#ok BioWare you got me

[tadpole-apocalypse]

Reposting this for no reason at all:

[nvaderxim]

I just got through a certain moment in Veilguard

and I need a moment

This moment.

All I can say, right now, is oh.

Oh.

I have so many feelings, and I don't even know where to start. There's a part of me that is grieving, and I don't even know why. I want to cry. Hahahaha.

[oopsallmabari]

i'm not opposed to the name swap tbc my pattern brain is just going. but they've all been dragon age: one word can we pwease pwease keep it dragon age: one word

[felassan]

David Gaider on Alistair, under a cut for length:

"Ah, Alistair. Depending on who you ask, he's the adorable woobie with the biggest heart or the irritating, over-used man-child. Yes, he is indeed all of those things. Good characters have flaws to go with their virtues. Ugly spots. That is literally their humanity. He was a bit of a bear to write, at the outset. James (Ohlen, the first creative director on DAO) had this idea he needed to be a grizzled Warden veteran - older, distrusting. Everyone hated him instantly. I call this the Carth Onasi Problem, and suggested to James that maybe I try something else. My observation says that the characters who are generally liked the most are the supportive ones. Enthusiastic. Funny? Sometimes, sure, but that's *not* required. I need to digress. See, at the time James had this (regrettable) period where he believed everything could be derived from a formula. He even sold this idea to the founders, Ray and Greg. Google 'BioWare formula'. Anyway, how this relates is because James thought the DAO cast needed a Minsc: a comedy character who would become super popular and, ideally, the icon of DA. "Isn't that Alistair?" you ask. "Arguable," I say, "but no." James had me to up a huge list of 'comedic archetypes' and I wrote some possible dialogue for each one. Then he had the team vote. The winning archetype? The Buffoon - like Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin. James was pleased. I was not. "The problem," I said, "is I don't find the Buffoon funny." 😅"

""But you're a professional." "Sure, I *can* write him... but comedy isn't science. I need to find him funny. If I write him, the only comedy I'll mine is where he makes fun of himself." James took that on board and then passed the character onto someone else. The result? Oghren. I rest my case. So back to the supportive character: that was my thought for a new Alistair. It was a special case, after all - the DAO PC was thrust into a terrible situation. They needed someone who had their back. A bud. A *likeable* bud. I was watching Buffy at the time, and my thoughts drifted towards Xander. Now, I know Joss Whedon is persona non grata these days, but this was 2006, OK? I was watching Buffy and thought, "man, Xander is such a wasted character" and considered how to fix him. Then I realized this might work for Alistair. Plus, I wanted to see if I could replicate the Whedon vocal patter. That was the new Alistair: a more useful and likeable yet equally dorky version of Xander. We had very strict rules in DA about language: no modern speech styles, colloquialisms, any words that came into use in our world after 1900 got severe side eye... but Alistair? Alistair got a blanket pass. Was it great that the lead writer's leading man got to break the rules? I guess not, but it's my opinion that you can break those kinds of rules - selectively, in small doses. Too much and you break the illusion. And it worked. Alistair was an instant hit. Not just with the team, but with the fans."

"Confession time? Yes, I knew Goldanna wasn't meant to be Alistair's mother. But neither was Fiona, originally. I think fans caught wind of some revisionism at work, and OK it's true. I had a more Arthurian idea for his birth but I stopped liking it... yet not soon enough to go back and make edits. Should I have just left it be, left Goldanna as his mother? Maybe. It was one of those writer things I just couldn't let go of and I probably could have used someone to sit me down and go "Gaider, please. Just stop." I still like Fiona, and where I took it. But I probably shouldn't have gone there. Casting Alistair was SUCH a chore. He required a weird mix of devilish charm, but with enough sincerity and adorkableness it didn't come off as smarmy. Every audition went full smarm... until Steve Valentine up and appeared out of nowhere. In the midst of a batch of audition files, there he was. We brought Steve in "just to try out", and he pulled it off. Even the "frog time" line, which (seriously) nobody else could. And when he got to the romantic lines, Steve's voice turned into pure butter without, again, sliding into "oh, he's slightly creepy". Both Caroline and I were sold. And he was so gloriously easy to write. It's a well I'd probably return to... a bit too often, maybe? Maric, then Anders in Awakening, and then Alistair kept popping up in future games and the comics because, yes, he was pretty much the breakout comedy character of DA. Which still makes me happy. 😁 CORRECTION: Goldanna was someone Alistair thought was his *sister*, and her mother his mother. Look, it was almost twenty years ago, OK? 😅 --- I actually had a whole scene written in DAI where Fiona tells him, but the requirements were so specific for them both to be in Skyhold and it seemed like it'd be relevant only to a small small sub-section of fans (and confusing to everyone else) so it was dropped. Rightfully so, I guess."

[source thread]

User: "The Buffy vibes were strong in DAO and I was very happy with that at the time. What I loved about DAO was the mix of dark themes entwined with bits of levity. That's how I like my angst. Dark, broody with a side of ha-has and y'all delivered in DAO for sure." David Gaider: "That's a me thing. I like going dark - really dark - and then pairing it with light, comedic moments. It provides peaks and valleys in the tone, and prevents either from becoming overwhelming. Hey if it worked for Shakespeare (alas, poor Yorrick), it can work for DA, right? 😉" [source]

[emmg]

Love how my tiny-ass elf Rook spends the whole game barely scraping Emmrich’s shoulder, like a fucking toddler next to this scarecrow of a man, but the second they’re about to make out before the coffin sex, suddenly they’re magically the same height. Ok sure, Bioware, guess physics just packed up and left chat

I wanted to see him bend, ok? This man is what, 6’5” and built like a goddamn coat rack? I wanted to see him fold in half like a busted lawn chair just to kiss his elf-sized disaster of a girlfriend. Let me witness those gangly-ass limbs trying to figure out the geometry of making out with someone two feet shorter without snapping in half.

And don’t even start with the logistics. Like, Emmrich, babe, where are you even putting your dick in this situation? You’re all elbows and knees, and now you’ve got a boner in play? I needed to see him trying to kiss Rook while also awkwardly adjusting himself to not accidentally poke her in a not sexy place with it. This is the kind of realism I’m here for, Bioware. WHERE IS IT??

[bunabi]

I feel like I'm the odd man out but what i was actually most disappointed that Bioware has had every opportunity to bring back Sten as the Arishok but decided to put it in a codex instead. We get Varric for 3/4 games when he really doesn't need to be there but in the middle of all the very relevant Qunari drama you can't give us an Arishok Sten cameo? No? We're supposed to just read in a throw away codex that he got attacked off screen and is now serving with the Ben-Hassrath? Ok, guess I'll sit through tedious Solas monologue 987...thanks Bioware.

I wanted Sten very badly 🥲

Easily-thwarted villains and mindless mobs isn't the note I wanted to end on with the Qunari Invasion. It was one of my biggest disappointments too.

I makes me appreciate the DA2 presentation of the Qunari more. Is it perfect: no. But the Qunari being invaders doesn't detract from them being people with beliefs and thoughts worth investigating. They're 'problematic' but you look around Kirkwall and think damn what faction isn't in (Southern) Thedas. I liked that approach.

We get to know the Arishok's motivations and beliefs. We're introduced to the Tal-Vashoth and speak with one (Maraas). We learn about Seheron and the Fog Warriors through Fenris. We have a whole quest centered around a Saarebas where we learn how mages are treated under the Qun, how non-mages born from a mage-bearing womb are treated even. Ridiculous amount of depth. They didn't have to go that hard.

I finally read the Bioware portion of Blood Sweat And Pixels this morning after many years so I feel exceptionally out of my mind praising the hot hell that was DA2's development. But it really did hit all the right notes for storytelling. I hope it blows the tits clean off of new fans coming in from DAV.

[explodingchantry]

OK I found the source and, genuinely, what the fuck?

Varric is apparently an important character within veilguard but we don't get to express whether the inquisitor left his best friend to die in the fade?

The wardens are a big part of veilguard but we don't get to express what the inquisitor did with the southern wardens?

MORRIGAN is apparently an important character in veilguard and we don't get to express whether 1. We had her have Kieran and 2. If she drank from the well or not?? You know this important decision that was meant to impact the rest of the drinker's life, and was meant even more vital when inquisition revealed Flemerh was Mythal? I literally just replayed that quest and they genuinely make a huge point out of this decision being life altering. But it's not, is it, if both characters who could've drank show up in the next game but the effects of the well aren't present.

"northern thedas is a blank slate" is such a weird take. What happens in ferelden and orlais (and the free marchés if we bring da2 into it too) absolutely matters to the rest of thedas. These things ricochet upwards. You literally choose who leads orlais, one of (if not The) most powerful and influencial nations in all of thedas. You get to choose the fucking DIVINE. Yeah sure that might not matter in Tevinter, but it matters everywhere else?? The rest of northern thedas follows the chantry even if they might not be as horny for it as the south????

And that's only speaking of inquisition choices. I already made a post somewhere about how very few of the decision input on the keep mattered in dai and how filling the keep often felt pretty pointless because of that. But at least the gender of the hof and who they romanced came up, and the leader of ferelden came up however briefly and flawed.

Honestly dragon age was never actually good at bringing up and taking into account old choices. Da2 had a good excuse for it (set in a completely different country whilst the choices the hof made were central to ferelden only, and hawke being just Some Guy who wouldn't get involved in a lot of influencial stuff the hof had a hand in. And even THEN there's plenty of background dialogue about ferelden that does mention it.) Dai does have a lot of nods to a few things; the ruler of ferelden shows up in in hushed whispers, or if you kept Alistair/recruited loghain they show up for here lies the abyss and might even have a discussion with Morrigan with whom they had a CHILD with. If hof romanced leliana she mentions them quite a bit. Morrigan can show up with the full ass child she can have in Dao and that's probably one of the biggest differences the choices you made make. Some other decisions from Dao are referenced; like who rules Orzammar. And as for da2 it's very true that a lot of the decisions made are much harder to reference due to being more interpersonal, so it does make sense to an extent that the decisions are referenced there through simple dialogue (though that dialogue is flawed as hell.) If it doesn't like some of your past choices it'll retcon it, like if you killed leliana in Dao. Or like, for example, just a random example, you got one of the Dao endings where Cullen goes mad, kills mages and runs away. Never mentioned again that one. Weird.

Bioware loves to give you big influencial choices to make you feel important only to turn around the next game and kind of shrug their shoulders as they do the bare minimum with them. And now, don't get me wrong - some of these choices are really hard to integrate. We basically can never go back to Orzammar because its king changes everything. It's too much to take into account and would change what quests and storylines the player experiences.

But then don't fucking write it that way to begin with lol. At least with Dao you can give the benefit of the doubt with things being meant to be part of a single story - but by da2 they knew dragon age was a franchise and inquisition was written and made with the knowledge there would be another game afterwards. They could actually plan things out and figure out if maybe a choice you could make would require too many resources to implement in the next game, and thus just not actually give you the choice in inquisition. Because the divine, for example, makes a HUGE difference. I fully get that it would be extremely difficult to take all three choices into account - reference them but make them not so integral that the story of the game can only happen if one of those was made.

But then don't make us fucking able to choose who the divine is. I'd rather not have as many influencial choices in a game, but have them referenced and have them matter, than... This.

Who you romance. Whether you disbanded the inquisition. And what you think of Solas. Nothing from Dao, nothing from da2, and only this from dai. That's a fucking joke. It's a joke. A spit in the face.

Many of the fans will have replayed the series in anticipation for veilguard, carefully crafted their choices to be their main world state. Especially with the nice little sales you've had during veilguard's promotional period. And now, only now, after they will have done all of that, you spit in their faces and say that none of what they did in the past games mattered. So why should I finish my inquisition replay? Why should I care?

Meanwhile, plenty of events from the books and comics will not only be referenced but be integral for the story. Fuck you for playing the main games, you're stupid for thinking they mattered. Obviously the static stories of our external media is more important. Totally respectful of the fanbase to do that.

[damallarky]

What I Liked About Dragon Age: The Veilguard

I keep seeing extremely negetive comments about Veilguard, even nearly two months after the game has been released, and that is insane to me.

Now, I'll admit that I had my own gripes about the game. But I have decided that I am not going to focus soley on the negatives. That makes me and everyone around me angry and miserable and that is not why I am on Tumblr.com. I am here for the memes and to talk about Dragon Age man.

So, I have decided to be the change I want to see in the world and make a non-exhaustive list of all of the things that I LIKED about Veilguard.

The Companions: I loved them. I loved their story arcs. I think they were well-written and very Dragon Age-y. They reminded me of the DA:O crew in a good way. I also can see what Bioware meant when they talked about the found family vibes.

The Art Style: This art style is my favorite out of all of the Dragon Age games. I've always prefered a more styalized look, because it's fun but mostly because it ages SO MUCH BETTER than a more realistic style in video games. Games like Zelda, Fable, etc still look pretty good today because they all have a more styalized look. At least in my opinion.

The Animation: This could go along with the art style, but I wanted to make it a seperate category. The animation in Veilguard was fantastic. The facial expressions on the characters were so well done. Ghila'nain moved like a Little Nightmares character which was great. Characters actually held onto their mugs!

The Voice Acting: Every Bioware game I've ever played has fantastic voice acting though. *shrugs*

The Seige of Weisshaupt: Was an absolutley fantastic moment in the game. Having a terrifying face hover over you while you desperately try to fight your way through the hordes of Darkspawn? Being led to safety by some random, badass kid? Davrin killing a Darkspawn's cousin last week? Lucanis not being able to stab a cloud? Perfection.

Being Able to Pet All the Cats and Dogs (and Assan): This speaks for itself tbh.

The Ossuary: Dude, walking into that funky underwater prison and seeing a massive aquatic creature swim by you was such a neat moment. I really enjoyed that area. That's also where we get to meet Lucanis and Spite, so yay!

The Fade Fish Tank: For similar reasons to above. I just think fish are cool ok? I also spent a little more time than I probably should have watching the fish swim back and forth.

Photo Mode: I love when games have a photo mode and I LOVED Veilguard's photo mode. I also love all of the photos that the community have been taking.

The Combat: The combat was really fun. I don't remember having as much fun with combat in a Dragon Age game as I had with Veilguard. You can tell the team put a lot of time and effort into it and it shows.

The Fact That We Got a Game At All: Look. After ten years of development hell, I wouldn't have been surprised if the game got scrapped. Yet somehow, despite the odds, the team at Bioware managed to deliver a finished game despite the odds stacked against them. Is it perfect? No. But it's here and it's real and out there for us to either love it or hate it despite the many times Bioware could have thrown in the towel.

Feel free to add to this list or talk about the things you liked about the game in the replies section! I know Veilguard has it's issues. Don't let the bad get in the way of the good.

[hydrangeapartridge]

My completely biased review and opinion about companions in Veilguard (major spoilers of course)

(Side note : english is not my first langage, I hope I can express myself clearly enough for you all to understand my points)

- Neve

I like Neve, she’s cool. I loved the detail of the noise her metal leg makes when she walks.

Her questline was however a bit bland. We had better portrayals of power hungry blood mages in previous games and Aelia wasn’t that good an antagonist. She lacks charisma and isn’t seen much before the last quest so you don’t really care about her. It could have been more dramatic, like if we had to fight people of Minrathos being controlled, idk. Also not much about slavery.

I get that Bioware tried to make Neve’s quest like detective work, searching for clues and stuff, but for me it wasn’t that exciting, and Venatori are the mobs I like the least, I don’t like the crystals you have to break in order mechanics and stuff.

I chose to make her the hero of Minrathos and it was satisfying.

- Harding

I can’t find it in myself to call her Lace damn it XD

Of course I was happy to see Harding again after Inquisition ! She is a ray of Ferelden sunshine. I really enjoyed her questline with the Titans ; it was mysterious and you really felt the danger in the deep roads, and the potential threat of her newly acquiered magic. I liked the giant oracle and the design of the lyrium caves. It was a nice throwback to the first games.

The end scene of her quest was nicely done, with Rook trying to reach her while the whole cave was collapsing and then a group hug.

I chose the path of compassion.

- Lucanis

His accent was more funny to me than endearing (as is his signature « Mierda ») and I was surprised to find that he was soft instead of suave. I didn’t save Treviso so I feel like I missed a lot of his quest (and the decision at the end) and in the end he was OK but not that interesting to me.

There was also the problem of Illario ; the second he was introduced I smelled the family treason nd so there was no suspense to this quest. It felt like a bad telenovella.

I like that Zara had a literal blood bath in the quest of the same name. It was a cool fight.

I didn’t bring him out much but I enjoyed that he ended up with Neve.

- Bellara

Bellara is adorable. I liked her quirkiness but her dialogues were sometimes terrible. When she talked I felt like she kept repeating the same things phrased differently and sometimes I felt the itch to skip (I usually never skip dialog!).

I had high hopes for her questline because of Anaris and finding that her brother wasn’t dead, but it all flopped in the end when Cyrian got killed by being sent flying away and Anaris didn’t turn out that scary. It felt stupide that Cyrian was not dead and then really dead…

I chose to keep the Archive but that choice felt like the less impactful of all the companion choices.

- Davrin

I didn’t expect Davrin to be so brash ! I enjoyed his banter a lot and the growth of his relationship with Assan. That griffin is an absolute cutie !

His quests were cute for the Arlathan ones and impactful for the one with the Gloom Howler. I enjoyed Isseya’s story and saving the griffins.

I still felt Davrin to be a little too « jock » coded, but his banter with Emmrich and Manfred was perfect ! I enjoyed seeing the wardens again (Antoine and Evka <3) and am glad he was a true Warden this one.

I chose to release the griffin in Arlathan because my Rook was an elven veil jumper.

- Taash

In real life, Taash is the kind of person I would have trouble connecting with. They’re obtuse and a bit rude. I felt like I was intruding during the parts with her mother (it is probably the goal of those moments but it made me uneasy). I wanted to be supportive so I was but I didn’t feel like my Rook and them ended up great friends. The identity crisis wasn’t handled that well I think, but it wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be and maybe I’ll get hate for that but they come out at first more Trans than non binary given their problem is being misgendered as a girl mostly or expected to do girly things? They even say it feels right to be called a man I think I remember? (but I respect whatever pronouns she chose in the end)

I really enjoyed the dragon hunt quests however and their last quest was cool too. Their mother’s death was a sacrifice that made sense and it pained me.

Their romance with Harding was cute (mostly because of Harding’s reactions and that height difference XD)

I chose to push them towards embracing the Rivein life, even if I think they could have made peace with both ?

- Emmrich

Of course my favourite. And not only because he is the handsome older man who swept my Rook off her feet.

To give us a scholar necromancer that was the antithesis of the cliché : a man poised but a tad insecure, nerdy, gentle, kind, a bit posh, extremly elegant and whose favourite colour is lilac ! Genius !

The Necropolis had such a distinct ambiance that every quest there felt special, with amazing details and wonders of finding a wisp, a spirit or hearing a dead’s last words.

To me his personnal quests are the ones with the best handled rythm. The first one in the peace and quiet of the beautiful garden sets the tone : serious but poetic, sad but hopeful, and dares to tackle very real and grave subjects. Death and regret but also life and love are perfectly handled in his story and brought me lots and lots of feels.

There is a great antagonist whose motives are simple but dangerous ; a friend turned rival, similar but so different from dear Emmrich. Johanna is simply iconic (her hand gosh and the fact that you keep her skull in the end, brillant). The fights are well balanced, the cutscenes and dialogues perfect for immersion. And don’t get me started on Manfred… I love this little guy to bits.

I chose to revive Manfred and for Emmrich and Rook to live the rest of his mortality together. In Undying Love

[luzial]

My Thoughts on Veilguard (Spoilers for all)

OK. Now that I've actually had a night to sleep on it, here's my more detailed thoughts on Veilguard beneath the cut. Spoilers for everything, of course. Also this is long as hell so have fun, I guess.

I am genuinely feeling so overwhelmed with emotion at getting what was honestly a happier ending for Solavellan than I thought was possible within the established canon. So let me just start off by acknowledging that the last 10 minutes of Veilguard left me feeling a lot more charitable about it than the previous 80 hours I played did. If you want a glowing review, this ain't it.

Gonna try to organize this into a few categories.

Character Customization

This is embarrassing but I actually rage quit the game after spending about an hour in character creation and finding I could not get a Rook that looked anything like I wanted her to look. The problem for me really was the 3 head types that morphed together - I found that to be too limiting to get something that looked like a real human face to me. Eventually I settled on something and, fortunately, got used to it quickly.

Being able to make a vallaslin-removed, 10-years-older version of my Inquisitor was an absolute dream. I had a lot of reference pictures of my DA:I Lavellan, so this was simpler for me than starting fresh with Rook.

Backgrounds

I played as a human Crow mage. The Crow background story was hilarious to me because you're kind of a fuck-up. Viago addresses you as "Idiot" in his opening letter to you at the start of the game. (Viago can call me an idiot any time, for the record.) I was impressed by how much reactivity there was dependent on my background, though I understand that some others (especially Grey Warden) have even more options because they're so closely tied to the parts of the lore this story primarily focuses on. I'm excited to try some others if I can muster up the energy to play this game a second time (more on that to come).

Combat

Drastically more fun than another other DA game. Your mileage may vary if you like the turn-based stuff from the earlier games, but I do not. I played as a Spellblade, got some perfect unique and legendary gear to work with that, and had a blast. Melee mage with electric powers is my absolute preferred thing to be. I felt entirely overpowered by about 35 points into the talents and ended up turning up the difficulty a little because I was killing things pretty easily. But then, because the spec didn't really change much after I hit that sweet spot, I turned the difficulty back down because I was pretty bored with just hitting the same combos and blocks over and over again. So, fun, but still got old after 80 hours of it.

Companions

BioWare companions have a tendency to hit very hard or miss completely for me with not a lot in between. Unfortunately, I found Veilguard to have more misses than hits.

Harding. While I know a lot of people really love Harding, she wasn't ever someone I paid a ton of attention to in Inquisition so I didn't have strong feelings about her return. I was glad that her personal quests gave us some more insight into the Titans and the Kal-Sharok dwarves, both of which are mysteries I was very invested in. (More on my thoughts about how those things played out in the Lore/Story section below.)

Neve. I absolutely loved the idea of Neve. I thought her design was beautiful and unique - loved, loved, loved her hats. I loved the idea of this lady Sherlock Holmes but I was disappointed that her story didn't really feel much like a detective mystery to me. Neve also really got the worst of it in my save - she had the injury at the start, I saved Treviso, and Elgar'nan kidnapped her at the end. So, needless to say, our friendship was a little strained (or as strained as friendships are allowed to be in Veilguard, which is not very). However, Neve getting to say "THIS IS MY CITY" as she uses the Blight against Elgar'nan? Fucking chef's kiss 10/10 loved that shit. Good for her.

Lucanis. As a huge fan of the Crow stories we got in Tevinter Nights, of course I was looking forward to Lucanis. I adored Spite - what a fun idea for a demon archetype to explore. I found the idea of the experimentation with forcing the creation of specific demons and getting them to possess non-mages pretty interesting. I was so enraged that the story wouldn't allow Rook or Lucanis to point out how obvious Illario's betrayal was - I mean, come the fuck on, Zara is literally calling Illario "amatus" as she dies. You're killing me, BioWare. I romanced Lucanis, so more on him as a character and the romance in the Romance section below.

Bellara. I was really uncertain about Bellara at first. It was clear she was going to be "a lot." But she actually really grew on me over the course of the game, and is probably the companion whose friendship I appreciated the most. I loved her banters with Lucanis about cooking and her discussions with Davrin about the implications of the Evanuris being total dickheads. She was one of the few characters in the game who I ever saw attempt to grapple with this (what should have been) ENORMOUS reveal that the Elvhen gods were real and very different than history remembered them (more on that to come, too). And I'd be lying if I said that her utter revulsion at the idea that Solas and Mythal could have been lovers (something I did NOT want) didn't earn her a shitload of loyalty points from me.

Davrin. Davrin felt the most like what I would expect a Dragon Age companion to feel like. He slotted perfectly into the lore but also advanced important parts of it. He was a fantastic example of a heroic Grey Warden but also had ties to his Dalish roots. He and Assan were adorable and I loved their journey together. I really felt like he had the best head on his shoulders of anybody in Rook's team, while also having a personal mission that very directly influenced and pushed forward the overarching narrative of the story. This is what a good companion looks like.

Taash. Boy, did I have a difficult time with Taash. Listen. As a cis lady (though admittedly a bisexual one who has many complicated thoughts about gender), I don't feel that it is especially my place to critique Taash's personal story. So I'll just say that I was frustrated by how often they felt like an absolute child to me - in a way that truly left me wondering why the hell Rook recruited an immature teenager for her team. I found Taash's relationship with their mother to be equal parts frustrating and touching, and I think that's fine and probably good. I wish Taash had given their mother a chance to tell us more about people in the Qun who are non-binary. I was excited to hear that lore and sad that Taash cut her off. I am always glad to see stories like Taash's in very popular media because I think stories instill empathy in us and empathy goes a long way toward acceptance. I do wish, however, that Taash's story was spoken about in a more "Dragon Age-y" tone, versus using the exact words and concepts that we do in the real world. It took me out of Thedas at times to hear how they framed their experience.

Emmrich. A little torn. My god, I loved Manfred. I loved Emmrich most of the time too. I thought his personal quest was fun, hilarious, and creepy. Someone had way too much fun with all those horror zoom-ins during the cinematics, and I am here for it. I loved what we learned of the Mourn Watch and Nevarra - both things I was really excited to see in a game. I think my reluctance to fully embrace Emmrich is simply that much of the information he provides is so similar to the sort of information Solas gave us in Inquisition. And so many players hated Solas for that, whereas I expect Emmrich will be much better liked overall because he delivers his advice a lot more politely than Solas managed to. So I guess I do like Emmrich, but my Solavellan heart is telling me that's a little disloyal.

Overall, my biggest complaint isn't even with the individual companions or their stories but with the absolutely awful pacing that dictates how those stories play out. If I don't play this game a second time, it's because of Act 2. All the running back and forth to have what I have been derisively referring to as "picnics" with your companions really soured me on them in ways that I don't think is very fair to the actual characters. I wish I didn't have to go the map and teleport to get 2-3 minutes of dialogue with someone. I wish I could talk to them more at the Lighthouse. I do miss the conversation wheels where I could just ask for more info. Combined with the fact that, at times, it felt like this was all I was doing for the entirety of Act 2, they had just worn out their welcome for me and i was desperate to advance the main plot.

I also just did not need 2 separate pep talks from Varric effectively saying "get your team's shit together and it'll be better for your bigger goals." I know, Varric. I am playing a BioWare game. You are explaining a BioWare game to me in a BioWare game. I don't need that. I'm here to fix my companions' shit. I signed up for that. Again, that dialogue just took me out of Thedas, and especially when he said it a second time.

Romance

Absolute, fucking nothing-burger with nothing-sauce and no cheese. And I know that this is not just about who I picked - I have looked at plenty of the other romances and talked to my friends who romanced other people. This game just doesn't have it. Spice level is like a dash of stale black pepper. A few cute party banters when you decide to pair up with somebody, but that was really about it. This is gonna be all about the fics for those of you who really wanted more from these characters.

I think you would get this scene regardless of whether you'd begun to flirt with him, but I did really like the first private scene you have with Lucanis where you walk around the Treviso markets and he picks out food items for everybody in the party. It was a lot kinder and more thoughtful than I expected from an assassin character, so I guess that's probably why I went with him. I didn't feel strongly about romancing any of the companions and I ended up going with Lucanis because I knew I was going to save Treviso since I was a Crow and I figured it'd be a lot simpler to romance him in this save versus a second where I save Minrathous. How romantic, right?

To the extent the devs said this was the "most romantic" Dragon Age game so far ... surely they were only talking about Solavellan, right? 😭

Lore/Story

Whew. Strap in. Cause I am conflicted and I'm ready to throw all my problems at the wall / people on Tumblr who haven't stopped reading yet.

Let me start by saying a few things about what I think makes a satisfying resolution to a story. I do not think it is at all a bad thing if your audience is able to guess - mostly or partially - the direction a story is taking. I actually think that can be a very strong compliment to your writing and to the intelligence of the breadcrumbs that you've left along the way. I read everything. I read every word of every codex. I read every novel. I read every comic even though I hate reading comics. I like being rewarded by seeing the knowledge I've gained from that work reflected back at me in the game. That is Good Shit.

I was thrilled to watch headcanon after headcanon (mine and others) confirmed as lore in this game. It was deeply satisfying to go back and look at notes I had made while writing Ruins in 2016 and 2020 about which Elvhen gods corresponded to which Tevinter Old Gods and find that I had all but 2 of them correct. (I swapped Elgar'nan and Falon'Din and I'm not even going to count that against myself because how the hell was I supposed to guess that the Evanuris associated with the SUN was aligned with the Tevinter god of NIGHT, fuck off lol). Good breadcrumbs are so deeply satisfying in a story like this and I cannot be thankful enough that we got all these little hints along the way that were waiting for us to discover them and fit the puzzle pieces together.

The thing of it is, that there are places where I think those breadcrumbs were followed to their least interesting possible conclusions. And that makes me a bit sad because I think it's pretty clear that this game is meant to neatly tie a bow on this geographical part of the Dragon Age world, and it's therefore pretty unlikely that we are going to get much more information to fill in the important gaps in knowledge we still have about the Blight and the Titans in particular.

The more I played this game, the more confused I became about the origins of the Blight, and that was especially frustrating for me because I honestly thought I had it very clear in my head after playing The Descent DLC. The Blight was like an infection or an immune response within the Titans' bodies to the invasion of the Evanuris. It was a consequence of their actions but not something created intentionally. To the extent I knew that Ghilan'nain was messing around with the Blight, I thought it was a fascination she developed with what seemed to be a naturally-occurring phenomenon, and not something she had intentionally, actively created herself. I came out of Veilguard being completely unclear with which of those two things is true and I do not think it is possible or interesting for both to be true. It is entirely possible I have missed something (somehow, in my very slow playthrough where I read every codex as soon as it become available to me), but my lingering suspicion is that the writers of this game never entirely made up their mind about the Blight's origins either. And that's a sad note to leave on, like I said, because I don't know that we'll see much of it again.

As for the Titans, I did enjoy seeing more of that story - and especially from THEIR perspective, not just Solas' memories - through Harding. Their anger was so just and important and I'm glad we saw some of that. However. A couple of big misses for me on the Titans. First, given how alien and huge and intimidating the "inside" of the Titan was in The Descent I just do not like the idea of them having these physical, humanoid-shaped bodies like the one we see in the mountains. I wanted something more abstract than that because I wanted them to be something mythical and fundamentally unknowable. Also, the absolute nonsense of introducing this idea that "angry" lyrium is red lyrium - but don't worry, it's not blighted! It's a totally different thing! That missed me so hard. What an unnecessary complication of straightforward lore. If you want the lyrium to look different to reflect the Titan's anger make it a different color, make it spark, do literally anything except use an existing mutation that already means one very specific thing to your audience.

So the Blight and the Titans were the two places where the lore fell down a bit for me. But I also was simultaneously excited to see Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain and also so underwhelmed by how mundane and "modern" (modern by Thedas standards) they seemed to me at times. I adored Ghilan'nain's model in particular. She was just as creepy, uncanny, body-horror as I have always wanted her to be. Both were fantastically acted. Absolutely no complaints there.

But in the same way that I wanted the Titans to feel suitably alien and distant from us, the players - the Warden, Hawke, the Inquisitor, Rook; people who did not live 10,000 years ago and cannot conceive of this world once being drastically different from how it now is - I wanted the Evanuris to feel SO far above us, so removed. They are not truly gods but they are so godlike in the scope of their power that I wanted them to look at modern Thedas almost like we were ants. The scope of their concerns should be so enormous that we are practically nothing to them. I found it wild when they called me Rook - that they cared enough to know my name? I didn't hate the idea of them grasping power wherever they could - with the Venatori, with the Antaam. But it just made them feel so much smaller than I had imagined. The fact that they called their dragons "archdemons" was a weird nitpicky sticking point for me. Surely they had their own word? Why would they stoop to adopting a word and a concept that never had a reason to exist in their culture?

Speaking of words, and names. I hated, hated everybody using Solas' real name. In my mind, the only people who should have gotten to do that were people who knew him as Solas in the Inquisition. That everyone else adopted it, versus calling him the Dread Wolf or Fen'Harel, whatever, really confused me. It felt so weirdly intimate to have people - even people who weren't party members, just fucking randos that are helping you - calling him Solas. I recognize that this probably a "me" problem and it would be more confusing for new players to have the same character referred to by different names. But still, the part of my Inquisitor who still lives in my heart wanted to just slap anybody out here going around using his name like it was theirs to use.

The exponential increase of the use of magic in the North of Thedas was both something I anticipated and also still way beyond anything I expected. We knew attitudes about magic were drastically different in the North. Dorian's character in Inquisition was a great way to prime us for that shift. Fundamentally, though, I believe Dragon Age as a series has always been concerned about the risks and the consequences of magic use. Those risks are not less in the North. It's simply that they find the risks more acceptable and have different customs and safeguards in place to facilitate the kind of magic use they want.

But I saw NO risks for magic use in Veilguard. No sense that the huge quantities of energy being pulled from a VERY TATTERED AND DELICATE VEIL were worrying to anyone. If magic has become easier to use because of the events of Inquisition and the Veil's weakened state, maybe I could believe that. But somebody in the game needed to say it out loud. Otherwise, I'm just looking at a world where magic is a net positive so how stupid and cruel do you have to be to prevent its use? It makes the already dubious morals of the Chantry and Templars entirely reprehensible in retrospect because apparently if you just let people do any magic they want at any time, everything's peachy!

It was difficult to anchor myself to any particular idea of whether this amount of magic use was normal for my Rook, because Rook - regardless of background - is from the North. They're not an outsider. Thus, I'm counting on someone who is an outsider - maybe Harding? - to comment on it, to contextualize it, to make it make sense to me from the perspective of the South, which has always been the player's perspective until this game. I never got that and I wish I had because it would have been so much more interesting and nuanced.

Similarly, it was so challenging to be thrust in media res into a Thedas where everyone (save one obstinate First Warden) was entirely willing to accept that the Elvhen gods were real and were the cause of all the bad shit happening in the world. Listen, I get it. 10 years is a lot of time. Maybe huge, fundamental paradigm shifts have happened in Thedas. Maybe people are willing to believe unbelievable things. But to see very, very little recognition of that from the characters we encounter was jarring. As I said above, I was glad that Bellara and Davrin were able to contextualize some of this in their conversations and I assume an elf Rook maybe has more to say on it as well, but it just wasn't enough for me. This was a place where I feel like we were asked to fill in too many gaps in time and in knowledge and I ended up with the sense that the writing just "had" to begin at this point because it had so much other ground to cover.

And that was the biggest problem for me - not exactly with lore but with pacing. Veilguard decided to wrap up so many of the fundamental mysteries we have been dealing with for 4 games. That is a huge order and it takes a lot of time. As I said, I took 80 hours to play this game. I think that is plenty of time to tell a story as complex as this one needed to be without me coming out of it feeling like I still have questions that should have been answered. Because the game "wastes" so much time, especially in Act 2, especially with some aspects of the companion stories, there just isn't enough room left to do what it needs to do with the main narrative. I also honestly think it could have been split across 2 games - not that any of us want to wait another decade to have these stories resolved, but maybe I would have if I'd known they would have been resolved a little more completely. And, again, I wouldn't be so sad about this if it didn't seem so obvious that we are done with Thedas after this.

Finally, I was so devastated by the lack of Thedas politics in this game. There were so many wonderful opportunities for factions and countries to be pissed at each other, to be working against each other for drastically different goals. I think of this as another core aspect of what Dragon Age games are about. Inquisition obviously was the most political of the games in that sense, because you really were a political leader more than you were a hero. But all 3 of the previous games were worried about this stuff - worried about who's in power, who is subjugated, how can the world be changed not only by people with magical ability but also by those who have deep beliefs about what Thedas should be. Magical power and political power are both very real and both crucial in the prior 3 games. In Veilguard, magic is power, simple as that.

I think this is linked, at least partially, to the decision not to include too many prior decisions and possible world states into Veilguard. And, hey, I do get that. As a player who started with Inquisition I found the Tapestry very intimidating. Three games' worth of choices is a lot to ask of even returning players, let alone new ones. I can't fault them too heavily for this because god knows how many more years in development it would've taken to make all that work. But that doesn't make me mourn the losses any less.

And now, really finally, here's a list of questions that I really don't need anybody to try to answer for me but which I cannot get out of my head and are kinda breaking the plot for me:

Hey so like, how was Solas (weakened state Solas at the end of Inquisition) capable of "murdering" Mythal? Like what power did he have that could have overcome hers? Even if he did have that power how COULD he kill her if he was still bound to her at that point? (I have always read that cutscene as Flemeth at least partially consenting to give Solas her power - not because I'm trying to give him a charitable read but because I honest to god don't understand how it's possible if she's unwilling.)

I think I'm even more confused about the orb/focus from Inquisition now. Obviously if he'd gotten it Solas wouldn't have had to take Mythal's power. But like, why did he have it in the first place? Was it something only he had? What was its original purpose? Cause the dagger seems to have taken its place in terms of importance/power level and containing the Titans.

How the fuck did Solas cleanse the red lyrium idol/dagger?

What happened to those Sentinel elves like Abelas? Where the fuck did they go? Whose side are they on?

What about the elves disappearing into the forest?

Still the stuff about the Blight.

I'm sure there's a lot more but I'll leave it at that because we've got to get to ...

Solavellan

Guys. I was so afraid of this game for so long. I'm not sure what I really expected or what had me so worried. I've always told my friends that the best ending I can imagine for Solavellan is the Inquisitor and Solas "dying on the same sword." What I meant by that was that I fully accepted their ending would be tragic (I truly saw no alternative) but I would be content if at least they died together - at least he didn't die alone.

What we got was honestly so much better than I wanted? LOL. Especially with Trick Weekes' recent clarifications. (Specifically, regarding where they are going: "She's speaking both romantically and literally. It won't be terrible if they're in there together." I AM DYING I AM LOSING MY MIND I'M SOBBING AND I'M SO HAPPY.)

I was screaming at my monitor - as I'm sure many of you were as well - "GO WITH HIM" when Solas finally gave in and bound himself to the Veil. I sobbed immediately, I woke up this morning and watched the cutscene again and sobbed again. I feel really grateful that this one ship in this one piece of media got such a tailored and thoughtful ending for it - especially knowing how many other choices from previous games had to be stripped away to make room for other things.

So, yeah. Given however many thousands of words I just put into this about all the shit I don't like? Still feeling pretty charitable right now because my girl Lavellan got the happy ending she so richly deserved.

(Side, and final, note: Jesus who made his wolf form look like that? Why would you do our boy so dirty?)

[0alix0]

Wait hold on, just remembered one thing Morrigan told us.

Remember how she described Falon'din and Dirthamen as two pieces of one? (aka they are like Flemythal and that shard in the crossroads)

Remember that? Ok.

Now can someone please explain to me why the fuck are they described as sons of Elgar'nan and Mythal in dalish mythology???????? There could be only one : naturally born twins OR two pieces of a one idiot spirit. And nah, I'm not even talking about adopting and shit, nah.

"oh but the dalish got that wrong obw!" you may say. First of all, don't talk shit about dalish. Second of all, it's such a crucial information about their GODS that it couldn't be forgotten or wrongly interpreted like that. Especially when there's still a significant part of their culture that's been preserved and interpreted correctly.

Nobody questions if Elgar'nan and Mythal were married. Ppl question what relationships were between Andruil and Ghilan'nain, but they were right that Ghilan'nain was, indeed, Andruil's chosen

And having such a huge logical gap between "a spirit who took physical form, got killed, split in half like a fucking worm and kept going" and "Mythal just popped out 2 boys lol" is JARRING and doesn't make any sense

BIOWARE!! BIOWARE EXPLAIN!!!

[baku-usagi]

OK just finished the new dragon age gameplay review and heres my initial thoughts so far:

sooooo much better then I was thinking it would be after the trailer.

Whoever did that trailer did a truly horrible job. While minrathous is a little scifi esque, what we've seen does still at least have some of the general dragon age vibe so my interest is piqued again!

The vibe feels flatly inquisition though.

It makes me really really sad that fans have for over a decade now been begging for the games to return to origin roots, and been continuesly ignored.

I had hoped against hope that the success of bg3 would have opened up was EAs eyes to how absolutely needed a good dialog bar was, and a silent protagonist (especially since fans have been quietly complaining about the wheel and voiced protagonists since dragon age 2)

But alas, that is not a change that happened. It does look fun even if it is leaning more and more into the action adventure stuff for combat. God I miss my origins tactile system though :(

I'm excited so see the new companions in action, they're the least concerning part of everything so far. They seem lively and interesting.

I do think certain things just don't bode well for the lore and universe. Dragon age has been experiencing weird little retcons and simplifications of hard topics since inquisition, and it feels like veilgaurd will continue that legacy.

My biggest complaint is actually this:

We are immediately seeing very very small choices to be made. Unlike in bg3, where the dialog wheel serves not just to give you choices but to help create the personality of your character, this wheel has had the standard bland and tasteless three ish options that leave our rook as uninteresting as the voiced companions before them. I felt deeply disconnected from my inquisitor because there was not really much to connect with, and it seems rook will be the same.

We see no immediately consequences for our choices either besides approval of course. Which again after balders gate 3 is hard to swallow.

I don't think it's gonna be a bad game anymore thank God. But I am sad because i was reallly hoping for more on the actual choices matter rpg front that I can immediately tell is not going to be there.

That being said, some positives too!

As much as I'd like the return of tactics based, I think the hack and slash seems fun! I love the animations especially for rogue because I tend to play mages and rogues.

There is so much more nostalgia to yet be had as we get to continue meeting old friends on the way. I actually really like the game animation (nervous about it having the same eye problems Andromeda had tho 😬😬)

And I think varric and Harding have aged beautifully!

All and all I went from feeling like this was the worst it could get, to feeling like it's gonna be mid, but hopefully still worth playing! And hopefully my mind will continue to be changed. I hope. Bioware somehow managed to make me eat my socks on the critiques lol

(EDIT****

I AM SO HAPPY FOR THE SKIN TONE WERE SEEING IN THIS GAME. THE ROOK USED FOR THE GAME PLAY REVEAL WAS BEAUITFUL AND HIS SKIN LOOKED LIKE A ACTUAL PERSON AND I'M SO GLAD BIOWARE FINALLY GOT THE DARKER SKIN TONES LOOOKINH HUMAN AND GOOD HOLY SHIT. I'M SO EXCITED FOR THE CHARACTER CREATOR IN THIS GAME IF NOTHING ELSE)

[bluebudgie]

I accidentally sausagefinger deleted my 20k DA4 review so you get an abridged version now. No more nuance and elaboration, i can't be arsed to retype all of this.

Tl;dr

- Solid game with many flaws.

- If you already are a DA fan it's worth playing

- If you want to get into the series don't start here unless you really want to for a specific reason

Not entirely spoiler free:

Liked the game overall. Also no game has annoyed me this much in years.

Here's some good stuff:

- Beautiful, gorgeous environments.

- Overall cool and likeable cast with mostly interesting companion quests and fun character interactions.

- High quality german localization and VA (didn't try english)

- Appreciate the inclusion of gender neutral pronouns which is even less a given than it is in english since as of now there is no officially recognized equivalent for they/them in this language

- Loved the little things. Returning voice actors. Punching Solas in the face. Dorian Pavus.

- Great sound design during the Weisshaupt quest. Felt very immersive.

- Rivain exploration Tangled Depths moment. When you look at your destination 5 meters above your head and go HUH?

Stuff I hated that's extremely subjective:

Combat. Least fun combat I've experienced in any game ever. Every battle is a pvp match against 10 longbow bear rangers that spam point blank shot with no cooldown. Spending 98% of the battle dodging isn't fun

- Why is there a parry build in the skill tree when half of the enemies have huge hammers you cant parry (skill issue?)

- Party members being invulnerable pets that do nothing but use 1 out of 3 skills off cooldown is bullshit

Soundtrack. Ok no listen I didn't spend the last two months agonizing over this to give you the abridged version now. [takes a deep breath] Here we go again.

"I'm not angry with you, I'm just very disappointed." [Heavy Silence]

Seriously what the fuck was that. The biggest nothingburger that ever nothinged. Or burgered. Like cool they got Hans Zimmer or whatever but if they only had the budget to pay for 2 songs and 3 chords then maybe... don't?

Half of the game is dead silence interrupted by the same 3 notes. Once in a while you dare hope that a song starts playing only for it to fade out within a few seconds. Even many of the battles (including story battles) are fought in silence. And like. Don't get me wrong here. Silence can be good if utilized effectively. I like a good ambient soundtrack. Inquisition had great ambience (mage quest or winter palace bgm anyone?). Super Metroid has great ambience. Hell my favourite gw2 map has insect chittering for music. But this game. They really went "Go girl give us nothing!" with full conviction.

The little music that is there is largely generically inoffensive but also extremely repetitive. And despite all the repetition it's still forgettable as hell. Dictionary definition of an orchestral slop soundtrack. And also the dictionary definition of disappointment. Good god.

Ok moving on with the abridged review. The following points are things that sort of bugged me and I could imagine that other people feel similarly.

- I mean the main story with those saturday morning cartoon villains speaking in stock villain lines was silly but that's just kinda bioware storywriting so all as expected. We're here for interpersonal relationships and side stories anyway.

- So I said I liked the cast. They're too likable. Too safe. Too sanitized. Has everyone forgotten how to be an asshole?

- It's almost impossible to have companions disagree with your decisions. Where are the contrarians? Who do I throw fists with? Why is everyone licking main character boots? I know we've all* hated on Solas for years but that doesn't mean we can't have dicks in the party anymore? We're not babies?? *not you

- Also why does main character get to do life altering decisions for everyone 😭 Bruh none of your business... In some cases it made sense, but some of these... (Taash...??)

- Taash's questline sucked we all agree on this right

- That extremely unsubtle choice pop up whenever a decision you made had an influence on something. Like bruh ok you don't have to tell me about every little choice branch, where's the surprises man

- Companion quests being a mandatory gameplay element isn't the worst of these things but I did prefer when they were entirely optional so it was your bad when you missed out on relationships etc. Plus the gameplay loop created by this in da4 was very tedious after a while

- I don't like how the main character was kinda predetermined as a sassy jokester no matter which dialogue choices you pick but you get used to it

- The also extremely unsubtle faction meter that practically screams "if you don't fill the meter it will have consequences during the final battle". Again where's the surprises?

In general the game felt too predictable and too sanitized to be the least amount of inconvenient as possible.

And that's all I can think of right now.

Overall I'd say

DA2 < DA4 < DA:O < DA:I

[satanstrousers]

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

First, thoughts on all the companions:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ok spoiler free Plot:

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

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

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

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

Final Review:

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

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

[tactician]

datv spoilers abt how they handled one of the older games' companions under the cut

(also it's negative if you'd rather avoid that sort of thing)

man im not a datv hater by any means, in fact i Love It and i want to write up my general #thoughts about it sometime - both the positive and the negative, yay nuance - but i rly do need to take a moment to rant about how it lowkey did zevran so dirty and that's one aspect of it that i will never forgive!!!

LIKEEEE OK YES. i'll admit that im being dramatic / sensitive bc i love zev so fucking much and i have been steeled by years upon years of listening to the fandom treat one of my fav dragon age characters (literally the reason why i got into dragon age) like some kind of joke but. that experience is a lot different from seeing bioware do it. ik there's some cute shallow references to him sprinkled here-and-there (iirc 'the invitation' gearset is a reference to him which is pretty nice), but there's ALSO a banter that lucanis has w harding which implies that members of house arainai 'died from embarrassment' over a failed assassination contract in ferelden, which is obviously a reference to zevran - and ohhhh when i tell you it grinded my gears.... it really, really got to me...

i definitely understand wanting to keep immersion intact for people who killed off zevran in origins as well as people who got him through it and let him go off and hunt down crows - so making a reference to the actual contract and keeping the fallout of that contract vague makes sense. but being coy about it (a la harding assuming that leaders of house arainai literally just died from The Cringe Of It All and weren't, like, systematically hunted down by a former crow / survivor who went thru years of literal torture from them) is really like... i dunno! i don't like it! it left a bad taste in my mouth + seeing tons of people giggling over it ANNOYS MEEEE!!!! it legit ruins my own immersion bc wdym the crows have no opinion whatsoever on a character who was slaughtering them left and right in my worldstate lkfdgldkfh

and like even if you view it as a clumsy euphemism for zev hunting the leaders down later on, i still rly firmly maintain that it's a poor one. if he survives post-origins, zevran becomes a total thorn in the crows' side. he killed off influential leaders within the org... he even got a title for it (THE BLACK SHADOW. YES I REMEMBER)... and bioware is reducing that legacy to a joke about people dying from embarrassment -_- like please be serious.

furthermore i don't think it's immersion breaking to just... replace those lines with a sentence or two referencing an assassin within house arainai who defected and started taking down talons given how abhorrent house arainai was/is(?), either. a vague foreboding reference would literally do the job just fine. house arainai was not the fandom's ~*~Found Family Vibes~*~ lmao they were taking in child slaves and grooming them into ruthless assassins - but that lore is totally ignored in veilguard, too!!! even with all the fledglings around the crows' base in veilguard... it's just not elaborated on in a way that aligns with previously established lore.

DON'T GET ME WRONG THOUGH. i'm absolutely not part of the section of the fandom who hate on the crows being a "good-aligned" faction that rook can ally with, because obviously all of the houses aren't house arainai - some are scummier than others and some do, in fact, have the ~*~Found Family Vibes~*~. it just sucks so much that datv provides banter and dialogue setups where the #lore is like... talked about and explained to some degree... but those lines are wasted on empty shit like "the crows hire recruits from the military or the trades! :)" or weird trope-based jokes at the expense of previous companions rather than even vaguely implying that different houses do different things, and that some houses are shitty to a truly reprehensible level.

tl;dr imo if bioware doesn't want previous choices to matter or for stuff to be hyper-tailored to specific worldstate choices, that's cool and fine and deeply understandable, but characters should just be quiet about those choices ;LKGFHL;KFDG BUT HEY!!!!! if i missed a banter where zevran IS referenced in a manner which isn't a joke or linked to his sex appeal, i would rly love to hear about it... because as this sudden unplanned Essay that i spawned proves, im Quite salty about this L;FDGKGFHKLGHF

[kurczeno]

ok so a little rant about DA:V, because I feel like it needs to be said. First a disclaimer: if you are hyped, thats good for you, really. Enjoying the final product is absolutely fine. However, I've seen SO MANY people, especially here on tumblr, but also on tiktok and reddit acting as if any criticism of the game is just people being mean haters or homophobic.

And don't get me wrong - there are probably people taking things too far, just for the sake of it. There are also people mad about the wokeness - though as a person that is very interested in the topic, I've seen only one? discussion about this matter and it wasn't even made by people that like the series, they just wanted to complain about wokeness in games, etc.. But I'm not saying these people don't exist, because I haven't seen them.

However I am seeing so many valid criticism of the game being discredited for no reason and I feel like there is at least one thing that needs to be said.

I played Origins over 20 times. DA2 and DA:I - also more than once, but I didn't count it. I loved all of them - even the Inquisition, despite its many flaws. But it's not a post about them - the thing is, I am a fan of a series. I've been since I was little and later I got that stupid hyperfixation. I was extremely excited about the game, despite SO MANY red flags - I'd say it's still Dragon Age and I'm sure it won't be that bad.

But at this point even I can't cope that hard.

First of all - it's barely Dragon Age at this point. I just want you to remmeber that most of the staff that was working on the first three games got fired or resigned themselves. The LEAD WRITER himself, David Gaider (he's incredible btw, go follow him on twitter and play stray gods!!!) has been trashing Bioware on TT for years and he's been there for 12 years. He tried to highlight just how badly the company treats its workers - and it's not only Bioware, it's gamedev in general. I have many friends that work in gamedev and whenever we talk about situations like this their reaction is "yeah, but thats what happens in gamedev every half a year". You know, it's so bad, we just treat it as a standard. Why am I bringing all this up? Because I think that countering every argument with "you haven't played the game yet" or, even worse "people are only complaining because woke" is just buying into their narrative, taking the responsibility from them. When the truth is that every single teaser looks, to say the least, outdated. The graphics are very, very bad, the designs are mid at best (I'd single out Neve and technically? Emmerich, but he looks horrible because of the graphics, so...), the reps show that they know little about Dragon Age (I'm in love with that one recording in which they collectively barely remember Zevran. The companion in the most beloved game. The guy that is basically the only source of info we get about the Crows. The Crows that are a fraction in their game???), they have already stated that your choices don't matter. I can elaborate on each of these, but the post is already to long and my point is different - don't excuse Bioware. And I'm sorry, but "play the game first" shouldn't be the argument here, because the things that should be good, regardless of the game itself fail - I'm sorry, but this isn't an indie game. It's made by a huge company, with loads of money after two commercial flops. I know some of you (including me!) are nostalgic towards Bioware, because of their games and what they meant back in the day, really. But at the end of the day, the games were made by people and Bioware is just a company. A big corporation, that just wants to make money, has a long history of mistreating their employees and has delivered the worst teasers I've seen in a long time.

TLDR: I'm not trying to tell you, you are wrong to be excited. I'm just kindly asking you to stop coming to Bioware's defense at all costs, because they don't deserve it.

(also I know David himself has reacted to the teasers and reviewed them in a positive way but I am talking mostly about the things that I blame on higherups. However I personally think that Gaider, as someone who's worked in the industry knows that there are many people there that ARE actually passionate about the product. Not the reps, please, they are embarassing, but the animators, writers, etc. And trashing their work as a lead writer of the first games would be a little too much, even if the final thing is not their fault. They don't need any more shit)