BioWare claims that Dragon Age: Veilguard's battles are'more technical demanding' on the player, which is why you'll only control one character.

BioWare has been sharing details about the changes that will be made in the fourth installment of the Dragon Age series. The action-packed combat has been the subject of much debate among fans, including my own group chats. Veilguard, in particular, will focus combat on the player character Rook, a change BioWare claims was made because the faster pace made it difficult to manage a full party.

Combat is fast, as we saw during the Veilguard gameplay demo. Joshua Wolens, who saw the game in person, compared it to Mass Effect because of how characters sling magic and perform acrobatically. It still has a real-time with pause element, where you can bring up the radial menu and fire off your skills or tell your companions to use theirs. However, Rook is the only one who can fight in real-time. All of your companions will do their own thing along with you.

Edge Magazine's newest issue #401 quoted Corinne Busche, the game director as saying: "We wanted you feel like you're Rook - you're in this universe and you're really focused your actions." "We wanted the companions, as fully-realised characters, to feel in control of their actions," said Corinne Busche, game director, to Edge Magazine's newest issue #401.

This sounds like a convenient narrative explanation of what was probably a technical choice, not a story-telling one. To Edge's credit it did push Busche forward.

"I'll admit that on paper, reading that you can't control your companions might make you feel that something has been taken away. Busche said that in testing and validating the game with players, they are more engaged than ever.

"This is a game with a higher action-per-minute. It is more demanding in terms of technical skills. We found that allowing you to control your companions didn't add much to the experience. In some ways, it was detrimental due to the demands of controlling your character."

I'm surprised that BioWare didn't come up with a way to make switching control of the party members feel rewarding. I know that fans are willing to take on a challenge if it means they can enjoy a great story and cast.

I wish BioWare would have brought back the party tactic menu from Dragon: Age Origins, where you could give standing orders to each party member to use certain skills or healing items when they are below a certain percentage of health. (Dragon Age 2 had a similar menu, but Inquisition had a less detailed one, so there's a chance this will make it into Veilguard. It's possible that I am the only one who misses this grognard shit. Just kidding: Online Editor Fraser Brown also does .

It's clear, as reasonable as it all sounds, that Veilguard's combat is designed to attract someone other than me. Morgan Park, a colleague who enjoys FPS games, for example, told me that this was the first Dragon Age he would be interested in playing. I guess this is the price of new converts.

I'll hope that the fantasy universe I've loved for the past 15 years, and its new characters, will be enough to drag me through the combat. BioWare says in Edge's latest interview that it has learned from Anthem to stick with what it does best: singleplayer RPGs. This is one thing I am unreservedly pleased to hear.