teineplaysveilguard

[teineplaysveilguard]

I've started my second playthrough of veilguard. Decided now I've calmed down a bit it's worth a second try - now that I know what to expect.

This time I've attempted to create one of my hawkes kids (Autumn Hawke and Anders oldest son, I'm aware that I'm having to mess with the timeline a little to make this work but meh) for my rook and I'm going to try to RP as him throughout. I spent forever in the CC and he still doesn't look right but meh over only ever drawn him as a teenager before so you know 🤷 peoples appearance changes as they age.

I'm hoping that doing this might help me to actually get into the game because honestly I felt so little actual connection to my first playthrough and needed some time away from it before trying again 😅

He's a grey warden - much to Anders irritation. Though if you were to ever ask him how he ended up a grey warden his answer is purely "mistakes were made".

In reality there was a situation that was very similar to the start of DA2 but in this one no siblings were killed but he may have been slightly infected so the gray wardens were his only option.

[teineplaysveilguard]

Polygon article.

Rest of post under a cut due to length and possible spoilers.

“I’ll say one of the greatest challenges of this game, but also one of the most enjoyable things, was, How do the Dalish react when their gods are out in the world and rampaging?” creative director John Epler told Polygon. It seems that across the board every Dalish elf in the game pretty much rejects their risen gods now that they’ve shown their true hand. Two of Rook’s companions, elven historian Bellara Lutare and Grey Warden Davrin, come from Dalish clans themselves and even though they’re a little shaken about confronting their gods, they’re not conflicted about doing so. In fact, among Elgar’nan and Ghilan’nain’s lackeys and puppets, there’s not a single elf to be found. Epler said that it’s vindication for the Dalish — which is nice to see considering how they’ve been portrayed in past games. “Dragon Age has not always been the kindest to the Dalish,” he said. “Somebody once made a joke to me, and it’s not untrue, that it’s possible to wipe out a Dalish clan in all three of the games in some way.” In Origins, siding with the werewolves in the Brecilian Forest quest leads to the clan being destroyed. In Dragon Age 2, if you defend your companion Merrill’s blood magic usage, her clan attacks you and must be killed. And in Dragon Age: Inquisition, if you’re playing as an elven Inquisitor, you can accidentally kill your clan by picking the wrong options in the War Table mission. It’s not easy being a Dalish elf in Thedas. Still, though, why haven’t any Dalish elves decided to join forces with their gods? As Epler put it, the gods simply don’t care about them. They’re looking for followers in other places. Even though the end of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Trespasser DLC revealed that Solas had amassed a network of elven agents, they weren’t going to be swayed. “Solas’ agents were never there for power,” Epler said. “They were there for a sense of identity and a purpose. And I would say that it’s fair that Fen’Harel probably bent the truth to them when he was doing his recruiting pitch — the part where he says ‘I’m going to destroy the world’ at the end of Trespasser [was] not what he was telling them.” Solas’ agents are almost jarringly absent from The Veilguard, with barely any mention of how far and wide they spread in the years prior to the game. But they do have very good reason for not being the ones joining up with the gods. “Those blighted, decrepit gods, they’re not bothering with the soft pitch,” Epler explained. “Their pitch is, We’re going to make a horrible world. We’re going to give you a lot of power, and maybe you’ll be OK.” On a more meta note, the Dalish just needed an in-game win. It’s refreshing that Bellara and Davrin get to honor their culture and also not be ostracized from it and possibly forced to kill their clan, as was the case with Merrill in Dragon Age 2. And instead of being accidentally (or purposely!) killed off by the player character, the Dalish elves in The Veilguard get to righteously rally against the mages that they once called gods and reclaim part of their history. “I love that the Dalish in this game, by and large, are saying, No, we were lied to. We were the first victims of these gods. We’re going to fight back,” Epler said. “And they really get a sense to kind of rise up in this game and start establishing themselves in this way that in the future I can’t wait to go back to, but in this game gives them a sense of a win. They get a victory in how they respond to the threat of the gods in this game.”

[source]

[teineplaysveilguard]

Taash should have been Saarebas

I'm really enjoying Veilguard, but I hate how they seem to have re-invented the wheel in almost every aspect they can. Wherever there's something established, if it was slightly complicated, they've felt the need to replace it with something simpler that has zero grounding in the past three games.

For me, the most glaring example of this is Taash. I LOVE them, please don't get me wrong, I think Taash is a fantastic character. But why, when the Qunari already have a deep, rich culture already built, are we suddenly being told 'oh yeah, by the way, some of them can breathe fire'. The Iron Bull never mentions this! And you think he bloody well would have!

It provides an easy, cool reason for Taash to have a unique skill and reason for their mum to have fled with them. But that reason already exists in the Dragon Age setting.

Qunari treat their mages horrifically worse than the rest of Tevinter does, with sewn up lips, effectively made slaves who can only do what they're told. They're called Saarebas. We have fascinating encounters with them in Dragon Age 2, and it creates a wonderful parallel to Ander's plight. So if you have a kid that starts controlling fire, demonstrating magic, you would absolutely do anything to stop your child being made Saarebas - an existing, fully-fleshed out and horrifying answer to the newly made-up branch of beserkers who can breathe fire that Taash's mum was apparently so keen for them to avoid.

And it would add so much more weight to Taash's character growth around choosing your identity. In a setting where having magical abilities is an immediate prison sentence, for the most part, having a character who goes, yeah, I have some control over fire, but I choose to hit people with an axe, is so much more compelling. Rather than their mother teaching them to control the flame, it's controlling their abilities so they doesn't open themselves up to possession. With characters from Tevinter, where mages are revered, it could open up fascinating conversations about someone choosing not to be like that. And it draws a fantastic parallel to choosing to go against your 'nature' with a different gender identity.

I'm so mad about this. Saarebas have been morbidly fascinating for so long. And I can't help see Taash not being one as another way that DATV is trying to smooth over and ignore any dark patches of Dragon Age lore (i.e the slaves completely absent from Minrathos) and choosing to make DATV accessible to newcomers over engaging with established lore.

[teineplaysveilguard]

i WISHHHH we could have played as a devout Andrastian in Veilguard... i wish there was more Andrastianism in general. more religious conflict. i want to be able to play a Rook who is hunting the Evanuris because they want to combat heresy, who at the start of the final battle can yell "FOR THE MAKER AND HIS BRIDE".

imagine if at that the infiltration mission in Arlathan, Elgar'nan taunts them with knowledge about the Maker and Andraste. "Don't you want to know why your Maker really left you? Where He is now?"

i wish that in the game where the elven 'gods' actually turn out to be real, this would become a talking point. where are the clergymen rubbing it in the elves' faces that their gods were never real? where is the religious tension?????

[teineplaysveilguard]

Overusage of Lore

a lot of people tend to say that bioware put little to no lore into Veilguard, and i might be on a minority on this to me it's way too much and way too shallow

The entire game feels like writers just scream at you "Look at all the magical thing we have!! So we have Titans! And Evanuris! And Illuminati Those Across the See! And-- are you listening? You better listen cuz there are more! We have Shadow Dragons! We have Griffons! We--"

OMG calm down it's not a fucking Warcraft

the best thing in DA was the way it beautifully showed real life issues through the lens of medieval fantasy world.

The dalish weren't so fascinating because they had an entire language made for them and pretty tattoos. They were fascinating because they were enslaved, fought for freedom, then got their land taken away YET STILL continued to fight for survival, for their cultural identity, their children and their children's children, for freedom. Literally combination of native american's and jewish history. Because despite having one goal they all had different approach and opinion about other of their kin: city elves (those disconnected from their culture) and half-elves ("can they be considered elves?" "should they be allowed to be a part of dalish?").

The city elf origin wasn't so memorable because every npc had a backstory with a length of bible. It was memorable because it was the most obvious analogy on racial oppression, segregation, colonialism and fetishism in the entire franchise. Because it had the guts to actually show in details the horrors of these things.

Broodmothers weren't so horrifying because it's a female mixture of jubba hutt and a fucking pudge from dota with a detailed explanation their anatomy. They were horrifying because they were paralleling a very real misogyny, mistreatment, the way how women in some countries are seen as nothing but a walking uteruses, where the only thing they're good for is to give birth

AND bioware doubled it while doing the same thing with Orzammar, cast system & Rica!

The Circles weren't so interesting because we've got dozens of pages in WoT explaining their hierarchy/fraternities. No, they were interesting because it was literally a bunch of medieval GULAGs with a function of a mental hospital, it showed what mistreatments happen there, the abuse, child abduction and enforcement of religion.... And from the side of templars it was a discussion about professional deformation, addictions and the way high ranking people abuse those to control their underlings.

..... And you know, if we were back in origins, griffons, for example, would've probably been used as a parallel on irl eco terrorism. it might've been about how Wardens despite their good nature unintentionally bonded the general association of the entire animal species to their order and abused this connection to the point when the species was beyond preservation!

and btw, then that decision in davrin's quest would actually had any meaning, instead of throwing wardens into mud (again) and turning isseya into a villain for no fkn reason.

lore is only good as long as it's used for purpose, when it has things to discuss, not just exist

i don't fucking care about titans/evanuris/and other shit because they're just a 30 pages long article in codex and WoT trying to explain magic and write DA timeline almost to a fucking mesozoic era. it's BORING. Get me emotionally invested, then i'll care

[teineplaysveilguard]

the ‘lords of fortune make sure we dont take artefacts of cultural importance’ is wild for many reasons but IDK if youve studied even a little bit of a humanities subject like history or archaeology or anthropology (or just thought about it rly) it is easily argued that EVERYTHING they could feasibly be taking is of cultural value

its such a wishy washy statement that appears to flirt with this vague notion that colonialism is bad but doesnt actually decide to engage with this in any deep way. really just salt in the wound given how staggeringly orientalist the depiction of the rivaini and qunari are

i would love if the lords of fortune were presented as a group of people who do plunder things of important cultural value and then actually made the player engage with this idea. it could be a really confronting thing given how ‘looting’ is such a core mechanic of so many games including this one. not saying to get didactic about it but make the player think about something thats v much taken for granted

[teineplaysveilguard]

I've just realised something a bit disturbing.

Considering the number of times I've replayed each Dragon Age game, read every book and comic, spent hours looking up random bits of lore, and mentally dissected character interactions, cultures, and religions in the world of Thedas... plus my half-hearted attempts to find real-world equivalents for the fauna and create a compendium on how non-magical healing would work there, along with my dabbling in fan fiction and time spent on Dragon Age discords... I think I’ve spent more hours of my life on Dragon Age-related topics than anything else.

Which given that I'm currently part way through my second degree, and am literally a qualified teacher (even if I left that profession) is slightly worrying 🤣

I first bought Dragon Age: Origins about two days after release, and I was instantly hooked. I played it six times back-to-back, just to experience every origin story. After that, I kept replaying to see every possible decision and its impact. Honestly I am not sure how many times I finished origins as it was over several platforms and accounts… but it is a LOT.

DA2 came out while I was in hospital (severe manic episode and psychosis) but as soon as I got home, I dove into it. I’ve written before on my main about how much I related to Anders, partially because of the timing, but honestly, I adore everything about DA2.

I have since finished DA2 NINETEEN TIMES! Honestly I love Kirkwall so much… I love everything about the tragedy that was Hawkes live. The tragedy of Hawke’s life, the way no amount of effort or care could fix the deeply ingrained, systemic issues—it’s gut-wrenching and perfect.

Fifthteen years later there are aspects of that game I still onbsess over, the enigma of Kirkwall for example… I had so many theories, none of which are likely to ever be addressed now…

Yes, the game had issues. All games do. Some of the writing was shallow in places; occasionally a companion says or does something that feels a little out of character. Anders and Fenris were treated like narrative mouthpieces at points. Aveline’s character development is a little questionable, and, of course, the copy-paste environments were rough. But for me, the positives—the depth of the narrative, the snippets of lore and background, the things I loved—overshadowed the negatives.

Do you know how shitty it is to know that all my left in the fade Hawkes just don't matter? Which ye I guess in some ways is fitting for the guy who accomplished nothing, who couldn’t even actually kill Meredith or Corypheus, for their final sacrifice to mean nothing… but still…

Then there was Inquisition. Once again I gain it on the day of release, I may have even pre-ordered it I can't rememeber… Anyway, I’ll admit I wasn’t sold on it at first. It felt too much like a “hero narrative”—which is hard to explain, but I couldn’t connect with it initially. The companions didn’t grab me right away either. But over time, I warmed to it, and now I’ve played it six (almost seven) times, obsessively picking up every bit of lore.

same with the books… the comics… that game in the keep that I forget the name of… I've even played the table top game and DMed it

And now we have veilguard...

I was so excited to go to Tevinter in game. Tevinter has fascinated by for so long.

And I… I cannot even put into words just how disappointed I am in veilguard…

I don’t want to be “that guy” who just tears it apart—plenty of people have already done the analysis, pointed out the retcons, and broken down how much lore feels ignored.

But I need to vent somewhere, and none of my IRL friends care.

In essence, the game feels sanitised...

But here is the crux of my issue, or at least the disturbing part:

I have zero desire to replay veilguard…

[teineplaysveilguard]

I first bought Dragon Age: Origins about two days after release, and I was instantly hooked. I played it six times back-to-back, just to experience every origin story. After that, I kept replaying to see every possible decision and its impact. Honestly I am not sure how many times I finished origins as it was over several platforms and accounts… but it is a LOT.

DA2 came out while I was in hospital (severe manic episode and psychosis) but as soon as I got home, I dove into it. I’ve written before on my main about how much I related to Anders, partially because of the timing, but honestly, I adore everything about DA2.

I have since finished DA2 NINETEEN TIMES! Honestly I love Kirkwall so much… I love everything about the tragedy that was Hawkes live. The tragedy of Hawke’s life, the way no amount of effort or care could fix the deeply ingrained, systemic issues—it’s gut-wrenching and perfect.

Fifthteen years later there are aspects of that game I still onbsess over, the enigma of Kirkwall for example… I had so many theories, none of which are likely to ever be addressed now…

Yes, the game had issues. All games do. Some of the writing was shallow in places; occasionally a companion says or does something that feels a little out of character. Anders and Fenris were treated like narrative mouthpieces at points. Aveline’s character development is a little questionable, and, of course, the copy-paste environments were rough. But for me, the positives—the depth of the narrative, the snippets of lore and background, the things I loved—overshadowed the negatives.

Do you know how shitty it is to know that all my left in the fade Hawkes just don't matter? Which ye I guess in some ways is fitting for the guy who accomplished nothing, who couldn’t even actually kill Meredith or Corypheus, for their final sacrifice to mean nothing… but still…

Then there was Inquisition. Once again I gain it on the day of release, I may have even pre-ordered it I can't rememeber… Anyway, I’ll admit I wasn’t sold on it at first. It felt too much like a “hero narrative”—which is hard to explain, but I couldn’t connect with it initially. The companions didn’t grab me right away either. But over time, I warmed to it, and now I’ve played it six (almost seven) times, obsessively picking up every bit of lore.

same with the books… the comics… that game in the keep that I forget the name of… I've even played the table top game and DMed it

And now we have veilguard...

I was so excited to go to Tevinter in game. Tevinter has fascinated by for so long.

And I… I cannot even put into words just how disappointed I am in veilguard…

I don’t want to be “that guy” who just tears it apart—plenty of people have already done the analysis, pointed out the retcons, and broken down how much lore feels ignored.

But I need to vent somewhere, and none of my IRL friends care.

In essence, the game feels sanitised...

But here is the crux of my issue, or at least the disturbing part:

I have zero desire to replay veilguard…

[teineplaysveilguard]

The Crows are lame crime fighting misfits now? Why would they do that when Friends of Red Jenny are right there?????

[teineplaysveilguard]

It's it just me, or is there a weird about of food lore in this game?

Like ye there's been food lore in previous content but it felt more hidden (for want of a better word) or just there was part of inevitable world building... But while playing this I keep finding what are in essence whole ass recipes - or at least not too tricky to turn into actual recipes

And now I kind of want to cook some of them 😅

[teineplaysveilguard]

Why Fenris could Never Cameo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard

In the run up to Dragon age: The Veilguard, I was almost certain that Fenris would be our main legacy character from previous games. Not only has he been central in the comics released between DAI and DATV, he is an escaped Tevinter slave who's plot revolved around magisters, magic and the structural prejudices surrounding elves in Thedas. Not only that, but he's canonically in Tevinter killing slavers currently so he's geographically in the right place for us to meet him.

About halfway through the game though, it was clear to me: Fenris could never cameo in The Veilguard. Because he'd break it.

How the Veilguard treats Thedas is...odd to me, to say the least. I will be writing another post about how much I adored the expanded big lore in this game (the titans, ancient elves were spirits, where the blight came from etc.) and yet while these large lore expansions worked for me, the actual culture of modern Thedas is entirely softened, its sharp edges filed down until it's a sanitised fantasy world devoid of what made the franchise so vibrant and compelling in the first place.

So let's start with Fenris and slavery. In all three games, the reality of slavery is pushing at the corners of the world. In DAO Loghain allows Tevinter Magisters to enslave elves in order to raise money for his war effort. In DA2 Fenris is fighting to be free from slavers who will not leave him be, let alone the reminders that the city was built by slaves which are everywhere. In DAI one of the two possible mini-bosses is Calpurnia who was a slave, and characters such as Gatt and Dorian both show us how much slavery is tied into Tevinters culture and success.

But DATV the first game actually set in Tevinter where we get to see the famed Minrathous...it's like the game purposefully wants to avoid the issue. I can feel it tilting the camera away to not allow me to see. Slavery is mentioned, but never talked about in depth or as a specifically ELVEN problem in Tevinter. This might have been done to be less problematic, it feels ignored.

We are in DOCK TOWN. We are at the DOCKS. You would think that slaves from all over Thedas who are being smuggled and bought by various groups would be everywhere. You would think that the injustice in dock town would be partly built on the back of ships we've seen in the comics crammed with elves in chains. This is the world Dragon age set up for us. And yet...nothing. zilch. A tiny easily skippable side quest where we free a couple of venatori slaves, but only one of whom is an elf.

None of our Tevinter characters seem to have been influenced by their culture even a little bit when it comes to how they view elves; there is no moment when Neve fucks up and says something prejudiced, no moment when Bellara or Davrin are distrustful of her for being a Tevinter mage.

The same goes for Zevran; a character who epitomised the issues with the crows. The crows have consistently been characterised as very morally dubious assassins who kill for the highest bidder and who buy children on the slave market and torture them as they grow in order to assure that they reach maturity able to withstand torture without giving away a client's name. Zevran is very explicit about the fact that if you fail a contract your life is forefit.

Nobody responds particularly to you if you're an elf. Nobody trusts rook less for it in Tevinter. Nobody treats Rook any differently. Even DAI had better mechanics for this; with nobles in Orlais less likely to trust you as an elf.

Considering one of the main plot points of this game and what makes Solas sympathetic is the fact that he was fighting against the slavery of ancient elves...you'd think the game might want to mirror that in modern Thedas. It might want to show us how characters fighting to end slavery in Tevinter are similar to Solas and how the society Solas fought against was similar to the one that characters we love such as Fenris have fought against in modern Thedas. Maybe we'd want to explore how in a world of slavery like this, how could the answer NOT be to tear it all down? Maybe we should have that option at the end of the game so it really can chose whether we agree with Solas and his plans or not.

Adding Fenris to this game would entirely break the game because Fenris refuses to allow you to look away from this horror. He is a sympathetic character who had to learn to trust mages again because of course he didn't trust them. Of course he didn't. Fenris wouldn't allow the camera to shift focus because he's literally covered in the lyrium scars that show how slaves are used as experiments in Tevinter. Fenris WOULD question Neve on how she feels about elves and slaves. Fenris WOULD have things to say about Lucanis and the crows (let alone the fact Lucanis is an abomonation). So he could never be in this game; he'd drop a bomb on it's carefully constructed blinders to the very society its supposed to be set in.

And yet, in DATV, the crows are presented as...a found family of misfits and orphans? The politician who opposes the crows having absolute power in Antiva is framed as a comically evil idiot who doesn't understand that the crows are ontologically good. Yet...they're NOT. Crows in this game act more like a secret rebel group than an assassin organisation. We see no crow taking contracts with the VERY RICH venatori magisters despite being hired killers. We see crows just refuse to kill people despite having a contract because 'its crueler to leave them alive'. The crows don't feel like the crows here, they feel like a softened version of a cool assassin group who are cool because they wear black and purple.

Our pirate group are also sanitised; the Lords of Fortune are good pirates who only steal treasure that's not culturally significant. Theyve clearly read the modern critiques of the British Museum and have decided to explicitly stop anyone levelling similar critiques at them. There is no faction of the Lords of Fortune who aren't like this, no internal arguments about it. Everyone just. Agrees. And is able to accurately tell what a cultural artifact is vs. what treasure that you can have yourself is. Rather than showing us why a pirate stealing cultural artifacts might be bad (like in da2 where such a situation literally causes a coup and a war) it just tells us it's bad. But also pirates are cool so we still want them in our world.

This issue seaps into Thedas and drains it of any of the interesting complexity and ability to SAY anything that this franchise had before this game. It becomes a game about telling and not showing rather than the other way around. The games have ALWAYS asked questions about oppressive structural systems and their interplay with society, religion and culture and how these things can affect even the most well meaning character. Dragon age at its best IS a game about society and how society functions both for and against it's characters and what happens to societies built on cruelty and indifference. The best bad guys dragon age has given us are those who are bad because they embody these systems or have been shaped by them. Our main characters have had to wrestle with questions surrounding how to exist in these systems, fight against them, learn and grow.

Yet every group you come across in DATV is sanitised and cleaned up to the point of being as non problematic as humanly possible. None of our cast of characters have to wrestle with where they came from or the world that shaped them. None of them have to confront their own biases. They start the game perfectly non-problematic and end it that way too.

And this just...isn't what Dragon Age has been in the past. It isn't why I love the franchise. The whole game just felt, in a way, hollow. And this was a CHOICE and it is why the legacy characters are few and far between. Too many dragon age characters are just too...angry and complex for this game. You can feel them pulling their punches on this one. I have to imagine they did this because they didn't want to be criticised or have too much controversy? But I think it honestly goes far too much in the other direction and just makes it bland.

I can't imagine what I say here will be unique, but it is the basis for a LOT of my other thoughts on this game so I wanted to get it out of the way first. The softened Thedas and characters make this game by far the weakest in the franchise.

[teineplaysveilguard]

This is in my head now...

Here how I see it starting:

Varric writes to Hawke regularly - because come on there's no chance they are not in touch still. How what did he just know where Hawke was and get them to Skyhold so fast? In one of the letters he casually mentions that he's in Tevinter and thinks he's finally found Solas. Hawke well know at least the basics of the whole Solas situation.

Hawke decides they have to get involved/help because come on, it's hawke.

I see Hawke getting in touch with Isabella who likely knowns where the rest of their dysfunctional "family" is - I seem to remember this was implied in inquisition? Even if not it seems fitting that when if she doesn't stay in touch she knowns at least vaugely where everyone is.

And then Hawke and Isabella go on a road trip picking everyone up before just turning up at Varrics door. And Hawke is like "right, What's the plan?"

I do not have the skill or patience to do this myself...

But I really want someone to rewrite the narrative of DATV with the characters from DA2

Like Varric tracks down solas, sends Hawke (who is not in the fade) a letter and about a week or so later they are all just turn up (dragged by hawke) to the inn where Varric is staying 🤣

Merrill would have this shit sorted in minutes so we need to find a way to taper her knowledge... But otherwise I think it has potential.

I also want Zevran there... I feel he'd fit in well and get a kick out of this.

[teineplaysveilguard]

One of the things I loved about DA2, like the main reason I loved that game, and still love that game, was that hawke was just... Some guy. They were not particularly special, they were just a refugee running from the blight in a fucked up city. Yes there were demons and the blight, slavers and blood mages, but that was more like... Background noise. Just part of the world. A reality they all had to live with.

Certain stuff was essentially pre-ordained, certain characters doomed from the start. It didn't matter how hard hawke worked or what they did the big picture was never going to change. All they could do was make small impacts, try to help those they cared about, and try to make a difference even if they knew that really it was impossible.

Not that it didn't have issues too. There were so many things that could have been explored more fully, a lot of the interactions felt out of character at times, and don't even get me started on the copy and paste dungeons. But... It didn't shy away from the dark aspects and there was something that resonated about the helplessness and tragedy of it all.

The fact that since then it turned out that the few things Hawke did manage were actually failures - honestly did anyone Hawke kill stay dead? - in a way added to that fact.

I should maybe stop comparing veilguard to kirkwall as it's got no chance of winning 🤣

[teineplaysveilguard]

I really really really wanted to enjoy this game... I was actually excited for it. I mean I've waited TEN YEARS!!!

And don't get me wrong technically speaking is a good game. It is a visually beautiful game, the fight mechanics as a mage are incredible, and several of the characters are really interesting.

But below the cut, hidden incase of inadvertent spoilers.

But... And I don't know maybe it's a vibes thing... It just feels like it's lacking something...

I feel like the first three games didn't shy away for the dark shit as much as this one does. They were messy. Every faction, every nation, and every person felt more real. No-one really felt entirely good or bad, the world was fucked up and peoples mindsets had been influenced by that.

I mean I was literally running around Tevinter as an elf... I literally picked to play as an elf because damn that should result in some drama in Tevinter... But so far... nothing... Not even an offhand comment from a random NPC.

the fact that slavery is a thing in Tevinter hasn't even been mentioned, let alone the complex social hierarchy or implied racism. I mean there was fantasy racism in the south, logically it should be far more overt here in a place who's entire economy is built on (mostly elven) slave labour? They'd probably not even see it as racism, it would just be a thing, a fact of life, just there. We sort of got a bit of this with Dorian in DA:I and his opinion made sense given his past, he explained it calmly, ot wasn't made into a huge thing, it was just casual comment during a discussion but it was there.

I don't know... I've not finished yet so I might change my mind but this just feels very sanitised.

There are also SO MANY unfinished plot points and disjointed lore snippets from the other games that I thought might at least get a mention, even a subtle nod, but I'm not holding it much hope for that now.

Also the others felt more like true RPGs... Not that I've ever been one to play in a "be awful to everyone and piss everyone off" way, but it was nice that the option was there.

[teineplaysveilguard]

Possibly spoilers

So I've not played in a few days... And hers why.

My thought process: "how is the dagger missing? It was in varrics chest, it's not like you could take him back to the lighthouse and lose the damn dagger... Oh... Oh... Shit... Varrics dead isn't he... This is some Sixth Sense Shit...

But I pushed that thought down. Kept playing. But I noticed more and more "sixths sense shit". So my next thought was:

Nope... If I don't continue then he's not dead on my world state. Ha! I win."

Which is course it's bullshit because now I've spent a lot of money on a game that my brain won't let me play 🤣🤣🤣

[teineplaysveilguard]

Maybe a weird one... But i love the animation for opening chests 🤣

[teineplaysveilguard]

Partner: so when do you fight a dragon?

Me: launches into a long explanation about the different ages and this being the dragon age because dragons are back but that does not mean that you fight dragons constantly.

Two seconds later:

Oh...

(not that you fight it right now but still it undermined my point)