#what do you mean emmerich grew up poor but you only get to learn that if you bring him out with specific companions

[tuxedo-rabbit]

On the one hand, playing as my HoF in Veilguard has improved the story by giving me a good strong backstory to RP from. The themes of Talia's story theoretically tie in nicely with the themes in Veilguard, and it feels like a nice chance to wrap up her story.

On the other hand, it's hard not to make comparisons.

Talia had deep, meaningful friendships with almost all of the companions in Origins. Some of these were the sort of friendships where you instantly click, some of them required her to get to know the companion over time. But she had strong feelings about all of them.

In Veilguard.....it started out strong! She wasn't immediately attached to anyone, but she had common ground with a lot of them. But then it doesn't get to go anywhere because as Rook, you don't ever really get to...understand them?

And I'm trying to figure out where that feeling comes from because Veilguard has so many cutscenes for companions! It might be that the approval system has been toned down from previous games? The Origin companions had scenes where they questioned Talia's decisions. They had things that they hated and they weren't afraid to tell you about them. The warden had the opportunity to argue their point as well.

The Veilguard companions....don't really have strong opinions on anything? Or if they do, they won't debate them with you. They'll debate them with each other, sometimes. You get some sort of group debates during Solas's Regrets, and those are great, but they're so limited in scope. I can count on one hand the amount of times, across two playthroughs, where I earned disapproval from a companion.

We mostly learn about the companions through banter, and boy is there a lot of it! But this isn't an open world game, so no matter if you 100% Veilguard, you probably won't reach the end of the banters for even your favorite party combination. So all that character development through banters goes to waste.

I like the companions in Veilguard! I do! I just never feel like I progress my understanding of them as people past act 1. They don't surprise me. And because of that, it feels difficult to develop any sort of relationship, friendship or otherwise, with them.