#obviously BioWare are not BAD at this at all
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Dragon Age Special Interest as a narrative-first enjoyer really is a specific torture by the way. Because the more access we’ve got to the writers, the more I’ve realised that a LOT of the small things I personally love in the franchise were happy accidents, or time crunch working bafflingly in the favour of lean writing, or not really what the writers themselves were prioritising, or just something they borrowed wholesale from another book series or franchise that happened to work better in the setting they had made.
Compared to a company like Obsidian, who are so story first and put a borderline wild amount of thought into narrative and what skills go into different styles of writing, it’s. A choice, brain.
#obviously BioWare are not BAD at this at all#they’re great at narrative design for games specifically#but I think sometimes the things that I specifically love are very much accidentally present#rather than being what the team themselves love#it’s a blue vs white dress thing when in the end the question is “is it a nice dress#Baldur’s gate 1 and 2 are still such gold standard writing goals to me. what brilliant games#but no my hyperfocus is. draggy age
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I will save my full review for when I've finished the game but I just finished the first act of veilguard and I'm more disappointed than anything else, and I'm the woke mob that is being pandered to, or whatever the haters are saying
#mine#it feels like they took the skeleton of a dragon age game and made a decent game around it. but a bad dragon age game. it lacks most of#the things i enjoy about the series. i also think with bg3 building so well on the bioware model. this game abandoning it makes me more#critical than i might have been#there are some things i feel the game is doing well or decent at so far#but i doesnt have the soul i expect from dragon age.#i do have specific mechanics and story things im upset about but as i said. ill save it#also I'm obviously staying off social media until i finish#i dont want any spoilers#i dont know what the tumblr fan consensus is on wether the game is good or not so maybe im an outlier and maybe we all feel the same
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If people could stop making massive, largely baseless assumptions about DAV based on a playtest build that only contains six hours of the game and that we haven't even seen all of that'd be great.
#i don't know it's just... it's just really tiring y'know?#'oh it's not going to have [x]' YOU DON'T KNOW THAT#we have no way of knowing that#we're seeing incomplete content of an incomplete build#'the story won't have-' we've seen basically none of the story and nothing bioware considers serious spoilers (they've confirmed that)#'the quiz cc won't have-' we've seen literally two or three screens of the quiz cc#you could take a random screenshot of the keep's tapestry and say 'look how much it's leaving out' and everyone would laugh at you#because obviously it's just not all on one screen. let's not assume dav's worldstate choices are limited to like three based on ONE SCREEN#i'm very much reaching a point of like... if you're deciding the game's going to be bad based SOLELY on this largely out of context info#then sit down shut up and don't play the game when it comes out#because this all but completely baseless negativity just gives the impression that you didn't really want to play it anyway#there comes a point when you're just taking things out of context and exaggerating them so you have something to complain about#and ngl i'm getting REAL sick of seeing it everywhere
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anon who asked about chasind headcanons, i am not ignoring you, that is actually step 3 of my current project:
gather all chasind lore in existence
organise it into something coherent
fill in the gaps
unfortunately i have been on step 1 for about 2 weeks and it is currently a 130 page document and will still take a while to finish
but i am getting there!!! and i have formed many headcanons in the process about all kinds of things
#personal#da#don’t get excited about 130 pages of chasind lore. that’s not actually what it is#i’ve included anything on the avvar and the early alamarri and clayne#and the largest category is obviously the avvar (esp from dai)#but it’s coming along#i’m currently going through game dialogue which i was Dreading but it’s not too bad#i’m not gonna do da2 because i would have to go through each file and map the individual lines. nope!#just gonna go through some of mota (cahir is chasind) and ctrl-f through the talktable for the rest of the game#and i’m considering skipping dai altogether because……like when tf would the chasind be mentioned. bioware forgot they exist in dai#they get one codex entry for the skyhold decorations and that’s it#even the fallow mire has avvar instead even tho it’s BASICALLY IN CHASIND TERRITORY#devastating that so many of the avvar files are labeled chasind. like they were gonna be there and then they got replaced#look i don’t dislike the avvar at all but they are very much the favourite child and i resent that#anyway. all i have left is some other in-game text (quests mostly; which aren’t gonna give me much)#(i’ve already done codex entries and notes and item descriptions)#and a few things that i’ve skipped because i was getting sick of them: two avvar-related ttrpg adventures (where eagles lair & buried pasts)#and one novel (the calling. also something that has avvar stuff rather than chasind stuff)#where eagles lair is the most important one of those to actually go through because it goes in-depth on avvar culture#and since there’s very little actual chasind lore i’m basing some ideas on avvar stuff because they evolved from the same culture
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#as always fuck patrick weekes what an insufferable dickhead (via @lambofsin)
You’re so correct. My revulsion and utter disdain for that man runs deep.
Well, on the upside, Veilguard’s absolutely horrid writing and utter lack of meaningful roleplay mechanics made me appreciate Inquisition’s already watered-down writing and roleplay mechanics.
#Patrick ‘No One’s Allowed to be Mean to my Horrible Self-Insert OC Taash’ Weekes#Patrick ‘No One’s Allowed to do Bad Things in a Video Game because I Think that Means They do Bad Things IRL’ Weekes#Patrick ‘Let Me Beat You Over the Head with a Cudgel with my Bad Political Takes’ Weekes#Patrick ‘I Run a Campaign on Good Vibes Only (as long as you agree with everything I say)’ Weekes#I could go on.#I swear it’s like he became head writer and with no one to keep him and his nonsense in check he just went mad with power#Like I’m not discounting some of the better character/etc he’s written but Veilguard is so objectively poorly written#And he’s directly responsible for a large chunk of it and I feel like it is that no one was there to tell him#’Hey Patrick maybe chill yeah??’#And then of course I’m sure there was a lot of corporate sanitisation and inference from EA/BioWare#But Taash was his and. That’s a really atrociously poorly-written character#And he’s also been crowing on social media for YEARS about how he didn’t want players making bad decisions#Because in his mind that must mean they support or do bad things#So obviously apparently his solution was… to cut all the roleplay elements out of an RPG? All right#So now instead of Dragon Age: Veilguard we’ve got Dragon Age: Nice Guy Daycare Simulator#Where your only open is to validate and hold everyone’s hands and tell them gently to get along#With your three personality options: Nice Guy; Nice and Sometimes Mildly Sarcastic Guy; and Nice and Occasionally Maybe a Bit Stern Guy#This is the only Dragon Age game where you HAVE to recruit all the companions and you HAVE to get along with them all#And you HAVE to do all their quests#And oh I hate it.#I hate how this game makes me feel like I’m being forced down a certain path.#It’s like a Ubisoft attempt at making an RPG and for BioWare of all companies#Who have made some of the greatest RPGs of all time? Who have PIONEERED this genre of video game?#Veilguard’s half-arsed first-draft writing with no meaningful choices or roleplay options?#It’s unacceptable to me#And I blame Weekes not SOLELY but I do blame him for a lot of it. I can practically smell him on this game#chey.txt#Veilguard critical#That scene with Taash and Emmrich where Taash is being an utter dickhead to him and you can’t?? Even comment on it?#Can’t say ‘hey Taash stop being an utter twat!’
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Sorry for a little petty and not a very positive post but it gets on my nerves a little when I see people being like "My RPG choice/romance is in the Bioware CANON WORLDSTATE we won!" like I dunno what to tell you man, congrats your singleplayer game choices were approved by the corporate or whatever but it's a little weird you want to use it to make your, again, singleplayer RPG game choices feel more valid then other ones.
And while in plot choices it's bad because it feels unecessary discourse about which choices are the 'correct ones', it really rubs me the wrong way when it is about romance options. Because first- there obviously shouldn't be a right and wrong romance choice. There shouldn't be secret winning romance. And second- if it is a thing that there is a romance option that gets loads of attention from creators because they chose it as more canon then others... yall realise why this is actually a bad thing right? Especially when usually it's a straight locked romance? And how it's especially bad when there is no alternative with comparable plot relevance? Like I dunno if that's winning guys when all but one choice in the game with multiplechoices don't get any followup in the narrative.
#fandom critical#Like I hope and pray that it's not true that dav has followup only for solasmancers#But if that's true then that's really shitty of them ngl#It's a small thing that by no means ruins the game#But It's still a bit disheartening to see bioware play favourite's so clearly#Sorry for being negative#bioware critical#dragon age critical#dragon age
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Just have to share this, because I keep seeing critiques of Veilguard that like, try to guilt people who say they love, or even like the game. And HEAVY critiques of the protagonist, Rook, and how they aren't really a hero.
ALSO it contains some SPOILERS so just be warned ☺️ and an edit of additional thoughts now!
Like, yeah I have a couple gripes about the game, but overall it's emotional and amazing and I care about the characters so deeply. I keep seeing how people are saying how Rook and the party were not well written because they caused a lot of death?? This is Dragon Age, everything always goes from bad to worse, but the characters always bring out the light.
Rook was put in a very shitty situation, and I've seen people say they caused the destruction of thousands by trying to prevent the hundreds. But how many people, before the game came out, said Solas's plan to tear down the veil was a bad idea? Not all, I'm sure, but most. I always viewed it, and I know I wasn't alone, as that by trying to "fix" things Solas was just justifying his selfish wants, when he knew somewhere in his heart that the people of today, including the elves that he was "doing this for", would rather live alongside their friends & family in a world without their old magic, than live in a world with it alone.
That being said, even with differing views in and out of the game, it's very reasonable that a group of people would try to stop him, not know the consequences. And the beautiful thing about Rook, why Varric chose THEM, is that they saw what they had created, and didn't give up, didn't leave it to someone else to fix. Whether or not it was really their fault they stepped up and tried to save the world the best they could, from the mistake they unwittingly made (which I would argue against the fact that they made a "mistake", looking at that they were hired to do a job & by successfully completing that job there were unintended consequences).
Parallels anyone? Dragon Age loves those. But the difference, again illustrated in the game, is that while Solas couldn't move past the regret of his mistakes, Rook could. And on the topic of the deaths of those around them, not everyone that died in the past was Solas's fault, but some he did directly lead to their deaths. And he accepted that, did it over & over. Rook never led anyone to their death. Rook walked willingly into it themselves, and the love and trust their companions felt led them to choose to die for Rook, and the world instead.
And people who say the destruction of the south means the earlier games were for nothing? How so? 20 years ago, 10 years ago, things were happening, people were dying that needed saving. The heroes of that age saved the world so it would still be around to save now. And who knows what the south really looks like, or what it might look like as and after rebuilding? We will, in another 10 years once BioWare comes out with more content I suppose, and I wouldn't be surprised if everyone we knew is dead, but I also wouldn't be surprised if many, many of them lived.
Because that is Dragon Age. Death, betrayal, sacrifice, cruelty, pain. It's a dark, dark world. But there is always a ray of light, of hope. And characters who will do their utmost to protect that .
EDIT: Adding!! To this!! And more spoilers!!!
We know because of the Wetlands that it's possible to cause the Blight to pull back. In the end scene, as people are being broken out of the Blight Roots, it seems to me like it's died, at least to some degree. In my playthrough, Neve was cured of her blight sickness. There's obviously some immediate changes, and that all means that the South could have had an immediate reprieve. Plus, once more surviving wardens from Weisshaupt are free to travel south, and all the factions up north get things relatively in order, the South could get a lot of assistance.
The South was overrun... By hordes, by growths? That's the land, what about the people? Could the combined might of the Inquisitor, the Chantry, The Free Marches, Fereldan's ruler, have evacuated enough people that the death toll might be high, but not totally catastrophic? Enough people have survived to rebuild, maybe with a better, more unified attitude towards one another?
(The last bit may be wishful thinking 🥲)
But still!! We have no idea what exactly happened down there. And no matter what, Rook did the best they could, they WERE a hero, and made a difference not only for the North, but everywhere affected.
And yes, I might complain about this or that, mainly that we don't get to put more past game decisions in.... But I love this game and that won't change.
#dragon age#dragon age veilguard#veilguard spoilers#dragon age rook#rook#lucanis dellamorte#lace harding#neve gallus#bellara lutare#emmerich volkarin#davrin#taash#varric tethras#da4#da4 spoilers
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One of the things that always made me angry in the Lucanis/Illario storyline is how Lucanis treats Illario, and how it is never addressed in game.
Before anyone attacks me, let me explain.
When Lucanis talks about his relationship with his cousin, he’s always saying nice things. How they are brothers, how he loves him dearly, how they have always been here for each other.
But when he talks about Illario ? I don’t think that he says ONE good thing about him as a person. It’s always “Illario is an idiot” “Illario doesn’t know what he is doing” “Illario sucks at his job”. And it’s not just to us, when Illario asks to accompany him during Bloodbath and Lucanis refuses, he says something along the lines of “You don’t think I’m capable ?” and Lucanis responds “Are you ?”
Like can you imagine how unbearable it must be at some point, to have the person who is supposed to love you more than anything always remind you how much of a failure you are ? Not trusting you, and always bringing you down with reproaches and disapproval ? He had been physically and emotionally abused by his grandmother who then proceeded to neglect him when she realized he wasn’t what she wanted. Illario is Lucanis only friend, but the same could be said for him too.
And if it was on purpose, it would not bother me at all ! I actually think that it would be great if Lucanis was presented as imperfect in his relationship because clearly, what’s going on with the Dellamorte is very complicated. More than just haha, Illario is jealous so he turned evil.
But I feel like it’s not where the narrative is going, because it’s never talked about ?? The way people talk about Illario almost feels like a running joke, or simply a bad way to show how amazing Lucanis is compared to his bad and very mean cousin. Obviously he’s not a good guy, and I’m not trying to justify his actions which were horrible. But the lack of depth in their whole storyline makes me want to scream.
Like what’s the moral Bioware ? What’s the message ?? ‘Don’t be jealous of your cousin and don’t try to steal the promotion he never even wanted ?‘ I just feel like so many more interesting things could have been said through Illario, Lucanis and Caterina about the circle of abuse but clearly, I’m asking too much…
#i could talk about this forever#the crows are for me the most visible ways to see in what aspects datv writing failed#so much wasted potential#datv#dragon age the veilguard#datv spoilers#dragon age the veilguard spoilers#lucanis dellamorte#illario dellamorte#i love lucanis btw he’s my fav no need to defend him
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ok i have avoided talking abt my datv thoughts but now ive finished and slept on it here it is. this is huge btw and really just a way to process my thoughts for my own peace of mind. and get out what i need to say. so yeah word salad below
2 disclaimers before i start. firstly i think im going to be SUPER blunt and clear about my thoughts on this post but then i will mostly be putting the matter to bed in my heart bc i am not someone who delights in being a hater nor do i take comfort in it. i will take from this the things i enjoyed and keep my distance from the rest. second disclaimer: ultimately i think i will still enjoy being a part of the fandom and seeing other people enjoy the game, because it will endear it to me and maybe take away the pain im feeling right now, so this isnt a long rant to make you feel bad about enjoying the game if you do like it! in fact quite the opposite. it comforts me that there are people who find value in the game and i hope in watching you play it i may be able to eventually be able to say the same
that being said . obviously i didnt like the game
which is an extremely difficult thing for me to say. i went into this game thinking "i will at the VERY least enjoy the game. not love it but at least like it. but im sure ill love it". it really is quite distressing for me that it didnt even really reach that bar for the most part. i TRIED to like it. i begged this game to give me ANY handhold at all that i could cling to, to forgive and like this game. i think the things i liked err more on the technical side. the graphics i loved, the character DESIGN was *fantastic*. the art. the pacing. the vague vision of what they were obviously nebulously aiming for. and honestly, i mostly enjoyed the main plot although i wish it had been more disciplined and constrained with the lore it was trying to expand on. act 3 was fantastic and naturally i am happy and fulfilled for the most part by the conclusion of solas's story, who i still believe was and is the best written "villain" of dragon age. sorry logang and meredith nation but i do still stand by this.
but thats really about it. as a disclaimer i am not an origins puritan or a da2 diehard or anything like that. i have loved (almost equally) EVERY single iteration of dragon age which has been released. i am one of the few people who sees equal value in inquisition and origins. i love them both so deeply. i couldnt pick between them.
for me what i love the MOST about dragon age - and which every single previous game has always nailed despite other flaws - is the characters. right under that is the world's capacity for introspection. and unfortunately nothing in this game provided that for me
regarding the characters: i do not care about a single one of them unfortunately. or at least i do not CARE about them the way that i have CARED about the other previous games companions. companions i would write banter about !!! just for fun when i was bored!!!! i would say my only exception is harding, but even then i care about her only because i care about her due to inquisition. overall i just found them all so ..... shallow. and devoid of any of the conflict or nuance or ethical quandries that make biowares stories so compelling - and sure, usually controversial! i would give ANYTHING for this game to have been controversial. for a unforgivable RO, or a problematic fave, or a cancelled wife. did bioware forget that their most beloved or at least enjoyed characters are people like anders, merrill, mordin solus, blackwall, sten, loghain, SOLAS??? i dont understand HOW they could have forgotten that, because solas is literally right there in game and handled (in my opinion as a fan) well. love him or hate him or dont care about him, he is such a hallmark of great bioware writing (in dai if nothing else) - characters who are not EASY to like. characters who are not SAFE to write and who WILL generate criticism from all sides because they are written boldly and unapologetically, strengthened by a foundation of consistent ideals, clear objectives and beautiful faults. characters that do not NEED you to like them, but instead invite you to engage with them critically. solas, even to someone who hates him, is nuanced and morally complex enough to muse and fight over for 10 whole years. hes IN this game, just as ethically murky as ever, but the morally grey hallmark of biowares writing really does kind of live and die with him alone. the rest of the companions feel like they barely made it out of their concept phase. what are lucanis's flaws??? genuinely asking. other than being a murderer who exists in an organization which buys and trains literal child slaves of course, but i'll get to that in a sec (because bioware sure as fuck didnt). um, i guess you could say hes broody?? and emmrich too. what actual flaws does he have?? he has a fear of death, as we're TOLD, but it does not really reflect in the overall convesations we have with him over the course of the game. mostly hes just.... a little bumbling i guess. bellara's flaw is being a scatterbrain. harding's is that shes..... angry??? but shes not???? fucking come on. i really felt the lack of actually being able to TALK to these people at the end of act 2, when i realized i still felt like i havent really MET any of them. and yet here rook is talking about found family and being a team. ok
and then there are the romances. which from my perspective - having romanced taash - and my friends who have romanced lucanis, neve and davrin..... WHAT romances. davrin's full romance is 20 minutes in a 30 PLUS HOUR GAME. solas had the least amount of content out of any companion in inquisition and was a last minute unintentional RO and still had like easily 50 minutes of content. so why did these romances feel like nothing. actually nothing. i was so excited for taash, but their romance straight up felt like neither rook nor taash even wanted to be there. i forgot they were technically together at certain points. zero chemistry. zero intimacy. all TELLING zero SHOWING. if you had told me that i would be saying these sorts of things about a writer like trick weekes a month ago i would call you fucking crazy to your face. i cannot reconcile that taash was written by the same person who wrote solas. i cannot reconcile that mary kirby - who wrote the fucking chant of light - wrote lucanis. its so dire. its devastating actually.
lastly i want to talk about my other point - bioware's famed emphasis on introspection and ethically quandries. again, i'm genuinely experiencing a sense of profound whiplash because when it comes solas's character you can still see it. its still there. they actually doubled down on making him worse than he was in trespasser which i LOVED and thought was so incredibly promising. they could have caved to solavellan fans and uwu-ified him but they didnt. thats great.
but where was that energy for literally anything else. everything has been defanged - even minrathous, the capital of the tevinter slave trade, does not even ADDRESS the elephant in the room of slavery. and i know because i played a shadow dragon. so tell me why i as a shadow dragon am happily allied with the crows, who solely exist to assassinate politicians and BUY SLAVES. THEY BUY SLAVES. THEY BUY SLAVES AS CHILDREN AND TRAIN/TORTURE THEM TO MURDER. HELLO??????????? there is no commentary made about the mages/templars. there is no discussion of the treatment of the elves in the north or Anywhere. there is no discussion of why exactly blood magic is or isnt acceptable - they simply tell us its bad. all the theories of the last 10 years were answered with handwaved comments or bare bones codex entries that honestly stripped so much nuance away from so many things (the blight, my BELOVED) that i dont know how im going to go about fixing it or making it right in my head. the introspective nature of dragon age always went hand in hand with player choice, but there really WAS no choice in this game as so there IS no real capacity for other interpretations or schools of thought. it is so..........................bleak.
i think the thing that finally made it click in my head that this game had fundamentally let me down was the gloom howler quest. and i know im not alone on this. for those of you who dont know - the gloom howler, "isseya" was the protagonist of the dragon age novel "the last flight". i would HIGHLY recommend you read it, especially if you're an origins fan. super bleak, super political, not flashy at all in terms of magic. it was set 500 years pre origins, during the 3rd blight. isseya is very similar to characters like loghain and solas in a way - a richly complex, beautifully intricate, terribly thought provoking character who did HORRIFIC things for the most NOBLE reason you could imagine, under the most traumatic of circumstances. im tearing up just thinking about her story, and how the title "the LAST flight" foreshadowed that her story had a definitive, bittersweet, finite and peaceful ending.
and then this game did THAT to her. turned her into a grotesque caricature of what she was. stripping her of her nuance and her capacity for atonement or forgiveness. and once again, i do not fucking get it. she was obviously brought back because she is a parallel to the solas dilemma. so WHY is she not afforded the same opportunity for empathy that he is. why is bellara's brother not either. its insane. its literally insane. i cannot begin to imagine the oversight or laziness or WHATEVER IT WAS that occured to have this game turn out this way.
there are innumerable other problems with the game that im not going to get into because what ive said above is the main crux of my problem. introspective and character. those are all i really wanted from this game, and like..... i thought we would get that. because the game centered around solas. and i know people dislike his fans for very fair reasons, but i hope those who know me know that i enjoy him not because hes hot (he is though) but because he is terrible. i love him because they made a character who was TERRIBLE, and then gave you the task of using your head and refelcting on your own morality and values and deciding and arguing and meditating over whether he is worth loving anyway. to me, solas is the person i point to when i want to describe why i love dragon age. its complicated, its nuanced, it is terrible and wonderful and everything in between depending on the angle you look at it from. and so having the writer of a character like THAT in charge of the whole game filled me with hope and dissuaded so many of my fears for this game. but i was wrong apparently.
so now im left with a feeling akin to survivors guilt. genuinely. because at the VERY least, despite me saying all of these negative things, i at least finished the game crying happy tears and being overjoyed that my favourite character was handled well and got an ending i enjoyed. and yet that happiness *i* got to feel and that glimmer of good writing was paid for at the expense of literally everything else. i feel almost personally responsible in a way, which sucks. im sorry to all the people who did not enjoy or care about solas, im sorry that you really did get nothing out of this game. i hope we can all be comforted by the trilogy we have and will always have, and i hope we can all take what good parts we enjoyed out of veilguard and make peace with the rest
leaving this youtube comment my friend sent me which is unfortunately a summary of how i feel about the game as a whole.
#tay plays datv#datv#datv spoilers#datv critical#nobody needs to read this but fgdjkfgjk if you do#i hope it is clear that i write from a perspective of profound love for this series and all its characters.
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hello ! do you have any thoughts about the new dragon age game and the info that's come out for it?
Some. Based on the limited footage I've been looking at (and for context, I haven't kept up with the promotion beyond the 20 minute snippet of gameplay footage they showed after the disastrous first trailer), it looks like it's trying to follow the legacy of Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 in terms of gameplay structure. Mission-based, fairly linear, constructed around setpieces and combat encounters with relatively minimal exploration and puzzles.
Which isn't necessarily a bad thing - Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2 are the best games in each franchise - but I also get a sense that the combat gameplay has been streamlined down the point that it's functionally indistinguishable from any other standard 3D action hack-and-slash (somewhat in the mold of FF16), which feels very much like a play for mainstream triple-A broad audience appeal.
In the context that BioWare is pretty commonly considered to be on the EA chopping block should their next games flop, that feels like they didn't choose that combat style because it's what they really wanted, or what their core audience is interested in, or even because it's what's best for the game and its narrative and feeling. It feels like they chose it because they need John Gamer™, who buys 2-3 big triple-A game titles a year and who's never touched an RPG before, to spend some money on their game by convincing him that it's a cool fantasy hack-and-slash all about doing badass backflip jump slashes with a tone like Guardians of the Galaxy, and not a big, cheesy, lore-heavy fantasy soap opera / horny dating sim with a combat system bolted onto the side.
It feels like a creative decision pushed by someone in a suit jacket and graphic tee citing the need to be "data informed" about design decisions, and who, up until the moment Baldur's Gate 3 came out, was convinced that hard systems-driven RPGs were a niche product for a tiny audience that could never make real money because they surveyed 6000 Call of Duty players who said fantasy is for queers and losers.
Perfectly happy to be wrong about all of this, mind you, and since it'll be on GamePass, I will obviously be playing it, because even when Dragon Age is not very good, it is still Dragon Age and that's my goddamn trash right there.
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Thinking about redemption yesterday got me thinking about fallen heroes today, and how rare it is to see a character initially painted as a hero be driven to heinousness for legitimate reasons.
Often times, if a hero goes bad, it's because of an external force corrupting their mind. Or it's a misunderstanding and they were secretly still good all along. Or they were just having a rough day and they'll be good again in five minutes.
We rarely see get to see heroes go sour purely on their own merits. Maybe because their values weren't so benign as they'd seemed when pushed to a natural conclusion. Maybe because they expected too much of themselves or of others. Or maybe personal experience taught them to believe something else.
Whatever the case, as often as writers will attempt to examine the transformative power of better angels, we rarely get to see the transformative power of worse devils.
Which brings me to....
Sayaka Miki is a character that holds a special place in my heart, not for overcoming her flaws but for being consumed by them. She's a cautionary tale into the perils of righteousness.
I need to preface this by bringing up that the characters of Madoka Magica are children. They're irrational, judgmental, ignorant of risk, and quick to throw themselves into horrible mistakes with absolute confidence. Because they're children. That's how this works. The villain of the series is a psychological predator who feeds on the impulsivity and poor judgment of youth, grooming them into self-destruction.
The entire system of Magical Girls exists to give these children enough rope to hang themselves with and then to kick the ladder out from under them. That is the plot, with Sayaka being the primary means by which the show demonstrates the complete journey from rope to ladder.
I just. I need you to understand that even at her worst, Sayaka is a victim of predatory incentives and calculated coercions meant to cultivate her worst traits while stripping her of hopes and dreams. To drown her in mistakes she could never take back. She didn't have the life experience to know better. That's why her predator targets children.
Sayaka's rope is woven from virtuous self-image. It's not immediately apparent when we meet her, but Sayaka's fatal flaw is ego. Her moral compass is wound extremely tight, and it's only later that we realize it's wound around her neck.
Like many children, Sayaka is trying on an identity moreso than expressing her inner self. She wants to be altruistic. She wants to be selfless. She wants to be a true hero. She wants to live by nothing more than high-minded ideals, expecting no reward for her efforts (but receiving it all the same).
She wants to be the kind of person that Mami was.
But she has no idea who Mami was. She wasn't there to see Mami fracture. To see her break down in vulnerability and express the isolating misery she lives in.
Sayaka didn't see that. She only saw how cool Mami looked when she was killing Witches. So when she tries on an identity, she's specifically trying on the identity of Mami - blissfully unaware that her interpretation of Mami was nothing but a mask. She is emulating the behavior of a victim already consumed by the predatory incentives she's accepting.
Sayaka was doomed from the moment she made her wish.
Once again, the show does a brilliant job of concealing this at first. Right off the bat, it's easy for Sayaka to be the hero. She saves both her BFFs Madoka and Hitomi from a Witch in her debut adventure, before being immediately thrust into a moral argument that's super easy for her to win.
This is what a hero looks like! Should we stand by and let monsters eat people YES/NO
Sayaka says no. Sayaka says letting monsters eat people is bad. Solid Bioware-level moral dilemma she's got here. Sayaka won +10 Paragon points for the choices she picked out of this conversation tree, lemme tell you!
Moments like this work to disguise what's going on here with Sayaka. Obviously Sayaka's making good choices and doing the right thing when the alternative is Kyoko going "Want me to break your crush's limbs so he needs you for life support?" That's awful, so since Sayaka's against it then that means she must be right. Right?
Kyoko is the devil. Sayaka is the paragon.
But this is a story about nuanced and complex people. Sayaka isn't that person. Sayaka likes the idea of being that person. She's being dishonest - With herself, with others around her, and with the universe.
She's trying on an identity, not fully understanding who she really is or what her limitations are.
Incidentally, so is Kyoko, which is what makes their Yin and Yang dichotomy so potent. Having never been tested like this before, Sayaka is more selfish than she truly understands - While Kyoko, damaged by trauma, is more selfless than she wants to believe.
The thing Sayaka doesn't quite grasp is that, to an extent, it's okay to be selfish. It's okay to want things for yourself. Again, the identity she's trying to live up to was a lie to begin with. She only saw the mask; Never the humanity underneath. So she fails to recognize her own humanity; Her own needs and wants and desires.
She imprisons her own mind in a cage of altruism.
Sayaka is warned multiple times against spending her wish on another person. But she doesn't understand the perils of it. She lacks the necessary perspective to grasp the level of sacrifice she's making. (Because she is a child. I cannot stress this point enough.)
When she makes her wish, Sayaka wants her sacrifice reciprocated. She wants to be rewarded. But she doesn't want to want that. She wants to be the selfless hero for Kyosuke. To silently grant him a miracle because it's the right thing to do for her friend. But she expects, without consciously thinking about it, that the universe will deliver her nice things because she is good.
But life doesn't work like that. It doesn't give you things you aren't willing to reach for. Sayaka said she just wanted him to be happy. She just wanted to help people. She just wanted to dedicate her life to virtue and altruism, with no wants or needs or desires of her own.
Kyoko was being cruel and unfeeling when she suggested crippling Kyosuke; She was trying to express a mask of selfishness, the same way Sayaka's been trying to express a mask of selflessness. But she wasn't the only person telling Sayaka that it was a mistake to do this. She's just the only person who said it after the fact.
So the universe calls her bluff. While Sayaka waits for her sacrifices to be rewarded, fracturing more and more from learning what those sacrifices truly entail, someone else claims her prize. The work gets harder, not just physically but emotionally. And she only gets what she asked for. Nothing more.
This is what a hero looks like. She wanted to be Mami.
Remind me. What was Mami's reward for her sacrifices?
Oh. Yeah. That's right.
The thing of it is, there is a reward for a Magical Girl's sacrifices. There is a prize you're meant to receive for the unjust hardships and self-destruction that you're volunteering to undertake.
It's the fucking wish.
That she, in her righteousness, gave away.
Sayaka's rope is woven from virtuous self-image. Her fatal flaw is ego. She was undone by arrogance expressed in ignorance, not of glory the way we often think of egotistic people, but of righteousness. She held herself to a standard no reasonable person could ever live up to, and it crushed her as it came crashing down.
And yet, she was a victim all the same. Because she was walked, hand-in-hand, to that pier by a predator. Children are meant to learn from their mistakes. Not to die for them.
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talkn bout my opinions on rook and varric and roleplay and feeling disconnected (roleplay in a game sense not the freaky sense. sorry) - SPOILERS FOR ENTIRE GAME, BEWARE. this post is WAY too long. sorry about that too.
it's very evident that bioware/EA wanted an action/adventure game first and an RPG second, but let me type at you.
i hate to say that i didn't feel particularly sad about varric's fate, due to the structure of the game. it is, in hindsight, completely obvious that he was not alive! i just hadn't been thinking about varric much at all the entire game because you have limited opportunity to talk to him in the infirmary or when he plops around barefoot when everyone decides to sit at a table and talk about how fucked we are. i genuinely forgot he was there otherwise.
he barely feels like a guy himself. because there's no personalized worldstate, any specific mentions to events or characters might be jarring to the player who may have made a different choice along the way.
no one talks about how sorry they are about varric because they CAN'T or the twist is completely revealed. even with another DA2 character in the game (who my hawke romanced. who is now dead in the fade. glad to see you're LIVING IT UP ISABELA!!! (I'm jk. a little.))
there's no response rook can say to condolences outside of "oh, thanks" without the game fully revealing its Twist, because "I'll tell him you said hi" and "he'll be up and walking in no time!" are only reasonable responses from a Mourn Watcher, and even then, should still cause your companions to be a little alarmed. the closest we get to this is the inquisitor making reference to lost friends, and rook visually registers it, but its swept under the rug and moved on from immediately.
(i know we're all mentally unwell in this lighthouse repressing our feelings but jesus christ)
despite spending two games with him and enjoying him as a character, I struggle with feeling much for his loss AS my rook, because i found there to be no meaningful connection between him and rook. i was only told i was supposed to have one.
the game wanted so badly get the ball rolling with an immediate threat, its at the expense of roleplay. you could argue that da2 and inq also started with Immediate Threats but you are also very limited in the choosing of your backstory in those games.
rook was deliberately designed to be more open-ended, with more similarity to origins, but still gave you a prequel where you felt what your life was before The World Began To End.
there's this conversation you can walk in on with lucanis and davrin, where they're talking about their worst jobs. there are three dialogue for rook I think and i can only remember two but they were "I don't want to talk about it" or "man I have the dreadwolf in my head". (I... honestly think the third option was very similar to the second one but I have a very bad memory. sorry)
i played a mourn watcher mage. i had to have done some messed up spirit stuff. some bone shenanigans. not able to mention my Down With Nobles rebellion at all. i halfway expected it to be revealed that my rook was just like a shitty pawn (haha) and actually all her memories are fake and not real. but obviously you meet people from your shared backstory and they do know OF you but they don't really know you
in mass effect 1, there were some unique missions related to both the backstory and psychological profile you picked for shepard. they were short, and nothing happens like that in 2+3 that i remember, but they are unique to your character and are something at least.
no one really asks you much more about yourself! mourn watcher rook is literally Found In The Crypts as an Infant, an incredible mystery that you have to fill in the blanks yourself, which could be something someone wants-- but i personally like my characters a little more predefined in a game such as dragon age. vague history worked for me in games like skyrim and fallout new vegas, even baldurs gate! but makes me feel wholly disconnected from the story and group here.
there was a fair amount of dialogue choices for mourn watcher, especially with Emmrich-- talking with emmrich was one of the few times my rook felt like A Person-- but there were other times that my companions seemed to think emmrich was the only necromancer/watcher on the team. (i even specialized in death caller!)
by containing all the dialogue with companions to ! markers and outings, it's weird to be unable to have any conversations without being able to provide personal insight, whereas some NPCs in inquisition actively asked you about your past.
its particularly noticeable because of lucanis, whom my rook romanced. the dude has a lot to say about nevarran culture and the necropolis and such, and we can have zero conversations on the matter lol.
maybe this is like, really a mourn watcher thing? maybe it feels better as a crow or a warden. but if you offer me the choice to be a freak crawling around in a tomb. i am going to be.
TLDR: i really feel that a prequel mission, a recruitment by varric then a timeskip, a personal quest tied to the consequences of your backstory, something, anything, to make rook feel like an actual part of the world, was a necessity and sincerely a missed opportunity. if you actually read this far, thanks!
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I've seen people say this is proof that EA is at fault for all of this nonsense surrounding Veilguard, and honestly, I'm willing to believe it is, because EA sucks ass and I hate them, and I believe BioWare can very much produce better writing when freed from corporate meddling*.
But I also don't think this should be used to protect the writing from criticism? Cuz like ... so you agree? You agree the writing was bad, in this product you sold people, for money? And you're shifting the blame onto the publisher? You agree it's bad writing that has your name on it but it's none of your faults specifically?
Even if I believe that, it's still ... You agree, right? You agree that the stuff people are saying is bad is bad? But you're saying it sucks so bad that they complain about it because it's not your fault?
Do y'all understand my dilemma here? Obviously don't harrass the writers personally or send them death threats, but that's just basic human decency to me. If you as the writer realize that something with your name on it is bad through no fault of your own, surely the solution isn't to complain that people are pointing out the bad thing you're aware of is bad? Surely you should go "Yeah that was bad. I agree with you all. I wanted to fix it but couldn't."
And you might say "well they're probably under NDAs so they can't say anything negative" but they ARE?? This right here is them implying the bad shit isn't their fault but the result of them "losing that fight" (with the execs)?
Do you get it? They agree that it's bad, but also saying it's not their fault it's bad, so stop complaining because it's very difficult for them. Broskis people paid for the game. And they are critiquing the shit you agree is bad. No need to get all wounded animal on the audience.
*Though I should note that indie devs still have a profit incentive, particularly the bigger ones, so even if we lived in a world without EA but with capitalism it's very likely BioWare itself would try to be more and more commercial with each new game, EA just sped up the process exponentially. El problema es el capitalismo etc.
#this is just kind of unprofesh to me but what do i know#also i am not defending EA here they can burn in hell#i 100% believe the HR department vibes in the game could be the fault of corporate meddling#but my question is like. what does this particular line of complaint accomplish#do you guys want to shield yourselves from criticism you already said you agree with?#you could shift the blame properly onto EA instead of asking the audience who paid money for a product with your name on it to stop#talking about it?#and i mean shift the blame in a subtle way#like when replying on knock-off twitter to a critique you 'agree with' by saying 'oh yeah i agree. wish we could've done something else'#'but it wasn't an option'#like if you can openly admit you fought against some things ... you can admit that in a way that doesn't paint you as#the victim of the audience critiques rather than EA itself#bioware critical
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I just finished Veilguard, and...I'm really not sure how I feel about it?
All in all: good game, had fun, but still didn't quite hit some of the highs it wanted to hit and it's still not as good as DA2
(Spoilers galore below for everything)
The Good:
Pretty game is pretty;
Love the codexes, especially the ones written by companions or with their commentary;
Speaking of, the Mementos had so excellent tid bits of lore flavor to them, as well;
Regrets of the Dread Wolf was a damn good quest;
Some truly funny party banter;
I actually thought it was really easy to figure out who my Rook is as I played the game, which was much harder for me to do for my Lavellan in DAI;
And speaking of Lavellan, she was in character she WOULD say that she WOULD do that. Bless;
Everything about Nevarra and the Mourn Watch, I wish there was more content there because I was so into it;
Orb and dagger mage is really fun to play, which was VERY surprising considering I don't play close range ever;
I also really enjoyed destroying blight boils for some reason lmao;
Petting cats (they PURR WHEN YOU DO);
Assan <3;
Taash being so autistic;
Teia and Viago my beloveds;
✨Friendship✨
The Solavellan of it all;
And Solas, too. Love that sadsack disaster man;
Maybe this is super basic of me but I liked Varric's narration...idk it's comforting;
Honestly, just Varric in general was a bit safety blanket in a nice way for me because the game feels overwhelming at first;
There's no party like an all Dalish party!
Exploring -- loved finding all the fun details in each location, and I know I didn't even do enough in my playthrough;
I'm weak for stories about guilt, fear and regret. And I'm even weaker when those stories are so obviously about forgiveness and moving forward. Also love. Always love.
The Bad:
The pacing. I've said this before but DAtV could've used a more explicit arc structure or have quests note which level they're meant for or SOMETHING because some times it seemed I was doing quests too early or too late for when I was in the main story. I also thought events kept oscillating from happening too fast or too slowly, and it very much did get in the way of immersion;
The romance. Literally what are you doing Dragon Age that you fumble the romance. Granted, I only romanced Davrin so far, but I'm getting the sense from looking through the tag that maybe Lucanis' romance also feels a bit off? Honestly I have so many issues with the romance progression for Davrin that it's its own section;
I hope this is only a Veil Jumpers issue, but I thought Rook was so separate from the faction. I felt very little connection to them;
I've seen some people point out NPCs talk to Rook like they're a child, and while I don't really agree with that I do think Rook doesn't have enough opportunities to be knowledgeable in their own right. Especially annoying with a mage Veil Jumper Rook! I miss the Inquisition perk dialogue options that let my Lavellan be a smarty pants;
Holy overdesigned armors! Yikes!
Not all areas are as well developed as the others: Rivain is the most egregiously empty and underdeveloped, but I actually thought Arlathan Forest was super lifeless too. So was the Lighthouse! You get the early game discovery bit and then nothing ever again and it's like oh that was really it huh (and the stuff we did get was so good please more?);
I hate to say this but BioWare missed the mark with Rook's place in the group. The companions seemed connected to each other, yeah, but Rook was like some cross between group therapist and not-so-undercover boss. There was none of the warmth Hawke got from their companions (or the Inquisitor, for that matter!). The game really needed 1. a lighthearted party hangout cutscene and 2. companions coming together to take care of Rook (the fact this isn't even a thing in the romance is bonkers to me);
Taash's personal quest being about choosing between being Rivain and Qunari as if that's how culture works is Bad Actually;
The worst minimap I've ever seen in a game wow;
Also: give me back my beacon marker;
The gods were in a regret prison but what were their regrets exactly we just don't know.
The Bad (Romance Edition):
Again, the pacing! Incredibly slow to start (and not in a slow burn way, mind!) and then super fast in the last third of the game;
In fact, the romance seemed to be running on a completely different level than the rest of the story. The last romance scene was incredibly out of place tonally, especially.
The first two romance titles for Davrin are "Thrill of the Chase" and "Hot and Bothered"...and like WHERE????
Davrin never writes about Rook as a romantic partner or as if he has any concerns with the relationship...which we later find out he has, but was news to me;
Tbh, the romance felt like an afterthought. There were cutscenes that in any other DA game there would've been flirting options, for instance, but this time there was nothing (what do you mean Rook can't make a flirty comment when Davrin is shirtless working out with Taash? It's low hanging fruit!);
Not nearly enough flirty banter between Rook and Davrin, which is nuts considering their personalities;
I'm really super disappointed with Davrin's romance, which sucks because he's actually perfect for my Rook and I really like his character. There was so much potential for a really fun romance that was both tense and sexy, but also sweet. But no. Secret good Davrin romance that exists in my head save me.
The ???:
Southern Thedas got scorched when the North didn't how?
Please tell me who was catfishing Andraste;
Making enemies super aggro on Rook unless you specifically have companions taunting was very weird.
#dragon age the veilguard#datv spoilers#datv#dragon age#ok there were many thoughts#but they're bullet points it's fine#the lists are also not comprehensible or in any particular order#i think im closer to figuring out why the game isnt quite working for me though#there's just something fundamental missing that i havent been able to put my finger on just yet
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Some more info on the Mass Effect board game, from co-designer Calvin:
"Hi all, Calvin here, co-designer of the game. I've gathered all the frequently asked questions on social media and bgg and gathered them into some answers for you. Feel free to ask more questions if yours is not answered, and if I can answer it I will. I will be updating this as more information about the game becomes available. Release info - The release date is (hopefully) November depending on the gods of shipping - Price is confirmed, the game will be $50/£40 - The team is currently working on translation deals for 9 or so languages. More details soon. - For info on pre-orders go to https://www.modiphius.net/pages/mass-effect-signup - There are currently no plans for a collector’s edition vs standard edition - It is not crowdfunded, the game is direct to retail - "If you'd like to support the game right now, there's nothing better than going into your local FLGS and asking them if they'll stock the game when it comes out. With the vast amount of great games coming out every week, retailers rely on fans asking about the game. This helps them gauge how much to buy, the more people ask, the more buzz they know there is, the more confident they are to buy enough and the more likely there's one waiting for you on the shelf when you go in :-) That feeds up the chain; the more retailers ask their sales reps at Asmodee, the more Asmodee goes, "Oh wait, let's order more, so we have enough for all the shops". Plot - The game is set on the planet Hagalaz, early during the events of Mass Effect 3 - The players are tasked with investigating a crashed Cerberus research cruiser which could have info that contributes to War Readiness and could help stop the Reapers - The game is designed so people who have never played Mass Effect can still enjoy it. Eric hasn't played the games as much as I did so he got to do what he calls “the meathead test” on all the theming and story. - We worked with Bioware on all the plot and theming. - Yes you can do calibrations in this game Basic game info - Co-operative squad tactics - 1-4 players - Included are six 32mm minis, masc Shep, fem Shep, Liara, Garrus, Tali, and Wrex - Not many other components to keep price and complexity low - 45 minute missions - 3-5 missions per campaign - Branching paragon/renegade choices + sidequests - Enough missions to replay the campaign several times without repeats - Solo play is really fun, in fact I like all the player counts equally, which is something I’m very proud that we were able to achieve in this game - Solo play is basically multi-handing, you control more than one character. - There is no legacy aspect, the game is fully resettable - There will be new original art"
[character limit text break]
"Gameplay info - Low rules complexity, but with lots of tactical depth. We aimed for an audience of Mass Effect fans who might not know anything about board games. Board gamers should still find something to enjoy if they’re into co-op tactics. - A group that just wants to turn their brain off and blast through the game should have an easy time - But a group who wants to get the best endings, complete all the sidequests, get all the level ups will have to min-max pretty heavily - The game has relatively low randomness. Planning, prediction, and preparation are very important to avoid bad outcomes - but there’s still enough randomness to avoid AP as players try to plan out perfect turns. - Important gameplay elements include positioning and combo-ing abilities with other players. - There is a tactical map. - Players will level up their characters by performing in game actions and learn new abilities. - We got all 6 Shepard classes in there. It is one of the things I am very proud of doing. - Re: alpha gamers, Eric and I do not believe it is the designer’s job to solve for jerks at your gaming table. Obviously we have designed the game so that every player has something to contribute and there’s plenty of info so that it’s hard to track. But we also recommend having adult conversations with your table partners. Interviews/Behind The Scenes Beyond Solitaire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-nLGDt97i4 Topics: how we designed the game and implemented the narrative UKGE promo copy https://twitter.com/Modiphius/status/1796844231018811782/" Post last updated August 8th
[source]
New original art 👀
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HLC ROMANCE — WHAT WE DESERVED
Ominis Gaunt — Head Empty, Thoughts
This has been requested by the lovely @tinaexe and obviously NEEDED! Like the Sebastian one, I feel like as a fellow BioWare fanatic — romance is my forte, in games! Ominis is a little harder as most will be based on what if’s, as unlike Seb, we don’t fully get a developed relationship with him in the game. (We kind of are friends at the end?) So because of this, we only truly see him expanded through Seb’s quest line.
So, let us begin at the beginning:
If you decide to be in Slytherin, you meet Ominis in the Common Room. I actually really love this interaction! I think it’s a nice way to set him up as a character, but would have loved more dialogue options — a big thing the game failed on. I understand it wasn’t their aim, but more dialogue, more choice, would make relationships develop more and make your own character feel more real. I think the only bad thing about this interaction, is that he is too sweet straight away (HERE ME OUT LOL) Ominis comes off as someone who is very picky with his friends, I would have loved to have him more indifferent here — just for a lovely enemies to lovers type thing. Think Morrigan from DAO but more tame…way more tame lmao. (This is just me, tbh it fits his character that he’s kind. I also like the idea that he’s extra kind because of how he grew up — but easily snaps if upset) If you aren’t meeting him here, it would also be DADA! I like the idea that he would make fun of Sebastian losing here, perfect opportunity for romance points — the curiosity of you beating Sebastian would win points with him for sure. Flirty-ish dialogue could be added here!
Now, I’ll do gifts first this time — mainly because we don’t really spend any time with Ominis lmao, so from here, apart from some quests like the scriptorium etc will be my interpretation! With gifts for Ominis! I like the idea of him being a sweet tooth, so the idea of being able to buy sweets from Honeydukes would have been so neat for this. (This would the small relationship point add on.) for bigger gifts, I like the idea of him being into more refined artefacts! Like interesting things you find on your journeys. Think:
Sculptures/art type stuff: x20 romance points
Flowers: x10 romance points
just for fun lmao — dark magic artefacts: -30x romance points
Unlike Seb, Ominis should be harder to romance! I stand by the idea, that he is hesitant and feels more complicated when it comes to love. Considering his upbringing, bringing down the walls is the first step! This is where more dialogue plays into part, remembering things that are brought up later — a big bonus to romance points!
Now interesting idea, re-meeting Ominis in Hogsmeade! I think with an Ominis romance for it to work alongside the plot — it would be mostly through Sebastian. (Drama for all those that love both — me everyday battling my inner demon of wishing to romance anyone else, but Alistair in DAO!) I like the idea of him interrupting your visit with Sebastian and perhaps helping alongside you and Sebastian with the troll! Would have been really neat to see more action from him. Flirty dialogue could be added, but it would be met with a flustered/confused Ominis.
This is where we linger from the quest line a bit, because well let’s be honest, Sebastian would never let Ominis know he’s taking you to the restricted section. So, this is where I kind of make it up. I think a small quest would work here with Ominis OR simply another one on one conversation. This could be where you learn a little more about him, if you picked the right dialogue OR you could upset him. I think a big part of this game would have benefited with a main character that had more choice. Even in Mass Effect you get two options, sometimes three — same with Dragon Age Inquisition, but the main character still feels more real, simply because of the choices! A quest for Ominis here, could be anything really, maybe he’s in the library and needs help with something or you find him in the DADA tower needing help etc.
Undercroft, baby! Here is the thing, I love the idea of Sebastian still taking you here — but like Sebastian’s one, Ominis should have caught you in the act! I would have loved to have him pissed off and you have to work your way out, but actually getting the chance, rather than him automatically not believing you or giving a shit. This would be the first instance of where romance points matter, if you have enough he apologises and takes it out on Sebastian, if you don’t, he takes it out on the both of you and is grumpy.
Scriptorium. This is the quest. I would feel like this is the major quest to determine whether you are locked into a romance arc with Ominis and I could even agree that this would be where you’d lock in either of the boys! I’d like to think that this quest should have had more chances to side with either boy, depending on who you wanted and what you believed. It needed more banter, comforting dialogue where you could commend Ominis for helping you both and it would have been perfect for flirty dialogue — making him all flushed and shy. This would also be where he starts to see you as something more, if you pick the right dialogue. Perfect opportunity for Ominis to take care of you when Sebastian crucio’s your ass.
Relic moment. OKAY! Here would have been so perfect to show that your romance points mattered. Imagine that depending on how you’ve interacted so far, it would determine if he would trust you or not. He was too trusting at this point, TBH. He knows how Sebastian is, not you and so this felt a little strange to me. So the idea, that at this point your romance points mattered, to determine if you had to curse him would be HUGE. Because if you had to curse him, I’d love to see it be a huge factor that he can’t be end goal. By this point, I think you also have to be completely against dark magic and Sebastian using it. This would be big points for Ominis’ romance.
Conversation about Sebastian it’s Ominis! Worried! You express what is going on, the mine situation etc. This would be where Ominis is more shy and clear with his feelings without actually telling you, if your romance points are high enough. A gift from him? A ROSE?
Solomon quest, rip. Ominis would need you to be fully on his side here. You would need to have the opportunity to support him in this and with dialogue omg I hate it. Still agree with being able to stop Sebastian, having enough romance points with Sebastian, to the point of stopping him before he does anything — would tie into if you could complete Ominis’ romance. I like the idea that they tie in together here and you had to have thought about both throughout. Ominis and Sebastian are practically brothers, so it makes sense.
THE ENDING: You could only get a good ending IF you save Sebastian, I just think it’s very fitting. If you can stop Sebastian, I feel like Ominis can really open up. If you don’t I think he would be toooo heartbroken for a romance. If you succeed, you get the kiss and hug scene and he shows his appreciation for you — thanking you for being there for him RIPP
Bonus: Winter Ball like Sebastian — only agreeing to go with you if romance points are high enough. ALSO, I like the idea of a moment to stick up for him or he sticks up for you. BECAUSE CUTE.
I might have missed stuff and more definitely could be added, but this is the basic romance plot line — that could have worked. We just needed more dialogue, more options and more quests for him!
#hogwarts legacy#ominis gaunt#hogwarts#ominis x reader#ominis gaunt x y/n#ominis x you#ominis x mc#ominis hogwarts legacy#hogwarts legacy ominis#ominis imagine#ominis#hogwarts legacy mc#ominis gaunt x you#ominis gaunt x mc#ominis gaunt headcanon#ominis gaunt x reader
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