#datv interview

[extravagantliar]

epler opening his mouth and having a point

"It's interesting, because in some of our earliest versions of what we wanted to do for Dragon Age 4, Varric was not actually involved. Varric was doing his own thing as the Viscount of Kirkwall," Epler says. "But I think especially as we got to the version of Dragon Age: The Veilguard that shipped, it felt very strange to have a story about Solas not also include Varric. For us, having them [Solas and Varric] exist in contrast throughout the story - obviously, with Varric being something existing entirely in Rook's mind - provides different ways of looking at the core theme, which is regret."

As Epler explains, Varric is "not someone who does a good job of confronting his regret", whether that be in Inquisition when it comes to his love interest and crossbow namesake, Bianca, or with his brother in DA2.

the largest sigh about my batting average I GET IT I SUPPORT IT man I need to PLAY THE LOTTO

[miyku]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | ▶ dev. Bioware

[lizzybeeee]

THE ENTIRE DRAGON AGE AMA IS A DUMPSTER FIRE

They avoided all the high-rated questions with genuine criticism (not blind hate!) and went for questions that were safer and allowed them more leeway. After that awful IGN article and that treatment of Davrin...God, just put it down. I have no faith that BioWare will be able to continue Dragon Age or Mass Effect with the respect it deserves.

Edit - They had an opportunity for genuine discussion with fans who were concerned/unhappy with the way Veilguard was -> people unhappy with the story, the marketing, the lack of 'RP' options in an RPG, etc... Instead they just doubled-down even more, avoiding those critical questions, with no real acknowledgement that fans have very reasonable problems with this game.

Some Highlights & My Initial Ramblings Below:

The Executors

"They attempt to manipulate events in the most subtle way they can manage."

So, very clear that they're not simply observers of what is happening in Thedas: they're manipulators...

"Magical Illuminati Confirmed! Lizard People Did 9:30 Dragon!!!!"

All that complexity of character -> his hatred of Orlais, his experience as a general, his relationship with Cailain, and the influence of Howe...all diminished. Any influence from a shadow cabal is too much influence - all the humanity of Loghain's choices/consequences...God, what a waste.

Not to mention what this does to other events/characters in the series -> they imply they've been intervening as far back as the magisters breaking into the golden city. I do not find this compelling! At all!

2. Solas and the Executors

Oh my god, he sounds like such a fucking Mary-Sue I'm so sick of Solas at this point -> "Actually, I know more about the Executors than anyone alive - not even the rest of the Gods know as much as me."

("I'm also, like, an Ancient Elven God, I'm responsible for the Blight and the Veil, and I kind of locked the Gods away cause they were evil - but, like, I'm really sad about it. Also the Herald of Andraste thinks I'm cute <3")

<- Previous comments: massive oversimplification, obviously

But I miss the days when not everything was about Solas. It removes so much interest and wonder in this world when the fucking egg is behind it all. I loved him as a character in DAI and now I just feel this bone deep tiredness when I see his stupid face.

Don't you dare threaten to bring Gareth David-Lloyd back -> keep him away from this mess!

3. The Fate of the Rest of the Evanuris

Yay. I'm so looking forwards to "The Return of the Elves: Electric Boogaloo 2" - it was done so well the first time!

"It was the elves all along!"

The only character with any potential to be interesting is Andruil*, but how they handled all this lore was done so shallowly and so poorly that I find it hard to give a damn anymore. Not to mention that the game literally mentions Ghilan'nain mourning Andruil - so is this a retcon/redirection/or have you confirmed that one of the most interesting members of the Evanuris' is dead?

*interesting in that she's established in lore to potentially have a tonne of really cool things attached to her (the void armour, the great weapon she has etc...). The rest of the evanuris are nowhere near as well established as she is.

4. Southern Thedas, Sociopolitical Issues, and Future Games

NOW YOU WANT TO INCORPORATE GEO-POLITCAL EXPLORATION?? You avoided any meaningful discussion like the plague in DATV but now you're acknowledging it?? OkaY. okAy.

They couldn't even give us the long-term ramifications of the mage/templar war how the hell am I supposed to believe that they will be able to pull off 'elven gods are real' etc...? For a game series that totes : your choices matter -> they have not proven that they have been able to show that in a meaningful way. They literally cleaned the slate with this game to avoid doing that.

So, what, does that mean that the Veil is never going to come down now? Or are you going to have the entirety of Thedas build themselves up again just to have the Veil fall and send things into chaos once more?

What a fatalistic, miserable outcome for Thedas -> why the fuck would anyone bother to live in Thedas if you're going to keep throwing meteorites at them? By all means, change/conflict has to happen for the series to move forwards...but this is just so miserable at this point.

(The Elder Scrolls, at least, gives people room to breathe between crisis' or sets them up in different areas of the world! Bethesda treats past installments/your decisions with greater respect than DATV does.)

Even, then, if the Veil remains up, that means that the spirits are just trapped in the Fade being miserable for the rest of existence. The entire series has been humanizing spirits, from Justice to Cole, and now they're just throwing in the towel? I guess they can stay in the fade now! Problem solved!

What do you mean the Evanuris are not a threat anymore? IN A PREVIOUS QUESTION YOU LITERALLY SAID SOME ARE STILL POTENTIALLY KICKING AROUND THE BLACK CITY?

Weakened, sure, but Solas was 'weak' in DAI. You're giving yourself an out if you decide to go back to the elves again. Please do, I'd love more content on how the elves alone fuck everything up!

5. More Southern Thedas, the Chantry, and Tevinter

Thanks for the confirmation that things in the South are so fucked up that they have to work alongside the 'Slave Capital' of the known world to rebuild!

Slavery was one of the biggest things that caused a rift between the north/south chantry system -> one of the reasons why there were exalted marches -> a uniting belief in the south is that slavery is fucked. They didn't address slavery in DATV - what hopes are there that they will do so effectively in a future game?

Don't tell me that Dorian fixes everything off screen either -> either he solves slavery off-screen or the south is being forced to work the slaver-capitol because their land is nuked and they have no ground to stand on.

I'm so thrilled.

6. Solas and the Idol / The Blight

I will never get over Solas fucking curing the Blight off-screen and no one asking questions/giving a shit. Hello?? The Hero of Ferelden would like a word with you???

So the Blight is calcified in Minrathous, at least, but everywhere further away is still fucked! Once more, the South is doomed to suffer from the long-term effects that regular blights have -> not to mention the red lyrium (which still exists according to the AMA) across the south.

I don't care; it's lame. It's a lame way to conclude the blight and I hate it. This game did not earn 'cure the blight from thedas' at all. You could have had us learn how to soothe a titan and see how that can diminish the blight but you did it this way.

Another 'magical ritual' because Solas has such a good track record with them lmao.

7. The Agents of Fen'Harel / The War with the Qun / The Crows

Turned him against the idea of being a leader???!!

Fen'harel's Call to the Elven People After the events at the Winter Palace, elves left the Inquisition under mysterious circumstances, as did elven servants across Thedas. None could say where they went, but those who believed the Inquisitor's story about Fen'Harel wondered just how large the Dread Wolf's forces were... and what the ancient elven rebel had planned. This is from the Trespasser Epilogue, Epler!

Your concept art for Joplin literally had him as a leader of a faction of elves. Just be honest that it's a retcon and you changed course - don't try to save face with this reasoning.

About the Antaam: "We needed some big mindless bad guys to fight and so we did this because we didn't want to address the Qunari War/Invasion we set up in Trespasser".

You had to canonize Sten as being alive and Arishok in order for this reasoning to work -> you didn't even come up with an alternative Arishok to take Sten's place.

Yeah, the exchange that set up the Crows we see in the game as "idealists" did not make the game. I can confirm that!

I'm sorry, "Caterina kept Illario in check?" as in, 'kept him an idealist and not the usual Crow'? The woman that beat him with a cane and starved him and his cousin to train them as Crows. Fuck off.

lmao -> tell me you're coming up with this on the spot without telling me that you're coming up with this on the spot.

8. World State Discrepancies - Isabela

Outright ignores the very real criticism about the marketing from this game and World States.

"there are absolutely places where we unintentionally suggested there was a hard canon (...that Isabela is always assumed to have joined Hawke's party.)"

Unintentional?

Excuse me, you have her talk about Merrill and the Kirkwall Crew as family - that was not unintentional in the slightest. Not to mention Sten, Blackwall, Sera, and Cole are canonized as being part of your world state no matter what.

You had a story you wanted to tell - one that only fit a few world states - and you went ahead with it and disregarded those choices. Don't try and lie about this all being a big misunderstanding.

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Edit - They could have taken the opportunity to address the very reasonable criticisms that people had with this game but they cherry-picked questions and avoided/minimized anything remotely critical.

They could have provided us some insight into the game development time but each time they approached the topic they settled for "we're happy with what we delivered and it was well optimized."

They had an opportunity to acknowledge that people were bothered by the handling of the lore/stories (to potentially mention they could course-correct/ rethink their plans) but instead they doubled down on everything that they did and even 'justified' some decisions. They doubled down on the Executors, Solas's changing motivations, the destruction of Southern Thedas, and the elves/Solas being at the heart of everything etc...

This AMA basically confirmed that the only reason they did what they did to the south was for a reset -> It's not a compelling or fulfilling narrative to have everything we've done reset back to ground zero off-screen. BioWare games differentiate themselves from other RPG's by their import system from previous games - it was compelling and exciting! With DATV they set the expectation that BioWare can outright throw out entire games worth of choices/build up, not solely retcon them.

Justifying your choice to water down the lore/world of your story by saying you'll address it in the 'next game' does not instill me with confidence, BioWare! It doesn't explain that lack of it in this game either!

They avoided every question that, rightfully so, pointed out the misleading comments made by devs in the pre-order period of the game:

the fact that there were only 3 imported choices from previous games was leaked by a reviewer -> BioWare was vague from the start about choices

that this game was the most 'romantic' in the series

that world states/ headcanons wouldn't be disrespected

that there are 'lore' reasons for bad darkspawn design

that there are lasting, impactful choices/consequences to be made in this game

that the lore/world was not watered or toned down

that companions are deep and you can disagree with them etc...

BioWare's behavior towards their customers in the lead up period to this games release was downright scummy. I absolutely felt misled after playing the game for myself and recalling what I read in interviews put out. While EA is undoubtedly poison, you can't hold them solely accountable for this.

I feel for the individual developers who worked on this in what was undoubtedly a toxic environment from EA - but I feel that it's pretty clear that BioWare itself has a lot of problems within and in their leadership/executives. Working for EA does not give them an excuse to mislead their customers.

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I already had a very grim outlook on the franchise from the end of DATV but this literally look my interest out the back and sent it to God. What a disaster.

[powdermelonkeg]

Okay but is it just me. Please say it isn't just me.

[divorcedwife]

reading the veilguard writers explain their writing decisions makes me feel like a lawyer watching my client giving unprompted confessions, like stopppppp you’re only making this worse 😭

[cadaveerie]

it's unlisted at the time of posting this, but it seems like they finally posted the official recording of the DATV cast and devs panel from SDCC'24! It starts at around 7:31 :]

edit: cause i was actually busy and hadn't watched the video, i just realized that in the parts in which they showed something in the screen, the video doesn't show the screen :( that footage can be seen here and here. the second one can be found on youtube (it's neve's intro), but the first one wasn't posted officially :/ that's why i'm linking this. at some specific points they also show a collage of the companions' tarot-esque art (like here.)

[nadas-dirthalen]

After Horror of Hormak, seeing Davrin — a Grey Warden — with Ghilan'nain valasslin???

Well, folks, it doesn't bode well, does it.

[lornaka]

Very DATV negative rant under the cut

The more I play (or try to..) and learn about Veilguard and the behind-the-scenes process of making it, the more I come to accept that the real da4 was project Joplin and it's long buried. Whatever this thing they are parading as da4 just ain't it, whichever way I try to approach it from. It's just nothing. It's an empty husk of a beloved series being presented as if it's supposed to make sense and be this grand revelation and resolution, but it's nothing more than an impostor. Much like Varric in this travesty of a game.

[for-lovely-things]

I: Tonight we're welcoming the cast of the 4th season of the famous Dragon Age show! Tell us, Klytus, how does it feel to be the lead actor of such highly anticipated season? Fans have been waiting for almost 10 years!

K: Hey, thank you for having me here. To answer your question- that's a lot of pressure. But also- I'm really happy. I never thought I'd be chosen for such a big role considering my career was relatively tame, and I'm very grateful. It was also amazing to work with such seasoned actors like Dorian and David, they shared a lot of their wisdom.

D: Oh yeah, we've been like mother hens for Klytus. He's a quick learner though, our young star will totally overshadow us in this season.

I: I see rings. So, is Davidorian canon in real life too?

D: Pfft, my dear, thought it was obvious. But yeah, we're engaged. You're invited to our wedding, Klytus too.

Merry Christmas, @tessa1972 ! Love you, and here's some food for thought for the Actors AU for you❤️

[amaryllis-sagitta]

So what you mean is a teleological approach to motive where a person's vice "ripens" in the right circumstances created outside them, and individuals with esoteric insight and the right persuasion abilities (such as the Executors) can still create circumstances to bring these vices out if they wish so? And once someone already "wills what they will", after facing this knowing and powerful adversary, they will do as expected because "it was already inside them"? Is that what you're trying to say? That The Executors' long game is to make an external locus of choice feel like it's internal because it strengthens existing predispositions?

Show me someone resisting these "enhanced" judgments and desires because they used another source of motivation and I'll believe you. For now, the implication that someone sees the end of the long game changes the veneer, but not the pessimism at the heart of this reveal. The enemy still remains a level above cause and effect when others are subjects to them.

[simpforsolas]

i actually think that bioware has lost the right to write solas. i'm taking him and he is now mine. sorry.

[shadowglens]

i got a job!! 🎉🤸

[bossuary]

[invinciblerodent]

Hm.

This looks like a thought I should scoop up and run far, far away with, don't you think?

[melonyfelonyfellonme]

Yeah, remember when we thought that guy in the tree was Felassan or young Solas :)))) Nae bother, I'll just get the facepaint oot, cheers x

[amaryllis-sagitta]

Tarot time because why not!

(Card decks: Spiral Tarot, The Wild Unknown)

Nine of Swords

Primarily, it represents mental anguish, stress and anxiety that overwhelm and adversely affect life. In this specific card, the stress is caused by external factors (unlike the Eight of Swords, where the source is presumed to be self-sabotage). In traditional Raider-Waite, the swords are aligned from left to right, suggesting unprocessed problems of the past casting shadows on the future. It can also mean, more palpably, insomnia or sleepless nights - which seems apt as an allusion to Titans having lost their Dreams and their spiritual peace.

(Also, Wild Unknown, you didn't have to have that jawbone on the card lol)

The Hierophant

Represents the aspect of power that is institutional and often legitimized in divinity, that manifests itself as traditional religion, dogma and moral authority (unlike The Emperor who seizes the mundane aspects of power). In both presented decks, the Hierophant holds a key that symbolizes the mandate of knowledge and moral authority. The Hierophant provides a structure and purpose that places standards and expectations on the individual. However, the card is also linked to influences that are resistant to change, stifling, defending status quo for its own sake. It's interesting that Solas is placed there after the entire ordeal, remaining effectively the last stand-in for the Evanuris. No matter how hard he denies the absolute nature of the divine position, he is there, left to bear the responsibility for the state of the world.

(I believe the inclusion of the raven/crow and thunder in The Wild Unknown variant alludes to Odin, though to be honest that bird looks more like a ruffled starling to me)

The Tower

The Tower is the staple card of distaster. But what is common about its interpretations, the disaster is inevitable in the long run because the crumbling construction was built on questionable or feeble foundations. More spiritual interpretations view the Tower as "productive destruction" that purifies what no longer can survive through fire and enforces tough lessons. Here, we're connected with the implied teleological insight of the Executors and their ability to subtly manipulate history towards desired outcomes. At the same time, we're reminded of Flemeth's remarks of a greater fate, as if she had the same kind of insight. All in all, the fatalistic aura of the setting intensifies: was Thedas doomed all along, and everyone's "left to find they're out of time, left to watch it all unwind"?

Happy Dragon age Day, I have a new DA Piece up today! Made for a new interview/piece with Jepler and Corinne about end game decisions, lore, the future, etc.

The writer/interviewer and I brainstormed three tarot cards to inspire each section of this piece as well as the past, present, and future like you would see in a tarot reading. The death of the titans is 9 of Swords and represents the past. Solas is the Hierophant and represents the present. And the Executors are The Tower and represents the future.

Overall im really pleased with how this turned out despite the fact that I had like 2 days to do this one again b/c I was going to work on it over thanksgiving and then... just did not lol. Tried my best to match the style of Solas' murals in DATV and had a great time with all the little details.

Also huge shoutout to the folks who made the Elven font, I had a great time using it!!