#it’s a good game but it’s not a good dragon age game

[ohmyarda]

A letter dating six months back:

"Idiot: I hope you’re reading this. If the trail has really led you to Tevinter, it’ll be harder to get messages through. The Antaam in Antiva are prickly about anything to do with our neighboring kingdom.

Back home, things have cooled, but they are not forgotten. Killing all those Antaam might have felt righteous in the moment, but the Talons are still complaining that your actions ruined weeks of setting up a larger, more effective strike.

I am one of the Talons still complaining. Consider this trip with Varric a contract. Crows don’t fail contracts, especially Crows of House de Riva who may need to improve their judgment. But there is more at stake than honor. Whatever this “Solas” is up to needs to be stopped. I’ve seen enough of his handiwork to know that. Don’t get careless out there. Don’t fail. And don’t get yourself killed, or I will come after you in the Fade myself."

– Viago

Portrait no.3 for the amazing @ohmyarda this time of her lovely Rook~

[onelastkiss4you]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Just Went From A Good RPG To One Of BioWare’s Most Important Games

In light of BioWare scattering some of its most foundational veteran talent to the winds, Dragon Age: The Veilguard sure reads like something made by people who saw the writing on the wall. The RPG leaves off on a small cliffhanger that could launch players into a fifth game, but I’m skeptical that we’ll ever get it. The quickness with which publisher Electronic Arts gutted BioWare and masked it with talk of being more “agile” and “focused” shortly after it was revealed The Veilguard underperformed in the eyes of the power that be makes me wonder if BioWare was also unsure it would get to return to Thedas a fifth time. Looking back, I’m pretty convinced the team was working as if Rook’s adventure through the northern regions of this beloved fantasy world might be the last time anyone, BioWare or fan, stepped foot in it. But that may have only made me appreciate the game even more.

Yeah, I might be doomsaying, but there’s a lot of reasons to do so right now. The loss of talented people like lead writer Trick Weekes, who has been a staple in modern BioWare since the beginning of Mass Effect, or Mary Kirby who wrote characters like Varric, the biggest throughline through the Dragon Age series, doesn’t inspire confidence that EA understands the lifeblood of the studio it acquired in 2007. The Veilguard has been a divisive game for entirely legitimate reasons and the most bad-faith ones you can imagine on the internet in 2025, but my hope is that history will be kinder to it as time goes on. 

A Kotaku reader reached out to me after the news broke to ask if they should still play The Veilguard after everything that happened. My answer was that now we are probably in a better position to appreciate it for what it was: a (potentially) final word.

The Veilguard is just as much a send-off for a long-running story as it does a stepping stone for what (might) come. Its secret ending implies a new threat is lurking somewhere off in the distance but by and large, The Veilguard is about the end of an era. BioWare created an entire questline essentially writing Thedas’ history in stone, removing any ambiguity that gave life to over a decade of theory-crafting. As a long-time player, I’m glad The Veilguard solidifies the connective tissue between what sometimes felt like world of isolated cultures that lacked throughlines that made the world feel whole. But sitting your cast of weirdos down for a series of group therapy sessions unpacking the ramifications of some of the biggest lore dumps the studio has ever put to a Bluray disc isn’t the kind of narrative choice you make if you’re confident there’s still a future for the franchise. 

Unanswered questions are the foundation of sequels, and The Veilguard has an almost anxious need to stamp those out. Perhaps BioWare learned a hard lesson by leaving Dragon Age: Inquisition on a cliffhanger and didn’t want to repeat the same restriction. But The Veilguard doesn’t just wrap up its own story, it concludes several major threads dating back to Origins and feels calculated and deliberate. If BioWare’s goal with The Veilguard was to bring almost everything to a definitive end, the thematic note it leaves this world on acts as a closing graf summing up a thesis the series hopes to convey.

Pushing away the bigotry that has followed The Veilguard like a starving rat digging through trash, one of the most common criticisms I heard directed against the game was that it lacked a certain thorny disposition that was prevalent in the first three games. Everyone in the titular party generally seems to like each other, there aren’t real ethical and philosophical conflicts between the group, and the spats that do arise are more akin to the arguments you probably get into with your best friends. It’s a new dynamic for the series. The Veilguard doesn’t feel like coworkers as The Inquisition did or the disparate group who barely tolerated each other we followed in Dragon Age II. They are a friend group who, despite coming from different backgrounds, factions, and places, are pretty much on the same page about what the world should be. They’re united by a common goal, sure, but at the core of each of their lived experiences is a desire for the world to be better.

This rose-colored view of leftism doesn’t work for everyone. At its worst, The Veilguard can be saccharine to the point of giving you a cavity, which is far from what people have come to expect from a series in which Fenris and Anders didn’t care if the other lived or died. It also bleeds into a perceived softening of the universe. Factions like the Antivan Crows have essentially become the Bat Family with no mention of the whole child slavery thing that was our first introduction to them back in Origins. The Lords of Fortune, a new pirate faction, goes to great lengths to make sure you know that they’re not like the other pirates who steal from other cultures, among other things. I joked to a friend once that The Veilguard is a game terrified of getting canceled, and as such a lot of the grit and grime has been washed off for something shiny and polished. 

That is the more critical lens to view the way The Veilguard’s sanitation of Thedas. To an extent, I agree. We learned so much about how the enigmatic country of the Tevinter Imperium was a place built upon slavery and blood sacrifice, only for us to conveniently hang out in the common poverty-stricken areas that are affected by the corrupt politics we only hear about in sidequests and codex entries. But decisions like setting The Veilguard’s Tevinter stories in the slums of Dogtown gives the game and its writers a place to make a more definitive statement, rather than existing in the often frustrating centrism Dragon Age loved to tout for three games.

I have a lot of pain points I can shout out in the Dragon Age series, but I don’t think one has stuck in my craw the way the end of Anders rivalry relationship goes down in Dragon Age II. This is a tortured radical mage who is willing to give his life to fight for the freedom of those who have been born into a corrupt system led by the policing Templars. And yet, if you’ve followed his rivalry path, Anders will turn against the mages he, not five minutes ago, did some light terrorism trying to free. In Inquisition, this conflict of ideals and traditions comes to a head, but you’re able to essentially wipe it all under the rug as you absorb one faction or the other into your forces. So often Dragon Age treats its conflicts and worldviews as toys for the player to slam against one another, shaping the world as they see fit, and bending even the most fiercely devoted radical to your whims. And yes, there are some notable exceptions to this rule, but when it came to world-shifting moments of change, Dragon Age always seemed scared to assert that the player might be wrong. Mages and Templars, oppressed and oppressors, were the same in the eyes of the game, each worthy of the same level of scrutiny.

Before The Veilguard, I often felt Dragon Age didn’t actually believe in anything. Its characters did, but as a text, Dragon Age often felt so preoccupied with empowering the player’s decisions that it felt like Thedas would never actually get better, no matter how much you fought for it. While it may lack the same prickly dynamics and the grey morality that became synonymous with the series, The Veilguard’s doesn’t just believe that the world is full of greys and let you pick which shade you’re more comfortable with. It’s the most wholeheartedly the Dragon Age universe has declared that the world of Thedas can be better than it was before.

Essentially retconning the Antivan Crows to a family of superheroes is taking a hammer to the problem, whereas characters like Neve Gallus, a mage private eye with a duty-bound love for her city and its people, are the scalpel with which BioWare shifts its vision of how the world of Thedas can change. Taash explores their identity through the lens of Dragon Age’s longstanding Qunari culture, known for its rigidness in the face of an ever-changing world, and comes out the other end a new person, defined entirely by their own views and defying others. Harding finds out the truth behind how the dwarves were severed from magic and still remembers that she believes in the good in people. The heroes of The Veilguard have seen the corruption win out, and yet never stop believing that something greater is possible. It's not even an option in The Veilguard's eyes. The downtrodden will be protected, the oppressed will live proudly, and those who have been wronged will find new life.

That belief is what makes The Veilguard a frustrating RPG, to some. It’s so unyielding in its belief that Thedas and everyone who inhabits it can be better that it doesn’t really entertain you complicating the narrative. Rook can come from plenty of different backgrounds, make decisions that will affect thousands of people, but they can never really be an evil bastard. If they did, it would fundamentally undermine one of the game’s most pivotal moments. In the eleventh hour, Dragon Age mainstay Varric Tethras is revealed to have died in the opening hour, and essentially leaves all his hopes and dreams on the shoulders of Rook. After our hero is banished to the Fade and forced to confront their regrets in a mission gone south, Varric’s spirit sends Rook on their way to save the day one last time. He does so with a hearty chuckle, saying he doesn’t need to wish you good luck because “you already have everything you need.” He is, of course, referring to the friends you have calling to you from beyond the Fade. 

Varric, the narrator of Dragon Age, uses his final word to declare a belief that things will be okay. This isn’t because Rook is the chosen one destined to save the world, but because they have found people who are unified by one thing: a need to fight for a better world. But that’s what makes it compelling as a possibly final Dragon Age game. Reaching the end of a universe’s arc and being wholly uninterested in leaving it desecrated by hubris or prejudice is a bold claim on BioWare’s part. It takes some authorship away from the player, but in return, it leaves the world of Thedas in a better place than we found it.

The Veilguard is an idealistic game, but it’s one that BioWare has earned the right to make. Dragon Age’s legacy has been one of constantly shifting identity, at least two counts of development hell, and a desire to gives players a sandbox to roleplay in. Perhaps, as Dragon Age likely comes to a close, it’s better to leave Dragon Age with a game as optimistic as the people who made it. I can’t think of a more appropriate finale than one that represents the world its creators hope to see, even as the world we live in now gives us every reason to fall to despair.

In my review for The Veilguard I signed off expressing hope for BioWare’s future that feels a bit naive in retrospect. Would a divisive but undeniably polished RPG that felt true to the studio’s history be enough when, after 10 years of development, rich suits were probably looking for a decisive cultural moment? That optimism was just about a video game. Having lived through the past 32 years, most of the optimism I’ve ever held feels naive to look back on. I think I’m losing hope that the world will get any better. But even if we haven’t reached The Veilguard’s idealized vision, I’ll take some comfort in knowing someone previously at BioWare still believes it’s possible. - ken shepard, shepardcdr.bsky.social

[hemlock-dreams]

HEMLOCK!!! Have you been playing Dragon Age? You said you'd be MIA because if it. And. Bro. I'm so fucking obsessed with DA. My two biggest obsessions: Dragon Age and Spiderman. If YOU love DA you GOTTA tell me who your favorite character is. And your thoughts on Solas. And Veilguard. And Rook. And Varric. And have you finished the game. And-

I'm sorry I'm so obsessed with this.

Anyway, I want to take your Spidey to freaky town. (What would his reaction be to another Spider popping up? Like Miles or Miguel?)

Yes! Played Veilguard! Been a long time Dragon Age fan, but I don't think that game was quite for me!

In the meantime:

Peter and Miguel would actually make a really good team up.

And because I'm a degenerate at heart: SPICY

[corseque]

I honestly just wanted one single plot step that I could not predict given the 10 year wait. More behind the cut, I talk about Emet too, and I'm comparing his writing favorably to Solas' writing and why it worked better for me personally, but I am just talking about the writing skill that went into the games and not the dudes themselves, I love them both dearly of course. idk this is a mess and I am not going to edit it for clarity

For me, the game was a series of me saying

"ok I knew that. cool."

"oh yeah, I knew that. I guess it's good that the larger fandom knows about that now."

"nice, but yeah I already knew that too"

"that was something we've been talking about a lot for years"

"this thing they are acting like is a huge enormous reveal that the characters could not possibly have deduced through simply thinking about it in depth over the 10 years... the fans easily figured out by thinking about it in depth 10 years ago. So you would think his girlfriend would be able to figure it out more easily than we did. Like, why couldn't the game have been like 'oh lavellan already figured that out a while ago' it would have cost them nothing"

"this is something I've been thinking about for years, and now that it's being revealed, the companions' reactions to it are very irritating and jarring and unnecessary and I really dislike the experience I'm having right now, in this, the hour of my greatest triumph"

"this thing that is happening on my screen right now is something that I wrote an essay about 2 years ago describing how it would be a letdown if it happened without the correct setup"

"this way that they're characterizing Solas makes him less likable and less interesting than I have been finding him for all these years, and I have had people tell me 'no, he's simpler than you think' for years but I guess I was wrong, he really is simpler than I thought, so that fucking sucks. I wish I could take that information out of my brain."

"this thing is a retcon of information I have been thinking about for 10 years, and so I don't know how to follow along with this new direction, and I'm not sure if I even want to because it's not particularly interesting anyway"

"aw that was sweet"

"why is it like, so very impossible to have an honest back-and-forth with my favorite character about the dilemma that was most interesting to me about the previous game"

and then, as soon as, like, the other fans had caught up to the Solas lore that was really obvious from the other games, the game was.... over without anything surprising happening, or introducing a new element or plot point or perspective, or a real true twist (or two, or three) for those of us who have thought about it too hard for too long. It was very simple and easy, much, much, much, much easier than I was imagining. It all felt sort of like that Nicholson quote:

The thing was, the whole story was so interesting to think about because in 10 years, I couldn't figure out a good solution to it!!!!! It's why I was never able to write post-game fanfic about it. So I was stoked to find out some reveal we never knew about, some new information, in maybe a SERIES of steps of new information, that made the situation more complicated but also something that could be navigated by everyone involved. I know it was asking for a lot, but they had TEN YEARS, and they seemingly had set up the things they did in DAI on purpose, so surely they had some idea of a complex and satisfying narrative that would reconcile everyone.

The reason why I was expecting this is because FFXIV did a very similar story arc, which was started AND concluded WITHIN those 10 years (so it took the FFXIV team far less time to deliver as well). And the conclusion to the story in FFXIV did what I was expecting Dragon Age to do. So I thought, "holy shit, if this is the FFXIV version of this plot, how much more complicated is DA4 going to be!?!?" The DA devs also PLAYED FFXIV so they were completely aware, several years ago, of a satisfying story ending that was pretty darn similar.

People are probably going to think "oh, well Chelsea was disappointed because she spent too much time building it up in her head" but that's exactly it - I actually speculated and thought about FFXIV's story IN DEPTH NONSTOP for a year+ before its ending came out, and the ending absolutely blew me away. FFXIV Endwalker managed to introduce information and new story elements that I was not able to figure out in the YEAR I spent speculating on the ending of FFXIV's story. It took a complicated situation and revealed several several more facets to it that I was not able to predict, but were very interesting and thematically compelling, and took us all to surprising and climactic places that we could not have predicted.

Endwalker ("end" is in the title on purpose) too, was written to be THE ULTIMATE SATISFYING ENDING for a very long-running story in the exactly way that Veilguard SHOULD HAVE for Dragon Age, so while this complexity is being explored, FFXIV also gave catharsis to many different plot threads that have been built up through the previous expansions, until finally it ends with a bang. The story is desperately good to me, I loved it, it gave me closure for Dragon Age long before Veilguard was even revealed, and going back and looking at its story has made this whole thing far less painful for me.

So, I actually did not have a picture in my mind for how things SHOULD go. I just had the thought "I hope it's complicated and there are points of view or facts that we haven't before been exposed to, and the situation is resolved respectfully for Solas, not making him look like a fucking idiot (lol, the only thing I asked for). I don't even care what happens to Solas and Lavellan, I just need the story to be complicated and interesting to think about. Please, god, don't let it be "solas is wrong and he just needs to be convinced" because that's like the simplest story you could tell with this setup"

(btw they managed to tell Emet-Selch's story without making him seem like he's being an idiot on purpose or can never get anything right, and in fact the more the story goes on, the more you think of him as smart and capable and cool, so it is possible to write.... I wasn't asking for the entire moon)

And I played it and... yeah. Most of the story beats were more simple than I wanted them to be, a lot of them didn't make sense in my heart given the writing from Inquisition. (This is another essay, but if Solas' thematic story arc was always about him needing to let go of regrets, why was his personal quest the way it was? After that quest, doesn't he end up regretting not doing more....? Why did he never really talk about regret during Inquisition? If he was so trapped by regret, why was he able to do so many actions? It doesn't mesh well to me. The whole regret thing was very quarter-baked to me, I don't even like thinking about it.) His story never seemed like one that was as simple as being about one man's regrets, but then, I guess, it was always just about one man's regrets.

Emet-Selch's personal storyline (and the way it interacts with and affects the larger story) is very similar but much more cohesive and satisfying to me. It would be difficult to explain why without the aforementioned 5-hour essay. Emet-Selch's story IS about grief and anguish on a world-shaping scale in a similar way that Solas' was apparently always about letting go of regret, but Emet's story was also very pointedly and beautifully about that one theme for the entirety of his story from every tiny detail, from beginning to end - meanwhile, it seemed to me that they tried to introduce 'regret' as the main thrust of Solas' story only in the short story with the Regret demon onward.

From Inquisition just by itself, the closest I personally could get to a story theme for Solas was his inability to trust others hurting him and the world, but his trusting others in DA4 wasn't really addressed to my satisfaction. He is never required to trust anyone before the ending, he never opens up or makes himself vulnerable at all. People find out information about him, he never really dynamically opens himself. So the personal story I thought he had was never addressed at all, while a new one about regret was introduced that never made a ton of sense to me. And I don't think this is just because of my expectations - my reaction to FFXIV proves that I am able to meet good writing where it goes in surprising directions, as long as it's interesting and thoughtful and clear.

And I think this might be part of what people felt was off about the ending - Solas is sort of uninvolved in the revelations that are about him, and doesn't do much to be part of his own ending. Part of what I loved about Solas in Inquisition is that he is not controlled by you in any way, and so he feels like his own person with a very strong sense of character.

Anyway, Emet-Selch, in a very comparable and arguably more extreme plot position, is very involved in the revelations about himself, he always feels like a very strong character who cannot be affected by the player, and the whole situation is handled with deft emotion and care and delicacy. The story is comparatively very uninterested in litigating Emet-Selch or putting him on trial - the story allows you to simply feel the way that you feel in an organic way, and Emet's story spends that energy instead actually exploring his thematic material about grief and legacy, and the larger story theme of existentialism instead, in a way that is very refreshing and interesting. I've seen a lot of western stories tie themselves in knots over "redemption" and frankly it's almost never been interesting at all. Who cares about any of that. lol

(Now, I guess this is a matter of preference, because some people really like being able to shape a character's story, but idk I rewatched the ending of FFXIV and even though there wasn't a choice with Emet, because it isn't a branching story, his story felt more satisfying to me, maybe because there isn't a patronizing choice to be made for him. He is who he is, and he fulfills a very beautiful narrative role and purpose that no other character could in the story.)

I don't know how this could have been improved to me and still allowed players to choose Solas' ending for him, but I can actually think of a few different methods, none of which involve Rook condescendingly and patronizingly lecturing Solas as if Solas had never thought about a single aspect of this horrible situation he's in before that very moment that Rook lectures him lmfao.

All this to say... idk I'm writing this and I am not going back to edit it so it's stream-of-consciousness. But yeah

I just wanted the story to be complicated on a few more levels than I could have predicted. I genuinely don't care what happened, but I thought of a few twists like the Veil coming down and yeah, I was expecting A Single Twist or reveal to happen. In a Dragon Age game.

I wanted Solas to seem cool and capable and noble and smart, and actually feel like he was as old and experienced as he is.

I wanted a clear theme I could sink my teeth into

Like notice I didn't even say anything about Solavellan. Like I never in 100 years thought they were getting a happy ending where they were both alive in bodies, and I like that we got that, but I would honestly trade it for a more complicated story. To me, if a story is sad you can always write fanfic, but if a story isn't COMPLICATED, that's a much more urgent issue.

These 3 things DA4 didn't give me in a way that satisfied me but FFXIV did. anyway idk the way my hyperfixations work, I completely switch to a new subject so talking about Dragon Age is actually hard for me right now.

[lizzybeeee]

I love Bethany so much but there is no winning with her - there is no fate that is kind to her or truly gives her the 'freedom' that she's been running all her life to try and obtain. No matter how hard you fight to save Bethany, you never truly can.

Unlike Carver, who wanted to find his own place in the world and does find meaning in being a Grey Warden or a Templar, in serving others, Bethany only finds herself leashed at the expense of her life.

She becomes a Grey Warden only to now be chained to a fate and organization that will take everything from her in return. Her life is theirs and her life is the Blights and this cannot be reversed. A long slow death or a quick one in battle is her fate.

She joins the Circle only to be confined to a system that will exploit her and break her down, with the sole intent of keeping her locked up until the day she dies. Her life is the Circles but that is not guaranteed - it may demand her death sooner rather than later if the Templar's deem it to be necessary. Just like the Warden's, a quick death or a long slow death is her fate.

There is no freedom for Bethany outside of death :(

non-mage hawke being taught since they were a young teen that their only duty in life is to protect their sister with their life and never let the templars take her ❤️ the way bethanys only possibly fates are "dead" "despairingly miserable" or "you failed her" ❤️ the way she might be happier in the circle but she still faces constant danger and exploitation and also that was literally the One Thing you were supposed to never let happen ❤️ but also if she's a grey warden she's forced to learn sacrifice (that's supposed to be your job) and constant fighting (thats why you should have left her) and she all but outright blames you for not just killing her ❤️😄🤗⚰️

[notebooks-and-laptops]

Honestly sick of the way that capitalism, profit, shareholders, execs and every other little thing in that branch comes in-between good (often queer) art again and again and again.

I've seen this recently in more than a few of my favourite things; and every time it happens creators fight to give us am ending, any they can, and then that ending ends up being rushed because it can't be anything else which makes the story feel weaker and it's just a mess. This happened to Sense8 years ago. It happened to Our Flag Means Death. And now Veilguard too.

I have problems with Veilguard; and I'll continue to talk about them I'm sure but laying off the entire creative team behind Dragon Age the franchise?? On the same day Bioware is sending me emails about their 'fun products in the Bioware store'???? Making a game stripped of anything objectable to appeal to a mass marketplace despite game writer wishes??? Consistently pushing writers to write quicker and simpler and what not and then when the art isn't as good as the last one because how COULD IT be when they're forcing all the lose strands of lore into a single game while also having to deal with all the development hell...

It's really fucking sad.

Dragon age writers ALL deserved better, they've deserved better since DA2 crunch, DAI crunch and they certainly deserved better throughout the entire process of DA4. their mental health was not prioritised, their skills were not prioritised, EA couldn't even be bothered to give them proper severance packages. I know they fought for a conclusion to this franchise and im grateful even if it wasn't what I wanted.

Dragon age will always, always, always be a part of me. I'm still planning my huge big post DAI fic and will continue to play the games over and over again and continue to be in this fandom for years to come. So even tho I don't always like their choices, a huge heart goes out to the team behind DATV and all the other DA games. I hope a better studio who cares about their input more takes them in and we can see their names credited on more fun art in the future.

[yuurei20]

Summarized transcript of the Twisted Radio episode with Scarabia (plus Ace) voice actors!! 🥳 (all is just paraphrased, not direct quotes, and Book 7 spoilers removed!)

Highlights: ・They sound so much like their characters when they talk. ・Kalim's VA does kickboxing and jujitsu ・Jamil's VA will style his own hair when he goes to hair salons ・Cater and Ace's VAs were able to record together for Book 7 Chapter 12, which is rare

Ace’s VA Yamashita (❤️) is the host, opens by asking if Jamil’s Futaba (🐍) and Kalim’s Furuta (🦦) haven’t been together for Twst for a while.

🦦 confirms, saying that they do all their recordings separately. They talk about how 🐍 and 🦦 have both appeared separately on Twst Radio.

Opening Talk: Something that has happened since 2025 began. 

They say it has only been two weeks (as of time of recording) so there hasn’t been time for anything to have happened, so they change the question to anything that went on around the end of the year or new year’s resolutions.

🦦’s story is on January 2nd he went to Enoshima and saw a matching keychain to a dragon sword keychain that he already has. And he wanted to get it, but then he didn’t. And that is the story ww

🐍 says he had a job at the start of the year where he had to appear somewhere as a guest. He met a senpai from a musical he’d been in before but when they started talking he realized that the senpai didn’t know anything about him (he knew he was a twin but thought he was the older brother, thought he was from Shizuoka even though he has a strong Kansai accent, etc.). And that was his story, a strange conversation with a senpai.

❤️ says he went for an overnight stay to a place with an onsen where also a friend lives, and his friend’s house is an inn. He didn’t stay at the inn but they prepared a special crab cuisine for him. He said it felt awkward going over to a friend’s house and meeting with their parents and everything as an adult.

Fan Letter 1 (there are two)

The letter says they have been playing Twst since 16 years old just the same age as Ace and Deuce and they want to know if the cast also has things that they have been continuing for years.

🦦 says he has been doing martial arts since he was 3. He did karate until graduating from middle school, and has been doing boxing as an adult. He does kickboxing and jujitsu now.

🐍 says his mother gave him a hair straightener when he was in middle school and he has been straightening his hair ever since. He thinks he is really good at it now. When he goes to hair salons for hair cuts he will ask to borrow the straightener from the hair stylist and style his own hair for himself.

❤️ says he was in track and field in middle school. He is good at marathons, he likes them. He loves running.

🐍 says he used to play baseball in school and hated running.

Fan Letter 2

The letter says they have been playing since 6 months after the game’s release and they were surprised by Book 5 with the singing, and how Jamil sang so well. They want to ask 🦦 and 🐍 about singing for the game.

🦦 “Kalim did not pass the audition for main vocals 😒” www

❤️ says he was nervous about being able to keep up with 🤖 and 🦦 for RAVE-UP! UP! and he heard 🦦 ’s recording of the song before he recorded and was very impressed.

🦦 says he imagined that he was singing to an audience of 2,000 people.

🐍 says he had to be careful to remember Jamil’s calmer demeanor when singing and keep a calmer tone. He struggled with the English pronunciation of the lyrics for “This is Halloween.”

🦦 tried to say the name of the next section together with 🐍 but 🐍 had the wrong page of his script open and panicked ww

Now they are going to talk about their impressions of their characters and about portraying them and the characters in the main story.

🦦 says his first impression of Kalim was of someone who has a bright personality and his high energy, but now he recognizes how he is able to draw people to him and his big heart and his elegance. He has to be careful so as not to portray Kalim as a bright character only, who doesn’t have anything else going on.

🐍 says that his first impression of Jamil was someone with a complicated personality, considering his situation. He thinks that Jamil’s growth is one of the great things about the character as he interacts with other NRC characters and learns. 

Recently Jamil has become a more comical character, which 🐍 did not see coming at all. The way he interacts with the other characters and the prefect is changing a lot, and he has to be conscious of all that when portraying Jamil.

🦦 says that Kalim’s brightness is what makes him unique. There are times when actors want to insert a bit of their own personality into a character, but he thinks it’s important that he doesn’t do that, which emphasizes Kalim’s personal individuality. He doesn’t want to add unnecessary flair just for his own ego and risk compromising Kalim as a character.

🐍 says that he did the famous DOKKAN part of Book 4 (localized as “Whoopee” on EN) in one take. They mention Jamil’s growth in Book 6. 

Now goes into conversation of non-EN content, removed from this post for spoilers~

And review of the schedule~

NRC Exam, Chapter 12 (2/3) on JP, Trey’s Book 7 card, Cater’s birthday campaign, Lantern of Wishes event, Azul birthday campaign~

❤️ says that he and Cater’s VA Kobayashi Tatsuyuki (🔸) actually recorded together for Book 7-12 (2/3), so they got to discuss together all the depth of what is going on in the story. 

🦦 says he enjoyed recording the episode and he wants to come back sooner than a year and a half, like last time.

🐍 says he is glad that they were able to discuss Kalim and Jamil together in depth.

The Opening Talk topic they set for next time is: What do you buy when you travel?

🐍 says he got a wooden sword once when he was in elementary school and his mother was not impressed and took it away from him. 

🦦 says he wants more companions for his dragon sword keychain.

[wardensantoineandevka]

separate from my despair at the state of the industry wrt the Bioware layoffs, I am more than a little sad about the unceremonious end of Dragon Age. it feels a little selfish, considering that it is ending in a way that is destroying a lot of livelihoods and is indicative of continued horrid labor conditions and business decisions in the gaming space. but, I do really love the series and Thedas, so I'm sad regardless. like, just thinking about that part.

I do like Veilguard, very much, and I felt that the note it ended on was a good end to the story we had. it left Thedas in a state that I think, despite the collapse and strife and war, that does feel hopeful. it feels like a moment on the precipice of something, something better, something they can build with. hopeful, even kind. Veilguard speaks to me quite a lot. I won't go on about it again, but I felt it was a strong entry in terms of understanding what it wanted Dragon Age to be, in the sense of the world, the narrative, the identity of itself truly beyond gesturing at the shape of genre and archetype.

I've followed series more Over than this, and ones that had abrupt endings I was much less happy with. I've been a Downton fan, particularly a Sybil fan. I was an OUAT fan. I was active in the fandom for Firefly (yes, verboten) a solid ten-ish years after it ended. I've read and created fanwork for Star Wars RepComm. I've gotten into worlds and stories that petered off or ended suddenly, and I've contributed to thriving fandoms for it of various sizes, and I had a lot of fun regardless. and there's many a fandom that continues to thrive after a work is over.

I feel like Veilguard has left me a lot to work with. A lot of interesting pieces, ones that are inspiring to me as a dabbler in fanwork. I suppose it is comforting to know that I can keep writing whatever I want for it now, without worrying. It's still sad though, but hey

[voldrinofthenorth]

It seems that a lore post about IPS-N of all things has become my most popular post. Please excuse my dusty language.

I have decided to write a follow-up post to clarify some points brought up by comments. Relevant lore regarding IPS-N can be found on pages 402-403 of the Core Rulebook.

While brainstorming game ideas "beyond cannon" is encouraged by the authors within the text itself, the discussion I am interested is in regards to cannon lore and it's political and philosophical implications. To whit;

While the relevant section of the text does not explicitly specify where or not IPS-N is still a worker co-op, lacking new information, we must assume that previous information is still true. IPS-N can be a worker co-op with great benefits and a dedicated humanitarian therapy initiative, founded under the auspices and utopian ideals of the First Committee, and also still be a shady weapon's manufacturer who openly works with Space Fascists and benifits from imperialism.

As to why anyone would want to join up with IPS-N "instead of Union"; IPS-N still works closely with Union and manufactures the majority of Union's ships. IPS-N is militaristic. Union is also militaristic, having the largest navy in the Galaxy by orders of magnitude, even after the massive disarmament following the fall of SecCom.

While the setting of Lancer has "good guys" and "bad guys", nothing is ever absolutely cut and dry (except maybe for Harrison Armory. Those guys are pretty bad).

Contemplating the implications of narrative violence, I believe, is one of the central theme of the story. If you are looking for ontologically "good" good guys fighting ontologically "evil" bad guys without the need to critically analyze your own motivations and actions, Lancer may not be the game you are looking for. I would instead recommend Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition. The Red Hand of Doom is a pretty good adventure, though it has aged a bit.

It's interesting seeing new players discuss the "Mundanity of Evil" represented by IPS-N. However, I have to nitpick a lore discrepancy that people seem to miss that certainly impacts the analysis. IPS-N does not have shareholders. They are not a publicly owned business. IPS-N is collectively owned by the workers. Their leadership is democratic.

Yeah. They perpetuate piracy and sell weapons under the table to literally anyone. They work with actual space fascists for weapons research. They also pay and treat their workers the best out of almost any corporation in the galaxy. The benefits are great. Easy to ignore all that shady shit when the paycheck is so good.

[fromtherift]

To say I’m heartbroken by what happened with BioWare and EA regarding dragon age would be an understatement- however, at the same time, I saw it coming a million miles away.

From the development hell DA was put through, to the final result not having DLCs, to the final result also being a shadow of the previous instalments in the series in terms of writing and gameplay- it was clear to me they wanted dragon age done and finished as fast as possible.

I’m sorry, but I really didn’t like Veilguard. I loved it at first play through, and my opinion sharply declined on my second. It felt like a shadow or a mockery of the games I love. It felt like the equivalent of giving your kid sibling an unattached game controller and letting them play just to shut them up.

The game spent so long trying to be cinematic that it forgot to be good- or rather, it never had a chance to be good. It just needed to be shiny and it needed to sell. That’s the shape of all things lately- and it makes me rage and it breaks my heart.

More importantly, the people fired are going to have an incredibly hard time getting employed again. I know Trick Weeks was talking about how difficult it was to afford raising a child in Canada, and now both they and their partner are unemployed.

What EA and BioWare did to dragon age was cruel on multiple levels. I hope one day we live in a world that allows these stories to be told by people who love to tell them, who get compensated well for telling them, and in a way that is authentic to the story itself and not to any speculative market.

[tatooine92]

Well, I finished it.

I'm gonna put some thinky-thoughts under the cut because I'm pretty sure I have mutuals who aren't looking for spoilers.

If the entire game had been like the endgame, we might have stood a fighting chance of the game being a success.

It's just...not good. It's a mid game overall and a bad Dragon Age game.

Weak characters, weak dialogue, weak worldbuilding, often weak acting, the complete dismissal of so much lore, a lack of roleplay options, choices that don't matter, past choices that were never brought up again - not to mention the walking character assassination calling itself Solas and the Varric "twist." Garbage. All garbage.

Plus, the romances. I can only speak to the Lucanis one but that was some of the most godawful writing I've ever seen. I've been a Bioware girlie since the KOTOR days so I'm very familiar with what a Bioware romance can be. And that was just - what the hell even was that? I don't particularly want to write Veilguard fanfic but if I did it'd be to give that poor man an actual arc, romance or otherwise. And a personality.

Oh, and the outfits, by and large, were AWFUL. Never thought I'd miss putting Dorian in plaidweave.

Other people have more eloquently laid out the major structural problems with this game, so I'm not going to try to repeat their words. But it's so weird that I can't even say "Well it was a little rough but it's got good bones" because it doesn't. The bones are rotten too.

I'd like to go back to the day I finished playing DA2 and take back everything I said about it because that game at least had a solid grip on everything that DAO had built.

Every time I listened to the guy who's supposed to be my Inquisitor with his phoned-in dialogue, I just kept thinking that there's another, better, Inquisitor-focused game in southern Thedas and that's the one I'd rather be playing.

All told, I'm just sad. Bioware's been dying for a decade or more. If ME5 fails, EA will shutter the studio. I knew this was gonna be rough. When it was almost a decade of silence followed by "Hey watch for Dragon Age: Dread Wolf!" and then it was unceremoniously changed to "The Veilguard" (may as well call it Thedas Avengers) I just KNEW.

I wanted to be wrong. I wanted so very badly to be wrong.

[deep sigh]

But lest you think that all I've done is bitch and moan (because, let's be real, that's exactly what I've done), I did like some things.

I would commit war crimes for Antoine. Evka is going to beat me to it though.

Some of the environmental design was really cool, like the dwarven stuff.

I know Manfred and Assan were factory-designed to be lovable and it wasn't as organic as Scratch and the owlbear cub in BG3, but, dammit, it worked, and I liked them.

I had a great time with the mission where you (badly, not at all sneakily) infiltrate Elgar'nan's party, but I wish it had been darker and creepier. Still had fun with that quest.

Always happy to see Morrigan.

Always happy to see Xenon the Antiquarian.

There were scattered snippets of dialogue or party member moments that I enjoyed, but I'm too tired to think of specifics right now. They were in there, though.

I liked being able to pet every cat I saw. Couldn't do that in RDR2.

On the whole, it felt like playing a game made from the bad fanfic of someone who had only read the DAge wiki once. Just about everything it did copied stuff that other games have done better. And it copied none of the stuff that made the other DAge games great.

Rating after Act 1: 2/10 Final rating: 4/10

YMMV.

[postcardsfromheapside]

Upon repeated reflection, possibly the most disturbing thing about this is that there are rainbows dancing around it.

"Good morning, just another day in Arlathan! Would you like existential sylvan horror with your breakfast tea? Isn't it gorgeous?"

I think the reason these two get on so well is because there's literally nothing in the Necropolis that could possibly frighten her after Arlathan. Instead it's all rather intriguing and cute. Rooms disappearing and moving? At least they stay in roughly the same scope of time. Walking skeletons? Cool, we have trees that used to be people. It's a pleasure to be understood by you, sir, there's a wonderful horrific beauty outside and we can explore it together.

I call them Yapper and Zapper (veil ranger)

I've been thinking about how Veilguard was billed as "the most romantic Dragon Age game" and people felt let down by this description, and the more I play the more I think this description had nothing to do with the romance scenes and everything to do with understanding the companions and the different permutations of Rook. What does it mean to feel "known," to feel yourself recognized and accepted by another?

[3gremlins]

it's been a minute since i replayed trespasser, but my understanding of the mark hurting the inquisitor was that it was basically a death sentence and solas taking their hand was just a stop-gap measure. Like it was an injury that wasn't ever going to heal and would get worse over time, but taking the hand stopped it for now. I wish they'd come back around to this a little bit- like not just with the solavellan romance, like going into the veil with solas might also be the best "cure" for the inquisitor too (for friendship ones or even rival ones who are like shoot, do i want to die sooner or live with my enemy longer kinda choices)

like perhaps because of the mark, they were becoming more *of* the fade daily, and if they went into it permanently, they would become something else and not die per se (but also not be the same as they were either).

def wish they'd done more with the inkys in general (if only to give them the badass prosthetic crossbow you get with the red jenny ending or something). the inky kind of suffers the way hawke suffers in dai- new players wouldn't have any attachment to them, so they didn't really give us much depth for them.

my ideal last of this era dragon age game ever would have been a 4 part narrative where you get to play a bit as each of the previous protags and then also as rook (or alternatively do a bit of the game AS solas to give him a little more background instead of just this random new character) working together to give you bits of the narrative/story/empathy.

This would also fix the "how do we get new players" problem- you'd introduce them to these 3 people who are at the end of their journeys, but it'd give you enough to want to go see how they got there. This would also be satisfying for returning players b/c everyone's already invested in the 3 other protags (prob a nightmare to write but like there's always the bioware canon for defaults).

veilguard was okay for what it is/how much time they really had for it but ah that artbook makes me sad. what we couldve had if it'd had a little longer to cook (see: art doesn't really work under capitalism, the point should be to make good art not to make money at it. esp with companies never being happy with good enough profits like it's just a bad formula)

[manyfrance]

okay 2:30am Basset musing time but - hot take, Veilguard is absolutely depressing.

by the conclusion of DAtV the world has it ROUGH. most (if not all) of Southern Thedas is thought lost, Minrathous is pretty much completely blighted, one of two major cities has been destroyed by a dragon, and I don't even know how the other Northern locations faired once end game hit. entire governments are probably crippled and without leadership and while the game ends on hope and a "yay we saved the world" cut scene, if you think about it, it's pretty bleak.

compare that to what might have happened had Solas succeeded in tearing down the veil at the start of the game. we don't know the full consequences, but honestly? could it have been worse than what actually happened in canon?

okay yes it probably could have but still.

the entire plot of Veilguard - the villains, the high stakes, all of it - happen because of Rook messing with the ritual, leading to unintended consequences. we still win in the end, good triumphs over evil, but really nothing changes to make the world state of Thedas even slightly more positive (or negative, if you could have chosen) than before. unlike every other Dragon Age game before it, you haven't been able to influence the future of the world with your choices.

we're just left with a broken continent and honestly i can't help but think that Solas was right. people are always dying, and maybe his way would have been better.

[sentient-forest-boy]

My inky Arryn Lavellan, and Rook Vega de Riva, at your service!

In light of the current Dragon Age news, can everyone show me their Warden, Inquisitor, Hawke and/or Rook to 1. lift my spirits and 2. so I can draw more ocs? I might not get to everyone but I will give it a good try!

[andarans]

a love letter to dragon age.

i’ve been trying to cope with the news that all the dragon age devs have been laid off or reassigned these past two days, and i just…. it’s hard. it might sound silly to say but i’ve barely been able to do anything because i feel as if i’ve lost a family member. took today to have a good cry. dragon age was such a formative series for me. i joke all the time i got into it for the romances and stayed for the lore but really everything about it i love, dearly. i love that each companion and side character had stories that moved me and made me cry, stories i could relate to even in a world with magic and dragons. i love how the lore is presented, including the brilliance that is the codex—that you’re never quite sure who to believe, that discovering the truth requires you to be an archaeologist. i love how my choices always mattered, that decision i made in origins affected my playthrough in inquisition. i loved the message dragon age as a series sent, about corruption, about power, about propaganda. dragon age influenced so much of my fantasy tastes and own writing and art. it left such a huge mark on my artistic inspirations and work. hell, my first ever dnd character was a tiefling that pretty much looks like a qunari with having a backstory that affected the world she was in, reminiscent of the depiction of elves in dragon age (still one of my favorite and nuanced takes on elves in fantasy, btw). even with the dnd campaign and world i’m writing now, i see dragon age in nooks and crannies. i wrote so much fanfic and drew so much fanart and made so many theories and anxiously followed every bit of news for the development cycle of veilguard. i’d watch the game awards every year with my friend hoping for dragon age news. speaking of friends, god i made so many friends because of dragon age. that common interest sparked so many fun conversations and ideas. i even was a writer for an anders focused dragon age charity zine.

above all i loved the community around dragon age. sure, fandoms all have its moments and toxicity, but by and large my experience with the DA community was wonderful. i love getting to see people’s OCs and world states because i also obsess over my DA OCs and world states. i love getting to see people write theses about dragon age’s themes and masters worthy character studies. the communal love for this world and its characters is so, so profoundly inspiring.

i’ve spent so much time moping but i do want to highlight what i loved about each game and my favorite characters.

DAO: my first intro to the series. by god the gameplay was so slow but the story and characters and lore and writing made it SO worth it. made me appreciate CRPGs too. alistair ended up becoming my favorite character, i remember actually gasping and blushing at the rose moment in his romance. the landsmeet is still one of my favorite quests, i love fantasy political intrigue. morrigan also was my best friend, when she called my warden a sister i cried.

DA2: one of the most underrated games by far. i loved the smaller scale, i loved how personal hawke’s story felt, i loved every single companion and this found family. fenris was my first romance and one of my favorites, he is so complex and misunderstood and secretly has the best sense of humor. i think anders ended up becoming my favorite though—god, anders. i could speak about him for hours but i appreciate the DA devs for what they did for him and letting us romance him. anders made me appreciate his character archetype so much; he is such a tragic man transformed by bitterness and vengeance and rage. “ten years from now, a hundred years from now, someone like me will love someone like you, and there will be no templars to tear them apart.” i love you anders.

DAI: i love the inquisitor. i love how tragic of a character the inquisitor is, ripped from their life and forced to become an idol for a movement they might not even believe in. a lot of people criticize DAI for being “the chosen one” cliché, but it’s not. it’s a critique of that very trope and how it destroys a person. the inquisitor is forced to become an idea, and it does not matter who they actually are; they have all autonomy taken from them, and that is horrifying. cullen ended up ruining my life for a good amount of time, his romance is my favorite in all the series and god he got such a good redemption and ending. (i even bought cullen themed soap from a local convention, lol. i’m telling you i was obsessed). and in my replay solas’ romance absolutely destroyed me, turning him from my dearly detested to my dearly beloved. god trick weekes i will miss you so much, thank you for writing solas.

DAV: i know how contentious veilguard is. believe me i have many of my own criticisms. but i still love it anyway. i love the companions, all of them, i love how act 3 absolutely fucking gutted me and made me cry twice. i loved the amazing visuals and character creator and ost and environments. i love the QOL improvements. i loved seeing the cameos and my inquisitor again. there’s so much to love in veilguard and i’d rather talk about how much i love it than what i didn’t. lucanis was my first romance and while there wasn’t as much content as i was hoping for, i sincerely appreciate what we did get. i love how ride or die he is, how his love language is acts of service, how he’s afraid to hurt rook. i love his facial animations in his romance, i love zach mendez’s performance. i’m hoping to play emmrich and davrin’s next, and i’m sure i’ll love them too.

it’s hard to accept the fact that dragon age is probably over. it makes me sad knowing we’ll never find out about certain lore questions or know what DA5 could’ve looked like. and i’m still so angry for the developers and how they’re so callously treated and thrown away by EA/bioware. sometimes i wonder if the same thing would’ve happened if veilguard sold more. but it’s not helpful to dwell on these what-ifs, because we’ve seen how the industry treats both successful games and what they deem as failures: layoffs and no remorse. i hope the team finds work soon. i hope they realize how loved their work is. i hope someday the game industry is completely, wholly unionized. i’m glad at least we got veilguard to answer the biggest questions we’ve had.

thank you, DA devs, for everything. thank you for answering our silly questions about your characters favorite coffee flavors and perfect date nights. thank you for bringing them to life. i won’t stop playing the games or making art or fic. i won’t stop being inspired. dragon age lives on in my creations, in my dnd characters, in everything. i hope to be back in thedas soon, one day. dareth shiral.