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

To be fair our knowledge of Leliana’s activities in Kirkwall is limited to our encounter with her. Varric doesn’t say more because he doesn’t know more.

As for Cassandra going then, if I recall she was going to appear in Act 3 but that was cut.

Okay, I have to ask this. People love to say stuff like "It was GOING to be in there, but it was cut!"

Well if it was cut, then it didn't happen, right? And if cutting something creates a narrative hole or a problem, then what good does it do to say "they almost put it in but then they didn't"?

No, it was in Act 3 since Elthina comments on it.



There was another video too but I can’t find it right mows

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EA also published Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a purely single-player game with nothing that could possibly be described as a "grind". So maybe we don't jump to conclusions based on FIFA?

I would not be so quick to dismiss the dissonance of an exec. After all, they don't read reviews or do any of the sort. If a game fails, to them, is because the developer made mistakes in the game. The execs ideas were great. I mean, how could they not be? They are the executives, so they are bound to know more, after all.

I've yet to place my own skepticisms in here, but I do have a lingering one based off the idea that BioWare somehow manages to up their narrative game. For me, even if the narrative side of DA4 is improved over their, to the point that it could stand with other prominent story-driven games like RDR2 or TLOU, there's still the technical side of things that has me skeptical. BioWare isn't really known for their attention to detail, and yet many of their competitors are pushing the limits of their engines to a degree that much of the game world is becoming more "alive".

For example, Rockstar managed to simulate an actual mirror in RDR2. That's tough programming work but they managed to pull it off. Even the rocks in the ground could be dislodged and move as if they were real-world objects. Then you have the various locales you could visit and their various denizens. You look at a game like Assassins Creed: Origins, and that game had NPC's participating in daily jobs and activities. Ubisoft even went out of their way to assigns different jobs based on the locality these NPC's were inhabiting. One notable area in the game had its citizens harvesting various plants for their pigments, and you would see field hands cutting up plants while others would be mixing the pigments. When night came, they would go home, eat, and sleep.

There's also the aspect of making the cities themselves feel like they're bustling and large. If Tevinter is planned as a location that we'll be visiting, then Minrathus will most likely be one of its premiere areas. Is BioWare gonna take the time to flesh out this city with people who have jobs, or are they just going to be statically placed NPC's who do nothing but gesticulate? TW3 had plenty of citizens in Novigrad, and they had their own patterns and behaviors. Homes and establishments could be entered, and so on.

Point I'm trying to make is that, BioWare could make a good (maybe even great) game if the story and character sides of them game are standouts. But if they want it to be a masterpiece, they need to dig much deeper on the technical elements of the game. As it stands now, the only notable places that they excel or do well in is the lighting and visuals; by way of Frostbite.

I don't disagree, but to be fair, there is also the fact that Bioware games have parties rather than one PC. That automatically generates more work in character design and animation, banter, group combat. It's a matter of zots being spent on the companions rather than on NPC schedules.

Besides has anyone even heard of the ridiculous crunch that Rockstar employees went through just to make that game? It's amazing that it didn't get that much attention.