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

I can't tell you how much I want this game to succeed... how much I've obsessed over this franchise. However, the decisions have just confused me to no end. Dragon Age has the most loyal fanbase I've ever seen, yet they've made so many changes that keeps alienating more and more groups of that fanbase.

The art style... Some of my peers who were huge Origins fans have no interest in even talking to me about Dragon Age anymore after that first trailer dropped. I guess that's why I'm ranting here as I have no where else to get this off my chest. Even with what Bioware has shown so far in Veilguard, the dark scenes clash too much with the art direction that my brain doesn't register it as dark or heavy. Whenever I see it I think of a Netflix kids movie. I still believe Act 2 and 3 are going to be very tonally different than Act 1, which might match up better with the Art direction.

Combat... they completely went away from tactical and went all in on action. Out of all the decisions, this one makes the most sense considering how well DAI did. Granted, I do believe Inquisition had two big factors that indirectly helped its success with not much competition in 2014, and Skyrim popularizing western fantasy RPGs. Don't get me wrong, Inquisition was a very polished product with high production value especially considering the scale. I digress. The combat does alienate all the people who loved the tactical combat in DAO/2 and remained hopeful it would return. Obviously, this also includes controlling your companions. Although, the combat looks a lot better than I was expecting, I still am concerned how long it holds up after 10 hours, 20 hours, 30? From what I can tell, it seems you'll be doing almost the same exact things at hour 15, to what you will be doing at hour 40. Unlike Final Fantasy Remake, you can't change characters for a completely different experience.

Story... I'm still a little bitter at Bioware for laying off some of the writing staff that built the incredible lore for this incredible franchise. From what I've seen so far from the Gameplay Reveal way back when... I'm concerned. You have demons snatching up civilians right in front of Varric and Rook with no reaction at all. Demons are causing an uproar and Solas is starting his ritual, yet Neve is just casually chatting with the party as if they're about to grab wine and a cheese platter after a Sunday afternoon stroll. Hell, Neve even poses for the camera with a building on fire behind her. Then Varric's plan after 10 years is to try to talk Solas out of it? On top of that, his backup plan is to shoot Solas with Bianca? Seriously? Did he forget that Solas can petrify people without even looking at them?

Import options... this is the weirdest decision to me. It alienates the "Dragon Age is my world" people. They don't care too much about the art style, the combat, hell even the story that much. They just want to feel like they're crafting their world and can head cannon any gaps. I think most people's expectations for Importing decisions were reasonable as Veilgaurd takes place 23 years after Origins and even 9 years after Inquisition. Considering it seems the current Bioware team want to move on from the trilogy to start their new chapter, why not give closure? For example Morrigan could tell us that the Warden couldn't find a cure and heard the calling. Depending on game states, Alistair could have went with the Warden as he heard the calling too. Hell, some of the Awakening cast too since they all joined around the same time.

I guess the only one's who are unaffected so far are the Lore people.