Andaran Atish’an

After a final push that ended at about 4am, because I knew I had reached the end and wanted to see it, I finally finished Dragon Age: the Veilguard! I know, I'm slow. I know the discourse about this game has already exploded, crested and waned. I have a full time job, a husband, and I don't get enough sleep, okay? 

I have loved Dragon Age since the first game, Origins, which I played a few years late but was absolutely captivated by. It had everything. Swords and magic and horrible monsters and moral quandaries and puzzles... It billed it's self as "dark fantasy," but while you would expect that to mean the edgiest edgelord content brought to you cold and poisoned directly from the grim underdark, Dragon Age is simply a fantasy universe that tells a tale without putting mits on it to keep from "traumatizing" children, as if those children haven't been online since they were old enough to type and seen God's most abhorrent monstrosities with incomprehensible explanations. Characters were allowed to drop an f-bomb in a relevant place, without needing it to pepper everything as if deliberately exercising the right. The deaths could be gristly, horrifying, and on-screen. The threat could be truly threatening, and in places horrifying. The betrayals crushing. The romance both chased and awkward and steamy and passionate. The game is speaking to adults who are not insecure about being adults. It is, to put it bluntly, a great series. 

The Veilguard... kind of fit that. We all know now that what EA wanted to make was a live-service multiplayer hero-fighter, and then pivoted late in the process to the kind of game Dragon Age games are. People complain about the art direction and blame that, but frankly I never had a problem with that. The art direction for each DA game has been different, and this wasn't THAT cartoony. Also, if the writing is good, you'll get over the art style. That's how this genre works. I'll blame it all for the fact that we have to fast-travel between locations, likely meant originally as a robust roster of battle maps to hop around, and why the team had to live in the Fade, a step out of reality, presumably between matches. I will grudgingly use fast-travel, but I find it kind of immersion breaking, even if you have a valid in-universe explanation like the Eluvians, which have always been some Age of Wonders lost tech shit in the background of previous installments. But it's fine. 

The real controversial piece is, of course, the writing. This game got a lot of criticism for being too "woke." When I bought it, as someone who does not find my enjoyment of things diminished in any way by the inclusion of various forms of representation, I was curious what the big crime would be (and I was ready for it to be wildly overblown). I'm a fantasy fan. Anything can be anything. It literally isn't real, and it doesn't hurt me at all, so if it means someone else gets a little extra joy, let's fucking go. Adding diversity can deepen a world, and give it breath. It can give you new struggles to overcome, and new advantages, and extra stories to tell. All stories, at the end of the day, are human writers and readers trying to figure out life. I mind when it's shoehorned in as bait to check a box, but that's another story. 

Right at the beginning, when the game is asking the player a bunch of questions to establish who they are in this world, the player is given the chance to establish a gender identity while looking at themselves in a mirror. It is literally a special menu option that says "establish gender identity," and if that isn't the character you're playing, cisgendered is still the default, and doesn't have to be explicitly stated. You don't even have to open that menu. I did not, and that was the end, for the time being, of discussions of gender identity. No one comments on your cisgenderedness, or diminishes it, or challenges it in any way.

What is a bit more fair to comment on, was that the writing was WAY more ham-fisted than I remember previous Dragon Age games being. Everything felt very direct, and uncomplicated. Rook is a hero. They are moral, and level-headed, and confident. The most common stance you will see your character take is a fists-on-hips hero-pose as they take the correct stance. You can be stern, or cheerful, or sarcastic, but for the most part your choices are always right, and everyone sees that you are right in the end. Puzzles are not too hard, you don't have to go too far off the path to find the treasure, you can always take your time, and everyone likes you.

The "woke" does make a return appearance maybe halfway through the game, as one of your characters gets a coming out arc that becomes the centerpiece of their individual questline. Suddenly you find out that trans identities are not uncommon in Thedas, and that you've run into a few of them, each living their own cool fantasy lives. Because this character is on the main team, you cannot skip their story without hamstringing your whole playthrough. Like, you literally don't have to do it, and you probably don't have to include that character in your party or strengthen them at all for most of the game, but the power of the team is a major point in this game and, without spoiling too much, you do need everyone, including them, at their best in order to get the best ending, so, you know. Choices. Also, Rook is a supportive friend. It may be uncharitable of me to say that if playing through as a bystander to someone else's journey of gender-related self-discovery is going to bother you that much, you might need to play that story through more than the rest of us, but that's none of my business. The storyline is hammy and direct enough that it probably isn't going to soften any already-hard hearts on the subject, if we're being honest, but if the player is someone who is wondering about that whole thing themselves, it's probably pretty great to see someone come out, overcome some pushback while being wholly and unconditionally accepted by their band of friends, and still be a valid, powerful, contributing member of the team. I did appreciate that the other trans characters who are brought up as examples are not gender-centric cartoons, nor are they overly perfect paragons of awesomness. They're just people doing other shit, and when you meet them, they don't mention their gender identity at all. You only find out when the lore codex outs them for the benefit of your teammate, as they are introduced to each other for the sake of answering questions. The non-binary character does mention it in passing once, only to comment on how grateful they are to a deceased mentor who was supportive in many ways, including when they were figuring their identity out. So, yes, that process does pretty much take over that character's storyline, but also that kinda makes sense. It's kind of a big thing to discover, that informs so many facets of life, and this person is young, and at the right age to be trying to find their place in the world for the first time. My biggest problem with it is that they use all our modern real-world terminology very perfectly. Like wouldn't the culture of Thedas have birthed a different approach to this stuff? I feel like a world without therapists, or modern clinicians, or American-style politics and legal definitions would interact with the whole thing a bit differently, and maybe have opened up the ability to engage with it on a more honest, "human" level, but that's just me. 

Beyond the ham, the combat system was fun. I played a sword and board warrior, and my fun level went up a lot as I learned to use my shield properly. Some of the fights at the very end were exceptionally chaotic, with a bit too much glow. Sometimes I'd get frustrated because there were enough enemies around that I would start getting knocked around and spend a little too much time stun-locked with no ability to improve my circumstances, but maybe that is a skill issue? I will say, I upgraded armor on time as I progressed, but I basically ignored enchantments most of the time. Once I had the skills I liked using upgraded, I spend a lot of time in the skill tree going "uhh, whatever fuck it" and throwing points at random stuff I wasn't really using. I also can't imagine playing as a mage, because Rook is an enemy magnet. This is probably for the best, since your party can't be harmed so it would make things WAY too easy if you could just rely on an immortal tank at all times. Also, in addition to your party's immortality, their DPS contribution is negligible. The only reason to pick one over the other, or balance your party at all along the lines of the Mele/Ranger/Caster trinity, are detonation combos, and the types are tied to the class, not the character, so the rouges are interchangeable, as are the mages, as are the warriors. It also means if you're a warrior, the other warrior NPCs are kind of a waste of your time to bring along if you're trying to do said combos, but also it's fine. The only other reason, is party banter. This game still does that, but I feel like much less. Previous DA parties were constantly chattering, arguing, teasing each other.. Here, you didn't walk as far, so maybe there just isn't as much time to get into it? Also, weirdly, I really liked my Rook. I struggled with the character creator a bit, but once I got into the game with her, she suited the role she was given. And I really liked her weird accent, even though I have no idea where she is supposed to be from, or why it phased in and out, like someone who ahs been away from home a long time. I also was really glad to be a Warden again. 

Something that I liked less, was that I can't talk to my team at will. I have to wait for them to signal a plot point is about to be explored. That gives the developer more pacing control, sure, keeps side-quest development tied in time to the MSQ. But like... I wish I could have gotten to know my characters more. Bothered them more. Had more interactions. I realize that would have required voice acting a lot more scenes, and this game already took a decade, but man... I dunno. I think everything could have been explored more. There was more there, but probably because they didn't originally plan that kind of game, plenty probably had to be added in a hurry. Also, I can dig my game having all kinds of identities in it, but in this one, I am a little nyeh about every single member of the party being whatever sexual identity is necessary to find Rook appealing. The world is a beautiful cornucopia, but only pansexuals save it, apparently. In previous DA games, each member of the hero party had an orientation. This did mean that depending on your character's orientation, you had maybe one or two options out of the cast to go down that road with, but it made them feel like they had some agency. They would shut you down if you weren't in their wheelhouse (though you were still permitted to try, you might make them mad). Leliana swung both ways, and so did Zevran I think, but Morrigan was Men Only, and Alistair was for the ladies. Dorian Parvus is a Gay Man. Solas is not only exclusively straight, he is *only* into elves. I guess doing it this way gives the player more freedom to live the fantasy they want, but... I dunno, to me it gives Rook a certain amount of predator energy. Rook does not strike out. Their game is irresistible. Whoever our Great Leader chooses shall be honored!! I do like that (after you make your immaculate choice), the rest of the party kind of slowly starts to pair off, which makes them feel less like a harem. Also, at least when I started making advances, he didn't fall immediately in line. There was a bewilderment phase, which was cute. 

Man, I don't know. Overall, I had fun. As others have said, the game's reception may have suffered from the weight of carrying the Dragon Age legacy, because the expectations there are super high. I wanted more. I wanted better writing. I'd say it's the weakest of the 4 games, but it still gets a place among them, you know? The most mediocre Dragon Age game is still a Dragon Age game, and I'm still glad I played it. Probably won't re-run it to play out different choices. YouTube will be fine for that.