#was made by bioware before they made

[silver-horse]

I fucking LOVE how loyal the companions are to each other... and how their relationships are evolving with both each other and the player.

to all those people who think Larian is copying Dragon Age... well Dragon Age would never have this. where all the very fucked up companions who are in this shit together actually recognise that fact with common sense and they support each other despite any differences. Not only that BUT they recognise the similarities they have with each other and support each other based on that fact

Example: Astarion-Gale (how Astarion comments "he is a man of taste" if the player is a little annoyed with Gale and if player says that he wants to suck out magic lol Or when Gale is supportive like the "don't do it Astarion, it's not worth it, trust me, I know the temptation only too well" and so on...)

If this was dragon age then they would talk to each other like "how typical, ofc you are like this, dickhead" and trying to be helpful and supportive would be a 1 in a billion dialogue. they would only make shit worse for each other. and look... interpersonal conflicts could be a fun driving force of plot but in da it mostly doesn't drive the plot. they are just making shit worse for the other person even when it makes no sense and when they should be more friendly and understanding based on their own struggles.

Another example: Wyll-Karlach (their conflict actually does start the plot. it has a significance, it's not there for no reason. but even after that initial conflict they immediately become understanding of each other and supportive. they both dislike devils, they both want to escape from that situation etc. and they don't act like idiots who don't see that they are in this together. even though one of them tried to kill the other. one of them received horns because of the other. )

I could go on... but whatever, you get the picture. I just like this type of writing for interactions between characters.

[larkoneironaut]

Yes, Solas is still playing the guitar and somehow he turned into a rockstar?? Look at the stickers on his sunburst guitar, he’s so adorable 🫴🏽✨💜

(Thank you, John Epler, for reminding me of my old art 🥺)

Old versions from 3-4 years ago below the cut in a Bluesky post 🫶🏽

https://bsky.app/profile/larkoneironaut.bsky.social/post/3kz5heapl4d2k

[kithj]

i've been playing veilguard lately and i have to say the dialogue in this game is some of the most frustrating i think i've ever seen in a choice RPG like this. Rook is locked as a friendlier character, which isn't a problem, but this lock out has resulted in a lot of the dialogue lacking in variation.

i chose the "Block it out" option here only for my Rook to say "Block it out. You're safe" but "You're safe" was already its own separate option-- this isn't how you write dialogue choices. again, i don't have an issue with Rook being friendly, but you shouldn't railroad players into certain dialogue.

if they wanted "You're safe" to be the common/reconvening dialogue, then it shouldn't have been made a choice at all. the wheel could have been something like this:

nice: "I'm right here with you."

aggressive: "Block it out."

panicked/confused: "Shit. Talk to me. Please."

-> all reconvene at "You're safe."

and this is a repeated problem. i've favored the aggressive options this entire time (which aren't really aggressive to begin with) but Rook will almost always still wind up saying the nice option instead. another example is early on:

again i chose the more aggressive "Maybe you should have" choice only for Rook to say something along the lines of "Maybe you should have [...] But we have to support each other now." (it's been a minute since i played this part so it may not be exactly word for word but i remember even then at the start of the game being annoyed that she still worked her way back around to saying option 1)

it's not that Rook is friendly, it's that she's literally saying dialogue options that i did not pick. it's fine for there to be a common dialogue repeated across choices/flavor texts, but not when it's the literal choice text itself. it feels like i'm being railroaded with every dialogue.

[lizzybeeee]

Inquisitor: "Is there any way Solas can be reasoned with?"

Me after Solas has killed Varric, used blood magic on me, trapped me in the fade, created the blight, made the titans tranquil/fucked with the dwarves, started the chain of events that led to Southern Thedas being destroyed, and stealing all my good gear from Inquisition:

[felassan]

I do not know if you have posted anything about this yet but can we talk about Harding turning darkspawn into stone like Bodan did in DA2???

hello! ◕‿◕ [Sandal DA2 frozen darkspawn scene] yess. 👁️ it's interesting that Bodan had a theory that maybe Sandal is lyrium-addled due to his exposure to lyrium (blood of Titans) in the Deep Roads, as the other thing that Harding's new powers bring to mind is Valta's new magical powers to shape stone at the end of Descent, after she was hit with raw lyrium during the battle with the Guardian in the Wellspring. I can't wait to find out more about the reason for Harding's new powers and what it might mean for the dwarves going forward, and/or in terms of Titan lore reveals etc.. (๑>ᴗ<๑)

[incorrectly-quoted-queers]

The TLDR of Garrus and Shepard's "Romantic" talk...

Shepard: Wanna bang? Garrus: You are my best friend and I think I actually would like to bang. Yes. Shepard: Cool. We're staying best friends tho, right? Garrus: Oh absolutely, of course. That's the most important part Shepard: Oh thank god, that's exactly what I was thinking Garrus: Cool Shepard: Cool Garrus: .... Shepard:... Garrus: So like, I still got guns to calibrate... Shepard: Right! See you later, then ... *Five minutes later* ... Shepard: ...That went really well, right? Joker: Why did you come here to tell me this? I didn't want to know about this Shepard: But what do you think??? Joker, with an exasperated sigh: I would say that went fucking weird, but you two are so fucking weird. So I don't know Shepard: ...Cool

[ffc1cb]

i’ve always found it peculiar how during meeting the chargers cutscene the game just assumes your character automatically understands what krem is talking about when he mentions binding (though, granted, it’s all very unsubtle). like, this is a roleplaying game. what if i want to play a character who just doesn’t get it

[jzargo]

female hawke should have been buffer

[lithosaurus]

I know we're in the 'backlash to the backlash' phase of the fandom news cycle but there is something incredibly irritating about the phase of posts that are dismissing the upset about the worldstate updates. Obviously no one was expecting who owns the tavern in Redcliffe to matter twenty years later in Tevinter but I absolutely was expecting the major decisions of Inquisition to matter.

BioWare has put out their statements about how your choices are still your choices from past games and how hard it is to write for the amount of branching options they included in past installments, which is largely true.

However, it absolutely invalidates the big choices that were previously presented as earthshattering decisions if ten years later they're not considered relevant.

Morrigan is going to show up. Does it matter if she has a son she's willing to sacrifice everything for? No.

Varric is going to play some sort of role. Does it matter if Hawke is even alive? No.

Solas is a key figure. Does it matter if he was close to the Inquisitor before being revealed as the Dread Wolf? No.

Dorian's a Magister in Tevinter now. Does it matter if he has/had a relationship with a Ben-Hassrath spy or how close he was to the Inquisitor? No.

I fully understand how difficult it is to write for so many possible options. I'm struggling to understand how to write for a worldstate where none of those decisions have hard answers.

This doesn't have much of a thesis other than a note of annoyance. Obviously, the severe responses that actually go so far as to threaten the writers are out of hand but dismissing other people's reactions to hearing the promises BioWare has made for over a decade are meaningless is kinda crap.

[magesandrogues]

Audo Mercar aka Audo Trevelyan aka Rook aka i'm baby

[moirascribbles]

yeahhhhhh at this point i would have just suffered through the keep import shit show over that few choices....

[villainanders]

unreal to me how much better everything about dragon age would be if varric was exactly the same but a butch lesbian

[arlathen]

the more i look at it the less i think that's felassan. if for no other reason than. no mythal vallaslin.

but also those are clearly dreadlocks so i'm hoping it also isn't solas. we loved the concept art where solas was. importantly. Not White. please do not make white guy dreads canon bioware.

[fernsplaysthings]

...

[felassan]

Hi MJ - with the info that the NPCs (except companions) were made in the CC, I've been looking at the two people Harding saves in the gameplay trailer (around 0250-0300) and their hair looks AMAZING! i'm so excited (>0<) i've followed u for years (since DAI came out? is that even possible??) and it doesn't feel real that DA4 is round the corner! eeeee!

hello! ◕‿◕ yes (a different NPC in this post as an example but) same here!! 🤝 since that snippet came out, I keep peering at random NPCs in the background of screenshots and pausing the game in videos to look at random NPCs' hair. it looks like hair looks and moves so good in this game! (also 🥺 thankyou 🥺..)

[article with that info]

[mistwood]

the da4 graphics debate is pissing me off now like i was ignoring it for a while but guys really? who gives a shit like actually. da has never had a stand-out visual style and the development hell it's been through since da2 hasn't helped that obviously. calling it pixar or microsoft graphics to insult it like do you want a medal? do you want someone to suck your dick about it?