Dragon Age: The Veilguard Xbox Showcase Trailer

Given the setting, I’d say Merrill was the first comparison that came to mind.

Oups, I was working of half-memory there and I thought Viago was Lucanis.

Jackdaw has thoughts and he seems happy. Him slowing down a lot of the stuff really helped get more of an appreciation for things. Plus some of the conclusions he draws...it would be surprising if he is right...so honestly may not want to watch it but a lot of very interesting thoughts going on. Very interesting.

I'd infinitely prefer the couple of characters linked to an established group (inquisition) and picking up a band of recruits along the way over pulling this new organisation out of thin air.
Even in Mass Effect 2 where you are similarly recruiting the dirty dozen it isn't a case of forming a superhero gang called the collectorettes.
It's not a deal breaker (it may just be a silly sop to the marketing department) but not a particularly positive sign imo.

The new title is too on the nose for my taste. I mean, as the Inquisition weren't we supposed to close the breach and deal with all things related to it? The breach was a hole in the veil. Now we will be the Veilguard, which guards the Veil? I dont mind the fact that the organization is called Veilguard but seems too close to Inquisition even if completely different in tone. I think a more subtle title would have been better. Create some mistery with it.

After 10 years this is what they come up with? With all 3 iterations of the game (heist to multiplayer to singleplayer) it wouldnt surprise me if we get an Andromeda situation where the final product ended up being developed in 18 months. And it seems clear there was no "guiding vision" to the project since leadership changed so much in the past few years.

I think what we will get is not really a Dragon Age main series game (Inquisition might have been the last one). With the oldguard mostly gone, what we have is a bunch of new developers just doing whatever they want with the lore wiki at their disposal.

Opinions on the trailer aside, it was a gigantic misstep. Whoever OK'd it is probably feeling really bad right now. It is to be expected to see Bioware haters jump on it, but as it stands, its not that they divided the fandom, they pretty much made a ratio of Diehard Bioware fans vs Everybody Else (haters and casuals alike, and even some old Dragon Age fans), and thats not good at all, the diehard fans are few and getting fewer.

Bioware couldnt afford to mess the first trailer this bad (previous videos werent trailers, they were teasers). I hope gameplay trailer redeems it, but might be too late. The first impression for casual gamers at large has already been made.

And please dont go trying to defend the trailer to me, it doesnt matter really. If you like it, awesome! But objectively looking at its reception, its bad for Dragon Age, period!

It is possible that Minrathous will be our main hub from which we travel to other areas and then as you say come full Circle. If you look at the trailer again, you can see the scenery behind Taash would appear to be that coast in Rivain, which would make sense as she is from the Lords of Fortune, and also there was mention of increased activity by dragons there, which would attract her attention. Likely it will be looking into the cause of this that drives the narrative there.

Lucanis is likely to be recruited in Tevinter and so if Minrathous is the only city we visit there, that is where we will find him. I think he may be in contact with Neve because of her connection with the Shadow Dragons. Whilst they weren't specifically named in Tevinter Nights, I think they were the group he had his contracts with to kill the Venatori in his short story. Someone powerful and rich was sponsoring his contracts but wanted to remain anonymous. (I was guessing at the time that might be Dorian but equally it could be Maevaris). However, the people who were assisting his efforts on the ground seemed to be more of an underground network like the Shadow Dragons. Thus if that screenshot is of an early part of the game likely Neve and Lucanis are going to be some of our earliest recruits and then we travel to the other areas. Could be interesting if we travel to Antiva with Lucanis since they think he is dead. However, in the story when Illario says about what will he do when people know his face in Tevinter, he jokes "grow a beard" and what does Lucanis have in the trailer but a beard, so I guess that perhaps he may have altered his appearance sufficiently that people in Antiva won't necessarily recognise him on sight.   Perhaps he will be the reason we travel to Antiva though, either because he knows there is some magical artifact held by the Crows or he just feels guilty about abandoning his homeland just before the Qunari invasion.

As for the other recruits, presumably we'll find Bellara in Arlathan Forest, Darvin in the Anderfels and possibly make a brief trip to the Necropolis in Nevarra to team up with Emmerich, unless he also has taken a trip to Minrathous. Harding, of course, is likely to be with us from the beginning.

It does depend on what you want to be the focus of attention. Previous games have tended to place it on the PC and their group. Origins related to the fact there were numerous origin stories and it was an introduction to Thedas. DA2 was to have been called Exodus which related to Hawkes' journey. Inquisition was definitely about the organisation we developed and thus the companions that formed part of it. So The Veilguard is part of the same theme.

A focus being on our antagonist is more linked with Expansions and DLC: Awakening (awakened darkspawn); Legacy (what daddy Hawke did to bind Corypheus); Mark of the Assassin (Tallis - yet another companion who did the dirty on us); Jaws of Hakkon (our adversaries); the Descent (speaks for itself but discovered something in the depths) and Trespasser (which could be talking about any of us in the Crossroads but ultimately revealed that Solas was a trespasser in the Inquisition)

Based on what they stated, it's due to the fact they wanted to bring the focus on the companions.

There is some speculation that the original idea as a live service game didn't have full-fledged companions (I do think the game was going to be quite multiplayer-heavy, but it's simply my assumption and I could be wrong), and that working on them during the years made them think of switching the name.

According to Gamble, the DA team had in mind the change for a while.

cool, she didn't seem romantic to me but I've never done her romance so i thought maybe it was hidden there.

I can picture a cult of mustache curling EA executives conspiring to hijack the marketing team to kill off Bioware once and for all:

"Lets make the art style super cartoony, and have Varric and Harding engage in snarky over the top banter to distract from the serious nature of the game."  

He said what i think.