42:34 Morrigan basically saying "I am but a humble advisor" is so funny, she got the manerisms from Mapo Brosca! That's why we don't import any choices from previous games, it's just that the mapoverse is canon, it's all implied! 😂
Cheese wheels have been a common Easter egg in dragon age but it seems they really filled this game with them because there’s loads hidden around the game all in weird places.
The pain of realizing so many story events wouldn't play a part in Veilguard because the choices were not imported is something a lot of us had to go through a few weeks before release when this was revealed. After a while I sort of accepted it and started to view Veilguard as a more "focused" story that was interested in finishing the whole deal with Solas before anything else, and I'm okay with it. Even if its not what I wanted from the 4th Dragon Age game, I'm still having a lot of fun with it. And hey, there are still quite a bit of juicy lore revelations in there 😶🌫
1:51:57 Actually sadly, Inqusition DID NOT have helments for Qunari either, but Mapolass wouldn't have known that. The Qunari and Helments have always had trouble together, hence the lore reason for Vitaar in the first place. Fun Fact: Thats why Sten and the other Qunari in Dragon Age Origins didn't have horns - couldn't throw helms on those bad boys
Yep the only real helmet that has appeared for Qunari that I can think of was the one helmet that Iron Bull gets in his personal quest, and that was probably easy for them to design since he had a set appearance (horns, head size, etc).
D'Meta's Crossing was the moment I was like oh yeah, we're back baby. So gruesome! But omg the cheese wheel, I didn't notice that in my playthrough lmao. I really like the scene where you unpack all your items, it's a nice way to give just a bit more context to your character and their background. (I don't want to mention this in every comment but there's even more backstory about Solas getting the lyrium dagger/idol in Tevinter Nights. I do highly recommend reading it at some point! There's a ton of connectivity to this game.)
Yeah Tevinter Nights almost feels like required reading for this game lol. It is fun for people like me who has read it but honestly a little weird how much context people who hasn't read it are missing...
@@sweZACK Reminds me of "The Masked Empire" book and "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" quest in DAI - and how reading it can change your view on the major choice in that quest with the knowledge you learn by reading the book
yeah there are SO many characters from the comics and books in the game. i felt like every 5 mins i was pointing at the screen like the Leo Dicaprio meme lol. but then i’d watch someone streaming the game and they’d just be blank faced when one of the major characters would appear. so i do wonder how much less of an impact this game’s storyline feels for ppl who only played the games
@@ellehcimbelle This was me too lol. And yeah I've heard a lot of people say the beginning is slow or whatever but I was there losing my mind every time a new character showed up so it was really exciting! It felt nice to me as a huge fan, and maybe a good substitute for them being unable to do more game character cameos, but it sucks for people who have no idea who they are.
Kudos to Mapo for coming into the game mostly "unspoiled" and making his own impressions, taking his time to take everything in with an open mindset! A lot of you see on the game around the internet is loaded with baseless hate and coming in with a blindsided opinion is much different than coming with a clear, critical mind.
34:50 I find it so funny how Mapo saw these 2d cutscenes narrated Varric and thought 'Oh yeah, just like Destiny 2!' when it's like...my guy...what about Dragon Age 2? 😅
@@Mapocolops Oh fair enough lol, I just laughed when you were like 'Oh, you know what this reminds me of?' and I was like ah nice he's gonna mention DA2- "Destiny 2!" "Oh."
@@Reclusiveon3 At any given time, there are people on this planet who are facing hardship. You've also been through troubling times before, correct? Why did you laugh at that person's comment?
Mapo! I know your play style is very similar to mine, don't get too stressed out if you see a path or a treasure chest on the map but you can't seem to find a way to it, the game does a really good job of walking you through areas in later quests where you will then have access to them
Without spoilers, one thing to keep in mind is that the well of sorrows and to be an actual carrier of Mythal’s spirit are two different things. The well of sorrows gave the drinker the memories of past worshipers of Mythal, but not her personal memories. Flemeth carried Mythal’s spirit without having drunk from the well. Also, in regard to past choices, aside from the well of sorrows (and what the fandom collectively misinterpreted it to be) for most choices in past games, these characters would have no reason to bring them up. Veilguard takes place in northern Thedas while all of the past games took place in the south. The cast would have no reason to bring up the inquisitor’s choice to side with the templars, for example, because northern politics are completely separate from the south-their approach to magic, templars, etc. This is just to say that, in general, past game choices have only had an impact on Ferelden or Orlais. The game has some issues, but implementing every minor choice into an environment it would never have impacted to begin with would have been a logistical nightmare, and at the very least, incredibly forced.
A character literally just casually mentioned the Southern Divine as I randomly walked past them tho, and in a way that indicates it is a specific one of the women, as it doesn’t make sense for the other two. I also found a note that i feel reveals who drank from the Well in this world too, but that wasn’t as specific. So it makes it feel like this world does have a chosen canon in it but that the writers picked it and were too afraid to tell us outright.
Axh Choises. Even DA2 had canon. We killed flemeth, here explantion she is alive! We killed Leliana, here explanation she is alive! Anders dies in dlc, here explanation he is alive! Alistar, here his cameo as King or as Warden. Goodbye Hawke, drink potions.
@@MrEvilside I literally beheaded Leliana in one playthrough. In general, when people extend zero olive branches at all I lose interest in their takes.
I get the consternation but Mapo you’re literally still in the tutorial mission XD Just because it isn’t addressed yet doesn’t mean it won’t ever be (whatever it is)
It is such a joy watching someone who has almost the exact same reactions I did when they drop giant lore bombs on your head, and you get super excited for what it could all mean. Your attention to detail is, as usual, great. I followed a lot of the prerelease stuff and it's interesting watching you deal with the limited Keep choices in real time as you go through your playthrough. It was definitely an unpopular decision when it was revealed and a lot of people were upset about it, so it's totally understandable that you are still thinking about it and talking about it. I had a couple of months to come to terms with it. In the end what I concluded was that the decisions I made in each game were valid for that game, and sometimes they may flavor a future game, but the meat of every game and what was special to me was the story and the journey of those games specifically. I know some people never did quite get over the lighter connection to previous games in terms of choices and that's valid, but based on watching all your previous Dragon Age playthroughs, I feel like you'll appreciate the connections they do end up making.
1:05:35 Yeah, that's a bit odd. Something probably changed during development, I mean they did get in Claudia Black only last year. Definitely the most likely explanation, considering the game's rather...tumultuous development. Also, the reveal that the Blight was locked up in the Golden City by Solas is pretty huge, though if they're dropping it this early in the game, then that must mean they have some even bigger ones in store down the line.
It’s so crazy in this early conversation with Solas he just casually lore drops that the Black City the ancient magisters broke into was actually just Solas’ prison. Just with one sentence (which is optional dialogue !!!) he knocks out the whole Golden City/Seat of the Maker/Andrastian religion… 🤯 and our character just ✌️ with it 🙇♀️🙇♀️🙇♀️🙇♀️
Earthshattering lore reveals are handled like a kid telling you the plot of the latest Christopher Nolan film. There are so many things that I should've been crawling up the wall after learning them, but they are told so poorly, I was just left disappointed at how poorly they were told.
@@cthulhucrews6602 eh I disagree - I did crawl up the wall with that (and many other reveals), was just disappointed with Rook’s lack of reaction to it. Solas saying it off hand here is not childishly put at all imo. He is just being a bit of a dick because he doesn’t like Rook atp 😂 if he’d made a big deal about that reveal, that would’ve been cheesy. Feel he was maybe testing Rook’s intelligence, and imo they failed cus they didn’t even bat an eye 😅
@@tardisfeathers I'm not saying Solas as a character has to make a big deal about certain reveals. I'm saying the game should. There's reveals about dwarves that change everything we know about them and they're just... there.
Love how you give these long thoughts on what happened before, you remembering all of this is so awesome, you really get the feeling that you loved these games. If you at any point feel like playing the previous games again, I would love to watch you with all the knowledge of the lore. :D
I can’t wait to watch your reactions to certain parts of the story and the ending sequence!!! 💜As for the blight in Veilgurd it is so well done imo - better than ever before - it’s creepy, disgusting and just terrifying.
About Kieran(Morrigan's son), I mean theOld God Soul was removed in Inquisition if it was there. Other than that, he's right around 20 now. Why would Morrigan tell us anything about her adult son we don't know?
I am not expecting Rook to get a lore dump for no reason, it's specifically that we just know none of it will come into play AT ALL. Because they cannot address it. On Kieran, it's the fact that the child can or can not exist at all with the Old God Soul for it to have been absorbed by Flemeth in the first place. Did Morrigan drink from the well or did the Inquisitor? Again, the fact that these are not choices we got to import confirms ahead of time it's not going to have any significance in this story when it absolutely could've, so there is no wonder or suspense on those events. It just spoils that element of the DA worldstate. So the point isn't Rook getting this information, it's confirmation that the events have taken place and could affect the story.
@@Mapocolops This is kind of how I feel as well. The biggest issue with the save import being as bare bones right now isn't how much or little past choices truly matter (if you look back, DA2 and DAI don't change *that* much based on imports either), it's that the wizard has shown what's going on behind the curtain. The writers can use ambiguous language and not reference things just like they would have regardless, but the transparency does sting. Still a fantastic game and I love it to bits. Dropping as much as I can when new episodes of the adventures of Mapoqun come out!
I actually get what you're saying, I do, and I'm certainly not part of the crowd that just runs around dunking on the game they didn't play, and lot of good things about it, b-b-but in this particular case... xD Yes, technically why would anything matter in the grand scheme of things, a complete stranger wouldn't open up about their personal life to the group of complete strangers. Unless if you don't take into account how Morrigan and Harding are friendly now, which begs the question...and then another question about "were they even friendly in Inquisition days, do I misremember stuff when they didn't interact at all?". On top of all the questions, there is a meta discussion, and plenty of diehard bioware fans, like myself, and content creators who were creating content all these years on DA and potential threads depending on worldstates, were really disappointed that they "tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end it doesn't really matter". DA was always about stories in Thedas, basically an anthology series unified by the lore and the world, but within those stories there were characters who defined how the world and parts of the lore would be (literally, during Inquisition days what happened in DA:O is part of lore in codex that you can read about, which is sooo cool). If we take these characters as fully realized people in the set world, they are defined by their life experiences and changed by them. Morrigan being a mother or not is a life-changing experience for her, you can hear that in the performance of Claudia Black how she says "I will not be the mother you were to me", how she speaks about her love HoF being out there. And that's just one example for one character. When we take away these experiences, even from a person irl, there is only a concept left, a dry version of what makes an individual. I'm not talking about giving me fully cutscene or quest with Keiran involved, branching story, or even Morrigan out of blue talking about her child, but give me something, based on my decision, to cling to, a bit of variance in lines, or a bit of variance in variance in the performance, to understand that this version of Thedas is actually mine, that I actually returned to (and I've been a basically a fan of Thedas and the lore and stories since playing DA:O on release). Because, that is what is cool about DA, everyone has their slightly different, but individual enough, version Thedas and all those iconic characters in it.
Yeah, the well is more important and as a long time fan of the series I definitely wish they had kept the world states and that does bug me. I just didn't feel having or not having a child really affected it that much. Of course, as a dude who usually romanced Zevran, I got used to that small bit not mattering real quick, because it was bugged in DA2 and from my memory was never fixed. I am enjoying Veilguard myself. I do agree they handled the world state decisions poorly.
Here's an olive branch I have no trouble extending: A game can import *some* choices and wrap up *some* choices. Viewing Veilguard through the lense of a semi-spinoff that focuses on the main events of Inquisition is no trouble, I think.
You seem to be having the same issue with armor textures loading incorrectly during cutscenes. For me, the only fix was turning off DLSS! There is a thread online, for others it was specifically turning it back on that helped. Reverse for me and others. Some people mentioned frame generation being the culprit. Seems these three options are the key for most.
1) The kingdom hearts reference at the table was spot on. 2) Love the unpacking of items a good way to let you develope your character more always nice in an rpg where you need to connect more to a backstory or help forge one 3) Let the lore revelations roll (:
Neve, in general, despite pretending to be a cynic is kind of a desperate idealist. Anyone who has any sort of coercion in their decision making, manipulation, blood magic, threats, etc any of that she'll disapprove if youre harsh on that person. When she said "their influence might linger" she's specifically saying "Bellara, chill, this guy was fucking brainwashed and he still might be"
Wow, my theory came correct at 02:10:10. The Magisters bumped into Solas's prison and encountered the blight. Hence Corypheus's words in DA2 Legacy DLC " The Golden City was black and full of darkness". But this also raises another serious question: Is the Maker and Chantry version a made up narration then? Not sure how Andraste fits into this.
People have tended to float a theory that Andraste is another human spin on Elven lore, that Flemeth/Mythal had influence there considering that the line of Andraste is only daughters, and the whole Flemeth’s daughters thing
Him walking past the blight boils that he could destroy irked me for some reason, he learned in the previous mission they could be destroyed yet he ignored them here. Shame, loot and codex entries are behind them.
I do think they did a pretty decent job of making the Morrigan encounter satisfying through little references even if your choices weren't included. I feel like the writers worked hard to give us as much familiarity from the older games as possible without the hassle of catering to all those divergent pathways.
Sorry if there have been other comments like this already, I didn't see any. But it's a shame you didn't go back in the village to destroy the other blight bubbles. There was one or two mementos in some of the houses. I love the little flavor texts we get from them
I'm so glad you catch that phrase from Solas. I had this theory before the veilguard released... I think you are also thinking what I am thinking but I'm not gonna say this here just not to ruin other viewers experience. I just want to remind that chantry says the maker created all things(hmmm???), they also believe that maker has turned away from them. maker will not answer prayers or grant wishes. chantry says people should pray to the maker and ask for his forgiveness... It is very interesting... And solas said at the beginning of the game. "I am not a god."
I played the game 2x now and totally missed the opportunity to examine the Elvhen banners closely. Definitely reminds me of the Sylvans, you may remember them from Origins/Awakening or from DA literature, if you're into reading it.
Regarding the darkspawn, it isn't that I think they necessarily look bad (aside from the ogre face), Im just a bit bothered that it feels like they have become more mindless generic zombie type enemies. In Origins especially, it felt like there was an intelligence behind their frenzied bloodlust. They wore armor, had leaders and forgemasters and even siege weapons in the battle of Ostagar. I know there is a vague story reason that the blight is "different" and has changed due to Ghilan'nain, but I just feel like the darkspawn used to be much more interesting and threatening.
I like that there is a good lore reason for this but as much as i like the lore and how it affects the story in this game i think it would have been fantastic if we could have got the original darkspawn designs back.
@@jamesmccarthy962Imagine how cool it would have been if there were old style darkspawn led by the talking ones the architect and mother were making trying to fight against these extra fucked up mindless ones
We were supposed to get and advisor like the architect from origins , who would have been a darkspawn who is sentient and who have help us build a link with darkspawns. But sadly ea or juste bioware dev didnt keep it. But they said everything they have explored might served for the futur so... i'm hopefull !
Darkspawn are always mindless monsters, until they directly have an archdemon controlling them. It is the archdemon that makes them smarter. The further away they are from the archdemon, the dumber they are. And with no archdemon... no smarts. This lore has been the same since Origins, and explained in every DA game since. They even go into detail about it in the book Last Flight which came out in 2014. But also, alongside that, David Gaider has said in an interview the darkspawn were never meant to be as developed as they were in Origins anyway. That was the higher-ups pushing for the Tolkien Orcs sort of enemy. So even with an archdemon's smarts, they aren't a society.
I was so desperately hoping that he'd exhaust her dialog and get that cheeky Easter egg. I always exhaust all the dialogue ever since ME 3 and the Salarian with the button pressing at Sur'kesh.
Very interesting to see you come to the realization that our choices will not matter as much as they should have in this game and listen to how you are feeling about it. Lot of fans had more "time" to prepare to that since it was announced before the release but it does feel frustrating. Also it was confirmed that our choices were supposed to matter (in the artbook and in the data mined in game some choices still appear other than the very few we have) but a lot of content was cut due to the shift during production from Multiplayer to singleplayer. Devs had to make decisions to cut content and focus on something smaller in scale. It's unfortunate and while veilguard is not the perfect game all fans waited for I think coming in with an open mind do help enjoy what we still got as it does have a lot of good stuff! I would say that some questions you still get some answers as you progress further :) So keep it up! And i hope you still enjoy playing the game. Enjoying watching you play a lot. Thank you!
“Now this is the dark stuff people wanted in their dragon age game” is EXACTLY what I thought when I got to D’Metas crossing, haha like I bet the toxic pessimists were drowning in their false fears and crying that their rage bait was for nothing. As a lover of both dark and high fantasy, I was fed well by this game’s themes and scenery 😍
I think it never quite catches the darkness of origins but it has some strong elements of it and the overall tone is satisfying. The haunting imagery around the locations certainly helps alot in this aspect.
I think that's a bit ungenerous. I would say nothing in this game gets anywhere close to the darkest tone of Origins - it's not just about what the tragedy _is_ but the presentation and the way characters respond to it. And, indeed, whether you actually know or care about any of the victims. This is definitely about the same tone as the darkest parts of Inquisition, though. That game is positively sunshine and rainbows compared to Origins. (Also my favourite instalment in the franchise.) In my first playthrough of Origins, I chose a female city elf. It was quite possibly the most depressing opening to a custom-character RPG I've ever experienced. And it was just the _opening._ The people who were raging that Veilguard wouldn't be as dark as Origins were never going to be satisfied with this game. Dragon Age moved away from that tone a _long_ time ago.
Honestly, I really LOVE how the Blight is in this game. It's disgustingly diseased and it feels alive as well, the pulsating of the tentacles reminds me of those footages of snails having parasites inside of their heads and you can see the parasites pulsating within the snail.
Without spoilering: The dragon fights are amazing in this game. And earlier than you might expect. But the most I like about it in comparison to Inquisition is that the dragons aren't just minding their business. I felt bad for killing the dragons in DAI but in here? Amazing.
I heard a theory years ago about andraste that I like. Since the line of andraste was all women, that andraste herself was the current host of Mythal at that time. It's a very loose connection but I like it
I love Morrigan's dramatic eyeroll when she's like 'well I guess it explains why he was so mad when I humansplained elf lore to him' like yeah you really put your foot in that, Mor, you really did.
What I like is that Rook has a personality sort of like Hawke. It limits your range of interactions, but I still prefer it over the plain ass blank slate characters cause I won’t actually care about them. The Inquisitor for example was like that. You love the companions but the person you’re playing as is just cardboard. If you’re gonna have a voiced protagonist I think it’s better to give them an outline of a personality than have everything be self insert cause it makes them a boring person. You basically know nothing about your inquistitor. Mine was a human so all I knew about him is he’s from a middling noble family and that’s it. Two of the best RPG protagonists to me were V from Cyberpunk which is a custom character with their own background and storyline. Like for example his friendship with Jackie, the dynamic with Johnny Silverhand and some of the character background like street kid where you already are familiar with certain characters because of your background. You care about V because they feel like a person. My favorite is Geralt, who has tons of backstory and pre established relationship yet the decisions you make still make vast differences in the witcher 3 and all fit Geralt or at least the Geralt you want to be. In a narrative driven game like many bioware games are I think you need to care about your character more than in Bethesda games where your character is nothing but someone reacting to shit and messing around in a huge world.
About that discussion about Merrill and DA2 companions, I felt like that thoughout my playthrough and kept thinking there were so many missed opportunities. I enjoyed the game as it is, but man, imagine if for example in that part where they have to fix the Eluvian they feel lost because Eluvians shouldn't be common knowledge as per the previous DAs, but Varric says he knows someone fomr Kirkwall that learned how to fix an Eluvian, then enter Merrill cameo.
My main complaints about Veilguard (besides the world state stuff which will always be a point of contention, but that I will live with and still enjoy the game besides) are that a lot of the good quests, cutscenes (etc) are just too short. D'Meta's Crossing could've easily been two, even three times as long and it would've been a treat, but at the same time I acknowledge BioWare had lots of issues making this game, a lot of it outside their control, and so at the end of the day I can appreciate that most things in this game don't linger so long that they become stale. The dwarven lore has always been one of my favorite things about DA and there's some great stuff here, as well as Solas' inclusion being frankly pretty damn brilliant. He's written so cleverly and interestingly in this game, and personally though as with many things, I would've liked more of him, what we got was fantastic. Overall this is the part of the game where things start getting really good, even more so once you start picking up the other companions. This game made me very happy and I hope it does the same to you.
Without providing spoilers I will say that you're opportunities for additional exploration with important personalities will expand tied though to the story narration of this Dragon Age 4. There are also lots of other personalities from the past. Important note: Performing all the companion quests are critical for lore, story narration, expansion of the world building and much more. Don't ignore. Also, you missed a lot by not exploring and trying things more such as breaking open the boils. You left story elements behind. Hope it helps. Welcome to DA4.
I swear now every time I see barrels and crates in anything my brain goes "must DESTROY" (Mapo ignoring most of them hurts the little loot goblin in me, but he'll soon be one of us, I know it hehe)
Interesting how the simple height of characters can change the perception of a scene. I was taken aback at the rudeness of Harding shoving herself in front of my short as can be dwarven Rook to get that dagger but with Mapoqun her hand barley reaches his hip and it looks a much softer motion.
Its not only that you could only flirt a bit with Harding in Inquistion.. Harding is the only dwarf in the entire series you could romance. And as a avid dwarf player that was extremly frustrating to me.
Go go mapo! I really enjoyed this game. Its different, but every DA has been quite a bit different from the last. In tone and everything. Remember DAO to DA2?
So I decided to push onto this episode because I just wanted to see your reaction to seeing Morrigan. Which did not disappoint, your reaction to the Felemeth line is always priceless. Can't say I mind the 'lack of imported choices', kind of went in with the assumption since its moving so far to the north and then so far in time that a lot of things wouldn't be imported, and really feel very few of our choices mattered from game to game either so I would rather them get this game right. And playing a male Shadow Dragon Rogue, enjoying him and the game so far.
I had heard that there's no real serious elements in Veilguard which was worrying....then I got to D'Meta's Crossing. Like that right there still sticks with me even after hours of playing DAV.
Coming into this a bit late, but I wanted to finish the game before watching any content. At this point in the game, I would definitely say I was "Hooked". The Crossing really did it for me, but I was a bit lukewarm before that. Honestly, the lack of choice imports bothered me at first, but as I sat on it, I kinda "got" why they choices they picked were what they were. Like, if they weren't planning on having the HoF in the game, there's no reason to ask about him. It would be weird and ham-fisted for Morrigan's talk to suddenly spiral into "Do you know of the Hero of Ferelden? We're together, and we had a child, and--" when we're trying to deal with elven gods. Because IMO that's how the majority of DA2 and Inquisition felt to me with some of the import decisions. Like Hawke showing up was cool and all, but there wasn't really any reason for the Inquisitor to stop and have a tea time chat with him about his love life, his family, Anders, etc. So part of me is actually glad they cut some of that. I like the choices in the moment, but a lot of the time it felt like having them come back was less for a narrative payoff, and more to just dangle it in front of us and go "See? See? Look what we remembered! Do you like it?!" like they're holding out a cat toy on a stick to make us clap. I think it worked better for Mass Effect since it was a continuous adventure following one guy and his specific friend group, as opposed to here where really, there's no link between the HoF and Hawke, or Hawke and Rook, etc. It would be like Rey sitting down with Han to ask about Ben/Obi-Wan. Like... we have other stuff to do, and you don't know either of these people in question at all. Anyway, for my Rook, I went with a human Antivan Crow rogue, primarily doing the humorous dialogue (except with Solas. I was just a jerk to him because he was a jerk to me). I wanted to do an Elf but it's so hard to make a male elf in the Character Creator who doesn't look like a babyfaced teenager. And my Inquisitor was a male Qunari warrior.
@@Mapocolops i gotta be real, i don't remember that. I just remember saving vitaars for him. Would be nice if they made some helmets for our qunari rooks.
Meta's Crossing was way darker for me. Did you set the brightness higher for us to see better? I thought this was downright DAO for me too. I don't get people saying its not DA or not dark enough. And without spoilering, this place is only a light insight of what to come. As for the Mayor, I really like that depending on what you pick in your conversation you might get a totally different image of him. Either as a manipulated victim or a greedy bastard.
Spoilers > > > > > > > > > > > Apart form that big choice early on that sets up the world state though i would say that is about 1/4 in depending how much time you spend exploring the crossroads
Great episode man!! Was really looking forward to seeing your reaction to morrigan 😂 I'm 88hrs in and looking at the home stretch, playing a lady human antivan crow. Really enjoyed the experience.
I love watching your play throughs. I wish we had been given more interactions with the community and companions! I feel Rook was left out of a lot of interactions. When they walk up on a conversation, the companions keep talking to one another and when finished. They just glare at Rook, like they are waiting for them to go away so they can continue their conversation. They don’t even acknowledge Rook standing there! No , Hi Rook! nothing. Feels awkward. The only conversation that they are included in is with the “drinking” scene in the dining room. I mean come on. They only speak to Rook together when drinking?
It was the same for me, it kinda felt like a spoiler in the codex lol, especially since NSFM | | | | ...Varric reveals it in a conversation later. Felt like Harding's notes were dropped too soon.
Btw, missed a gear chest around 1:11:56, it showed up on and under your map with the chest icon, you had to explore the area to find it. In areas like this that you will not be able access again its gone forever.
![The Eluvian Crossroads & Smuggling in Dock Town | Dragon Age: The Veilguard [Part 4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/XrJ2oDjoqkM/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Eluvian Crossroads & Smuggling in Dock Town | Dragon Age: The Veilguard [Part 4]](/img/tr.png)
![The Ossuary & Demon of Vyrantium | Dragon Age: The Veilguard [Part 5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I3sRRxjEVGw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Darkspawn & Venatori, Allied | Dragon Age: The Veilguard [Part 6]](/img/1.gif)
42:34 Morrigan basically saying "I am but a humble advisor" is so funny, she got the manerisms from Mapo Brosca! That's why we don't import any choices from previous games, it's just that the mapoverse is canon, it's all implied! 😂
18:44 omg the cheesewheel and the corpse on top. I didn't catch that while playing. That's hilarious! :'D
Cheese wheels have been a common Easter egg in dragon age but it seems they really filled this game with them because there’s loads hidden around the game all in weird places.
@Jpow5734 yeah I know, that the cheese wheels are a common easter egg in the series. I just haven't found this specific one while i was playing :)
The pain of realizing so many story events wouldn't play a part in Veilguard because the choices were not imported is something a lot of us had to go through a few weeks before release when this was revealed. After a while I sort of accepted it and started to view Veilguard as a more "focused" story that was interested in finishing the whole deal with Solas before anything else, and I'm okay with it. Even if its not what I wanted from the 4th Dragon Age game, I'm still having a lot of fun with it. And hey, there are still quite a bit of juicy lore revelations in there 😶🌫
I love the idea that Solas is just chilling in Mapoqun's mind palace, awaiting their next verbal brawl.
Haha glad mapo didnt watch the trailers so we could see his reaction to morrigan dropping in 😂
1:51:57 Actually sadly, Inqusition DID NOT have helments for Qunari either, but Mapolass wouldn't have known that. The Qunari and Helments have always had trouble together, hence the lore reason for Vitaar in the first place. Fun Fact: Thats why Sten and the other Qunari in Dragon Age Origins didn't have horns - couldn't throw helms on those bad boys
Yep the only real helmet that has appeared for Qunari that I can think of was the one helmet that Iron Bull gets in his personal quest, and that was probably easy for them to design since he had a set appearance (horns, head size, etc).
Technically there was one Quanri helmet for Iron Bull, Dread.
@@ems7448 There was also the helmets the Qunari had in Trespasser too.
But none of them were available for us as players to use sadly.
@@GratuaCuun if we count non-playable helmets, then in DA2 we can see some of the qunari having helments
D'Meta's Crossing was the moment I was like oh yeah, we're back baby. So gruesome! But omg the cheese wheel, I didn't notice that in my playthrough lmao. I really like the scene where you unpack all your items, it's a nice way to give just a bit more context to your character and their background. (I don't want to mention this in every comment but there's even more backstory about Solas getting the lyrium dagger/idol in Tevinter Nights. I do highly recommend reading it at some point! There's a ton of connectivity to this game.)
Yeah Tevinter Nights almost feels like required reading for this game lol. It is fun for people like me who has read it but honestly a little weird how much context people who hasn't read it are missing...
@@sweZACK Reminds me of "The Masked Empire" book and "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts" quest in DAI - and how reading it can change your view on the major choice in that quest with the knowledge you learn by reading the book
yeah there are SO many characters from the comics and books in the game. i felt like every 5 mins i was pointing at the screen like the Leo Dicaprio meme lol. but then i’d watch someone streaming the game and they’d just be blank faced when one of the major characters would appear. so i do wonder how much less of an impact this game’s storyline feels for ppl who only played the games
@@ellehcimbelle This was me too lol. And yeah I've heard a lot of people say the beginning is slow or whatever but I was there losing my mind every time a new character showed up so it was really exciting! It felt nice to me as a huge fan, and maybe a good substitute for them being unable to do more game character cameos, but it sucks for people who have no idea who they are.
What i like about the D'Meta's Crossing quest is that it gives different options if your a Warden
Kudos to Mapo for coming into the game mostly "unspoiled" and making his own impressions, taking his time to take everything in with an open mindset! A lot of you see on the game around the internet is loaded with baseless hate and coming in with a blindsided opinion is much different than coming with a clear, critical mind.
a lot of what you see is baseless gassing to own the chuds too
I love it when the Lore Master explains to us in simple terms what all I missed. And he he does it so well. Thanks Professor!
the environment design in this game is incredible. love the mapo way of taking all the details in.
The reaction to Morrigan showing up was the best!!
34:50 I find it so funny how Mapo saw these 2d cutscenes narrated Varric and thought 'Oh yeah, just like Destiny 2!' when it's like...my guy...what about Dragon Age 2? 😅
Probably easier to remember that when the game reminds me of Destiny 2 with the character gear screen too lol
@@Mapocolops Oh fair enough lol, I just laughed when you were like 'Oh, you know what this reminds me of?' and I was like ah nice he's gonna mention DA2-
"Destiny 2!"
"Oh."
That's what I was thinking too.
In these troubling times, I can take comfort watching Mapo play this game.
Lol what troubling times?
That, and an egg.
@@Reclusiveon3 At any given time, there are people on this planet who are facing hardship. You've also been through troubling times before, correct?
Why did you laugh at that person's comment?
@@Reclusiveon3 war for example :P
@@Northern_Silverbird Because of the melodramatic exaggeration~
lmao at the reactions to Morrigan. One of the reasons why this is the best channel for Dragon Age let's plays on RUclips.
Mapo! I know your play style is very similar to mine, don't get too stressed out if you see a path or a treasure chest on the map but you can't seem to find a way to it, the game does a really good job of walking you through areas in later quests where you will then have access to them
I missed one chest in forgetThorne Mansion. Never found way to it.. Now it haunts me
hah. "I think there is transmog in the game" -> Immediatly turns on the transmog visual for armor.
Our girl Harding just got the Titan's wifi network password!
Without spoilers, one thing to keep in mind is that the well of sorrows and to be an actual carrier of Mythal’s spirit are two different things. The well of sorrows gave the drinker the memories of past worshipers of Mythal, but not her personal memories. Flemeth carried Mythal’s spirit without having drunk from the well.
Also, in regard to past choices, aside from the well of sorrows (and what the fandom collectively misinterpreted it to be) for most choices in past games, these characters would have no reason to bring them up. Veilguard takes place in northern Thedas while all of the past games took place in the south. The cast would have no reason to bring up the inquisitor’s choice to side with the templars, for example, because northern politics are completely separate from the south-their approach to magic, templars, etc. This is just to say that, in general, past game choices have only had an impact on Ferelden or Orlais.
The game has some issues, but implementing every minor choice into an environment it would never have impacted to begin with would have been a logistical nightmare, and at the very least, incredibly forced.
A character literally just casually mentioned the Southern Divine as I randomly walked past them tho, and in a way that indicates it is a specific one of the women, as it doesn’t make sense for the other two. I also found a note that i feel reveals who drank from the Well in this world too, but that wasn’t as specific. So it makes it feel like this world does have a chosen canon in it but that the writers picked it and were too afraid to tell us outright.
Axh Choises.
Even DA2 had canon.
We killed flemeth, here explantion she is alive!
We killed Leliana, here explanation she is alive!
Anders dies in dlc, here explanation he is alive!
Alistar, here his cameo as King or as Warden. Goodbye Hawke, drink potions.
@@MrEvilside I literally beheaded Leliana in one playthrough. In general, when people extend zero olive branches at all I lose interest in their takes.
Yeah it would have been better if they had the gall to choose a canon
38:30 Hey, that's my wife!!
LOL the fucking cheese wheel
Some things never change.
Yeh, those pulsating elements of the Blight reminds me of those organic thingies you had to cut down in GoW Ragnarok, in Alfheim I think
I get the consternation but Mapo you’re literally still in the tutorial mission XD Just because it isn’t addressed yet doesn’t mean it won’t ever be (whatever it is)
It is such a joy watching someone who has almost the exact same reactions I did when they drop giant lore bombs on your head, and you get super excited for what it could all mean. Your attention to detail is, as usual, great.
I followed a lot of the prerelease stuff and it's interesting watching you deal with the limited Keep choices in real time as you go through your playthrough. It was definitely an unpopular decision when it was revealed and a lot of people were upset about it, so it's totally understandable that you are still thinking about it and talking about it. I had a couple of months to come to terms with it. In the end what I concluded was that the decisions I made in each game were valid for that game, and sometimes they may flavor a future game, but the meat of every game and what was special to me was the story and the journey of those games specifically.
I know some people never did quite get over the lighter connection to previous games in terms of choices and that's valid, but based on watching all your previous Dragon Age playthroughs, I feel like you'll appreciate the connections they do end up making.
*no one* expects the secret third option “POOF! It’s my wife"
1:05:35 Yeah, that's a bit odd. Something probably changed during development, I mean they did get in Claudia Black only last year. Definitely the most likely explanation, considering the game's rather...tumultuous development.
Also, the reveal that the Blight was locked up in the Golden City by Solas is pretty huge, though if they're dropping it this early in the game, then that must mean they have some even bigger ones in store down the line.
EA/Bioware refused alot of stuff they wanted initially to keep alot of the decisions. :c
It's amazing, after all these years, that Claudia Black has returned to play Morrigan. I've had a crush on her ever since I first saw her on Farscape.
Aeryn Sun ❤❤❤
Hint: If your potions are full, you can just grab one from the jars and it will heal you, no need to heal first and then grab a new one.
It’s so crazy in this early conversation with Solas he just casually lore drops that the Black City the ancient magisters broke into was actually just Solas’ prison. Just with one sentence (which is optional dialogue !!!) he knocks out the whole Golden City/Seat of the Maker/Andrastian religion… 🤯 and our character just ✌️ with it
🙇♀️🙇♀️🙇♀️🙇♀️
Earthshattering lore reveals are handled like a kid telling you the plot of the latest Christopher Nolan film. There are so many things that I should've been crawling up the wall after learning them, but they are told so poorly, I was just left disappointed at how poorly they were told.
@@cthulhucrews6602 eh I disagree - I did crawl up the wall with that (and many other reveals), was just disappointed with Rook’s lack of reaction to it. Solas saying it off hand here is not childishly put at all imo. He is just being a bit of a dick because he doesn’t like Rook atp 😂 if he’d made a big deal about that reveal, that would’ve been cheesy. Feel he was maybe testing Rook’s intelligence, and imo they failed cus they didn’t even bat an eye 😅
@@tardisfeathers I'm not saying Solas as a character has to make a big deal about certain reveals. I'm saying the game should. There's reveals about dwarves that change everything we know about them and they're just... there.
Spider Morrigan walking in... this channel has its own lore codex you need to be aware of :D
Loved seeing your reaction to D’Meta’s Crossing! Was really not expecting that when I started this quest!
I will never get tired of Mapo's reaction to seeing Morrigan, no matter what game.
Love how you give these long thoughts on what happened before, you remembering all of this is so awesome, you really get the feeling that you loved these games. If you at any point feel like playing the previous games again, I would love to watch you with all the knowledge of the lore. :D
I can’t wait to watch your reactions to certain parts of the story and the ending sequence!!! 💜As for the blight in Veilgurd it is so well done imo - better than ever before - it’s creepy, disgusting and just terrifying.
About Kieran(Morrigan's son), I mean theOld God Soul was removed in Inquisition if it was there. Other than that, he's right around 20 now. Why would Morrigan tell us anything about her adult son we don't know?
I am not expecting Rook to get a lore dump for no reason, it's specifically that we just know none of it will come into play AT ALL. Because they cannot address it.
On Kieran, it's the fact that the child can or can not exist at all with the Old God Soul for it to have been absorbed by Flemeth in the first place. Did Morrigan drink from the well or did the Inquisitor? Again, the fact that these are not choices we got to import confirms ahead of time it's not going to have any significance in this story when it absolutely could've, so there is no wonder or suspense on those events. It just spoils that element of the DA worldstate. So the point isn't Rook getting this information, it's confirmation that the events have taken place and could affect the story.
@@Mapocolops This is kind of how I feel as well. The biggest issue with the save import being as bare bones right now isn't how much or little past choices truly matter (if you look back, DA2 and DAI don't change *that* much based on imports either), it's that the wizard has shown what's going on behind the curtain. The writers can use ambiguous language and not reference things just like they would have regardless, but the transparency does sting.
Still a fantastic game and I love it to bits. Dropping as much as I can when new episodes of the adventures of Mapoqun come out!
I actually get what you're saying, I do, and I'm certainly not part of the crowd that just runs around dunking on the game they didn't play, and lot of good things about it, b-b-but in this particular case... xD
Yes, technically why would anything matter in the grand scheme of things, a complete stranger wouldn't open up about their personal life to the group of complete strangers. Unless if you don't take into account how Morrigan and Harding are friendly now, which begs the question...and then another question about "were they even friendly in Inquisition days, do I misremember stuff when they didn't interact at all?". On top of all the questions, there is a meta discussion, and plenty of diehard bioware fans, like myself, and content creators who were creating content all these years on DA and potential threads depending on worldstates, were really disappointed that they "tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end it doesn't really matter". DA was always about stories in Thedas, basically an anthology series unified by the lore and the world, but within those stories there were characters who defined how the world and parts of the lore would be (literally, during Inquisition days what happened in DA:O is part of lore in codex that you can read about, which is sooo cool). If we take these characters as fully realized people in the set world, they are defined by their life experiences and changed by them. Morrigan being a mother or not is a life-changing experience for her, you can hear that in the performance of Claudia Black how she says "I will not be the mother you were to me", how she speaks about her love HoF being out there. And that's just one example for one character. When we take away these experiences, even from a person irl, there is only a concept left, a dry version of what makes an individual. I'm not talking about giving me fully cutscene or quest with Keiran involved, branching story, or even Morrigan out of blue talking about her child, but give me something, based on my decision, to cling to, a bit of variance in lines, or a bit of variance in variance in the performance, to understand that this version of Thedas is actually mine, that I actually returned to (and I've been a basically a fan of Thedas and the lore and stories since playing DA:O on release). Because, that is what is cool about DA, everyone has their slightly different, but individual enough, version Thedas and all those iconic characters in it.
Yeah, the well is more important and as a long time fan of the series I definitely wish they had kept the world states and that does bug me. I just didn't feel having or not having a child really affected it that much. Of course, as a dude who usually romanced Zevran, I got used to that small bit not mattering real quick, because it was bugged in DA2 and from my memory was never fixed.
I am enjoying Veilguard myself. I do agree they handled the world state decisions poorly.
Here's an olive branch I have no trouble extending: A game can import *some* choices and wrap up *some* choices. Viewing Veilguard through the lense of a semi-spinoff that focuses on the main events of Inquisition is no trouble, I think.
Harding has Liara's voice actor. Plus, she's cute. She was who I romanced on my first playthrough.
The reaction to Morrigan is an example why I love your playthroughs the most on RUclips! Perfect immersion 🤌
Also 56:25 Izma reference is hilarious😂
You seem to be having the same issue with armor textures loading incorrectly during cutscenes. For me, the only fix was turning off DLSS! There is a thread online, for others it was specifically turning it back on that helped. Reverse for me and others. Some people mentioned frame generation being the culprit. Seems these three options are the key for most.
1) The kingdom hearts reference at the table was spot on.
2) Love the unpacking of items a good way to let you develope your character more always nice in an rpg where you need to connect more to a backstory or help forge one
3) Let the lore revelations roll (:
That is one bad ass looking Mapoqun.
Neve, in general, despite pretending to be a cynic is kind of a desperate idealist. Anyone who has any sort of coercion in their decision making, manipulation, blood magic, threats, etc any of that she'll disapprove if youre harsh on that person. When she said "their influence might linger" she's specifically saying "Bellara, chill, this guy was fucking brainwashed and he still might be"
Mapoqun being like, "You wanna know how i got THIS scar???" At every opportunity is actually really adorable haaha
Wow, my theory came correct at 02:10:10. The Magisters bumped into Solas's prison and encountered the blight. Hence Corypheus's words in DA2 Legacy DLC " The Golden City was black and full of darkness".
But this also raises another serious question: Is the Maker and Chantry version a made up narration then? Not sure how Andraste fits into this.
People have tended to float a theory that Andraste is another human spin on Elven lore, that Flemeth/Mythal had influence there considering that the line of Andraste is only daughters, and the whole Flemeth’s daughters thing
Him walking past the blight boils that he could destroy irked me for some reason, he learned in the previous mission they could be destroyed yet he ignored them here. Shame, loot and codex entries are behind them.
It irks me knowing I missed them lol
Btw, Qunari (players) had no helmet options in DAI, only vitaar, dug it though
I love how actually disturbing the Blight looks in this game
Morrigan's entrance as a raven was so cool, even if I'm not a fan of her new looks I did love that. And your reaction was GOLDEN.
I do think they did a pretty decent job of making the Morrigan encounter satisfying through little references even if your choices weren't included. I feel like the writers worked hard to give us as much familiarity from the older games as possible without the hassle of catering to all those divergent pathways.
Sorry if there have been other comments like this already, I didn't see any.
But it's a shame you didn't go back in the village to destroy the other blight bubbles. There was one or two mementos in some of the houses. I love the little flavor texts we get from them
38:20 Do I detect a hint of the “Oh hey is that one of Leliana’s ravens?” before the reveal, as I thought to myself? 😅
I'm so glad you catch that phrase from Solas. I had this theory before the veilguard released... I think you are also thinking what I am thinking but I'm not gonna say this here just not to ruin other viewers experience. I just want to remind that chantry says the maker created all things(hmmm???), they also believe that maker has turned away from them. maker will not answer prayers or grant wishes. chantry says people should pray to the maker and ask for his forgiveness... It is very interesting... And solas said at the beginning of the game. "I am not a god."
The reactions is this episode are priceless.
I played the game 2x now and totally missed the opportunity to examine the Elvhen banners closely. Definitely reminds me of the Sylvans, you may remember them from Origins/Awakening or from DA literature, if you're into reading it.
Regarding the darkspawn, it isn't that I think they necessarily look bad (aside from the ogre face), Im just a bit bothered that it feels like they have become more mindless generic zombie type enemies. In Origins especially, it felt like there was an intelligence behind their frenzied bloodlust. They wore armor, had leaders and forgemasters and even siege weapons in the battle of Ostagar. I know there is a vague story reason that the blight is "different" and has changed due to Ghilan'nain, but I just feel like the darkspawn used to be much more interesting and threatening.
I like that there is a good lore reason for this but as much as i like the lore and how it affects the story in this game i think it would have been fantastic if we could have got the original darkspawn designs back.
@@jamesmccarthy962Imagine how cool it would have been if there were old style darkspawn led by the talking ones the architect and mother were making trying to fight against these extra fucked up mindless ones
We were supposed to get and advisor like the architect from origins , who would have been a darkspawn who is sentient and who have help us build a link with darkspawns. But sadly ea or juste bioware dev didnt keep it. But they said everything they have explored might served for the futur so... i'm hopefull !
Darkspawn are always mindless monsters, until they directly have an archdemon controlling them. It is the archdemon that makes them smarter. The further away they are from the archdemon, the dumber they are. And with no archdemon... no smarts. This lore has been the same since Origins, and explained in every DA game since. They even go into detail about it in the book Last Flight which came out in 2014. But also, alongside that, David Gaider has said in an interview the darkspawn were never meant to be as developed as they were in Origins anyway. That was the higher-ups pushing for the Tolkien Orcs sort of enemy. So even with an archdemon's smarts, they aren't a society.
OMG love the Garrus reference! Didn't get that when I was playing 😄🥰
I made her repeat it like 3 times and chuckled every single time lol
I was so desperately hoping that he'd exhaust her dialog and get that cheeky Easter egg. I always exhaust all the dialogue ever since ME 3 and the Salarian with the button pressing at Sur'kesh.
Can we take a minute to appreciate how crazy a revelation 1:23:25 is for the lore?
This game surely has its faults, but i can never hate any game that has Simon Templeman in it.
Not even Dead Space 3!
Forget Mapolas, I’m living for the MapoSASS in the replies to some of these comments 😂
Very interesting to see you come to the realization that our choices will not matter as much as they should have in this game and listen to how you are feeling about it. Lot of fans had more "time" to prepare to that since it was announced before the release but it does feel frustrating. Also it was confirmed that our choices were supposed to matter (in the artbook and in the data mined in game some choices still appear other than the very few we have) but a lot of content was cut due to the shift during production from Multiplayer to singleplayer. Devs had to make decisions to cut content and focus on something smaller in scale. It's unfortunate and while veilguard is not the perfect game all fans waited for I think coming in with an open mind do help enjoy what we still got as it does have a lot of good stuff!
I would say that some questions you still get some answers as you progress further :) So keep it up! And i hope you still enjoy playing the game. Enjoying watching you play a lot. Thank you!
“Now this is the dark stuff people wanted in their dragon age game” is EXACTLY what I thought when I got to D’Metas crossing, haha like I bet the toxic pessimists were drowning in their false fears and crying that their rage bait was for nothing.
As a lover of both dark and high fantasy, I was fed well by this game’s themes and scenery 😍
I think it never quite catches the darkness of origins but it has some strong elements of it and the overall tone is satisfying. The haunting imagery around the locations certainly helps alot in this aspect.
I think that's a bit ungenerous. I would say nothing in this game gets anywhere close to the darkest tone of Origins - it's not just about what the tragedy _is_ but the presentation and the way characters respond to it. And, indeed, whether you actually know or care about any of the victims. This is definitely about the same tone as the darkest parts of Inquisition, though. That game is positively sunshine and rainbows compared to Origins. (Also my favourite instalment in the franchise.)
In my first playthrough of Origins, I chose a female city elf. It was quite possibly the most depressing opening to a custom-character RPG I've ever experienced. And it was just the _opening._ The people who were raging that Veilguard wouldn't be as dark as Origins were never going to be satisfied with this game. Dragon Age moved away from that tone a _long_ time ago.
Bellara sounds like she is reading a book to a bunch of kids whenever she speaks.
The Morrigan reveal reaction is giving me lifeeeee 😂
Honestly, I really LOVE how the Blight is in this game. It's disgustingly diseased and it feels alive as well, the pulsating of the tentacles reminds me of those footages of snails having parasites inside of their heads and you can see the parasites pulsating within the snail.
Dagma has got to be notified she would flip out
1:26:30 Y'know, I wasn't expecting to be bobbing my head to a battle tune, but here we are.
Without spoilering: The dragon fights are amazing in this game. And earlier than you might expect. But the most I like about it in comparison to Inquisition is that the dragons aren't just minding their business. I felt bad for killing the dragons in DAI but in here? Amazing.
I heard a theory years ago about andraste that I like. Since the line of andraste was all women, that andraste herself was the current host of Mythal at that time. It's a very loose connection but I like it
I love Morrigan's dramatic eyeroll when she's like 'well I guess it explains why he was so mad when I humansplained elf lore to him' like yeah you really put your foot in that, Mor, you really did.
YES! Now we get to the good part where the game really starts to hit it's stride! 😁HYPE
Loving the playthrough so far! I’ve finished my first playthrough so it’s great seeing your reactions to the story! 😄
What I like is that Rook has a personality sort of like Hawke. It limits your range of interactions, but I still prefer it over the plain ass blank slate characters cause I won’t actually care about them. The Inquisitor for example was like that. You love the companions but the person you’re playing as is just cardboard. If you’re gonna have a voiced protagonist I think it’s better to give them an outline of a personality than have everything be self insert cause it makes them a boring person. You basically know nothing about your inquistitor. Mine was a human so all I knew about him is he’s from a middling noble family and that’s it. Two of the best RPG protagonists to me were V from Cyberpunk which is a custom character with their own background and storyline. Like for example his friendship with Jackie, the dynamic with Johnny Silverhand and some of the character background like street kid where you already are familiar with certain characters because of your background. You care about V because they feel like a person. My favorite is Geralt, who has tons of backstory and pre established relationship yet the decisions you make still make vast differences in the witcher 3 and all fit Geralt or at least the Geralt you want to be. In a narrative driven game like many bioware games are I think you need to care about your character more than in Bethesda games where your character is nothing but someone reacting to shit and messing around in a huge world.
the Morrigan reaction 😆 I was waiting for that lol
About that discussion about Merrill and DA2 companions, I felt like that thoughout my playthrough and kept thinking there were so many missed opportunities. I enjoyed the game as it is, but man, imagine if for example in that part where they have to fix the Eluvian they feel lost because Eluvians shouldn't be common knowledge as per the previous DAs, but Varric says he knows someone fomr Kirkwall that learned how to fix an Eluvian, then enter Merrill cameo.
I really dig the lost lore finally being revealed, and how much that has been forgotten, for dwarfs, elves & Qunari
My main complaints about Veilguard (besides the world state stuff which will always be a point of contention, but that I will live with and still enjoy the game besides) are that a lot of the good quests, cutscenes (etc) are just too short. D'Meta's Crossing could've easily been two, even three times as long and it would've been a treat, but at the same time I acknowledge BioWare had lots of issues making this game, a lot of it outside their control, and so at the end of the day I can appreciate that most things in this game don't linger so long that they become stale. The dwarven lore has always been one of my favorite things about DA and there's some great stuff here, as well as Solas' inclusion being frankly pretty damn brilliant. He's written so cleverly and interestingly in this game, and personally though as with many things, I would've liked more of him, what we got was fantastic. Overall this is the part of the game where things start getting really good, even more so once you start picking up the other companions. This game made me very happy and I hope it does the same to you.
soooo excited to see you latch onto the lore drops like i knew you would. your dream of thedas’s most powerful throuple cracked me up
Without providing spoilers I will say that you're opportunities for additional exploration with important personalities will expand tied though to the story narration of this Dragon Age 4. There are also lots of other personalities from the past. Important note: Performing all the companion quests are critical for lore, story narration, expansion of the world building and much more. Don't ignore. Also, you missed a lot by not exploring and trying things more such as breaking open the boils. You left story elements behind. Hope it helps. Welcome to DA4.
choices in this game, in act 2, and especially 3, DO matter! they may seem inconsequential, but it's good to think about them 😙
My friend, Veilguard has helmets. But not for Qunari - they get to wear face paint.
I enjoy the more "organic" vibe to these darkspawn. It helps push the "living plague" angle.
I swear now every time I see barrels and crates in anything my brain goes "must DESTROY" (Mapo ignoring most of them hurts the little loot goblin in me, but he'll soon be one of us, I know it hehe)
Interesting how the simple height of characters can change the perception of a scene. I was taken aback at the rudeness of Harding shoving herself in front of my short as can be dwarven Rook to get that dagger but with Mapoqun her hand barley reaches his hip and it looks a much softer motion.
Its not only that you could only flirt a bit with Harding in Inquistion.. Harding is the only dwarf in the entire series you could romance. And as a avid dwarf player that was extremly frustrating to me.
thank you mapo for pushing out these vids for us! i still have episode 2 to watch but I’m excited to see your reactions.
Go go mapo! I really enjoyed this game. Its different, but every DA has been quite a bit different from the last.
In tone and everything. Remember DAO to DA2?
So I decided to push onto this episode because I just wanted to see your reaction to seeing Morrigan. Which did not disappoint, your reaction to the Felemeth line is always priceless.
Can't say I mind the 'lack of imported choices', kind of went in with the assumption since its moving so far to the north and then so far in time that a lot of things wouldn't be imported, and really feel very few of our choices mattered from game to game either so I would rather them get this game right.
And playing a male Shadow Dragon Rogue, enjoying him and the game so far.
I had heard that there's no real serious elements in Veilguard which was worrying....then I got to D'Meta's Crossing. Like that right there still sticks with me even after hours of playing DAV.
Coming into this a bit late, but I wanted to finish the game before watching any content.
At this point in the game, I would definitely say I was "Hooked". The Crossing really did it for me, but I was a bit lukewarm before that.
Honestly, the lack of choice imports bothered me at first, but as I sat on it, I kinda "got" why they choices they picked were what they were. Like, if they weren't planning on having the HoF in the game, there's no reason to ask about him. It would be weird and ham-fisted for Morrigan's talk to suddenly spiral into "Do you know of the Hero of Ferelden? We're together, and we had a child, and--" when we're trying to deal with elven gods. Because IMO that's how the majority of DA2 and Inquisition felt to me with some of the import decisions. Like Hawke showing up was cool and all, but there wasn't really any reason for the Inquisitor to stop and have a tea time chat with him about his love life, his family, Anders, etc. So part of me is actually glad they cut some of that. I like the choices in the moment, but a lot of the time it felt like having them come back was less for a narrative payoff, and more to just dangle it in front of us and go "See? See? Look what we remembered! Do you like it?!" like they're holding out a cat toy on a stick to make us clap.
I think it worked better for Mass Effect since it was a continuous adventure following one guy and his specific friend group, as opposed to here where really, there's no link between the HoF and Hawke, or Hawke and Rook, etc. It would be like Rey sitting down with Han to ask about Ben/Obi-Wan. Like... we have other stuff to do, and you don't know either of these people in question at all.
Anyway, for my Rook, I went with a human Antivan Crow rogue, primarily doing the humorous dialogue (except with Solas. I was just a jerk to him because he was a jerk to me). I wanted to do an Elf but it's so hard to make a male elf in the Character Creator who doesn't look like a babyfaced teenager. And my Inquisitor was a male Qunari warrior.
Here for the emperor's new groove reference 😆
inquisition did not have helmets for qunari
Yes, except Iron Bull had one helmet and that’s what I was talking about. I’d assume Qunari characters could also wear it but it’s specific to him
@@Mapocolops i gotta be real, i don't remember that. I just remember saving vitaars for him. Would be nice if they made some helmets for our qunari rooks.
Meta's Crossing was way darker for me. Did you set the brightness higher for us to see better? I thought this was downright DAO for me too. I don't get people saying its not DA or not dark enough. And without spoilering, this place is only a light insight of what to come. As for the Mayor, I really like that depending on what you pick in your conversation you might get a totally different image of him. Either as a manipulated victim or a greedy bastard.
I had to rewatch your face when Morrigan appeared a few times 😂
when i got to d'meta's crossing i GASPPPPED like......that shit was such a shift from everything else so far in the game and it was amazing
Also opinion spoiler.....
but it feels like a lot of the big hits come in the latter half...
Spoilers
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Apart form that big choice early on that sets up the world state though i would say that is about 1/4 in depending how much time you spend exploring the crossroads
Great episode man!! Was really looking forward to seeing your reaction to morrigan 😂 I'm 88hrs in and looking at the home stretch, playing a lady human antivan crow. Really enjoyed the experience.
I love watching your play throughs. I wish we had been given more interactions with the community and companions! I feel Rook was left out of a lot of interactions. When they walk up on a conversation, the companions keep talking to one another and when finished. They just glare at Rook, like they are waiting for them to go away so they can continue their conversation. They don’t even acknowledge Rook standing there! No , Hi Rook! nothing. Feels awkward. The only conversation that they are included in is with the “drinking” scene in the dining room. I mean come on. They only speak to Rook together when drinking?
Dragon Age: save the world by popping zits
Loved this episode, I had been keen to see you react to Morrigan and D'Meta's crossing and the reactions did not disappoint
I feel the same frustration at 49:07 every time I want to keep exploring a portion of the map and the game automatically moves you elsewhere.
1:37:18 If you haven't read the books and comics between games, I admit this IS a pretty wild way to find this out lol 🤣
It was the same for me, it kinda felt like a spoiler in the codex lol, especially since
NSFM
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...Varric reveals it in a conversation later. Felt like Harding's notes were dropped too soon.
Btw, missed a gear chest around 1:11:56, it showed up on and under your map with the chest icon, you had to explore the area to find it. In areas like this that you will not be able access again its gone forever.