Sometimes I wonder if Taash was written by a genuine leftist writer who couldn't outright tell their liberal boss-the kind who reduces struggle and resistance to identity and labels-to fuck off. I imagine they submitted the story for review, fully expecting their boss’s usual obliviousness. And then, with quiet defiance, they carried on with the storyline as a subtle "screw you" to performative resistance.

awful game

Easy, the selling numbers, and the rewiev numbers tell that. Failure or success. A low % rating and few sales figures do not mean that it was successful. And vice versa.

as someone who play origin this break my heart cause cleanly the woke activist just used dragon age name to put their shit woke shit in the game like a woke game can work like look at inquisition, the game literally had a tran and gay character the write so good you don't even care but this game, you can't even romance certain character if your character not gay or trans, the write it awful, and Bioware it done, don't be surprised that Mass effect 5 or whatever they call it, be worst

Dragon Age is dark fantasy was designing it to be a hostile and cruel world, with all the bad things that this represents, discrimination at different levels (racism, classism, slavery, etc.) and political, religious conflicts, etc. in a medieval fantasy setting and context. The problem is that they actually made the game totally focused on people who can't tolerate the frustration it generates be responsible for the consequence of your decisions. If you analyze the game, there are no real decisions. Nobody really gets mad at you, nobody tells you what they really think, nobody confronts you, you can't confront anybody. They treat you like you're retarded and it seems more like a constant sermon and group therapy to tell you what you should do. They didn't make this game to be an entertaining game for fans of the franchise, but to introduce an idea of what they think the world should be like. That's why it was only popular with people who have that kind of mentality. They think that this is how the world should be and everyone is wrong except them. That's why they use Isabella's punishment scene as a message that you should punish yourself if you dare to have a mind of your own and you don't "respect" them. When Isabella is a character who didn't care about hurting someone's feelings. That's why it was a failure and anything they do with that in mind will fail. Nobody wants to be lectured in a game. That's why the writing is bad, because they didn't write with the idea of creating a continuation of the established world. They wrote with the idea of trying to change the real world with a not-so-well-hidden indoctrination.

I don't think it's possible to look at this game as a standalone game and not a Dragon Age game. Bioware intentionally wanted to get the Dragon Age audience to invest in this game, otherwise they wouldn't have repurposed a failed live service game into Veilguard. I think the few things this game does do right are completely overshadowed by EVERYTHING this game does wrong. However, despite what I said earlier, I do believe if this game released as a standalone game with 0 tie-in to Dragon Age (or at least played like a spin-off) then perhaps the game would have been perceived better. Unfortunately, Bioware didn't do that, and instead, slapped the Dragon Age brand on an unfinished product that went through production hell. And then, the politics. The politics goes deeper than just the writing and blatant virtue signaling through characters like Taash. The races all lost their unique traits and all look the same. Even in the character creation, all the races look exactly the same with very minor differences. Elves looks like normal people with long ears. Dwarves look like normal people just shorter. The Qunari look like normal dudes with horns, which totally removes their towering, buff, imposing physique they've had in literally every game. And you also pointed out how it's nearly impossible to make a feminine female, but very easy to make masculine females and masculine males. The character creation only goes one way. I agree with most of what you said. And for your very first review, I really liked your take ^_^. you should definitely play more games, and do more reviews.

I played through the whole game myself when it came out, but I didn’t love the voice acting overall. I thought varric and solas were great for the most part, and lucanis and Davrin were good, bellara and emmrich were okay, and rook’s voice was good for the most part (non-American female), but harding’s delivery (and constant giggling) and taash’s delivery was pretty meh for me and neve’s voice acting was wildly inconsistent and probably my least favorite out of everyone. I don’t know if it was the voice actor’s fault or bad direction (paired with very mid writing). Some of the npc’s were good, but others really broke my immersion.

Finacial and gaming failure...

Clearly a failure, i say that before i watch the video.

The game is a massive failure. It will lose at least $100 million, and it will not reach even the bare minimum of their first couple of months targeted sales in its entire lifetime.

I like seeing fans of DA, whether the review is critical or positive, seem to agree that a lot of things in Veilguard were just not handled well or are straight bad. Same with your review, I agree with a lot of your criticisms. The body slider thing shouldn’t be an issue, but omg it is! I’m a woman and I’m so tired of busty figures being treated like they are bad. I don’t like companies being so supposedly worried about digital women being sexualized that they are willing to erase a body type… it also almost seems malicious in nature. It’s not all about boobs and butts though (Hahaa) You really can’t make a specific body types either… like I struggled to make my Qunari slim and muscular like an athlete. Anyone with muscles had to be huge and bulky. As with the body types the game is, like you said, so inclusive in some ways and not in others. Im glad that being nonbinary or trans was given its moment to shine… but what if you wanted to be gay or lesbian? Maybe bisexual or pansexual? No specially curated dialogues or choices I guess? I’m just really curious about all the behind the scenes development when that finally comes out.

I think when the gamers are focused on real life politics in your game instead of discussing potential plot points, characters or the actual universe where the game itself taking place you are royally screwed.

Very honest review

It really wasn’t a “Dragon Age”. Andromeda was a much better ME game than this was a DA game. And I think Tash was a perfect example of the narcissistic attitude of the typical trans-activist. And the character creator was designed to build female-presenting males at best.

I had the same ending as you. I rather liked Solas' reaction when he realized he had lost, although the whole game has too many serious flaws for me to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. You may have watched it offline, but otherwise you missed the better ending that happens if the inquisitor had a relationship with Solas. There are only a few minor differences but I recommend checking it out.

i agree with everything you said about this game when i fully played it. one thing I'll add. theres waaaaay too many companion quests. i used to want to spend more time outside combat with my team in Inquisition. i got my wish in the next game but maaan. it was waay too much when i also wanted to complete more main story missions. the amount of Companion quests meant that they were left on weird cliffhangers instead of immediately continueing to the next part. Lucanis literally kills Zara and then finds out his cousin used Blood magic on him to control him and the demon..... why did we not immediately get into a scuffle with the cousin or are able to tell the Talons about the betrayal as soon as? these companion quests did not have the conclusions or hard to make choices like i had hoped. i was sat wondering if what I say to Davrin would influence how he trains Assan. what would happen if i Leaned into no mercy advice for Lucanis, would he be fully taken over by his demon. Bellera, i was hoping she would hate or disaprove of me if i was stone cold about killing her brother. why was the god Anaris just some dude??? this game proves not everyone can write and i think a big part of why this game came out the way it did was the troubled development and writers being laid off/ leaving and new contractors that werent in the know of the games lore. it was just so diaspointing. the only worldstate that matters from last game is the Female Levallen that romances Solas. my fav part was Talking to Morrigan and then having to remember her words when Talking to Mythal if you didnt want to fight her. literally Solas, Morrigan and Mythal are probs the only characters in game that spoke like they were in a fantasy game

I love your reaction at the end, I'm the same, overwhelmed by my feelings. I'll never get tired of games that give me these emotions

I think I agree with almost everything you said here. I'll just add my two cents about political / activist writing: I think one notable issue is that you only ever see it done in modern triple-A games from one side. You almost never see a story of a man struggling under cruel misandrist woman who has power over him, you will never see a story that might be interpreted as a criticism against abortion because someone just feels like it, you will almost never see a story that implies that immigration might be a potential cause of a particular societal problem. Rather, it's all going to be one sided, fit a single narrative and a single ideology. Why is this an issue? Because it emphasizes what this is all about - preaching. This isn't an attempt to truly explore the human condition and make people think, rather it is a ham fisted attempt by self-centered activists to "educate" as many people as possible.

I think u made a good point.. if this didn't have Dragon Age on the title it would be received differently. Its not a good DA game at all. But it's own IP would be fine. But then again ppl wouldn't defend it as much lol. But ultimately the writing n characters were so pathetic and boring imo. But the agenda pushing was an automatic 🖕🖕 for me. To me this pos tarnished the franchise (prob killed it) and im def worried about Mass Effect. 😮

Worst Game of the year

7:51 I don't believe "Non-Binary" is legitimate. I believe it is a concocted "condition" that gives people yet another avenue to join the LGBT community. With that said, Taash is exactly what I would expect from someone calling themselves "non-binary." Self absorbed, rigid thinking, immature, mercurial, demanding and domineering. Not only can you not ditch the character, the player is forced to engage with her as if she were a spoiled teenager.

I don't get how an action rpg can be called "not aweful" if it fails as an RPG, is like a rithm game with garbage fire music and saying "the controls were responsive, so is not that bad"

Great review, my friend. I agree with almost everything you said. It's an 'Okay' non-Dragon Age game, but a very bad Dragon age game.

Honestly, I think the Dragon Age franchise is dead. It has no immediate future. All the data points to Veilguard selling OK but not gangbusters, and since it didn’t do well in terms of awards, you can’t make the argument that sales were soft but the game did really well critically. EA will likely pass on a fifth Dragon Age title. On top of that, DA hasn’t done well in terms of adaptations. Some of the comics were OK, but the Netflix series bombed and DA’s forays into live action/anime were even worse.

But wait ...there's more. Mass Effect is right around the corner. And judging by our reaction to this game, i wonder if it's going to be a big middle finger to everyone.

Minor thing for your next review , add a little background music, but great review :)

Great video😁

Woke garbage

Failure

Structured, detailed and good insights. Well done. Flow of speech is a bit hindered but that's something that comes with experience and if you hadn't said it I would never have guessed that this was your first try at a review. Keep doing this and you'll most likely improve the flow of your commentary as well, finding a more natural rythm and allowing for greater variety in tone, inflection etc as that's what's most noticably lacking at present. In any case I liked your review, I agree with your assessment of this game even though I may be a bit harsher. As for DA, if I had my wish, this game would be dexlared non-canon and a new attempt would be made. I don't see a future for DA from where we are now.

A very good review! For me the biggest crime was, that Rook could've been your (and morrigans) child from the first game. That would've been such a big plot twist. But nah...

Wow your first review! Great job. Tip from your friendly neighbourhood audio engineer: you've got a "de-noise"/"voice isolator" and or a "loudness" or "noise-gate" on it that's eating some syllables of your words and snuffing out some high frequencies. I have to do the same when I do voiceover, so I get it when you're in a noisy space. Maybe try rolling it back a bit for the next one? Anyway, not really important stuff. Just trying to be a helpful neighbourhood audio engineer. Good luck with the channel!

Congratulations on your first review and, more importantly, succeeding in making a reasonably good-looking female character in Veilguard!

Am I a loser for liking Veilguard? Should i kill myself for liking Veilguard?

Hey that review was spot on and I really liked the nuanced perception of the woke stuff within the game. I've also always said it, you can add gay/lesbian/trans and other LGBTQ+++ to the game. But it needs to make sense and it isnt their sole ''character trait''! Good job! Thumbs up!

I just have one thing to say about this review... your playable character looked fantastic!

You said you didn’t know what you’re doing. Well…I couldn’t disagree more. This was the most thoughtful and detailed review of this game to date! Bravo!

I wish I could get my money back. This does not deserve the name Dragon Age. Not a single, "Thank the Maker." I agree, the writing is terrible. How is a game 10 plus years in development even seem rushed.

You have such a lovely face! Hope your channel grows.

absolutely spot on!

Nailed it!

This game has been sanitised of anything and everything that made dragon age. They took a woke game and slapped some dragon age lipstick on it! The writing came from instagram posts that's how it feels!

jesus christ. can we not just stop with all this please. People who truly believe they are trapped in the wrong body need help, and im not talking about help to cut off their biological traits or help to take life altering drugs. ANYONE who works with social psychology or children would know that you dont just give-in just to make the subject feel better. To learn to love your own body for what it is, now thats helping. But that is rough and hard and real and is going to take time. By including all these delusional things in everyday life stuff such as videogames, we are actually confusing children and feeding the delusional thoughts.

Thank you, I've had so many of these points brought up but people who are just so die hard about it and will defend it to the grave would hurl nothing but insults at you. Even in the LGBT community, like... it's so easy to be 'excluded' by them if you don't fully agree 100% with their views. I also like... spoke with Corinne Busche and didn't give me a time of day just blocked me right then tand there. I work in the game industry and I see that there needs to be some changes within the AAA sphere and Dragon Age, that I waited for 10 years for, was the nail in the coffin for me.

First of all, thank you so much for your honest and heartfelt review - I haven't finished the game yet, but I completely agree with everything you've said! ❤ I'm am sad to say this, but as someone who cares deeply for Dragon Age as a whole, this does not feel like a Dragon Age game to me. And the more I listen to your review, the more I understand why. Shallow writing and the use of modern language really make me feel like I am watching a Disney/Marvel movie, not playing an epic fantasy game set in the world I know and love. I also miss being able to react differently, or being treated differently based on who my character is (like being treated with mistrust for being a mage, for example, or, as you mentioned, looked down on for being an elf) - all these interactions made the world feel so much more real and immersive! But what hurts the most is that that it feels like the events from the previous games don't matter at all, like the characters we played and befriended and care so much about never existed ... 💔 Or, if they do appear, they are not the same ... I am honestly scared every time I open the game, because it feels like it is almost trying to ruin the world and the lore we know and love, and I really hope that does not happen, because I love Dragon Age ...

I'm just gonna comment on the music aspect. While generally underwhelming, there's one track that is absolutely amazing, "An Unfamilliar Sense"

Maybe it's because I am a parent, but when Taash blew up at her mom at dinner I was screaming for a shut up and listen to your mother option. I do mostly agree with your review here. The lack of conflict doesv really make the game less enjoyable. I played through a second time, and it was actually a really fun game at a harder difficulty, if you just skip through the dialogue. Which is not at all what dragon age was in previous games. I would argue that what we saw of Minrathous was not a good look at the country, or even the city. We are looking at the dock town, where magisters would send their slaves to run errands, or where people arent wealthy enough to own slaves. And while some slaves are treated poorly and experimented on, this is mainly done behind closed doors. And for a lot of slaves (in game) slavery wasn't any worse than being a servant in southern Thedas.

Spot on! The points made in the Racism/Misogyny/Slavery section didn't even occur to me while watching, but looking back it really added to the overall lack of conflict in the game. I'm terrified for Mass Effect 5 haha

Great review! After 10 years of waiting this is what we get?! So disappointing. This is the definition of a soft modern HR approved game. Everything has to be safe now and that’s never been what dragon has been about! Dragon focused on darker more nuanced topics like slavery, racism, etc. it’s like these new devs at BioWare know nothing or don’t even care about established lore. This game should’ve focused solely on Solas he should’ve had an army of elves join him trying to fight for freedom and brining back the elven empire, and we should’ve played as the Inquisitor not some random guy/girl that varric found on the side of the road lol companions should not have been forced upon us, but they likely did that because they knew that 95% likely would’ve not recruited Taash. We can’t even be mean? Like cmon seriously? Do BioWare even know what roleplay even is? It’s clear now that this new BioWare just simply isn’t talented enough like the old BioWare was, and it shows on the recent titles. Veilguard, andromeda, anthem. Idk if you’re a Mass Effect fan but the next title will probably have more of the same problems. Not looking forward to it or anything BioWare related. For me it’s sad to admit that because mass effect and dragon age are my two favorite game series, but maybe it’s best if they just stop so that don’t continue to tarnish the legacy of these once great beloved franchises.

Probably the most honest review I've heard about the game, I don't think I'm ever gonna play this watching ur play through was enough veilguard for me, bioware needs to die if ther was gonna be another game otherwise its just gonna be the same or worse