Dragon Age Dragon Age: The Veilguard - coming Fall 2024

[9ted6]

Minrathous is a remarkably beautiful city, rich with giant statues, floating palaces, orange lantern glow and the green neon of magical runes - those acting "like electricity" as occasional signs above pubs and stores. "It's a stronger style," creative director John Epler tells me when I ask about the game's art direction, "but it's very much in keeping with the rest of the Dragon Age. It's not a massive departure. It's recognisably Dragon Age

Electricity, floating spaceship castles and magic lights everywhere.

Not a massive departure.

Recognisably Dragon Age.

 

[Lemming42]

The companions.

I feel like I've met all these characters before. I've met them in Mass Effect. I've met them in other Dragon Age games. I've met them in Baldur's Gate. And of course, I've seen them in movies and TV for the past two decades. I already know everything they're going to say. I already know everything they're going to do. I already know which ones I'll have to help heal from their dark pasts. I already know which ones are staying in camp and never being spoken to.

 

[The Bishop]

So this is basically Guardians of the Veilaxy. Same tone, same delivery, even the gameplay is kinda same. The irony is that Bioware is trying to emulate a project that failed to sell well, all the while Larian is raking in money by emulating Dragon Age.

 

[Tyranicon]

You know how scammers only go after idiots so they don't waste their own time? Same principle in action here.

 

[Padzi]

I see they still have issues with posture and those weird low hanging boobs.

Also what the hell is happening with her right arm...

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

5:18 LOL

About this gamergurl, she decided to watch the gameplay reveal. Some minutes later, she started to play DA:O again

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2169318607?filter=archives&sort=time

Nobody is liking this thing, except the tumblr refugees. This is dead on arrival.

 

[Skinwalker]

Just the beginning of this shitshow (another post by Kern posting a before and after pic of DA's game director twitter profile)
https://x.com/Grummz/status/1800549325313036293

This is the game's director:

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

edit: nevermind, already posted.

 

[Lodis]

It’s still baffling how the tranny became the game director despite him have zero notable experience.

 

[Baron Tahn]

The thing that confuses me is that everyone is a sex hungry freak so they spend retarded amounts of time and energy making everyone romancable at the cost of actual game, then because of modern agenda requirements they make everyone hideous or queer. Some real mixed messages there that makes it seem like there is no direction or even interest in their own story.

 

[quixotic]

It’s still baffling how the tranny became the game director despite him have zero notable experience.

I’m not too surprised, he probably rode the tranny card all the way to the top. You don’t want him to be promoted? Heckin’ transphobe. Bioware and EA are comprised of retards, so of course they’d bend the knee in order to appear “inclusive”, avoid a potential controversy, and to appease their globohomo investor overlords.

 

[gurugeorge]

25k Dislikes to 35k likes in the gameplay video now. Give it a day and I think the dislikes will surpass it.

56k dislikes to 47k likes now. The "toxic fans" ain't digging it.

 

[Gargaune]

Minrathous is a remarkably beautiful city, rich with giant statues, floating palaces, orange lantern glow and the green neon of magical runes - those acting "like electricity" as occasional signs above pubs and stores. "It's a stronger style," creative director John Epler tells me when I ask about the game's art direction, "but it's very much in keeping with the rest of the Dragon Age. It's not a massive departure. It's recognisably Dragon Age

Electricity, floating spaceship castles and magic lights everywhere.

Not a massive departure.

Recognisably Dragon Age.

It's not like they just did "floating palaces" and "pub signs", they were deliberately and comprehensively aping cyberpunk/tech noir aesthetics in the city's presentation, they went as far as having a police drone "magical thingamajig" shine a spotlight on some curfew-breaking asshole and rattling off about "detectives." Whoever's running the show over there's completely tonedeaf, in the end I wouldn't have been shocked if Roy Batty popped up to tackle Solas and gouge his eyes out.

 

[Peachcurl]

25k Dislikes to 35k likes in the gameplay video now. Give it a day and I think the dislikes will surpass it.

56k dislikes to 47k likes now. The "toxic fans" ain't digging it.

The comment section though...

 

[gurugeorge]

The thing that confuses me is that everyone is a sex hungry freak so they spend retarded amounts of time and energy making everyone romancable at the cost of actual game, then because of modern agenda requirements they make everyone hideous or queer. Some real mixed messages there that makes it seem like there is no direction or even interest in their own story.

There is no (ahem) bottom to the ideology, it's just a grab-bag of things-your're-supposed-to-say-and-do-if-you-want-to-survive-and-thrive-socially.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

It’s still baffling how the tranny became the game director despite him have zero notable experience.

I’m not too surprised, he probably rode the tranny card all the way to the top. You don’t want him to be promoted? Heckin’ transphobe. Bioware and EA are comprised of retards, so of course they’d bend the knee in order to appear “inclusive”, avoid a potential controversy, and to appease their globohomo investor overlords.

There's a 41% chance that such studios end up closing down))

 

[Lacrymas]

What bothers me about this diverse, beautiful, stunning and brave cast of characters is the lore implications (not that Bioware or their fans care). People irl don't have Asian or black features for no reason, they aren't just whites but somehow black at the same time, there is a genetic and environmental component there. The two extremely gorgeous and colorful elves are Dalish, judging from the face tattoos, so the lore implication is that there is a not-Africa and not-Asia in Thedas and they too were somehow enslaved by the Tevinters whose empire's borders aren't world-spanning. It's bizarre and if I were not white I'd be accusing them of color-blind casting and racial insensitivity, even colorism.

 

[Tyranicon]

What bothers me about this diverse, beautiful, stunning and brave cast of characters is the lore implications (not that Bioware or their fans care). People irl don't have Asian or black features for no reason, they aren't just whites but somehow black at the same time, there is a genetic and environmental component there. The two extremely gorgeous and colorful elves are Dalish, judging from the face tattoos, so the lore implication is that there is a not-Africa and not-Asia in Thedas and they too were somehow enslaved by the Tevinters whose empire's borders aren't world-spanning. It's bizarre and if I were not white I'd be accusing them of color-blind casting and racial insensitivity, even colorism.

Congrats, you already put more thought into it than the writers.

 

[Storyfag]

After watching the trailer and seeing some of the promotional images, I came to the conclusion that this will be the new Peebee/Sera of the team, and will be the most annoying person in the team.

Getting VERY bad Linzi vibes from this one. Nuke it from orbit.

 

[gurugeorge]

The Veilguard companions are no less offensive than the ones in BG3. Can someone help me out here with a game of spot the difference?

At least 4 of these character archetypes share a close resemblance to the characters in Veilguard. It's got the strong woman with the horns. It's even got the gay wizard with the bleached hair. So why shit on Veilguards characters? Is it because it added an asian woman into the mix? is that what tipped the balance? Or is it because they added pointed ears onto the black guy?

You are all so full of shit. You all have an agenda to crap on this game to save face for Larian, and that's the damn truth. This game is no less woke or made for mass appeal than BG3 was, yet you put that game on a pedestal constantly. You were all going to do this regardless of how Dragon Age turned out because that's what pathetic simps do.

Nah, I think there is a difference. Granted we're talking from a base level of having to hold your nose to some extent if you want to play games at all, BG3 has some decent gameplay, because Larian are fairly committed to some gameplay tropes (e.g. reactivity). It's of a piece, it's the product of vision and commitment.

With this game, it just feels like nothing - it's so weightless and vacuous it doesn't even reach the level of a box-ticking exercise.

When I saw clips of BG3 gameplay, I thought, "Hmm, that looks like it could be okay." And lo and behold it was, in parts - despite the wokery and degeneracy, I got some juice out of the game, especially after I could mod a lot of the bs I don't like out (and that, to me, shows that there is a gameplay core to BG3).

By contrast, seeing this clip just makes my mind glaze over.

I've played all the DA games, and even enjoyed bits of DA:I here and there. This, I don't anticipate buying at all, not on the basis of that trailer anyway.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

What bothers me about this diverse, beautiful, stunning and brave cast of characters is the lore implications (not that Bioware or their fans care). People irl don't have Asian or black features for no reason, they aren't just whites but somehow black at the same time, there is a genetic and environmental component there. The two extremely gorgeous and colorful elves are Dalish, judging from the face tattoos, so the lore implication is that there is a not-Africa and not-Asia in Thedas and they too were somehow enslaved by the Tevinters whose empire's borders aren't world-spanning. It's bizarre and if I were not white I'd be accusing them of color-blind casting and racial insensitivity, even colorism.

It's not that they don't care, but that they're just that retarded. Westoids drink their own koolaid, look around at their own multiracial societies and then project that onto the past. For them, phenotypes and the communities that have them exist in a vacuum and their presence within a given geographical area isn't dependent on historical trends of migration.

 

[Storyfag]

I mean, come on my guy, companions were what, a faggot, a dog-face girl boss, a twink with magic tattoos(?), Merril (lol), and Varric.

A very gripping story of finding a magic rock and then fighting a Frankenstein or crystal hitler after a whiny homo sets off a tactical nuke. Truly an epic for the ages.

DA2 is Bioware's best written game with the second-best roster of companions (excluding Sebastian and Fenris) after the BGs.

Spare us your opinions on game writing, Mr. "castrated paladins and barbarians who are only women that lost a child".

 

[Lemming42]

The companions.

I feel like I've met all these characters before. I've met them in Mass Effect. I've met them in other Dragon Age games. I've met them in Baldur's Gate. And of course, I've seen them in movies and TV for the past two decades. I already know everything they're going to say. I already know everything they're going to do. I already know which ones I'll have to help heal from their dark pasts. I already know which ones are staying in camp and never being spoken to.

Trying to guess at the companions (I skipped through the reveal so might have missed any who already have characterisations). Left to right:
Elf Man With Extreme V Neck Shirt: Will be very annoying, and will no doubt have some trauma backstory that gets resolved after four lines of dialogue. May have suffered from last minute rewrites to make him more like Astarion in the wake of BG3's success, which will mean he's utterly incoherent. May end up being likeable at times if the voice actor gives an absolute A-grade performance, otherwise will just be irritating.

Qunari: This is hard to predict. She (I think that's a she?) will either be the only tolerable character, or a total void that you repeatedly forget is actually in your party. She will have a camp dialogue where she reveals that Qunari culture has a belief in nonbinary gender, and respects it greatly. Your dialogue options will all express your agreement. The writers, low on original ideas and able to think only in terms of existing tropes, may just write her as Worf, in which case she'll be the best companion.

Chirpy Elf Lady With Big Hair: She will be "comic relief" who makes you want to commit suicide whenever she's on-screen. If we're very very unlucky, she'll have a tortured backstory, offering us the true reason behind her joviality- it's a shield to hide her pain. Players will put her in camp ASAP and not take her out.

Old Man With Staff: Will have no character. Is there for people without fathers to enjoy the vicarious thrill of having a virtual father figure.

Goatee Man: I think he's the Alistair/Gale/etc equivalent; a generic "nice" man with a pleasant English accent who'll fall in love with the protag at first sight and be "adorably dorky" (ie annoying). I'm not 100% certain on this read, though; that character design could also be an Evil Guy. But there's got to be one generic "nice" English man, and he looks like the most likely candidate.

Halfling Girl: A dwarf I guess, but looks like a Halfling. She will be an amoral killer (like that blonde Elf in Inquisiton, or Zevran in Origins). She'll also be incredibly sexually aggressive, which the writers will not realise comes across as deeply unpleasant. You will be expected to find her audacious and exciting; instead, she'll be repugnant and annoying.

Indian Lady With Face Covered By Hair: She'll be cold and sarcastic. That will be more or less it, unless she has a manufactured backstory. She will have about three lines over the course of the game which actually get a laugh; these will be the only jokes that land in the entire script, which will win her a large fanbase. She may be the most tolerable character.

 

[jackofshadows]

They definitely went for Mass Effect: fantasy edition.

 

[Daemongar]

The companions.

I feel like I've met all these characters before. I've met them in Mass Effect. I've met them in other Dragon Age games. I've met them in Baldur's Gate. And of course, I've seen them in movies and TV for the past two decades. I already know everything they're going to say. I already know everything they're going to do. I already know which ones I'll have to help heal from their dark pasts. I already know which ones are staying in camp and never being spoken to.

You also met them in the latest Saints Row, and look how well that turned out.