#for new fans to play the other games before veilguard has turned out to be pretty fucking pointless.’

[spitedemon]

i really don’t think it’s “typical dragon age fandom nonsense” for people to be genuinely upset about the world state choices. combat, level design, art direction, gameplay gimmicks, those have all varied across each dragon age game. the one thing that’s remained constant are nods to our previous choices.

i wasn’t expecting my HoF to come riding in on a griffon, but i can’t find a monument dedicated to warden tabris somewhere around the anderfels? lucanis couldn’t have some lines about the time that one arainai boy was stirring up trouble in antiva city? you’re gonna tell me that making a mage the new divine wouldn’t have some impact on nevarra and antiva? on the anderfels, the supposed most devout militant andrastian nation in thedas? you’re saying nobody in the north is paying attention to who rules orlais or ferelden? come on.

[uchidachi]

I am getting a bit pissed because I want to make my silly little posts poking fun at the new installment of Dragon Age (as is the wont and right of every long-term fan) Like how Rook has to do a little dance for Myrna and Vorgoth before they can sell vendor trash because the chat hitboxes are too close together. But I feel like…

The hate Veilguard is getting is INSANE and I don’t trust a single one of you to be honest about the reasons behind it. Because a lot of the complaints I see don’t make sense from someone who played previous games

“The voice lines didn’t match the text” -> listen babe it’s been three games since Origins, at this point it’s a feature, not a bug, or at least just the cost of having a fully-voiced Bioware protagonist

“Oh there was so much second-hand embarassment” -> oh i agree i cringed so hard when the entire cast broke out into a religious sing-along at a dramatic mom— OH WAIT

“The writers said Southern Thedas was almost completely destroyed because they hate us, the players, so much” -> the entire setting’s concept is that Thedas has been very nearly destroyed four times before DAO… this game is about the SIXTH and final Blight. They’ll be fine.

“The writers turned Solas evil and hate Solavellans” -> Solavellans got an entire different & unique true-love-conquers-all ending scene to everyone else and also Solas killed his best and oldest friend at the end of Inquisition (and also killed his other best and oldest friend at the end of The Masked Empire) [insert “always has been” astronaut meme here]

Nope you know actually i’m gonna finish this post without the cutesy sarcasm.

I’ve had to unfollow three different fanartists who went from “I just don’t vibe with the game” to “I don’t think the Lords of Fortune were handled well” to “All the gender stuff was FORCED on us” in a MONTH since the game came out.

So yeah, I don’t trust anyone who is too angry about Veilguard. Even in the most critical light it is FINE as a game, and, just personally, I would feel very strange about being intensely critical about a piece of media whose loudest critics are explicitly targeting it for being “too woke”

Maybe I’m being unfair to those who are sincerely unhappy with the game, but I think it’s more unfair to trans & nonbinary fans to have to deal with supposed allies making almost-identical posts as the gamergate-for-transphobes crowd!

So I’m not going to do that!! I’m gonna make this post ranting at fandom instead!!! As is also the wont and right of every long-term fan!!!!

[zeico]

Post Veilguard Thoughts

I've been trying to figure out my thoughts and feelings on Veilguard over the past few days.

I know I did food metaphor for it before but this is a way to explain it as a longtime fan.

Like going to a restaurant that looks kinda jank in its decor, or its in like in a random plaza but the FOOD there is good shit so you can forgive the janky decor but also it gives it charm bc feels just a little more authentic that way. Thats my memory of the old dragon ages.

Veilguard is more like a chain restaurant. Example would be like Red Lobster, food is okay. I gorge myself on the biscuits bc im weak to those. But it still has the veneer of a chain realm that you can't escape.

Gonna try to break down my thoughts on each layer of this lasagna.

Gameplay

The gameplay is honestly good.

Its engaging. I like the different ways you can build a rook. I did a duelist rogue I never parried once but still blazed my way through. The fact you can do more of a bow heavy or trap heavy rogue is very cool to me. I do look forward to playing again as a mage to see how that is. I don't really play many AAA games so the overall destiny/mass effect fusion of combat wasn't like stale to me.

I liked the different ways you can really build into something with the different gear you get. I went FULL necrotic weapons and just stacked everything that gave a bonus to necrotic damage and I was mowing through enemies.

It was a pain for me trying to mess with the settings bc I had a lot of performance issues and my motion sickness got in the way. Like I would have enemies pop in when I've been running laps around the arena. I should tinker with it a bit more next time around I know but a lot of the time trying to turn things down for performance made it worse.

The WORST of it was the game having some enemies be basically invulnerable because a dialogue commenting on the enemies' presence didn't trigger BECAUSE THEY WERENT THERE YET.

Also trying to quit and reset the game when these issues occur had the risk of me coming back fucking bald and without my tattoos or makeup.....

I curse Fen'harel. I curse Solas. How dare you do this to me.

This is the best gameplay a Dragon Age has had tho.

Story

Main Story is serviceable. Because I AM a long time fan and have played the earlier games, I cannot separate myself from those memories to think of the perspective of a newcomer to the series. I know where the fangs should be. I see where edges have been sanded down and I will oft fixate on that. (In this way, I understand Solas)

The game doesn't really let you be truly evil or callous to your party. Sure I wouldn't pick the evil option because I want to be nice to my video game friends but to HAVE THE OPTION makes the choice to be nice to them feel like more of a choice.

Like in dragon age 2, like half of your party could just fuck off or you could fuck them over. You had the option to sell Fenris back into slavery. Isabela could just fuck off with the precious artifact because shes a fucking pirate, so seeing her COME BACK because of her friendship with my Hawke had extra meaning to me like my efforts to befriend her meant something.

You fight the evil Bad Guys.

Your Rook will p much always be The Hero.

Where my memories and history interfere with the story is how I remember that decisions and choices you made in past games were more of a mixed bag. You weren't as unambiguously Good.

When I tried to meet the game halfway and be like 'yea sure my Rook WILL be a good guy hero about it' it wasn't as grating. But I still had to like mentally buy in like that.

It needed a lot more time to actually write and put in those other options imho. In this way I call it an underbaked lasagna.

Dialogue itself felt a bit flat in a lot of the time too.

I feel the game was really trying to appeal to a new audience and doesn't want to offend them. And it is worse for it.

Characters

The characters I feel are also victim of underwriting. Or having to be pulled in a lot of directions and not wanting to offend again.

There were a lot of distracting biscuits in the characters tho. And I ate them all up.

I will protect the skeleton with my life.

I only feel the characters are weak and awkward at points again because of my old memories.

Like a character is working through figuring out their gender and the language they use is VERY MODERN. Same for if you make Rook trans or non-binary (i did a non-binary elf). I love that the option is there I just wish the language around it was more rooted in Thedas and not earth.

There's great moments and banters with the characters and they all endeared themselves to me.

Some of their personal quests don't entirely mesh well to me, makes me think there were many rewrites.

Theres a lot of ways I can think about to like really give the characters more spice and flesh themselves out but I didn't get that in game.

The more I think about certain questlines the more angry I get about them. I hate thats the feeling I walk away with.

World / Factions

Also the reason I'm mad about the world is because I know where we came from. It's been hyped that Tevinter is like an Evil Mage Empire that will kidnap elves into slavery.

Why could I freely walk around as an Elf and not hear a single utterance of 'Knife-Ear'

Minrathous/Dock Town an instance of I can only see what was sanded down. Sure the things I've heard before was a lot of propaganda from rival countries but... idk another defanging.

I feel Tevinter/ITS CAPITAL OF MINRATHOUS should have had a lot more development because we p much only get the poor area. At least give a proper High Town?

But all the environments were distinctive and factions did have their own flavor.

And the factions each had their own biscuits I ate up.

If Veilguard is someone's introduction to Dragon Age I really want to hear about their perspective on the world.

I wish you were able to actually play through the little backstory they give you (like in origins) so when you meet up with them again its actually a reunion and you KNOW the choice you make rather than just some lines about it.

Another instance of underbaking the game.

Conclusion

I had a fun time with Veilguard. If you don't want to think TOO hard and have a fun romp with Dragon Age characters its enjoyable.

A lot of my issues with the game is how sanded down itself from past games in order to not offend newcomers.

like 7/10 its okay its serviceable its very pretty and fun playing just really dont think too hard (or throw yourself into fanfiction)

[mythalsknickers]

Mythal's Thoughts about Veilguard: CC and Introduction

A Homecoming Ten Years in the Making

Words will never express the feeling I had booting up the game, compiling the shaders, and then seeing all your companions load in before the title sequence. I genuinely do think I squeaked a little and cried seeing the Lighthouse the first time. I happened to be on the phone with my spouse (Elgar'nan's Pantaloons) and he did ask if I was okay. Truth is I was very okay. The game did not exist in a vacuum for me, in terms of it being a dragon age game and the time it came out. The nostalgia hit but also the hit of coming back to a community I had taken a hiatus from. In a time of great strife for my home. Election night was a dark night for me and one where having Dragon Age The Veilguard took a mental load off my brain. For that I am already immensely thankful to this game. This community and this franchise have always been my home fandom, in a way other games could not compare. Even my beloved Cyberpunk 2077. A slight authorial note any screenshots below are coming from my second playthrough of Teigue, or that second playthrough of a different character that got deleted. I promise Teigue is not changing lineages if you see an elf. As our beloved witch of the wilds say.

The Spoilers of New must be preserved. No matter how exciting they are.

The Character Creation

This has to be the most impressive character customization to come out of Bioware in a very long time. From being able to sculpt your character's face using a trio of three faces from a set of I believe 20 heads, to tuning you body from similar presets. There are 88 different hairs, and while I would adore to play with Strand Hair, I have heard issues of it corrupting saves, and I have no desire to turn my laptop into a space heater.

With a character engine this in depth, there will be a learning curve and for myself there was some moments of having to go in post starting and adjust minor things like my character's chin. But you can post starting the game go adjust your features via a mirror located in the player base. You do not have to trek all the way to The Black Emporium and listen to Xenon be creepy while you fix your eyeshadow. Some things I truly adored in my heart of hearts. Being able to take a full face of tattoos and decide which parts of it show up, what color they are. The coloration of my character's scars, how much of his body is tattooed, layering face paint and body paint on top of that. I can safely say I spent close to six hours in character customization the first day, and after my first playthrough when I went to decide on my next character it took about two hours, but given I deleted that save, I was not exactly happy with him. I once again got hit with the nostalgia stick when it came time to make my inquisitor. I will be the first to say I was in camp, our rook will be our inquisitor before the game came out and huffing copious amounts of Copium (See photo proof)

However when the music swelled and I heard the inquisition theme, I cried and I cried hard. I did not think that making my inquisitor would make me cry but it did. I made Fen'aslan, because well she is my solavellan entry into the pit of hell. I have to say I believe a made a fairly accurate version of her, post ten years of Inquisition and dealing with her Husband being an absolute terror.

Our choices for Inquisition being boiled down to three did bother me. While I feel in northern thedas and places where the southern chantry does not have much of a grip on the nations, the choice of the divine would not matter, there were things that were done, that i would love more clarification on and where people went. I went into Veilguard expecting a softening of the lore bubble to bring new fans in but also to offer what I call a soft reset of the canon. I felt back in Inquisition that the franchise was moving towards something that would pivot the canon.

Overall I am in love with the character creator and the faction back stories, those feel like a happy medium between Origin's origin story quests and Inquisition's backgrounds.

On the Design of Demons

This is before my actual gushing over the story because this was a complaint I had as well from the intial promotion content. I was not thrilled with the demon designs. However going through and looking at them now, and feeling them in the world. I am actually quiet partial to them. Demons in previous installments of Dragon Age felt above the world but in this instance they feel more off the world. We start see signs of these more skeletal designs in Inquisition in Solas' personal quest, All New, Faded for Her. In the game the opening sequence we see the run of the mill Shades, Rage Demons and at least two Pride demons. I have lot more to say about Demons but that is going to be a later or possibly post my review masterpost going out topic. But I do feel like these fit the current installment of the game very well.

The Opening Sequence

I saw the first hour playthrough and honestly I thought it prepared me for the cold jump into Minrathous, and no I was not prepared. I knew we were going to Tevinter when Trespasser came out. But to actually be in Tevinter, and see Tevinter in a Post Inquisition world. It is all I imagined and more. Tevinter, specifically Minrathous is a beautiful mix of Elvhen and gothic that we have only seen in Halamshiral and Orlais. The cold open of Rook throwing a Venatori out the bar was more than amusing for me. But more so we got to see a side of Varric that we did not really get to see in Inquisition, but we did see in DA2. Varric, the Spymaster. While not quite as distanced as Leliana, Varric loves his people and when the Venatori in the bar are preparing to jump Rook. he steps in to save his second in command and then share a drink with them.

As we leave the bar we are introduced into a balance mechanic right away and our first taste of combat is not until we find Scout Harding, and recover our gear from her, which suggest Rook entered Minrathous legally or through a means that left us unarmed for the opening sequence. Which is something I will be exploring through fiction later, and it does parallel the cut content of DA2 Mage Hawke having to do a ritual to hide that they are mage before entering Kirkwall. As we progress down to Dumat Plaza we do have plenty of small coin purses and chests to loot, as well as seeing a Toad statue. It is only after we reach the plaza do we meet our next companion. Neve Gallus, and can I just say for the following act of Dorian as our next Tevinter companion. I love her, from her introduction outfit, to her manner of speaking. I am not sure when I will romance her but she is on the list. It is also amazing to see disabled representation with her, showing that no matter what hand our life has dealt us we can still accomplish a great many things. The intricacy on the prosthetic to fit with the design and aesthetic of her character is fantastic.

We progress the story through an ancient elvhen building under Our Lady of Victory, which really brings the words "The Tevinter Imperium is built on the ashes of the Elvhen Empire." to mind. We also see snippets of Solas' life on the run from Varric and the Inquisitor trying to bring his plan to fruition through a small space before you reach the Eluvian hall. In this space we find a desk, behind it are two elvhen artifacts, what looks like a table for crafting runes, and a singular cot with a lute of elvhen design on it. Solas being an artist is something very familiar to Solavellans like myself as he painted all of Skyhold's murals but the addition of music to his repertoire is very poignant give he described what the world was before the veil as a great song. with a singular cot, an elven lute, a desk and an artifact in the corner. Stepping through the door we are greated with the Eluvian Hall, and perhaps the largest eluvian aside from Solas' personal one.

Arlathan Forest, the stuff of myths, legends and amazing headcanon. Until this game we had never seen Arlathan, all we had was a few mentions, and some lore codexs to go off of, one of my personal theories regarding Arlathan was it was the Black City, it was the seat of the Maker and looking at the many screenshots I have, it kinda looks the part. Arlathan is a stunning location but more so for the importance it plays. This was the place where Solas started his rebellion and burned his Vallaslin from Mythal off. This was where it all began a millennia ago and where it begins again. Personally a motif I love seeing that the design team kept, was the resting Fen'harel statues either pointing the way to your objective or signifying a point of rest. It flips the in lore understanding of Solas and Fen'harel at this point on it's head.

It is only after we battle a Pride Demon, which in of itself is narratively fitting given the meaning of Solas' name is pride. Do we get our first look at the Dreadwolf. His outfit was such a change from Trespasser, this was not the Fen'harel trying to lure the Inquisitor to him and remove his magic from them. This was Solas. His armor in Trespasser and the way he carried himself was very much the young hotblooded, cocky general he told Lavellan about. Where as this armor. I'd argue in Trespasser he very much was putting on a mask and to force distance, where as in Veilguard he is genuinely surprised Varric caught up to him. Begging the question if he knew Varric, Harding and Rook were looking for him, why was he surprised? Was it the lack of the Inquisitor not being there? Personally my thoughts are he was shocked that he had been cornered by the very friends he had tried to push away ten years ago. was Solas, bound in the weight of his duty to the people, and trying to run from those who would convince him to stop. Not even a few frames later he is trying to push Varric away, to stop him from stopping him. Solas could have very well frozen Varric the moment he drew Bianca, instead he resigns himself to a fate and shatters Bianca, and even Varric seems surprised by this. Even still Solas pleads with Varric, tries to reason even though he knows for Varric and Harding there is no reason for them to agree to him taking down the veil. Even when Rook knocks the pillars and Varric makes a move and Solas retaliates, it isn't gladness, or relief that cross his face. it is disgust, maybe even loathing. Almost as if he hates that it has come to this.

Our final sequence of what I consider the opening is while our titular character Rook is unconscious. In what appears to be a fade dream. We learn through Solas he formed a small connection to us through blood we spilled at the ritual but he is very much stuck in the prison he used to imprison the ancient gods. It is very clear from the first inital moments, this is not a section of the fade where even a mage Rook can command it. No this portion of the fade seems to react solely to Solas' emotional state. When he begins to explain his plan there is a noticeable moment where he seems upset about the harm caused to Varric, and another moment where he seems upset before he explains that Varric is good at lying too. My initial thoughts regarding the fade prison have not changed since I started this second playthrough, I genuinely believe the Fade Prison is the black city. the shaping is similar to how the black city looks in the fade in previous games, and of course the lack of color, brought in by the blight. "Elgar'nan and Ghil'nain are your responsibility now." A fitting way to force Rook awake much like how he forced a romanced Inquisitor awake.