oraculis

[oraculis]

learning that Rook up until a couple of years ago was essentially a one-note quip machine - constantly cracking wise with different flavors of the same jokes regardless of dialogue wheel choice - honestly just feels like a strange misunderstanding of why people like jokes from characters. it also explains why the current version we got lacks extra breadth if they had to spend a lot of time rewriting and re-recording VO.

using Varric as an example for a minute. yes, he's funny. yes, he's charming. but his wit serves a purpose beyond just entertainment. his jokes are armor, carefully crafted deflections that keep people at arm's length from his own pain. he can write insightful stories about his companions, call them fun nicknames, etc., but as we've seen over the years with him, there's a lot of sadness and guilt beneath it all. even with purple Hawke, many of their quips come from a place of "not this shit again" and even when they are out of pocket, someone is usually there to call them out on it.

i'm just like...people complained about this with andromeda, though in some respects it feels as if the team took the critiques about the meme-able performance issues/bugs as the focus - which, yeah, were a problem - but didn't think that any of the writing was the issue. to see this resurface again in veilguard, especially with rook up until the last minute when the community council said "hey rook fucking sucks rn" is concerning. i'm glad they took the critique to heart and made whatever changes they could with the aggressive content lock/budget they were allotted, but it's undeniable that a lot of the ~discourse~ from the game is that thedas just doesn't feel like thedas and that there are aspects that are just plain boring. a pretty big indictment on a series so heavily focused on the world and its characters. you can have jokes but it has to come from some place real and people will expect you to explore that.

[oraculis]

so uh, now that the 10 year wait for dragon age is over, what is everyone going to do now lol? i feel simultaneously eased from getting a conclusion that i wanted, but at the same time i feel like i'm perpetually playing dragon age forever because it has me in a chokehold 😩

[oraculis]

lucanis explains to rook that he sleeps in the pantry because he wants an area with controlled entrypoints since he's an assassin after all duh. except why does he need to worry? literally everyone in the lighthouse are friends pretty much from the jump talking about groceries. i think that sort of encapsulates some of my issues with how they try to speed-run citadel level camaraderie. sure they say that they are worried about spite causing a problem but that never actually amounts to anything.

[oraculis]

Arlathan Forest - Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

[oraculis]

also pour one out for the loss of the iconic bioware animations in veilguard. i'm going to miss "lean against door/pillar" and "pointing behind with thumb while body turns slightly" 😔

[oraculis]

i know some people take issue with the bioware dialogue wheel and have for a long time (i really like it), but the one thing i will say is in veilguard the tones don't really come out the way that they are presented. inquisition was much better about this. honestly i think they should have just removed the tone icons from the wheel entirely because it's creating an expectation that often isn't met by the way Rook actually conveys their dialogue.

[oraculis]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Tevinter environmental decals

[oraculis]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Grey Warden environmental decals

[oraculis]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Stained Glass

[oraculis]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Solas's Regrets

[oraculis]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Backstory Art

[oraculis]

I’ve been away from tumblr for a while trying to avoid Veilguard spoilers, but I just beat the game. While I need to sit for a while and let my thoughts settle before I’m able to articulate properly, I’m just crying because it feels like I got everything I wanted. Compound it with the fact that it finally happened after nearly 10 years…I just couldn’t believe it. I feel at peace 😭

[oraculis]

DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD | OFFICIAL REVEAL-TRAILER 2024, dev. BioWare

[oraculis]

well i for one am excited about veilguard lol

[oraculis]

Dragon Age Inquisition: Emprise du Lion.

[oraculis]

maaan it sucks that the dreadwolf stuff leaked. that build is quite old - like almost a year at this point - so people should keep their expectations in check, but i've had a lot of time to digest the changes from the entire video and am excited for it.

[oraculis]

BLOODBORNE | Scenery