#but yeah i dunno how i feel about veilguard yet but i know i've just barely started and i'm gonna give it a fair shot

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Soooo... I finally got Veilguard.

Little late to the party but tbh I wasn’t expecting to get my hands on it until after Christmas so I’ve been replaying DAI in the meantime.

I'm not very far into it, though, given I'm someone who has to replay the opening section at least three times before deciding on what kind of character I want to play. Gotta test out all the combat, play around in the character creator, get a feel for the dialogue choices, etc. before settling on how I want to play my Rook.

I will say even though I'm only a little bit into the story... I don't know how I feel about it yet. Combat's very different, though not in a bad way. I haven't met most of the companions yet. I have questions about so many things.

Like, I'm aware that I'm just at the very beginning. I haven't really done anything but it feels different in a way that I can't tell if it's good, bad, or otherwise.

But, I gotta be honest in saying that I felt the same exact way when playing the other games for the first time, too. Like when I played DA2 for the first time, I kind of hated it. Which is wild to look back at since I adore DA2 now, it just took time for me to get used to it after playing 100+ hours of DAO, y'know?

I also don't know anything about the fandom's reception to it, I've just kept my head down and avoided everything about it so that I could go into it without influence... but now I'm like, "...I have so many things I want to discuss already but I don't wanna be spoiled."

I dunno, I'm going to keep playing, and if something strikes me I'll post about it.

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

Who is your least fav romance in the Dragon Age Games?

Ah…

Okay so I've ranked them before but… umm…

Alistair/Morrigan, Anders and Cullen. Not sure about Veilguard yet.

I used to like Morrigan and her romance a lot but I've been thinking more and I just dont vibe with her that much. She's cool! She is! She falls in love and its cute but… yeah I dunno. I think I prefer the power of friendship over the power of love.

Alistair looks like my brother did when I first played the game in 2009 and I can't go back from that. Sorry. (His romance is sweet though. When I want a tooth rotting fluffy thing I romance him)

Anders is… I don't like his attitude in DA2 and yeah I know there are other concerns and shit but for me… I dunno. I think Justice made his bad qualities worse. In Awakenings he said some not so nice things that had me tilting my head and they got WORSE in DA2. Plus how… pushy he is. Someone said he was in love with Hawke no matter what and I have to agree. I honestly just dont like him much but that's more of a personality thing then anything. I agree with him. I actually feel he has a point and fucknyeah BLOW IT UP BABY. BLOW THE CHANTRY UP. But personally? Ugh.

Cullen? We all know my feelings about that lack lustre redemption arc and I am VICIOUS about it. I've romanced him. I have. I also hated doing it as an elf and as a mage. He is the worst romance in Inqusition and you can't change my mind

[thessalian]

Thess vs the Rivaini Coast

So I now finally have a full Veilguard crew. Yet again, this has only led up to yet more stuff I don't get about the negativity. Please recall - this is just my opinion, and if you have a different one, that is totally your right. Just let's all please remember "it's not for me" and "it's objectively bad" are two different things.

That said: What is people's problem with Taash?

Yeah, I just met them (and don't even know they're a 'them' yet, technically, ICly), but ... gods, they remind me of how I get sometimes. I get defensive if I don't know you. You can literally see the wall going up in me if you're trying to engage beyond what I'm comfortable with, socially speaking. And I hate, hate being volunteered for something without my express consent or even knowledge. I don't consider Taash "sullen teenager"; I consider Taash "guarded as fuck because, among other things, they have a huge flashy ability they're supposed to be hiding and that's just the most obvious example of them having to hide who they are, and that means building a huge wall because no one gets to know them". And if "sullen teenager" is the front they need to paint over that wall? It's as good a one as any. Anyway, I haven't had them in party long but they seem remarkably patient, considering; I did a quest on the Rivaini coast with Taash and Bellara and Bellara was poking at Taash the whole time about "So you go into ruins and tombs and steal Dalish artefacts?!?" and Taash was like, "No, only assholes do that" but without getting angry about it, if you get me? Like, it was more, "Yeah, I can see why you think that, because the world is full of assholes, but we're not those". Maybe Taash's personality will grate more later, I dunno, but for me personally? I love them.

Also the complaints about the puzzles being "too simplistic" kind of tick me off, given I went through the entire abandoned Warden keep tracking ghosts and finding wisps and hopping all over the battlements for clues to how statues were supposed to face and I found it actually really impressive in the way that it used all the neat traversal tricks we've been seeing since the start of the game. I think that a lot of these puzzles are very clever uses of the mechanics, and the rewards you get from them feel earned (even if I do wish some of them were more useful than some of the ones I've had lately - but I did get a couple of Unique pieces and one entirely changed my approach to combat so I'll call that a win).

I admit, there's a lot of things that I complained about at the start that I kind of want to take back now. Not entirely, but mostly. I still love being able to pick the party that works best for me and run it all the way through the game, and am sad we can't, but I can see why - and honestly, it's fun putting together different groups depending on where we are and whose skill sets complement each other. And I get to hear more companion background dialogue that way. Not to mention how much easier it makes things from the point of view of triggering background banter; after all, it's not a choice between which two of the three available companions will be bantering with one another. I guess I'm seeing it mechanically as well as narratively, in that case.

Heh. See, this is why I pick everything apart. Does it sound like I'm complaining about certain games, shows, books etc when I'm doing it to find the flaws? Sure. And there are flaws in this game, yes. But I'll also look for the good, if I need to, and dig into why it's good while still acknowledging that those who don't like it are entirely within their rights to. I'm not going to say, "You have a negative opinion of this game so I will never trust your opinion again" (because seriously, some of the YouTube vids that have dared to be positive about Veilguard are getting that kind of shitty reaction). You like what you like. I like what I like. I like this. I paid £50 for this game and was sure that I'd regret it because I'd be causing myself pain to prove my own fears right. I'm fine with being wrong about that.

And now I'mma watch another episoe of Arcane while trying to decide whether I deal with Wardens or Morrigan first after seeing what Davrin wants and going walkabout with Taash.

[transmasc-tabris]

Just a dump of the Rook art I've done because I'm still trying to flesh this guy out and finalize how I want him to look, because why not be an absolute idiot and plan out a guy for a game you can't even play yet, right?

Revas Vircanis

18 yrs pre Origins, 39 pre Veilguard, Age 22

I dunno just playing with eye colors. Something something elves eyes glow a little something something demon fight mode because playing with opacity was fun. Also something something cool guys don't look at explosions (I dunno that's the vibe I get from that pose - cool guys also don't dwell on how bad the job must have gone if you're leaving with no armor and torn up clothes)

Veilguard, Age 61

Normal face vs 'Davrin just launched Assan off his shield and did that little smile. Also Neve just did some badass ice magic. So he's short circuiting now.'

Also I couldn't not try drawing him having the only appropriate response to 'you can pet the griffon.'

And since I found pose references some crappy sketches of the two ways my first playthrough is most likely to go at this point because if other people can draw their romance plans then I can too. These are very bad but they were fun to do. I know it won't happen but at least people will probably have polyamory mods for this game within like two days of release so I can just.... I want to hold them both very softly, okay? Definitely didn't think of Neve's sleepless nights in Streets of Minrathous and feel things. Not at all what do you mean?

Anyway yeah just rambling at this point.

- he's yet another instance of 'much nicer and less intimidating than he might initially look' since apparently that's a thing I love.

- somewhere in the middle of making this I realized he's kind of just 'what if my HoF got a god damn break instead of a blight?' (half joking, there are definitely differences but the vibe is there).

- can't do magic but is very fascinated by it. not dagna level but he'll definitely drop whatever he's doing to hear something new about it. a little wary of blood magic, but even approaches that as 'best to know about it since a lot of people around here are into it, and in theory it's cool and interesting. it might be fine actually if people weren't assholes about it, you know?' (sudden realization he would like merrill if he met her)

- life's a little too chaotic for him to amass an actual collection, but always has some new book on his person. often found curled up with it and a cold forgotten coffee.

- quiet and introverted but largely happy guy at this point. a bit lacking in social graces but he'll figure it out, maybe, more or less

- great cook

- had to hold back tears of joy on finding his first grey hairs because he kind of never thought he'd live long enough to see that

- is okay now just be nice about him forgetting things and don't ask why his eye does That sometimes

- wanted to just fight corruption and bullshit in whatever small ways he could but then he just had to go and fuck up some angsty bald guy's plans so now the veil needs guarding and there's some weird fade stuff happening. at least the fade might be interesting.