#[ i'm playing around with the rest of the choices for companion quests ] | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

americankimchi · 2 months ago

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dragon age veilguard review: spoilers for the entire game ahead

alright now that it's been a few days and i've had time to 1) get over the honeymoon phase and 2) really think on the game beyond the emotional high of the endgame mission/endgame choice, i can finally type this up

my final score for this game is 8/10, if you just care about that part and wanna skip the rest.

preface, i've only finished one playthrough as an elf mage grey warden, and played every companion/region quest*/side objective to completion**.

i played it on the underdog difficulty and it took me ~74 hours (i left the game open and went to do something else a few times, so it should probably read closer to ~70). this is a screenshot of the final auto-save after i beat the game

veeery long review under the cut ✌️

*exception being minrathous since i picked treviso instead, so the region quests got shafted

**didn't find all the chests or all the collectables, but i got close. also, i missed neve's first companion outing because i forgot to do it prior to the minrathous/treviso choice and didn't realize recruiting davrin was a cut-off point. aside from that i finished every quest i could grab my hands on.

OKAY SO i want to start this off by saying that i thoroughly enjoyed this game, enough to want to replay it again (i currently have two concurrent playthroughs as a dwarf shadow dragon and a human antivan crow going) and will probably be modding it to high heavens once that boat gets sailing, and that i believe it deserves that 8/10 score with all my heart. it was a great time.

that being said.

DIALOGUE REACTIVITY BASED OFF CHARACTER CREATION:

anyone who plays dragon age veilguard and only veilguard is getting a very surface level experience of what thedas is/has to offer culturally. i'm saying this because the excuse being "this is tevinter, why would it be the same as the southern half of thedas" isn't enough to explain a lot of gaping holes in the game's setting.

for instance, i played as an ELF MAGE GREY WARDEN in the middle of TEVINTER during a massive catastrophe brought about by the returned "ELVEN GODS"

having played all the games prior to dav, i did so because i knew that there would be

high tension with my PC being an elf in the notoriously cruel-to-elves country of tevinter, the old empire of which caused the fall of arlathan, and who enslaves elves to the point of it being a huge story beat for a previous companion (fenris)

a mage in a magocracy, where the script is flipped between mages and templars as compared to the south which recently went through years of a mage-templar war

a grey warden - their relevancy in thedas ended around 10 years ago due to corypheus basically tricking them all into hearing their calling, and 22 years prior veilguard during the fifth blight. at the beginning of the game, being a grey warden is more of a coincidental occupation than a narrative beat like it is in origins, but there's always something going on with the wardens so i picked it as a 'i'll pick this to experience the game first and then go for what i suspect is the best narratively relevant origin for my second playthrough' option

of the three descriptors, ELF/MAGE/GREY WARDEN, which do you think had the most story-relevant screen time?

that's right.

the grey warden one.

i won't say that there was nothing about being a mage, but i can remember probably on one hand where the option to chime in as a mage was relevant to what was being spoken about. (a conversation about spite, a conversation about scout harding's new abilities, and if there were more they weren't memorable enough for me to recall off the top of my head) which was fine on paper if you don't know anything about dragon age's entire deal wrt mages. i believe the only real mention about tensions between mages and templars happened in minrathous when we met up with neve's templar friend rana. i think the line reads something like "oh templars are just here to make sure the magic doesn't go out of hand. we don't even take lyrium like our southern counterparts" and then the game moves on to other things

which is crazy considering just how seriously the mage vs templar conflict was being leaned into for the previous three games, enough to the point where i was getting absolutely sick and tired of hearing about it. well the monkey's paw curls a finger because not only did i not hear about it, it felt like it never even happened.

TO BE FAIR: we're playing in tevinter (and antiva. and rivain. and the hossberg wetlands. and—well, you get the idea) and there's a general air of tevinter snooty superiority when they consider the 'south', so perhaps it wasn't fair for me to think "oh, they'd talk about it right? they'd bring it up more than once", but my being a mage seemed to just not even register for any characters in tevinter. not that i wanted them to roll out the red carpet or anything, but i can't remember a single moment where an NPC was like "oh right, you're a mage too". maybe they did, and i just don't remember it. but it didn't seem to matter at all.

but alright whatever, if we want to write that off as being "we're in tevinter. that has no bearing on circumstances here because it's a MAGOCRACY" fine i'll let it slide.

but the fact that my being an ELF didn't seem to be a Huge Deal when in tevinter threw me for a fucking loop. was there some sort of massive societal upheaval in the ten years between dragon age inquisition (dorian: i thought keeping slaves was fine as long as you treat them well) to veilguard (i found a single codex entry of a letter where dorian says "hey guys. we should stop keeping slaves. like genuinely what the fuck is wrong with us for even doing that in the first place") but the fact that NOBODY SEEMS TO BLINK AN EYE at my rook's elven heritage. ESPECIALLY since the main antagonists of this game are ALL ELVEN GODS seems like a wildly missed opportunity to introduce some tension. UNJUSTIFIED TENSION, but tension nonetheless.

the wardens had a lot of content, which both surprised and delighted me thoroughly. i'll never speak a word against them of course, and i did love how it showed that the wardens were here to do a job, and not play nice about it. the first warden was, in my humble opinion, one of the best characters in the entire game. annoying, gruff, called my rook warden basically the equivalent of a stupid rhino in a china shop not knowing what's best for the wardens/their oaths and impulsive in a way detrimental to everyone in his surroundings. literally one of my favorite lines happens when he and rook are beefing in the middle of the cobbled swan:

like. that was so satisfying.

the fact that the first warden isn't a villain, he's actually a fantastic grey warden. he'd sacrifice himself to kill an archdemon, and in fact "steals the glory" for himself. like was he an asshole during that exchange? yes, but it's undeniable that he was going to his death voluntarily and with a grim fervor. that's peak grey warden. nobody can say he'd ever shirk his duty. his character flaw was that he's a terrible leader, has the military tactics of a damp slice of toast, and generally doesn't inspire his subordinates to feel any sort of true loyalty to him. see here where my rook aggressively relieves him of duty and after a tense exchange where it seems like combat is about to start, evka saves the day by taking charge. and she does take charge pretty quick. nobody seems to really oppose the real quick promotion.

and then it's back to business as usual. archdemon trapping, anyone?

which was a problem i had with other factions in the game, namely the antivan crows. like yes, not every group is a monolith sharing the same ideals/morals/etc. but having played dragon age origins close to two decades prior where a massive point of contention was between zevran and the crows and the trauma that came from his upbringing as a crow... to then get thrown into treviso to see that the house we're dealing with is a bunch of leathery robin hoods was an unexpected turn. like. guys? weren't they villains? why are we all relatively good people (barring illario) here??? if anything, i thought that there'd be more politicking and backstabbing (literally and figuratively) but everything here seems kinda...... harmonious in comparison to whatever the fuck house arainai was doing. i might have missed a codex entry (i didn't read them all) explaining why the tonal shift happened, like maybe someone somewhere wrote about how house arainai imploded post-fifth blight when a crow went, well, rogue, and exposed the crows for the literal torture they put CHILDREN through, but nothing. like the game straight up lets an NPC whose name escapes me form a new house composed OF children at the end. like. what........ this isn't neverland, why are we forming the lost boys with knives here. hello??

on the other hand, i feel like the wardens had more options to expand on the fact that uh. yeah. grey wardens don't come from great backgrounds. like when you could conscript the mayor of d'meta's crossing much to everyone's displeasure, or the first warden actively being an obstacle to real progress (but not a villain! just extremely blind to the real dangers!), etc. etc. still not great in terms of "we employ literal murderers and criminals of every kind so we can toss them in the direction of darkspawn as a literal meat shield for thedas" but at least it's something.

but i digress. back to the point:

felt like the amount of dialogue options i had where i could bring up my warden expertise not only outstripped the mage/elf tags, but was so prevalent that sometimes it felt like the game was specifically catered to me being a grey warden. this is obviously just because i haven't played enough of the other origins to really feel out how much content they have in comparison, and it's partially just because of how obviously biased i am towards them as a group, but the FLAVOR of being a grey warden was present wherever i went. we'll see how well this opinion holds up after i finish my other two playthroughs.

THE COMBAT:

genuinely the best combat in the series. the fact that you can dodge-roll and more importantly PARRY in this game is an unexpected boon that i can't praise bioware enough for. the abilities themselves are smooth, the detonations provide a nice chunk of damage AND crowd control where you can just unload, and the damage types/weaknesses being a genuinely relevant part of the game to the point where if you have a lightning abilities/weapons equipped and you're facing down a hoard of antaam, you're going to have an extremely bad time*.

* on higher difficulties. i've heard on lower ones that it doesn't matter and you can just brute force your way through the game

i will say the "quick recovery" doesn't feel quick at all, even if i'm hitting the button for it frame-perfect, i can still get knocked down as the animation for quick recovery is going off, which was annoying. would've liked the i-frames to have saved me from getting turned into paste by the three ogres punching me down at the same time but alas.

also, they tend to target you even if you have a warrior (davrin/taash) on the team. unless you're actively casting taunt, they will run past your party members to hammer down on you. which was. annoying.

STILL I LOVED THE COMBAT, i went spellblade as a mage and my build was absolutely disgusting at the end. with a combination of fully stacked out duration+strike abilities, arcane bomb stacking abilities/weapons, and not even glancing at the other two trees for the majority of the game, i felt like i was a rogue that could conveniently cast chain lightning. it was crazy fun.

but also a steep learning curve. mythal took me 17 entire real life minutes to beat. LMAO.

i love that you don't need to restart the game if you want to play a different subclass, you can just refund your skill points and explore the game to your heart's content that way. not that i did, i picked one tree and stuck to it the entire game come hell or high water (or a lightning resistant high dragon 10 levels above me) and i had a blast with it.

THE STORY (THE EVANURIS, ROOK, & VARRIC):

hooooo boy. okay. this is going to be about the MAIN STORY ONLY, companion and region specific stuff will be in its own section later.

the writing for the main story was actually pretty enjoyable the further along in the game i got. every single main story mission was an incredibly cinematic experience; my favorite being the siege at weisshaupt mission—but only because it's kind of hard to quantify the endgame section as a 'mission' when it felt like an entire act on its own.

the amount of personality rook has was a breath of fresh air, and the voice acting for male british rook (alex jordan, who also coincidentally voices my favorite character in wuthering waves: jiyan♥) was SOOOO good. every line delivered felt like it matched the scene's energy/the personality i picked, so the flow of dialogue felt natural enough to be part of a tv show or movie.

although i do wish there was more option to be a little bit more of a bitch. a little rat bastard. not evil because i don't think dragon age would ever let you be evil in the way owlcat games lets you turn into a literal swarm of bugs consuming all (including companions) in its path, i thought there'd be a chance to be like. well. a little mean to people. i can be rude, but not mean. if that makes sense.

i do feel that rook was done a disservice by not having a hawke-like session 0 where we can see, precisely, why they're already so attached to varric and scout harding, but maybe that was left on the cutting room floor. i'm not a fan of tell don't show, so the game telling me "hey remember when you and varric did this thing that we're not going to actually show you" was pretty annoying. i wasn't expecting a dragon age origins-type prologue segment where i move through the world as a warden pre-veilguard, but i do wish we had like. a short cutscene flashback sequence or something to really immerse myself into the character. like let me put my shoes on before i start running the race!

still though rook felt really present in the story. like they slotted really nicely and smoothly into the leadership position which. i mean yeah who else, right? even though they did have plot armor in the sense that i didn't really understand (in-universe) why ghilan'nain and elgar'nan didn't just squish my rook into a pulp and scrape the dagger off the smear he became every time they came face to face... i suppose we wouldn't have a game, otherwise lolol

moving swiftly on, the boss fights felt appropriately built up to, and never did i feel like i was woefully unprepared for the task set up before me (although i must admit i was slightly taken aback by the three-headed hydra at weisshaupt. delightfully so, but it did stunlock me for a few seconds sjkhfj)

from the prologue -> endgame, i suspected something was off about varric once i realized "hey, how come nobody's talking to him anymore?" while the answer of "varric is actually a manifestation in rook's mind caused by solas trying to mold him into someone who could replace solas in the fade prison he crafted" was admittedly beyond the scope of what i came up with:

1. everyone in this game is a monumental asshole (funny, but disappointing narratively)

2. he died but bc he died next to the fade magic + we live in the fade now he's just a ghost only rook can see?? (true, but to the left)

i didn't really consider solas had a hand in it which is funny as hell considering. well. blood magic was mentioned at the very start of the game by solas himself

the reveal was very satisfying, and on my current playthroughs it's very entertaining to see everyone (especially solas, but my companions too) very carefully skirt the subject of varric's death by speaking about it in terms oblique enough that everyone in the know understands it as 'varric is fucking dead' vs. rook's manipulated memories understands it as 'varric is laid up in the infirmary'

the evanuris were very well designed, ghilan'nain being a creepy flesh centipede woman with tentacles and blight covering her head to toe was genuinely one of the most refreshing villain designs i've ever seen. elgar'nan was comparatively boring, but considering his whole deal is to be the elven god of tyranny having him just be a conventionally attractive man was a statement in and of itself.

their boss fights were standard, elgar'nan's being the easier of the two specifically because i wasn't trying to haul my ass through waves of darkspawn, but even ghilan'nain's wasn't that hard either considering all i really needed to to was burst some blight growths and could fully ignore the darkspawn if i wanted to. i had more trouble fighting the demon of desperation in minrathous than i did the story boss fights, but that was a trend for most games i feel. the side objectives containing the optional, harder fights and the mandatory quests softening the blow from the main story bosses so the player can get through them at a steady pace.

i do feel like the majority of the story was well written, but suffered greatly from pacing issues brought about by the format of the game itself. while there was a steady pressure brought about by the urgency needed to stop them from crafting the red lyrium dagger, the fact that i could just wander about the world picking up and completing side quests at my leisure before tackling the broader problem at hand did have me slightly confused about how long the game's time frame really was. i think it takes place over the course of a few months, or maybe a year total? if it was mentioned, it went straight over my head.

though i suppose that's a problem most RPGs have—the risk of allowing the player to have agency in picking what to do next means that. well sometimes they can spend hours trying to pick up every collectible while minrathous burns in the background.

though i did wish there was more dalish presence in a game focusing around the elven gods. like i know the veil jumpers are in the game as a faction but. they don't really feel dalish. they just feel like a bunch of archeologists who happen to be elves. a bit of a disappointment, there. also, they were constantly imperiled by something which really put a damper on the "we are also a competent group of people" vibe that i got from pretty much everyone else. the dalish aesthetic was just that, aesthetic. the veil jumpers being posted up in arlathan forest just seemed like they were there due to their occupation and not their heritage. bellara goes into it a little bit through her quest line, but i don't know. there wasn't that sense of unity and closed ranks the way it felt in da:o and da2. the less we speak of the dalish in da:i the better.

as for solas himself, i'm positive that the way you speak to him reflects his demeanor to you over the course of the game (i picked every aggressive/stoic option i possibly could, and the results i got were extremely entertaining; i have so many recorded videos of rook and solas duking it out but due to size constraints i haven't uploaded them anywhere ajkjdj) but at one point they went from "actively antagonistic" to "actively antagonistic but with begrudging respect"... on the side of solas. my rook was extremely honest about hating him every step of the way. extremely honest.

still, i loved how the game kept track of the progression of their relationship. the way every time a new talk with solas started i'd see a little "yeah last time you kept yelling at each other so we're keeping that energy" popup on the side of my screen. the way rook and solas could constantly. well i don't want to call it 'banter' because at every given point my rook would call him out on his bullshit and solas would strike back with a precise cut deep enough to bleed, watching them snipe at each other so aggressively vs. what i suspect is a much softer and more amicable conversation if you go the more diplomatic route was nice to see.

during endgame, since i completed every side objective (the solas's regrets chain of quests + the mythal encounter/fight) i had the option to:

deceive him by giving him a fake prop of his dagger

convince him to stop (unlockable by doing the aforementioned quest chain)

fuck it we ball; 1v1 me right now you bald bitch

obviously, i threw aside all other options and went for the 1v1. when i say i was HOWLING WITH LAUGHTER watching my rook go "I BEEN WAITING FOR THIS" and throw a haymaker to the face........... /wipes tear. it was beautiful. and then my rook STABBED HIM IN THE GUT, SEALING HIM INTO THE FADE FOREVER??? ten years i waited for this. ten YEARS. HALLELUJAH.

though it is very funny after all those years of seeing posts like "UMMM ACTUALLY THE VEIL SHOULD COME DOWN" and then the game is like "nah. that shit stayin up for a while" like kjHDJKLSHGFJK

anyways. i enjoyed stabbing him and watching him get yoinked into the fade. i'll do the merciful ending eventually but i had to do it to him at least once.👍

THE COMPANIONS:

though obviously i have a few characters who i enjoyed more than the others, i did like all of them!!

taash's questline was very good in terms of the cultural aspect (i can relate to feeling torn between two worlds) but the gender identity was somehow both heartwarming and. extremely awkward. it felt a little bit like watching an intro to gender studies 101 powerpoint presentation. like i suppose it was to explain the concept of being nonbinary to people who've never considered gender beyond what color cake to buy for a baby shower, but it did have me raising an eyebrow a few times. not in a bad way but in a very "this is obviously catered to people who don't know a thing about it, and i appreciate that bc it serves as a nice jumping off point for people to really get to know more, but it is a little clumsy in execution". i think my favorite scene for taash is when they're with neve in the dining room talking about how "nobody REALLY likes being a woman" and neve's just there like. oh. you sweet summer child. JKHDSKLAGHFGJ THAT WAS SO GOOD!! but i think the strongest part of their character arc was them trying to figure out who they are in relation to their cultural identity. especially the bit where they fought with their mom about it alllll the time. like where my second generation kids who don't really relate to their ethnic background at!!!!! RISE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!

the way i had to google if i was first or second gen. apparently it's "first to be natively born in a country = second gen" so i'm going with that

and the scene where they're screaming "TAMAAA" when shathann dies...... bro i teared up. i ain't ashamed about it. that was heartbreaking af.

still uh. it was kinda funny (read: eyebrow raising) that a character whose entire arc is coming to grips with multiculturalism and a break from the gender binary..... ends up being presented with a binary choice on whether or not to pursue their connections to their qunari heritage or their rivaini roots. like uh. guys. guys??? why do we have to pick??? aint the whole point of multiculturalism is that it's. uh. multicultural??? i suppose you could argue that it's the "oh you're just supporting taash into embracing a specific part of their culture, you're not really telling them to abandon the other!" but like. eh. EHHHHHHH. it didn't FEEL like that. esp. when it's presented as an either-or scenario.

THEIR PARTY BANTER WITH LUCANIS WAS THEEEE FUNNIEST SERIES OF LINES. i love those two together omg. and taash + scout harding!!! wagh!!!!

EDIT: i was gonna add a section abt the lords of fortune for taash's segment but forgot. which is very on brand bc they were forgettable at best and invisible at worst throughout the entire game. i don't want to say that they were irrelevant but like. uh. yeah. 💀💀

neve. neve neve neve. has hands down the absolute worst voice acting in the entire game. like i'm sorry to say that every single line was monotonous and genuinely lacking in any real connection to the words being said. i have to wonder if the voice actor for neve isn't used to working in a booth and more on camera, because truly with every line she spoke i became more and more disinterested with the conversation. the concept of a mage detective in the depths of minrathous rooting out corruption sounds so compelling, and it was, but unfortunately any deeper connection i could've forged with neve was hamstrung by the fact that i was bored to tears by the voice acting. even the conflict generated between my rook and neve due to him picking treviso (an obvious choice for a warden. they were going to blight the waterways) fell flat. because the lines were delivered flat. disappointing, considering how interesting the content of the game she features in is. like the sequence where i'm running through run-down ruins with NPCs tethered by their own blood jetting out of their bodies as they function as living speakerphones for a blood mage hell bent on revitalizing minrathous in her own twisted way. that's sick as hell. it WAS sick as hell. i loved every second of that. i just didn't love neve's voice acting. a shame, bc i was really excited about her pre-release. :(

scout harding's questline confused me not because of the content, but because it felt like this should've been a separate game entirely?? like why are we discussing the tranquilized titans and their horrific half-dead, half-dreaming state solely through the lens of a companion quest? why aren't we visiting orzammar or kal-sharok for more than 2 minutes and talking about the fact that the lyrium they've been mining for centuries is the blood of their ancestors?? like it's mentioned once or twice, but only during side-quests. like the solas's regrets quest chain or scout harding's companion quests. like isn't this a huge deal? why are we slotting this into a game about the elven gods?? the reveal that the evanuris essentially genocided the titans in order to craft their own bodies is a tale of horrific violence and violation and we........ just kinda. don't talk about it? after scout harding's quest is over? and the fugliest armor set known to man is unlocked? (toes. why does her armor have TOES.)

i did appreciate the fact that the game let us tell her that her anger was justified bc like. ngl if i learned all that and then the only option presented to me was to forgive the fuckers that did it i think i'd go crazy.

aside from that weirdness, scout harding is bestie. i love her. sorry that i KILLED HER OFF THOUGH!!! WHAT!!! okay unironically though i love that. i love that you can PERMANENTLY kill someone off. it adds depth. it adds STAKES. i wish more people would've died at the end. like bellara just being. fine? after being trapped in blight for who knows how long was baffling as hell. like she's not FINE but she's not dead. crazy stuff. how does being a warden sound bellara. u got a swift career change ahead of u. my rook's a warden tho he'll put in a good word for u dw

SPEAKING OF BELLARA. her questline was sad as hell but also like. how many times am i going to deal with cyrian bro like why couldn't we just knock his ass out. i know for the plot he has to keep going back to his evil masked ghost overlord anaris but like. eh.

his death scene was very sad though. bellara :((

CYRIAN UNMASKED LOWKEY....... KINDA FINE THO..... 👀

same as scout harding's i wish bellara's whole thing had more to do with the dalish. NOT THAT IT WASN'T I MEAN IT WAS ALL ABOUT BEING DALISH but it was more veil jumper than anything. man the veil jumpers were disappointing. just a faction built to fumble at any given chance. the only competent person is bellara and she's on the squad........... whole faction just fell apart without her 💀💀

bellara is my cutie pie bestie babygirl though <33 im so excited to romance her WAUGHHH even if i hate her hairstyle like girl what the hell is that on the back of your head!!!! they had to nerf her otherwise she'd be the Perfect Companion 😔💞

emmrich was sooo sweet. literally just an amiable old man on a journey to help his friends and students and his BONE SON!!!! SKELETON CHILD....... manfred my love......... unfortunately i did honor manfred's noble sacrifice and help emmrich into becoming a lich but like. that shit. feels like it should've been saved for post-game, somehow?? like in the veilguard equivalent of a trespasser or whatever. like what do you mean we just have an immortal lich companion just chillin. just vibin outta the necropolis. is that allowed?? are there other liches outside the necropolis???

???

the drip is immaculate though ngl. he easily clears everyone else's veilguard outfits <-she has only seen half of them due to only having the one finished playthrough

i didn't really use him much outside of his companion quests + fighting undead, so i don't know much about him with regards to party banter. sorry emmrich ;-;

davrin was. oh my goodness. have you ever seen a man so beautiful. the soulful brown eyes. the jawline strong enough to cut diamond. the EXPOSED CHEST. GOOD HEAVENS..... /SWOONS

literally the dreamiest dragon age companion ever like im sorry he clears literally everyone else ever made. and i say that even with zevran existing in the universe. (if silver fox zevran had at any point showed up in this game this opinion would swiftly change.)

i didn't romance him and i regret it bc i feel like there would've been something to the whole brothers in arms -> you and i are the only two people on this team who perfectly understand each other; you and i are dead men walking but we go to our blighted graves with grim smiles and clear eyes; should the calling come for one of us, it will end up claiming two, etc etc—unfortunately you recruit lucanis first and i didn't pivot 🫡

THE ONLY COMPLAINT I HAVE FOR DAVRIN: his entire arc focuses around assan. not JUST assan, like assan is the conduit through which davrin works through a lot of stuff, but it feels like. well i don't think there was a single scene where assan wasn't there. which makes sense because GRIFFONS. MY GOD. THEY'RE BACK. but also. i feel like if davrin had some space from assan in like a single mission/quest/etc. it would've been good. absence making the heart grow fonder and all. like i'd kill and die for assan but like 60% of the way through davrin's arc i was lowkey getting tired of it all being about our favorite bird son.

lucanis.... lucanis lucanis lucanis. he's the one my rook romanced and uh....... i'm gonna be honest. i wasn't really feeling like i was in a romance at all until the very end of the game. there's a line where lucanis was like "that's what i love about you" or whatever and i was like. huh? what? when was this established? i don't think we ever had a conversation or an event that would lead to this conclusion??? did i skip it? did i forget??? taps game is this thing on???

like i'm not saying the romance was BAD. (aside from some questionable animation choices. like why was lucanis standing so close to my rook like BACK UPPPPPP 😭😭)

all of the romance scenes were sweet and enjoyable and full of typical Bioware Cringe Romance Lines™ (affectionate) (honorary) but it did feel a little like. 80% of the game we had tepid to mildly reciprocal reactions to any of rook's flirtatious dialogue choices, and then when i got the choice to lock in the romance for lucanis it's like. OKAY HIT THE GAS, BUDDY! IT'S TIME TO FLOOR IT. 0->100 in an instant. i love a slowburn, but this was less of a slowburn and more me silently watching a mile long fuse burn up for like 60 hours until it thunderously explodes all at once.

unrelated but why does rook not have a bed in his room. why is it just a couch. they were suckin' n' fuckin' on an ancient elven la-z-boy in the fade. amazing stuff.

ASIDE FROM THE WEIRD PACING ISSUES I EXPERIENCED (hopefully it wasn't universal) THE ROMANCE WAS SWEET. 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND

as for his personal character arc. why the hell did lucanis become first talon??? like speaking as someone who found out post-game that he straight up SAYS in his tevinter nights short story that he doesn't want to be first talon. at no point in the game did i think "yeah this guy is fit for and desires a position of authority" like um. viago is right there. i could see the argument if treviso was blighted (don't know if teia and viago survive that; i saved treviso in my playthrough) but like. VIAGO (AND TEIA!) ARE RIGHT THERE BRO...............

him not killing illario is whatever i can understand not wanting to have the blood of family on your hands. it's the becoming first talon that's crazy. although i suppose the whole filial duty to caterina angle........ but since when was the antivan crow org following the right of primogeniture??? WHATEVERRR

also. antivan crows?? are not a moral organization??? what happened between da:o --> veilguard. why are they all robin hoods. weren't they child slavers who mercilessly tortured them into becoming assassins. there's an argument for "oh that was just house arainai" but i was expecting more morally gray/amoral assassins for hire and less "TREVISO WILL BE FREE. DOWN WITH TYRANNY" like huh???? are we red jennies all of a sudden. are we shadow dragons. whats goin on here.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

wow that's a lot. girl has a phd in yaponomics fr. at the end of the day, veilguard is a good game. i mean, i'm playing again it right now on nightmare mode this time. (CALIVAN'S FIGHT.......... WHAT THE FUCK................ i didn't die to his little minions OR to his pride demon summon i kept dying to his fuckass sextuple cast magic missiles that get spammed constantly like BRO CAN YOU RELAX. CHILL BRO CHIIIIIILLLLLLLLLL IT'S NOT THAT SERIOUS!!!!!!!)

i think this game could easily make space for a few more DLC, something like trespasser or mass effect's citadel DLC. hopefully they do because the epilogue slides were PITIFUL. PALTRY. and dare i say? PATHETIC. the romance slide for lucanis and rook being a single line of dialogue that they split between them. i was gobsmacked.

dragon age i say this because i love you and i have loved you for so long and will love you forever: BRING BACK WORLDSTATES. PLEASE. I DON'T NEED A MASSIVE CALLBACK. I DON'T NEED CUTSCENES. I WOULD BE CONTENT WITH THROWAWAY DIALOGUE. WITH A CODEX ENTRY. A LETTER SENT IN-GAME. PLEASE. BRING BACK WORLDSTATES AUGHHHH

although i don't think it'll matter bc if i'm reading those hints right we're going across the sea in the next game to deal with the uh. what was it called? something storm?? that the qunari were running from or whatever???? so i dont think anything we did here in thedas matters. it'll be like me:a except. you know. dragon age.

WAIT. PAUSE. THIS GAME HAS A SECRET ENDING??? <-SHE JUST GOOGLED "DRAGON AGE STORM"

FOR FUCK'S SAKE. WELL THAT'S ON THE TO-DO LIST NEXT THEN.

anyways i love this game. 8/10 would get my ass beat by the demon of desperation and its 5 billion summoned minions again 👍

#personal #I HOPE THIS IS LEGIBLE 👍👍👍#dragon age #liveblogging dragon age #liveblogging dav #dragon age spoilers #veilguard spoilers #unrelated to this review but i keep taking screenshots of my current rook T-posing in the middle of the lighthouse.#he's just so beautiful. i've really outdone myself

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galedekarios · 5 months ago

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First of all, thank you for your never-ending dedication to creating content about our beloved Wizard.

After having played much of Act I at my best friend's house, part of me is eager to try the game in its entirety and experience the romance with Gale at my own pace, but after seeing your very accurate analysis of the lack of content and the disparity in terms of his character's story, I was quite disappointed. Rose, do you think I should buy the game considering the plot hole that Larian reinforced? I'd be lying if I said Gale isn't the reason I want to get a copy of BG3, as silly as that might be. I trust your opinion, that's why I'm asking.

you're very welcome, thank you for your message! 🖤

i don't feel comfortable saying what you should be spending your money on.

what i can say from my own personal experience is that i still had fun playing the game, despite my many criticism of the game itself and larian as a company.

the combat is very fun to me, so if that is something that you also had fun with while you played act 1 then that could be a plus for you. if you are playing on pc, the mods that are out there also add a lot of variety and quality of life stuff.

i think what is important to keep in mind from my personal perspective as someone who has played early access and the full release of the game: act 1 is the most polished part about the game. there are no buts or ifs here. it's where the most interactions happen, between you, your companions and the world around them. it's where most of the secret areas are to be explored and where many quests, small and big, happen.

i'm saying this because act 1 can't be used as a fair metric of what to expect from the rest of the game.

act 1 has been polished largely by early access player feedback over several years. the other acts didn't have that advantage. act 2 is still good because the atmosphere is great and ketheric is an amazing antagonist, but it lacks all those little secrets you can find and the quests there are minimal. i also still maintain my opinion that act 3 is an unstructed narrative mess and one that i doubt will ever be fixed, unlike what larian did for dos2 with the definitive edition. in both of these acts interactions with the companions grow very rare (with the exception of as*trion across all 3 acts and shadowheart in act 2), the quests are often bugged, and the choices you make just... cease to matter most of the time.

if you are only interested in gale's story, i might actually advocate waiting for a sale if you have the patience to spare. because sadly, the reality is depending on which companions you prefer, with larian, you do get less content for the same money. larian does those sales very rarely, but i've seen it happen. so i would wait until the game drops in price. i've seen a sale recently which dropped the price to something around 40-50 bucks for the standard edition, which is still expensive but i think more justified.

#text: asks #text: personal #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate

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sarasa-cat · 6 days ago

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I want to get back to Veilguard soon now that it is February and I have "time" for gaming.

Have collected everyone, but probably still in act 1. When I last left off, I had started the first companion quest for Taash and I think Emmrich had just finished setting up his room in the lighthouse and maybe his first companion quest became available too.

So....

My Shadow Dragon Rook made a decision (you know which one) that cut off any chance of a Lucanis romance which, honestly, was what I wanted for her in this game. Hm.

There is definitely a vibe developing between my Shadow Dragon Rook and Neve ... although she feels like a third wheel when Lucanis is around and, like, yeah, she really *wanted* to romance him but now it is all **whomp whomp whomp** saaaaad trombones.

Meanwhile, Emmrich looks like a very interesting romance but I'm just not feeling it for these two characters and want to make a Mourn Watch Rook Goth Nerd **just** for him.

(Honestly, I like making Rooks even if I don't end up playing them ahahahaha lol. it cannot be helped.)

So. It is decision time:

1. I can continue my current playthrough with my Shadow Dragon and just sort of fall into a Neve romance despite all the weirdness (which makes for interesting headcanon tbh).

2. I could back up a good bit in the game to make The Other Choice and then pursue the Lucanismance as planned AND be forced to make up some interesting headcanon for why she lets her home town burn.

3. I can keep my current playthrough as is and push her into a romance with Emmrich even if it feels awkward and I'd rather make a different character who makes different choices just for him. Nope, I definitely have a Rook & a world state in mind for Emmrich.

... While the ultimate situation would be Play ALL The Rooks, the reality is no. Life is busy, games are many, and I realistically only think I can guarantee two runs through Veilguard so I can see how different major events play out.

Despite some of the Rooks I have made so far, I think I am really only interested in playing a Shadow Dragon, a Mournwatch, or an Antivan Crow Rook.

Realizing now that aesthetically, I do want to do is NOT have a shadow dragon/shadow dragon and a crow/crow as my two world states. I want some tension in making That Decision. But I might just want to put that off for a second full run through.

Maybe I'm restarting (facepalm facepalm facepalm) with a new Rook (after all, it been a long while since I touched the game) who is a Mourn Watch and Emmrich is her kind of catnip. And I honestly don't really care what kinds of decisions she makes for the rest of the game. She'll make decisions as they happen. (Note: I am partly spoiled on a lot of the game but more in vague one-liner descriptions of the spoilers rather than in-depth knowledge).

Then, at some later point, I'll roll back my Shadow Dragon to *before* that big decision that cuts off Lucanis and proceed from there.

Time allowing, at some point I will make a Crow with epic cheekbones who will romance Neve. Because I do want a Nevemance playthough.

Also: this is sort of a rare moment for me with Dragon Age games. Normally I am interested in romance either 1 and only 1, or 0 of the romanceable characters (when playing as a female PC without romance-unlocking mods).

This is a rare Dragon Age game where at least 3 if not more of the characters interest me as romances. That said, this is also more of a "cosy dragon age game" for me rather than a Politically and Philosophically Charged Dragon Age game (I still prefer DAO/A and DA2 overall).

Le sigh.

If only I had more free time for gaming and less games in my Play Me Now queue.

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gloomygloworm · 8 days ago

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Sure I'll toss my hat in the ring.

I'm kind of ambivalent about veilguard. It's my very first DA game I've ever played, I saw the companions everywhere after it hit the stores and the world looked beautiful and rich. My friends all love DA and they all MET through the DA Fandom years ago, so I wanted to engage in this new thing my friends loved!

It's a gorgeous game. The towns feel alive, the companions are funny and heartfelt and so different from each other.

The game feels fucking empty.

I really don't like that half the quests are just conversations. Why is speaking with the first warden a whole quest? I said maybe 3 things, he gets his ass handed to him by someone else (Dorian was it? I don't remember his name) and then u go wow cool thank god I'm not in jail! He's an idiot! And thats... it lol.

I've had to learn about the world through my friends giving me context from previous games. Some of the codex entries are weird, I really hate how alienating it feels to be rook. I don't get to join bookclub, I have to install a mod to make additions to the grocery list, it feels so rare that you actually get to engage the companions at the lighthouse during "rest" time.

I've been playing an elf mage - a (very smart in my hc) veil jumper, yet I'm relegated to "guy who hits artifacts with a rock to make them stop" and Ballara is constantly explaining jumper stuff to me that I should already know.

The weird "project" thing u decorate ur room with. U use that to establish (imo) natural talent and how studious you are, but the game never does anything with that. Half the flirt options in dialogue are things I would say to anyone I consider a friend, or was giving heartfelt support to. None of it feels very flirty. I'm sad I can't request kisses from romanced companions like you can in baldurs gate 3, it feels like such a small mechanic but I never take it for granted. I loved kissing my romanced companion good morning and good night.

Most of the quests feel really short and unfulfilling. The fight style is fun but all I'm doing is short lived fights that make my attention wander. Most of the gear you just find, I find the shopping experiences at vendors boring, but I do like the decorations. I kind of wish we had more decorating space tbh!

I like the game for what it is, but I'm happy I got it on sale cause I would never pay full price for it. I haven't technically finished the game yet cause I keep restarting (lot of rook ideas) but if I had to play it without mods again I just wouldn't have fun. It just stinks that it feels like rook doesn't even have to be around to move the plot. Everyone else has connections and rook is just making decisions the others don't want to make. Like I genuinely don't think rooks presence should have done jack shit during the dragon attacks? I get the politics of what was going on in minrathus but if that was going to happen rook being there shouldn't change the tide at all.

I'm just one guy. I feel like Treviso should have been hit more even when I help them because again, I'm just one guy. They just don't really give any explanation on why rook is good for the job imo, yeah yeah "unpredictable and doesn't know when to quit!" That's fun but they don't really engage with that for rook? We all get good gear, we all level our abilities, i hold everyone hands while they go through their personal quests, but what makes rook actually able to do this? Just sheer determination?

Like why aren't I even involved in breaking the hold elgernan has during the venatori conference with the Dalish prisoners? I just feel like as rook i don't do fucking anything at all? Most conversation I'm involved in happens without player input. There's not a lot of actual choices in the game. It feels like they could have added 30 more quests at least.

Idk. Thank god for modders (not the ones whitewashing I hope you all die in incredible pain, everyone who downloaded them too.)

Game just feels kinda empty. I'm glad I didn't pay full price for it.

#datv #dragon age the veilguard #veilguard discourse #datv discourse #i dont think id recommend it to anyone tbh #id just tell them to download the character creator

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scissorlines · 23 days ago

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Apolocheese if this is a question you've already answered, but I was wondering, if Tumeric was a companion in bg3 rather than the player-character, what would her story be like throughout Act 1, 2 & 3? Her personal quests etc? Would it follow the same beats as Graveyards? And how could a Tav influence the outcome? I hope this question makes sense lol - and no pressure to answer!!

(P.s. adore your writing btw, and loving all the new characters popping up in Wings/Talons)

Oh, no bother at all - thank you so much, I very much appreciate the chance to ramble about my disaster girl - and what a long ramble it has become, I'm going to have to add a read more in there.

Turmeric's arc as a companion probably wouldn't really start until Act 2, I think. Before then, she might talk about Klear as the person who got her into being a bard if you had high approval and pushed her a little, but other than that she wouldn't be sharing anything. To compensate for the lack of information in that regard, she'd encourage whoever the player character was to talk about themselves instead (which would probably mean a multiple choice backstory for custom Tavs), which she would hope would also have the rather convenient side effect of getting them to trust her more, if it worked.

That aloof but friendly image would start to break a little in Act 2, especially if you brought her to areas like the House of Healing, or if she was there when you saw Isobel for the first time - giving you a chance to jump in and ask her if there's something wrong. You'd have a few chances at perception/insight and then persuasion checks depending on where you took her too. If you had high approval she might come to you herself in a long rest and tell you she's... familiar with the area, if she thinks sharing her knowledge of the place might help - but I think if you played it right, and missed/failed all of those checks and then played it right, it would be entirely possible to get through the whole game with her without ever learning a single thing about her past.

If you passed those checks, she'd admit her past as a nurse in the House of Healing to you, but she wouldn't go beyond that. Knowing about her past would change her comments around the Shadow-cursed Lands, though- she'd openly talk about what it used it be like there/people she used to know/parts of it she didn't know about/how things have changed.

The conclusion of her Act 2 arc would depend on whether you knew about her past/whether you brought her to final confrontation in Moonrise. If you knew about her past but didn't bring her, she'd just stay back at camp and talk to you about what happened later. If you didn't know and didn't bring her, she'd just turn up by herself anyway because the pressure of keeping it all to herself would drive her to confront Ketheric anyway.

Either way, if she's turned up by herself, or if you chose to bring her along, she'll get kidnapped by Ketheric when he takes Aylin as well (like in More Graves to Dig, but she wouldn't have the prism with her, so they'd just teleport straight there as he normally does with Aylin, no need to complicate things) and what happens in the confrontation in the mindflayer colony will depend on whether you know about her past.

If you know, it's up to you - you do all the talking, and if you manage to talk Ketheric into the pit she'll run away from him and rejoin the group, if you don't and you're just fighting Ketheric, she'll start the fight prone and on a fixed low initiative as Ketheric throws her to the ground and out of the way - he might attack her, but he'll only aim to knock her and not kill her- he still needs her for his little plan, after all.

If you don't know - she'll do the talking, manage to convince Ketheric into the pit, and then immediately let herself get killed by Myrkul.

Unlike the fic, you'd then get a chance from Withers after the fight to go into the fugue plane waiting room and talk to her, if you want to (you can just choose to leave her dead and not bother if you'd rather) - finally having a definite chance to learn about her past even if you failed all the checks before. You get a chance to convince her you want her alive even if she's a bit of a liar, easier depending on how high your approval is with her, and if you succeed she'd promise to tell you the rest of it, and then you get a dramatic cutscene of her coming back to life in your arms like a disney princess that people would use for romantic model swaps all the time.

If you fail to convince her, she'd stay dead, and you'd get a shot of her corpse in the cutscene when you left the shadow-cursed lands - grim if you didn't break the curse, a touch hopeful if you did- flowers blooming around her, new life, that sort of thing.

At the start of Act 3, if she was alive, she'd tell you about the rest of her history- like Exhuming the Past- though probably using the tadpole connection for some visuals so that her just talking wouldn't bore the player to death. You could really easily get her approval from Neutral 0 to Exceptional 100 right here just by accepting her and comforting her at regular intervals, which would help later- I think I'd put it just after killing either Orin or Gortash, whoever you went with first- when you'd get a cutscene with her where you could talk about your player characters plans for the future after you defeat the Absolute, and you'd get your chance to romance her here - yeah, you wouldn't even get a chance to start a romance with her until Act 3 (you could try to flirt before, but she'd laugh it of or deflect and it wouldn't really go anywhere). But, she's polyamorous - so you could romance someone in the meantime if they're chill with polyamory, which would merge very nicely with Halsin's romance if you're otherwise only dating him (undoubtedly leading to some of the horniest party banter you've ever heard between them).

OR, in a way round learning about her past at all - in a cheaty/meta-y/safeguard way - if she was already dead for whatever reason before you went to Moonrise and you only resurrected her with Withers after the fight with Myrkul was over, that part of the quest just wouldn't trigger and you could skip over it without her getting kidnapped, or learning about her past. This would effectively end the quest and skip the rest of her storyline as well (including the chance to romance her), as it would be too late for her to consider talking about her past now, so up until the epilogue all you would really know about her is she's just some bard from Baldur's Gate, which is kinda funny.

Hopefully this answered your question, and thank you again for asking! I hope you'll continue to enjoy my writing in future- knowing people like it makes me very happy, and really motivates me to write more! ^_^

#bg3 #bg3 tav #my stuff

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jazzmckay · 1 month ago

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davg day 3

hoo boy so many good things today :>

every interaction with the companions makes me fall a bit more in love with them, its ridiculous. i love how many more personal moments there are with them, and between them! theyre all amazing and i am delighted by every new bit of info or bonding. it's legit making me emotional, and i even teared up during bellara's quest where she opens up about her brother.

started with lace's magic quest, which was so fun and endearing. i was really happy with my dialogue choices because i felt like we were connecting and i was supporting her in a way that truly resonated with her ;w;

it was at this point that i started to understand that every companion would have their own special actions--id seen bellara's tinkering and lucanis' fade bridges--and thats pretty dang cool

while we were in the forest, i got to do my first bit of proper wandering around which was fantastic. i LOVE exploring (going in the opposite direction of the quest marker, looting, being a Discovery completionist etc). had bellara along because it made sense to take her there too. lace and bellara's banters about the crossover between the ancient elves and ancient dwarves,,, so good. we found a few of those evanuris statues that give you buffs which was neat. even more notably, i found one of solas' memories ougghh young solaaassss, i cant wait to find more

overheard morrigan talking about her relationship to solas being complex... pardon me i need to know more right now

also did the quest to help the traumatized spirit which was another one that really got to me. at the memorial, when the spirit said "a moment of pain does not undo a lifetime of hope" i felt that.

lol. thinking of any abomination in particular, varric?

after a lot of fucking around in the arlathan forest, i finally returned to minrathous with neve and lucanis. taking lucanis was an excellent choice because he had some great colour commentary about tevinter and fighting the venatori. i pet a bunch more cats. and a dog!

then. bellara's quest. this one slammed me with emotions. the immediate tension, learning more about veil jumper stuff, uncovering what all this means to bellara, gosh.

just fuck me right up. its fine. bellara's dialogue here was written incredibly well, gotta hand it to whoever wrote her because a lot of her emotional lines were like gut punches. wish id gotten screenshots of the last bit where she said something like "so i can feel like he forgives me, and like i deserve it" jfc ouch

bellara/merrill shipping intensifies because merrill would understand this SO hard aaaa

spent even more time in the forest with bellara and lucanis. rook made a bunch of hand puns by a giant statue hand and lucanis said "people have been killed for less" :( bro pls i put so much effort into those puns (i lov him)

this made me miss bull because he does the same damn thing in the exalted plains asdfgm

then back to treviso with lucanis. so so incredibly fond of him for getting gifts for the rest of the companions. hes a softie. sweetheart. i may have flirted just a bit. also pet many more cats. found a bard playing "sera was never" i caNNOT believe it lmao amazing. did some work for the crows and lots more exploration. i love trying to find all the hidden chests and stuff

found bellara and neve hanging out and it was so sweet. the companions becoming friends independent of rook is PERF. i also like how they compliment each other in battle when they get a kill, not just rook. bellara's combat dialogue in general is blessed. love how she says stuff like "we're getting good at this!" and "good work everyone!" what a cutie.

another thing i'm enjoying is how the fade environments change. the lighthouse is getting nicer, everyone's making their rooms more homey, the crossroads has more spirits, even merchants?? its satisfying!

ive upgraded a couple merchants and the caretakers workshop which is neat. i wanna buy everything lmao which is new for me! i tend to hoard and just use what i find. but i love how shops work in this game.

getting better at combat; in fact i'm so into the swordplay that i neglect the hell out of the abilities until i get to a boss or tough enemy and remember that i could be making things easier for myself. im trying though!! and it seems like there's even combat dialogue when you get characters to set up combos too?? the interactions are so dynamic and thorough, im living

the fact that if banters get cut off by sudden combat, the characters will be like "as i was saying..." and pick it right back up after.... incredible. revolutionary.

love to see gifts have come back, and i'm really hoping some of them will include scenes like the ones in da2 / the special ones in dao

having a great time all around, there are so many little aspects and upgrades from previous games that i appreciate a lot. feels like the gameplay is exactly what i'm into, from combat to exploration to streamlined inventory etc etc, and the focus on character dynamics is always gonna be a hit with me <3

#jazz plays davg

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randomthefox · 3 months ago

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What was your first exposure to the Dragon Quest series and which installment was the first one you played?

It was probably an advertisement for Dragon Quest 8 of some kind, or seeing the game on display somewhere. DQ8 was the first really big hit the franchise made in the west, so I must have been exposed to it on one of my many trips to Game Stop back in the day.

Truthfully the exposure that really sticks out in my memory are the Seth Green commercials for Dragon Quest 9

youtube

These commercials were all over TV when I was around seventeen. They must have worked cuz my brother got a copy of the game for his DS. I remember popping into it once or twice but it bounced right off of me.

To be honest I only really started getting into Dragon Quest pretty recently in my adult life. Probably mostly because of my boyfriend if I think about it. He played the original Dragon Warrior on the NES as a kid, so the series has some nostalgia for him. Something at some point maybe a video I watched maybe the trailer for Your Story made me wanna start playing Dragon Quest 5 on the DS. And THAT game REALLY got its hooks in me, I fucking loved every second of it. After that I downloaded the original NES games and their SNES remakes and played them, beaten the 1st game in particular a handful of times now I find it a very zen experience.

I was always much much more into Final Fantasy while growing up. But I'm very happy to have given time to the DQ series, I think it's a franchise with so much personality and I kind of adore that it's a series that never rested on its laurels. Dragon Quest INVENTED the Japanese RPG, but it strove to subvert the conventions that it more or less created every step along the way. Dragon Quest 4 and 5 in particular are games that challenge and flip standard fantasy epic formulas in such a delightful way. In DQ4 you spend the first half of the game playing as the PARTY MEMBERS that eventually join up as the Chosen Heroes traveling companions, and it is tens of hours before you ever even start playing as the Main Character (in the original NES game at least, the DS remake adds a prologue where you play as the hero first). And Dragon Quest 5 is quite simply one of the best RPGs I have ever played in my life, I don't even know where to start and I'd be loath to spoil anything about it.

I intend to absolutely devour the Dragon Quest 3 remake when it comes out this month. I'm very much a late comer to this series but I heckin dig it and cannot recommend it highly enough. I would genuinely suggest starting with Dragon Quest 1 because I think it lays the best foundation for the series and is a very simple basic and charming game and it's not very long only about a dozen hours or so. After that the DQ3 remake is probably going to be the one stop shop for anyone wanting to break into the series when it comes out. After playing those I'd say the DS and mobile ports of DQ 4 and 5 would be worth playing because you'd get the most out of them with that experience of the standard that those games gleefully subvert. Personally I find 6 and 7 pretty meh but tastes vary. 9 is worth playing if DQ3 really hit for you because 9 has the most in common with 3.

If all of those games are a bit too retro for you, I don't think it'd be wrong to start with Dragon Quest 8 because it's a bit more of a modern experience with full english voice acting, which might be more what people would expect and find tolerable from a long RPG. DQ11 is the most recent game and is an incredible experience but I personally feel it benefits the most from having experience with previous games in the series rather than just jumping right in with that title, but hey all of the games are designed to be accessible as someone's first so there's no wrong choice.

I haven't touched the spin off games like Heroes and Builders personally but they all look pretty fun too.

#dragon quest #dq

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thenugking · 5 months ago

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Percy, 1, 2, 3, 7 (I'm mostly interested in if there's ANY way for her to get better in a potential companion route)

1. What would your Tav’s greetings be (at different levels of approval)?

I don’t think Percy has a low approval greeting--she’s fine! She’s always fine! Her main greetings would be, “How can I help?” or “What do you need?”, maybe on her Good Route switching to, “How are you?” In a romance, “Anything for you, darling.”

2. Describe their tent setup! What’s on the outside? The inside?

Plain and neat, with a few symbol of Ilmater dotted around. There’s a pile of nicely stacked books outside, mostly on Ilmatari doctrine, but a few on healing too. Hidden inside, you can find a racy romance novel hidden under a pillow.

3. What would their character quest be titled? Why?

Ohhh we’ve definitely gotta get Martyr in there somewhere. I still suck at titles but there’s something in that. The Martyr of Ilmater maybe?

7. Describe their arc. How would a player help resolve it? What choices can be made? Can your Tav be turned down a dark path, or pulled to a lighter one?

I feel Percy could definitely get better with the right support! I think she’d have a point system throughout the game where you can push her in one direction or the other, and that would matter more than any one big decision.

The earliest one is a long rest conversation where Percy has More To Do before she rests, despite clearly being exhausted. You can try to persuade her to rest, it’s not only good for her but will make her better at helping later (good path, I think you get a point towards it even if you fail the Persuade), or compliment her dedication (bad path). If she doesn’t rest, she doesn’t, yknow, get the benefits of a long rest and is missing a few spell slots the next day, at which point you can continue discussing the issue with her.

I think a lot of the early points are more pointed at the way Percy treats herself than other people--encouraging her to rest, to stop trying to be perfect, to admit that she reads smut and enjoys sex and is desperately unhappy in her marriage. I think on her good path, she’s actually the one that admits to you that she has a lot of unfair thoughts about other people and you can reassure her that there’s no such thing as a thought crime and it’s okay to have unfair thoughts as long as she, yknow, acknowledges that she’s being unfair and judgey.

Otherwise, if you just keep enabling Percy and telling her that yes, she is the most perfect selfless little sufferer to ever live, she ends up just as shitty as she does in game. Ig at least if she’s not the player, she’s not going to be committing atrocities. I can see players with good Tavs not actually realising this is her bad ending--she’s supportive and nice! And then you play an Evil Tav and discover she reacts in exactly the same way…

I think the biggest point in her personal arc comes when you meet her family, and can encourage her to talk to her husband about her dissatisfaction or not. Whether she listens to you goes off the points system, rather than only your dialogue here. Good Path Percy will end up having a fairly amicable break up, agreeing to co-parent with her ex once she’s dealt with the Absolute, and admitting she hasn’t always been a great mother. Bad Path Percy digs her heels in about the fact that she’s a Loyal Hardworking Wife and Mother and nothing needs to change. She only breaks up with her husband if you’re romancing her, and bring up the affair yourself (and then of course blames you and her husband and everyone other than herself for the failure of her marriage).

You can’t get Percy’s good ending if you’re romancing her, btw. It gives several Bad Path points just from being active, and meeting the family is the last point to back out of the romance without getting Percy stuck on the evil path.

#thornfield13713 #perseverance ashton #marsh ocs #asks post #baldur's gate 3

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tsaomengde · 1 year ago

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Starfield thoughts

Finished Starfield. If you like Bethesda games, you will like Starfield. If you don't, then you won't. Pretty simple.

More detailed thoughts:

I finished Oblivion's main quest, finished Fallout 4's main quest, and bounced off of Skyrim. Starfield was distinctly the most fun I've had with a Bethesda game. Partly because it's in space and I'm a slut for spaceships and sci-fi. Partly because the combat finally felt - well, look, it's still bad combat. Like, objectively, it is clunky and flat compared to dedicated shooters like Halo or Doom. But it's clunky and flat in a way that feels a little retro to me. Kind of brings me back to FPSes in the 90s.

I also really enjoyed going down the science skill trees and the ship skill trees and crafting myself an OP ship and OP guns. I was playing on Normal and never felt the need to spec into combat stuff. I did not need to put points into Rifles to have them do 20% more damage when my custom-crafted sniper rifle, "That Guy In Particular," could put a penetrator round into someone's head with 85% accuracy from half a kilometer away.

I liked fucking around with the outpost stuff a little bit, but the attempts at giving you the ability to automate production of crafting materials are very clunky. I have not played Factorio or Satisfactory, but I have played an indie factory game called Dyson Sphere Program that is in a very similar vein, and Starfield's ability to set up supply lines between star systems and link stuff up inside outposts is poorly implemented and kind of anemic. Once you spec far enough into science you also get the ability to just make the shit yourself at a crafting table. And the various merchants in the hub worlds sell all the raw materials you ever need, so while setting up outposts to mine the shit yourself is nice, ultimately it is entirely skippable. Which, like, is fine! It's an RPG, you should be able to play the bits you're interested in and leave the rest. But the flip side of that coin is that I respect developers who are like, "You want to be Good at this game? Learn the mechanics." Putting in this big outpost system and then saying "but you don't actually have to interact with it at all if you don't want to" is like if Sekiro said "you can get by without learning parrying."

Spoilers below:

I appreciated that the game picks out the companions you have the highest affinity with at a crucial point in the main plot and says, "You can only save one." It's like the Kaidan/Ashley dillemma from Mass Effect 1, only dynamic instead of static. I did feel bad when my then-BFF Sarah died. Not, like, *super* bad, since none of these people hold a candle to the classic companions from Dragon Age or some of the new hotties from Baldur's Gate 3. But I really did like Sam Coe, mostly because he's voiced by Elias Toufexis, best known as the voice of Adam "I Never Asked For This" Jensen. So I would have been sadder if he'd died, but I put the main plot off until super late and you only get him halfway through it so my affinity level with him wasn't high enough yet to put him in the crosshairs. Ha!

The main plot having to do with multiverse theory, and the NG+ just being the next universe you enter once you finish collecting the macguffins that open the multiverse portal, is clever. I liked that the multiversal travelers you come into conflict with over the macguffins are alternate-universe versions of people you've already met, including whichever character died in the aforementioned choice. Overall, pretty solid writing. Nothing exciting or exceptional that I haven't seen before, but just enough of a twist and a little spice to keep it interesting. It does take a while to build up, though, and everyone who's said "the game only gets good x hours in" is correct. The main plot takes a *lot* of time to heat up. I did a bunch of random Bethesda fucking around and a couple faction questlines before I touched it, and I only went to the main plot when my brain was telling me "I am about to start experiencing diminishing dopamine returns from this game so you might as well finish it up."

At the end of the game, you activate the macguffins, step into the multiverse portal, and are presented with a choice: go on to the next universe (NG+), or stay in the one you have. I liked that there was a choice. My character, Skade, decided to stay in the one they have. They've built a good life for themselves here. They have friends here. They wrested the macguffins from the hands of the multiverse travelers who thought they knew better than everyone else what to do with them. They're not ready to leave. Maybe someday they will be, if and when I come back to Starfield and want to do a NG+. But for now, I, Gabe, am moving on from the game in this universe. In the universe where Skade is a real person, though, they're still going off having adventures with their buddy Sam and his daughter Cora. And I think that's a nice thing indeed.

#starfield #bethesda #review #spoilers #starfield spoilers

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phoomwhoosh · 1 month ago

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What're your favorite video games?

I have a lot of video games that I really, really love. These would be my top 10 in no particular order and under a cut for length because I talk about them:

Torin's Passage - A point-and-click adventure game from my childhood and it's sooo good. It's about a farm boy who finds out he's actually a prince and he has a little companion named Boogle who can shapeshift into anything. It's got puzzles, it's got bad puns, and it's a lot of fun.

King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride - Another point-and-click-adventure game from my childhood. Objectively my favorite one in the King's Quest series. You get to play as Princess Rosella and Queen Valanice and you switch between them each chapter. Basically, Rosella jumps into a portal because she does not want to get married and Valanice follows after her and they get separated. It's very interesting to see how they just miss meeting each other as they travel through each strange land. Such a fun game!

Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear - A first-person shooter game that I used to play a ton of. There was no multi-player and there was an underlying story to the game. Honestly, this was probably peak Rainbow Six for me.

The Sims 2 - This game was such a huge part of my life when I was a teenager/young adult. I still play it to this day. I love creating houses and Sims and just this game in general. Very glad I got it to work on my computer. Definitely takes some time LOL

F.E.A.R. - Another first-person shooter and horror game with a story behind it. I love the slo-mo in it and the fact that you can play people's voicemails. I know there are other FEAR games but eh. I only ever really liked this one because the second one went a direction I was not a fan of. But the first one is good!

Life Is Strange 2 - This is a game where your choices have actual consequences. There are other games in this series and I loved them too but 2 is definitely my favorite out of them. I liked playing as Sean and getting to be an actual good older sibling to Daniel. This game made me cry. Just like the other ones did too. But this one just hits different for some reason.

Dragon Age - The entire series is my favorite. Do I have likes and dislikes for each game? Yes. But this is my favorite game series ever. I have played many, many hours in all 4 games. Yes, even the newest one. I've greatly enjoyed all of them and love my characters from each one.

The Walking Dead Games - Obviously, I'm a big fan of games where you can pick an option and there can be consequences. And sometimes there aren't any and you breathe a sigh of relief. This is definitely one of those series that had me on-edge a lot. But I greatly enjoyed seeing Clementine's journey through each game even when you weren't playing as her. The first game shattered my heart and the rest of the games stomped on the pieces LOL

Lethal Company - My favorite multiplayer game so far. I like gaming with my friends and I especially like it when I can murder them work with them to complete a goal. And that goal is reaching quota for the Company that we all love working for.

Killer Frequency - This is a recent game that I've played and I really enjoyed it. Basically, you are a radio show host and you have a mystery to solve. There are puzzles. There is tension. You do your best to relieve that tension by being like "la, la, la, nothing could be around the corner at all." It was such a fun game!

I'm sure there are other games that could've made the list instead but those are my top ones right now.

Thank you for the ask!

#in which you ask and i eventually answer

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missizzy · 2 months ago

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A Game Novice's Baldur's Gate Log, 181 1/2 Hours In: I'm almost done

Masterpost

(Note: this will definitely contain spoilers for all I've played through, and may as well for anything after that I've also seen.)

The three people I had to kill before facing the Netherbrain are now all dead. I've officially completed all of the companion quests as well, except for Lae'zel and Gale. Those side quests that I haven't done I won't be doing in this playthrough; I definitely want to do a few more of those in the future. It may be about time to wrap things up, too, because I think the length and number of my save files have reversed most of the effects of setting the graphics to low; my lag this week was truly terrible. I probably won't get the chance to play again before I head up north tomorrow, but I may well finish when I get back next week.

I also wrote a fic taking place after the House of Grief, and I will be writing Wyll and Karlach's first time making love while traveling. I was pretty much determined to make that work anyway, and Wyll's reactions and quest completing have made it very easy.

With the big excitement of saving Astarion from both Cazador and then from himself now done, there was still a bit of wrapping up to do there. I went around the dungeons a bit, grabbed a few more useful things, and was a little disappointed by the unascended version of the Gur scene, if only for its lack of dialog options. There's no denying the ascended one which I'd seen was much more exciting. I also looked in the attic on the way out, which was worth it just for the reading material. I sent the book about giant space hamsters to Minsc.

After a stop at Beehive's to buy more healing potions and the Counting House to steal Cazador's baubles, I headed back to the tavern to long rest. After everyone else praised Astarion for making the right choice, it was very sweet that Gale praised Sara instead, for getting him to. Although Astarion himself also expressed his appreciation for it during the evening scene.

Next up was the Wyrmway. I had seen the Chambers of Courage and Strategy, and also a bit of the players fighting Ansur-though I had not seen why they were fighting the wyrm, and had kind of been hoping it was some sort of final test. I thus knew I'd want Gale for the chess game. Initially I'd thought of also taking both Wyll and Karlach, but being so low on healing potions, I ultimately took Minsc instead of Karlach. I wanted to use him again, anyway, and don't think I will in the two remaining fights.

I might have figured Cazador's palace out of my own, but I had to look up how to get through the prison wall. I spent way too long wandering around the prison first, chopping down one locked door when I found I now couldn't pick a lock to save my life. I wasn't able to find the salesrat I'd heard about either, unfortunately. The chambers, on the other hand, I did more or less figure out on my own, though when I had a little difficulty finding the Chamber of Insight I actually did look to confirm there were four of them.

I played mainly as Sara into the Chamber of Courage, and had her take up the torch, which was for the better, since it allowed her as the tank to take more attack from the elementals than the other three. I actually tried to be more creative with the spells to weaken our attackers at first, but ultimately ended up just taking out as many as I could. Gale got drained enough I knew I'd be swapping him out for Karlach as soon as he'd done his job in the Chamber of Strategy.

I played mainly as Wyll through the other three chambers, especially since he actually does have remove curse, which took care of the difficult part of the Chamber of Justice. Once the three paintings in the middle were visible, which one to put on the stone was pretty obvious. More difficult is actually the Chamber of Strategy, even with Gale's directions; I'd seen one streamer fail to understand them and just chop the king's head off! I understood them mostly because I played chess as a kid.

I suspect some people might have been driven crazy by the flying books of the Chamber of Insight. But I actually enjoyed chasing them around. I was giggling even before Minsc failed a slight of hand check and declared the books were more slippery than Boo during bath time. He did catch one of them though, as did both Wyll and Karlach. It was again obvious he was supposed to strike down Suelto, but I'm afraid I was so offended by Stedd's dismissal of the citizen's rights I actually had him hit him first, and briefly considered letting that failure stand, too. I mostly reloaded simply because I'd already made Wyll suffer on account of that once; I didn't want to do that to him again. Karlach will be pointing out the wrongness of Stedd's views too during the first-time fic; it makes sense for her to feel that more than Wyll.

My suddenly lock-picking inability threatened to derail us anyway; all four characters failed to get through the final door to Ansur's chamber, even when I had Minsc use the remaining inspiration up. In the end, I brought Astarion in just long enough to take care of it, before sending him back, wondering when I was going to get around to removing Sebastian's curse, since I also learned then he apparently can't just sleep it off.

Then came the big moment I hadn't seen, where Ansur's skeleton rose from the floor, wrapped Sara up in some lightning ropes that very clearly caused some of the worst lag I've ever suffered through in this game (seriously, it visibly lessened when it cut away from them), and revealed that the Emperor killed him-and, oh yes, the Emperor is also the city's legendary founder, Balduran. Which I'd long known, even before hearing and reading the lyrics for the Song of Balduran, but it honestly didn't feel real until then. Sara, meanwhile, would have been far happier had she never known.

I ended up having the first death, too, that I didn't reload out of. The fight ended with both Wyll and Minsc down, and I saw the latter's icon go grey the moment between the end of the fight and the start of the subsequent cut scene with the Emperor. Not very thoughtful of him, honestly, to insist on talking with her when one of her companions needs immediate healing and another needs to be revivified while he still can be quickly! Though the game seemed wishy-washy on Wyll, as he appeared standing at one point in the scene, then disappeared. Thankfully, after it, I was still able to revive Minsc and throw a potion on Wyll.

It is, perhaps, not likely that the Emperor's words would've ever changed the actions Sara Tully is now going to take. By the time he was giving her and Wyll encouraging words in the tavern later, I already knew just how badly she now does not want to betray him. Ordinarily, it would be like with Redhammer, she simply would not do it. But it's either betray him or betray Lae'zel, and there's no question, in the end, which of them she's going to choose.

And in any case, the words he did speak to her then hardened her further. She doesn't even blame him for killing Ansur; if he'd just said he'd done it because he wanted to live, she would've understood that perfectly. But when he made clear he wanted to be a mind flayer by then, and he wanted to be one because it makes him powerful...he said Ansur only saw a mind flayer when he looked at him. Sara's not even seeing that anymore. She's just seeing another power-hungry individual, one willing to possibly destroy the great man he'd been for his power.

Makes things easier for her, but it won't make them easy. And it's just as well for Gale to take her away to Waterdeep. The city that's been her home for most of her adult life is one she'll feel she can never live in again, after doing what she's going to do to its founder.

Wyll's declaration in the tavern that night he was going to become the Blade of Avernus definitely seemed a little left field, though maybe not as much once he admitted he also wants to kill Mizora. I'm also guessing he also specifically decided it in the hope that Karlach would be willing to return to Avernus under his protection. Certainly that's also going to be in the fic. With his decisions made and future settled, his finally taking her to bed that night after the group celebration definitely feels right, so I'm grateful for the game for providing me with that easy in.

Next, of course, we had the Gate's new tyrant to kill. I'd seen quite a few people online complain that the Gortash fight was too easy, but I certainly found it challenging enough. Swapping Minsc out for Jaheira partly for the extra healing ability and also because her, too, I wanted to use one final time, I once again headed into Wyrm's Rock Fortress. After one more battle with guards where I was able to take a couple of them out with their own grenades, it took a while to find where in the hells the guy was, though I liked the cute moment where we found Wyll's old fishing spot. I spent less time on the final conversation with him; attacking as soon as the dialog made that an option. Karlach might have earned the right to say what she did to him first, but Sara had really had enough of his prattle.

Very quickly into my first attempt at that fight, I thought I might have to mark it down to learning, though I kept at it until Wyll got killed. The second time around, I potioned everyone up, decided I wouldn't have Wyll cast the warding bond on Karlach from the wedding rings this time (he did do it during the Ansur fight, which is why he went down, but I am very much not sorry), and reminded myself to keep them away from the things that could shoot fire on them. I actually tried at one point to take one of them out, too, but in the end avoiding them worked out fine.

I actually felt a very real moment of triumph when Karlach at last struck Gortash down, even though Sara lay dying beside her. Though even after Wyll managed to get his leader back up, I briefly worried the surviving minions would kill us all anyway. It was a good thing I'd brought Jaheira, and her mass heals.

But then, of course, reality set in for poor Karlach, because revenge was never going to make everything all right, and now she had to face her imminent death. It was actually a bit of a relief to see her get so angry about it, to even have her yell at her friends. She had that a long time coming. Sara even told her so. I wasn't even upset when she then just walked off and left only three people in the party; she'd earned that right, too. I and she were both honestly a little dismayed when we later went back to the tavern and found she was back to the cheerful front again. She did suggest at this point Karlach could still return to Avernus, but didn't push it, and agreed to be there when she died.

By then I'd also found Gortash's safe and his vault key, so once again I'd waypointed into the heart of the lower city-and right into a fight with a pair of newly transformed mind-flayers. It was one that wasn't a problem to win, if only because I'd had to prudence to short rest first, but after that I went back to the tavern long enough to bring Astarion in again and have Wyll remove his damn curse, just in case there was more excitement en route to the Counting House, though in the end, there was only the Baldur's Mouth Gazette somehow already reporting the Archduke's death, which was easily ignored by a party beyond caring about the reactions of stupider people. Finding Wyll's father's diary in that vault was truly heartbreaking, but at least Wyll was able to take it with him.

I had originally intended for the House of Hope party to be Wyll, Shadowheart and Karlach, but I'd gotten more hesitant about making the last return to Avernus for that. Ultimately I looked things up to see if it affected her final fate, read that it didn't, and then decided to just keep having Astarion in the party after all.

Which has already come in handy. Now knowing from the note in his safe about Gortash's dealings at the Devil's Fee, we went there, and Sara handed Helsik a few hundred gold to get a bit more information out of her, but was forced to retreat when she got the 20,000 gold price tag for a portal into the House of Hope for herself. I briefly considered if I could raise that much if we emptied out inventories of anything we're not likely to use either there or against the Netherbrain, but then went and read about how to open the portal without paying for it. And as it happened, we even had the diamond, incense, and skull already. Sara had to take a little more fire damage to get her and Astarion back into Helsik's room upstairs, but he easily lockpicked those 20 DC chests and got the needed coin and infernal marble.

And that's where I've now left off, but seeing Helsik's radiant resistance is now making me reconsider taking Shadowheart. Also, I might just go and get Wyll new armor first; his AC is still way too low.

#baldur's gate 3 #barbarian tav #the wyrmway #gortash fight

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wispythreads · 9 months ago

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Mod Wishlist of someone who has not figured out how to install mods yet - Fallout Edition:

- Fallout 1 and 2

Different character models for the player. Just a simple retexturing of some colors would be good enough for me.

Honestly that's it I have steam versions so I was able to find and easily add the mod for Fallout 2 that fixed the bug that had the Deathclaws of Vault 13 doomed no matter what you do.

- For 3, NV, 4

A motorcycle. I miss the car from Fallout 2 but would enjoy the (theoretical) maneuverability of one of the suspiciously intact looking motorcycles. Make gasoline a resource that needs to be managed. Make them take fusion cells/fusion cores. Idk. I just really want a motorcycle in these games.

For New Vegas I'd settle for a horse. Surely someone can bring over a horse from Skyrim, retexture it, and put it into New Vegas. (I say so confidently with no modding experience)

More hair options but ones that feel like they still. Fit within the game? I've seen some previews of mods with added hairstyles but they stand out harshly against the rest of the character models/environments, haven't seen one I've liked so far.

New songs on the radio that still fit the vibe of the stations you can already listen to. Maybe with a quest that has you delve into some ruins and find some intact records you can bring to the radio host.

Ghoul player character. (I know this one does exist! feel like they probably work best for 3 and NV since 4 has a voiced protagonist.)

New OriginsTM of your player character for 3 and 4, though how it'd weave you back into the main story, I don't know.

Lowering the foreheads on character models in 3 and New Vegas??? This is really nitpicky they just seem weirdly large on all of them, hats end up looking a little silly. It's weird cause I don't remember noting this/being bothered by it while playing on the Xbox, just as I've started over on PC. Not sure if this one can be done.

The ability to target specific body parts with melee weapons in VATS. I understand it being clunky due to how Bethesda's combat is just clunk in general, and am fine with kind of hitting wherever when you're not using action points to aim, but in VATS it feels weird that you can't try to specifically cripple someone's legs with a baseball bat or chop at their arms with a ripper.

For 4 specifically: Seeing the fullness of what is being said for your voice line options, appended with a tone indicator in the same style as the Elcors from Mass Effect.

Also for 4 specifically: fuck'n let me bring Dogmeat along with my humanoid companion like I was able to before god damn man don't understand why they took a step back with this.

... Another for 4 specifically: keeping X6-88 even if you turn against the Institute with the Minutemen. I can understand him being pissed if you went with the Brotherhood that can stay. Yes it makes more sense story wise for him to no longer be recruitable and turn hostile BUT. I like him. And the same should still be true if you side with the Railroad but apparently it's not so I don't think I'm that unreasonable with it.

look I did enjoy Fallout 4 but I have to admit there are things and choices they made that bug me. I love Preston. I wanted to take him around with me everywhere. Why did they make his default state a radiant quest giver who never. Ever. Stops giving you three radiant settlement quests at once. It is very frustrating as someone who doesn't like seeing quests piling up. A mod that removes this please, or has a way to toggle it.

For New Vegas specifically: Removal of the song Johnny Guitar.

For New Vegas specifically as well: ... ability to have multiple companions with you 👉👈 (I get so scared I'm running into a scenario that would've helped out their character quest but because I don't have that specific companion with me at that specific time I miss the opportunity. I would take them being less effective at combat as an equivalent exchange. They're scarily more efficient combatants than I am rn anyway, killing enemies way before I even see them)

#fallout #mod wishlist #bit of play experience #if you squint

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sporadicspores · 10 months ago

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well despite having 10 other tavs and two durges i still need to play, i ended up caving and completely making a new file/save for Vrisryn since their main campaign is just... corrupted as hell at this point lmao. it was funny at first with little glitches like the whole Astarion-confessing-to-being-a-vampire-on-the-first-long-rest thing (which works since Vrisryn def noticed he was a vampire right away anyways) and minor stuff like the companions just forgetting that they had a high approval rate together. but by the time i got to Act 3, it was like... painfully bugged, to the point of their entire romance with Halsin being skewed/glitched, and major parts of companion quests weren't executing properly. with the whole point of restarting it being to 1-to get a fresher grasp on their character/make more in-character choices and 2-to be able to play the epilogue properly without glitches, it felt like i had to restart again. (thank god i love them so much and would replay their run 1290823980482394 times)

that being said, i was able to fully take the time to flesh out their Act 1 clothing, stats, armor etc! and i realized i never made any real proper post or introduction for them before posting the first chapter of their backstory/fic, so... behold! the refreshed Vrisryn (or Vrysryn as they're named in my game to avoid save issues lmao)

i decided to go for a more civilian looking outfit since they would have been in Baldur's Gate, not the wilderness they considered home when abducted. they were traveling to bring research findings and samples from the Underdark to the Lodge of the Society of Brilliance on behalf of their circle, as well as to fulfil some personal curiosities and make a bit of coin by selling/trading herbs and tinctures in the city. routine stuff mostly, that landed them unfortunately in the illithids capture. and ofc i had to use the autumnal druid dye from astralsprout on nexusmods bc i mean. look at them. that dye was made for them. typically though, when traveling they would roam in druidic armor or their camp clothes, which consist of a long overcoat and simple garments:

in my canon/work, they also don't really take their headpiece off like... at all, not until like Act 2.5 at least and even then, it's only around Astarion, Karlach, Wyll and Shadowheart. it isn't until Act 3 when they've finally reached the Elfsong that they let their guard down fully about their Spellscar, and their headpiece is used to help cover it since it takes the shape of antlers and stems from around the same area that their headpiece lay. The Spellscar appears in a similar fashion to the spores that typically surround their person and effects during travel/battle, so as long as their headpiece is attached, it's rather difficult for anyone who isn't familiar with Spellscars to notice that that's what's going on with them when it appears.

also the foreshadowing of this shot given the weird temporary triangle of angst they fall into with Gale and Astarion cracks me up but we'll get to that in many future fic chapters lmao

anyways this was really just for me to be able to dump some pics and keep a timeline of stuff as it develops in this playthrough. i'll do a more proper introduction post later and i'm gonna try to remember to reblog this whenever i get around to finishing my own character sheet of them in my style so i can show the differences between how they appear in bg3/how i see them and how they actually appear! stuff like them having top surgery, their Spellscar/it's effects, and other little details that bg3 simply can't convey. even if it's just for my own sake i'm excited to share more about their character on here :3 it's crazy to me how they started as simply an over-glorified self insert and then within 10 hours developed into a whole different, realized character with a HUGE backstory. that bg3-inspiration pipeline goes crazy when you're on hiatus in your own dnd campaign i suppose lol (also gonna try to post my next chapter of spores & stars later next week! just gotta push through finals and the end of this semester, then i plan on letting the oc brainworms consume me during the entirety of my break before summer classes begin oTL)

#ooc #vrisryn bg3 #bg3 tav #bg3 #tav bg3 #oc lore #oc rambles #bg3 druid #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 tav #my tav #restart 3 things #my posts #my photos

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loveydoveymerrillsabrae · 3 months ago

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Okay, if you haven't finished the game, beware of spoilers. I will be talking about my experience of the game in a bulleted system.

TL;DR For the rest of what I'm going to say: The game is fine. It's a 7 out of 10 (for me). I like most of it, and I like playing it more than I do Inquisition, but its limitation of "We don't want to invalidate past choices!" is its MAJOR pitfall. Part of the fun with Inquisition was seeing something from the past games and having some sort of recognition with it. This game focuses on new lore and new places, leaving behind the charm of a personal experience.

THE GOOD:

My favorite part of BioWare games are the companions and I found myself liking more of them than I initially thought I would! It was only until the final quest that no one had anything new to say/do at the Lighthouse. I especially enjoyed the fact companions remember their conversations with other companions. The Iron Bull and Solas' chess match is one of my favorite Inquisition moments. Veilguard's companion banter showcases a lot of conversations where companions will recall something they've spoken about with IRL days in-between most conversations. This game is easily my favorite amongst companion banter during exploration.

Companions actively visit and care for each other - which is so precious. It's one of my favorite parts about Obsidian's Outer Worlds. I love that Neve will buy Bellara some Minrathous books because Bellara told her how much she enjoys reading them. Or the fact that Emmrich will volunteer himself as Harding's physician to help her work out her magic. Or that Davrin and Taash will spot eachother during training. Their relationships aren't just one-off cutscenes and it makes the base feel alive.

The codexes were far more digestible this time around. I liked Origins' codexes being short, whereas Inquisition sometimes felt like a lot and 2 were walls 'nd walls of text. I'm not a very good reader, so the fact they're generally short is awesome.

I enjoy the new titan lore. What few of it we got in Inquisition, while cool, I didn't like very much. What we have now... I dig it. Haha. I suppose seeing the Evanuris was cool too.

Im going to be honest, I thought most of the facial animations weren't bad. I especially love how many unique body animations there are! The artstyle and lighting are gorgeous and I love Isabela's new look.

THE MIDDLING:

I've never been the biggest Solas fan, but I liked him enough to be excited he's back. However, his personality has shifted somewhat. Solas, in his quest to bring back the days of yore, has become vindictive and arrogant. I recognize he forged a persona for himself in Inquisition, but it bothers me how often in Veilguard he acts like he's holier than thou - he does the same in Inquisition, but that was something the Inquisitor gleaned from him, not something he outright said. He claims at the end of Veilgaurd his seemingly out-of-character decisions were made out of desperation, which I understand, but... I don't like it. What ESPECIALLY bothered me was during the Siege of Minrathous, while Elgar'nan's archdemon was flying overhead, my Rook told Solas she didn't trust his sign of goodwill about the dagger. He told her that no matter what, striking him down would be a win, and then swore on people deeply personal to him (Mythal, Cole, the Inquisitor) he wouldn't move forward with his original plans after Elgar'nan was defeated. I believed this, so when we learned the truth of the lyrium dagger about a half-hour later, I was appalled. It's betrayal after betrayal after betrayal with this guy and I have a hard time looking at him and seeing the Solas I knew for eight years.

Harding is another character I'm not sure how I feel about. I liked her in Inquisition, but her little screen time made it nothing to write home about. Perhaps being driven and a bit monotone is how she works as a scout, detaching herself from emotions to evaluate the facts around her, but in Veilguard she's more... cutesy? Is that the word?? The main plot and return of titan magic are her driving goals, but still. She's much more personable and warm-hearted in this game. Maybe it's just a side of her we didn't get to see, or the decade that's passed has changed her, but I have to wonder if that was intentionally done to make her seem more approachable by the player base.

On the subject of companions... let me prelude this by the fact I am non-binary. Taash's voice actor is non-binary. Taash is non-binary. I am completely fine with it, obviously, but their identity is mentioned so often I can't help but think about how many non-Dragon Age fans are going to trash the game. Was that intentional?? Dorian has dropped the token diversity character mantel, Taash has picked it up. But unlike Dorian, it's brought up time and time again, whereas his big moment is reserved for one cutscene (and his romance, I suppose). I wish there was more to Taash than just being -brash, -enby, -hunts dragons.

Three days before I finished the game (I played for 114 hours on my first Rook), I started to get the feeling Veilguard was similar to Mass Effect. Mass Effect 2 particularly, with the emphasis on companions, so I booted up ME2 today aaaand I'm not wrong. I hadn't even noticed the action wheel was the same. Huh.

*Rattling the bars of my cage* Morrigan where is our sonnnn please don't tell me Mythal made you kick him outtt 😭😭😭

THE BAD:

I hate the music. It doesn't sound like Dragon Age. Why are there random pops of synth? Why do Nevarra and Emmrich's storylines sound like shitty copywrite-free Halloween music? Why does the Siege of Minrathous use the same music that plays when you're exploring, instead of special endgame music? I heard they hired some big-name composer for this but I would've greatly preferred to have Trevor Morris compose it all.

I genuinely can't believe Ferelden and Orlais are gone. And we learn about it in letters. All that history... just like that.....

The accents were all over the damn place.

The Lords of Fortune and Mourn Watch have nothing to do with the main story. They only exist so our companions have something to come from, or so that there's a variety of choice with Rook's background. But how involved really are those two factions, outside of romancing their relevant companions? What a wasted opportunity...

It feels like some of the companions are gimmicky characters. Lucanis enjoys coffee. Emmrich likes death. Taash loves dragons. Nearly every companion has a core trait that they will. not. stop talking about it. Dragon Age is my favorite videogame franchise, but I don't talk about it every day! The writers reeeeally hammer in the companion's shining quirk and leave little room for other aspects of their personality. Lucanis really annoyed me, even though he has GOOD REASON to be drinking coffee! ... I wish the companions had more dimension to them.

I had wondered why Varric was in this game, considering he doesn't actually do anything. When the endgame reveal came he's actually dead, I started crying like a lil baby. Given that Rook had a head injury after trying to resuscitate him, I figured seeing an apparition of him was a consequence of such wound... Only to learn Solas, who hates performing blood magic, did blood magic to placate Rook and fatten them up so Solas has an easy exit..... GAH THAT PISSES ME OFF!!! Why can't any of the adverse consequences of this game have lasting impacts! (Apart from choosing which city to defend, or who's the leader of the second group.) Every problem that exists in this game is either the result of 'Ohhhh noooo I was manipulated!!' or its cleaned up right away. Bummer.

Speaking of, I hate all of the small potato villains in this game. 'Villain was manipulated to do villainy' means they have no stake in what they're doing. There's no reason for me to contemplate what they did and wonder if their actions were right from their own point of view. It's an overused trope. GOT A HEAPING LOAD OF IT HERE! Gah. "Big stakes" my ass. There aren't any actual reasons (for me) to think about most of these villains - they exist because they're obstacles in my companion's way. I wish this game had more of a main story and not just 'Companion/returning character needs to talk to you' all the time.

I played everything on standard and I wiped the floor with Elgar'nan. During two of his three phrases, I cut him off before he was done monologing. I had a harder time with Ghilan'nain's blight bubbles. He's hyped up the entire game, and thats what he turns out to be??? I can't even play Dark Souls. Come on. Bleggghhh.....

WHAT THE FUCK was the secret ending?! I can believe "higher forces" led Bartrand to the red lyrium idol, but claiming they were behind Loghain and Corypheus... no. No no no. No. No. Whyyyy. No. This isn't real.

All in all, Dragon Age: Veilguard is a fun game. I'm already playing my second character by choosing the opposite actions and getting none of the companions to Hero of the Veilguard level. But it should not have been a sequel to any Dragon Age title. It needed a different name. Something to do with "Thedas", I don't know. That's what Obsidian is doing with Pillars of Eternity and Avowed, even though they share a world and returning characters. In their choice to remove decisions (in an RPG...), I don't feel like this experience is tied to any of the other games. Which makes me sad.

I'VE FINISHED VEILGUARD!!!!!!!!!!!!

#Its sure is something #Dragon Age Veilguard spoilers #Dragon Age the Veilguard spoilers #Brooks' Babbling

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