Topic: Dragon Age: The Veilguard

@FuriousMachine I haven´t seen the footage you talk about, since I'm avoiding just about anything regarding the game to go in as unspoiled as possible, but it sounds like standard modern BioWare writing...😂

Inquisition also had a large amount of questionable writing and a severely lighter tone than DA1/2 for most of its duration. Unlike a very tense, grounded and dramatic story like Origins, Inquisition often does feel like a saturday morning cartoon, with that huge red guy (Corypheus I think?) being the overly dramatic bad guy.
I still enjoyed it a lot for what it was, but to me the "true" Dragon Age feel/vibe lived and died with Origins.

All that is to say, I doubt you´ll ever enjoy this game if you go into it thinking it´ll be anything like 1 or 2.

I recommend playing Inquisition first. Skip the basic MMO tier side content and just go through the story. Then it´ll probably put things into perspective for Veilguard😂

@Khwarezm89 I am still genuinely looking forward to your first impressions and feelings as you go along in the game (even though you switched Avatars from Geralt to Varric, which is almost a crime. Man, I just do not gel with Varric 😅) It's a game I still really want to like, and that I want to get swept up by the release buzz and all that jazz. I believe it has a good character creator, so maybe they should have released that early like Capcom did with DD2 as I do love a good character creator, it's probably my biggest gaming weakness, and it might have just convinced me to buy the game at launch, regardless.

I think another issue for me is I've only played Inquisition, and I never finished it as it just got too drawn out with the quest table sending you to random zones and meaningless padding. Although I generally know the story and what happened with Solas.

Maybe this one being on rails to some extent will help with that 🤷‍♂️

@Ravix Apart from maybe the example of the purple and the backlit hair, I don't feel The Marvels (which I liked, btw) is an apt comparison. Firstly, the target audience here is clearly understood and considering what came before, especially with Kamala Khan's series, the tone here should not come as a big surprise. I had fun with it. It also actually feels more adult in tone than what I've seen of the Veilguard, and that's saying something. Seeing the frankly juvenile tone in the interactions on display in Veilguard feels to me like it would feel like if somebody decided to take the tone of The Marvels and make a Godfather movie in that vein.

@Pizzamorg @Khwarezm89 The Mass Effect series are my all time favourite games bar none and if they pull off this level of writing in the next Mass Effect game I will be absolutely livid! Luckily, Gamble just recently, very diplomatically, stated that ME will be more serious in tone, so hopefully we won't have a main character who will need to settle arguments among companions on what to pack for a picnic.

Now, I will stop dumping on this game and I truly hope that most of you will get tons of enjoyment out of it, but it is simply not for me

@FuriousMachine I don't actually mind Kamala Khan or the tone, tbh, and I was happy enough to sit through it for a fair way (I do pride myself on being able to get enjoyment out of anything by suspending disbelief) I think it was by the time it got to the singing language that I was starting to zone out, and then I also felt the actual stakes were relatively low, or maybe just a half baked story overall, and I didn't care about any of the subsequent action enough to fight back the Z's. Something didn't quite click, and it's the same feeling with what I've seen of this DA game, all style no substance and lacking a real creative vision or driving force in favour of cheap mimicry.

I do think there is a weird trend in fantasy games and media where writers think copying Marvel will mean they have a blockbuster franchise ready to sell to the millions, and it doesn't really convert to fantasy like that. Marvel is Marvel, for better and for worse, but Marvel ain't Medieval High Fantasy, and Medieval High Fantasy ain't Marvel as far as I'm concerned. Even though I enjoy 80% of Marvel, to an extent, and I used to be more into it when it was kind of fresh, I don't think it's quippy self aggrandising style really translates into anything else, be it crime fiction or high fantasy. I mean, even modern Star Wars is directly influenced by Marvel's success to wildly varying results.

But I digress, and also hope that people get plenty of enjoyment out of DA:TV. And maybe one day it will surprise me. Maybe it's a game to played when slightly drunk 😅

@Ravix Yeah, I think you're absolutely right there and I think everyone should stop trying to "be Marvel" (I even think Marvel should stop trying to be Marvel, but the fans won't let them, which is why they keep reverting to the same old hits). And as to your other point, I'd say more than slightly; completely sloshed will probably be necessary

@FuriousMachine It's fine that the game is not for you and I 100% respect your opinion. What're you playing nowadays?

@Ravix Geralt is my all time favorite protagonist so that won't change since I put Varric's photo xD . I just really liked the shot and Varric is my favorite character in DA series. He reminds me of Dandelion in Witcher.

I'll have some first impressions here after the weekend for DA and I hope it won't disappoint me. It has been a tough month for me on personal level and I hope the game helps me to escape what I'm facing IRL.

@Khwarezm89 yeah, man. Get as much enjoyment as possible out of it. It seemed quite Varric heavy from the preview so it should be an ideal escape for you.

I'm even tempted to buy it now as it looked absolutely gorgeous in the Digital Foundry tech review, and the "anti woke" brigade are jumping all over it to complain in every way possible so I just feel like now doing the opposite of those grumpy hateful c***s who clearly don't play fantasy RPGs anyway 😄 but I must focus on finishing TLoU and Hogwarts Legacy before getting sidetracked by a massive new RPG.

Although... I do love RPGs... 😅

If you've not played BG3 yet, I'd highly recommend that too, very easy to get lost in that world, and it is very cathartic.

Will your DA character be a kind of amalgamation of game/movie/book characters you like, or something wildly different? I'd love to see them when you've designed them. It's a great way to get the community invested in sharing in the newest games too, the forums here had some great interactions when BG3 and DD2 were out, and it all started with the character design phase 😄