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

With this recent move from being able to control your companions, I do wonder if this marks the tentative end of companion control in BioWare games.

Mass Effect never let you control your companions, and if Veilguard does manage to find success with its new formula, it would likely justify them continuing down that road.

I would say yes, at least for the moment. It's possible there could be feedback from players wanting to have that mechanic return.

In ME trilogy, the player had some control over the squadmates. Shepard could have a squadmate use this power against one enemy while having the other squadmate deal with another enemy. MEA removed the power wheel. In this game, Bioware has added the ability wheel. Even if the formula works, I rather have control of companions instead of being like ME. 

I should have specified direct companion control (as a mechanic).

In an effort to change the subject, I’ll note that it doesn’t seem like the “Vows and Vengeance” podcast is doing very well. Episode 1 has 76,000 views on YouTube, Episode 2 only has 37,000 and Episode 3 (which was released a day ago) has 20,000.

Now, admittedly, V&V is available on Spotify and I have no idea what kind of numbers it is drawing on that platform, but purely in terms of YouTube views, that strikes me as pitifully low for professionally-done videos.

“Well, who cares about the podcast does poorly?” Maybe it doesn’t matter at all, but I can’t help but wonder if a lack of enthusiasm for V&V is indicative of a similar lack of enthusiasm for Veilguard.

I'm generally back to optimism now but did sigh when I saw the heart icon appear in the latest video by IGN, clearly introduced when first speaking with the companion after completing their recruitment quest and, as with DA2, to my mind a totally inappropriate moment to be flirting with them given the trauma everyone has apparently just been through. Are people really so crass and insensitive in real life? Still, I ignored it in DA2 the first time it was offered for Anders and Fenris, so I shall do so again. I assume that means it may still be offered further down the line but if not, so be it.

It is why I much preferred the system in DAO where they split dialogue between general conversation getting to know the person and personal that could lead to romance, so you didn't wonder if ignoring the heart icon might stop all future romance and whether you should take it when offered. That way if there was no possibility of wanting to romance them, I could just ignore the romance option altogether but if I just wanted to get to know the person a bit before embarking on a romance, I could and then start clicking on that branch later without having to hope and wait for a heart icon to be offered again.

What, you mean if you get a new person joining your team at work the first thing you ask them isn't their sexual orientation and whether they are in a relationship and such?

I wasn't particularly referring to Rook, sorry. These weird super early flirts seem to be a BioWare thing though. Right when you meet Cullen in DAI you can ask him "Are you with anyone?". And that super creep Anders, telling Hawke that he's into him/her about four and a half minutes after knifing his previous lover.

So why put it under a heart icon that is meant to lead to a romance? The heart icon is misleading in that case. That's what I don't get when they put something that might be considered a friendly bit of encouragement under a flirt icon but you only discover that if you click on it? Clearly, it is meant to indicate that Lucanis will take it that way, as indicating romantic interest, and that's why I feel it is inappropriate.

This is what I am getting at. Even if you didn't know Karl was his lover (which a female Hawke never does), he was an old friend and clearly the whole episode was traumatic for Anders, so you don't start hitting on him the first conversation you have with him after the event. That was just crass and insensitive. Okay, perhaps some players are like that but it is awkward and confusing for those that aren't because you are left wondering, should I click on the heart icon or not? (Because you don't know if that will close off that path to you by refusing it). I was hoping they would have realised that by now and save introducing the heart icon to a later conversation than the first one you have at the end of their recruitment mission.

No matter what Bioware does, there will always be people on both sides that hate the other way
No heart icon - people don't get the romance triggers and are confused the NPC wants to love you for simply being nice
Heart icon - people don't like the fast and obvious path to romancing

It's not an attack on anyone from my side, but of course they can't please everyone with this. To be honest, I am neutral on the heart icon, and some of these ARE actually reasonable and not flirty at all (like Lucanis's, I absolutely don't see anything wrong with saying you admire how he got through something). So I take them whenever they fit.
I think you can easily skip a heart icon or two, I did that last time in DAI. Didn't take heart icons with Blackwall or Cullen at the beginning, then later on tried some to see if they would respond to being in a relationship with Solas. They did, so I assume if I hadn't committed to Solas I could have still gone for a romance with either of them. I reloaded after trying the heart icons btw, I am all for experimenting with dialogue choices
(I can understand some are off-putting, Maker knows I resisted a looooong time in Mass Effect 2 to select the "I want you, Thane" option after he just told me more about his dead wife But last year I finally tried his romance and to my surprise the paraphrasing was just soooo bad, the actual dialogue really sweet and fitting. I assume it could be the same with DATV.)

I also think it's important to keep in mind that many players will only play a game once (I know, weird! ) and might want the most out of their romance and make sure it's succeeding. For those the heart icon does actually help a lot.

Skepticism thread . . . IGN First Look video.

I hated almost everything about this first look. 10 Random thoughts about the first look . . .


1) The script of the entire video sounded like the author was reading promotional talking points provided to her by Bioware. If you told me Bioware wrote and paid for this 'first look' I would believe you.

2) Author made some questionable comments like saying they enjoyed the fact that Rook wasn't a 'Chosen One' like in Dragon Age Origins. What?? did they actually play Origins? 'chosen one' is a big reach. You get forced into the Wardens via bad situations and you technically aren't even necessary to complete the story . . . Alistair can literally kill the Archdemon and basically do everything without you.

3) The combat looks more and more 'flashy' every time they show it. I hate it. And the new enemies just looked like huge Hit Point sponges. Dodge/block attacks, spam damage, throw in a combo, repeat until done. Where is cover? Environment you can interact with?

4) New character dialogue was all lackluster. And I expect to soon hate companions warning you about things in combat "The enemy is attack from ranged' . . . yes thank you Harding . . . I noticed the giant spell blob flying directly at my character.

5) ALL the Qunari appear to look like crap . . . NPC ones in addition to the Rooks.

6) I hate the big notifications telling you what impact your conversation options have when you talk to NPCs 'You have exchanged verbal barbs with Solas' well duh . . . I picked a snarky comment, I can figure that out myself.

7) The useless environmental interactivity is back. Click on glowing object . . . make bridge appear, click on obvious beam and it gets put across a gap. There is no thought, choice, or meaningful interaction. You just walk up to an obstacle, click on some highlighted thing, and continue.

8) Facial animations still look wonky and like playdough.

9) I question the authors judgement . . they are a movie/tv reviewer and well, lets just say I don't agree with their reviews (They actually liked She Hulk)

10) Petting cats and dogs was cute . . . years ago when it was first tried in games. I don't consider it a big selling point (or playing rock-paper-scissors with Manfred).

The whole thing just felt like a 'feel good' puff piece and made me not trust anything that was said.

Okay, I take your point. May be Lucanis will just see it as being caring and supportive, not anything more than that, so I'll be guided by the prompt itself rather than the label they put on it.