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

Let's not be disingenuous. Corinne wasn't "handed" anything. She didn't get hired to be DAV's director off the bat. She worked for years as a developer on Anthem and that game's state wasn't to be blamed on the people who made it. They're the ones who were getting burned out and having a quiet cry before going back to the crunch mines. A trajectory from the Sims 4 to an action game doesn't necessarily have to show a dev's suitability or lack thereof at that kind of project, that's just conjecture. She may have had some interesting ideas that got her hired but she worked her way up to the position she's in. And considering the state of the newest Sims 4 packs, putting it mildly, they're not exactly easy to develop, either. There's enough to be skeptical and critical of regarding DAV in a respectful manner without having a go at the people.

I watched the combat portion of that State of Play video and, while I appreciate the minimizing of the clutter on screen, it made it obvious to me how useless companions are in combat outside of combo usage. It was hard to notice in the previous videos with 10 darkspawn lemmings attacking all at once and having all the particle effects in the world explode on screen, but up against a single big enemy with minimal screen clutter shows the companions are essentially DoTs you use on a cooldown. The dragon paid absolutely no mind to Lucanis and Taash. It only looked at Rook, only lunged at Rook, only spat at Rook. There's a moment where it just walks past Lucanis and Taash to smack Rook with its tail. There's another moment where Rook is next to it and it brings its head down to bite at her. Not once does the dragon try to bite Taash or Lucanis or swipe them away with a foot or hit them with its tail, despite the fact they are constantly stabbing it in the ankles. There's one moment where it flies up and lands back down and it pushes them back but I have to wonder if that was intentional or just a coincidence. This plus the fact that it still looks like companions have no health bars, thus don't take damage, makes it seem like you're fighting on your own and the rest of your party is just an extension of your ability pool. They're not people who are pulling their own weight in combat or draw a bit of aggro here and there to give Rook a moment for a breather or to allow a ranged build to stay at range and just be left alone.

Another skepticism point for me is the DAI choice import. This is also a bit funny for me because I watched some of KalaElizabeth's CC videos and she mentioned they also saw the Inquisitor customization screen at the preview event but they weren't allowed to talk about it and she said she thinks it may have been because that portion of the CC might not have been finished. With only 3 choices I now get why she said that.  I've read the conversations about what people think about only 3 decisions apparently mattering in this game and the disappointment about this choice or that choice not being imported. I get it, I also saw that screenshot and scratched my head and thought that that can't be all but it looks like it is. For me personally, it's not really the amount of choices imported but rather the flavor of them and how they're treated considering the Inquisitor's non-playable status. Romances, for example, can have different fates. The Inquisitor shows up and what do they say about Iron Bull? Is he still alive? Did the Inquisitor kill him in the Darvaraad? What about Blackwall? Is he Thom Rainier now, alive and well, or was he executed by the Orlesians or did he die during his Joining? From what I can tell, the choices being imported are formulated simply with possibly the ability to add the flavor in subsequent dialogue options. But that's the thing, no one apparently knows. People are wondering about this and no clarification has really been provided on how it'll work. What does a non-playable Inquisitor mean? Choosing the Inquisitor's dialogue options to me counts as them being playable, even if we don't have actual exploration or combat sequences where we are directly controlling them. When will these dialogue options to flesh out the basic imported choices be and to whom will they be said? Will the Inquisitor and Rook meet and have a chat and you'll be choosing the dialogue options of 2 characters speaking to each other? Or is this just a Solas vs non-Solas romance flag and this time it's the non-Solas-mancers that are going to feel disappointed?

Don't worry. It definitely will be. It's right there in the IGN article from the devs themselves. They felt it was very important for the Solasmancers to get closure. Your choices throughout the trilogy be damned. At best, I suspect that we'll get a codex, letter, or maybe even a cameo from a few select characters, but nothing on the level that people who love the egghead will get. 

Mass effect trilogy, Biower says "your choices matter"

In the end, we know how that turned out.

Dragon Age series, "your choices matter".

We get a Grand total of 3 choices of "import states" for Veilguard. And the Keep deactivated.

Hmm..

Methinks Biower replays..

I was amused to see Taash and Lucanis having to literally run after the dragon to poke at its feet while it remained laser-focused on Rook.

Kind of feels like it undercuts the whole point of recruiting this crew of badasses when they’re basically glorified Elden Ring summons, don’t it?

Gaider doesn't work on Bioware, though, and never worked on Veilguard, and his tweets aren't an indication of the marketing campaign.

Could he share the same mindset as the members of the team? Sure, but faulting Bioware to insulting people/fans for something a former dev said isn't really fair.

I didn't mean to say you accused someone, my point was more about not seeing how this a red flag for the game. 

Gaider is still a public figure and head of his own studio with influence, but he's not involved with the game. I don't see why him insulting people is relevant at the moment

I didn't watch the whole video, but I did watch enough to agree with most of what he said. I like what he did with the interface. Looked better.

I have said this game appears to be a copy-cat of MEA except with swords. MEA removed features/options/choices that were in the trilogy while Veil has done the same. Removal of controlling companions. Reduction in the number of companions from 3 to 2. It appears this game will not allow a player to not recruit a companion like in MEA.

Fortunately, Veil has an ability wheel while MEA removed the power wheel making the squadmates useless. Speaking of useless. The video shown the other day with the dragon fight showed the companions doing a whole lot of nothing. It seems the only reason why they're in the game, and why the game has an ability wheel, is to have combos. That's how I saw it. Take that away, how effective would the companions have been in the fight? 

The dragon fight with rook was alright. It was good seeing rook run instead of doing the slow motion crap seen in DAI. While watching the video, my thought was how much better it would have been if I was able to control the companions. That way I can say they were contributing instead of looking like decorations and waiting for me to do the combo thing.

I'm curious about what choices will be imported. If I read correctly, the well won't be one of the choices. Is that going to be the same for other choices? If so, then this game appears to follow ME3 motto. ME3 is the best place to start playing the trilogy except it's Veil is the best place to start playing DA. 

I'm not a fan of all the flashing color stuff. Not sure why Bioware decided to have that. It's like Dec 25th meets July 4th. I watched a video mentioning even with the settings turned to the lowest, it was still too flashy for him. I'm curious how many others will say the same when playing the game. I might be one of them.

The biggest question I have is the rook character. Will rook have a pair to stand up to other characters, or will he/she end up being a lame duck like in MEA? I bring this up because the number one reason why I didn't like MEA was because of the main character.

Remember, perceptions are everything.  It doesn't matter whether or not someone is directly associated with Bioware in this case; this outburst is already having its effect on potential customers of this game; that was my point.  It's not a smart move at this juncture.  And if you find 'red flags' disagreeable, then use 'reservations' instead.

It’s not really about flags or reservation, but I think I get what you meant. 

You’re not saying BioWare is insulting potential players/customers, but that there might be that perception given Gaider’s history with the franchise.

Gaider always been this way. He used to get into arguments when he was posting in the old forum as well.

There was a time where I could resect Gaider, even if I didn't agree with him.