Dragon Age: The Veilguard - A woke disaster? Yep!

[Mola Ram]

The only thing I'm fairly satisfied with is the ending-Solas the Trickster/Prometheus figure being bound forever to hold up the world as penance-for his crimes, willingly or not.

Whether you convince him he was wrong via the power of love, or everyone dies(my favorite ending)-I do think its...a decent conclusion to Solas' story? Solas is fundamentally a mythological character-and as the last of the elven gods-his penance to hold up the Veil(he made) from collapsing-is pretty appropriate.

Solas the spirit of wisdom, demon of pride-the rebel and the traitor-the one who freed his people and took away their eternal life-because of his pride-choosing or being forced to give his essence in penance forever-he can't undo the damage he did, but he can prevent it from becoming catastrophically worse.

It fits what I liked about the Evanuris-as mythic archetypes in an otherwise relatively low-ish fantasy setting.

I'm firmly convinced that anything about Veilguard that's this good was almost certainly written during Origins' infamously long development period, much of which was devoted to exactly this kind of worldbuilding.

 

[Ishtar]

They were always going to bring back Fen'harel-he's alluded too as early in Origins-a text blurb to be sure, but he's there. Merrill also refers to him in DA2-Solas as a character was created later, but the ramp up from Origins' low fantasy to more high/mythic fantasy was Gaider's outline.

 

[Observotron]

I still remember when this first image of Veilguard-style darkspawn dropped. I tried to maintain optimism but it was pretty clear a disaster was in the offing.

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The biggest Bioware ball washing I've ever seen has to be how the 'fanbase' prefers DA2+ darkspawn because they were apparently just "orcs" in origins. (ignoring that darkspawn became generic zombies afterwards).

 

[Mola Ram]

The biggest Bioware ball washing I've ever seen has to be how the 'fanbase' prefers DA2+ darkspawn because they were apparently just "orcs" in origins. (ignoring that darkspawn became generic zombies afterwards).

The ball washing around DA2 in general is incredibly delusional. It's frankly a miracle that between that and the ME3 debacle BioWare wasn't shuttered over a decade ago.

 

[Jace on ice]

Origins was allegedly a Baldur's Gate game at some point in development which explains why it had a very dark tone compared to everything that came after it.

 

[Leaf Wage Slave Jr]

The ball washing around DA2 in general is incredibly delusional. It's frankly a miracle that between that and the ME3 debacle BioWare wasn't shuttered over a decade ago.

DA2 is a Bad Game, there should be no denying that. Do I have a soft spot for it considering that it was in development at the same time DAO Expansions were still being made? Yes, because it means it could’ve been significantly worse.

For the many, many flaws DA2 had, I appreciated it trying to tell a more personal story that what the rest of the franchise did - Hawke didn’t save the world, hell Hawke didn’t even save Kirkwall. The more success Hawke had, the more it seemed like his life sucked.

I would’ve loved to see that done by a team with both time to actually cook, and some actual competency - granted I think that’s just called Mafia 2…

 

[Mola Ram]

DA2 is a Bad Game, there should be no denying that. Do I have a soft spot for it considering that it was in development at the same time DAO Expansions were still being made? Yes, because it means it could’ve been significantly worse.

For the many, many flaws DA2 had, I appreciated it trying to tell a more personal story that what the rest of the franchise did - Hawke didn’t save the world, hell Hawke didn’t even save Kirkwall. The more success Hawke had, the more it seemed like his life sucked.

I would’ve loved to see that done by a team with both time to actually cook, and some actual competency - granted I think that’s just called Mafia 2…

Two things killed DA2, one of them a story we've seen before; the other a flaw that I increasingly believe was the downfall of the franchise as a whole.

The story we've seen before was the development time. There are fantastic ideas in DA2, really good characters, and some surprising but intriguing developments to the world. A story limited in physical scope but covering nearly a decade of time could have been amazing, if only it had been fleshed out more. Imagine seeing Kirkwall change over the years, which in its released state it barely does at all.

The thing I think killed the franchise was Hawke. Looking back, Hawke's inability to change even a single city, his inability to stop the mage rebellion or even stop Anders from committing a horrible massacre, echoes the origin stories of the preceding game. Yes, you have a lot of decisions that affect small things, and you can decide what kind of person you are, but the ultimate outcome -- going with Duncan in the origins; seeing the birth of the mage rebellion in DA2 -- is impossible to stop.

Given that this is Hawke's introduction, what does this do? It makes Dragon Age II a game-length origin story.

But the backlash to Hawke -- merited in some ways -- meant they wrote him into a mere supporting character, and the path both Inquisition and Veilguard took turned DA2 into this oddball side story that no longer feels like a main installment.

 

[Ishtar]

Hawke's story is about failure and inability of one individual however charismatic or skilled to shape history. Its a subversion of the BioWare formula.

I like it for that reason-but I would concede it doesn't really fit an RPG story-Hawke is reactive, and ultimately passive-the Chantry, Qunari, Mages and Templars-Hawke may help or oppose, but Hawke isn't acting-they are reacting to what other in game characters or factions-Anders, bartrand, Meredith, etc... do.

Then DAI has the Inquisitor-which goes totally in the opposite direction-the Inquisitor is the most powerful person in Southern Thedas, wields armies, spy networks and diplomats, and is the only person able to solve a magical crisis, ends civil wars, foils Qunari plots, and meets a Titan, and kills like 11 Dragons.

So what does Veilguard do? Well the South is almost as dead as Mars-and the Inquisitor just shows up a few times and gives us letters about how bad things are.

Rook by contrast-is even more a blank slate-that has less character than the inquisitor-they just run around doing stuff-and succeeding more because of the team/their allies/Solas.

Its a total lack of vision and writing discipline in direction.

 

[BlankSpaceBaby]

Dragon Age has never been a cohesive series anyway.

Executive meddling murdered Dragon Age 2, Gaider and friends are already has pronoun brainrot in Dragon Age: Inquisition and it shows in the Qunari retcons and deliberate erasure of female desire demons among other sawing off of the edges, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a natural progression of the progressive kuru that had destroyed the brains of the people behind the franchise. The Borderlands-style art and dialogues are just some of terminal stage symptoms.

One may cut the Bush Tranny some slack in that she was a complete newcomer using the game to skinwalk her own Solas-and-Troon fanfiction, but that fat lummox Weekes has no such excuse.

Funniest thing I've read on the Dragon Age subreddit is the pleas for David Gaider to buy the franchise from EA and save the LGBTs in the game. Yeah, that will work, because he has a few billion dollars fermenting in his anus.

 

[Ishtar]

I would trust Gaider-he’s gay but he’s also an older D&D nerd-at least I would have. I don’t know what his current projects are like.

But yeah-trends have been clear since inquisition.

 

[Mola Ram]

One may cut the Bush Tranny some slack in that she was a complete newcomer using the game to skinwalk her own Solas-and-Troon fanfiction,

Despite my deep-seated antipathy for troonery in all its forms, I do have a shred of sympathy for Corinne in that s/he was clearly installed as a meatshield against criticism: the game was a dog's breakfast and everyone knew it, but they could play up trans sympathy points by saying everyone just hated the poor little dickgirl, staving off criticism for at least a little while. It's undoubtedly part of the reason the game got as many positive reviews as it did, until its status as a financial flop was undeniable.

but that fat lummox Weekes has no such excuse.

And yes, Weekes should be buried in an anthill and his stupid bluehaired head covered with honey. His unemployment makes me smile.

 

[Jace on ice]

Are there any sales figures for Failguard? Wikipedia doesn't list any and Googling it just brings up that " we have five million players!" Shit that means nothing because this garbage was a Gamepass game.

 

[Mola Ram]

Are there any sales figures for Failguard? Wikipedia doesn't list any and Googling it just brings up that " we have five million players!" Shit that means nothing because this garbage was a Gamepass game.

I don't believe there are any hard and fast sales figures, but this development from early this year was very suggestive:

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ea-lost-6-billion-in-market-value-following-fc-25-dragon-age-underperformance-news/

 

[Jace on ice]

I don't believe there are any hard and fast sales figures, but this development from early this year was very suggestive:

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ea-lost-6-billion-in-market-value-following-fc-25-dragon-age-underperformance-news/

I knew it couldn't be good news because even literal paid shills like Skillup gave it very negative reviews.

 

[LazyLizard]

Funniest thing I've read on the Dragon Age subreddit is the pleas for David Gaider to buy the franchise from EA and save the LGBTs in the game. Yeah, that will work, because he has a few billion dollars fermenting in his anus.

the only way to "save" dragon age is for a whole new company who were big fans of the franchise takes it over and retcons everything past trespasser and no one who used to work on DA past 2 gets even let in the door

 

[regalterry]

the only way to "save" dragon age is for a whole new company who were big fans of the franchise takes it over and retcons everything past trespasser and no one who used to work on DA past 2 gets even let in the door

I'd go one step further and have them restart with Origin, with the express purpose of excising the last shred of BioWare faggotry from the game, ensuring none of the usual suspects feel welcome enough to shit things up a second time.

 

[LazyLizard]

I'd go one step further and have them restart with Origin, with the express purpose of excising the last shred of BioWare faggotry from the game, ensuring none of the usual suspects feel welcome enough to shit things up a second time.

i really think DA2 gets way to much hate, it's only flaws are that it was forcefully rushed out by EA, had they been given the time and money they needed it would have been just as good as origins and if anything it's darker then origins, your family keeps dying like flies including your mom being killed by a serial killer, the qunari race war, the mage templar tension constantly building, everything you build up through the game is ruined because Anders becomes an extremist and bombs the church causing a massive war (a war that is finished in the first 1/5 of inquisition, what a useless buildup)

 

[Prophetic Spirit]

(a war that is finished in the first 1/5 of inquisition, what a useless buildup)

Actually, the war is still going in Inquisition until Corypheus being defeated.
All the rebelling mages can be joined in Corypheus army if you side with the templars.
All the corrupted templars can be joined in Corypheus army if you side with the mages.

I'm still mad about how Inquisition handled the Grey Wardens.

 

[Peaches the Wonder Cat]

I sure am glad I made sure the Dragon Age Keep had all those sidequests and world states from the first three games set up, because Veilguard completely ignored it for some reason.

 

[Jace on ice]

I sure am glad I made sure the Dragon Age Keep had all those sidequests and world states from the first three games set up, because Veilguard completely ignored it for some reason.

I genuinely don't understand why The Inquisitor wasn't the MC of Veilguard.

The Warden is deceased in a couple endings so I get why wouldn't want to bring them back but the Inquisitor is not only alive but it's only been like six months and they were actively tracking Solas so where are they?