#I meant it as bg3 but let’s add others for fun

[marougus-the-dragon]

Let’s ask the real question here

[prawn-haunted]

The Haunted One (durge) background in bg3 is crazy storytelling

I didn't give it much thought before, but the background (a.k.a. inspiration points system) a character has can actually be a crazy good add-on to a story, especially for established characters like your companions. The way I see it, the background is the life a character used to live before the nautiloid (duh), and they learned to find joy in things related to this background. Therefore, your characters gain inspiration when there's something in the game that makes them especially excited, satisfied etc. Inspired to move forward. E.g. from origin characters:

Laezel grew to take pride in her duty as a soldier, so doing cool shit in a battle or inspiring others to fight are the things that make her proud — and sometimes remind her of bloodkin. That's what she finds comfort in.

As a spawn, Astarion often had to cheat his way through to get what he wants, be it seducing someone or convincing master to give him a lesser punishment. Lying meant he might avoid being tortured, that the night could be a little better than it would've been otherwise. But even that aside, he just thinks drama makes things more fun — and, well, it often does (in the game).

The Wyll one is an easy one — he's just a king soul. Gale fucking loves misteries. As for others, I think you can find an explanation on your own.

But the thing about Durge is… ...there's no background.

They start as an empty slate with no memories of their past, and so no comfort can be found in it. So where does this joy come from? If you read the list of moments where Durge can get inspiration (see BG3 wiki), you'll quickly find a pattern: most of them are extremely violent. About 1/5 are tied to discovering your past, and the 'kind' ones are almost nonexistent. More so, they're all exclusively placed in Act 3, except for one "don't listen to the urge" in Act 1.

Now, let's look at it from Durge's POV. You wake up one day, and there's a void in your mind. Whatever you were, you aren't now. Whatever you had is gone — and you don't even know what to mourn. All you know now is an ever-present itch for murder. Whatever you think to it, for now this is the only source of joy you know. After escaping the nautiloid, you also find clues about your past sometimes, and they'll give you motivation to seek further. You may also find other hobbies, but no inspiration from them — because that's not what this mechanic is about. Regardless, the main thing inspiring you is the Urge. If you do cruel acts, you get happy and even ecstatic, but it looks like you're just an addict. If you resist, there's a lot less joy in your life — and it's but another stab in the heart when you're desperate to be kind. No matter what you do, you can't deny that cruelty is what makes you the happiest... and that you always want more. The point is, you have little control over your own emotions. Your wicked blood leads you and takes away the joy from all the peaceful moments you may have. No joy in the good. No joy in love. You don't gain inspiration. Your urge does.

It stays that way up to Act 3. There, you finally discover who you were — your background is finally known. And with that, it's finally possible (game mechanic-wise) to gain inspiration based on this background, regardless of whether you choose the good or the bad. The 'good' inspirations in Act 3 are parallel to the 'bad' ones, meaning you'll gain points regardless of whether you choose to obey or resist. There's still only a few moments like this, but those are when it matters the most. When despite your cursed blood, after all the struggle, you fight your bloody past and finally get free from it — a moment of true, deserved ecstasy.

Gameplay-wise, the resist-Durge playthrough denies you inspiration points you would otherwise gain. They're not super-important, but they're a useful backup — especially in a Durge playthrough with things like 'roll wisdom or you'll kill your loved one'. So being kind makes things harder... but maybe a sacrifice is worth it in the end?

[authorofthemoon]

Dragon Age Veilguard thoughts and opinions from a long time Dragon Age fan.

[Spoilers under the cut]

I have many mixed feelings about this game, I am by no means a hater, there are things I liked a lot of Veilguard, but there so many things that made me frustrated.

Combat was good, I enjoyed it. I think it was a natural evolution of the old style, but I don't blame people who prefer the old style. The skill tree is fun if you really double down on a play style and they let you redistribute. I played spell lade mage which is really good with stagger.

Character wise I genuinely like each character. I think there's something interesting about them all and their personal quests are all very poignant to me. Bellara struggling with the revealed history of her people and letting go of her brother, Davrin creating a path for him and Assan that differs what they were 'meant' for. Neve being someone who always fights despite being cynical and it feels like no progress is ever made (she's the main character btw IDC what anyone says). Emmerich's crippling fear of death despite being surrounded by it. Harding reclaiming the lost history of her people (legitimately love the theme of rewritten history in this game). Taash's whole path of finding identity in different aspects. Lucanis trying to accept the trauma caused by the Ossuary with Spite (I will say I think they could have done a bit better with that one).

Story has its ups and downs. I think there's a lot of contrived suffering you're out through for no reason. There's a big theme of Rook having to deal with the consequences of the big choices they make, but I never really felt that except Treviso vs Minrathous. After that, I didn't really feel like most of my choices really made a huge impact on the world. Then they try to make random impactful choices at the end where your party can just die and one will die no matter what, from what I can tell. It just doesn't feel deserved.

And I think it's part of the larger problem of this game being simply it's too short and overly sanitized.

The game is only 14 chapters long, the last three being consecutive point of no return chapters and the first 6 chapters are building the team, so only about 5 chapters are your entire team actively exploring. The other DA are very story intensive with multiple arcs and you get to see down the road where your decisions as well as siding with certain factions have actual consequences. That also brings me to another thing that throws me off. Why are all the factions so buddy buddy? I get it's like a united front against the gods, but at no point do you decide with some over the others or step on toes except again Treviso vs Minrathous. The game comes off too much like power of friendship trumphs all sometimes which I'm fine with, but DA just isn't that to me. DA is very dark fantasy and this didn't feel like that a lot of the time. Even the bloodiest scenes feel tame. And that's not to be like 'i love blood and gore' or whatever. It just doesn't feel impactful sans I think two scenes. Again, I feel like it's an issue of it being sanitized for a general audience.

To add onto that, this game feels tremendously less horny than the other games. Which idc how that makes me sound, but I stand by it. The romances are kind of lame and lack the sexual tension precious games have. Like how are you going to from giving me Dorian's bare ass to kissing I think twice with Davrin and barely shirtless fade to black (after two of your party members are presumed dead like wtf). I've only done one romance but if the rest are like that, then it feels kind of lame. Most characters from previous games are very horny on main in an BG3 way, but I just done feel that from this party. It also feels like they're not in love with your character, but with the fact that you're Rook, if that makes sense. Again, I think since the game is short and there's less time together, the romance feels a bit hollow. It also makes me feel the eternal debate I have of romance options having set sexualities vs everyone being bi/pan. Bc I think set sexualities adds a lot to Inquisition romance whereas Veilguard just feels not very special. Like they're in love with a brick wall. But maybe I'm being a bit harsh.

The last point is the story. Again, I love the theme of rewritten history and discovering the truth of creation and elves (I feel like it's more interesting playing an elf). I get if some people are upset with a huge lore bomb changing the canon forever, but I think it's interesting. However, I think the biggest issue with the writing is that it honestly feels like I'm playing a Marvel game at times and sometimes I want Rook to stop talking. As much as I love Harding, she's another bad culprit. Maybe it's my fault for choosing more nonchalant options, but I think it affects the rest of the game.

Overall, I think the game is a solid 7/10. I think it's a really good game on its own, but as a Dragon Age game, it falls short to be honest. The vibes just aren't the same. Still, I enjoyed myself.

Again, these are all my opinions and I'm interested in thinking what other people think. Also, I heard that the game was scrapped and remade at some point which would align to the game length, so does anyone know if that's true? I know we waited like 10 years.

[awellboiledicicle]

I like thinking about a dungeon meshi/bg3 crossover for many reasons, but one of them is the mental image of post-canon Laios and Raphael in the same room.

Because Laios would, in all honesty, reek of demon. Just be fucking soaked in that vibe. Both for eating part of one, and the potent death curse.

Raphael being a devil would have some deeply 'ah, i see. hm' moments watching the group up to that point i think, because approaching anything to do with demons in dnd is basically an exercise in 'how fast do you wish to die'. Because in the abyss connected to the hells there, all demons want is chaos and destruction and generally horrific things that only get worse when they get past the whole 'getting out of the abyss' thing. One cursing you would imply a few things, though, and mostly the fact Laios is not a smear on the ground someplace means he was too strong to immediately kill.

Add in that in dungeon meshi, the mana used for magic is very much a 'from the demon or spirits' thing-- Falin and Marcille are gonna be also giving off Vibes.

AND THEN Add in the curse that monsters would never again willingly be around Laios, and you get a delightful moment of "ok so what does that do in faerun"

I'm running with the assumption that the curse source is far enough removed on the prime material plane that it simply gives non-thinking beings [aside animals] the willies, even if they can't tell where it's coming from.

All of which to say please imagine Raphael gritting his teeth through the worst anxiety attack a devil has ever felt while having He Who Devours All Things Horrible in his house.

Also Astarion having the weirdest case of the jitters around Laios. Not enough to throw him off, and he'd really only ID it as directly being a Laios thing AFTER Cazador is dead, but just enough to make him a little jumpy.

Tangentally related, Falin is basically a cleric. She has no god that we know of. She is just monster enough to be weird if someone sees her feathers. Shadowheart is gonna be sitting there mentally wracking her wiped brain trying to come up with whomst the fuck she belongs to.

Gale and Marcille talk about magic. This would actually go well because they're both nerds, but it WOULD end in her testing out fireball by ordering the weave to do something and Gale would be gobsmacked when it works.

Iztsumi, everyone just assumes she's a catfolk. The timeskip just meant she matured a little hanging around the castle, but she absolutely spends hours talking shit at the party. Shadowheart and her get along on snark, same with Lae'zel, but iztsumi is just like "can you guys stop bitching at one another, we were having a fun talk gdi"

Chilchuck is an old man at this point [35]. Well, more specifically he's gone grey and gained weight now that his whole deal is "run shop and visit Laios on occasion". Routinely roasts Astarion for not being handy enough with traps/locks. AKA Astarion missed 1 trap and Chilchuck has not let him live it down. It doesn't help that Astarion will just point them out, not do much about them on his own. He and Iztsumi put the poor guy through rogue bootcamp and he does not enjoy it at all. Chilchuck, though, mostly stays at camp to keep an eye on their stuff.

Also please imagine Gale being dragged through the forest to help collect forage with Senshi and ending up terribly bedraggled because the dwarf got very excited about similarities of some plants over the differences in others.