#minor datv spoilers

[sha-lyuzar]

The fact that there is no casteless brand is irking me unreasonably

[ineed-to-sleep]

Wow I can't believe they got Garrus Vakarian in the flesh to make a cameo in Dragon Age The Veilguard

[zahra-hydris]

I'm actually really sad about the lack of world state reactivity.

it was such a cornerstone of the series: feeling like characters and the world evolved as you, the player, interacted with it (lived in it! over 15 years!). and it's not even - as i've seen some, including key devs, suggest - a question of making every single choice matter. the "throwaway" lines, simple war table missions, and codex entries still mattered! they still contributed to that feeling of a world that evolved with you.

and what really worries me is what this means for the returning characters. how can you have varric without the potential loss of hawke? how can you have morrigan* without the potential for kieran? is your inquisitor going to be even semi-recognisable? how is the well drinker choice not relevant? and, again, these don't necessarily need to have huge impacts? they can just be one off lines or codex entries or something that shows that this is a world that you've been a part of, these are people that you know and love.

idk there's just such a huge middle ground between 'every single choice needs to dramatically impact the plot/characterisation and that's just not feasible' and 'absolutely no reactivity to anything beyond three things'. the devs keep acting like there's not, but it's just bullshit. they managed it to a decent degree in inquisition, after all.

it's not necessarily a dealbreaker but idk i'm just sad about it.

*honestly starting to lean towards that theory that it's not actually morrigan but flemythal in her body

[malizanu]

every birthday josie still sends harding a gift, maybe the josie/harding truthers had bigger minds than the rest of us

[blazingflareon]

ouughh this whole 'you only import a few choices from inquisition' thing is the first thing abt veilguard that got me seriously disappointed.,,, like 'people dont just want cameos or one-liners' how could they miss the mark That Bad i fucking LIVE for that single line in a codex entry thats different

also im like 99% sure theyre gonna retcon the well choice to morrigan just having its power anyway somehow bc apparently that choice wasnt important enough???? like what??????

[garasu-no-haato]

The character creator was the last marketing reveal I was looking forward to before the game's release. And it really is the best cc by Bioware so far! ✨️

But isn't it nice of them to apparently assume that the Inquisitor didn't get any gray hair while worrying about Solas blowing up the Veil any day for the past nine years? Or that Rook has not gone through some gray hair-inducing experiences? :D

Edit (This probably shouldn't hide in the tags bc it's important for the tone): Don't get me wrong, I loved seeing everything there is! There are many small options I didn't expect. But graying hair not being included simply puzzled me...

[autumns-high-lady]

When the character creation comes out and you have to start the redesign right after finishing a piece:

If only I had waited a couple of days…

[ivanovaisalwaysright]

Interview with John Epler || Dragon Age: The Veilguard {Marketing Spoilers}

Welcome, welcome! I was honored with being able to go to the Veilguard preview event earlier this month, and I got 20 minutes of John Epler's time to ask him questions on the upcoming game! Epler is currently the Creative Director for Veilguard, but has been with the series for ages now. Near the tail end of the video, I do ask questions about some details of the game that were released in marketing so far, so please keep that in mind!

[franculo1]

DATV SPOILER AHEAD (unfortunately!!)

is it just me or these dragon age veilguard videos (like the gameplay video and the two combat videos) are getting a little bit too spoiler-y and, like, for no reason??

like for example - both the combat videos had major story spoilers mentioned (ghilan’nain’s archdemon and the fact that she’s confirmed to be related to the blight and darkspawn) BUT none of them could be ACTUALLY SEEN in the video, so what was the point of telling us?!?

[arb0k]

currently playing a very cute little scene where you get a bunch of dialogue options literally to talk to yourself and establish some character building stuff. and if you interact with the mirror you get this !!!

[mysweetavalon]

people immediately naysaying this game after like a few bits of info were released that definitely were not good are like. are we seriously convinced this game is gonna be bad because some people gave it 3/5?????? or a 7.9/10??????? we've been waiting for this game for ten years, you're allowed to be critical about it but like don't get your hopes down just because not everyone liked it. the vast majority of reviews are good if not better.

a lot of the bad reviews are coming from people who think trans people existing is catering to the woke mob. this is a game that had zevran leliana and literally da2.

i am ABSOLUTELY critical of them massacring isabela and i absolutely don't like all of the info we've gotten so far but for the most part i've been excited for this game and had this series as a special interest since i was 12 years old. i'm going to keep my hopes up, and i won't be surprised if some of it disappoints me, but yall need to stop saying this game is going to be bad from what little info we have a few days prior to release.

i probably didn't word that right. but yk what i mean.

and this is coming from someone who enjoyed and loved andromeda. take that as you will. if they say bioware is back bioware is fucking back.

[sha-lyuzar]

Very happy with the character creator. Finally i am able to make a character that matches my vision, and i am absolutely loving Faira Ingellvar's personality, somewhere between nihilistic optimism and pragmatic shrugs.

That said, recreating Lyria Sha-Lyuzar was an absolute pain and she looks nothing like herself

[butchvamp]

okay i finally got all the companions last night. gonna write my current thoughts about the game under the cut (sorry it's long lol)

so far i've really enjoyed the gameplay the most. i like the combat (im playing as a dual wield rogue) and i really like all the new ways to move around in-game (ziplines, climbing, etc). i really love the maps and the way we can explore all the areas, this is what i've spent most of my time doing lmao and in general i'm having fun playing!

but this tone change in this game is Rough. there's a real lack of depth, there's no friction at all (for some reason every faction just loves Rook and trusts them completely) and so many characters and groups have just been completely defanged. there's this weird vibe of like... GOD i hate pointing it out cus it feels like i'm complaining about the game being "woke" but there's such a weird vibe right now where it feels like the factions arent allowed to be "problematic." the crows act like a found family rather than the brutal assassin organization we've learned about previously that buys slaves and tortures their recruits into perfection (in any previous game Rook's mistake as a crow would have resulted in their death or extreme punishment. but this time it doesn't even feel like it matters, you go back to the crows and everyone there automatically loves you. jacobus is being babied and protected when before they would have just let him get himself killed. there's just no power struggle, no competition, no urgency.)

i also noticed it with the lords of fortune. Taash making a point to emphasize that the lords aren't Thieves and they're sooo correct and return cultural artifacts to par vollen (and Isabela is a part of this for some reason despite the fact she can run off with the book she stole from the arishok in da2...?) there's this weird over-correction happening where past companions are having their flaws completely ironed out. you find various codex entries all written by Dorian arguing against slavery now (and to be clear. i have my own criticisms of his weird pro-slavery rant in inquisition, but this just feels so forced)

Varric has been completely stripped of his role (and personality tbh) and relegated to a mouthpiece that just constantly gives Rook positive affirmations and almost treats them like a child despite Rook at the very least being established in whatever faction they've come from. and then there's also Rook themselves...

there's barely any roleplaying allowed, Rook is just a Good Guy and everyone loves them and trusts them immediately and you're forced to be invested in fighting Solas no matter what, you can't even choose your own motivations. and you can't really be aggressive or "mean" (at least in inquisition you could resist the herald title and question the inquisition's existence). which i don't necessarily have a problem with on its own but why am i allowed to play a crow then? and why is Rook so naive and insecure when they clearly were headstrong enough to go against their faction in their origin? the first few hours are so "the power of friendship!!!" and it's very bizarre considering Rook doesn't know any of these people except Varric and Harding. if you choose to leave the mayor in dmeta crossing, Neve challenges Rook's decision (good!) but this causes Rook to go running back to Varric and suddenly be extremely insecure about their choice (bad!) my Rook is an assassin and has no qualms about letting some guy die regardless of whether Neve likes it or not.

but it's like the game won't allow there to be any kind of tension or friction between characters, no disagreements or disapproval... it's all just so BORING!!!!!! it feels so silly!!! why are we so worried about these factions being Right or our characters being Correct but then you still depict the qunari as this faceless bloodthirsty monolith that only want to Kill. the venatori are all evil and abuse their slaves (but dont worry, none of US have slaves now!!!)-- it's SO black and white. this is like, the opposite of what i play these games for... everyone is toothless and inoffensive and boring. and nevermind the fact that the game is still racist, anyways 😭

also . not as serious this is goofy but i can't even imagine how they're going to do the romance scenes in this game. so far everything has felt geared towards a younger, new audience (which doesn't make sense, this game has to feel nonsensical if you've never played any other dragon age game, so little is explained properly) and i can't even imagine romance scenes happening like they have in previous games. are there even any? lmao

[persuasion-check]

Very minor spoilers, but under a cut just in case...

The scene with Lucanis where you go get coffee made me crave coffee at 3am last night. So today while I was running errands I treated myself. I usually get an iced latte or something but I got just a black coffee where the flavor/roast description sounded similar enough to what he describes. So now I'm drinking hot coffee when it's almost 80 degrees out and it's all Mary Kirby's fault.

[cy-cyborg]

I got to the bit that the Dragon age devs were asking people not to talk about in pre-release reviews and omg, my little queer heart 😭

[agentkatie]

MY BOYS?? WHERE ARE MY BOYS??