Haters and Lovers of Veilguard

As one of the Enlightened few, weeeell, I liked Rook..if you accept him as predefined heroic leader.
When he's not going giving annoying pep talks, he's like paragon Shepard without stick in his ass. Neve I also liked, though she's more like less interesting Miranda.
Sound design was also very good: from footsteps to picking loot, meteor crashing to the ground..it has a very satisfying, crunchy "oomph".
Items were also improvement over DAI: you can make some fun/OP playstyle builds when combining them with talents.

I don't understand?

I vaguely remember clicking on the big map to make a chest show up on the mini map to help guide Rook there. There is more to it than that?

I wouldn't say I "loved" the game, I really enjoyed it but not to the point of loving it, but I guess I came close? I went 4/5 or 8/10 score wise ultimately.

So with a " kinda almost love" of the game, my criticisms (or things I missed from other games) :

- Lack of brought forward choices. Especially no Well of Sorrows, Schroedinger's Kieran, who the Divine is etc. But we've spoke about that at length, I needn't go on!

- I liked Neve but seeing that Calpernia could have been a companion? That could have been so interesting - not least it'd spice up act 1 which was sorta mediocre (IMO) until things ramped up. The tension between her and Harding/Varric in the prologue due to Inquisition? It'd be Morrigan v Alastair ramped up.

- Linked to the above point, lack of real tension between companions. The only thing that stood out was Davrin and Lucanis after act 1 with Davrin suspecting Lucanis' punches were pulled by Spite, I was like "finally!" then no more!

- Another inter-companion thing (last one, I swear!) - even if it wasn't tension/full on arguments, I miss the philosophical/social issue debates companions would have frequently, particularly the ones from Inquisition, say about slavery vs what the Qun is (etc.), Cole creeping into people's brains, Solas playing ongoing chess on the move to help Bull once he went Vashoth (if that choice happens). Fenris' animosity in DA2 toward Merrill for being a blood mage. I didn't dislike banter in Veilguard but previous games have so much heart behind them, be it friendly or antagonistic.

- Inquisitor was underused. I understand why story wise, they're taking care of organising efforts in the south, but could have used more of them. They just turn up for pep talks and whatever the Solas resolution is (well, she was there to witness my game's ending anyway) 

I love the game, so here are some criticisms:

• Companion disagreements are resolved too easily. I don't need my party bickering constantly or being catty with each other like some of them in Inquisition -- it's great when adults act like adults -- but at the same time, I think the found family vibe they were going for doesn't mean as much when existing disagreements just kind of fizzle out without us getting to really see the change. For example, we're living in the fade with an abomination, and while some companions have a problem with that at first (as can Rook), everyone just...gets over it? With no real issue?
• I also would have loved the chance to tell Neve/Lucanis to cut the crap after I didn't pick to help their city. There is only one of me. By all means, go help your hometown, but stop acting like I personally punched your grandmother in the face, if you aren't going to give me the chance to call you out. Don't summon me to your office with your little lamp and then tell me you don't want to talk either, Neve.
• Romance is so lacking in content compared to all previous games. What the hell happened? One kiss with Davrin, a few flirt lines and an "I love you" delivered from several feet apart (leaving room for Jesus Andraste), and one awkwardly-placed fade to black scene. Come on, Bioware. I don't need or want a sex scene, but a confession of love should come with some actual affection, and repeatable kiss or cuddle scenes throughout the game would go a long way here.
• Rook draws all the aggro all the time. I know Frostbite isn't very moddable, but I hope a mod can do something about that someday.

So did ME1, but any time I bring that up, people fall all over themselves trying to explain why it's ok in ME1 but bad in DA2.

Such a cool idea
On the side of liking the game... I do have issues with it too (Some spoilers for those who haven't finished yet)

- The UGLY ARMOR! What were they on when designing them!? I usually don't even care for such things a lot, but those were something special. I think there's more or less only one or two armors per faction that I actually do like, the rest is meh. My first Rook loved his rags (and Garb of Kinship Warden armor).

- I don't like we couldn't kill Solas I know, they have an explanation. BUT STILL. It would have been so cool if the Inquisitor could have had the option. Or even Rook after discussing it with the Inquisitor earlier on during their meetings.

- I rolled my eyes at all the repetition of various things in the beginning, where it was especially grating. Seems it was done for new players, so I can overlook it, but there were so many captain obvious moments.

- I hate that when trying to dodge from a higher point, Rook would often just slide to the edge and then get whacked by the enemy. Camera is also shit at times.

- I was disappointed with Irelin and Strife. Couldn't get past Irelin's accent. I liked them both in the book, but in the game I was really indifferent. Neve's tone is also something that is a little off-putting, even though I like her and the voice itself. But it just sounds a bit too fake for me.

- Varric's revelation at the end... yeah, it is weird no one talks about it when they talk about EVERYTHING else (still, it made me cry like a baby because the music was beautiful and that gets me!! I cried for Harding too and I don't even love either of them ).

- I actually loved the companion missions, but it was way too much in Act 2. They had all these scenes and still I have the feeling for some companions it wasn't "deep" enough. I would have liked to have a few conversations where we can ask them things (not necessarily as long as in DAO and DAI though).

- The soundtrack grew on me in general and I like it (I listen to it daily at the moment), but I don't like some tracks when I hear them in the game. Does that make sense? Some of it is too... "fantastical/whimsical" when I hear it in-game? Most of the combat music is awesome though and anything with violins is so fucking good.

- The villains, meh. BW often has quite boring villains/antagonists. Only ones I liked in Veilguard were Solas and Isseya, because damn if she didn't make me feel really sad about what she had to do in the past (haven't read the book so I didn't know prior). I was able to talk her down and it was so good.

- Limited roleplaying is technically not so much an issue for me, as I like playing "nicer" characters in DA. But the option would have been good to have. Though I really can't complain, I could play my Rook exactly how I pictured him, so that was really great. I think a lot of me liking this game stems from that

- I don't mind the "everyone's friendly" thing, but the few standoffs they had were really quite boring or outright embarassing (looking at you, Bharv scene. Complete disbelief about this scene). I actually liked the Lucanis/Davrin conflict though.

Likely for the same reason they filed down all the other edges on the Dragon Age setting: to avoid offending anyone. Safety is the core tenet of Veilguard.

Omg, I run so fast, going "la la la la!!' through that section, it's so awful. 

Didn't the Hound in Fox and the Hound kill other foxes just not his friend fox?

Yeesh, what is going to be the next thing on the chopping block? Swords?

As a vegan, we are even fewer of the population than queer people. 99.9% of people do not honestly care about non human animals the way vegans do, and I highly doubt Bioware cared enough about people like me to remove it for my benefit. They left in spirit torture, for example. So I still believe it was lack of money and time and not because Bioware wanted to make a gentler kinder digital world for animals.

I imagine a couple of scenarios. might be they made them, but didn't have the resources to make them bug free before the polishing stage was reached and therefore they were cut. Lots of rumors about all sorts of cut things. 

I think this game is bad, but I don't think it was INTENTIONALLY bad. you seem to think it was intentionally bad. I think that is where our opinions diverge

Edit: Okay, I do think burning all of the south was intentionally bad. But the rest of it, no.