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

Yeah that's pretty messed up, but I don't think it's really on the level of origins/DA2 best stuff. Just an evil person doing evil things. But it's better than nothing.

Don't spoil her best material now.

...I hate you...

Think on it in terms of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Larian makes a game, sees whats good, what resonates with players and next game they improve on the stuff that was not so good, while slightly improving on the stuff that was good. Do this for a few iterations, you end up with a game like BG3 that was the first game in history to win all 5 major GOTY awards.

Bioware on the other hand, they release a game, and instead of doubling down on whats good and resonates with players, they either just throw it away or dumb it down on the next game. And they keep trying to do something different every iteration for whatever reason. I think it comes down to vision. Larian had Swen from the beggining and he is still there in charge of it all. Bioware, after the doctors, never had 1 single strong personality to guide them on steady improvements. It worked for a time when they had a strong team at the top, but as people left, there was no one to keep it all together. And EA's meddling surely didnt help. A shame really.

I guess it's just weird to me how Larian that had a diablo like game, and then third person action rpg,then a weird real time strategy life sim hybrid is considered the more formulaic company than Bioware, but that's my boomer brain that doesn't realize it's not 2012.

My personal dislike of Larian might also cloud my judgement on the matter

So several hours later, more thoughts.

Oh my god I hate that every character has their own special ability that you might need to use while exploring around. I hate this, it slows down the gameplay immensely and since I don't have a top tier PC, it takes effing forever to go back to a beacon, change your party and go back to where you were. It's just not smooth and fun exploring places at all.  (Nvm, you can use your knife thingy to do these things instead... I think). And speaking of exploring, I mostly hate how the maps are designed. They eventually become so confusing and maze-y. And my biggest obstacles are freaking doors and gates, that never seem to be open, you can't even interact with them even if the map clearly shows there is a path behind it. Obviously it's going to be unlocked further down the road but... it's just balls!

Worse is that there are a lot of side quests you might get, and you have no idea whether you can actually do them or not. Some will just have doors blocking the paths that are leading to the quest and you have no idea what to do. Thankfully some quests say that you'll unlock the next step later in the game, but there are so many times I have no idea whether I can actually progress a quest or not, whether there is something blocking it or not. And overall it's really badly informed which quests matter and which don't.

There was also a point in the game where I was just going through the main story casually, getting new companions, and suddenly I come back to the Lighthouse and

I am also tired tired TIRED of these goddamn puzzles. What is the point in developing a completely new and fresh combat system if I'm mostly walking around doing lame puzzles? The puzzles aren't hard, no, but why are they absolutely EVERYWHERE?!

But then there's good stuff too. I can't believe I'm saying this but I am really warming up to Bellara. I just did one of her personal quests and I genuinely teared up. Now that's not saying much because I'm a huge crybaby, but it was just a well-deserved emotional cutscene with good voice acting, camera work and great facial animations, with just very simple but effective dialogue. Honestly, if the rest of the companion quests are this level instead of that horrid Taash stuff, I think this just might be a game worth completing.

Currently, Emmrich and Bellara are my favorites, though I'm still trying to find the emotional depth from Emmrich, because he sounds and acts like a cartoon still at this point. I mean he is charming but.. yeah. I'm hoping by romancing him, I'll unearth something really special about him, because currently he is kind of a joke character.

I also have been enjoying getting to know Solas' backstory more intimately. In general I'm surprised how interesting the relationship between Solas and Rook is becoming. 

Heh, you'd think so wouldn't you but it might well be ... not so successful, sales being hurt by it being on gamepass and it just not being a great 2023 experience.

If you take a look at this chart Circana, which is a market research company in the US, they regard Starfield as being the 11th best selling game in the US in 2023. 3 positions higher is Mortal Kombat 1, a game that had sold only 4 million copies eight months after launch. This is the same company that sold Skyrim, which has sold over 60 million copies btw. So if the sale figures worldwide mirror that of the US, Starfield sold only a couple or a few million copies in the 4 months in 2023.

Bethesda has put out statistics like "we have 14 million players" but that doesn't equate to sales because gamepass. Gamepass imo is such a bad idea for developers, good for Microsoft but bad for developers. Notable Bethesda has never come out with sale figures for Starfield, which they would have if it was pretty successful.

www.gamespot.com/gallery/the-20-best-selling-games-of-2023-in-the-us/2900-4951/

Larian made those action RPG Diablo type games because that's what Publishers wanted them to make. Sven and Larian took a huge financial risk going their own way, including Sven at one point having to sleep in his car. It's not the most practical decision but it shows the passion of the studio and the passion of the owner to make compelling RPGs

That won't let me save faces between profiles.