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

Considering that writing team was almost the same as in DAI, I have to conclude it’s the result of Patrick Weekes being the lead and Epler narrative director. Looking at previous games, I think Gaider leaned towards exploring darker themes and curating his team into that direction.
A lot of the times with companions, I was given a hint of something darker, a promise of controversy. But as their arcs unfolded, it was underwhelming as if narrative stopped a pace away from getting serious. As an example, look at Lucanis. He started very strong: an elite assassin, who was tortured for a year and is possessed by a demon who wants to take over. Then this conflict is barely explored : we get a scene where Spite takes over but we talk it over. Lucanis is blind to an obvious betrayal and acts like a grown kid at times (ohh, kniwes! Ohh, wyverns! Let me cook something special for everyone!). He and spite become friends… because. Remember how deamon used to physically hurt him, so his nose bleed? Nah, lets scrap it.

In this game everyone can love everyone. Can become friends with everyone. Background doesn’t matter, status doesn’t matter, history doesn’t matter. Bellara is fangirling over Tevinter mage, somehow reads Tevinter newspapers. Dalish accept everyone and, per Rooks dialogue, don’t own vallaslin. And speak with American accent, apparently.

Baldur's Gate 2, where travelling too long with companions of diametrically opposing philosophies will eventually lead to them throwing down and one of your companions getting irretrievably killed.

It was glorious.

I feel like even if we generally have consensus over the issues of the game, what each of us actually wanted out of DA4 might differ much more heavily lolz.

I'm interested. Would this be taking what there is and improving it (I.e. fixing the existing companions) or going with the what could have been from earlier iterations?

Did one of Peebee's personal quests. It was designed in such a way to be fitting for toddlers, as is custom in Veilguard. Learned that Peebee harbors guilt over a mishap that she feels responsible for. She showed some range of emotional depth and her behavior earlier on now makes a bit more sense. Rook stepped up to assume his role as guidance counselor and helped the bird feel that she wasn't alone. This quest was the most tolerable she's been in the entirety of Act I. If they do anything with this, I daresay they might actually have a character and not a caricature. It remains to be seen.