#people still discuss dao characters and origins' prologues...

[impmansloot]

i desperately want kcd fandom to be one of those Radioactive Cockroach fandoms that exist for years and still have people discussing miniscule lore details, but if it were anything like them people would still be discussing my girl johanka. have you guys even heard about johanka? anyway this post is about johanka of skalitz-

[malevolententity]

dav thoughts below, not directly deeply discussed plot spoilers. but talking, mechanics ? around spoilers and like world state meta spoilers. so click ye own risk.

first and foremost WHERES THE JEWELRY. WHY CANT I HAVE PIERCINGS. WHY IS THE ONLY SEMI JEWELRY OPTION FOR QUNARI HORN DECORATION?? IS IT BECAUSE THEY ONLY GET 30 HAIR STYLES WHERE AS EVERY OTHER RACE HAS 90???????????????

normal now. time for actual critical thinking

the writing in this game is clunky but Every bioware game has had clunky writing so i dont really care. this is a fun game. i continuously had fun with the combat (on normal/adventurer) and exploration the entire time. some story beats really landed for me and others (like where they Tell you what rook feels even if i know they feel differently) really didnt land, but theyre Easy to move past because its usually another character asserting something about rook and people make false assumptions all the time in real life. its just another moment of that but in a video game. its easy to move past.

this game brought back some of the body horror from origins and 2 that i deeply missed in inquisition. everything that inquisition failed to do this game did better at and brought it back to form. inquisition was the series killer it was a hilariously bad game and veilguard has restored some faith in at least returning fun to the combat.

i wish the companions had more agency in their lives, rook being the decider of major choices; except when youve hardened them then they get agency; makes sense you are playing the game and shaping companions to be what you need of them, but i wish the system would take previous conversations into account and have the companion make the final choice based on how youve talked the entire game so as a player i get the pay off that i changed the outcome and the companion without hitting a big Do What I Want Switch at the pivotal quest moment.

the game isnt woke. but it is sanitized compared to the previous 3 and i dont know if thats good or bad. in dao and dai if you arent human there are racial comments thrown around about what you are and it can be upsetting but i dont think fantasy racism is inherently bad or a moral issue, especially when the fantasy genre Is about exploring real world topics and issues with a barrier of separation because Elves Arent Real. but it is jarring the lack of reaction to your race in this game. your race really only effects a few dialog choices. i was an elf running around tevinter. running around VENATORI and not once did i hear knife ear? or rabbit? i get that were in global north now so some changes i can write off (like every pronunciation from previous games being different) but like. slavery was HUGE in northern thedas. and only recently was it abolished in tevinter. but the after effects should still be there? and its just Missing. and i dont think ill ever know if thats good or bad. because i can see merits of throwing it away because its 2024 fantasy racism is still racism and can alienate players who dont ever want to deal with racism in media. but pretending that racism just DOESNT happen to the player at all is extremely disingenuous and wild when the game has banter and codex's about slavery in tevinter being a recent thing. my second run while only having done the prologue for it. is a qunari run. its going to be jarring going through all these cities in the north ESPECIALLY treviso a city actively dealing with a military occupation by qunari if theres Nothing said about me being a qunari.

ultimately its a good game, i had fun with it i started a second run within a day of me beating it. and it took me 10 years to do a second inquisition run because i hated everything about inquisition that much. but with veilguard ive already got like 4 runs semi planned. my rook is my little guy who i want to engage in source material with.

one day ill write up everything about de riva because i have Such worms over him and his changes over time make me so sad