#i also hate that rook also makes choices for all the companions it's just such a strange way to approach the story narrative

[citrusai]

i think the problem w the solavellan interactions or specifically lavellan speaking w rook in veilguard is that we can only influence our inq through rooks dialogue options. had there been a way to play as the inquisitor even in a cutscene or a small chunk of the game and choose their stance and feelings it wouldn't have felt so bleh and sort of a "she would not say that" moment (to me at least bc gan'freya would def show up to whoop the evanuris LMAOOOO)

also it's weird because when we imported hawke into the keep you could choose her personality, veilguard doesn't give that option for inq which i found so strange? sorry my babygirl doesn't sit & mope around she likes stealing and also bullying her husband for his delusions of grandeur

[ohsweetflips]

my neutral dragon age trait is that 50% of the time i'm like "the more i critique the games, the more i love them. i can appreciate each game for what they are but my criticism and frustration over what they could be are a sign of love" and the other 50% is like "this is the writing of the dragon age series. sure. why not. this may as well happen."

[rivilu]

ok you know. the Ellu in dav crossover au is very fun but i am a little bit enchanted by the concept of him AND Rynn at once. Best of both worlds in a sense.

[fairyspheres]

i saw that dragon age veilguard hasn't sold well (in the official statement, they specifically said that 1.5 million copies had 'reached players' so it must have sold even worse than that which. yikes) and while i'm quite gutted about that, ea and bioware also only have themselves to blame for it.

they let ten entire years pass between inquisition - a game that, for the most part, dragon age fans generally really like, at least for the lore - and veilguard. in those years, we saw them make andromeda, anthem, and heard reports of them trying to make the-then new dragon age game live service. thankfully we didn't get a live service dragon age game in the end, but a lot of the original writers were dropped, and i think that shows with the quality of the writing in veilguard.

i've never played dragon age for the gameplay, in any of the games. i despise the gameplay in origins - it's clunky and horrible and the deep roads makes me want to let the darkspawn win. but i love the story, which is why i endure the deep roads and the fade. the same in da2, which is probably my favourite of the entire series, even with the repeating dungeons (actually i love the repeating dungeons. i like knowing where things are), and the same in inquisition with the companions who feel like real people (cassandra pentaghast my beloved).

veilguard... the cuts show in the writing quality. the best character was emmrich (and assan and manfred) and from what i've heard he also had the best romance. which is another thing that suffered greatly - the romances (other than emmrich's). in a game series known for its romances, to the point where bioware was marketing the game as the most romantic as the series, how have they managed to mess it up that badly? cullen and solas' romances were late game additions in inquisition, and they're some of the best in the entire series, so it can't be an issue of time constraints.

rook's dialogue choices were essentially just different flavours of pleasant. do you want to be cheerful, lesser purple-hawke, or stoic? there's no real choice to be had throughout most of the game. even the choice between minrathous and treviso has little impact beyond what merchants might be available and a couple of later game choices. compared to earlier games, where you could let an entire village be overrun by corpses, or let fenris be taken back by danarius, the lack of choice is rather stark in comparison. the only real choices come at the very end of the game.

AND speaking of choices - the entire series has been about how all our previous choices have always mattered, about how we can always carry them over and use them to influence the world. so it was very much a slap in the face when not only could we not use the dragon age keep or import any choice beyond who we romanced in inquisition and what we wanted to do with solas, but the fact that by the end of veilguard, everything we did from origins to inquisition was all for nothing. bioware's choice to do that to varric was a kick in the teeth to long-term fans. oh, we got a little reference to the hero of ferelden in weisshaupt, how nice. pity they didn't tell us whether they're still alive or not. a shame we don't know hawke's fate.

so no, i'm not surprised that the game did so poorly in sales. i'm disappointed, but i'm not surprised because as i said, it's their own fault. i said back in november that they might not have another chance to make things right, and i hate that i might've been right about that.

this turned into an unintentional rant about all my grievances with the game.

[loredrinker]

Some community council comments from their time on Veilguard are so interesting and make me thankful we got the game that we did. It could have been so much worse.

Sounds like we have Corinne to thank for a lot of things for the better in this game. And thank the universe we did not get the version of Rook described in the discussion. Bless Corinne.

From the Reddit discussion:

"Act 1 is a lot different - D'meta's didn't exist"

"Varric fell rather than being stabbed."

"Morrigan and Dorian didn't show up (I believe they were in the game, but their place in act 1 was originally taken by Charter, who is just gone now. Also that's why her actress has been in the IMDB pages for DA4 all these years- she used to have a bigger role)."

"Rook would just not stop making jokes and I wanted to eat glass. It was so bizarre- I loved all the companions and they were mostly the same, but Rook was just awful. Most of our time was spend workshopping why we hated Rook and how that could be changed."

"I remember another crit of act 1 was that the gods were loose and no one gave a shit. The Jumpers were more pissed about all the weird magic from the ritual from memory, and that's why D'meta's and the Dragon choice was added."

"To quote probably my favorite note out of the alpha sessions, OGRook was 'Starlord without the charm'... They were childish and constantly making jokes and wise cracks. I know there are complaints now that the wheel doesn't change rook's lines that much, but let me tell you it was worse. Would you like blue joke? how about red joke? Perhaps some purple joke? Moments that I had waited years for in Thedas suddenly had clippy asking me if I wanted to have a good time rather than care about any emotion other than mild laughter. It was maddening. OGRook vs now is completely different- there was a lot of hard work behind the scenes to change and rerecord lines, and I would wager where a lot of money went."

[evillesbianvillain]

The thing with Veilguard, is that a lot of people who didn't like the videogame put all the blame on EA becuase the development was rushed and messy and some idiot had the idea to make it a multiplayer MOBA game or whatever the fuck it was going on and that can excuse some of the stuff going on in Veilguard:

everybody calling you Rook, a nickname a dwarf youve known for a month gave you, instead of your surname, especially ridicolous if you are a Grey Warden, you know, a member of a paramilitary order, and your boss calls you that. How certain factions, especially the Lords of Fortune but also the Mourn Watchers and Veil Jumpers are underdeveloped (but according to John Epler they decided to make less sidequests to focus better on a few of them and they ended up just being fetch quests or "kill these guys" for the most). Why you can't directly talk to your companions and ask them questions but have to stalk them through the lighthouse and hope they reveal something of themselves to your other companions (again, John Epler said this was a purpose choice they made and its a stupid one but I want to break a spear and say that it was probably because they didn't have the time to code or write every direct dialogue with Rook but I don't really know how these things work). Not being able to visit Minrathous.

But so much of it is an issue that started in the writing and developer room.

You cannot roleplay in the role playing game. Scratch the "there are not serious consequences of your action" part, we can file that under rushed development if we want to be nice. But you can only play as a nice, well meaning, always slightly sarcastic heroic Rook and that was a deliberate choice. You're basically only playing as purple Hawke. I don't want to play as purple Hawke. For an instance, I chose - obviously - the Grey Warden backstory (which I hated, all the backstories are the same, heroic Rook winning against a foe but disobeying orders and being punished by the mean higher ups) and when you do the mirror scene I chose the dialogue option that said "I have been impulsive when I saved that village and could've made things worse", but then when I'm talking to the first Warden and he reprimends me I can ONLY defend my actions and not agree with him or apologize for them. I wanted to play as a stern warden, respectful of the order and its authority, but the game doesn't let me do that.

The whitewashing of the narrative. Every faction (except the Grey Wardens) is super duper nice, they are all freedom fighters with XXI century politics. All the leaders of every faction believe you at face values about Super Evil Elven Gods and are willing to give you their help to slay them (except the Grey Wardens). All the factions are stripped of any nuance or of the infamous Bioware's grey morality (except the Grey Wardens, as the game, at any step, wants to reming you how stupidly secretive, kinda cultist-y and fucked up they are and how that is not a Good Thing). Especially annoying with the Crows, the local assassin's group of Antiva that is renowned for buying desinfranchised kids and torture them to make them the perfect assassins, and the Lords of Fortune, who are now the anti Indiana Jones of Thedas (but still tomb jackasses).

The whitewashing, or purposeful ignoring, of social conflict in Thedas. This game is set up partly in Tevinter and specifically in a district of Minrathous, but we not once encounter the slavery that the Imperium is built on, or racism against elves and qunari. And don't tell me "there are no slaves because Dock Town is a poor district of Minrathous", that is not how empires built on slave labour work, especially considering that Tevinter has always been based on the Roman Empire. Who do you think loads and unloads the cargo ships that dock there? You think slaves are only kept in the house and occasionally used for blood magic rituals? Not to mention that the faction for Dock Town is the Shadow Dragons, whos main work is freeing slaves, but not once we do a quest that revolves around that. And it's funny that they abandoned the entire issue with the mages and the Chantry "because we are in North Thedas" when the Chantry is a egemonical religion in Thedas. Zevran tells us that templars in Antiva guard mages like "jealous husbands", the Circle of Mages of Rivain was destroyed because they accused women there or summoning demons and the Anderfells are known for having the most pious followers of the Chantry in Thedas. I understand not making the mage issue a focus like it has been for the past three games, but to just dropt it like that is ridicolous. They didn't even do anything with the Tevinter Chantry and the Black Divine, something, I think, everybody was curious about. Ah but don't worry! We have the main dalish companion apologize 3000 times because the elves are at fault for everything going on in the world.

The characters are all shallow. There are very little important NPCs in this game and you can't directly talk to any of them if not during specific cutscenes during the story. John Epler (it's always him or Weekes lmao) said they wanted to avoid meaningless cameos but then they threw in the game characters from other games like Morrigan, Dorian, Isabela, Maevaris who was actually not from a game, but a comic, so I would've liked to know more about her, and doesn't let you interact in any way with them. Varric, for the love of god, there is no way for someone who is playing Dragon Age for the first time to give a shit about this guy. Who are these people. What do they want. Who are the leaders of these factions. The companions as well. You cannot talk to them but have to hope they will say something about themselves during random party banters in the Lighthouse and then they will have crafted cutscenes for the stupidest shit like Lucanis making Harding drink coffee. You know how some people dislike Varric, Garrus and Liara because the games want you to like them? This is what it feels with all the companions, and the forced found family is so on the nose it becomes unbearing. The romances are underwhelming, or so I am told by everyone. Davrin, who is in my opinion the best character in this game, has most of his character and quest revolving around a fucking rat with wings and all the stuff about his relationship with the dalish or wardens comes up in random party banters, again, instead of him telling me directly about it. The only relationship between companions that I found slightly compelling is between Davrin and Lucanis because they are the ONLY characters with an actual conflict going on, every other conflict is resolved immediately either by Rook stepping up and going "stop fightiiiiing why are you fightiiiiiing" or by the constrast being actually a misunderstanding, hey isn't it nice how every one of our companions are super duper nice guys who can do no wrong (like Bellara and Taash). Do you miss Mordin Solus? I know I do.

Connected to the characters issue, why the hell is the approval/disapproval system even a thing? It's impossible to lose approval from characters in this game, while they'll approve literally you standing in their vicinity. I've never worked SO HARD to try and lose approval with my companions, and it's impossible. Just, throw it away at this point, you have already implemented another system (the bond one) and are trying to work on a mass effect model, so atp just do that.

The villains oh my fucking god. This ties with the whitewashing of every good faction I have to ally with, as all the villains are super evil "bullies" with nothing else going on behind them. Maybe the only villain with something different going on is Isseiya, but all the others are faceless, corrupted evil hordes to be mowed down with Super Duper Evil leaders that have nothing going on if not a desire for Power and Conquest? Do you remember when Gereon Alexius was a desperate father who would've done everything to save his son from the Blight? Do you remember when Calpernia was an ex slave with a dream of revitalizing the Imperium by uplifting the slaves as citizens? Do you remember Meredith and the Arishok? Do you remember Loghain?? And like every side or personal quest villain/antagonist, the Evanuris are ONLY driven by power and power and power and they are so evil because they want power more power still power.

The missing/ignored plot threads. They hinted at us for years about the upcoming Tevinter/Qunari war and that went nowhere. What about the mentioned crisis/internal war/split between the Grey Wardens? Nothing. Where are Fen'hare's agents? Apparently they left Solas' side because he was a meanie and we know that because of a reddit AMA. The awakened darkspawns? Darkspawns now are officially a mindless horde and [insert GRRM piece on orc genocide] so don't worry about it.

They want a new slate in case they ever get to work on another Dragon Age in the future, and that's so obvious from certain narrative choice they made in the game, all happening far far away from us and that we know throw some fucking letters the Inquisitor sends to us and the most glaring one is the complete destruction of Southern Thedas, especially Ferelden.

The combat is... polarizing for me. On one hand, it is a mildly enjoyable action combat, and when you get over the heartbreak of never being able to build a mage like in Origins and having some tactic going on, it is fine, it is flashy enough to be enjoyable at least. But the enemy variety is terrible, the bosses are reused to hell and back and on top of that they are for the most normal enemies that are given a boss health bar (if i think about it, im pretty sure there is only one unique boss ive met so far, the archdemon, and it's such a pathetic boss fight)

The art direction. While I love, and I mean LOVE, the character design for your companions and whenever I look at them I get mad because such good design... wasted for these characters and this game. I do not like the art direction. I hate how everything has been scifi-ed, the eluvians now have rgb lights and they look like twitch streamers PCs or prothean artifacts, Bellara's magical gloves are fucking nanomachines and she literally works her magic like a mechanic. Not to mention the architecture and the neon signs in Dock Town. Most of the armors are ugly as hell and I want to talk with whoever designed the Lords of Fortune armors.

This scifi-cation carries out in the soundtrack as well, with a subpar score from Hans Zimmer.

I understand that it's not possible to work around every single choice made in the past three games, but some stuff is too important to just, leave it alone. Northern Thedas is still in Thedas and it's politically connected to it. Who the Divine is should be important, if my warden has died should matter, if Morrigan had a child should matter. They don't even make her mention the hero of ferelden EVER, whenever people talk about her they say she was a witch of the wilds and then worked with the Inquisition. ISN'T THERE A BIG GAP IN YOUR RESUME, MORRIGAN? Shouldn't a Grey Warden Blackwall be at Weisshaupt/Hossberg? But then, even the choices they have you make at the start regarding your Inquisitor are red herrings, the only thing the game cares about is wether your Lavellan romances Solas or not.

This game thinks we're stupid. I am constantly explained, over and over again what is going on. I am playing this game. I just saw the scene that has been recapped by Varric and then recapped by a text and then recapped by the characters chilling around a table commenting the scene. Not to mention all the time Rook and the companions say "We need to be in our best mind place to win this fight, we need to focus on ourselves, we need to think about ourselves first and then we can focus on the Evil Elven Gods" which is a little less on the nose way to say "do our personal quests". Insanely PG13 game.

Therapy speak.

And I think I'm done, at least for now. I have a lot of other issues but most of them are nitpicky and it's just me being annoying.

[butchvamp]

i already said it but it does really frustrate me how little agency Taash has and the more i think about it the more insidious it gets. again their entire story revolves around Rook making choices for them, and they're also consistently talked down to by other characters, even if those characters are depicted as being friendly or nice. Isabela treats them like a child despite Taash being a very accomplished dragon hunter with the lords (which we see, repeatedly, when fighting the blighted dragons! Taash is not a child), and of course there's their mother (at least this is intentional) and both her and Isabela go behind Taash's back to throw them in with Rook, without asking for their input. Isabela just assumes without even trying to discuss it with Taash separate from their mother, despite seemingly being aware of the two's strained relationship... and from there Isabela continues to make unnecessary comments to Taash whenever you visit the hall of valor with them.

even Flynn, the nonbinary grey warden you meet in the wetlands, condescends to them about the Qun when discussing their gender, and Taash isn't allowed to disagree with them (apparently they give Flynn a Look but ultimately don't press the issue) and Flynn is depicted as being helpful in this discussion. Rook lectures them about gender and their own culture; their entire narrative revolves around Other People telling them what to do and how to feel-- it's obviously meant to be Bad when Taash's mother does it, because she (the Qun) is oppressive, but otherwise the game seems to be fine when it's Rook or literally anyone else doing it, because we're the enlightened Good Guys, and Taash is just helpless and confused and so oppressed. of course, i don't think it's bad for Rook to discuss these things with Taash or give them gentle suggestions, and i don't even hate the potential gender discussion you can have with a trans Rook; and for the record, their mother does treat them poorly. but we can't ignore the way Taash's repeated infantilization culminates in the player being the one to choose their culture for them in the end, because..?

well, the game clearly doesn't think Taash is capable of doing it themselves. at one point Taash links the ropes they wear for the Qun to the ones the antaam used to tie down a dragon and "blight" them. even if i'm feeling gracious and say that Weekes really meant that womanhood & their mother's expectations are restricting, they actively chose to use the ropes of the Qun to make this comparison, and so are also implying here that their mother teaching them the Qun has tied them down and "blighted" them-- that the Qun has "infected" their thinking and is as bad as the blight (this is also implied in the previous discussion with Flynn). this is.... really racist. it takes Rook and their, again, "enlightened" (white) ideas about gender to get through to Taash, nevermind that the Qun has its own ideas around gender that just get shouted down or completely ignored. the racism here results in the narrative contradicting itself, considering one of the first things Taash says is "you don't get to tell me who i am" but... Rook does, in the end, because intentional or not the game is clearly convinced that a person like Taash needs someone from outside of their and their mother's culture (aka free of "blight") to come tell them what's best for them.... 🤔 hm! and while it's true you can choose for them to align with the qunari in the end, that doesn't mitigate all of the heinous and racist writing that leads up to that choice (and that the choice itself is racist. and you have to make it twice!)

of course we can say that Rook makes choices for all of the companions, this is true, but it's obvious that none of the other companions' choices are in the same ballpark, we aren't directly deciding something about their identity, and none of them lack agency to the same extent as Taash. we can even argue that they need Rook to explain gender to them, no one else ever has-- well, sure. the thing with Taash is that some parts of their story, when removed from context, are perfectly fine. i'm not criticizing the way Taash talks or acts or "does gender," all of which are things some people may connect to for various reasons (all of our experiences are different) but unfortunately we cannot discuss any of this without addressing the racism that is so thoroughly baked into every aspect of their character.

i criticized Taash for being "childlike" previously and that really wasn't the right phrasing-- i don't think that Taash themselves is childlike, it has nothing to do with them-- it's the way the narrative treats them, the way other characters talk down to them, how it takes away their autonomy & forces us to go along with it, and ultimately educate them and "save" them, and i think it's worth interrogating why Taash, of all the companions, is specifically depicted this way (it's racism).

[starlight-drive-in]

I'm in my feelings about THE Emmrich decision and the fact that over half of players chose it?! Disorganized sappy rambling below.

I had seen a spoiler after starting the game the Emmrich could become a lich before I had the quest in game (and before I had really gotten a feel for his character) so I wasn't surprised when he told me about the possibility and I wasn't necessarily opposed to it at first. It sounded - at surface level - pretty cool and like a solution to his fear of dying.

I was considering romancing him at this point and thought a romance with a lich sounded interesting enough, my Rook was a Mourn Watcher, so it made sense to me that this wouldn't bother her all that much. (At this point I didn't know it was a choice between that and Manfred)

But the more I thought about and the general trend of immortality corrupting a person, and thought how tragic it would be for Emmrich lose his joy for life, his childlike wonder, his kindness, or even how immortally would impact his capacity for love the more i strayed away from "letting" him do it.

Now include the fact that Manfred shows all that new potential right before he gets ripped away? How excited Emmrich was to hear Manfred talk? How he kneels down to Manfred's height to encourage new words from him right there in Hezenkoss's basement. It really clicked for me then that Manfred isn't just a friend or a assistant to Emmrich, no. That is his son.

As soon as Manfred is crushed, he immediately takes him to the lich lords, I think he knows they aren't going to let him have his cake and eat it too but he takes him straight there regardless. He doesn't teeter on the decision the way he's been teetering on the decision of Lichdom.

It's only when he considers "should" that he falters. He says something to the effect of, "What kind of Watcher would I be if I can't accept death?" In that moment it felt to me that he wasn't choosing between Manfred and Lichdom he was choosing between what he wanted and what he thinks he should do, who he thinks he should be and his duty to the Watchers. I wanted so badly to be able to say something like "Forget about the Watchers, what do YOU want?"

Post decision, Emmrich doesn't seem to have regrets about not becoming a lich? Sure he wonders what could have been but we don't hear about companions overhearing him mourning his lose of immortality, and Manfred seems to give him a new lease on life immediately. In the scene after we revive Manfred, Emmrich's literally so proud and happy? Plus he pretty much says "no regrets". I can understand that maybe people think Lich Emmrich is more inline with what he "should be" and that's the way to go, or maybe people just think lich's are cooler and skeletal sons... who knows. The stats just really surprised me given that you make that decision after the heartwarming scene of Manfred's first words.

After hearing some of the post-lich banters (that ripped my heart out), I want to know how many people re-loaded that decision, especially if they romanced him. But I also understand that TragedyTM has its own appeal.

I watched the romanced version of the lich scene and the scene itself has it's appeal (and a waaaaay earlier love confession than human Human Emmrich but it makes sense) but as for the rest of his existence, I prefer the happy family ending. What can I say?

I have waaaay more thoughts on this and the angst potential of the lich path but that's another post entirely.

If you read all this, you are amazing and I hope you have a wonderful day, or your day gets better if its going poorly.

P.S. if you chose Lichdom, absolutely no hate, you do you. I'm just a sap.

[utilitycaster]

The thing that I think gets me about Neve the most, and this is past the point where I personally am in the game, is that you can still romance her after you've chosen to prioritize Treviso (which you can't do for Lucanis if you do the reverse). The thing is, it makes sense. Neve judges you negatively for trusting her. There's a dialogue in the Shadow Dragons hideout where Tarquin (Shadow Dragons faction agent) gripes about The Viper (Shadow Dragons faction agent and leader) running background checks on him, before admitting he'd probably do the same. And the thing is, if you tell Tarquin that this seems reasonable he accepts it, but he seems irritated. Neve doesn't.

You meet Neve striking a pose, having frozen her assailants, needing none of your help. Neve does not, on the whole, ever seem to want your help until she begs you to save Minrathous. She approves of you taking her to interrupt the ritual, and seems to be entirely unbothered by the fact that it leaves her badly bruised - indeed, you have to actively choose to leave her behind later when you go looking for Bellara.

Neve loves Minrathous and Dock Town, which means she also hates them. She takes you there, if you do the companion quest, which you should. She invites you after Bellara fangirls out over some news pieces about her (Neve drily remarks they were hit pieces), to go pick up some leads and some serials Bellara wants. For all she's sarcastic, gruff, and even a little snide with Bellara (and with my playing of Rook, who is fairly direct and positive with the Veilguard companions) and doesn't believe a Tevinter serial would ever truly end happily if it were remotely realistic, she still wants to get those serials for her teammates. She's not here to make friends, though she's slowly doing so, but she also believes in working with your allies even when they're sunny and scatterbrained or bracingly positive and you're an exhausted, cynical detective.

Exhausted is I think the most salient point. Neve is fucking tired. She tells you she's lived in Dock Town her whole life, and she became a detective, taking on cases for people who weren't helped by the Templars (who, you learn in one of the core missions prior to your choice to save only one of Minrathous and Treviso, are corrupt all the way up to the top). After solving a missing person case successfully, with an implication that she freed a slave in the process, the Shadow Dragons recruited her, but she's been doing the same work she always done. And the Shadow Dragons, meanwhile, in addition to attempting, with limited success, to infiltrate the Magistrate and fight for abolitionism, also do a lot of work like Neve's: helping people on the street. Their basement is full of unhoused and hungry people with nowhere else to go.

Neve is tired because, I think, she doesn't really believe Minrathous will get much better in her lifetime. She tells you in her companion quest, as you eat street food on the docks, looking out into the ocean, that she treasures the small wins because that's what she gets. Whereas the Crows remember a free Treviso and fight for that, Neve, in particular, feels like she's just trying to keep things from getting worse, and maybe help a few people. She's cynical because dreaming big probably won't pan out and she knows it so she's not going to waste her time.

Her work is her life. Her gift is literally just more evidence. Harding, Lucanis, and Bellara all reminisce about friends and family, but Neve still hasn't yet. You get the sense that Rana, one of the few clean Templars with whom she works, is probably the person she'd put down as an emergency contact. She doesn't even really get along with Tarquin, though, to be fair, doesn't seem like anyone does. Her world is a network of people who are useful.

I'm going somewhere with this, and that's, unsurprisingly, to Critical Role Campaign 3, because after all that here's my thesis: Neve is what people want some of Bells Hells, but especially Ashton, to be.

I've seen defense of Ashton's abrasiveness because many leftists are abrasive people, and the thing is, that's not untrue, but they're abrasive because they're like Neve: they're doing endless difficult work with very little reward or thanks, and at most they get small wins.

What has Ashton done for their communities? The Nobodies and Krook House aren't feeding the hungry or fighting corruption; the former is a group of thieves with no particular cause and the latter a punk co-op house. What was Ashton doing for the people of Jrusar or Bassuras? I struggle to find anything tangible. There's a lot of talk and no action - punk aesthetics and a lot of talk about standing for the weak, but when do they actually do that? It's all very surface level, and so the defenses of Ashton must focus entirely on what and who they are (nb, disabled, punk, had a terrible childhood) and what they say but never, ever, what they do. It's posturing.

Neve? It's entirely what she does. She is, for what it's worth, disabled and queer (and played by a woman of color, though whether she's coded as such in-game probably requires an academic background in both the history of Thedas and the history of the real-world Black Sea region) but we don't know a damn thing about her childhood yet. We don't know if she's been hurt or heartbroken or abandoned until we, as Rook, have to decide whether to do that to her. And when we do? She takes her time (she's not back yet in my game) but in the end, she blames the actual root causes of the elven gods sending the dragon and blight, and the Venatori working with them and, as far as I know, gets back to work. As she always has.

[el-bellanaris]

The lack of treatment of Solas as a human being in Veilguard lowkey drives me wild. I didn't really think about it until after finishing the game but the Veilguard really just take over his house?? Rook is sleeping in his meditation room, the room he uses to spend time in the fade and where if you made certain choices is his place of connection to the Inquisitor. He does have a bed upstairs in his office but I personally see that room as his bedroom due to how accessible it is.

Regardless of the exact details, one of the first things we do is move our stuff in as Rook into his room. We're supposed to feel a sense of belonging to the Lighthouse as shown through how the companions will make their rooms into their own. Adding new decorations, turning an empty shell into a home. But how audacious of Rook, of us, to believe our cause so good and important that we can take some man's house because he is "bad."

And I understand the themes at play, Solas originally stole the Lighthouse from Elgar'nan and used it as his base for the rebels who fought against the Evanuris. So now it's time for a new generation to take on this mantle but there's a huge difference from taking a fort from a king who has a palace somewhere else and likely has multiple temples and places to live in then taking away the literal home of a man who has nowhere else.

Solas is a god in the thematic sense yes, he is powerful and revered by many out of fear but he is still a person. Becoming the self-declared heroes of the world does not grant one the freedom to literally rob a person of their house.

And now at the end of the game he's basically no longer welcome in his own home. Everyone in the Veilguard basically hates him and then squat in his house making it their home when they all have homes and just expect him to take it cos hes a "bad guy." I remember thinking how sweet it was that Neve started to think of the light house as her home, how she and other people would start to invite others over to have discussions showing how this is now where others know to reach them.

But the fact that none of them feel any remorse about it is crazy, especially coming from Neve, Bellara and a Dalish Rook. You have Neve who works with the Shadow Dragons, an organisation that is founded upon the beliefs of freeing slaves and wanting to work underground to help those who are being oppressed. And she takes the home of a man who has no where else to go? A man who has lost his entire world? The Dalish know about how the world has mistreated them and how much they've lost so why do they not feel any remorse for literally stealing someone's home.

I was also thinking about sad it is that my Inquisitor or generally any Inquisitor was never able to visit the Lighthouse in game but now all I can think about is how sad of an experience that would be for her. For my Inquisitor who loved Solas who has chased him down for years to stop him and is finally able to see into his heart, his mind more intimately through seeing where he lives and it's taken over by a group of people who hate him with such a passion that they barely see him as a person anymore. They all want to put him on trial for his crimes whilst sitting on their high horses inside of his house.

Back to my Inquisitor, she's been to Halamshiral, she knows the haunting feeling of walking through the halls of a place taken over by those who did not build it. She's walked the Emerald Groves and the Exalted Plains, she has seen the graves of her people overrun by humans who just desire power and war and want to burn the Elves from their history. To make the world think of them as savages to justify violence and destruction.

Now thinking about her walking through the halls of the Lighthouse that is so intrinsically Solas's and seeing it become the homes of other people would seem so gut wrenching. To hear them talk about his most wretched memories and dissect his thoughts just so they can figure out how everything is the way it is whilst also just taking everything from him. They're stripping him of his humanity for their own personal gain and it would seem so ignorant, so cruel. They take his table and remove his seat and then expect him to be live with it because they can blame the world's suffering on him.

We play as Rook, we are the hero of this story. The one who chose to step up and take down the last gods that remain in this world. But can we truly be good as Rook if we are just allowed to treat this guy like a stepping stone. To treat his entire life, the only things he can say he owns after a couple thousand years of his world decaying, as a means to an end with no remorse. How are we different from Solas who betrays Rook over and over when we just sleep in his bed, when we just steal from others to get to the "good" ending. Taking his Lighthouse was just an inconsiderate move not too dissimilar to how Solas will only consider his actions as a means to an end. But we're the good guys so it doesn't really matter right??

[senseandaccountability]

What's your verdict of Dragon Age the Veilguard now two months down the road? How do you think fandom has reacted to it, compared to the other new titles that you can remember (I know you're a long-time fan)?

(Two months + a fair amount of weeks at this point, sorry for the delay, anon.) This is going to be salty, I’m afraid and a bit like beating on a dead horse but you did ask, thank you for that and sorry about being whiny.

My first impression was that it’s a 6/10 game. I think now upon replaying it two times, the score is even lower. It’s a very mid game that’s also clearly a salvaged product from a long and erratic production cycle. It has some good lore, some good writing, but it’s hidden almost entirely in optional side quests, subtext and the tiny margins of the text. 

Overall its way too much of a high stakes/low tension kind of game for me. It’s fun and it never truly grabs me except for the bits that are about previous characters. I don’t care about Rook. I like them well enough for a protag, I can fill them with headcanon to make them real but I would easily sacrifice them at the end without a second thought. There’s no pull, no tension, nothing to hold on to. I've tried to write fic about Rook but I just don't know anything about this person apart from the fact that they're very young and likes to say the word team a lot. Maybe Rook works in HR.

For all its high stakes, the game also repeatedly fails to show me these stakes. It keeps telling me how important it is, how busy we are and during the Siege of Weisshaupt and Blood of Arlathan, I really do feel it, momentarily. Those quests have weight to them, and they are tied in with the overall narrative of the series. We know the wardens, we know the Dalish. They matter. 

“Sometimes it takes the wrong sort to put it right,” the game says and doesn’t even dare to show me a single shred of moral ambiguity in Rook. Call me annoying but I don’t necessarily want to feel like a hero. I don’t need to feel morally righteous about my player character. I want the narrative to be complex and challenge me and hold compassion for the world it’s telling me about, dare me to change my mind about its characters and their various plights. What if the hero is wrong? What if the world is too complex to be reduced to simple choices? What if the trusted mentor lies and the liar tells the truth? What then? Somewhere in the far distance DAV wants to offer some complexity but hey we have EVIL ANCIENT GODS TO FIGHT YO! I actually hate the tone. I said early on that it’s one of my main gripes and I stand by it.  It’s chipper and full of HR-department tidiness and in general it just doesn’t move me because it’s just telling, not showing me the emotions. THIS IS THE EMOTION CALLED DOUBT, the game screams in my face. LET'S HAVE A TALK WITH THE TEAM TO PUT IT RIGHT. Immediately after finishing DAV, I went and played Disco Elysium and the contrast was quite honestly heartbreaking. Because the tone in that funny, sarcastic and over the top writing? It’s compassionate. It wants to be truthful about what it’s like to be a human living in a broken, inhuman world. It cares. Veilguard more often feels like an action movie revenge plot where you get to punch some EVIL ANCIENT GODS in the face because they want to drown the world in demons, man, let’s just leave it at that lol omg you can even PUNCH Solas lol whatever thanks bye.  

I also just find the text flat. It doesn’t have the transtextuality I’ve come to appreciate in the other DA games, it doesn’t play much with differences in dialogue for the different characters - like making one stand out as being anachronistic or having a different way of expressing themselves or being very unlike the others in some fundamental ways, it doesn't challenge and/or characterize through banter in the way the other DA games have done and it doesn’t give us companions that seek meaningful conflict or are difficult to understand. Veilguard is the only DA game where I haven’t felt any kind of strong emotional reaction while interacting with the companions, and while you could argue that this is a good thing because teamwork and professionalism or whatever, I’d say that for a text, this is a factor that makes it flat. No great piece of writing has only likable characters capable of self-reflection because no actual human being is only likable or not likable to everyone and by god are actual humans not always capable of self-reflection. In fact, some humans shy away from it for entire lifetimes.

The story of DAV is consistent in its themes, yes. It’s just that it’s also without nuance and - again - without stakes. The companion quests raise big moral dilemmas but the answers are so bland they might as well just be ignored. The outcome changes nothing, doesn’t affect the characters. There’s no price to be paid for becoming first talon, no punishment for being a lich, it’s just another wardrobe choice. Should I wear blue or black, perhaps become an immortal creature? No matter darling, you are always adorable. I think most of all the state of the game is a testament of a really fucking tragic industry that doesn’t care enough about storytelling and authenticity or its workers. I think it’s clear that the writers were trying very hard but I also think it’s clear that it wasn't the narrative the powers that be decided to focus on.  The DA fandom at large, quite frankly, has always just made me exhausted and miserable. I think a lot of the criticisms of DAV have been unhinged. I think a lot of the defences of the game have been so deranged that it makes me wheeze as I read them out loud to my husband. I’ve seen plenty of people dragging up some 17 year old noob’s post from the depths of reddit just to do some edgy take about how stupid people are for disliking the game and it’s just been so many bad faith takes. Overall, I’m truly sorry to say, I have no desire to play this game anymore nor do I feel very tempted to play the other DA games. I’m happy to see that my mutuals are having fun - I wish I felt anything stronger than oh well about the new characters, but I don’t. Maybe I will not be this actively bored in the future and pick it up again, but for now, no. I'll try to finish my fanfic and then probably be done for good with this fandom.

[pimsri]

Think I'm gonna have a place to note down stuff about my rook as I play through the game. Keeping track of new bits and pieces about them and what I changed (probably they'll change a lot as I play) Currently at the part where I now have all companions unlocked. Not sure how far into the story I am yet lol. Imma put them in this tumblr post (tumblr has unlimited text and allow image so it's just convenient lol)

Here's Cygnus Aldwir!

Can only choose 1 pronoun so I picked they/them but I imagine them to be he/they just like me :)

he's about mid-twenty, no older, I don't think.

Associated animal is the swan.

Background for now: orphaned Dalish. Picked up by another clan and raised by the clan’s mage who doesn't really want to raise him. Called him “little ugly duckling” and gave him the name Cygnus. Despite this, that mage tried his best to love and raise him. He left on his won, without telling anyone, after it turned out he's also a mage.

Introverted, laid-back, and shy, but very adventurous. Like excitement and danger. Would be the guy trying the most dangerous rides at the theme park! This is where their confident side shines!

Pursuits of adventure and excitement is part of the reason they left the clan. Joined the Veil Jumpers hoping to find a place they belong.

The thing about them is that they have a burst of energy, and then sleep like stone. This is very important: they're a sleepy boi. Love to nap and can fall asleep anywhere and in any situation.

I think they have ADHD.

Hobby is making tea. In their adventure, they likes to gather ingredients: leaves, shrooms, seeds and flowers to put in their tea.

I said that they're shy, but not that they have self-esteem issue. They have moments where they doubt themself, but not hate themself. More like being reserved and private. So sometimes they stutters and have awkward moments, but don't beat themself over it.

What they have issue on is probably being indecisive. To them, it's either taking decisions on impulse, or being so anxious about making choices that it impacts the situations itself.

As far as sexuality I think they're panromantic but more toward the demisexual spectrum.

[scribbing]

Veilguard Review and Final Thoughts

All in all, I enjoyed myself well enough while playing this game and I've replayed it a few times all the way through and haven't had a drop in enjoyment while playing. Its a fun little popcorn playthrough.

I will say I think that a lot of balls were dropped. There were choices made that absolutely were at odds with previous games (ie: Crows are just fun and family led freedom fighters) and the absolute lack of the right tone or atmosphere for a Dragon Age game.

I also have a major issue with Rook. Namely that Rook is not the main character of their own story. They're the water guy on the sidelines of the team just there to shout praises and prop up the actual players. This was something that did irritate me early on, that lack of being anything but The Nice Guy with no real ability to push back/challenge/disagree or do anything really. You are just...a nice guy (or gal). But Rook to me had zero substance and never rose up out of that situation. Why is Rook in charge? Why isn't Harding? What about Rook is special enough to make everyone divert to their leadership? In my opinion, absolutely nothing. Rook has no real meat to them at any point in the game. Rook is overshadowed in their own faction by whatever companion comes from it. Rook has nothing special other than I guess Solas being trapped in their head which is absolutely not enough to hold a game's main character. Not to mention, I have no ability to make Rook stand for anything, make a statement on anything or various other options.

Now that's not to say that I don't enjoy more solid 'this is who they are' RPG characters because Commander Shepard of Mass Effect absolutely is Shepard, regardless of what I do. But even in that I feel more in control and more like this character has a viewpoint, has beliefs and has the ability to not be liked by everyone and make bad choices and refuse to be sorry for them.

Not to mention the companions....were not it. All of this 'they're going to be the most flushed out companions! It's all about the companions!'....no? Baldur's Gate did it a thousand times better. I was allowed to disagree with my companions, dislike them, hate them even, argue with them, have them 1000% disagree with me and hate me. Veilguard? If you talk to them they like you at the end of the conversation. If you bring them with you, they like you more regardless of what you're doing. To do a side quest is to make them love you. It's not good and it absolutely is not great character writing.

Also some choices were just....why? Why is Bellara falling over herself every other conversation to be depressed and sad and feel guilt for everything? In my mind I'm guessing that its meant to be sort of unresolved trauma from blaming herself for her brother but I'm not going to lie it started to get too much too quickly. Her needing to 'feel guilty over the gods, over the elves, over Solas and the Titans, etc.' was just more than I could take at certain points. Taash? Taash was not well handled in my opinion and there was SUCH a story to be had there. So much opportunity for nuance and raw emotion. As a mixed child of two completely different cultures? Heck yes I can identify and understand the story of struggling with the parent figure and learning to find yourself in a world that demands you pick one or the other and doesn't allow anything else. That was an AMAZING opportunity even without all of the extra options Taash had going for her and yet...it falls so flat. We don't get to tell her who she is...but actually no we will tell her who she is...multiple times.

Neve? Holy shit Neve had so much POTENTIAL!!! I'm literally foaming at the mouth at all the things she could have been!?! A literal Sherlock Holmes/Noir Detective going around and solving cases? I love mysteries and I loved Neve's baseline character design...in honest playing though it just...was meh. And at times almost...stupid? Which should never be something attributed to a character design like Neve's? (Her pretending to be a venatori will forever be the most eye rolling and pathetic dialogue scene ever). But also Minrathous? So many opportunities?!? Slavery, mages abusing power, politics, etc - and instead we get...none of that? No issues with elves or QUNARI?!?

Don't even get me started about the lack of Andraste and all that? We get a scene 'did we just disprove all of Andrastrianism?' and then immediately get 'oh but we should keep this to ourselves because you know they might hate on elves' like what the actual hell?

Davrin and Emmerich were perfect. No comments there. Just kidding, would have loved to delve more into their own situations and belief systems and just more? Emmerich's fears regarding death, Davrin's belief system and his need to have a cause and his connection and distance from his own roots. So many options!!!

And Lucanis...Lucanis. The guy I thought I'd love the most and I really can't tell him apart from a piece of soggy bread. His romance option was so painful, you're throwing everything at him and he's just ignoring you. Past that he's just...silly? Even not as a romance option he's a CROW, he's THE CROW...but oh its more important to know how he loves coffee...and how he cooks I guess? And Spite....WHY DID THEY MAKE SPITE THAT WAY?!!?? Spite had so much potential to be a threat, to be dangerous, to be something. Instead he's a joke. Lucanis is a joke. The whole thing with his pathway is an obvious joke. I'm still salty.

Also, I would have loved more Solas. More interactions with Solas. More engagement with Solas. And I might be a minority but less 'Solavellan' because there's something that irritates me that a strong, powerful, secure woman like the Inquisitor spent what ten years moping about a crush? They were never in a real relationship, he cut it off before that. TEN YEARS?!?! And she's still simping after this guy and willing to give up her own world to help hold his hand and pat him on the head? No. That needed to have been handled so much better. Plus Mythal. You tell me Mythal is this wise, ultimate judge and then you give me....none of that. Why was Solas so loyal to her? We needed more, we needed SO MUCH MORE to make it work.

And Harding? It's hard for me to say something bad about Harding but also hard to say something good. Harding is just...there? I don't know why she fell so flat for me when back in Inquisition I literally looked forward to seeing her at the opening of each new area and even had my Inquisitor romance her a time or two? But DATV Harding is just...meh?

So for a game so concerned with the companions and so hyped up about them - absolutely none of them really held up to the hype? Is there plenty of space for fanfiction? Yes. Is there any real volume to it without it? Not really.

Also, Elgar'nan and Ghil? The most bland bad guys to bad guy. That Solas spends so long warning you about them, Elgar'nan in particular, and then that's the final battle - that's the dude...I'm staring into the distance with an absolutely unimpressed look.

[mollfie]

I took notes while playing and I've tried to edit them into something that makes a shred of sense.

Things I like in Veilguard:

Banter can be interrupted, and they'll continue talking. If you repeatedly interrupt, they'll start over from the beginning later on.

The banter also actually made me laugh, especially with certain companion combos. Not always but more often than not.

The companions aren't stuck in their room. You know when someone wants to talk to you or has a cutscene, but you'll also see them hanging out with other companions or just checking out places around the Lighthouse. Makes them feel like actual people with their own stuff going on outside of Rook. But I do wish you could talk to them more. I like bothering my companions. I'm fine with them repeating themselves. Just let me smooch my love interest or chat with my friends and get random flavour text. Is that so much to ask?

I like the orb and smashing enemies in the face with it. I actually prefer it most of the time to using the staff.

Can wear casual clothes instead of armour with no repercussions. Finally, some cute outfits. But not cute enough. Need more. I also miss dying outfits in different colours and dressing up my team.

It's not my fav but it's fine:

I miss being able to smooch my love interest whenever I wanted to. Let me bother everyone more. The romances are fine but I expected more in comparison to previous games.

Everyone hangs out with each other or all together (eat together, bookclub etc) but is Rook even involved? The camping trip scene was so weird. Ferelden is overrun. Where are you going? Why would these two even want to? I could maybe believe Taash being interested because they're adventurous and might be hoping to see a dragon, but even then it's so weird.

Semi related to Taash's personal storyline, I did not appreciate having words put in my Rook's mouth re: her feelings about her gender and I have seen others saying that when they play as an enby Rook it's very "third gender" rather than having any sort of nuance. This is why I'm always hesitant when companies are so proud of being inclusive, it's often so clumsy.

References:

Mage/Templar war was in the South but no one mentions really mentions much about the South. Varric?? Morrigan?? Inquisitor?? There are some letters and a few lines about what's happening but not much. Who got to be Divine, again more of a Southern issue but you think it would come up when talking to Harding or Varric. Drinking from the Well of Sorrrows. Morrigan's son. King Alistair or Grey Warden. Hawke in the Fade. Varric, my man, are we not friends? Harding, you were there even if you were just a scout! Surely you got the hot goss hanging around outside the tavern at all hours.

Surely even people in Tevinter would be talking about how the Inquisitor's old spymaster became the Divine?? Harding sort of mentions it but no one else. The Inquisitor coming along to be like "oh it's a shitshow in the South right now that's why I'm not helping you or trying to find Solas" is so stupid.

The references you do get are fine but some feel strange because they're specific enough for a fan to get them but vague enough to feel pointless because they abandoned the Keep and tracking everyone's choices. I know it's complicated because we've all played the games in a variety of ways but they started it!

I wish we had seen more of the countries. I liked the places we saw and I really enjoyed exploring them, I would have liked to see more though which is a good thing in a way? I wasn't bored by the places we got, more than they were intriguing and I wished to go further. I would have liked to see more of Minrathos outside of Dock Town, for example.

Cameos:

Re: cameos. Dorian's model looks like he got bad cosmetic surgery and veneers. What did they do to you?? However, I also hate how Alistairs looks in Inquisition so maybe I just don't like when they try to update old characters? Morrigan looks fine, but her outfit is ugly. Isabela is fine. Varric and Harding look good.

Are we unable to have cameos of characters (or references), such as Merrill, because the team are blood magic flip-floppers? She knew so much about Eluvians, blood magic, Dalish nonsense etc. She would have been a fantastic edition to the team in Inquistion and in Veilguard but apparently I can't have anything nice.

Romances:

The romances are good but once I picked my person it was weird seeing how Lucanis switched to Neve almost instantly AND how their chemistry was so much better just through banter and listening to their chats. Almost like that's what the writers intended originally and then made Rook an option later? Davrin has a sweet romance and I have heard good things about Emmerich.

Companions:

Still think I should be able to have three people tag along. Yes, it makes them just talk to each other for banter but I liked having three people.

I wish they would bicker more. Some characters are supposed to not like each other (at least for a while) but they really could have leaned into that more. Be meaner. However, saying that some fans couldn't handle Vivienne...

My main issue with all the companions is that they're really good but don't get the chance to be great. I'm assuming because of development issues. Any decent writer would want to make the most of a character. You can see what they wanted to do and what they managed is good. I feel like the writers pulled their punches too much. They could have really leaned into some ideas and expanded on some aspects so much more but didn't. They all needed an extra ten minutes to fully bake.

Taash's personal stuff is fine. It's a little awkward in places but it's nowhere near as awful as people are making it out to be. It's no worse than anyone else's personal storyline or dialogue. A lot of the criticism is over-dramatic HOWEVER I do feel like their struggles were more with their upbringing as the daughter of a strict mother (who says herself that she was never supposed to have that sort of role within the Qun) in Rivain and those two identities cause conflict, and that was really overshadowed. A lot of Taash's struggles with gender make sense when you consider how gender roles function under the Qun (how their mother would have raised them) versus how they are in Rivaini society (what she was exposed to outside of the home). That's not to say they aren't nonbinary otherwise, just that the conflict could have been woven together better.

I also didn't really like the binary choices you were presented with - why do I, a stranger, get to tell any of these people what to do with their lives? I think Rook can have an opinion but there should be a third option for the character to make their own choice, perhaps based on their approval level with you or something to at least feign free will. This felt particularly insensitive when talking to Taash.

I also think some people are forgetting or deliberately ignoring that Taash is not the only lgbt or nonbinary character in the game or the series as a whole.

But, I do also think there are awkward moments (for all the characters too) where I understand what the team was going for but it doesn't quite land right. I would have actually liked a little more focus on what it's like being a qunari in Rivain etc.

Lucanis is supposed to be a big scary mage-killing demon-possessed assassin but once you recruit him he's practically shuffling about in his fuzzy slippers making coffee at 4am. I really like him but I can't help but wish they hadn't sanded down the edges. Having the Crows fight for the little guys is certainly a choice. I would have preferred them go down more of a "these Crows in this particular family think this way" so as not to undermine everything about Zevran.

Other thoughts:

It feels like the backgrounds don't really matter, they're not referenced much anyway. I was a veil jumper so you'd think Bellara would want to chat to me about that sort of thing more but no, not really. Same with race choices. It does come up but not as much as I had hoped. I also miss the tension between races, backgrounds etc. Why am I, a Dalish elf, wandering around Minrathos unchallenged?

Where's Meredith??? We had that final shot in the animated series but that's it???

What happened to Solas' agents and the uprising? I know years have passed but you'd think there's been more turmoil considering 1. the gods are real and 2. they suck

TL;DR

I had a great time playing, and it was really fun. I actually really enjoyed the finale and the game overall. But, I am concerned that this was essentially a soft reboot and so now what? What about everything we did before? What about all those other characters we cared about?

I also think I got lucky by choosing to have my Solavellan Inquisitor and romancing Davrin, just judging my chatter online.

I think if they didn't want those choices to matter then they should have had this game hav a protagonist who has no connection to Southern Thedas at all. No Varric or Harding. Have them being a literal nobody who doesn't know anything about what's going on outside of what they've directly experienced or it's very vague. They were affected by Solas' actions. They're an elf who was an agent until they realised what he was doing. Something. I just... if you don't want to make a game where choices matter then you shouldn't be working on Dragon Age. You should make something new. This was always Bioware's whole selling point and they've just tossed all that work to one side. Who made that decision?

Imagine if we'd been forced into being a specific character, similar to Hawke in DA2, and had to actually decide whether or not to support Solas as we learned about what he was actually intending to do? Imagine.

Origins still has the strongest writing. DA2 is still my favourite. But I do think Veilguard is a good sequel to Inquisiton. Unfortunately for Bioware, this is the fourth game in a series not the second. As a fourth game, there are some really weird choices. On it's own, it's a really good game. I'm still going to get my partner to play some of it to see what they think as an outsider who only knows about Dragon Age via my chit-chat and reblogging.

[nobodyexpectsthe]

rubs a hand down my face. okay, i finished weisshaupt and i've got feelings and they continue to be not great.

i'm very... underwhelmed.

so, my major complaint about this game has primarily been it has an issue with matching the tone of previous games. and i think weisshaupt just like... locked in for me that's not gonna change. people kept saying that weisshaupt was where the game got dark, and if this is its idea of dark i'm... not hopeful for the rest of it.

like, i'm gonna pull at this thread. mila and her dad.

i'm not saying i want the little girl and her dad to die horribly, but i am saying that it's weird that they didn't in a part of the game that was meant to be upping the stakes. mila just being there also felt so... tonally dissonant? how is this adorable little girl not dead. am i being lured into a false sense of security? was this a moment to get attached that's going to bite me later, because she and her dad lived & i foolishly drop my guard and think they're safe?

because otherwise they would both have died horribly to set the stakes and tone. we would have clearly been moving out of the 'everybody is bonding and getting to know each other!' part of the game and directly into the "oh fuck, shit is getting real".

in any other game, that reunion would've also had to have been something you earned. like... this should have been what haven was in dragon age inquisition, where all the calls you make decide whether or not she lives or dies. but there are no calls, there are no choices. other than punching the first warden.

which didn't really seem to affect the outcome?

but i don't think anyone other than some nameless grey wardens died?

i know, i know, dragon age games give you the illusion of choice. you can't do or say anything that is going to drastically alter and impact the story - but it was good at making you feel like you were an active participant in the narrative. this is not the case here.

like, you would have needed to do something to get that outcome. and you would've felt the weight of it when you failed. again, like haven. or even like adamant. there would be moments of choice that would make you feel like you were impacting the world, but as it is - i run from room to room killing bad guys, until i have gone through the end of the scene........ which i don't even need to pay attention to because the game has decided for some reason i have to have recaps at the end of every chapter and i hate that because it kills absolutely any momentum, immersion and investment.

i know there are big moves later on that will dictate whether or not your team lives or dies, but i'm gonna be honest - i actively hate that. because baking those choices into the story meant making a choice that everyone has to live and stay with you to the end, meaning that every other choice in the game that would have had the characters reacting naturally to your leadership and friendship gets tossed out the window.

which means yeah i'm not excited about this next part of the game being a fix-it felix story for our companions bc that feels like a rapid de-escalation of stakes.

like i appreciate everyone has their own personal plots and issues they need to sort out, but it's actually buck wild to go from "the goddamn world is ending" to "rook you need to play therapist for your new friends".

rubs my face

i don't know how to feel about this game. i think i'd like it if it wasn't a dragon age game and wasn't meant to cap off a story that's been running over a decade. it's impossible to meet these high standards, i know, but it just feels so different.

it genuinely feels like some executive played god of war ragnarok and was like "this is popular, this is what dragon age is now" (which like lets be real that's exactly why the game was started and scrapped twice, the refusal to just let the dragon age franchise stay in the goddamn crpg genre it was meant to) and then decided it was also an MCU team up movie.

i think what's compounding the issues is i continue to feel like there was a whole fucking prologue that was cut and things are happening too soon in the story for me to care about anyone. i am doing sidequests, i'm trying to bring everyone out to get attached, i actually do like the companions - but everything feels do disparate and there's such a lack of weight to it.

anyway, ending this rant with this: i don't blame the creatives. at all. knowing how the games industry works, none of these calls were in their hands and they were just desperately trying to get the thing out the door in the timeframe that was demanded of them. making a game with the kind of narrative depth that a dragon age game requires needs so much time, money, resources, and for the devs to be left alone with a product that isn't going to get jerked around constantly by executives that only know money and don't understand a goddamn thing about an enjoyable video game.

there is an enjoyable game here. there is.

i just really wish it wasn't the ending to dragon age.

[underthevenadahl]

Okie! So! As someone who hasn't finished the game yet, I thought it would be cool to list off a few predictions here and see if they end up being right! I'll do 12, one for each month of the year. Sorta in the new year spirit yknow?

So, there are definitely gonna be spoilers in this post so the rest will be below the cut! I've managed to stay away from a good deal of big in game spoilers, so I shouldn't be too tainted in my guesses, lol.

Important note: I tend to have weird pattern recognition with media, so I'm usually either pretty accurate or pretty off base, no in the middle. I think I'm fairly accurate on most of these, but I guess I'll have to see! In no particular order, here we go!

1. Starting off obvious . The weird Wraith thing, gloom howler(??) in Davrin's quests, has something to do the Last Flight. I dunno what yet, I wouldn't be surprised if it's something caused by Isseya's bood magic?? But ofc they are gonna tie in Last flight somehow, it's the origin of our current gryphons!

2. This one I have no evidence to back up at all, but someone's gonna die by the end. I feel it in my bones? This game is light and fun in some ways but I feel an air of tragedy, and I would put money on it specifically being related to one of our companions. And probably it's gonna be one of those scenarios where WE have to decide too, uhg. Hate those

3. Something is up with varric. Like a BIG something? Ill be quite upset if im right. At first I thought that maybe he'd betray us or something, because this game also has an air of betrayal, but I've been really sitting on it yknow. I've noticed, he's never mentioned by the others, he very rarely shows up in cutscenes he should probably be in, and he's shown no getting better. Another thing that's bothering me, is when harding touched the dagger, there was an entire awakening, but the dagger went INSIDE of varric, literally interacted with his blood, and nothing? Nothing at all? It just isn't adding up. I'm starting to think that this might be that one trope, where we see a charcater the whole time but it turns out it was just in the mc's head?? If I'm right I'm gonna be SO upset. He just feels so weird.

4. There is probably gonna be a problem with Taash's mom? I've no evidence, but parents don't tend to last very well in this series? And Taash has a parent who while a little iffy, would probably still do almost anything to protect them I feel like. Within the series we tend to get this history of charcaters who love and would do anything for someone, sacrificing themselves. So. Yknow. I guess I'll see? As someone who relates to their relationship I want it to all turn out well but idk.

5. Rook is prolly gonna have a say in if Emmerich becomes a lich? I say this mostly because in the games, the Mc ALWAYS ends up making final choices for charcaters so, I already have a decent idea of some of the choices I'm gonna have to make based on the early quests

6. In the same air, rook will probably have a say in what goes on with Bellara's brother? That's what I think it's gonna be in her quest at least. Bellara and Emmerich are the only two I can rlly guess about right now, maybe Lucanis too? But the others I haven't fully figured out what their Big decisions are, albeit I have some ideas, just nothing concrete.

7. The inquistor will not fare well. I dunno what exactly but I get the idea that bioware is gonna try to ruin us with them. Maybe they die in the end? Or maybe they just can't protect thedas like they are trying. I have a Lavellan who romanced solas, and I just know that's gotta end up tragic right? No way are they gonna give us a good happy endinggg.

8. This one's purely optimistic: the Grey Wardens will be better. I want a world where they don't hide as much. So I'm gonna say, that they get their act together and stop some of the secrets.

9. To counteract the previous one: the Grey Wardens are over. Forever. From what I can tell the current stuff in game is the blight to end all blights. And maybe people will just decide they don't need the Grey Wardens any more ):

10. Neve and lucanis are gonna be a thing? Hasn't happened yet in my game, but MAN do they have banter. It's gotta be like Bull and Dorian ya? They r totally a thing. Low key ship others more, butttt Neve and Lucanis is still pretty cute, they could match very well.

11. Ghilan'nain is probably gonna be secondary to Elgar'nan when It comes to defeating them? As in she will probably die first, and he will be the finale. I say this because he seems like the type to toss her to the side if it'll get him what he wants. But what I want to happen, is her betraying him and going to the "good" side. Lol. I just like her so much, i hope we get to see a softer side to her, even if we have to end up killing her or something.

12. The titans, or more likely the dwarves, will gain a new connection? I wanna say they will reconnect the titans to the fade in some way, but it just seems too complicated for them to go for in the game I think. And I believe most of the titans are dead, if not all of them? So I dunno. But it would be suuuuper cool to see the dwarves regain a connection to something yknow, to see more of them become like harding. And I think it would be healing for them.