#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.

[onion-orlesien]

31h into DATV! Just (positive) rambling about the locations

I spent my entire day playing more of The Veilguard, I love it so much I swear 😭�� The ENVIRONMENTS alone amaze me to no end.

Walking around Tevinter, getting to see first-hand how it's not only a one-dimensional evil empire? I'm so here for that!

I was scared I wouldn't be too involved in the Shadow Dragons since it's a new faction, but oh boy. They stole my heart very early on and I'm so so excited about anything Shadow Dragons now. I'm also playing as one and it fits the story perfectly!

Their HQ is stunning too. Those colours, all the sharp angles everywhere, the props... We've only seen Tevinter through some forgotten ruins or props, but they rendered it super accurately here and it all really feels like a cohesive world to me, which is what I've always loved about DA.

Treviso is also amazing and it's the map I have advanced the most, because i LOVE hanging out there (and taking all the photos-). It's fancy, pretty, has many small streets and feels a bit like a labyrinth, and nice access to roofs... perfect for Crow-themed assassins! This is 1:1 how I imagined Antiva, even under Antaam occupation. I've never been super interested in assassin factions or characters, so I'm surprised to be head over heels over the Crows. Reading Tevinter Nights definitely helped getting me excited though. And my Rook is a rogue (yes, first time I'm playing a Rogue MC in a video game, I'm usually the warrior type) and they're kind of a Crow fan, which makes it even better!

Arlathann is simply beautiful and intriguing. The artifacts are still a bit overwhelming to me, but as I'm getting used to the game and new elements, I'm really liking discovering everything. All those shrines, the ancient buildings in ruin, but also the Elves turned into wood... I can only imagine what it was like before the Veil, filled with magic and ruled by the Evanuris.

I also can't help thinking of the Hinterlands there, especially since you're kind of stuck there at the beginning. But like, upgraded.

In general, I greatly appreciate the little parkour elements and more complex turns and paths, they make the maps less boring. You have to look around for access, knock some things over, use companions skills to progress... That's a big yes from me!

Seriously, this game definitely feels like Thedas and Dragon Age to me, and I'm scared because I'm sure it's gonna be just as evil as all the others and I'm not ready for that

[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.