Dragon Age™: The Veilguard is a Return To Form

[Oldtimer]

Well, it's about to happen, a new Dragon Age game. All things considered and the times we live in... I'm not hopeful. I don't know much about it, but it has apparently according to a curator being stop-started several times and has some kind of mental disorder person in charge... Considering that DA:I was a woke mess as well, I honestly think this could be even worse.

[WhiteShark]

I look forward to the memes.

[Vergil]

Bioware will have its final death soon.

[1998]

So...a full reveal reveal trailer? Nice.

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

Of course it's fucking purple

[WaterMage]

Will be trashier than Inquisiton.

[nyxnyx]

we already know that the game went through development hell and swapped several leads during that course, the leaked gameplay did everything but reassure the existing fanbase with its discount God of War-like elements, and newcomers to the series will just end up comparing it to BG3 (unfavorably so, of course).

it's really shaping up to be the last game BioWare releases before EA finally pulls the plug on it (and Mass Effect along with it).

[aweigh]

we already know that the game went through development hell and swapped several leads during that course, the leaked gameplay did everything but reassure the existing fanbase with its discount God of War-like elements, and newcomers to the series will just end up comparing it to BG3 (unfavorably so, of course).

it's really shaping up to be the last game BioWare releases before EA finally pulls the plug on it (and Mass Effect along with it).

tbh it's not the possibility of playing like nu-God of War that worries me... it's everything else.

[DagothGeas5]

So...a full reveal reveal trailer? Nice.

That there says all I need to know about this so called game.

[Vergil]

Funny that we know basically zero confirmed details about this game except it will DEFINITELY have faggots in it.

[fkirenicus]

This started so good with Cailan's death because of the betrayal of his father's closest friend - and ended up in a mess with a schizo elf - "who will not be lbgtiq+ so as not to cement stereotyping" - where the story has grown so thin and incoherent it could have been the script for season 8 of GoT.
No, my hopes aren't high and I will not buy this game until my suspicions have been proven false.

[gerey]

I'm not hopeful

I have faith in BioWare, they will put CDPR, Owlcat and Larian to shame with how disgustingly woke the game will be.

I know they will not fail me.

[NotAI]

BG3: Bear sex (2023)

DA4: ??? sex (2025)

Any educated guesses about ???

[Envergence]

I want to believe it'll be at least decent and not insufferable; I want the series to close out strong. The game that started it all deserves much better successors than it got.

With the original head writers (the ones with actual talent who made the lore, not the one(s) that raped the lore) getting sacked and replaced, I'm not hopeful it'll feel like Dragon Age. Inquisition didn't. I'm just going to assume it's chock full of obnoxious millennialisms—appealing to a modern audience even more than Inquisition did—so that I'm not too disappointed and disgusted when it comes out.

[SoLong]

BG3: Bear sex (2023)

DA4: ??? sex (2025)

Any educated guesses about ???

Demon? They already did something similar-ish in DA:O.

I'm probably one of the few people on this forum who liked most of DA:I. What annoys me is that this whole LGBTWTFBBQ+ mess is now actively destroying the one thing Bioware used to be competent and even great at: Their character writing.

It's sad watch this slow, steady downwards spiral towards their inevitable demise when Big Daddy EA finally pulls the plug after one flop too many. Problem is that they're damned if they do and damned if they don't: They pandered to the Tumblr alphabet crowd so heavily they now need that demographic. And if the game really does mostly play in Tevinter then I can already imagine how heavy-handed and cringeworthy the slavery discussions will be.

And of course the anti-slavery faction won't be tiny minority despite the fact that Tevinter's whole blood magic hullabaloo, their economic isolation and the constant war with the qunari means slavery is absolutely not something they can affort to lose. On that note: It's funny how so few people point out the slavery of the qunari as something bad. I guess making the oxmen a mixture of muslims and woke communists makes them untouchable.

TL;DR: I want it to be decent but it'll take a medium or greater miracle given Bioware's trajectory. At least the trailers look nice, what little there is.

[Envergence]

I'm probably one of the few people on this forum who liked most of DA:I.

I liked most of it as well, though mods played the biggest role in making the experience enjoyable. What a hideous game, otherwise, lol. The choices we can make feel more mature and less "do you support the mean bad guys, or the poor innocent victims?" certain parts of DA2 had (I still like DA2 overall, despite the weak links). The game lets you feel good supporting the Templars. The map completion can be a relaxing, turn-your-brain off experience, and the DLCs are really good. I also enjoy being able to kill off Patrick Weekes' shitty lesbian OCs.

[SoLong]

I liked most of it as well, though mods played the biggest role in making the experience enjoyable. What a hideous game, otherwise, lol. The choices we can make feel more mature and less "do you support the mean bad guys, or the poor innocent victims?" certain parts of DA2 had (I still like DA2 overall, despite the weak links). The game lets you feel good supporting the Templars. The map completion can be a relaxing, turn-your-brain off experience, and the DLCs are really good. I also enjoy being able to kill off Patrick Weekes' shitty lesbian OCs.

...There are ways to kill off Patrick Weekes' characters? Which mod? Where? Please tell me I can be rid of the obnoxious tranny Krem without having to turn Iron Bull into a psycho.

[fkirenicus]

It's funny how so few people point out the slavery of the qunari as something bad. I guess making the oxmen a mixture of muslims and woke communists makes them untouchable.

That, good sir, is what we call 'bullseye'.

[Envergence]

I liked most of it as well, though mods played the biggest role in making the experience enjoyable. What a hideous game, otherwise, lol. The choices we can make feel more mature and less "do you support the mean bad guys, or the poor innocent victims?" certain parts of DA2 had (I still like DA2 overall, despite the weak links). The game lets you feel good supporting the Templars. The map completion can be a relaxing, turn-your-brain off experience, and the DLCs are really good. I also enjoy being able to kill off Patrick Weekes' shitty lesbian OCs.

...There are ways to kill off Patrick Weekes' characters? Which mod? Where? Please tell me I can be rid of the obnoxious tranny Krem without having to turn Iron Bull into a psycho.

I'm talking about Briala and Celene (though Celene was not his OC, merely ruined by his shitty book) in Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, if you support based Gaspard.

But yeah, it's a shame about Krem. If Bull as a Tal Vashoth wasn't more useful than his death for dismantling the Qun in the long run, I'd go for it for sure. Also, it wouldn't matter if there was a mod, because the Dragon Age Keep world state wouldn't properly reflect it anyway.

[fkirenicus]

...There are ways to kill off Patrick Weekes' characters? Which mod? Where? Please tell me I can be rid of the obnoxious tranny Krem without having to turn Iron Bull into a psycho.

On a sidenote: It's says quite a bit about the VA's acting skills; unless I am much mistaken she who voiced Krem in DA:I also voiced Deionarra in PS:T.

[Oldtimer]

But yeah, it's a shame about Krem. If Bull as a Tal Vashoth wasn't more useful than his death for dismantling the Qun in the long run, I'd go for it for sure. Also, it wouldn't matter if there was a mod, because the Dragon Age Keep world state wouldn't properly reflect it anyway.

Interesting this with Bull and Krem: in DAO you have Sten who introduced us to Qun and how it works, and he has this conversation with I think Morrigan about roles: a baker who takes up arms is no warrior, just a baker who pretends to be a warrior. Essentially, Qun teaches that people are made for different roles in life, and that pretty much never changes. This is the 'default' setting in the Qun, Sten being as default as you can (and should be) as a first character you meet representing that philosophy. Then in DAI you have this conversation with Bull - a fellow qunari - who simply brushes off Krem's trannyism as something natural - in the fucking QUN. That is a pretty wild switch from 'you are born to what you do and that can never change'.

Speaking of Bull, he does that thing where he immediately reveals he is a spy - the same narrative joker card pulled in DAO when you meet Zevran - which immediately gave DAI a lower score for me.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Bioware will have its final death soon.

I wouldn't be so sure. Isn't Bioware EA's only studio that is making high production value fantasy RPGs? Close down Bioware, and EA won't be tapping into that underserved market at all, meaning even more people will flock to JRPGs and MMOs due to lack of alternatives.

[Vergil]

Bioware will have its final death soon.

I wouldn't be so sure. Isn't Bioware EA's only studio that is making high production value fantasy RPGs? Close down Bioware, and EA won't be tapping into that underserved market at all, meaning even more people will flock to JRPGs and MMOs due to lack of alternatives.

I imagine spending zero dollars and not tapping into the market will be preferable to spending potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for yet another bioware flop plus the cost of further damage to the brand.
Mass Effect had a trilogy, book series, and (iirc) animated spin off films canceled because Bioware fucked up Andromeda so bad.

[Shillitron]

:tossed on steam with no fanfare or buzz on the internet:

Nobody cares about this game. I've heard nothing about it. There's no excitement or hatred just.. nothing. Bioware is dead.

[Vergil]

:tossed on steam with no fanfare or buzz on the internet:

Nobody cares about this game. I've heard nothing about it. There's no excitement or hatred just.. nothing. Bioware is dead.

The most brutal and graphic sexual perversion committed by Baldur's Gate 3 is hardcore cucking bioware out of their own format and fanbase.
BG3 patch notes get more fanfare than the latest entry in the Dragon Age series being officially announced. Grim.

[Tweed]

Really digging the medieval vaporwave aesthetic, you know it's gonna be a good one.

[Vergil]

I wonder if the UI will go for a minimalist look with lots of harsh edges and empty space that looks no different than that of a Microsoft Office program. Not many of those these days!

[wndrbr]

[Vergil]

I remember seeing that leak back when it came out and everyone universally saying it looked really bad. I wonder if they're still gonna go for this weird souls-lite combat. I think the game has shed an entire dev studio worth of employees since then so who knows.

[SoLong]

I remember seeing that leak back when it came out and everyone universally saying it looked really bad. I wonder if they're still gonna go for this weird souls-lite combat. I think the game has shed an entire dev studio worth of employees since then so who knows.

I wouldn't mind that as much honestly. I mostly worry how this will gel with magic usage. Because I don't play a fantasy series to not fling fireballs in every direction.

Also, Patrick Weekes (the they/them clown) is the lead writer. He did write a few good things while under the supervision of far better people such as Garrus (co-written with Marc Walters) and more recently Iron Bull. Unfortunately he also produced Krem and the paper-thin set dressing gang Bull's Chargers. I wonder if he's the poor man's George Lucas: Only produces decent things while he's under someone else's control and frequently told to stop with the bullshit.

Edit: The clown's twitter account doesn't make me hopeful either...