#i haven't played other DA games so this is purely about how this game stands on its own

[gender-euphowrya]

veilguard is visually stunning like god damn

[msommers]

1, 3, 4, 14, 18 for riya, meredith and ellana!

thank youuuu xoxo we ignore how long this took between forgetfulness and having no braincells xoxoxo // questions about creating your ocs

1) What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)?

RIYA — because we knew the campaign at large would span the 15-year long third blight, the first thing i landed on was the base concept of a character who could grow into the type who would willingly brave that ultimate sacrifice to end the blight when it came down to it. obviously with no guarantee of Give Me That Death It's All I Want or even reaching that point, i was just interested in exploring what type of clown i could force into this inevitable character development. 

MEREDITH — god. it's been so long. it was probably her appearance because i went into origins as a baby da fan and didn't know what to expect. which is kinda funny now because her appearance is the biggest change she’s ever had thru all these years. 

ELLANA — on my second playthrough when i knew at least a little bit of what the fuck i was doing in the setting, i believe the first consideration for her was whether i wanted to double down on my interest in the elven culture in thedas that'd i'd developed during my first run of the game or if i wanted to try focused on other aspects (fairly obvious nowadays that i went with the former). 

3) How did you choose their name?

RIYA — i went back into dms with the dm and turns out i chose the name because of the cute nicknames you could get out of it. so pretty much nailed it first try because riya is iconic tbh

MEREDITH — she's one of my oldest characters which means i didn't do Any research before picking her name, meredith was chosen purely because i've been in love with the name since i first read the vampire diaries books when i was a tween. its meaning being “great ruler” was pure destiny, i'll never get over that discovery. 

ELLANA — default name pretty 🥰🥰 and no i still haven't landed on an extended version of her name, don't talk to me about it i have problems making decisions (someone send help).

4) In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts?

RIYA — without a doubt the fact that mages in nevarra were given an absurd amount of freedoms compared to countless places, i loved that. i believe soon after that i stumbled upon the vague history tidbit that a duchess had donated her “palatial estate” to become the new college of magi because she had a mage daughter, and that became a solid base for the new pc right quick. riya was shaped so fast between that initial concept and these two discoveries it wasn't even funny. somewhere in there i found the grand tourney business, dunno when. 

MEREDITH — okay so take literally every element of the human noble origin story and its plot through the game and there. you got it. the entire laundry list that had me fucking obsessed with mere since the jump because everything there ticks my boxes. the politics, the family ties and history, the kingdom pride, the sense of duty that's matched in intensity only by the inescapable desire to enact justice (bordering on violent vengeance lmao) for your family and people with your own two goddamn hands because nobody else is going to get it for you. also you have a cute dog right off the bat, that rules. 

ELLANA — her creation is so. muddled to me because she was the first character i ever played a da game with, so most of the influential elements likely just popped up in inquisition at some point or other and nothing stands out there. my best guess would be that the vallaslin and god domains played a good part tho, because there being a goddess of motherhood and justice has been huge for her.

14) If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be?

RIYA — it physically pains me sometimes, but the first is that i have to remember just how privileged this woman was and try to reflect that in what she says and how she reacts to things (i took psychic damage when she blatantly was judging every bit of that little village). second would be that i have to remind myself how much pain and trauma is gathering up in this mage, unhealed and unacknowledged, because sometimes i can forget while caught up in all that’s going on just how fucking bad it really is. i’ll go quiet here and there during a scene not because i can’t think of what riya would say, but because i realized something would’ve triggered her to spiral into the negative feelings and all she’d be capable of is a “hm” or clear i want to get the fuck out of here one-liner lmao

MEREDITH — number one is that she’s putting noble responsibilities above all else always, sometimes to the detriment of other priorities and even relationships. second is that “canon” doesn’t matter at all and i can have fun with her story however i want, who gives a fuck. follow the fun and all that. i have to keep this in mind for her out of everyone because she has some Strong negative opinions on certain characters which have some,,,aggressive fans and that held me back for a good while lol

ELLANA — first is that she approaches things with gentleness and empathy 99% of the time, even if it’s not advisable and she has people pushing against it. second is naturally Legacy, because that fuck haunts her past, present and future. she's constantly musing on it for both herself and others, and its influence on her can't be noted enough. i have a vivid memory of pausing the hakkon dlc to repeatedly bash a pillow against my face to let out the emotions i was dealing with because the plot was trying to end my fucking life with ameridan and ellana.

18) What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

RIYA — the first thing i can think of was a few months back with the callout that correctly identified riya’s lowkey desperation to get warden-commander satine’s approval as her having mommy issues. blatantly obvious fact, yeah, but it had gone without being commented on and it took me tf out for a few minutes after hearing it. as you can imagine she’s thriving after each positive response from sending updates sent the warden-commander’s way.

MEREDITH — ooooh, a few things because of that long ass warden sheet i’ve been slowly chipping away at in the docs. i believe the most recent is that i never gave this poor woman some hobbies outside of a minor interest in map sketches, so i’ve been on-off thinking about that for a little while. who knows what i’ll land on, i’m lazy. embroidery was a contender because it's the Classic for noble ladies and also i think she deserves arts & crafts fun, just look at her life she needs it

ELLANA — nothing really, she's been consistent for a long while 🤷‍♀️ closest thing is that i did very briefly revisit the ancient idea that i think she deserves one or a few kids to fulfill her “mama bear” energy to a more literal degree but that's mostly a goof. 95% a goof. maybe 90%. if she ends up w kids at the end of this week i can’t be held accountable-

[faroreswinds]

I hate to say it but there's a reason why people find the Fire Emblem fandom to be mostly toxic. It happened with Fates, it happened with 3H, it probably happened with Awakening, and it's happening with Engage; whether it'd be old guard vs new guard, censorship vs non-censorship, localization issues, or just the motivation of characters, who's right and wrong and judging a person for siding with one lord over another.

I have quite a few asks to get to but I'm only going to answer this one right now. Don't worry, other anons, I'm not ignoring you.

So it's funny, I'm not new to FE. I haven't played ALL da games, because many of them are very hard to access now. But I didn't start with Houses.

But I only got into the discourse around FE due to Houses and hoooooo boooyyy, what a mistake. I'm too deep into it now but like... I am not impressed. Seeing the shift, shitting on the old games or whatever, it pretty disheartening. Yeah, Houses made things worse but no one is helping the situation either!

As for FE, I won't have much to say about Engage. From what I can tell, the animations and attention to detail are good, characters are pretty boring and that's OK, I never loved an FE cast except for a few stand out anyways, and it's prettier than Houses. Gameplay also looks absolutely solid, probably the best in the series.

But bad (so bad) designs, bad overall models, the stupid Engage gimmick (I cannot tell you how much I hate this idea from purely an idea standpoint, not a gameplay one), the game still doesn't look that good graphically to me (just better than 3H, which is barely an accomplishment), and the sticky sense that this game feels predatory to me does turn me off of it.

I liked Zelda's anniversaries better. A concert for the music, a new game that doesn't rely on nostalgic bait (game ended up being the weakest in the series but it was a least not recycling old favorites), and not trying to get players hooked on their gacha game.

I'll probably get it used, play it quietly without posting on here, and then moving on. Wait for a FE4 remake or a new game with better designs and not Tiki for the millionth time.