Yeah, exactly! DAO is to blame, coz Davy Gaydor wanted `The Message´ and some stuck in puberty BS to be paramount, as that is so what people WANTED to pay for! 🤣
@@a.m.pietroschek1972 To clarify, David didn't work on DA4, Patrick Weekes and his Kotaku hires are at fault for this writing, David Gaider just supported his queer buddies on social media.
have you played inquisition since this woke BS escalated? i tried it a few weeks/months ago...the amount of pandering already in there...every joke i thought was funny the first time i played that game (before i was aware of the ''girlpower'' and woke nonsense)...its insane...i cant enjoy that game anymore
@@thedawn-rt9rx I haven't and I don't really plan on it. Getting through that game is a complete and utter slog. But in that game at the very least I could get through a conversation without an eye roll. At least I can play as my companions in combat. I was at least engaged in the story. There's a version of Inquisition where if you remove all of the fluff/filler open world stuff, it's like a 5 or 6/10 RPG. Contrast with Veilguard, where the game just blows in every aspect that any "fix" would be effectively remaking the game.
Hahah same I am now appreciate inquisition I mean yeah it was boring but it was still an rpg about choices in dragon age and kept 90 percent of the lore intact .they really messed up on War table and open world zones.
If you don't romance Jacob, then he's just an average soldier with biotics. But if you romance him, well no shit he's appalling. Then there's Taash...🤮
@@damnedlegionaireActually about that him volunteering for that role is extremely nonsensical. It is also nonsensical that he doesn't get everyone killed as that would be the realistic outcome. Miranda also volunteers for a task she cannot carry out. What the hell Bioware?
Honestly I found Jacob pretty chill if you just bro it up with him, Bioware just seemed to hate anyone who romanced him lmao He's more interesting than Kaidan and Ashley at least to me
Strangely, this art style would fit the Fable sequel perfectly, while the Fable 4 devs have gone for a photorealistic style that would be better suited to Dragon Age.
@@UToobUsername01 Agreed. Fable absolutely should have unattractive people in it but should have attractive people too. The cartoony style would fit a comical game but the character models would need a lot of work.
Nah, no great IP deserv this artstyle. Fable should look more expressive and have a tone that can shift between bright and whimsical to dark and foreboding. Not this very curated plastic cgi look.
Bioware had been doing that since Mass Effect 2. That game disrespected the original game. I.e Shepard working with terrorists the denial of the reaper threat and the do nothing story. The Veilguard is magnitudes worse on that front. At least ME2 and 3 didn't retcon events from the original and turn everything into a politically correct thing this game is.
@@Sifya Everything gets destroyed more or less. Ferelden is „holding the line at Redcliff“ which means an entire country now only exists within a fishing village. And Orlais doesn’t seem much better off. Essentially what would’ve happened if the Warden never stopped the Blight, which feels kinda pointless now.
@Hawaiian_Pizza_Enjoyer is it because the veil? Well, the warden aren't perfect but they try! I don't know if I buy this game in future, it looks so childish except for some shocked moment.
They destroyed Ferelden, butchered Dorian's looks, made Isabella a cheap version of herself, blundered the entire lore and they want me to play this crap. Nooe, thanks
I made it to Act 8 before I couldn't continue, so many back to back, insanely cringe cutscenes that all basically just leave me with lines like "You're hurting people", "That's mean" and revolve around repeating "EVIL ELVEN GODS" and "BLIGHTED EVIL ELVEN GODS".
@@MarikaValor I mean I could imagine Isabella is happy that she can do pushups after her breast reduction. All joking aside, saying "Isabella is older and doesn't want to walk around pantsless with her tits out" is reasonable enough, but at least keep her body type (although from what I've seen the game engine might to be able to create that)
@@professorwright1428 Not the person you asked, but if you're referring to anything The Iron Bull says I generally don't care. I don't consider someone who's from a culture who names people for their profession whose name is "the liar" a trustworthy source. I'm pretty sure Bull was just saying that to make Krem feel better.
And it made no sense, Rook has the dagger , why would they send forces to Fereldan, when they are fighting for everything right here in Tevinter. stupid writing that is all.
For real. I don't understand why female bodies are not allowed. Or well, I do... because ''oh no, hetero men want to look at beautiful women and we can't have that" ... but hey, should we mention that lesbians and bi people exist, not just hetero men? Not really inclusive now, are we? >.> (I mean, I can play that game too) I am a woman and I have curves. Nothing wrong with androgynous bodies, but... options, please! Why censor like 40% of the world population? I can imagine that size BBL/cow boobas cause issues with clipping, but why just not bother at all? I was considering playing a female dwarf, but finding out that dwarves had been reduced to 'short human' instead of well... dwarves... just another tick on the 'don't like' list. And that list is so huge that I am not going to touch this game with a ten foot pole :( Maaaaaaaaybe when I can get it for free on Epic or such.
Yes! As another female player I’m so glad that someone mentioned this. It was so hard to make a feminine looking person, everything was skewed so much towards masculine, especially the body shapes. Which is a shame because in inquisition they did a great job of making the woman feminine yet muscular
I've never played this thing, never will, but I saw a female player struggle for a long time to create something acceptable. In the end, the female human still had a 5 o`clock shadow. Shameful, this.
We all know what statement the developers are making with this character creator. "Biological women are obsolete." There is a mirror you can interact with, and once you interact with this mirror, the only option you have is to make your character canonically transgender. There is no escape from this menu. Attractive women are problematic because they make "passing" as a woman more difficult. If you aren't queer in current year then you don't matter until you get fatter.
@@sarawawa8984 da:I female character models looked like women who were very active. Considering the player character lived a very active lifestyle in a pre-industrial society it makes sense.
The forgotten ones return help solas kill the evanuris banish the blight to the void and convice solas to come with them to a new planet with magic and leave thedas intact boom everyone is happy
Next Dragon Age game should make Veilguard a story of a terrible book Varric wrote while he was drunk. He could comment the book was for a tasteless noble from Orlais with odd fetishes.
Varric: (with flair) "And so, the valiant warriors of the Veilguard, armed with the ancient knowledge of the elven sages, ventured into the heart of the shattered Fade, battling demons that wore the faces of their past loves and greatest regrets. Their leader, a dashing rogue with a heart of gold and unparalleled charm-" Hawke: (interrupting) "Let me guess. He had a crossbow and a knack for witty banter?" Varric: (grinning) "Of course not, Hawke. He wielded... twin daggers. Completely different vibe." Inquisitor: (swirling wine) "Uh-huh. And the Fade demons? They were defeated with the power of... friendship and conveniently timed explosions?" Varric: (mock offended) "Friendship and explosions are timeless storytelling devices, Inky." Hawke: (snorts) "Explosions can't save everything. I mean, come on, Varric. 'The Veilguard'? It sounds like a bad chantry sermon." Inquisitor: "Or a rejected title for a bard's worst ballad." Varric: (placing a hand over his heart) "You wound me. This story has layers! It’s got betrayal, redemption, and a twist where the villain turns out to be-" Hawke: (cutting him off) "Wait, don’t tell me. Let me guess. The villain is a misunderstood soul who just needs someone to listen to them?" Inquisitor: "Or maybe it’s a Fade spirit who’s secretly a manifestation of-what’s that phrase Solas always uses? Oh, right. 'The universal struggle of mortal existence.'" Varric: (groans) "Fine. It might be a little predictable." Hawke: "Predictable? It’s worse than the time you tried to convince me Bianca could shoot fireballs." Varric: (muttering) "That would’ve been epic, by the way." Inquisitor: (leans forward, smirking) "So, Varric. Be honest. How much of this did you make up on the spot? Or better yet, how much of it was 'inspired' by certain... beverages?" Varric: (sighs, throwing his hands up) "Alright, fine. You caught me. I might have been a few bottles of Antivan brandy deep when I came up with it." Hawke: (laughing) "Might? Varric, this is worse than the time you tried to rhyme 'hero' with 'nero' in one of your poems." Inquisitor: "And here I thought I’d finally get to hear something better than Hard in Hightown." Varric: (grins despite himself) "Okay, first off, Hard in Hightown is a classic. Secondly, even a drunk Varric Tethras is still better than most sober writers in Thedas." Hawke: "Debatable." Inquisitor: "Highly debatable." Varric: (leans back, smiling) "You know, if this whole 'saving Thedas' thing doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll just start writing terrible Fade fiction on purpose. It seems to get you two talking." Hawke: "Just promise me you’ll stay sober for the next one. Or at least let me proofread it." Inquisitor: (raising a goblet) "To terrible stories and even worse brandy-induced creativity!" Varric: (lifting an imaginary glass) "And to friends who are way too honest for their own good." The fire crackles as laughter fills the room, but the warmth quickly fades as the three exchange a knowing glance. The levity dissipates as they remember their mission-one that cannot wait. Inquisitor: (setting down their goblet) "Alright, fun’s over. If Solas has his way, we won’t have time for bad stories or brandy." Hawke: (grabbing their staff from the wall) "Andraste’s flaming knickers, I still can’t believe we’re chasing an egg-headed apostate across Thedas. If this turns into another Fade disaster, I’m blaming you, Inquisitor." Varric: (slinging Bianca over his shoulder) "Don’t look at me. I’m just here for the company and the explosions." Inquisitor: (smirking) "Then let’s give him something to regret. The Veil isn’t going to hold itself."
Dragon age 2 was just unfinished. The story is good tho, they just had to cut corner to a lot of things like maps, re-use of the same zone endlessly, enemies appearing out of thin air etc… But it’s understandable when you know how little time the dev had to make it ( 2 years I think?), they nevertheless wrote a compelling story that is well crafted with well written characters ( even if you can sometimes dislike them for their choice 😅).
@@mikevm3375What story? (There are story arcs, and they were as unfinished and hole ridden as the rest of the game). Veilguard took every game design idea that screwed 2 outside the rushed time, and did it tenfold.
@@nicolasferreiro4492 True but what story there was were pretty well written, inquisition had a lot of cringe moment that wasn’t present in da 2 and the characters were frankly well written if unfinished and rushed at the end. It kept the dark tone of what thedas is like while managing to mix levity and fun. It could have been a « perfect » game and worthy of its predecessor if they hadn’t been so rushed by the money grabbers. Meanwhile Veilguard casually spit on everything that has been done during all games with a casual footnote « south Thedas has fallen sorry not sorry », which is a pretty shitty thing to do for a lot of fans who were seriously attached to the place/people. It goes to show what little the new writing direction care about the fan base, they really don’t give a damn since all the people responsible for it are no longer working for bioware and it doesn’t fit there chosen agenda of « modernization » and using the IP as a platform to send their message. You don’t appoint a director who is a known activists at the head of a project if you don’t condone their action in the first place. BioWare is nothing but an empty name today, the people in control of the brand are not the ones from 15 years ago at all ( and if some are still there they have dramatically changed since then).
Hell to the no! Dragon Age 2 had boring gameplay with mediocre quests and uncompelling story. Very few highlights with companions were the only good thing about it. Just because the newest installment is extremely bad doesn’t cancel out the previous ones being bad in a mediocre way. That’s literally how they push slop until you accept it.
I might play it if it could be improved by modding. But frostbite 3 is hard to mod and most of the stuff on the Nexus are a bunch of useless presets.So as of now it doesn't seem modding can redeem this game.
As a fan of Dragon Age I’d ignore this UA-cam dialogue and play it. It’s super campy but has tons of lore and references on every mission. It’s as fun as Inquisition with much better presentation (beyond Pixar faces).
It's prolly why many of us DA fans are so sore about this release. It was such a disaster, it most likely ruined any chance at another Dragon Age. I guess would we even want them to make another? Prolly not. It truly feels to me just like Disney making the sequels all over again
Finally! Someone that critics the combat. So many reviews rave about how good and ‘snappy’ it is. And as someone that plays wow and has for years, I can honestly say, no, it’s not fun. It feels like a damned mmo. But only at low level. The worst levels. When you only have the worst gear, four attacking abilities, no feat synergy, and every mob is a chore. If I wanted to spent 20 minutes killing one enemy I’d go back to WoW classic. Thank you so much for the eloquent review that perfectly surmises the utter mediocrity of this alleged ‘rpg.’
Even my friend who thinks the game is okay critics the combat. Says it has the worst combat of all games. Has also said that it's more or less like DA:I, only faster. Seems bland to her, is the impression I get.
@@Nominuggs Reminds me of kingdoms of amalur where combat was repetitive to the point I set it to easy just so I could spam the same combo fewer times. Kingdom of amalur at least had an interesting world and lore to explore though so I was willing to put up with it.
“I do not wish to waste my remaining years on earth playing tripe.” Best response to this game! Not vulgar, politicized, or shilling, just sheer contempt.
that's what they're gunning for! these wokesters want us old generation to die out so they can pump this garbage out as the norm in the future forevermore and all humnanity will ever consume as "art", so they can lower the bar even further in the future and humanity will cosnider content like veilguard a masterpiece.
That's nothing to be ashamed of man. Veilguard is nothing but a comical fanfiction, and we'll be left to wonder what really happened after the events of Tresspasser. Thanks for your videos and balanced perspective going into this shit show of a game masquerading as the fourth in the series.
Nah, it's not a "comical" fan fiction. That implies there's humor to be found. There is no humor here. Only mediocrity, missed opportunities, and disappointment.
@@MoostachedSaiyanPrince Humor in mediocrity can absolutely be found. In exploring such unbelievable changes and absolutely atrocious direction, anger can easily devolve to uncontrollable laughter both of sheer amazement and at the embarrassment the people behind this have produced. And that is what these people have come to deserve: laughter and scorn for their "contribution". I've well worked past disappointment, and simply embraced amusement and dismissal of any legitimacy this game attempts to have. It is not Dragon Age, it is the glorified fanfic of a team of idiots, custom wrapped in amateur writing and gameplay, complete with the scorn of real Dragon Age fans as the "bow on top".
Remember the end of Trespasser? I gained Solas’s loyalty, so my Inquisitor was trying to save and stop him. Telling him that we’d find a way. Just for this game to throw all that in the trash. The big choice at the end in wether to disband or keep the inquisition together, all gone.
Yeah, I really want to know what happened to my Inquisitor after the events of Trespasser! It's been over a decade and BioWare still doesn't want to give us another Dragon Age game. Ehhh, it's just like Game of Thrones when it stopped at season 6 when Daenerys was preparing to claim the Iron Throne for her own.
For me Dragon age is a story that ended with the witch hunt DLC were my warden after killing the archdemon, stopping the blight, reinstating the Grey wardens in Fereldin, left on a personal mission to find the women he loved, and upon finding Morrigan vowed to stay by her side and stepped through the Eluvian with her, closing the chapter of his life as a hero and going forward to meet his son and start a new chapter as a father
"How do you know it's bad it isn't even out yet!" "How do you know it's bad you haven't even smelled it yet!" "How do you know it's bad you haven't even taken a bite yet!" "How do you know it's bad you haven't even eaten half of it!" "How do you know it's bad you didn't even eat the whole thing yet!" "You're just a hater!"
I've finished the game with 70 hours. Someone telled me I was lying about it being bad because I would never had put so much hours if it was the case. When I specifically played it until the end both because I'm supposed to be a DA fan even if I can hardly say that now, and because I wanted to make a genuine critic of it.
it's just Starfield all over again lol "it gets good after the intro mission" "it gets good once you reached the first city" "it gets good once you're 5 hours in" "it gets good once you're 20 hours in" "it gets good once you're 50 hours in"
@@leocheung8860 Starfield actually gets worse as you play it. It's a cycle of "Maybe if I do or get X, I'll find the fun", only to be disappointed by X. And since you'll likely chase after the Xs that seem like the most fun to you first... So yeah, I really don't get the idea that it gets good as you get further in. Especially if you go to NG+, and you realize that means you can now play all the horrible quests with very few branching paths and none that reach beyond themselves, again.
There are so many painful parallels here to Andromeda - running the gamut from terrible character animation, juvenile writing, lack of levity, overpraised combat, ineffectual squaddies, meaningless “choice,” thoroughly unlikeable cast and crew, repetitive enemies, baffling and unforgivable retcons. And, like Andromeda, they plainly spec’d their studio points in vista animation.
I didn't dislike Andromeda at any point. That said I also didn't finish it and have no desire to play it again over the original trilogy wich i played multiple times and would easily play again. So I guess thats not a good sign either.
This non-review video is the one for me that helps to move on. The first minutes are sophisticated, funny on so many levels, and of course well structured, as always - that I thought I depart the DA series light-hearted. But till we got to the lore, it was again a punch in the stomach. No tears, at least by now. I'm recovering. Thank you!
Exodus made by Archetype Entertainment is on its way to fill the hole left by Mass Effect. Humanoid Origin is also making a sci-fi game. Both studios are spearheaded by Old Guard Bioware veterans. Hopefully, one, if not, both studios will make a fantasy(dark fantasy) IP to fill the hole left by Dragon Age Origins(and 2) at some point in the future.
@Alwaysttango I wouldn't be so optimistic. WotC is the reason Larian stepped away to begin with. Seeing what they've done to D&D and Magic over the past couple of years is a bad omen for anyone under their umbrella.
@@exterminatus_nowExodus game director James Ohlen quotes “I said I want to hire the people I want to hire and make the game I want to make. WoTC said “yep, you get to decide all that.”” “WoTC doesn’t interfere”
@echoesofmalachor3700 I'm sure the same words held firm for Bungie with Sony or Tango and Arkane Austin with Microsoft. When you become a subsidiary, you don't get a "guarantee" of safety. You get words, easily twisted and taken back.
Inquisition is far from perfect but it's a rather good DA game and I am tired of people pretending like it isn't. Those dialogs you mentioned in the beginning are a testament to that. Solas's banter with Cassandra about the nature of organizations still lives in my memory. Solas in particular was a well-written character with ideals and motivations, who got dumbed down into oblivion ("muh Mythal made me do it do you remember that I aM A gOd") + his Veilguard character model is literally Loki from the first MCU "Thor" movie. If BioWare just took Inquisition's skeleton as a basis for DA4 and removed/changed the stuff people complained about (like empty, oversized locations filled with fetch quests) - we would have had a masterpiece. But alas... They had every instrument possible to make an epic game (setting, villain, budget, IP etc) and put out a turd instead. Sidenote: As a woman, I HATE this game's character moddles. Why does my female!character have a permanent 5 o'clock shadow??? Why the hell can't I tell Taash to shut up after that "noone likes being a woman" comment?? Why?!
Inquisition is a fantastic game. It's not perfect and the player dialogue could be a bit better, but it felt like a good followup to Origins. I loved the addition of the qunari as a playable race. The multiplayer was surprisingly fun too
Despite Inquisition's problems like hiding the main quest through grinding for nonsense. The dialogue between companions was almost philosophical for example Cole and Solas. I liked having them in my party just to hear them banter. This game just doesn't have any redeeming qualities. It's just bad.
I loved the banter between Vivianne and Blackwall. Especially how most of the time Viv owned him 😂. The banters in Veilguard were very, VERY generic and boring. The only ones that were somewhat interesting for me were the ones between Davrin and Bellara when they discussed all the revealed lore of the elves.
Inquisition shifted the focus away from the main character too hard for my liking, but it pulled it off precisely because the companions were interesting characters. The problem is making a game focused on companions when the companions all kinda suck, which is precisely the situation with Veilguard.
@@rb98769no idea what you are talking about with inquisition, yeah there was more emphasis on the organization, but you were the top dog and it did nothing without you. inquisition was a chosen one plot with a twist, (twist being that you weren't actually chosen) but still plays out with you being the center focus of everything. and it absolutely was not characters focused. yes the characters were well fleshed out, but you could COMPLETELY ignore all of them, and only cassandra, varric, and solas were even actually mandatory. you could straight up either never meet or tell all the others to go f themselves. inquisition had its issues, but what you are saying definitely wasn't one of them.
If you showed me some cutscenes and fight sequences from this game without telling me it's Dragon Age, I would've thought this was some other generic fantasy game.
When they first showed the trailer some months ago during that Xbox event I did not at all expect it to be a Dragon Age game until I recognized Varric. I thought the art style was kinda odd, especially because I still remember when they showed the original concept art well before that. I wasn't too put off by the art style itself very much, but I do have questions about some of their design decisions though.
@MrFish1124 I think the graphics looks great but it's such a stark contrast to what I thought the tone of previous Dragon Ages were. Gritty, dark fantasy of Thedas. I likened it to the world of The Witcher. From what I've seen so far of Veilguard, it looks and sounds very childish.
@@MrFish1124i didn't even recognize it was varric till they name dropped it. I thought it was blackwall but they made him short. Varric has black hair now for some reason
"Any games made in the future will not be like the ones of old, and if the are, it would be effectively be a gaming miracle. Bioware is gone, and they can make as many cinematic trailers as they want but they will not deliver anything good in the end." Spell&Shield, 19th December 2021. How apt.
it's not exactly a surprise i'll give you a hint as to how to identify a shitty video game company : is it available in the stock market ? if yes, the company is making money, not video games, much less art their turnover is so insane, they lose game mechanics from one EP to the next, they treat their employees like shit leading to them quitting or just outright being fired all their A teams of old (2010) have all been fired, there is no one left from the people who actually created all your beloved epic franchise anymore their A teams of today were their C teams at best a the time they still made games worse than that, it's a manager/exec pissing contest, people who haven't got a single clue as to how to make a game imposing stupid ideas so they can call it their own all that while trying to please stockholders who want safety, not creativity AAA in the video game industry isn't even worth looking at nowadays, if i look at it its never with any expectation. how many more exemples will we need before people finaly turn their back on those shitty companies ?
I’d just like to point out that as someone who likes to play as a feminine elf prince style character, this character creator is also unsupportive of my vision. One struggle.
Forget looks, veilguard took away any immersive reason for playing an elf. I played Origins and Inquistion as a mage elf thinking if those characters coming back we might get a way to to gently take down the veil and bring elves out of the slums, but no, elves will remain in the ghetto.
Take solace in knowledge that this IP won't be insulted againt. Because the game sold very, very poorly. And next DA game, won't come out, maybe ever. IP for all it's purpose is quite dead. Now they take their pens and ideas, and go visit Mass effect. DA Deserved better. We deserved better. But at least, it's over. No more. Not more waiting, hoping, being mad, sad, It's done. RIP Dragon Age.
Nah, Mass Effect is dead too. Andromeda was supposed to be a new trilogy, but it sold bad enough for the next two to get axed before they even started working on them.
The companions in Veilguard somehow manage to be less interesting than the Pawns in Dragons Dogma 2. And these were supposed to be flat and inhuman. Someone was paid to write these "characters" in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
"It's true you don't see many dwarf women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for dwarf men. And this in turn has given rise to the belief that there are no dwarf women, and that dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground! Which is, of course, ridiculous." ~ Based Gimli
Excellent, brutal and in depth autopsy. Thanks for your perseverance with this abomination. DA is dead, Bioware is dead, the next ME will hopefully not be made. Let’s hope we get something good with Exodus.
Hartestikke bedankt gozer! Ik kwam er gewoon niet doorheen en hoewel ik hoopvol ben over Exodus heb ik er nog steeds mijn bedenkingen over nadat ik bepaalde dingen gezien heb....maar we zullen zien.
@@spellandshield Ergens is optimisme een goed iets maar als het om bioware gaat ben ik een zwart gat van pessimisme. Ik verwacht alleen maar verveling van Exodus.
I love your language in this video. It creates a sense in which the more elegant your speech is, the more profoundly your disappointment is conveyed. I love it.
I always loved the friction between mages and templars in the earlier games. When I was younger, I was team mage all the way, but as I got older I understood the templar view. I was excited to see how it played out in the new game, just for it to be almost completely absent
I didn’t play this but I watched about 45 hours of someone streaming it. The one thing I noticed or felt was the player isn’t playing as Rook, the player is playing as the writer(s).
It's great they give an option to make masculine women, but in the same vein they've gotta let players make feminine women. It's not cause one is better than the other, but rather not every woman, or person who wants to play as a woman enjoys their character looking masculine or not feminine enough for their own taste. I don't know the exact reason they limited female character customisation options but it feels very much like "we wanna be new wave feminists and get rid of female sexualisation", without realising that they are the ones with a sexist mindset because they think femininity is inherently sexual and a bad thing. It screams internalised misogyny.
You know what? Nah. Duncan got isekai'd into my Dragon Quest 3 run. My boi is gonna be rewarded for his sacrifice with his own anime girl harem. For being the ultimate bro in gaming.
(The sound of a wagon jolts as it hits a rock, waking up Duncan from his slumber. He groans and rubs his eyes) "What happened? The last thing that I remembered were Darkspawn charging towards me..." "Hey, you Redguard, you're finally awake."
Yeah, I couldn't continue either. This game was a disgrace. Same goes for all the reviewers who gave it full score or talked about "game of the year". Honestly, they can feel that way, but at that point our taste in games has diverged so far that any thing they say is completely irrelevant to me.
Remember the impactful scene following "the hero of ferelden" sacrificing himself to stop the blight? To go from DA:O and ME2 to this, truly disgusting
This game was intended to be played by children, not adults. Story, combat, art. The political and gender identity crap was meant for them, not adults. Unfortunatly for bioware, children arent fans of this game.
The main clue, and the main sin to me was the Hans Zimmer score, which of course proved to be generic Hollywood music, soulless and absolutely not memorable. Of course the game will be terrible if the score isn’t there to back it up. I’ve been a die hard fan since Origins, I absolutely adore Inquisition, I tried defending this game before launch, but after completing it I had to write a ‘not recommended’ review. Absolutely soul draining. Waiting 10 years just to get my hopes crushed legitimately made me depressed. I’ll just replay Inquisition and pretend this absolute nightmare doesn’t exist.
I've seen so many people label those who criticize the character creator's lack of female versatility as "gooners" or "horny perverts", but when other games have such expansive character creators where creating an actual feminine looking character is very much possible, there really is no excuse, especially for Bioware who used to have some pretty solid character creators themselves in Mass Effect.
One of the best aspects of Dragon Age was every race had their own lore that seemingly didn’t have much to do with each other but no elves did everything
Sir, this is probably the best review of this game on YT, and as a bonus you have the perfect voice and intonation with no insufferable vocal fry and no screaming, hats off to you.
I don't know if I'm spoiled by Owlcat games, but I just can't stand playing these games with unimpactful main characters anymore. Virtually every fear people had about the game being too centered on companions for Rook to be remotely interesting was realized. Hell, one of my main gripes with Inquisition was that the companions had too much of the spotlight, but at least most of them were actually good characters. Rook is way worse than the Inquisitor when it comes to that, and the companions aren't interesting enough to be the focus of the game. Bioware used to be good at this. Gorion's Ward, Revan, the Warden, and obviously Shepard were all massively impactful and basically the vortex of their stories.
Veilguard made me question myself. "Was I too unfair with Inquisition? Maybe I misunderstood that game, I'm the one in the wrong here" Fuck you, BioWare
The whole entire time I slogged through my 75 hour playthrough of this game the one thing that kept me going was that everyone even people who absolutely shredded the game like skillup said that it had an absolutely banger of a finale. After having finished it I can sadly report that this is not the case. It’s obvious that it tried(and failed) to take heavy inspiration from mass effect 2’s suicide mission. The first problem is the game doesn’t so much lower as demolish the stakes by explicitly telling you how to succeed. Your companions straight up say “complete our personal quests and make sure you’re in good standing with all the factions.” You cant even be in bad standing with the factions. There's no way to lower your rep with them by pissing them off and just doing their sidequests will easily max your rep. So if you’ve done that the sense of stakes and anxiety going into the mission are basically gone cause you’ve done what the game told you and it feels like a foregone conclusion. I remember when I did the suicide mission in my first playthrough of ME2 and I didn’t know that completing loyalty missions and upgrading the ship would increase my odds of success. Due to that I had no idea what I was in for and lost like 4 party members. It felt like I was really slogging through it and my buddies were giving their all fighting and dying against impossible odds. Veilguard had none of that. Another thing is the tone. In me2 you’re storming an an alien fortress with no real information other than its location in an uncharted region of space with no clear means of return. You’re fighting alone it’s just the Normandy and her loyal crew improvising as they go and hoping for the best. you’re fighting a foe that outnumbers and outguns you with reaper tech. In Me2 you’re storming Minrathous, a well known locale, with a veritable army made of various factions all ready to back you up.with the knowledge that Solas (a literal god) is already fighting in the city on your behalf. There’s no sense of loneliness or hopelessness or the dread of the unknown or what you’re going to fight because you have an army of super friends at your back. I will admit the battle itself is pretty epic but it has more of a charge of the Rohirim vibe and less a last stand at the black gates vibe. There are also no real ass on the edge of your seat moments. I still remember how tight my buttcheeks were clenched watching that scene where I had Tali trying to close the door while everyone desperately fought to get through and keep the colectors back. Or how epic it was when Jack got desperate and spazzed out scattering all the collector swarms with a biotic blast even though she was absolutely exhausted. Or how satisfying it felt to blow up that fucking ship that's been hounding you the whole game. It seemed like the story boards all read "oh yeah your companions are badass and they effortlessly mow through hordes of cultists before turning to wink at the camera." The whole thing just feels very marvel for lack of a better descriptor. You go into it knowing the heroes will win in triumphant fashion There’s not even any real fear of what Solas will do after the battle which should be pretty terrifying. After all he’s an ancient elven god with world ending aspirations who will have just dispatched all his rivals.But everyone keeps saying over and over and over “You just need to talk to Solas he’s not actually bad deep down he’ll come around” And lo and behold he does. Who could’ve guess it. All in all I was seriously disappointed. It’s a pale imitation of the predecessor it’s trying to emulate just like the whole rest of the game.
Then the game rewards you with some kingdom heart rejects that tell you nothing of the past 3 games matter because they manipulated everything to end up at this point. Thanks bioware
@@phatymcdaddy It's ok my guy the game bombed so bad there will never be another dragon age for them to ruin it further. Personally I've decided that since none of the old crew are still at Bioware and since this game was made by an entirely different group of people it can literally be treated as fanfiction and none of it is canon. That's how I'm coping at least lol.
I'd accept DA2 as charming fanfiction - not in a backhanded compliment sort of way, but one that could genuinely be enjoyed, and might even be better than a mediocre 5/10. After that though...
@VerminaeSupremacy act 3 was pretty bad otherwise I think the game was pretty great! I think bioware doesn't do endings very well and hasn't since the first installment in their series.
@@ThelastofNazarick it lacked more content leading up to that for sure. Meredith was imposing villain, but I think they did her and Orsino dirty because of tight deadlines. And you know what? I watched it on stream, and I liked Veilguardians ending a lot better, maybe on par with Trespasser, because the whole game previous to it was so, so, so infuriatingly stupid and hollow and then suddenly people started dying for a change and blood splattering all over. I still think all the Marveley moments and other stuff like blighted mage reverting from ghoulish form was meh, but if the whole game was a crazy race against time and not a helluva lot of filler quests and camping in Ferelden, it could even be 6-7/10 instead of 3-4 as DA sequel.
I can imagine it's annoying, but to be fair you're likely in the minority of what women who play games actually want. Veilguard was heavily targeted towards appealing to women and the LGBT audience. The representation of women that these groups like is generally masculine or at the very least androgynous. Curvy characters appeal too much to the male gaze and is best to be avoided in favor of the, I guess, "lesbian gaze." They don't want you to make characters that look like yourself because your body makes other women upset. A woman like yourself who wants curviness in games is a small minority within a small minority of consumers. Veilguard is already trying to appeal to a small minority of gamers, so I assume they went with the desires of the larger group within that minority.
@@MrFish1124I dunno, most women i know who play games like playing attractive people. Theres a large, vocal minority that wants this, the sales figures shows this.
@@rustyjones7908 The sales figures are low because the target audience is much smaller than the dominant male audience for games like this. The game is unquestionably a commercial failure but sold probably as well as I'm sure they expected. If women by and large wanted attractive curvy women characters there wouldn't be so much push back from those exact same women. Veilguard was even directed by a woman, and the people making this game openly said they wanted this game to appeal to women as a demographic. This is the game women wanted to make for other women and so they did. I don't particularly care for it very much but that's just the facts of the matter. If women didn't want it, they wouldn't make it this way.
I'm 30hrs in and upon finding out Morrigan is the vessel for Mythal now I just sat there and just deflated. They completely assassinated my favorite DA character. Also sucks that Solas is now just dumbed down to Mythal regret. I've had no feeling other than pure apathy and disgust. Knowing what happens to Southern Thedas and the whole illuminati reveal just kills me inside. Goodbye Bioware you will noy be missed.
Her loyalty quest is literally "kill my mother because she wants to control me" In inquisition she finds out her mother wanted her sons old god soul, & tells the inquisitor how flemeth tried grooming her for possession.
Wait until the final cinematic after the credits where (Spoilers below) All that transpired in Dragon Age (1-4) since Ostagar in DA:O was the plan of an unknown evil mastermind 🤣
When DAI went out with its change of mood and bright graphics I was disappointed for the loss of dark. Now, even looking at one single scene of it, with its realistic characters, the dramatic musics, the great dialogues... breaks my heart. 😭
There are quite a number of newish reviewers out there praising the game, never answering questions, addressing certain problems, or mentioning why they like the game as an rpg or Bioware fan. This time, i won't let Bioware go unanswered. The new team had enough time to develop, learn, and opportunities to improve as writers, but they are still as tactless, clueless, corporate, soulless, or heavily subjective.
Ouch you are the most tolerant, even handed, moderate reviewer and UA-camr I know… To be so mad at this abomination, I simply have trouble to believe how bad this is… a massive indictment that BioWare is , sadly dead…. Regards
15:39 It finally clicked for me, why the art style looks so familiar, when I saw this Antoir... they look like out of a Pixar movie, or something made in response to Pixar's rise in popularity. Antoir for example would fit almost perfectly into How to train your dragon.
In regards to the character creation, Bioware was known for the npcs and companions often being made from the same creation mechanic. Dragon Age, Kotor, Mass Effect, Swtor, Jade Empire, etc. So the character creation pretty much lets you know how the companions can look save a few outliers. Which is why I knew that attractive women weren't possible for Veilguard to have.
Origins story content, is the equivalent of all Mass Effect trilogy without the bad endings. A hero, from a special class, gather warriors, armies, to stop a great threat to their world. And have a great final fight, using all the resources they gathered, and a final showdow with the boss. They should stopped on Origins, or expanded the sixth blight.
We are all angry that our beloved story has been trampled upon and murdered. Thank you for expressing this so eloquently. Your writing style is so much better than the dialogue in this travesty of a game that I wouldn't even insult you with the comparison. Somebody collected high paychecks for writing VG, though.
"I am a woman. For all intents and purposes of the word. Other women's feminity makes me uncomfortable." Said the trans woman. I don't remember where the quote came from, and its not verbatim, but I think its the actual notes in this game. It says everything there is to know about why you can't make a truly feminine character.
The “same” series that had me spend dozens of hours trying to unite the disparate factions of Fereldan against the Usurper only to find myself questioning the buffoon who had stood by my side as I spoke to Loghain and discovered his competence and misguided vision and be genuinely torn as to what to do since it seemed clear that Alistair didn’t want to be King? The “same” series that made me genuinely respect the Qunari Arishok stuck in Kirkwall so as to agree with him on a lot of his condemnations for the people’s treatment of themselves and others but ultimately deciding that it was necessary to put him down because Hawke had shown what hard work and risk taking could accomplish in a free society. The same that made me think of “Blackwall” as a rather bland soup only to have my notions completely turned on their head when I learned his true identity and the story that drove him to do what he did forcing me to accept that I shouldn’t take things at face value. These are but a few examples of many each game. I am one of the few that actually enjoyed Dragon Age 2 because despite its constraints and its many flaws they absolutely nailed the rivalry with the Arishok and it was a reasonable catalyst for the main theme of Inquisition. All the while you are exposed to those who are from Tevinter, some of its freed slaves and the reports of it indicate an oligarchy where magical power is the fabric of the social order there. An “anything goes, what CAN we do not what SHOULD we do” environment where life has no real value and is just a commodity. And they turned all that build up into this. What? This game is not a Dragon Age game, it’s a mediocre action game/ bad friendship simulator. I
I miss Duncan. I recall when I had to "submit to the taint", then I drank the dark spawn blood next to Alistair and those other poor saps. That day, I became a Grey Warden.
Literally everyone I have watched have said this game is at BEST below average. Really a shame it wasn't a send-off to the veterans. If they wanted a reboot to the setting they could have just let the veil come down at the end, making a relative clean start, or perhaps a series is not meant to last forever when there are so many choices to take into account. I wonder if this game will be a net benefit financially, because if not I see no reason why EA will let Bioware continue to exist.
This was definitely a really weird place to try and reboot the series. This could have been a really great culmination of three games worth of decisions, story hooks, and plot beats. I'll give credit that the double blight with the last two archdemons wasn't at all a bad idea on paper. But the way they took everything, dumped it all into a burning trashcan, and then tried to celebrate how the first 3 games and all the accompanying material was completely meaningless. It just makes me sad seeing how little they cared about their own IP.
The dialogues in this game were created for a 5 year old child. This game is an insult to Dragon Age, the characters' conversations make you sleepy, it looks like a Discovery Kids cartoon, regardless of your choice there are no serious consequences in the conversations, the graphics are from cell phones, the combat is boring and scripted, number of skills are reduced and you cannot control your companions during combat. Now there's an icon that shows where you should go because they made this game for 5 year olds, not to mention the puzzles in this game which involve putting relics in place of another relic. The map designs are horrible, because everything is in the sky??? and the damn colors of this game, the menus in various places are all purple and brilliant, this is not dark fantasy neither here nor in the Andromeda Galaxy!!!!
I can't get over how the bar fight in 00:40 look so comically bad. Kicking the barrel, slapping faces, bad guys fumbling around until it's their turn and grabbing arms in full swing etc. It's like a 5 year old choreographed the coolest fight they could think of.
But....but ....but Mortismal said it was his Game of the Year! Thanks for the brutally honest review - I've bought every single Dragon Age on release in the past but will be passing on this one as things stand. Honestly, unless the EA execs intended for this game to turn out like this, then i think Corinne Busche (game director) and Patrick Weekes (lead writer) should be ejected from Bioware with immediate effect. I just feel sorry for the other hardworking devs who did the environments, animations etc and have to have their efforts undermined by the woke loons running the show.....
Ah yes, Elves, the answer to all life's problems. Andraste and the Chantry? The Maker was an Elf. The Tevinter Imperium? Elves. Humans? Elves. The Fade that connects everyone but Dwarves? Elves. Lack of interest? Elves. At least the older games left some ambiguity, letting you question who was what and what the real history was. Was the Maker real and thus made the prototypes for everyone? Were the dwarves not connected to the Fade and magic because they weren't made the same way as everyone else? Was the Blight man's fault or was it something primordial that was unintentionally released like an Eldritch plague? Nah, Ferelden was just Elves all along.
Oh absolutely. Incredible. The way he delivered lines with cotton wool in his mouth. No. It was awful. Just like the Inquisitors dialogue in Inquisition. But Dragon Age has always sucked for being unwilling to stick with the warden as a protagonist. Lazy and and cowardly move.
Thanks for finally putting the nail in the coffin. I have been back and forth debating with myself about picking this game up. I had previously decided I would wait for a deep sale and then get it. But you have put into words exactly what I have seen from the many other reviewers I watched. I will think back, with fondness, on my time spent with Dragon Age Origins and move on to games worth my time.
25:08 right here. ever felt the impression that this game loves to fake out a rude dialogue option? the "mean" icon is there, the phrase "Pull yourselves together" implying that Rook will berate them to stop whining about their personal lives. but what Rook says is the most HR motivational speech ever. as if the game itself is correcting/railroading you.
I feel like the people who really cared about this game made the beautiful environments… and then they either left or got fired and other people finished everything else.
Im just bitter we'll never get a dragon age game that focuses on The Calling. Where you play as a doomed gray warden who has felt the same thing Duncan had and now has to find one last great purpose. In the deep roads. You could go so many interesting directions. The quiet knowing of all around, "A lone gray warden, he's not coming back. He doesnt intend to." Id love to see something like a story where the Gray Warden chooses his/her location to delve to a known Darkspawn hive, only to have a Qunari warparty pitted on the same path to eliminate the - as they know it - Ogre breeding ground. To remove a stain on the Qun. The horrible conflict caused, the ruthless Qunari being unable to work with the dwarves or others in the area. You, the Warden, need this last run and to make your live have some meaning. Yet there's so many innocents in the Qunari warpath -- but the Qunari are going the same way you are. You could have the choice to screw over everyone else and work with the Qunari. You could try to be the hero to everyone and save them from the Qunari while making the Darkspawn fight all the harder by not having them backing you. Obviously you'd have to have the only mage companion be completely incompatible with the Qunari, they dont tolerate unshackled mages. Youd HAVE to kill them to side with the Qunari. No. Instead of a game with so many interesting gameplay and story bits, we get this gender studies major hogwash. Meaningless trash that you play as the freaking supporting side character in your own damn story.
Origins was such a great story.
Yeah, exactly! DAO is to blame, coz Davy Gaydor wanted `The Message´ and some stuck in puberty BS to be paramount, as that is so what people WANTED to pay for! 🤣
@@a.m.pietroschek1972 To clarify, David didn't work on DA4, Patrick Weekes and his Kotaku hires are at fault for this writing, David Gaider just supported his queer buddies on social media.
I mean, it still is. Just play it 😊 it holds up surprisingly well
@@DerdOn0ner And it has a better character creator, voice acting, story, and combat than Veilguard.
DAO was the only good game in the series. Just delete all the sequels forever.
Veilguard did something spectacular. It made me question if I was too harsh on Inquisition.
have you played inquisition since this woke BS escalated? i tried it a few weeks/months ago...the amount of pandering already in there...every joke i thought was funny the first time i played that game (before i was aware of the ''girlpower'' and woke nonsense)...its insane...i cant enjoy that game anymore
This thing is so bad it made me think i judged Gollum too harshly....Gollum was a way better game than this.
@@thedawn-rt9rx yeah, but the Veilguard is worse
@@thedawn-rt9rx I haven't and I don't really plan on it. Getting through that game is a complete and utter slog. But in that game at the very least I could get through a conversation without an eye roll. At least I can play as my companions in combat. I was at least engaged in the story. There's a version of Inquisition where if you remove all of the fluff/filler open world stuff, it's like a 5 or 6/10 RPG. Contrast with Veilguard, where the game just blows in every aspect that any "fix" would be effectively remaking the game.
Hahah same I am now appreciate inquisition I mean yeah it was boring but it was still an rpg about choices in dragon age and kept 90 percent of the lore intact .they really messed up on War table and open world zones.
If there's one thing I can give Veilguard credit for, it's that it made Jacob Taylor no longer be my least liked companion from a Bioware game.
If you don't romance Jacob, then he's just an average soldier with biotics. But if you romance him, well no shit he's appalling. Then there's Taash...🤮
Liam made me appreciate Jacob a lot more. And every last one of these “companions” makes Liam almost tolerable.
I feel that. Still sending him into the vents, though.
@@damnedlegionaireActually about that him volunteering for that role is extremely nonsensical. It is also nonsensical that he doesn't get everyone killed as that would be the realistic outcome. Miranda also volunteers for a task she cannot carry out. What the hell Bioware?
Honestly I found Jacob pretty chill if you just bro it up with him, Bioware just seemed to hate anyone who romanced him lmao
He's more interesting than Kaidan and Ashley at least to me
Strangely, this art style would fit the Fable sequel perfectly, while the Fable 4 devs have gone for a photorealistic style that would be better suited to Dragon Age.
yeah but the ugly women ruin both lol
@@UToobUsername01 symptoms of the same pathology, yes.
@@UToobUsername01 Agreed. Fable absolutely should have unattractive people in it but should have attractive people too. The cartoony style would fit a comical game but the character models would need a lot of work.
@@BlookbugIV Dang it, I’d forgotten about the new Fable. What a train wreck that will be.
Nah, no great IP deserv this artstyle. Fable should look more expressive and have a tone that can shift between bright and whimsical to dark and foreboding. Not this very curated plastic cgi look.
What they did to Southern Thedas is absolutely the writers obliterating everything people liked from the first game.
Pure laziness
Excuse what happened I haven't played the game yet I saw the ending because I was curious.
Bioware had been doing that since Mass Effect 2. That game disrespected the original game. I.e Shepard working with terrorists the denial of the reaper threat and the do nothing story. The Veilguard is magnitudes worse on that front. At least ME2 and 3 didn't retcon events from the original and turn everything into a politically correct thing this game is.
@@Sifya
Everything gets destroyed more or less. Ferelden is „holding the line at Redcliff“ which means an entire country now only exists within a fishing village. And Orlais doesn’t seem much better off. Essentially what would’ve happened if the Warden never stopped the Blight, which feels kinda pointless now.
@Hawaiian_Pizza_Enjoyer is it because the veil? Well, the warden aren't perfect but they try! I don't know if I buy this game in future, it looks so childish except for some shocked moment.
They destroyed Ferelden, butchered Dorian's looks, made Isabella a cheap version of herself, blundered the entire lore and they want me to play this crap. Nooe, thanks
I made it to Act 8 before I couldn't continue, so many back to back, insanely cringe cutscenes that all basically just leave me with lines like "You're hurting people", "That's mean" and revolve around repeating "EVIL ELVEN GODS" and "BLIGHTED EVIL ELVEN GODS".
Hey, so do you take issue with all the lore issues in DAI, because there's so much more in that game. They retcon so much.
@@MarikaValor I mean I could imagine Isabella is happy that she can do pushups after her breast reduction. All joking aside, saying "Isabella is older and doesn't want to walk around pantsless with her tits out" is reasonable enough, but at least keep her body type (although from what I've seen the game engine might to be able to create that)
@@professorwright1428 Not the person you asked, but if you're referring to anything The Iron Bull says I generally don't care. I don't consider someone who's from a culture who names people for their profession whose name is "the liar" a trustworthy source. I'm pretty sure Bull was just saying that to make Krem feel better.
And it made no sense, Rook has the dagger , why would they send forces to Fereldan, when they are fighting for everything right here in Tevinter. stupid writing that is all.
During Duncan's last moments, he didn't see an axe flying in his face, he saw Dragon Age the Veilguard before any of us saw it coming.
and died happily knowing he wasn't gonna be there when it happened
@@luxsignifer6996 Seems like Alistair was being too salty about it after all
lol 😂
the blight gave him a glimpse of the future, it was the only way to get his concentration to drop long enough to defeat him. Very tragic.
The way you always say "THE VEILGUARD" with an emphasis with disgust always gets me.
yeah, that's a nice ai model
I was thinking the same thing, it's quite funny that disgust every time he says it
Whenever I hear anyone else call it Veilguard my head automatically says THE VEILGUARD is S&S's voice.
Reminds me off the line "The Boulder is no longer conflicted"
it's perfect, the game does not deserve to be called "Dragon Age"
As a female player: thank you for mentioning this! I never struggled so hard with a character creator. Your review is spot on.
For real. I don't understand why female bodies are not allowed. Or well, I do... because ''oh no, hetero men want to look at beautiful women and we can't have that" ... but hey, should we mention that lesbians and bi people exist, not just hetero men? Not really inclusive now, are we? >.> (I mean, I can play that game too)
I am a woman and I have curves. Nothing wrong with androgynous bodies, but... options, please! Why censor like 40% of the world population? I can imagine that size BBL/cow boobas cause issues with clipping, but why just not bother at all?
I was considering playing a female dwarf, but finding out that dwarves had been reduced to 'short human' instead of well... dwarves... just another tick on the 'don't like' list. And that list is so huge that I am not going to touch this game with a ten foot pole :( Maaaaaaaaybe when I can get it for free on Epic or such.
Yes! As another female player I’m so glad that someone mentioned this. It was so hard to make a feminine looking person, everything was skewed so much towards masculine, especially the body shapes. Which is a shame because in inquisition they did a great job of making the woman feminine yet muscular
I've never played this thing, never will, but I saw a female player struggle for a long time to create something acceptable. In the end, the female human still had a 5 o`clock shadow. Shameful, this.
We all know what statement the developers are making with this character creator. "Biological women are obsolete." There is a mirror you can interact with, and once you interact with this mirror, the only option you have is to make your character canonically transgender. There is no escape from this menu. Attractive women are problematic because they make "passing" as a woman more difficult.
If you aren't queer in current year then you don't matter until you get fatter.
@@sarawawa8984 da:I female character models looked like women who were very active. Considering the player character lived a very active lifestyle in a pre-industrial society it makes sense.
My head canon is that veilguard don't exist 😂
The forgotten ones return help solas kill the evanuris banish the blight to the void and convice solas to come with them to a new planet with magic and leave thedas intact boom everyone is happy
Its obviously Cassandra's fan fiction
Mine too, and I finished the game.
Marvel Superheroes copycat disrespecting the Grey Wardens AND Ferelden? Oops. Can live without.
Same
Dragon Age: It Runs Smoothly.
As smooth as the new qunari forehead
Dragon Age 'a return to form'.... The form of what? Something a dog left on a pavement?
Dragon Age: Not as smooth as you think.
Only you just want to turn it off, so it doesn't matter.
Dragon Age: The Babysitter
Thank you for your sacrifice.
OMG, is it the modern audience? Davy Gaydor stalking him? A corrupted corporation still sending criminal harassment mobs? All of it?
Next Dragon Age game should make Veilguard a story of a terrible book Varric wrote while he was drunk. He could comment the book was for a tasteless noble from Orlais with odd fetishes.
Varric: (with flair) "And so, the valiant warriors of the Veilguard, armed with the ancient knowledge of the elven sages, ventured into the heart of the shattered Fade, battling demons that wore the faces of their past loves and greatest regrets. Their leader, a dashing rogue with a heart of gold and unparalleled charm-"
Hawke: (interrupting) "Let me guess. He had a crossbow and a knack for witty banter?"
Varric: (grinning) "Of course not, Hawke. He wielded... twin daggers. Completely different vibe."
Inquisitor: (swirling wine) "Uh-huh. And the Fade demons? They were defeated with the power of... friendship and conveniently timed explosions?"
Varric: (mock offended) "Friendship and explosions are timeless storytelling devices, Inky."
Hawke: (snorts) "Explosions can't save everything. I mean, come on, Varric. 'The Veilguard'? It sounds like a bad chantry sermon."
Inquisitor: "Or a rejected title for a bard's worst ballad."
Varric: (placing a hand over his heart) "You wound me. This story has layers! It’s got betrayal, redemption, and a twist where the villain turns out to be-"
Hawke: (cutting him off) "Wait, don’t tell me. Let me guess. The villain is a misunderstood soul who just needs someone to listen to them?"
Inquisitor: "Or maybe it’s a Fade spirit who’s secretly a manifestation of-what’s that phrase Solas always uses? Oh, right. 'The universal struggle of mortal existence.'"
Varric: (groans) "Fine. It might be a little predictable."
Hawke: "Predictable? It’s worse than the time you tried to convince me Bianca could shoot fireballs."
Varric: (muttering) "That would’ve been epic, by the way."
Inquisitor: (leans forward, smirking) "So, Varric. Be honest. How much of this did you make up on the spot? Or better yet, how much of it was 'inspired' by certain... beverages?"
Varric: (sighs, throwing his hands up) "Alright, fine. You caught me. I might have been a few bottles of Antivan brandy deep when I came up with it."
Hawke: (laughing) "Might? Varric, this is worse than the time you tried to rhyme 'hero' with 'nero' in one of your poems."
Inquisitor: "And here I thought I’d finally get to hear something better than Hard in Hightown."
Varric: (grins despite himself) "Okay, first off, Hard in Hightown is a classic. Secondly, even a drunk Varric Tethras is still better than most sober writers in Thedas."
Hawke: "Debatable."
Inquisitor: "Highly debatable."
Varric: (leans back, smiling) "You know, if this whole 'saving Thedas' thing doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll just start writing terrible Fade fiction on purpose. It seems to get you two talking."
Hawke: "Just promise me you’ll stay sober for the next one. Or at least let me proofread it."
Inquisitor: (raising a goblet) "To terrible stories and even worse brandy-induced creativity!"
Varric: (lifting an imaginary glass) "And to friends who are way too honest for their own good."
The fire crackles as laughter fills the room, but the warmth quickly fades as the three exchange a knowing glance. The levity dissipates as they remember their mission-one that cannot wait.
Inquisitor: (setting down their goblet) "Alright, fun’s over. If Solas has his way, we won’t have time for bad stories or brandy."
Hawke: (grabbing their staff from the wall) "Andraste’s flaming knickers, I still can’t believe we’re chasing an egg-headed apostate across Thedas. If this turns into another Fade disaster, I’m blaming you, Inquisitor."
Varric: (slinging Bianca over his shoulder) "Don’t look at me. I’m just here for the company and the explosions."
Inquisitor: (smirking) "Then let’s give him something to regret. The Veil isn’t going to hold itself."
@@rockingbirdeyVarric is and forever will be one of the best characters in fictional history - mans got a way with word’s haha
@@rockingbirdey That would actually be a good way of saving this, well done !
He'd likely need to include Inquisition as well tbh
@@rockingbirdey Better banter than anything we got in Veilguard, well done.
I remember when dragon age 2 was considered a failure.... Perhaps we judged them too harshly.
Dragon age 2 was just unfinished. The story is good tho, they just had to cut corner to a lot of things like maps, re-use of the same zone endlessly, enemies appearing out of thin air etc…
But it’s understandable when you know how little time the dev had to make it ( 2 years I think?), they nevertheless wrote a compelling story that is well crafted with well written characters ( even if you can sometimes dislike them for their choice 😅).
@@mikevm3375What story? (There are story arcs, and they were as unfinished and hole ridden as the rest of the game).
Veilguard took every game design idea that screwed 2 outside the rushed time, and did it tenfold.
@@nicolasferreiro4492 True but what story there was were pretty well written, inquisition had a lot of cringe moment that wasn’t present in da 2 and the characters were frankly well written if unfinished and rushed at the end. It kept the dark tone of what thedas is like while managing to mix levity and fun.
It could have been a « perfect » game and worthy of its predecessor if they hadn’t been so rushed by the money grabbers.
Meanwhile Veilguard casually spit on everything that has been done during all games with a casual footnote « south Thedas has fallen sorry not sorry », which is a pretty shitty thing to do for a lot of fans who were seriously attached to the place/people.
It goes to show what little the new writing direction care about the fan base, they really don’t give a damn since all the people responsible for it are no longer working for bioware and it doesn’t fit there chosen agenda of « modernization » and using the IP as a platform to send their message.
You don’t appoint a director who is a known activists at the head of a project if you don’t condone their action in the first place. BioWare is nothing but an empty name today, the people in control of the brand are not the ones from 15 years ago at all ( and if some are still there they have dramatically changed since then).
Just because you took a shit today, doesn’t make the shit you took yesterday any less shit.
Hell to the no! Dragon Age 2 had boring gameplay with mediocre quests and uncompelling story. Very few highlights with companions were the only good thing about it. Just because the newest installment is extremely bad doesn’t cancel out the previous ones being bad in a mediocre way.
That’s literally how they push slop until you accept it.
I've played every Dragon Age game, played Origins multiple times. I have no intention of ever playing Veilguard, not now, not knowing what I know.
I might play it if it could be improved by modding. But frostbite 3 is hard to mod and most of the stuff on the Nexus are a bunch of useless presets.So as of now it doesn't seem modding can redeem this game.
I'll probably pirate it in a year or so if I get bored with Monster hunter
You're making the right decision bro, I've played all the games and this was the first time a dragon age game put me to sleep
As a fan of Dragon Age I’d ignore this UA-cam dialogue and play it. It’s super campy but has tons of lore and references on every mission. It’s as fun as Inquisition with much better presentation (beyond Pixar faces).
I had played origins 2 Inquisition multiples.But I would never play veilguard
If there is ever a future Dragon Age game (a big if), then simply make everything that happened in Veilguard an illusion conjured up by a demon.
Or it was a comedic story Varric wrote, where he died for dramatic effect just to write himself out of the bad story.
There won't. If a company hasn't made a good product in over a decade, then they're dead.
Yeah, or Tevinter propaganda.
this would be the only way i'll be able to play any other dragon age after this lol i just wish they went with what joplin was suppose to be
It's prolly why many of us DA fans are so sore about this release. It was such a disaster, it most likely ruined any chance at another Dragon Age. I guess would we even want them to make another? Prolly not. It truly feels to me just like Disney making the sequels all over again
"Dragon Age The Veilguard's combat drains you in the same manner as a succubus" my Man wrote a fucking Poem and called it a review😂😂😂
Not just a poem - a Cradle of Filth album.
Peoples literacy has fallen so much, flowered words sound like Shakespeare to their ears
Sadly that's wrong, a succubus would be pleasurable, veilguard is what, a wraith or dementor draining your soul.
@@RedLithic So it sucks. Got it.
Finally! Someone that critics the combat. So many reviews rave about how good and ‘snappy’ it is. And as someone that plays wow and has for years, I can honestly say, no, it’s not fun. It feels like a damned mmo. But only at low level. The worst levels. When you only have the worst gear, four attacking abilities, no feat synergy, and every mob is a chore. If I wanted to spent 20 minutes killing one enemy I’d go back to WoW classic. Thank you so much for the eloquent review that perfectly surmises the utter mediocrity of this alleged ‘rpg.’
Even my friend who thinks the game is okay critics the combat. Says it has the worst combat of all games. Has also said that it's more or less like DA:I, only faster. Seems bland to her, is the impression I get.
@@Nominuggs Reminds me of kingdoms of amalur where combat was repetitive to the point I set it to easy just so I could spam the same combo fewer times. Kingdom of amalur at least had an interesting world and lore to explore though so I was willing to put up with it.
“I do not wish to waste my remaining years on earth playing tripe.” Best response to this game! Not vulgar, politicized, or shilling, just sheer contempt.
There is nothing politicized in pointing the OBVIOUS politicization of this game.
that's what they're gunning for! these wokesters want us old generation to die out so they can pump this garbage out as the norm in the future forevermore and all humnanity will ever consume as "art", so they can lower the bar even further in the future and humanity will cosnider content like veilguard a masterpiece.
That's nothing to be ashamed of man. Veilguard is nothing but a comical fanfiction, and we'll be left to wonder what really happened after the events of Tresspasser. Thanks for your videos and balanced perspective going into this shit show of a game masquerading as the fourth in the series.
Luke Stephens calls it a "friendship simulator" .Not a real rpg.
Nah, it's not a "comical" fan fiction. That implies there's humor to be found. There is no humor here. Only mediocrity, missed opportunities, and disappointment.
@@MoostachedSaiyanPrince Humor in mediocrity can absolutely be found. In exploring such unbelievable changes and absolutely atrocious direction, anger can easily devolve to uncontrollable laughter both of sheer amazement and at the embarrassment the people behind this have produced. And that is what these people have come to deserve: laughter and scorn for their "contribution".
I've well worked past disappointment, and simply embraced amusement and dismissal of any legitimacy this game attempts to have. It is not Dragon Age, it is the glorified fanfic of a team of idiots, custom wrapped in amateur writing and gameplay, complete with the scorn of real Dragon Age fans as the "bow on top".
Remember the end of Trespasser? I gained Solas’s loyalty, so my Inquisitor was trying to save and stop him. Telling him that we’d find a way. Just for this game to throw all that in the trash. The big choice at the end in wether to disband or keep the inquisition together, all gone.
Yeah, I really want to know what happened to my Inquisitor after the events of Trespasser! It's been over a decade and BioWare still doesn't want to give us another Dragon Age game. Ehhh, it's just like Game of Thrones when it stopped at season 6 when Daenerys was preparing to claim the Iron Throne for her own.
For me Dragon age is a story that ended with the witch hunt DLC were my warden after killing the archdemon, stopping the blight, reinstating the Grey wardens in Fereldin, left on a personal mission to find the women he loved, and upon finding Morrigan vowed to stay by her side and stepped through the Eluvian with her, closing the chapter of his life as a hero and going forward to meet his son and start a new chapter as a father
Lame I'm so tired of father figures
Interesting game. The only way to win is to not play.
Easy, even if I loan a new laptop, it will be too weak to run that `game´. Gayme? Well, whatever.
I'd choose nuclear war tic tac toe over the veilguard
I’m not playing this game either. I was on the fence during the marketing phase. Soo glad I waited for real reviews to come out
" Is there any way to make it play itself ?" ..." Yes. Number of players zero."
itw -- ignore to win
"How do you know it's bad it isn't even out yet!"
"How do you know it's bad you haven't even smelled it yet!"
"How do you know it's bad you haven't even taken a bite yet!"
"How do you know it's bad you haven't even eaten half of it!"
"How do you know it's bad you didn't even eat the whole thing yet!"
"You're just a hater!"
Meh
- Average r/dragonage user.
I've finished the game with 70 hours. Someone telled me I was lying about it being bad because I would never had put so much hours if it was the case. When I specifically played it until the end both because I'm supposed to be a DA fan even if I can hardly say that now, and because I wanted to make a genuine critic of it.
it's just Starfield all over again lol
"it gets good after the intro mission"
"it gets good once you reached the first city"
"it gets good once you're 5 hours in"
"it gets good once you're 20 hours in"
"it gets good once you're 50 hours in"
@@leocheung8860 Starfield actually gets worse as you play it. It's a cycle of "Maybe if I do or get X, I'll find the fun", only to be disappointed by X. And since you'll likely chase after the Xs that seem like the most fun to you first...
So yeah, I really don't get the idea that it gets good as you get further in. Especially if you go to NG+, and you realize that means you can now play all the horrible quests with very few branching paths and none that reach beyond themselves, again.
As an English major, I can barely begin to tell you how refreshing your eloquence is to hear, my good man. Subscribed!
There are so many painful parallels here to Andromeda - running the gamut from terrible character animation, juvenile writing, lack of levity, overpraised combat, ineffectual squaddies, meaningless “choice,” thoroughly unlikeable cast and crew, repetitive enemies, baffling and unforgivable retcons. And, like Andromeda, they plainly spec’d their studio points in vista animation.
One can almost think they have the same writers. Not the same main writers, maybe, but the minor ones.
Well, Drack would be a great one as a companion if he was in the ME3.
I didn't dislike Andromeda at any point. That said I also didn't finish it and have no desire to play it again over the original trilogy wich i played multiple times and would easily play again. So I guess thats not a good sign either.
Also they dipped on doing any dlc. They wrapped it up so they could move on to mass effect. That doesnt inspire confidence to me
@@mustafaozturk2542 Drack playing off Wrex playing off Grunt would have been an interesting dynamic
This non-review video is the one for me that helps to move on. The first minutes are sophisticated, funny on so many levels, and of course well structured, as always - that I thought I depart the DA series light-hearted. But till we got to the lore, it was again a punch in the stomach. No tears, at least by now. I'm recovering. Thank you!
Exodus made by Archetype Entertainment is on its way to fill the hole left by Mass Effect. Humanoid Origin is also making a sci-fi game. Both studios are spearheaded by Old Guard Bioware veterans. Hopefully, one, if not, both studios will make a fantasy(dark fantasy) IP to fill the hole left by Dragon Age Origins(and 2) at some point in the future.
AE was acquired by WOTC the moment Larian stepped down, I bet they're planning on putting those veterans to good work making the next Baldurs Gate
@Alwaysttango I wouldn't be so optimistic. WotC is the reason Larian stepped away to begin with. Seeing what they've done to D&D and Magic over the past couple of years is a bad omen for anyone under their umbrella.
@@exterminatus_now In the case of Exodus the developers have received a promise on the part of Archetype to not interfere.
@@exterminatus_nowExodus game director James Ohlen quotes
“I said I want to hire the people I want to hire and make the game I want to make. WoTC said “yep, you get to decide all that.””
“WoTC doesn’t interfere”
@echoesofmalachor3700 I'm sure the same words held firm for Bungie with Sony or Tango and Arkane Austin with Microsoft.
When you become a subsidiary, you don't get a "guarantee" of safety. You get words, easily twisted and taken back.
Inquisition is far from perfect but it's a rather good DA game and I am tired of people pretending like it isn't.
Those dialogs you mentioned in the beginning are a testament to that. Solas's banter with Cassandra about the nature of organizations still lives in my memory.
Solas in particular was a well-written character with ideals and motivations, who got dumbed down into oblivion ("muh Mythal made me do it do you remember that I aM A gOd") + his Veilguard character model is literally Loki from the first MCU "Thor" movie.
If BioWare just took Inquisition's skeleton as a basis for DA4 and removed/changed the stuff people complained about (like empty, oversized locations filled with fetch quests) - we would have had a masterpiece.
But alas...
They had every instrument possible to make an epic game (setting, villain, budget, IP etc) and put out a turd instead.
Sidenote: As a woman, I HATE this game's character moddles. Why does my female!character have a permanent 5 o'clock shadow??? Why the hell can't I tell Taash to shut up after that "noone likes being a woman" comment?? Why?!
Inquisition is a really good game
Not to mention that Cassandra is one of the best examples in gaming of a strong powerful woman who doesn't have to pretend to be a man.
@@ginacirelli1581Cassandra seems like a person. Yeah, shes a badass warrior but she also likes trashy romance novels.
@@ginacirelli1581 I love Cassandra's fights with Varric. Her "relationship" with him is so hilarious.
Inquisition is a fantastic game. It's not perfect and the player dialogue could be a bit better, but it felt like a good followup to Origins. I loved the addition of the qunari as a playable race. The multiplayer was surprisingly fun too
Despite Inquisition's problems like hiding the main quest through grinding for nonsense. The dialogue between companions was almost philosophical for example Cole and Solas. I liked having them in my party just to hear them banter.
This game just doesn't have any redeeming qualities. It's just bad.
I loved the banter between Vivianne and Blackwall.
Especially how most of the time Viv owned him 😂.
The banters in Veilguard were very, VERY generic and boring.
The only ones that were somewhat interesting for me were the ones between Davrin and Bellara when they discussed all the revealed lore of the elves.
Inquisition shifted the focus away from the main character too hard for my liking, but it pulled it off precisely because the companions were interesting characters. The problem is making a game focused on companions when the companions all kinda suck, which is precisely the situation with Veilguard.
@@rb98769no idea what you are talking about with inquisition, yeah there was more emphasis on the organization, but you were the top dog and it did nothing without you. inquisition was a chosen one plot with a twist, (twist being that you weren't actually chosen) but still plays out with you being the center focus of everything. and it absolutely was not characters focused. yes the characters were well fleshed out, but you could COMPLETELY ignore all of them, and only cassandra, varric, and solas were even actually mandatory. you could straight up either never meet or tell all the others to go f themselves.
inquisition had its issues, but what you are saying definitely wasn't one of them.
If you showed me some cutscenes and fight sequences from this game without telling me it's Dragon Age, I would've thought this was some other generic fantasy game.
When they first showed the trailer some months ago during that Xbox event I did not at all expect it to be a Dragon Age game until I recognized Varric.
I thought the art style was kinda odd, especially because I still remember when they showed the original concept art well before that. I wasn't too put off by the art style itself very much, but I do have questions about some of their design decisions though.
@MrFish1124 I think the graphics looks great but it's such a stark contrast to what I thought the tone of previous Dragon Ages were. Gritty, dark fantasy of Thedas. I likened it to the world of The Witcher.
From what I've seen so far of Veilguard, it looks and sounds very childish.
@@MrFish1124i didn't even recognize it was varric till they name dropped it. I thought it was blackwall but they made him short. Varric has black hair now for some reason
@phatymcdaddy it was mostly the crossbow for me that gave it away.
"Any games made in the future will not be like the ones of old, and if the are, it would be effectively be a gaming miracle. Bioware is gone, and they can make as many cinematic trailers as they want but they will not deliver anything good in the end." Spell&Shield, 19th December 2021. How apt.
Seems I was right!
it's not exactly a surprise
i'll give you a hint as to how to identify a shitty video game company : is it available in the stock market ?
if yes, the company is making money, not video games, much less art
their turnover is so insane, they lose game mechanics from one EP to the next, they treat their employees like shit leading to them quitting or just outright being fired
all their A teams of old (2010) have all been fired, there is no one left from the people who actually created all your beloved epic franchise anymore
their A teams of today were their C teams at best a the time they still made games
worse than that, it's a manager/exec pissing contest, people who haven't got a single clue as to how to make a game imposing stupid ideas so they can call it their own
all that while trying to please stockholders who want safety, not creativity
AAA in the video game industry isn't even worth looking at nowadays, if i look at it its never with any expectation. how many more exemples will we need before people finaly turn their back on those shitty companies ?
Possiamo dire che BioWare è cucinata?
I’d just like to point out that as someone who likes to play as a feminine elf prince style character, this character creator is also unsupportive of my vision. One struggle.
Based
Forget looks, veilguard took away any immersive reason for playing an elf. I played Origins and Inquistion as a mage elf thinking if those characters coming back we might get a way to to gently take down the veil and bring elves out of the slums, but no, elves will remain in the ghetto.
Yeah my favourite part of the character customization was when id slide a slider from one end to the other and id struggle to see what was changing
@@BodaciousDerb Everyone loves the illusion of choice!
The did not do the elf's any favor or before even dao or qunrai for that matter
Take solace in knowledge that this IP won't be insulted againt. Because the game sold very, very poorly. And next DA game, won't come out, maybe ever. IP for all it's purpose is quite dead. Now they take their pens and ideas, and go visit Mass effect.
DA Deserved better. We deserved better. But at least, it's over. No more. Not more waiting, hoping, being mad, sad, It's done.
RIP Dragon Age.
The message has done a good job at murdering a lot of peoples fun.
Nah, Mass Effect is dead too. Andromeda was supposed to be a new trilogy, but it sold bad enough for the next two to get axed before they even started working on them.
Well said. My heart breaks for you guys. So many DA fans left with nothing…absolutely nothing
The companions in Veilguard somehow manage to be less interesting than the Pawns in Dragons Dogma 2. And these were supposed to be flat and inhuman. Someone was paid to write these "characters" in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
WOW that concept art looks about 100 times better than the actual game
"It's true you don't see many dwarf women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for dwarf men. And this in turn has given rise to the belief that there are no dwarf women, and that dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground! Which is, of course, ridiculous." ~ Based Gimli
Imagine your grey warden made the ultimate sacrifice to save Ferelden but only for it to be destroyed.
Excellent, brutal and in depth autopsy. Thanks for your perseverance with this abomination. DA is dead, Bioware is dead, the next ME will hopefully not be made. Let’s hope we get something good with Exodus.
Hartestikke bedankt gozer! Ik kwam er gewoon niet doorheen en hoewel ik hoopvol ben over Exodus heb ik er nog steeds mijn bedenkingen over nadat ik bepaalde dingen gezien heb....maar we zullen zien.
@@spellandshield Jouw engels is vlekkeloos, dat jij gerelateerd bent aan "Hollands Glorie" had ik niet zien aankomen! Bedankt voor je eerlijke mening.
@@spellandshieldHeb je Andromeda gespeeld? Ik kan me niet voorstellen dat het beter word.
@@lordodin5755 Ja, maar de combat in Andromeda is enigszins beter...
@@spellandshield Ergens is optimisme een goed iets maar als het om bioware gaat ben ik een zwart gat van pessimisme. Ik verwacht alleen maar verveling van Exodus.
LMAO THAT THUMBNAIL BRO
I love your language in this video. It creates a sense in which the more elegant your speech is, the more profoundly your disappointment is conveyed. I love it.
I always loved the friction between mages and templars in the earlier games. When I was younger, I was team mage all the way, but as I got older I understood the templar view. I was excited to see how it played out in the new game, just for it to be almost completely absent
I didn’t play this but I watched about 45 hours of someone streaming it. The one thing I noticed or felt was the player isn’t playing as Rook, the player is playing as the writer(s).
It's great they give an option to make masculine women, but in the same vein they've gotta let players make feminine women. It's not cause one is better than the other, but rather not every woman, or person who wants to play as a woman enjoys their character looking masculine or not feminine enough for their own taste. I don't know the exact reason they limited female character customisation options but it feels very much like "we wanna be new wave feminists and get rid of female sexualisation", without realising that they are the ones with a sexist mindset because they think femininity is inherently sexual and a bad thing. It screams internalised misogyny.
they only like trans women, they call it inclusion but they are excluding women
You know what? Nah. Duncan got isekai'd into my Dragon Quest 3 run. My boi is gonna be rewarded for his sacrifice with his own anime girl harem. For being the ultimate bro in gaming.
Based
Maybe it's time to make Duncan in bg3 so he can finally save the world
Imagine CCs making Duncan in many RPG games so he can be the hero he deserved to be.
(The sound of a wagon jolts as it hits a rock, waking up Duncan from his slumber. He groans and rubs his eyes) "What happened? The last thing that I remembered were Darkspawn charging towards me..."
"Hey, you Redguard, you're finally awake."
In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, cat girls.
instead of a love letter to fans, it felt more like a hate letter
Exactly
More like a slap on the face and a prostate exam ninja technic from naruto
more like a suicide note to the fans
My Warden did the smart move and exited the franchise.
Yeah, I couldn't continue either.
This game was a disgrace.
Same goes for all the reviewers who gave it full score or talked about "game of the year". Honestly, they can feel that way, but at that point our taste in games has diverged so far that any thing they say is completely irrelevant to me.
Looking at Mortismal gaming. My most trusted reviewer saying it his goty is baffling. What a shill
This is one of the best reviews I've seen for this "game", right up there with Skillup's! Well done. Keep it up!
Remember the impactful scene following "the hero of ferelden" sacrificing himself to stop the blight? To go from DA:O and ME2 to this, truly disgusting
This game was intended to be played by children, not adults. Story, combat, art. The political and gender identity crap was meant for them, not adults. Unfortunatly for bioware, children arent fans of this game.
Zelda ftw!
The main clue, and the main sin to me was the Hans Zimmer score, which of course proved to be generic Hollywood music, soulless and absolutely not memorable. Of course the game will be terrible if the score isn’t there to back it up.
I’ve been a die hard fan since Origins, I absolutely adore Inquisition, I tried defending this game before launch, but after completing it I had to write a ‘not recommended’ review. Absolutely soul draining. Waiting 10 years just to get my hopes crushed legitimately made me depressed.
I’ll just replay Inquisition and pretend this absolute nightmare doesn’t exist.
I've seen so many people label those who criticize the character creator's lack of female versatility as "gooners" or "horny perverts", but when other games have such expansive character creators where creating an actual feminine looking character is very much possible, there really is no excuse, especially for Bioware who used to have some pretty solid character creators themselves in Mass Effect.
One of the best aspects of Dragon Age was every race had their own lore that seemingly didn’t have much to do with each other but no elves did everything
"Dragon Age:...THE VEILGUARD"
You can literally feel that he takes damage every time when he says the title.
I love how he continually emphasises just how awkward the game's name is.
Why was Solas merely a crappy apostate mage (another one at that, again, Anders) in DAI, and now he is a god ? Modern Audience Pleasing!
@@katalinkoszegine4268 LMAO
@@wbeytelIt's an AI voice, I think.
I also love how they just casually also made The Maker into a woman, canonically making their religion worship a lesbian couple.
I'm sorry what?
Hey dont insult succubi! They might drain you, but at least they are beautiful ladies at the end of the day
And they know how to show you a good time while they're at it
Is more of a soul sucker, or the monsters from harry potter
@@pedrohenriquenunezcassiano4961 Dementor
@@mustafaozturk2542 thank you
Sir, this is probably the best review of this game on YT, and as a bonus you have the perfect voice and intonation with no insufferable vocal fry and no screaming, hats off to you.
Bruh that thumbnail crushed my soul, Duncan was my favorite person in DA:O.
I don't know if I'm spoiled by Owlcat games, but I just can't stand playing these games with unimpactful main characters anymore. Virtually every fear people had about the game being too centered on companions for Rook to be remotely interesting was realized. Hell, one of my main gripes with Inquisition was that the companions had too much of the spotlight, but at least most of them were actually good characters. Rook is way worse than the Inquisitor when it comes to that, and the companions aren't interesting enough to be the focus of the game.
Bioware used to be good at this. Gorion's Ward, Revan, the Warden, and obviously Shepard were all massively impactful and basically the vortex of their stories.
Big Owlcat fan. Is it a bit of a power fantasy in all of their games? Yeah, it’s unabashedly so, and I’m more than happy with it!
The Spirit Monk in Jade Empire was better than this, even.
Origins was the best of all the Dragon Age games.
Indeed. I miss Sten.
Veilguard made me question myself. "Was I too unfair with Inquisition? Maybe I misunderstood that game, I'm the one in the wrong here"
Fuck you, BioWare
The whole entire time I slogged through my 75 hour playthrough of this game the one thing that kept me going was that everyone even people who absolutely shredded the game like skillup said that it had an absolutely banger of a finale. After having finished it I can sadly report that this is not the case. It’s obvious that it tried(and failed) to take heavy inspiration from mass effect 2’s suicide mission. The first problem is the game doesn’t so much lower as demolish the stakes by explicitly telling you how to succeed. Your companions straight up say “complete our personal quests and make sure you’re in good standing with all the factions.” You cant even be in bad standing with the factions. There's no way to lower your rep with them by pissing them off and just doing their sidequests will easily max your rep. So if you’ve done that the sense of stakes and anxiety going into the mission are basically gone cause you’ve done what the game told you and it feels like a foregone conclusion. I remember when I did the suicide mission in my first playthrough of ME2 and I didn’t know that completing loyalty missions and upgrading the ship would increase my odds of success. Due to that I had no idea what I was in for and lost like 4 party members. It felt like I was really slogging through it and my buddies were giving their all fighting and dying against impossible odds. Veilguard had none of that. Another thing is the tone. In me2 you’re storming an an alien fortress with no real information other than its location in an uncharted region of space with no clear means of return. You’re fighting alone it’s just the Normandy and her loyal crew improvising as they go and hoping for the best. you’re fighting a foe that outnumbers and outguns you with reaper tech. In Me2 you’re storming Minrathous, a well known locale, with a veritable army made of various factions all ready to back you up.with the knowledge that Solas (a literal god) is already fighting in the city on your behalf. There’s no sense of loneliness or hopelessness or the dread of the unknown or what you’re going to fight because you have an army of super friends at your back. I will admit the battle itself is pretty epic but it has more of a charge of the Rohirim vibe and less a last stand at the black gates vibe. There are also no real ass on the edge of your seat moments. I still remember how tight my buttcheeks were clenched watching that scene where I had Tali trying to close the door while everyone desperately fought to get through and keep the colectors back. Or how epic it was when Jack got desperate and spazzed out scattering all the collector swarms with a biotic blast even though she was absolutely exhausted. Or how satisfying it felt to blow up that fucking ship that's been hounding you the whole game. It seemed like the story boards all read "oh yeah your companions are badass and they effortlessly mow through hordes of cultists before turning to wink at the camera." The whole thing just feels very marvel for lack of a better descriptor. You go into it knowing the heroes will win in triumphant fashion There’s not even any real fear of what Solas will do after the battle which should be pretty terrifying. After all he’s an ancient elven god with world ending aspirations who will have just dispatched all his rivals.But everyone keeps saying over and over and over “You just need to talk to Solas he’s not actually bad deep down he’ll come around” And lo and behold he does. Who could’ve guess it. All in all I was seriously disappointed. It’s a pale imitation of the predecessor it’s trying to emulate just like the whole rest of the game.
Then the game rewards you with some kingdom heart rejects that tell you nothing of the past 3 games matter because they manipulated everything to end up at this point. Thanks bioware
@@phatymcdaddy It's ok my guy the game bombed so bad there will never be another dragon age for them to ruin it further. Personally I've decided that since none of the old crew are still at Bioware and since this game was made by an entirely different group of people it can literally be treated as fanfiction and none of it is canon. That's how I'm coping at least lol.
The REAL Dragon Age Trilogy is: Origins-Awakening-Witch Hunt.
Leaving with Morrigan through Eluvian was the true ending of DA. I wonder sometimes how's my Warden doing with his goth wife.
I'd accept DA2 as charming fanfiction - not in a backhanded compliment sort of way, but one that could genuinely be enjoyed, and might even be better than a mediocre 5/10.
After that though...
@@bruhurb848 at least DAII story was properly brutal, if underdeveloped, especially Act 3.
@VerminaeSupremacy act 3 was pretty bad otherwise I think the game was pretty great! I think bioware doesn't do endings very well and hasn't since the first installment in their series.
@@ThelastofNazarick it lacked more content leading up to that for sure. Meredith was imposing villain, but I think they did her and Orsino dirty because of tight deadlines.
And you know what? I watched it on stream, and I liked Veilguardians ending a lot better, maybe on par with Trespasser, because the whole game previous to it was so, so, so infuriatingly stupid and hollow and then suddenly people started dying for a change and blood splattering all over. I still think all the Marveley moments and other stuff like blighted mage reverting from ghoulish form was meh, but if the whole game was a crazy race against time and not a helluva lot of filler quests and camping in Ferelden, it could even be 6-7/10 instead of 3-4 as DA sequel.
Yes because I have curves,boobs, and a booty and I can't even make myself. It's crazy
I can imagine it's annoying, but to be fair you're likely in the minority of what women who play games actually want.
Veilguard was heavily targeted towards appealing to women and the LGBT audience. The representation of women that these groups like is generally masculine or at the very least androgynous. Curvy characters appeal too much to the male gaze and is best to be avoided in favor of the, I guess, "lesbian gaze." They don't want you to make characters that look like yourself because your body makes other women upset.
A woman like yourself who wants curviness in games is a small minority within a small minority of consumers. Veilguard is already trying to appeal to a small minority of gamers, so I assume they went with the desires of the larger group within that minority.
@@MrFish1124I dunno, most women i know who play games like playing attractive people. Theres a large, vocal minority that wants this, the sales figures shows this.
@@MrFish1124 Please be satire
@@rustyjones7908 The sales figures are low because the target audience is much smaller than the dominant male audience for games like this. The game is unquestionably a commercial failure but sold probably as well as I'm sure they expected.
If women by and large wanted attractive curvy women characters there wouldn't be so much push back from those exact same women. Veilguard was even directed by a woman, and the people making this game openly said they wanted this game to appeal to women as a demographic. This is the game women wanted to make for other women and so they did.
I don't particularly care for it very much but that's just the facts of the matter. If women didn't want it, they wouldn't make it this way.
@MrFish1124 You're painting with too broad of a brush, my brother. Most women don't want this either.
The Veilguard should be disregarded entirely as non-canon.
This is without a doubt the best video summarizing all the problems with Veilguard in a concise but detailed way. Great job and subscribed!
Anything after Origins does not exist in my cannon😂
I'm 30hrs in and upon finding out Morrigan is the vessel for Mythal now I just sat there and just deflated. They completely assassinated my favorite DA character. Also sucks that Solas is now just dumbed down to Mythal regret. I've had no feeling other than pure apathy and disgust. Knowing what happens to Southern Thedas and the whole illuminati reveal just kills me inside. Goodbye Bioware you will noy be missed.
Her loyalty quest is literally "kill my mother because she wants to control me"
In inquisition she finds out her mother wanted her sons old god soul, & tells the inquisitor how flemeth tried grooming her for possession.
Wait until the final cinematic after the credits where (Spoilers below)
All that transpired in Dragon Age (1-4) since Ostagar in DA:O was the plan of an unknown evil mastermind 🤣
CLASSIC Bioware will be missed. Please make that distinction next time.
@@Kross415 they'll probably base the "evil masterminds" character design after Trump or Putin.
@@Kross415. That's what he meant with the illuminati reveal.
I heard baldurs gate had a uptick in players, guess every rpg player needed a palate cleanser
I myself am currently playing dao again, to be happy and experience good writing. I may even play all 3 again
The most eloquent burn I’ve watched and heard. Well done sir.
When DAI went out with its change of mood and bright graphics I was disappointed for the loss of dark. Now, even looking at one single scene of it, with its realistic characters, the dramatic musics, the great dialogues... breaks my heart. 😭
There are quite a number of newish reviewers out there praising the game, never answering questions, addressing certain problems, or mentioning why they like the game as an rpg or Bioware fan.
This time, i won't let Bioware go unanswered. The new team had enough time to develop, learn, and opportunities to improve as writers, but they are still as tactless, clueless, corporate, soulless, or heavily subjective.
Ouch you are the most tolerant, even handed, moderate reviewer and UA-camr I know… To be so mad at this abomination, I simply have trouble to believe how bad this is… a massive indictment that BioWare is , sadly dead…. Regards
15:39 It finally clicked for me, why the art style looks so familiar, when I saw this Antoir... they look like out of a Pixar movie, or something made in response to Pixar's rise in popularity. Antoir for example would fit almost perfectly into How to train your dragon.
In regards to the character creation, Bioware was known for the npcs and companions often being made from the same creation mechanic. Dragon Age, Kotor, Mass Effect, Swtor, Jade Empire, etc. So the character creation pretty much lets you know how the companions can look save a few outliers. Which is why I knew that attractive women weren't possible for Veilguard to have.
Origins story content, is the equivalent of all Mass Effect trilogy without the bad endings. A hero, from a special class, gather warriors, armies, to stop a great threat to their world. And have a great final fight, using all the resources they gathered, and a final showdow with the boss. They should stopped on Origins, or expanded the sixth blight.
This video was very good. Almost like that time that I dropped a town on those darkspawn.
Thank you for your service for getting that far
giving you a sub
I'm just glad we got bg3 last year that gives hope it's not the end for rpgs
We are all angry that our beloved story has been trampled upon and murdered. Thank you for expressing this so eloquently. Your writing style is so much better than the dialogue in this travesty of a game that I wouldn't even insult you with the comparison. Somebody collected high paychecks for writing VG, though.
I love prose and cadence you use. It sometimes feels like I'm listening to a fantasy audio book
1:30 into your video showing that "bar fight", I would have requested a refunded right then and there. That was so stereotypical and awful.
Wait… you don’t like bar fights? But they’re so cool.
"I am a woman. For all intents and purposes of the word. Other women's feminity makes me uncomfortable." Said the trans woman.
I don't remember where the quote came from, and its not verbatim, but I think its the actual notes in this game. It says everything there is to know about why you can't make a truly feminine character.
The “same” series that had me spend dozens of hours trying to unite the disparate factions of Fereldan against the Usurper only to find myself questioning the buffoon who had stood by my side as I spoke to Loghain and discovered his competence and misguided vision and be genuinely torn as to what to do since it seemed clear that Alistair didn’t want to be King? The “same” series that made me genuinely respect the Qunari Arishok stuck in Kirkwall so as to agree with him on a lot of his condemnations for the people’s treatment of themselves and others but ultimately deciding that it was necessary to put him down because Hawke had shown what hard work and risk taking could accomplish in a free society. The same that made me think of “Blackwall” as a rather bland soup only to have my notions completely turned on their head when I learned his true identity and the story that drove him to do what he did forcing me to accept that I shouldn’t take things at face value. These are but a few examples of many each game. I am one of the few that actually enjoyed Dragon Age 2 because despite its constraints and its many flaws they absolutely nailed the rivalry with the Arishok and it was a reasonable catalyst for the main theme of Inquisition. All the while you are exposed to those who are from Tevinter, some of its freed slaves and the reports of it indicate an oligarchy where magical power is the fabric of the social order there. An “anything goes, what CAN we do not what SHOULD we do” environment where life has no real value and is just a commodity. And they turned all that build up into this. What? This game is not a Dragon Age game, it’s a mediocre action game/ bad friendship simulator.
I
I completely lost interest in the game, when I learnt I can't control the party and companions can't even die in combat. How is this DA then?
RIP DUNCAN!
At least the voice actor was not forced by contract to be part of that whatever dish.
LEGENDS NEVER DIE!
I miss Duncan. I recall when I had to "submit to the taint", then I drank the dark spawn blood next to Alistair and those other poor saps. That day, I became a Grey Warden.
Literally everyone I have watched have said this game is at BEST below average. Really a shame it wasn't a send-off to the veterans. If they wanted a reboot to the setting they could have just let the veil come down at the end, making a relative clean start, or perhaps a series is not meant to last forever when there are so many choices to take into account. I wonder if this game will be a net benefit financially, because if not I see no reason why EA will let Bioware continue to exist.
It does not seem to be performing well. Wait another few weeks and we will know.
This was definitely a really weird place to try and reboot the series. This could have been a really great culmination of three games worth of decisions, story hooks, and plot beats. I'll give credit that the double blight with the last two archdemons wasn't at all a bad idea on paper.
But the way they took everything, dumped it all into a burning trashcan, and then tried to celebrate how the first 3 games and all the accompanying material was completely meaningless.
It just makes me sad seeing how little they cared about their own IP.
I can't see why BioWare would have an issue off the back of this critical success.
The depressing thing is they had plans for a five game series back when they were making origins and now that story is just completely scrapped
The only thing I have to thank Failguard for is making me replay Origins again.
While this news is hardly surprising,hearing your scathing yet poetic takedown of this game. Probably is the most fun I can get put of it.
The dialogues in this game were created for a 5 year old child.
This game is an insult to Dragon Age, the characters' conversations make you sleepy, it looks like a Discovery Kids cartoon, regardless of your choice there are no serious consequences in the conversations, the graphics are from cell phones, the combat is boring and scripted, number of skills are reduced and you cannot control your companions during combat. Now there's an icon that shows where you should go because they made this game for 5 year olds, not to mention the puzzles in this game which involve putting relics in place of another relic.
The map designs are horrible, because everything is in the sky??? and the damn colors of this game, the menus in various places are all purple and brilliant, this is not dark fantasy neither here nor in the Andromeda Galaxy!!!!
I can't get over how the bar fight in 00:40 look so comically bad. Kicking the barrel, slapping faces, bad guys fumbling around until it's their turn and grabbing arms in full swing etc. It's like a 5 year old choreographed the coolest fight they could think of.
Most videos game and movie fight scenes now days
But....but ....but Mortismal said it was his Game of the Year! Thanks for the brutally honest review - I've bought every single Dragon Age on release in the past but will be passing on this one as things stand. Honestly, unless the EA execs intended for this game to turn out like this, then i think Corinne Busche (game director) and Patrick Weekes (lead writer) should be ejected from Bioware with immediate effect. I just feel sorry for the other hardworking devs who did the environments, animations etc and have to have their efforts undermined by the woke loons running the show.....
Mortismal is entitled to his opinion but definately getting the side eye for this one lmao
RIP Dragon Age
Ah yes, Elves, the answer to all life's problems.
Andraste and the Chantry? The Maker was an Elf. The Tevinter Imperium? Elves. Humans? Elves. The Fade that connects everyone but Dwarves? Elves. Lack of interest? Elves. At least the older games left some ambiguity, letting you question who was what and what the real history was. Was the Maker real and thus made the prototypes for everyone? Were the dwarves not connected to the Fade and magic because they weren't made the same way as everyone else? Was the Blight man's fault or was it something primordial that was unintentionally released like an Eldritch plague? Nah, Ferelden was just Elves all along.
The American voice actor for the Inquisitor was so good, I couldn't stand the British voice and I'm British
He was...just incredible...then you have the DATV one...
Don't diss my man Zevran.
@@spellandshieldit’s so bad it sounds like 30 year old that hasn’t reached puberty yet
Oh absolutely. Incredible. The way he delivered lines with cotton wool in his mouth.
No. It was awful. Just like the Inquisitors dialogue in Inquisition.
But Dragon Age has always sucked for being unwilling to stick with the warden as a protagonist. Lazy and and cowardly move.
Didn’t he also do the red prince in divinity original sin 2?
Thanks for finally putting the nail in the coffin. I have been back and forth debating with myself about picking this game up. I had previously decided I would wait for a deep sale and then get it. But you have put into words exactly what I have seen from the many other reviewers I watched. I will think back, with fondness, on my time spent with Dragon Age Origins and move on to games worth my time.
25:08 right here. ever felt the impression that this game loves to fake out a rude dialogue option? the "mean" icon is there, the phrase "Pull yourselves together" implying that Rook will berate them to stop whining about their personal lives. but what Rook says is the most HR motivational speech ever. as if the game itself is correcting/railroading you.
I feel like the people who really cared about this game made the beautiful environments… and then they either left or got fired and other people finished everything else.
I don't care if Elves brought Demons to the world and creted Hell on Earth, I was an Elf supporter for all 3 games and still am.
Dalish supporter high five! Vir Enasalin!
Im just bitter we'll never get a dragon age game that focuses on The Calling. Where you play as a doomed gray warden who has felt the same thing Duncan had and now has to find one last great purpose. In the deep roads. You could go so many interesting directions. The quiet knowing of all around, "A lone gray warden, he's not coming back. He doesnt intend to."
Id love to see something like a story where the Gray Warden chooses his/her location to delve to a known Darkspawn hive, only to have a Qunari warparty pitted on the same path to eliminate the - as they know it - Ogre breeding ground. To remove a stain on the Qun.
The horrible conflict caused, the ruthless Qunari being unable to work with the dwarves or others in the area. You, the Warden, need this last run and to make your live have some meaning. Yet there's so many innocents in the Qunari warpath -- but the Qunari are going the same way you are. You could have the choice to screw over everyone else and work with the Qunari. You could try to be the hero to everyone and save them from the Qunari while making the Darkspawn fight all the harder by not having them backing you. Obviously you'd have to have the only mage companion be completely incompatible with the Qunari, they dont tolerate unshackled mages. Youd HAVE to kill them to side with the Qunari.
No. Instead of a game with so many interesting gameplay and story bits, we get this gender studies major hogwash. Meaningless trash that you play as the freaking supporting side character in your own damn story.