#bioware what is this choice you've made

[notebooks-and-laptops]

I think the issue with them saying they wanted to not have any throw away lines about your choices in DAI, DA2 and DAO but just focus on major things is like...

They absolutely should have a button that is Bioware Canon or something so you don't have to think about them if you don't want to.

But throw away lines add a lot to my experience actually. Seeing Connor there in DAI when my warden saved him. Having the letters from the warden that mention their LI popping up. Having Hawke mention which sibling is alive. Having Leliana mention Zevran if you become an assassin. Having Varric talk about Anders differently if he's alive or dead.

Because the thing is I GET that they can't make every little decision matter. I understand that. So throw away lines to give colour to the world you've been playing in actually is a good way around this! It makes players go !!! Without alienating new players or requiring them to write a shit ton of different script and whole ass game to account for a decision that only 15% of players made.

I don't think it should be either/or is what I'm saying.

(Context)

[fangsandfeels]

Bioware writing team has a comfy, sheltered life and it shows

I'm sorry, but how come that the only people Inquisitor sent to look for Solas were Varric and Harding? How come that the only people recruited in 10 years of pursuing Solas were Neve and Rook? Do the writers understand that this is NOT how a serious effort looks like?

What about Leliana? Divine or not, she is still Sister Nightingale with an immense spywork. You'd think she won't mobilize everything she has to track Solas and his followers?

What about Josephine? What, she decided "nah, I'm done" and didn't use any of her diplomatic talents and connections to let the Inquisitor's agents have access, permissions or information they need?

What about Dorian? As a political figure, you'd think he will be the first Minrathous contact for the Inquisitor allies, the one arranging things and providing insights?

What about Cassandra and her Seekers? Isn't she interested in stopping another world-ending threat?

What about Sera and her sabotaging potential? If she organized the group of people for performing vigilante acts, people who are her eyes and ears, how come nobody from her group is helping with the effort?

I get it why Varric takes part in it - he knew Solas, the Inquisitor trusts him and his judgement, but for the game to imply that all the responsibility was lumped on Varric's shoulders is fucking disgraceful. I get it writers, Varric is popular character, and you would use him as bait to your heart's content, but the context you've created implies that Varric might have been the only one to take the threat seriously, while the Inquisitor and the rest were doing God knows what.

Varric should have been handing the Rook information on all the contacts they can recruit, all the useful agents, all the people to work with, not tell them to ask Neve because she might know someone because detective (Neve is a good character, but the fact that people who were supposed to spend 10 years chasing Solas look up to her for finding them contacts is appalling).

"Oh, but all these people were in the previous parts and we don't want to mention previous parts because muh new players" - well, you shot yourselves in the foot. Maybe, just maybe, you should have AT LEAST cared more about the choices made in DAI.

Congrats.

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - known Character Creation info Part 1

[LINK TO PART 2]

This post is just a dump collection of info and snippets that came out about CC (& some related topics). if you've been following the news or reading posts here, it's not new info or anything, I just put it together in one place here for convenience. ( ˶´ ᵕ `˶ )

if you notice anything missing, pls lmk. there's a bit of repetition of info in places as prev posts on the topic overlapped.

---

CC is vast [source] and immensely detailed [source]

We will enter CC straight after Varric’s opening narration [source]

You are given 5 categories to work your way through in CC: Lineage, Appearance, Class, Faction, Playstyle. Each of these has a range of subcategories within them. There are 8 subcategories within the “head” subcategory" in “Appearance” alone [source]

Lineage dictates things like race (i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari) and backstory [source]

Backstories include things like factions. Factions offer 3 distinct buffs each [source]

There are dozens and dozens of hairstyles [source]

There are separate options for binary and non-binary pronouns and gender [source]

“BioWare’s work behind the scenes, meanwhile, goes as deep as not only skin tones but skin undertones, melanin levels, and the way skin reacts differently to light” [source]

CC has a range of lighting options within it so that you can check how the character looks in them [source]

There are a range of full-body customization options such as a triangular slider between body types and individual settings down to everything from shoulder width to glute volume [source]. There are “all the sliders [we] could possibly want”. The body morpher option allows us to choose different body sizes [source]

All body options are non-gendered [source]

They/them pronouns are an option [source]

Rook can be played as non-binary [source]

Individual strands of hair were rendered separately and react remarkably to in-game physics [source]

Special, focused attention was paid to ensuring that hairstyles “come across as well-representative, that everyone can see hairstyles that feel authentic to them, even the way they render” [source]

The game uses strand hair technology borrowed in part from the EA Sports games. The hair is “fully-controlled by physics,” so it “looks even better in motion than it does here in a standstill” [source]

The ability to import our choices from previous games is fully integrated into CC. This will take the form of tarot cards - “you can go into your past adventures” and this mechanic tells you what the context was and what decision you want to make [source]

In CC we will also be able to customize/remake our Inquisitor [source]

A core tenet of the game is “be who you want to be” [source]

There are presets for all 4 of the game’s races (human, elf, dwarf, qunari), in case detailed CCs overwhelm you [source]

It is the best CC BioWare has ever made in a game [source]

The faction we choose will determine who we as protagonist Rook were before they were recruited to put a stop to Solas [source]

Certain conversation options are only available to Rooks of certain factions. For example, Grey Wardens get conversation options that are focused on the Blight, as they know more about it from other people. It also impacts how people talk to Rook (reactivity from characters and then faction reactivity from plots relating to that faction) [source]

Faction choice affects a lot of things [source]

There aren’t unique missions (I think this means like the playable Origins in DA:O), but faction choice does set the course for Rook for the rest of the game [source]

“body customization and morphing. From more muscular characters, to curvier builds, and just about any shape you want to give your character, there are all sorts of toggles to adjust so you can give them any figure you want”. “There’s even features that let you choose proportions, so you can alter their height, give them wider shoulders, and much more” [source]

There are makeup options [source]

There are tattoo options [source]

The hair uses a “Strand system” to “make them behave and move in a believable way for the different races” [source].

There are 4 voices to choose from for Rook: two feminine and tow masculine (one American, one British for each) [source]

In CC, 'Lineage’ is the game’s parlance for race i.e. human, elf, dwarf, qunari [source]

We can pick Rook’s name, but the dialogue calls them 'Rook’ [source]

In CC we can “make a few key decisions that will impact how The Veilguard begins” [source]

“I really do think its our most feature-ful character creator ever.” [source]

All armor and clothing options will scale and mesh to any body type [source]

The character creator has lots of sliders for body parts and overall shape, none of which are tied to the voice or pronouns (she/her, he/him, or they/them) that you choose [source]

“Epler took special care to show off the extensive curly and textured hair options in the game, including several versions of braids and locs, noting that increasing these options in particular was very important to the team” [source]

You can change your character’s physical appearance at any time during the game, but not their class or backstory [source]

“Each individual class has some variability, too; even the mage class has some up-close-and-personal attacks, since a mage player character could still conceivably have an assassin backstory and would therefore need to have some attacks to accommodate that sort of career path” [source]

“ "We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about skin tone,” Corinne said. The character we made, a Black elf, seemed to glow in the bluish light of a nighttime scene, and under bright sunlight, I could see the richness of his color. Corinne: "We want to make sure that skin tone is reflected authentically” “ [source]

” “We have dozens and dozens of hair types,” she said. “And they’re fully affected by physics.” The quality and variety of choices I saw delighted me. The rows of bouncy, luxurious-looking hair of all curl types and textures (and yes, the annoyingly ubiquitous “Killmonger cut” was among the options, what can you do?) brought the biggest smile to my face in the hour I spent with Busche and The Veilguard.“ [source]

BioWare confirmed that even if you make your Rook a short king, the team has done work to ensure animations fit any character build [source]

“Dragon Age’s character creator has seen a massive glow-up” [source]. “The volume of choices you get here are frankly insane. As Epler noted, “you could spend forever here,” and he’s not kidding.” [source] The art and graphics teams spent a lot of time trying to make hair look amazing [source: the Discord]

In CC we can customise our “bulge size” [source]

Some more detail on the new lighting options to see how Rook looks like in CC when you make them: you can view them in “blazing forest sunshine versus the glare of an underground temple” [source]

“newly mobile, extra-hairy hair” [source]

Faction choice has statistical boons. For example, Shadow Dragon Rook deals extra damage to Venatori blood cultists [source]

Faction choice basically determines why Rook has been called to help in the fight against Solas [source]

All pre-determined character models in CC can be adjusted [source]

You can make a really tall dwarf if you want [source]

“Setting your previous world state is fully integrated into the character creator for Veilguard” [source: the Discord]

Inquisitor appearance will be re-created, there is no way to carry their appearance from DA:I into the game [source: the Discord]

Classes for Rook are not restricted in the sense that you can play any almost class, lineage and faction combination that you want. For example, a mage Rook can be a Crow [source: the Discord] (Fel note: it sounded like Rook cannot be a magic-wielding dwarf, even though the exception of Harding now exists) (Fel note: there is a mage Crow in one of the books)

“The diverse body and gender options make it an industry leader by a signifcant margin” [source]

“BioWare was keen to highlight the hair strand technology that looked very similar to that seen in FIFA and EA FC, also made under EA’s roof” [source]

“Fine tuning sliders that allowed for microscopic adjustments of nose angles, it was clear that a lot of options exist to get the smallest possible body parts exactly right” [source]

“There’s no specific genital customisation to be oversold as CDPR did but, much like Saints Row, there is an option for bulge customisation” [source]

Pronoun choice, gender identity, body type, and voice choice are 4 separate options, not tied together [source]

Height is customised on a slider [source]

Size is customized on a triangle like in Saints Row: the 'points’ are fat, slim and muscular [source]

The different lighting options are 4 different settings: clean, bright, dim, sunset [source]

In CC you can also try out what Rook looks like in their starting rags, in typical mid-game armor, and some level 50 gear (class appropriate for each one) [source]

There’s a way for you to modify your character’s look once the game has started if you want to make some tweaks [source: the official Discord]

You can be any class and choose any backstory/faction, any race, any gender [source]

The opening cinematic Varric narrates at the start of the game plays before CC. “Following character creation, Varric’s narration continues, revealing that he’s put together a group to stop Solas, having recruited our character and a handful of others so far.” [source]

Faction choice affects in-game moments between other factions and locations, as well as characters [source]

Re: using body sliders in CC - “It looked incredibly easy to maneuver around and create a body that is either close to that player’s real personage or their ideal fantasy self” [source]

“Our presenter said that each specialization was pretty much as deep as a job” [source]

“Many fans were subject to the horror of DA Inquition’s special green light, so BioWare made it where players could shuffle through a handful of backgrounds to see how their character looks in different lights. Body sliders for fully customizable bodies, other appearance changes like tattoos, and everything fans would expect from a modern Dragon Age character creator seemed to be there.” [source]

Rook always shares a background with 1 of the companions. Makes sense, the backgrounds are Wardens, Crows, Shadow Dragons, Mourn Watch, Veil Jumpers, Lords of Fortune, and that’s Davrin, Lucanis, Neve, Emmrich, Bellara, Taash respectively [source]

The CC team and character art team spent a lot of time working on making sure that hairstyles behaved appropriately, in a realistic way, and on representing a lot of different hairstyles [source]

“We were told that one of the three key pillars of the game was ‘Be Who You Want To Be.’” [source]

“Numerous selections for a wide variety of body types & skin tones” [source]

There is faction-themed gear to wear, like if you chose Grey Warden as a background, there is GW gear. [source: The Discord]

“As a faction, the Inquisition doesn’t really feature prominently in the story - your appearance options are more reflective of the factions and styles you’ll encounter in The Veilguard.” [source: The Discord]

body sliders + “a triangle for gradients of body types” [source]

“The team heard us loud and clear on hair styles”. Frostbite engine updates served them well. Hair moves with your body and reacts to the wind [source]

For pronouns and gender selections, everything you select is used in the game and in cutscenes [source]

They were asked about the customizability of Rook’s backstory. Rook has 6 different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each of them is tied to one of the major factions in DA:TV. “Each one sets up who Rook was before they were recruited by Varric. Well that sets out the broad events. As you go through the game, as you have conversations, either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define not just what those events were but what they meant to you. What was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook. Because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience, and taking Rook, giving them background to ground them in the world and then letting you decide what that means, what that says about you, is also a big part of it.” “A lot of opportunities to really define who your Rook was and who they are now, so.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

They have taken a different approach on how we import our decisions into the game this time around. This is now fully integrated into the character creator. The devs believe that this serves a dual purpose. Corinne said that she playfully thinks of it as ‘last time on Dragon Age’, though it isn’t actually called this in the game. She noted that it has been ten years since the last Dragon Age game was released, so this aspect serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing us to remake those decisions that are critical to us. The system for doing this is very highly visual and uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic. “It’s a very visual and playful experience as you go through it.” It was very important to them that this system was built into the client, so that you can play this game entirely offline. No online connection is required, no linking to EA accounts is required – this was a big fan request.

Corinne added, “I don’t want to spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import, but I will say that this [thinking about the decision import system and what decisions to include] has been a really interesting creative intersection for us, because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure”. In this game we are in northern Thedas, in locations we have not been to before. This naturally affects “some of what will matter and what decisions they’re not using this time around, as far as decisions. But obviously there are some very, very clear connections to existing characters.” “It’s no secret that the Inquisitor is going to show up, so that’s a factor”. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

In CC, Rook’s pronouns can be chosen. You can select both pronouns AND gender, as as Corinne noted, these are related concepts, but actually not exactly the same thing. Rook can be non-binary. The pronouns available are she/her, they/them, and he/him. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

The Character Creator is very detailed and very deep. The team focused a lot on doing good hair and doing hair and skin tones respectfully. There is full body customization. They are going to show us a lot more on CC in the future, but at a time when they have the time and space to do so. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

Q. How extensive are Rook’s decision trees for companions and NPCs throughout the game going to be?

A. “Huge. It’s a Dragon Age game. We wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose your roleplaying but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold. We wanna make sure that we also react to decisions you’ve made. So, for example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you’re gonna have a different perspective on events than someone who is not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options. Sometimes that’s going to mean entirely deep dialogue trees. As well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game, so. Again, making sure that the game feels like the it’s noticing what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue trees in this game.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

 “There are quite a few, easily more than we’ve done before I think, tattoos from various cultures. We’re bringing the vallaslin back of course. There are a ton of different options, especially when we’re going into all of these new regions. Each region has its own kinda visual language for that. But yeah, we are bringing the vallaslin back, and then a couple of the characters have them, but we’ve kinda customized them a little bit, they’re a bit more specific to their personality.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

Corinne’s favorite thing other than the companions is the CC. “That CC, the makeup options, the range of sliders… I’m a qunari fan, so even just the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great looking hair”. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

The Inquisitor can be customized, “include some of our new customization options”. “Yeah, they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

We will get to see the Character Creator before launch. “They are laying out a roadmap for what we are going to show and when we are gonna talk about it. So, yes, you will see it, as we get a little bit closer to launch.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

In CC, the body customization can be done for humans, elves, dwarves and qunari. Qunari hair options and horn options are rad. They acknowledged that it was hard to have nice-looking hair for qunari in DA:I. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

“Related to this, your Lineage (human/elf/dwarf/qunari) gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options, so that’s a really lovely aspect of choosing your lineage as well.” “Each lineage, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose, there are some specific call outs to. For example, if it’s the Mourn Watch, them being a faction from Nevarra of mages, obviously your experience as a dwarf there is going to be different than say a human or an elf, so, there are also specific callouts tailored to those combinations with again, the intention of giving each lineage their own little flavor as to how they fit into that faction as a whole.” [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

“Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again, we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also, there’s a name generator that can give you a selection of first names. Obviously if you want to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well.” But if you always struggle during CC and name all your characters like 'Bob’ or something, you’re gonna be okay thanks to the name generator. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

"some of what I saw behind closed doors, as well as the way the devs spoke openly about the passion for diversity, gave me a lot of hope for this installment." [source]

"A New Peak For Progressive Character Creators. My first thought as I watched the dev take us through Dragon Age: The Veilguard's character creator at Summer Game Fest was 'okay, everyone can shut up about Cyberpunk 2077 now'." "Dragon Age, as I've written about in more depth in my full breakdown, cares. It takes elements of Cyberpunk 2077 and Saints Row, plus its own creator from 2014's Inquisition which was then best-in-show and remains a contender even today. It acknowledges the trans experience in a multitude of ways, likely owing heavily to game director Corinne Busche being a trans woman and therefore able to inject a personal perspective that most other games lack." "The dev also made a Black woman during our gameplay demo" [source]

The world reacts to Rook’s lineage and backstory. There are unique dialogues or conversation options based on backstory and lineage. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

There are glorious, fantastic dwarf beards. "I don’t know what magic the character art team did with the beards”, but they feel/look like how beards should. [source: June 14th Discord Q&A with devs]

On the slider for body type selection: “It looked incredibly easy to maneuver around and create a body that is either close to that player’s real personage or their ideal fantasy self” [source]

“Our presenter said that each specialization was pretty much as deep as a job” ((job - class)) [source]

“sliding a cursor across a triangle that can make your character stocky and chubby or tall and muscular or anything in between” [source]

[midorisudachi]

“Living a lie…it festers inside you, like poison. You have to fight for what’s in your heart.” – Dorian Pavus

I recently beat Dragon Age Inquisition for the third time! I love that game immensely: everything about it is wonderful. I chose a male Inquisitor - as a rogue - because I wanted to romance Dorian. The first time I played DAI, it was the female elf Lavellen – whom I named Zephyra – and she was a mage, and the romance with Solas was a bloody disaster & heartbreaking. (Damn you, Solas!) The second time I played as the human female Trevelyan – named Bryony (who you have seen me do two fanarts of) – a warrior, and romanced Cullen. (Cullen is so hot for a video game character…where can I find a man like that? Lol.) I hope you like this artwork!

Also: Happy Pride Month! 🌈 It’s actually a perfect time to submit this artwork. This was a lot of fun to create (a full colour piece). If you haven’t played the Dragon Age games, it is actually very LGBTQ friendly. You can make your characters gay, lesbian, or bisexual. There is even a transgender male in DAI, named Krem, who is a cool character. Bioware is open-minded, that’s for sure, so the DA series is for everybody. And omg, let me tell you that the conversations & bantering between the characters is hilarious!

⚠️Warning: Spoilers Ahead!⚠️

Dorian is quite the character…a sarcastic & witty lad. He is complex at first, especially regarding his history (how his father tried to “erase” who he truly was, when it came to his homosexuality). It was fun romancing him with Cedric (Trevelyan), who I made a rouge/assassin. So off course I had to draw my OC [male] Cedric Trevelyan with Dorian! Cedric is Dorian’s “Amatus”. I made them wear simpler outfits when I drew them, because near the end of the game, they were wearing complex armour. That stuff is hard to draw! I chose to draw Lilies by Cedric & Dorian, because if you romance Dorian, his tarot card shows him holding what looks like a Lily.

The two of them had this conversation near the end of the Trespasser DLC:

Cedric: “Whatever happens, I wouldn’t trade the years we’ve had together for anything. I love you.”

Dorian: “I knew you would break my heart, you bloody bastard.”

Lol! Awww, jeez, Dorian, just say you love my Inquisitor, too. I honestly really think that Dorian loved him, as stubborn as he was to admit it. At first I was annoyed when Dorian chose to go back to Trevinter, and I thought, “Darn you, don’t you dare pull a Solas on my Inquisitor, after all you've gone through with him!” However, after the game ends, it tells you what happens to the characters (depending on your choices). For me, the game said that Dorian’s “greatest strength lay in the lover he left in the south, but still conversed with via message crystal”, and “some claimed to have seen the Inquisitor on the streets on Minrathos on rare occasions, sneaking into the heart of Trevinter to aid his Amatus.” It made me happy to know that the Inquisitor and Dorian stayed together. I wonder if that will show up with the 4th game.

⚠️Spoilers Over!⚠️

Speaking of the 4th game, who is excited to Dragon Age: The Veilguard, to be released later this year? I watched the gameplay trailer and I am excited for it! I hope characters from DAI will be in it (so far, Varric & Solas have been shown).

Drawn with sepia Sakura Pigma Micron pens, then coloured in with a mixture of Copic Markers, Ohuhu Markers, & Zenacolor coloured pencils. White accents done with a Sakura gel pen & the gold accents were done with Golden brand acrylic paint.

Dragon Age Inquisition/Dorian Pavus/Inquisitor Trevelyan © Bioware & Electronic Arts

Artwork © of me, Jacqueline E. McNeese

[iniziare]

DAV Spoilers. Or at least, my "general game opinions". I'll be vague in terms of the game's conclusion, so you don't have to worry about spoilers. Though unless you've finished most of the game (roughly halfway act 2, or just around part 10 in terms of Steam achievements), not all of this will make sense to you. But in short: I like it, I like it a lot.

First off, I need to be honest and say that I went into Veilguard as an absolute critic with the expectation that as a fan of the older games and their lore, I was going to rip into it. After all the news of the team crumbling, I simply lost all faith. But worst of all, I was going to do so while potentially not even playing the game. But in all of my rationality, I always say that one only ever has a right to judge something, after having given it enough of a fair chance. So that's what I did (and admittedly, I had some hype simmering in my heart to see the ending of a story that had become very dear to me), and I don't regret it. Dragon Age: Veilguard, in my opinion, is deserving of praise, and is unworthy of the bad reviews it's gotten. Alright, this is only part of my opinion��� but it got a little ramble-y, so forgive me.

Rook. I thought that it was going to be impossible to get me hooked on another protagonist, especially in today's society where people seem to prefer a 'make your own' approach, as opposed to my personal preference of a pre-written character. For instance, I always had a clear preference for Hawke vs. the Warden and/or Inquisitor, but that's just me— I don't like 'creating' my character when I play, I simply want to be told an established story (AC Valhalla is an example of a massive dislike for me). But again, I'm aware that this comes down to preference. Now, I was afraid that Rook would be an even blanker canvas, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn differently. Rook is incredibly reminiscent to me of Hawke, without being a copy in whatsoever way. I'm delighted to have the sarcastic option back (and as many, I loved that it was reacted to by Solas), as it really adds some wonderful personality into the mix. To add to that, I love that it's Rook who is the 'comical relief' without being actually outright comical to a point where it's too much, which would then risk taking away from the weight of the story. Bioware chose a perfect balance here. Outside of that, I very much appreciate the backstory options. My first playthrough had me picking the Crows out of curiosity and as an ode to an old favorite's origins (hi, Zevran), and it was very fun. I enjoyed the consistent mentions and references of the tales of her past after I'd chosen them, and I find enjoyment knowing that even the small details change a bit, such as the verbal reactions to the ziplines. I also was very happy to see her interact well with Solas, because that was another big concern of mine, as I was very worried that there might have been a decision made to add in any sort of flirtations (despite knowing Weekes likely wouldn't go there, based on Solas' foundation). Rook and Solas' dynamic is one I very thoroughly enjoy in exactly the form it was presented in. Up until the very end of the story, she stayed consistent with my choices, and had me seated here with blurry emotional vision on occasion. And while those who know me know that I can get very emotional over details in games, it isn't actually that easy to get me there initially. But good job, Bioware, Rook is a worthy, and wonderful addition to your lineup of protagonists. Good job.

Solas. God, the consistency of his character in this and DAI has driven me wild to the extent of a rabid dog. It is so good, I'm wildly impressed. If there was ever a character that I could give up all of my other characters for, I genuinely think it would be Solas. He is incredible. I was thrilled to see the connection to Mythal more properly addressed, and while I know that there's many firm opinions out there on this dynamic (my own write-up will be incoming), it was made clear that their dynamic was always one of utmost fundamental importance, at least to Solas and his motivations. That's my big thing, Mythal's perspective aside, I think that it was imperative that we learned just why Mythal was such a 'final transgression' and catalyst for all of his actions (though don't worry, this isn't me taking away his accountability). And from a personal point of view, while Solas' origins were hinted at already in DAI, it was nice to see it confirmed that he, and the others, indeed originated as spirits. And in that, it is good to have learned how he became 'twisted' from his nature as a spirit of wisdom, to one of pride. I think that's fundamental to his character, and I also greatly enjoy the elaboration on some of Cole's lines in DAI about Solas, and who we now know for sure was Mythal: 'He did not want a body. But she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face.' A lot of things hit vastly differently now, when you look back and you realize you have confirmed answers finally in the palm of your hand. I thoroughly questioned Mythal when I went for her essence, reloading multiple times as to ensure that I got as much lore as I could. And I hurt, especially since the end of the game. As I said, I won't spoil, but the ending has left me emotionally scarred in more ways than I could ever explain. That interaction, that emotional release was everything to me, and it was good to see it, even if I could barely see my screen anymore at one point. Weekes did Solas justice in so many ways, and while I initially had a little bit of a peeve at a decision in the game towards the end, my rationality had kicked in, and it was a logical decision. I'm happy, I think, if that's the right word that I can use for this. Also, seeing the scene from the trailer was so good, I screamed at my screen. I just, I'm in total and utter love with this man.

Dragon Keep/choices. Let me actually get to my point of criticism, but know I'm approaching this rationally, and not emotionally. I need Bioware to confirm their canon within these games, and if they officially want to let go of the 'decisions that we once made', then just say it and state it somewhere. Tell us what the decisions are. But that aside, I do want to play light devil's advocate, because I think that it's important. Since the revelation about Morrigan in specific, I've been caught in the push and pull of 'does this make sense for her character', and I think that it's so easy to say 'no, it doesn't' when thinking of DAO, but we're not coming from DAO. We're coming from DAI (after numerous years of development for multiple characters), where Morrigan had already shown a pressing interest in something that held a high risk of her getting possessed by Mythal just like her mother. Despite this, and despite her arc in DAO, she wants to drink from the Well of Sorrows. 'But there was no choice, for Corypheus was going to destroy Thedas', the Inquisitor was an option the entire time. No, what I actually am personally of the opinion of (although I'm waiting on my Morrigan expert to finish playing, for I am not an excessively thorough one yet), is that Morrigan was, and remained hell-bent on obtaining knowledge/power, it has been part of her arc for a long time, and even the threat of possession didn't dissuade her from the possibility of obtaining an unusual amount of it in an unparalleled rare form. That isn't, in my opinion, bad or lazy writing, that is consistent and shows a character flaw that I don't think is often addressed with 'protagonists' enough most of the time: greed. I want flaws that make it much more difficult for me to feel inclined to agree with those that call her the Indiana Jones of Thedas, for she is a brilliant character— but a character with flaws. Now do I think, since having watched the ending, that her presence was also a plot device for Mythal in one way or another? Possibly, but that's merely a side addition in my opinion. I just find it too easy to simply go 'it's bad writing', because while I could agree, it also means you then have to condemn Morrigan for the exact same reason back in DAI, which I don't think is something that's fair to do. An argument could be made that Veilguard has lost most of its original team of writers (including David Gaider himself) and so they took liberties, but that same argument can't be made for DAI. Gaider created this franchise, he had intentions for characters, and arcs, and he ultimately is the one who decided when something was good to go. And on top of that, he wrote and created an amazing franchise, and he earned my trust because he did that. And so I trust that the presence of Morrigan in DAI was logical, which I did think it was— it showed flaws that I craved to see outside of her arc in DAO. And I think having seen DAI, that Veilguard isn't unrealistic for her. And as to why this isn't a 'full possession' as it was with Flemeth, I think the key for that is realizing that she obtained it alongside that headpiece where Mythal was killed by Solas. Because what we also know, in that little scene— and it took me a rewatch of it, but Flemeth/Mythal left part of herself in that Eluvian at the beginning of the scene. I would bet that's what Morrigan possesses now, since Solas himself is the one who 'absorbed' the part of Mythal that had fully possessed Flemeth. Does this match with what Morrigan says? Not exactly, but I don't think that she's a reliable narrator.

[wishbonegame]

Hi I have more misc questions:

Who are your favorite characters?

How many quests are in the game? Can you get to them all in one playthrough, or do you have to do multiple playthroughs?

What's Nikki's favorite dog breed?

What is the name of Tobias' cat?

Has Tobias always been this cranky?

And finally: how are all the adult characters so attractive??

Ooh, these are some fun ones!

Regarding favorites: It's honestly hard to say what my own favorite is at this point! I've been working on the game so long that my interest has cooled somewhat on some of my original favorites, and some characters who I had initially conceived of as "just filling an NPC role" wound up being a lot more fun than expected.

Sheriff Pilgrim was my original favorite (especially when he's interacting with Jack!) and I do still enjoy him, but I've found I enjoy writing for Sonny and Vincent quite a bit, too. Mike is also fun... and Morgan... and a bunch of others, depending on what mood I'm in. Our main writer @kwillow enjoys Mayor North and Em.

One of the nice things about Wishbone is that we have a similar writing approach to Bioware RPGs, where each character is somebody's baby. To make writing practical, we do have to write for whatever character needs writing for sometimes, but we do also have someone who's sort of the "captain" of each character (or at least major characters).

Regarding quests: The final quest count won't be known until later in development, but I've "stubbed out" quest log code for all planned quests so far, and the end of the quest log looks like this:

There are roughly 40 quests of various types fully implemented right now, so a bit less than half of planned quests have been implemented! That 109 number covers all the character quests, story quests, and other major quests, but I might add a few very small quests to add interest to slower portions of the game. It'll depend on how playtesting goes!

You won't be able to do every quest in a single playthrough because the story does split into Outlaw path and Lawful path eventually. Once you've made certain pivotal story choices, some characters will consider you to be on the enemy team and will no longer be willing to trust you (or, possibly, even talk to you at all!), and some story moments will force you to pick one of two characters to work with.

So you'll need a minimum of two playthroughs to do everything! Certain quests might also have more than one ending, depending on how you solve the task and who you work with. The game might not be as branchy as Fallout New Vegas or Baldur's Gate 3, but it is pretty dense!

Regarding Nikki's dog opinions:

She likes all dogs, really! She can go on at length about the pros and cons and various uses and quirks of any breed. She also thinks mutts are interesting. But she is most interested in "wilder" looking breeds, like her cattledog, Sirius!

Regarding Tobias's cat:

His name is Mr. Grumpus. Like his owner, he has permanent Resting Surly Cowboy face. He can often be found sleeping on the counter in the general store or wandering around town, though most townspeople know better than to bug him. He's not the friendliest to strangers!

Regarding Tobias's crankiness: He was always serious and standoffish and never the most popular or sociable person. However, it seems that he's gotten more sullen and gloomy since his mother's health started declining and he had to take over managing his family's general store. Being a cashier isn't really the life he dreamed of, and the stress of his family situation is getting to him. But maybe there's hope for things to improve...?

Regarding the characters being attractive: Ah, I'm glad you like 'em! I (and everyone else working on the project) love to design eccentrics and oddballs. I worry sometimes that we've gone too far catering to our own interests, rather than making something a wider audience would enjoy, so it's great to hear that they have appeal beyond our little niche! They're certainly not your typical "romanceable NPC" lineup, but we do hope that they find their target audience of people who want something more unconventional. :)

[regrettablemeasure]

OK VEILGUARD THOUGHTS NOW THAT I BEAT IT

Firstly, for me this was such a cathartic game. It's a game I feel like I'm going to return to a lot. The themes of regret and grief hit really damn hard for me and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

Without going into detail, it was a solid 9/10 for me. I personally loved it and don't share many of the qualms I'm seeing some other fans discuss: as a new fan but someone who still knows everything from the other three games, this was a perfect chapter closing for dragon age in my eyes. Or as near perfect as we could hope to get, given how long the game has been in development hell and the obstacles Bioware has had to deal with in the time since Inquisition came out.

Inquisition is still my favorite of the series, but that might change with time. Even before I was a real fan I always liked Inquisition and there's obviously a bias in regards to it being the first DA game I actually sunk my teeth into. Veilguard is right on it's tail as a close second, though. And I think it made me love the rest of the series even more, now that we know how this era of it ends.

Spoilers and my only real gripe under the cut

Legitimately one of my only issues with the game is something I think probably comes from the unfortunate cross-pollination that is corporate oversight and making actual art. This game, despite being an "ending", is also clearly trying to entice newcomers to the series and therefore makes a lot of allowances in order to do that. In a perfect world I think that wouldn't have been necessary due to the fact this game hits as hard as it does specifically IF you know the lore and story from the rest of the series already. I would not have been nearly as engrossed if I didn't have that background going into it. The game succeeds in being a love letter to fans in that sense, ironically enough.

And I don't think it does a particularly great job getting someone new invested into the lore. It feels very much like someone not in a creative role pushing for "simplicity" when it comes to some of the choices made - specifically what characters to bring back or not bring back, etc. In a perfect world I feel like there could've been a chance where the Inquisitor was more present, instead of being relegated to the sidelines. But it's not something I think is a fault of the creative team and rather a reflection of the conditions they were working under. Any minor gripes I have with some quest lines also kind of follows this logic - parts of the games writing feels like some executive stayed Bioware's hand, or places you can feel where the pandemic and layoffs wore on the production. It made it an imperfect game for both sides (existing fans and brand new ones) but not enough for me to do anything but love it. The heart put into it despite the hurdles Bioware's team faced was so easy to feel that disappointments didn't last long. I think they absolutely nailed every beat they needed to hit in the moments that mattered the most.

Act 3 is insane and I'm still processing it. Even expecting the Varric twist it still destroyed me, and I genuinely didn't think we were going to lose a companion permanently (though it was a fear I had). Having to choose between Davrin/Assan or Harding is one of the most smartly done ultimatums Bioware has ever pulled off. It's haunting, and beautiful, and sad, and it was the best two companions to use for it. The best friend + baby griffon you've been helping him raise throughout the whole game looking for a better future vs the woman who's been there since Inquisition, giving her all for a cause despite being a "nobody" from Ferelden. I was a sobbing mess and while games can make me cry, this is the first one to turn me into a wreck. Solas truly toes the line on being irredeemable by the end of this, and I love that you can still choose to forgive. I love how all of the companion story lines reflect his struggle or give it new insights, and while the Inquisitor mirrored Solas as a leader, Rook mirrors Solas as a desperate soul trying to claw their way to redemption. "This city has a killer, and it wears your face."

On lighter stuff, I don't understand why people are complaining about retcons or lore "inaccuracies". The only one I really noticed was the Crows being rewritten to be less explicitly evil, which is a little frustrating but I still liked them enough not to mind. And I saw someone with the funny HC that Zevran was tormenting them so much they changed their ways and that fixes it for me. I also think the game is plenty dark and still feels very much like a dragon age game. Out of curiosity I downloaded a reshade that makes the colors less saturated and it literally just felt like Origins and Inquisition after that. Though in terms of overall vibes I'd say it feels the most like a mix or Origins and DA2 if DA2 had more time in the oven.

The music was fine. It was no Trevor Morris but Trevor Morris is a god and AGAIN the move to pick Hans Zimmer feels like such an Executive/Corporate choice. Not that Hans Zimmer isn't talented, but he's THE composer everyone recognizes and it felt like that was the only reason they brought him on to the project. The music had more highlights than I expected, though, and I enjoyed it more than others seemed to!

Finally, the Solavellan ending. While I would've loved more of the Inquisitor in the game regardless - I think this was great. I think it's the best ending you could ask for regarding them and I like to imagine that "terrible place" quite literally will stop being so bad once he's there with her. I know it's not what some people were hoping for, but I never thought Solas was going to have a "normal" ending. No way. This was perfect, for me, and it makes me love Inquisition even more.

I have so many other thoughts but this is it for now. I'm going to continue my warden playthrough and romance harding and it's going to fucking hurt.

[sol-consort]

Hearing you talk about ME3 really solidifies to me that Bioware really just tends to drop the ball when it comes to their 3rd games in terms of writing. It's not like the 3rd games are bad, persay, but they fall flat compared to their predecessors.

For the dragon age games, I've chalked it up to EA meddling and certain writers leaving the games at the time; I wonder if it's the same for ME3? Maybe the crunch time? Bioware really released some games back to back.

The evaporating of morally grey areas really sucks too, I always felt Bioware removed their teeth from their writing in order to appeal to the mass market in later years.

EX: Dragon Age got a whole lot less darker with Inquisition

Damn, now I'm worried about liking Dragon Age too much and getting my heart broken by the sequel games.

The problem is that they take steps back a lot, never commit to something and end up ereasing what they've built. It's like removing the things that made them unique just to follow the current trends of that time, which by now have aged like milk and It just makes me confused on why they flipped a switch so suddenly.

In ME1, it's a military game so you assume they'll portray the military and police as the heros saving the galaxy with no corporation right? Especially with how old the game is.

But they don't, they make you think that they do at the start but then flip a switch and show you the bad things too. How a lot of time the military does more harm than good.

In the ending of the game, they especially resonate that point to you with a big reveal. It builds up perfectly to the second game where you go rogue and help an organisation called cerberus that is independently funded and looks out for the well being for all humans.

They achieve progess because they are devoid of politics, it's mission and straight to action and making the best choice you can for the future of humans. In the first game you've only heard of them and stopped some unethical operations they had around.

They're not like the maifa, they're not in it for the money. But they stay in the grey zone a lot. They kill, they fund unethical experiments and only pull the plug if it becomes too unethical and croses the line into evil.

They saved you and gave you everything in the second game and asked for nothing in return but for you to do your damn job and stop the threat on humanity. Afterwards each of you go your seperate ways when the mission ends.

In the third game, you go back to the alliance and you're framed as a traitor for joining cerberus even tho it was the alliance who refused to take you seriously before.

Even when the threat turned out to be real. And you did publicly save everyone's ass, they're still like "bu buhh but you did it with the baddies!"

The alliance is again framed as the hero, Cerberus gets reduced to evil goons who torture for fun and are all power-hungry and the alliance can do no wrong how dare you question the heros of the army.

It's just.....disappointing. they've taken ten steps back and invalidated both the second and first games.

Also it's glitchy and buggy, it's unfinished. The first two games let you explore new spaces and ships on your own pace, in the third game you're dragged from tutorial to tutorial with a barrage of information.

Progress is less organic, combat is more clunky because they added RE and AC movesets with the rolling, stealth kills and survival priority over combat.

The characters look so ugly- the facial expressions are so weird and your face clips a lot. It's like a rough first animation that needs to be toned down because why am I glaring with spock like eyebrows and why did eyelids clip into my eyes.

There is an annoying vintage filter on the screen, colour is scarce and everything is grey, blue, black and medical white.

The ship is where you spend most of your time when not in missions, it used to be so beautiful and sleek smooth. Stars and futuristic technology. Now it's all gross military base with cables on the ground, dim lighting and empty spaces where decoration used to be. It's greasy at best, who the fuck stole the ceiling boblights I just wanna talk.

This is just sad, I talked so passionately about the first game because I genuinely was impressed. The second game had its flaws, mostly with the story and pacing, but everything else was good! They were turning things around and getting innovative, if you ignore the RE virus slowly spreading.

Now it's like, rather than design a new ship they pissed on the second game's ship and handed it back to you, yellow lights and everything. After robbing it and trashing the place.

I have a theory bc I'm at the start of the game but I might be just coping- what if they ship gets cleaner the more I progress? The construction parts will be gone right? They'll pick up their trash and dirty dishes right? RIGHT? I'M NOT COPING RIGHT?

.

They made companions after mission talks happen without cutscenes and now they're like npcs. Imagine if Lae'zel spoke to you each time you talked to her like the party banter instead of an actual face to face conversation.

Which is so weird because they had the face to face conversation since the first game so why did they remove it???

Resident FUCKING evil does not have it.

It explains the annoyiny cutscenes after cutscene that I can't skip, the bloated dialogue.

They took my eyelashes :(

They took away my ability to speak to people in conversations :(

They took away my clean pristine ship :(

They took away my hero statues and now people in the news hate me :(

They took away my ability to explore freely because the reapers are on my tail 24/7 :(

They took away Ashley :(

But hey. My sniper can shoot three times before reloading now so. There is. That.

Yay.

YET A SINGLE CLIP ONLY HAS 2 BULLETS WHAT WERE YOU THINKING PEOPLE.

Thanks for listening I actually feel better telling someone, I can't wait to play dragonage. Modern game standards I miss you please come back.

[shantyslimes]

Whenever I hear someone say that silent protagonists aren't immersive I can't help but think about how for years people made fun of Bioware games having dialogue options like "hey don't kill eachother" and the character actually saying "you're both lame idiots who nobody loves fuck you you suck absolute waste of precious oxygen smh" because a character with a voice inherently changes the meaning from text. Plain text is forced to be clear in its tone and how harshly it tries to be.

Remember how in Fallout 4 how every single dialogue had a "sarcastic" response which was usually just you being an asshole and the conversation not moving at all? Or that one robot you can talk to who describes methods of cooking and killing you, and your dialogue options are all responses to the different methods it describes. But your character literally just says "What?" for all the options.

I see more depth of personality from the Fledgling in vtmb having options between "I listened very closely, here's what was said to me" and "something about anarchism? I wasn't really paying attention" partly because every time I play for the anarch ending, I say I wasn't listening. Because I, the player, interpret that as not letting on that I was taken by what was said to me. In either case it doesn't change the response LaCroix gives. "You would do well to pay attention to what everyone says"

If those lines were read by a voice actor then it wouldn't add to my immersion. It doesn't help my mental image of my character absentmindedly picking wax out of their ear. It sits you down and tells you "this is how the line is being said." and leaves me with less room to put my own voice in the world.

In games like bloodlines especially that's important because you're a POV character. They exist to be projected upon. I don't think I've heard anyone say they're more immersed by the Fallout 4 protagonist having a voice, if anything I remember everyone being frustrated and annoyed by them being an extremely fixed character without much room to make them your own outside of what faction you work for and what build you use. But everyone loves how the Courier felt like a person who existed in the world before you started playing yet never imposed itself upon you, meaning you were able to roleplay and actually get immersed without the main quest being entirely about how your character had a life before you that you don't care about. Back to Bloodlines, how you play the fledgling is up to you, but you know they had a life before you, because one of your friends before you were embraced, in a panic, tries to bring you back to your old life after you disappeared. She assures you everything is going to be okay, that it's fine that you vanished but now you can come home. And you tell her no. Because in the players mind, you were minding your own business and now you're being ambushed by someone who you have no idea about. When the game tells you that you've redeemed the masquerade for it, you realise that woman was right. Your character used to know her. The themes of VTMs horror is sold more by your own choices of dialogue being rewarded than having a voice actor stammer out lines to make it clear that they're lying ever could. Hell, assume you the player pick up on it immediately as many do, and you still have to lie to her. The game doesn't give you an option to go back, but it's an act of quiet horror that you have no choice but to commit to, just like how the fledgling has to knowingly lie to this woman. If you had a voice, and could hear the performance, unless it was played to damn near perfection, you'd lose something by not feeling these be your own choices that you need to commit to.

If in Fallout 4, you had no voice but the world simply reacted to you diving into the most secure location in the country just find your kid, people asking how you did it, being amazed that love can drive someone that far, or even horrified at the implication that you managed to pull it off, then people would lavish it with praise. Like they did when that happened in Fallout New Vegas, and the moment you've hunted down and killed the guy who tried to kill you, every major faction starts gunning for your attention because that's an insane thing to do and they want you. It's not the voice that ruins that idea, but the writing surrounding the player.

Anyway tl;dr voiced protagonists aren't more immersive you just need to write really well and people will praise the writing.

[depizan]

I realize worldbuilding is rarely the focus of game development, but oh god do I wish Bioware had made some kind of basic worldbuilding bible for the Old Republic before turning various writers loose. Most of the time, it doesn't affect the enjoyment of the game itself, but if you want to write fic, you're basically left doing all of the worldbuilding the devs didn't.

Except instead of worldbuilding from scratch, you're worldbuilding from a scoop of puzzle pieces (each apparently from a different puzzle), half a box of Legos, and two slightly linty gummy bears.

I realize that sometimes this is because I care about worldbuilding things that aren't really important to the the game. (See the whole "how does medical care work in this galaxy, beyond "dip them in kolto, they'll be fine"?" issue.) But sometimes things that are addressed in game leave me wanting to grab it with both hands and shake it vigorously while shouting "make sense, damn it!"

Granted, it still partially comes back to my writing choices. If I didn't focus on space criminals, I would probably care a hell of a lot less about how crime and the law works in the galaxy far, far away. However, I do focus on space criminals*. And I am just going to have Adam Savage or Director Fury everything, as what we get in game is nearly all linty gummy bears.

Okay, no, in the case of the Empire, you mostly just have two not-quite compatible sets of puzzle pieces, and it's not all that hard to make a coherent whole of a government that wants to be (or at least appear) very Lawful, despite the fact that Sith (at least the Chaotic flavored ones) keep mucking shit up. We even have a pretty clear idea of what happens to various types of prisoners and criminals in the Empire. No, it isn't consistent, but it's inconsistent in a way that makes sense. (Here's how it's supposed to work. Except when Sith get involved. With a side of "The nepotism, bribery, and corruption we hate the Republic for? Yeah, we've got those, too.")

But the Republic is 90% unpleasantly fuzzy gummy bears smashed into the shape of puzzle pieces. I feel like most writers didn't think about how it worked, legally, at all and just sort of operated with the idea that it's got, you know, normal law stuff. *waves hands vaguely* Police and courts and prisons and whatever. Kind of like America. (The "law stuff" of which the writer has no clearer idea of.) Which would be fine if not for fucking Belsavis. Because everything around Belsavis tosses that vague law stuff idea out the window and replaces it with what in all fuck.

I don't think it's ever flat out said, but there are chunks of dialogue that suggest that Belsavis is the Republic's only prison. A goddamned secret prison planet that no one knows about is it. Which means the idea of courts just went out the window. (Well, except for secret courts.) Worse, the variety of people imprisoned there in various class (and planetary, but let's not even touch that arc, because christ on fucking toast what the whole entire fuck, writers) back up the reading that prison in the Republic = Belsavis. You've got a crime lord and his fellow criminals (who were somehow convicted as if they were one person, what the hell???), a military squadron (who I believe explicitly had a secret trial?), Jedi who need psychiatric help, and I can't even remember what else (do we get political prisoners outside of the planet arc/extra quests? what about the prisoners of war?)

I refuse to believe that the writers meant for the Republic to be better at the whole terrifying secret police/courts thing than the Empire. I'm pretty sure Belsavis is supposed to be Space Guantanamo (if with extra what the fuck sauce.) and everything else legal in the Republic operates on "I think I saw this on Law and Order." Which, okay, then in ficverse worldbuilding, we just toss everything Belsavis related out the window. That's fine. There's laws and courts and prisons and fines and stuff.

Except then what do we do with anything Belsavis related in the class stories, if we're using those at all? Relocate them to something that fits vaguely understood American legal system land? Try to make their happening on/in Space Guantanamo make sense?

Which means I need to know what I want the Republic to be. Is it flawed but trying to do good? Is it gray but still the better side of the conflict? Is it merely the lesser evil? How dark is this galaxy?

The Republic doesn't have to be perfect shiny good. It probably doesn't even have to be good, at all, just better than the alternatives. But here's a degree of fucked up that the Republic can't go past without my characters deciding that, even if it might still be better than the alternatives, it's still bad. Like, unsupportably bad. Belsavis, as it's portrayed in game, is way past that moral event horizon. (And the game just assumes it wouldn't be a moral event horizon for the characters (or the players!) and merrily carries on as if nothing had changed. Aaagh.)

[Side note: I think I just realized how the writers ended up with Belsavis without realizing the depth of the horror they'd created. They mashed up prison colony planet (drop prisoners, leave. ala transporting criminals.) with Space Guantanamo and then made it secret and didn't realize that generational prisoners in a prison is a) vastly different from "well, you've been transported, so your descendants will also suffer your fate" (which I don't even think is what actually happened) and b) suggests...ah...very bad things about how those descendants came to exist in the first place.

Then again, they threw in experimentation on inmates, horrible conditions, and general fuckery. And then still thought we should be on the side of the wardens. I just don't really know what was going on with the writing around this planet.]

Aaanyway, if I deal with Belsavis in fic, it has to be filed down to being terrible at a level that doesn't put the Republic on the bad guy list to the crew of the Luck, and/or it has to be dealt with in some way. Or it has to be a breaking point for working with the Republic.

I don't know what I want to do with it. I do know it can't be as terrible as what's in game, because that is way too fucking dark and horrible to deal with, even if it were abolished afterward.

And I didn't even start out trying to figure out what to do about Belsavis. Argh! Damned planet just corrupts everything it touches.

I was trying to figure out what the legal system of the Republic was even supposed to look like in the first place.

I think that's something I'll just have to make up. Considering there's really nothing to go on in game. (Besides the Hell Planet that I hate nearly as much as the other Hell Planet.)

Writing, or even just thinking about writing, is complicated.

*I realize this label is most accurate for Jezari, and not at all accurate for Savler, at least not in my take on how things work. The important part is that they're all operating in the space law and order end of things, at least part of the time.

[sleepymarmot]

Completed Sharp-as-Night's questline.

From the discourse prior to Necrom's release, I expected the final quest to have another scene where you relive his memories, even more traumatic than the last. I checked the original thread in the forums, and in comparison with my screenshots, it seems like a couple of lines were removed, probably in response to the feedback.

When Sharp said at the end "All that time I spent worrying that I was going to be someone else when I got my memories back... Well, I guess it's safe to say I don't need to worry about that anymore", I thought that I had inadvertently made a decision earlier in the quest and had to look up if I missed the option to get the memories back. I expected this to be a major player choice at the end. I guess it's not a Bioware game... And it would have been hard to write future content for two very different versions of the same NPC, now that I think of it.

I do find it a bit funny that Sharp's questline has four gay Dunmer. That's gotta be some sort of record. I wonder what the thinking here was. "We have to add some nice gay people to counterbalance the very evil antagonist. Oops, we killed one of them for the plot. Also doesn't this imply that lesbians are good and gay men are evil? Okay let's add a much more flamboyant gay man who also has a crush on Sharp, but in a non-creepy way."

In the end, I still think that "A companion's personal quest secretly doubles as the origin story for a minor faction in TESIII" was a clever idea executed in a moving way, and that it was far more tastefully done than most other references to more popular things originating in Morrowind. It's really one of the things that work much better if you've played the original single player game — I would have missed this entirely if I played ESO first, but since Twin Lamps was one of the few factions I enthusiastically engaged with in my Morrowind playthrough, I was very excited to recognize the foreshadowing in every mention of the lamps and light in this questline.

[explodingchantry]

This is such a good addition and feels really approachable to either da fans curious about Bg3 or Bg3 fans curious about da so props to you on that. (also, you can convince wyll to slaughter the tieflings?!!!?!?! I genuinely always thought he just flat out leaves the way karlach does?!)

I do agree that on a surface level the premise of the two sound similar enough for people to reach the hasty conclusion of "gale is anders but better" that really annoyed me and you articulated much better than my angry post why it's wrong lol. I think it's interesting too, how a surface reading of Anders can lead one to believe his fatal flaw to be pride when in truth his fatal flaw is compassion. He was pushed to fight for the cause of mages in spite of his fear-fueled 'selfish' self preservative nature in awakening because he was made to feel compassion for his fellow mages who weren't so lucky to get out. He merged with justice not just from desperation but also out of compassion for the spirit - the friend - he'd made essentially dying if he didn't. Anders is fueled by compassion and fear which inevitably turn to rightful anger when faced with the injustices he faces.

Something interesting as well is how magic is not only mundane, not only do most people in bg/dnd know a cantrip or two without even being a wizard or sorcerer, but also: people have a choice. They can choose to wield magic. They can choose to learn it and master it.

Gale's magic is a part of his identity the way someone's job or degree is part of their identity. Anders' magic is part of his identity the way someone's disability or sexual/gender identity is part of their identity. Gale takes pride in his magic due to what he's accomplished, the work he's put into learning and mastering it. Anders takes pride in his magic as a rebellion against a society hellbent on shaming and killing him for it. Anders takes pride in his magic as a way to learn to love himself.

Furthermore on the subject of morality, I appreciate my original post probably comes off as me being unhappy of Gale's (and the majority of bg3's companions) varying morality and choices but the thing is more that... It really puts into perspective the bias in dragon age's writing that anders blowing up that fucking chantry has remained a big deal ever since dragon age 2 came out, both in canon and in fandom as well as for bioware themselves, whilst with Bg3 the wider fandom empathizes with all companions because the writing actually offers nuance and an incredible amount of love and compassion. Dragon age's writing offers a thesis that if you're not a good victim then you deserved your oppression. Bg3's writing tells you that it's sorry you've had to suffer. That it wasn't right. That you can always become a better person. But that you can also choose not to. And in those bad routes, where you choose to be evil, to be a proper bhaalspawn, to let gale become a god or astarion ascend or shadowheart become a dark justiciar-- the narrative recognizes it as a 'bad' route. Its message is that these outcomes are fucking tragedies. Meanwhile dragon age is so horny for either being as centrist as possible or being as weirdly christian and cop-loving as possible that it'll try to paint its most tragic hero as a criminal and a monster

I saw someone compare bg3's gale dekarios to anders with gale being "better" and "healing" compared to anders are you fucking stupid???? 💀💀😭

[crossdressingdeath]

I will never be over how Sera was raised by a noblewoman who left everything she had to her in her will (which was a sizable fortune and would've set her up for a long time, if not for life), and then that inheritance was stolen from her by the government through a variety of excuses because she was an elf, and she still insists that elves aren't "little people". Like... she was a noblewoman. The game tries very hard to gloss over that fact, but she was adopted and raised by a noblewoman from a young age and all of said noblewoman's holdings and possessions were left to Sera in her will. Sera was absolutely a noblewoman. And that was stolen from her because she was an elf. How the hell do you live through that and still claim that elves need to stop complaining about their lot in life and any elf who chooses to spit in the face of human oppression and hold onto their own ways is too elfy? In fact, how do you live through that and deem the noblewoman who raised you and left you her entire fortune lying about a baker hating elves out of foolish pride as more worthy of mention than the Fereldan government stealing your inheritance because you were an elf?

Like... that's the bit that really gets me. Sera went from quite possibly one of the most privileged elves in all of Ferelden to having nothing because the Fereldan government refused to let an elf have that power. Even with the cookie story the whole lie only worked because enough people hated elves that Sera didn't question being told that this particular guy also hated elves. And she still refuses to accept that elves face constant discrimination to the point where even elves who manage to claw their way to a position of some power and privilege can lose it all in a second if their own people and government get sick of having to see an elf who holds power and no one will step in to help them. I can almost understand Sera's fear of magic, since if she ever met a mage it would've been an apostate and they would've been keeping a low profile. But Sera faced the way elves are mistreated head on, and she still acts like they aren't the very definition of "little people"? Come on.

[shepherds-of-haven]

lena pls feel free to ignore this because it is very off topic but i don’t know any gamer gamers and i’ve seen you and other tumblr people talk about those games where you make choices and romance various aliens and do you have to shoot the video game gun good to play those?? my gaming skills are on the level of pokemon or nancy drew for example but i would like to kiss aliens too !!

Hi anon, it's no problem at all, I love to talk games! So I sort of separate the games I like to play out into two categories:

RPGs with choices

Choice-based games

"RPGs with choices" are what you've probably seen me talking about on here, like Bioware's Mass Effect (the one where you get to kiss aliens) and Dragon Age (the one where you get to kiss, like, elves and mages and etc.) or Spiders's Greedfall. These are some of my favorite games in existence, so I can't not urge people to play them as soon as humanly possible, because the stories, characters, and choices are absolutely fantastic; but these do contain real-time combat elements! So for Mass Effect, for example, you will need to aim and shoot things in between wooing your crewmates, and you do run around fighting enemies you encounter on missions. I'm not really good at shooting things, by any means, and you can play these on an easy difficulty, but if your level of comfort is more turn-based, this is something to know heading into it! Same goes for Dragon Age and Greedfall: you do have to fight things, but taking it slow and playing on the lowest difficulty might be less intimidating for you! Maybe look them up on YouTube to get a feel of the gameplay first!

Honorable mention here is BioWare's oldest game, Knights of the Old Republic, which is set in the Star Wars universe and features a kind of turn-based combat, though it takes some getting used to if you're used to things like Pokemon. However, there aren't really romance "options" (if you play a female character, for example, you have one male romance option, and if you play as a male, the reverse is true), and a brand-new remake was recently announced, so it might be worth waiting for that, since the old version does have some bugs unless you download some mods!

If turn-based games like Pokemon are more your speed, I'd recommend trying out games in my second category, which are more casual, typically more "choice-based," and not reliant on real-time combat at all. Among these are:

TellTale Games - all of the ones I've played from TellTale have featured excellent storytelling, and their gameplay style is all about making choices and investigating things via point-and-click (so I guess pretty similar to Nancy Drew), so there's no combat or anything like that (you do have to make some choices quickly, though). These feature less overt romance, though some titles do have it and let you choose between romantic interests for your character! I'd recommend their Walking Dead games or The Wolf Among Us to start out with!

Life is Strange - yes to romance options and yes to point-and-click gameplay! I definitely recommend starting with the original, which I believe just had a new remastered version come out. I haven't played Life is Strange 2 or Before the Storm (the prequel to the first game), but I also adored the latest entry in the series, Life is Strange: True Colors! However, like the TellTale games, these do have you play a set protagonist, not a customizable one where you get to choose your name and gender, etc.

Honorable mentions specifically for you:

Fire Emblem - if you haven't given the Fire Emblem series a try, I'd recommend it, particularly the latest and greatest entry, Fire Emblem: Three Houses! There are less choices to be made here (you get to choose what house you join in the latest one, which greatly diverges the story you experience, and things like who you want to spend time with; but there's less dialogue or story-altering choices like in the other games), and it features turn-based combat just like Pokemon. There are so many options to romance (and even matchmake between other characters as well!) in these titles that it will make your head spin. Gender-choice protagonists and the ability to romance/pair up characters started with Fire Emblem: Awakening, I'm pretty sure, so you could start with that one; Fire Emblem: Fates (not as good imo); or try out the most recent and richest title, Three Houses!

Persona - like Fire Emblem, this is not an actual "choice-based" game in the same sense of the others, but there is a large cast of romanceable options, a brilliant story and world, and turn-based combat very similar to Pokemon. And you do get to choose how to spend your time and make little dialogue choices, and there are different endings to each story as well! However, if playing as a female or male protagonist is important to you, only Persona 3 Portable has that option, and you'll have to wait to play that one when it's released on Steam on January 19th!

Honorable mentions in this category also include Supermassive's games like The Quarry and Until Dawn. These are horror-based games, though, but are all point-and-click choice-based games that do feature some romance/flirtation, though you switch between different (preset) character perspectives to help see these relationships through (or ruin them, it's up to you). Best played with other people for maximum effect!

Hopefully that helps you out, anon! And if anyone has any other suggestions to throw in there, feel free!

[trisexyual]

I feel so weird saying this but I genuinely believe that the Templars are the better option to side with in inquisition.

Before you raise the pitch forks and torches: hear me out.

I think the mages should be free. What the Templar order and chantry have done to mages is horrible and inexcusable, and a lot of Templars are truly evil people to the mages under them.

But in inquisition, the rules of Thedas are no longer what we have had up until this point. The circles are gone. There is no divine. There is no Seeker order, and the chantry is close to falling apart altogether. It's just you, a random gaggle of intelligent and skilled people along with the two remaining hands of the previous divine, and the other kingdom leaders up against

• a horde of demons,

• an ancient magister,

• and the literal collapse of the fade (aka the breach and the open rifts spread throughout everywhere)

So why side with the templars despite their terrible treatment of mages and historical corruption and brutality?

Templars are trained specifically to fight / dispel magic. Mages know magic yes, but they are taught how to control their magic to keep it from being a danger to them and others (specifically circle mages). Templars are also trained to fight demons. They know all about the different types of demons and their weaknesses and the best ways to defeat them.

And what is coming out of every hole in the face across thedas during inquisition? A fuck ton of demons.

After various conversations with Cassandra, you find out she desperately wants to rebuild the Seeker order to be what it was meant to be. She's frustrated with the corruption and how they've strayed from the path of what they were supposed to stand for. And Barris feels the exact same way with the Templar order.

And that's the thing-- if you side with the Templars during the game, most of them die. And most of those who do die, are the red ones, and you spend the rest of the game killing then, no matter who you side with before Corypheus shows up.

And if you make the right war table choices, you can make Barris the leader of the Order. Within 5 seconds of meeting this dude, you can already guess he could flip the order on its head. He has no tolerance for political bs, and makes so many comments about how too many Templars these days are too susceptible to corruption and cruelty and laments how horrible he finds it when Templars can't or don't protect the mages under their watch.

So wouldn't you rather save the remaining Templars from corruption (who are specially trained demon hunters as well as dampening or dispelling magic--which if you've played the game comes in very handy when trying to close fade rifts) who actually want to do what a Templar is supposed to do, and protect the mages? Protect the people who don't know how when magic gets out of control, because it is dangerous and very deadly in the hands of the untrained or corrupt?

And if you go to the Templars, you stop the majority of the red ones getting out into Thedas. Less red lyrium out in the world is starting to look like a very, very good thing considering ever since Hawke and Varric brought the idol out from the deep roads, Thedas has been getting worse and worse. And BioWare has already confirmed that the idol is gonna be a big part of da4's plot.

No to mention, that we now know how to heal both abominations AND Tranquility.

Mages are made tranquil to avoid becoming abominations. But according to Asunder and Cassandra's discovery that the Vigil Seekers undergo is actually just the rite of tranquility, but then followed by touching the fade -- which is how you heal abominations.

Cassandra said that Seekers are immune to being possessed as well as blood magic mind-control because of the Vigil. So if instead of the harrowing, mages are put through the Vigil, they can literally avoid the entire issue of why mages are confined to the towers in the first place -- they would no longer be able to become possessed ie; no more abominations.

So if you side with the Templars, you are left with a small bunch of trained fighters, who know how to dispel magic, know about demons and how to hunt them, and who have the morals and beliefs of what Templars are supposed to stand for. Protectors.

So what about the lyrium issue? The potential for Templars to turn red if exposed to red lyrium? Well guess what -- Seekers can do basically everything that Templars can do without the lyrium.

To avoid the potential for new red Templars, and to solve the problem of all Templars basically being drug addicts to lyrium, wane them off it like Cullen until they no longer need it, and then make them complete the Vigil. They'll be immune to mind control via blood magic as well as possession.

So my point: You get to keep the good Templars, saving them from a horrible death or forced corruption, and therefore keeping generations of knowledge on how to fight against magic and hunt demons (both of which are major problems in the world during dai) and basically with certain other decisions later in the game, can set up a world where Templars are no longer easily corruptible and no longer dependent on lyrium.

Plus, you get Calpernia as your enemy instead of Samson.

1. Calpernia is actually not really a villain. You can basically redeem her by completing her questline prior to the Temple of Mythal by finding out Corypheus is just using her by lying to her.

2. Calpernia spends her life freeing slaves. She was a slave herself. If you convince her not to fight you, she'll leave. And then just continuing freeing slaves. Everyone should be doing what she's doing.

3. Samson dies either way. Also, imo, Calpernia's story is so much more interesting than Samson's. Samson left the kirkwall Templars bc of corruption then ran straight into Corypheus's arms to further corrupt the Order and himself? Okay BioWare. Nice character continuity.

Also if your argument is that siding with the Templars will just make the mages prisoners again, that's not a thing.

Even if you rebuild the Templars, if you make Leliana divine, she disbands the Circle. She makes mages free.

• Vivienne brings back the basic idea of the Circle if Leliana is Divine, but makes it more like a college than a prison. A place for mages who want to learn, and who want to know how to keep their magic in control.

And if you Make Cassandra divine, she brings the circles back, but if you've saved the Templar order and made Barris it's leader, there's so much less of a chance of the Templars ending up like the corrupt cops they are at the start of inquisition.

((Not to mention, if you side with the mages you find out even with Alexius using time magic to get there sooner, Fiona choose to become indentured to him and the Venatori. Literally, it's basic Fereldan gossip that most Tevinter magisters are fucked up and evil and the second that Fiona is introduced to one she decides to off-brand enslave all of her people to a Tevinter magister??))

I just think siding with the Templars in inquisition makes more sense than going to the mages. Based on what we face in the game and how we can reshape the world with the knowledge we find and the choices we make, it seems like a better option than asking a bunch of students who likely haven't even left their towers your allies in fighting the magic holes spitting demons in the sky.

Plus, if you still can't get past the poor treatment of a lot of mages by the Templars, you can instead 'save' them and then just be like nope. You're my prisoners now, and then your character has total control over what happens to the remaining Templars for punishment. Idk.

[sindri42]

In the first game, your confrontation with Saren went down differently based on every conversation you had with Saren before. In the second game, the suicide mission went down differently based on which side quests you did or did not do, and what order you did them in. In both cases, the finale was the culmination of the choices you made over the course of the game.

And everything about 3 except for the ending followed through on this in a big way; events on Tuchanka weren't just a single Y/N toggle at the end of the mission, they depended on whether Mordin survived the suicide mission, whether you recovered and then preserved Malen's data, hell, whether or not you picked up Wrex's armor in a tiny forgettable side path of the first game. The resolution between the Quarians and the Geth relies on a dozen different choices you made across the entire trilogy, and if you fucked up any of them then the consequence of that is an entire species dying.

Then you get to the big finale, the thing that's supposed to deliver on the themes built up over the course of the series and provide the emotional payoff for five years of anticipation... and get told to pick a color. There was literally no difference to the ending cutscene except for which color the explosion was, and a glitter filter put over a few characters if you picked green. None of the decisions you made before that point mattered at all, because the only thing they checked before you pushed the button was whether a single number was big enough or not.

And in interviews, executives were shocked to discover that people were disappointed by this. They thought that gamers would go through the single ending they got and project consequences of everything they had done onto it, to imagine that it was a satisfying payoff, and then never touch the game and never talk to anybody who had played it differently, so nobody would ever realize that it was exactly the fucking same. In short, they openly admitted that they think that all their customers are imbeciles and so there was no need to do more than the bare minimum.

And on top of that, in the leadup to the final button press, they make it obvious that they either never bothered to look at the lore from the previous games or actively decided to throw it all out, because the bullshit that the star child spouts at you contradicts literally everything else you've heard from the Reapers, and everything you'd learned about AI in general. So some people got annoyed enough to start looking into it, and guess what? The lead writer for the first two games, the guy who created the setting in the first place, was fired by EA and got replaced by some corporate stooge from outside Bioware. And most of the meat of the game (the parts that were good) was put together by the secondary writing team, the people who had been working on the project for years and cared about what they were doing, with minimal interference because their new glorious leader didn't think those parts were important enough to be worth his attention, but the core of the storyline, the bullshit about the Catalyst and everything about that stupid child, was taken over by the new guy's artistic vision. A vision that made no sense to anybody but him, and had absofuckinglutely nothing to do with Mass Effect.

This was the biggest and most obvious case of a work of art being ruined by corporate meddling in decades. But any time somebody said something even vaguely critical of it, they got dogpiled by a united front of "journalists" who, despite supposedly working in competition to each other, all just happened to be reading the same script. About how gamers were arrogant, entitled crybabies who couldn't handle anything other than the most straightforward and saccharine stories and had no respect for the artistic vision of the creators. Which led into yet another flurry of thinkpieces about how 'gamers are dead', 'gamers shouldn't be your target market for games', etc etc.

But let's skip past all that and go into the endings themselves, and why every single one of them sucks ass.

In "Destroy", you press a button to magically eliminate all "synthetic life" in the galaxy. This very explicitly includes a genocide of the Geth, if you had kept them alive up until that point. But the thing is, anything that kills an individual geth program also kills every VI program out there. Any semi-autonamous computer system in the galaxy just blue-screened. We saw the explosion break the Normandy, so anybody in a spacecraft who can't conveniently land on a garden world (or who doesn't have a brilliant enough pilot to crash safely) is dead. Anybody with cybernetic components, including the entire Quarian species if you kept them alive, is dead (so hey, doesn't matter at all which direction you went in that third of the game). Anybody in a hospital is dead. Anybody too close to the wrong kind of reactor is dead. Anybody on a space station is dead. Anybody on a colony world where you can't breathe the air outside the shelters, or where you can't grow all your own food, is dead. And best of all, every single person in the Sol system, including every one of those massive armies that you painstakingly gathered over the course of the game, is super dead because none of them can ever leave Sol. The turians don't have any food at all, beyond what military rations they were already carrying, and everybody else gets to fight horrible bloody wars over the scraps of a ruined Earth for a few months before they either starve or nuke themselves into oblivion. The rest of the galaxy has a small chance to rebuild after the new Dark Age... if they lived in a place which was entirely self sufficient with absolutely no trade or external support of any kind and with no technological assistance to day-to-day life. So, mostly just people who were still on their own homeworld. Except of course that those homeworlds were the places hit hardest by the Reapers, so the vast majority of the populations either fled to places that can no longer support life, or got harvested already.

Long story short? You cut the surviving population from the trillions down to the thousands. Recovery might happen, given a large enough time frame, but you did more damage than the Reapers ever did, and any new spacefaring culture that arises millions of years later will be unrecognizable to any inhabitants of this cycle.

"Synthesis" is the hardest to argue against, not because it works so much as because none of the things they say about it actually mean anything. What does it mean to combine organic and synthetic life? What is this "new DNA"? Nobody knows, and the writer didn't care. But it's presented as the unambiguously "Good" option, since it just ends the war without genocide or slavery (and since it's only available if you made your number really big by putting a lot of hours into the online multiplayer mode). But if this does actually solve any problems... why? The new Artistic Vision says that organic and synthetic life can never coexist, so you end the war by removing that distinction, as if the Reapers are less like thinking beings that do things for actual reasons and more like... broken coffeemakers that just need one boolean flipped. Nevermind that your pilot is literally dating your ECM suite. Nevermind that you already had Quarians speedrunning environmental adaptation by just asking Geth programs to live inside their cybernetic parts. Everybody needs to install more glitter in their DNA, that will fix everything somehow!

I guess you could make an argument that utterly nonsensical, nonexistent problems need utterly nonsensical, nonexistent solutions, but... ugh.

Which brings us to my "favorite" ending, "Control". In which Shepherd gets disintegrated in order to upload their brain to the cloud, thereby enslaving the Reapers for the good of everybody else. This avoids most of the most terrible consequences of the Destroy option, since only the Mass Relays are broken which means that individual ships, life support systems, etc. keep working. Interstellar trade and resupply is cut off, so anybody who didn't have a few months worth of supply stored already is a little bit screwed, as is everybody in Sol system again (the delay between the destruction of the Alpha Relay and the full scale invasion confirms that even the Reapers can't rebuild a mass relay in less than six months, and there's no way the combined forces of the entire galaxy can live off what can be grown on the ruins of Earth for that long), but even after losing all their military forces and the cradle of humanity there will be enough people to rebuild and repopulate eventually. Heck, maybe between the Quarians and the Reapers you could move significant numbers of starving refugees from Sol to the nearest places that can support them using the slow kind of FTL. Really this would seem to be the best option for everybody (except maybe the Reapers), except for one small detail. The writer made sure to specify, for some reason, that when Shep takes control of the Reaper fleets they also lose all their own identity and personality. I guess because it was insufficiently dramatic if you didn't make sure that the hero dies at the end? But the problem with that is, if Shep is dead, then Shep isn't actually in control. Best case scenario is that in the process of dissolving their entire personality, they left an imprint of their own goals and ideals over the rest of the Reaper minds... but in that case they're basically just one more voice added to the infinite hive mind, trying to shout over a bare minimum of 20,000 entire species that have already been uploaded in the same way. How exactly is this supposed to help?

The red and blue endings only work if you ignore about half of them, or refuse to spend five seconds thinking about what comes next. The green ending only works if you ignore all of it and refuse to spend five seconds thinking about anything at all. Every one of them is an insult to anybody who cares about the setting, or who bothers to think about media at all instead of just blindly consuming and moving on.

God, these people are just never gonna get over the massive L they took from the consumer backlash known as GamerGate.

It's gonna be decades from now and they're still gonna be coping, acting like Vietnam Vets of the milquetoast starting point of the current culture war.

Take Wu for example, she and her posse of cry bullies went as far as to present their outrage to the UN, when they got nothing from it she still cried that Obama should've arrested those who went against her;

Fucking four years after GamerGate was long gone.

Fuck it'll be 2043 and these people will be whispering tales of how gamers rose up in 2013 and marched down streets with torches, lynching game developers.