#i think davrin will be my favorite BUT i think i'm romancing Harding first

[inquisitor-julia]

This has for sure been asked numerous times already but I'm curious so with the information we have so far:

[lesabear]

Thoughts on Veilguard

TLDR: If empty calories were a video game it would be Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The game is a pleasant enough - if generic and unremarkable - action RPG that basically abandons the themes and feel of the previous games, resulting in a bland story that largely avoids dealing with anything that might remotely cause conflict in the party or force the player to consider anything other than surface level good-bad morality.

If this is the direction they're taking DA, then I think I'm done with the franchise. If I wanted a generic, thematically uninteresting, action RPG there are so many other games to play.

Spoilers in my detailed thoughts below

The good:

It looks very nice - I wish I could have spent even more time exploring the world areas.

Very few bugs or technical issues unlike Andromeda (or most new games in general). I had a few minor issues near the end but overall was very impressed.

Manfred and Assan are great secondary companions. If anyone knows where to find a skeleton and/or griffon friend please let me know.

I quite like Emmerich, Davrin and Bellara and romanced the latter two and (Generally) really liked both. Disclaimer: I tend to have different tastes than the majority of DA fandom when it comes to romances. I expected to have mixed feelings on Bellara because of my issues with Bioware and their cutesy awkward naive/inexperienced female characters but I thought they (mostly) got her right.

Some interesting lore stuff, though I quibble with how it was delivered at times. Still was fun to get a lot more info on the Evanuris, Solas, Mythal, the Titans, etc. And there's also some fun lore stuff in the codices, although again I question whether that's the best way to deliver them.

The final mission is a lot of fun and the clear standout quest other than Weisshaupt maybe. Both are a lot of fun and combine multiple story elements with good gameplay for a satisfying experience.

Combat is engaging although it does get repetitive once you "solve" it. I did a lot of grinding to complete content though so that might be my fault.

Solas is very Solas-y in the game and the highlight of the antagonists by far. I wish there had been more of him and I say that as someone who finds the Solas fandom somewhat exhausting at times. He was far more interesting and compelling than the "even-worse" gods and the fact he's a fuck up who keeps making things worse because he's an egotistical fuck-up who thinks he's the only one that can fix things was is both tragic and fun.

Neve-Lucanis and Taash-Harding are both very cute. I actually think they might be my favorite companion romances off the top of my head (Tali-Garrus does absolutely nothing for me, and I don't even romance either character with my Shepard).

The not good

Why is the Inquisitor wearing pajamas.

Bioware can fuck off for making me pop about a zillion blight pimples. It's really not that much fun after the first 1000

Extremely disappointed with how sanitized the narrative is. There's little attention paid to major facets of the DA universe that are directly relevant to the plot (religion, Tevinter slavery, racism toward elves etc.) and you also get stuff like the Crows now being far lighter of an organization than they were previously.

Just as an example - both Davrin and Bellara touch on what it means to have their gods be the villains but they're just topics for conversation and there's no meaningful impact (especially as the bad guys rely on Antaam and Venatori forces - oh and generic mercenaries). The Dalish are just there (or victims of the bad guys) for the most part. I've read comments from Bioware that confirm this but it seemed obvious Bioware wrote themselves into a corner with making Elven gods be the main antagonists, as you then run into the issue of having the elves not only already be a persecuted minority but also be worshipping evil gods - but instead of writing around it they just avoided dealing with it and acted like it's just the Dalish getting a big win by not joining them.

Speaking of enemies, lots of bland dialogue from the non-Solas big bads. And the Venatori/Antaam/mercenaries gave off major "Cerberus in ME3" vibes - nameless, faceless goons thrown at you in waves that got very boring very quickly.

The way a companion gets hardened because of a choice early in the game is mostly meaningless unless you wanted to romance them. People getting mad about that happening are being ridiculous - if anything the game is too afraid (as usual) to have it actual matter beyond them briefly being upset before moving on.

One of the big choices is to decide whether to protect Treviso or Minrathous when both are attacked by dragons, but it happens so early you might lock yourself out of quests without realizing it. Worse, the ensuing mission is incredibly short and boring (basically a couple of packs of generic enemies and then a very brief dragon fight)

Why is the Inqusitor wearing pajamas.

Why can't I be a mean/"bad" Rook? Even the jokey responses feel super tame compared to previous DAs (let alone the borderline assholish purple hawke). Basically you're only allowed to be slightly different variations of a heroic figure.

While the companions are all nice they all top out at "I like them", with none matching the story or emotional peaks of previous Bioware games. Emmerich comes closest (especially if you account for Manfred) but there's just enough meat to him.

Disappointing romances compared to previous Bioware games(especially but not limited to Lucanis.). Not a ton of depth dialogue wise and at times it feels like they put more time into the companion romance than the Rook version (this time I am definitely talking about Lucanis).

Speaking of which, Lucanis was the biggest disappointment of the companions. I didn't want a Zevran clone but you have a hardened assassin possessed by a demon who (if you choose not to save Treviso, which cuts off a lot of his content) just drinks coffee and likes Neve and uh....

Completely forgettable soundtrack which is a major bummer after previous installments. Also, while I didn't have many technical issues, the music not always playing was one of them (although maybe it doesn't really matter given the lack of quality!)

Bad to horrendous incorporation of previous DA story which was also incongruous with the general tone, especially with the handling of the Inquisitor and the treatment of southern Thedas (especially if you get the Emmerich and Harding picnic conversation at an awkward time like I did.)

Lots of disappointing cameos but especially from my Pirate Queen/Wife from DA2. Isabela's hat is indeed very nice but what is that outfit? And I get they didn't want to deal with too complex a world state but man was it a bummer to see her basically reset after everything her and Hawke went through in my main DA2 playthrough.

Why is the Inquisitor wearing pajamas.

What did they do with Harding? Why did she basically get Dagna's story, even if Titan lore is interesting? She's such a nothing character in this game which is such a weird choice given that she's clearly there because they know fans like her.

The "Actually Varric was dead all along" did nothing for me. He barely shows up in game anyway and the weird framing of every appearance and the fact no one other than Rook ever interacts with him gave it away (at least partially)

[championofthefade]

Thinking about Veilguard sometimes really makes me start picking it apart.

Yes, I did like it for what it is. But as someone who played the three games for the first time this year, I found it disheartening at times.

Long story short for those who rather not read my rambling: I liked Veilguard, but there are parts that just don't feel right and that everything we've done in Thedas the last three games were all for naught. (I'm yapping about my complaints, might make a more positive post later)

It's a mixed bag, really.

While I liked the gameplay, there are things that just don't rub me the right way.

The first immediate example is how the (only, in my opinion) major choice we are presented with is choosing Treviso and Minrathous. We have the choice to harden the other companions in spirit, but the only ones that actually are affected are Lucanis and Neve.

While I have done both paths, I can't say that one is a better choice over the other. Shadow Dragons are decimated if you choose Treviso, Treviso is blighted if you choose Minrathous. I think that it's fair that Lucanis doesn't want to romance Rook if you choose Minrathous, because he wants to save his city from dying. He trusted you to follow through, while Neve expects that you won't since she's a cynic. Which makes sense why she's willing to still romance you if you choose to save Treviso, although it'll be a bit more challenging to, because you were presented with an impossible choice. I don't mind that he ends up with Neve, even if the romance for all the companions kinda fall flat if you think about it too much.

Another thing is Taash. Their identity is important to their story, but having Rook (us the player) choose how to deal with their cultural crisis doesn't make sense and makes me not want to repeat those quests. Why is there no option to embrace both the Qun and being Rivani? Why am I the one choosing how Taash chooses to express themselves? Relating back to the city choices, Lucanis and Neve both choose their hardened options with Illario (getting jail) and Aelia (being given to the Threads). With Taash, the choices are a little less clear to me. I think we shouldn't be able to dictate one's cultural choices.

One of the worst choices that we have to make as Rook is Harding vs Davrin. Thinking about the amount of people who are saving Davrin just for Assan is actually crazy to me. I love Davrin, but he's reminding me of what happened to Wyll in BG3, and it's not a fun time. (I can barely pick up BG3 for various reasons and this is one of them.) I'm glad Bioware doesn't pander to the fans that are loud, because I don't have to worry about everyone's favorite white boy getting more content than the only black companion (saying this as a white person myself). I will always save Davrin because he is a compelling character even without Assan. I love the feather-brain but I feel like I want to know Davrin more than his mythical son.

I hate that we only got three world state choices, two of which don't really matter since it's more flavor text. It doesn't matter if we disbanded or merged into the Chantry, we don't see the consequences of those actions. It doesn't matter if your Inquisitor wants to Stop Solas at All Costs, because apparently they feel responsible for Solas being... Well, Solas. And our romances, outside of Solavellan, were reduced to a codex entry and sidelined.

Yes, Solas is important, and yes, I expected his romance to be given more light. I'm in the camp of people who feared that was going to be the case. And it was.

Yes, I agree that him getting a Good Ending with his vhenan is one of the better endings, but his friendship one and facing his fear of dying alone is also important. I liked playing a Rook that tricked him, I liked playing a Rook that chose to fight him as well. I'm glad we have at least those aspects that we can control.

As someone who has romanced Lucanis and Neve so far, I wish there were more little cutscenes, and not just for Lucanis. I'm just okay with how things are, even if they're a bit empty in comparison to what we could've had. That being said, I think that there's always room for improvement to have a more fulfilling resolution to the romance in the game the devs claimed was the most romantic. I wish there was more, I wish that there had been more to support that claim. I want to feel closer to these companions, and I am sure that I will as time goes on. But as it stands, for now after sitting with the game for nearly a month (11/29), I wish we had gotten more.

I would like to say that it really doesn't feel like the most romantic compared to the other three games. (Blackwall's "heart laid bare", Dorian's "you're dreadfully dull and I hate you", Josephine's letter of "let me make a promise to you here. I dream you will say yes", Zevran's "I'll storm the Black City for you, never doubt it", Anders' "ten years, a hundred years from now, someone like me will love someone like you, and there will be no templars to tear them apart", just to name the few that feel more romantic than what we're sitting with for Veilguard romances. And one of them is a codex entry.)

I hate that we have to learn through missives that the South is gone, save for Skyhold. I hate that we had no power to help the South, and that the last three games were all for naught. It's upsetting to know that Ferelden is gone. RIP Orlais, you slayed too close to the sun. Kirkwall being empty is a scary thought, but it's gone too.

It makes me wonder where HOF is. Did they ever find a cure? Are they even alive? What about a Hawke that didn't get left in the Fade? You mean to tell me that they wouldn't be out there in the frontlines doing something? You mean to tell me that they're sitting on their asses?

Varric dying is something else entirely, but it's just gut wrenching that we don't even get to mourn him. A second playthrough was mindbogglingly eye-opening. Harding was mourning when you check on her in her little room. Neve reminisces about how Varric brought her onto the job and she wishes that she didn't take it. They were mourning while Rook probably looked like they were in the denial stage of grief. What killed me inside was the fact I caught it the first time when Bellara name dropped Varric like she didn't know he was there. That's when I started thinking maybe he was gone, but I didn't want to believe it. I had to step away from my computer when the reveal happened because I was devastated.

We don't get to see just how the team made the fake lyrium dagger, or how they even managed to find Rook in the first place. We don't get to see the love interest's reaction, only the aftermath where they are still registering that Rook is there. We don't even get an explanation on how those things were possible. To create a perfect lyrium replica and locate someone in the Fade? Knowing that we could've had a mission to save whoever was left in the Fade hurts. RIP to those left in the Fade.

The secret ending is just... Bewildering to say the least. What do you mean that there's an even bigger force that has been controlling the narrative from Across the Sea? What do you mean these incredibly well written villains had no agency in their choices and were being used to orchestrate whatever the hell the Executors wanted?

Again, what do you mean that all that we've been through in Thedas just doesn't matter anymore?

[inquisimer]

2024 writing round up

bringing back this year-end writing review because I'm a stats nerd and it's always fun to be surprised by how much the time and effort and works add up over time! tagging forward (to some new people - you're always free to ignore or let me know if you don't want to be tagged in things <3) if you'd like to join in: @soupandsorcery | @brightaxe | @glitteringdust | @crabs-with-sticks | @dustdeepsea | and an open invitation to anyone who sees this and would like to do it - tag me so we can celebrate all we've done this year!

words posted: 160,320

additional words written: 46,038

grand total of words: 206,358

fandoms: dragon age. and dragon age. oh, and also dragon age 😂

highest kudos: to feel the sun from both sides at 166 - a missing "what are we even doing right now" scene from the Rook x Lucanis romance <3

highest hit oneshot: I pick my poison (and it's you) at 1515 - yeah, no surprises here, it's the porn 😂 Arlow and Lucanis fuck on the rooftops in Treviso and I pretend there's a plot by drawing a line between the purple lanterns and Spite's wings.

new things I tried: writing (and finishing) a smut piece! that's been on my want-to-do list for a while, so that feels good to accomplish. I also wrote and posted my first polyship works this year!

fic I spent the most time on: the very condition of existence, my fic for @thedragonagebigbang! Female Mahariel/Anora, a childhood friends to strangers to lovers AU where Mahariel & Anora meet as children in the forest outside Gwaren and are reunited years later during the Landsmeet.

fic I spent the least time on: this one is always hard for me to gauge, but probably either softness did not serve me or spit your blood and bare your teeth, two of the pieces I wrote about Nika Brosca's history with the Carta for Febuwhump (mind the tags)

favorite thing I wrote: of my completed works, knee deep without a plea - Lucanis' POV of the weeks Rook spends in the Fade prison! I am really proud of the details I worked into this one for Lucanis and Spite, and the emotions across all of the characters. Honorable mention to before you can kill the monster (you have to say its name) - my WIP rewrite of the end of Davrin's personal arc, incorporating more of the nuance from Isseya's character in Last Flight, and filling in the gaps between the end of the novel and where Veilguard picks up. I'm really proud of the first chapters, and of where my outline is going, but I don't think I can put it at the top of my favorites until it's fully realized

favorite thing(s) I read:

there is no god but they'll kill you for him by tenderest (@/tendertieflings) - f!Lavellan & Dorian, Solavellan, heart-wrenching and angsty "Dorian & Lavellan deal with everything that happened with Solavellan and the world post-Trespasser.

floriography by ritualist - Harding/Josephine, tooth-rotting fluff and humor that contrasts Harding's earnest nature with Josephine's poise, bringing them together in a very sweet way.

contact poison by hellsreluctantheir (@/nonagesimus) - Teia/Viago, yes it's smut but it is also an amazing exploration of their dynamic, and really digs into some of the issues laid out for Viago in Tevinter Nights.

Razorwing by unoshot - f!Rook/Lucanis, a character study of their relationship throughout Veilguard that really pops off with the emotion and the imagery.

hound dogs howlin' round the gate by mortonsspoon (@shivunin) - f!Tabris & f!Tabris, I'm admittedly biased af bc this was an OC gift for me BUT objectively it is such a heartfelt piece about Tabris cousins that will get you all up in your city elf feels 😭💜

writing goals for 2025: finish & publish the rest of before you can kill the monster (you have to say its name)! And if I'm really ambitious, finish my Mahariel cure-for-the-Calling fic, which was the first DA fic I ever conceptualized, but has languished as I work and rework her canon. But it's outlined and I would love to write and finish it!

new works: 65 (!!!)

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highest hit oneshot:

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fic I spent the most time on:

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[elcor-thespian]

The rule is for every hour I clean my house, I can spend one hour yapping about my digital children. SO:

I'm doing Rook and partner questions for each of my Rooks. One question at a time.

6) What are their favorite things to do together? Do they share any hobbies? Do they teach each other their hobbies?

Here are the couples:

Nephele Mercar (human rogue) - Lucanis

Nasreen Aldwir (elf mage) - Emmrich

Aleksei Laidir (elf rogue) - Bellara

Brenna Thorne (human warrior) - Davrin

Elspeth de Riva (dwarf warrior) - Harding

Konstantin Ingellvar (Qunari warrior) - Neve

Paloma (Qunari mage) - Taash

Nephele and Lucanis both cook, although she doesn't let him know that until they are officially together. Nephele is from Rivain and her cooking style reflects that, so they spend a lot of time experimenting in the kitchen together showing each other different recipes and techniques. Nephele has never been a good baker however, so Lucanis is trying to help her get better (it's not going well). But Nephele also sews, and she's trying to teach him and that's not going well either. She get's bored when trying to learn to knit and it doesn't make sense anyway because they live in Antiva WHEN are they going to wear all of these scarves and sweaters. Lucanis points out that she doesn't need to make her own clothes anymore either because they can pay someone to do it.

Nasreen because a rabid reader when she meets Emmrich. She's never felt one way or the other about reading, she just hasn't had consistent access to books. But she starts burning through his library and WHAT DO YOU MEAN that this isn't your full library? There's more?? As she's reading she's coming to him with questions which turn into long conversations and eventually (as she learns more) debates. What do you mean debating isn't a hobby? It is if you're doing it right. Also they both have an interest in plants, although Emmrich prefers flowers and she prefers poisonous and carnivorous plants. Nasreen also plays guitar and sings. Emmrich doesn't have any musical ability but he loves listening to her.

Aleksei is functionally illiterate which initially made him feel pretty out of his depth with Bellara. But he's not a quitter so he used it as a way to get closer to her and now they're working on hie reading and writing by writing stories together. He is however, naturally gifted in alchemy and chemistry, which is a fancy way of saying he can make shit that explodes. He also tinkers around with mechanical things. How did you think we got the gun for the Saboteur specialization? Bellara and Aleksei's first date.

Brenna and Davrin are that annoying ass couple that work out together and hike. I mean good for them. Just can't relate.

NEVER forget that Lace Harding was an official member of the Sing-quisition. NEVER. Can Elspeth sing? Not in the slightest. NEITHER of these idiots can cook, so most of the time they go out to eat and try new food in whatever city they've ended up in. Elspeth is really in to wine hand has a share in the Dellamorte Vineyards post-Veilguard (Lucanis was like, of sick, you want to take some of this responsibility off of me? Done.). She's not good at gardening (they are fighting for their life trying to keep a single succulent alive, so Lace helps with that aspect.

Konstantin is a talented charcoal artist and poet, but he absolutely does not share this. Neve finds out eventually, and shows him her doodles in her notes (you know the ones). Once he is officially assisting her detective work (He is her Watson and is THRILLED about it), he does composite drawings of suspects, sketches of crime scenes, etc. He also does a lot of reading (mostly history), and will read to Neve to help her relax.

Paloma and Taash is hard because they really are opposite people and I haven't played through the romance yet, and Paloma is the character I've played the least. Paloma and Taash do meditate together (for different reasons and with different results). I think Paloma does also get into the dragon stuff. I think it would be really hard to date Taash and not be in to dragons.

[annakie]

We've been waiting literally ten years for a new Dragon Age game and now that it's going to be here tomorrow I am very much not ready.

My life needs to be a little less chaotic right now (it won't be until the middle of November.) The earliest I'm going to really be able to sit down and play more than a few hours is the week of Thanksgiving. But hey, I am staying home alone for Thanksgiving weekend so then I'm going to really get to devote time to just playing the hell out of the game.

I'm gonna be so behind.

It was a hard choice but I think I'm going to break the mold of me always playing a rogue first in Dragon Age games and having literally NEVER played a fighter type character in any DA game (or most any RPG ever.)

I haven't paid a ton of attention to the options yet but after a quick skim several weeks ago I think I'm going with a Grey Warden Fighter romancing Emmrich first.

Basing her off the character I just got done playing for a few years in 13th Age who is a 40-ish year old woman who, when she was only 20 years old had to make a hard call that ended up going very badly for her and it was kind of her downfall, so she spent most of the rest of the last 20 years trying to make up for it.

Second playthrough will be a rogue or mage who romances Davrin.

---

I've honestly BARELY gamed the last several months, what with all the renovation stuff happening and other stuff going on in life.

This weekend I swore to change that and, after spending all day Saturday working on house projects, decided to pick back up my ME3 playthrough that I had gotten to Thessia on and never finished.

But then I had to reinstall the game since the SSD I had been playing it on died. Then I had to reinstall all the mods, and picked up a few new ones. That took a few hours to make sure I got it all right.

I did end up playing, and actually got through Thessia... and then I was tired of being at my computer all day and went outside and read a book on the patio for awhile. Then I realized something was wrong with my new airondeck chair and spent an hour fixing it (my bad, I screwed two screws in the wrong place it turns out.

By the time all that was done it was time to prep for my Sunday night D&D game.

Not gonna finish before tomorrow since I'm running D&D tonight, too and still have to do Omega in there. (Plus the Citadel Epilogue Mod AFTER the game.) Ah well.

Never did finish my 2nd BG3 playthrough.

Never did finish writing my BG3 fic. It's just languishing.

Never did play Starfield more than a few hours despite buying the deluxe edition.

Started playing My Time at Portia and still haven't played more than like 8 hours of it, despite enjoying it (with lots of mods.)

Hoping now that the house is getting close to being done where I want it to be that maybe next year I can spend some time focusing on hobbies more.

Not that I regret a single thing about how I've spent my time this entire year. :)

Working on my last two house renovation posts, too. Definitely want to finish that since my two favorite rooms (after the master bath) I saved for last.

[satanstrousers]

A (mostly) Spoiler Free Veilguard Review! I did my best to avoid too many specifics, but also Read More for people who want to know nothing at all.

First, thoughts on all the companions:

Harding - Kind of a surprise to see when she was announced but I really liked her! They built out her story in a really fun way, I romanced her as a dwarf and her story is perfect for that.

Neve - Someone really cooked with the concept of Neve Gallus, but she as a character didn't really grow on me until the last act. Also her hat is stupid in a way that I just can't get over.

Bellara - I'm not gonna lie, I almost forgot to include her on this list. She's incredibly sweet, but I found myself falling asleep during her story. Super basic, super boring, but I saw that based on some decisions she can really grow in the last act, so maybe a second playthrough will have me see her in a kinder light.

Lucanis - What if we took Ezio Auditore and made him an awkward short king wife guy with a special interest in knives and coffee? Super fun, but I did traumatize him a little early on. :/

Emmrich - Undefeated. Far and away the best character Dragon Age has ever come up with and it's not even close. Manfred sweep.

Davrin - Listen, I love Griffons as much as the next guy, but Davrin was not an instant favorite. They rely a lot on Assan to carry his story at the beginning slow-play a lot of the sweeter parts until halfway, and even after I think there was way more that they could've explored with him (unfortunately a pretty consistent theme with DA characters). I did enjoy him in the second half, but I did him dirty, so I'm hoping the next time is a little better.

Taash - Genuinely would be the favorite if Emmrich wasn't around. Two character beats that have a common theme of accepting yourself, I thought it was very beautifully done and something I'm sure many people playing will relate to. Taash is like opposite-Karlach personality-wise and I mean that in the most affectionate way to both characters.

Ok spoiler free Plot:

Solas is a motherfucker in ways previously thought unachievable by one man, and the game knows it.

Seriously though, the best part of this game is Solas. Truly I can't remember the last time a video game made me hate someone as much as I hate Solas, and this game knows it. If you hated this dude in the first game, and you felt like things went a little unresolved, Veilguard has got you covered. If you hate him, you'll get to show it, and if you love him........ Well I hope you guys have a very happy life together far away from us.

Overall the story is... Fine? Its basically 70 hours of waiting to tell a couple gods to go fuck themselves. There's a lot of really fun moments and beats, but the connective tissue is the same as its always been in Bioware games.

Overall, combat and UI is a definite improvement over Inquisition but god I should hope so after 10 years. Dialog is pretty impressive and definitely made me feel by the end that the members of the Veilguard were actually friends. The pacing.... Is terrible. You're either doing nonsense side missions and fighting the same enemy 100 times, or blasting through the story at breakneck speed. They managed to do a pretty good job with returning characters, but if you're not HEAVILY invested in the series the moments where *insert character from previous game* appears feel like they're waiting for an applause break.

Final Review:

8/10 if you're a longtime Dragon Age fan

6/10 if you're just jumping in (which is insane this series is fully inaccessible if you haven't at least played Inquisition.)

[utilitycaster]

I HAVE VEILGUARDED. everything below the cut for spoiler reasons. I will also say to the anon I shut down earlier (again, me not you!) that I do intend to do a second run because I had a marvelous time, I would really love to do the Dock Town quests and explore Neve's other options (and romance her, frankly) and check out some of the other companion options (honestly I'd be open to almost all of them except for Lichdom. sorry I refuse to leave Manfred dead and I'm correct.) and maybe this time I'll actually solve the stupid wisp puzzles and get all the chests and uhhhhh maybe even play on Easy mode instead of Easier Than Easy mode (because lbr my equipment does not matter a ton because. story mode.)

because I am a good girl and did all the quests everyone lived. I also accidentally got the best ending, because Rook in this run is a romantic and optimistic person. This is funny to me because I am god's greatest hater and so I am ROLEPLAYING a character who is like yeah inquisitor go be with your boyfriend who looks like a stupid egg. I did have the Diet Essence Of Mythal but I've been informed the secret even better ending only hits if you know other past characters, which I don't, so whomst cares!

Takes on characters from previous games in brief. Obviously Harding is great. Solas gets his happy ending and that is FINE I guess. Generic Default Inquisitor Lavellan is like. again Rook is like "do what makes you happy but I am like DUMP HIM. which means that while Morrigan is very "I say things in a portentous voice that are extremely obvious" to me, her deep and abiding hater tendencies towards Solas do it for me. Obviously Varric is great as well. Dorian and Mae? Great (unsure if Mae is in previous games but anyway, love her). Not sure who else is a returning character but I think that covers the bulk of it.

This is very out of order but: because no one died other than of course Davrin in the Isle of the Gods, the pay respect for the dead scene is unintentionally really fucking funny to me, a person who has had to go into morgues for professional reasons. Literally like I walk into a morgue where I know zero people. I walk out. I pass Teia and Viago flirting aggressively as an archdemon ravages Minrathous. I continue.

The final conversations are really good; blighted Neve is of course horrifying but she gets better and her nailpolish, crucially, is not chipped. This is HILARIOUS to me. The final romance line with Bellara is lovely. The ending conversations are all really good but Taash's and Emmrich's were my favorite outside of Bellara's. My girlfriend and I are going to hang out with griffons and she's going to write so much fanfiction about us and it will be unhinged.

Hilarious and sexy of me to wear the appearance of the shadow dragons armor I got literally in like. Shadows of Minrathous or something. the entire fucking time. You can see it in the screenshots and I assure you it's only for the vibes (deep V neck and sick chest tats), I am actually in +8 Warden Champion full plate armor and wearing some wild-ass helm (I did not at any point hide the appearance of my shield. even when I was using the gaudiest gold one that looks like a shell from the lords of fortune. I eventually got a very sick-ass Mourn Watch shield). But it does feel really funny to like, pick Treviso, send Neve to the shadow realm, and wear this armor the full time. I literally didn't see Tarquin for like 2.5 acts.

Elger'nan's first form is weak to necrotic damage. I took Taash and Lucanis. I am fully statted out as a reaper. I have an AOE that does over a thousand necrotic damage. genuinely it was a comedy, I triggered the cut scene where Neve goes to the throne and wrests control so Solas can kill the archdemon almost immediately. Second battle was harder but also level 50 story mode so it was FINE.

I do think a Trick Solas ending would be fun; fighting him seems like it would just kind of suck but like. It's funny I actually really did feel grateful after Blood of Arlathan and then after he stuck me in the mind prison I was like FUCK THIS GUY FOR REAL even after he helped us through in the endgame and killed the archdemon.

Lords of Fortune continue to be hilarious to me. There's a codex that's very BY OUR POWERS COMBINED right before the final assault on Minrathous that I described thusly:

Then in the final scene before the narration the Lords are pulling people out of the wreckage. Imagine you're in a world-ending fight during an eclipse with wild-ass mood lighting and you are trapped under rubble as a horrifying blight tentacle monster rages above and then it all stops and THEN someone in a gold bikini helps you up.

In all seriousness the fact that the Mourn Watch and Lords of Fortune don't come up in the final narration does have me like. yeah whoever wrote their faction quests should have worked harder. I know the mourn watch is largely unscathed because there's no point blighting the undead but like, idk, I feel there could have been more venatori work there that tied into Zara's whole deal, and the Antaam or Wardens ties to Rivain could have been more thoroughly explored. Taash and Emmrich's companion questlines are fantastic but even playing Mourn Watch and loving the build and the vibe, I was like hmmmm this is underserved.

Second hater moment: loved the song over the credits but it felt jarring as hell to have a modern sound here. stick to the hans zimmer. this reminds me, I should listen to the soundtrack because as my Midst Mutuals can attest I am literally the worst at noticing themes. I know Harding's and Emmrich's because I really like them and like, I vaguely recall Lucanis's because it's got accordion elements but otherwise I'm like uhhhhh if it's not the main theme or the Solas theme I'm confused.

I also realized that hilariously, if you like Neve or Lucanis but are ok with romancing someone else (and I very much am) it's actually kind of great to fuck over their city because then you feel justified in taking them out on every single mission to try to up your bond level.

Finished with Lucanis, Harding, and Bellara fully level 10 and everyone else level 9 (including Davrin, RIP); I do wonder how you can get everyone to 10. I might have assigned some quests badly but also like, 9 ain't bad.

anyway feel free to ask questions; this was great and I'm so happy I did it.

[rxmanticxsm]

hey y'all! i know pretty much everybody is sharing their thoughts on veilguard, but i wanted to throw mine in too. i'm a long-time dragon age fan; i've been playing the games since i was 16! veilguard was what i have been looking forward to ever since then. in some ways it was amazing. in other ways... a bit of a letdown.

let's start with what i enjoyed! first of all, i really liked our cast of characters. i found them all to be interesting and i enjoyed their unique problems from their past to solve. their designs were awesome too. my favorites are lucanis and davrin ^_^

i also really liked the visuals of the game overall! the worlds were beautiful and the characters were too! i especially appreciated the black hair styles available. super awesome to see my hair in a game for once!

i know not everybody likes the combat (cough cough my younger brother- i think he just wanted the old tactical stuff back). i was fine with it though! though not entirely... i'll get into this later. other than that, i enjoyed the storyline of the game and seeing solas again! getting to really know solas and see his backstory was super cool. i also loved learning more about elven lore as they've always been my favorite in the dragon age series.

with the positives out of the way, let's talk about what wasn't so great (in my opinion).

i think the progression of your relationship with your companions was a flop here. i missed being able to walk up to them and talk to them. this was valuable in getting to know them and creating that feeling that you're building a relationship with them. in the current system.. i don't really feel any closeness to my companions! i don't see why they're sticking around with the team or opening up to my rook in the sparse scenes they do have. it seems more work went towards their interaction with each other than with my rook.

this is sadly a theme with the romance too. there's just.. hardly anything! especially if you're a lucanis romancer. going to the lighthouse and seeing EVERYONE has an interaction but lucanis was honestly a bit irritating? there doesn't even seem to be any reason for rook and lucanis to be together. they just don't talk LOL along with that, having companions flirt with each other in front of rook while trying to lock down a romance with one of them was frustrating! i think this would have been better after rook has committed a romance with someone else. it was only made more annoying with the fact that the companions flirted with each other more than they did with rook lol

regarding combat, the indication that an attack was coming was wayyy too small and hard to see in the fray of battle. i found this feature to be mostly useless as half the time i couldn't see it while i was attacking. i also didn't like the way some enemies would just keep tossing me around! perhaps this was a skill issue on my behalf... but there were times where i would dodge and get thrown right after lol i could not get up!

locations felt a bit empty compared to inquisition. there just wasn't much to do in some of them. rivain got ignored by me entirely because it was too boring imo and there wasn't much for me to engage with there. i also ignored dock town because i didn't really like the area. i was personally hoping for a more illustrious location if we were going to tevinter.

other than that, there's some other smaller things i didn't care for but they're not important enough to address in a paragraph.

as a whole, i enjoyed veilguard! i'd give it a 7.5-8/10. it's good on it own. compared to other dragon age games, not so much. i think companions have always been really crucial to dragon age games and veilguard kinda sold that. that was most of what brought my ranking of it down. that's just my opinion though! it's still good for many other reasons!

[skrevel]

I really need to info dump about my rooks so badly. Idk if anyone else will read it but I run this blog for me so I'm making it. I'm doing three different playthroughs at the same time, because I'm crazy. I have my blind first time playthrough which I have done with all the dragon age games. I progress a bit with this one then catch up to it with my other playthroughs. Then I made my lavellan playthrough because I didn't want to make myself wait until I finished my blind playthrough to get more content for that. I didn't plan to make a third character but I loved the crows so much I NEEDED to make a crow rook and to my surprise it has turned into my favorite of the bunch.

Nyxi is my blind playthrough rook. She's a human, a Lord's of Fortune treasure goblin, and a mage. I like to think she's a real girls girl. She's romancing Lucanis and I like to think she makes Solas listen to how attractive she thinks he is before they discuss anything concrete about saving the world. She's a lot like Kelly from the office, if kelly wasn't as self centered. I think she's been a drifter most of her life and while she likes traveling and hunting treasure, I also think she's really jealous of people who have a place they feel like they absolutely belong.

Sorcha is also a mage, but she's an elf and a shadow dragon. She's very involved with the anti slavery movement. I headcanon that she had a brush with slavers herself and got help from them. Then, she realized later on she could do a lot more with her magic. She realized she could actually us it to do something worthwhile. She's romancing Davrin, grumpy man taking care of a cute animal was too hard to resist. She has less headcanons than the other two but I still really love her.

Finally, there's Acanita 'Nite' for short (named after aconitum which is the scientific name for wolfsbane and also poisonous). She's my crow, and the only non mage of the bunch. And honestly she REALLY wants to be able to do magic. Who wouldn't honestly? She's been fairly happy with the crows and her life with them. But there are things about being an assassin she doesn't like and has always wanted to do something more worthwhile. I think that's part of the reason she's sent off with Varric in the first place. I think Viago was at least aware of this to some extent. I think she's probably more lonely than she let's on. People rarely see her as her, they see a crow or more recently "Rook" but they don't see HER. If that makes sense. Which I think makes even more sense for her to be the character who romances Emmerich. He is a very warm person from the start and is very interested in asking rook if they would tell him stories about themselves and their travels. She's also absolutely DELIGHTED to help with any kind of rituals or rites. She loves magic and he's very open in including her in it tangentially and sharing about it, he's literally a teacher. She doesn't care that it's necromancy, she's a crow a dead body is a dead body it doesn't really freak her out.

[bowsofwrath]

My personal (and sometimes silly) Dragon Age Veilguard thoughts.

Not a fan of the superman stance Rook uses in almost every cut scene. At ease Clark Kent.

Qunari Rook should be as tall as the Ataam.

I love playing as Qunari Rook

I love Qunari horns and hairstyles are separate.

I love the variety of hair and horn choices.

I know the amount of choices made in the previous games was becoming too huge to carry everything ove3 to the new game but there should have been at least a couple more that were relevant.

This fictional universe needs the same amount of fictional racism as the other games. especially in tevinter.

I love Varric so stinkin much.

Varric has a great design in this game. I saw that inquisition belt buckle.

My only complaint about the Lighthouse is I wish you got a bedroom.

also I know it would be a waste of game developers time but can we come across at least one bathroom in all of Thedas?

It seems like there was less variety of party banter this time around.

I love you can pet animals in the streets.

I love you can pet Assan.

I love Assan.

I like Manfred

I'm indifferent to playing rock paper scissors with him.

The Siege Weisshaupt is possibly my favorite quest.

I miss crafting. It was a big part of some of my Inquisitor head canons.

I went into Tearastone island way too confident.

I thought it was going to be like picking roles for the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2.

It was not

Assan deserved better

I understand they did that because most people would choose Davrin if they knew going in that whoever they chose would die, because Harding is an established character and grey wardens have the calling hanging over their head but God Damn!

My first Rook romanced Davrin so I was shocked

I love and am thankful for trans representation in this game. I know it's scraps but it is there.

That being said I agree with everyone about Taash's quest line being so poorly written.

Taash's voice actor Jin Maley really made me feel like I was listening to someone watch their mother die. That scream was a thing of beauty.

A blighted Minrathous is so much more depressing that a blighted Treveso.

Picking to save Minrathous makes more sense to me.

I think a good portion of people who picked to save Treveso did it to romance Lucanis.

Seheron was right there. RIGHT THERE!

I really wasn't too excited to romance any of the characters.

I wish we could have put decoration around the Lighthouse and not just in the meditation room

The griffins are still screwed because 12 individuals from the same clutch of eggs is not enough to create a genetically diverse population. Inbreeding will cause genetic defects.

I thought Solas was collecting an army.

The first time we see Emmrich I said "behold the great and powerful Oz" out loud.

Why does no one in Nevarra have the same accent as Cassandra?

The Viper is Batman coded.

Elgar'nan looks like a power rangers villain, which is not a bad thing.

Elgar'nan also looks a kinda Qunari to me.

I wish the tattoos, body paint and scars had some sort of label to show what faction or race it's from.

I knew Varric wasn't getting out of he game alive when I heard him say he was "getting too old for this"

Candlehops are so cute!

The hair animations is chef's kiss

[thekorcariwilds]

okaaay just finished veilguard, spoilery thoughts below the cut. tldr is i liked it a lot :-)

dao=da2>dav>>>>dai

i have a handful of critiques and nitpicks that i will inevitably complain about in the future because this is a dragon age game HOWEVER i also had a great time and i am overall quite happy with it.

neve was my favorite character, surprising no one. second favorite was probably harding or lucanis, but i feel like i need to do everyone's romances before i make up my mind on that

sera-blackwall friendship mention from harding was huge for me

isabela cameo was better than i feared in all ways except clothing. we should all throw rotten tomatoes at whoever decided to put her in that fuck ass bikini loincloth thing. hoping eventually someone will make a mod that keeps the top (which i think is cute) but with Actual Pants like she had in dai's multiplayer instead.

choosing between treviso and minrathous was maybe the first time a dragon age game has forced me to make a choice where both options felt impossible to live with and also made me nauseous in real life. so i liked that.

had harding sacrifice herself killing ghilan'nain and thought i was handling it well and then as i was running around talking to everyone before the final series of quests i started heading towards her room on autopilot, remembered she was dead, and just burst into tears immediately. and then taash was like "everyone i love dies" and i started crying even harder. and then right after that i had sex with neve.

i'm probably doing harding romance next so i'm intrigued to see the sacrifice with davrin instead. will probably also make me cry.

probably my biggest story issue in the entire game is that i think what they did with the crows was sooooo boring why are only the wardens allowed to be flawed and morally corrupt why can't the assassin league that kidnaps and abuses children also be a little bit evil. as a treat. for me. >:(

didn't like varric's little narration montages that happened throughout the game, i felt like they could've been cut entirely and we wouldn't have lost anything

i was spoiled about varric being Dead The Whole Time and was expecting to find it annoying and contrived but i really liked what it did for solas's characterization so i'm mostly okay with it

speaking of solas, i looooved what they did with him this game. i did the tricksy ending and his "you are a mortal! a mortal! and i am a—(bitter laughter) i am a fool" was very good

ghilan'nain and elgar'nan were also very fun villains

non-story stuff: the combat was fine, the paraphrased dialogue wheel still annoys me, the cc isn't perfect but is soooo much better than any other bioware game that i can't complain too much, wish you could tint clothing/armor because i dislike the default color schemes for most of them lol

[fancytrinkets]

veilguard thoughts, second playthrough

I'm playing as a human mage Grey Warden, she/her, this time around and planning to play the Harding romance.

In terms of decisions, I'm doing all the opposite things this time. Which means I've just defended Treviso and Blighted Minrathous. It means I will also:

Have Harding let go of her anger

Push Bellara to destroy her people's history

Send the griffons to the Grey Wardens

Have Emmrich become a lich

Push Taash to embrace Qunari culture

Get a choice about Lucanis instead of Neve

Sacrifice Davrin

Have Neve get taken away instead of Bellara

Deceive or fight Solas instead of reconciling with him

I really liked being a Shadow Dragon elven rogue in my first playthrough, so I'm struggling a little this time. I did not like Blighting Minrathous and then seeing the gallows put up all around the city. (They killed Lorelai, and I felt attached to her given her storyline connection to Loghain's humanitarian crimes in the Denerim alienage)

Despite how much I liked the Shadow Dragons, I also feel good about playing as a Warden. Narratively it makes a lot of sense as the Blight starts showing up everywhere and Rook can handle it. (I sent the horrible mayor of De Meta's Crossing off to become a Warden, so I'm fully expecting to see him betray us all at Weisshaupt soon, but that's just my guess, so no one spoil it please!)

There have not been too many mage-specific dialogue options so far. When the lets-recruit-the-magekiller conversation comes up with Neve, she acknowledges that Rook is also a mage with a comment like "oh, don't worry, he won't target either of us..." But there hasn't been any "what was your magical upbringing/training like" kind of option for a mage Rook to compare notes with the other mage companions. I didn't expect it, but would've liked it.

I'm sort of guessing my human Warden mage was from Tevinter and went to a Circle there before joining the Wardens, because the mage background object she places in her quarters and talks about is, like, a fancy-ass magical device that she BUILT as part of her schooling. Not exactly the non-Tevinter Circle experience, I've got to say... so I guess it works for her as a human Warden with no national origin specified, but I'm thinking that same mage background object might not work as well with other faction-race combinations a player could go with

Beyond the Shadow Dragons and the Wardens, the other factions hold less appeal for me. Honestly I think it's because of the things I agree with about many of the critiques that are making the rounds: The lack of continuity from previous games, the jarringly widespread acceptance of magic and spirits beyond Tevinter, Rivain, and the Grey Wardens; and the politics feeling overly sanitized in ways I'm not finding plausible given the established lore to date.

These are BioWare's choices and I don't know why they were made, but I do think they remove some of the familiarity and depth from the world. And I do miss what's not there, but could have been provided.

That said, I don't feel disappointed in this game. I do experience a number of moments where I think, "oh, this part isn't my favorite and I would have liked to see it done differently," but I don't tend to dwell on those thoughts or have much emotion attached to them.

Overall, I think my general positive experience is very much tied to the fact that:

I like Solas as a character and I'm very interested in his backstory

I have now read all the novels, so can get more out of seeing side characters like Felassan, Valya, Isseya, etc

the Dorian romance has a lot of importance for me and I like how that continues into Veilguard and how Dorian's role in the story plays out

I was secretly hoping Varric would get to have an emotionally satisfying death in this game and I do enjoy how that played out

I'm letting my imagination run wild thinking about a Southern Thedas questline involving the Inquisitor, Hawke, and the Hero of Ferelden. It's occupying the writing side of my brain in ways that might give me a new fanfic project, and I feel like I need one of those right now, given the state of the real world where I live...

I am not sure how I'll feel after playing all the choices I didn't make the first time. It's going to be interesting, I bet.

[queenerdloser]

also i AM playing veilguard and i made a wee pocket sized lad of a man for my first rook and i love him and his boyband hair. spoilers & reactions below the cut.

my first rook is a lord of fortune mage w/the plan to romance lucanis. he's very snarky and i love him.

i'm glad they made the call to go back to the like. da2 style of dialogue.

me so far every time rook talks to solas: get his ass!!!!!!

that said, i feel like they're making solas like rook too quick. what the fuck. it took my inquisitor like YEARS to build a rapport with this motherfucker.

i hate the combat lol. maybe i'll enjoy it more when i get used to it but there's too many moving pieces to keep track of for me. my favorite combat is where i can just like mash one button and easily kill everything in my path, i don't want to be strategic and have to micromanage everything. also what is this three potions bullshit. even dai gave you 10. and i have to like find them in random pots????? what the fuck????

very fun to sprint and jump. makes me feel zoom.

why do the elves just accept that their gods are back and evil? like. it feels like they accept it WAY too quickly lol.

dialogue so far is uh. very cheesy. a lot of "we're all great so let's work together!" stuff that is like. fine. but cheesy.

i'd die for lace harding. she looks so cute in this game.

when solas stabbed varric i SCREAMED. i was like. do NOT kill my boy in the first fifteen minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm still only like a couple of hours in but varric was being suspiciously sick in the cutscenes so i have feeling he is going to die :((((

me: where is my BOYFRIEND (lucanis) and my FUTURE BOYFRIEND (davrin)

i love neve but i have a feeling we are going to butt heads a lot lol. i'm playing my rook as the reckless, confident type with a saving person thing that feels true to what we know about his backstory and he's already disagreed with neve several times. whoops.

i love the little marker showing me exactly where to go. hell yeah, hold my hand with this bullshit. kind of glad they dumped the open world of dai and got us back on rails.... tho that may change as i get further in the game???

when i say i spent HOURS in the character creator.... like i love it but it honestly felt like TOO much tbh. esp. when i had to do it for rook and then immediately again for my inquisitor too.

i ended up going lord of fortune background almost entirely bc i liked their casual look the best but i think i'll definitely try to play most of the backgrounds. they're so fun! i was THIS close to doing shadow dragons.

honestly minrathous is really cool???? all the locations so far have been great, love the lighthouse. (v. funny 2 me that we get all of these cool locations thanks to solas. man knows how to find a cool spot and name it i guess.)

the updated blight is VERY creepy. also those new darkspawn??? i gasped.

i do like that they're playing solas as this like. enemy who is begrudgingly allied due to worse enemies. but i'm so curious how they'll play it when the inquisitor gets involved. i'm doing my kai lavellan inky who DEFINITELY is going to try to stop solas at all costs... uh oh lol.

i know people were salty about not getting to integrate a lot of dai choices but tbh i'm fine with it. i'm more happy we got to include our inquisitor tbh.

morrigan showing up looking younger than she did in da:o.... um okay lol. also i kind of hate that she's considered an expert on elven history yet again. stop that.

im going to say again i hate the combat bc i really do hate it. praying it grows on me as i get more used to it bc otherwise i'm enjoying the game a lot.

[ididitforthedogs]

Thoughts on veilguard below- this got long

So i think my ranking of dragon age games remains the order in which they were released. Origins is just... It's special to me. It has its faults, but it was the first rpg I've played, and there is an atmosphere about it that I remember from my first playthrough, and I've never had it again since.

I romanced Bellara (because she reminded me of Merrill) and like... The romance content was severely lacking imo. I had basically no scenes with her. Idk if this was a glitch or a feature at this point. I feel like the writers had favorites and she definitely was not one of them.

I miss the approval bars for companions!!!! Origins and DA2 let me see exactly where I stood with them and gave me concrete numbers about how much they approved or disapproved!! In DA2, if you don't give Merrill the arulinholm and you're her friend, you get the opposite in rivalry- like, if you're her friend +50 and you don't give it to her, you get rivalry +100 so that you end up +50 but the other way around. You can't get that kind of thing unless you give us the numbers!!!! I was hoping that they would bring it back after inquisition, but no.

I still don't like the combat. I don't like having to aim and I really don't like only having 3 abilities. The point of levelling up is to get more abilities!! What is the point if you can only use 3 of them? That being said, I did really like the non-linear method of levelling up.

It hurt me when Morrigan showed up looking like Flemeth. (But I still maintain that origins!flemeth is the better design)

There was exactly one (1) Merrill mention, and it was an offhand comment by Isabela at the proving grounds. One comment about Merrill, who cleansed an eluvian from scratch, who ABSOLUTELY would have loved the veil jumpers (finding out more about history? uh, yeah.). I know they wouldn't put Merrill and Bellara in a room together because Bellara is basically Merrill with longer hair, but the conversations that they would have... About Tamlen, about Cyrian, about remembering, rambling about eluvians and ancient magic...... Merrill could have been her mentor. By all rights, she should have been. Even if we didn't see her, Bellara could have at least mentioned her.

~~

I think my biggest problems with veilguard boil down to this: I don't buy into the premise and I absolutely hate that only 3 decisions from previous games matter.

I don't like how they made the elven gods real and evil but the maker? Oh well we'll never tell about that, pseudo-christianity gets doubt. I don't understand why it was just elgarnan and ghilanain and not the others. I still hate Solas and hate how I had to talk to him after missions and check in with how he's doing and do we want to redeem him because actually, I really don't care. I didn't want to see my Inquisitor again because I knew they would butcher it, and they did. I don't want a DA protagonist to carry through to multiple games. I finished that chapter, now let me start a new one. Small Easter eggs or codex entries are all the references I really want, because as soon as you take the PC out of player control, you're inevitably going to mess it up for someone.

The whole Varric death thing is... Interesting. But it's hard to feel that attached to the relationship between rook and Varric because we never actually see it build! It's just one scene and then just being told about how you're close and whatever. It's relying on the user to have a connection, not the PC, and that's not a very strong narrative choice. I do like his redesign, though I'm glad he's done with- I never connected with him, so I'm kind of happy that I don't have to worry about seeing him in another game again.

I don't like the davrin/harding choice. The fact that its inescapable that one of them will die, and while it's something that you pick, you don't even know that you're picking it at the time. It's a weird place for a death too- close to the end but not completely there, but also not a midpoint plot twist. Also doesn't make sense why it's one or the other.

~~

To be clear, though, there was a decent amount that they did well. The maps are much smaller and more contained than inquisition, which I prefer. I like being able to pick different skins for armor so that you can equip the best stuff but still look good. Solas is holding up the veil, which means I never have to see him again. Plus because I fought him at the end, he pulled the same "I am a god" bullshit as Elgarnan while getting sucked into space, which was satisfying (even though I had to spend most of the game trusting the literal trickster god). I really liked breaking boxes. The auto shimmer around chests was good. The text was actually readable. The companions felt real.

~~

Anyway, if you read this far, this is a checkpoint. Set down your phone or computer, take a drink, and do something other than scroll on Tumblr.

[pupkinpumpkin]

I've never been someone who makes multiple OCs for video games, I make one and I stay with one, but for Veilguard I'm thinking...

My original sarcastic Shadow dragon who romances Lucanis

Mourn Watcher who has the personality of a golden retriever romancing Emmrich (rogue)

Alistair and my Cousland's daughter who becomes a Grey Warden and romances Davrin (bc Bioware hasn't told us anything about our HoF, Cousland is fine and she has plans for whenever her daughter's Calling comes) (mage, bc of Fiona)

Hot Qunari shadow dragon for Neve (Rogue)

Serious but sweet enby Veil jumper elf for Bellara (Warrior)

Mad scientist dwarf dude for Harding (MAYHEM) (Rogue)

Trans Lord of Fortune girl for Taash (Warrior)

Exact same as my first Rook, but an Antivan Crow for Lucanis again (Mage)

Then round that out with my first Rook AGAIN (Mage) who romances my favorite romance