Dragon Age: The Veilguard reveals a clever little solution to every RPG's companion problem

BioWare's latest Dragon Age: The Veilguard sampling platter serves up some picturesque walkthroughs of a few new spaces in the series' expanded universe, including several areas previously only hinted at in snippets of lore. That said, I'm more excited by the interplay between these areas and the "exploration abilities" of the game's companions, as well as BioWare's solution to the age-old problem of leaving your companions at home like some RPG Home Alone parody. 

In a new EA blog post on "exploration across Thedas," the Dragon Age community team teases that "veterans of the series have heard whispers in the past about each of these places in Thedas, but now you will actually be able to explore and experience them in-game." Those areas include the Arlathan Forest, Hossberg Wetlands, Minrathous, Rivain, and Treviso, all of which received short little trailers showing off the scenery. These are unlisted on YouTube at the time of writing, so I've embedded them all here – down below for readability's sake. 

As you explore such areas, you'll find loot, puzzles, and – whisper it – lore, uncovering secrets and "new modes of transportation to find throughout the world, including fast travel." Your ability to interact with the world is also directly shaped by your seven companions, whose exploration abilities add new wrinkles to Thedas. "For example, you may come across some ancient Elven artifacts for Bellara to Tinker with while you wander through Arlathan," BioWare says. 

The thing is, Veilguard only lets you bring two companions with you at a time. So we have a big roster but a smaller party than previous games, and seemingly a more interactive world. What if I left Bellara back at base? No ancient Elven artifacts for me? Not so, BioWare says: "Even when the Companions are back at the Lighthouse, Rook can use the Lyrium Dagger to take advantage of their Exploration Abilities." 

This would not only spare players the time and drudgery of running back to headquarters just to swap companions to access some environmental MacGuffin, which would indirectly disrupt companion choices, it should also prevent any fear of missing out based on your current party setup. Instead of worrying about making the most of the world, you can just focus on the world. Lovely stuff. 

I'm reminded of the way Baldur's Gate 3 eventually patched its companion inventory to let players access and organize everything at once, even for companions who aren't in your active party. It's a similar problem: a big cast and unpredictable player behavior (that is, who folks travel with) for the user experience to accommodate. Another example would be Genshin Impact, which has dozens of characters with abilities that help with exploration and movement, but thankfully lets you swap them out whenever you want. A Swiss Army dagger, in essence, is a tidy answer for Veilguard's arrangement. 

BioWare adds that "you may also spot Companions out and about, interacting with the world on their own," which sounds like a nice organic touch. "When heading to Treviso, we recommend finding Lucanis and enjoying a cup of coffee together." 

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard still isn't an open-world game, but new gameplay footage makes the RPG look way less linear than we feared.