As usual I refrained from watching anything but the initial showcase. I wanted to go in as blind as possible while still having a hum of what I could expect. So let's dive in. I'll put all the story stuff and spoilers at the end and warn beforehand. At the start it will just be gameplay, mechanics and technicals.
The game is so beautiful I hardly knew what to do with myself but stop and stare every few steps.
I've heard a lot of good about the character creator, but I struggled a bit with it. Felt like no matter what I tried my Rook looked old and tired with sallow skin and a man jaw. But I figured it out eventually and ended up with a cute little redhead.
However it happened more than once that I'd load up the game and the Rook the game loaded up was the character preset and not the one I had spent most of an hour creating. Most of the time I just had to reload the save again to get my Rook in, but sometimes I had to reload five or six different times, which sucked some of the joy out of me because even installed on a SSD the load times were sometimes stupid long. I checked the Steam discussions on this and found many people had the same problem with a character preset being loaded in place of their OC. One suggestion was to go to the mirror and your Rook would be saved or you could redo it. Nobody with the issue was keen on redoing their Rook every time they started up the game and at least one person even said that going to the mirror broke all their saves... So I stuck with reloading until the game loaded correctly.
My playthrough took 66½ hours and I CTDd twice in that time. First time I got a warning saying something about my GPU. I knew it had been on the absolute verge of being too weak so I lowered the graphics from Ultra to High after this. Game was still insanely pretty so it didn't bother me. The second CTD happened without any popups or warnings or anything. Just boom straight to desktop.
Another slight annoyance was how long it took the game to load up environments and every time I entered a new zone the game would stutter for a bit before everything was properly loaded. I figured it was my GPU again, but found that people with 4060s also experienced stuttering so maybe the game just isn't properly optimized.
These few technical annoyances aside I had a really great time with the game. I played as rogue and I enjoyed the fact that Veilguard doesn't lock your rogue into either bow or daggers. You can use both, although you'll probably end up speccing in favour of one of them. I mainly used my daggers, but the bow was great when I didn't want to run across the entire battlefield or to reach things at a distance. I ended up using both quite often.
Combat was fast and reactive as rogue. Blocks had to be perfectly timed and lots of dodging and fast reactions. I enjoyed that I didn't have to babysit my companions through combat anymore and regardless of class they could all help with healing and buffs. It made for a fun combat experience. I also enjoyed how they all encouraged each other and Rook when they made a cool move or got a kill. Such team spirit :3
The Veilguard is more in line with Origins and 2 when it comes to level design. You have a handful of zones you can go to and that you'll keep coming back to, but you gain access to more of each zone as the story progresses. Some parts will be blocked to you when you first get there, but as you do more quests you'll discover more things, more loot, more collectables (although there isn't much of that and all the collectables have a game mechanic purpose). Throughout the whole game I had such strong Origins and 2 vibes.
The preparatory stages reminded me a lot about Mass Effect 3, where you spend time and resources to improve the strength of each faction. And you'll want to have them all at their best, in true Bioware fashion.
Before I go into the story and spoilers I want to address the accusations of "too much woke" in this game. Aside from one character you have to really go look for it. It isn't thrown in your face. Yes, the character creator has options for upper surgery and bulge regardless of gender, but just because those options exist it doesn't force you to use them. Cyberpunk2077 had those same options. As for that one character, yes they talk about it because it's important to them. I saw a comparison with Dorian from DAI and they complained about how Dorian's entire character was just him being gay and how this was similar. But honestly, Dorian's quest, while political, is all about him healing from and overcoming trauma. His father tried to change him with blood magic ffs! That sort of thing will linger and become part of your character whether you want it to or not. When it comes to the character in Veilguard their entire story is about them finding themselves and understanding who they are, and honestly? Their whole arc is handled better than that god awful conversation with Krem in DAI. Let's not forget that Dragon Age has always been progressive with the LGBTQ stuff. Back when DAO was new it was progressive that they had gay and bi companions and relationships. DAI had an openly trans character. I'm not at all surprised by this development for the Veilguard, and I don't mind it.
Now let's head into the story.
THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.
The game picks up from where Inquistion left off, but it's been ten years. Varric and Harding have recruited Rook and chased after Solas all over Thedas. The very first part of the game is the same part shown in the very first showcase. It's a bombastic start to the game and it really got my excitement up for what was to come.
The part where I had to choose between Treviso and Minrathous took me by surprise with how early in the game it happened. I saved Treviso and spent the rest of the game apologizing to Neve and trying everything in my power to make her like me again. I succeeded, but every time Neve brought up the situation in Minrathous in conversation I apologized, and kept apologizing ^^;
Lucanis stole my heart from the start, but when I was on the outing with Emmrich to light candles for the dead he tugged at my heartstrings enough that I started flirting with him too. Way later when Emmrich dropped the bomb about him wanting to become a lich I suddenly found myself needing to choose between him and Lucanis. I couldn't vibe with my boyfriend being a lich so I declined and continued chasing after Lucanis instead. It was all for the best though. Emmrich and Strife make a really cute couple :3 After Lucanis gets with Rook and Emmrich is dating Strife, those two have the best banter.
Taash is very young. She's immature and juvenile and she's still working on growing up, which is so clear from all the interactions with her mother and the other companions. She mellows out once she finds herself and it's amazing to see. At the start I thought Taash would be the one who annoyed me the most, but it ended up being Bellara. She's so bubbly and talks with such forced positivity all the time that she just comes across as incredibly fake to me. Yes, I completed her questline, but aside from the serious or sad moments she's always so... much. She's too much.
With all the Warden and Blight stuff going on I had hoped to see some old characters make a return. I get why they didn't include the ones who could be left in the Fade in DAI, but there are a whole bunch of others. I'd love to see Nathaniel again for example, or since they included choices from DAI in starting the game they could've included whether Blackwall was made Warden and had him play a role if he was. Defeating the demon of Unending Despair in the Wetlands and then gifting it flowers once you complete the Wetlands questline was a really neat thing. Turn Despair into Hope by providing proof that life endures no matter what.
I loved Treviso and Arlathan. Any excuse to go to either of those zones was fine with me. I could just stare at the scenery for ages.
There was way too little romance :P
I loved seeing Dorian, Maevaris, Morrigan, and the Inquisitor again. I liked how the game referenced the books and the comics. Although Morrigan never mentions the Well she describes how she came to be Mythal. She references the events of her companion quest in DAO even. Great callback. Mythal is splintered to hell, poor girl. I hated remaking my Inquisitor in the character creator. No matter what I did she looked old and tired, and my last quizzy had really pale blonde hair and that option wasn't even available. At least I could give her Fade Breach green eyes.
The reveal about Varric broke my heart, but it made me think back to every single instance with him only to realise the truth, like the first time watching The Sixth Sense.
The final fight against Ghilan'nain took me by surprise. Even with all the vibes from the ME2 suicide mission I didn't think anyone would actually die. Not with how prepared I was. Everything and everyone maxed out. Poor Neve went through so much. First she loses her home when the archdemon attacks Minrathous, then she gets taken by Elgar'nan and blighted. She's so strong. I love her. Next time I'll save Minrathous for you.
As for the main story I love how it all ties together from the very start. I've seen some complaints that Veilguard retconned Solas' character and ruined established lore with him as the villain, but... they didn't. Even in DAO Fen'Harel is described in stories as the trickster god who fought a rebellion against the Evanuris. He's used as a boogeyman byt he Dalish to scare kids into doing their chores and being obedient. And that's pretty much the same thing throughout 2. However, in 2 Flemeth hints to being something much older. In DAI we find out that Solas is the Dread Wolf and he created the Veil to imprison the gods in the Fade and now he wants to bring down the Veil, which was an accident, and return the world to how it used to be in ancient times. That fits with the god leading a rebellion - imprisoning the gods. But when he tries in the very beginning of Veilguard he accidentally lets out two of the Evanuris - Ghilan'nain and Elgar'nan, and as the story goes on we find out that Fen'Harel fought his rebellion over millennia but he could never win so imprisoning them was a last desperate measure. He still wants to bring down the Veil, which will destroy the world as we know it and he justifies it with "People always die! It's what they do!" and that when the survivors see the beauty of the old world they'll understand. He's still that villain. But Solas' villainry seems a bit less urgent when two other gods are attempting to enslave all the mortal races and cover the world in blight. So Solas becomes a temporary ally - the enemy of my enemy is my friend etc. He backstabs us at least once and ultimately the only one who can talk him down from destroying the world is... Mythal. The one he did everything for to begin with. It fits. It's poetic. I like it.
As for the mind-blowing pieces:
• The original elves, the Evanuris, were spirits. They stole lyrium to make their bodies, which created a war with the Titans whose lifesblood is lyrium, which ultimately ended with the Titans losing everything, including their connection to the Fade and their ability to dream. Which is why the dwarves can't dream, can't use magic because magic comes from the Fade, are the only ones who can mine lyrium safely, and who can feel the stone in their guts and hear it sing. They came from the Titans.
• The blight that exists in the world is only a teeny-tiny piece of the real thing which is also imprisoned in the Fade. This is what Ghilan'nain and Eglar'nan wants to bring into the world. All of the blight. They brought more with them when they escaped and Ghilan'nain molds it into whatever she wishes, using it as a tool of creation. In DAO we can see on the in-game map how it blackens as the Blight spreads from Ostagar and north. The Inquisitor's letters describe how the blight loosened into the world has blackened most of Ferelden. We can see it ourselves in the Hossberg Wetlands. But the blight boils are new and the darkspawn are different, courtesy of Ghilan'nain.
• Solas didn't want to take on corporeal form, but he did it for Mythal. When she joined the Evanuris he betrayed her, but when he found out about the Big Blight and how the Evanuris wanted to use it, he returned to Mythal to ask for her help. She confronted the Evanuris, and they killed her. He did everything for Mythal. He fought for Mythal, and in the end only Mythal could make him stop.
• The tablet from the First Invasion of the Qunari mentions fleeing from the Devouring Storm, and there were spread mentions throughout the game of things beyond the sea and wanting to find out what it was, if other places suffered the same kind of things as Thedas. Blight? Elves? Evanuris? Could the Devouring Storm be Blight? Were the First Invasion not actually invading, but fleeing from the Blight? Are we getting more than Thedas in a future DA game?
• Harding brings up the Andrastian faith when you watch Solas' memories. That the Maker created the Golden City, but Solas' memories confirms it was the Evanuris, and Elgar'nan calls himself "the creator of this world" just before the final fight. Elgar'nan is the Maker :3 I can genuinely see how Solas awoke to find the world a frustrating and broken mess. Everyone got everything so wrong xD
• The Secret Ending which you get post-credits if you've found the three mysterious orbs in-game references all of the previous DA games ending with "We come". The Blight seems to be concious. Is it the Blight? Or more gods, like the old gods of Tevinter? Or... the magisters who blackened the Golden City? Corypheus was only one of them. Could I please get a callback to the Architect, pretty please?
