#i'm a mage this time so that's fun... i saved treviso instead of minrathous this time and that's less fun....

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

What are your thoughts on Veilguard?

I have soooo many thoughts, anon. I'm currently working on a long post that goes more in-depth about everything while I'm on my second playthrough, but to give a more brief overview with spoilers:

I enjoy playing Veilguard. I think it looks great. The character creator is great. It's fun to play. I love all of the companions; that's always one of my fears whenever first playing a game like this, like "oh god, what if I don't like one of them? What if one becomes the new Sebastian??"

Thankfully, that didn't happen. The only one I have any beef with is Manfred, and that's because he's a little cheater, how else does he keep winning at rock, paper, scissors??? I think I won only one game with him in my playthrough... suspicious, Rook can't possibly be THAT bad.

Anyway, my personal favorites are Davrin and Neve, but honestly? I love them all.

I thought it did a lot of things really well, some things even better than previous games.

I played as an elven Grey Warden warrior, Nesryn, and I had fun with her. Usually I don't play as warrior characters but the combat is actually fun with a sword and shield this time. She was definitely charming/humorous/"purple" in personality. She romanced Davrin, and honestly? Even outside of the romance, which is very good, her dynamic with him was a huge highlight of the game due to their bond over being wardens. It added an extra layer to the romance, and their banter with each other was just *chef kiss*. Also, Assan is their son and I love him, too.

I could gush about them forever. I don't know how his romance feels when you're not a warden, and I'm not romancing him on my second playthrough [though I am giving him longing looks from a distance] with my current lord of fortune Rook, but I imagine it's just as good.

There's a lot I like about the game...

But... it also did a lot of things worse than the previous games, and I have a huge bone to pick with what they did with Morrigan. Like... Morrigan's role in this game is, in my opinion, the worst thing they could've done to me, a Morrigan enjoyer, specifically. Like, did we not play Origins? Did we not pay attention to anything about Morrigan and Flemeth's relationship?

And can I just say that lore dumping is not a great way to do storytelling...? Nor is retconning that cutscene with Solas and Flemeth at the end of DAI. It's not really even the lore itself that bothers me, it's the way it was delivered a lot of the time where I'd just sit there like.... you couldn't figure out a way to deliver that better?

I acknowledge that it might be partially my fault for watching all of Solas' regrets one after another and then going to talk with Morrigan that made me incredibly bitter about that whole thing... but in my defense, the game makes it clear that it wants you to do everything you can before progressing the story. I wasn't someone who missed out on a lot of stuff due to recruiting Davrin too early; my friend who already finished the game warned me about that.... but that tells me what I should be doing, no? So of course I gathered all those damn wolf statuettes, of course I'm going to watch them all at once.

Oh, and the plot twist with Varric's death? ...y'all.

Again, I'm not even mad that Varric died. If anything, I totally expected it, but like... you're gonna do it like that? Really? Okay.

I'm writing that long post, and I'll answer any other asks that come my way, so I'll just say that my current feelings are that it's a fun game and I enjoy it, but the jury is still out on whether I think it's a good dragon age game, y'know?

[ghostoftheyear]

So I am 71 hours into Veilguard and I have a few Thoughts.

To start off with, WHERE IS MY KISS. BIOWARE EXPLAIN. I've really been enjoying the Lucanis romance, and the extended sort of storyline (the way they did this for all the companions was fun, even if I do heartily miss how we could have long conversations with the companions in DAI and explore various topics and really get to know them).

But. I finished Lucanis's story, his bond is maxed out, he's made comments about Rook, he made choccolatte calda for me Rook, but so far all I've gotten is one almost-kiss. And a nice little date, and smiles at each other. BUT WHERE IS MY KISS. I am literally almost about to go into the very last part of the game and I am upset.

So DAI felt padded out in the way that there were lots of extra, optional areas you could explore (the Hissing Wastes come to mind). Didn't really add to the plot, but you could check things out, learn more about the lore, etc. In Veilguard it feels very much like Sidequest City. More like Sidequest Country, really. And while I do like how many of them have sort of tied into an overarching theme that somehow gathered together in the end... I'm also very tired of them. There are quests in Hossberg I'm just not going to do. I gave up trying to figure out some of these stupid puzzles. I'm barely feeling motivated enough to finish the rest of the companion questlines. I'll finish them because I want to max everyone out, but at this point, it's starting to feel like a drag.

The Minrathous vs. Treviso choice was brutal. Not only can you only save one city, the person who comes from the city you don't choose just fuckin hates you. And like, that was well written! Of course I'd be upset if someone chose to save another city instead of mine. But wow, the fallout from that felt like I couldn't ever do anything right again.

Why is Varric out of commission for so long. I don't want him to push himself to try and take command again, but I don't like the fact that he's barely been out of bed since the opening mission.

Though I've generally gotten comfortable (more or less) with the combat, I don't really super love how you basically have to choose certain pairs every time. For example, I can't bring Taash with Lucanis because their primers and detonators aren't compatible. I'd like to mix my party up more, but often it ends up being Taash and Emmrich, or Lucanis and Neve, or Bellara and... Harding? I think? I've barely been using Harding. Or Davrin. I'm used to the tank/mage/rogue combo and I really don't want three mages in my party.

Finally, while I was super happy to see Aravel, why did they even ask who he romanced if they're not going to bring it up at ANY. TIME. Not when Rook talked to him, not in letters, NOTHING. You fucking get to meet him in Minrathous! Guess who else is in Minrathous! HIS HUSBAND. I know this game isn't about him, but man, you got to ask Hawke about their companions when they showed up in DAI. I don't even get that?

I get that they can't show all the romance partners. Obviously. They didn't even ask about the important choices made in DAI, so they can't account for if Bull became Tal-Vashoth or went back to the Qun, if Cullen overcame or succumbed to lyrium addiction, etc. But Josephine? She's freaking Antivan. There's no reason not to have her cameo. Or why does Isabela get to show up repeatedly when Zevran hasn't been noted once? (In Treviso. The home of the Antivan Crows. WTF. Again, they didn't want to or couldn't add info from Origins, but they didn't have to note that my Warden romanced him. Just a mention of House Aranai would have sufficed!)

I know these are all kind of superficial things, but we've had to wait for this game for ten years. I don't want this to come off like I'm not enjoying it, because I am -- I'm getting headaches from playing it too much and I'm bummed I won't be able to play much tomorrow because, you know, work and all. But it's rough when there are things you were looking for and feel let down when they're not there.