#like just don't play veilguard then if you're so upset about it

[taamlok]

if you like origins so much why don't you marry it

[alongtidesoflight]

so here's my honest thoughts on dragon age: the veilguard, after ~40 hours of playing. i finished the main quest after having finished all companion quests and major faction quests. just to clear up what content i saw, i played as an elven transmasc rook who is a member of the lords of fortune. he romanced lucanis (although after finishing the game i'm now leaning towards taash). i don't know what's happening in playthroughs that have a different race, gender identity, romance or faction going on.

full spoilers ahead, i mean it. don't read further if you want to avoid them. i don't want complaining about it in my asks.

oh and also, if you're worried because of a few negative reviews online i can comfort you by saying don't give a fuck about a certain big name youtuber who is very much tied to bethesda franchises giving this a negative review. i'll explain why.

i'm starting off with the things i liked

the game looks really pretty. i was worried it wouldn't feel like thedas anymore (with them trying to "focus on northern thedas only" i thought they'd make a clear cut in environmental design. they do and they don't. it's complicated. i'll elaborate on it when talking about the negative stuff). anyway it does. minrathous feels like kirkwall. treviso enchanted me like the winter palace did. the hossberg wetlands reminded me of the hinterlands and a couple other inquisition maps. arlathan looked like... arlathan. the crossroads were different, but familiar. overall i like the way it looks and feels. it's thedas, with a twist. it's a good one, and gives everything a solid but unique feel.

combat is top tier. if you're a hardcore dragon age player you WILL miss the tactical aspect of it for a bit, but i promise you, once you're used to the way the combat works, you will be lapping that shit up. and once you get to ability combos you'll mourn the control you used to have over your companions in battle a bit less

the MAIN quest and its story. i expected worse, way worse. and for a while the game even had me tricked (harr harr you'll get it in a second) it is Really That Much Worse. but holy shit was it good. i walked away satisfied ngl.

your choices have SOLID weight. there's consequences, good AND bad. i got minrathous blighted, ruled over by venatori, and the leader of the shadow dragons ultimately died because of my decisions. i made those at the beginning and throughout the game. he died at the end. DAVRIN died because i didn't expect what i was saying to have that much weight. i thought i was in the clear. he had hero status. well turns out, your choices can still get your companions killed even if you do everything right. i fucking love him. he shouldn't have made that sacrifice just because i told him to do everything it takes once.

the inquisitor, morrigan and dorian being there, surprisingly. there's also negatives to this though, see below.

speaking of companions dying and the inquisitor playing a bigger role: the final quest feels like me2's suicide mission. i was blown away by it and the fact that i got to see the results of all my efforts playing out in front of me.

bioware are NOT trying to redeem solas. they love him as a character yes, but i wasn't forced to see any good in him. he betrays you. he fucked my rook over twice. he fucked him over right back, for good this time (the veil wasn't torn down, i anchored it by binding him to it, he's doomed to uphold it). but solas really lives up to his name as the trickster elven god. rip to all the people who grew really attached to him over the years.

varric died. if you like him that's probably as hard reading it as it was watching it. varric died and the game lies about it until the very end. when the realisation hits, it hurts. but in the very best way.

the amount of care they put into gender expression and trans identities this time around. (i'll add onto this with negative points as well too).

rook feels very much ingrained in the world of thedas. he doesn't ask questions that expose the player to lore through dialogue as if he's stepped foot into thedas for the first time. those conversations feel very solid and good. i hope other faction players got as much joy out of this as i did.

and the things i didn't like and boy there's a lot unfortunately

the music. let's just get that out of the way holy shit. it doesn't feel like it belongs in this universe. it gets so incredibly sci-fi-y at times you'd think it's taken straight from mass effect andromeda. there's not a single song unique to veilguard that i really enjoyed. it broke my immersion, real bad. hearing a busker play the tavern songs from inquisition on a lute right after i killed some venatori with wobbly bass songs playing in the background is just odd. weird tonal shift. don't like it. it's made for people who like flashy light-weight cinema.

tevinter nights is required reading. the podcasts are required listening exercises. the game is so fast paced, especially at the start, that there's no time to introduce you to characters and how much weight their names carry in-game. i would not have known who half these people are if i hadn't skimmed over tevinter nights. i'd care even less about them than i already did. there is no time to get properly attached to them. people will act as if you're talking to a legend personified and you'll be thinking man goddamn which chapter of tevinter night were they in again and what did they do???

there's a weird mismatch with the animations. you'll have beautifully fluid ones, like emmrich casting spells. and then you'll have rook's face animating in the most unnatural manner that's sorta reminiscent of mass effect andromeda's "my face is tired" addison, when their emotions SHOULD be landing with the player rn instead.

i'm not vibing with the art style. sometimes it works. most of the time it doesn't. at points i felt like i was watching tangled.

that also brings me to some of the dialogue. same issue. i am watching frozen. i am watching tangled. someone on the writer's team really likes the adorkable trope. bellara is its victim.

for all the talk about identity, bioware sure doesn't like theirs. the grey warden armor got a redesign again and it just makes them look like a generic army. i hate it lol

in general, i don't like the armor design. the wardrobe/appearances system is fine, but it's just not helping if all the armors are just... kinda bland or downight bad looking? and don't get me started on the lords of fortune armor. that is orientalism personified.

the world states should have been carried over, full stop. i know they said they didn't because they want to separate what happens in the north from what happens in the south, which... i could have lived with that. but the inquisitor sends you letters that keep you up to date on... the south of thedas. you learn that there's a blight again, that people are standing strong but it's difficult, denerim's fallen, the rulers are taking care of it, orlais is fighting and they're successful for a while, etc etc. what's good bioware. i thought we don't care about the south this time around. why are you feeding me so much boring generic information. if you're not gonna show any of it and just write letters, then carrying the world state over should not have been an issue. i have a game dev background. those few lines of code would not have broken your budget or pushed your engine's limits. fuck right off.

this gripe of mine carries over to all the cameos. as a lord of fortune you have to deal with isabela a lot. it's fun. i missed her. you get to go drinking with her and taash and bellara! also my hawke romanced her. she's not mentioned once. they had the opportunity to put a sentence or two about her in there with not a lot of effort, trust me.

when varric dies, all she has is a single line about it. for gold, for fortune, for varric. she only says it if you interact with her on your way to the final push. that's not mandatory.

morrigan is there. kieran isn't. the old god soul that mythal and then solas absorbed? who cares at this point, the gods are dead now and solas is locked away for eternity. i suppose? why is morrigan there. she feels unneeded. i wish they'd just left her down south, at least that way i wouldn't have had to witness her god awful redesign.

dorian at least feels as if he belongs in this story. the shadow dragons are a crucial part to protecting minrathous. he's also weirdly underutilised. isabela and morrigan had more lines than him in my playthrough.

on the topic of romance: bro that was underwhelming. no, genuinely. you know when romance picked up a bit? after the point of no return. i heard maybe two lines of companion banter about it before that. maybe i missed something which i honestly doubt, but romance did not play much of a role in lucanis's storyline. i saved his grandmother as he wished me to (and if you read tevinter nights you know she was rather abusive and their relationship not the healthiest) and told him to focus on his family. a reunified family my rook wasn't even introduced to as a partner at the end of all that.

really, do not buy this game if you're only in it for the romances. others might be better, lucanis's basically gave me nothing. except for an outing (the second coffee date i had with him, it was getting repetitive) all of it played out once i committed to the final quest. the sex scene was a fade to black. annoyingly right after davrin died. if you're looking for well paced and good spice, pick up something else. the sweet talk and the final goodbye were nice though.

for all the good the ever-presence of gender identity does, it is brought up in such a disruptive manner too. it doesn't even play out naturally if you CHOOSE the lines that are meant to be said. hearing the words trans and non-binary in this setting doesn't feel right, and i'm saying this as a trans guy. i think it could have been handled more gracefully. the amount of times my rook went "i'm a MAN" as if he's about to start drumming on his chest and roaring any second now got super nerve-grating. "i'm so glad you're into me... the me who is trans. remember?" just. tell me one trans person who'd talk like that to a person they've grown close with and are trying to romance. this game doesn't handle sexuality well, so all this hey my body might not look like the way you're expecting it to look talk amounts to nothing anyway. i feel about this the way i feel about krem: this is partial exposition to trans experiences... packaged up for cis consumption. the ONLY exception to that is interacting with taash. holy shit was all of that heartwarming and bro did it feel good and natural to talk to them about theirs and rook's gender.

rivain and nevarra are new locations added by veilguard. they're also incredibly underwhelming, small and constricted maps. rivain is a coastline with a few ruins. the hall of valor is a partial ruin nestled into a cave on a beach, with a fighting pit. isabela is there in her skimpy outfit commentating your pit fights. that's it. i'm sorry if you were looking for a bustling pirate cove or whatever. you're not gonna get it. the nevarran crypts btw are a long ass dungeon crawl. that's it.

speaking of maps. i thought people were being dramatic when they said you're gonna be fighting the same enemies on them again and again. i thought they were figure of speeching it. they're not. you WILL fight the same amount of enemies. in the same spot. every time you reload the map. best to stay on a map and clear out the enemies and do as much questing on that map as you can before leaving, because you WILL have to do it all over again once you return.

the three choices i made for my inquisitor didn't matter lol she didn't have to face solas and therefore couldn't stop him at any cost as she had sworn (maybe because my rook tricked solas into binding himself to the veil, there was also an option to fight him. would she have stepped in? who knows). blackwall wasn't mentioned. and either her using a small amount of her forces in the final fight was the reason the civilians of minrathous fared so well..... or it just didn't matter. ultimately i think she had very little impact on anything

[vangbelsing]

Time for my ten morbillionth vent post for Veilguard. Or more accurately, me bellyaching about my very specific nitpicks that most other people will not have. Not really gonna include spoilers, but I'll add a cut since I'm certain not everyone is keen to read yet another complaint post for this game. So if you're not interested in reading a huge vent post about Rook, go ahead and skip this.

I have to say, for as much as I like the game, I think all of my pre launch anxieties were well founded. Rook is actually everything I assumed they would be, and I do not mean that as a compliment. And no, I'm not upset that pre launch headcanons are largely not applicable to Rook, but I do think that Rook is several steps back from the Inquisitor. I've always maintained that Inky was one of the best rpg protagonists in any of the games I've played, and this has just solidified it.

Inky was perfect to me. They couldn't be evil, but you had so many opportunities to flesh out who they are, what they believe, their personality and what their life was like before. And despite Veilguard having a wider variety of options for customizing your characters background, it actually feels more rigid than DAI. Not only does Rook feel less like my character in terms of their personality, a lot of their background, regardless of what you picked, feels more set.

I also have a huge beef with how Rook is treated. Where the Inquisitor was age ambiguous and could ultimately be played as pretty much any age you wanted, with only a handful of places where it could be argued to that the dialogue might come off as immersion breaking, Rook is treated like they're fresh out of college at oldest, constantly being called "kid" or having characters bring up their youth. Not only does it feel restrictive in terms of character building, I'm personally just legitimately sick of being forced to play 20 somethings for every single game. My characters age should be a choice, or ideally, not brought up at all. What is the point in letting me customize my character to look older or mature if you're just going to practically ruffle their hair and call them a silly scamp no matter what I do?

(And yes, before anyone brings it up, I'm painfully aware that DAO and DA2 are actually guilty of this as well. DAO being the even worse example, considering you can not only make your character look 87 while having an older brother look younger than you are or a cousin of similar age look like your grandchild, but every one of your family members, no matter your origin, is always white, even if you are not. So literally every DA game has handled that better than Origins.)

I feel like, in some ways, BioWare knows their player base too well, and that's both good and bad. I think they know their players will ultimately ignore things and rewrite/headcanon things for themselves, and I think that will often lead to them deciding something isn't worth investing in since the fans will just do the work themselves. And I don't want that to come off as vitriol towards the team or an undermining of the effort that went into this game. I know it was hell, and I know that time, budgeting and other things had an impact on what the team was able to do, but I feel like deciding to make Rook some young 20 year old that apparently is oblivious by default wasn't so much an accident caused by development problems so much as it was a choice. You should be able to play your Rook that way, certainly, but in an rpg about choice, shouldn't you be able to... Idk, roleplay and choose??

I'm just disappointed because I thought the Inquisitor was almost perfect, and Rook feels like a massive downgrade. In a game for which one of the core pillars was lauded as "be who you want to be," it's just a bit of a letdown that I'm less able to be who I want to be than in any DA game before, except for maybe DA2. And it's doubly upsetting, because in some areas, Veilguard is actually so good about roleplay. Getting to choose your characters identity, getting to decide whether Rook is a virgin or if they have experience, etc. Smaller things like that feel so personal, but they're so few compared to the parts that feel like my choices for who Rook is aren't meaningful.

I just don't think I should have to shake my head and go "nuh uh" every time my Rook speaks in order to build a character that I find enjoyable to play. And I say all of this as someone who genuinely enjoys this game. The game has its issues, but I truly do find it such an enjoyable experience. Except for Rook. My Rook in my mind is so different from how I can make them due to how limited the rp is, and that's never been the case for a Dragon Age game before.

That's it, that's the post. If you got to the end, I'm SO SORRY you had to read my whining. Have a random Emmrich for your trouble 🙏

[bloedewir]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

(some spoilers free thoughts)

- environment is stunning. there's something grim and hopeless about the atmosphere in the location they shown.

- want to believe there will be various settings to show/remove info on the screen. wouldn't like to see damage numbers like I'm doing math or annoying quests "!!!!!" everywhere. it would be great to use only a minimap to clean the screen.

- combat actually looks fine. and it's definitely not that bright and colorful to remember freaking fortnite and mobile gaming.

- interface doesn't look that weird and awful as some people say. it's just a new thing you get used to really fast.

- slow running looks funny as hell. walking and fast running is fine.

- Assan is fascinating little fellow. I hope he does blinks.

- Lighthouse looks magically beautiful. I wanna die there and be buried in the courtyard or backyard (if it has one).

- traveling system seems to be really interesting to investigate.

- some people mention IGN's gameplay reveal reminds them of Hogwarts Legacy. I hope it won't be so. HL is the most boring game I played in years. such atmospheric but absolutely dull and annoying.

- facial animations is bad. really bad. Rook looks like a mannequin. I don't really know how it happened and why, especially if Anthem was better in this matter, but.. it is what it is. If it's an important part of game for you (as it is for me) and you want to prepare yourself to avoid any disappointment on release, that's the time.

It's not Andromeda-bad but close to The Thaumaturge, SW:Outlaws or Starfield (y'know, lips moving and eyes blinks but the face looks like it was cemented).

You have no reasons to be upset. If you're thrilled and can't wait to play - I'm with you (my disappointment with facial animations is only my subjective opinion).

[5mcsinatrenchcoat]

(Not a plot spoiler, but skip this if you're unaware of what everyone is recently complaining about)

I've almost reached acceptance stage with the whole choices thing (I guess I'll just treat Veilguard like something akin to Absolution - a story focused on a particular party where everything else is glossed over and cameos conveniently don't have time to mention anything).

I am, however, boggled by the fact that people are comparing it to ME3 in terms of your choices not mattering. Like, hello?

Sure, ME3 fucked up with the endings with a similar sentiment, only thing that really mattered in any capacity was how much power you've amassed (some endings don't get unlocked on low power levels), while everything else just mattered in your heart. I'll say, I don't have too much beef with that one, but it is a complaint many had. It also obviously doesn't follow up if Shepard died in ME2 and has some fuckery with the Council returning to status quo.

As far as "references and cameos" go tho? Put some damn respect on her name!!! They've followed through with so much stuff you chose in the last games, starting with mentions (i.e. dialogue changes depending on if you played Arrival), small cameos like Kirrahe if he survived aaall the way back in ME1, BIG cameos of basically every single one of your old squadmates showing up and having at least one related questline. And they did it following up on two games where A LOT of those people could've died. Didn't stop them. Put in replacements for every single important one (see: Wrex's brother leading the Tuchanka mission if Wrex was killed in ME1) so that they had a place reserved in the story IF they happened to be alive. Instead of, y'know, shelving everyone who could've been dead at some point or weirdly 'resurrecting' them. Your episodic romances like Kelly made an appearance. A terrorist guy you let go (if you did) in ME1 showed up to try and kill you again.

The genophage quest acknowledged if you destroyed the cure research in ME2. The fate of Rannoch could suffer depending on how you've handled Tali's and Legion's quests in the previous game.

There was SO MUCH. What sorta fumbled your choices was the ending, not the continuity with the previous installments. I WISH that continuity work was what we got with DAtV.

Like, we have a right to be upset (I am still upset. I'm just very tired and opt to focus on the positives for my own well-being), but get your facts right 😤 It's not a 'ME3 problem', it's like a direct opposite - new choices (allegedly) matter, old ones ditched.

[noverturemusings]

So.... How are we about dav?

We are processing it for sure... Had to think about this ask for a bit.

I don't have the game and can't play it for a long while yet so I've just been receiving second-hand information, and watching my partner stream it (we're technically playing together since I'm picking the dialogue options with them...?) So I'm still trying to get as much as I can about it and then sitting with it.

I know some people have been having an absolute blast, while some have already told me they're disappointed and/or upset. I'm glad people are enjoying it and feel satisfied with the story, that's amazing. It's been a needed closure for sure after ten years. On my end, I'm personally a little underwhelmed.

Because look, I can see the creative direction, and I can see the messages and themes and all these beautiful narrative frameworks that the writers wanted to convey. I can see the story they wanted to tell, but the execution has suffered because the writing couldn't hold it up. Which is a shame because Dragon Age has always shone with its writing. It hasn't always been perfect but it's been solid. I've already been apprehensive and worried because of all the layoffs and turnovers, and I can definitely feel it in the final product.

I'm gonna ramble for a bit, I'll put it under a read more. Woe, spoilers ahead, including the ending!

Everything feels too clean, I'd say, which has been a common criticism for this game and I do agree with it. Dragon Age hasn't always been perfect with it, but it's still presented a lot of its conflicts in a morally grey light. It facilitated discussion (and discourse) about the characters' actions and motivations. But Veilguard's been very didactic about what you should feel. "This is bad, look how bad it is. We think this is bad. This is so bad. We don't condone this."

It feels like the game is backpedalling so hard out of fear that something will be presented "wrong" or that it will be problematic, and this ends up stripping the narrative and characters of their nuance to the point that it starts feeling generic and lifeless.

I've also noted the handholding in the dialogue but I've been told it eases up some later on in the game so there's that at least. I know it's to cater to new players, but at points you end up feeling like the game thinks you're a goldfish with short-term memory loss.

There's so much telling too in the dialogue. Off the top of my head, an example would be the point when you're first approaching D'Meta's Crossing and Bellara notes that this port used to be busy and so forth and it's always busy and then Neve remarks something isn't right. The dialogue feels clunky to me here. Yes, I can see that. The environment is already doing the storytelling. I can see crates and fresh produce and stacks of bags along the port. I can infer it used to be busy. You've set up this uneasy lighting and fog and desaturation so you feel something isn't right. Your environment is showing the story, so rely on it a bit more. There's no need to double down on it.

But again, this is just the first bit of the game, and maybe it gets better.

Then you have Mythal. Oh, Mythal. You are so interesting, so tragic, and so complex. But something about how her character was executed felt so... scattered? Something's nagging at me. Her character doesn't feel fully realised. I still have to get my thoughts in order about her, this is already getting too long lol.

I'm also baffled as to why the Inquisitor doesn't play a greater role. I honestly thought they would since this is a direct continuation of Inquisition. They're the reason Rook was even recruited by Varric in the first place.

Honestly, a lot of past choices just feel like they don't matter at all, which is also a shame because that's another charm to Dragon Age. You get to see this world that you've built over the course of the games, but that's just. Not here. I guess. Oh, and the Crows are good now, apparently? Did they go through a reform since Zevran's time or something...?

Look, I have a lot more thoughts on the game regarding other points, but maybe that's for another day. Can't reliably comment on the companions either as I haven't explored a lot of their stories yet.

Don't get me wrong, Veilguard has its strong points too. The environments are absolutely gorgeous and Ghilan'nain has a chokehold on me but that's just my love of body horror and female scientists who've thrown the book of ethics into the bin showing.

Also, FELASSAN. My boy!! I get to see and hear my favourite novel character at last! I'm so happy I got it right that he was a soldier. Got the rank wrong; he's a general, not a lieutenant, but close enough haha. His voice for sure surprised me but I loved it.

It's also so interesting to see the Dread Wolf side of Solas. He's not trying to hide anymore. Except, he still is. In Inquisition, the humble apostate was his armour. Now, it's the Wolf. It's a very fascinating intersection. The Solas we see now is running on fumes and desperation and has presumably been isolated for a decade (also, where the fuck are his agents??) and he's pulling out every trick he knows in the book just to get his goal done.

And the endings? Well, they're okay. I know some are happy with it, some not so. I'm lukewarm about them... I did enjoy the tension and I think 'satisfying' is a word I could use for it. But satisfying in the sense of "yeah okay, I'll take it". I can see the destination, and I can appreciate it, but the strength of the writing needed to get there didn't quite reach for me. Could've been way worse though (saw the alternate in the artbook for Veilguard), so small mercies with what we got.

A few parts shine for me still. I love Solas' body language in front of Mythal when she shows up. He looks so broken. It's so TELLING. That, for me, did so much more to convey their dynamic than the murals, I think. I also loved when Solas gets outwitted by Rook and he does that bitter chuckle and calls himself a fool. Delicious. Gareth David-Lloyd fucking killed it yet again with his voice acting in this game. I was also reminded a little of Loki's ending. Trickster god in a green realm and upholding the structure of the world anyone?

But yeah. Look, do I think Veilguard is a bad game? No, not at all. It's got its strengths and again, I can see the creative ambitions the writers wanted to get at, but it just wasn't fully realised. Likely due to all the complications during development. I think it's a good game if it's standing on its own. But as the fourth game in the franchise? It's mid for me...

Again, I'm genuinely happy for the people who are enjoying it and think it's delivered everything they've ever wanted. I'm also happy for the people who feel seen with the exploration of gender and identities in the game, and those whose headcanons have been confirmed. That's such a fantastic feeling. Definitely did a little dance myself at the whole "blight was sealed away" and "Solas was a spirit" confirmation, though those ones, I feel, were among the more obvious ones haha.

Let's be real though. We all know what the real best parts of the game are.

Assan and Manfred.

[saruin]

I can agree that Veilguard has its issues, there are some things I’m not a big fan of and some choices that as someone who’s played through the entirety of the series multiple times and read the books/comics don’t make a lick of sense to me, but overall it’s a good game imo. I’ve been taking my time and exploring in it but to me it read like if DA2 was given time to be fleshed out properly while still being new. I think because of the lore and previous writing they wrote themselves into a bit of a corner, but that’s was inevitable at some point. If this is supposed to be a soft reboot then maybe that means the next game goes back to having that more open choice RPG feel people are saying it’s missing

Personally, I went in with no expectations because I love this franchise and I know most of my headcanons and thoughts aren’t EA’s world state, which is fine. But I’ve been really enjoying the game. The combat is a bit of a learning game curve compared to what we’ve had before but the heart of the games has always been the story and the interaction you have with your companions but that’s just me. People can be mad and upset and complain about being a “DA purist” or complain that they don’t like the art style but at its core everyone has a different experience and connection to the game and no single DA game looks like another. The styles are all different! And if something doesn’t match with your story for your player character you can literally write fix-it fics and headcanons if you’re really mad about it *cough cough all of us who wanted the Hawke/Varric romance that they scrapped*

At the end of the day, I’d say take everything everyone’s been saying about the game with a (large) grain of salt. Take your time, explore, and enjoy it. It’s a got beautiful scenery, you can pet the cats and Mabari, and the cc for both Rook and the Inquisitor made me tear up because I literally haven’t seen my girl in 3 years and here she is with pretty flowing hair and still (in my mind because I haven’t seen her in game yet) is a rebel with a cause

Sorry for the long rant and rambling also, it’s just neat seeing creators and blogs I follow on here get excited about what is pretty much my favorite game series when in my offline experience is that it’s a very niche series to like. Also love your content for sims btw! I always get excited seeing when you’ve got something new cooking

Thank you for this. I think it's easy for people to forget that everyone doesn't experience games the same way. I don't listen to critics and I ignore people's opinions on stuff I'm genuinely excited about because I want to judge it with my own two eyes. I appreciate other people's perspective but I don't have to agree with them, what fun is that.

I remember when I was about to start playing Mass Effect and was asking friends for input (cause I didn't understand at the time that people could be extremely biased) I was told over and over again that ME3 was the worst game ever and to not even play it, to just get the story online somewhere. Well I ended up playing it despite their opinions and ME3 is my favorite game in the series.

Thank you again for giving me your opinions and I'm so happy you're enjoying the game. Also thanks so much for liking my content 🩷

[ardentkurashk]

Veilguard spoilers below. Still upset about this tbh. Big negatives so don't read if you don't want that. I'm not putting it in the tags, I'm not going to be that cunt.

If you're enjoying the game, I'm glad you've got something out of it. Genuinely, I hope you all continue to enjoy it.

Really? The entirety of Southern Thedas? ie, where every other game was set, all our stories for nothing, rebooting the world? Blighted beyond recognition?

That's just mean spirited bollocks, quite frankly. What an utter disservice to the franchise. And us.

That has upset me quite a bit tbh. Dragon Age has meant a lot to me for 15 years, along with many fans. This is what we waited a decade for lmao. Hard reboot, fuck your experiences, here's some watered down mediocrity.

Insulting.

And don't even get me fucking started on the fans that just eat it up like good little consumers. Developer hell, writers fired, live service, not live service, learning nothing from Andromeda. The voice director getting fired.

They had the audacity to use Varric as a mascot after sacking his writer. The absolute gall of it. And they'll keep doing this shit with the inevitable sequels because fans will preorder and spend $70 on shit regardless. Just because it's got the DA name. Shocking tbh.

Inb4 "jUsT pLaY tHe oLd GaMes" is thrown in as a response. I plan to, but I'm still going to be mad about the tepid slop they're serving us. Fuck lol do none of you wonder why AAA companies were shit scared when BG3 did so well? Stop supporting EA's half assed slop.

Ten years of developer hell, plot threads left unfinished, characters given a canon that contradicts everyone's Keep unless you romanced Solas.

Frankly, we deserved better.

[leemarkies]

my dragon age the veilguard thoughts after finishing the game (obviously spoilers below so read at your own peril)

companions

harding: she was an amazing companion, and imo the best companion to be introduced to rook first. she's a great tie back to inq for old fans and her va is amazing. i'm really happy they explored more dwarven lore with her personal quests. my only complaint is that i wish she was given her own "inquisitor faction" like the rest of the companions have. it wouldn't be a stretch to think that the inquisition wouldn't have SOME pull or influence in the north, considering how big it once was. they could have made a small inquisition faction camp in the crossroads since the inquisitor is still using morrigan's eluvian. idk it seems like a missed opportunity

neve: unfortunately since this is my first playthru i made some Mistakes (didn't finish her personal quests before recruiting davrin and then chose to help antiva) so she was veryyyy cold to my rook. i don't feel like i got to explore her character as much as i wanted to but ig that will happen during my next playthru lol. i think her story and role is super super interesting, we don't get to meet a lot of middle class vints ESPECIALLY middle class MAGE vints. i wish we could have delved more into tevinter society but maybe i just missed out on it. i also thought some of her lines were a little .. off. idk if it was the writing or the va but it was noticeable at times

bellara: ok i went into the game thinking i was not going to like her very much and boy was i wrong! LOVE HER. she might be a tad bit cringey (really only at the beginning) but i love having an elven follower who is proudly an elf (cough cough sera) i see a lot of myself in her (worried you're not enough, looking out for younger brother, etc.) and i loved how she was besties with emmrich. she wrongfully gets the "bubbly pixar" trope from dudebros which couldn't be further from the truth.

lucanis: definitely a favorite of mine and others for a reason! his va is amazing. seeing a possession of a non-mage was really really interesting. i wish we could have seen spite playing on lucanis's own emotions. like for instance anders already was upset about mage discrimination and the circles, justice just pushed the emotions FURTHER and out of control. is lucanis, on his own, spiteful? is what we see of spite partially based on lucanis's own thoughts? also the demon didn't seem like a "spite" demon, but more of a vengeance? or rage? demon. like i never saw lucanis spiteful? or spite being spiteful? just angry. also why are we retconning the crows. according to my trusted beloved zevran they are The Worst.

davrin: sooooo relieved on how bioware handled it's first (which is insane) black male main cast character. i loved seeing his relationship with the wardens and with asaan. he's multi-dimensional and honestly a pleasure to talk to. he's a good guy. confident. slightly sefl-righteous but that's ok!

emmrich: full disclosure i am feral for this man. i love how genuine he is. he is genuinely kind, genuinely compassionate, genuinely forgiving, genuinely friendly. there is no ulterior motive to his niceties and manners, he's just Good. he always says pls and thank you. he's the first person to ask if someone's ok when they're hurt. i love how they made him a bit posh and uppity as far as personal comfort but he doesn't treat the others with disdain for being different. he loves learning about the other factions and other cultures. my rook was a lord of fortune, decidedly NOT an academic, but he expressed interest in her work, even though their lives were so very different from each other. i also think the whole take of "necromancer who is afraid of dying" was neat.

taash: quickly became one of my most favorites of the group. loved their arc, loved seeing a character that has two identities: quinari and rivaini. loved seeing how they embraced both sides in their own way. also loved seeing a companion with their parent and how that relationship is. i think a lot of people can relate to taash and their mom's relationship, it felt very authentic. i think people who find them annoying need to see them as they are: a teenager or young adult. they are 19-22 MAX so yeah they gonna be a bit moody and that's ok

overall: wished we could yap with our companions more like dai/dao, i think that would have assuaged my complaints of wanting to know MORE. also loved how they very clearly have relationships/friendships with each other outside of rook's influence. i think the biggest thing missing is pushback and flaws. i wished these characters had bigger flaws that rook could either help them get over, ignore, or push them further in the wrong direction. it felt like regardless of the choices you make with each companion, everything ends up good in the end. i also felt like we had too many pointless cutscenes and also simultaneously not enough if that makes any sense. also, wtf was the gift thing, completely pointless.

cameos

the keep: i understand that bioware wrote themselves into a corner and that not every little decision you made in the past three games is 1) relevant or 2) worth bringing back but i really was disappointed with the limited past decisions. it made me feel like my past choices that were HUGE (who rules orlais?? who's divine?? hello????) didn't matter in the end, which sucks bc this is a role playing game? if my choices end up not mattering what's the point? who's to say that my choices in this game will matter? and i really hated how bioware devs were like "we limited the choices bc we didn't want the game to be riddled with cameos and one-liners" but actually bc they did this they MADE their cameos so bare and not worthwhile. dav morrigan may or may not have a son. varric mentions hawke in passing ONCE. huge implications to fan favorite and long lasting cast characters have been completely erased, it was like i was talking to a 3d print clone of varric and morrigan. yes they looked like them but what made them THEM was kinda gone. also don't even get me started on how all the choices literally revolved around solas and solas only. the devs also promised that they weren't going to retcon anyone's choices, but they did! harding mentions cole and blackwall and dorian acts like him and the inquisitor are friends, when people could have worldstates where none of these people were recruited into the inquisition!

morrigan: actually a cool use of her cameo, but it was jarring seeing her so readily accept her mother's role

varric: i will never forgive bioware for what they did

dorian: love him. wish we got more of him. noticing a theme here in my review.

inquisitor: unless your inquisitor romanced solas, it's kinda pointless having them here. the convos between rook and the inquisitor were like 2 min max. she shows up at the end to try to convince solas to stop being stupid, but really wasn't the catalyst to making him stop, mythal was.

combat:

i played on the easiest difficulty and turned off dying. <3 so i don't have much to say lol

environment:

i really prefer the more streamlined environments in da games so this was! awesome! loved how it wasn't open world HOWEVER you are rewarded for exploring more than what is strictly required for a quest. da thrives on small, detailed environments so the places we visited were amazing! really loved tevinter and antiva specifically. i wish the camera on our character was a little different bc i felt like i (the player) was staring down at the ground instead of looking up at the scenery. also, finding exactly where a quest objectives was pointing us to was sometimes difficult.

music:

meh. not horrible but not memorable at all. inq's music was sooooooooooooooo good. like elder scrolls level good and that's hard to compete with bc tes soundtracks are second to none. i just felt a lack of orchestral sound. at times the bg music was almost modern electric. i can't tell u a single time i was moved or touched by the music in this game, which is a shame bc it's hans zimmer. meanwhile i can put on wicked eyes and wicked hearts or in hushed whispers and immediately get goosebumps and imagine my inquisitor going thru those quests

plot:

i think the writing was a little disjointed in the first half of act 1, but after it got much much better. i do find it weird that bioware was obviously trying to make it friendly for new players, but i would never ever recommend starting dragon age with this as your first game (coming from someone who played inquisition first, then da2, then dao lol). there are some HUGE lore implications (which i will get into later) that will not make sense at all to new players, and honestly, might confuse them more. in contrast, inquisition didn't have that many huge lore changing issues so i didn't feel like i was missing out on the surprise by playing it first.

i also think this series in general has a power creep issue. and it's one that also makes no sense. last game you were fighting one self-proclaimed god and had an entire army, spies, stronghold, politicians, scouts, etc. at your disposal. this game you're fighting TWO gods and it's just u and ur besties <3 what's next? THREE gods? and honestly i get it it's tough for bioware to not try to outdo themselves in the next installment otherwise people would get bored. idk just a thought

i was kinda shocked that some MAJOR lore implications happened in side quests lol. like we disproved the entire andrastian faith in one cutscene of a side mission. and boom. everyone moves on. CRAZY. i liked seeing bellara and davrin talk about how all of this new information could make elves lives worse bc people will blame them for everything that's happening, but i wish there was more. let me see someone freak out over the golden city not being real. in inq we saw a LOT of character's struggle with their faith bc of corypheus's claims. now we have two confirmed elven "gods" wreaking havoc and everyone is like "lol this sucks. anyways" also there is a distinct lack of andrastian faith shown in this game. obviously comparing it to inq is maybe not the best example but even in da2 and dao there were tons of quests and npcs centered around the andrastian faith and i felt like that was missing here

not that i condone fantasy racism (or racism in general lol) but there wasn't enough of it. not one npc said anything about rook being an elf. apparently other players who played as a qunari rook said the same thing. meanwhile lavellan was being discriminated against left and right in inq. inq had some elves in higher statuses but they alwayyyyys remarked how they were outliers. for example, coulette from jaws of hakkon was an ASSISTANT to the professor and still said it was very rare for an elf to have her job and that she has to prove herself. but in dav there are elves everywhere in lots of different leadership roles. and the north is supposed to be WORSE for elves bc of tevinter slavery so??? and the qunari have invaded antiva and no one gives a qunari rook shit for it? it was just very jarring, felt like i was playing bg3

it was also weird seeing how every faction was just super happy to help! and got along with everyone! no! show me how the wardens are critical of the crows being assassins! show me the lord of foturnes being creeped out by the mourn watchers!

i also think the replayability isn't as strong as dai or dao. there's only like 2 really big decisions, one is at the very end. everything else doesn't really change the outcome of the game, unless you purposefully chose to not do the side/companion quests to get the "bad ending"

also, no zevran. which pissed me off.

tdlr: dragon age excels in making compelling, in-depth characters. i feel like the highs were high in this game, and the lows were low. i blame the crazy development process that went on behind the scenes for some of the issues. overall: 6/10. i had fun, i enjoyed it, but tbh it's probably my least fav game. will obviously still do dozens of playthrus.