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

I guess I'm far enough into this game to make an actual opinion on these companions other than the first impressions sprinkled with the snippets of videos we've seen of them before the game.

Neve - She's ok. She's got some funny dialogues with Bellara and Lucanis. But I really can't say I care much for her personal quests so far. Still don't like the VA. Directing problem or VA problem, don't care, it takes me out of her convos/quest sometimes.

Bellara - I was initially put off by yet another quirky college girl persona, and I'm still am but it is far less frequent after our first interactions. She can only truly shine when doing her work with ancient elven crap or when we have a one to one in the Lighthouse.

Harding - She's the biggest disappointment for me. I was not expecting to get the feel that Lace was a teenager in this game, yet I did and still do when we are outside her personal quests. A friend of mine said she liked it because it reminds her of a romantic comedy. To each their own I guess. Her quests are the only place where I felt something different coming from her. The lore was good, even the VA gave me something different there and it worked for me.

Emmrich - I'm biased because even though it's not what most expect of a Necromancer type character, I do like him quite a lot. Probably because Down Among the Dead Men was one of my favorite Tevinter Nights tales and I really dig the lore of the Mortalitasi. I like polite people, and he's just right up my alley on all acounts. His romance hit the right notes for what I expected, his dialogue and the lore did add up with what I expected and I was satisfied with it. Manfred is ok, didn't really like them trying, and failing, to use him as a comic relief since that's not the vibe I got from the books at all. He was more of a butler, less of a pet.

Davrin - He is suprisingly a close second for me. Before the game released I thought I was going to find him boring, but I actually enjoy our conversations. Sure they usually revolve around Assan and griffons, but it's good to talk with someone that doesn't take me out of the game by being childish or due to the VA. His quests are my favorites so far, Assan is adorable and I'm pretty happy with his character. Might even play a second time to see how his romance plays out.

Lucanis - I'm sorry to anyone who likes him but I find it hard to take him and the Crows in this game seriously. If he's supposed to come off as one of the best killers in the organization, I can't see that at all. Maybe I just can't take

Taash - I was expecting to hate, and I'm just disappointed. Her dialogue makes me cringe and she's a walking contradiction on many lore aspects of this series. The Qun is not something one simply quotes the best parts and ignore the bad. Taash is also rather abrasive, and not in a charming way like Vivienne and Morrigan, and I don't much care for that.

Anyway, that's what I think so far.

If you havent, you should subscribe to their newsletter. Almost every week i receive an email with either lore tidbits or small videos of the enemies and type of npcs we are going to see in the game. Just this week they released 3 new videos with 3 new enemy types. I think by now, more than a year away from release they already showed more enemy variety than Veilguard lol. There's even a book set in this universe that released in September, Exodus: The Archimedes Engine. Havent read it yet but reviews seem to be pretty good.

All in all, they seem pretty active in releasing new stuff regularly to keep interest in the game. And they dont even have a release date yet.

I watched some summary recently on some tube channel, which apparently shows up what you mentioned, and look at their website from time to time. There is a huge difference between bits and pieces however well made and the whole apparently complex game.I also wasted 7 or 10 minutes watching their Q&A that told ... exactly nothing under various usual excuses, aka not to spoil, marketing director looking over the shoulder, etc. It is also positioned as triple A, and nobody seems to really know whether they has the monies to pull that off. IDK of course, the only way to know is to wait. Hopefully it don't turn into another Star Citizen.

Why do I have to first travel to a place and only then am I able to fast travel to a beacon closest to my quest? This wasn't a thing in Inquisition, where you could just click open a map and choose the camp you'd travel to. Or do I remember this wrong? Honestly this is such a waste of time...

Furthermore, they've made some companion quests ridiculous. Some quests are just you getting a quest to go somewhere in the map and then having one conversation. There were several instances in Inquisition where you'd talk to someone in Skyhold, they'd ask if you were ready to go do thing X Y or Z, and then it just automatically teleports you outside of Skyhold to where you're supposed to go have that ONE conversation. Why couldn't they just do something similar? Now I have to first pick the goddamn place I need to travel, wait for the loading screen, then pick the beacon closest to the quest, wait for the loading screen, and then probably go through some fuckery trying to navigate the map and of course there might be some enemies nearby that I don't want to deal with.

And oh MAN do I hate navigating these maps. How do you make navigating and exploring WORSE than in Inquisition?!

EDIT: I just came back from having one conversation with Davrin in Arlathan. Now I come back to the Lighthouse, and he wants to have a NEW conversation somewhere else. I'm so fucking tired guys.

I think the Lucanis story arc would have worked better if he wasn't a Crow. The whole thing of making the Thedas Mafia into the "good guys" in Treviso just doesn't work with me. I actually found Lucanis in Tevinter Nights more interesting because there was hinted to be something different about him and he wasn't just your average contract killer.


Taash was a supreme disappointment. I've watched many of her scenes and feel there they could have done so much better with their first female Qunari companion.

Davrin is hot though. Probably my favorite companion and even his writing is not the best. It does its job though, and the VA sells it.

Not sure what it is with this game repeating things over and over.
I had a conversation of like one minute with Emrich and he said like 4 times Manfred is a spirit of curiosity.
It's like everyone is saying the same thing over and over, and I don't know if the writers are turning senile or they think we are.

I'm really taken aback with the poor level of writing about Taash and the gender identity discussion. I accidentally chose an option that apparently made my character trans and they used the word trans there! This is not me complaining that trans people are included, this is me complaining that the way these instances are written are so bad it hurts my heart. I thought the way Krem was handled in Inquisition was poignant and eloquent. This game is... I don't even know if you can say this about a fantasy game, but the way they used the word 'trans' in Veilguard felt jarringly anachronistic, like it doesn't work with the setting.

I've never met a COD DudeBro who bought Mass Effect. The 1 time COD made a sci fi game the community revolted and boycotted it. It was the 1 COD that epicly failed sales. Ironically, that was the 1 COD I've liked in 15 years lol.

I don't think Mass Effect draws as big of a shooter audience as people think. Sure it gets some, but after Andromeda I suspect those guys aren't interested anymore. 

The budget number I've heard was 100M but that was only for the latest iteration, so it doesn't include the money spent on the first 2 attempts nor the cost of marketing.  I think it would be safe to put a 200M price tag on DAV.  Of course EA isn't interested in break even propositions so figure you need to double the development costs to keep them happy.  The game needs to sell 5-6M at full price.  One of two things is going to happen.  Bioware is shuttered...or EA removes the people at the top for failing so miserably.

As for the DLC it's not rumor the Dev's themselves stated they had no planned DLC.  They hinted it could change but I imagine that is subject to the games success and demand by player base.

The reactivity with your race and background has been something of a boon in this game. It’s one of the few things they got right here.