost when EA bought them. Like why buy a studio that goes for critical acclaim instead of yearly sports title company if you're going to turn the former into the latter only to see it fail?

@NEStalgia

Party driven CRPGs are dead and never coming back. It's smart to streamline for modern audiences who will never, ever bother with a proper CRPG in this day and age. I, for one, believe Baldur's Gate III is doomed, it'll never hit 1 million copies

It should be noted that BG3 has a party size limit of 4, compared to all previous BG games, infinity engine games, and infinity inspired games that were all full parties of 6.

So even BG3 was making compromises that people were angry about at the time, obviously no one remembers all the complaints now or the fact that the initial early access release was received a lot more lukewarmly than the final release.

Definitely a downgrade

Not a big deal I like controlling one person in dragon age I never really use the other party members.

@NEStalgia idk what u talking about bg3 hit 2.5 millions copies already during early access now it at 10 million

@C25CLOUD Did you try downloading your browser's sarcasm plug-in?