Veilguard completely trashes DA:O/DA2/DA:I in the end(Spoilers)

[Rain]

I tried to make it work. I have over 200h in this game. I played it from a Warden's perspective and I sat here and thought elsewhere about the lore and everything about it and I have come to one inescapable conclusion; Veilguard completely makes the entire franchise meaningless.

There are simply too many lore retcons to make this work without severe coping. I can point to several codex entries from previous games and even reference "World of Thedas" which are the official lorebooks of the Dragon Age universe and it still doesn't work if you take everything at face value. You have to argue, seriously, from several different angles to explain all of this without making everything you learn from the previous games in the franchise void and even then you would be unable to completely verify all of this because you would have to get dev confirmation.

Not only that -- but Veilguard treats the previous games with such disrespect it is downright infuriating; give or take depending on how emotionally invested you were...which I severely was.

So here is a few tidbits that left a sour taste and these are heavy spoilers.



1. Varric was killed off and this was after having such a beautiful ending in Inquisition being with Hawke. I don't give a damn if it was "done well". Seems to me that they wanted to get rid of any and all tie-ins to previous games as they could.

2. Solas was made into a spirit having mortal form which completely trivializes the entire accountability dynamic. Spirits aren't humans or whatever. They don't make decisions like you and I. They are literally and utterly tied to their current nature whether twisted or not -- WHICH IS BASED IN HOW THINGS INTERACT WITH THEM IN THE MORTAL WORLD. This was an entire f*cking questline in Inquisition for crying out loud.

Solas being prideful? Yeah, doesn't mesh. He makes decisions because of pride. That is like saying I should feel sorry for a dog choosing to eat it's own vomit. Why should I? It's a d*mn dog. Solas is a spirit and behaves like one -- not like you or me so why should I give a damn about his fee-fees?

It really insults the Inquisitor romancing Solas in DA:I. Oh, look -- your inquisitor is a moron for falling in love with a creature whose very nature changes into something completely different than the mix you had when you fell in love with him. That is b*tsh*t insane and as far as I know Rook doesn't even point this out to the Inquisitor, but can actually choose FOR her in dialogue options. WTF is that?

Makes the whole Solas ending lose a lot of it's luster.

3. Southern Thedas is practically wiped out. Denerim, Ferelden, Orlais, Kirkwall -- all of it by the end. You have only scattered pockets of resistance with a major one being Skyhold and Starkhaven.

How tripe. Guess all those years of replaying the previous games to get the perfect run was just for nothing because everything concerning this universe I fell in love with was rendered dead or dying off-screen and only shared with me by letters.

Those are just the bigs ones to me, but that not including all the BS concerning the Black City, Lyrium, Magic, the Tevinter Magisters, the nature of the Fade and everything else from the previous games that Veilguard slaps around. Not to mention the Epilogue is just cheap. You don't even get to hear about Southern Thedas except for one cheap line about "being appreciative of all the stories that came before".

Combat was fun, though. YaaaaaAAAAAAAAaaaay.

[BrotherMurus]

Do you consider this game canon?

[treahnurb]

Sounds like a salty Solas romancer here lol who even likes that guy

[Rain]

Originally posted by BrotherMurus:

Do you consider this game canon?

No. I don't. To me this is, at best, low-quality fanfic.

[Left-Hand Path]

Well, at least the antagonist now has the same agency as the player ;)

Joke aside, have you seen the post credit scene ?

This scene perfectly encapsulates my biggest problem with DA:V : Instead of telling a mature story it was dumbed down to a fairy tale. No shades of grey at all. Just mustache twirling evil guys against the forces of good.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by Rain:

No. I don't. To me this is, at best, low-quality fanfic.

As soon as i heard they would not honor any decisions players made in the previous games and completely abandon the Dragon Age Keep, a website they build up just for the purpose so players could take over their choices to future games i decided to not buy this game.
Nothing to do with "woke" or "DEI" or whatever, i dont care about that at all.
But if a developer takes a giant ♥♥♥♥ on an established franchise and basically disregards everything that it build up because its "too hard to incorporate" i lose all motivation playing those future titles.
Whats the point? None of the stories i experienced in that world matter. None of the hard decisions i made, none of the people i met or quests i solved, all gets swept under the rug so the devs dont have to put in any work.
No thanks. I dont even think Veilguard is a bad game, i played a bunch at a friend and its fun from a gameplay point of view.
But i just dont care about this world anymore after what they did to it.
I am pretty sure the same will happen with the next Mass Effect game.
The people who made those great games at BIOWARE are gone, its as simple as that.

[Erylaria]

Originally posted by Rain:

I tried to make it work. I have over 200h in this game. I played it from a Warden's perspective and I sat here and thought elsewhere about the lore and everything about it and I have come to one inescapable conclusion; Veilguard completely makes the entire franchise meaningless.

There are simply too many lore retcons to make this work without severe coping. I can point to several codex entries from previous games and even reference "World of Thedas" which are the official lorebooks of the Dragon Age universe and it still doesn't work if you take everything at face value. You have to argue, seriously, from several different angles to explain all of this without making everything you learn from the previous games in the franchise void and even then you would be unable to completely verify all of this because you would have to get dev confirmation.

Not only that -- but Veilguard treats the previous games with such disrespect it is downright infuriating; give or take depending on how emotionally invested you were...which I severely was.

So here is a few tidbits that left a sour taste and these are heavy spoilers.



1. Varric was killed off and this was after having such a beautiful ending in Inquisition being with Hawke. I don't give a damn if it was "done well". Seems to me that they wanted to get rid of any and all tie-ins to previous games as they could.

2. Solas was made into a spirit having mortal form which completely trivializes the entire accountability dynamic. Spirits aren't humans or whatever. They don't make decisions like you and I. They are literally and utterly tied to their current nature whether twisted or not -- WHICH IS BASED IN HOW THINGS INTERACT WITH THEM IN THE MORTAL WORLD. This was an entire f*cking questline in Inquisition for crying out loud.

Solas being prideful? Yeah, doesn't mesh. He makes decisions because of pride. That is like saying I should feel sorry for a dog choosing to eat it's own vomit. Why should I? It's a d*mn dog. Solas is a spirit and behaves like one -- not like you or me so why should I give a damn about his fee-fees?

It really insults the Inquisitor romancing Solas in DA:I. Oh, look -- your inquisitor is a moron for falling in love with a creature whose very nature changes into something completely different than the mix you had when you fell in love with him. That is b*tsh*t insane and as far as I know Rook doesn't even point this out to the Inquisitor, but can actually choose FOR her in dialogue options. WTF is that?

Makes the whole Solas ending lose a lot of it's luster.

3. Southern Thedas is practically wiped out. Denerim, Ferelden, Orlais, Kirkwall -- all of it by the end. You have only scattered pockets of resistance with a major one being Skyhold and Starkhaven.

How tripe. Guess all those years of replaying the previous games to get the perfect run was just for nothing because everything concerning this universe I fell in love with was rendered dead or dying off-screen and only shared with me by letters.

Those are just the bigs ones to me, but that not including all the BS concerning the Black City, Lyrium, Magic, the Tevinter Magisters, the nature of the Fade and everything else from the previous games that Veilguard slaps around. Not to mention the Epilogue is just cheap. You don't even get to hear about Southern Thedas except for one cheap line about "being appreciative of all the stories that came before".

Combat was fun, though. YaaaaaAAAAAAAAaaaay.

Spoilery discussion of Veilguard lore below
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ok, i'll play, what the heck.

1. Varric, as a character, had nowhere to go, realistically. especially if someone decided to leave Hawke in the Fade (my canon, for example). he was Viscount in Kirkwall and that was basically where they left him. Kirkwall has no relevance going forward (why would it? everything is set right there - that's what the player did for that city). you can still headcanon him being happy in the Fade/afterlife with Hawke.

you need to understand that veilguard was written by entirely different people and it's *normal* to let older characters fade out of the narrative when the writers are gone/done with that character. you can still *dislike* that choice, but taking it as a snub against you, personally? nah. you can't take development decisions like that personally, man.

2. Solas has *always* been conceptualized as being of spirit origin. we were theorizing this as soon as someone cracked the "All New Faded for Her" anagram and we all saw what happened during the quest. there's endless fanfic from the DAI era speculating how the Evanuris (and Solas) were actually spirits, it was super well supported by the lore. they didn't *make* him a spirit in/for veilguard. this is something we've basically known for 10 years. (just not the exact circumstances)

now, just because he originally *was* a spirit doesn't mean he is one now. he behaves like one in many ways, but his physical body and phyiscal life has also influenced his character and he now has a soul (like the Evanuris). because every body has a soul. soul and spirit are not the same (someone explained this on tumblr recently). he is, for all intents and purposes, a *man* - a very powerful and old man, but still nothing more, nothing less. his personality is *informed* by his spirit origin, but he bears full responsibility for his actions and is aware of that fact as well. you can even call him out on it in one of your first conversations with him in veilguard. ("spoken like a god." - "i am *not* a god! just a man [...]")

the whole *point* of Solas' character is how he was changed and twisted from his original form and purpose *by* taking a physical body. he became a person instead of a spirit and he still suffers because of it. because he does *not* have that singular purpose anymore, is not "allowed", not *able* to just follow his inherent nature anymore. because he is a *person* now. and being a person is f*ckin complex, more complex than being a spirit (which is part of the discussion Solas and Varric have about Cole in DAI).

a romanced inquisitor is *not* a "moron" and Solas is not a "creature". he is absolutely the exact same person the inquisitor fell in love with in DAI: he's kind and wise and knowledgeable - but also arrogant and prideful, and he has a temper. he was all those things in DAI (listen to his banter with Vivienne, Dorian, and Bull), and he is all those things now. just now, with the mask of deference off, he's allowed to show the full spectrum. he is two sides of the same coin - Wisdom and Pride - within one *person* who acts like people do: stubborn, emotional, afraid, even deceitful.

as a longtime Solavellan hell sufferer, the ending hit ALL the right notes for me. it felt logical and satisfying and appropriately weighty.

again - you dislike a particular writing choice and/or disagree with an interpretation the writers have of a character *they* created? that's fine. but it doesn't mean the writers did this to "retcon" anything. it was always there, in the text, you just don't agree with the interpretation.

3. Southern Thedas is in ruins, yes. but - again - why do you take this personally? we always knew - from at least Sandal's prophecy onwards - that a huge, cataclysmic event would happen towards the end of the age. nobody is taking those perfect runs away from you. but it was always clear that we were done with the south for a while after DAI, as soon as we saw that dagger land in Tevinter in the Trespasser ending. and it makes narrative sense. the original writers are gone, all narrative threads are tied up, the mysteries of the mythology are revealed, the blights are forever resolved, we know exactly what happened and how and why. that's what many fans have wanted for years.

the series is now ready to move forward (like it was always planned). would you want to re-tread old ground in Ferelden and Orlais forever? Thedas is a dynamic world that's lived in and evolving. that's why it's fascinating. things happen - and things end. i understand the nostalgia, i really do. but there's no "retcon" here - just a natural conclusion and move towards the future. and you can dislike the direction, absolutely. but again: that's not a "retcon".

and, just from a purely logistical point of view: across 15 years, 4 games, multiple comics, novels, series, shortstories - they were never going to be able to tie in *everything* to a degree that satisfies *everyone*.

i have my own gripes with a few very specific things that i feel could have seen more prominence in veilguard (Well of Sorrows is a big one for me) but when I read David Gaider's threads about the writing and development process? it makes sense what he's saying. every single choice where the "timeline" splits is related to *direct* financial cost in the next game. i'm a fan - but i'm also an adult. and i understand that perfect continuity across that many games and writers, and that much time, is an unrealistic fever dream.

4. I'd really like to hear your gripes about Lyrium, the Black City, the Magisters, the Fade etc. as well because those were all really well done in veilguard, in my opinion. and also very much consistent with what we have been theorizing for literal years. in fact, there's one fanfic with the title "Looking Glass" that predicted - incredibly accurately and early on - the whole thing with Lyrium and Titans. And there has always been speculation around Arlathan (or its pendant in the Fade) being the Black City. there's hints at this as early as DAO.

_________________

as a lore nerd, i appreciate the heck out of veilguard. i replayed DAO, DA2 and DAI to prepare for veilguard and i absolutely see the continuity of the lore.

i feel like many of your criticisms stem from personal dislike and a disappointment that the writers didn't interpret the material the way you did. and that's fine. it's ok to be disappointed. but that doesn't make veilguard a "bad game", it doesn't make the writing "bad", and while there are *some* minor retcons, the things you named are not that.

and, just to hit that last point: the combat is actually my least favorite thing about this game lol; i really mostly care about the lore, characters, and story.

[Erylaria]

Originally posted by Ogami:

Originally posted by Rain:

No. I don't. To me this is, at best, low-quality fanfic.

As soon as i heard they would not honor any decisions players made in the previous games and completely abandon the Dragon Age Keep, a website they build up just for the purpose so players could take over their choices to future games i decided to not buy this game.
Nothing to do with "woke" or "DEI" or whatever, i dont care about that at all.
But if a developer takes a giant ♥♥♥♥ on an established franchise and basically disregards everything that it build up because its "too hard to incorporate" i lose all motivation playing those future titles.
Whats the point? None of the stories i experienced in that world matter. None of the hard decisions i made, none of the people i met or quests i solved, all gets swept under the rug so the devs dont have to put in any work.
No thanks. I dont even think Veilguard is a bad game, i played a bunch at a friend and its fun from a gameplay point of view.
But i just dont care about this world anymore after what they did to it.
I am pretty sure the same will happen with the next Mass Effect game.
The people who made those great games at BIOWARE are gone, its as simple as that.

if YOU feel that the stories you experienced no longer matter, then that's a YOU problem.
you can still appreciate and love the characters you met and the stories you wrote with them, even when the writers take the franchise in a different direction for the future. nobody is taking those experiences away from you. i will never understand this. they're YOUR stories, it's up to YOU to keep them in loving memory. creators don't owe you that. creators create new things.

if you don't like where the franchise is going - fine. dislike it. drop out. you don't owe the writers anything, either.
but if that lessens your enjoyment of the content you claim to have loved so far, that's a skill issue, man.

because my Lavellan drank from the Well of Sorrows and I will honor the consequences of that choice where it matters: in my own imagination. fiction can only ever be a basis for your own imagination, it should never be the entirety of it.

[Xazomn]

Well, i played the old games & still do. Somehow when i (playing now DAI) that the DA series are obsolete. It doesn't matter if i re-playing them, make choices etc. Their desicion for making only 3 options important ruined my complete DA gaming years. Took away my joy that i'm still playing their old games. But it means nothing anymore and that is hard. And yes maybe many people like it, but did they ever played the older games or did they invested so many hours like i did. Or played maybe once or twice the older games or they doesn't give a damn about lore at all. But hey... "Oh well my Rook looks great and i can make awsome pictures now with awsome outfits and hair".

I do care, and i can't stop thinking about this because i invested a lot of my time and money into DA. I don't like DAV at all. I got no any connection with this game accept Varric & Solas and even they are not how they suppose to be.

[cjqnsnyc]

Originally posted by Erylaria:

Originally posted by Ogami:

As soon as i heard they would not honor any decisions players made in the previous games and completely abandon the Dragon Age Keep, a website they build up just for the purpose so players could take over their choices to future games i decided to not buy this game.
Nothing to do with "woke" or "DEI" or whatever, i dont care about that at all.
But if a developer takes a giant ♥♥♥♥ on an established franchise and basically disregards everything that it build up because its "too hard to incorporate" i lose all motivation playing those future titles.
Whats the point? None of the stories i experienced in that world matter. None of the hard decisions i made, none of the people i met or quests i solved, all gets swept under the rug so the devs dont have to put in any work.
No thanks. I dont even think Veilguard is a bad game, i played a bunch at a friend and its fun from a gameplay point of view.
But i just dont care about this world anymore after what they did to it.
I am pretty sure the same will happen with the next Mass Effect game.
The people who made those great games at BIOWARE are gone, its as simple as that.

if YOU feel that the stories you experienced no longer matter, then that's a YOU problem.
you can still appreciate and love the characters you met and the stories you wrote with them, even when the writers take the franchise in a different direction for the future. nobody is taking those experiences away from you. i will never understand this. they're YOUR stories, it's up to YOU to keep them in loving memory. creators don't owe you that. creators create new things.

if you don't like where the franchise is going - fine. dislike it. drop out. you don't owe the writers anything, either.
but if that lessens your enjoyment of the content you claim to have loved so far, that's a skill issue, man.

because my Lavellan drank from the Well of Sorrows and I will honor the consequences of that choice where it matters: in my own imagination. fiction can only ever be a basis for your own imagination, it should never be the entirety of it.

A "YOU" problem you state?

Given the fact that the player base on Steam has utterly collapsed in only a matter of weeks, the game was completely shut out as a contender at the Game Awards, the overall general consensus surrounding the game is mixed at best and leaning more and more negative as days go by, EA and Bioware have been radio silent about the game's sales performance, and on and on..

I'd state it's NOT a "YOU" or "US" problem, but a Bioware problem.

If the game was truly an actual Dragon Age game, even an RPG for that matter, the reception we're witnessing now would be the polar opposite.

10 years of waiting, 2 previous versions before settling on a direction, a massive budget, and what did we get?

A juvenile, bland, generic, friendship simulator/action game, that doubles as a vehicle for heavy handed messaging!

Spin it any way you like, the facts speak for themselves.

DAV is Dragon Age in name ONLY, just as this current version of Bioware is nothing more than a name that used to signify high quality story telling.


Clearly, this is no longer the case which is why this game hasn't caught on, and the word of mouth is generally mixed, leaning towards negative.

Again noticing the lack of quality in this game is NOT a you or me problem, it's Bioware's problem.

[Erylaria]

Originally posted by Xazomn:

Well, i played the old games & still do. Somehow when i (playing now DAI) that the DA series are obsolete. It doesn't matter if i re-playing them, make choices etc. Their desicion for making only 3 options important ruined my complete DA gaming years. Took away my joy that i'm still playing their old games. But it means nothing anymore and that is hard. And yes maybe many people like it, but did they ever played the older games or did they invested so many hours like i did. Or played maybe once or twice the older games or they doesn't give a damn about lore at all. But hey... "Oh well my Rook looks great and i can make awsome pictures now with awsome outfits and hair".

I do care, and i can't stop thinking about this because i invested a lot of my time and money into DA. I don't like DAV at all. I got no any connection with this game accept Varric & Solas and even they are not how they suppose to be.

buddy, i have +1000h playtime across DAO, DA2, and DAI; i literally replayed these games just this summer; and i've read the novels, comics, etc. for extended lore. "never played the older games" lol

i'm sorry you feel personally snubbed but don't act like other longtime fans don't enjoy veilguard. there's an entire community on tumblr, X, and now bluesky that's raving about this game since june. many of us are on our second or third playthrough by now.

if veilguard "took away your joy" that's your own personal problem.
it's the same ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ nonsense "discourse" that was prominent among star wars fans 10 years ago. the old games are still there for you to enjoy. ignore veilguard, make up your own canon. that's what fiction is FOR.

and the whole "lore" argument is so tired at this point. i'm sorry you have the media literacy of a 4th grader and need everything spelled out for you, but the rest of us got what we wanted. it's all there, very clearly, if you can read. what you mean is "narrative continuity" and i'm sorry to burst your bubble but that was a losing battle from the start, it was never realistic to carry over choices from DAO that happened 30 years ago in game time.

[Erylaria]

Originally posted by cjqnsnyc:

Originally posted by Erylaria:

if YOU feel that the stories you experienced no longer matter, then that's a YOU problem.
you can still appreciate and love the characters you met and the stories you wrote with them, even when the writers take the franchise in a different direction for the future. nobody is taking those experiences away from you. i will never understand this. they're YOUR stories, it's up to YOU to keep them in loving memory. creators don't owe you that. creators create new things.

if you don't like where the franchise is going - fine. dislike it. drop out. you don't owe the writers anything, either.
but if that lessens your enjoyment of the content you claim to have loved so far, that's a skill issue, man.

because my Lavellan drank from the Well of Sorrows and I will honor the consequences of that choice where it matters: in my own imagination. fiction can only ever be a basis for your own imagination, it should never be the entirety of it.

A "YOU" problem you state?

Given the fact that the player base on Steam has utterly collapsed in only a matter of weeks, the game was completely shut out as a contender at the Game Awards, the overall general consensus surrounding the game is mixed at best and leaning more and more negative as days go by, EA and Bioware have been radio silent about the game's sales performance, and on and on..

I'd state it's NOT a "YOU" or "US" problem, but a Bioware problem.

If the game was truly an actual Dragon Age game, even an RPG for that matter, the reception we're witnessing now would be the polar opposite.

10 years of waiting, 2 previous versions before settling on a direction, a massive budget, and what did we get?

A juvenile, bland, generic, friendship simulator/action game, that doubles as a vehicle for heavy handed messaging!

Spin it any way you like, the facts speak for themselves.

DAV is Dragon Age in name ONLY, just as this current version of Bioware is nothing more than a name that used to signify high quality story telling.


Clearly, this is no longer the case which is why this game hasn't caught on, and the word of mouth is generally mixed, leaning towards negative.

Again noticing the lack of quality in this game is NOT a you or me problem, it's Bioware's problem.

i'm sorry you don't agree with the direction veilguard went in and you have big feelings about it. i really am. must be awful to feel so personally attacked over a video game, truly.

the game is "juvenile and bland" to you because you have the media literacy of a child. that's it. just say you can't empathize with people who don't look and act like you. just say you can't feel any emotional impact if it isn't wrapped in gore and sex. stop being hypocritical, just be honest: you don't like veilguard because it's not violence-racism simulator 3000 and that makes you sad. it's okay to have preferences. but don't dress it up in wannabe "objectivity". your subjective opinions and feelings aren't a measure of quality for anything or anyone, except yourself.

and *objectively*: veilguard is a largely bug-free, DRM-free, no micro transactions, no EA app, fully completed product. from launch. it runs smooth as butter. you can disagree over the stylized realism design (it's art, art is subjective) - but the quality of the techniques used for animations, motion capture, cinematic direction, voice acting, environmental design, sound design, lighting, etc. is undeniably top-notch. veilguard is a fully finished, polished product. you not liking it says nothing about the objective quality.

and the fact that you let your personal feelings on veilguard sour and "ruin" your previous experiences with the series? which you claim to have cherished until now? that is VERY MUCH a you-problem. your enjoyment is nobody's responsibility except your own. if you decide you no longer care now? fine. but then don't pretend like you ever did.

[Xazomn]

@ Erylaria

As soon when people write things like these,' i'm sorry you have the media literacy of a 4th grader and need everything spelled out for you'. Or towards another person 'because you have the media literacy of a child', for defending your way how you feel & think about this game then i stop reading. For someone that somehow like to show their own litercy of an "adult" then you show little understanding that not all people got English as native language and reading all the lore together with reading subtitles & listen in an languages not native to me can be hard and exhausting. Also think that it is about sex or gore because otherwise people like me or OP can't emphatize is pretty short sighted in my eyes.

[Яeplicant]

Originally posted by cjqnsnyc:

Originally posted by Erylaria:

if YOU feel that the stories you experienced no longer matter, then that's a YOU problem.
you can still appreciate and love the characters you met and the stories you wrote with them, even when the writers take the franchise in a different direction for the future. nobody is taking those experiences away from you. i will never understand this. they're YOUR stories, it's up to YOU to keep them in loving memory. creators don't owe you that. creators create new things.

if you don't like where the franchise is going - fine. dislike it. drop out. you don't owe the writers anything, either.
but if that lessens your enjoyment of the content you claim to have loved so far, that's a skill issue, man.

because my Lavellan drank from the Well of Sorrows and I will honor the consequences of that choice where it matters: in my own imagination. fiction can only ever be a basis for your own imagination, it should never be the entirety of it.

A "YOU" problem you state?

Given the fact that the player base on Steam has utterly collapsed in only a matter of weeks, the game was completely shut out as a contender at the Game Awards, the overall general consensus surrounding the game is mixed at best and leaning more and more negative as days go by, EA and Bioware have been radio silent about the game's sales performance, and on and on..

I'd state it's NOT a "YOU" or "US" problem, but a Bioware problem.

If the game was truly an actual Dragon Age game, even an RPG for that matter, the reception we're witnessing now would be the polar opposite.

10 years of waiting, 2 previous versions before settling on a direction, a massive budget, and what did we get?

A juvenile, bland, generic, friendship simulator/action game, that doubles as a vehicle for heavy handed messaging!

Spin it any way you like, the facts speak for themselves.

DAV is Dragon Age in name ONLY, just as this current version of Bioware is nothing more than a name that used to signify high quality story telling.


Clearly, this is no longer the case which is why this game hasn't caught on, and the word of mouth is generally mixed, leaning towards negative.

Again noticing the lack of quality in this game is NOT a you or me problem, it's Bioware's problem.

You see, the mistake on your end was having too high expectations for a game that has been in development for 10 years. Even more so, when they've shifted directions once or twice during that time.

No game that has so much development time on it's hands rarely turns out slightly above average or meet expectations you've set for yourself. In those cases specifically, always expect the worst or nothing at all and you'll be fine - more or less. Unless your brand loyality requires a blood sacrifice.

You and many others expected way too much and set the bar so high, that you've set yourself up for disappointment. Can't blame others or the Devs for that, honestly. Personally, I stopped expecting something grand when Inquisition hit the stores and now, 10 years later, VG was okay with a bitter aftertaste... but towards endgame, you'll see a couple of sparks of greatness here and there but it's still buried in a mountain of mediocrity.

It's still a Dragon Age title, though. Just not a very good one, decent at best. Like Andromeda was to Mass Effect; the black sheep in the franchise but still enjoyable for what it is with the aforementioned aftertaste. Still, whoever was appointed the lead writer and the lead writer itself should probably be fired. Or at least relocated to projects that actually are in their wheelhouse.

We've known for years now that old BioWare doesn't exist anymore and with that in mind, you can't and shouldn't expect BioWare to be what they once were decades ago. Those we hold in high regard these days will eventually follow the same road and other studios will take their place. It's just how it's always has been, you know.

[BrotherMurus]

Originally posted by Яeplicant:

No game that has so much development time on it's hands rarely turns out slightly above average or meet expectations you've set for yourself. In those cases specifically, always expect the worst or nothing at all and you'll be fine - more or less. Unless your brand loyality requires a blood sacrifice.

Deus Ex Human Revolution 2011 vs Deus Ex 2000

Stalker Call of Pripyat 2009 vs Stalker 2 2024

Baulders Gate 2 vs Baulders Gate 3 - You properly know this better than I do

Doom 2 vs Doom 2016 vs Doom Eternal

Hitman Blood Money 2006 vs Hitman World of Assassination 2016

How I wish Dragon Age could enjoy the consistency of creative vision and quality like the games from above!