Dragon Age: The Veilguard - When RPGs Are Written Like Marvel Movies | Review & Analysis

[@Berendir]

"Origins fanboy screams at sky for an hour 40" was another working title.

[@callsignfatbeard2637]

That one speaks deeply to my soul.

[@Kylesico912x]

Okay, that one feels a little close to home.

[@wirilome]

Yeah :( in some veilguard critiques, they play DAO intro music (the haunting vocal solo) for a bit and it always makes my heart just yearn...

[@kurodo9926]

I am yet to see the elitism the community claims Origins fanboys have because I only encountered hate towards them, but I am lowkey on their side almost always (currently playing DAO for first time.)

[@wirilome]

@@kurodo9926 oh man, i hope you enjoy!!! i still remember my first DAO playthrough and it was 14 years ago!

[@carmenwillow7991]

Devaluing their writing staff was the worst possible decision they made. BioWare WAS the story, WAS the lore.

[@Berendir]

Yeah it really sucks.

[@gamer2101]

Exactly. I am a gameplay first person but the way they made the world and the stories made me love BioWare even more. They made worlds that pulled you in and made you care about the characters.

[@Icipher353]

No one ever played a BioWare game for the gameplay. Their games were always about the stories and characters.

[@Ariyala]

The fact that they took the confident, capable, flirtatious Harding and turned her into an awkward people-pleaser is infuriating to me

[@CyrusIsnt]

Eeh we didnt see much of her in DAI, but this is 10 years after so i imagine she should be more confident

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

Bruh Harding was barely a character in Inquisition. A last minute tacked on personality in DLC doesn't count. The awkwardness fits her considering her farm girl origin.

[@fitzviandraduivenab2790]

@@CyrusIsnt She works for fkin Leliana. If she isn't confident and capable, she'd be dead already

[@gnuwaves743]

Bold to make this and 90+ minute video instead of the more strategic move of milking it over several videos to gain traction. I can tell their was burning passion behind the making of this video.

[@Berendir]

Haha thanks! Even though this particular game was a disappointment I love the series and my critiques came from a place of love. Hope you enjoyed the video!

[@mikeydflyingtoaster]

Ah, I've seen a few smaller channels get a lot of new subscribers from making videos on this and I can't get too mad about it. I got to see a few videos from a trans perspective on the whole thing and that was really eye-opening. I'm glad they're capitalising on it, I guess

[@Berendir]

@@mikeydflyingtoaster pertaining to the whole “woke” discourse around the game I’m indifferent. It was more how cringe they made taash’s story I think if they had a much more interesting character with a more nuanced discussion around being nonbinary I would have enjoyed seeing how that played out.

[@navyrotc2012]

⁠@@Berendirthinking about how they could have tied Taash feelings to the qun was a huge missed opportunity. Why have your own fantasy setting if you are going to bluntly inject a social issue like it’s happening in contemporary life. Iron bull said there were no women who fought, except the ones they decided to treat like men. They executed it in the most boring way possible

[@lisdraconis2212]

@@Berendir Agreed, Taash's gender had nothing to do with that. Just their personality was very offputting and did not actuzally humor their story for me. I was many times annoyed at them for rude remarks towards my character or the others even late game.

[@Kylesico912x]

When you brought up Harding, I was reminded of something. I remember her being a little awkward but I also remember her mentioning her job as a scout was essentially her first job outside her home town. So of course she was going to be. However, it's been ten years as you said. And somehow she ends up acting more like Dagna than she did like a professional version of her younger self. It's a bit jarring and can't help but wonder if the writers got some wires crossed when writing her.

[@Berendir]

Yeah would have been much better if it was Dagna and not Harding actually. If the writing was kept the same.

[@Kylesico912x]

@@Berendir In agreement there. Story felt tailor made for Dagna. The Dwarf who wanted to study magic suddenly able to use it? Seems like natural character progression for her.

[@maia_beans]

I remembered that during my playthrough, I was being so forgiving at every weird decision, hopefull that it would lead to a deeper conclusion, a more meaningful message. But no. At the end of my first 80h playthrough, after having read all codex entries, having done all companion and side missions, I felt so incredibly empty. Like, "is that it? This is the story I've been waiting for for 10 years?" And now, a couple of weeks removed from that first playthrough, I'm just so incredibly frustrated and disappointed. There is so much potential for good storytelling and writing in the settings, the characters, with what happens in the game. But that potential is never met. Everything is only as deep as a puddle. I definitely feel the absence of the original creators. And I deeply grieve the fact that, if not for a complete miracle, we will never truly get a satisfying conclusion to this world that we've come to love.

[@Berendir]

Yeah, I had the same experience, the second play-through was honestly so boring and felt so meaningless, if I wasn’t doing a review I wouldn’t have done it, which is really sad because I loved the replay ability of these games so much.

[@hanli5416]

Just curious, was either of you a solas lavellan romance player? I have noticed this dragon age fanship is more forgiving of VG cause we kinda got the ending we were waiting for after inquisition.

[@MsIvalane]

@@hanli5416 I am a solavellan shipper, and even with their fairly sweet ending leaning heavy into the mythology angle, the game just felt empty. it's too sanitized, there's nothing to get genuinely passionate about. even companions who should have been even middlingly controversial were just.. . . Fine. it was all Fine.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

​@@MsIvalanewait what companions other than Traash would be controversial?

[@MsIvalane]

@@Drums_of_Liberation Lucanis is both heir to the seat of the First Talon of the Crows, and an abomination. Bellara has spent years dedicating her life to learning and using dangerous ancient magicks. Davrin is a Warden in a post- mass demon summoning world. Neve is a Tevinter mage. It's not hard to see how most if not all the companions could be written to be controversial in their own ways, there's just nothing interesting to play with.

[@cokokocokoko4180]

There was also lore implication in the secret ending that kinda just took away all the character agencies of everyone from back in Origins, DA2, and inquisition. It feels a little disrespectful for the new writers to interfere with the canon of the older writers like that.

[@Berendir]

Felt like a slap in the face to all the fans if the older games.

[@lastfreethinker6810]

Iirc DA2 was also about how there isn't an overall group conspiring and pulling the strings of everything in the background.

[@CyrusIsnt]

It does not remove agency if i punch square in the face. And you learn it was bill's idea am i absolved? Its cheesy to just drop that with much context but it doesnt remove agency. It also make them look kinda silly the ancient elves could have ended the world 😅😅

[@Valettek]

It reminds me of the similar situation with lore regarding World of Warcraft in the Shadowlands expansion. New writers come and say "Our generic cosmic threat guy was miles ahead with his 200IQ moves. It was him all along!"

[@rushingtide1710]

My Hawke romanced Isabella in Dragon Age 2 and is alive after Inquisition because I couldn't leave her in the Fade. Seeing Isabella not even acknowledge her mage pirate wife broke me.

[@Berendir]

Yeah Morrigan not acknowledging my warden who I’ve shipped in my head for 15 years sucked. Felt like she divorced me or something haha.

[@lordfarquaad8601]

That's how I felt playing Inquisitions. Listening to Morrigan and everyone else not once acknowledge that her son is the bastard and only son of the Prince-Consort of Fereldan was numbing.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

​@@Berendirdid Morrigan basically do that once she leaves after you pump her full of Old God baby that goes nowhere?

[@mikevalones9977]

@@lordfarquaad8601 What game did you play? I'm pretty sure there's an entire dialogue wheel with Allistair where they acknowledge this.

[@lordfarquaad8601]

@@mikevalones9977 Didn't see it. I didn't kill Loghain in the first game.

[@Tito_michi]

Actually the design isn't good either. Let's take Nevarra for example. Yes, here we have the Grand Necropolis which is full of skulls, skeletons and the Pentaghast coat of arms. All right, it works. But then we go to a manor owned by a local noble family. And it has exactly the same design as the Necropolis - skulls, skeletons and the Pentaghast coat of arms. But why?! Is Nevarra just about skulls and death now? How do these people suppose to live there? Even their bed has a giant skull. Imagine if the Cousland manor in Origins had mabaris everywhere. Why a Nevarran companion from the previous game was a better representation for her country with her hairstyle, accent and stories than the actual country itself in this game? None of the Nevarrans in Veilguard have Cassandra's accent or crown braid, I purposely examined every NPC in the Necropolis. Not to mention that Emmrich's parents' tombs have the Pentaghast coat of arms but they were commoners as he confesses in a banter with Harding. It is evident that the designers didn't have any idea about the lore... It's just so lazy and lame.

[@Oozaru85]

I highly disagree with you on the music here. Its not phenomenal at all. Its sounds very generic and most of the time the music doesnt even fit the scenes its playing in. I'm on my third playthrough now, and I still dont remember a single song except the one that plays in the main menu. The music is just that unimpactful and basic/generic. Trevor Morris did a much better job with Inquisition. So many memorable songs. Like Journey to Skyhold, and epic song to an epic ending of the first chapter. The title song of course. The exploration music (especially in the Emerald Graves/Mythals temple). The song that played when the Inky gets their memories back in the fade. Those are even in the Inquisition customization screen in Veilguard. Then the bard songs. The Trespasser soundtrack, omg. Sorry, but Veilguard cant compete with that. Not in the slightest. Its obvious hans Zimmer didnt work on this game, only on the main theme at best. The rest was probs done by his trainees, lol. At least thats what it sounds like.

[@Berendir]

I do have to admit the only songs that did stand out to me were the ones that dipped into melodies from the older games. I guess I didn’t really sit down and think about the fact that those were the only memorable songs to me. Thanks for that, it’s actually a really good insight I didn’t see myself.

[@lisdraconis2212]

Agree, the music was at times too elctrical. Especially in one of Bellara's quests. It felt like sci fi and not fanatsy.

[@MsIvalane]

I was so disappointed with the music dear god; the song that plays for the prologue, as Rook scrambles through the ritual site was just. . . bad? The tone didn't fit, it felt like a hopeful song in the middle of 'this is the antagonist doing the worst thing we can conceive of' set dressing.

[@Oozaru85]

@@lisdraconis2212 Yeah, some of those tracks sound like they took them from Blade Runner.

[@dizetoot]

Yup music was poor - I appreciate getting Zimmer would have felt like a win, but it's clear that him and his team had never worked on a game before. Very disappointing especially when compared to the heights of inquisition score

[@hinkelstein1494]

They made an offhand comment in the artbook about how EA forced them to use this art style because it is way less cost-intensive, and management simply liked it more (which just means they have terrible taste). They said that the comic style essentially removed up to 2 years of development time because it is just way easier to implement than the pseudo-realism of Inquisition or the stylized fantasy painting vibe from Origins and 2

[@Berendir]

Yeah some of the things I’ve seen in the art book were actually really cool. Some of the detained things that were going to make it in the game that didn’t were also really promising. Makes me wonder if we will ever get good games from these massive producers who buy studios again.

[@nicolasferreiro4492]

​@@BerendirI don't need to wonder. Nothing new. Either EA has them well grabbed or BW leadership is spineless, but they fell into this design pattern after Origins. DA2 had several issues out of trend chasing design. Inquisition largely uninteresting large world chased Skyrim. DAV is DA2 tenfold in this regard. Only DA I can say has its own vision is Origins. Regarding writing... it's sad that after seeing that visuals and combat were going for what someone thought was the most popular, so many believed writing wouldn't be affected. Come on. How many times do people need to get burned before they stop jumping into what's clearly fire?

[@r.kolemaistos7788]

Inquisition I could understand, but surely the stylised fantasy would be just as easy to render?

[@hinkelstein1494]

@@r.kolemaistos7788 I have no idea thats what they said. My guess is that aniamtion is really hard to do in that style given that Origins basically has no facial movement/ really bad movement animations.

[@KaiSaeren]

I am surprised at how few people comment on what you said about how everything lore related was so "neatly" wrapped up, leaving essentially nothing for the future except for the new big bad from the secret ending (I hated that to be honest, its like Jailor from wow seemingly, anyone who read the Origins books, or even just paid attention in the game would know that its complete bs), but it makes sense that they wanted to wrap everything up (and part of me is glad even if its not all to my satisfaction) because of how much this game wipes the slate clean. Essentially all of our decisions from previous games and all the places we knew were wiped off the face of Thedas, its as world reset as they come in Fantasy settings :X Even beyond it being poorly done and unnecessary, I just dont believe that anything this new Bioware will put out to replace what they destroyed will be remotely as good. Needless to say I quite midway through my second playthrough of Veilguard, I just wasnt interested and I did most of what I wanted to do at that point anyway, the game only has enough content for two playthroughs anyway imo, and immidiately went to DA 2 which I considered, untill now, the worst of DA games (tho only mildly worse than Inquisition as a whole for me, I always liked it, it just wasnt as good). First I wanted to confirm that it indeed is much better than Veilguard and to find out if its just me that changed and not the series, my memories served me well and DA 2 is indeed miles ahead of Veilguard, at least in the aspects I care about (to say nothing of Origins) but I also still really enjoyed it and went on to rediscover how much fun the various different conversations are depending on whether you have friendship or rivalry with the characters, or even how different Hawke sounds and how he/she reacts depending on your prevailing personality etc., it was a game with many great ideas that was simply pushed out too fast, it is still timeless (again, to say nothing of Origins), whereas Veilguard is just product of its time. In the attempt at making this the grandest stage with the biggest stake yet, they completely forgot and forgone what made even the smaller stakes and personal stories meaningful and interesting to us... that or they just lost the ability.

[@extinct2087]

I feel the biggest problem with all the companions is that you learned so much about them way to fast. Also the fact that they immediately trust you with these very personal problems and pretty much make everything Rooks decision despite knowing them for like 10 minutes. It feels like there’s no depth to any of them since you don’t have to actively learn anything about them and they just shove it in your face.

[@Berendir]

Yeah there was no reading between the lines with any of them it just made them feel so shallow and boring.

[@extinct2087]

@@Berendir sorry for ranting btw. I just feel so disappointed and I’m not even a long term fan of the franchise. I can’t imagine what diehard fans of the game feel rn Wonderful video as well, keep it up 👍

[@extinct2087]

@@Berendir Fr I understand why they got rid of the question wheel from inquisition but in the end it made the companions feel more real in the sense that you had to ask them yourself to learn about them. It also made it so there was more to them outside of their quests. For a companion based game they really dropped the ball. The only reason I think I’ll ever replay is for the character creator and the cutscenes bc those were the best parts (and the fights even if they were sorta repetitive)

[@Berendir]

@ haha don’t apologize! The whole point of my channel is this discussion right here!

[@TSGypside]

@1:02:25 The thing that bugged me the most about the storytelling is that they never trust the player to figure anything out. I love seeing "...[character name] will remember this..." popups that tell you to watch for repercussions without explicitly telling you what those repercussions are. I hated seeing the popups in this game that spell everything out.

[@Berendir]

Exactly! The game almost felt like it was calling me dumb at certain points honestly!

[@wowar_]

The ending mission is essentially a direct copy of Mass Effect 2's final suicide mission, but that mission was so good unlike here. The whole ordeal with the story reminds me more of WoW Shadowlands' storytelling, where everything is revealed to be part of a grand plan by a cosmic villain who somehow knows everything that has happened and will happen. I suppose one could argue that this was also inspired by Marvel's storytelling. 1:35:14 wtf I thought we were gonna play it together! D:

[@Berendir]

Let’s not pretend like we will have anytime to play with the fresh classic servers haha.

[@BodaciousDerb]

Yeah in ME2 they didnt tell you you had to do the mission or companions would die there was also ways to not meet the requirements and ways to fail companion missions. Veilguard made a shit tier imitation. Not to mention ME2 had likable and interesting characters where there are none in Veilguard.

[@paulg.4812]

@@BodaciousDerb My favorite was, towards the end when you have to assign a bunch of your party members, you have to pick someone to fight the war mage in the city. And Lucanis comments about how they should probably send someone, and then it pops up with the decision and says something like "you should probably send someone who is sneaky, good at ambushes or good at killing mages, hint hint." Gosh, I wonder who the game is trying to signal for me to pick.

[@wirilome]

Two more thoughts: can you imagine the drama and conflict if morrigan, who has for her whole life been terrified of being consumed by another soul, realizes her son has within him the soul of another being? And re: the ending, what I don't understand is WHY they had every ending holding up the veil. The veil coming down has been foreshadowed for multiple games, and it being in place is the cause of like. All of the mage conflict, which caused a civil war basically. They obviously wanted a clean slate for the next game, but instead of having a big worldchange with the veil coming down, they decided to....... just torch every land that had been explored in previous games. Insane to me. Anyway, fantastic video, I loved this breakdown a lot!

[@Berendir]

Thanks for the nice comment! Glad you enjoyed it, and yeah the ending was an absolute bummer. If they wanted a fresh start at least let us decide to destroy the veil or not and then just make a canon choice for the next games.

[@Axterix13]

They didn't just torch the previous lands, but they undermined every character's decisions as well.

[@wirilome]

@@Axterix13 i try not to think about it too much ;_;

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

Problem though, Morrigan would know her son has the soul of another that was literally the whole point of the dark ritual in Origins so there would be no drama unless the boy showed signs that the old god soul was taking over his body.

[@Karl.Zimmerman]

While there's a big issue with game design here, I do feel like many of the (bad) choices come down to the weird development cycle, where the old writers started work on a direct sequel, then it flipped to live service, then they resurrected the game. Basically they cobbled together the bits they had from each dev cycle in the easiest way possible, which left a linear mess. For example, there are plenty of analyses which show only 10%-20% of gamers actually like "playing evil." As a result, putting a lot of effort into constructing genuinely bad moral choices means you're creating content most players will never see. From a cost-benefit analysis (the way a corporation thinks) this isn't profitable, especially when you've been in development hell for six years. I think the lack of any consequences from previous player actions is also because of this - it would take more coding, more voice acting, more everything if they provided a less linear experience. The weird tonal whiplash is also I think a result of this. It seems like a lot of the game's lore was built out prior to Gaider & Laidlaw leaving. I think there are even some assets which survived from that era still in the game. They then built out a lot of the bigger maps and basic game mechanics during the "live service" era (companions are likely underwhelming, for example, because the game was meant to be co-op). The underwhelming mid-game "filler" (and probably a lot of the dialogue) were shunted into the game last. TBH, the issues of The Veilguard are to some extent not that different than Dragon Age 2, which was greeted very negatively due to a plot that railroaded you heavily at the end, action-style combat which was boring with limited enemy design, etc. The main difference is that game was also slagged by the cheap reuse of small, ugly levels, where here, I think they had the big maps like Minrathous finished years ago, so the rush was just to fill the areas with more story content - which was largely done by shunting the personal quests of the companions into the maps.

[@Berendir]

Yeah the hellos development cycle of this game was a large contributor. Honestly I think Anthem was almost as bad for Dragon Age as it was on its own. This game is a story of extremely poor studio management more than anything, which is becoming quite a trend in recent years.

[@pjroronoa]

And there's this Inquisitor letter or codex entry that mention that the whole of South Thedas has been blighted to destruction except Redcliff which feels like all the things you've done from the past 3 games meant little and left a bad taste imo

[@Berendir]

Yeah I didn’t mention that but it was a massive bummer to hear Orlais and Denerim were basically killed offscreen

[@laningsmith9163]

And appearently in a later codex entry we find out that even Redcliffe has fallen. And the ferelden survivors are likely going to starve to death

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

That's what happens when you leave a simpleton like Alistair in charge. 😂

[@FizzFazz23]

First off, thank you for giving us a thorough, thoughtful breakdown and analysis on the game. It is difficult to judge the quality of the game when so many other content creators are concerned with commentary on the identity politics of the game. I've played Origins and DA media since it came out in '09, and I gotta say - I can't bring myself to pay this much for something this awful. You said it perfectly: this isn't an RPG, this is an action game with RPG elements. And the writing is atrocious - it really feels like everything was recorded in a kindergarten managed by Joss Whedon. I'm also so dismayed that the villains have been boiled down to 'evil because evil' in a franchise that gave us Teyrn Loghain. It's so disheartening to see this when there's modern examples like General Ketheric Thorm to draw from and learn from. It's unacceptable in an era that gave us the Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, and Baldur's Gate 3 for a AAA studio to perform this poorly in terms of a written narrative imo. Hell, even Diablo 2 seems to have better writing, and the main character never speaks! It saddens me to see one of my favorite franchises that I've followed since I was a teen morph into another corporate Marvel fingerpainting, but there it is. I grieve with you, my brother. In death, sacrifice.

[@Berendir]

Poor one out for the wardens o7

[@simonjohansson7529]

Dont forget DA2 villains. They were great. And they were not evil. Meredith, Anders, The Arishok and Orsino. None of them were evil, they were the products of each other and did what they deemed was the right thing to do for the greater good. Da2 had a lot of problems, but the story and writing was not one of them

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

​@@simonjohansson7529Meredith absolutely was evil or Kirkwall's Templars wouldn't have been as corrupt as they were. And that's before the red lyrium idol.

[@chengong388]

The game was super mid and forgettable for me, but my KZbin feed have recently been filling up with those angry videos about the latest AAA game being DESTROYED, ABANDONDED, BILLIONS LOST, NO PLAYERS etc, I don't know which side I hate more. Why can't people just chill the fuck out, be honest and sincere?

[@Berendir]

Actually a large contributing factor as to why I started my channel: I made a whole video about how Starfield was just mid and that’s ok haha. I couldn’t bear to listen to the discourse around it anymore.

[@FinneousPJ1]

Just don't click on the videos mate

[@r.kolemaistos7788]

58:53 "I don't really do that in games" - implying that you only romance men in real life. ;) Jokes aside, great review. But as an old Thedosian I won't play it after seeing all my worst fears materialise. It might be petty, but at some point us fans have to vote with our wallets, otherwise we will never be taken seriously by the corporate suits.

[@Berendir]

Haha don’t tell my wife!

[@inerd77]

Although the dialogue is awful, I have to give credit to Elgar'nan's voice actor. His performance reminds me of Irenicus from Baldur's Gate 2. So much wasted potential.

[@Berendir]

Some of the VA’s absolutely crushed their roles for sure.

[@kylo_wren]

I'm a player who has never played a DA game until Veilguard and had no concept of the lore of the world. Also had very little exposure to DAV marketing ahead of launch. I just finished playing it, and I had a good time. I really liked the character creator and combat system, but the writing definitely felt childish, and the tone of the writing is an abysmal match for the heavy themes and stakes attached to the villains. I called this a "junk food" game, because if you can just turn your brain off to the cringe and enjoy the button mash fighting, you'll have fun. And since I had no idea what previous titles were like, I didn't experience the whiplash many longtime fans have been discussing

[@andrewvincent7299]

Just a bit of correction but Laidlaw joined the Origins team late into it's development. He took over as sole lead designer starting with DA2

[@somegamer4071]

Lucianis' intro scene with him sprouting wings and being an assassin with dark hair.... someone on bioware team watched Critical role or the legend of vox machina and decided they wanted Vax'ildan in the roster didn't they...?

[@Berendir]

Haha everyone needs an emo companion to swoon over. We could only wish Lucianis was as deep of a character as vax.

[@somegamer4071]

@@Berendir It goes even further than that to be honest, the demon inside him could also be a reference to illidan, another character Liam o'brian plays in warcraft. XD Evil cannot create as the saying goes

[@M99jj]

I also played the game on Nightmare on my first playthrough (as a mage) and ended up making an ice magic build that just on it's own completely broke the game and trivialized the rest of the game once I got my equipment tiered up enough to really get it running. Which thank god because by the time I put Elgar'nan down I was more than over the gameplay lol.

[@drathicusrex7244]

DAO = Original SW Trilogy DA2 = Prequel Trilogy Inquisition = Clone Wars / EU Veilguard = The Sequel Trilogy… actually no, Veilguard = The Acolyte

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

You made a huge mistake. EU should be in the Origins section

[@drathicusrex7244]

@ good point! You’re right 👍

[@palamedes4740]

Thank you! It's been so hard to have a genuine conversation without the culture war warriors. The narrative and characters are indeed very bad but not because of who they are or the subject they discussed. The execution is just awful, with no nuance or depth, and that's a flaw in media, no matter what side of the aisle it falls on.

[@Berendir]

Precisely. Bad writing is bad writing, doesn’t matter what it’s about.

[@mikeydflyingtoaster]

I don't think I agree to be honest. I think the subject matter and its execution often go hand-in-hand. I guess it depends on what someone defines as 'woke'. For me, wokeness is not synonymous with diversity or LGBT themes or narratives. It really annoys me when any plotline including a gay person is scoffed at

[@sundrelstriker7513]

This has been my biggest issue. The Acolyte was in the exact same situation. It was a very poor show to me overall, but the culture warriors made it about the little weak shit. Not the bad writing choices.

[@ffffdsd]

Can we stop pretending like the two things aren't connected DEI hiring practices are the complete opposite of merit based hiring and is a direct result of this far left ideology. Even if you removed the overt political propaganda you still have a story that doesn't understand the fundamentals of writing because the people working on them have no idea what they're doing. To ignore the culture war is to ignore the real reason media is declining.

[@wirilome]

Agreed, its not political for a wide variety of people to exist. It's bad writing for them to be written poorly though

[@samends8863]

Interesting video. Here are my 50 cents. Spoiler warning!! - Bloom bothered me so much that i followed the advice from the internet and set it to 0 in the ProfileOptions_Profile settings so that it was actually turned off. - Combat sounds were ok, although i found the sounds lacked a bit more impact. - The German and French versions only have one voice per gender for Rook for some reason. - The music wasn't to my taste. If it says Hans Zimmer, i expect more. - The hair doesn't have enough weight and this causes the hair to stand up when you go down in the elevator. I also complained about the short hairstyles. - Lore or not, "Dark"spawn can't even plan an ambush anymore because you can see them glowing 10km away. - I don't like the art design of Veilguard. It often broke the immersion. - the locations and environments in general werent particularly appealing. There was nothing new and it seems very generic to me. - I would have liked a setting that prevented companions from telling me how to "solve puzzles". - It's also not great that you had to wait until the third patch, which came out 5 days ago, to finally be able to bind the arrow keys. - The combat is boring and i would have liked an option to switch between simplified combat and tactical combat. - I always imagine that when the veil was torn in Inquisition and many demons came out of the fade, the two gods were lying on a beach somewhere and didn't notice anything. - When i helped Treviso in the first playthrough, i naively thought, "Okay, if Ghilan'nain is here, then Elgar'nan is in the other city." but when i helped the other city in the second playthrough, i just thought, "Wow. That's the laziest thing I've ever seen." - I also wonder why Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain aren't nearly as brutal and terrifying as Solas described them. I mean, even if they're not at full power or whatever, they should be a threat, but after the blight is released, there's not much new happening. The dragons are nothing new, you've seen all the enemies pretty quickly, and Elgar'nan ends up looking like he's from a Marvel movie. its a shame.

[@dizetoot]

Like you, I'm a massive fan of DA, i've been playing the games since DAO, which is to my mind one of the best games ever put together. I didnt enjoy DA2 on release but went back to it after DAI which helped me to appreciate the story, but I had issues with the repeated environments and liked but didn't love the characters. DAI was fine on my first playthrough but it was each subsequent playththrough that made me fall in love with it, and I loved played as the inquisitor and am a huge fan of every character in the game. DATV feels to me, like a more polished DA2. Average characters, repeated but beautiful environments, with an okay story (although execution is poor). My main issue with DATV is Rook: I feel that im watching Rooks story rather than role playing as Rook so there's this massive disconnect between me as the player and the character. I don't understand why Varric is narrating the game like he knows what happens. Best characters by miles are Davrin and Emrich (which i think could be because of Assan and Manfred!). I think the troubled development in the focus of the game shows, and because so many of the experienced writers left or were fired from bioware, there wasn't enough experience to be able to produce a well told story in the time available. With Taash their writer Patrick Weekes also identifies as non-binary, and while everyone was excited after they were promoted to lead writer after Gaider left (as they were responsible for some amazing bioware characters in the past), it feels that their own experience as coming out as non-binary really was their focus rather than making sure that actual story tied together. I do think the team thought this was gojng to be their last dragon age game, so tried to tie up all loose ends, but in the process forgot about what had made the games great which was role playing. Im half way through my second playthrough and doubt there will be a third.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

And that's the sad part. Taash and their struggle could have given us one of the most compelling characters since Loghain, but instead we got a Twitter non binary stereotype that's probably going to set back acceptance of non binary by several years. How do you go from writing the very model of a scientist salarian to doing barvs and very awkward dinners that end with temper tantrums?

[@lisdraconis2212]

I am just half way through your review and you are one of the few who is neither overhyping the game (or leave out the unpleasant parts) or doom gloom it. You speak from my heart with most of your opinions, thank you so much.

[@Berendir]

Thank you for the very kind comment!

[@lisdraconis2212]

​@@Berendir After watching the further part though I want to ask you to please use the right prononce for Taash. Otherwise people will take that as a disrespect for non binarity. But don't get me wrong I also hate them... thought Oghren would be my forever worst companion followed by Anders, Vivienne and Sera but here we are.

[@lisdraconis2212]

Seeing now the end I have to say tho the other DA games also lead to the same conclution. You stop the blight in DAO, Anders blows up the chantry in DA2 and Corypheus gets killed in DAI. The secret ending was also something I was very mad at. One of the devs made clear though that these characters still had agency.

[@KnotsOfWonders]

It's been fun to watch the Inquisition babies call OG Bioware fans "Tourists", coming to their senses just how bad Failguard turned out to be.

[@faberofwillandmight8758]

Implying Inquisition fans like Veilguard is a huge leap of faith.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

​@@faberofwillandmight8758 oh they're there. I've seen plenty of Inquisition fans still taking the copium about Veilguard

[@dark_fire_ice]

What i find funny, is that Bioware missing an interesting opportunity to add to the world of Thedas; the humans on Thedas haven't been on the continent long enough to cause any genetic "locks" (and unlike our own world's Indo Europeans, that despite all having the same orgin people, Icelandic people look very different from the Urdu peoples, which was caused by local interbreeding.) So they could have made the Veil to act like radiation, and is causing a massive increase to mutation and causing an actual dilemma for the game

[@Doomed.Traveler]

I love listening to video game essays while falling asleep (or trying to...). Your content is perfect for that! I especially loved your Kingdom Come Video as I'm currently playing it and having a blast. Due to the many flaws, I won't be playing Dragon Age. The Veilguard but I'm curiously following the many discussions around it. Therefore, I'm intrigued what you will have to say in this video. Here is to many more videos and a flourishing channel :)

[@Berendir]

Thanks you for such a nice comment! Hopefully you enjoyed the video!

[@OldyAlbert]

Athem, for all it's faults - sold like 5-6 million copies, the reputation of the company still carried alot of weight back then. I don't think it does it anymore. That's why "Return to form" message was extremely important for them to spread

[@voss5443]

I really feel like Veilguard just took all the amazing lore setup from the previous games and rushed unsatisfying conclusions to all of it, just for the sake of resetting the series and doing their own thing.

[@1957DLT]

Good title, you caught my attention well beyond all the clickbait-y ones that I've been auto-rejecting in the YT algorithm. I came for an in-depth analysis, and I sure did get it. I did not pre-order or purchase Veilguard at launch, I waited and watched real players not under NDA's playing before deciding. And as an og DA fan seeing what happened to the writing, plot, characterization, dialogue, choices, I was increasingly sick at heart. But my god, the reconned lore! A single slide of innuendo that up-ended an entire franchise. Now I understand why so many of my og tribe have said that they immediately started up a new play of Origins: it's their balm and palate cleanser. The red flags for this game were there all along, too bad so many of us ignored them to live on our hopes. Bioware did not spend 10 years developing Veilguard. They pissed away 6 of them starting and tossing out (classic Bioware development, btw), including unloading senior people who used to have a hand on the brakes of the creative. Then came the market speak: 'curated experience'. And that trailer. And the travesty of the 'Early Reviews'. In the end, old fans got exactly what was advertised and nothing but delusions of what could have been. For those who have hung in there for over a decade, we've been made to feel stupid for investing our energy and precious entertainment hours in a franchise that does not give a shit about us or their own legacy. I love Marvel when it's doing Marvel, not when it's being shoehorned as the new blueprint for Dragon Age. I love Disney/Pixar when it's not the new art style for Dragon Age characters, especially returning legacy characters. And I especially do not love lazy writing in a dark fantasy franchise that was once held up as a beacon for being unafraid to 'go there' with dark themes. Your vid was thoughtful, measured, you showed your work and backed your arguments. To quote Admiral David Anderson to Cmd. Shepard: "You did good, son." Here's my sub, please do keep at it.

[@Berendir]

Hey thank you for the really nice words! And yeah I agree almost 100 percent with everything you said!

[@nicolasferreiro4492]

Old veterans having hope felt so weird to me. I've observed very much rose tinted glasses regarding DA2 lately, especially writing wise (no, it isn't good), but that game having been one of my greatest burns ever, I learned to look for the warning signs, and DAV had most of the same, tenfold, and some new ones.

[@TheTomoyaNagase]

@@nicolasferreiro4492 so much this. People praising DA2 and DA:I as great Dragon Age games just leaves me baffled. Like people praising DA2's combat evenso that game killed all tactics by having enemies spawn all around your party in waves killing tactical positioning which is a core feature of tactics in general. Stuff like that is the reason why DAV has damage immune companions and forced game design to make rogues and mages tanky since your player is the only one who can take damage.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

The writing decisions are directly related to Patrick Weekes having a transition and wanting to make his author's pet character, you know the one, go through her own little transition story. That she's also the most obnoxious and downright rude and meanspirited, is a bit of a Freudian slip of the writer himself.

[@PatheticApathetic]

Trick Weekes, and “they.”

[@simonjohansson7529]

​@@PatheticApathetic Shut up

[@thezerowulf2046]

​@@PatheticApathetic We don't want to roleplay with you.

[@PatheticApathetic]

@ what’s your name?

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

​@@PatheticApatheticTrick Weekes is one thing but Traash doesn't deserve to have HER pronouns respected. Why should HER pronouns be respected when SHE acts like a child and has tantrums? I respect Trick Weekes because of their past work but they really fumbled with Traash. Traash and her personal quest could have been one of the most compelling stories in the game but instead she set back acceptance for non binary people and their struggle by a good few decades by acting like a Twitter/Tumblr stereotype.

[@daenia]

The Lucanis romance was also mid, sort of a beginning flirtation and a declaration of undying love, with nothing much in between. Coffee, I guess. Veilguard was good enough, 7/10 and I don't want my 120 hours back. I'm glad they tied up all the lose ends though, because I have zero interest in ever playing another Bioware game. About the same interest as seeing any more Marvel movies, coincidentally.

[@rociohernandez3077]

I gotta say, I think the game would've benefitted from making the companion quests more tied to the main plot a LOT. Imagine Davrin's quest as a monster hunter leading you to memories in the Fade of Ghilan'nain first creating the halla and griffons and slowly becoming obsessed with creating monster, like the ones he hunts. Or Bellara being an agent of Fen'harel, having conflicting emotions upon learning of his mistakes but ultimately deciding he's better than the other gods because he does care about his people (saving the Dalish for example) and how that plays into saving her brother who is so loyal to a god who'd kill him with no hesitation. Or Harding getting a quest figuring things about the Blight because of the connection to the Titans and finding information the Hero of Ferelden left behind. I'm sure I could make an essay about how every companion could be connected in some manner with their factions AND the main plot, and it would've helped make them feel more fleshed out, by having them rralize things slowly and having thw whole game to come to twrms with everything they learn and maybe even clash at times. Ultimately I agree with you, I don't play BioWare games for their gameplay but it's obvious that's the sirection they've been trying to go in for a long time, at least since Mass Effect 2, to appeal to a broader audience. And it saddens me because the writers back then and up until now have made comments about how they're left aside by the company (Trick Weekes and others made a few comments in bluesky that hint to this frustation which Gaider voiced back in 2016). So for me, I played this game one to get the closure, it wasn't nearly as good as I hope because I saw the bones of a great game in the story and codex entries. Instead it left me sad and disappointed for all the nuance that was lost (what happened to Solas changing his mind about the worth of this world and realising the elves can carve their own future that Felassan hinted at in Masked Empire for example?). I am left sad and disappointed and, above all, heartbroken because now I know I'll never buy another BioWare game again if this is how they'll treat their writing aspect.

[@nashwise4everGM]

Thank you for calling out ENDYMIONtv. While he raises valid points about the culture war, he ironically mirrors the very behaviors he criticizes-coming off as preachy and overly annoying. We need more introspective content creators who foster thoughtful discussion.

[@ravenroc1784]

You were supposed to praise failguard. Now they will hate you and ban you from their forums.

[@Berendir]

I can handle the smoke.

[@r.kolemaistos7788]

Which forums, they banned us all from them years ago... XD

[@ravenroc1784]

@@r.kolemaistos7788 Steam Failguard forums.

[@MindfulByMoonlight]

Calming voice, considered perspective, balanced analysis. Love this. The game was a disappointment for me. I was highly hopeful despite initial reviews. Unfortunately, the writing had me confused in the opening, while Neve’s voice acting and all characters’ facial stagnation (weirdly placed smiles) were both immediately apparent/off-putting. What really ruined it for me was the TONE of romance dialogue: so strange, awkward, and infantile. I romanced Davrin - cringed so much. Oh and Taash: love trans and NB folks, hate how they were represented as rude, egocentric, and emotionally immature (community deserves better). Everyone was painfully unidimensional, including Rook.

[@cfox4548]

The way I decided to enjoy this game was to roleplay as my origins character to add some depth to the main character, you can't really talk about your past much, so if you were the hero of Fereldan, nobody mentions it anyway and my antagonistic relationship with the 1st Warden makes more sense if I had to beat a blight on my own and I'm here trying to stop another one while he continues to ignore it just like the last. So much of the game feels like they put a lot of time and effort and creative freedom to most of the artists and designers, but then hired some fresh out of high school writers who would listen to everything the corporate overlords said for their writing direction.

[@Kenshin6321]

The Veilguard design didn't grow on you, your brain just got used to how ugly it looks. It's like how people who work around garbage all day eventually become numb to the smell so much so that it doesn't bother them anymore. Initially, Veilguard's design seems awkward and dumb. But after looking at these awkward and dumb characters for 40 hours, your brain is no longer disgusted by it. It doesn't change the fact that the character design is horrendous, especially since the original concept art was just leaked and we can see the characters originally looked more in line with the traditional Dragon Age style.

[@Berendir]

Yeah the artbook had some really cool character designs in it. I heard it was cheaper and easier to to produce this art style and that’s why they made the switch. I don’t know how reliable that info is, but it is a bummer.

[@Asoeee]

Just like you, I'm a long-time fan of DA and I love this lore... and honestly, I'd rather see "Bioware" 💀💀 than continue to harm this world, and I'll pretend this game doesn't exist :)

[@KaiSaeren]

Sorry if I am reposting, I think my comment either got deleted somehow or I didnt post it properly o.O The music is outstanding? Wow, thats the first time I think I heard anyone even mention it, I barely remember there even being music to be honest, I dont know if my head tuned it out because of how generally bland the overall experience was or if it was because I was annoyed and arguing with my screen most of the time but man I certainly wouldnt call the music outstanding, I genuinely do not remember any track except for the main menu theme where I spent quite some time but even that is at best mid for me. Im sure I will have more comments as I watch but props for making such a comprehensive video, its clear you care about the franchise and want to do a review right, I honestly found the game to be overall a major dissapointment but I was cynical enough to not expect a whole lot so I whitstood it welll enough, that being said, like you, I hope that the outcry about all the woke stuff and such wont overshadow the actual issues with the game (tho I do consider woke to be inclusivity done poorly, at the expense of the game, so in my eyes the game is woke, its just not its main issue) because it gives people and mainly developers and easy scape goat when it comes to taking responsibility for their game. Agreed on the companions, Davrin was also my favorite, the only one who seemed to be taking stuff seriously, Neve could have been there but so much of her delivery is so lackluster and emotionless, especially in the moments where it shouldnt be, Emmrich actually grew on me, he does not fit the setting whatsoever but he is written competently and is likeable, Bellara seems like a marvel discount version of Merril to me and while I grew to like her more, I really disliked her in the begining so at best she ends up being mid, like the rest of the companions, except for Taash who is genuinely the worst of any companion I have seen in any game I played. My issue with Bellara is that, while you do get the emotions and potential of what could happen, it never goes anywhere, she doesnt have to make a decision, her brother doesnt go full evil and there is no moral or emotional backbone or resolution to this, at the end of the quest you go back to status quo pretty much because now she can also blame herself for not helping him and turning him away from the Evanuris wannabe sooner (forgot his name). When it comes to Taash its all the reasons you mentioned, she is poorly and annoying written and voice acted, sounding like she comes from modern age LA instead of from Thedas. Just from teh first few sentences I already disliked her even without knowing where it will lead (because I avoided anything spoilery beyond the first two trailers, tho I suspected) she tells us she will not help us and that she doesnt want our help and while I was wondering what the hell we are doing here then Rook just shut up and followed her anyway, then we have the awful scene where she argues the dragon is hers because she drugged it, then she was musing about how Mythal and Solas were doing it, several times and later on she announced she was non binary during a main story discussion just before the attack on Weisshaupt (because I didnt do her quests as I really did not care to engage with her and ruin what little I had left of my immersion), like genuinely, they interrupt one of those meetings about the world ending to tell us she now wants to be a they, I was at the same time floored and just nodded after it all finally clicked and made sense... I have no idea who thought this character was a good idea, Krem was a totally fine character, he was in a completely different league from whatever this was supposed to be and I cant believe people are defending this in face of representation we got in games like Wrath of the Righteous (I fucking love Anevia and Irabeth) or Baldurs Gate 3. It genuinely came across as if someone who hates nonbinary people and wants them mocked, to give the internet more amunition against them and DEI games wrote this character and their place in this game. Haha I wrote this before you said in the video I swear :D She is also not only stupid and unlikeable, but oh my god so freaking ugly o.O Im curious if you will mention the moments of utter stupidity and lack of logic in the game, like how Ghilanain just leaves with her dragon after finding out we have the dagger, despite being literally immortal and the only thing she needs for a completel victory being right infront of her, or how people just blindly accept the Evanuris, them being blighted etc at face value coming from a random guy, worst offenders in this are the Crows where the first talon just starts spouting secrets infront of us like we somehow earned it. Just, ugh, I dont want to get more into it, I get annoyed just remembering. What I do think the game does well and I agree on with you is the enviromental design and the set pieces, the Weisshaupt face was immensely epic, I just wish I cared about that whatsoever in comparison to the story, narrative and companion writing. And yea, Rook sucks, no roleplay options, one my biggest issues, but I already raged about that enough before. I also hated lighthouse, the whole structure of having to run around and leave to unlock conversations that should be happening at the end of missions but you always have to leave... it just stinks of the live service DNA. Overall almost fully agreed with you in just about everything, damn it, why couldnt it be good :(

[@Berendir]

Haha you aren’t the first to do a double take on my thoughts about the music. Almost got me rethinking my taste in music haha! I probably just saw Hans Zimmer and just assumed I loved the music but the longer I sit and think about it the more I realize I don’t remember almost any of the scores. So I might have just given the game credit where it wasn’t due. Thanks for the comment! Love the discussion and agree with a lot of what you said! I didn’t mention much about the illogical parts of the villains execution of their plans, but that is a really valid point.

[@KaiSaeren]

​@@Berendir I get that, he knocks it out of tha park 99% of the time, maybe since the game was changing around so much he went really mild on most of the tracks? Who knows, but yea, unlike with Origins and Inquisition (DA2 has some nice ambient music but nothing big either) I dont remember anything actually standing out here. I dont think I saw anyone talking about it, just a few people on reddit mention it in passing, whereas thats one of the biggest issues for me, it felt so on its face dumb, and right after the whole pick the city to save thing where there was no buildup and barely any time to spend there. I already felt quite dissilusioned at that point and was annoyed that Rook and one of his companion more is somehow the difference between Minrathous of all fucking places being taken over (Or Treviso where its a bit more passable untill you realise how much the Butcher is supposed to love it, or how much it makes no sense for his Antaaam to ally with the Evanuris etc.) and the fact that the immortal Ghilanain just freaking laves for veiled random reason instead of just getting the dagger in a situation where she couldnt lose and get her win really had me going. Same with later when Elgarnan shows up and freezes fucking time (like how exactly did we even beat the guy, we barely had a chance against beaten half to death Solas...) and instead of taking the dagger they just leave again. I just cant help myself but be annoyed at the game, how is this what they put out after all the pre release speeches about reactivity, story focus and companion depth and such.

[@Lowraith]

I think the adjective you were searching for at various points in your review is "adorkable". These writers really seemed to go for a young millennial "How I Met Your Mother", ukulele solo, "adorably dorky and awkward" vibe: Adorkable.

[@fgzhtsp]

Dragon Age: The Vailguard taught me that misgendering and eating the last breadstick is equally bad and according to this misgendering is fine, because eating the last f*cking breadstick is no big deal. /s

[@Berendir]

I think I sat there with my mouth wide open in shock when I saw the last part of the scene lol.

[@lordfarquaad8601]

Why would the new lore interest you if the creators of Thedas aren't writing it? I wouldn't care if any new lore is developed for LOTR, as J.R.R and Christopher Tolkien are dead. The Star Wars sequels are another prime example.

[@GuiPaim]

You know what I always kept thinking about? What about the original Darkspawn Magisters like the Architect. The central conflict about Awakening was so good... that was bioware building on in advancing the original content and going forward. What if Darkspawn start to build their own society? How do we deal with that? I feel like after that it was downhilll (not like Veilguard downhill, but still...) but I feel like something started there.

[@Berendir]

The architect was so good, and it not being introduced or discussed in inquisition with Corypheas was a massive fumble. Even if you killed it in awakening it could just do the whole move to another darkspawn and be reborn thing.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

Man the Architect was such a missed opportunity. Over a decade later and we still know nothing about him or what his plans are

[@historiaso]

Thanks for the great video, I enjoyed it a lot! The greatest crime of Veilguard writing is the abandonment of themes. The dialog, boring questing and almost every other problem from my perspective stems from it. We learn more about slavery in Tevinter from DA2, then from Veilguard - the game set in Tevinter. We have no dailish culture in the game where two of the dailish gods return to Thedas. We have close to none information about the Qunari, despite one of our companions being a cossith and having Antaam as antagonists. Antivan Crows suddenly become freedom fighters and protectors of Antiva - because apparently killing for money can sustain the whole wide syndicate targeting only "bad" people. Etc. World of Origins and DA2 was full of systemic injustice, systemic cruelty and corruption. It was the failure of those systems that provided antagonists for those games, that empowered them. Even in the Inquisition there was some of it, despite the main antagonist being "Evil pseudo-god with a dragon". But Veilguard just put a whole ton of bleach over all of this, said "you are all the cookie-cutter good guys, and you are fighting the Bad, Blighted guys, have fun!" and proceeded to make smug faces at the previous games with it "reveals" how everything before was actually the work of some secret evil people. Don't get me wrong, not every story has to be about society failures (for example, I love BG3, which antagonists can also be simplified down to 'bad guys serving bad gods craving for power'; although it has some interesting, more personal themes of it's own). But if you're making a Dragon Age game, this refusal to touch any non-PG13 rated subjects with a ten-foot poll will be your ruin. Also bad dialogue. It feels so sterile, you could've preformed surgeries with it, were it not so dull.

[@chaddeus8131]

Have you played Disco Elysium? Peak rpg, I think you'd love it

[@Berendir]

I actually haven’t but it’s on the long list of games I have that I want to play.

[@Mkrause762]

Rogue trader is pretty dope too

[@hannahdaunton532]

I second this. I loved all the dragon age games (not counting this one) but Disco Elysium is better.

[@no22295]

Hawke and the hero of ferelden not being in veilguard is criminal.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

Problem is how would it work if your Warden sacrificed themselves or if Hawke died in the Fade in Inquisition

[@mysticonthehill]

I saw the in the tea what this games was going to be and didn't buy it and am glad I didn't. Even knowing the destruction of all we did might feel bad but I imagine it was a lot worse being immersed. What really bothers be is that there were so many lies leading up to release. Our past choice matter (nope) This game is a return to form and the closest to Origins (not at all) This game is all about and has the best romances in the franchise (horrible not so). Very good review which seems pretty much the consensus of the majority of the community.

[@Berendir]

Yeah the biggest disappointment for me came from the high hopes I had from the advertising, shoulda known honestly haha. It was all just nostalgia bait.

[@Whateverlilbro]

Appreciate the quality of the video despite being a small channel. Some ignore things like audio clarity and are hard to listen to, which is not the case here.

[@Berendir]

Thanks! I work hard to make it sound ok!

[@Lilianx6]

I really enjoyed this video and your view on things, there's a lot of passion behind those thoughts! I wish I still had that passion for Dragon Age :') I’m a die hard fan. I have the lore books, the comics, the novels, hundreds of hours in each title, and the Veilguard made me go into deep depression. I cannot call it a Dragon Age title, because for me at least, it isn’t. I waited 10 years just to get my hopes and dreams crushed in front of my eyes, and I paid 60€ for it. I had to hide the game from my Steam library cause I cannot look at it any more. And don't get me started on the secret ending :')

[@Berendir]

I’m with you we can make it through this haha.

[@Lilianx6]

@ Thank goodness that we’re not alone in this 😄 Still hurts thinking about it all though :’)

[@Barkbatosu]

I think the thing people on both sides of the woke argument don’t understand or refuse to accept is that nobody gives a shit if woke is in the game if it’s done well. If you complained about the woke in BG3 the issue is with you. I can see the complaints here.

[@Berendir]

Exactly, bad writing is bad writing, good writing is good writing, it doesn’t matter what the subject matter is.

[@blueboxjuggler]

I really love how multi-faceted and structured your review is. It’s great that you mentioned the music - so often neglected by other reviewers! I only have one piece of feedback - when you discuss combat mechanics, you reiterated the same point over and over again - I don’t remember how many times you said „samey” but it was A LOT. It was sufficient to say that the combat is repetitive and be done with it - sorry if I sound harsh, just a bit of a pet peeve of mine 😊 Apart from that, I enjoy your takes very much, you can clearly feel that you have been a passionate fan of the series (as am I) and it’s honestly heartbreaking how big of a letdown DAV is for all the fans. The worse moment for me was reading some posts on reddit in which people mentioned tailoring their choices in Inquisition so that the specific RPG experience could be translated onto DA4… well, they aged poorly. I also like how level-headed your review is because I would use rather very extreme adjectives to describe the writers and people who green-lighted this project. Istg the only good bits about the lore in Veilguard must have been taken from David Gaider’s notebook because I am positive that current writers does not possess the talent and intelligence to lay foundation for complex worldbuilding. And for the record, I don’t mind the agenda, DA was ever progressive so it is not surprising to include the themes of gender identity etc. It’s the way it was presented - in an ignorant, braindead and anti-intellectual manner. While I hear your point about the Marvel franchises destroying the industry, I think the reason for this failure in that case is quite straightforward - this game was written by very dumb and boring people. While I know game writing is hard, never in my wildest dreams would I came up with the barve scene, sorry I have some standards and social life. End of my rant, looking forward to more of your content!

[@Berendir]

Thank you! I repeated myself a lot due to me trying out a different form of script writing to sound more natural and less like I was reading to people, still trying to find the right balance of scripted and natural I really appreciate the feedback, I’d never get better if people didn’t give me *constructive* criticism haha.

[@shaquillemartin5674]

I also played on nightmare bro, so I know the feeling. I used neve and emmrich too. I usually try to break things in games that are a bit underwhelming so I used Emmrichs Quietus ability and force the spread on all the enemies with blight bane spams and the passive where quietus gives rage to you. Coupled that with the ignore resistances on projectile abilities, and the other skill that made it where all the damage increased based on enemies hit and It basically broke the game and my fighter ended up feeling like a mage. This game really just upsetted me with the over the top abilities and everyone just looked like mages. This game just pains me to even look at. It makes it worse because had to been good it would have been such an amazing experience to play all the games back to back with things carrying over to the next game but they didn’t even do that. They killed this world literally. Nice vid bro.

[@Berendir]

Thanks! And yeah that was the saddest part for me the lack of carryover from the other games.

[@Khanbar]

Great video, especially the discussion of the gameplay aspects. The 2nd half of this game, even on Nightmare, as a mage, I felt like an invincible god who could win by mashing two buttons. It got so boring.

[@Berendir]

Thank you! Yeah the combat is cool for the first 10 hours and then gets really old really fast.

[@Khanbar]

@@Berendir Absolutely. I’m at the end parts of the video now, and I’m amazed that dwarf Rook doesn’t have more reactions about the Titan news. I was a Qunari, and it’s shocking how little the Tevinter folks care about you being in Dock Town. Your channel definitely deserves more subs.

[@Berendir]

@ that’s very kind of you to say I’m glad you enjoyed the video!

[@dixienormus2802]

I hate how all of Southern Thedas, specifically areas we've experienced and potentially cared for, are hand wiped away with a few text by the inquisitor. Ferelden, Orlais, Kirkwall and the Free Marches are royally screwed by the new blight. Hell, the off screen hand waved blight of The Veilguard apparently did more damage to Ferelden than the blight of Origins. Like, seriously??

[@aersla1731]

I disagree with the fans of dragon age making inquisition game of the year. Inquisition brought a lot of new people into the dragon age world, it was an introduction title for many people. I have seen a few videos now on veilguard and the comment section is filled with inquisition fans. I being an og origin fans didn't like inquisition and still don't. At this point, I have finally come to the conclusion that I am just a fan of dragon age origin and that's it. Every other dragon age game has done things I didn't enjoy, or wasn't what I wanted for dragon age. Luckily ME stayed pretty consistent, even andromeda which people hate was okay, definitely not the worst game I had ever played. In the gaming community there's this strange discord where things can't just be okay, they need to either be masterpieces or complete trash. Not to mention how much the grift is taking attention away from real issues some games have. I'd arguing having colored people and women in games aren't ruining them but profit share holders who have no creativity changing directions of games to make them more profitable are. I really enjoyed your review, the best I can hope for is that the game did good enough so that we would get a new ME. I am not expecting it to be a masterpiece but I am interested to see what they will cook up. Lol btw why doesn't your character look like post malone?

[@Berendir]

Hahaha that’s crazy he does look a little like Posty! Hey I’m 100 percent with you though on the games being just ok and that’s ok. I made a whole video about that with Starfield as an example! Inquisition did bring a lot of new fans to the series but my point was more that Inquisition had an unbelievable amount of carry over and important cameos from the first two games that they just killed with this game which is what I don’t understand. I’m an origins guy myself I playthrough it minimum once a year haha. There will definitely be at least 1 more Mass Effect I think it’s in pre production now and it’s always been the more popular series. I’m hoping they take at least some feedback from this game and incorporate it with the next ME.

[@aersla1731]

@Berendir Yeah I hope so too. I think what makes ME great is actually talking about political issues in a serious sense. No straying away from talking about certain topics. Makes the world feel real. My issue is that good feedback is getting clouded by pronouns people. So I am not sure if they will see the good feedback. Hopefully they do ME is one of my favorite sci-fi universes and it would be a shame if it just disappeared.

[@TheAdarkerglow]

I've got a few notes. 1) I was playing Monster Hunter: World when the video came on, not doing dishes. 2) I wouldn't call HeelsVsBabyface (Az, the Pronouns Guy) a grifter. I believe he sincerely believes the things he says. He might be performative, but I wouldn't say insincere. And, to his credit, if pronouns don't matter and aren't a big deal, Nexus bans any mods that would remove it. If it's not a big deal why can't we turn it off; not for everyone, just ourselves? 3) Yeah, the mechanical review sounded like what it looks like from all I've seen. It's just not the RPG that I would go to Dragon Age for. I've wanted them to walk back changes to be more like DA:O since DA2 and I'm more disappointed the farther away it gets. Good or bad, it isn't what I want. 4) You don't bend your knees for push ups, you straighten your back out.

[@Berendir]

Heels wasn’t the grifter I was mentioning I just liked using his pronouns clip it’s kinda an inside joke I have with a friend and I promised I’d use the clip haha. I was talking about ENDYMION who has in the last 3 weeks made over 15 videos talking about this game and it being woke and sweet baby inc and all the classic grifting talking points. Credit to him though he’s taking in the cash, doing it.

[@firun2635]

Very well made and very well articulated video. Subscribed :)

[@Berendir]

Glad you liked it!

[@ShadmehR_23]

6:33 Motion Blur on 30-40 fps makes the game look like its running around 50fps Recommend for Quality mode Console gaming But in performance, just turn it off, do yourself a favor!

[@Berendir]

Wow I’ve never actually thought about how it can cover up lower frames. That explains why it’s constantly in these games. Thanks for that. I kinda feel dumb not even realizing that.

[@MA-go7ee]

Sorry, complaining about a specific brand of politics shoved into a quasi medieval setting where it clearly doesn't belong is not grifting

[@Berendir]

No but making literally 30 videos in 2 weeks on the same thing is.

[@f4rhodesia273]

Hmmm rare case of giving a thumbs up to both a comment and a counter to that comment.

[@Shadowwand]

I didn't buy the game. I haven't bought a brand new game in years. I dont understand what the rush is. The game will still be available to purchase in a decade. I rely on reviewers who can articulate in detail these aspects, like our choices not really mattering. I have the other 3 games so ill play theough those

[@Berendir]

Yeah I’d recommend just waiting until it’s on ea’s subscription service cheap and pay for like 1 month and see if you enjoy it. Worst case scenario you’re out 10 bucks.

[@LordTheCyril]

the chantry is basically the christian church so of course we have to make it all fake.

[@Berendir]

Yeah it did feel weird how much they distanced themselves from it. Being a central pillar of the lore for the entire series.

[@Rem-753]

@@Berendir the entire series opened with chantry scripture: "And so is the Golden City blackened with every step you take in my Hall. Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting. You have brought Sin to Heaven and doom upon all the world."

[@SidheKnight]

To be fair, it had to happen sooner or later. In a fantasy setting, if only one god is "the true God" and all other pantheons are fake, it makes all those other races look like morons. And it's been hinted at for a while. Corypheus mentions in DA2 how the Black City was already tainted when he got there.

[@numbskull3401]

thank you for this video, it's very thorough and well articulated!!!

[@Berendir]

Thanks for the nice comment!

[@syndicalist-0]

Dude i could smell this shit seeping from this game months before it came out...the reveal only confirmed it to me. I refuse to buy it. Its just not a thing for me. Inquisition is where dragon age ends imo lol

[@doctorlolchicken7478]

I totally agree: eating the last breadstick is way worse than misgendering someone. You can easily correct someone for not realizing you have non-standard pronouns, but the breadsticks are gone for good.

[@Berendir]

Damn, you’re cooking rn, never thought of it like that.

[@radeksilar543]

Pretty good review. I am glad that I did not played any of Dragon Age games, so I could avoid this bad game. I agree with you that Bioware games are primary story games, and without it, it will never be good.

[@Berendir]

Thanks for the nice comment! Glad you enjoyed the video

[@Mkrause762]

Dragon age origins is goated and you should play that but the rest of them can be skipped

[@vampirecountingmoneyup2248]

really enjoyed the video. keep it up

[@humrH2360]

When you want to know HOW the product failed, you look at the components. When you want to know WHY the product failed, you look at the people who made it. Despite all the crap coming out of the entertainment industry being thorough dissected and studied for the public understand, the flow of sewage has yet to curbed. Because the people came up with and/or greenlighted these awful ideas, who don't understand how people or business work, who take the audiences time and money for granted, and then throw a tantrum when the product gets panned, who throw petty insults and accusations instead of trying to learn from their failures *_remain in their positions._* Absolutely NONE of this deep analysis is going to matter as long as this baseball team keeps hiring people who only play patty-cake.

[@SuperDarknut]

Taash feels like either someone from 4chan snuck into the writing room OR they were written by someone self-inserting who lacks basic levels of self-awareness. The latter is far more likely considering how the lead of this game presents himself.

[@Oozaru85]

Just FYI: ur rig is pretty high mid-range. The 3070 Ti is also faster than the 4060. The 4060 is not high end by any means, lol. Its technically "budget" or "entry level". Oh, and you can disable the bloom in one of the games ini files. There's a mod for that on Nexus that explains how to do it.

[@Berendir]

Yeah idk why they didn’t have the option just baked in to disable it. They had so many other customizable options.

[@misanthropy_is_my_nature]

I wlike this review, but I will still always call this game 'Diversity Age: The Tumblrguard'

[@srinagarubanpathujan7086]

The entire conversations with the companions that follow the Solas's regrets revelation are atrocious. They are so forced and cliched, and are basically used to brush aside the implications/consequences of the reveals. I enjoyed the game, to be honest, and am happy that we at least got this. Still, worldbuilding, lore and companions should have been done better, given that they are what sets Bioware's games apart from other RPGs.

[@aldmerian]

The major factor here is laziness and cutting corners. They wanted to put out a game while doing the least possible work. Maybe they were tired of refreshing the project and hear wanted to be done with it but it was a horrible decision to make this DA4. They could've made it a side game so they can have something out while they worked on a proper game but no, they gave us this instead.

[@kirillfox5958]

Disney Age: Good wolfie

[@Berendir]

Hahaha this one got me.

[@goodsman1479]

lets see where this one goes

[@goodsman1479]

3 minutes in was the reassurance i needed lol.

[@Berendir]

Haha glad to hear it!

[@aersla1731]

Last 10 minutes are the best 10 minutes of life.

[@harlemsar]

great video, keep it up.

[@Berendir]

Thank you!

[@ewe_e-]

1:07:17 that was my thought exactly, taash's writing feels like a sabotage when it comes to lgbt topics

[@testdep]

I unsubbed from ENDYMIONtv long time ago (don't even remember why, prob got tired of his content), but you can make good reviews w\o attacking other YTbers, esp with much bigger following. Just saying.. btw great vid, sound, editing, everything is on point. I personally is not interested in playing Dragon Age, I'm here just to hear different opinions.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

It's not really an attack if the person is just making the same video over and over reiterating the same dead points over and over.

[@eestiny9734]

You are not supposed to play DA at 10y 😅 specially Origins!

[@Berendir]

Bad parents haha.

[@crazyguywatchnu]

Pull the transcript and look at it. I am curious how many times you said "like"

[@Berendir]

Yeah so deep details on my process I take notes and then refine them and then I would make a script I would read word for word, this time I didn’t do a full word for word script and tried just using the refined notes. But thanks for the feedback, eliminating the filler words would improve the content a lot I agree.

[@ay9lx]

I thought the soundtrack was mediocre at best. Hans Zimmer is washed up and way past his prime, just coasting on his previous accomplishments. I re listened to some of the other games tracks and it’s remarkable how uninspired VG sounds in comparison.

[@robust_nuts7048]

@1:35:35 to 1:35:55 spot on

[@justaquietpeacefuldance]

Hey Biowere/was, I'm replaying BG2, hope that $5 I've kicked your way helps out when you end up on food stamps, you bums... 💜💙🖕💚💛

[@juma315]

Nice video, i'm rooting for your channel :)

[@Berendir]

Thank you! I really appreciate that!

[@Gyuribacsik]

I think nightmare not so easy , as you saying:) i am bad.)

[@leomendoza6119]

Great analysis video! I think you have a great channel on your hands. My only comment is your discourse sounds a little too neutral and lukewarm sometimes. "The combat is not that strategic style of combat that we've kind of grown a little bit used to with Dragon Age Origins." That "a little bit used to" makes you sound really hesitant; that is just one example. Also, you should not play down the effect of woke politics on games; when you have finite limited resources and you are spending a lot of them on your woke agenda, of course other areas of the game are going to suffer. I would have loved to see real dialogue options, but the devs prioritized giving us a trans dialogue option instead of good writing.

[@Berendir]

Thanks for the nice comment! Still trying to find my voice here so I appreciate all feedback!

[@chadwolf3840]

Marvel Movies are written waaay better than Veilguard.

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

All of Phase 4 and current slop begs to differ

[@ningenKami]

Summarizing: Utter GARBAGE! Not even an rpg.

[@crazyguywatchnu]

Hey bud. Work on your scripts. The umm and uhhh takes the listener out of it. That being said good points cant wait to see your growth

[@Berendir]

Thanks for the input I felt like the last video was almost too scripted, I’m trying to get that nice middle ground.

[@f4rhodesia273]

Hard disagree. I like that you used your real voice and natural cadence while speaking.

[@jonp.1418]

“grifter” is the most misused buzzword ever

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

Not really when these people literally make the same video 50 times and never have anything different to say how is it anything but grifting?

[@EndofTimeGaming-m9s]

bruh these graphics are not all that

[@wirilome]

I'm happy to see a critique that doesnt scream "woke!!", as a DAO girlie myself who has been so sad about where the IP has gone. I've given up on bioware, unfortunately -- this is the first bioware game I haven't bought. I would be careful on not misgendering the non-binary character though, it undermines your otherwise valid critique of the character

[@Berendir]

Did I misgender them? I really tried not too but if I’m honest I have nobody in my life who is nonbinary so it’s not language I’m used to using.

[@wirilome]

@@Berendir you just refer to them as "she," which is easy to mix-up if you aren't used to non-traditional pronouns, but it's also how anti-woke people refer to non-binary people. this critique is wonderful otherwise, exactly the kind of breakdown i've been looking for, from combat to story to characters.

[@RalphCifaretto-iy1hk]

The qunari woman is a female so it's acceptable to call her 'she.' Non binary doesn't exist and neither does gender