I agree there. Veilguard looks concerning for that but I agree, Bioware games are carried by their companion stories. At least after KOTOR. The planet stories up to the Rakatan planet I enjoyed more than the companion stories. Obsidian, KOTOR 2, character and main narrative all great to me. Mass Effect series all about the characters. I couldn't finish Andromeda though so don't know if those companions ever got better than what I remember. Dragon Age, a bit of both but each game they kept hastily resolving or dropping/ignoring plotlines from the previous game that it really is all about its characters. SWTOR, at least base class questlines, most of them aren't very interesting so most of those are carried by the companions. SWTOR main questlines are most enjoyable seeing how ridiculous cartoonishly evil/sarcastic dialog option playthroughs are