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

They could've made Miranda and Jack hook up in ME3 during Citadel, but I figure that a reason why they didn't do it was due to the criticism they'd receive by those that wanted to romance either as FemShep. Especially considering Jack was supposed to be a bisexual LI.

Yeah, makes zero sense that Jack wasn't an option for femShep. With Miranda you could argue it was Jack specifically that unlocked something, lol.

It's not only about making sense, they actually worked on a romance path for her, and she was written as pansexual. They cut it for external reasons, allegedly due to Fox News' criticism of ME's sex scenes/Liara romance.

Fox News, really? That's just sad.

Playersexual ruins characters whose sexual preference is a major factor of their backstory.

For example: making Dorian playersexual is would ruin his reason for becoming estranged from his family and leaving Tevinter. It would also remove the conflict with his father as well as its resolution.

It's also copypastey. In DAO and ME even the bisexual romances have unique dialogue depending on the player's gender. With playersexuality all that changes are the pronouns. All in short, characters having different orientations have more flavor.

ME is choke full of gorgeous women so I beg to differ. There's also Leliana and Isabela in DA.

Going to be interesting to see just how cliche the companions will be. Since it's BioWare and it's such a popular type too a socially awkward one is a given. Looks like Bellara could be the socially awkward AND quirky one. So another Merrill again? She was cute and all but need a really good personal story to sell that trope to me again (never romanced her, just as cool character). Curious if BioWare still has a virgin fetish...

I can never tell who I'll end up liking the best. First few hours of BG3 I didn't really like any of them. Laezel was a racist asshole, SH was being a complete bitch for no reason. Gale the guy who talks too much and irritated the crap out of me. Astarion was hot alright but an awful resentful gremlin. I was not happy, lol. But most of them really grew on me.

Going by companion profiles is always misleading. So makes no sense planning romances. Even looks don't matter too much if their personality is grating. I'll be relieved if they aren't all socially awkward crybabies like in Andromeda. My bar is really low right now for what counts an an improvement. But at the same time sky high because of BG3. Sigh. Also DAI had the highest number of companions I liked (as people or as characters). So technically their last DA game is also a high bar.

I still have low expectations for the game based on their last two games. They can hype it up as much as they like. I got burned bad by Starfield, another studio I shouldn't have trusted after the shit they pulled. If it sounds too good it's a trap, lol.
I really want to believe BioWare listened to feedback and are back in business but I haven't felt like the target audience of their games for a long time now. I will need a lot of input AFTER release to decide how much money I want to gamble on it.

It makes also sense that you have to thread carefully with specific dialogue lines and choices with her, considering her patron deity . 

As someone that played on PS5, and haven't played the game in EA, though, I remember reading articles that the companions all hated Tav, long before release which wasn't really my experience during my first playthrough, so I don't know if they toned down that part during development. 

In regards of Veilguard, I'd say that based on everything they mentioned in articles, Q&A, blogs and also Darrah's video on the name change, it's undeniable that they put a lot more focus on companions then in previous games, and they're central to this game's experience. I do expect the number of interactions overall to be increased compared to previous games, as well as bigger characters arcs. In terms of actual quality and depth, we'll see how it'll go. I do think we really saw too little to judge them so far (although the marketing team didn't make the game any favors with the montage and editing of  the reveal trailer). They did mention they didn't use previous characters as a base for the new ones, but we'll see.

I do have some concerns that they put too much focus on them an their arcs compared to the main plot/the rest of the game.  Hopefully it won't be the case.

I do recall this, actually. A bunch of us were discussing it about four months out from ME2 being released and just shook our heads over it.

I do personally think that Taash looks different in terms of face, in the reveal trailer compared to the GI shot and the Lighthouse shot. It could be my impression, but I'm not the only one that noticed that (and there are a number that think she look better in the latter then the former).

I do think the game looks something weird depending on the screenshot and lightning. Harding look also somehow different in the Lighthouse screenshot compared to the screenshot taken from the opening gameplay.

This is why I see playersexuality as a sign that a developer is unwilling or unable to devote resources to the relationship development.