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

As for why I'm skeptical. Well it looks like we're getting MEA-style combat and DA2-style romances. There is certainly more information to be learned of course, and more details my change my mind. But so far, it looks like they're combining two of Bioware's biggest mistakes (imo) that don't include a Starchild.

So, right now it's hovering around "wait for a steep discount"

Well, obviously. I did both paths for SH and got shockingly different results, as expected. Not sure if your reply was completely misunderstanding my point and supposed to be a dig at me or elobrating on my point...

You can influence the companions more than in any game I've played. Which is both cool and maybe a little bit too much of a power fantasy. Larian let's you change your mind and do the right thing over and over until the last minute even. For a game with grave consequences it's ridiculously easy to do the right thing at all times. And you always know what the right thing is. In that respect BG3 feels a lot like a BioWare game. CDPR are all about picking shades a bad, the lesser evil. BioWare and Larian games are hero stories where the good path is obvious and bad guys are REALLY bad guys and you can always solve a problem the nice way. You cannot accidentally get the bad ending. Hell, even playing an insane durge you still get the option to save the world right before the credits roll and be celebrated a hero the same way as if you were a good guy all along.

I could definitely see this as negative for BG3, Larian going out of their way not to block the player from certain outcomes by making bad choices. You can always fix a bad choice with companions and the main story. I kinda wish they did. Would have been more realistic. SH's fate isn't decided until the last minute either. You can still do the right thing at the very end of her arc. So I got to basically see all her romance endings by replaying just a little. As somebody who rarely replays games I appreciate this a lot. Also found this very convenient about Cyberpunk. You can get all 6 (?) main game endings except the secret one by just replaying the last mission with different factions. So I did that because I have no desire to replay half a dozen times to see them all. So like with playersexual I prefer the convenience over realism.

In any case, as I was trying to say in my previous post, ideally companions are complex and as you learn more about them they become interesting even if they don't seem like your cup of tea initially. So there's no point fretting about them just from tidbits about their backstory, looks or possible personality trope. If they can be influenced significantly like in BG3, even better. BioWare has done this before to a lesser degree with Garrus and Wrex, for example. So we'll have to see how dynamic the companions will be this time.
There's definitely pros and cons to having companions be so easily shaped by the hero. It's cool and cheesy at the same time.

Can't believe I dug up my old BSN account but I think this game will not do well based solely on the gameplay reveal - enemies didn't have any strategy, 3 abilities, 2 companions, demon redesign. The art style is weirdly cartoonish, it reminds me of Sims 4 a lot.

I think we should have seen the warning signs with this:


Millennial writing at its best. Even Merrill was not as annoying as this manic pixie mage.

Excellently put lmao, fully agreed

I'm skeptical about the combat. The characters looked like grasshoppers hopping around when in combat. Is there a slot in the talents called the hopper? Maybe after dealing with the threat, they can travel around Thedas calling themselves The Hopping Trio.

I'm also curious what the pride demon from the previous games would say seeing the new pride demon in the gameplay.

Most of all I'm curious as to why Bioware choose to remove 1 companion and make them not playable? Those are features I liked. I guess it also means I can't do a solo playthrough. I like doing those.

My wife appropriately nicknamed our HOA president as "dickwad".  Years, ago, we had hail damage that punctured siding on one side of the house.  The HOA put out a bulletin stating that an HOA permit was unneeded if you replaced your siding with the original color and brand of siding ... which we did and the repair job looked good.  The drunken Dickwad cost us $10,000 and made us replace all the siding because the existing siding was slightly faded.

It is the Kingdom of Amalur style. there is no doubt about it, even assets/moves are looking very similar. It is not too bad, once you get used to it.The abilities can be switched when out of combat to select 3 or 4 that are the best for specific encounters. The flow should be very smooth provided that everything is optimized. KoA was one of the smoothest combat systems at the time, so it should work well on modern hardware. Hopping may be due to unstable framerate in obviously unpolished version used for the recording.

Laezel gets a very different fate too depending on your influence on her. You can let her walk into her own execution basically. That's some really evil shit. But I guess her personality doesn't change too much regardless.

But yeah, some of the companions just leave when you go full evil which is GREAT. Going to be interesting how DAV handles them and how many real choices with grave consequences we can make. BioWare has always had to make choices work going forward, something that Larian didn't have to consider with BG3. Unless DAV concludes the elven storyline, wildly different world shaping choices cannot be done. Companions hopefully are a little malleable. But not too much. Rook doesn't need to be this idol everyone looks up to like with Shepard. I approve of companions having their own moral compass. Astarion and SH were super fun to influence but that doesn't need to be something that's possible with every single character. For them it made sense with their background of severe abuse to be extremely vulnerable.

I don't think that anyone can deny that the trailer was a misfire in terms of editing, music choice and everything else. While it might not bother some, the impression that it gave is definitely of a mobile/shooter game. Whoever was in charge of the decision, regardless if from Bioware and EA, made a disservice to the game. Even with all the issues due to combat changes, I'd say that if the reveal trailer was made with a different music and different editing in the scenes (with some/most that might not appear in-game, also), the reaction wouldn't have been nearly so negative.

First impression do matter, and the fact that a number of previews mentioned in the concerns the mood and presentation of the trailer isn't a coincidence. 

What you mentioned about the different between the promo/trailers is correct, and truthfully, they shown a number of screenshots from different parts of the game that do show a darker atmosphere. 
Aside of the actual quality of those plots and scenes, a few people that playtested the game also mentioned some horror-like elements and plots that they saw. And the very presence of one of those two Evanuris should be a good indication that those elements will be present.