If you are unable to form an informed opinion based on seeing dozens of hours of gameplay and many different people discussing their experience, then I'm sorry for you but I do actually have that ability. If someone presented me with a plate full of poop, I wouldn't have to actually taste it to know that it tastes bad. I can see it looks and smells awful. Similarly, if I see gameplay, visual design, dialogue, etc. that is bad in my opinion, I do not feel the need to purchase a game and try it for myself as if that's going to magically change what I've already seen. Try actually watching my video, and the in-depth, critical reviews of other people. Try putting your mind to work a little bit with some critical thinking skills, and you, too, may be able to figure out how you feel about something you haven't directly experienced! Wow!
@@ShaqsonYT If you actually watched the video, you would know that I am discussing my *own* opinion on every single piece of gameplay footage that I've watched leading up to Veilguard's release. I've watched dozens of hours of gameplay. If you think I can't form an informed opinion on *my favorite game series* based on all the gameplay I've seen, sorry that you have such a low opinion of my critical thinking abilities, and/or sorry that you can't think for yourself unless you directly experience something.
@@btiermutineer Calling out someone's inability to think for themselves while simultaneously making an entire video that is basically a reworded version of someone else's thoughts is hilarious lol
The writing in Veilguard be like: Companion 1: I have a problem that distracted me. Companion 2: I also have a problem that distracted me. Companion 3: Same, I too have something I've been thinking about a lot. MC: It seems we have a lot on our minds. We'll need to take care of these things first if we are to focus on the battles ahead. That's how the game sets up side quests. They talk in the most unnatural, annoying, "I'm going to say what I need to do out loud because people are too dumb to infer meaning from words" type of way.
And they all do that shit at the exact same time. I'm back at Mass Effect 2, having the feel that I play a sort of spinoff game about a bunch of weirdos instead of advancing the main plot.
I'm actually blown away by the discourse in this thread - so many sane opinions being expressed from so many diverse angles and with different viewpoints..... God, it's so refreshing. I sometimes feel like some dark force is at work trying to separate and divide us and it can get a bit depressing.
@@EyeDeal_666 your last sentence is where you finally stumbled onto it. Bingo. If you're not familiar with the term divide and conquer, there it is. The idea is to highlight the ways that we are different so we devalue the many more ways that we are the same.
100%. I think the vast majority of people hold the same values. We just get separated by the crazies from both sides. As well as those in power that want us fighting amongst ourselves rather than focusing on what they're doing. Personally I would call myself anti-woke. But because I want more LGBT characters like Dorian. Full characters. Not the poorly written one-note tokens we're getting these days.
The one thing that stands out to me is how much they've nerfed the "mean" dialogue. Even when you try to play an evil character, they tone down the aggression. The writers are so concerned with people being mean that they won't even make a fictional meanie.
It's not just that. They seem to be scared of doing anything that might seem offensive, or scary to anyone. Even none of the monsters look scary. Literally not a single one. They all just look goofy. That can't be a coincidence. It must be a deliberate choice.
Look up who game director is. It makes complete sense that he doesn't want meanie weanie people being mean to him or his romance inserts. Hell, even enemies were made to look like fortnite monsters.
@GreggyAck Mark Darrah made a point once that the team struggled with making some of the darker moments in Origins, and that he understands not wanting to subject themselves to that kind of anxiety. And I get it, I can't bring myself to say something mean to Leliana because it makes me feel bad, but they had to write it, VA it, animate it, and test it. Yeah, I'd struggle spending weeks on that type of stuff, too. But ultimately, if you're going to make a dark fantasy game, you need to be willing to deal with that kind of stuff. And because you know what you're getting into, you can plan ahead and make sure you approach that content in a healthy manner. Even take breaks from this game to work on another, maybe. It's murky waters, for sure. But they knew that going in, and chose not to address it properly.
Don't forget about that one person on Twitter who was ecstatic to learn from the developers that there are no spiders in the game because they had arachnophobia
Some other notes as people have been commenting some honestly wild things: - "why do you have an opinion if you haven't played the game yet?": Very simple answer. I have functioning eyes, ears, and a brain. I can think through information that I see, no matter whether I myself am directly experiencing a game or I'm just watching footage of it. I have critical thinking skills, and I am genuinely afraid for all the people who say that you have to try something for yourself so that you know whether you will like it or not. Do you all purchase every single game that comes out on Steam every day and play at least a few minutes of ALL the games before you realize that like 99% of them are not to your tastes? How do you live your lives? - "why are you getting on the hate bandwagon" (+ previous "you haven't played the game yet boohoo how dare you say negative things"): Um, also for the exact same reason I've explained in my previous point. I am not EVER on any "bandwagon", particularly not a "hate" one. I do not follow what people say like a sheep. Once again, sorry if you personally are extremely insecure in your own ideas and opinions and have to get "evidence" that your opinion is valid, but I have no such issues. I am confident in my own opinion because it is just my own opinion. It is not "objectively" correct, and I am not implying everyone needs to agree with me. All I am saying is: this is how I think, this is how I feel. It is up to YOU to decide how YOU feel about what I am saying.
I showed a review that was full of gameplay from a multiple hours playthrough and they still wanted to pretend that I couldn't possibly know the gameplay was poor.
You were completely fair and worked with the material that is available. You even showed proof for the points you made with many scenes, writing, graphics etc. People are completely emotional and irrational if they tell you you can't have an opinion yet. Keep it on!
Exposition dialogue aside, the moment I knew the writing was doomed was when Solas' "big ritual" was interrupted by toppling statues over thx to conveniently placed scaffolding. A millennia-old "god" doesn't think to secure his damn prison statues with something a little sturdier than wooden beams? What? Is he an 80s cartoon villain now? "You meddling kids!" I can hear him scream. Besides, those statues look massive. Let's say the statues are about the same height and weight as the Statue of Liberty., which weighs around 200 metric tons! Not even ten people could move a wooden beam supporting something of that scale! The utter lack of understanding basic physics is astounding! This lack of understanding pops up in later parts of the game as well, such as the ballistae you use to shoot darkspawn in quick succession. That's not how ballistae work. They need to be reloaded between shots. They're absolutely useless against small, fast-moving targets! And from the way they're designed, they don't seem to have an auto-reloading mechanism either. They also lack the type of noticeable kickback for missile weapons that size. Or when Rook is seen kicking over massive wooden beams to use as a makeshift bridge. A normal person would break their foot doing that. Last I checked, Dragon Age games tried to be as realistic as possible when it comes to physics.
@@docmacabre oh boy, I had erased that part of Solas' ritual from my mind because it was so bad, lol. You're absolutely right, even without taking the dialogue into consideration, that's terrible story writing. We've been sold during Trespasser on Solas being an extremely powerful and cunning mage, and one with the backing of what amounted to a cult of elves. All of Fen'harel's agents somehow magically disappeared, no one is protecting him while he's doing his ritual, and he has precarious wooden scaffolding holding up his precious statues? Plus, as you said, it's impossible to move such wooden beams if they're supporting a structure of such huge proportions and weight. It feels like the writers ran out of time to find a way to make Solas go away at the beginning of the game, and just went with the first thing that popped into their mind. Absolutely mind-boggling.
May I also state. There’s also demons. Dragons. Mages. Magic and while we’re at it fucking nugs. It’s a work of fiction people. ❤️ it’s for fun. Try having fun
@@witchsandwerewolfsi wish folk would stop using this line. Its called suspenson of disbelef. They set a president in there previous games. If they change now they should expect to be called out on it.
Interesting. The moment I realized the writing was doomed was a line in one of the trailers. "Become a leader." This is the fantasy of someone who isn't an adult and can't think like an adult. Total Greta Thunberg energy. I knew in that moment that this was a game written by children for children.
I used to love Dragon Age, I wish I could time travel back to 2009 when my stepdad bought Origins for me just to re-experience it and be fascinated again ❤
@vojtechvavra3630 Yes, I did see that myself while "borrowing" the game. So at least they are there, although the breast slider seems very restrictive for some reason. Maybe it actually is tied into your characters overall build which might he sort of interesting, but not entirely realistic or representative either. You can have a big belly in DAV, but not big breasts.
It's nice to hear a sane opinion. The political discourse has taken over this game to the point where you can't find or express any valid criticism without being attacked by either camp. I'm a SJW, but that doesn't mean I think current-day buzzterms belong in what's supposed to be a medieval fantasy setting. Having a trans character in the game is great, but the writers have to put in the effort to make the character make sense in the context of the world of Thedas. There's so much lore they could utilize to tell an interesting story about what being trans in Thedas could be like, without leaving it as a direct modern-day insert that breaks immersion. This is a fact because there have been trans people and cultures that accepted them throughout human history. It doesn't need to hinge on pronouns, labels and surgery scars. Also, as a black woman with large breasts, I find it absurd that I can make an elf with African features in a world where Africa doesn't exist, but I can't have large breasts. I can even remove my breasts, but I guess my natural body is just too shamefully lewd for this climate. It saddens me that people have gotten to the point where they care more about real-life references and sensitivities than consistent worldbuilding and intelligent storytelling. Or competent writing. One thing DAI taught me is that I can put up with shitty gameplay, graphics and a lacklustre story, but I draw the line at bad writing.
As a left-leaning person myself, the whole "woke" political movement drives me crazy because it undermines the authenticity and verisimilitude of every fictional setting by forcing them all to align with the demographics and sensibilities of 21st century California. It's quite obnoxious to be honest.
Did the SJW title fits you, then? You seems like a progressist person but not a SJW, at least your post let me think you are not waging a "cultural" war on internet about "we need more this and that and that's racist and something-phobic if you don't!".
@@garroshhellscream594 Yes, I'm progressive but even I can't stand Taash the way they've written her. I think both sides of the "culture war" are outside of then norm. Most people just want good characters, and good representation should be a show don't tell kind of thing . Uhura wasn't going around yelling "I'm a black woman and I'm great at my job!" in Star Trek; she just did it. I'm more concerned with the quality of the writing. Generally intelligent stories and characters follow where the writing is good.
They seriously expect us to believe the Inquisition wouldn't be leading the charge and the story is handed over to a rando? Yes, each game has a new MC, but given this is the first time they've directly continued the narrative and setup Inquisitor's crusade, it's a narrative failure to abandon the ending of Inquisition & Trespasser.
I'm so glad I found this video. You are discussing things that really matter to me. The writing. I die a little inside every time the characters talk, especially the Chinese elf. Goofy lil 🤬. I'm a real lore nerd and I have so many disappointments. Just a quick example. The Qunari invade Antiva and the Divine Victoria doesn't start the Exalted Marche? So that's because we don't carry over our Divine choices to DAV. The saved Inquisition isn't involved? The Holy Empire of Orlais, house of the Andrastian Chantry isn't involved? Remember, the previous Qunari invasions resulted in 3 Exalted Marches. This could be the perfect connection point between Inquisition and the new part. But no. I feel like these new devs hate the old games, especially DAO. And that's just one small example. I'm so disappointed. The fans waited ten years and got this.
They don't hate Dragon Age: Origins - they don't even know anything about it - They didn't know who Sten and Zevran are when they were asked by fans about them maybe appearing in this game...
@@zarddin9561 Really? This is worse than i thought i mean games till now did seem like they were made by someone who was inaccurately told what Origins was about in the shortest lines imaginable so i guess it makes sense, if they just improved upon Origins stopped with pushing "Da message" in such blunt and unsophisticated way they'd have a hit
@@lordhater4207 All the people that worked in BioWare and created Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, KOTOR, Mass Effect 1 and 2 are no longer working there. Thankfully they are making their own game: th-cam.com/video/WAKAZNQuLqw/w-d-xo.html
I also love how none of our previous choices matter because those were just SO far away. So the Anderfels, the most devout region in Thedas, doesn't care if there's a mage divine?
wtf is a problem with a chinese elf? They can't include all the choices you mentioned bcs not everyone played the game before. This is a super egoistic point of view. I played the other games and I wish we could carry over some more choices but this choices just cant have such a big impact on the story bcs new players woudnt understand anything + they have to write a scenario for every choice the player could have made. I really understand ur point bcs I played the games myself but still.
@@Keemera BG3 was late to the party, but I'm glad that it was because we don't get ANYTHING like that anymore, and haven't since DA1 / ME2 / Jade Empire
I hope it isn’t too much to say that I feel genuine kinship with your experience with DA:O, right down to experiencing complex gaming on such a scale and being inspired enough to pursue a creative writing degree. Our experiences and romantic preferences differ, but your passion and know.edge has reignited the old flame for these games. Veilguard for sure is an extremely bitter not for this franchise to potentially end on, but we can keep the trilogy remembered.
When you started talking about combat, you voiced my feelings about why I play games, precisely! I play most games to enjoy the story. I read "choose your own adventure" books as a youth and that is what I enjoy most out of video games. I usually play games on easy or story mode so I can get through the story. The exception is Elden Ring! I don't know why I'm so hooked on that game, but it is one of my top 5 games!
I’m in a similar boat as you are. DAO fan since playing it in high school in 2009, and likewise it’s the first thing I install on any PC. I feel the same way, the utter disrespect to prior lore, the way the progressive inclusions feel shoehorned in at what feels like the expense of things like cohesive writing…it continues this trend that I hope will go away in gaming (hopefully this wont lead to a comment deletion) forced DEI, as opposed to inclusion that is adapted for the lore and source material (i.e. BG3, Outer Worlds, etc.)
Some notes I didn’t manage to get into the video because I was already too upset to write more: - If you watched SkillUp’s review, did you notice that Harding’s characterization is inconsistent? One scene, she’s a people pleaser and can’t even tell Viago she hates coffee, and in the other she’s complaining to Emmrich that he wants to bring books along on her camping trip. Which one is it? You can’t be a people pleaser only sometimes. - I don’t know if the writers at Bioware know this, but being trans or non-binary has nothing to do with the clothes you prefer to wear, and everything to do with how you feel on the inside not matching how people perceive you. There are men who like to wear kilts and dresses, and women who like to dress in pants or in otherwise more butch or masculine clothing. Someone’s clothing preferences don’t dictate their gender identity. I’m sure people haven’t spoiled the entire Taash conversation, but if it really comes down to how Taash prefers to dress… I’m going to be even more disappointed in Bioware than I already am. That would be *terrible* trans representation. - On the topic of representation, Bellara is supposed to be someone with ADHD. As a person with ADHD, I find her “haha oh so quirky and clumsy and forgetful OOPS” kind of portrayal extremely offensive and stereotypical. It’s not at all what having ADHD is like, and it’s genuinely hurtful that that’s how they chose to portray a person with ADHD. ADHD is a disability that stems from having issues with your neurological functions, lack of appropriate dopamine levels in the brain, and not being able to control and direct your attention. It can genuinely be extremely debilitating on a day-to-day basis, it’s certainly not fun to deal with. I’m very upset with Bellara’s character. Even worse if she’s supposed to be autistic. I have had SO many problems in life due to being autistic: from social issues when not understanding other people and them not understanding me in turn, to sensory issues especially in public spaces, issues with only being able to do things that are special interest and nothing else, etc. Autism and ADHD are not ~quirky traits~ to give a character. - Every single inter-party “conflict” that happens is 1) barely a conflict to begin with, and 2) immediately resolved. It reminds me of some really bad writing I saw from a beginner writer who wrote “I drove into the parking lot, and couldn’t find any spots. When I circled back around, I found an empty spot and parked there”. Genuinely, the level of conflict between companions that I’ve seen in reviews is giving me this exact milquetoast vibe of “oh no for a few minutes I couldn’t find a parking lot, but then I DID find one! Anyway…”. - And finally, I know I already mentioned this in the video, but PLEASE someone at Bioware explain to me what the hell happened during Veilguard’s development that made all the writers forget how to write, or ignore everything they knew about good writing. I am BEGGING you. I MUST know. I of course would have way more things to mention in relation to this disaster of a game, but I need to stop somewhere before I give myself a mental breakdown.
I saw that with Harding. Vaash has a similar issue with a couple of lines one where she says she didn't follow the Qun another where she said she did. They must not have proofread the conversations.
As some with audhd, I am someone also with a “whimsical” personality. Like it or not, stereotype or not, it is reality to me. And I am treated as immature or unreliable often because of it, instance of casual ableism. But I can also get serious and have deep conversations, I can problem solve as a software engineer. I also do run into those debilitating issues you mentioned. I would love even if it’s just one part of the spectrum of audhd experience that my personality is not immediately written off as “stereotypical” or “immature”, from neurotypicals or fellow audhds. It’s not offensive, it’s gratifying to see someone I relate to. The judgments and ableism other ppl hurl at us I would like to not hurl at ourselves. And I trust (and know cause spoilers) that the game will expand on these surface qualities.
About Harding being a people pleaser: in this one cut scene, she sounds borderline "bitchy" when she says this to Neve: "I know you’re hurt, Neve. But the rest of us need to do something." That's not how a people pleaser would talk. She essentially sounds as if she's either not caring about Neve's condition, or that she doesn't take it seriously. But it seems serious enough for Neve to be unable to heal herself. (Which falls apart moments later when Neve says it's just a headache and that she's "worked with worse" lolwut?! Also, why can't she heal Harding if Harding is the one with the bruised up face? Gods, there are so many holes in the writing! It's like swiss cheese!) And this thing about representation? Yeah, they only ever employ the most outdated stereotypes. "Oh shiny!" puts it very well (I also have ADHD, and these depictions are just f-ing annoying). Apparently, there's also a scene in which Taash goes on about hating dresses. No one forces you to wear a damn dress! The Viddasala in Trespasser didn't wear a dress. Doesn't seem to me as if the Qunari have a gender-based dress code!
Yes, exactly! I know there are people on Tumblr and BlueSky who actually use "Autistic" as their _gender_ because they think it's "cute and quirky". _AUTISM IS NOT A GENDER._ 🤦🏾♀️ And nuerodiversity isn't some cutesy-funsies thing people can put on and take off like fuzzy pink cat-eared headphones whenever they want more or less attention.
Patrick Weekes is the lead writer.He was appointed when Gaider left apparently was recommended and handed the keys to the franchise by Gaider. John Epler is the creative director and also apparently has done some of the writing. I think there are others who I don't know. I liked Patrick but he is wrong on his views on this game. It's possible however that Corienne Busche the game director has carte blanche to do as she feels fit and they have to follower her lead. That may be why we have all the trans stuff in the game because Busche is trans and Bioware it seems wants to check all the boxes for trans support. I think it done to excess. Now I want to make it clear I am a liberal person and I loved Bg3. Some of the actors the voice actors are gay and I am fine with that. I think one identifies as non-binary the va for Karlach and I just love her. So I am not prejudiced .Hardly. The game is a bad game. Skillups and Matty's reviews are right the others are wrong. It's ok to like a bad game however and I say let others who want to like it. like it. It's not a matter of personal preference.. The game is objectively bad. I would argue the game journos are being shills as they support the game for nongame/political/sociological/and financial reasons. Some of the other positive reviews are from people seeking access/sponsored content , people who have received gifts/merch and tours from Bioware over their support for past games like Inquisition or people who hope to join the gravy train and receive such considerations over this game if merch becomes available later on and Bioware rewards them for their positive review. Once the people who were denied codes do their reviews which I expect will be negative and match Matty's and Skillups the game will be toast. The game needs to sell a minimum of 5 million copies to satisfy EA and I am not sure it will get there. I do want to add Kirby was one of the people laid off several months ago along with some other experienced developers.
I love most things DA. Mostly, I love how they are open to all types of peoples and personalities. I loved that there was diversity kept in lore in all the games. BG3 person describing this as a netflix series game is not the compliment everyone thinks it it. Look what netflix has done with writing LOR and the Witcher. Bad writing is just bad writing.
How could they wrote this? Which producer in their right mind would approve this? Rook: (laughs). Wow… I feel drunk… Harding: Yeah… it’s because I turned your head into mush!! Rook: Or it’s love… Harding: you boob! This is not funny! Okay, I’ll fix it! I, I promise. I will find a way and I will fix it. Okay? Okay?? Urghhh, damn it, no! Don’t touch me!
Baby's first fanfic and also. Lyrium poisoning can be fatal. Small doses create potent addiction, like we see in Templars. The reason why dwarves and Tranquils are the ones working on lyrium is because it's dangerous to handle for normal humans and elves. Not sure why would Harding just joke about that? Like, she could've killed the guy, lol.
Mass Effect did for me what Dragon Age Origins did for you. It's nothing short of a literal foundational pillar of my creative process. For 12 years I've mourned it, wishing for something to come along and let me fly through that universe again. But now, the way things are at Bioware and many, many other franchises and studios - unless something really big happens to snap people out of their delusion - I don't think I want Mass Effect to join the graves of Star Wars, Star Trek, The Witcher, Halo, and The Lord of the Rings.
You hit the nail right on the head gorvthe character creator. As soon as the controversy kicked off around it I said I play fantasy games for the fantasy role playing part. I don't want to play as an over weight, unhealthy 'hero' with a bad back, nerve damage in one leg who has all the running and climbing abilities of a table. I want a hero who can run all day, climb like Alexios in Assassins creed. Who can use swords and throw magic etc. No one else has mentioned that.
I have found this to be interesting, well thought out, poignant, and I appreciate your approach to fairness, being honest about your opinion and critical thinking based solely on the information we have available. As a fellow content creator, I gotta say I respect you taking the dive in and talking about this topic! Props to you friend and I wish you continued success moving forward! This is a well produced video!
Thank you for addressing the inclusivity issue. Pretty much everyone else who it have just been an asshole about it and cried woke and DEI and whatever the current buzzwords are. This is exactly what I've been trying to say, injecting modern day issues and terminology into a fantasy world as is, it just doesn't work. Krem was a minor character but he was a great example of how to integrate this idea into the world organically. Also not being able to be even a tad bit stand-offish to your companions is just neutering all that any good RPG is supposed to be. BG3 did all companions being pansexual well but I think the way Veilguard did it feels just lazy and leaves out potential with characters like Dorian who was one of my favorite companions in Inquisition.
Its amazing to me that certain companies (BW is one example) love to tour their inclusive, but seem to have completely forgotten how to write them. Take Krem for example, even not playing DAI for 5+ years i could tell you several details about Krem without "is trans" coming up. Ditto Dorian. Dorian had some of my favorite companion quest content in DAI. I'd say the point is that if you're defining characteristic for someone is their sexuality you have a bad character. Flip it around. If they had a character whose defining characteristic was "straight male" would that be interesting?
@@JohnSmith-px5nf i thought Dorian was written just fine. Krem, I could see you there, but Krem was a very minor character. I think its very obvious how they storyboarded these characters. Dorian is a Tevinter Necromancer spurned by his homeland who gets wrapped up by you in the tevinter plot to abduct/neutralize the inquisition. There are probably several more things you can say about Dorian before his sexuality even comes out.
@@JohnSmith-px5nf I think both Dorian and Krem were great examples of how to incorporate those themes into the world organically. Dorian wasn't just gay, it was just a part of his backstory and you had full reign over how you treated him because of it. Krem was a member of the chargers and him living as a man was just mentioned and that's it, it wasn't the entirety of his character. Why do you think they were bad examples?
@@JohnSmith-px5nf Dorian didn't really have it at the forefront? His sexuality also helped flush out the Tevinter Empire and how their culture works, it allowed the player to find out about both that and the situation with his father and form an opinion and take a stance on both. So really the only issue you have with Dorian is that he happened to be gay? Why is Sera not an issue, she was a lesbian?
>The Hinterlands Problem You're absolutely right. Exploring Hinterlands was one of my favourite parts of the early game of Inquisition. Now, _Questing_ in Hinterlands, that is what sucked.
The progression thing where you can defeat bosses that severely outlevel you can be good, but only if it's a genuine test of skill, and having an intimate knowledge or the game's mechanics. If you can literally faceroll bosses 20 levels above you, then there's a severe gameplay problem.
They at least tried to make elves look different from humans in DA2. Pointy ears and somewhat shorter stature aside you could tell the face staring at you from beneath a hood or turban thing was *not* human but elven. It'd have been great to keep that in Inquisition, the tarot card for elves in character creation even has the DA2 elf aesthetic.
It was not in the grind, nor the joy of the fight, It was not in the lore that once burned so bright; It was not in the battle, nor the risk of fate, It rose from betrayal, when the gamer began to hate. It was not when they saw their heroes erased, Nor when hollowed-out stories left passion displaced; It was not even the cash-grabs, as profits inflate- They had swallowed it all, ere the gamer began to hate. The icons they cherished were shattered and sold, The legends they’d built left broken and cold. And it was then, with no honor to sate- They had endured every loss, ere the gamer began to hate. Their patience was drained, their loyalty bled, They cared not for fame, nor the market’s dread. They fought in the silence, relentless in weight- The wrath of the spurned gamer, when they began to hate.
Thank goodness there are more people coming out against this game that are not just screaming ‘woke’! I’m a middle aged gay man who likes dark fantasy and mature writing. I already felt represented in the dragon age universe, what I feel now is that one of my favourite franchises has been reduced to a very childish looking mobile game with writing that sounds like a bad attempt at something from the marvel cinematic universe. Honestly, I feel alienated. Sure, they want a new ‘young’ audience but am I really to believe that young folks don’t also love cool grim dark fantasy either anymore? I know I did! The whole thing is a turn off for me!
Understandable. Consider this: "You wake up, just to face your semi-drunk cousin, informing you that you have to partake in an arranged marriage. Same cousin knocks the not-just-semi-drink-but-totally-drunk useless son of the local nobility out. Same useless son and some friends kidnaps you, your cousin and some other women, with the intent of mass sexual abuse. You fight your way out of this situation, basically killing said son, his friends and pretty much everyone in his castle. Fortunately, you don't face trial (and likely execution) for this, because a guy from a secretive cult arrives, offering you recruitment. In the cultish recruitment ceremony, you and the other two recruits have to drink demon blood. One of the others die from drinking the blood, the other one refuses, and is promptly killed by cult guy..." And then we haven't even touched on Loghain's treason (read: De facto regicide). Dark as the strongest possible dark coffee, there is. A gut-wrenchingly unpleasant tone-setting start on a serious RPG game. I wonder if Bioware (or anybody else, for that matter) ever dares to do an intro like that again...
Agreed. These writers just don't get it. Just look at one of my absolute favorite characters from Inquisition. Dorian isn't "a gay character". He's an AWESOME character. He's also just happens to be gay. It's not enough to "just make some one gay". Or Trans or whatever. A character has to be compelling on their own. "Identity" is just that little bit of color on the pallette of a person and nobody REALLY cares about it. When you make it THE primary characteristic of the character it just makes them boring. THAT'S what "woke" means to me. And yeah, it sucks.
@@jackakhan just got done saying exactly this in a different comment thread. Its just crazy that BW used to know how to write these characters! Dorian for example is some of the best companion content in DAI.
I agree with you but am wondering why do people need to feel represented in fantasy games at all? Can’t we just have the story presented in its original format so we can experience it through the writer’s worldview? Even if you don’t agree with that worldview, isn’t that kinda the point of storytelling
Elves, dwarves and qunari are a different _species_, not race. In that context having 'asian elves' is preposterous. Each of these ought to have their own morphology and behavioral patterns.
@@sagacity1071 the illiterates of hegemonic narcissistic culture are just the worst. They could use some education on Eurasian steppe nomadic ethnicities.
As a South East Asian who's not "traditionally represented" in fantasy settings, I completely agree. It's just way too jarring and feels so un-immersive
Thank you for making this video. I believe one of the main issues is that people often assume the worst of each other and don’t truly listen. Instead of engaging in open conversations, they jump to conclusions, implying things without clarifying or asking questions before being judgmental. Top surgery isn’t even a procedure specific to trans individuals. Surgery to add or reduce breast size is not exclusive to the trans community. Yet, when I simply questioned the appearance of top surgery scars, I was banned from a Twitch channel after trying to defend myself against the hate I received. Would any kind of surgery even make sense in a world like Dragon Age? What materials would they use for breast augmentation? this are genuine questions you can have before even finishing the character, but I wasn’t allowed to express my thoughts. Worse, I was labeled transphobic and ignorant, despite never asking to remove anything. They made me question myself, labeling me a bad person simply for having thoughts-for existing. It affects you-it hurts. But I forgive them because I can see they had good intentions, and I don’t want to harbor hate towards them. Otherwise, I’m destined to become the very demon they want to see in me. Thank you for reading this, and please-don’t become a demon or demonize others.
people who claim u cant have an opinion if you havent played the game need to understand one thing If you can like a game for what you see in 1-2 hours of gameplay and decide to buy it is equally viable to watch 1-2 hours of a game and decide is garbage. I disliked EVERY SINGLE God Of War before GoW2018. I watched 1 hour of gameplay for god of war 2018 and I decided the game was amazing. Went to the store and bought it the next day. And greatly enjoyed it!!! Just the same there's been many games Ive seen 1-2 hours of gameplay and decided is trash, never looked back, never gave the game another chance and never had any regrets about them
As you said, I can excuse everything but not a bad story/dialogue. Dragon Age is storytelling!! I bought the game, but I know already it will be a huge disappointment... I was so excited for this :(
I'm sorry :( I know, I was excited for this game for YEARS, and then even when the first trailers came out I was still optimistic because I know Bioware sucks at trailers. But after all the gameplay I've seen... oof.
@@btiermutineer I'm a long time Dragon Age fan, Origins is literally one of my favourite games of all time... There are so many videos/reviews out there that is impossible not to see that they had no respect with what they have in their hands... I just hope I am wrong :(
The veilgaurd is gonna be the fallout 4 of dragon age. This is my second time grieving the death of one of my favorite all time franchises, and it does not get any easier
One of the reasons i never got past Fallout 2. Apart from being too old(too anxious) to play new games im afraid of this. I LOVE the DA series. Its my favorite. Im not gonna play Veilguard but id love to read, if there is a comic or a manga or what ever. Just something to finish the story the way that made sense.
@Kobac1990 the only game I'd really say is worth playing out of the 3d era of fallout is new vegas. It's almost as good as the originals, and it would've been better had Bethesda not given them an 18 month timeline. It is sad to see dragon age going the same way. I'm young, so dragon age was my first real rpg experience. I played origins so many times on ps3 growing up and Morrigan may have been my sexual awakening lmao It really sucks to see the franchise flandurize itself, but it is what it is and we just have to move on
That dreadful scene with Harding was extremely painful to watch. "How to make your audience hate the character 101" For god's sake, Forspoken was written better then this, and that game had a great combat mechanics, that become more complex and fun to play with the further you progress through the game, but this though... "I've lowered the difficulty to get through this cookie-cutter slop faster". Hard no for me as a consumer.
I defended this game from an "anti-woke" mob when it got announced... But considering the existing reviews, this game is SOY AF. Not because of gay/lesbian/trans/black representation, no, but because it seems like the game doesn't want to quote on quote "offend" everybody and tries it's best to avoid the things that made DA unique. Companions look, act and talk like MCU characters and you can't really roleplay as a mean character. I didn't expect Tyranny-style dialogue, but damn, after what i saw in reviews i know that i can't roleplay as my favourite archetype of the end justify the means type of guy, an anti-hero of sorts (yeah i'm an edgelord). Yall know, it's like Inquisition Vivienne dialogue all over again - if you try arguing with her she just cuts you off and "this conversation is over". Qunari design is beyond pathetic. Remember DA2 arishok? This 4 feet tall brute with deep and deep voice? Yeah, cry about it. Qunaris look like a bootleg chinese toy of some alien i used to have as a kid (no joke). And the last one... I saw a screenshot of a conversation with Taash with them claiming they're "non-binary". What the fuck, BioWare? You had a trans character in a previous game and he was organic to the setting, with his story tied to the laws of the Tevinter Imperium. And now you have Taash, legit saying "i'm non-binary" IN A FANTASY SETTING. With MAGIC, ELVES AND DRAGONS. Yes, DA universe is realistic and grounded compared to other mainstream fantasy games but holy shit this line was out of place. Overall, Veilguard looks like an RPG with no role to play and boy oh boy i expect ea community managers to shamelessly use minorities as a shield to protect this mediocre mcu slop feeding off Dragon Age corpse. Once it will be hacked, i'll pirate it. And if this game turns out to be good i will personally debunk every word in this comment and find a way to buy it since it's not availible for purchase in my country.
Just to be clear: i dont have a problem with Taash being non-binary. Sten implemented in Origins that qunari accept trans people and Taash being non-binary is totally possible. My problem is with the use of the term "non-binary" in dialogue. Couldn't they come up with some qunari/fantasy analogue of it?
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I think a major reason for why writing has gotten so bad, particularly in the moral/political/representation arena, is because the writers don't actually understand what they believe. They can't present complex debates about the merits and faults of this idea or that because they only have a surface-level understanding of it themselves. Instead, they default to Find-and-Replace Analogies, something like: Find: Black people Replace: Elves Find: America Replace: Tevinter Story: Look how badly Tevinter treats elves, calling them criminals and enslaving them! These kinds of messages are so shallow and easily recognizable that they're insulting, and immediately frustrate anyone who might disagree with you irl and cause them to disengage with the story on any meaningful level - clearly the story doesn't understand the reality or nuance of their position, but there's no point arguing with a monitor, is there? The people who can write deep themes that explore important topics are the people who understand that The Hot New Thing is an extension of deeper, fundamental ideals that manifest in a variety of different ways. If you understand what that core belief is, you can not only be consistent in your own beliefs, but you can communicate it in ways that actually make people think about their own ideals in meaningful, complex ways - not whatever shallow, uninformed nonsense the Twitter mob has decided is important this week.
While I always (!!!) play as a nice character in any game which has a morality system, I do appreciate to have the option to choose. DA:V doesn't really give that option. And while the existing dialogue options cater to my personal way of playing such games (as the nice character who wants that everyone is happy 😅), I find it preachy and lazy on the developer's side.
I agree with everything you said. When I saw Morrigon's scene and she didn't even mention the Blight or Hero of Fereldan it was so disappointing. They couldn't even have her say "I fought alongside the Hero of Fereldan". It shows how they couldn't care less about Origins. It almost feels vindictive, like a purposeful shun. I personally didn't get the game because too many of the elements that I enjoyed in previous games have been trimmed down or outright removed. I don't need to play it to know that it's not what I wanted after a decade. As a writer I completely agree with you about the writing. I prefer narrative-driven RPGs and the dialogue in this game, from what I've seen and heard, is severely lacking, especially compared to previous games. People are arguing that bad writing is subjective. No. Bad writing is bad writing. People can like bad writing, but it's still bad. It's not a subjective thing and it's something I'm very passionate about. It's sad and frustrating that the culture war stuff is so loud that it's distracting from the fact that there are legitimate things to criticize about this game. Some people have become rabid over it. People, longtime fans, have been labeled a bigot just for disliking any aspect of the game. It's why I left the Dragon Age subreddit. It got to be too much seeing people argue over the culture war stuff every single post. Overall, it's sad for me as not only a DA but a BioWare fan. This game plays more like an action/adventure game than the deep, narrative-driven RPGs BioWare are known for. It's disappointing that this is the road they've chose to go down instead of sticking with what we loved about them to begin with. They didn't even bother with passing the torch. It's like they threw it on the ground. The only upside is it seems Larian picked it up and is running with it. Also, liked and subbed. You made some great points. Looking forward to your future videos.
"Blessed are they who stand before The corrupt and the wicked and do not falter. Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just." Thank you for your honesty. R.I.P dragon age. You were my first love in 2009.
Lord Mutineer...I have seen some leaked dialogue and it is some of the worst writing, maybe THE worst writing I have ever seen or heard in a game. It's like they got some 13 year olds together for their first writing assignment. The gatekept review codes make a lot of sense now...
Yeah, I genuinely don't understand who wrote the dialgoue for this game. I refuse to believe that the same writers who wrote amazing characters in Inquisition wrote like this of their own volition in Veilguard. I'm assuming some executives or something pushed the writers to write in this Marvel/Avengers/teenager style, and the writers weren't allowed to say no.
Thanks for giving a fair review. I think you hit the nail with this. Devs were so focused on making sure everyone felt represented instead of focusing on the setting and what fits within the setting. I didn’t like the dialogues I’ve seen so far either. Skillup talked about something that I won’t ever be able to unsee. He pointed out how much the rook just acts like a soft parent talking to toddlers, when dealing with companions
I share a lot of your sentiment, i am a transwoman and a lot of representation in Veilguard seems misplaced which may turn out to be harmful for our community. It reinforces a stereotype that everything touched by queer representation has poor quality because well it looks like a poor quality. That is why YT is flooded with video like "wokeness killed dragon age" or something.
Yeah, I've seen so many videos that are talking about how "woke" Dragon Age is, and I'm so tired of that. I am absolutely for good representation of trans people, but not if it ends up harming our community by making people more angry at us because of it.
As someone who used to be "anti-woke" without thought (I try to better myself) I couldn't disagree more with some of those videos. Just to clarify, I still don't like "woke", not the entirety, just the bad writing and excuse of some people why their product failed while blaming their audience. Good woke : baldurs gate 3, dragon age origin Bad woke : Concord, New Dragon Age, And I'm my honest opinion, they should just copy paste origin formula and make it better. Also a question for you if I may ask, what's your opinion on character customisation with the option of breast removal scars, cuz in my opinion it's not the best option to have where blood mages exist and they can change your gender freely, it honestly feels like a joking reminder to the circumstances of trans people
Why does a single game need "representation" bar a few obvious type games though? This absolutely stifles any writer trying to write "their" game. Maybe they are black and wanna write a game takes place in upper mongolia circa BC 600, a city builder for instance? Going by modern standards and the very thought set that would even consider "representation" ELIMINATES both him from being able to tell such a story: cultural appropriation and, of course, you ain't gonna be in it. So now he hangs his head in frustration because he loves this part of history but he's so blocked, so araid of what "might become" of his actions he turns of his computer and drops game dev altogether. It's aweful. Period.
Omg, thank you! I agree 100%. I'm a woman and also someone who is of the LGBTQ+. I didn't like the art direction the moment I saw it. I took cinema and communications courses. Scriptwriting was a bit thing, and just doing overall analysis of the mise en scene. I love the looks of the backgrounds and I wish we could explore much more of the area than sort of following a lined path for point A to point B. I could have overlooked most of it and I told my friends 'if the story is good, I'll play' but from the footage I've been watching, it just leaves me cold. I've also been playing this game for so long. I have so many Wardens, Hawkes, and Inquisitors. I've played so many playthroughs to explore all the options. The fact that my choices could be imported to the next game was such a beautiful and unique thing about this series in the first place. I legitimately cried when I saw there was only three... THREE options we can import. 1) Who did you bang in Inquisition? 2) Disbanded or Kept the Inquisition? 3) Save or Kill Solas? I felt like things I did and chose were rendered meaningless. I would have even have the bare minimum of the choices of the other game there if there was too much in the Keep! There was so much depth in character companions, and the story, it feels so shallow now. And it's disheartening to see the explosion of the culture war where both sides are being children. So those of us who are usually in the middle of the spectrum, have the bombardment to go through. I found the writing in this came to be sloppy, incohesive, lacking any logical flow. I used to ADMIRE Patrick Weekes who wrote Solas. That bald egg was so deep and complex, I was so hungry to know more, to see more. I'm a millennial, though I have to sometimes look at the stuff that is plaguing the industry. It's not just games, but movies as well or television. Cause I can rip apart Amazon's the Rings of Power. Where the forced diversity is more apparent. There was an article 'written' about how the original trilogy by Peter Jackson did not age well. And mostly it was: it lacked diversity, not enough women, they removed some characters from the book (there were so many, we didn't need Tom Bombadil), the ladies weren't more involved like Arwen and Galadriel unlike Eowyn who LITERALLY KILLED THE WITCH-KING OF ANGMAR... but we saw what they did to Galadriel in the Rings of Power, and Tolkien would be rolling in his grave right now. And, once more, I'm progressive... I don't mind diversity in any way. But to complain there wasn't enough people of color, but acknowledge that the books and story was based off British and Norse mythology? There is a double standard in the gaming industry. Even when it comes to mods. Like how on the Nexus you can find Geralt of Rivia with very dark skin despite being a person of fair complexion, but then you had someone who made a more accurate version of Angrboda that would be more accurate to her Norse myth counterpart (if anyone tries to say I'm being a bigot, I'm also a woman of mixed race). That mod was flagged as discrimination and taken down from most mod sites. You can see where I'm going with this. And also I can just say, look at Disney's horrible time with the new Snow White and how they're reeling that another studio is making a more accurate rendition of the tale. People will notice when the DEI is being highly forced. I loved Dorian and how I learned of his sexuality by interacting with him, getting close enough to admit that he liked the company of men then outright saying 'I'm gay' and stuff. The topic was heavy because we learned what his father tried to do. We can help them make up, or we can just have Dorian not and continue as he was in being estranged with his father. The fact we also can't be a morally ambiguous rubs me the wrong way. The fact we can't be Blood Mages rubs me the wrong way. How they're playing it so safe is... it makes it so lackluster! Look...I don't mind diversity within a cast... and before someone says 'you didn't play the game'...like B-Tier Mutineer said... I freaking have eyes, ears, and a brain. I'm not going to pay $89.99 for something that isn't worth that price despite TEN YEARS of development. But anyways, forgive me for the rant... there has been so much I've been holding onto and it's nice to see someone of the LGBTQ+ who also has the same sentiments I do.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! It's extremely strange to see so many people being hostile about what should be a civil discussion about this game and its issues. Just like you said, I like my representation in media to actually be meaningful and make sense within the context of the fiction. So many choices they made in the writing of this game are extremely confusing - why remove the moral ambiguity, why remove blood magic, why use modern terminology for things that were already being discussed by characters like Krem and Dorian without real-life words? And it's not even just the dialogue, the main plot is so bland as well. You stop Solas's ritual by pushing a wooden beam that's holding up a huge statue... Not even going into the fact that that would be physically impossible, it's such lazy writing to get rid of Solas as quickly as possible because for some reason they didn't want him to be the villain they set up in Trespasser.
@@btiermutineer Yeaaaaaaaaah. Just...the fact that they pushed the one character they've build up in the previous game to focus on the 'Veilguard' instead I think was a bad call. Especially putting Solas to the side, and I hear that the two gods also suffer from the Corypheus thing. Which...also disappointing. This wasn't how I expected the story/encounter with the Evanuris to go. And I would have loved it, more than anything, to spend Halloween indoors with warm tea and play a game from a favorite franchise of mine. Alas, everything I've seen just...it's not worth it at all. And this is even more of a disappointment than Andromeda was. And of course, I saw that the person in charge of Mass Effect is trying to distance themselves with what's going on with Dragon Age. Though, I think the company didn't like that and he had to revise what he said. Sony also closed the studio that made Concord recently. So when it comes to the DEI games, and anything involving Sweet Baby INC. It really honestly is a 'Sweet Baby Kiss of Death'. I'm not sure if you'll end up playing the game or not to do a further analysis, but it'd be interesting to see a more in-depth review of someone who is trans, or non-binary, etc. I have a friend of color who saw what Ubisoft did with Assassin's Creed Shadows and even he had a wtf look on his face. Personally...I might ask around to borrow someone's copy rather than purchase cause I want to really dissect this. Cause honestly it's a perfect sorta thing of what NOT to do. I'll be eating a lot of popcorn for when the user criticisms begin to flow in and counter the scores of IGN, Eurogamer, etc.
Thank you, well said. So many games like this have become bait-and-switch, sad shallow shadows of the earlier games we love. I've become very wary of new games, I won't pre-order, and I don’t trust access-journalist reviews; I wait and watch reviews from people who loved the originals.
@@zxyatiywariii8 Yeah, these journalist outlets are owned by the same people. So it's no wonder that there is a repeat of what was going out with the whole 'return to form' thing. Looking at the stats for game on the steam charts, it doesn't look that promising. Dragon Age the Veilguard is sitting at 30 on Steam Charts, just right under BG3. Their all time peak ON RELEASE was 70,414 players. This morning they got 48,359 playing as of this moment. They aren't even breaching 50k. That's sad for a title of what was considered a beloved franchise. And somehow with the release of the game, the fighting among the community is worse than ever. I freaking weep for future generations and projects at this point.
@@The_Damoiselle To be honest, I am writing a game story of my own for my game project, and I wanted to piss off both extreme sides for free marketing.
@B-Tier Mutineer As a white, straight, Christian male I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being GENUINELY you. My best friend and my brother both came out as Gay in their late teens and had so many issues with family and friends but the REAL ones in their lives UNDERSTAND that how they identify and who they love DOES NOT change who they are at the core. Saying that your critique of the quality of the game, the writing, character development, exposition, world building, established lore, etc is exactly what I hate about this game. I couldn’t care less if every single character in the game was not straight if those things were all as they should be. Inclusion shouldn’t be a substitute for amazing world building and writing. Cheers to you love for being honest and genuine and by the way your videos are amazing. Keep up the great work. I have been a fan of BioWare since KOTOR and have played every single game since so I feel you on a very deep level when it comes to the decline of meaningful writing and choices in games. Well said.
Thank you for your honesty and kind comment. It always means a lot to me when people who come from different backgrounds and have different opinions can still find a common ground and discuss things in a civil manner! And yes, all I've ever wanted from Dragon Age is good story, characters, and worldbuilding/lore. It doesn't matter what identities or sexualities those characters have if they're well written and add something meaningful to the story.
@ I couldn’t agree more, we all need to focus on what we have in common rather than our differences. As gamers, we truly just want to get lost in a world very different from our own.
the writing illustrates the unprecedented mental issues of our generation. they can't write natural dialogue because they just don't know how to speak to people. they can't do much of anything right, because they don't deeply understand anything about human nature. nothing they do is ever subtle, because they have a wikipedia-level understanding of human beings. they're not even good at the one thing they focus most of their mental energies on: signaling that they're doing their part in the retributive crusade against past injustices and social disparities. I'm sure there are many reasons why, but one idea is that this is the first time scripts are being written by people who grew up with cell phones and social media. I hate to say it, but our generation has serious social issues. also, drastically higher rates of mental illnesses that are either reflections or causes of poor social development (I don't know which, but they were clearly many times rarer in say, gen X). so of course they write stilted, wooden, painfully inappropriate dialogue, because they don't know how humans speak, because they can't speak like humans, because they're basically alienated from their humanity. I would tie this trend to Durkheim's theory of anomie. but that's a whole other can of worms to open...
Your idea of the Asian elves coming from far lands outside thedas makes so much sense. This game has been written by the most incompetent people possible, they have no talent and their pool of knowledge is even more lacking. It simply shows, the only media they consume is mcu crap and pixar movies. Meanwhile writers from bg3 read shakespeare for inspiration...
"I don't know who on the team hated the previous games so much..." That would be the head dev, actually. Months before this game came out, he was parading around talking about how every dragon age game was awful and so his dragon age would be the first even remotely good game in the franchise. To me, that still stands as the biggest red flag I've seen regarding this game. I know, going in, even before having seen reviews, ANY resemblance to what made dragon age good will be in spite of its direction, not because of it.
"There was no Hinterlands problem." Thank you! Your explanation of that and your perspective on combat systems in an rpg really spoke to me as a DA fan and rpg wonk. Amen.
Thank you! I got really confused when the devs started to push this idea of the "hinterlands problem". Because sure, it was a meme in the fandom because pretty much everyone got stuck spending too much time in the Hinterlands doing side quests on their first playthrough. But really, it was just because it seemed like some of those quests would disappear if you continued the main story. And also, it was the first large region we were free to explore, so of course people were curious to go everywhere and see everything, especially considering previous to that we didn't have such large areas in DAO and DA2. Glad to hear my opinions resonated with you!
I have an honest question about two of the big Taash scenes we have seen. 1) in the Isabela scene Taash didn’t seem offended at all by Isebela’s misstep. In fact they were more confused by what she decided to do. And we didn’t even hear more from Taash there. 2) this one might be weird to describe. But the scene where Taash comes out to their mother. One it’s just god awful writing. But the mother didn’t sound angry at all. She mostly seemed confused to me and appeared to try understanding what her child was telling her with Taash coming across as the aggressive one. That’s how I interpreted the scene anyway. I am a bi woman so I’m by no means against LGBT themes or characters. Hell Mass Effect has an entire race of blue bisexual aliens. There have been gay and bi love interests in nearly every game. Krem exists in DAI. Even though the Qun was retconned for him, I liked Krem. The issue in Veilguard is it’s made by people who only see themselves as trans, their mental problems and such. Then also the changes to characters, designs and lore. With horrible dialogue and the voice director utterly failed.
Both of those scenes feel to me like they're written either by someone who has no idea what it's like to be trans, or else someone who has had some extremely strange experiences/traumas that led them to write the character like this. 1) in the scene with Isabela, Isabela does the worst possible thing you can do if you unintentionally misgender someone, which is to make it all about yourself instead of just apologizing, correcting yourself, and moving on. No trans person wants to be put in the spotlight like that for having been misgendered. It's extremely uncomfortable and I would feel like I want the earth to swallow me up if something like that happened to me. Hell, most people feel uncomfortable if people are singing happy birthday to them... This is on a whole other level. 2) I was even more confused by the scene with Taash and their mother, because the mother was just slightly confused and trying to understand what Taash was saying. Not o mention that the mother knew about the ACTUAL term for trans people that is lore friendly from the Qun, and literally just used a correct term to refer to Taash (a person whose gender identity doesn't match the one they were assigned at birth). Nonbinary people fall under the trans umbrella too, and so it's so strange to see Taash becoming upset at their mother saying something understanding and accepting of their child's identity. Like, if my own parents had reacted in the way Taash's mom reacted, I would have been so happy. Taash's anger seems completely misplaced, and coming out of nowhere. Not to mention the weird discussions about Taash "not liking to wear dresses" - when gender identity is far more about how you feel and how you are perceived and treated by people. Plenty of men wear dresses (and kilts), and plenty of women don't wear dresses for various reasons that have nothing to do with gender identity. Reducing gender identity to what clothes you wear is one of the most hamrful things to perpetuate about transgender identities. I could go on and on about the terrible representation in Veilguard, but I don't want to answer with a novel-length comment, lol.
@@btiermutineer okay I’m glad I wasn’t the only one just feeling how off and bad those scenes were. No subtlety nor nuance. These could be done well in the hands of writers who give a damn and talented voice directors giving actual pointers. But it’s a mess that pisses off both side of this argument. No one is happy.
I am a fan of Dragon Age Games. I keep seeing and hearing lots of red flags. I have already decided to pirate this one to see the story ending. If there are big patches, dlc, and mods, and i somehow like it, i can always support Bioware later. And i appreciate your honesty and critique of our beloved franchise. Many of us are easily labelled all sorts of names when we try to do that in the last decade. Transphobe, incel, porn brained, hater, racist or whatnot. Also, I am Asian, and i hate when Asians are included without good lore explanations for simple corporate disengenious check boxes.
The game looking/playing like a mobile game is because it was gonna be a multiplayer looter shooter thing, but they scrapped that 2ish years before release. I play some of these live service games and the design is so painfully obvious to me, it completely put me off DAV, y'know a game that's supposed to be an imersive character driven rpg...oh look the chest explodes when I open it! And I need to get item dupes to level up my gear! And there's three combat encounters and a boss arena at the end! Ugh all these loot games are the same
This is what happens to a game series each time EA touches it. Has been hapening since Ultima. It will happen more the more you buy a game even slightly associated with EA.
Veilguard was CLEARLY made for kids. Look: The graphics are juvenile. The writing is juvenile. (childish squabbles, Rook behaves like a parent of children) The crafting is juvenile. (no thought required) The skill system is juvenile (limited to equip 4) The party system is juvenile (All party member skills share ONE cooldown lol) The UI is juvenile (Clearly made for those who are used to touch screens, and for those who don't read) The RPG combat is juvenile (You don't need to crunch ANY numbers. You will win no matter what). Am I missing anything?
I wasn’t going to play this after watching the Matty and Skill up review… but I changed my mind. I am going to play it even though there is a good chance I will be more disappointed than pleased by the experience. I need to finish this journey with not just dragon age but BioWare. I have to know how this all ends even if it’s with Pixar presents Rook and Friends a Dragon Age Story. lol wish me luck. Edit: nevermind started a new Inquisition play through instead XD
At least wait to buy it on a deep sale to make the disappointment hurt a little less. imagine you hate it aaand gave them $70 bucks for it.. hedge your bets for your own sake.
@@Dumpty-e5y fair enough! Even I am slightly intrigued by the apparently good finale, but I think I have to wait until I feel less strongly about it. Hope it goes well for you!
Why have to changed your mind? - If you buy it and give them your money, you increase the chances of them continually disappointing you. Don’t buy it, or at least wait for a sale
I as well, thought it very "odd", that the initial reviews mention NOTHING about..like, what about stats? Can you build up your crit chance? If so are there stats on weapons/gear/clothing only character. All the action scenes show every type of spell going off 1by1by1, do they synergize? Looks like you just cast fire, then, lighting, then dark magic....cuz it's there and it looks "neat". But that dialogue and the "feel" shown in Skillups vid...with the candyland, never hurt anyones feelings (even a horned devil person)...ffs. What a SHIT show.
It's baffling to me that people buy into the whole "representation" thing without realizing the enormous amount of pandering this game seems to have. Being a "progressive" (as you put it) person myself, I actually feel offended that the writers thought this was a good way of portraying people. You know what's the best way of incorporating marginalized groups into your world? Just put them out there! If people are to be perceived as "normal", you can't shed light on it every other cutscene. Hell, they've done it properly since Origins. I haven't played the game and I never will, what I've seen from reviews is more than enough to put me away from it. Time to start another DA:O playthrough. Goodbye, Bioware.
It's really unfortunate to look at a game and think: "They can't fix this even if they wanted to". And it's not even a case of odd mechanics (like, say, the transition to Districts in Civilization VI -- I'm not saying it's bad, it's an example of an irreversible decision), it's a case of having to take another 7 years to rewrite everything, redraw character models etc. "Nope, they aren't going to fix this" :(
That harding love scene was so incredibly difficult to watch. Bioeare decided to turn this game i to a disney/pixar game. Its designed for children, not the long time fans of the adult dark fantasy.
4:50 of course he looks like a black guy cosplaying an elf. White, Black, Asian are human ethnicities, Elves, Dwarves and Qunari are supposed to be differences races, even if humanoid in appearances, their human-like ethnicities make little sense.
Thanks for a very comprehensive rewiev - and some thoughts, which I think I also share (haven't seen or played the game yet, so therefore the "I think"). A little about me and DA: I have played all three previous games and the Awakening expansion. I absolutely loved DA:O (and still plays it from time to time), liked DA2 more than most, but didn't like Inquisition at all (wannabe Skyrim - there; now you have my opinion for what it's worth). What I liked about the two first games was how personal the stories felt, and how much you could tweak your interaction with the world around you. You could really play as a full-blown sociopath in DA:O (killing the deserter and the elven messenger in Ostagar....). and the DA2 story felt very personal, when you and your family has to settle in Kirkwall. Apart from that, the world-building in especially DA:O was some of the best, I have seen. Take two minor characters, Cyrion and Ser Jory. Through their actions and their dialogue, the writers show (don't tell) how privileges and power dynamics work in the gaming world (human nobility: Power. City elves: No power). That is first-class writing in my boo. If these things arre lost in DAV, we are really in for a bumpy and disappointing ride.
thank you for putting what I've wanted to say for months into words, i am definitely grieving this series that i truly loved. a lot of fair criticism to this game has come from a discriminatory perspective and i find it really difficult to agree with them and to defend the anti-woke mob. the disconnection between the “inclusivity” and the lore is absolutely jarring and the game is way too optimistic and cheery for DA lore, i don't even know if the writers know they are making a Dragon Age game.
My personal problem with Veilguard: it's not about Thedas and it's people anymore (butchered lore, Corrinne Busch doesn't know characters from the first DA, Zevran for example) and the game DOESN'T feel like Dragon Age... It feels like a romance simulator in a medieval fantasy game with our world problems and words to describe someones orientation/pronouns included. Top surgery scars would make sense in Mass Effect but definitely NOT in a medieval setting, it annoys me to be forced to use pronouns in a medieval fantasy game. In a world where someone can die by a simple cold, a world where someone is doomed if the person is wounded, no health potion nor magic to cure the wound..
I love DA:O and DA2 (in spite of its flaws). DA:I I didn't enjoy so much and I already felt like the game series was on a slipperly slope. I had a lot harder time connecting to the companions. I just felt nothing. Varric was really cool still but the only new companion that I could connect with was Dorian but since my main tends to be a mage, I generally didn't choose him as an active companion. And being able to connect to companions is very important in games like DA and ME. I had the same problem in Andromeda. The thing is that connecting to companions makes you care about them and by extension what happens to them in the world that you're playing in. I missed that in DA:I and ME:Andromeda. And from the start, companions in this game are just meh to me: all of them. From all the footage I've seen so far, I just don't care about them. Beyond that I agree with everything you say and I'm with Skillup as well. The game is pedantic and doesn't allow you choices that they deem are not right. I particularly liked Skillup's comment that all conversations with companions are like HR is in the room with them.
Veilguard is like being DMed by a bad DM who is more interested in telling you all about THEIR story, world and character(s) that are all trying to affect and change you, while telling you how you should feel and interact with them. Rather than letting you tell your party's story where you affect/change the world with your own choices and character(s) and letting you come to your own conclusion about how you feel and interact with them. While being railroaded with fake choices that didn't matter in the slightest cause it's not your story. It's theirs. And they let you know and remind you of this constantly.
This is a good review. It's interesting to hear your take on their writing, how they COULD have done it, reasons they might have chose to do what they did... etc. It's nice to hear your thoughts like that for all the aspects of the game. However, Occam's Razor can apply here. Alllll those reasons you come up with for all these different failures can be best explained by ONE simple concept: This game is made for children. Once you accept that, you'll realize that it literally does explain 100% of the reasons you don't like the game.
The people who say it’s cos of “woke” or “trans” are idiots, the visuals and writing seems an actual issue. Cyberpunk, Baldur’s Gate etc have trans. I firmly believe if you have skill you can write anything and make it good.
Exactly. A skillful writer can create characters who feel natural in the game's world. These characters act like they were plucked out off Twitter in 2024 and dumped into a world of which they know naught.
And the people who outright dismiss the accusation of "wokeness" are burying their head in sand. What exactly do you think is causing the writing to be bad? - let me tell you: Hiring based on quota instead of merit (if you still think that game director earned their position - the evidence is not on your side), but also unwillingness to include anything offensive against a protected group (even if it's done by villains), consequently removing all choices to roleplay as an asshole (or pretty much everything else but an ally™) which removes all conflict and makes the whole thing feel dull. And if you don't see a connection to wokeness there - this is done because being mean or even questioning is equated to genocide or fascism in progressive circles, hell even in THIS video. If you want to ignore the consequences of allowing gender-identity-socialism aka wokeness to go uncriticized, you are free to do so. But to me, you look like the people who just wanted to redistribute the means of production, and then wondered why they are getting shot in the gulag.
I really appreciate this video (and your channel in general). As a big-time DA fanboy, your words resonate very much with what I am feeling about Veilguard. I have so many conflicting feelings about it. There are many things that worry me greatly, and are down right disappointing, such as the very, very poor writing of the dialogue in the examples that were shown. I'm just hoping these are the worst offenders and the rest will be better. The biggest complaint that I have, something that I find truly inexcusable in any form, is the disregard for the previous titles, and the choices made in those titles. That is nothing less that disrespecting the core audience, and it is insulting. As for the forced inclusivity, yea it looks very worrying. But for now, I will hold off jumping to conclusions untill I actually play the game myself. I still hold out hope that Taash's story might actually turn out to be well-written. (Although I'm very worried.) Despite all those things, I do think I will be getting the game. It's a really hard decision to make, and I have been debating about it for this past month. There are many reasons why I do not want to support this game, the main one being the disrespect to fans regarding past choices. Neventheless, I want to allow myself to just play a new game withing the DA setting. And despite the many things I am angry about, I will just try to appreciate it for what it is, and to find the joy in it. And holding out hope beyond hope that future DA titles will incorporate more past choices.
DAO; Warden - BE GONE PLEASURE DEMON! Demon - Wanna trade a childs soul for sexy time with me? Warden - DEAL! DAII; Hawk - Can i sex my sister? no? Ah anyway (impales the staff into your chest pouring blood everywere) DAI; Inquisitor - Play around with the Dragon Keep and tease the living hell of Cassandra. And Dwarf sex with a Qunari...RIP Dwarf DAV; Rook - Now now children you must share, and be nice to each other and not say badi whadi wourds.
I agree with pretty much all of your points, especially regarding the importance of writing and story in the Dragon Age games. Its super refreshing seeing a sober analysis of all of this games many flaws as well as, maybe the only positive aspect, the environment. I sincerely hoped Veilguard would be a return to form for Bioware… but oh well. Thank you for this video!
Yes. First, I cannot stand this culture war. I do not understand in the least why we care so much about what each other does behind closed doors. I realize your disclaimer has value in this context, though. I truly want people to be happy and at peace, as long as they're not hurting anyone else. I also would like making good games the focus of the game industry. Not "getting back" at a particular group or "finally getting the attention" someone feels they deserve (I guess?). I believe this particular style of communication can move us in the right direction. Level headed, well articulated, and calm. From a straight, white man, keep up the good work
sadly, this was brought to our feet by the activists in the gaming industry. ideological cults aren't susceptible to coercion, reason, or logic....so nothing you have to say will change their mind. they're seemingly fine with losing their jobs to get the message out, and rid the gaming community of the real gamers.
I totaly agree on most of the criticism. Furthermore, throughout the game, I hated more and more how enemies just spawn instead of waiting for you. And how many established priciples got thrown out of the window. Like that darkspawn are no longer blighted people of Thedas but just.. a blight and can spawn from it just like that. Or that everyone and their grandma can use magic (teleporting rogues, warrior punching the ground and dealing damage to everything around.. lol?). A series of mostly grounded fantasy became almost an anime :(
As a counter point to your thought on fat characters some people do enjoy the silliness of playing a super athletic fat guy doing ridiculous things also its not impossible to be over weight and still an acrobatic marvel, look at the career of Sammo Hung guy was an incredible martial artist, acrobat and stuntman/actor and he was always very overweight
I am a fan of the universe since before Inquisition (which I also loved very much for the open-world!) and I do plan on playing Veilguard to see if maybe the codexes provide more lore, other than that, the ending. But yeah, it's sad where we are with this universe. Your video and opinions very well worded. Thanks so much for the review!
What a shame that the voices of real trans people are so often drowned out by non-trans people who are nothing more than activists acting "on behalf" of them. A excellent video which highlights your creative writing skills perfectly. You are thoughtful, balanced and intelligent and you earned a sub, my dude. 👍❤️
Absolutely. This is why we have clumsy, hamfisted pandering instead of nuanced, intriguing writing that explores ideas candidly and authentically. We need to let cultures speak for themselves and stop trying to speak for cultures we don't understand.
Exactly, it's the self-righteous Activists who spend their lives making people LESS tolerant. I'm mostly Polynesian, and it's the NON-Polynesian Activists who try to shame little White or Black children who want to dress as Moana, especially now with the sequel coming up. I love when kids are interested in Polynesian culture! It's appreciation, not appropriation.
omg finally! I feel like everyone is trying to gaslight me about this game being good just bc the right-wing nutjobs hate it. It's so alienating to have only fascists validate what you see with your eyes as a bisexual enby, and even then those asshole do so in bad faith! it's madness on multiple levels! I wish I could like this game, but I kept getting more and more disappointed the more I watched from the previews and press releases. Specially after seeing footage of SPOILERS the gloom howler, SPOILERS that shit looks amazing, I want to know everything about it, you just know the lore drops are gonna be insane!.. but still not good enough to warrant playing a hack and slash spinoff of Dragon Age
I am an og fan who grew up playing the games, I agree with most if not all of your sentiments. I however NEED to play this game to decide for myself how it all comes together. Highlight/lowlight reels can’t convince me how I entirely feel about the game. I suggest you should play it too, if only to make a review that’s more comprehensive and includes your own experience while playing. I would love to watch that video. Thanks for the great content ❤
Very well put together essay. I have played 3 dragon age games, and only really enjoyed the first. I thought that this might be a good time to try and get back into Dragon Age. Welp, thanks for confirming I shouldn't waste my time. A lot of the designs in this game feel like marvel designs. Not a sign of quality at all.
I liked your review. I loved the story AND the combat was important to me. As dated as it was, being able to basically code my own companions was fun. I liked being front and center as a warrior with usually 2 ranged and my boi Zev as a “peeler” his sole focus was to keep people off our squish’s. I spent countless hours messing with the command action list till I perfected my methods. And yes, I would have to take the rains once in a while to drop major spells or get them back into formation but that’s why it was so fun. But you mentioned something about the writing that it was hard to believe that writers could not know this was bad. And I agree. I’d wager that because the heads of the game demanded the dumb preaching and awkward message they were trying to push (in the most direct possible way) that those writers threw in the towel. They stopped caring either out of frustration or knowing that when the public got this mess they would see the horrors the gaming community has known and have been trying to call out. Cats out of the bag now. These studios will burn and hopefully out of the ashes we will get true artist creating new beautiful thought proving games again. We could be seeing a bring new era of games in about 5 years. Game industry colons got to push out all the crap that’s left before that happens but I’m hopeful. Just keep them wallets shut
Hey there, As a straight guy who has been playing RPG's for around 25 years now, I primarily play female characters and go for female romance partners. Setting aside the horrid writing, Pixar Mobile graphics and discount Guardians of the Galaxy character personalities, I simply can not forgive Bioware for what they did to Isabela and Morrigan. Isabela used to be one of the best follower characters I ever met in an RPG. I really can not think of another sassy, sexy, badass, strong female pirate I liked even 50% as much as her. And Morrigan had a unique charm, her wit and banter in Origins still makes me chuckle 15 years later. I remember lines from her banter with Alistair word for word to this day. When I finished Origins and the DLC and understood the scope and impact of Morrigan's decisions, I really felt like the next game would be amazing. And it was not... Neither DA 2 nor Inquisition gave me any kind of feeling other than "meh, might as well play to the end, maybe it gets good next chapter". Modern Bioware took defining moments of my youth, pssed on them, set them on fire and tried to gaslight me into believing I should thank them. I know it's a harsh thing to say but Bioware has been dead for over 10 years and I am tired of seeing it's corrupted, reanimated corpse paraded as a symbol of "modern gaming". If this is modern gaming, I have clearly not been the target audience for over a decade. And I would guess there are millions of others like me who feel the same way. Edit: typo
![[안방1열 풀캠4K] 베이비몬스터 'DRIP' (BABYMONSTER FullCam)│@SBS Inkigayo 241110](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AQ4RIghEvUs/mqdefault.jpg)
Sooo you’re making a review off of other reviewers before you play the game for yourself? K.
If you are unable to form an informed opinion based on seeing dozens of hours of gameplay and many different people discussing their experience, then I'm sorry for you but I do actually have that ability. If someone presented me with a plate full of poop, I wouldn't have to actually taste it to know that it tastes bad. I can see it looks and smells awful. Similarly, if I see gameplay, visual design, dialogue, etc. that is bad in my opinion, I do not feel the need to purchase a game and try it for myself as if that's going to magically change what I've already seen. Try actually watching my video, and the in-depth, critical reviews of other people. Try putting your mind to work a little bit with some critical thinking skills, and you, too, may be able to figure out how you feel about something you haven't directly experienced! Wow!
@@ShaqsonYT If you actually watched the video, you would know that I am discussing my *own* opinion on every single piece of gameplay footage that I've watched leading up to Veilguard's release. I've watched dozens of hours of gameplay. If you think I can't form an informed opinion on *my favorite game series* based on all the gameplay I've seen, sorry that you have such a low opinion of my critical thinking abilities, and/or sorry that you can't think for yourself unless you directly experience something.
also, you're getting the pin of shame
@@btiermutineer if this is how you respond to a negative comment I have high hopes for your TH-cam “career”. Best start growing a thick skin now.
@@btiermutineer Calling out someone's inability to think for themselves while simultaneously making an entire video that is basically a reworded version of someone else's thoughts is hilarious lol
The writing in Veilguard be like:
Companion 1: I have a problem that distracted me.
Companion 2: I also have a problem that distracted me.
Companion 3: Same, I too have something I've been thinking about a lot.
MC: It seems we have a lot on our minds. We'll need to take care of these things first if we are to focus on the battles ahead.
That's how the game sets up side quests. They talk in the most unnatural, annoying, "I'm going to say what I need to do out loud because people are too dumb to infer meaning from words" type of way.
And they all do that shit at the exact same time. I'm back at Mass Effect 2, having the feel that I play a sort of spinoff game about a bunch of weirdos instead of advancing the main plot.
I'm actually blown away by the discourse in this thread - so many sane opinions being expressed from so many diverse angles and with different viewpoints..... God, it's so refreshing.
I sometimes feel like some dark force is at work trying to separate and divide us and it can get a bit depressing.
@@EyeDeal_666 your last sentence is where you finally stumbled onto it. Bingo. If you're not familiar with the term divide and conquer, there it is.
The idea is to highlight the ways that we are different so we devalue the many more ways that we are the same.
100%. I think the vast majority of people hold the same values.
We just get separated by the crazies from both sides. As well as those in power that want us fighting amongst ourselves rather than focusing on what they're doing.
Personally I would call myself anti-woke.
But because I want more LGBT characters like Dorian. Full characters.
Not the poorly written one-note tokens we're getting these days.
This is a brilliant analysis of this game’s utter awfulness. Well done for articulating how awful this writing is.
The one thing that stands out to me is how much they've nerfed the "mean" dialogue. Even when you try to play an evil character, they tone down the aggression. The writers are so concerned with people being mean that they won't even make a fictional meanie.
Should I add, they're concerned about people being mean IN A SINGLE PLAYER ADVENTURE. Whose sensitivity are you going to bruise? Windows'?
It's not just that. They seem to be scared of doing anything that might seem offensive, or scary to anyone. Even none of the monsters look scary. Literally not a single one. They all just look goofy. That can't be a coincidence. It must be a deliberate choice.
Look up who game director is. It makes complete sense that he doesn't want meanie weanie people being mean to him or his romance inserts. Hell, even enemies were made to look like fortnite monsters.
@GreggyAck Mark Darrah made a point once that the team struggled with making some of the darker moments in Origins, and that he understands not wanting to subject themselves to that kind of anxiety. And I get it, I can't bring myself to say something mean to Leliana because it makes me feel bad, but they had to write it, VA it, animate it, and test it. Yeah, I'd struggle spending weeks on that type of stuff, too.
But ultimately, if you're going to make a dark fantasy game, you need to be willing to deal with that kind of stuff. And because you know what you're getting into, you can plan ahead and make sure you approach that content in a healthy manner. Even take breaks from this game to work on another, maybe.
It's murky waters, for sure. But they knew that going in, and chose not to address it properly.
Don't forget about that one person on Twitter who was ecstatic to learn from the developers that there are no spiders in the game because they had arachnophobia
Its heartbreaking to say, but this might be the first DA game I do not play (and I loved all three of the previous ones).
Some other notes as people have been commenting some honestly wild things:
- "why do you have an opinion if you haven't played the game yet?": Very simple answer. I have functioning eyes, ears, and a brain. I can think through information that I see, no matter whether I myself am directly experiencing a game or I'm just watching footage of it. I have critical thinking skills, and I am genuinely afraid for all the people who say that you have to try something for yourself so that you know whether you will like it or not. Do you all purchase every single game that comes out on Steam every day and play at least a few minutes of ALL the games before you realize that like 99% of them are not to your tastes? How do you live your lives?
- "why are you getting on the hate bandwagon" (+ previous "you haven't played the game yet boohoo how dare you say negative things"): Um, also for the exact same reason I've explained in my previous point. I am not EVER on any "bandwagon", particularly not a "hate" one. I do not follow what people say like a sheep. Once again, sorry if you personally are extremely insecure in your own ideas and opinions and have to get "evidence" that your opinion is valid, but I have no such issues. I am confident in my own opinion because it is just my own opinion. It is not "objectively" correct, and I am not implying everyone needs to agree with me. All I am saying is: this is how I think, this is how I feel. It is up to YOU to decide how YOU feel about what I am saying.
I showed a review that was full of gameplay from a multiple hours playthrough and they still wanted to pretend that I couldn't possibly know the gameplay was poor.
I don't understand the hostility of some people tbh. I think you were very fair in your video.
@@Louves192 Thank you. I don't understand it, either.
You were completely fair and worked with the material that is available. You even showed proof for the points you made with many scenes, writing, graphics etc. People are completely emotional and irrational if they tell you you can't have an opinion yet. Keep it on!
You have tons of examples of play you are using. It's not like you are basing a vid whole cloth on someone else's written opinions and summary.
Exposition dialogue aside, the moment I knew the writing was doomed was when Solas' "big ritual" was interrupted by toppling statues over thx to conveniently placed scaffolding.
A millennia-old "god" doesn't think to secure his damn prison statues with something a little sturdier than wooden beams? What? Is he an 80s cartoon villain now? "You meddling kids!" I can hear him scream. Besides, those statues look massive. Let's say the statues are about the same height and weight as the Statue of Liberty., which weighs around 200 metric tons! Not even ten people could move a wooden beam supporting something of that scale! The utter lack of understanding basic physics is astounding!
This lack of understanding pops up in later parts of the game as well, such as the ballistae you use to shoot darkspawn in quick succession. That's not how ballistae work. They need to be reloaded between shots. They're absolutely useless against small, fast-moving targets! And from the way they're designed, they don't seem to have an auto-reloading mechanism either. They also lack the type of noticeable kickback for missile weapons that size.
Or when Rook is seen kicking over massive wooden beams to use as a makeshift bridge. A normal person would break their foot doing that. Last I checked, Dragon Age games tried to be as realistic as possible when it comes to physics.
@@docmacabre oh boy, I had erased that part of Solas' ritual from my mind because it was so bad, lol. You're absolutely right, even without taking the dialogue into consideration, that's terrible story writing. We've been sold during Trespasser on Solas being an extremely powerful and cunning mage, and one with the backing of what amounted to a cult of elves. All of Fen'harel's agents somehow magically disappeared, no one is protecting him while he's doing his ritual, and he has precarious wooden scaffolding holding up his precious statues? Plus, as you said, it's impossible to move such wooden beams if they're supporting a structure of such huge proportions and weight. It feels like the writers ran out of time to find a way to make Solas go away at the beginning of the game, and just went with the first thing that popped into their mind. Absolutely mind-boggling.
May I also state. There’s also demons. Dragons. Mages. Magic and while we’re at it fucking nugs. It’s a work of fiction people. ❤️ it’s for fun. Try having fun
@@witchsandwerewolfsi wish folk would stop using this line. Its called suspenson of disbelef. They set a president in there previous games. If they change now they should expect to be called out on it.
@@failedGraphics People like that are part of the problem the entertainment industry is currently suffering from.
Interesting. The moment I realized the writing was doomed was a line in one of the trailers.
"Become a leader."
This is the fantasy of someone who isn't an adult and can't think like an adult. Total Greta Thunberg energy. I knew in that moment that this was a game written by children for children.
I'm going to give this game a chance...
By watching it all on TH-cam.
MrMattyPlays went back to play DA Origins after Veilguard and posted a video, it is night and day.
Harding lines would be fine for 14 year old Disney Princess.
I used to love Dragon Age, I wish I could time travel back to 2009 when my stepdad bought Origins for me just to re-experience it and be fascinated again ❤
Having obesity sliders but not breast or buldge sliders does sound like peak hypocrisy to me. Its pandering, not being truly representative.
There actually is a buldge slider in Veilguard, to be fair...
@vojtechvavra3630 Yes, I did see that myself while "borrowing" the game. So at least they are there, although the breast slider seems very restrictive for some reason. Maybe it actually is tied into your characters overall build which might he sort of interesting, but not entirely realistic or representative either. You can have a big belly in DAV, but not big breasts.
As a big boobied player....I am disappointed.
It's nice to hear a sane opinion. The political discourse has taken over this game to the point where you can't find or express any valid criticism without being attacked by either camp.
I'm a SJW, but that doesn't mean I think current-day buzzterms belong in what's supposed to be a medieval fantasy setting. Having a trans character in the game is great, but the writers have to put in the effort to make the character make sense in the context of the world of Thedas. There's so much lore they could utilize to tell an interesting story about what being trans in Thedas could be like, without leaving it as a direct modern-day insert that breaks immersion. This is a fact because there have been trans people and cultures that accepted them throughout human history. It doesn't need to hinge on pronouns, labels and surgery scars.
Also, as a black woman with large breasts, I find it absurd that I can make an elf with African features in a world where Africa doesn't exist, but I can't have large breasts. I can even remove my breasts, but I guess my natural body is just too shamefully lewd for this climate.
It saddens me that people have gotten to the point where they care more about real-life references and sensitivities than consistent worldbuilding and intelligent storytelling. Or competent writing. One thing DAI taught me is that I can put up with shitty gameplay, graphics and a lacklustre story, but I draw the line at bad writing.
Fair points.
As a left-leaning person myself, the whole "woke" political movement drives me crazy because it undermines the authenticity and verisimilitude of every fictional setting by forcing them all to align with the demographics and sensibilities of 21st century California. It's quite obnoxious to be honest.
Did the SJW title fits you, then? You seems like a progressist person but not a SJW, at least your post let me think you are not waging a "cultural" war on internet about "we need more this and that and that's racist and something-phobic if you don't!".
@@garroshhellscream594 Yes, I'm progressive but even I can't stand Taash the way they've written her. I think both sides of the "culture war" are outside of then norm. Most people just want good characters, and good representation should be a show don't tell kind of thing . Uhura wasn't going around yelling "I'm a black woman and I'm great at my job!" in Star Trek; she just did it.
I'm more concerned with the quality of the writing. Generally intelligent stories and characters follow where the writing is good.
They seriously expect us to believe the Inquisition wouldn't be leading the charge and the story is handed over to a rando? Yes, each game has a new MC, but given this is the first time they've directly continued the narrative and setup Inquisitor's crusade, it's a narrative failure to abandon the ending of Inquisition & Trespasser.
I'm so glad I found this video. You are discussing things that really matter to me. The writing. I die a little inside every time the characters talk, especially the Chinese elf. Goofy lil 🤬. I'm a real lore nerd and I have so many disappointments. Just a quick example. The Qunari invade Antiva and the Divine Victoria doesn't start the Exalted Marche? So that's because we don't carry over our Divine choices to DAV. The saved Inquisition isn't involved? The Holy Empire of Orlais, house of the Andrastian Chantry isn't involved? Remember, the previous Qunari invasions resulted in 3 Exalted Marches. This could be the perfect connection point between Inquisition and the new part. But no. I feel like these new devs hate the old games, especially DAO. And that's just one small example. I'm so disappointed. The fans waited ten years and got this.
They don't hate Dragon Age: Origins - they don't even know anything about it - They didn't know who Sten and Zevran are when they were asked by fans about them maybe appearing in this game...
@@zarddin9561 Really? This is worse than i thought i mean games till now did seem like they were made by someone who was inaccurately told what Origins was about in the shortest lines imaginable so i guess it makes sense, if they just improved upon Origins stopped with pushing "Da message" in such blunt and unsophisticated way they'd have a hit
@@lordhater4207 All the people that worked in BioWare and created Dragon Age: Origins, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, KOTOR, Mass Effect 1 and 2 are no longer working there.
Thankfully they are making their own game: th-cam.com/video/WAKAZNQuLqw/w-d-xo.html
I also love how none of our previous choices matter because those were just SO far away. So the Anderfels, the most devout region in Thedas, doesn't care if there's a mage divine?
wtf is a problem with a chinese elf?
They can't include all the choices you mentioned bcs not everyone played the game before.
This is a super egoistic point of view.
I played the other games and I wish we could carry over some more choices but this choices just cant have such a big impact on the story bcs new players woudnt understand anything + they have to write a scenario for every choice the player could have made.
I really understand ur point bcs I played the games myself but still.
ANYONE giving this game an 8+ has forgotten the face of Bioware's fathers (the foundations of a choice & consequence RPG).
or at the very least have never heard of baldur's great 3
@@KeemeraThis!
After BG3 it's clear what defines a good modern RPG
@@Keemera BG3 was late to the party, but I'm glad that it was because we don't get ANYTHING like that anymore, and haven't since DA1 / ME2 / Jade Empire
Thank you for your honesty.
I hope it isn’t too much to say that I feel genuine kinship with your experience with DA:O, right down to experiencing complex gaming on such a scale and being inspired enough to pursue a creative writing degree. Our experiences and romantic preferences differ, but your passion and know.edge has reignited the old flame for these games. Veilguard for sure is an extremely bitter not for this franchise to potentially end on, but we can keep the trilogy remembered.
>Mages can't do athletic things without assistance
Totally agree with you, unless we're talking about Hawke, the most badass mage in DA history.
Arcane Warrior Warden is basically a Superman
When you started talking about combat, you voiced my feelings about why I play games, precisely! I play most games to enjoy the story. I read "choose your own adventure" books as a youth and that is what I enjoy most out of video games. I usually play games on easy or story mode so I can get through the story. The exception is Elden Ring! I don't know why I'm so hooked on that game, but it is one of my top 5 games!
I’m in a similar boat as you are. DAO fan since playing it in high school in 2009, and likewise it’s the first thing I install on any PC. I feel the same way, the utter disrespect to prior lore, the way the progressive inclusions feel shoehorned in at what feels like the expense of things like cohesive writing…it continues this trend that I hope will go away in gaming (hopefully this wont lead to a comment deletion) forced DEI, as opposed to inclusion that is adapted for the lore and source material (i.e. BG3, Outer Worlds, etc.)
You're all good. *Forced* representation isn't the same thing as respectful and lore-friendly representation. There's a difference.
Some notes I didn’t manage to get into the video because I was already too upset to write more:
- If you watched SkillUp’s review, did you notice that Harding’s characterization is inconsistent? One scene, she’s a people pleaser and can’t even tell Viago she hates coffee, and in the other she’s complaining to Emmrich that he wants to bring books along on her camping trip. Which one is it? You can’t be a people pleaser only sometimes.
- I don’t know if the writers at Bioware know this, but being trans or non-binary has nothing to do with the clothes you prefer to wear, and everything to do with how you feel on the inside not matching how people perceive you. There are men who like to wear kilts and dresses, and women who like to dress in pants or in otherwise more butch or masculine clothing. Someone’s clothing preferences don’t dictate their gender identity. I’m sure people haven’t spoiled the entire Taash conversation, but if it really comes down to how Taash prefers to dress… I’m going to be even more disappointed in Bioware than I already am. That would be *terrible* trans representation.
- On the topic of representation, Bellara is supposed to be someone with ADHD. As a person with ADHD, I find her “haha oh so quirky and clumsy and forgetful OOPS” kind of portrayal extremely offensive and stereotypical. It’s not at all what having ADHD is like, and it’s genuinely hurtful that that’s how they chose to portray a person with ADHD. ADHD is a disability that stems from having issues with your neurological functions, lack of appropriate dopamine levels in the brain, and not being able to control and direct your attention. It can genuinely be extremely debilitating on a day-to-day basis, it’s certainly not fun to deal with. I’m very upset with Bellara’s character. Even worse if she’s supposed to be autistic. I have had SO many problems in life due to being autistic: from social issues when not understanding other people and them not understanding me in turn, to sensory issues especially in public spaces, issues with only being able to do things that are special interest and nothing else, etc. Autism and ADHD are not ~quirky traits~ to give a character.
- Every single inter-party “conflict” that happens is 1) barely a conflict to begin with, and 2) immediately resolved. It reminds me of some really bad writing I saw from a beginner writer who wrote “I drove into the parking lot, and couldn’t find any spots. When I circled back around, I found an empty spot and parked there”. Genuinely, the level of conflict between companions that I’ve seen in reviews is giving me this exact milquetoast vibe of “oh no for a few minutes I couldn’t find a parking lot, but then I DID find one! Anyway…”.
- And finally, I know I already mentioned this in the video, but PLEASE someone at Bioware explain to me what the hell happened during Veilguard’s development that made all the writers forget how to write, or ignore everything they knew about good writing. I am BEGGING you. I MUST know.
I of course would have way more things to mention in relation to this disaster of a game, but I need to stop somewhere before I give myself a mental breakdown.
I saw that with Harding. Vaash has a similar issue with a couple of lines one where she says she didn't follow the Qun another where she said she did. They must not have proofread the conversations.
As some with audhd, I am someone also with a “whimsical” personality. Like it or not, stereotype or not, it is reality to me. And I am treated as immature or unreliable often because of it, instance of casual ableism. But I can also get serious and have deep conversations, I can problem solve as a software engineer. I also do run into those debilitating issues you mentioned. I would love even if it’s just one part of the spectrum of audhd experience that my personality is not immediately written off as “stereotypical” or “immature”, from neurotypicals or fellow audhds. It’s not offensive, it’s gratifying to see someone I relate to. The judgments and ableism other ppl hurl at us I would like to not hurl at ourselves. And I trust (and know cause spoilers) that the game will expand on these surface qualities.
About Harding being a people pleaser: in this one cut scene, she sounds borderline "bitchy" when she says this to Neve: "I know you’re hurt, Neve. But the rest of us need to do something." That's not how a people pleaser would talk. She essentially sounds as if she's either not caring about Neve's condition, or that she doesn't take it seriously. But it seems serious enough for Neve to be unable to heal herself. (Which falls apart moments later when Neve says it's just a headache and that she's "worked with worse" lolwut?! Also, why can't she heal Harding if Harding is the one with the bruised up face? Gods, there are so many holes in the writing! It's like swiss cheese!)
And this thing about representation? Yeah, they only ever employ the most outdated stereotypes. "Oh shiny!" puts it very well (I also have ADHD, and these depictions are just f-ing annoying). Apparently, there's also a scene in which Taash goes on about hating dresses. No one forces you to wear a damn dress! The Viddasala in Trespasser didn't wear a dress. Doesn't seem to me as if the Qunari have a gender-based dress code!
"you cant only be a people pleaser sometimes" 💀💀💀💀 bro yes you can
Yes, exactly! I know there are people on Tumblr and BlueSky who actually use "Autistic" as their _gender_ because they think it's "cute and quirky".
_AUTISM IS NOT A GENDER._ 🤦🏾♀️
And nuerodiversity isn't some cutesy-funsies thing people can put on and take off like fuzzy pink cat-eared headphones whenever they want more or less attention.
I appreciate your insight here Lord Mutineer....will be on the lookout for your coverage of the game!
They lost me at Harding's 'you boob!' line lmao
If you pay attention to that scene; Rook is clearly still speaking while kissing Harding…
Patrick Weekes is the lead writer.He was appointed when Gaider left apparently was recommended and handed the keys to the franchise by Gaider. John Epler is the creative director and also apparently has done some of the writing. I think there are others who I don't know. I liked Patrick but he is wrong on his views on this game. It's possible however that Corienne Busche the game director has carte blanche to do as she feels fit and they have to follower her lead. That may be why we have all the trans stuff in the game because Busche is trans and Bioware it seems wants to check all the boxes for trans support. I think it done to excess. Now I want to make it clear I am a liberal person and I loved Bg3. Some of the actors the voice actors are gay and I am fine with that. I think one identifies as non-binary the va for Karlach and I just love her. So I am not prejudiced .Hardly.
The game is a bad game. Skillups and Matty's reviews are right the others are wrong. It's ok to like a bad game however and I say let others who want to like it. like it. It's not a matter of personal preference.. The game is objectively bad. I would argue the game journos are being shills as they support the game for nongame/political/sociological/and financial reasons. Some of the other positive reviews are from people seeking access/sponsored content , people who have received gifts/merch and tours from Bioware over their support for past games like Inquisition or people who hope to join the gravy train and receive such considerations over this game if merch becomes available later on and Bioware rewards them for their positive review.
Once the people who were denied codes do their reviews which I expect will be negative and match Matty's and Skillups the game will be toast. The game needs to sell a minimum of 5 million copies to satisfy EA and I am not sure it will get there.
I do want to add Kirby was one of the people laid off several months ago along with some other experienced developers.
I love most things DA. Mostly, I love how they are open to all types of peoples and personalities. I loved that there was diversity kept in lore in all the games. BG3 person describing this as a netflix series game is not the compliment everyone thinks it it. Look what netflix has done with writing LOR and the Witcher. Bad writing is just bad writing.
How could they wrote this? Which producer in their right mind would approve this?
Rook: (laughs). Wow… I feel drunk…
Harding: Yeah… it’s because I turned your head into mush!!
Rook: Or it’s love…
Harding: you boob! This is not funny! Okay, I’ll fix it! I, I promise. I will find a way and I will fix it. Okay? Okay?? Urghhh, damn it, no! Don’t touch me!
would make for a fun writing exercise to rework the jank lines into something more expected from Dragon Age ngl
I know fanfic writers who wrote better stuff 😂
Baby's first fanfic and also. Lyrium poisoning can be fatal. Small doses create potent addiction, like we see in Templars. The reason why dwarves and Tranquils are the ones working on lyrium is because it's dangerous to handle for normal humans and elves. Not sure why would Harding just joke about that? Like, she could've killed the guy, lol.
Mass Effect did for me what Dragon Age Origins did for you. It's nothing short of a literal foundational pillar of my creative process. For 12 years I've mourned it, wishing for something to come along and let me fly through that universe again. But now, the way things are at Bioware and many, many other franchises and studios - unless something really big happens to snap people out of their delusion - I don't think I want Mass Effect to join the graves of Star Wars, Star Trek, The Witcher, Halo, and The Lord of the Rings.
We live long enough to see our idols die.
You hit the nail right on the head gorvthe character creator.
As soon as the controversy kicked off around it I said I play fantasy games for the fantasy role playing part. I don't want to play as an over weight, unhealthy 'hero' with a bad back, nerve damage in one leg who has all the running and climbing abilities of a table. I want a hero who can run all day, climb like Alexios in Assassins creed. Who can use swords and throw magic etc. No one else has mentioned that.
Thank you for having a calm discussion about this. I have subscribed to your educated thoughts
I have found this to be interesting, well thought out, poignant, and I appreciate your approach to fairness, being honest about your opinion and critical thinking based solely on the information we have available. As a fellow content creator, I gotta say I respect you taking the dive in and talking about this topic! Props to you friend and I wish you continued success moving forward! This is a well produced video!
Thank you!
Thank you for addressing the inclusivity issue. Pretty much everyone else who it have just been an asshole about it and cried woke and DEI and whatever the current buzzwords are. This is exactly what I've been trying to say, injecting modern day issues and terminology into a fantasy world as is, it just doesn't work. Krem was a minor character but he was a great example of how to integrate this idea into the world organically. Also not being able to be even a tad bit stand-offish to your companions is just neutering all that any good RPG is supposed to be. BG3 did all companions being pansexual well but I think the way Veilguard did it feels just lazy and leaves out potential with characters like Dorian who was one of my favorite companions in Inquisition.
Its amazing to me that certain companies (BW is one example) love to tour their inclusive, but seem to have completely forgotten how to write them. Take Krem for example, even not playing DAI for 5+ years i could tell you several details about Krem without "is trans" coming up. Ditto Dorian. Dorian had some of my favorite companion quest content in DAI.
I'd say the point is that if you're defining characteristic for someone is their sexuality you have a bad character. Flip it around. If they had a character whose defining characteristic was "straight male" would that be interesting?
@@JohnSmith-px5nf i thought Dorian was written just fine. Krem, I could see you there, but Krem was a very minor character.
I think its very obvious how they storyboarded these characters. Dorian is a Tevinter Necromancer spurned by his homeland who gets wrapped up by you in the tevinter plot to abduct/neutralize the inquisition. There are probably several more things you can say about Dorian before his sexuality even comes out.
@@JohnSmith-px5nf I think both Dorian and Krem were great examples of how to incorporate those themes into the world organically. Dorian wasn't just gay, it was just a part of his backstory and you had full reign over how you treated him because of it. Krem was a member of the chargers and him living as a man was just mentioned and that's it, it wasn't the entirety of his character.
Why do you think they were bad examples?
@@JohnSmith-px5nf Dorian didn't really have it at the forefront? His sexuality also helped flush out the Tevinter Empire and how their culture works, it allowed the player to find out about both that and the situation with his father and form an opinion and take a stance on both. So really the only issue you have with Dorian is that he happened to be gay?
Why is Sera not an issue, she was a lesbian?
Dorian almost got me to play as a man. Best bro mance besides Garrus, of course.
>The Hinterlands Problem
You're absolutely right. Exploring Hinterlands was one of my favourite parts of the early game of Inquisition. Now, _Questing_ in Hinterlands, that is what sucked.
The progression thing where you can defeat bosses that severely outlevel you can be good, but only if it's a genuine test of skill, and having an intimate knowledge or the game's mechanics. If you can literally faceroll bosses 20 levels above you, then there's a severe gameplay problem.
My best firend dropped DA:I bcause of it
They at least tried to make elves look different from humans in DA2. Pointy ears and somewhat shorter stature aside you could tell the face staring at you from beneath a hood or turban thing was *not* human but elven. It'd have been great to keep that in Inquisition, the tarot card for elves in character creation even has the DA2 elf aesthetic.
It was not in the grind, nor the joy of the fight,
It was not in the lore that once burned so bright;
It was not in the battle, nor the risk of fate,
It rose from betrayal, when the gamer began to hate.
It was not when they saw their heroes erased,
Nor when hollowed-out stories left passion displaced;
It was not even the cash-grabs, as profits inflate-
They had swallowed it all, ere the gamer began to hate.
The icons they cherished were shattered and sold,
The legends they’d built left broken and cold.
And it was then, with no honor to sate-
They had endured every loss, ere the gamer began to hate.
Their patience was drained, their loyalty bled,
They cared not for fame, nor the market’s dread.
They fought in the silence, relentless in weight-
The wrath of the spurned gamer, when they began to hate.
Bravo !
That is some fine wordsmithing.
@@AmySorrellMusic many thanks Amy
@@shellsmith831 Thank you friend
you have put more effort into this than the entire DA4 writing team
Thank goodness there are more people coming out against this game that are not just screaming ‘woke’! I’m a middle aged gay man who likes dark fantasy and mature writing. I already felt represented in the dragon age universe, what I feel now is that one of my favourite franchises has been reduced to a very childish looking mobile game with writing that sounds like a bad attempt at something from the marvel cinematic universe. Honestly, I feel alienated. Sure, they want a new ‘young’ audience but am I really to believe that young folks don’t also love cool grim dark fantasy either anymore? I know I did! The whole thing is a turn off for me!
Understandable.
Consider this:
"You wake up, just to face your semi-drunk cousin, informing you that you have to partake in an arranged marriage. Same cousin knocks the not-just-semi-drink-but-totally-drunk useless son of the local nobility out. Same useless son and some friends kidnaps you, your cousin and some other women, with the intent of mass sexual abuse.
You fight your way out of this situation, basically killing said son, his friends and pretty much everyone in his castle.
Fortunately, you don't face trial (and likely execution) for this, because a guy from a secretive cult arrives, offering you recruitment. In the cultish recruitment ceremony, you and the other two recruits have to drink demon blood. One of the others die from drinking the blood, the other one refuses, and is promptly killed by cult guy..."
And then we haven't even touched on Loghain's treason (read: De facto regicide).
Dark as the strongest possible dark coffee, there is. A gut-wrenchingly unpleasant tone-setting start on a serious RPG game.
I wonder if Bioware (or anybody else, for that matter) ever dares to do an intro like that again...
Couldn't agree more.
Agreed. These writers just don't get it. Just look at one of my absolute favorite characters from Inquisition. Dorian isn't "a gay character". He's an AWESOME character. He's also just happens to be gay. It's not enough to "just make some one gay". Or Trans or whatever. A character has to be compelling on their own. "Identity" is just that little bit of color on the pallette of a person and nobody REALLY cares about it. When you make it THE primary characteristic of the character it just makes them boring. THAT'S what "woke" means to me. And yeah, it sucks.
@@jackakhan just got done saying exactly this in a different comment thread. Its just crazy that BW used to know how to write these characters! Dorian for example is some of the best companion content in DAI.
I agree with you but am wondering why do people need to feel represented in fantasy games at all?
Can’t we just have the story presented in its original format so we can experience it through the writer’s worldview? Even if you don’t agree with that worldview, isn’t that kinda the point of storytelling
Elves, dwarves and qunari are a different _species_, not race. In that context having 'asian elves' is preposterous. Each of these ought to have their own morphology and behavioral patterns.
This line of thinking is complicated for the brainlets in marketing... look at DnD and its orc drama.
@@sagacity1071 the illiterates of hegemonic narcissistic culture are just the worst. They could use some education on Eurasian steppe nomadic ethnicities.
As a South East Asian who's not "traditionally represented" in fantasy settings, I completely agree. It's just way too jarring and feels so un-immersive
Thank you for making this video. I believe one of the main issues is that people often assume the worst of each other and don’t truly listen. Instead of engaging in open conversations, they jump to conclusions, implying things without clarifying or asking questions before being judgmental.
Top surgery isn’t even a procedure specific to trans individuals. Surgery to add or reduce breast size is not exclusive to the trans community. Yet, when I simply questioned the appearance of top surgery scars, I was banned from a Twitch channel after trying to defend myself against the hate I received.
Would any kind of surgery even make sense in a world like Dragon Age? What materials would they use for breast augmentation? this are genuine questions you can have before even finishing the character, but I wasn’t allowed to express my thoughts. Worse, I was labeled transphobic and ignorant, despite never asking to remove anything. They made me question myself, labeling me a bad person simply for having thoughts-for existing.
It affects you-it hurts. But I forgive them because I can see they had good intentions, and I don’t want to harbor hate towards them. Otherwise, I’m destined to become the very demon they want to see in me.
Thank you for reading this, and please-don’t become a demon or demonize others.
people who claim u cant have an opinion if you havent played the game need to understand one thing
If you can like a game for what you see in 1-2 hours of gameplay and decide to buy it is equally viable to watch 1-2 hours of a game and decide is garbage.
I disliked EVERY SINGLE God Of War before GoW2018.
I watched 1 hour of gameplay for god of war 2018 and I decided the game was amazing. Went to the store and bought it the next day. And greatly enjoyed it!!!
Just the same there's been many games Ive seen 1-2 hours of gameplay and decided is trash, never looked back, never gave the game another chance and never had any regrets about them
As you said, I can excuse everything but not a bad story/dialogue. Dragon Age is storytelling!! I bought the game, but I know already it will be a huge disappointment... I was so excited for this :(
I'm sorry :( I know, I was excited for this game for YEARS, and then even when the first trailers came out I was still optimistic because I know Bioware sucks at trailers. But after all the gameplay I've seen... oof.
@@btiermutineer I'm a long time Dragon Age fan, Origins is literally one of my favourite games of all time... There are so many videos/reviews out there that is impossible not to see that they had no respect with what they have in their hands... I just hope I am wrong :(
The veilgaurd is gonna be the fallout 4 of dragon age.
This is my second time grieving the death of one of my favorite all time franchises, and it does not get any easier
One of the reasons i never got past Fallout 2. Apart from being too old(too anxious) to play new games im afraid of this. I LOVE the DA series. Its my favorite. Im not gonna play Veilguard but id love to read, if there is a comic or a manga or what ever. Just something to finish the story the way that made sense.
@Kobac1990 the only game I'd really say is worth playing out of the 3d era of fallout is new vegas. It's almost as good as the originals, and it would've been better had Bethesda not given them an 18 month timeline.
It is sad to see dragon age going the same way. I'm young, so dragon age was my first real rpg experience. I played origins so many times on ps3 growing up and Morrigan may have been my sexual awakening lmao
It really sucks to see the franchise flandurize itself, but it is what it is and we just have to move on
Fallout 4 was the last straw for me with Bethesda.. very sad.
@@SpaceDino232 yeah and it's only gone downhill since lmao
That dreadful scene with Harding was extremely painful to watch. "How to make your audience hate the character 101" For god's sake, Forspoken was written better then this, and that game had a great combat mechanics, that become more complex and fun to play with the further you progress through the game, but this though... "I've lowered the difficulty to get through this cookie-cutter slop faster". Hard no for me as a consumer.
I was in PAIN! 😂
I defended this game from an "anti-woke" mob when it got announced... But considering the existing reviews, this game is SOY AF. Not because of gay/lesbian/trans/black representation, no, but because it seems like the game doesn't want to quote on quote "offend" everybody and tries it's best to avoid the things that made DA unique. Companions look, act and talk like MCU characters and you can't really roleplay as a mean character. I didn't expect Tyranny-style dialogue, but damn, after what i saw in reviews i know that i can't roleplay as my favourite archetype of the end justify the means type of guy, an anti-hero of sorts (yeah i'm an edgelord). Yall know, it's like Inquisition Vivienne dialogue all over again - if you try arguing with her she just cuts you off and "this conversation is over".
Qunari design is beyond pathetic. Remember DA2 arishok? This 4 feet tall brute with deep and deep voice? Yeah, cry about it. Qunaris look like a bootleg chinese toy of some alien i used to have as a kid (no joke).
And the last one... I saw a screenshot of a conversation with Taash with them claiming they're "non-binary". What the fuck, BioWare? You had a trans character in a previous game and he was organic to the setting, with his story tied to the laws of the Tevinter Imperium. And now you have Taash, legit saying "i'm non-binary" IN A FANTASY SETTING. With MAGIC, ELVES AND DRAGONS. Yes, DA universe is realistic and grounded compared to other mainstream fantasy games but holy shit this line was out of place.
Overall, Veilguard looks like an RPG with no role to play and boy oh boy i expect ea community managers to shamelessly use minorities as a shield to protect this mediocre mcu slop feeding off Dragon Age corpse. Once it will be hacked, i'll pirate it. And if this game turns out to be good i will personally debunk every word in this comment and find a way to buy it since it's not availible for purchase in my country.
Just to be clear: i dont have a problem with Taash being non-binary. Sten implemented in Origins that qunari accept trans people and Taash being non-binary is totally possible. My problem is with the use of the term "non-binary" in dialogue. Couldn't they come up with some qunari/fantasy analogue of it?
@Mannimarco_King_of_Worms they do its aqun-athlok
@@Zerathenezot exactly! Totally forgot about it
@@Mannimarco_King_of_Worms no worries. It was 10 years ago and was optional
@@Mannimarco_King_of_Worms Two words: creative bankruptcy.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I think a major reason for why writing has gotten so bad, particularly in the moral/political/representation arena, is because the writers don't actually understand what they believe. They can't present complex debates about the merits and faults of this idea or that because they only have a surface-level understanding of it themselves. Instead, they default to Find-and-Replace Analogies, something like:
Find: Black people
Replace: Elves
Find: America
Replace: Tevinter
Story: Look how badly Tevinter treats elves, calling them criminals and enslaving them!
These kinds of messages are so shallow and easily recognizable that they're insulting, and immediately frustrate anyone who might disagree with you irl and cause them to disengage with the story on any meaningful level - clearly the story doesn't understand the reality or nuance of their position, but there's no point arguing with a monitor, is there?
The people who can write deep themes that explore important topics are the people who understand that The Hot New Thing is an extension of deeper, fundamental ideals that manifest in a variety of different ways. If you understand what that core belief is, you can not only be consistent in your own beliefs, but you can communicate it in ways that actually make people think about their own ideals in meaningful, complex ways - not whatever shallow, uninformed nonsense the Twitter mob has decided is important this week.
While I always (!!!) play as a nice character in any game which has a morality system, I do appreciate to have the option to choose.
DA:V doesn't really give that option. And while the existing dialogue options cater to my personal way of playing such games (as the nice character who wants that everyone is happy 😅), I find it preachy and lazy on the developer's side.
I agree with everything you said. When I saw Morrigon's scene and she didn't even mention the Blight or Hero of Fereldan it was so disappointing. They couldn't even have her say "I fought alongside the Hero of Fereldan". It shows how they couldn't care less about Origins. It almost feels vindictive, like a purposeful shun.
I personally didn't get the game because too many of the elements that I enjoyed in previous games have been trimmed down or outright removed. I don't need to play it to know that it's not what I wanted after a decade.
As a writer I completely agree with you about the writing. I prefer narrative-driven RPGs and the dialogue in this game, from what I've seen and heard, is severely lacking, especially compared to previous games. People are arguing that bad writing is subjective. No. Bad writing is bad writing. People can like bad writing, but it's still bad. It's not a subjective thing and it's something I'm very passionate about.
It's sad and frustrating that the culture war stuff is so loud that it's distracting from the fact that there are legitimate things to criticize about this game. Some people have become rabid over it. People, longtime fans, have been labeled a bigot just for disliking any aspect of the game. It's why I left the Dragon Age subreddit. It got to be too much seeing people argue over the culture war stuff every single post.
Overall, it's sad for me as not only a DA but a BioWare fan. This game plays more like an action/adventure game than the deep, narrative-driven RPGs BioWare are known for. It's disappointing that this is the road they've chose to go down instead of sticking with what we loved about them to begin with. They didn't even bother with passing the torch. It's like they threw it on the ground. The only upside is it seems Larian picked it up and is running with it. Also, liked and subbed. You made some great points. Looking forward to your future videos.
"Blessed are they who stand before
The corrupt and the wicked and do not falter.
Blessed are the peacekeepers, the champions of the just."
Thank you for your honesty.
R.I.P dragon age. You were my first love in 2009.
Lord Mutineer...I have seen some leaked dialogue and it is some of the worst writing, maybe THE worst writing I have ever seen or heard in a game. It's like they got some 13 year olds together for their first writing assignment. The gatekept review codes make a lot of sense now...
Yeah, I genuinely don't understand who wrote the dialgoue for this game. I refuse to believe that the same writers who wrote amazing characters in Inquisition wrote like this of their own volition in Veilguard. I'm assuming some executives or something pushed the writers to write in this Marvel/Avengers/teenager style, and the writers weren't allowed to say no.
@@btiermutineer There is even the theory it is AI...possible I guess.
@@spellandshieldIt's definitely stilted like AI. . . the dialog is like a machine trying to pretend to be a person.
Thanks for giving a fair review.
I think you hit the nail with this.
Devs were so focused on making sure everyone felt represented instead of focusing on the setting and what fits within the setting.
I didn’t like the dialogues I’ve seen so far either. Skillup talked about something that I won’t ever be able to unsee. He pointed out how much the rook just acts like a soft parent talking to toddlers, when dealing with companions
I share a lot of your sentiment, i am a transwoman and a lot of representation in Veilguard seems misplaced which may turn out to be harmful for our community. It reinforces a stereotype that everything touched by queer representation has poor quality because well it looks like a poor quality. That is why YT is flooded with video like "wokeness killed dragon age" or something.
Yeah, I've seen so many videos that are talking about how "woke" Dragon Age is, and I'm so tired of that. I am absolutely for good representation of trans people, but not if it ends up harming our community by making people more angry at us because of it.
I think like u , too....These Aktivists Do not good for , p. Ex trans peoples...i think, is "Inclusion through exclusion" is the wrong way
As someone who used to be "anti-woke" without thought (I try to better myself) I couldn't disagree more with some of those videos. Just to clarify, I still don't like "woke", not the entirety, just the bad writing and excuse of some people why their product failed while blaming their audience.
Good woke : baldurs gate 3, dragon age origin
Bad woke : Concord, New Dragon Age,
And I'm my honest opinion, they should just copy paste origin formula and make it better.
Also a question for you if I may ask, what's your opinion on character customisation with the option of breast removal scars, cuz in my opinion it's not the best option to have where blood mages exist and they can change your gender freely, it honestly feels like a joking reminder to the circumstances of trans people
And if I said something wrong or in bad way that's hard to understand, English is not my main language so it's harder to write what I want to say :D
Why does a single game need "representation" bar a few obvious type games though? This absolutely stifles any writer trying to write "their" game. Maybe they are black and wanna write a game takes place in upper mongolia circa BC 600, a city builder for instance? Going by modern standards and the very thought set that would even consider "representation" ELIMINATES both him from being able to tell such a story: cultural appropriation and, of course, you ain't gonna be in it. So now he hangs his head in frustration because he loves this part of history but he's so blocked, so araid of what "might become" of his actions he turns of his computer and drops game dev altogether. It's aweful. Period.
Omg, thank you! I agree 100%. I'm a woman and also someone who is of the LGBTQ+. I didn't like the art direction the moment I saw it. I took cinema and communications courses. Scriptwriting was a bit thing, and just doing overall analysis of the mise en scene. I love the looks of the backgrounds and I wish we could explore much more of the area than sort of following a lined path for point A to point B. I could have overlooked most of it and I told my friends 'if the story is good, I'll play' but from the footage I've been watching, it just leaves me cold. I've also been playing this game for so long.
I have so many Wardens, Hawkes, and Inquisitors. I've played so many playthroughs to explore all the options. The fact that my choices could be imported to the next game was such a beautiful and unique thing about this series in the first place. I legitimately cried when I saw there was only three... THREE options we can import. 1) Who did you bang in Inquisition? 2) Disbanded or Kept the Inquisition? 3) Save or Kill Solas? I felt like things I did and chose were rendered meaningless. I would have even have the bare minimum of the choices of the other game there if there was too much in the Keep!
There was so much depth in character companions, and the story, it feels so shallow now. And it's disheartening to see the explosion of the culture war where both sides are being children. So those of us who are usually in the middle of the spectrum, have the bombardment to go through. I found the writing in this came to be sloppy, incohesive, lacking any logical flow. I used to ADMIRE Patrick Weekes who wrote Solas. That bald egg was so deep and complex, I was so hungry to know more, to see more. I'm a millennial, though I have to sometimes look at the stuff that is plaguing the industry. It's not just games, but movies as well or television.
Cause I can rip apart Amazon's the Rings of Power. Where the forced diversity is more apparent. There was an article 'written' about how the original trilogy by Peter Jackson did not age well. And mostly it was: it lacked diversity, not enough women, they removed some characters from the book (there were so many, we didn't need Tom Bombadil), the ladies weren't more involved like Arwen and Galadriel unlike Eowyn who LITERALLY KILLED THE WITCH-KING OF ANGMAR... but we saw what they did to Galadriel in the Rings of Power, and Tolkien would be rolling in his grave right now. And, once more, I'm progressive... I don't mind diversity in any way. But to complain there wasn't enough people of color, but acknowledge that the books and story was based off British and Norse mythology? There is a double standard in the gaming industry. Even when it comes to mods. Like how on the Nexus you can find Geralt of Rivia with very dark skin despite being a person of fair complexion, but then you had someone who made a more accurate version of Angrboda that would be more accurate to her Norse myth counterpart (if anyone tries to say I'm being a bigot, I'm also a woman of mixed race). That mod was flagged as discrimination and taken down from most mod sites. You can see where I'm going with this. And also I can just say, look at Disney's horrible time with the new Snow White and how they're reeling that another studio is making a more accurate rendition of the tale.
People will notice when the DEI is being highly forced. I loved Dorian and how I learned of his sexuality by interacting with him, getting close enough to admit that he liked the company of men then outright saying 'I'm gay' and stuff. The topic was heavy because we learned what his father tried to do. We can help them make up, or we can just have Dorian not and continue as he was in being estranged with his father. The fact we also can't be a morally ambiguous rubs me the wrong way. The fact we can't be Blood Mages rubs me the wrong way. How they're playing it so safe is... it makes it so lackluster! Look...I don't mind diversity within a cast... and before someone says 'you didn't play the game'...like B-Tier Mutineer said... I freaking have eyes, ears, and a brain. I'm not going to pay $89.99 for something that isn't worth that price despite TEN YEARS of development. But anyways, forgive me for the rant... there has been so much I've been holding onto and it's nice to see someone of the LGBTQ+ who also has the same sentiments I do.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! It's extremely strange to see so many people being hostile about what should be a civil discussion about this game and its issues. Just like you said, I like my representation in media to actually be meaningful and make sense within the context of the fiction. So many choices they made in the writing of this game are extremely confusing - why remove the moral ambiguity, why remove blood magic, why use modern terminology for things that were already being discussed by characters like Krem and Dorian without real-life words? And it's not even just the dialogue, the main plot is so bland as well. You stop Solas's ritual by pushing a wooden beam that's holding up a huge statue... Not even going into the fact that that would be physically impossible, it's such lazy writing to get rid of Solas as quickly as possible because for some reason they didn't want him to be the villain they set up in Trespasser.
@@btiermutineer Yeaaaaaaaaah. Just...the fact that they pushed the one character they've build up in the previous game to focus on the 'Veilguard' instead I think was a bad call. Especially putting Solas to the side, and I hear that the two gods also suffer from the Corypheus thing. Which...also disappointing. This wasn't how I expected the story/encounter with the Evanuris to go. And I would have loved it, more than anything, to spend Halloween indoors with warm tea and play a game from a favorite franchise of mine. Alas, everything I've seen just...it's not worth it at all. And this is even more of a disappointment than Andromeda was. And of course, I saw that the person in charge of Mass Effect is trying to distance themselves with what's going on with Dragon Age. Though, I think the company didn't like that and he had to revise what he said.
Sony also closed the studio that made Concord recently. So when it comes to the DEI games, and anything involving Sweet Baby INC. It really honestly is a 'Sweet Baby Kiss of Death'. I'm not sure if you'll end up playing the game or not to do a further analysis, but it'd be interesting to see a more in-depth review of someone who is trans, or non-binary, etc. I have a friend of color who saw what Ubisoft did with Assassin's Creed Shadows and even he had a wtf look on his face. Personally...I might ask around to borrow someone's copy rather than purchase cause I want to really dissect this. Cause honestly it's a perfect sorta thing of what NOT to do. I'll be eating a lot of popcorn for when the user criticisms begin to flow in and counter the scores of IGN, Eurogamer, etc.
Thank you, well said. So many games like this have become bait-and-switch, sad shallow shadows of the earlier games we love.
I've become very wary of new games, I won't pre-order, and I don’t trust access-journalist reviews; I wait and watch reviews from people who loved the originals.
@@zxyatiywariii8 Yeah, these journalist outlets are owned by the same people. So it's no wonder that there is a repeat of what was going out with the whole 'return to form' thing. Looking at the stats for game on the steam charts, it doesn't look that promising. Dragon Age the Veilguard is sitting at 30 on Steam Charts, just right under BG3.
Their all time peak ON RELEASE was 70,414 players. This morning they got 48,359 playing as of this moment. They aren't even breaching 50k. That's sad for a title of what was considered a beloved franchise. And somehow with the release of the game, the fighting among the community is worse than ever. I freaking weep for future generations and projects at this point.
@@The_Damoiselle To be honest, I am writing a game story of my own for my game project, and I wanted to piss off both extreme sides for free marketing.
@B-Tier Mutineer As a white, straight, Christian male I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for being GENUINELY you. My best friend and my brother both came out as Gay in their late teens and had so many issues with family and friends but the REAL ones in their lives UNDERSTAND that how they identify and who they love DOES NOT change who they are at the core. Saying that your critique of the quality of the game, the writing, character development, exposition, world building, established lore, etc is exactly what I hate about this game. I couldn’t care less if every single character in the game was not straight if those things were all as they should be. Inclusion shouldn’t be a substitute for amazing world building and writing. Cheers to you love for being honest and genuine and by the way your videos are amazing. Keep up the great work. I have been a fan of BioWare since KOTOR and have played every single game since so I feel you on a very deep level when it comes to the decline of meaningful writing and choices in games. Well said.
Thank you for your honesty and kind comment. It always means a lot to me when people who come from different backgrounds and have different opinions can still find a common ground and discuss things in a civil manner! And yes, all I've ever wanted from Dragon Age is good story, characters, and worldbuilding/lore. It doesn't matter what identities or sexualities those characters have if they're well written and add something meaningful to the story.
@ I couldn’t agree more, we all need to focus on what we have in common rather than our differences. As gamers, we truly just want to get lost in a world very different from our own.
Thank God! someone said it
the writing illustrates the unprecedented mental issues of our generation. they can't write natural dialogue because they just don't know how to speak to people. they can't do much of anything right, because they don't deeply understand anything about human nature. nothing they do is ever subtle, because they have a wikipedia-level understanding of human beings. they're not even good at the one thing they focus most of their mental energies on: signaling that they're doing their part in the retributive crusade against past injustices and social disparities. I'm sure there are many reasons why, but one idea is that this is the first time scripts are being written by people who grew up with cell phones and social media. I hate to say it, but our generation has serious social issues. also, drastically higher rates of mental illnesses that are either reflections or causes of poor social development (I don't know which, but they were clearly many times rarer in say, gen X). so of course they write stilted, wooden, painfully inappropriate dialogue, because they don't know how humans speak, because they can't speak like humans, because they're basically alienated from their humanity. I would tie this trend to Durkheim's theory of anomie. but that's a whole other can of worms to open...
Your idea of the Asian elves coming from far lands outside thedas makes so much sense. This game has been written by the most incompetent people possible, they have no talent and their pool of knowledge is even more lacking. It simply shows, the only media they consume is mcu crap and pixar movies. Meanwhile writers from bg3 read shakespeare for inspiration...
"I don't know who on the team hated the previous games so much..."
That would be the head dev, actually. Months before this game came out, he was parading around talking about how every dragon age game was awful and so his dragon age would be the first even remotely good game in the franchise. To me, that still stands as the biggest red flag I've seen regarding this game. I know, going in, even before having seen reviews, ANY resemblance to what made dragon age good will be in spite of its direction, not because of it.
Been waiting to see your take on this.
"There was no Hinterlands problem." Thank you! Your explanation of that and your perspective on combat systems in an rpg really spoke to me as a DA fan and rpg wonk. Amen.
Thank you! I got really confused when the devs started to push this idea of the "hinterlands problem". Because sure, it was a meme in the fandom because pretty much everyone got stuck spending too much time in the Hinterlands doing side quests on their first playthrough. But really, it was just because it seemed like some of those quests would disappear if you continued the main story. And also, it was the first large region we were free to explore, so of course people were curious to go everywhere and see everything, especially considering previous to that we didn't have such large areas in DAO and DA2. Glad to hear my opinions resonated with you!
Can we have a new genre of videos called "Ripping on Veilguard" these are hilarious to watch.
Like Starfield, I expect there's going to be more a lot more critical videos coming out as people play and finish the game in the coming months
I have an honest question about two of the big Taash scenes we have seen.
1) in the Isabela scene Taash didn’t seem offended at all by Isebela’s misstep. In fact they were more confused by what she decided to do. And we didn’t even hear more from Taash there.
2) this one might be weird to describe. But the scene where Taash comes out to their mother. One it’s just god awful writing. But the mother didn’t sound angry at all. She mostly seemed confused to me and appeared to try understanding what her child was telling her with Taash coming across as the aggressive one. That’s how I interpreted the scene anyway.
I am a bi woman so I’m by no means against LGBT themes or characters. Hell Mass Effect has an entire race of blue bisexual aliens. There have been gay and bi love interests in nearly every game. Krem exists in DAI. Even though the Qun was retconned for him, I liked Krem.
The issue in Veilguard is it’s made by people who only see themselves as trans, their mental problems and such. Then also the changes to characters, designs and lore. With horrible dialogue and the voice director utterly failed.
Both of those scenes feel to me like they're written either by someone who has no idea what it's like to be trans, or else someone who has had some extremely strange experiences/traumas that led them to write the character like this.
1) in the scene with Isabela, Isabela does the worst possible thing you can do if you unintentionally misgender someone, which is to make it all about yourself instead of just apologizing, correcting yourself, and moving on. No trans person wants to be put in the spotlight like that for having been misgendered. It's extremely uncomfortable and I would feel like I want the earth to swallow me up if something like that happened to me. Hell, most people feel uncomfortable if people are singing happy birthday to them... This is on a whole other level.
2) I was even more confused by the scene with Taash and their mother, because the mother was just slightly confused and trying to understand what Taash was saying. Not o mention that the mother knew about the ACTUAL term for trans people that is lore friendly from the Qun, and literally just used a correct term to refer to Taash (a person whose gender identity doesn't match the one they were assigned at birth). Nonbinary people fall under the trans umbrella too, and so it's so strange to see Taash becoming upset at their mother saying something understanding and accepting of their child's identity. Like, if my own parents had reacted in the way Taash's mom reacted, I would have been so happy. Taash's anger seems completely misplaced, and coming out of nowhere. Not to mention the weird discussions about Taash "not liking to wear dresses" - when gender identity is far more about how you feel and how you are perceived and treated by people. Plenty of men wear dresses (and kilts), and plenty of women don't wear dresses for various reasons that have nothing to do with gender identity. Reducing gender identity to what clothes you wear is one of the most hamrful things to perpetuate about transgender identities. I could go on and on about the terrible representation in Veilguard, but I don't want to answer with a novel-length comment, lol.
@@btiermutineer okay I’m glad I wasn’t the only one just feeling how off and bad those scenes were. No subtlety nor nuance. These could be done well in the hands of writers who give a damn and talented voice directors giving actual pointers. But it’s a mess that pisses off both side of this argument. No one is happy.
Bioware is dead for many years. Failguard is just a last fart from the corpse.
I am a fan of Dragon Age Games. I keep seeing and hearing lots of red flags. I have already decided to pirate this one to see the story ending. If there are big patches, dlc, and mods, and i somehow like it, i can always support Bioware later.
And i appreciate your honesty and critique of our beloved franchise. Many of us are easily labelled all sorts of names when we try to do that in the last decade. Transphobe, incel, porn brained, hater, racist or whatnot.
Also, I am Asian, and i hate when Asians are included without good lore explanations for simple corporate disengenious check boxes.
No spoilers but I have heard the ending(last like five hours?) were very good but the reviewers didn’t feel it was worth the slog to get to.
Now that you mentioned it, Davrin kinda looks like the 'black legolas' from Rings of Power.
The game looking/playing like a mobile game is because it was gonna be a multiplayer looter shooter thing, but they scrapped that 2ish years before release. I play some of these live service games and the design is so painfully obvious to me, it completely put me off DAV, y'know a game that's supposed to be an imersive character driven rpg...oh look the chest explodes when I open it! And I need to get item dupes to level up my gear! And there's three combat encounters and a boss arena at the end! Ugh all these loot games are the same
This is what happens to a game series each time EA touches it. Has been hapening since Ultima. It will happen more the more you buy a game even slightly associated with EA.
Veilguard was CLEARLY made for kids. Look:
The graphics are juvenile.
The writing is juvenile. (childish squabbles, Rook behaves like a parent of children)
The crafting is juvenile. (no thought required)
The skill system is juvenile (limited to equip 4)
The party system is juvenile (All party member skills share ONE cooldown lol)
The UI is juvenile (Clearly made for those who are used to touch screens, and for those who don't read)
The RPG combat is juvenile (You don't need to crunch ANY numbers. You will win no matter what).
Am I missing anything?
@@NeoN-PeoN I agree 100%....if not for the fact it's rated M, so isn't even marketed to kids.
I wasn’t going to play this after watching the Matty and Skill up review… but I changed my mind.
I am going to play it even though there is a good chance I will be more disappointed than pleased by the experience. I need to finish this journey with not just dragon age but BioWare. I have to know how this all ends even if it’s with Pixar presents Rook and Friends a Dragon Age Story. lol wish me luck.
Edit: nevermind started a new Inquisition play through instead XD
At least wait to buy it on a deep sale to make the disappointment hurt a little less. imagine you hate it aaand gave them $70 bucks for it.. hedge your bets for your own sake.
@@Dumpty-e5y fair enough! Even I am slightly intrigued by the apparently good finale, but I think I have to wait until I feel less strongly about it. Hope it goes well for you!
Why have to changed your mind? - If you buy it and give them your money, you increase the chances of them continually disappointing you. Don’t buy it, or at least wait for a sale
Do make sure to share your journey into Veilguadrians of the Dragging-on Age
I won't give them my money and encourage them to make more games like this.
I as well, thought it very "odd", that the initial reviews mention NOTHING about..like, what about stats? Can you build up your crit chance? If so are there stats on weapons/gear/clothing only character. All the action scenes show every type of spell going off 1by1by1, do they synergize? Looks like you just cast fire, then, lighting, then dark magic....cuz it's there and it looks "neat". But that dialogue and the "feel" shown in Skillups vid...with the candyland, never hurt anyones feelings (even a horned devil person)...ffs. What a SHIT show.
It's baffling to me that people buy into the whole "representation" thing without realizing the enormous amount of pandering this game seems to have. Being a "progressive" (as you put it) person myself, I actually feel offended that the writers thought this was a good way of portraying people. You know what's the best way of incorporating marginalized groups into your world? Just put them out there! If people are to be perceived as "normal", you can't shed light on it every other cutscene. Hell, they've done it properly since Origins.
I haven't played the game and I never will, what I've seen from reviews is more than enough to put me away from it. Time to start another DA:O playthrough.
Goodbye, Bioware.
4:08 that homie is from the Fornite Halloween Survival mode
It's really unfortunate to look at a game and think: "They can't fix this even if they wanted to". And it's not even a case of odd mechanics (like, say, the transition to Districts in Civilization VI -- I'm not saying it's bad, it's an example of an irreversible decision), it's a case of having to take another 7 years to rewrite everything, redraw character models etc. "Nope, they aren't going to fix this" :(
I’ve been watching reviews all day. It’s awesome you’re giving an honest review, there’s not enough of those for this game yet. Great video!
That harding love scene was so incredibly difficult to watch.
Bioeare decided to turn this game i to a disney/pixar game. Its designed for children, not the long time fans of the adult dark fantasy.
4:50 of course he looks like a black guy cosplaying an elf. White, Black, Asian are human ethnicities, Elves, Dwarves and Qunari are supposed to be differences races, even if humanoid in appearances, their human-like ethnicities make little sense.
19:12 Oh look a convenient companion quest checklist, how nice of the HR to remind us about those!
Thanks for a very comprehensive rewiev - and some thoughts, which I think I also share (haven't seen or played the game yet, so therefore the "I think").
A little about me and DA: I have played all three previous games and the Awakening expansion. I absolutely loved DA:O (and still plays it from time to time), liked DA2 more than most, but didn't like Inquisition at all (wannabe Skyrim - there; now you have my opinion for what it's worth).
What I liked about the two first games was how personal the stories felt, and how much you could tweak your interaction with the world around you.
You could really play as a full-blown sociopath in DA:O (killing the deserter and the elven messenger in Ostagar....). and the DA2 story felt very personal, when you and your family has to settle in Kirkwall.
Apart from that, the world-building in especially DA:O was some of the best, I have seen. Take two minor characters, Cyrion and Ser Jory. Through their actions and their dialogue, the writers show (don't tell) how privileges and power dynamics work in the gaming world (human nobility: Power. City elves: No power). That is first-class writing in my boo.
If these things arre lost in DAV, we are really in for a bumpy and disappointing ride.
What an absolute SLOP game! it's not going to go as well as the shills think it will
thank you for putting what I've wanted to say for months into words, i am definitely grieving this series that i truly loved. a lot of fair criticism to this game has come from a discriminatory perspective and i find it really difficult to agree with them and to defend the anti-woke mob. the disconnection between the “inclusivity” and the lore is absolutely jarring and the game is way too optimistic and cheery for DA lore, i don't even know if the writers know they are making a Dragon Age game.
If writing means a lot to you, try Baldur's Gate 2.
I will! It's on my list 😊
Thanks for a good impartial informative review. My 1st time here with the channel and I’m looking forward to hearing more form you 👌🏾.
My personal problem with Veilguard: it's not about Thedas and it's people anymore (butchered lore, Corrinne Busch doesn't know characters from the first DA, Zevran for example) and the game DOESN'T feel like Dragon Age...
It feels like a romance simulator in a medieval fantasy game with our world problems and words to describe someones orientation/pronouns included.
Top surgery scars would make sense in Mass Effect but definitely NOT in a medieval setting, it annoys me to be forced to use pronouns in a medieval fantasy game.
In a world where someone can die by a simple cold, a world where someone is doomed if the person is wounded, no health potion nor magic to cure the wound..
in our society we choose not to talk about this game, it doesn't exist for us
Cast it into the fire 🔥. Destroy it.
I love DA:O and DA2 (in spite of its flaws). DA:I I didn't enjoy so much and I already felt like the game series was on a slipperly slope. I had a lot harder time connecting to the companions. I just felt nothing. Varric was really cool still but the only new companion that I could connect with was Dorian but since my main tends to be a mage, I generally didn't choose him as an active companion. And being able to connect to companions is very important in games like DA and ME. I had the same problem in Andromeda. The thing is that connecting to companions makes you care about them and by extension what happens to them in the world that you're playing in. I missed that in DA:I and ME:Andromeda. And from the start, companions in this game are just meh to me: all of them. From all the footage I've seen so far, I just don't care about them. Beyond that I agree with everything you say and I'm with Skillup as well. The game is pedantic and doesn't allow you choices that they deem are not right. I particularly liked Skillup's comment that all conversations with companions are like HR is in the room with them.
Veilguard is like being DMed by a bad DM who is more interested in telling you all about THEIR story, world and character(s) that are all trying to affect and change you, while telling you how you should feel and interact with them. Rather than letting you tell your party's story where you affect/change the world with your own choices and character(s) and letting you come to your own conclusion about how you feel and interact with them. While being railroaded with fake choices that didn't matter in the slightest cause it's not your story. It's theirs. And they let you know and remind you of this constantly.
This is a good review. It's interesting to hear your take on their writing, how they COULD have done it, reasons they might have chose to do what they did... etc. It's nice to hear your thoughts like that for all the aspects of the game.
However, Occam's Razor can apply here. Alllll those reasons you come up with for all these different failures can be best explained by ONE simple concept: This game is made for children.
Once you accept that, you'll realize that it literally does explain 100% of the reasons you don't like the game.
The people who say it’s cos of “woke” or “trans” are idiots, the visuals and writing seems an actual issue. Cyberpunk, Baldur’s Gate etc have trans. I firmly believe if you have skill you can write anything and make it good.
Agreed
Exactly. A skillful writer can create characters who feel natural in the game's world. These characters act like they were plucked out off Twitter in 2024 and dumped into a world of which they know naught.
And the people who outright dismiss the accusation of "wokeness" are burying their head in sand.
What exactly do you think is causing the writing to be bad?
- let me tell you: Hiring based on quota instead of merit (if you still think that game director earned their position - the evidence is not on your side), but also unwillingness to include anything offensive against a protected group (even if it's done by villains), consequently removing all choices to roleplay as an asshole (or pretty much everything else but an ally™) which removes all conflict and makes the whole thing feel dull. And if you don't see a connection to wokeness there - this is done because being mean or even questioning is equated to genocide or fascism in progressive circles, hell even in THIS video.
If you want to ignore the consequences of allowing gender-identity-socialism aka wokeness to go uncriticized, you are free to do so. But to me, you look like the people who just wanted to redistribute the means of production, and then wondered why they are getting shot in the gulag.
I really appreciate this video (and your channel in general). As a big-time DA fanboy, your words resonate very much with what I am feeling about Veilguard. I have so many conflicting feelings about it. There are many things that worry me greatly, and are down right disappointing, such as the very, very poor writing of the dialogue in the examples that were shown. I'm just hoping these are the worst offenders and the rest will be better. The biggest complaint that I have, something that I find truly inexcusable in any form, is the disregard for the previous titles, and the choices made in those titles. That is nothing less that disrespecting the core audience, and it is insulting.
As for the forced inclusivity, yea it looks very worrying. But for now, I will hold off jumping to conclusions untill I actually play the game myself. I still hold out hope that Taash's story might actually turn out to be well-written. (Although I'm very worried.)
Despite all those things, I do think I will be getting the game. It's a really hard decision to make, and I have been debating about it for this past month. There are many reasons why I do not want to support this game, the main one being the disrespect to fans regarding past choices. Neventheless, I want to allow myself to just play a new game withing the DA setting. And despite the many things I am angry about, I will just try to appreciate it for what it is, and to find the joy in it. And holding out hope beyond hope that future DA titles will incorporate more past choices.
DAO; Warden - BE GONE PLEASURE DEMON! Demon - Wanna trade a childs soul for sexy time with me? Warden - DEAL!
DAII; Hawk - Can i sex my sister? no? Ah anyway (impales the staff into your chest pouring blood everywere)
DAI; Inquisitor - Play around with the Dragon Keep and tease the living hell of Cassandra. And Dwarf sex with a Qunari...RIP Dwarf
DAV; Rook - Now now children you must share, and be nice to each other and not say badi whadi wourds.
I agree with pretty much all of your points, especially regarding the importance of writing and story in the Dragon Age games. Its super refreshing seeing a sober analysis of all of this games many flaws as well as, maybe the only positive aspect, the environment. I sincerely hoped Veilguard would be a return to form for Bioware… but oh well. Thank you for this video!
Yes. First, I cannot stand this culture war. I do not understand in the least why we care so much about what each other does behind closed doors. I realize your disclaimer has value in this context, though. I truly want people to be happy and at peace, as long as they're not hurting anyone else. I also would like making good games the focus of the game industry. Not "getting back" at a particular group or "finally getting the attention" someone feels they deserve (I guess?). I believe this particular style of communication can move us in the right direction. Level headed, well articulated, and calm. From a straight, white man, keep up the good work
sadly, this was brought to our feet by the activists in the gaming industry. ideological cults aren't susceptible to coercion, reason, or logic....so nothing you have to say will change their mind. they're seemingly fine with losing their jobs to get the message out, and rid the gaming community of the real gamers.
I totaly agree on most of the criticism. Furthermore, throughout the game, I hated more and more how enemies just spawn instead of waiting for you. And how many established priciples got thrown out of the window. Like that darkspawn are no longer blighted people of Thedas but just.. a blight and can spawn from it just like that. Or that everyone and their grandma can use magic (teleporting rogues, warrior punching the ground and dealing damage to everything around.. lol?). A series of mostly grounded fantasy became almost an anime :(
As a counter point to your thought on fat characters some people do enjoy the silliness of playing a super athletic fat guy doing ridiculous things also its not impossible to be over weight and still an acrobatic marvel, look at the career of Sammo Hung guy was an incredible martial artist, acrobat and stuntman/actor and he was always very overweight
I am a fan of the universe since before Inquisition (which I also loved very much for the open-world!) and I do plan on playing Veilguard to see if maybe the codexes provide more lore, other than that, the ending. But yeah, it's sad where we are with this universe. Your video and opinions very well worded. Thanks so much for the review!
What a shame that the voices of real trans people are so often drowned out by non-trans people who are nothing more than activists acting "on behalf" of them.
A excellent video which highlights your creative writing skills perfectly. You are thoughtful, balanced and intelligent and you earned a sub, my dude. 👍❤️
Absolutely. This is why we have clumsy, hamfisted pandering instead of nuanced, intriguing writing that explores ideas candidly and authentically. We need to let cultures speak for themselves and stop trying to speak for cultures we don't understand.
@GreggyAck I totally agree.
Your last point really hits the nail on the head
Exactly, it's the self-righteous Activists who spend their lives making people LESS tolerant.
I'm mostly Polynesian, and it's the NON-Polynesian Activists who try to shame little White or Black children who want to dress as Moana, especially now with the sequel coming up.
I love when kids are interested in Polynesian culture! It's appreciation, not appropriation.
omg finally! I feel like everyone is trying to gaslight me about this game being good just bc the right-wing nutjobs hate it. It's so alienating to have only fascists validate what you see with your eyes as a bisexual enby, and even then those asshole do so in bad faith! it's madness on multiple levels!
I wish I could like this game, but I kept getting more and more disappointed the more I watched from the previews and press releases. Specially after seeing footage of SPOILERS the gloom howler, SPOILERS that shit looks amazing, I want to know everything about it, you just know the lore drops are gonna be insane!.. but still not good enough to warrant playing a hack and slash spinoff of Dragon Age
Ikr, it's like "The far right hates it so you have to love it or else you're far right." 🤦🏾♀️
I love the paradoxical cope fanboys and shills always use:
>Don't like it, don't buy it
>How can you know it's bad if you haven't played/watched it?
Five minutes into the video and I already wish the majority of the lgbt voices in the space spoke like you
I am an og fan who grew up playing the games, I agree with most if not all of your sentiments. I however NEED to play this game to decide for myself how it all comes together. Highlight/lowlight reels can’t convince me how I entirely feel about the game. I suggest you should play it too, if only to make a review that’s more comprehensive and includes your own experience while playing. I would love to watch that video. Thanks for the great content ❤
Very well put together essay. I have played 3 dragon age games, and only really enjoyed the first.
I thought that this might be a good time to try and get back into Dragon Age.
Welp, thanks for confirming I shouldn't waste my time.
A lot of the designs in this game feel like marvel designs. Not a sign of quality at all.
I liked your review. I loved the story AND the combat was important to me. As dated as it was, being able to basically code my own companions was fun. I liked being front and center as a warrior with usually 2 ranged and my boi Zev as a “peeler” his sole focus was to keep people off our squish’s. I spent countless hours messing with the command action list till I perfected my methods. And yes, I would have to take the rains once in a while to drop major spells or get them back into formation but that’s why it was so fun. But you mentioned something about the writing that it was hard to believe that writers could not know this was bad. And I agree. I’d wager that because the heads of the game demanded the dumb preaching and awkward message they were trying to push (in the most direct possible way) that those writers threw in the towel. They stopped caring either out of frustration or knowing that when the public got this mess they would see the horrors the gaming community has known and have been trying to call out. Cats out of the bag now. These studios will burn and hopefully out of the ashes we will get true artist creating new beautiful thought proving games again. We could be seeing a bring new era of games in about 5 years. Game industry colons got to push out all the crap that’s left before that happens but I’m hopeful. Just keep them wallets shut
Hey there,
As a straight guy who has been playing RPG's for around 25 years now, I primarily play female characters and go for female romance partners.
Setting aside the horrid writing, Pixar Mobile graphics and discount Guardians of the Galaxy character personalities, I simply can not forgive Bioware for what they did to Isabela and Morrigan.
Isabela used to be one of the best follower characters I ever met in an RPG. I really can not think of another sassy, sexy, badass, strong female pirate I liked even 50% as much as her.
And Morrigan had a unique charm, her wit and banter in Origins still makes me chuckle 15 years later. I remember lines from her banter with Alistair word for word to this day.
When I finished Origins and the DLC and understood the scope and impact of Morrigan's decisions, I really felt like the next game would be amazing.
And it was not... Neither DA 2 nor Inquisition gave me any kind of feeling other than "meh, might as well play to the end, maybe it gets good next chapter".
Modern Bioware took defining moments of my youth, pssed on them, set them on fire and tried to gaslight me into believing I should thank them.
I know it's a harsh thing to say but Bioware has been dead for over 10 years and I am tired of seeing it's corrupted, reanimated corpse paraded as a symbol of "modern gaming".
If this is modern gaming, I have clearly not been the target audience for over a decade. And I would guess there are millions of others like me who feel the same way.
Edit: typo