Dragon Age The Veilguard Criticism Thread (formerly Skepticism Thread) [Spoilers]

You're more optimistic than I am that the worst is over and Veilguard was peak absurdity. Because even if corporate starts to distance itself from it, we have still created rampant self insert narcissism, especially in the creative industry it seems.

Hopefully you are right though and good storytelling with complex issues and NPCs with wildly different opinions return.

The overall impression I got, from the time I spent in-game and the playthroughs & reviews I watched online, is one of disinterest; as if the people involved were saddled with the task of finishing someone else's project but had no real passion for it.   There is also a noticeable decrease in competence when it comes to writing and direction.   It's as if they all wanted to cut corners and get this out of the way as fast as possible before returning to Mass Effect.

The foundations are solid, the game is remarkably stable, even on my old I5 rig, and the environments are gorgeous.   I think that came from the "Joplin" era team, before the mobile pivot forced by EA and the departure of so many old timers. What was added afterwards is of distinctly lower quality.

I am reminded of medieval shanties built atop Roman ruins, by people with less knowledge and resources...

I'm willing to give the team the benefit of the doubt, since after so many reboots and resets of the game, not to mention people (even respected seniors) constantly being let go, the morale wasn't probably the highest and they just wanted a game out asap. But then you have things like Taash and her non-binary journey, that feels so much like Weekes' personal pet project, and it makes me question whether they are critical of their own work or not.

I hope that by next year, we'll hear some thoughts from the writers and devs on how happy they themselves are with the finished project. Though I doubt we'll hear anything remarkably critical unless there's some insider who exposes the behind the scenes drama that's bound to be going on, if not only for the lackluster sales.

I'm still in act 1, so maybe that might change after, but there is something else that bores me to death and made me pay attention. It's the lack of difference of culture between the cities and villages, I'm not feeling it. Minrathous a little, but everything else feels the same and generic no matter where you go. The cities feel like an excuse for some side quests and npcs to be there, that's kinda sad.

I went to Lavendel in the Andersfelds, and it could be exactly like the village of Dmeta near Arlathan without the blight, wthout any difference.
The Anders are supposed to be a sinister and resilient people, with the most devout Andrastian priests, and the most dangerous soldiers of Thedas, even if they are poors. Why don't you show me that side of them, what they are like globally. No, nothing. I haven't seen a single statue of Andraste. No priests with fiery speech, rage in the heart, proclaiming their faith with the greatest tenacity. Just villagers without personality, with generic lines. The city of Lothering in DAO, from a game released in 2009 had more heart than that.

Treviso has absolutely zero depth, you could only feel it, breath it, through its architecture, its buildings, its streets, that's it. But it's like an empty city that wouldn't need inhabitants because it wouldn't feel even different without all these useless and bland npcs, crows included. It's all superficial, exposition. Remember the entire village of fanatics, lunatics and cultists of the dragon in DA:O ? That was so awesome and disturbing. Even if the whole village was similar with its architecture as other fereldan villages, the inhabitants were clearly not the same as what you could find in Redcliff or Denerim or Lothering.
As for the lair of the lords of fortune ? Did you feel it ? Except the arena, it also felt bland, totally forgettable. The only thing that striked me the most was this. :

Wtf is that Bioware, everything is wrong with this Qunari. His hair, the proportions of his body, and above all his clothes. It's ridiculous.

I also liked the nevarran necropole, but as usual everything is about the Venatori, the threat of the old golds. I didn't learn anything so far about their society, how it works, their way of life, beyond watching the deads. I didn't even learn about my own faction, the mournwatchers, didn't see any soldier without magic from this elite fighting group like me. That totally puzzled me. No important Mortalitasi anywhere, no opportunities to learn more about the politics in Nevarra.
Skyrim and even Oblivion, games released in 2012 and 2006 also made a better job than this game to portray different cultures. Even between imperial cities at different locations, you could feel a different way of life.

So they inspired from Mass effect 2 for the structure of the story. I wish, they would have inspired from what this game did too with different locations. When you go To Omega, or the Citadel, or Nos Astra, obviously you fall into a totally different city, the rules are different, a different way of life, different people with different mindset. There is a real culture over there. You feel totally immersed. You could totally imagine what it could be like to live over there. But in the Anderfelds, except the blight, I can't do that. For Treviso, I can only imagine because of the lore, the books, thanks to past games, not thanks to Veilguard. Through, yeah I understood that there were cafe thanks to Lucanis. Something I won't forget, it's coffee as well, because coffee is important.

ME handles sexuality so much better than DAV. In all ME games nobody gives a damm if someone is lgbt, it is treated as something completely inconsequential and irrelevant. That's the way it should be everywhere

I've been trying out every class, leveling each to at least 20 to get a feel for the specializations. The combat system is impressive, especially for a first attempt. The main issue, though, is that it feels very "backloaded"—all the meaningful decisions happen in talent choices and itemization, while the core combat loop remains pretty basic. Rogue is the most complex of the classes, but I wish there was a bit more variety overall. If this game ever gets a sequel or spin-off, I'd be really curious to see how they evolve the combat. Top of my wishlist: more enemy types and greater enemy variety.

When it comes to companions, both in combat and story, they mostly feel like dead weight. Don't get me wrong, I understand how effective their abilities are, but its more like something I have to micro-manage for the sake of having companions... If that makes any kind of sense. However, each companion has an ability they will sometimes auto-cast. I set up my team around those. Honestly, I'd rather have more abilities and just go solo. They aren't particularly interesting, and interacting with them feels like a waste of time. Still, I want to experience everything, so I’m pushing through it all, even though I’m tempted to skip every scene with them. (I have been skipping Taash's scenes, though—I'm just not interested in a sermon.) I've finally recruited all of them, and I keep hearing that the story picks up from here. My gosh... please pick up from here... please.

In your defence, you kept that nonsense to yourself and your diary unlike today where it seems you're obliged to shout it from the mountain tops and demand everyone listens. You found a path to adulthood and started behaving like an adult but that journey also implies defeat:

Unlike you and Kappa Neko , my selfabsorption was the opposite. I was invincible, the greatest gift to humanity and would end up being the world champion at everything. Several life lessons finally taught me what an obnoxious brat I was. And so, with my flawless perspective on life in ruin, it was time to become a grown-up.

It's apparently illegal to accept flaws in your arguments and applying nuance to a conversation, limiting said conversation to be understood by people over the age of 12. Just my 2 cents/experience of Veilguard.

TL;DR

This is a good video, I can't believe they haphazardly nuked southern thedas 

She does the same if you're a woman as it is - is she telling me I'm too manly too?

We can't tell for sure, it's purely speculation at this point, but my assumption is that the point here is not to create some faithful representation of a blight, and assuming that is the purpose here seems to be naive or willfully naive.

No, I think the point here is to make things much easier for the next game, to allow the creators to do whatever they want with south Thedas while still being able to claim they didn't really ignored our past choices, simply because they created a situation in which they don't matter. And it stinks frankly. And it's nuking southern Thedas, even if not literally

Only real village we walk through is a blighted mess of corpses. The other in the Wetlands doesn't even have as many huts as Lothering did.

Beautiful rendered Darktown Docktown of Minrathous, but the beautiful stuff is far away on the horizon. The abrupt intro where we ran through Minrathous was the only part of Hightown Minrathous we'll ever see. 

Locked in an Antivan Attic over I'm assuming some gorgeous casino and get one cafe view of the pretty stuff way over there.

Weishaupt destroyed before we're even given one bird's eye view of the place. Never to be seen again after.

Get a trashed Kal Sharok outpost but nary a beautifully rendered Kal-Sharok equivalent to Orzamaar.

We saw more of Kirkwall. More of Denerim.  

Such a fucking depressing travesty. This is better than Val Royeaux how? I guess the rest of Act II could change bring me somewhere amazing but I am doubting it more and more. Only so much time left.