#the takeaway is: him fuccboi

[twiggyofthesprawl]

I finished Veilguard last night (SPOILERS ABOUND)

Buffer rook to prevent accidental thumbnail spoils

I had a lot of thoughts, so I decided to sleep on it and write a post when I had had time to solidify them. Having done so, I think the most telling critique I have of the game, is how much of it evacuated my brain the minute I wasn't actively playing.

I wanted to like this game. DA:Origins still remains one of my all time favourite RPGs. And for all its flaws, I genuinely love Inquisition

But Veilguard just left me disappointed. At almost every turn, my takeaway from the big setpieces was "if this had one more draft, it could have been great-".

At the end of it all, I find myself picking holes in the plot, the new lore, the characters. And it's not just me being cynical. Because there are aspects I love. It just lacked the consistency to ever truly win me over.

(mostly) PROS: Despite all the noise about how the game shoves progressive messaging down your throat, and how much the internet wanted me to hate Taash... they were fine? A bit grating at times but that's because I don't care for the kind of personality they have. The dialogue for their gender stuff came off a little stilted and corporate, but the actual arc is kinda cute. And their big moment in the finale whips. If I ever replay the game, I need to actually play their quest. But I got kinda burnt out after doing 4 questlines. Also their relationship with Harding? Precious

Emmrich feels like he's from an entirely different, much better game, outside of a few small moments. his dialogue is much less anachronistic than other characters and feels way more true to the older games. His storyline is campy but takes itself seriously enough that you can take it seriously. His struggle of being a necromancer who's scared of death is fantastic. It also has the single hardest line in the game

And yes, he is my husband and we love our son, but that doesn't mean I'm biased! Speaking of my son, Manfred is a perfect angel and I have no notes.

While it feels kinda out of place in Dragon Age, the combat was really fun and vibrant. And the fun I had outweighed the oddity. The artstyle grew on me and the visuals in some of the setpieces kick so much ass that I can almost forgive them making the Qunari so weirdly smooth

Blighted Bellara is the coolest motherfucker I have ever met, both aesthetically and when she's dunking on a god. And if I replay the game, I'm romancing her. AuDHD queen, she deserves the world

Getting to clock the egg right in his dumb backstabbing hypocritical face. I was so pumped in the moment I almost entirely missed it screenshot-wise

CONS:

The game in general just didn't grab me. I found myself pushing through more because I don't like leaving things unfinished, than because I was genuinely invested in seeing where it went.

The Evanuris in general just don't really work for me. The level of power they have requires them to be complete morons for the plot to play out the way it does. They could have destroyed us basically up until the 3rd act.

The Davrin-Harding choice is stupid. I don't think a guaranteed party member loss is inherently bad, but making it specifically 2, and both AFTER you lock into a romance but BEFORE you get any real payoff for doing so, is insane to me. Also, Davrin is the clear correct choice? Because it makes the scene a callback to him and Lucanis failing the first time, vs Harding just kinda. failing to contribute in the finale. Though speaking of failing to contribute.... What the hell was his death??

He waves his sword uselessly a couple times, gets impaled, then falls in a hole and his dog suicide dives after him? It's like they didn't think anyone would care about the indigenous-coded black guy so they gave him a baby griffon for people to go "but the puppy ;-;" about.

And speaking of romances... the flirting is not only the most rizzless thing I have ever seen in my life (seriously, my Rook comes off like a frat fuccboi in almost every flirt option she got), the timing of the options really draws attention to how weird it is you can only talk to companions when its furthering the plot or their personal quest. It leads to you flirting at the most inappropriate times.

But its not just the flirting. As an ace person, it bugs me that games like this always seem to have "bone down" as the end goal for romancing someone. I romanced Emmerich because my MW Rook found a kindred spirit (heh) in him, and I wanted to play things out because he deserves love, and my Rook needed a more thoughtful, restrained perspective to rein in her "punch first, plan later" attitude to problems. So we get through the big 2nd act low point. And I go talk to Emmrich, and he says he wants to go to the Necropolis. And we do. Without me getting a say. Okay... oh! He's making sure im fully free of whatever Solas did to me, and now we're talking about how we love each other and don't want to lose each other? That's really sweet

Wait... why is he making me lay down in a coffin. We're not about to fuck right after one of our friends died, another may be dead, and I just learned a third has been dead for weeks? IN A COFFIN?! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NECROPOLIS??

People also just don't react to anything properly. Bellara, an ELF and VEIL JUMPER, was with me when I recruited Lucanis. And she comments on the demon possessing him, but is then TOTALLY CHILL WITH IT?! Everyone jumps straight to "damn that sucks" and not "are you going to snap and kill us all in our sleep?" People have talked to death about how Rook can't be a jerk, but i think i could count on one hand the amount of times characters got genuinely angry, outside of little arguments about banal things like how many books to bring camping.

Taash and Emmrich's argument. Taash is NB, and should understand the concept of being respectful of people's identity. Yet its established they repeatedly call Emmrich nicknames making fun of him for being a necromancer, even going so far as to almost call him a SKULL FUCKER?! It's so disrespectful to his culture, his beliefs, and his identity. And it makes Taash seem really unpleasant and hypocritical in that moment. Its a black mark against a character I otherwise came to like.

The whole Varric reveal just did not land for me at all. I figured he was dead really early on because people never responded to him except me, and his contributions were always so nothing that Rook moving onto her reply unprompted wasn't weird. But I figured it was a guilt thing, not Solas fucking with us.

Also the whole guilt/regret prison failed to land because my Rook WASN'T guilty about anything. Yes, Davrin dying was sad, but he was a soldier. He knew the risks. As a Warden, he had one purpose, to fight the Blight. Hell, after Weisshaupt, him going down in order to ensure the kill on Ghillie felt like an honorable end. In his own words, "whatever it takes". Bellara, while sad, wasn't remotely my fault. I didn't "choose" for her to get got my Elgar'nan, somehow none of us noticed the conveniently placed Eluvian. She offered to deal with the wards, and argued her case when Neve also offered. The only one that's a maybe is Varric, except i told him not to try and negotiate with Solus, so him getting killed doing so... isnt on her? IDK, I could see it working, but not for my Rook.

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There's a bunch of other things like how the 3-member party cap limits team variety and locks you into fixed banter chains, the sameyness of some questlines, etc. But I've been negative enough. Games are about having fun, and I try to focus on the fun I had.

All in, sure, it's not a perfect game. And its rough edges really show. I'm in no hurry to replay it... but I don't regret the run I did do. The high points in DATV are on par with the high points of the series as a whole, and I'm glad I experienced them.

I think this is gonna be the last DA release I play, unless a miracle happens and the inevitable next entry is a GOTY contender. Until then, if I find myself longing for the series, I'll do what I always do. Get my dog, my platonic malewife, and a cool priest, and go kick the blight's ass across Ferelden. In the meantime, however...

[thegeminidraws]

got a bunch of raicouda content in the OC backlog, so let's see him in the blacklight

modern AU?? idk doesn't matter look at him go 😈🦂🦁