It's crazy how you can play small parts of a game over the course of a couple years, even enjoy the preview event, then find the final game disappointing. It just goes to show you don't really know how you're going to like something until you play the final product 😢
I saw your video on stalker and i think you missed out on quite literally the best game ever made. (it beats all triple a games in quality basically) However, I am not talking about the original trilogy, I am talking about modded stalker, if your actually interested go to operator drewski's channel and look at his videos introducing stalker gamma, I think you love it and don't want you to dismiss the stalker universe because it's ALOT more than just the trilogy. Also, 4 days from now (as of comment) stalker 2 will come out, it won't be quite like gamma, but could offer a better platform for modding (I don't know why I got off on that tangent lol)
I'm definitely one of the people that was super excited for Veilguard. Despite my worries, I genuinely thought Bioware was going to pull through and deliver a GOTY. Sadly that was not the case. At least we still have the older games, eh?
A little sidenote for the city elf origin story. If you unequip the weapons and change your clothes (no blood visible) the guardsmen will play a game of dice and command you to pour them drinks. You can then give them poisoned drinks killing them all in an instant. This can be done for the male AND female city elf. A nice little touch if you ask me
You can also keep stuff you steal out of the basement of the Mage Tower if it isn't equipped. Sure, the entire wizard staff you steal isn't amazing but it is a tiny bit stronger than your starting staff.
Waking up the guard sleeping at his post just to Murder Knife him and get the concerned commentary from the cousin elf was the best option in that start
David Gaider was one of the lead writers of Bioware until 2016 when he left the company and he was the creator of the Dragon Age universe and lead writer for all DAO, DA2 and DAI. He made the following post online about him leaving the company years back: "Writing is one of those disciplines which is constantly undervalued. It's something that everyone thinks they can do ("I can write a sentence! I know what story is!"), and frankly the difference between good and bad writing is lost on many, anyhow. So why pay much for it, right? In games, you even see this attitude among those who want to get into the field. "I don't have any REAL skills... I can't art, I can't program, so I guess I'll become a writer? It's better than QA!" As if game writing didn't require any actual skill which requires development. Even BioWare, which built its success on a reputation for good stories and characters, slowly turned from a company that vocally valued its writers to one where we were... quietly resented, with a reliance on expensive narrative seen as the "albatross" holding the company back. Maybe that sounds like a heavy charge, but it's what I distinctly felt up until I left in 2016. Suddenly all anyone in charge was asking was "how do we have LESS writing?" A good story would simply happen, via magic wand, rather than be something that needed support and priority."
@@ArcaneTuber Can you link this? I googled it but only found a reddit post about him saying he does not want to play it due to not wanting to know whether it's good or bad because it would be hard either way. Which is an entirely understandable take.
@@monozuki He tweeted about it and there were articles written about it as well as youtube videos. If they're gone, it was actively censored off the internet by the wokie machine trying to pretend this game was good.
@@Adanu191 Yeah, was able to find one later on, hence my second reply above. To me, he simply misunderstands - whether intentionally or not - the difference between inclusivity and "wokeness".
In DAO Duncan kills Jory to keep the joining ritual a secret. In DAV Davrin just spills it randomly in banter with Taash, and shrugs when called out on it.
@@Dip-z8q And I always believed he did it because they were technically using a blood magic ritual, something the Chantry would have taken exception at, that Jory was killed.
@@bronzin1445 also, you can do everything in the game in roughly 50 hours. every single minute of it is 10/10. baldurs gate 3 may be better (to me) but man, its a game i can and will only play once every year or so, but origins you can fire up and knock out a full playthrough in about a week of off and on playing. BG3 is amazing for it scope beign so big but origins is also great for the same reason, its a fraction of the play time but every second is perfection
I will never understand this love for Dragon Age - Origins to be honest. While it has been years and years that I have played it, I have never been as frustrated with any other RPG. Mostly because of the unending amount of trash encounters in multiple areas and the game obviously trying to stretch its playtime without putting in much effort into encounter design. There was little narrative content in those areas with almost all of it being concentrated in the adjacent hub. The result was really bad pacing.
@@burningsheep4473 I mean, nostalgia is powerful. We are talking about a 16 year old game that was loved and the spiritual successor to baldur's gate 2. It is an RPG created in a time where there wasn't many of them available to play. 2007-2010 was a very different time for gaming and origins really stood out to the competition. I played something like 250-500 hours of it and it is in my top 10 of all time. But if you compare all its systems to some newer better ones it is definitely dated.
Crazy to me that if you play as Female City Elf, YOUR the one that gets grabbed and play the map basically backwards. That art style pic that shows the elven bride with a scowl and knife. Ya...that's you basically if you do that Origin start.
imo, that is the best way to play if you are playing city elf. but yea, this one is some of the darkest prologue right beside dwarven noble (fratricide or accused of one) or the human noble (generic human turn hero king/queen) in origin.
I was going to mention that the city elf origin is such a stunning example of something game devs/pubs are simply afraid to do today. Especially as a female PC. I thought it was really cool, personally, having a game throw challenging content like that at me right out the gate. It's sad how the AAA industry has fallen in the last couple decades.
Female city elf is my favorite origin. If you want to roleplay an extremely cynical and ruthless character this is honestly the most fitting start for them.
@@asrafkhalid1231 The dwarf commoner origin is also quite bleak. Working for the mob while residing in the slums. One of the artisan caste dwarfs blatantly offers to purchase your healthy teeth in order to produce prosthesis for the rich. Oh and let's not forget that you are p*i*m*p*ing off your half-sister to a noble.
@@asrafkhalid1231 Dwarf commoner is quite bleak too. Living in the slums, working as a mob enforcer, selling your sister, trying to sell your own teeth for a prosthesis.
Origins was a masterpiece. It's heartbreaking they were never able to reach these heights ever again. That was peak Bioware and it's been downhill ever since.
@@ParanoidAandroid For me personally I think their best work ever is KOTOR and BG, but DA:O is also way up there. To think they could go from that to this.
We may see these king of writing but from independant writers who're not under the influence of corporates interested in profits. But I agree, it's sad to see Dragon Age fall from grace.
The difference between origins and Veilguard is astronomical. Imagine Lothering. Literally nothing but agony, pain and fear no matter where you go. Chantry being basically overworked to the bone, doomsayers making everyone feel depressed and scared, people getting mugged in broad daylight, massive spiders literally just around the corner praying on humans, a child waiting for mother that will never return, elven family not having anywhere to go, caged qunari waiting for death, opportunistic traders taking advantage of the poor, locals foolishly believing they can defend themselves with few traps, All this in one small area of the map. And you know what's most depressing? That you can actually help some of these people out, but it won't matter anyway because the blight will sweep through them anyway. THIS is the difference between Origins and Failguard. Origins actually had balls to show some really difficult imagery, meanwhile Veilguard is too afraid to let people call someone an idiot.
Just think of the consequences that come with failing to help out Redcliffe as well. All those people perish if you decide to leave the map and travel elsewhere.
Turn an entire town to zombies, blood sacrifice a mother, bang a demon, stab a child. And that's just half of one quest line (Origins really is the best)
Id say the theme is less important if the writing was good. Even if Veilguard was “dark fantasy” it would have still be trash if the writing was the same.
@@bronzin1445 Honestly, when I read a lot of complaints about Ashley from Mass Effect, how people complain that she's racist towards aliens (when she's not and just doesn't trust them and explains why), I honestly start to doubt that modern gamers would be able to handle Origins. BioWare seems to cater to people who live in a toxic positive bubble where everyone is friendly to each other, barely argues, and if they do argue, they quickly abandon all their arguments and say they shouldn't be arguing in the first place lol.
@@ljp400 Let's add another one, one can see the similarty between DA:O "The Fade" and Warhammer's "The Warp". That was my first thought when I played the game on release.
Origin's best feature had to truly be allowing you to make a custom character portrait on the side. Just make yourself menacing with a red background on evil playthroughs
I remember playing the City Elf origin for the first time and thinking, "No storyteller today would have the balls to put this into their RPG game." It was simple, but genuinely impressive.
Veilguard even made me appreciate DA2 more. I especially loved how much my companions despised each other, after Veilguard made me hate the word 'team'.
@sergiosanchez3344 I'd rather give Dragon Age 2 a couple replays instead of give Veilguard a second play through, I'm just so disappointed in almost every bit of it..scenes and graphics are fantastic though. I can't say a bad thing there 👌
Part of the fun of playing as a really morally upstanding protagonist in an RPG is that I know there are other options that might be tempting, whether they're easier or more satisfying in the short term. It's almost like a self-imposed challenge. Without those options it's just lame and boring.
@@johannesseyfried7933 The best part is when you play good guy, but this one section / character really crosses (you)r character's line, so you drop all moral grandstanding, and make them drink their own medicine by steel.
When doing DLC of Deus Ex Human Revolution I was surprised and happy when antagonist mentioned that my Jenses didn't kill anyone so far and that is exactly why they should be wary of him - since he didn't took the easy way of shooting and killing. Gun blazing would often be so much easier but it was that one line that justified my playstyle for that whole playthrough. I also liked how you weren't locked out of most renegade options in ME and despite ending up a Paragon, my Shepard wasn't afraid to punch the annoying journalist. Twice.
All of the openings in this game for all races and classes are sick as hell. Mages with demons and blood magic, Human nobles with Red Wedding vibes, Elves with ancient mystic artifacts and racist themes, Dwarf with cool taste of royalty and betrayal.
I will always remember the Mage origin. The fade seemed like such a simple trap that you think 'I'd never fall for that!' and then thanks to clever writing you absolutely could fail the lesson in the next hour or two with Jowan's quest. The line 'True tests never end' and that starting Origin really influenced my entire run through the game.
I didn´t fail Jowan test, i let him scaped willingly and learn blood magic the first chance i got. The chantry and the templars were tyrants and i want nothing with them.
@mykra9905 DAO demons actually felt like demons. Not just regular mobs to kill. They confused you, tricked you, earned your sympathy. They were a test of the mind, they made you put in an effort to read between the lines The closest thing to a DAO demon in veilguard is Solas for a couple of times.
It did bother me that nothing ever came of that "True tests never end" line. Everytime I went back into the Fade I expected an additional challenge beyond what the non-mage characters would face and it never bore fruit
@@prastagus3 the Veilguard orge is the worst redesign I’ve ever seen, they first time I saw it it reminded of that one clip of the bald dude dancing away in a night club high on drugs with his massive underbite.
I quite like the fact that you will die multiple time when facing your first ogre, but almost one shot them by the end of the game, that's what you call feeling powerful ^^.
@@markymarc12 Origins is better than ALL the DA sequels though. Why are so many streamers pretending that DA2 and Inquisition didn't already drop the ball when compared to Origins? Veilguard is a solid game. It ain't on Origins's level, but to be fair NONE of the DA sequels are on Origins's level.
@@mytotim8978 Gameplay is slick and very fun. Lots of different combat builds can be created too. Been playing on Nightmare mode and having plenty of fun. So no, you're wrong on the "not the gameplay" statement. As I said before, my favorite system by far was Origins' tactical overhead combat, but the cold reality is that DA2 and DA3 ALREADY watered the original system down. So Veilguard's slicker action RPG system works out pretty well, when all circumstances are considered.
@@AztecUnshaven I agree, the gameplay isn't bad at all. I love the dropkick in particular. Feedback is important, and it feels good to land those big hits. However, Dragon Age's primary selling point was never its gameplay. VG's devs had so little talent in the storytelling department they ignored everything else that Dragon Age had built to focus on Solas - and they failed that too. I'm quite okay with how Solas was portrayed, but what a shitty, shitty, SHITTY way to end things.
I started playing this game early this year, I've put in the hours and I'm still playing it now. Safe to say, i love this game. Never a dull moment in this game.
Some people have really really low standards. All it takes is passable combat, prettu graphics, and a some slightly emotional writing (even if it doesnt make any sense) to satisfy them. These are the same type of people that enjoy modern star wars, MCU, or rings of power.
I personally think it's the generation that grew up with fortnite and/or ipad games. They've probably never played "older" games like origins and Veilguard is their first game. Ofcourse from that mindset it probably looks like a good game because they don't know any better. And all of the official gaming journalists giving it 10/10 also isn't helping.
@@anon2752 , funny thing is you basically explained Asmongold. He gave the game a 7/10 because of the combat. He self admitted to not caring for story or good writing in a game, and even says this game was painful to play BECAUSE of dialogue and story, but still gave it a damn 7 because of "passable" combat. lmao
i got the collectors edition, it gave you a CD explaining how to play the game and how to get the Juggernaut armour and more titbits. it also gave you exclusive items only available to the collectors edition sold on pc and xbox, you now have to edit the game to get them.
I will grant that Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan felt much more threatening than Corypheus ever did, but the bad guys need to feel like something more than a caricature to be satisfying to defeat, and they were still just Evil Because. I wish Veilguard had us play out the event that got us booted from our faction before launching into interrupting the ritual.
'You cant lie to these people, they will not buy your lies' - he says after entering an off-limits area, an unknown face, armed to the teeth, splattered with blood after litterally killing the Guard at the door merely a minute earlier. XDDD
These 20 minutes of Origins are better than my 40 hours of Veilguard companions mumbling about their emotions and acting like brats. Geez, what happened to BioWare!!!!
Not only did Veilguard use nothing from any of your saves from previous games, it went out of its way to erase everything. Denerim, Ferelden, Kirkwall, etc all of it is destroyed and gone. Forever. None of the previous characters you had matter. Your journeys and battles now mean nothing.
@crimsonpotemkin Huge Dragon Age fan and I haven't played the new game and just reading that is so depressing. They had 10 years, a literal decade, to put everyone's choices into one fantastic masterpiece of a game with Solas as the Dreadwolf and when they said no decisions port over but 3 in Trespasser I couldn't believe it. So sad to see how hundreds of hours of gameplay were told that they didn't matter.
It’s not canon and everyone who played DAO knows that. There is Origins and DA2 is a nice spin off that doesn’t really matter for the overarching story. As far as I’m concerned we‘re still vigilant in peace, awaiting the next blight.
That is the purpose sadly. The original visionaries of the game are gone and the current writers are either incompetent, uncaring (waiting for the $) or slacktivists. With these people in charge the only thing the can do is "reboot" the story to their liking. They lack the will or talent of an actual competent writer that would: 1.learn the lore 2.understand where the story should go and continue it as faithfully as possible Thus they simply say "F IT" and read the surface stuff or watch a lore video until they get a semblance of an idea and go with it.
I mean, most of the social change you enforce during the first two games slowly gets undone by the time Inquisition hits (Mage Templar war for the mages, and the attacks of humans against elven settlements in the Hinterlands), but outright erasing all is depressing.
@@Cmullet33I haven't played it either as a boycott basically to stop ruining great worlds. But anyway I recently played DA2 again and actually think it's better than I remember maybe even above Inquisition which was not too bad. But come on dragon age 2 was made in about a YEAR! What do you even spend 10 years doing?!
Watching this got me so emotional. Especially that battle scene at ostagar. Still gives me goosebumps. It also made me very sad because I’ll never see a game like this again. Baldurs gate 3 was closest, but origins still had this dark fantasy atmosphere which can’t be replaced. Human noble and city elf was some of the darkest moments of the game. Thanks for the video. Brought back a lot of good memories 👍
TBF, the reason a lot of RPGs tend to make the "good" path the more fleshed out one is supposedly, some research states that more often than not, people play good characters first
@@chrisdiokno5600 Making the right decision always feels better when there's a wrong one. If there are no "bad" choices, then you're not really the one choosing are you?
@@Eggroley And that is the problem of false choice. DA:V has "choices" but long term none of them matter. A real RPG has choices and you know a character you learned about, befriended, very probably will die. Guess what few hours later you learned they died. If choices are what you have for breakfast level hard. Then it is no choice.
the writing and world building is so much better, I watching you play and I´m more invested in the story than I was for 99% of playing veilguard myself. There´s stakes and drama..the world feels alive. Veilguard was just exposition dump that lead to "go here kill x" with your hit squad or follow companion while they tell their life story. Such a waste of the talented people that did the combat and locations.
@@wingthomaux I had fun with it, and it had some variety possible late game with the different gear abilities you could lean into. Ofc course I preferred the tactical team building approach of Origins but Veilguard´s combat was still fun. What I ´m saying is the combat was not part of the veilguard problems. If it had good writing, rpg skills that could influence stuff outside combat, choices that mattered, a better narrative structure yadda yadda. It would have been a great game with the combat as it is.
It is funny to see this comment because I'm currently in my first playthrough of BG1. The text in the game sometimes is written by "professional programmers" but I still can't stop playing
Dwarven noble, human noble and city elf will always be the perfect starting point to go evil route. Everything just feels right being vengeful and angry haha.
Origins is SO much better. It was damn near a genre defining game. The continued enshittening of the Dragon Age franchise after Origins is just an ongoing rolling tragedy.
When you bake the perfect pie you use the same ingredients and measurements! Same goes with games!! if you want the same great experience people loved your going to have to stick to the same ingredients to keep them coming back . Absolutely made a whole new pie here with horribly added ingredients 😂😂
She’s actually insufferable until you give her the real book, then she suddenly speaks softly and invites me into her tent. Sad to break simpy Leliana‘s heart, but I do what needs to be done 😌
I love games with rep mechanics Cause it shows your actions matter like you cant....idk COMMIT ARSON and still be called the "hero" and good guy plus you can actually be called the villan
@@professorwright1428 that was one of the first things I heard about dragon age from the person who got me into it. "Yea you're known as a hero but if you talk to the people who actually knew you in later games, they just say 'yea I hated that guy so much.'" Honestly its reminiscent of a particular character from Origins
There are patches you need to install for the Steam version to make it work on a modern operating system. I think it was in one of the Steam forums or reviews for this game. It still suffers from memory leaks so after playing for a few hours you need to restart the game, but otherwise it'll run stable.
During my first playthrough I hated Loghain with a passion. When I played DA:O for the second time, though, I came to understand. Loghain desperately tried to dissuade the king from sacrificing his army at Ostagar, but he refused to listen. If Loghain had thrown his troops into that meat grinder too, Ferelden would have fallen that day. The only accusation that could be made against him is that he didn't take more extreme measures to stop the king before it was too late.
@brotmeister9559 Loghain is definitely a layered character. He saw what was going to happen at Ostagar and used that to conveniently get rid of Cailan. Cailan was planning to dump Anora which would have been a humiliation for Loghain, especially since it was with Celene of Orlais, a country Loghain had literally fought to be free of. That being said, once he got his hands on power, it corrupted him completely and whatever good intentions he may have had were long gone by then.
This comment only makes sense if Loghain did it in the moment, yet he didn't. He was plotting BEFORE they were fighting all of the Darkspawn (poisoning Eamon). He actively allowed Howe to attack another "greater" House, and didn't even expect his men to actually come join the fight. He knew they didn't have the numbers for a head on assault, yet lets it happen, since he wanted to get rid of the Wardens (a fighting force), and sacrifices the berserker dudes and their dogs along side them, knowing it's a lost cause. It makes absolutely no strategical sense to just YEET away man power. He's mad at Cailan potentially leaving Anora, yet it was Anora who wasn't getting pregnant, and IS AN ISSUE when trying to secure an Heir for the throne. Something he should understand. He was also supposed to have the hidden entry way from the wilds into the Tower completely closed off so that nothing could sneak up on them, whether intentional or not, and says he does this ,even though you find out he flat out didn't even lock a door, much less collapse the tunnels. Even after witnessing they have no chance with how many darkspawn there are AFTER Ostagar, he still refuses GREY WARDENS just because of where they come from. Loghain wasn't trying to make Cailan NOT sacrifice his "army", he was ONLY trying to convince to NOT BE WITH the army on the frontlines.
@@Th1sUsernameIsNotTaken You make some very valid points. I had completely forgotten about how much Loghain was sabotaging the battle before it even began.
@@brotmeister9559, yup. My issue is he is doing all of these things while thinking it's nothing important and nothing close to a blight which makes it even worse. Poison Eamon so he can try to be the only person in Cailan's ear, as he knows with Eamon around he can't control him. Uses the situation to allow Howe to attack the Couslands since they were friendly with Orlais. And before anyone says Loghain didn't know (not saying you will), there's no way he didn't. If this wasn't an actual blight, without someone SIGNIFICANT backing him, Howe would get ran through by the returning armies following their King for retribution. There's no way he just attacks on a whim. And considering this would now create a form of a civil war (the action itself is already one), now you're weakening Ferelden all the more, which makes it drastically more open to attack from Orlais...The exact thing Loghain is paranoid about. Dude lost his marbles awhile ago just based on his nonsensical decisions lol.
I have lately been watching a channel that shows how older games run so well on almost any spec. Instead of rebuying the 10th version of some old game, which lets the publishers milk us, why not just get the old game itself? There is a crazy amount of oppurtunity and possibility there and some truely incredible games. Imagine an epic collection of physical media games paired with a computer that only costs a few hundred dollars.
That's why PC gaming is so cool. You can have the best rig on the market and play the latest games on ultra settings but after finishing or not modern slop run "the ol' reliable" game from your childhood or try something new that you've missed. All in one machine. The only problem is that some older games may require tweaking and shamanic dancing to make them run smoothly on newer systems but it's rarely goes beyond dragging and dropping a zip file with fixes into the root folder
@@chrisdiokno5600 That's absolutely true, a quality remaster can completely replace the original in people''s minds because it will be the original game but simply better.
I love my physical media collection, but there are issues. Plenty of weird incompatible copy protections systems that don't work on modern Windows as well as slow transfer speeds. 16X DVD in theory is about 22.2 MB/s, but drives almost never truly hit that peak. This is where GOG is awesome, but as great as they are for what they do for compatibility, they still have the issue of games being pulled for license reasons as well as the fact that there are many games they don't have. Some games are so tied up with license issues they may never get to GOG, which makes playing them a real mission
replayed dai after my inital dav playthrough, the difference in immersion was jarring, despite the fact that the animations in Inquisition are really wonky af compared to dav. Shows how much good writing, characters and world building matters, fancy graphics alone won't carry that. I was in Haven for like 2 hours talking to everyone and reading codex entries having a better time than in any moment of dav.
I went back to Inqusition. I don't think I have played it since the DLC in 2015. I don't like it as much as Origins or Awakening but I think its still pretty fun. Went a bit too much on the open world padding though. Kind of the opposite problem I had from DA2. Inqusition still looks pretty nice graphically too.
"I hate my character." Legitimately you play someone who cannot even be mean. I think the worst thing they say is 'go to hell' to an evil blighted god intent on killing or corrupting everything in their way and used to enslave the elven race. You're not roleplaying. You're playing Rook. Even Geralt of Rivia has greater range, and he is a specific character, not one that is built. The Alienage opening. Oof, they're all kind of rough, but that one especially. Honestly, Origins is like the anti veilguard. From Rook having effectively no backstory, to Origins you play your backstory.
i 100% believe veilguard is written for people who arent even gamers, nor really care about games, they just HAD TO include modern bullshit for dumb reasons
Veilguard was written for a specific audience. The devs. They created a character that is a complete narcissist asshole because they really want to yell at everyone about pronouns and punish those who don’t comply, and made a world they want to live in, where everyone thinks they’re great no matter what they do and they never have to deal with real problems.
I will never understand why BioWare never went back to this winning formula. They have as much access to the internet as we do, so I don't understand why they never went to the Dark Fantasy archetype that so many of us fell in love with. It wouldn't even be hard if they did the same thing 15 years ago. It would be like printing money
Origins is a classic, I'm glad I got my ultimate edition on ps3, I really dig the grim darkness where you got fight to show who's big boss and you can be a snarky wise crack if you feel like it (especially to the enemies) and the gameplay is simple but still amazing
Started up origins because I don't think I ever finished it. Definitely want to play through into DA2 and maybe do Inquisition again. I will never get Veilguard because of how it just ignores everything from previous games. Also, after seeing the dialogue and combat it looks painful.
DA2 is fun and all but is blatantly obvious that it was made for the casual mainstream gamer. All the tactical gameplay has all but been stripped out in favour of a more action oriented hack and slash style. It’s not a bad game by any means but it was basically a middle finger to origins fans. Veilgaurd is a middle finger to Dragon Age fans in general
@@bronzin1445 I wouldn't call it hack and slash. It definitely has faster and more flashier combat animations, but you can still set up tactics for different situations. Sure Easy and Normal difficulties you would pretty much be fine with default settings. I always thought of hack and slash as x button to light attack and y button to heavy attack.
DAO is actually supposed to be played in the top down view for maximum tactical effectiveness. One of the reasons the rest of the Dragon Age games are not as good is that they started focusing on the third person view hack and slash type gameplay which looks prettier but isn't as tactically engaging as with a top down view. In DAO using the top down tactical mode you could control your whole party individually and have an excellent overview of the battle. The kill finishers also added an excellent touch to the combat which made your heroes looked cooler and gave a more satisfying feel to each kill.
It's so much better, I've played every class, every background (mostly a rouge dwarf noble) and enjoyed doing all the side stuff everytime! There is more blood and dark themes in one scene of Origins than all of Vailguard💀
I love Origins, DA2, and Inquisition. I wish I could love Veilguard the same way. I wanted to love it. But it’s got a lot of bad mixed in with the occasional great moments. The best thing I can say about Veilguard is that love went into parts of it, and it’ll bring new players to the other 3 great games in the series.
I started playing Origins, because I got hyped by veilguard, but knew it‘ll be shit. So yeah it worked in that way I guess. Planning on playing through 2 and Inquisition also😂
Not many new players, sold terribly and has an awful reputation so I dont see it selling any better into the future. It did remind everyone how good origins is, and made DA2 and inquisition look much better.
A game with the balls to do dark and gruesome things and is brilliantly written, versus a poorly written game that seems to be aimed at young teenagers.
Dragon Age used to be real and gritty fantasy at its best. People come in all flavors: rapists, murderers, heroes, and golden retrievers. Dragon Age used to acknowledge that and wrote that in, using it to make a compelling and realistic story. It's because of that excellent writing and storytelling, the realism of it, and just how fucked up it got, that we loved Origin, DA2, and DAI. There were times that I was disgusted, appalled, and outright furious when I first played DA:O and I still remember more scenes from that game than most other games, books, shows, or movies. There were likewise times when I was laughing so much I ended up in tears, and times when I was in tears without the laughter. Dragon Age used to be a name that was respected and loved for its grimdark fantasy and full-bore "hold my beer" type storytelling that punched you in the face with emotions of all kinds. Now? What's the worst thing you see in Veilguard? Honestly, probably just Bianca getting broken. If the vision for Dragon Age had remained grimdark fantasy instead of the current cartoony ass one, then I'd put money on saying that Varric would have died in that scene, Bianca would have been shattered and maybe a broken shard of her frame would have likewise ended up impaled in Varric, making it even more tragic. Just thinking about how good the story could have been with the right writers makes me sad, because this game has just gone and killed the Dragon Age franchise in the most tragic development ever seen in these games.
@Dankus_Memeus_II as a longtime warhammer fan, Games Workshop does not. They are slowly moving away from the core formula, art style etc. in warhammer. Been going down for a long time. Veilguard is my video game version of Age of Sigmar
I keep saying this, but for everyone who wants to replay the original DAO then you really need to download 4 mods. 1) the unofficial patch which fixes most of the known issues (crashing and stuff). 2) the dog mod which allows you to have dog all the time without taking up a party slot just like God intended. 3) Grey Warden armor since that's just about the best thing DA2 ever did. 4) the mod that lets you look like you are actually related to your family so you can pick presets that look like the Cousland and stuff.
I know, right? When you finish the veilcrap, all you're left with is a mix of resentment and sadness. Then you can't help but going to either an actually good rpg, an actually good action game or an actually good dating simulator, depending on what brought you to buy that crappy game in the first place. An people talks about "saving bioware"... there is nothing left to save
Dude, I just have to thank you personally for this video. You just gave me the spark I needed to replay Dragon Age Origins. I haven't played it since the game was first released in 2009 and now, I'm really looking forward to playing it again.
watching this is so depressing man, the nostalgia is hitting me hard and is such as shame we will never get a proper sequel to DAO. Fuck Bioware and fuck EA.
The thing is, if you're like me who exclusively plays good characters in RPGs, you'd still find the inability to be an evil character as a poor design decision. I feel robbed of agency as a player, knowing that my being a good character isn't my choice, but the devs'. To paraphrase Paarthurnax, is it better to be born good, or to choose to be good?
I just love how so many people, like myself, got inspired by failguard to play origins again. I wonder if current origins players will surpass the failguard numbers, wouldn’t be surprised.
Origins is a 10/10 for me. DA2 was pretty crap for me, but the fan base is pretty split, DA2 has quite a few fans. DA:Inquisition is great. 7/10 for me.
Remember when we said 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me', Alistair remembers. also Best tact for the first ogre is to have the party separated in the room, all with ranged/spells, while one melee runs around luring it
I just love how it has literally 6 or 7 different intro missions. I've done dwarf and human noble. It's a fantastic game, but playing it recently reminds me its really not as good as I remember in the gameplay dept.
The backstories make Origins so replayable. Playing all the different stories feels so unique and they're all so well done. My wife loves the city elf story, I personally love the human and dwarf nobles.
I've never played any of the Dragon Age games, the whole mid-evil Dungeons and Dragons vibes never caught my attention or interests, but since DA:Veilguard came out and the internet hated it, I've been seeing nothing but news, reactions and reviews about it on YT that passed two weeks. Watching someone play Origins and comparing it to Veilguard is Night and Day. Why does Origins remind me so much of Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness?
its honestly so tragic at least we still have indie studios releasing great games and studios like Larian and Owlcat to release some higher budget titles :3
0:28 you got mentioned in the credits.. that’s enough of a indicator to tell me that you were not truthful about how you felt about da as a fan from the get go, I understand you trying to like vielguard but please just please.. don’t try to play us like you’ve been with us fighting these battles for our favorite franchises just don’t. ❤❤❤
Even if he was truthful they didn’t care. Not saying that he was cuz he seems like the type of person to be overly nice just bc he was invited to the office to play it early but it basically never mattered to them any other opinions besides their own
It's crazy how you can play small parts of a game over the course of a couple years, even enjoy the preview event, then find the final game disappointing. It just goes to show you don't really know how you're going to like something until you play the final product 😢
@@jayveeeee hi
Im your new subscriber
true dat
I saw your video on stalker and i think you missed out on quite literally the best game ever made. (it beats all triple a games in quality basically)
However, I am not talking about the original trilogy, I am talking about modded stalker, if your actually interested go to operator drewski's channel and look at his videos introducing stalker gamma, I think you love it and don't want you to dismiss the stalker universe because it's ALOT more than just the trilogy. Also, 4 days from now (as of comment) stalker 2 will come out, it won't be quite like gamma, but could offer a better platform for modding (I don't know why I got off on that tangent lol)
I'm definitely one of the people that was super excited for Veilguard. Despite my worries, I genuinely thought Bioware was going to pull through and deliver a GOTY. Sadly that was not the case.
At least we still have the older games, eh?
A little sidenote for the city elf origin story. If you unequip the weapons and change your clothes (no blood visible) the guardsmen will play a game of dice and command you to pour them drinks. You can then give them poisoned drinks killing them all in an instant. This can be done for the male AND female city elf. A nice little touch if you ask me
You can also keep stuff you steal out of the basement of the Mage Tower if it isn't equipped.
Sure, the entire wizard staff you steal isn't amazing but it is a tiny bit stronger than your starting staff.
Oooh, thank you! I knew that that option existed, but if been trying to figure out how to make it happen!
I did not know that and I ppayed it for YEARS.
Played this game so many times and I didnt even know that. Time to start over as city elf it seems haha.
Waking up the guard sleeping at his post just to Murder Knife him and get the concerned commentary from the cousin elf was the best option in that start
David Gaider was one of the lead writers of Bioware until 2016 when he left the company and he was the creator of the Dragon Age universe and lead writer for all DAO, DA2 and DAI. He made the following post online about him leaving the company years back:
"Writing is one of those disciplines which is constantly undervalued. It's something that everyone thinks they can do ("I can write a sentence! I know what story is!"), and frankly the difference between good and bad writing is lost on many, anyhow. So why pay much for it, right?
In games, you even see this attitude among those who want to get into the field. "I don't have any REAL skills... I can't art, I can't program, so I guess I'll become a writer? It's better than QA!" As if game writing didn't require any actual skill which requires development.
Even BioWare, which built its success on a reputation for good stories and characters, slowly turned from a company that vocally valued its writers to one where we were... quietly resented, with a reliance on expensive narrative seen as the "albatross" holding the company back.
Maybe that sounds like a heavy charge, but it's what I distinctly felt up until I left in 2016. Suddenly all anyone in charge was asking was "how do we have LESS writing?" A good story would simply happen, via magic wand, rather than be something that needed support and priority."
@@AlisSpark Funny. It seems to me the albatross was the ship's good luck 'til some idiot killed it.
But then this year he was defending Dragon Age The Veilguard and calling people who criticize it "f***ing tourists". 😕
@@ArcaneTuber Can you link this? I googled it but only found a reddit post about him saying he does not want to play it due to not wanting to know whether it's good or bad because it would be hard either way. Which is an entirely understandable take.
@@monozuki He tweeted about it and there were articles written about it as well as youtube videos. If they're gone, it was actively censored off the internet by the wokie machine trying to pretend this game was good.
@@Adanu191 Yeah, was able to find one later on, hence my second reply above. To me, he simply misunderstands - whether intentionally or not - the difference between inclusivity and "wokeness".
0:40 Duncan's voice actor, Peter Renaday, sadly passed away just a few weeks ago. RIP
the darkspawn finally got him... a sad day indeed
I would of loved to hear him voice in dragon age one last time RIP
He probably heard about the Bharve. Maker rest his soul....
@@kvant13 couldn't deal with the Failguard
and with his passing came Veilguard? Wow, thats like a horrible foreshadowing or something.
In DAO Duncan kills Jory to keep the joining ritual a secret. In DAV Davrin just spills it randomly in banter with Taash, and shrugs when called out on it.
@@Dip-z8q And I always believed he did it because they were technically using a blood magic ritual, something the Chantry would have taken exception at, that Jory was killed.
@@ana-mariabobe1762 The only ones who'd care are darkspawn -Davrin
@@sw-gs Wow, take all the stakes out :)
@@Dip-z8q 🤣🤣🤣
Probably because the writer of failguard used Trash as a self insert and Trash is the real hero.
Origins is one of the best Fantasy Rpgs, It has brilliant narrative and world building
No exaggeration, I currently have 1700 hours on Origins alone. The replayability of this game is damn near infinite
@@bronzin1445 also, you can do everything in the game in roughly 50 hours. every single minute of it is 10/10. baldurs gate 3 may be better (to me) but man, its a game i can and will only play once every year or so, but origins you can fire up and knock out a full playthrough in about a week of off and on playing. BG3 is amazing for it scope beign so big but origins is also great for the same reason, its a fraction of the play time but every second is perfection
Still is. Also mods 👌🏻
I will never understand this love for Dragon Age - Origins to be honest. While it has been years and years that I have played it, I have never been as frustrated with any other RPG. Mostly because of the unending amount of trash encounters in multiple areas and the game obviously trying to stretch its playtime without putting in much effort into encounter design. There was little narrative content in those areas with almost all of it being concentrated in the adjacent hub. The result was really bad pacing.
@@burningsheep4473 I mean, nostalgia is powerful. We are talking about a 16 year old game that was loved and the spiritual successor to baldur's gate 2. It is an RPG created in a time where there wasn't many of them available to play. 2007-2010 was a very different time for gaming and origins really stood out to the competition. I played something like 250-500 hours of it and it is in my top 10 of all time. But if you compare all its systems to some newer better ones it is definitely dated.
Usually 1st entry in the series either didn't age well or wasn't that good.
But in case of Dragon Age 1st entry is the best one...
Hell, it’s BioWare’s magnum opus as far as I’m concerned. Better than Mass Effect and Star Wars: KOTOR
really good entry but sadly crashes a lot for me which is unfortunate cause the character writing and dialogue is just so good.
@@Daddo-Penguin you need to download and apply the 4GB patch.
@@SeventhheavenDK *sighs* if only the patch came with the game I would of known...
It's crazy I remember when everyone was hating it and looking forward to 2 and once 2 came out it's switched and orgins became legendary
Crazy to me that if you play as Female City Elf, YOUR the one that gets grabbed and play the map basically backwards. That art style pic that shows the elven bride with a scowl and knife. Ya...that's you basically if you do that Origin start.
imo, that is the best way to play if you are playing city elf. but yea, this one is some of the darkest prologue right beside dwarven noble (fratricide or accused of one) or the human noble (generic human turn hero king/queen) in origin.
I was going to mention that the city elf origin is such a stunning example of something game devs/pubs are simply afraid to do today. Especially as a female PC. I thought it was really cool, personally, having a game throw challenging content like that at me right out the gate. It's sad how the AAA industry has fallen in the last couple decades.
Female city elf is my favorite origin. If you want to roleplay an extremely cynical and ruthless character this is honestly the most fitting start for them.
@@asrafkhalid1231 The dwarf commoner origin is also quite bleak. Working for the mob while residing in the slums. One of the artisan caste dwarfs blatantly offers to purchase your healthy teeth in order to produce prosthesis for the rich. Oh and let's not forget that you are p*i*m*p*ing off your half-sister to a noble.
@@asrafkhalid1231 Dwarf commoner is quite bleak too. Living in the slums, working as a mob enforcer, selling your sister, trying to sell your own teeth for a prosthesis.
Origins was a masterpiece. It's heartbreaking they were never able to reach these heights ever again. That was peak Bioware and it's been downhill ever since.
Don't forget about Mass Effect.
@@Amaranthine1000 Mass Effect was an excellent series (up to 3), but i think nothing surpasses Dragon Age: Origins
@@ParanoidAandroidThat’s hard to gauge. Mass Effect was a damn good trilogy (we will not speak of Andromeda 😂).
@@ParanoidAandroid For me personally I think their best work ever is KOTOR and BG, but DA:O is also way up there. To think they could go from that to this.
We may see these king of writing but from independant writers who're not under the influence of corporates interested in profits.
But I agree, it's sad to see Dragon Age fall from grace.
The difference between origins and Veilguard is astronomical. Imagine Lothering. Literally nothing but agony, pain and fear no matter where you go. Chantry being basically overworked to the bone, doomsayers making everyone feel depressed and scared, people getting mugged in broad daylight, massive spiders literally just around the corner praying on humans, a child waiting for mother that will never return, elven family not having anywhere to go, caged qunari waiting for death, opportunistic traders taking advantage of the poor, locals foolishly believing they can defend themselves with few traps, All this in one small area of the map. And you know what's most depressing? That you can actually help some of these people out, but it won't matter anyway because the blight will sweep through them anyway. THIS is the difference between Origins and Failguard. Origins actually had balls to show some really difficult imagery, meanwhile Veilguard is too afraid to let people call someone an idiot.
Veilguard is made for young teenagers who love Disney and maybe confused about their identity ........
To me, Veilguard is trying a bit TOO hard to be heroic fantasy
@@prastagus3 Confused may be a bit of an exaggeration, to an extent
@@chrisdiokno5600 maybe
Just think of the consequences that come with failing to help out Redcliffe as well. All those people perish if you decide to leave the map and travel elsewhere.
Turn an entire town to zombies, blood sacrifice a mother, bang a demon, stab a child.
And that's just half of one quest line
(Origins really is the best)
Redcliffe is peak RPG.
I liked the option to talk your best friend to lose his virginity to bang a witch in a pagan ritual so she could give birth a demon god.
@@GuilhermeLPC peak dark fantasy
Yessss, not to talk about the options with the Dalish Elves and in Orzzamar or in the cult like Heaven in the mountains.
Absolute peak.
zombies? What was that quest?
Dragon Age was better as a Dark fantasy
100%
Veilgaurd: “You’re not allowed to be mean or evil”
Origins: “Those goddamn Knife-earred elves had it coming”
Dragon Age was better.
Id say the theme is less important if the writing was good. Even if Veilguard was “dark fantasy” it would have still be trash if the writing was the same.
@@bronzin1445 Honestly, when I read a lot of complaints about Ashley from Mass Effect, how people complain that she's racist towards aliens (when she's not and just doesn't trust them and explains why), I honestly start to doubt that modern gamers would be able to handle Origins. BioWare seems to cater to people who live in a toxic positive bubble where everyone is friendly to each other, barely argues, and if they do argue, they quickly abandon all their arguments and say they shouldn't be arguing in the first place lol.
The first Dragon Age is a master class in world building and storytelling. The replay value alone was unreal.
the chantry teaches us, that it was the hubris of bioware that brought the veilguard into this world...
The darkspawn used to look so badass. Like melty orcs in armor.
And used to be actually threatening and intelligent
yeah the're as fugly as the ones in the LotR Movies...^^
ironically da:o received backlash for the darkspawn resembling lotr orcs too much and was accused of just copy/pasting them
@@ljp400 I heard a little about that but tbh I never saw them as Orcs
@@ljp400 Let's add another one, one can see the similarty between DA:O "The Fade" and Warhammer's "The Warp". That was my first thought when I played the game on release.
I loved this game. Origins had crying, laughing, and angry all the way through. The best storytelling that I have ever experienced.
The Whole of city elf origins is quite grim, with implied rape for the women of the town. Games today don't really go around these topics.
TBF, it can at times be seen as gratuitious, and often tactless.
Because using SA just for the sake of traumatizing the women in your story is tasteless. I love DAO but it uses assault really badly.
@@professorwright1428 are you high?!?
@@chrisdiokno5600 lmao sounds like something a coward would say.
@@professorwright1428 whatever you say princess.
Older western rpg's had so many fun interactions. Good or bad outcomes they are fun to do.
Origin's best feature had to truly be allowing you to make a custom character portrait on the side. Just make yourself menacing with a red background on evil playthroughs
Or goofy with a cheesy ret*rd smile. The best kind of evil.
God the writing is so good...
Where I’m from we call this a “palette cleanser”.
*"palate" ;-)
@ you son of a………
I hope it was paletteable for you
I remember playing the City Elf origin for the first time and thinking, "No storyteller today would have the balls to put this into their RPG game." It was simple, but genuinely impressive.
It were the reflections of the hard realities of life within a fantasy world that made this game so great.
Owlcat have the balls to do it, Wotr and RT in lot of aspect are way more extreme then DAO, yet not unexpected from em being Russians
@@KonradCurse88 Bear in mind this was in 2010, long before WotR.
Funny how everbody is going back trying to get the bad taste out of their mouths lol
Veilguard even made me appreciate DA2 more. I especially loved how much my companions despised each other, after Veilguard made me hate the word 'team'.
And BioWare won’t learn a damn thing. I’m legit concerned for how much worse they can ruin Mass Effect after Andromeda
@@RyanBurnsRed quit the bs. Veilguard is a great game, it is always the same bs with every DA release lmao.
@@sergiosanchez3344 nah, even normies now know that the game is a poor attempt of a reboot
@sergiosanchez3344 I'd rather give Dragon Age 2 a couple replays instead of give Veilguard a second play through, I'm just so disappointed in almost every bit of it..scenes and graphics are fantastic though. I can't say a bad thing there 👌
Part of the fun of playing as a really morally upstanding protagonist in an RPG is that I know there are other options that might be tempting, whether they're easier or more satisfying in the short term. It's almost like a self-imposed challenge. Without those options it's just lame and boring.
Plus Bioware's current definition of a "morally upstanding protagonist" is pretty... specific in his inclinations, let's say.
Same. I rarely play an evil character but I at least want the *option* to be bad.
@@johannesseyfried7933 The best part is when you play good guy, but this one section / character really crosses (you)r character's line, so you drop all moral grandstanding, and make them drink their own medicine by steel.
Exactly! Just like in real life.
When doing DLC of Deus Ex Human Revolution I was surprised and happy when antagonist mentioned that my Jenses didn't kill anyone so far and that is exactly why they should be wary of him - since he didn't took the easy way of shooting and killing.
Gun blazing would often be so much easier but it was that one line that justified my playstyle for that whole playthrough.
I also liked how you weren't locked out of most renegade options in ME and despite ending up a Paragon, my Shepard wasn't afraid to punch the annoying journalist. Twice.
I love how when youre a femcity elf mc, youll be the one taken away and you have to fight your way to escape
All of the openings in this game for all races and classes are sick as hell. Mages with demons and blood magic, Human nobles with Red Wedding vibes, Elves with ancient mystic artifacts and racist themes, Dwarf with cool taste of royalty and betrayal.
I will always remember the Mage origin. The fade seemed like such a simple trap that you think 'I'd never fall for that!' and then thanks to clever writing you absolutely could fail the lesson in the next hour or two with Jowan's quest. The line 'True tests never end' and that starting Origin really influenced my entire run through the game.
I didn´t fail Jowan test, i let him scaped willingly and learn blood magic the first chance i got. The chantry and the templars were tyrants and i want nothing with them.
@mykra9905 DAO demons actually felt like demons. Not just regular mobs to kill. They confused you, tricked you, earned your sympathy. They were a test of the mind, they made you put in an effort to read between the lines
The closest thing to a DAO demon in veilguard is Solas for a couple of times.
It did bother me that nothing ever came of that "True tests never end" line. Everytime I went back into the Fade I expected an additional challenge beyond what the non-mage characters would face and it never bore fruit
Ogre's head is actually proportionate to the size of its horns, unlike in Veilguard .......
@@prastagus3 the Veilguard orge is the worst redesign I’ve ever seen, they first time I saw it it reminded of that one clip of the bald dude dancing away in a night club high on drugs with his massive underbite.
I quite like the fact that you will die multiple time when facing your first ogre, but almost one shot them by the end of the game, that's what you call feeling powerful ^^.
Objectively better than Veilguard. The Ostagar music brings back memories!
@@markymarc12 Origins is better than ALL the DA sequels though. Why are so many streamers pretending that DA2 and Inquisition didn't already drop the ball when compared to Origins?
Veilguard is a solid game. It ain't on Origins's level, but to be fair NONE of the DA sequels are on Origins's level.
@@AztecUnshaven Solid turd.
@@AztecUnshaven In what is solid veilguard? Not in writting, not in gameplay, so what offer?
@@mytotim8978 Gameplay is slick and very fun. Lots of different combat builds can be created too. Been playing on Nightmare mode and having plenty of fun. So no, you're wrong on the "not the gameplay" statement.
As I said before, my favorite system by far was Origins' tactical overhead combat, but the cold reality is that DA2 and DA3 ALREADY watered the original system down.
So Veilguard's slicker action RPG system works out pretty well, when all circumstances are considered.
@@AztecUnshaven I agree, the gameplay isn't bad at all. I love the dropkick in particular. Feedback is important, and it feels good to land those big hits.
However, Dragon Age's primary selling point was never its gameplay. VG's devs had so little talent in the storytelling department they ignored everything else that Dragon Age had built to focus on Solas - and they failed that too. I'm quite okay with how Solas was portrayed, but what a shitty, shitty, SHITTY way to end things.
I started playing this game early this year, I've put in the hours and I'm still playing it now. Safe to say, i love this game. Never a dull moment in this game.
It's literally such a night and day difference. Seeing people defend Veilguard. It's like they live on a different planet
Some people have really really low standards. All it takes is passable combat, prettu graphics, and a some slightly emotional writing (even if it doesnt make any sense) to satisfy them. These are the same type of people that enjoy modern star wars, MCU, or rings of power.
I personally think it's the generation that grew up with fortnite and/or ipad games. They've probably never played "older" games like origins and Veilguard is their first game. Ofcourse from that mindset it probably looks like a good game because they don't know any better. And all of the official gaming journalists giving it 10/10 also isn't helping.
People are basically zombies at this point.
@@anon2752 , funny thing is you basically explained Asmongold. He gave the game a 7/10 because of the combat.
He self admitted to not caring for story or good writing in a game, and even says this game was painful to play BECAUSE of dialogue and story, but still gave it a damn 7 because of "passable" combat. lmao
I remember pre ordering origins to get the cool armor. If you got it at GameStop you got an extra thing too, but I forget.
i got the collectors edition, it gave you a CD explaining how to play the game and how to get the Juggernaut armour and more titbits. it also gave you exclusive items only available to the collectors edition sold on pc and xbox, you now have to edit the game to get them.
I remember I did a run where I was a female city elf mage. Nowadays I think the kids would call that "oppressionmaxxing".
Your memory is failing you.
DA Origins: *Crawl off and die*
Veilguard: *Shock* “We would never speak to they/thems like that!
I will grant that Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan felt much more threatening than Corypheus ever did, but the bad guys need to feel like something more than a caricature to be satisfying to defeat, and they were still just Evil Because.
I wish Veilguard had us play out the event that got us booted from our faction before launching into interrupting the ritual.
'You cant lie to these people, they will not buy your lies' - he says after entering an off-limits area, an unknown face, armed to the teeth, splattered with blood after litterally killing the Guard at the door merely a minute earlier. XDDD
These 20 minutes of Origins are better than my 40 hours of Veilguard companions mumbling about their emotions and acting like brats. Geez, what happened to BioWare!!!!
40 hours of suffering, why punish yourself
Because modern writers tend to self insert way way way too often.
The old bioware is dead(
Its a new studio, wearing biowares skin, run by ideologues who want to force their view onto you.
David Gaider left. That's what happened.
Not only did Veilguard use nothing from any of your saves from previous games, it went out of its way to erase everything.
Denerim, Ferelden, Kirkwall, etc all of it is destroyed and gone. Forever.
None of the previous characters you had matter. Your journeys and battles now mean nothing.
@crimsonpotemkin Huge Dragon Age fan and I haven't played the new game and just reading that is so depressing. They had 10 years, a literal decade, to put everyone's choices into one fantastic masterpiece of a game with Solas as the Dreadwolf and when they said no decisions port over but 3 in Trespasser I couldn't believe it. So sad to see how hundreds of hours of gameplay were told that they didn't matter.
It’s not canon and everyone who played DAO knows that. There is Origins and DA2 is a nice spin off that doesn’t really matter for the overarching story. As far as I’m concerned we‘re still vigilant in peace, awaiting the next blight.
That is the purpose sadly. The original visionaries of the game are gone and the current writers are either incompetent, uncaring (waiting for the $) or slacktivists.
With these people in charge the only thing the can do is "reboot" the story to their liking. They lack the will or talent of an actual competent writer that would:
1.learn the lore
2.understand where the story should go and continue it as faithfully as possible
Thus they simply say "F IT" and read the surface stuff or watch a lore video until they get a semblance of an idea and go with it.
I mean, most of the social change you enforce during the first two games slowly gets undone by the time Inquisition hits (Mage Templar war for the mages, and the attacks of humans against elven settlements in the Hinterlands), but outright erasing all is depressing.
@@Cmullet33I haven't played it either as a boycott basically to stop ruining great worlds. But anyway I recently played DA2 again and actually think it's better than I remember maybe even above Inquisition which was not too bad. But come on dragon age 2 was made in about a YEAR! What do you even spend 10 years doing?!
NGL keeping wedding clothes next to grease trap is most Rouge-like thing I heard this year.
The humor in DA:O made the really dark scenes hit harder. It's been years since I've played, and I still can't forget the Broodmother.
Watching this got me so emotional. Especially that battle scene at ostagar. Still gives me goosebumps. It also made me very sad because I’ll never see a game like this again. Baldurs gate 3 was closest, but origins still had this dark fantasy atmosphere which can’t be replaced. Human noble and city elf was some of the darkest moments of the game. Thanks for the video. Brought back a lot of good memories 👍
How about Rogue Trader if you dont hate warhammer40K universe? or Tyranny? Both are dark, and both are good crpg
I hate forced to play a goody two shoes in a ROLE PLAYING GAME!?😑
TBF, the reason a lot of RPGs tend to make the "good" path the more fleshed out one is supposedly, some research states that more often than not, people play good characters first
@@chrisdiokno5600 yeah, but there's a big difference between making the good path the better one and not allowing anything else
Without the choice, it's not role playing, it's watching a story.
@@chrisdiokno5600 Making the right decision always feels better when there's a wrong one. If there are no "bad" choices, then you're not really the one choosing are you?
@@Eggroley And that is the problem of false choice. DA:V has "choices" but long term none of them matter.
A real RPG has choices and you know a character you learned about, befriended, very probably will die. Guess what few hours later you learned they died.
If choices are what you have for breakfast level hard. Then it is no choice.
the writing and world building is so much better, I watching you play and I´m more invested in the story than I was for 99% of playing veilguard myself.
There´s stakes and drama..the world feels alive.
Veilguard was just exposition dump that lead to "go here kill x" with your hit squad or follow companion while they tell their life story.
Such a waste of the talented people that did the combat and locations.
The combat is Hogwarts Legacy type trash and has nothing to do with RPGs.
@@wingthomaux I had fun with it, and it had some variety possible late game with the different gear abilities you could lean into.
Ofc course I preferred the tactical team building approach of Origins but Veilguard´s combat was still fun.
What I ´m saying is the combat was not part of the veilguard problems.
If it had good writing, rpg skills that could influence stuff outside combat, choices that mattered, a better narrative structure yadda yadda.
It would have been a great game with the combat as it is.
@@LP-mh6ri I disagree. Dragon age is an RPG not ARPG. Spamming dodge rolls is just not my type of gameplay.
Ngl i played baldurs gate 1 instead of dragon age veilguard and it was a far better experience.
It is funny to see this comment because I'm currently in my first playthrough of BG1. The text in the game sometimes is written by "professional programmers" but I still can't stop playing
@Chasodey yeah it is my first play as well although I'm playing it on phone so it gets annoying sometimes.
ofc it was, how dare u compare it
@@peasantofpersia I'm having no troubles on PC and it's easier to have proper controls for all the party members
Savor your first time with that game it’s a great experience and an amazing rpg
Dwarven noble, human noble and city elf will always be the perfect starting point to go evil route. Everything just feels right being vengeful and angry haha.
The Dalish elf too.
And any mage variant. Honetly, every origin gives you reasons to become vengeful.
@@NaoyaYami mage is more open to whatever role you wanna pick. The other race is more situational specially the ones in the cities lol.
Origins is SO much better. It was damn near a genre defining game. The continued enshittening of the Dragon Age franchise after Origins is just an ongoing rolling tragedy.
When you bake the perfect pie you use the same ingredients and measurements! Same goes with games!! if you want the same great experience people loved your going to have to stick to the same ingredients to keep them coming back . Absolutely made a whole new pie here with horribly added ingredients 😂😂
Morrigan my beloved ❤
She’s actually insufferable until you give her the real book, then she suddenly speaks softly and invites me into her tent. Sad to break simpy Leliana‘s heart, but I do what needs to be done 😌
@@wingthomaux The funniest thing is when Morrigan invites you
"It is so cold in my tent all alone"
"Then get a thicker blanket!"
I love games with rep mechanics
Cause it shows your actions matter like you cant....idk COMMIT ARSON and still be called the "hero" and good guy plus you can actually be called the villan
You actually can do horrific things in DAO and still be called a hero. It doesn't change anything really.
@@professorwright1428 still like rep systems
@@professorwright1428 that was one of the first things I heard about dragon age from the person who got me into it. "Yea you're known as a hero but if you talk to the people who actually knew you in later games, they just say 'yea I hated that guy so much.'" Honestly its reminiscent of a particular character from Origins
I remember when i played this game, i think i started new characters to play all the possible starts!
23:55 Wow using strategy and tactics to ovecome hard challenges instead of dodge rolling and one man armying your way through combat.
There are patches you need to install for the Steam version to make it work on a modern operating system. I think it was in one of the Steam forums or reviews for this game. It still suffers from memory leaks so after playing for a few hours you need to restart the game, but otherwise it'll run stable.
Playing DAO again for the last week or so. It's just astounding how good the writing is and how deep the lore goes compared to what we get today.
During my first playthrough I hated Loghain with a passion. When I played DA:O for the second time, though, I came to understand.
Loghain desperately tried to dissuade the king from sacrificing his army at Ostagar, but he refused to listen. If Loghain had thrown his troops into that meat grinder too, Ferelden would have fallen that day.
The only accusation that could be made against him is that he didn't take more extreme measures to stop the king before it was too late.
@brotmeister9559 Loghain is definitely a layered character. He saw what was going to happen at Ostagar and used that to conveniently get rid of Cailan. Cailan was planning to dump Anora which would have been a humiliation for Loghain, especially since it was with Celene of Orlais, a country Loghain had literally fought to be free of. That being said, once he got his hands on power, it corrupted him completely and whatever good intentions he may have had were long gone by then.
This comment only makes sense if Loghain did it in the moment, yet he didn't.
He was plotting BEFORE they were fighting all of the Darkspawn (poisoning Eamon). He actively allowed Howe to attack another "greater" House, and didn't even expect his men to actually come join the fight. He knew they didn't have the numbers for a head on assault, yet lets it happen, since he wanted to get rid of the Wardens (a fighting force), and sacrifices the berserker dudes and their dogs along side them, knowing it's a lost cause. It makes absolutely no strategical sense to just YEET away man power.
He's mad at Cailan potentially leaving Anora, yet it was Anora who wasn't getting pregnant, and IS AN ISSUE when trying to secure an Heir for the throne. Something he should understand.
He was also supposed to have the hidden entry way from the wilds into the Tower completely closed off so that nothing could sneak up on them, whether intentional or not, and says he does this ,even though you find out he flat out didn't even lock a door, much less collapse the tunnels.
Even after witnessing they have no chance with how many darkspawn there are AFTER Ostagar, he still refuses GREY WARDENS just because of where they come from.
Loghain wasn't trying to make Cailan NOT sacrifice his "army", he was ONLY trying to convince to NOT BE WITH the army on the frontlines.
@@Th1sUsernameIsNotTaken You make some very valid points. I had completely forgotten about how much Loghain was sabotaging the battle before it even began.
@@brotmeister9559, yup. My issue is he is doing all of these things while thinking it's nothing important and nothing close to a blight which makes it even worse.
Poison Eamon so he can try to be the only person in Cailan's ear, as he knows with Eamon around he can't control him.
Uses the situation to allow Howe to attack the Couslands since they were friendly with Orlais.
And before anyone says Loghain didn't know (not saying you will), there's no way he didn't. If this wasn't an actual blight, without someone SIGNIFICANT backing him, Howe would get ran through by the returning armies following their King for retribution. There's no way he just attacks on a whim.
And considering this would now create a form of a civil war (the action itself is already one), now you're weakening Ferelden all the more, which makes it drastically more open to attack from Orlais...The exact thing Loghain is paranoid about. Dude lost his marbles awhile ago just based on his nonsensical decisions lol.
I have lately been watching a channel that shows how older games run so well on almost any spec. Instead of rebuying the 10th version of some old game, which lets the publishers milk us, why not just get the old game itself? There is a crazy amount of oppurtunity and possibility there and some truely incredible games. Imagine an epic collection of physical media games paired with a computer that only costs a few hundred dollars.
That's why PC gaming is so cool. You can have the best rig on the market and play the latest games on ultra settings but after finishing or not modern slop run "the ol' reliable" game from your childhood or try something new that you've missed. All in one machine. The only problem is that some older games may require tweaking and shamanic dancing to make them run smoothly on newer systems but it's rarely goes beyond dragging and dropping a zip file with fixes into the root folder
TBF, remasters and the like CAN add some good QoL improvements
@@chrisdiokno5600 That's absolutely true, a quality remaster can completely replace the original in people''s minds because it will be the original game but simply better.
I love my physical media collection, but there are issues. Plenty of weird incompatible copy protections systems that don't work on modern Windows as well as slow transfer speeds. 16X DVD in theory is about 22.2 MB/s, but drives almost never truly hit that peak. This is where GOG is awesome, but as great as they are for what they do for compatibility, they still have the issue of games being pulled for license reasons as well as the fact that there are many games they don't have. Some games are so tied up with license issues they may never get to GOG, which makes playing them a real mission
Origins with some mods to get some better looking clothes and armour and making the qunari look cooler is just perfect
I played Dragon Age Inquisition recently! Very nice game but not as brilliant as DA Origins!
yeah i was considering getting it because sony doesn't have the earlier games before it and i don't trust my pavilion to run the game smoothly
Still way better than Veilguard. I'm glad I didn't fall for the false hype around it.
replayed dai after my inital dav playthrough, the difference in immersion was jarring, despite the fact that the animations in Inquisition are really wonky af compared to dav. Shows how much good writing, characters and world building matters, fancy graphics alone won't carry that. I was in Haven for like 2 hours talking to everyone and reading codex entries having a better time than in any moment of dav.
I went back to Inqusition. I don't think I have played it since the DLC in 2015. I don't like it as much as Origins or Awakening but I think its still pretty fun. Went a bit too much on the open world padding though. Kind of the opposite problem I had from DA2. Inqusition still looks pretty nice graphically too.
@@SuuuBwhen you call DAI good, pls just get Origins, you’ll be blown away by the intro stories alone.😊
"I hate my character." Legitimately you play someone who cannot even be mean. I think the worst thing they say is 'go to hell' to an evil blighted god intent on killing or corrupting everything in their way and used to enslave the elven race. You're not roleplaying. You're playing Rook. Even Geralt of Rivia has greater range, and he is a specific character, not one that is built.
The Alienage opening. Oof, they're all kind of rough, but that one especially. Honestly, Origins is like the anti veilguard. From Rook having effectively no backstory, to Origins you play your backstory.
i 100% believe veilguard is written for people who arent even gamers, nor really care about games, they just HAD TO include modern bullshit for dumb reasons
Veilguard was written for a specific audience. The devs. They created a character that is a complete narcissist asshole because they really want to yell at everyone about pronouns and punish those who don’t comply, and made a world they want to live in, where everyone thinks they’re great no matter what they do and they never have to deal with real problems.
An excellent description of The Modern Audience.
Nice editing and narration. Would like a full playthrough
I will never understand why BioWare never went back to this winning formula. They have as much access to the internet as we do, so I don't understand why they never went to the Dark Fantasy archetype that so many of us fell in love with. It wouldn't even be hard if they did the same thing 15 years ago. It would be like printing money
Origins is a classic, I'm glad I got my ultimate edition on ps3, I really dig the grim darkness where you got fight to show who's big boss and you can be a snarky wise crack if you feel like it (especially to the enemies) and the gameplay is simple but still amazing
I understand how you feel sadly my dad doesn't see it yet he hasn't played fail guard yet
Started up origins because I don't think I ever finished it. Definitely want to play through into DA2 and maybe do Inquisition again. I will never get Veilguard because of how it just ignores everything from previous games. Also, after seeing the dialogue and combat it looks painful.
DA2 is fun and all but is blatantly obvious that it was made for the casual mainstream gamer. All the tactical gameplay has all but been stripped out in favour of a more action oriented hack and slash style.
It’s not a bad game by any means but it was basically a middle finger to origins fans. Veilgaurd is a middle finger to Dragon Age fans in general
@@bronzin1445 spot on
@@bronzin1445 I wouldn't call it hack and slash. It definitely has faster and more flashier combat animations, but you can still set up tactics for different situations. Sure Easy and Normal difficulties you would pretty much be fine with default settings. I always thought of hack and slash as x button to light attack and y button to heavy attack.
@@bronzin1445 You can turn on auto attack for DA2 and then it is exactly the same as Origins combat
DAO is actually supposed to be played in the top down view for maximum tactical effectiveness. One of the reasons the rest of the Dragon Age games are not as good is that they started focusing on the third person view hack and slash type gameplay which looks prettier but isn't as tactically engaging as with a top down view.
In DAO using the top down tactical mode you could control your whole party individually and have an excellent overview of the battle. The kill finishers also added an excellent touch to the combat which made your heroes looked cooler and gave a more satisfying feel to each kill.
To be fair Inquisition also had its own version of tactical mode that I personally never used that much.
@craignellist7277 yeah but it was kind of half baked in comparison to DAO's tactical mode. That's why almost no one bothered to use it.
@ that’s true, still more than anything they did in Veilguard
@@craignellist7277 Failguard is a total disaster.
@ very true, honestly they should have just called it Dragon Age: The Retcon
It's so much better, I've played every class, every background (mostly a rouge dwarf noble) and enjoyed doing all the side stuff everytime! There is more blood and dark themes in one scene of Origins than all of Vailguard💀
I love Origins, DA2, and Inquisition. I wish I could love Veilguard the same way. I wanted to love it. But it’s got a lot of bad mixed in with the occasional great moments. The best thing I can say about Veilguard is that love went into parts of it, and it’ll bring new players to the other 3 great games in the series.
I started playing Origins, because I got hyped by veilguard, but knew it‘ll be shit. So yeah it worked in that way I guess. Planning on playing through 2 and Inquisition also😂
Not many new players, sold terribly and has an awful reputation so I dont see it selling any better into the future. It did remind everyone how good origins is, and made DA2 and inquisition look much better.
A game with the balls to do dark and gruesome things and is brilliantly written, versus a poorly written game that seems to be aimed at young teenagers.
I play DA:O every year or two, so great.
I miss this Dragon age
Why couldn’t they just remake this game with better graphics and the same story I would’ve bought 100 times over
I love how Duncan just didn't mess around, that initiation was so epic the first time around and seeing this I kind of want to play it again
Dragon Age Origins was the best. To be fair to Veilguard they progressively got worse after the first one.
Dragon Age used to be real and gritty fantasy at its best. People come in all flavors: rapists, murderers, heroes, and golden retrievers. Dragon Age used to acknowledge that and wrote that in, using it to make a compelling and realistic story. It's because of that excellent writing and storytelling, the realism of it, and just how fucked up it got, that we loved Origin, DA2, and DAI. There were times that I was disgusted, appalled, and outright furious when I first played DA:O and I still remember more scenes from that game than most other games, books, shows, or movies. There were likewise times when I was laughing so much I ended up in tears, and times when I was in tears without the laughter. Dragon Age used to be a name that was respected and loved for its grimdark fantasy and full-bore "hold my beer" type storytelling that punched you in the face with emotions of all kinds.
Now? What's the worst thing you see in Veilguard? Honestly, probably just Bianca getting broken. If the vision for Dragon Age had remained grimdark fantasy instead of the current cartoony ass one, then I'd put money on saying that Varric would have died in that scene, Bianca would have been shattered and maybe a broken shard of her frame would have likewise ended up impaled in Varric, making it even more tragic. Just thinking about how good the story could have been with the right writers makes me sad, because this game has just gone and killed the Dragon Age franchise in the most tragic development ever seen in these games.
I wish dragon age kept its identity like Warhammer did.
Dont worry, theyre working on sanitizing warhammer.
@Dankus_Memeus_II as a longtime warhammer fan, Games Workshop does not. They are slowly moving away from the core formula, art style etc. in warhammer. Been going down for a long time.
Veilguard is my video game version of Age of Sigmar
I keep saying this, but for everyone who wants to replay the original DAO then you really need to download 4 mods.
1) the unofficial patch which fixes most of the known issues (crashing and stuff).
2) the dog mod which allows you to have dog all the time without taking up a party slot just like God intended.
3) Grey Warden armor since that's just about the best thing DA2 ever did.
4) the mod that lets you look like you are actually related to your family so you can pick presets that look like the Cousland and stuff.
I know, right? When you finish the veilcrap, all you're left with is a mix of resentment and sadness. Then you can't help but going to either an actually good rpg, an actually good action game or an actually good dating simulator, depending on what brought you to buy that crappy game in the first place.
An people talks about "saving bioware"... there is nothing left to save
Dude, I just have to thank you personally for this video. You just gave me the spark I needed to replay Dragon Age Origins. I haven't played it since the game was first released in 2009 and now, I'm really looking forward to playing it again.
watching this is so depressing man, the nostalgia is hitting me hard and is such as shame we will never get a proper sequel to DAO. Fuck Bioware and fuck EA.
Wow! Night and Day difference in writing! Love the city elf origin
Imagine having a tactical combat and managing your party!
The graphic is so real maam. It looks really good after all this time.
Dude seriously... continue that origins playthrough. That was extremely entertaining.
2009 . May the maker watch over you
2024 . Maker's panties , i was so proud . ah shit . they they . time to pull a barve
It's a shame we'll never have a hd remaster like mass effect got. This wonderful game deserved so much more love
The thing is, if you're like me who exclusively plays good characters in RPGs, you'd still find the inability to be an evil character as a poor design decision. I feel robbed of agency as a player, knowing that my being a good character isn't my choice, but the devs'. To paraphrase Paarthurnax, is it better to be born good, or to choose to be good?
The first hour of origins is better and funnier than the entire veilguard game
I just love how so many people, like myself, got inspired by failguard to play origins again. I wonder if current origins players will surpass the failguard numbers, wouldn’t be surprised.
I'll say it once and I'll say it again: Baldur's Gate 3 is the spiritual sequel to Dragon Age Origins that we never got from BioWare
Is that captain Janeway?
It is, yes.
Origins is one of the best games ever made. True Masterpiece. Its trully sad what they did to Dragon Age.
Origins is a 10/10 for me.
DA2 was pretty crap for me, but the fan base is pretty split, DA2 has quite a few fans.
DA:Inquisition is great. 7/10 for me.
Remember when we said 'Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me', Alistair remembers.
also
Best tact for the first ogre is to have the party separated in the room, all with ranged/spells, while one melee runs around luring it
I just love how it has literally 6 or 7 different intro missions. I've done dwarf and human noble. It's a fantastic game, but playing it recently reminds me its really not as good as I remember in the gameplay dept.
I love the Gameplay in origins xD
The backstories make Origins so replayable. Playing all the different stories feels so unique and they're all so well done. My wife loves the city elf story, I personally love the human and dwarf nobles.
I've never played any of the Dragon Age games, the whole mid-evil Dungeons and Dragons vibes never caught my attention or interests, but since DA:Veilguard came out and the internet hated it, I've been seeing nothing but news, reactions and reviews about it on YT that passed two weeks.
Watching someone play Origins and comparing it to Veilguard is Night and Day.
Why does Origins remind me so much of Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness?
ive lost count how many times ive replayed this game . love the banter between morrigan and alistar
I used to dream of what they would do with new technology for games like dragon age. How did we regress to worse games?
its honestly so tragic at least we still have indie studios releasing great games and studios like Larian and Owlcat to release some higher budget titles :3
Dragon Age Origins is one of the best games of all time. RIP Dragon Age, I'm so sorry.
I pity the poor fools who's got their names in the Fail-Hard-Guard credits, tainted.... by the Blight!
origins NEEDS to be available on playstation 5 immediately
0:28 you got mentioned in the credits.. that’s enough of a indicator to tell me that you were not truthful about how you felt about da as a fan from the get go, I understand you trying to like vielguard but please just please.. don’t try to play us like you’ve been with us fighting these battles for our favorite franchises just don’t. ❤❤❤
@@jonathanray4510 um ɓro it's just a game chill
Also consider that just because one does give feedback, doesn't mean the company will listen and utilize said feedback.
What on earth is Jonathan yapping about, this is the weirdest gatekeeping comment I've read in atleast 5 minutes.
Even if he was truthful they didn’t care. Not saying that he was cuz he seems like the type of person to be overly nice just bc he was invited to the office to play it early but it basically never mattered to them any other opinions besides their own
@@Paingiver420um bro it’s just a comment chill