One of the best parts of companion-based games is how players interact with those characters, learning about who they are and, in some scenarios, romancing that character. Not every game with a companion system features romance, nor do any two companion-based games operate exactly the same in how players interact with, do quests for, or otherwise engage with these characters. The same holds true forDragon Age: Veilguardand how players will interact with the sevennewDragon Agecompanions: Harding, Neve, Lucanis, Taash, Emmrich, Bellara, and Davrin.
At the recentDragon Age: The Veilguardpreview event, Game Rant sat down with creative director John Epler to discuss these companions. Among other things, we asked how the overarching companion quests work, how they are structured, and how much content there is (at least in comparison to other companions). The good news is that each companion receives a similar amount of content, each with full-blown story arcs.
This article may contain MINOR spoilers for anyone who has not been keeping up with Dragon Age: The Veilguard marketing; however, nothing specific is discussed for any companions outside what’s known from the game’s opening hour.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard - How Companion Quests Work
Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s prologueunfolds with Neve and Harding joining the player character, Rook, as the events surrounding Minrathous unfold. After those two, every other companion will join the player character in some way. As Epler explains, what’s important to know about this is that “each companion has their own arc, and I say arc because it is a full-blown story arc.” The first mission, whatever form it takes, involves recruiting them to the cause. This mission manifests differently for every character, meaning it could be as straightforward as recruiting them or beginning a mission that sets up the conflict of their arc. As far as the direction of these story arcs, Epler explained,
“…The intention is for each of them to have that conflict that ties into but isn’t exactly about the Gods.”
Each Dragon Age: The Veilguard Companion Has a Similar Amount of Content
When asked if each companion had the same number of missions, Epler explained that there’s a “little bit of asymmetry,” but the team “did try to build them largely to be similar.” That end result didn’t come about because of some mandate that every developer do the same thing, with Epler saying,
As we were building out these arcs, we found a number that worked, and it worked for all the companion stories we wanted to tell. I will say, as a person, as a writer, I find it easier when there’s still kind of that box that we need to work in. It made it very easy to build these quests in a very specific way.
While it remains to be seen how much asymmetry there is between companions, fans can rest assured that it sounds like eachDragon Age: The Veilguardcompanion like Emmrichor Taash, equally with Neve or Lucanis and others, gets roughly the same amount of content. There will be some recruitment/opening mission involved, a series of missions tied to their story arcs, and of course, depending on player choice within that, possible romance. All of this unfolds, of course, as the world ofThedas faces the Blighted Elven Gods, Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain.
