Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024)

I went into Dragon Age: Veilguard already half-poisoned about its preamble: my very first post about this title was way back when we didn't know much about the game and I was already second guessing most of the choices that were mentioned in passing. Turns out it was worse.

Dragon Age: Veilguard is the last foreseeable entry to the Dragon Age series, aimed at closing the circle of narrative started with Dragon Age: Origins and brought forward by Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition. It suffered a long development cycle and a long stay in hell before coming out, clawing its way through a retooling that saw the title going from live service to a narrative RPG game.

I came into Veilguard with tempered expectations because I had been witness to Dragon Age: Absolution (animated series) not too long before and felt like the writers had forgotten about the lore they had painstakingly built over three games and several novellas. Imagine my face when I found out you had to have read Tevinter Nights (novel) to have the needed context as to why things are the way they are.

The disconnect between Trespasser and the initial few cutscenes of Veilguard only served to stiffen my attitude towards it which did not go overly well when it came to Solas and his big reveal, as well as Scout Harding and her own big reveal (which throws, more or less, the entirety of Descent into the trash can so we can have a Special Dwarf and not just a regular one for our journey).

Veilguard simply lacks the audacity that the other predecessor had in exposing a world full of racism and overt classism, full of extremely dark deeds that were never mentioned but it has the audacity to demand that all the lore established throughout the years bends to the simplified tale that is being purported in perhaps the weakest pieces of literature associated with Dragon Age. Why are the Qunari in Antiva? Read Tevinter Nights to know. Why does everyone in the game knows everyone but you are given next to no context as to why you even want to associate with Neve (as opposed to Dorian Pavus)? Read Tevinter Nights.

Never once, if your character is an elf, are called anything but your name. Never once are the Tevinter slaves mentioned (so much so Minrathous looks like a generic Orlais if not for the dark and brooding atmosphere and some of the poorer status people) and the Venatori are now an even bigger threat for no particular reason given despite multiple snippets and Dorian himself revealing that the Venatori - ten years prior - were already in disarray and scattering after the death of Corypheus. Everything is sanitized in order to be fit into neat and tidy boxes while adhering uniquely to Tevinter Night's own canon.

The previous games, despite being a core part of why and how we got to Veilguard in the first place, are written away much like Dragon Age: Absolution did and impart little to nothing on those who are voracious fans of the series down to the novellas written post-games.

The gameplay is fine, if that's what you want to hear: it's snappy and particularly responsive, fun in some parts but overshadowed by the fact there isn't really a way to make me care about anything or anyone.

This could have been a decent Tevinter Nights spin-off, much like Tevinter Nights was a fanfiction of its own (no, it's actually not, it's a collection of stories without particular thought or care about the general world at large). Not a main series title.

@JoeyPajamas' posts reminded me about this game and decided to give it a try.

First impressions:

1. Woah, the hair in this game looks incredible.
2. The character creator is weird. Both very extensive, with options to change body size, gender, pronouns, but also severely limited. Very few colour options, hair can only be one colour, the face UI uses this bizarre system of blending 3 faces that I just could not get a handle on. Also, the booty slider hardly does anything. In the end I'm not super happy about my character, but fortunately you can change appearance in-game, which is nice.
3. The beginning is Mass Efffect 3 beat for beat, huh? Run through linear corridors with loud booming explosions are everywhere.
4. Combat as a mage feels... not great. It's too actiony and simplified for what I expect in Dragon Age. A continued (d)evolution of the series, I guess. Dragon Age 2 moved a bit to the action genre where you performed basic attacks more often than spells, and Inquisition moved the camera even more close to the character. Now I almost forget I even have spells, since the X X X Y combo is so effective. No active pause or controlling the other characters in the party either and I don't think I can chose which enemy to target. It's not that it's bad, but just that it feels too samey; too generic. I'm willing to give it a chance, but I might see if I like it more as a rogue, though.

Jason Schreier’s inevitable DA: The Veilguard post mortem is up. Not a lot of surprises and a lot of confirmation that EA doesn’t know how to manage their studios.

NEW: What went wrong with Dragon Age: The Veilguard? Why was the writing so tonally inconsistent? Why did it feel so shallow? Why were there so few choices?

Really, after ten years of turbulence, it was a miracle that anything came out at all. This is the story.

I gotta give Veilguard props for having really cool starter armor. Usually you start an RPG in rags or plain clothes, or a vault suit, looking for the first piece of neat armor to change into.

I've found a couple pieces of armor already, but the starter armor still looks the coolest. I like the sorta vagabond knight vibe it's got going.

I'll probably find better armor eventually, but so far I'm willing to take the lower stats for a cooler look.

I felt very excited when I saw the trailer for Veilguard's release. I played all the main games since 2018, so it was thrilling to have a new Dragon Age to play. But that's exactly where my disappointment goes.

The designs were mostly cool and soundtrack was good. Didn't really like most of Rook's armor and weapon designs.

Combat looks good, but gets stale pretty quickly regarding its dynamic. Losing the ability to control the companions was, in my opinion, quite the mistake. Also, making the party a three-person team seems a cheap way of trying to raise the game's difficulty somewhat.

Keeping the maximum level at 50 seems rather pointless to me, since you can get there quite a few missions before the story's end and you keep getting experience. Leaving to the player the ability to chart skills any way you want and refunding points was a good thing, I thought, although I took no advantage of that while playing (didn't even try to specialize Rook).

Now, I think the writing is mediocre in two levels. The story is not as enticing as the earlier games and dialogues are way inferior. The dialogue issue ties in with the reduction in the party. There's almost no meaningful conversations between characters during quests, which is dumbest thing about this game since it's a Dragon Age. I mean, most of the fun comes from the flirting, the bickering, the tidbits of lore that come from the companions. And none of that exists in this game. There's something else about dialogues: there are too many of them when it comes to Rook's interactions for initiating quests. I mean, to go to a companion's quarters just for a two minute scene for a quest that ends up being just a bunch of dialogue while running around? Even if this is present in the other games, which I honestly don't recall (since I've played each one just once), I think it's excessive in Veilguard. To the point which I grew tired of the companions instead of liking them.

Speaking of the cast, I really liked Emmrich, Lucanis and Neve. Harding could have been so much cooler (and I even romanced her). Now, Davrin? Dull. Bellara? Not that cute. Taash? Felt like a teenager trapped in an adult Qunari's body. Between the griffon and Manfred, Fred is way cooler.

The romance mechanics take way too much time to kick in, by the way. At least, that was my expericence. I committed to an exclusive relationship with Harding and I thought it's crazy that there's no sex scene right away and I couldn't get one before the end of the story. And that goes for any other romantic scenes, actually. There are no opportunities to build the relationship.

Not having a New Game+ in a game that you have multiple endings is just dumb, in my opinion. Too much grind and not everyone wants or can afford to put in 90+ hours (I did, regrettably) more than once.

I was really hoping that I could enjoy Veilguard as much as I enjoyed the other games, especially the first and Inquisition.

And, finally: killing Varric? I mean, are these people crazy? That, for me, was just the worst decision that anyone could make for the Dragon Age franchise.

EA Thinks Dragon Age: The Veilguard Would Have Done Better If It Were Live Service

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson...is convinced the reason the long-awaited RPG sold fewer copies than the company wanted is that it wasn’t live-servicey enough.

Wilson’s answer as to “why” the game underperformed conveyed a deep lack of introspection on the effects that a long and difficult development had on Dragon Age. It also seemed altogether disconnected from the video game industry at large.

“In order to break beyond the core audience, games need to directly connect to the evolving demands of players who increasingly seek shared-world features and deeper engagement alongside high-quality narratives in this beloved category,” Wilson said. “Dragon Age had a high-quality launch and was well-reviewed by critics and those who played; however, it did not resonate with a broad enough audience in this highly competitive market.”

We live in a stupid world with stupid CEOs helming AAA studios who constantly want to make stupid decisions.

Finished this up finally! Like all the Dragon Ages, it's an odd game to evaluate holistically since it's so uneven. The characters, sidequests, worldbuilding, and visuals are all fantastic! But a lot of the core components are just okay (combat, character building, dialogue options, main story) or even outright bad (camera, loot system). And the whole game is such a direct retread of Mass Effect 2 that even the good stuff doesn't always feel fresh. Overall I had a swell time though, and it's frankly incredible for a direct sequel to turn out this solid after 10 years away.

Think it'll take me a while to form a firm opinion, but for now here's a provisional, purely subjective, ranking of all the Bioware games I've played:

1. Dragon Age: Inquisition
2. Mass Effect 3
3. Dragon Age: Origins/Mass Effect 1/Dragon Age: Veilguard
4. Mass Effect 2
5. Dragon Age 2
6. Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2