Veilguard is a shameful example of modernity

[@Sophnar0747]

I don't at all recommend this game, but here's my Amazon affiliate link to it nonetheless, but honestly, don't buy it. It's bad. amzn.to/4fHDZQD

[@insertnamehere5809]

She's back!

[@wasgreg]

Rocket League anyone?

[@zikli9249]

You forgot Varric! I can't blame you since the devs seemed to have forgotten him for most of the game too. Well past the first like 10 minutes at least.

[@ezzahhh]

Not a problem for me, as since this game came out I now identify as non buynary

[@Mkrause762]

@@zikli9249he was kind of bland in inquisition anyways I don't really understand why he is so loved, he was good in da2

[@Kross415]

Traash: I'm non-binary, call me they/them. Emmerich: Sure thing Taash. I'm Emmerich. Traash: Nah fam, you're corpse-guy. Emmerich: I don't like it, just call me by my name. Traash: Not happening corpse-guy. Such delicious irony. Such loveable character. Such rEtuRn tO foRm.

[@GreyDeathVaccine]

Return to... store. 30k units.

[@lezardy]

meanwhile.... if somebody was non-binary in fantasy world isn't it cooler if they just i dunno create a character that maybe gain knowledge of some advanced magic or something to change gender at will?

[@AngelisNotMyName]

in the end Emmerich was the one who had to apologize T_T

[@KhaosFrosty]

@@lezardy Yeah but then the writer can't project their self-victimization.

[@Kross415]

@@AngelisNotMyName Yeah it was ridiculous, it's like he suddenly realizes he's in the wrong when he's completly right about the whole conversation.

[@mellofuego4917]

Taash is an example of a writer not only self-inserting but self-reporting. Their petulance and hypocrisy is on full display, particularly in the scenes with Emerich.

[@gathorall9136]

Taas is also a complete sex pest. you have a team meeting and their contribution is insisting to be gross. Companions have romances and unsurprisingly Taash is just gross and insists on talking about sex despite others clearly being uncomfortable, or rebuking even outright requests to not insist. When Taash comes in it suddenly sounds like a good idea for the Veilguard to hire HR.

[@FastNCurious88]

Brilliantly said!!!! 💯🗣️💯 It's also evident that whoever wrote this insufferable character is attracted to children (as how do you even begin to try/WANT to build a romance with a character who is portrayed in personality to literally be like 12 years old??!!) and also this writer clearly has an obsession with Funatari? Futanari? -Whatever the fk it's called- too. It's giving *gross* in soooo many different ways!!!

[@FastNCurious88]

Brilliantly said!!!! 💯🗣️💯 It's also evident that whoever wrote this insufferable character is attracted to children (as how do you even begin to try/WANT to build a romance with a character who is portrayed in personality to literally be like 12 years old??!!) and also this writer clearly has an obsession with Funatari? Futanari? -Whatever the fk it's called- too. It's giving *gross* in soooo many different ways!!!

[@Cruelty1633]

self inserting as boh villain and vicim, ala isilreal style.

[@efxnews4776]

​@@gathorall9136this game would be a great game if we could kill the companions one by one... For Traash i even thought something very special just for her. Traash: i'm non-binary! Me smiling menacing... Traash: Why are you smiling? Me nothing. Then while Traash trash her own mother i go quietly behind her an snap Traash nexk. Her mother: Why did you do that with my baby? Me: You saw yourself, she was completely lost.. im sorry, but that thing wasn't your baby anymore... Traash mother: i supposed so, thanks anyway, i wouldn't have courage to do it myself. Me:, May her soul rest with Andraste now.

[@KakashiBallZ]

30:55 ...so the non-binary character who admonishes people who misgender them, refuses Emmerich's wishes to be addressed using his REAL NAME. Pure distilled irony.

[@LuckoDaStars]

It's the layers of not respecting that these people have. They want all the respect but they don't want to give any. I even had someone at my old job when I go buy a different name they were blatantly disrespectful and call me by my other name and I made it very clear I don't go by that name he was a full-on dickwad and actively antagonistic towards me. I made a habit of putting all the records on my phone on the notes and I quickly got him fired because I had two months of his bullying recorded.

[@AR-bj5et]

Taash: You're a spirit. You're a dragon queen. You're a skullfucker. Etc. Also Taash: You don't get to tell me who I am!

[@Korijenkins1414]

@@LuckoDaStars Ah yes, "these people." Poor writing in the pandering game = LGBT people are disrespectful "dickwads." Classic.

[@DogeickBateman]

Well it's consistent with those types like Taash in real life.

[@DogeickBateman]

I should also add to my previous comment, the outrage by some trans writers on trans characters not explicitly calling themselves trans is indicative of why many people's views of them have rolled back ten years minimum. For me, it rolled back by a century. I have never seen such a self-replicating cult of fascist thought in my life. Mussolini would have been proud of them. Everything for the Trans. Nothing Outside It. Nothing Against It. I've never met anyone from the community who had any shred of humility or decency. They are crass, rude, and view the world as Lebensraum for them to conquer and lord over. Rant aside, I hope in the next decade and further on more social, political and economical pushback happens against this. We've had enough.

[@Mr.Wonderfool]

"A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author." - G. K. Chesterton

[@mikeydflyingtoaster]

“Good quotation.” - Me

[@pabloosset2533]

The thing that gets me the most about the game is how it ignores so much of its own universe. The Crows? You know, the assassins guild that uses child slaves as recruits, abuses them into obedient agents and puts a hit on them if they fail a job? Now they are heroic freedom fighters. Solas building an army and an intelligence network at the end of Inquisition? Nah, he's going at it completely alone. The Dalish worship of their gods being propaganda that should make them welcome them? Nope, they apparently know they are evil and they need to be taken down despite their whole culture revolving around them. This are big things of the setting. Things that the players know first hand. But they're not there anymore. Any possibly controversial thing is gone. You cannot even ask about the implications of it all. Some writers wanted to make the franchise softer to attract a young progressive audience. You know, the one they already had with its fascinating world and always being progressive and open?

[@Lemonidas_of_Sourta]

Hit the nail on the head, my dude.

[@littlebird7383]

I think they wanted to attract a younger audience in part bc of the economy- they’ve got mommy and daddy’s money and guess what major gift giving holiday is coming up?

[@shoopoop21]

@@littlebird7383 because of what part of the economy? You're not eating the chips out of the paint spelling "doing well," are you?

[@Crux_JCr]

Honestly this is how you know whoever made veilguard never played dragon age. 1st: Qunari don't have families, after they are born they are taken and raised in a sort of complex with everyone trained in what they excel at. Tal-Vishoth do have families but they would never consider themselves Qunari, because the Qun besides a religious ideology is also the governing system of their culture. Qunari are also wary of magic users because of the whole abomination thing and typically enslave any Qunari that can use magic to inhibit their powers and their connection to the fade. 2. DragonAge and mass Effect are the WORST games to shove these real world politics into because *fanfare* THEY ALREADY HAD THEM AND DID IT BETTER OVER 10 YEARS AGO. You want to have a gay male character? Zevran, Anders, and Dorian. Want a bisexual? Liliana, Fenris, Isabella, and Ironbull. Maybe some exciting roleplay? Cassandra is a closet romantic who everyday is the no nonsense take charge leader, who wants a man to sweep her off her feet and woo her. Forbidden romance? Our no nonsense Templar Cullen has a sweet spot for mage women, in fact in origins as a female mage you can find a diologue tree that you and Cullen were in love but duty kept you two apart and the demon is torturing him pretending to be you during the fall of the tower. Want some mixed race romance? In Dragon age 2 one of your missions is to save the son of a noble kidnapped by a qunari, only to find out that what really happened was the son ran away with his qunari husband and his closed minded father wanted him back. But also there were Trans people in the games. In Inquisition Ironbull's second in command, Krem, is a Tevinter trans-man, born a woman but identified as a man and drops two very important pieces of lore in regards to veilguard. 1: In Tevinter transgenderism is not permitted. Krem was going to be executed for being trans until bull saved him. That's how bull got the scar on his face. 2: the way to stop an execution for being Trans is to perform a ritual that would turn you into the actual gender. But Krem didn't want to be a cis-gender man, he wanted to be a trans-man because that's what he is. And that's JUST Dragon age. Sorry got a bit ranty there. It's just that I love Dragon Age and was looking forward to this game for years only to get... This.

[@leviticusprime4904]

Sanitized marvel slop is what DA has become, not to mention the big twist that there was a secret shadowy cabal behind everything along

[@DensinMeiko]

Mass Effect is fucked.

[@user-Delta117]

I wish it wasn't but I know in heart that they will destroy my fav game series even more.

[@Noqtis]

People act like Andromeda doesn't exist

[@thynErro]

Bioware to Mass Effect: We'll bang, okay?

[@mitchcane2352]

@@Noqtis Andromeda was "The series took a huge blow but could recover". Veilguard proved the next Mass Effect will be "The series is irreversibly fucked. There's no way to salvage this, it will kill Bioware if Veilguard doesn't get them first."

[@karlklein2263]

What do you mean? Mass effect is an amazing trilogy. See the thing about trilogies is they tell a story across 3 entries, and then never make any more after that. Ever.

[@FooFighter477]

“Who doesn’t like dragons?!” Oh, I don’t know… Maybe most of the world that has to fight doomsday dragon demon every once in a while?

[@donstarlancer]

Right only people in non fantasy settings actually like dragons.

[@johannjohann6523]

If they like Dragons so much, then why do they kill every one of them?

[@23kcad]

Ye like wtf.... That made no sense...... in the lore of Dragon age dragons are legit dangerous beings that you WOULD NOT WANT TO SEE!!!........ legit every Dialogue in this game boils down to FUNNY HAHA IN REAL LIFE HUMOR CUZ FUNNY HAHA, which in turn makes no sense for the in game Lore.

[@midnightcoffee6463]

Spyro: :'( Paarthurnax: :O

[@r.k.5031]

Dragon Age: Hiroshima. "Who doesn't like nukes?!"

[@clintbeastwood5116]

Trash is one of the worst characters I've ever experienced in my entire life. Yes, auto correct changed their name, and no, I will not be fixing it.

[@ravenroc1784]

Ok do 50 pushups or get banned by the devs!

[@hundkebab2433]

"sounds like something a nazi would say" 🗿

[@via_negativa6183]

Stop using thier. One person is not plural

[@GrimFawkner]

@@via_negativa6183… stop using thier, it’s not a word.

[@Jubanen12]

​@@via_negativa6183 ever heard of "royal we"... people who refer to themself as they/them are like modern day self-proclaimed royalty but with no actual title, like this Trash character..

[@TheIndulgers]

Tash is insufferable. Why do developers and modern media portray LGBTQ+ characters as sooo one dimensional, purposely argumentative, and stereotypical. It does damage to the movement if anything.

[@PhySalis-g7u]

😂 Cos it is accurate 😂

[@marcusclark1339]

cause its a fetish they push, which means ego which means they refuse any criticism of it as "bigot/incel/chud/phobic" and live in a echo chamber and most importantly cause they've never gone through any real hardship so "being offended" is the worse to them hence these pathetic characters focus being on ego being stroked

[@ZeroComment-qs2te]

People who want to see themselves represented in fiction are narcissists. And they had the arrogance to do it to stuff primarily targeted at heterosexual males, to spite them. It was better when they made their own entertainment like “Will & Grace”, and didn’t invade the space of others. Modern LGBTQ is an authoritarian movement.

[@TobyRobi]

People who want to see themselves represented in fiction are narcissists. And they had the arrogance to do it to stuff primarily targeted at heterosexual males, to spite them. It was better when they made their own entertainment like “Will & Grace”, and didn’t invade the space of others. Modern LGBTQ is an authoritarian movement.

[@BiriBiri925]

Because it's literally true. >It does damage to the movement Good.

[@emalinedickinson7492]

Know what was real character development? A smarmy templar that you learned uses comedy and misdirection to hide a very sad upbringing, ultimately culminating in a true heir to an embattled throne sacrificing his life so he can mean something to a lost friend.

[@Samaru163]

Those Taash Emmrich scenes made me so angry. You would think that, as a non-binary person who angrily defends their right to be called "they," Taash would respect when someone says, "Hey, I don't like that name you're calling me, can you call me this instead?" Instead, they double down and act like a stubborn, petulant child. Imagine if this game was allowed to have balls and Emmrich called Taash a "she" when they call him "death mage?"

[@crakhaed]

Hell yes

[@LudwigXVII.]

"Well alright, I'm a death mage, and you, I suppose, are a woman?" Would hit so hard daaaamn, Its my head canon now)

[@mankyscotchgit4986]

@@LudwigXVII. That would have instantly cemented Emmrich as a beyond-Vivienne tier savage. Alas, he's a safe cartoon Disney man.

[@Luminoxie]

worst is just later in that clip Taash goes to call Emmrich a "skullfucker", no joke. Imagine calling someone such derogatory terms and expecting everyone to respect you.

[@Samaru163]

@@Luminoxie The more I learn about this game, the angrier I get as a fan of fantasy RPGs and stories...

[@thefeeblesheep]

That character has to 100% be a self insert.

[@Jayy997]

It is. The writer for it is Trick Weekes. Look it up

[@Li-Fu7]

Trick Weekes is also the spouse of Karen Weekes, Veilguard's lead editor. I think one of the reasons why Taash is so incredibly poorly written is simply because Trick poured so much of their non-binary identity into Taash and an environment of toxic positivity was unwilling to push back against genuinely bad writing out of fear of invalidating Trick's identity and experience. On top of that, their was a genuine and major conflict of interest between them and their spouse which allowed poor writing to consistently get a pass from the editors.

[@ImPerpl3xd]

@@Li-Fu7yup. A very succinct explanation of how overly focusing on identity is actually ruinous to the whole creative process.

[@metpach]

​​@@Li-Fu7What's amazing is they made Tash a caricature of a trans person completely by accident. An egotistical, self-centered, selfish person that disregards everyone else's feelings but their own.

[@lmhfl11]

Yup, not only that but they are the most fan fiction character imaginable, with literal special powers and a wannabe robin hood backstory 😂

[@madness1931]

Dragon Age Failguard ends when Rook hits his/her head, after the initial Solas' Ritual. They didn't go to the fade, Rook is in a coma, and 99% of the game never took place.

[@Sophnar0747]

That’s officially my headcanon now.

[@soulknife20]

I don't get the hate. It's one character. Everyone else is perfectly fine. Latching on to dumb stuff to be mad about.

[@Derrad333]

@@soulknife20 its not just that ONE character, she just stands out as a bit worse then the rest of it.

[@soulknife20]

​@Derrad333 It's the one character. The others are fine. No worse than the other games. Inquisition characters were way worse. Sera is insufferable, and Vivienne is absolutely terrible. And don't even get me started in DA II. The ending makes zero sense, and Anders is the worst. Sebastian is terrible. I barely remember Isabella in the game. The only one that's worth anything is Varric. So. No. This game isn't any worse.

[@HeathenSWolf]

I'm more in line of what somebody written somewhere: Next DA game starts with ending of this one, then it fades to black, then Varric voice says "Damn, you were not kidding when you said you were bad writer". Then scene changes and we see Cassandra slightly ashamed and closing an amateurishly designed book. She says "Well, then are you going to tell them everything yourself?". And then Varric laughs and starts the actual story of how it all ended.

[@nananderson7259]

See and people like Coffee Man make me wish the potential was in better hands. He drinks so much coffee because he's more susceptible to the demon's possesion when he sleeps. So he tries to force himself to stay awake. The demon that was forced into him during his captivity by torturerous blood mages. WHOA! That's intense, Veilgaurd. Do you want to elaborate more on that? "NO I dont think I will"

[@shoopoop21]

>its just a giant stay woke bit Anon, I... I don't know how to tell you.

[@Connorboy154]

That and he prefers a quiet cramp room... like a cell.

[@TheRavenofSin]

Not even just that. They frame his relationship with Spite as an allegory for an abusive relationship... And then later have Emmerich and Spite get together. And they sweep the fact Spite is a stand-in for an abuser under the rug.

[@nananderson7259]

@TheRavenofSin I don't mean to come for you but I'm pretty sure Emmerich gets with Strife, not Spite. Why do they have such similar names? Don't know! Why is this Dalish elf named after a common language word? Don't know! 🤣

[@TheRavenofSin]

@nananderson7259 You are completely right. I couldn't manage to play the game that far and only had things told to me by a friend who did. Guess I mixed it together because Emmerich can hear Spite.

[@HaleCommissar]

The best summary of Veilguards crap dialogue I've heard so far is: "This games writing feels like HR is in the room"

[@damfacker1134]

Don't forget they had to pull writers from the Mass Effect team to rewrite the majority of the script cuz they said the original script was so cringe.

[@BIGJUNK1MILLION]

God skillup is such a good reviewer

[@PrValkyrieTV]

"I just made the dialogue painful with my freaking MIND!"

[@antonkirilenko3116]

"I make dialogue painful with my mind. That's what I do know" - Bioware lead writer.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

@@antonkirilenko3116 His name is Patrick, btw. Don't use his stupid new name.

[@Nafebutuoy39]

Uh huh I guess that’s just something I do now

[@AstroZombi36]

“Whoa! Painful dialogue! That just happened!”

[@ashnazgthrakatulukii1165]

Do you have a golden bracelet?

[@AvalancheReviews]

I find it kind of funny that bioware both tried their hardest to court a very specific crowd with this game and simultaneously insulted them by assuming they couldn't figure out how to match two pictures together. At the very least, I hope that other studios see what happens when you develop games solely for social politics brownie points and they decide to make good video games instead.

[@jameshurley6513]

@AvalancheReviews the dialouge is trying to ripoff joss whedon dialouge from Buffy and angel but way way worse !

[@dearcastiel4667]

Blackrock will give them some of their bazillions of dollars and say "keep making to lame and woke". Why do you thing "go woke, go broke" doesn't work ? Because Blackrock is paying the publishers, so they don't care if they have to close studios and release games that don't sell.

[@genericguy_]

Its the marvel effect

[@seeinred]

It goes even worse on the "specific crown of people", actually. To anyone who actually knows about the people behind this abomination, such as game director or writer, it's a shiny example of utterly negative representation of their minority group. I can't begin to imagine how anyone from that group who isn't completely insane, would feel about this.

[@bennygerow]

Everything about this game screams that it's for kids IMHO.

[@Dr._Nicolas]

This is the type of bold and cold review we need back in gaming thank you for making this video you are amazing at it

[@Sophnar0747]

I may have had a few strong feelings, lol

[@brreezy421]

​@Sophnar0747 u platinum this trash, u have full rights to unload lol

[@ippanpedrozo1162]

@@Sophnar0747 i think you'd enjoy the youtuber, nuhre's videos on failguard. she spicily trashes on the game in such a satisfying way. it's honestly therapeutic seeing people not care to be cuddly wholesome chungus when they review things.

[@JannetFenix]

​@Sophnar0747 I will tell you honestly - I don't usually experience trans people making content that's made logically and interestingly. Having watched the whole video, i don't just respect you - i *feel* you. Modern games being WASTE of time and money, giving you nothing in return. No emotion, no fulfillment, no sense of achieving anything. I yearn for innovation and creativity; writing done by people more literate than a tiktok bot. Thank you for being the person that makes me warm up to lgbt community in gaming in normal, organic way - via interaction. And in return, i'd like to clean your palate with something i discovered - try the games made by studio Project Moon. They are challenging, but rewarding, and written in human, relatable way, but a pleasant, mature language and about unpleasant, mature things. If i recall Library of Ruina is on sale atm.

[@Poroner]

@@Sophnar0747 Reminds me of when TotalBiscuit used to go off about terrible games and practices, just with a bit less tact than him. Still your reviews are a breath of fresh air, need more.

[@numinex4061]

The funniest thing is, if you think about it. A character like Anders, deeply flawed, tormented by his and others fate. Doing radical change leading into catastrophe. And well then you have Taash or the Coffee Man...., what a shame. Trespasser was such a good ending to Inquisition. Only for this. Wasted Potential, that's all I can think of now... I loved that Dragon age was always very inclusive, but still keeping the boundaries of living in a believable/authentic medieval fantasy world. It was unique, until now.

[@LocksAndChains]

Anders is one of my favourite characters and my favourite, horrifically tragic romance. Now that I know his story will never continue (or it will continue in this blighted defilement), I think I might just put him out of his misery in future playthroughs.

[@Wkaxm]

Why the heck did the elf girl have to apologize for eating food? What is Taash, some sort of special snowflake that everyone has to cater to? So she ate the last bite. If Taash ate it, would she apologize? Probably not 🙄

[@virtualmall5756]

Even if the controversial trans stuff wasn't in the game the writing is absolutely atrocious. It feels so jarring and unfantastical that it feels like you aren't playing a fantasy game whenever you hear it. The reason the trans character in Inquisition works is because you don't need the word "transgender" to get across how a magical fantasy world would refer to a trans person. Like, imagine if in Elder Scrolls they referred to Redguards as "Black people." It would be so massively jarring.

[@ever611]

This!

[@soulknife20]

The writing in Inquisition was bad, too. And DA II was 80% finished. Which is funny, because that's how much of the game I like. That last act is awful and doesn't make sense. Dragon Age Origins also has a lot of story issues.

[@joshuakim5240]

What i find interesting is that in Inquisition, Iron Bull, Dorian, and Krem never flaunt their sexuality. They very briefly mention it only when asked, and then proceed to be characters with various other characteristics. It's even fully possible to never even learn that they're a bisexual, gay, and trans person respectively if the player never delves deep enough into them with dialogue or doesn't put in the right party member compositions that would bring up a few banter topics about it.

[@BrightWulph]

@@joshuakim5240 Exactly, and even Sera has a line when she's hit on by a male Inqusitor "I appreciate the sentiment, but there's a problem, you and me have too much in common. You see, we both like girls." Pharaphased slightly, because I don't quite remeberber the dialogue, but it's short, sweet and simple. None if this "I'm non-binary" bullcrap that Taash farts out.

[@planescaped]

This, the "woke" stuff is distracting and feels incredibly out of place, but not even taking that into consideration, the dialog and writing is just terrible.

[@darkmega97]

I think you can boil this game down to 3 words, childish, immature and infantalized

[@acev3521]

D E I

[@zxyatiywariii8]

It seems like the target audience are all way too young to buy an MA game.

[@Shrooms-gud4ya]

Let me try: Woke equals broke

[@AR-bj5et]

Ironically while it's pretending to be the total opposite

[@inkajoo]

what's frustrating is when you point that out the people who eat this stuff up say something like "do you hate respect and kindness" or some claptrap

[@kt-wz1tc]

There is a concept art book for Veilguard that has a preview of 60 pages on Google Books. The original concepts were MILES and I mean MILES better. Here’s a few things they cut (there is so much more): - The base of operations being a ship, with a war room, that could be mobile and travel to different locations - Divine Victoria sending out fleets of warships to hunt for Solas - Working directly for the inquisitor - Solas becoming essentially worshipped as a mythical figure from the past - Dorian, Isabella and Morrigan as advisors - Solas having a more ruthless, right hand to help him with his plan, named Reva - having to fight the elves who joined with Solas at the end of DAI (which is literally never mentioned again) - A high stakes heist mission in Minrathous - Solas summoning a Titan from the Fade - Solas making himself tranquil to bind the Veil - The player’s patchwork party not getting along at first It also looks like some of the darker lore elements were shown in the art, like Ghilanain walking a bunch of Qunari on a leash. Slaves were everywhere in the pictures of minrathous, wearing collars. There’s a lot more, I’d urge you to look it up because I found it so interesting how much they wasted its potential. My personal opinion is we should have continued to play as the Inquisitor, since the end of Tresspasser made it seem like their story would continue. I ended up skipping all the companion cutscenes near the end just cause I needed to see how it ended for Solavellan lmao.

[@emPIEror]

A high stakes heist mission? If we would've gotten caught would it have been Fort Drakon rescue mission part 2? We can only dream

[@kt-wz1tc]

@@emPIEror Ikr, the heist would have been to a black market auction in Tevinter where the red lyrium idol would have been auctioned off, but Solas and his team would have ambushed you. I feel like that would have been such a stronger opening to the game...

[@paledrake]

100% agree that the inquisitor should've been the protagonist of Dreadwolf or at the very least the leader/commander of the team. Just give them like a mechanical arm or something.

[@jakeryan2805]

Wow reading this makes me soooo sad for what could have been. Damn shame the entire og inquisition team left, and the only people they hired to work on this game were trans gender queermancers.

[@kt-wz1tc]

@@jakeryan2805 You can critique the game without being hateful btw

[@WalrusIncarnate]

"I'm an expert assasseeeen...! And anyone who comes after me winds up dead...! AND ALSO I WANT MY CAFFEE...!" New D&D one shot character voice, thanks.

[@Sophnar0747]

No problemo. 😅

[@L337N1NJ4L1NK]

"Who doesn't like Dragons?" Do the writers not know why the game is called Dragon Age? Do they not know why the world is currently in the "Dragon Age?" Do they not know that all dragons without exception are evil, power hungry and blood thirst monsters? Do they not know about the fucking Archdemons?

[@enightc]

they rewrote the lore to fit their own

[@Hadgerz]

since Traash is some sort of dragon, and the dragons supposedly can only have Queens, that whole evil power-hungry blood-thirsty monster angle would be quite problematic for their narrative. So yeah, it makes sense why these writers want people to 'like' dragons now.

[@TriceratopsUnicorn]

I seriously hate how they made the Quinari look. I don't understand why they ruined the design so thoroughly

[@FoxyFoxlyn]

Soy Tieflings.

[@frostreaper1607]

Its part of the 'representation' myth, the originals looked to unhuman for them to handle. To many of these people in higher up creative positions think that if something isn't 98% human then people can't relate. Its an absolutely idiotic thought, always has been, but it has been around for over a decade. I would dare bet money that Taash alone was the reason, can't have your self insert be a literal demon.

[@fenrisvermundr2516]

Because the original design just wouldn't work with character customization.

[@yewtewbstew547]

@@frostreaper1607 They looked dogshit in Inquisition too tbf, more or less the same look as they have in Veilguard. In Dragon Age Origins they were just tall humans, so also kinda bad. The horns and demonic features weren't retconned in until Dragon Age 2, which imo is the only game in the series where they've looked good. And iirc you only saw males in 2. There was concept art for females in DA2, but they just looked like muscular human females with blueish skin and horns. So really, a good female Qunari design has never existed.

[@Warmaka]

The modern lefties keep boiling everything down. Every concept, character, world, design, morality, language, themes etc. All must be sludge. They've been doing it for years.

[@solarrith]

2/10, was angry just being in the same room as Soph playing it, would not do again, do not recommend

[@Burnouts3s3-z2v]

Sophia, I want to thank you for giving us your honest opinion. I appreciate the time and effort it took you to play this game and review it.

[@Sophnar0747]

Your name is how I feel right now, burnout. lol.

[@TheAllanmeadows]

It's really refreshing to see a review from a trans person who is calling out the game for It's glaring flaws and not just singing It's praises for pushing a message in an awkward and poorly written way. The game is simply bad, and I don't want to be labelled a bigot for it. I have dated a fully transitioned trans woman. I knew she was born male, so did she. Neither of us were delusional and dishonest about it, so we would discuss it as adults, but then move on with the relationship. I never had to pander to her, but she didn't want that. I know who she WAS, but can accept her for who she IS now. Two rational adults in a relationship. The relationship didn't work out, but nothing to do with gender, we started arguing about money. Sometimes things just don't work out, and we're still friends. Edit: subbed.

[@ObakeOnna]

@@Northern_Silverbird The average trans person just wants to live a regular boring life in peace. They even say that trans people come out of the closet just so that they could go into a different closet, and it's not too inaccurate. Of course it's not really an option when you end up lesbian or gay, but even then advertising your transness irl is by far not the norm. It's quite simply a lot safer to keep it to yourself as much as possible.

[@Magic_Turtle123]

That example about Krem from DA:I is super interesting. Trans, but... Not enough? Not explicit enough? Not modern enough? Interesting to compare, trans person woven into fantasy story vs modern language painted over the world building. One certainly feels more preachy than the other

[@Magic_Turtle123]

Tokenism! That's the word, I should have kept watching before I typed

[@deadpan2866]

the thing i hate about all of this is that this costs people jobs, programmers, artists, audio engineers, janitors etc. just because some writers and studio heads refuse to learn from the last failed game. how did the saints row reboot come out, fail because of its new direction and then kill its studio only for a bunch of other studios to go "nothing to learn from this".

[@yassinefarah2423]

It's alot like G4 and Firewalk Studios, the people involved simply turned out to be as awful as the people that recommend them.

[@emanueleioria7523]

The programmers etc are all sharing the same ideology so i am not sorry for them. Those with different ideas have been fired or left on their own long ago because of the toxic enviroment inside the studio.

[@rateater1857]

@@emanueleioria7523 Don't be ridiculous. The ground-floor technical people share the 'put food on the table' philosophy. It's really hard in the general IT job market currently, and it's always been hard in gamedev specifically, and now it's even harder. Can't fault anyone who clings to their job no matter what. Nobody has enough money to quit for the reasons of 'my supervisor's manager's boss has pronouns'.

[@emanueleioria7523]

@rateater1857 your opinion could have been true at the beginning but the game has been in development for 8-10 years and after they got a good salary for 8 years to deliver a shitty product they deserve to lose the job. They earned enough to start their own indie studio now, we aren't talking about people working for minimum wage

[@BlueBD]

​​@@emanueleioria7523the only ones even somewhat undeserving are those who came in during the last year. But everyone else had years of work, which is longer then most making well above decent wages

[@TheMasterpiecePD]

I know there's so many things you could focus on but why the hell would people in a medieval fantasy setting where dragons are a constant threat and can level cities be talking about how "hecking cool and awesome" they are? They'd be scared to death of them. Liking dragons is a modern thing because people know they're not real and they like the stories about them but if there was a big fucker around threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands every day, that culture would not have developed. People would see them as pests or huge threats.

[@angryvaultguy]

Because god forbid you have immersive writing anymore the characters have to be quirky Heck even iron bull praised dragons but stills says that they should be hunted down because they are dangerous

[@TigerGoblin]

They would see them as The Shepard did in Fire & Blood. And he was correct.

[@yewtewbstew547]

Not to mention the first game in the series is basically about the civilizational collapse caused by fears about a "blight". In other words most of the characters in that game don't even know that there is a dragon, they just think there _might_ be one, and that's enough to completely fuck an entire nation. If anything, dragons as they were originally presented in Dragon Age are worse than usual in fantasy. A powerful enough one, corrupted by darkspawn, is a potential apocalyptic event.

[@draochvar9646]

​@@yewtewbstew547 add that to the fact that the Archdemons choose to (for some reason) take the forms of Dragons, further tarnishing the image Dragons have in this world.

[@dowaray8718]

or worshiping them as a deities

[@imtiyazahmediram8928]

The irony of Traash saying, "You are a death mage." I would have loved Emrick if he gave a comeback like, "And you are a woman." 🤣 But no no, everyone gotta coddle Traash. Worst character in Dragon Age history.

[@rebel4466]

That was really funny. She can "bully" others because of who they are. You have to do push-ups if you use the wrong pronouns for her though

[@BusrtNova]

I might be wrong but I think they were trying to make some commentary on if the roles were reversed and the misgendering/misrepresentation was from the other side, lol😂😂😂

[@DogeickBateman]

Taash's real life equivalents are the reason why social views of her types have gone back by a century.

[@LolGurrl91]

Exactly. The absolute entitlement/irony of it all. "Respect my pronouns but I don't have to respect your wishes to be called something else".

[@Enclavefakesoldier]

I would love for her to meet Sten and for him to correct their behavior.

[@TRUEMIXEDBLOOD]

Absurd how a game so obsessed with representation only manages to make the characters extreme stereotypes. Rook is just random friendly hero. Harding is a whimsical gnome dwarf Assassin Spaniard Guy is obsessed with coffee Tash is emotionally stunted and self absorbed Ballara is an overly apologetic asian woman The necromancer is a college professor style intellectual

[@doodlebugfour7070]

And I guess Davrin is the one black guy with a cute pet most people don't care about.

[@Hadgerz]

coffee lovers, emotionally stunted narcissists, overly apologetic service industry types, college professors, lolsorandom whimsical quirky people... these are the only kinds of people that progressive writers have experience interacting with.

[@llareia]

Krem was my first introduction to how CRAZY the inclusionists are. I loved Krem. I loved that he didn't come at you with a bunch of attitude about being trans. If you didn't spend time talking to him, you'd never have known, but he does open up if you take time with him. But then the inclusivity crowd bitched and moaned BECAUSE he was passing. Nevermind that he was literally the first trans character I've ever seen in a major video game, and he was an interesting character whose past I was genuinely intrigued to learn about. Guess deep characters and compelling writing aren't good enough if you're the kind of person who demands genuflection to your cause.

[@Angiologist36]

The aqun-athlok vs nonbinary convo sounds even more asinine when you realize that that's literally the equivalent of a transgender person irl forcing everyone to use an entirely made up alien word when referring to transgender people, instead of just using the preexisting word that's already a part of the language they speak. "I am bleegblorp." "What is that?" "It means I don't identify as the gender assigned to me at birth." "So you mean you're transgender?" "WHY CAN'T YOU JUST BE HAPPY FOR ME??!?" I simply cannot fathom how the writers even came up with this and thought it was "good representation".

[@WMan37]

31:03 The irony of Taash wanting to be referred to a certain way yet doesn't respect other people's wishes in the same way, yet the writers would almost certainly call us some variant of phobic for not liking them is... frustrating, to say the least.

[@MarvinPowell1]

It's pretty accurate, at least. The woke tend to be the rudest, most disrespectful, bigoted people in society.

[@mat.b.]

I was shocked when you brought up some trans criticizing the previous trans character because they used a Qunari word to make it fit the world. How is that ANY different from native americans being "two spirit"? NOT EVERY CULTURE IN THE UNIVERSE LIVES BY MODERN AMERICAN VERNACULAR. God these people are sickening.

[@talesofgames1377]

I understand what you're trying to say, but "two-spirit" really has nothing to do with any Native American tradition beyond the most macro-level thematic similarity. It was made up within the last fifty years for Canadian progressives to pretend they care about Native Americans, which is also why it's mostly just Canadians who ever actually say it.

[@rebel4466]

Yeah, but they want to write about their "struggle" as a first world person who is "different". They don't want a good story or to address a real world issue within a game.

[@Enclavefakesoldier]

its never enough.

[@Khashmonet]

Here's a hot take: it's politics is the least of it's problems.

[@marcuskane1040]

I will join you in this take. You can remove Traash completely and the game will still remain a beyond mediocre DA entry.

[@hhhenry8488]

100% Some people are going to always grift these sorts of things but its sad that we always have to fight a “culture war” every time we want to criticize art.

[@damascar3639]

And you know what's even worse about Lucien ? He's actually a racist caricature of an Italian. He loves pasta, he drinks coffee, he lives in Treviso ( which is an actual city in Italy), which looks exactly like Venice, and has an Italian surname. He speaks with a Spanish accents cause that's basically the same right?? Now,I'm Italian, born and raised in Italy, and idc, I think it's a bit cringe but whatever I'm not offended. What really bothers me is that for a game that REALLY shoves it's inclusively down it's throat, they're quite quick to make the Italian inspired character very stereotyped

[@midnightcoffee6463]

I'm Italian too, but from North America - I notice these things too xD Funny how the double-standards work, isn't it? The same people who say racism is wrong are the ones who are the most stereotyping

[@gathorall9136]

@@midnightcoffee6463 At least you get a bad Italian accent. Simpsons had a episode with a Finnish Power plant recently and they did not get anyone to do even a bad accent, it is the guy who voices Kent Brockman doing a bad Swedish accent with a hint of German. Which also affects a throwaway joke at the end where they discover there are other Scandinavians playing Finns, because anyone who knows what a Finn sounds like knows the language is completely different and so is the accent.

[@ericjoestar1065]

What's racist about that?

[@BlinJe]

@@gathorall9136 haha most americans can't even get Brit accent remotely correct.. let alone anything else..

[@Cyael]

May this goddamn review bring us together

[@Jodie-G198]

Ayyy, good to see you here, man!

[@PhySalis-g7u]

It won't cos sn does not accept the t ruins everything. And the enby character was spot on 😂

[@charlieberry7562]

The writers come across as having never truly suffered in life. To so flippantly focus on and obsess over sex is insulting to me as someone who has faced sexual challenges due to mental and physical health issues. Sex is also something that (I think) healthy people tie to the heart, and don’t just treat it casually. Taash is an unlikeable narcissistic predator. And how would a medieval society know about the term “binary” or the psychology of trans identities? I’m a trans woman myself and this game is awful. No heart, no soul, no humanity. 😢

[@yewtewbstew547]

I've seen a lot of people try to justify the use of modern language in these types of settings by claiming that them being fantasy means they aren't medieval, but that always seems disingenuous to me. You only need to look at these games for five seconds to see that they're clearly inspired by historical European culture, and yes, mostly medieval/renaissance with all the armored knights and castles. Some "anachronism" is fine, like I don't think anyone really had much of a problem with the dwarves in Dragon Age always having North American accents. And obviously nobody in medieval Europe would actually have spoken like any of the NPCs did, even in Dragon Age Origins. But clearly there's a balance to it, where suspension of disbelief is either made or broken. When you start bringing in relatively new words and phrases that people still aren't accustomed (or even willing, potentially) to use in 2024, and put those in a game with this type of setting, it's just jarring.

[@antonkirilenko3116]

Character struggles in Baldur's Gate 3: My god, who was also my lover rejected me for dealing with some forbidden magic, that caused me to have time bomb in my chest Character struggles in DA: Failguard: My mommy doesn't love me because I don't feel like a woman.

[@Li-Fu7]

I have no problem with trans-identities in fantasy games, but I object to them just adopting our socio-cultural understanding of trans identities. It's ironic that the writers, who seem to see trans-identities as an immutable reality, can't conceive of them beyond the rigid modern Western view of gender. One of the fundamental beliefs behind our understanding of trans-identities is that gender is, at least to some degree, a social construct, and therefore people should be free to define themselves in the manner that they are most comfortable with, that aligns with their internal understanding of themselves. However, our language still limits how and what we can define and how we understand ourselves. Plenty of cultures throughout history perceived gender in ways that were radically different from the gender binary, yet were also radically different from how we perceive gender today. In that way, I think fantasy can play with gender a lot, especially in ways that depart from modern concepts like transgender and non-binary, and yet Veilguard insists on reinforcing these concepts despite trying to critique the limitations of the traditional Western understanding of gender. Veilguard could easily create its own unique and multifaceted understandings of gender which offer insight into the world, cultures, and philosophies of Dragon Age, but instead it just reinforces something that feels so foreign to it. That's not trans representation to me, it's just bad fantasy writing.

[@knavenformed9436]

This, hypersexual content is so odd when it takes a very long time to even bring it up as a joke with actual people in actual job environments.

[@declancampbell1277]

youve come to the heart of what woke games actually are. Im not trying to say there arent bigots in the anti woke crowd, but most of us just see it as soulless corporate box checking or ideologically possessed insane devs. Nobody gives a damn about claire from cyberpunk or krem from inquisition being trans, because those characters are well written, and arent just token characters that the dev uses as a soapbox to preach to gamers about how morally good they are. Hell claire has a lot of the cyberpunk community with split opnions on her, and not any those opinions are because of claire being a trans lady. Taash's entire questline was basically just preaching. Isabella doing pushups as some sort of weird humiliation ritual and Taash refusing to see the irony in her calling Emmerich a death mage is just the strawberry on top of the closeted bigotry that is the modern woke game.

[@manavmarri780]

The part that really stood out to me was how Taash got triggered when her mom was politely confused, and then got triggered again when her mom tried to understand. Then asking why her mom is never impressed as if coming out out as non-binary would impress her. It's so narratively jumbled all over the place, and I don't think that Taash even knows how fortunate she is to have such a sensible mother. Because realistically in a medieval setting, Taash's mom would've likely beaten her ass for speaking such "blasphemy."

[@Entreped]

So what you're saying is, the mentally ill people who weren't hired on merit don't know what they are doing? CRAZY! On a side note, Taash would never have been "non binary" in Dragon Age at all. Non-binary is a completely modern idea that has never existed anywhere else in human history, let alone the FANTASY world of Thedas. I challenge any Dragon Age fan to show me an example in the lore prior to Veilguard where that word has ever been used a single time. It's being used to virtue signal, not make the story better, and that's everything wrong with modern writing in the west. Activists are being hired to make games instead of gamers and until this changes, nothing will.

[@moony2shoes]

Not to mention lore wise Quanari do not have relationships with their mothers. They are brought up by teachers in group homes essentially to prepare them for their future very rigid roles within the qun. Taash's whole storyline retcons a ton of very interesting and dark details about quanari culture which include forced eugenics and gender roles. No doubt this was done away with because the lore was too problematic for their kiddie Disney DA vision

[@rateater1857]

@@moony2shoes It's so weird, because it'd be so easy to make lore-compliant, namely, Taash's mother getting pregnant outside the breeding program for whatever reason, and wanting to keep the baby, rather than give it up to the collective teachers, and thus abandoning the Qun while pregnant. There, it's lore-compliant now. But yes, the writers don't want to touch Qun as was written before, for many reasons. Marshmallow, soft, friendly worldbuilding for one, and also some activists on Twitter are making massive reaches calling Qunari lore islamophobic, somehow 🤣

[@antonkirilenko3116]

To me the funniest part is when Taash gets triggered for not being called they/them, but insists on calling that necromancer character a "death mage" after his repeated requests to not do that. Like she expects everyone to respect her identity but has no respect at all for the identity of others. Imagine someone telling her "but you are a woman".

[@adamp6320]

Why are we even having a sit down formal dinner with someone's mother to discuss such things in a game where the world is in danger of ending? If the nukes come down, I am not going to sit down with anyone's mother to discuss pronouns. Fucking game.

[@alejandronoda8310]

I forever attach that non binary table scene to Peter Griffin say “Who the fuck start a conversation like that I just sat down”, like you could have started this conversation a better way

[@Hedonik631]

If you think Bioware is dying, remember they made Baldur's Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect in their prime. What were you people expecting? Didn't Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem give you ample amounts of red flags?

[@anomitas]

And origins...

[@angelavm84]

The SWTOR storyline was amazing as well. The first game that is.

[@NopeNaw]

The signs were there even in Dragon Age 3.

[@H41030v3rki110ny0u]

​@@NopeNaw u mean dragon age 2

[@MsGhoulz]

She's the dollar tree version of Karlach, with 0% of the energy.

[@Sombriage]

Even to make such a comparison pains me greatly.

[@Kylesico912x]

Or Charm. Or Tragedy... Worse in just about every way.

[@Sombriage]

@@Kylesico912x Yea compare identity crisis Trash to Karlach who was sold into slavery to fight for demons in hell only to somehow get out back to her old world - and that is before you even meet her...

[@t.t6294]

I remember the pre-release cope. they actually thought taash could compare to karlach

[@VerminaeSupremacy]

Don’t compare our golden retriever vibes soldier girl with the hypocritical dumbsterfire disrespectful of everyone and anyone in her life while demanding pronouns

[@Artificial-Insanity]

Disneyfied romantasy sums it up quite nicely. The issue, really, as with many games these days, is that the devs completely misjudge the target audience. If you were 18 when you played Origins fifteen years ago, you're now thirty-two while I'd say most are probably closer to their forties. And yet they made a game that might, on a good day, appeal to a section of fourteen year-olds.

[@ViVi1159-d1]

There is a population of late teens-early 20s tumblr kids who want their character to be an exact Mary Sue-ified version of them and legitimately think the romances should take precedence over the whole “world in danger” plot, and rant and rave at the devs if anything gets in the way of their precious romance fanfic. I suspect BioWare listens to those people far, far too much.

[@crimsonpotemkin]

Damn, you just made me realise that this game is written by people who think liking coffee is a personality trait. No, it's more than just that, it's something to base an entire character around. It's so shallow. I doubt the writers have any life experience or have read any good fiction in their entire lives.

[@shemhazaithewhisperer2061]

One of the writers was Laura Kate "Smash Bros. Has a Disability Slur Because I Don't Understand How Accents Work" Dale. So, yeah.

[@crimsonpotemkin]

@@shemhazaithewhisperer2061 reminds me of the Alanah Pierce and the whole "situational disability" bullshit

[@xmidnightx61]

I've said this multiple times and I will keep saying it: Veilguard is a fanfic and I dont acknowledge it as canon!

[@tristanbrown1215]

There's a lot of fanfiction significantly better written

[@sean8102]

1:08 lord. I heard the writing was bad but just those clips from the cold open are painful.

[@AscendantStoic]

They owe us a couple of million barvs for that atrocity they created XD

[@Primarch19th]

Hey, I bought the deluxe edition. I got a pack of Tampons to shove up my a$$, I new Webster dictionary with all new pronouns, a large black magic marker to draw breast removal scars on my chest and a self help kit to cut off my junk. Very modern day and very inclusive! Don't you think?

[@zxyatiywariii8]

Yeah they need to do barvs for years, and let some GOOD devs work on Mass Effect.

[@ahmataevo]

"Excuse me, that's Barf." - Lonestar's friend

[@GrumpyDerg]

This entire game is one big barf! I'd rather they get the mop at this point and clean that shit up... :\

[@lordkrauser]

Damn. That whole section on Modernism needs to be clipped and shared across social media. It perfectly sums up the issue of Representation in media these days. There's so much of it that feels ham-fisted and performative that it ends up making the whole idea of diversity into something toxic. Not to mention it has now caused the public to just lambast anything that features non-white or non-hetero characters as being DEI trash or SBI garbage to where even positive examples (as few and far between as they are) are lumped in with awful propaganda like this game. Breaks my heart to know that characters like Dion from FFXVI are lumped in with shit-tier characters like T(r)aash

[@jellybeans2707]

Only the Extremist, I think regular gamers can separate a guy who happens to be gay versus someone who’s just there to be gay, problem with that extremist faction is that everyone who disagrees with this kind of thing get lumped in with them and the more they’re proven right the more people join it’ll take a while before we can go back to how it was before a this bs

[@lordkrauser]

​@@jellybeans2707you have far more faith in gamers as a whole than I do. I sometimes feel like a crazy person because I'm pro-Trump and anti-DEI but I seem to be one of the minority in that grouping that understands the nuances you, me, and folks like Sophia have highlighted.

[@BrightWulph]

It alwo doesn't help that there's a bunch of shills, sell-outs and "fans" who will praise blindly praise woke media before its release and then will scream "it only failed because of >insert buzzword here

[@kalashnikovdevil]

@@lordkrauser That's what I hate about a lot of the modern discourse. The complete lack of nuance on some subjects that REALLY require nuance.

[@PriyaPans]

There absolutely needs to be nuance ​@@jellybeans2707 There's a lesbian NPC in hogwarts legacy. Most of the origin characters in BG3 would probably come under the LGBT umbrella, as they can be romanced no matter what form your Tav is in. And Halsin is just... Halsin. There's gay and lesbian NPCs too. And none of that felt hamfisted because sometimes it was just an offhand comment about having a spouse referred to as her/him and you can out the rest together yourself. Much more natural language and the relevant bits come up in conversation. I'd say I'm more left wing but there's a way to do DEI properly - naturally and without shoving it into people's faces. If a woman NPC has some quest for you and happens to have a wife - cool if her wife comes up into conversation. But otherwise it's not relevant. Arguably it's much much easier to portray gay or lesbian relationships in a game naturally. But surely if they really wanted a trans character... Maybe a natural way to do it wouldn't be all these conversations about it. Maybe just a questline with and NPC who happens to be trans. And maaaaybe after each visit with them checking in between missions in that quest line, maybe their appearance or dress changes or maybe their style stays the same but they're trying to modulate their voice a little bit. But it doesn't necessarily have to come up in conversation until your own character asks as the whole point of the interactions would be ... The questline. Traits like these are cool for adding backstory and personality. But they don't define characterisation. This even applies to Halsin.

[@yassinefarah2423]

Veilguard isn't a return to form when it is a repeat, Veilguard is to Bioware what Saints Row Reboot was to Volition.

[@reka10]

ah fuck now I'm even more depressed. I completely forgot the reboot existed...

[@aerisdrake]

It’s a poor god of war 2018 dupe with the dragon age name slapped on it

[@attilamarics3374]

@@aerisdrake I saw a youtuber claiming its basically Elden Ring. Some guys are coping hard.

[@Pastafari4]

Exactly.

[@antonkirilenko3116]

Yeah, and Volition got shut down. I was expecting Bioware to be shut down after Anthem but it hasn't happened. I wonder if it'll happen now.

[@psoras]

I know one trans person, and she was always fascinated with trans representation done by BioWare in the shape of the Asari race from Mass Effect franchise. She could talk for hours about Asari, the biology of their species, the way they breed by effectively becoming one person for a short amount of time, their religion and so on. It's a shame the same studio could fall so low. I hope the inevitable backlash won't discourage the writers from touching the subject at all, and instead they'll be reminded by past examples that subtlety and metaphores could get them really far and make the subject understandable to people to whom otherwise it would be completely alien (like me).

[@Dante1920]

It's easy to see how people came to the conclusion that Taash is a self insert for the self proclaimed "Queerosexual Gendermancer" game directer because 1. You cannot disagree with Taash, you _have_ to support all of Taash's character flaws. This is probably because the director has these same flaws, but is veryd efensive about it and needed validation. 2. Qunari are the most unique and non-human design. People who are so flashy and showoffish about themselves, tend to heavily gravitate toward these type of characters in games, Qunari, Teifling, those creepy little guy from final fantasy online, whichever character race is the most special and unique. 3. Taash has a very modern temperment and vernacular, probably speaks and treats people pretty similar to how the director does. Taash is so out of place and just screams of a modern young person desperately trying to stand out and seek validation for their shortcomings.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

Doom 2016 was a return to form Space Marine 2 was a return to form DAV is a painfully modern game in every way that's obnoxious and terrible, and T(r)aash is the peak of that.

[@Gaz4113]

I agree with the sentiment but sm2 wasn't a return to form for focus interactive, they didn't need to "return" to what they were.

[@ichigokage]

Thank god for the indie scene. Those devs are holding the gaming industry on their shoulders.

[@mrbigglezworth42]

@@Gaz4113 At this point, SM2 is a return to what games used to be. Just games, made for fun and for profit to the people that made them. A game that could've come out 2 decades ago and it would've been an above average action game. Now it's a "return to form" for gaming in general. Hence why I said that....and to take the piss from disingenuous journos.

[@Vespyr_]

@@ichigokage Bro, I just learned there is a game called G-Rebels coming out in 2025 which is a spiritual successor to G-police. G-POLICE!!! Indie gaming is SO good right now.

[@valletas]

What do you mean sm2 was a return to form? Its the second game in the franchise There was no form to return to

[@rateater1857]

Such a shame about DA:TV. I'm not even a hater of modern shit per se, I don't like it, I hate the marshmallow, safe, gelded worlds of modern entertainment, but I'm the first to say 'not everything is for me, and that's okay'. Thing is though, Dragon Age *used to* be for me. Origins was a game of my childhood, and the trend of incredibly irreverent handling of old games, and shitting on people who loved, and still love, the original versions is deeply hurtful to me. Same story with V:TM Bloodlines 2. The first Bloodlines is so beloved by its fans, they receive community patches 20 years later. But not by the corporate owners of the IP. They only care about - honestly, what do they even care about? They never cared about art, but now I feel like they don't even care about 'the message' anymore, or money, or their shareholders, or literally anything human. Empty ghouls.

[@krisradowski]

they care about HoI4 (unironically)

[@rmmorang2134]

@@krisradowski well that and space genocides of stellaris.

[@popomipomi1024]

I'm so glad someone finally said it. This is so much more damning to the LGBTQ community than people realize. It's like all the good progress we've made up until now is being undermined, and it's nothing but infuriating. We need to stop being happy with just being included and fighting to be rightfully represented as people.

[@declancampbell1277]

i mean outside of actual bigots this is the entire reason the anti woke crowd exists. notice the very large absence of criticism about claire from cyberpunk or krem from inquisition. Its almost like we're actually completely fine with inclusion its handled with nuance and not used by the devs to stand on a soapbox and preach about how virtuous they are. diversity as its systemically pushed by modern AAA devs is just an unfortunate but truthful metric to gauge the games writing by. The more they parade how inclusive they are around, the more i can tell how terrible the writing will be. modern woke games are either corporate tokenism by millionaire execs that just have boxes to tick in their games, or ideologically possesed devs who want to use the aforementioned soapbox, and just treat diverse peoples as champions for their cause instead of normal characters. considering taash is probably just a self insert of weekes, it looks like the latter in this case.

[@animelytical8354]

IGN had the audacity to complain about handholding in Mario & Luigi Brothershi. But this game was a 9/10 and that was a 5. Criminal

[@milaz3060]

Sorry, I can't do it. I made it to 1:50 and had to stop. I feel so much cringe it's as if I have maggots wriggling under my skin.

[@radjenovic6843]

Thank you in advance for your sacrifice

[@WolfsBlood44]

Budget was over $200 million. Game cost $70. They sold 500,000 copies. They've made only $35 million.

[@nunab1864]

That's assuming they got 100% of that $70 dollars. Steam takes 30% and that's reportedly industry standard. So... I think that brings it down to $49 dollars per copy (I'm being generous here as well, cause PC copies retail at 60, not 70 like consoles). So, 24.5M profit instead of 35M, assuming 500k sales. If 200M was the budget, they'd need to sell over 4M copies to break even 😅

[@Sleepyhead219]

Still too much considered the writing quality is this low

[@NebLleb]

So, what we're looking at is a Driv3r-sized flop.

[@valletas]

@@nunab1864 its so insane to me that any company would invest in a game that needs to sell 4 million copied to be a success

[@Poroner]

This explains the mostly positive review rating. Only the idiots bought it.

[@METAL-ADDICT]

I think I speak for everyone with a functioning brain. You're 💯 percent correct. 👍🏾

[@soulknife20]

Eh. It's an opinion. I don't have issues with the game. I can't hate a game where you can pet cats, play rock-paper-scissors with a skeleton, and hug a derpy griffon.

[@LordVader1094]

@@soulknife20 Just because your standards are at rock bottom doesn't mean others having mildly higher standards makes it "just an opinion".

[@METAL-ADDICT]

@@soulknife20 Lol cute characters are my kryptonite too but I can't let it influence me into buying something I'm not fully interested in. Stray was easily one of my favorite games because I got to see an adorable kitty running and sliding around and it didn't have characters that made me want to avoid the game altogether. Veilguard is full of characters with personalities that I would definitely avoid irl. Don't want to spend time traveling with them. Just my opinion. 🤘🏾

[@sumairali1688]

I don't want another Mass Effect, I'm okay replaying previous 3 for the rest of my life.

[@poolaidman1121]

I verbally said “shut uuup” out loud during Taash’s recruitment question and I’ve never done that to any game ever. And THEN the tokenism started. I didn’t even take her out on quests unless she was required so seeing some of the banter in this video was painful

[@PunksterOS]

21:47 That is ridiculous, it's akin to an actual lecture. The people putting this in games is doing more harm than good and yes, it's just one big virtue signal to get a pat on the back from their peers, it's not to help trans people, only themselves. I've seen many reviews on this game but you've highlighted areas I did not know. You've done a fine job. Well done.

[@TachikomaKURO]

Calling this game insufferable is putting it kindly. This is further proof the BioWare we knew and loved is no more. Your review is another nail in the dev's coffin. Expect it to close in the days to come. Quoting John Travolta in Swordfish, this game also sums up the state of the Triple A gaming industry: "They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit."

[@darwinprime]

God, the animations are so stiff, the dialog so stilted and painful.

[@Ghouleh3133]

Thank you so much for this review. As a big fan of Dragon Age Origins and even respecter of Dragon Age 2(hopelessly flawed but had its heart in the right place) - Veilguard filled me with such indignation, I found it difficult to express. I tried finding video essayists or reviewers that could put my feelings into eloquent words - but sadly the Veilguard discourse is poisoned by reactionary chuds, sycophants and fence-sitters that make it very difficult to achieve an accurate critique of the game's actual flaws. Your video was the balm that my soul needed. As a nonbinary person myself, your perspective on Taash was so angry and yet truthfully, profoundly heartfelt, that it felt like finally being able to breathe after a long time underwater. You *get it*, Sophia. You really, really get it. Thank you. You've earned yourself a subscriber this day.

[@pauleugenio5914]

Damn that “BioWare is an empty shell puppeted by its parasite” bit was a punch

[@ninjafoxgamesgeekery]

I saw another video that pointed out this weird conundrum: Taash is so insistent she be referred to as they/them as she wishes.... But she doesn't understand when Emmerich wants her to call him by his name instead of "death mage" because, according to her, "that's what you are." 🙄

[@antonkirilenko3116]

If Taash was created in the same way but with the intention for the character to be hated by the player, they'd give you an option of saying "but you are a woman". But no, the player is expected to like T(r)aash and be sympathetic.

[@AR-bj5et]

I can't tell whether her writers and people like her irl are either totally lacking self-awareness or are fully self-aware and just deliberately being obnoxious for whatever reason

[@Bladezeromus]

Imagine if Emmirch responded by sarcastically saying: "Yes ma'am."

[@DogeickBateman]

You must realize that Taash's attitudes are consistent with most of her types in real life.

[@AR-bj5et]

I have a hard time telling whether her writers and people like her have no self-awareness or are fully self-aware and just deliberately obnoxious

[@Wolfstanus]

And the vielguard team is now working on ME5... And the writer for that game expressed how hard it is going to be to not scream at people publicly over politics (they are on bluesky screaming or at least were) SO that game is DOA too. The people defending the game are on another level

[@GreyDeathVaccine]

Forget ME. Lookup The Exodus.

[@z2ei]

My God, Veilguard gets worse with every bit of it I see. Part of the issue with Dragon Age as a franchise is that the only one that wanted to be an RPG was Origins. DA2 tried to be ME2, DAI wanted to be Skyrim, and DAV is God of War 2018. It's like Bioware is *ashamed* of Origins somehow.

[@rmmorang2134]

A lot of it is AAA is expensive and investors aren't willing to go back to the niche that is CRPG games. Investors want to see stock lines go up. So expensive games need to be made safe and cater to the masses. Writing a complex story and having slow, tactical gameplay like Origins does none of this. Which is ironic as CRPG's is what Made Bioware the company it was. BG1-2, Jade Empire, KOTOR. Hell Origins was a evolution/love letter to Bioware's older games. It was a CRPG which used a third person perspective. In the capitalistic hellscape we've found ourselves in making a profit isn't good enough. Investors want all the profit. So games (or hell, media in general now) needs to cater to the lowest denominator so everyone can be willing to buy. What we are seeing is pushback to this type of media. Marvel/Disney movies/shows are not doing as well as they hoped lately. Disney type games like Veilguard are facing criticism for the poor writing. Hopefully this means course correction. But this is being optimistic, I predict AAA games with continue to have basic games released on franchise name only which will do mediocre or bad until the franchise dies. If you want to find good stories I'd recommend looking at Indie titles.

[@diegojose4173]

The game will age worse than past games for its desire to pander to 18-year-olds exclusively. While past games tended to pander a little to young adult males (Miranda and Isabella for example) they still had excellent characters and political themes that really makes you think. Veilguard was made exclusively for an audience of progressive 18-year-olds that want escapism from the harsh real world, and thus all mature themes were removed from the final game simply to avoid offending this supposed audience.

[@todo9633]

Solas' story should have played out in Inquisition. Forcing some new MC that has no history with him to handle his big arc is criminal.

[@Manic.miner2077]

IGN 9/10. Possible GOTY. No conspiracy here folks.

[@hhhenry8488]

Its not conspiracy its called keeping your job. Games journalist have a vested interest in giving higher reviews and being incredibly lenient with scores because the only way they get review copies is if companies like them. Also for plenty of them games journalism wasn’t their first pick in their field so they aren’t exactly experts or very demanding. But a jobs a job. No conspiracy here, just capitalism.

[@Manic.miner2077]

@@hhhenry8488no, you just described a conspiracy. They give favourable reviews to poor products to keep their job. That’s the conspiracy.

[@TheGoIsWin21]

It is both bizarre and concerning to hear Sophia explaining how players want to be rewarded and feel engaged, because the way she explains it is EXTREMELY similar to the way I heard an instructor explain absolutely BASIC principles of game design in an introductory class I attended over a decade ago, and he was recounting lessons he'd learned decades prior. Meaning that the people involved in this mess dont even understand the most basic design principles of their industry. Just... Wild.

[@horridk3070]

18:20 What's interesting is that I've seen a character obsessed with coffee done right. His name is Chesed from Lobotomy Corporation. He's always drinking coffee and uses it for metaphors, which in any other situation would be the most pretentious shtick ever, but then you find out that he drinks so much of it to stop sleeping because he's traumatized from watching all of his coworkers die constantly. He even compares grinding coffee beans to the corporate upperclass grinding the workers in his city. It goes to show that the writing of Veilguard is way below the bar.

[@BlinJe]

that sounds rubbish aswell

[@peekay120]

23:56 Ah yes, "top surgery"... In a medieval, dark fantasy game. Just send down the meteor already, holy moly

[@FaeSparrow]

The song at the end is called 'Spoiled Brat' by 'Roof' for anyone like me who wanted to know.

[@Sophnar0747]

My apologies for leaving it out of the credits, somehow while compiling the music titles I left it out.

[@craignellist7277]

Veilguard is a perfectly average action adventure game prancing around in the rotting skin of what was once an amazing RPG.

[@BlazingOwnager]

The funniest thing I always found about them "fixing" Saint's Row is that the franchise was already progressive in a good way. The gang was diverse. You could literally sleep with any of them you wanted to. They were all one united whole. But because there was off-color humor, it suddenly turned "problematic" enough to warrant, as you say, disneyfying it.

[@virtualmall5756]

Saint's Row was super progressive - but in a way that wasn't propagandistic. It wasn't trying to preach to you - but just naturally have diverse characters and not yammer on about it. People don't mind diversity - but they do mind feeling like they're at a political rally or feeling like they've just been shoved into an awkward conversation about sexuality.

[@yewtewbstew547]

iirc Saints Row 2 also let you use every customization option for both genders. Including walk cycles and voices.

[@rmmorang2134]

Saint's row was once a competitor to GTA. Where GTA went with a bit more realism/grounded in their stories and satire Saints row really turned it up to 100 on its ridiculousness after 2. Not a bad thing, but coming from a game which was about fighting other gangs to fighting aliens as the president idk how the latest one dropped the ball so hard.

[@TigerWing95]

They got Laura Kate Dale to consult for this game so I blame the dialogue on her. Just another instance of failing upward

[@rinripark]

Taash feels like they were writen by someone who spends half their day on twitter. What makes the entire Taash stuff even worse is they're fickle when it comes to the Qun. In one instance they adhere to it when it serves them, only to completely disavow it when it doesn't in another instance. So some wishy-washy trans character who's preachy, demanding, and lacks empathy for the preferences of those around her is what Bioware thought would be a good representation of a trans character? They basically wrote a trope of one of those far left types who spend way too much time in twitter mentions threatening people they disagree with. Great job, Bioware...

[@inthefade]

"I'm non-binary" is a phrase that should never be in a fantasy world. Where did "they" learn that word and concept? In the medieval gender studies course THEY took?

[@barret-xiii]

The lack of meaningful interaction is one of those things that can be devastating to the enjoyment of a story, and it can be very subtle to the point you may not even notice WHY something isn't slicking for you. I remember replaying Mass Effect 2 and 3 multiple times for different romances, story branches, and ending possibilities. I enjoyed every minute of them, even though much of the games have moments that are consistent regardless of how you play or push the story. There was still a sense of wonder and discovery to be had that kept me engaged. I recently finished playing through Mass Effect Andromeda for the first time (and being on PC, I used a few mods to speed up the more tedious and needlessly grindy elements). While I enjoyed the improvements made to combat and movement compared to previous titles, doing all that side content felt like a chore. Nothing and nobody was interesting! Something about the way everyone talks, the lack of urgency or intensity, and especially the lack of genuine affecting choices really dragged down the whole experience. Nothing had weight. It was all totally pointless banter that amounted to nothing, or a seemingly important interaction/mission/decision that is immediately forgotten without impact. I remember a mission dealing with an anti-AI terrorist group that tried to destroy the SAM AI that lives in your head. After successfully infiltrating their group, and even helping the family of the leader, they still turn on me, leading to a brief combat encounter, and a short jaunt through the "Totally-Not-The-Citadel" Nexus station disarming their bombs that the planted to destroy various computers that could be used to make AIs (but were tied to crucial life-sustaining infrastructure on the station... morons). Once I disarmed them all, it came down to a confrontation with the leader before they set the last bomb. With all that setup, you'd THINK this will be one of those epic intense dialogues where your choice of words can have a powerful impact on the outcome... WRONG! It came down to a SINGLE dialogue choice, and I picked the one that SOUNDED like it would get them to see reason and talk them down, only to have them stick to their ways (thanks a lot, vague dialogue wheel!). Then Ryder casually signals to a nearby sniper who blows the leader's head off... WHAT?! I didn't want that! And why didn't I get more options to talk them down and reason with them?! It's like these games don't WANT you to actually affect their worlds, and reducing moments of meaning or impact allow them to subtly wrestle what little control you have away from you, leading to that strange unfulfilling emptiness that comes from playing them.

[@antonkirilenko3116]

Tbf, there is an option to talk them down in that quest in Andromeda.

[@barret-xiii]

@@antonkirilenko3116 I'm sure there is, but the problem is you don't REALLY get the chance to like you would in previous entries. It all came down to ONE dialogue choice; Not a long multi-stage debate with multiple branching points like you'd find in Deus Ex or previous ME titles, with every choice having an impact on the final result in subtle ways. Just a single 2-option selection, and neither even suggested that I could bring up how my Ryder used an AI to fix her son's glitching cybernetic implants causing him daily pain. And neither option even HINTED at the possibility of signaling a sniper to execute them on the spot. The vagueness of the options, combined with the lack of meaningful impact are the main problems with these games.

[@Slyslug]

its really interesting that we really have hit a point where things are being written by people who have never spoken to another human. i thought tumblr talk ended with tumblr but it just moved to rpg's. im surprised every conversation in this game doesnt end with "and then they all clapped"

[@GrumpyDerg]

Alas, Tumblr was the containment chamber, and it broke. :\

[@dUCkslF]

Made for "mOdErN AuDiEnCeS"

[@virtualmall5756]

Yeah all two of them.

[@joehynes2964]

EA better put a stop to that nonsense right now or Mass Effect will be an unsellable nightmare as well. The inmates are currently running the asylum.

[@dUCkslF]

@@virtualmall5756 and even they didn't like it lol

[@williamedwards4151]

Patrick Weeks wrote Taash. In fact, he is credited as the Lead Writer for this game. So, now you know who is responsible. For all of it. Every bit of writing done in this game. Every single word. Went through him. I think it might be time to single these people out. Call them by their names. Hold them responsible. Bioware sucks shit. Yes. It's not the same studio anymore. But Bioware is still just a studio. It's just a name. People like Patrick Weeks are the ones behind it now. And if we don't hold them accountable *specifically* then they'll just keep getting a pass. It's easy to ignore stuff like, "Bioware sucks." But when your name is the one being thrown around for these failures, that's a different story. Patrick Weeks. Mark that name. I know I will.

[@Werewolf.with.Internet.Access]

The “pulling a bharve” bs speech was such a mask off moment for the creators They’re full on saying “apologizing like an adult for minor or accidental inconvenience/slights to me isn’t enough. I want you to SWEAT and SUFFER for it. Only then will I deign you with my mercy and forgiveness.” Imagine if that was said to them in reverse, Twitter would break

[@rezlov_]

One video about Spider-man 2 said it really good. Conversations are as if characters are speaking with HR in the room. And a lot of "these" AAA games are the same. Combat and gameplay is designed to be "safe" and for the DSP level of intelligence. This is what business does to any sort of creative industry, be it music, movies or video games. They will make stuff that is safe and "will sell" (at least according to their calculations).

[@Sophnar0747]

Whitelight! He makes good videos. He speaks of how “nice” everybody is in it, and he’s 100% correct. It’s dull. We need more conflict, it adds to drama.

[@rezlov_]

@@Sophnar0747 Yeah, anything but the stuff we have right now.

[@antonkirilenko3116]

@@Sophnar0747SkillUp said the exact same thing about Dragon Age: Failguard, too.

[@Cloperella]

I'm curious to know, is there a term within the trans or lgbtq community for a trans/lgbtq person who criticizes this kind of shameless pandering? I ask because I've noticed a lot of "woke" people like to make up terms to dismiss anyone who offers criticism, like terf or whatever, and I suspect they're also going to scrape the bottom of the barrel for any way to dismiss this criticism as well. Like "fake trans" or whatever.

[@nichoudha]

They should call them "critical thinkers" since clearly these game journalists and corporate DEI companies don't have an ounce of it.

[@NagaTales]

The term they use is "a Pick-Me" (technically not just restricted to trans people, but is usually the go-to term), because they believe the only reason you would criticize representation of your own "oppressed demographic" is to get "chosen" by the "oppressors" as a shield against having to "confront their privilege or change their behavior" because they can point to you and say "but this one agrees with us" as a way to "justify their oppressive behaviors and maintain their power". Yes it really is that dogmatic and binary. You are either drinking the cool aid, or you're a traitor.

[@crakhaed]

Probably internalized transphobia 🙄

[@Cloperella]

@@NagaTales That's a lot of quotations marks, but that does make a lot of sense, thank you.

[@rateater1857]

Bootlicker usually, or truscum sometimes, although the latter is used mostly for trans people who believe being trans is a medical condition, not an identity. Though criticizing the pandering often goes in had with that.

[@Cleindori]

Thank you for the sanity Soph 🙏 That's a good looking Rook, the evil of the dreadful art style has been a little defeated

[@poshima]

The sheer fact that they say Non-Binary in a fantasy RPG is so wild and out of place. The only analogy I can think of to “cross the isle” on this subject is; Imagine if you encountered a racist character in this medieval fantasy game and he scowls at your black companion and calls him the hard-R, N word… it would feel so fucking out of place and, to everyone watching, it would feel like the writers just wanted to say a modern message to evoke modern feelings. It would even feel shoehorned and the sheer fact that it was in the game in the first place would feel racist. That’s why you make up fantasy words. Your message can exist in other worlds, you don’t have to beat a dead horse with a sledgehammer. It’s starting to feel like these modern day writers think that immersion is a bad thing.

[@ivi_lDgaming]

The body language of trash feels like a bully talking to their victims, trying to make themselves look bigger, someone really was leaving their fantasy with the characters they create

[@sashaweber3663]

This is a great video! I’m a bisexual woman and DAO was the piece of media that helped me understand and accept what I am back when I was a teenager living in a pretty conservative country with conservative parents. It was very subtle too, not just empty preaching that I actually may have not listened to. And now, I really hate what the franchise has turned into. So much inclusivity, but also being unable to create a character with body structure similar to mine (yeah yeah, boobs and bigger ass) in a game that advertises itself to be the most inclusive one with an extensive character creator? Also, hearing from the prized non-binary wardrobe of a qunari screaming “who even likes being a woman” I kinda feel like the developers and the game itself hates women they don’t try catering to. Also, every time I try and criticise a game nowadays I get called a hater and a bigot, even though the points I hate the most are not related to anything related to political views? Ugh, I am so so upset that after waiting for so long we just got this clusterfuck.

[@joshanderson3716]

I like how the mega power special move is the MC throwing a fit and tantrum attacking the ground. I'll be skipping this one unless it ends up on gamepass or something.

[@xelldincht4251]

Dear god the dialogues are terrible. It's like Tumblr users wrote it...

[@Roccondil]

I'd say a lot of pre-X Twitter users as well.

[@Katinsky_Kat]

Hey, come on, some of the tumblr writers would absolutely give this game a run for its money

[@Bionickpunk]

@@Roccondil Yeah, people forget that Twitter was a cesspool even before Musk bought it.

[@masterch33fII7]

I’ve watched quite a few dragon age reviews, and this is probably my favorite, holy smokes. Well broken down