I have a theory that the minor references we do get to the previous games probably came out of the "community council" saying there should be at least SOME call backs. My guess is that the team added some codex at the last minute to appease that feedback.
And I agree with your review basically 100%. I'm the same, watching a scene thinking the writing is not cohesive but tearing up all the same. I'm a sap.
@@joannerosalind That is a good theory I didn't know that they had a community council but ya if I'd been on it I would have said the same 💀 LOL - and I know right, my lore brain says this is bad but my feewings brain is getting emotional!! 🥺🥺 dang bioware you got me again!!!
I appreciate attempts of positivity. I have been a huge fan ever since Origins. But talented people who wrote captivating scenes even with limited hardware are gone. So you have only a bloated company owning valuable IP. They just slapped nice modern graphics, lame writing, and story design. It is sad. But I kinda hate what I used to love.
agree with a lot of your points, but i am commenting solely to shake your hand for being a fellow carver and sten lover 🤝 always happy to see another person with impeccable taste
Started choking up at the end of “Respect for Prior Games.” I don’t know who made the ultimate decision to rewrite most of the story, but man, I wonder if they realize what they’ve done. I keep replaying Veilguard and I think the main reason why is that I’ve noticed all of those pieces that have been cut out of this world and I’m still looking for them.
While replaying Dragon Age Origins recently, I found a codex note that's one of the excerpt's from Brother Genitivi's travel memoirs. It's about Rivain, and it says that the people there have had so much contact with the Qunari that most of them have adopted the Qun as their religion and way of life. Interesting piece of lore, in light of Qun vs Rivaini culture being Taash's story conflict. Oh, and the same note discusses Rivaini seers of which one such character actually appears in Veilguard and gives a quest.
Oh that's so cool!! I think I remember that from the world guide too, that Rivain has the only peaceful Qunari settlement on the main continent - I would've loved to see that expanded on in Veilguard!
THANK YOU, I've been in desperate need of good faith Veilguard criticism since finishing the game. So much of the conversation is dominated by rage bait and overly parasocial weirdness. Also as the world's only Warden Bethany stan, I share your pain of no Hawke sibling cameo
i can completely understand that the development on this project had a ton of Strife (if you will hur hur), but I feel like that doesn't excuse that the marketing stuff was pretty straight up Deceitful, which made me lose a lot of respect unfortunately :((
Yeah totally!! I get it in some ways - obvi they're not gonna come out in marketing like "OUR GAME IS NOT AS GOOD AS WE HOPED FOR" lmao but it did feel like they really undersold the uh... the Way That It Is :^)
I don’t know why Elgar’nain and Ghail’nain didn’t just claim to be the Maker and Andraste - at least then it would have made sense for the imperium and those who believe in the maker - to bend a knee to them. Or - because he went to the imperium - it would also make sense for the south to claim Elgar’nain to be a false God/idol and not the true maker.
Yeah, it's honestly strange how little the Maker or Andraste came up AT ALL in this game - like I'd have a lot of questions as an Andrastian if I found out the elven gods were real!!!! lol
The amount of Viper slander is unreal 😭 Also: Oh my god! Finally another person that mentioned the amount of times they said "turlum". Half way through the game I was shouting "shut up" every time rook said that word.
Loved this vid, everything you said is 100% spot on, and I appreciate it coming from a true fan. I'm so sad about what this game ended up being, and we're never really going to get a satisfying conclusion to the world we've come to love, and to these characters we've spent years with. Just sad all around T^T
I kinda hope so bad that they do an "Extended Cut"-style DLC that just adds some world state reactivity, it wouldn't fix everything but it'd make me happy!!! (they said t hey won't be doing any DLC but im DELUSIONAL) So glad you liked the vid, and thanks for watching!! ♥
This has been my favorite review on the game. It had a lot of things I really needed to hear. I'm still kind of processing the game, and reckoning with what wasn't there. Thank you.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. The graphics were amazing, and sure the combat could be fun. But the writing/tone/dialogue and the overall feel of a sanitized Thedas just bring it down so much. I still love DA but this is probabaly the worst of the series, honestly.
TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Introduction 3:01 The Stuff I Like 10:10 Story Presentation 20:27 Worldbuilding 25:24 Agency/Reactivity/Choices 32:10 Companions 43:16 varric. 47:08 Respect for Prior Games 55:05 Miscellaneous and Nitpicks 57:54 Conclusion
Ahhhh it's so disappointing. Nothing sucked my enthusiasm for this game quite like the "defanged" Tevinter. The dread empire of mages, the slave state, the decaying remnants of a once great society, kept afloat with blood magic and sacrifice. More than a decade of building up the place* into a unique, decadent and almost alien land annnnddddd *none* of that got represented in VG. Yes, it's combat is good, the graphics look great, the voice acting is top notch as always but... it's the worst DA game -/ *I still remember how sinister and imposing the murals were in the city of chains. I guess Kirkwall must have been built by the Venatori >_>
I really felt shocked when I got to Tevinter and it was so regular lmao - I know part of Neve's story was underscoring that like... "there are good people even in a bad city so we can't just throw the whole city away", but it felt like Tevinter's pervasive cultural issues just did not exist in any capacity
Too much dislike the comments when this video goes hard. Bioware has hit or miss combat, and this game put all its eggs in hair physics and simple rhythm combat. Where is Cassandra!!!
An hour of mostly critcism ending with "what we got is beyond phenomenal"... And "if you put the story aside". Wow, you sure took me for a spin. If you have to put story aside in a Dragon Age game, it CANT be phenomenal, thats what these games are about. Beyond enviromental design and graphical fidelity this game is beyond dissapointing, writing is everything for an rpg, roleplay, immersion, worldbuilding, narrative, these are the pillars of any good story based game, and this one fails at all of these. There are some high points, but most of the game game muddles in mediocrity and far too many moments reach the bottom of the bargain bin barrel level. Im sorry but I am genuinely stunned by how you ended this video, it reminds me of the reviews I read on steam to the effect of "writing is bad, story only gets going at he end, companions are boring, gameplay is fun - recommended. Your positivity on the back of all of what you say is baffling to me, especially with so much of your criticism being so well placed and put, cmon, how can this be what we get, how can this be even good when compared to the previous games? Dont you want to get an actual Dragon Age game? Because if we just keep saying that this is phenomenal we will get what we deserve, more of this... I had low expectations going into this, I knew its unlikely I will get even a part of the feeling all three previous games gave me, all the books and comics notwhistanding, but this game went far beyond being just generic, or poor, it made me not care, it holistically demistified and gamified the setting and the people of Thedas to such a point where it may as well be another generic fantasy mobile game world to me. I hope there wont be another Bioware Dragon Age, at least not from this team and I am amazed that people still have the faith that they would be capable of doing this series justice when veilguard is staring them right in the face, they didnt just make a poor game, they destroyed Thedas and OUR Dragon Age universe, wholy and completely, irreparably damaged most of its lore and wiped out most if not all of its interesting aspects, and lets be frank here, this team is not capable of replacing them, the secret ending is just a slap on the face of a corpse at this point. I agree with most of what you say, your criticism of the story and their treatment of the lore is ludicrous in many instances (love your point about the Mayor from Treviso, the entire introduction with Crows is beyond poorly written but it was so obvious they will make the Mayor guy the baddie despite having some obviously good points about the Crows), but I sure arrived at a completely different end point from you, I cant enjoy something that treats my favorite series like this and the ending where they talk about how they respect and care about what came before and such felt so incredibly blatant and manipulative, like corporatation getting ahead of obviously incoming feedback because this product does none of that. This game deserved to fail and I dont care whether you look at the 10+ years of development as a strike against or for the developers because either way its unneceptable, DA2 was made in year and a half for crying out loud and it beats out this game in all the aspects of an rpg handily. The reactivity is incredibly limited and roleplay options are mostly just absent altogether, it is incredibly sad and seriously hilarious given that one of the pre release interview said how they wanted to concentrate on this games reactivity and thats why more decisions arnt being accounted for from previous games... liers. And yea, for how elf centric the game is, there are barely any elfs to begin with and you cant even roleplay as actual dalish elf, I wonder why this incredibly morally complex situation is just so conspicuously absent from the game o.O Like, Im sorry, but a story that wants me to take it seriously cant make amateurish mistakes like having the big bad (Ghilanain) who is at this point in the narrative immortal and undefeatable for all intent and purposes, simply leave for some vague "other work" when THE one thing she needs to achieve all her goals is right infront of her and nothing is stopping her from reaching a complete win, this moment left me blankly staring at the screen wondering why am I even playing this, I didnt like my Rook, I didnt care about most of my companions, I hated the lighthouse and so far nothing had made me give a lick of care about the conflict because everyone behaved like this is just a regular saturday for them, the been there done that marvel style of writing seriously doesnt work. And when they decided to just destroy southern Thedas off screen, obviously without any of our previous actions having any impact on how things go, I just checked out. Seriously, I stopped midway in my second playthrough because I was genuinely forcing myself to continue and despite there being some content I havnt seen yet I just did not care enough to play, and I have finished all the other games 10+ easily, replayed DA2 on the back of dropping Veilguard and had a great time, I appreciate it so much more now. Veilguard is not DA4, its not a continuation of this fabulous franchise, its just a misshapen fanfiction level spinoff and I will do to it exactly what it did to my canon, not acknowledge its existence. Also, just fyi, the people who put together the amazing artbook and who intended so much more for the game are exactly the developers who arnt there any longer, no, I think what we got is absolutely the best the current team could have put out, otherwise they wouldnt just throw so much out of the window and sanitised and wash out the entire setting, this team doesnt care about Thedas, they cant even put their real world moral compass aside when writing fiction, this isnt the team that started project joplin. Oh and just as a taste of what this current team knows and believes of Dragon Age, in the recent AMA on reddit they answered why Solas doesnt have the elven Army that he so clearly has from teh books and ending of Inquisition... its because he isnt a leader apparantely, so he sent them all away I guess... but what would you expect from someone who isnt doing this for Elves afterall... And yes, yo uare correct in that no, your choice of dialogue does not impact your personality or available dialogue whatsoever, that was uniqu to DA2, in this game we truly only have the three slightly different versions of yes I will help, and also, the decision with the Mayor and Wardens is the signle decision of its kind in the entire game as far as anyone has reported, no other backround has one. I also find "The Viper" to be incredibly cringy, it feels like what a very younge teenager would write to make his character sound cool, the fact that this is a hardened leader giving himself the nickname under the notion that it will make him sound tougher is laughable. I could go forever man, but the more I remember of the game the more annoyed and upset I get. Remember how abominations were treated in Origins? Hell blood magic had everyone freaking out, here we meet a full on abomination in Lucanis who has trouble controling the demon inside him and all we do is just ask if he needs his bubu blown on, for fucks sake can anything be treate with a modicum of appropriate intensity? I just cant... Same here with Davrin, I thought I just didnt have enough stars or whatever, I was blowing through the game towards the end because I was justwanted to be done, but for some super weird reason they just decided to make these binary decisions as if to show that no our game does take itself seriously, in these very few instances where obviously its completely out of your hands. The companions are easily the worst in the series, they all have their moments, except for Taash who is just abhorent modern day teenager from LA that somehow got shafted into my DA game, but the structure of interactions make every dialogue seem forced and like its on a clock and nobody really wants to talk, like there isnt anything to talk about and Rook just has to check in with his patients, I mean team. The fact that you cant even talk to them after the missions but have to travel to Lighthouse and often times leave it and come back to unlock the continuing conversation from the previous quest just drove me insane, I genuinely hate Lighthouse as a base and the structure of these dialogues. Just let us talk to them when we want, let us explore all their dialogue for the moment and have new unlock as we continue the story, what is so hard about that. This is clearly a leftover from its life service days, together with the mission structure that I was innitially happy about, but is incredibly poorly done. I liked Davrin and Emmrich is competently written and nice, unfitting in this universe but a solid companion, everyone else was boring, annoying or dissapointing and dont get me started on the romances, this is the least chemistry between two individuals I have ever seen in any game romance and that includes the time I saw a guy having an affair with a chair on an RP wow server. All of them are equally nothing, once again Id like to point to the pre release lies of how steamy the romances are and how they concentrated on them.
Mostof the companion stories were really dissapointing to me, Hardings quest lost me when she just casually announced we are inside a titan now like its no big deal and proceeded to just not really give a crap about all the insane lore and revelations we were seeing, so I did the same, also the ending with the rage or whatever felt so out of place and so stupid, how was that even a decision. Same with Neve, like why is it even a decision, and why does it fall to me if she will become a batman or an "inspiration". Bellaras quest fell flat for me, partially becuse of Anaris and partially because of course the writers refuse to commit to a companion actually doing something morally objectionable. I assumed the endgame for her quest will be to make her turn on her brother and kill him, given what he was doing, which would work really well with her preexisting guilt and all that, but instead its a last minute asspull and he is killed by Anaris, so she just lost a brother that was already dead and is now free of her guilt, yay I guess. Davrin and Emmrich's were solid, tho I dont get the decision with letting Gryphons live in the forrest, it really did feel like the writers have a vendetta against Grey Wardens. Emmrichs is the only one with any actual weight behind the decision imo, especially if you care for the disney skeleton, tho I had assumed him becoming a lich would be a bigger deal given the backround on Lich's in just about all media, or I did before I realised what game this is, so of course it was mostly played for laughs and everyone is okay with it. Skipped Taash because I genuinely couldnt stand her, her "joke" about how Solas and Mythal were doing it, repeating it several times no less, solidified my dislike of the character. Lucanis was also really dissapointing, I already went into it predissapointed because of how Crows were handled and while the part with his cousin was okay I felt like the focus was just completely off, given that Spite should have been a way bigger deal. Everyone was just like kids at kinder garden and I was their keeper, it definitely didnt feel like a team, much less a friendship, conversations didnt flow naturally, they felt flat and mostly just delivered plain exposition or disposition, what we needed to know for their quest, not what we would have wanted to know to get to know them and having to run around the Lighthouse every visit to get scraps of new dialogue really wore one me quickly. I expected to love Harding, but my favorite ended up being Davrin who felt like the only grown up of the group. Exact same here in regards to Varric, his behavior and place in the game was so suspicious but I just chalcked it up to the general poor writing quality, I was surprised when his death was revealed but not because it was emotional or clever, at first it pissed me off because they killed him in a world where Hawke doesnt even exist for all intent and purposes, no last words no final goodbye, not even a possible reaction out of his best friend, and then I was just annoyed at how dumb it was because it absolutely does not hold up to any scrutiny. And fucking yes, honestly, how hard would it be to account for our choices in the south of Thedas considering ALL of it happens in fucking text?! I get not being able to meet our Warden or something, but for crying out loud, you cant write some few sentences? Hell this is how INquisition did it, they just didnt want to, this is their dragon age, not ours. In teh Ama they said that they wouldnt mind doing a wrap up for Warden in the next game or something to the similar effect, and like oh my god, as much as I would like more of my Warden and Morrigan, you didnt do it here, you just do not get to do it, you wiped the slate clean, our Warden just wasnt there, you dont get to just add that character later like nothing happened. Anyway, I gotta stop, this was fun, even if you never read this, which would be my recommendation, at least I got to clear my head of this awful mess once again, have a good one.
@KaiSaeren I read it, and I agree with almost everything. But I still hope that the next game/book/whatever in the DA world could be better. Because I do not want my beloved world to end like this failure. And hope it's the only thing that's left. In my opinion, the most important aspect of an RPG is being the character I wish to be. I could overlook elements such as combat or cool graphics. However, I feel that theres no role playing in DA; it feels more like an action-adventure game with character customization.
Ikr, that ending was super jarring, it's as if you go to a restaurant and order a burger and fries, the burger arrives and the meat is raw and unseasoned, the fries are cold and not even fried all the way through... but hey, the tap water they served you was refreshing and hydrating so overall the meal was phenomenal... Just... Wow, I think this video does have a bit of the good ol' "toxic positivity" TM
I can't believe you dislike the Iron Bull or that you like veilguard combat. This video is amazing. 55:30 OMG the loot search in this game is beyond annoying for me as well, it ruins the pacing when I have to do a loot puzzle because I'm in a non returnable mission.
This was so good and we share super similar thoughts on the game! I am eating pasta and typing this with one finger, so I can’t quite get into my loquacious specifics other than THE VIPER 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
"What the developers had to deal with to get there I think what they pulled off is so phenomenal" can be applied to Dragon Age 2, when they had barely any money and ridiculously little time to develop the game. Over 10 years, from Bioware, there's no excuse. They aren't some small struggling studio, they are a major corporation with lots of money and they actively made bad decisions.
2:21 I dunno about that. Seems they knew no one would like this game. If they had reason to believe it would be a hit they absolutely would have monetized the shit out of it.
Dude it seriously hurts to be a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I love Origins, 2 was alright but heavily rushed, and Inquisition kinda fumbled a little with the companions (SERA). This game made me realize that no it’s not an accident, someone is pulling strings and ruining any hope these games have. Maybe that’s what the secret ending was about…
At work rn but will give this a proper watch later 💜 I am 40hrs into my **second** playthrough and have put in about 160hrs total so far into Veilgaurd?😂 So I very much like it alot but i do have my own criticisms - so I'm curious to hear what your experience was ♡
As soon as you show the footage of the Litch Emmerich and say that you had to pause from laughing because he was just a skeleton in the team meeting... I WAS DYING XD I hadn't seen anything (didn't play that route) and it was sooo fuckin funny! Like, wow bro. What a flex, casually pulling up to a team meeting like that with everyone else in their casuals. So anyways, your review/thoughts/rambles feels so authentic and I pretty much agree with everything you said 100%. Especially as an original-dragon-age-geriatric-millennial-player whos also a big lore whore... game had a lot of "omg I fuckin love this!" moments, a lotta "wow! that was stupid!" moments... the messing up of well established lore like with the Crows really threw me off. Like I'm cool with there being morally grey and notably nefarious factions! The world ending stakes are high so I makes sense to me that there would be partnerships to get the job done. The game really is a mixed bag and its okay to love it and be critical of it at the same time, at least that's how I feel. Shoutout to the scaredy mud alligator things 10/10
i for real lost it I was NOT expecting my mans to just Be A Skeleton like?? he's crazy he's nuts and yeah definitely! like I said there's a ton to love and I've already started a new playthrough lol I just wish it'd given us more on the Dragon Age front the worst sin is I cant have one of those little mud creatures in the lighthouse with me wtf
@@GooseGamingPond Absolute madman! Ohh dude, I am also on act 2 of my second playthrough... after my 125hr launch day 1st playthrough... I swear I smelled every shrub and pet every cat lol. I am veeerrry much on my Dragon Age Bullshit as the tumbr users say. I am unstoppable. Yeah! I wish we could have a 'pet' at the light house? I suppose thats kinda being greedy as we already have Assan, Manfred... Lucanis...
Not everyone plays games for the same reason. Its like how some people play fighting games to dick around and mash buttons and some take it pro or how some people play Pokemon hyper optimally and some just use the cutest critters they run into
^this! I genuinely love all 3 of the prior games and have hundreds of hours in each, I just find the combat a bit hard to sit through. Origins has the crustiest combat IMO but it's counteracted by having the most reactive, responsive and varied story paths, so I still love it!
@@GooseGamingPond if people just stayed away from games where they "find the combat a bit hard to sit through" we probably wouldn't see Dragon Age turning into fantasy Life is Strange. DA was simplified and flattened exactly for people like that. "Button-awesome" approach and etc. Everything for 'broader audience', for people who complain when RPG is more complicated than a glorified datesim they think it is. And due this trend latest DA is barely an RPG at all..what a shame, i mean
@@ShadowSomniari ok but if they have enough data to say that the majority of the playerbase (remember, if you're online talking about a game you're in the minority) doesn't care for the combat, they are incentivized to cater to that demographic. I say this as someone who genuinely prefers Origin's combat system because of the amount of build variety you can squeeze out of it if you know what you're doing and it feels good to set up the tactics in such a way that the game plays itself. but I'm in the minority. most gamers prefer something akin to Veilguard (which I detest, I really didn't like DATV's system) if I was in charge I would've refined the DAO/DA2 system of combat instead of making it temu God of War but pinning the blame on individual consumers is just weird.
@ZenJestr BG3 exists. And combat there is even slower, turn-based one. Bioware followed the desires of people who don't even understand why their games were so good before and lost in a long run
I have a theory that the minor references we do get to the previous games probably came out of the "community council" saying there should be at least SOME call backs. My guess is that the team added some codex at the last minute to appease that feedback.
And I agree with your review basically 100%. I'm the same, watching a scene thinking the writing is not cohesive but tearing up all the same. I'm a sap.
@@joannerosalind That is a good theory I didn't know that they had a community council but ya if I'd been on it I would have said the same 💀 LOL - and I know right, my lore brain says this is bad but my feewings brain is getting emotional!! 🥺🥺 dang bioware you got me again!!!
I appreciate attempts of positivity. I have been a huge fan ever since Origins. But talented people who wrote captivating scenes even with limited hardware are gone. So you have only a bloated company owning valuable IP. They just slapped nice modern graphics, lame writing, and story design. It is sad. But I kinda hate what I used to love.
agree with a lot of your points, but i am commenting solely to shake your hand for being a fellow carver and sten lover 🤝 always happy to see another person with impeccable taste
omg ive never met anyone with my same Sickness much love to u gamer!!!! ♥♥♥
Started choking up at the end of “Respect for Prior Games.” I don’t know who made the ultimate decision to rewrite most of the story, but man, I wonder if they realize what they’ve done. I keep replaying Veilguard and I think the main reason why is that I’ve noticed all of those pieces that have been cut out of this world and I’m still looking for them.
omg hahaha I started tearing up when I was editing it!!! 😭 sorry to bum everyone out lmfao i promise ill be sillier goofier next time!!!
While replaying Dragon Age Origins recently, I found a codex note that's one of the excerpt's from Brother Genitivi's travel memoirs. It's about Rivain, and it says that the people there have had so much contact with the Qunari that most of them have adopted the Qun as their religion and way of life. Interesting piece of lore, in light of Qun vs Rivaini culture being Taash's story conflict. Oh, and the same note discusses Rivaini seers of which one such character actually appears in Veilguard and gives a quest.
Oh that's so cool!! I think I remember that from the world guide too, that Rivain has the only peaceful Qunari settlement on the main continent - I would've loved to see that expanded on in Veilguard!
THANK YOU, I've been in desperate need of good faith Veilguard criticism since finishing the game. So much of the conversation is dominated by rage bait and overly parasocial weirdness.
Also as the world's only Warden Bethany stan, I share your pain of no Hawke sibling cameo
omg WARDEN BETHANY STAN WELCOME u are safe here, warden twins shouldve been at weisshaupt we deserved better!!!
i can completely understand that the development on this project had a ton of Strife (if you will hur hur), but I feel like that doesn't excuse that the marketing stuff was pretty straight up Deceitful, which made me lose a lot of respect unfortunately :((
Yeah totally!! I get it in some ways - obvi they're not gonna come out in marketing like "OUR GAME IS NOT AS GOOD AS WE HOPED FOR" lmao but it did feel like they really undersold the uh... the Way That It Is :^)
I don’t know why Elgar’nain and Ghail’nain didn’t just claim to be the Maker and Andraste - at least then it would have made sense for the imperium and those who believe in the maker - to bend a knee to them.
Or - because he went to the imperium - it would also make sense for the south to claim Elgar’nain to be a false God/idol and not the true maker.
Yeah, it's honestly strange how little the Maker or Andraste came up AT ALL in this game - like I'd have a lot of questions as an Andrastian if I found out the elven gods were real!!!! lol
The amount of Viper slander is unreal 😭
Also: Oh my god! Finally another person that mentioned the amount of times they said "turlum". Half way through the game I was shouting "shut up" every time rook said that word.
i slander the viper as often as they say turlum which is to say 500 times a minute
Loved this vid, everything you said is 100% spot on, and I appreciate it coming from a true fan. I'm so sad about what this game ended up being, and we're never really going to get a satisfying conclusion to the world we've come to love, and to these characters we've spent years with. Just sad all around T^T
I kinda hope so bad that they do an "Extended Cut"-style DLC that just adds some world state reactivity, it wouldn't fix everything but it'd make me happy!!! (they said t hey won't be doing any DLC but im DELUSIONAL)
So glad you liked the vid, and thanks for watching!! ♥
This has been my favorite review on the game. It had a lot of things I really needed to hear. I'm still kind of processing the game, and reckoning with what wasn't there. Thank you.
I agree with pretty much everything you said. The graphics were amazing, and sure the combat could be fun. But the writing/tone/dialogue and the overall feel of a sanitized Thedas just bring it down so much. I still love DA but this is probabaly the worst of the series, honestly.
I really enjoyed your review. It was one of the most balanced reviews I have heard so far.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Introduction
3:01 The Stuff I Like
10:10 Story Presentation
20:27 Worldbuilding
25:24 Agency/Reactivity/Choices
32:10 Companions
43:16 varric.
47:08 Respect for Prior Games
55:05 Miscellaneous and Nitpicks
57:54 Conclusion
9:06 Such a mood. I see we both were glad to finally be out of Solavellan hell after 10 years.
me sitting on 10yrs of unrequited solas love: lavellan u should go in the fade with him i think
Ahhhh it's so disappointing. Nothing sucked my enthusiasm for this game quite like the "defanged" Tevinter. The dread empire of mages, the slave state, the decaying remnants of a once great society, kept afloat with blood magic and sacrifice. More than a decade of building up the place* into a unique, decadent and almost alien land annnnddddd *none* of that got represented in VG.
Yes, it's combat is good, the graphics look great, the voice acting is top notch as always but... it's the worst DA game -/
*I still remember how sinister and imposing the murals were in the city of chains. I guess Kirkwall must have been built by the Venatori >_>
I really felt shocked when I got to Tevinter and it was so regular lmao - I know part of Neve's story was underscoring that like... "there are good people even in a bad city so we can't just throw the whole city away", but it felt like Tevinter's pervasive cultural issues just did not exist in any capacity
Great review! I agree with pretty much everything said.
A Carver fangirl telling Viper fangirls to stand up...
u didnt have to gag me like this but I rly do deserve it
Too much dislike the comments when this video goes hard. Bioware has hit or miss combat, and this game put all its eggs in hair physics and simple rhythm combat. Where is Cassandra!!!
1:51 it seems like the main areas they did try really hard on were the hair physics and the detailed backgrounds/sky boxes.
An hour of mostly critcism ending with "what we got is beyond phenomenal"... And "if you put the story aside". Wow, you sure took me for a spin.
If you have to put story aside in a Dragon Age game, it CANT be phenomenal, thats what these games are about. Beyond enviromental design and graphical fidelity this game is beyond dissapointing, writing is everything for an rpg, roleplay, immersion, worldbuilding, narrative, these are the pillars of any good story based game, and this one fails at all of these.
There are some high points, but most of the game game muddles in mediocrity and far too many moments reach the bottom of the bargain bin barrel level.
Im sorry but I am genuinely stunned by how you ended this video, it reminds me of the reviews I read on steam to the effect of "writing is bad, story only gets going at he end, companions are boring, gameplay is fun - recommended. Your positivity on the back of all of what you say is baffling to me, especially with so much of your criticism being so well placed and put, cmon, how can this be what we get, how can this be even good when compared to the previous games? Dont you want to get an actual Dragon Age game? Because if we just keep saying that this is phenomenal we will get what we deserve, more of this...
I had low expectations going into this, I knew its unlikely I will get even a part of the feeling all three previous games gave me, all the books and comics notwhistanding, but this game went far beyond being just generic, or poor, it made me not care, it holistically demistified and gamified the setting and the people of Thedas to such a point where it may as well be another generic fantasy mobile game world to me.
I hope there wont be another Bioware Dragon Age, at least not from this team and I am amazed that people still have the faith that they would be capable of doing this series justice when veilguard is staring them right in the face, they didnt just make a poor game, they destroyed Thedas and OUR Dragon Age universe, wholy and completely, irreparably damaged most of its lore and wiped out most if not all of its interesting aspects, and lets be frank here, this team is not capable of replacing them, the secret ending is just a slap on the face of a corpse at this point.
I agree with most of what you say, your criticism of the story and their treatment of the lore is ludicrous in many instances (love your point about the Mayor from Treviso, the entire introduction with Crows is beyond poorly written but it was so obvious they will make the Mayor guy the baddie despite having some obviously good points about the Crows), but I sure arrived at a completely different end point from you, I cant enjoy something that treats my favorite series like this and the ending where they talk about how they respect and care about what came before and such felt so incredibly blatant and manipulative, like corporatation getting ahead of obviously incoming feedback because this product does none of that. This game deserved to fail and I dont care whether you look at the 10+ years of development as a strike against or for the developers because either way its unneceptable, DA2 was made in year and a half for crying out loud and it beats out this game in all the aspects of an rpg handily.
The reactivity is incredibly limited and roleplay options are mostly just absent altogether, it is incredibly sad and seriously hilarious given that one of the pre release interview said how they wanted to concentrate on this games reactivity and thats why more decisions arnt being accounted for from previous games... liers. And yea, for how elf centric the game is, there are barely any elfs to begin with and you cant even roleplay as actual dalish elf, I wonder why this incredibly morally complex situation is just so conspicuously absent from the game o.O
Like, Im sorry, but a story that wants me to take it seriously cant make amateurish mistakes like having the big bad (Ghilanain) who is at this point in the narrative immortal and undefeatable for all intent and purposes, simply leave for some vague "other work" when THE one thing she needs to achieve all her goals is right infront of her and nothing is stopping her from reaching a complete win, this moment left me blankly staring at the screen wondering why am I even playing this, I didnt like my Rook, I didnt care about most of my companions, I hated the lighthouse and so far nothing had made me give a lick of care about the conflict because everyone behaved like this is just a regular saturday for them, the been there done that marvel style of writing seriously doesnt work. And when they decided to just destroy southern Thedas off screen, obviously without any of our previous actions having any impact on how things go, I just checked out.
Seriously, I stopped midway in my second playthrough because I was genuinely forcing myself to continue and despite there being some content I havnt seen yet I just did not care enough to play, and I have finished all the other games 10+ easily, replayed DA2 on the back of dropping Veilguard and had a great time, I appreciate it so much more now. Veilguard is not DA4, its not a continuation of this fabulous franchise, its just a misshapen fanfiction level spinoff and I will do to it exactly what it did to my canon, not acknowledge its existence.
Also, just fyi, the people who put together the amazing artbook and who intended so much more for the game are exactly the developers who arnt there any longer, no, I think what we got is absolutely the best the current team could have put out, otherwise they wouldnt just throw so much out of the window and sanitised and wash out the entire setting, this team doesnt care about Thedas, they cant even put their real world moral compass aside when writing fiction, this isnt the team that started project joplin.
Oh and just as a taste of what this current team knows and believes of Dragon Age, in the recent AMA on reddit they answered why Solas doesnt have the elven Army that he so clearly has from teh books and ending of Inquisition... its because he isnt a leader apparantely, so he sent them all away I guess... but what would you expect from someone who isnt doing this for Elves afterall...
And yes, yo uare correct in that no, your choice of dialogue does not impact your personality or available dialogue whatsoever, that was uniqu to DA2, in this game we truly only have the three slightly different versions of yes I will help, and also, the decision with the Mayor and Wardens is the signle decision of its kind in the entire game as far as anyone has reported, no other backround has one.
I also find "The Viper" to be incredibly cringy, it feels like what a very younge teenager would write to make his character sound cool, the fact that this is a hardened leader giving himself the nickname under the notion that it will make him sound tougher is laughable.
I could go forever man, but the more I remember of the game the more annoyed and upset I get. Remember how abominations were treated in Origins? Hell blood magic had everyone freaking out, here we meet a full on abomination in Lucanis who has trouble controling the demon inside him and all we do is just ask if he needs his bubu blown on, for fucks sake can anything be treate with a modicum of appropriate intensity? I just cant...
Same here with Davrin, I thought I just didnt have enough stars or whatever, I was blowing through the game towards the end because I was justwanted to be done, but for some super weird reason they just decided to make these binary decisions as if to show that no our game does take itself seriously, in these very few instances where obviously its completely out of your hands.
The companions are easily the worst in the series, they all have their moments, except for Taash who is just abhorent modern day teenager from LA that somehow got shafted into my DA game, but the structure of interactions make every dialogue seem forced and like its on a clock and nobody really wants to talk, like there isnt anything to talk about and Rook just has to check in with his patients, I mean team. The fact that you cant even talk to them after the missions but have to travel to Lighthouse and often times leave it and come back to unlock the continuing conversation from the previous quest just drove me insane, I genuinely hate Lighthouse as a base and the structure of these dialogues. Just let us talk to them when we want, let us explore all their dialogue for the moment and have new unlock as we continue the story, what is so hard about that. This is clearly a leftover from its life service days, together with the mission structure that I was innitially happy about, but is incredibly poorly done.
I liked Davrin and Emmrich is competently written and nice, unfitting in this universe but a solid companion, everyone else was boring, annoying or dissapointing and dont get me started on the romances, this is the least chemistry between two individuals I have ever seen in any game romance and that includes the time I saw a guy having an affair with a chair on an RP wow server. All of them are equally nothing, once again Id like to point to the pre release lies of how steamy the romances are and how they concentrated on them.
Mostof the companion stories were really dissapointing to me, Hardings quest lost me when she just casually announced we are inside a titan now like its no big deal and proceeded to just not really give a crap about all the insane lore and revelations we were seeing, so I did the same, also the ending with the rage or whatever felt so out of place and so stupid, how was that even a decision. Same with Neve, like why is it even a decision, and why does it fall to me if she will become a batman or an "inspiration". Bellaras quest fell flat for me, partially becuse of Anaris and partially because of course the writers refuse to commit to a companion actually doing something morally objectionable. I assumed the endgame for her quest will be to make her turn on her brother and kill him, given what he was doing, which would work really well with her preexisting guilt and all that, but instead its a last minute asspull and he is killed by Anaris, so she just lost a brother that was already dead and is now free of her guilt, yay I guess. Davrin and Emmrich's were solid, tho I dont get the decision with letting Gryphons live in the forrest, it really did feel like the writers have a vendetta against Grey Wardens. Emmrichs is the only one with any actual weight behind the decision imo, especially if you care for the disney skeleton, tho I had assumed him becoming a lich would be a bigger deal given the backround on Lich's in just about all media, or I did before I realised what game this is, so of course it was mostly played for laughs and everyone is okay with it. Skipped Taash because I genuinely couldnt stand her, her "joke" about how Solas and Mythal were doing it, repeating it several times no less, solidified my dislike of the character. Lucanis was also really dissapointing, I already went into it predissapointed because of how Crows were handled and while the part with his cousin was okay I felt like the focus was just completely off, given that Spite should have been a way bigger deal.
Everyone was just like kids at kinder garden and I was their keeper, it definitely didnt feel like a team, much less a friendship, conversations didnt flow naturally, they felt flat and mostly just delivered plain exposition or disposition, what we needed to know for their quest, not what we would have wanted to know to get to know them and having to run around the Lighthouse every visit to get scraps of new dialogue really wore one me quickly. I expected to love Harding, but my favorite ended up being Davrin who felt like the only grown up of the group.
Exact same here in regards to Varric, his behavior and place in the game was so suspicious but I just chalcked it up to the general poor writing quality, I was surprised when his death was revealed but not because it was emotional or clever, at first it pissed me off because they killed him in a world where Hawke doesnt even exist for all intent and purposes, no last words no final goodbye, not even a possible reaction out of his best friend, and then I was just annoyed at how dumb it was because it absolutely does not hold up to any scrutiny.
And fucking yes, honestly, how hard would it be to account for our choices in the south of Thedas considering ALL of it happens in fucking text?! I get not being able to meet our Warden or something, but for crying out loud, you cant write some few sentences? Hell this is how INquisition did it, they just didnt want to, this is their dragon age, not ours. In teh Ama they said that they wouldnt mind doing a wrap up for Warden in the next game or something to the similar effect, and like oh my god, as much as I would like more of my Warden and Morrigan, you didnt do it here, you just do not get to do it, you wiped the slate clean, our Warden just wasnt there, you dont get to just add that character later like nothing happened.
Anyway, I gotta stop, this was fun, even if you never read this, which would be my recommendation, at least I got to clear my head of this awful mess once again, have a good one.
@KaiSaeren I read it, and I agree with almost everything. But I still hope that the next game/book/whatever in the DA world could be better. Because I do not want my beloved world to end like this failure. And hope it's the only thing that's left.
In my opinion, the most important aspect of an RPG is being the character I wish to be. I could overlook elements such as combat or cool graphics. However, I feel that theres no role playing in DA; it feels more like an action-adventure game with character customization.
Ikr, that ending was super jarring, it's as if you go to a restaurant and order a burger and fries, the burger arrives and the meat is raw and unseasoned, the fries are cold and not even fried all the way through... but hey, the tap water they served you was refreshing and hydrating so overall the meal was phenomenal...
Just... Wow, I think this video does have a bit of the good ol' "toxic positivity" TM
Veilguard is an IF, is not cannon. Bioware just gave us that because Dreadwolf was cancelled and we never will get the real climax.
ive been a fan since origins. replay origins on my old ps3 to this day. This was a failure.
I used to joke solas was the exposition companion but they took it to another level here
I can't believe you dislike the Iron Bull or that you like veilguard combat. This video is amazing. 55:30 OMG the loot search in this game is beyond annoying for me as well, it ruins the pacing when I have to do a loot puzzle because I'm in a non returnable mission.
my iron bull hatred is 100% unfounded im just jealous u can romance him and not sten
This was so good and we share super similar thoughts on the game! I am eating pasta and typing this with one finger, so I can’t quite get into my loquacious specifics other than THE VIPER 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
HAHAHA literally omg- I learned apparently too he's the BLACK DIVINE?? which is 50x worse I HATE HIM
I enjoyed it while it lasted but it ended with inquisition.
I have never spent a second giving a shit about lore for any game.
Every bit true.
"What the developers had to deal with to get there I think what they pulled off is so phenomenal" can be applied to Dragon Age 2, when they had barely any money and ridiculously little time to develop the game.
Over 10 years, from Bioware, there's no excuse. They aren't some small struggling studio, they are a major corporation with lots of money and they actively made bad decisions.
2:21
I dunno about that.
Seems they knew no one would like this game.
If they had reason to believe it would be a hit they absolutely would have monetized the shit out of it.
Harding's storyline should have gone to Dagna. much better fit
Dude it seriously hurts to be a Dragon Age fan sometimes. I love Origins, 2 was alright but heavily rushed, and Inquisition kinda fumbled a little with the companions (SERA). This game made me realize that no it’s not an accident, someone is pulling strings and ruining any hope these games have. Maybe that’s what the secret ending was about…
Yapping 👏 about 👏 Dragon Age 👏
im YAPPING. im BLABBING. no brain, just Dragon Age
At work rn but will give this a proper watch later 💜
I am 40hrs into my **second** playthrough and have put in about 160hrs total so far into Veilgaurd?😂
So I very much like it alot but i do have my own criticisms - so I'm curious to hear what your experience was ♡
Tell me what u thought too! LOL despite all my thoughts I do mention there is quite a bit I rly rly like and I'm already startin a new playthru 💀💀
I will saying that seeing your title made me go "aw no 😢"
As soon as you show the footage of the Litch Emmerich and say that you had to pause from laughing because he was just a skeleton in the team meeting... I WAS DYING XD I hadn't seen anything (didn't play that route) and it was sooo fuckin funny! Like, wow bro. What a flex, casually pulling up to a team meeting like that with everyone else in their casuals.
So anyways, your review/thoughts/rambles feels so authentic and I pretty much agree with everything you said 100%. Especially as an original-dragon-age-geriatric-millennial-player whos also a big lore whore... game had a lot of "omg I fuckin love this!" moments, a lotta "wow! that was stupid!" moments... the messing up of well established lore like with the Crows really threw me off. Like I'm cool with there being morally grey and notably nefarious factions! The world ending stakes are high so I makes sense to me that there would be partnerships to get the job done.
The game really is a mixed bag and its okay to love it and be critical of it at the same time, at least that's how I feel.
Shoutout to the scaredy mud alligator things 10/10
i for real lost it I was NOT expecting my mans to just Be A Skeleton like?? he's crazy he's nuts
and yeah definitely! like I said there's a ton to love and I've already started a new playthrough lol I just wish it'd given us more on the Dragon Age front
the worst sin is I cant have one of those little mud creatures in the lighthouse with me wtf
@@GooseGamingPond Absolute madman!
Ohh dude, I am also on act 2 of my second playthrough... after my 125hr launch day 1st playthrough... I swear I smelled every shrub and pet every cat lol. I am veeerrry much on my Dragon Age Bullshit as the tumbr users say. I am unstoppable.
Yeah! I wish we could have a 'pet' at the light house? I suppose thats kinda being greedy as we already have Assan, Manfred... Lucanis...
An hour-long video with opinion of a person who who doesn't even like the gameplay in games while claiming to be a fan? No, thanks
Not everyone plays games for the same reason. Its like how some people play fighting games to dick around and mash buttons and some take it pro or how some people play Pokemon hyper optimally and some just use the cutest critters they run into
^this! I genuinely love all 3 of the prior games and have hundreds of hours in each, I just find the combat a bit hard to sit through. Origins has the crustiest combat IMO but it's counteracted by having the most reactive, responsive and varied story paths, so I still love it!
@@GooseGamingPond if people just stayed away from games where they "find the combat a bit hard to sit through" we probably wouldn't see Dragon Age turning into fantasy Life is Strange. DA was simplified and flattened exactly for people like that. "Button-awesome" approach and etc. Everything for 'broader audience', for people who complain when RPG is more complicated than a glorified datesim they think it is. And due this trend latest DA is barely an RPG at all..what a shame, i mean
@@ShadowSomniari ok but if they have enough data to say that the majority of the playerbase (remember, if you're online talking about a game you're in the minority) doesn't care for the combat, they are incentivized to cater to that demographic. I say this as someone who genuinely prefers Origin's combat system because of the amount of build variety you can squeeze out of it if you know what you're doing and it feels good to set up the tactics in such a way that the game plays itself. but I'm in the minority. most gamers prefer something akin to Veilguard (which I detest, I really didn't like DATV's system)
if I was in charge I would've refined the DAO/DA2 system of combat instead of making it temu God of War but pinning the blame on individual consumers is just weird.
@ZenJestr BG3 exists. And combat there is even slower, turn-based one. Bioware followed the desires of people who don't even understand why their games were so good before and lost in a long run