Dragon Age: The Veilguard Details Accessibility Features

EA has released a ton of information about Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s accessibility features. The upcoming fourth main installment in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard has a huge list of features that will allow players of all types to dive in, from combat customization to video and audio settings.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set for launch on October 31, nearly 10 full years after the arrival of its predecessor, Dragon Age: Inquisition. With the recent reveal of Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s ESRB rating as M for Mature, fans of the series now have an age rating for the game, and publisher EA wants to make it clear just how much work has been put into making the game accessible to adult players from all walks of life.

As published on the official EA website, the game includes 55 different accessibility options laid out across the categories of visual, auditory, controls, and gameplay. While information released earlier this month showed that Dragon Age: The Veilguard comes with five standard difficulty settings, the accessibility options for gameplay show the level of detail that developer BioWare put into adjusting it to accommodate players of all types of skill levels, abilities, and preferences. Players will be free to disable quick time events, and additional optional combat features like Aim Assist, Aim Snap, and Combat Timing have been included to help players who could use a little aid in the fields of both ranged and melee combat. Additionally, there will be adjustable levels of enemies’ vulnerabilities and resistances to shorten fights or stretch them out. And for those just wanting to revel in the next chapter of the Dragon Age story, the easiest difficulty setting even has an option that prevents the player character from dying in combat altogether.

Players will also have a lot of options for customizing their controller setups, providing different ways to control Veilguard main character The Rook. Basic controls can be remapped as the player sees fit, and movement controls can be swapped between either of the analog sticks. The control setup will also provide the option to invert X and Y axes, as well as let players set dead zones for sticks and trigger buttons, adding more levels of controller sensitivity customization.

In terms of visual settings, players will have a lot of options to help them enjoy the aesthetic appeal of The Veilguard‘s diverse locations and characters. Features like motion blur and camera shake, while providing emphasis to action segments, can be turned off for players who are sensitive to such changes in their field of vision. There are plenty of HUD options as well, including one that places a dot in the center of the screen for ease of aiming, and eight different HUD elements can be toggled on or off individually.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Accessibility Features

Visual

• Subtitles can be set to Never, Conversations Only (excludes ambient NPC dialogue), or Always (all audible dialogue). By design, captions are embedded into subtitles to convey non-verbal sounds that progress the story or add additional context to some story beats and spoken words.
• Advanced Subtitles Options are available, where size can be adjusted between three options, speaker names can be turned On/Off, background opacity can be scaled from 0% to 100%, and name colors can be adjusted for Rook and NPCs.
• UI Text has two size options and uses a simple font.
• Full-screen Colorblind filters are available for Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia.
• Persistent Dot is available to display a small dot at the center of the screen.
• Hiding HUD Elements is available for the Objective Tracker, Mini Map, Combat Text, Advanced Combat Text, Player Health, and Abilities.
• Melee Threat Indicator provides a halo around the player character’s head to warn of incoming melee attacks.
• Ranged Threat Indicator provides a visual line to show the direction of incoming ranged attacks.
• Visual cues are present during combat and exploration, where no game-critical information needed to progress is conveyed through sound alone. See Customizable Exploration Presets for more.
• Motion Blur can be turned On/Off.
• Camera Shake can be set between 0 (Off) and 100 (Max). Does not extend to cinematics.
• Depth of Field can be set to On for cinematics only, On for gameplay only, On for both, or Off. Being On causes some elements of the scene to be in focus, and others to be out of focus.
• Vignette can be turned On/Off. Being On creates a subtle darkening of the image towards the edge of the screen during cinematic and gameplay to enhance the atmosphere of scenes.
• Low Health Screen Effect can be turned On/Off. Being On creates a blurry, desaturated effect across the screen during gameplay to emphasize low health.

Audio

• Volume sliders for Global, Music, Speech, Sound Effects, Ambient, and Menu.
• Speaker type for Wide Dynamic, Narrow Dynamic, Night Mode, and Headphones.
• 3D Audio is available. Requires compatible hardware.
• Mono Audio is available alongside a mono audio planning option between left and right outputs.
• Accessibility SFX is available and has a volume slider. Audio cues provide additional feedback for some visual mechanics. Includes an incoming attack indicator, target lock-on, and conversation wheels.
• Glint Ping SFX is available where spatialized SFX will play at object locations when UP on the d-pad is pressed. Note: Depending on the Exploration Preset selected, players may need to adjust the Object Glint Visibility, and Object Marker Visibility settings to Pulse (Short), for this functionality to work.

Controls

• Input Remapping for basic gameplay controls. Movement actions can only be remapped between analog sticks.
• Invert Axis of X and Y can be individually adjusted for both controller and mouse.
• Vertical and Horizontal Sensitivity sliders for both Cameras and Aiming.
• Swap between Left and Right Sticks for Movement (left) and Look (right).
• Stick Deadzones sliders for the Look and Movement sticks.
• Trigger Deadzone slider for triggers on controllers.
• Vibration Intensity slider for Global, Gameplay, Environment, and Cinematic.
• Disable UI Hold Inputs can be set to Hold or Tap. When Tap is selected, various UI interactions that require an input be held for a set period of time can be activated with a single tap instead. Does not apply to gameplay actions.
• Ability Wheel Controller Activation Type can be set to Hold or Tap. When set to Tap, the ability wheel will remain on screen without requiring any persistent input.
• Blocking and Aiming require sustained holds. Aiming without holds is possible if the persistent dot is enabled, which can be used as an alternative to the aim-down-sights reticle.
• No QTES (quick time events) are present by design.
• Rapid input sequences are present for certain attack combos during melee combat, if used.
• Simultaneous inputs are present for ultimate ability, or if using the ability shortcut menu.
• Quick and precise timing is not required for progression. Finisher moves, which are optional and hasten the end of combat, may require faster reactions.
• Combat Assists are available in the Combat Presets to further simplify inputs during combat. Includes Aim Assist, Aim Snap, Combat Timing, and more.

Gameplay

• Choose between presets of Storyteller, Keeper, Adventure, Underdog, Nightmare, or Custom:
• Aim Assist can be set to Off, Low, Medium, and High.
• Aim Snap can be turned On/Off to snap to targets.
• Prevent Death can be turned On/Off. Available only in the Storyteller preset.
• Enemy Damage has five options to adjust the strength of incoming attacks.
• Enemy Health has five options to adjust the amount for enemy health.
• Enemy Aggression has five options to adjust how aggressive enemies are during combat by changing how often they attack and how difficult they are to stagger.
• Enemy Resistances has three options to adjust how much enemies can resist incoming damage. This will not affect the natural resistances some enemies have based on their faction though.
• Enemy Vulnerability has three options to adjust how weak enemies are to incoming damage. This will not affect the natural weaknesses some enemies have based on their faction though.
• Combat Timing has three options to adjust the timing windows for executing Dodge, Parry, and Perfect Defend actions.
• Choose between presets of No Assists, Pulse Only, Standard, Directed, or Custom:
• Object Glint Visibility can be set to Off, Pulse (Short), Pulse (Long), Always to change the visibility of the glint highlight on interactable objects.
• Object Glint Distance can be set to Close, Standard, and Far to change the distance of where glint highlights on interactive objects will appear.
• Objective Marker Visibility can be set to Off, Pulse (Short), Pulse (Long), and Always to change the visibility of objective markers.
• Waypoint Visibility can be turned On/Off to toggle the visibility of navigation waypoints leading to your quest objective.
• A Library is available for players to access at any point to help recall information. Here, players can browse the Codex to review stories and information discovered during progression, re-read letters from companions and others within the Missives, and reference the Glossary for explanations of terminology specific to Dragon Age Lore.
• Tutorials teach gameplay mechanics as new inputs, skills, or actions surface.
• World and Local Maps are available for wayfinding and can be referenced at any point.
• Waypoint Visibility can be turned On/Off to help with progression.
• Objective Marker Visibility can be adjusted between Off, Pulse (Short), Pulse (Long), and Always.
• Pausable gameplay is available by design.
• Saving is robust, where auto–save is frequent and players can manually save any time outside of combat, cinematics, and dialogue cutscenes.

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Enter the world of Thedas, a vibrant land of rugged wilderness, treacherous labyrinths, and glittering cities – steeped in conflict and secret magics. Now, a pair of corrupt ancient gods have broken free from centuries of darkness and are hellbent on destroying the world.

Thedas needs someone they can count on. Rise as Rook, Dragon Age’s newest hero. Be who you want to be and play how you want to play as you fight to stop the gods from blighting the world. But you can’t do this alone – the odds are stacked against you. Lead a team of seven companions, each with their own rich story to discover and shape, and together you will become The Veilguard.

Franchise

Dragon Age

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Released

October 31, 2024

Publisher(s)

Electronic Arts

Engine

Frostbite

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