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

If an almost 30k upvote count doesn't make you one I don't know what does!   

Still, I've always appreciated your thoughtful and insightful posts.

Also noticed that shopkeepers now seem to be associated with the factions too. You standing with the faction influences what they will offer you. At least that is how it came across to me. Are there no independent shopkeepers? I am not clear how you upgrade the Caretaker either but apparently the quality of his crafting only improves if you do. This also impacts on what you find out in the field. I thought at first that the equipment leveling up with you was a good thing but now I'm not so sure. Hopefully there are enough unique items out there to find that the whole business with the Caretaker and Shopkeepers won't matter.

Except we are also part of a faction and we have our specialism linked to a faction. That is giving me bad vibes too. I will never willing join the Crows. Sorry but my opinion of them is too ingrained by what Zevran told me about them and what I have experienced of them in DA2 (they only appeared on the War Table in DAI), let alone what was revealed in WoT2 in connection with Zevran and in Tevinter Nights concerning their training, which only confirmed what we learned from Zevran. So do I seriously have to appease them to get my specialism?

Oh, I didn't know that was returning. Hope it is consistent this time round in terms of whether your choice of advisor/method of resolving a quest makes a difference or not. I found it annoying that some just resulted in different material rewards or the narrative associated with it and some had actual disastrous implications if you got it wrong (the Lavellan personal quest for example). Also, the amount of time a quest can take varying to such a degree. I found a way round that because I realised that it was in real time, so I'd opt for a longer quest before shutting down for the night. Following evening on getting home from work, the quest would have completed. That considerably reduced the backlog on certain advisors.

What I found funny was someone actually did a You Tube video making fun of that. It cracked me up because that was exactly how it was for me on my first run. I was a mage on that run and Fenris suddenly suggests I might like to fight a duel with the Arishok one on one. Seriously dude? I know you walked out on me after sex but this is rather a strange way to end our relationship permanently. I don't know about the mages you encountered up in Tevinter but in case you hadn't noticed, I tend not to go toe to toe with the enemy. That has always been your job. Oh well, can't refuse because that would be seriously losing face and I don't think we can risk that. Thank goodness for my mabari. I always knew the Ferelden's had good sense in keeping them. Without him distracting the Arishok, allowing me to fill up my mana again, I don't know where I'd have been. Six feet under I assume.

That's what is so puzzling. Why link them to factions at all in that case? They didn't in DA2 and we just took them at the appropriate level. Then in DAI they reintroduced the idea of having to learn it from someone and took it further by requiring we not only talked to them but had to go out looking for various items (which was the most frustrating part). So, if they have dropped that aspect, why not just describe the specialisms generically as they have always done? Why call the duelist an Antivan Crow Duelist as though it is different from a regular duelist? Why link the specific abilities within that specialism with the Crows, for example the first one is called Murder of Crows? Did they originally plan to have it more directly tied into the faction but then decided against it?

It would seem that if you can just reassign all your abilities if you wish, then clearly the specialism has nothing to do with undertaking a task or dealing with an individual from that faction before you acquire it. Presumably, therefore, no one references it either because otherwise it would be a big strange them commenting, "Oh I see you're a duelist", only for you to switch to being a Veil Ranger of Saboteur afterwards.

I have to admit every time they issue additional information, it makes me more confused. I think that partly lies in the fact that they do it through third parties, who may edit their information as they see fit provided it doesn't outright state something incorrect about the game. Or may be I am doing the third parties an injustice because the Devs didn't give them any more than they published.

I have checked the official website and there is still only the bare minimum of information there. I can't remember how it was with DAI. I know there was a much longer lead in period but was there any more information than this before we started to play?

Honestly, I wasn't really interested in Dragon Age 4. I knew a sequel was in the works and that I would play it, but unlike the previous games, rather after a promotion or something, but not day one.

I'm not a fan of how Bioware has gradually 'humanized' all the different races.

Elves are now just humans with pointy ears. Qunari are big humans with horns (and optionally a blue skin tone). Dwarves . . . well they have always just been short 'dwarf' stereotypes.

I thought DA2 did the best job of trying to set a distinctive art style for the different races. Elves had very thin and angular features . . . they looked like aliens of some kind. And Qunari were perfect embodiments of their Draconic origins.

Dwarves living underground should be pale albino type creatures . . . or organic stone like creatures.

And Elves SHOULD look like some mythical alien species. They are literally the descendants of immortal godlike beings. I don't want human ethnicities applied to elves. But now we have Davrin the 'Black' elf and Bellara the 'Asian' elf. I don't want 'White' elves either. I want Alien elves.

Ancient elves being immortal and living in a magic infused world with teleportation via portals anywhere . . . would be expected to all look similar. There are no environmental reasons for them to evolve into different traditional human ethnicities.

It all just cheapens the lore.

Dragon Age has never been very consistent or done a great job with the different races. But in DA2 they at least seem to try. And even in Inquisition the Elves had a very thin slightly non-human body structure, and Iron Bull was very clearly non-human. But Vielguard appears to throw it all out the window in favor of fan service.

If a player wants to 'self insert' into the lead character role, that's fine, they should play a human (the players are human after all). But if you want to play and Elf, Dwarf, or Qunari . . . you should play a creature of that race . . . not a human in cosplay.

Bioware has forgotten Sten's admonition way back in Dragon Age: Origins:


"People are not simple. They cannot be summarized for easy reference in the manner of: 'The elves are a lithe, pointy eared people who excel at poverty"

But yeah, now elves are in fact lithe, pointy eared humans who excel at poverty. Dwarves are short humans who excel at criminal enterprises. Qunari are big, horn-headed humans who like to fight. And so on. They've all turned into "Star Trek aliens"

I don't like the chest opening animation. It feels like something out of Fortnite or Apex Legends

Their reasons might be purely economical. It is easier to implement since there is no need to develop race-specific animations, just copy-paste reskinned human movement, and all is peachy done. Apparently, this simplification greatly reduces the costs and headache. IMO, lore is irrelevant for them if there is no time to implement it at an acceptable level.

At the time of DAO/DA2, the animations were of lower resolution and less elaborate thus requiring less effort, or maybe there were better artists or more time/funding available.

I’m going to miss the fighting side by side of combat and when things got tough and the hero fell I took over varric or sten etc etc and prayed I could overcome and then revive the remaining 3. It’s pretty constant for most RPGs of this type
Combat from what I’ve seen and please correct me if I’m wrong is your solo but then you get enough power to call in your other 2 for a wwe/streetfighter type combo?

Has there been any talk of side quests that don’t involve big battles? Thinking dragon age 2 style quests

Any talk of siding with factions like we have done in other games? I know we are in a faction but is there mage/templar type choices

Not really a skeptical thing from me here but I only just realized it after seeing it on Twitter lol. They had a qunari from each dragon age game and it really shows how drastically different the art style can be from game to game. From sten in origins to the aroshok in DA2 and then iron bull in inquisition, it got me thinking on a lot of that to even the elves are pretty different to each game when you look into it. Dragon age just hasn’t ever had that consistent art style to it at all be it makes me wonder if it would benefit from trying to keep a style and maintaining it.