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

Without the Lighthouse Disney friends simulator the game would be fine. Not great but fine. From a gameplay perspective I'm having some fun. Main story missions are OK, sometimes even really good blood pumping battle stuff that is well presented. The end of act 1 is pretty awesome.

Ignoring how comically evil the villains are AGAIN, the main mission structure is mostly good enough for a hack and slay action game, and that's all the game is. The RP stuff is largely cosmetic. Like the different kind of tones you can pick for Aloy in the Horizon games. It doesn't really change what happens.

But the Lighthouse is a different game and genre altogether. As if the writers wrote the kind of idealized friends they'd like to have but don't. Friends who are 100% supportive and validating and never say anything that might upset you, never disagree and just wrap you in a warm support blanket. So basically friends that don't exist in real life. It's bizarre they put this in a Dragon Age game about an elven apocalypse. The companion arcs would be fine if presented in a more gritty way that matches the tone of the main story.

Everything about the companions is Disney, and that is not hyperbole at all imo.
Davrin may be a proper adult who talks like a normal person. but his entire personality is griffon daddy, played as cute as possible. What is that??? The less said about how Manfred looks and acts the better and as much as I enjoy Emmrich's arc and find it deeply relatable he is super Disney in looks and personality, so is his antagonist...
The only somewhat non Disney companion is Neve but maybe I'm biased. But even she is a walking detective noir stereotype. But at least that's a stereotype you don't usually find in a Disney movie.
Lucanis' story starts off creepy but quickly becomes preposterous. Spite is not scary, Spite makes me laugh. That demon too is comical and kid friendly. And the conclusion is completely preposterous.
Bellara has a heart breaking story and I haven't finished it yet. But her entire character is just sooo Disney that it takes away from the gravitas of her trauma.
Harding has the best personal story tied to the lore but again her childish personality ruins everything.
Taash would have been OK without the modern lingo identity drama. Still sort of boring with her dragons are cool personality and since we have gray wardens who kill dragons her presence really doesn't matter. I kept waiting for some cool lore reveal about who exactly crossbred the qunari with dragons or did I miss that info given in DAI? I assume the elves did it is the reason for everything in Thedas but still. I really thought Taash would be about that but so far just some regular dragon fights. Haven't completed her arc yet but seems to be mostly about her NB struggles.

So in my eyes we got a super short main story padded with endless lighthouse fluff and location gating galore. Really, it's mind boggling how much chatter there is. I talk to them after every minor quest and they always have new lines. That's insane and would be beyond awesome if they talked in an interesting way. Companions never had so much content. On paper this game is everything I ever wanted, and yet the execution is beyond terrible. I don't think it's an exaggeration that the game is 20% main story and 80% companion fluff. So 20% at most of the storytelling is decent.

At least I really enjoy the combat, simplistic and repetitive as it is, so I am having fun but not with the things I usually do in a BioWare game.