Where does DA go from here?

DA: The Veilguard. Man, where do I begin? The highs can be pretty high, and the lows are definitely quite low.

Whether or not the art style jives with you, this is some of the best - imo - production value I've seen from an RPG in a long time from facial animations, settings, etc. Props to BioWare for that. The zones feel independent, unique (also gorgeous) and really give you an insight to the cultures and people there. I enjoyed exploring for awhile until it felt almost Inquisition-grindy. I couldn't push forth too far into OG Inquisition for its engagement mechanics, which were pathetically Ubisoft-esc.

The classes - though few - feel very distinct from one another. Unfortunately, I don't see that driving me for another playthrough as combat becomes fairly grindy and repetitive especially on higher difficulties where enemy health is jacked up to no end. Playing as a rogue has been a good time, and I'll give praise to BioWare for allowing the player to freely respec their character at will. I've tried Duelist, Saboteur, and Ranger builds and have enjoyed all three for their variance on gameplay.

There are some great voice actors, but we know the writing isn't good. Said writing is PG-13 or pushing PG at times. I found myself enjoying the moment more than the actual dialogue except with Solas, I'd say. He was always enlightening to chat with. Enjoying the moment in dialogue in this game is more so enjoying the visuals and production values stated above. The companion stories DAV range from fantastic to needing to be completely reworked or removed from the game (obviously not happening). I'm a progressive and inclusive guy, but Taash's story feels so incredibly forced that I actually had to cringe. BioWare shit the bed on this. I don't care what race, orientation, etc. a character is, but to drag a player down some HR-infused storyline is bad writing - very bad.

IDK, man. DA has never had an entry even remotely close to another. DAO is one of the best games of all time. DA2 was massively rushed by EA and suffered for it. DAI tried to mix 1 and 2 alongside some heavily grindy mechanics. DAV succeeded (somewhat) with its combat model but lacked BioWare's legendary writing. It's a series that has a serious identity crisis. I hope we see another one, but I doubt it.

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Mission-Horror-523

Probably either dead or live service game because they learned all the wrong lessons :/

ashandare

Yeah, the game didn't do well enough because people couldn't give them more money for cosmetics! /s

[deleted]

It's insane how they just refused to acknowledge the problem, as if there weren't a thousand videos on YouTube alone spelling out the problems before the game even launched.

Mission-Horror-523

Yeah I think they actually know and just don’t care. On some level, Veilguard was set up to fail by meddling. The entire original concept was scrapped by executives right? This failing gives higher ups an excuse to be more controlling. They must believe live service will be profitable regardless of what any players actually want. Hopefully it backfires with whatever they try next even if it’s not dragon age