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

Maybe she's secretly an immortal vampire
Have we had anything on her portrayal. Is it a kick in the guts for Hawke?

The thing is, there is some of that in DA2 and DAI. But in DAV seems like it's nowhere to be found

My issue with Rook a a character from what I've seen, if that at times you sound so damn stupid. The bit from Skillup review, where examples of "stern" Rook were shown genuinely distressed me.
I'm all for having an option to be a diplomatic peacemaker or cracking jokes, but inability to actually be angry and forceful (even a mean asshole) takes so much from roleplaying. I also feel it alienates older gamers. In the past I used to primarily choose optimistic or sarcastic replies with my Inq, but as I was replaying DAI this year, I found out that "negative" (bottom) options actually work so much better in a lot of contexts.

Which Is such a shame, because I was banking on a gruffled Dwarf Warden that was direct and commanding, but now It'll probably be a sarcastic elf. Maybe I can get a laugh out of this game, mostly laughing at It. In Inquistiion the angry fist feelings and bottom dialogue options was so well done, made the Inquisitor seem more forceful and In control, not aloof or anything like that. It wasnt even jackass dialogue, just certain of himself and In command of the situation.

From what we have seen so far, these people are not characters, but caricatures.

It's less overt and in your face compared to 2 but Inquisition has its moments. 
The Tranquil skulls stuff always gets me. Always bothers me that we can't punish Fiona for that.

I love BioWare Games, I really do, I've been in their forums forever and am just replaying BG 1 again for the thirtieth time.
This as a preface, because I have to say something negative now: A lot of women in their games are dressed inappropriate ( Morrigan, Isabela, Jack, Miranda, some Armor versions of Vivienne), are ridiculous good looking,when they should at least show some wrinkles and grey hair.
Female armor versions often have some boob windows or no pants. It's a bit much sometimes. I'm totally ok, if characters show some skin, but give the option to not do that at least.
Out of the blue, I can think of one male companion showing some skin in all games: Iron Bull, and he is qunari, where it is a cultural thing.

I just read this German review that gave the game a 92% even though they admitted the game is boring for the first 20h!!!!

www.gamepro.de/artikel/dragon-age-the-veilguard-review,3421823,wertung.html

What the actual fuck is up with these reviews?!?

A game that takes this long to get going should be punished for it with a lower score than 92! While the consensus seems that the game does eventually get good, amazing good even, shouldn't the utter lack of compelling storytelling for at least a third of the game be a major negative???

Shouldn't the crippled almost non existent roleplaying of Rook be a big concern for an RPG?!
How do you arrive at this high a rating with all these cons? I don't understand. Give it a 80 if the last third makes up for the rest of the game. I've had lots of fun with flawed games. But 92?!

The review had a bunch of big BioWare fans share their opinion and they all glossed over these flaws and said it gets real good while also admitting the things that are really concerning to me personally. So even the super positive reviews are noting the same things as SkillUp, they just don't seem to care?

The comments are almost all super positive too. People seem relieved that the game is apparently good after all and everybody can't wait to play. This game is going to be a smashing hit!

So I guess we're the crazy haters and everyone else is totally unbothered by the kindergarten tone. WTF.

So thanks for being here, guys. I'd be losing my sanity if nobody else shared my opinion. This is the biggest disconnect I've ever felt about a game's reception, and I don't even want DAO2. DAO was ugly as sin, so I don't need that aesthetic back. I LIKED DAI a lot. I have rolled with the series having no visual identity whatsoever.
I really wanted DAV to be good. But how the dialogue shown in these reviews doesn't bother most people is beyond me. People who have played all previous games and loved them. I don't get it.

I will experience this game in some form so I can have an informed opinion. I did this with Starfield, another game people kept saying will get good eventually. But it didn't, it just got worse. And I played this boring clusterfuck for 207h like a masochist idiot! I kept waiting for it to get good. I kept hoping it would eventually click. Nope. They were all full of shit as far as I'm concerned. I know, opinions and all. Still.

So forgive my wariness of "it gets good eventually". Maybe it really does here. Maybe DAV actually has some good writing at some point. It's a possibility. I mean, technically DAI had a shit plot for 2/3 of the game too. It was saved by the elven gods business at the end. But the companions were awesome start to finish. Coryfish was a cringe cartoon villain but everything else was good enough that it didn't ruin the game for me.

Oh well, thanks for reading.
I'm so glad this thread exists because there is nothing like this anywhere else. The subreddit deletes all negative stuff, can't have a discussion there. Nor anywhere else outside of this thread even on BSN. So this is my small haven of sanity as far as I'm concerned.

Twenty years from the beginning and around 15 years from the end of DA2. Never quite sure of her age back then but since she had been married at 19, spent some time in that marriage and then spent several years with her own ship, she must have been closer to 30 by the time of the end of DA2 if not the beginning. So, yes, around 50 would probably be about right.

They couldn't go to the trouble of changing it to reflect how she ought to look? As you can see from the two images I used, Isabella always had a good figure and she knew it but knew how to show herself off to her best advantage whether in leather armour or her "pirate" outfit. They didn't have to dress her like a belly dancer in DATV but they did and it just looks... wrong.

Every region had its own form of government and the Banns and Barons were more of a Ferelden/Freemarches thing, reflecting the British influence. Antiva has a royal family but most of the power is invested in the Merchant Princes who rely on the Crows to keep order for them but beyond that I don't think they've ever stated what the regional ruling structure consists of so they would seem to have opted for governors.

What is amusing about that dialogue shot you showed is that it isn't the first time Antiva has been invaded by the Qun and back in the Steel Age the Crows weren't much use against them either. The problem being that the Crows rely on their reputation to discourage invasion by other nations and the Qun aren't impressed by their threat. I remember Sten being very derisive of a Crow assassin that he had encountered when on Seheron.

Sigh. I do miss Sten. He was a really interesting companion and then in DA2 we got to meet the Arishok and he was a really interesting antagonist. I wonder if we will ever meet their like again.

Or anyone. Don't care whether it was Fiona or Alexius but someone needed to be called to account for their horrific murder. It's like the writers didn't appreciate they were still people.

So far as Fiona was concerned, I wanted her to be tried for selling out the people of Ferelden to Tevinter. She might have claimed that she had majority support of the mages for her action (which I don't think she did) but she was their leader and thus responsible for their actions. The monarch of Ferelden offered them sanctuary and put their own reputation and the goodwill of their people on the line in order to assist them, giving them the most defensive castle in all Ferelden as their refuge. Then what did she do? Surrendered it to the first Tevinter Magister who rolls up. That was treachery at its worst and yet if you conscript the mages instead of allying with them, you are depicted as the bad guy for not wanting to give the poor mages their freedom. Yeh, well I didn't think they deserved it after what they did and their leadership was totally untrustworthy. Yet unlike the Templar guy, Fiona got away Scot free from any punishment. (One of the aspects of Inquisition where I did think the writers let the side down).  Still as I also thought the time travel plot was pants, I opted for the Templar path for my canon run, so Fiona didn't survive.   

Henpecked Hou mentioned=based comment