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

 It was a good read, felt pretty spot on to me. Honestly the most surprising thing about the article is just how hard in the paint it went. Game Journos are typically pretty softball.

So I'll pull myself out of Dragon age retirement to post.

My personal opinion is I'm fine with the art style. I'm fine with the flash colours. Demon redesigns are annoying, but none of that is a deal breaker.

The main draw to Dragon age games (for me) are the story, the companions and the ability to import your world from game to game.

We haven't seen enough of the game to adequately judge the first two, in my opinion. As for the latter...

I dislike the keep isn't being used. I have amassed on there 9 different world states representing playthroughs where I have done different things to see what choices affect future games. IT IS A GOOD SYSTEM, even if just to keep track of what I've done. I log in and see the avatars of my heroes aren't loading. I don't have screenshots of most of these characters anymore. If Veilguard doesn't use the keep, then I can't see it being supported anymore. That makes me horribly sad, and actually quit annoyed.

Edit further:

Also the keep encouraged me at least to replay games. I'm not going to remember what I did in DA4 by the time DA5 roles around, let alone multiple playthroughs. I'm old enough now as it is, I don't remember what I said to someone five minutes ago in conversation.

This is still a fair point - we're allowed to be skeptical, given BioWare's past track record with the last couple games. But yes, I'm trying to remind myself that we don't have all the information yet.

For me, I'm still hesitant about the dialog wheel; I know some say it's more like DA2, I see it too much like Inquisition. I could be wrong, and that's fine. I'm just going off of what was shown. I'd like more non-story dialog wheel choices myself, as well as more combat "wheel" options. I guess I still feel very...mixed about this game. Like...I want to like it, but just felt so...meh about Inquisition as a whole. And outside of Harding, none of the crew we're given excites me.

At least "Rook" seems more interesting than the Inquisitor did. But again, until I see more, I don't want to make that assumption

That's impressive, considering how all of the choices in origins are funneled into a binary basically outside of the origin's itself. Most of origins I am finding, upon subsequent playthroughs, to be really generic save for some flairs, such as Paragon of Her King being the only one with any significant nuance to it that I would argue is pretty significant in how it ties up the Dwarves.

That said, it really does just boil down to a good/evil regardless. Mechanically and narratively Origins is arguably the most basic in that regard.

Inquisition had choice for unseen consequence, at best, yet I still will argue that Dragon Age 2 did it best; considering that most of the important choices in 2 are the personal ones or the leadup to when we get funneled into the act climaxes that provides texture to the playthrough.

This is a long-winded way of saying it's always the same...what we focus on to consider replayability is more fascinating and personal anyway. 


ETA: This is probably why I am more optimistic for Veilguard. BioWare's whole mandate here is more on personal touch, which plays to their strengths a LOT more and stacks the deck in their favor. It so far feels like a more polished version of Dragon Age 2 thus far, with some adjustments.

That is a net positive to me. 

Yeah whils tDAI is my favourite and I don' tthin knecessarily I'll find it as muc hfun as tha t but I dolik ewha tI'm seein gfrom Veilguard but mayb eI'll fee lmoer o fi twhen I pla y but I wil las yth ecomba tspeed is probably my onl yconcern given I am a little slow on th ebuttons with my diasbility but outsid eof tha tI lik ewha tthey'v eshown off so far. I defginitely fee la tleas tgraphics wise at least it's an upgrad eon DAI. I'm curious though considering it's no topen world jus tho wbi gth egam eis and how long it'll tak et ocomplete a playthrou gh. I' mguessing i twon' tbe as long as DAI though

Why would that bother you?

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Veilguard ends up being a giant pile of shit that kills the studio. In a world where there was no BG3, the loss would be tremendous - there would be no hope for another quality western RPG for many years.

But we *do* have Baldur’s Gate 3, and even if it’s impossible for them to deliver another hit at the same level of quality, I think Larian has proven they can at least partially fill the gap left by BioWare.

Yes, I actually DO take comfort in this. BG3 is probably the next best thing to a great DA we'll ever get again since I don't expect DAV to be anywhere near that amazing. BG3 gives me massive DAO nostalgia.

Larian is the new BioWare that scooped up all those starved Dragon Age fans. BG3 is a BioWare game on steroids with the companions and romances and sassy banter. The game feels like a BioWare trilogy in one game. In act 3 you meet a ton of people again you helped previously and I loved it. Got the same familiar faces grin on I get when playing a new DA game seeing an old friend.

That's the beauty of a free market. Somebody else will always step up and fill the void another studio left. I've played a ton of games that had me more emotionally invested than Andromeda ever did since DAI. And some of them weren't even RPGs. BioWare used to be the king of emotional storytelling and companion banter to me but they got competition. So I mourned BioWare and moved on to greener pastures. If DAV bombs I won't be too sad. I got CDPR and Larian games to look forward to now.

Of course nothing will ever feel exactly like BioWare. I'll always miss the good old days and the Mass Effect trilogy will probably forever remain the love of my life. I'd be so happy if I could get a great conclusion to the Thedas world. BioWare losing their magic is still a loss for RPG fans. So while BG3 is amazing it's not DA of course. Mechanically a very different game. The faces we've grown to love will never come back if BioWare gets shut down. So for the sake of closure I want Dragon Ages to be concluded. But after that I really couldn't care less. The thought of a new BioWare IP does not excite me, I'll take a new Larian game any day over whatever current BioWare cooks up. Their glory days are long past. Same for Bethesda. Two of my favorite dev studios are off my must buy list these days. But it's OK, plenty other talent out there.

It bothers me cause it shows how irrational people can be. The fact there’s articles saying “we already have dragon age 4” shows that. They aren’t comparable games that even do the same roles and niches, it’s angry people to butthurt to care to give DA4 a try while shit talking it before it’s even out. It’s cool to not have any interest in it if the trailers aren’t doing it for them but to bring up BG3 is in my world dumb🤷‍♀️ apples to oranges.

I hope there will be a final trailer that brings the focus back to Solas. Otherwise, it will be hard to forgive the fact that this one didn't even allude to him.

As for the Keep... truth is that southern Thedas wouldn't be relevant if it continued to be used, so that's fine by me.

It also isn't the first time this franchise changes the method for importing past choices.