#the most egregious was bellaras

[kshaar]

i did not make the post complaining about datv plot that i wanted to when i finished the game but one of the bullet points on it was 'where is the reckoning to shake the heavens that flemeth promised? we lost kate mulgrew for this?' which is a bullet point that might make one realize that one's complaints are very niche and specific and thats not what people look for in 10-year-later sequels and you nix the whole post

and then almost two weeks later d*vid g*ider makes a post about flemeth & morrigan & how they were always so fundamental to dragon age [which he begins by calling himself out for older women being his type- i dont want to talk about it] and another about how the scene between morrigan & kieran & flemythal was written and shot for here lies the abyss, morrigan saying she would never be the mother [to kieran] that flemeth was to her 🥺which is STILL the most impactful thing from inquisition

then you see the messy cowardly bullshit fucking story we got in veilguard, the way that mythal's fragment is in there ultimately to absolve this man for killing her, and morrigan is only there as her mouthpiece and the only way to convince this man that he needs to stop is if people tell him 'its okay man' because thats our priority right. making him feel better. fuck the dwarves dreams and the blight and the-

i don't know, i don't really have a point

[galadrieljones]

So weird to see very polite overly cautious people tagging like, innocent fan art of the Veilguard companions with "DATV spoilers" and then the others who will post extremely specific screenshots from clearly very monumental parts of the game and not tag them for spoilers at all 😂😩 I'm over it at this point but people are funny

[bluecladone]

Beat Veilguard last night, here’s some of my thoughts (SPOILERS BELOW):

First, some positives: Holy shit this game is a visual gem. The art direction and set pieces really blew me away in some places. That mountain with the titan corpse? Treviso? The lyrium chamber with the Oracle? I can’t wait for the art book lol. Also the animations and hair physics are *chef’s kiss*. I was really worried about the animations as Bioware has repeatedly gone on record saying how difficult the Frostbite engine is to work with (and I’m still a bit scarred from Mass Effect Andromeda lol) but they seem to have finally mastered it here. I was surprised at how expressive Rook was and loved how nuanced the dialogue choices were. Somehow, no matter which dialogue option I chose, I felt that the delivery was exactly what I wanted or better. There were times where I wanted Rook to be angrier or meaner though lol. Also, the worlds weren’t nearly as linear as I feared they might be. I thought it was a good balance between open-world and linear level design.

Now for some things that irked me:

There were a lot of bad line reads, especially at the beginning. Bellara springs to mind, though when she wasn’t trying to sound quirky she actually sounded alright lol. Looking up her actress, it doesn’t look like she’s done a lot of voice work, so it could just be rookie mistakes. Then again, Ali Hillis—Harding’s actress (and Liara T���soni and Aloy)—also had some clunky line reads. My guess is that they probably weren’t directed very well. Considering most of the clunky dialogue is in the beginning of the game, it’s not too egregious. I think they both found their footing with their characters as they went along. There were also some things that were worded or represented weirdly but I don’t know if it was on purpose or not? The two instances I’m thinking of are when Bellara tells Rook about her brother, and when Caterina was killed. My problem is the refusal to really say “killed.” Bellara says something like “wherever [her brother] is” and the implication is that he’s dead, of course. But the dialogue choices were either offering condolences or asking intrusively what happened so I wasn’t given a hard confirmation of his supposed death until a later conversation. The same happens during Lucanis’s recruitment mission where, after returning to Crow headquarters, Illario tells us that Caterina was “taken” by Venatori. I automatically assumed she was kidnapped, (which turns out to be the case, but I digress) since we just sprung her grandson from mage jail. That is, until Lucanis later swears that her death will be avenged, and I was like “Oh. Well maybe I missed something, even though I don’t think I did?” For hours afterward I was really confused by the coded language used and wondered why no one would just say dead or killed lol. But then it turns out that both characters are alive after all, so maybe it was on purpose? I guess? It was a clunky set up, if so.

Which leads me to my next gripe: during the mission to help with Caterina’s funeral, Lucanis tries to ask Illario about the details of the murder, (where did it happen, how was she killed, etc.) and doesn’t get a straight answer. Then Illario is weird about picking up “Caterina’s” ashes, which not only immediately made it obvious that he was a traitor, but also baffles me that the Crows somehow fell for the body double ruse twice in a row?? Not a lot of discerning people in a faction where the correct body should be tantamount to their success, no? Then, when it is glaringly obvious to the cast that Illario is the traitor, they just...kind of sit on that info and do nothing about it?? No warning to Teia and Viago, or anything? Honestly, everything about the Crows bothered me a lot lol. I didn’t like that they were portrayed as this plucky, lily-white faction of underground freedom fighters when we know that’s not how they operate. Not saying that they can’t be a terrible organization and patriotic, but the game does nothing to portray them as the neutrally evil entity they’ve always come off as. According to Zevran, they buy children from brothels and if they fail training, they’re killed. If they survive, they’re tortured to build their resistance to pain. Not to mention how Caterina used to beat Lucanis with a cane to correct him as a child, yet they still act weirdly warm toward one another. I get family is complicated, but geez. Maybe the Crows of Treviso are a softer touch, but I doubt they’d last long if that were so. I just wish the writers had tried to make them more morally gray than what we’re shown. I honestly forgot they were supposed to be scary assassins most of the time lol.

Some other little things before I move on to the big ones (besides the Crows lol):

While I loved Taash and loved getting to help them discover themselves, I was a little sucked out of the narrative by the ham-fisted lesson on gender identity lol. I get that they probably wanted to give a rundown for people who aren’t familiar with the topic, but I don’t think anyone who’s made it this far in the series isn’t at least somewhat familiar with the concept or are trans/non-binary/genderfluid. The Dragon Age fandom is very colorful that way lol. I could tell it came from a good place, at least. It was just funny to see the characters all but face the camera and say, “Hey kids, here’s a primer on gender identities for the uninitiated.” I didn’t really understand why Shathann was so hung up about Taash’s identity when Iron Bull flat-out tells us in Inquisition that the Qun has words and beliefs for people who identify that way and that they’re pretty chill about it. Not to say that EVERYONE in the Qun is likely to be chill about it, but still. Shathann even gives the same explanation before being interrupted, so it had me scratching my head a bit.

Then there was Bellara’s little “follow your heart” speech which made me roll my eyes a bit. Just a bit too corny and stereotypical for me personally. There are plenty of anecdotes about staying true to oneself without having to explicitly rely on the words “follow your heart.”

I got locked out of Lucanis’s romance without realizing until it was way too late lol. I don’t expect the game to be like “WARNING: CHOOSING MINRATHOUS OVER TREVISO MEANS YOU CAN’T FUCK THE HOT ITALIAN” but I feel like locking the romance entirely is kinda mean, especially after I looked it up and saw you could still romance Neve if you choose Treviso instead. As far as I know, Lucanis is the only romance option that gets locked because of a choice you made. I didn’t realize why I wasn’t getting flirt options until several hours later when I looked it up, after completing a shit ton of sidequests lol. Didn’t help that Lucanis is absent from the team for a good chunk of time afterward, and I’m a stickler for getting as many sidequests done as I can before moving on with story missions. I knew I could flirt with any of the other companions but it felt a bit late in the game to start at that point, and I was worried it might effect the pacing of the romance, so I just went without. Romance is kind of a big part of the appeal of these games to me, but it’s not everything. I thought about reloading an old (very old, by that point) save, but I didn’t want to deal with the frustration. Besides, I thought, if the game still holds up despite missing out on this one thing I was kind of looking forward to, then that speaks to its merits. I still had a good time overall, and am already starting a second campaign to explore some other choices and finally make that manlet mine lol. Still, it is quite annoying when choosing to save Minrathous is clearly the right call in my opinion. The game itself doesn’t make much ado about the consequences of leaving Treviso to fend for itself besides the civilian casualties. But it definitely makes leaving Minrathous sound more alarming. (You’ll basically be handing over the most powerful city in the North over to the Venatori and Evanuris. Treviso doesn’t have a giant floating castle with magic weapons that can pick a single target out of a crowd of people lol. Also the game acts like there wouldn’t also be a high civilian toll for some reason.)

While I feel that reading the tie-in books and comics isn’t required to get an understanding of certain characters and whatnot, I feel like it adds important context and makes you actually somewhat care for the fate of a lot of the characters in the game. It’s frustrating to track all that stuff down and read it, though most of it is covered in Tevinter Nights, however I might feel about some of the writing in that one lol. I suppose it could be argued that none of the Dragon Age games have ever been guaranteed sequels since its inception, so this was the next best thing to offer closure and/or extra worldbuilding just in case. In fact, the ending to Veilguard kinda feels like they’re trying to keep it open for a sequel since there are some minor loose threads, (And an end screen that basically says the Veilguard stands prepared lol) but who knows if we’ll see one. EA has never seen Dragon Age as a priority IP, since it’s an RPG and those can be hard to make into bestsellers. They’d rather focus on something more like Mass Effect— a traditional third-person shooter with some RPG elements—which we’re almost certainly getting another of. Hopefully. If there ever is another Dragon Age, I really struggle to imagine what in the world it would even be about.

Another gripe is the fact that Morrigan is not at all as prominent in the game as we maybe expected. (At least, I did lol) It’s not that big of a deal to me, but it does make me wonder why they even put her in the game. I guess to give the player an explanation about Mythal and her relationship to Solas, and to give over the aspect thingy if you do all the sidequests in the Crossroads. It didn’t really warrant Morrigan’s presence, though. Then again, I’m sure the fans would have rioted if she hadn’t been there. I guess I wish they would have utilized her more, and better lol.

The same can be said of the Inquisitor, but at least they had the excuse of keeping the South together while Rook did their thing. (Which would be a great idea for a dlc/expansion; playing as the Inquisitor and maybe seeing more about the choices made in the last game since we didn’t get to see many in Rook’s journey.) Though I do have a big problem with an Inquisitor who still wants to redeem Solas after everything he did, which I’ll get into more detail later. An Inquisitor who romanced him and still wants to get back together with him is doubly icky, but once again, I’ll come back to it lol.

Now the big things:

Varric. Oh, my poor, poor Varric. I made a post a while back about how I thought I might not enjoy the game as much if it turned out he died right at the beginning, and well...I was half right. His death was a twist I really didn’t see coming, and I’m honestly not sure how to feel about it right now. I admire the bait and switch for how clever it is, but am a bit frosty about how cruel it is, too. It feels a bit dumb to say for a fictional person, but I truly think I’m in mourning for Varric. I remember how I lamented in my old post about how it would have been so unsatisfying for him to die among strangers who barely knew him, away from the people that loved him best. This was softened somewhat by his relationship with Rook. Clearly, Rook cared about Varric a lot as a mentor, and possibly even as a father figure. (It helped that I headcanoned my Rook as someone who was separated from her parents at a young age and therefore craved that connection.) It’s still upsetting that I was half right with my prediction, and my heart breaks when I think about the Kirkwall gang not being there when he died, especially Hawke. Once again, I’m unsure of how I’m feeling about all this. I’m upset, but also aware that he couldn’t last forever, despite my wishes lol. Would it have been better to hear about him dying offscreen in a supposed sequel or tie-in book/comic? I’m upset Solas killed him, but I can’t decide if it’s out of character for him to have done so. I was surprised he stabbed Varric when it happened, but it’s not like he didn’t give Varric a warning when he broke Bianca. And he did kill Mythal, who he was closer to than anyone, despite how complicated their relationship got. I still need to reflect on all of it, and maybe my opinion will change when I have a clearer head. What I took the most exception to was the Inquisitor’s reaction to it as one who both romanced Solas and wanted to redeem him. Looking back on how you get to choose whether she gets back together with Solas or not leaves a bad taste in my mouth. At this point, the Inquisitor is obviously aware Varric is dead and that it’s Solas’s fault. I feel like even the most besotted, kindhearted Inquisitors would have trouble reconciling that, regardless of how close they might or might not have been to Varric. He was part of the inner circle, integral to stopping Corypheus. I feel like that should warrant some kind of reconsideration on her part. I’d be fine if she still wanted to redeem Solas, but pursuing a romantic relationship with him despite everything he’s done not only to Varric, but the world...it’s just gross to me. Maybe the Inquisitor sees Rook’s encouragement to get back together as some kind of forgiveness towards Solas on Rook’s part? I don’t know...it takes quite a bit of mental gymnastics on my part lol. But maybe others feel differently. I’d love to hear someone else’s opinion on the matter. As it is, the kiss before Solas and the Inquisitor disappear was soured for me. I might go back and try some of the other ending choices to see how I like those, but for now I’m focusing on another playthrough with an Inquisitor who did not romance Solas and swore to stop him. We’ll see which I like better lol.

Another big issue is, while I totally expected Solas to betray Rook at some point, the way it was handled was not very good in my opinion. Why, of all times, would Solas turn on us after killing Ghilan’nain? I know it’s likely a pride thing, or possibly he’s lost faith in Rook’s efficiency after they get one of their people killed. (Or more, depending on your choices for the assault, but I looked up the optimal choices after getting Harding killed so I didn’t traumatize myself further lol. Sorry Davrin and Assan :’(.) In fact, I was so confused by Solas’s timing that I thought it was actually Elgar’nan fucking with Rook’s head as revenge lol. Anyway, deaths in the line of duty didn’t seem to phase Solas in the past, though we do see that memory in one of his regrets. It just seemed hasty for him to immediately banish Rook to the Fade prison when they’re the one who’s done all the heavy lifting so far. And somehow, Solas seems surprised shit doesn’t work out like he planned later, but once again, I guess that’s his pride at work. This is also a complicated one for me that I think I need more time to puzzle out. I just have a hard time reconciling how someone so smart could be so dumb. Even when he was at his most powerful, he still had help from Felassan and other rebels. And yes, while Solas does take charge of Rook’s faction after trapping them, I highly doubt they compare to ancient elves with powerful magic and spirits. Credit where it’s due though, I was concerned when Solas had that line in the beginning about “abhorring blood magic” when he says the opposite in Inquisition. I can see now that it was clearly a lie meant to put Rook more at ease. Or at least, that’s how I saw it.

Overall, I did enjoy the game, despite my many problems with it. That being said, I think the mass layoffs at Bioware really made the game suffer in the writing side of things. Hopefully the new staff finds their footing after this, and I wish them the best of luck.

R.I.P. Varric Tethras, a self-admitted liar who could be honest to a fault, whose charm captured me from the moment I met him. He’s the charismatic character all writers strive to create.

[ryniadora]

So I finished Veilguard.

As a game, about a 6/10. As a DA game, about a 3/10.

First and foremost, it runs like absolute dogshit. Now this may be on me because it warned me not to install in on my HDD but I thought it'd be fine ... nope. Constant popin, having to wait minutes at at time for quest objectives to spawn, quests breaking because certain NPCs didn't spawn/I accidentally moved over the trigger too fast ... oh and every now and again when I load a save my character returns to default. I could handle the long loading screens but UGHHH.

I love Lucanis with my entire chest but the romance feels so unearned because you can never just talk to him, get to know him outside of heavily scripted scenes. Well-written as they are, it's just not enough and it makes the entire thing feel ... not real? He makes you a dessert (cute af by the way 10/10) and then ... everyone starts saying you're a thing??? And I'm like ARE WE??? Then suddenly he busts into your room and is all lovey dovey and adorable and it's just ?????????

Looking forward to writing it though.

Gameplay is meh, but I expected that. Played on baby mode and basically stomped everything, had to actively stop DPSing to hear all the dialogue sometimes xD Mage was frustrating as you'd get stunlocked all the time, though that may be a skill issue.

Main story was OK. Very much too focused on certain people who shall not be named, but it was okie. Please let the inquisitor hug egg, he needs a hug.

Companions were very disappointing. I went in expecting to love Davrin, but found him very boring. Bellara was too "look at me, I'm SO QWERKY". I never liked Harding much so was meh. Neve I expected to like but went cold on relatively quickly. Taash pissed me off from the get-go, and I got bored of their shit real fast.

Emmerich, though. I went into the thing fully expecting to LOATHE him, but he turned out not to be a snarky rat man but a very nice, sweet college professor and I was actually very tempted to romance him. May well do so on a second playthrough.

Side stories varied in quality wildly, and a lot of it felt like it was written with entirely different games in mind.

Definitely not enough Dorian, and too much Isabela.

But the most egregious crime is that nothing matters. Nothing we did in the previous games mattered except "what was your inquisitor's relationship to Solas?". It even let me pick who she romanced but it didn't matter, even when Dorian teased her about it in one throwaway line there were no names mentioned, not even a mention of her GOING HOME TO HER HUSBAND DORIAN PLS. I feel that choice is there just to ferret out the Solavellans ...

Where is Hawke? Where is the Hero of Ferelden during this crisis? You can't even choose who the Divine is, and it seems to default to it being Divine Victoria based on some Harding dialogue.

Fenris was lurking around Tevinter being a menace, where the fuck was he? I was holding on to hope I'd see my husband =(

Also I was proud of myself for only getting one person killed through the whole thing (sorry Harding I couldn't risk Assan's neck, he is best boy) on my first try. I feel like it's possible to get everyone through? Maybe? Difficult to say.

Overall I had a good time but it didn't feel like what we'd been waiting 10 years for. They threw out most of the established world building and just kind of winged it.

[darethshirl]

.........................well. welp. well then. here is exhibit A of Boo-Boo the Fool. of a naive and innocent devotee betrayed by their object of faith. I swear to god the emotional pendulum I've gone through in this journey is UNREAL. But after the cautious cynicism and the burgeoning hope I sadly have to conclude that my final emotion on finishing the game is..... disappointment.

now don't get me wrong. i DID scream and yell and holler and pumpfist during the actual finale. I did like the Solas of it all!! and my previous reblog was made in sincerity: I wrote it after I had just finished Weisshaupt, and it was a glimmer of the good old Bioware magic. A story beat that made me feel emotional and awed and curious to see what happened next. And I feel like the main beatpoints of the story (weisshaupt, blood of arlathan, and the climax at minrathous) were absolutely and genuinely good. They were what gave me the false hope to keep on playing lol

But after finishing the game and sitting with it for a few days.... yeah, nah. my love WAS destroyed, and it wasnt a sudden twist but gradual erosion intrinsic to way the game itself is shaped. people smarter than me have already talked about the loss of nuance and grittiness, the way it's now all about Good People that are Good versus Bad People that are Bad with zero grey inbetween, the way all the previous lore (and realities we've lived through as players!) are wiped away while the devs go "don't worry about it 😘" lol. lmao. okay. fuck myself for expecting good writing on par with the previous games I guess!!! thanks for the clown make-up you've just slapped on my face!

but my complaints go even deeper man. like, WHY were we drip-fed the story in little tidbits that stopped before anything exciting actually happened? (actually I know why: I suspect this is a remnant of the Live Service model 🙃 get a few crumbs of story at a time then go back to the "important" part: fighting enemies. then rinse and repeat forever.) and this is especially egregious with the companion quests. I remember my sheer FRUSTRATION when during Taash's quest they and their mom were finally in the same room, talking about the nonbinary thing, having DRAMA, having the tension that leads to character development, and then....Shathann just leaves. lmao. just when it was all getting juicy!! the scene barely lasted a few minutes! and thats the same with all lighthouse character scenes frankly (I record a lot of them on steam, the clips rarely run longer than 4 minutes)

actually wait, no. the most frustrating example of this was darvin's quest, cause it was combined with genuinely bad writing. please tell me why the big isseya reveal was in a four minute cutscene (that stood on its own, without the surrounding structure of a mission, just a scene you specifically travel to the wetlands to witness and then leave) instead of. you know. when we're actually fighting her?? or something? during a boss fight? at a time when the shock of the reveal will feel impactful??? instead the game just Tells you. in a boring cutscene with npcs you wont have any emotional connection to unless you've spent money on supplemental material. ok thanks 👍

(okay, okay, it's not all bad. Emmrich's and Bellara's quests were standouts for me precisely because they didnt follow the drip-fed formula: they both had chonky installments, with good pacing both in each act and in overall trajectory, with new maps and epic bossfights(!!), and without wasting my time with ten million tiny scenes inbetween. they were focused and they were satisfying. once again, a faint glimmer of old bioware to leads us to the False Hope altar lol)

but this killer combo of bad pacing plus sprinklings of bad writing affects the entire game. why was the only mainplot story line in act 2 us fighting the same two dragons AGAIN? why was the Butcher in treviso only allowed ten minutes of screentime at the very end, instead of being introduced as the main villain of the plotline? why was rivain so irrelevant except as the final area for Taash's quest? why was the Necropolis... actually wait I dont have any criticism there lmao. like yeah it had zero impact on the actual main storyline and didn't need to exist BUT it was cool and gave us emmrich so👌it can exist it's fine

but MAN. can you imagine if origins followed this same formula?? like instead of focusing on each area and its plotline at a time, delving fully into each place's history and culture, getting immersed and invested in them, we had to instead haul ass from one place to another all the time? like. you go to the Circle and learn that theres some demon stuff going on. then you leave and go to orzammar to meet the dwarves. then you leave that and go meet some elves! okay now back to the mages. except you cant solve the demon problem in one go you can just do the fade part. dont ask me why you cant continue, just clear out the first floor of the tower and leave something for later geez. okay now back to orzammar. its election time! by the way theres one Good Ruler and one Bad Leader and its super obvious which is which. also you cant choose the bad leader. and we're skipping the dark roads cause thats a bit Too Dark for audiences. we're just gonna give you some codexes and maybe some environmental storytelling and you can be disturbed by the implications alone, in your own time, while the characters never acknowledge it or emotionally react to it. okay back to the elves now I guess! lets frolic in the forest for a bit. dont worry about the big bad he'll come at the very end. alriiiigh now its time to finish the mages storyline! aren't you excited?? etcetera etcetera freaking etcetera

and since we're comparing games. can you imagine if inquisition ended at haven?? you get tossed into a storyline whose beginning you dont understand, you fuck around for a while and pick an ally or two, then you go have the climactic fight and win. hurrah! never mind that in inquisition thats the part where the rest of the storyline unfurls, giving you both an emotional beat that affects your character and more opportunity to world build. here in veilguard land we stretch one(1) act into the whole game and call it a day. cool!! I didn't feel like I was treading water and wasting my time at all!!

because at the end you know what my actual prevailing emotion once I finished the game was? hunger for more. like after all the busybody work I was finally experiencing the true magic, and I was finally having fun and being Gripped by Emotions... and now it was over! I played this game for 90+ hours and it was like they all evaporated. they were empty. I was left with an empty stomach and those 25 hours of actually good content delivered in stingy crumbs.

but whatever man, whatever. I dont want to fall into the trap of being too negative and growing bitter (I'm actually already starting to feel the bitterness growing from all the meta and criticism I've read and it's literally only been a few days lol). and I'm gonna be honest, this game straight up doesnt deserve my emotional energy enough for me to hate it lol. I dont wanna go through all that. in the end happiness is based on your own expectations, and if I go in not expecting a Great Game or even a Good Game but just a Decent Game, then I can have fun. I just need to accept that Bioware is no longer a company that puts their writing as their top priority. making a badly written game once is an experiment (Anthem), twice is a concern (Andromeda), but three times is a pattern. these are hard facts. bioware may have been groundbreaking all those decades ago but they're a different company now, and thankfully there are others around these days to carry that mantle. we dont need bioware . and the past Actually Good bioware games will always be there to replay.

oh and also at the end of the day MY BLORBO WAS THERE AND HE WAS CENTER STAGE AND THATS ALL THAT MATTERS ACTUALLY!!! LMAO!! like I very literally only bought this game for solas and frankly I got my money's worth. he was the best most interesting part of the game (according even to non stans lol, thats how you know he was good), and he was cool and sexy and hot and also my forever otp got a happy ending. so I'm content actually! veilguard was just a receptacle to bring more Solas and on that point it delivered. I am FED. I am happy. I just simply wont buy another bioware game unless its on sale or i pirate it lol ✌

going to the steam store to finally buy veilguard and seeing that Mostly Positive rating 😐😐 hm 😐

i mean im still gonna buy it since im a solas simp but I'm glad I stayed out of all the hyped up fandom spaces cause my glacial expectations have remained subzero ✌