I've put up a lot of positivity, but I'm getting further in and I have. Issues. Under the cut because not everyone is gonna want to read negativity.
I don't know how to explain it, but getting further into Veilguard, I still like it, but it's just like. I don't know. It's fine. It's fun. But I don't feel satisfied the way I wanted to. There's a lot of lore I feel is missing, a lot of loose ends that aren't getting tied up because they only carried over, like, three of my choices. The more I'm playing the more I feel like I should be wearing a full clown outfit because I waited ten years for this game and the moments that make me feel something (which I've posted about - Minrathous vs. Treviso, Bellara's backstory etc.) are getting outnumbered by intense disappointment. There's a lot of backpedalling going on here and yet I still feel like I need to defend it because the problems with this game have very little to do with being "woke" like some people are claiming. I have to be 20x more invested in this game than I actually am because a lot of the comments are just wah wah it's woke and that. Isn't the problem.
The romances feel bland. I enjoy slow-burn, but it's going at an absolute glacial speed, and it's actually painful.
I barely feel connected to any of the characters. They all got these really interesting introductions, only to fall flat on their faces and be pretty bland from there on out. I think part of the reason is that you can't talk to them out of your Regularly Scheduled Cutscenes. In Inquisition and Origins, you were able to have these off-the-cuff conversations that made the world feel more real and lived-in. You could ask questions of your companions, could agree with them, could disagree with them, could gain or lose approval from your chats. In this game, outside the cutscenes, all you get is them talking to each other. Rook is a spectator to their chats, and it makes me feel disconnected from them.
I'm being handheld through certain parts of the story. Taash's story has so much potential, but at this point I feel like I'm being spoon-fed explanations. Instead of working through a character's story, I'm being told what non-binary means. Over and over again. Again, there's so much potential! Their relationship with their mother, with their culture, with their gender could have been handled so well, but so far it's falling flat.
I know not everyone likes the dialogue wheel, but I always have. Maybe it's the neurodivergence in me, but give me too many choices and I start to agonise a little. I like the fact they've brought back the DA2-style Purple!Hawke sort of responses. I like still having things from Inquisition, like the sad responses and the stoic responses and so on and so forth. Gives a bit more personality to Rook. But some of the replies are just... the same reply in different fonts? Is it just me? Like. Huh???????????
The stakes. Every time the tension gets ramped up, it somehow manages to fall flat again. I'm left with a feeling of that's it? every. Single. Time.
I don't know. I just feel very little need to continue with the game. It's been out for more than two weeks and I still haven't finished it. I've played Stardew Valley 1.6 more than I've played Veilguard. And I'm really pissed because I WANT to like it more. I want to feel more than this is fine about a series I really, really love. But I felt more connected to ANDROMEDA than this. Andromeda had issues, but it wasn't pacing issues and it wasn't nearly as. Just. Dull.
jacobus: i'm following/inspired by YOU, rook, and that's why i'm gonna be a full fledged assassin and start my own crow house we already have two other orphan boys to undergo the abuse i mean training :)
^ zevran is gonna find and kill my rook for having a hand in that, and he's right to do so
I've been looking for a better way to articulate this and I don't have one so here goes.
I don't even care if a BioWare game has shitty roleplaying dialogue. It's happened before, it's not really a big deal. I don't play BioWare games because I want an RPG, (I mean I do want RPGs omg I fucken love RPGs, but) I play a BioWare game for the romance sim disguised as an RPG experience. And if the romance is stub and lackluster....