#and i know people have said that the well of sorrows choice matters in veilguard

[hellomehlo]

the thought of playing veilguard for the first time with no approval guides or idea of how our choices in inquisition are impacting the narrative…

ngl I feel a little nauseous

[shift-shaping]

I think this is a really important part of the article from yesterday that people are overlooking. I absolutely understand the frustration people feel about the lack of choices brought over from Inquisition, I'm also frustrated. However, they have said not just here but I believe during the dev Q and A a while back that some choices are consciously being saved for future games.

Rambling thoughts below cut, feel free to ignore

I get the sense that Veilguard is going to be a very focused game, and the focus is on Solas and the Veil.

Here is my suspicion.

I think that this game is going to set up Mythal to be a major force in the next game by decisively finishing the roles of Solas and the Inquisitor, and by tearing down or at least significantly altering the Veil. That game is when we'll see the Well of Sorrows and Kieran and the payoff for whoever we left in the Fade during Here Lies the Abyss.

Veilguard doesn't necessarily need to address any of those things if the writing is careful enough. Maybe we don't actually see Morrigan for very long, maybe the Well hasn't actually done anything yet, maybe we just don't get a chance to talk about who was left in the Fade.

This is not without precedent. DA2 carried very little over from DAO, and easily could have given us a much more stripped down list of choices than what we had. Did it matter if we sided with or against Zathrian in DA2? No. I don't think that one even got a one-liner. They easily could have asked us 3-5 questions about our choices in Origins and the game would have been functionally the same.

That all being said: what frustrates me personally is that while you can strip out many of these choices and have what is functionally the same game, the subtle continuity of your decisions from one game to the next has always been a big part of the appeal of the series for many fans.

For example, there's a minor quest early in DA2 that involves Renvil Harrowmont, the last member of House Harrowmont still alive if you chose Bhelen to lead Orzammar. This is a very small quest that, like most quests in DA2, kind of just results in you fighting more random bad boys in the streets.

But that's not the point, is it? The point of tiny cameos like this isn't the overall impact they have on the plot of any specific game, it's about the continuity they create for your world state. The little one-liners and brief cameos and bullshit quests actually do matter to fans because they reinforce that this is the same timeline they've been playing in, and give the impression that your choices are affecting people. Knowing that even these little things won't be present in Veilguard is frustrating and a bit sad.

[rom-e-o]

This is not hate, but just a somewhat jaded observation. (Tagging for people who want to avoid spoilers)

These are the THREE THINGS from DAI that are going into my Veilguard world state as a human mage that really has no bond with Solas or his mission.

Nothing about whom I chose as Divine (Leliana). Nothing about the Wardens and their potential exile. NOTHING about if the Inquisitor or Morrigan (Morrigan) drank from the Well of Sorrows and bound themselves to an ANCIENT ELVEN GOD? What if Bull died? What if Blackwall died? What if you left Hawke in the Fade??? What if you allowed Empress Celene to be assassinated?

None of that matters, apparently. In a series where the lore of the world and its politics take center stage, that’s a choice.

This is Rook’s experience, yes, but the big DAI choices were treated as having a resounding impact across Thedas.

FROM THIS shot, all we seem to be pulling from a 100-500+ hour experience is who you smooched, if you disbanded the Inquisition (an option at the end of an paid add-on DLC) and your … feelings about Solas. For people who only see him as a intriguing force to be stopped and not as a romance, I feel this whole set-up lacks weight and gravitas.

This looks/feels VERY STRONGLY like BioWare is banking on you romancing Solas or caring about him at all to have a fulfilling experience. I hope I’m wrong.

All that said, I’m still so excited for Veilguard. We won’t know until the FULL game is out of we’ll each care for the team’s execution in narrowing the choices this much.

I’m excited and want to be supportive, but is this STILL disappointing to see at this point, so close to release? Yes.

[babumakeanart]

Here are some of my thoughts about Dragon age Veilguard. There is of course spoilers so read on your regard

I’m so excited we got another Dragon Age game! But do I adore Veilguard as much as the others in the series? Hard to say—I have very mixed feelings about it.

First of all, a lot of the lore we learned in earlier games feels erased or brushed aside here.

For instance, the choice of who drinks from the Veil of Sorrow seems diminished. Seeing Morrigan again wasn’t as thrilling as I’d hoped. Mostly, I kept asking, “Why are you here?” and “What do you mean you have Mythal in you?” She was relieved she didn’t drink from the Veil once she found out Mythal would control her if she did. And now, out of nowhere, she has that power anyway? Generally, I feel like previous choices don’t really matter. Everything feels so predetermined, even scripted, in terms of what will happen, what’s canon, and what isn’t. I get that BioWare had a lot of issues with this game’s development, especially shifting from multiplayer to single-player. But it still feels like many important choices from earlier games didn’t matter. For example, if Morrigan has a child with an archdemon’s soul in him, wouldn’t that mean—by the new lore—that the elven god bound with Urthemiel would still be alive? Didn’t the archdemons make the Evanuris immortal?

And while Rook is a fun and well-written character, I feel like the story should have continued with the Inquisitor. After all, we should get the chance to finish what they started. Even though it is said at the end of DA:I that Solas knows everything about us, the Inquisitor could still choose a new group to surprise him, but they should still lead them.

I did, however, love the ending for Solavellan. It brought closure, which was very very.. damn.. I cried. :’)

When it comes to our companions, I loved a lot of them—they’re all really cool. Yet I do have a few complaints that may be just my personal view but still. 

First, I’m not a fan of how Taash’s nonbinary identity was handled. As a nonbinary person myself, it felt somewhat disrespectful, as if it were written by someone who didn’t understand the experience. Initially, I was excited, but after reflecting, it started to irk me. I cant write all my thoughts well to say what all bothers me about it, other people put it much better into sentences than I would do so I am just leaving this.

I also wish there were more scenes to get to know these characters. There are a fair number of scenes, sure, but everyone seems overly friendly from the start and it didnt feel that they naturally get to know the main character, but that we already know each other for years. 

Despite the conflicts among some companions, there’s this vibe that everyone is just too nice. Does that make sense? Like, even during the Blight in Origins, some companions didn’t like each other and wouldn’t be buddy-buddy over a coffee date. In DA2, companions had strong beliefs that many times clashed, which made them unique. Veilguard feels too friendly—and not just the companions, but Rook and other NPCs as well.

Another minor issue: the romances are too short, which is sad. :(

But enough negativity! 

There’s still a ton of things I freaky love about Veilgaurd

The visuals! When first peek of this game came out I know some people didn’t like the look of it at all, but GOD is freaky stunning! The characters look great, with tons of little detail movements that make them feel alive. Mostly in expression.

 Every location you travel to is unique and beatutiful. I love running around just to take pictures. The cutscenes? Chef’s kiss. WOW

The fighting style was surprisingly enjoyable, too. I’d just finished DA:I

when Veilguard came out, so the adjustment took a minute, but I got into it quickly and ended up loving it. :)

And then, there’s SOLASSS. My poor man, my poor little egg—I love him, and I would die for him!

I loved all the companions’ personalities and stories. Just wish there was more of it.

Honestly, I cried multiple times during this game. :’D The ending was epic, the final battle gave me chills, and it was just...so cool! I could eat every pixel of these scnes.

One thing I would love to see: what would happen if you sided with Solas and tore down the veil. Even with different endings, the veil stays intact. I’d love to know what happens if it’s actually torn down. Would it end the world? Kill tons of people? Actaully realease the blight in full speed?

-

So far, that’s all I’ve got. I’m tired, and my brain’s fried, but I wanted to get my thoughts down. I know I wrote more criticisms than praise, but I really did enjoy the game. What did you all think? Because honestly, Veilguard has hyped me up to replay all the Dragon Age games again! And created all the ideas I have for my ocs in these games.

[swemtpotamtam]

Revisiting this post, even tho the game still hasn't released (don't worry, I will make one more update to the post after I start playing and after I complete it at least once). Now that more time has passed I kinda am okay with the smaller amount of initial choices that carry over from Inquisition, or rather from Trespasser, to be more exact. Still dunno if there will be more additional choices about past entries during dialogues once the game starts but that would be a fun way to include previous choices - or at least have teeny-tiny mentions of them!

As an aside, the points from the first part of this post still kinda stand though, the world should still be interconnected. It's impossible to separate kingdoms and countries in a political and religious way, there will always be some ties. But I am beginning to see the point of view of why these changes were made. I still think that simplifying stuff for the sake of new players is a bit of bs. People aren't stupid, as I said, and do catch on to bits of lore. The desire to understand more will drive them to play the whole series from start to finish which is a win-win for both the newcomers to Dragon Age and for Bioware.

The more I think about it, the more it starts to click - Veilguard has vibes of Dragon Age 2. Both are on a smaller scale than the game before them, both have a more secluded story (albeit, the areas we will visit in Veilguard are more varied than DA2, in the sense that we're not bound to one place and nearby areas only), the character we play as is just an average person (as opposed to the Inquisitor, for example, that was "chosen by fate" in a way), or, at least, Rook does come off that way.

If you think about it, this game's story is going to be from Rook's perspective and I can totally see how they wouldn't really know everything about Southern Thedas and what's happening there just because there's so much stuff going on in their own life. Depending on the faction you choose, your Rook will be preoccupied with internal struggles of Northern Thedas - for example, liberating slaves and, by extent, abolishing slavery if you choose Shadow Dragons. If I were in their shoes, I'd be too busy trying to deal with that tbh <:D

I feel like the Divine of Souther Thedas will probably be addressed - she will likely just be mentioned as Divine Victoria, since no matter who you support for the role - Cassandra, Leliana or Vivienne - ends up being "crowned" as Victoria.

As for the Well of Sorrows, I still dunno what to think (mostly 'cause my inky drank from the Well). It could just be left unresolved because Solas absorbed both the Old God soul that was taken from Kieran and Mythal's soul (or rather a fraction of it) from Flemeth in that scene where they hugged next to an eluvian. After all, Solas refuses to control any and all elves just like the other Elvhenan did, thus making inky free of the Well's master's grasp. It could also be something akin to the logic of "whoever carried Mythal's soul isn't here now so there's no way to control whoever drank from the Well". Or they could go the route of Morrigan getting Mythal's powers - since she can be seen wearing Flemeth's circlet in the trailer (timecode provided in the link). Or they could just simply default to Morrigan being the one who drank from it, which would be a shame, to be honest.

As for the fact that we won't be able to choose inky's class - I've watched a video recently that had a pretty good point about this. Inquisitor is a very important figure, not only a force to be reckoned with but also a person with a lot of political and possibly religious power. And since all eyes will be on them, it would be hard to run into situations spells/blades ablazing without reputational loses. Especially if inky will do that in Tevinter, being perceived as a foreign representative of sorts.

And, connected to the point above, I feel like Rook is Inquisition's agent for a reason. The nickname alone implies a strategical deployment since "rook" is a piece in a game of chess (which also makes me think of Bull and Solas playing a game of chess as part of party banter. The way Solas played was very telling and acted as a foreshadowing of sorts to what happens with his character arc and actions). So they act on their behalf where Inquisitor can't reach on their own. At least, that's how I see it and how it all works in my canon world state.

In conclusion, I am very much excited for Veilguard and looking forward to playing the game. I want to explore all the intricacies, all the character arcs and great writing (as well as amazing character creation). Even if I was a tad frustrated and let down with some of the choice carryover, I'm more than happy to give this game a chance to change my mind even more about that! See y'all in the next update to this post after the game releases!

Yikesss, bioware taking away all the previous choices from the whole series and limiting them to only 3 choices (all of which are trespasser-only) is wild in the worst way possible <:D

The excuse for it being "we don't want new players to get overwhelmed" is weird too 'cause they could've gone with a default world state thing, just like they did with Inquisition if you didn't have saves/Keep info from previous games.

Like, are you telling me that all those things don't matter? Why? Because we're not in Southern Thedas? That's weird 'cause the world is, you know, interconnected. The decisions made in Southern Thedas would still reflect on the Northern part.

I understand that writing all of those things in, tying it all together, is hard but I don't believe that it was straight-up impossible. And using the "new players won't understand" excuse is just.. cheap? People aren't dumb. People can catch on to little details as they go, you don't need to know everything from previous titles to experience the story and enjoy it. In actuality, it gives new players the incentive to go back and play the whole series from Origins to Inquisition, and then replay Veilguard after they've seen everything to make everything click even better now that they possess the knowledge from those older entries.

I just... I dunno. It feels wrong to even just say that the whole of Inquisition can be narrowed down to: 1) who your inky was (race and gender) and who they romanced, 2) if they wanted to hunt down or redeem Solas and 3) if you disbanded the Inquisition or kept it around. What about other choices? What about who became the Divine? Sure, it might not affect Tevinter or any other Northern kingdoms but come on, it still has ties to all those other areas. No Well of Sorrows stuff? That was such a cool and mysterious detail, with no resolution in Trespasser as well. What about Hawke? What about Hero of Ferelden? No mentions at all? Wild 'cause there's a chance that Hawke went to Weisshaupt and also Hero of Ferelden is part of the Grey Warden history. And does this mean that Kieran isn't a thing?

I know that there's still a whole month ahead before we find out everything but this just puts such a sour taste in my mouth.

The game that was all about player agency and consequences just suddenly ditches this whole system.

Edit: I might come around on this whole thing if Veilguard proves that there is a reason why they cut down on choices carrying over. Perhaps they decided to do this because it really is a more secluded story, kinda like it's own little thing with no outright outside connections aside from some cameos. I don't know yet.

But I will likely revisit this post, adding on to it my thoughts and opinions after I get my hands on the game and complete it at least once.