I am back. I finished Veilguard a few hours ago. I really did try and give it a fair shake, and I tried to go into it as open minded as possible. I feel very underwhelmed. So much of the game feels like it is doing things because they worked in other bioware games, not because it makes DAV better. Grey Warden Mind Rape quest, Suicide Mission, and having binary choices that causes a faction to suffer are all things that I've seen from Bioware before, and they aren't done particularly well here. Before I get too sidetracked though, one thing I do really like is the way you can be creative with builds. I went all in on a sword and shield style that had a ton of perks for fire damage, perfect blocks, and area abilities, but there were a bunch of other viable choices I could see. Some enemies are fun to fight, and the dragon fights feel better than they did in Inq. I do think combat gets a bit too cluttered, and with all the effects it can be really hard to see what is happening sometimes.
I did all the companion missions, and I have to say, the majority of them aren't that bad. Emmerich and Bellara (I was surprised, and despite her annoying chatter the VA has some really good moments) are the standouts writing wise, and I do think Emmerich is the best written character in the game as a necromancer who has a fear of his own mortality. Davrin is a bro, and even though the finale of his quest has a dumb plot hole/glaring question, he feels like how a grey warden should. Honorable, noble, and duty bound. Neve and Luce grew on me, though I do wish Neve got to do more actual detective work/cases in the game. Luce is just Zevren and Anders mashed together, but the VA has a couple of scenes where he kills it. I do not know why Harding is in this game. I don't dislike her, but I also don't really care for her, and her simping for Taash is really gross.
Speaking of: Taash is the worst bioware companion, by a long margin. The writing for her is absolutely schizophrenic and coddled, and her whole gender quest is fucking dumb. It feels so weird to have characters basically recite modern gender theory/ talking points and for no one to be able to say anything south of glowing about it. She is rude and demeaning to basically every character, and treated by everyone like a rare pwincess and a super badass simultaneously. It feels like Taash is some kind of rat king, where someone crammed several OC's together to get a teen dragon expert, nonbinary dragon princess, barbarian scholar, crass scholar, and she has a mom who is controlling. Here's the kicker, if you aren't a warrior, then her and Davrin are the only characters who can pull aggro and stop some of the more bullshit enemies/attacks from homing in on you like a pack of pitbulls at a daycare. So despite her being a tumor, her actual kit is very useful, and once her gender quest is over she is ugly but tolerable. I hate this character. Moreso because I see a way better way to do the character, and the game basically teases us with that. As an offside, if they wanted a taash to be a gender nonconforming zer, just give her the in universe Quanari term to use, and have her be zer from the get go. I'd also say make her older (almost Wynne's age) to be a believable expert, and have her personality be almost like a laid back hippie, who you can be ignorant towards and will actually converse with you about it. however, despite how bad Taash is, there is one character I think is worse.
It's Rook. Rook is absolute dogshit. Rook makes the Ryder siblings from Andromeda seem like Scorsese characters. Rook is a smiling, empty husk who might as well be a potato with a sword. Rook keeps on talking about "da team" like a Steven Universe character, and time and time again says they have "no plan" and the game rewards them despite Rook having the survival instincts of moth trying to fuck a bug zapper. It makes zero sense how many character keep trying to kiss your ass about how great you are when your only dialogue choices are " agreeable niceness, joke with zero social awareness, or Asperger's". Rook feels empty, and the more you play the more it sets in that you are piloting a point of view, not a character. The Inquisitor wasn't great either, but at least the anchor gave them a reason why they were in charge. Rook is jus some dude with no connections or backstory who exists to say things to progress cutscenes. Rook is a massive letdown, which is impressive as the bar for Bioware MC's isn't that high.
Speaking of massive letdowns; Solas and the Elven gods are just absolute wet farts. The game tries to redeem Solas by saying "he actually had reasons for doing these things", but then he just keeps doing shitty things, even when there is no reason to do so. The elven gods actually have a similar problem as the Reapers imp. They are so powerful that there is no real way to beat them, except by some sort of bullshit contrivance . But Elg and Ghil and so much worse than the reapers as there are a few times they could have just won, but decide to not murder the entire Veilguard. Also, if I may liberal soapbox for a minute, I always felt like the elves in DA 1 and 2 were representations of indigenous people being ground down by colonizers. Da1 City elf origin is one of the most horrific depictions of oppressions I have ever seen in a game. So I guess its just weird to me that the final villains in this franchise are the indigenous people's gods, who are actually evil, control the blight, and dream raped the dwarves. Does that not feel weird to anyone else?
In closing, I blame most of the problems of this game squarely at the feet of EA. The factions (which are a chore to deal with) are clear signs of the original live service idea, and the terrible terrible gear upgrade system that is a god awful tard lottery. The writing is bad, but I would be curious to see how many versions of the game's story there are. There are good ideas and mechanics in the game, but its like trying to eat an okay steak that is surrounded by piss gristle. Overall, I think people who harp about the game being woke are actually missing the bigger points of criticism that lack any ideology behind them. The game feels like the death whimper of a once beloved studio, and if this is the last Dragon age we ever see, I will take no joy in this being the end.
Final verdict: 5/10
were Bioware's last good games and it has been nothing but mediocrity and incompetence for over 15 years now.