inhabitantofdogfield

[inhabitantofdogfield]

I find it really funny that the last two Dragon Age games have advisors to guide them through the game. Like the Hero of Fereldan got a brief introduction and a slap on the ass before being immediately placed in charge.

[inhabitantofdogfield]

so many ways a character can be dog-coded. stray following someone home and begging for scraps. old and needs to be put out of its misery. attack dog. guard dog. lap dog. puppy that pees on the carpet from excitement. shelter dog just happy to finally have feet to curl up on. unsocialized that bites anyone trying to show kindness. silly goofy puddle monster. obedient until the leash comes off

[inhabitantofdogfield]

the lore inconsistencies with the blight in this game are actually exhausting. 'the rules have changed the blight has changed' okay but make it make sense within the changes please like

the blight is the titans dreams gone mad with rage okay. red lyrium is lyrium infected with the blight. except that section of red lyrium in harding's quest which is... angry... but somehow not infected with the blight... even though we know what red lyrium is from inquisition

the calling eventually kills you but there's a bunch of super blighted wardens who've been alive for ages underground. isseya has been alive since the 4th blight. these wardens aren't even proper darkspawn they're just Really Corrupted

there's that ominous 'theres something in the blight' quest you do in the wetlands that just turns out to be a giant blight growth. darkspawn appear from blight pools now. also apparently in the wetlands there's just a bunch of flowers happily thriving beneath the blight that are fine once the blight is removed. did we forget the western approach. that the land is barren after it's infected with the blight.

it's super easy to become infected with the blight, except if you're rook and co apparently because that blighted status sure doesn't really have any consequences. spEAKING OF which neve/bellara become super duper infected by the blight to the point they can control it and yet afterwards... they're fine?? they're fine!! there's no cure for the blight except apparently you can just shake it off. the hero of fereldan has been searching for a cure for decades but could've just shrugged it off apparently!

[inhabitantofdogfield]

It’s so funny that Cassandra Pentaghast is a Nevarran princess now that I’ve seen the grand necropolis. She really was this jock surrounded by goth girlies and she hated every second of it. She’s like the inverse of Enoby

[inhabitantofdogfield]

no, no. these are horrors beyond your comprehension. i understand them, though. i desire them carnally.

[inhabitantofdogfield]

also have we talked about them making zara white in veilguard? what is that about?

["Magister Zara Renata stood nude before a gilded full-length mirror. Every morning, she assessed her body, starting with the toes then working her way up to her face. Three slaves, each bearing a smaller looking glass, stood on either side and at her back so that there were no blind spots. They stared, unblinking, at her lustrous bronze skin. (...)"]

[inhabitantofdogfield]

i like pretending that the reason lucanis makes being a crow sound like a breeze is not because they retconned the crows to be the good guys but rather because he is a nepo baby that got special treatment

[inhabitantofdogfield]

he still has the same smile

[inhabitantofdogfield]

hrmrmrm idk that i am actually all that impressed by this incredibly simplistic explanation im getting in veilguard of the archdemons basically just being regular dragons enthralled by the evanuris. like. sorry but isnt that literally what corypheus did with his dragon. im sorry okay, i just...

okay. let me try and explain my issue with it. solas says, in trespasser, the first of my people do not die so easily. and sure, i suppose a dragon is not exactly an easy kill except for the way there's literally dragon hunters in thedas. as the warden, i killed at least three dragons including urthemiel. hawke kills at least one high dragon. as the inquisitor i kill like. eleven. so its a difficult task. but clearly not impossible? and as we see with corypheus - kill the dragon, and the main body becomes completely vulnerable and mortal again. the pride demon in the opening was harder to kill than corypheus was after his dragon died. h*cruxing the dragon is so simple j/kr could've thought of this, and i feel cheated of the like... scale of the magic and power that the evanuris commanded before the veil came up? i dont want to see magic we already thought of, i want to see how a world without the veil allows them to command magic in a completely unimaginable, unfathomable way to the way we currently can conceptualise magic at all in thedas.

i guess you could argue that it's either solas' hubris or the evanuris' pride that they thought no one else would ever figure out the secret to effective immortality but there's apparently at least 200 shards of mythal swimming around out here possessing people and shit. you cant throw a fucking rock in thedas without hitting 3 mythals. that is what i would consider not dying easily. and, if they go down the route i suspect of confirming that the ancient elves are spirits made flesh, i wish there was some kind of reference to the fade forever reflecting the desires and beliefs and dreams of people in the waking world - which is to say that, for example, simply still believing that mythal or elgar'nan or ghilan'nain still exists is enough to bring the shards of their spirit back together again - just like solas' wisdom spirit friend in dai.

my private working theory is that if the evanuris are spirits made flesh, then somehow, the creation of the veil effectively... made them tranquil, in a way. separated their mortal bodies - trapped, as mindless archdemons, slumbering in the deep roads, in the mortal coil - from their spirit selves, locked in the black city behind the veil. this would explain why he needs to move them in the first place, to a more secure prison - corypheus fucking up the veil in 9:41 reconnected the physical bodies of the evanuris to the spiritual selves trapped in the fade. idk i just feel a bit like. not to say caught out, but i feel like a lot of the lore drops are just like "whats popular fanon theory about this. lets just confirm that" and i wish there was just... something more. some attempt at surprising me or aweing me with the lore drops. like it is what you think but there is something else here you didn't think of, or it's more complicated than that - to leave some kind of mystery behind, still. but idk.

[inhabitantofdogfield]

Sorry, still fascinated by the “Will nobody think of the new players?” while Veilguard hid the entirety of the actual Betrayal of Felassan in The Masked Empire novel and did not rehash that even a little bit in Veilguard for these “new players”

[inhabitantofdogfield]

the 'vallaslin are sacred to all elves ✋️😔 not just the Dalish' tattoo dialogue is so weird but if I write an essay explaining why I fear I'll combust and die

[inhabitantofdogfield]

The Crows are lame crime fighting misfits now? Why would they do that when Friends of Red Jenny are right there?????

[inhabitantofdogfield]

Welp, time to replay Veilguard.

Maybe I'll like it more the second time.

I did enjoy it, but also dislike so much of it. It was mostly fun while playing it, but kinda leaves a bad tastes afterward. If it wasn't a DA game I'd probably love it.

Many people already wrote paragraphs about it though, so this is just personal rambling.

Gotta admit, I hate the "Illuminati" - evil forces orchestrating everything in the dragon age universe- secret ending slide with a passion I didnt know I had.

Why? Why write that? Whose idiot idea was that? Way to go ruining all of the previous games and their villains retrospectively!

It's something I absolutely didn't like about veilguard either. Just how every bad guy, plot, and personal quest had to have the evanuris involved in some way. Like everything. There wasn't a single quest not tied to them being responsible or a driving force, it's maddening.

They changed how the blight works. The blight!

It was the scariest thing in the entire franchise. It's incurable, if it doesnt kill you, you become a darkspawn, exposure can be enough to get it, if it gets in a wound you WILL BE infected, any land it's touched and corrupted is uninhabitable and dead for centuries, if not millennia.

Now you get a "blighted" status if you step in it. Oopsie, stepped in some blight, tee hee :3

It's not a fucking status effect!!!

I actually though the first time that happened there'd be story consequences, that I got blighted. But no, just a pop up.

I dont even wanna start on the "southern thedas is basically gone" shit they did either. Other people wrote better about that than I ever could.

Just... everything feels so disrespectful to the previous games and player choices.

It did make me want to replay Origins, 2 and Inquisition again, just to wash away any bad vibes.

[inhabitantofdogfield]

[inhabitantofdogfield]

baby griffon :D

I need to draw my hero of ferelden with a griffon

he should have a griffon, he will have one, he'll be happy

[inhabitantofdogfield]

It's becoming exceedingly clear to me that the structure of Veilguard was compromised by the pivot away from live service. And I do empathize with the devs for trying to salvage what they could. In that vein, for all the problems I have with their writing and presentation, the companions, by and large, I found charming. I commend them for this.

And yet, nobody made them treat every conversation in act one as hardly anything more than a vehicle for exposition. Nobody made them write Bellara explaining what a damn dock is when you rock up to D'Meta's Crossing. Nobody made them introduce the Veil Jumpers, a supposedly major faction, in the most amateur way I've ever seen from a AAA rpg.

The things that disappoint me the most in this game are 100% self-inflicted. I've seen speculation that the turbulent dev cycle left little time for them to write anything but a 1st draft. It troubles me to think that any writer who does so for a living would even include such omnipresent, dry, and character agnostic exposition in even a rough draft. It drives me insane (the proof is that I created this blog, surely the greatest crime to come as a consequence of Dragon Age: The Veilguard).

[inhabitantofdogfield]

You know what I appreciated in Inquisition and DA2?

The fact that the game respected who my protagonist is.

In DA2, for example: if you chose Blue the most, the game would automatically have your Hawke be kind, understanding, reasonable, and even inspiring. Even giving you special dialogue options specifically for that personality type. The game pays attention to what you're doing. It's not perfect but, I still love it.

In Inquisition, it does have some automatic dialogue that you didn't choose which can be a little annoying. But, the fact that the game brings up the Dialogue Dial while you're walking around while your companions are talking to you- is awesome. It could've been done a little better, but the fact they were like: "Hey, what if we give the players the option to respond to companions on the road"? Which still gives me power over who my character is.

I feel like I don't have to bring up Origins because... The Warden doesn't talk 😂 only when you click on something or battle. But, honestly, I'll say something about this too. It's not perfect either. The HoF may not talk but there are automatic reactions in cutscenes. Not all the time, but enough that I'm sure some players were like "Oh, they wouldn't respond like that". But, the fact that the Warden doesn't talk and respond automatically. I appreciate too.

I do want to finish Veilguard myself, even though it's difficult. And I restarted it to try a different background which I am now regretting 🤣 but, honestly, the biggest thing that really has disappointed me is Rook. Rook isn't mine. I know I keep complaining about them but I can't help it. It really is sad. This game doesn't even want you to roleplay.