Dragon Age The Veilguard is the Best Dragon Age Game Ever
It has shortcomings but they are small and don't hold it back from greatness.
I replayed the Dragon Age games earlier this year and I had an inconsistent but enjoyable experience, but I wanted to do that so I had the prior games in my mind while I was playing Veilguard. I am so glad I did because I didn't have the nostalgia glasses on while playing Veilguard and I think that has helped me enjoy it way more than some. I intend to approach this review with everything I experienced in the first 3 games in mind.
Veilguard had a turbulent development being rebooted once into a live service game and then changed drastically (they say it wasn’t a reboot) just 4 years ago back to a single player game and I gotta say, the fact this is such an amazing game after such a turbulent development makes me incredibly happy. So let's get to the important stuff.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
The bad
This was an immediate tiny issue I had, I have to be just on top of an item or right in front of it to actually use or grab it. This has lead to me jumping a bunch when I'm trying to pick up an item or use something in the environment. It sucks but this is such a small problem even though you spend a lot of your time running around the world picking stuff up.
The main exploration maps are initially very much like a labyrinth. I initially was playing without the minimap but about 12 hours in had to turn it on because it was annoying constantly having to open the map to see where I am and where I am going. Especially because the map can sometimes take a few seconds to load. Once you get used to the map it is much easier to navigate and I personally think the map is similar to Dragon Age 2 in this way. Initially confusing, but you can eventually know exactly where you are and where you are going.
There are some lines of dialog that companions and you say that you should absolutely know based on either your background or race. It's just kinda weird. For instance, eventually you invade a Villa in Treviso and you have to sneak in through a cave underground. Rook says "are we sneaking in through the sewer?" To which Lucanis responds saying Treviso doesn’t have sewers? Which first of all, what? How does that work? And second, my Rook is a crow. Why doesn't she know that. Even later in that mission she asks Lucanis how his Crow training was and he responds with "how was yours?" So obviously the writers are capable of having that knowledge. It feels kinda disconnected from who your Rook is. This also happened when I fought multiple dragons before my first "real" Dragon fight with Taash and you and them act like it's your first Dragon fight, but it wasn't for me. Part of that is my fault because I was underleveled and beat the dragons through abuse of the no death setting. But still felt weird. There's a decent amount of these moments but as I've played I've experienced different lines than I've seen other players experience during their playthroughs so honestly part of it could just be some lines not getting triggered when they should be and vice versa. Except the dragon stuff, that's probably all on me. Either way though, it can lead to awkward moments, but it doesn't fully sour all the dialog and writing.
Finally, I wish there were more big choices. There are some. But most aren't as big as the ones I've come to expect from a Dragon Age game. Don't get me wrong, there are still big and small choices. There just aren't as many of them as I thought there should be. Honestly I think that's my biggest issue with the game, I wanted more choices. The depth and darkness of the world is still there if you're able to set aside the fact that the art style has changed and that the game changes and challenges fundamental parts of the world we have come to know from prior Dragon Age games, but the choices just needed to be more plentiful.
The Good
The combat is amazing. The old Dragon Age games had a bar at the bottom on PC where you could have like 10 or more skills and it was a pause and press spells for actions and you would have to press or select the enemy you had and then you were stationary while attacking the enemy. You had the capability of being a bit strategic and could control your party members. I know this is controversial from people who hold the prior games on a pedestal, but ya know what wasn't good about all of that? All of it. Sure it was decent for the time, but if you don't look at it with nostalgia glasses then you can really see the problems with it. The pausing was only useful when panicking and otherwise wasn't helpful because you couldn't queue actions. Selecting the enemy to attack was annoying when the enemies were in huge groups and the strategy view did not help unless you zoomed out all the way and made it feel much less personal. And controlling your party members was only useful when your character died. All in all it felt like an in between of a turn based CRPG similar to Baldur’s Gate 3, and an actual action combat game and all 3 of the old games felt like this and to put it simply, that was not very fun. Veilguard fixes ALL of my problems with the combat, sometimes simply by removing the mechanics from the older games entirely. Now you can move around the battlefield while attacking, you feel like you're an active participant in the battle as opposed to a player pressing skills that your character does. The Combat actually allows you to feel a part of the world. Its fantastic.
The spells are also cool and they can be incredibly damaging when you have the right settings. In the old games you could use a fireball and only do a 1/4th or 1/3rd of the enemies health, the spells did not do a lot of damage. They made these big explosions sure but they were purely flashy and not useful. But these spells? They're flashy and useful. They make me enjoy every single time I get into a combat encounter while in the other games I would fucking dread it. Particularly in the first one. I remember saving a bunch more during my Origins replay because of how annoying the combat was, eventually I cheated to make it bearable. But with Veilguard I have no desire to cheat, I enjoy every second of combat. The only minor criticism I have is that I wish I had 2 more spell slots but I do understand why that'd be hard since they wanted to be able to just hold L2 and press one of the face buttons as quick actions and that does end up being incredibly intuitive and fun. I just wish there were 2 more. And yet, I never felt bored with the combat. I was always engaged and enjoying it even when I hit hour 40 and I'm hoping that during my second playthrough I will feel the same as I'm playing a Rogue now. I think I will.
Next, the companion quests. The companions are incredibly well written, from Harding’s struggle awakening to her magic, to Taash realizing they're nonbinary, to Lucanis struggling with Spite and the trauma of being in a prison for a year, to Belarra dealing with the death of her brother and then the struggle with the realization he is alive but a slave to an evil spirit, the stories are deep and make you want to play more to learn more about the characters. Particularly Taash is something that a lot of people have focused on for shitty reasons but as a trans person myself, I can safely say that their story is handled with care and is a believable story. They dont feel like a man or a woman and over the first couple conversations they get introduced to friends of Neve who are trans or nonbinary and that helps them find the words for who they are. Then when they come out to their mom, she doesn't react very well and references the Qun word for trans folk but that’s just not what Taash is. They are what they say, and the word "Aqun-athlok" suggested by their mother isn't the word that fits. The human word is what fits, and they only know of that word because of Neve connecting them with some non-binary Shadow Dragons. And that's something that is beautifully well done and made me remember my coming out moment where I explained who I was and my father didn't quite get it and tried to suggest something that just wasn't accurate. Taash and their story is a perfect example of Veilguard’s strength. The characters feel real. They feel like someone I could meet and hang out with, not people that were written. The companions quest lines just flesh that out to the extreme. Imagine Mass Effect 2 and their loyalty missions, but expanded to be like 10 missions. It's truly special and something that already makes me want to replay it. And the best part is that even when the characters are made Heroes of the Veilguard that isn't the end of their story. There is still a quest after that to add even further story. I cannot express enough how much I enjoyed going through every companions story.
Another instance of the characters personality are their lighthouse and exploration dialog. For instance, post Taash coming out there's lighthouse dialog where they ask Lucanis if there are non-binary Crows to which he says "of course". They then ask if they still get capes (very important) to which he says "of course. why wouldn't they." Taash then says that some cultures do stupid gender shit about what men and women can wear. Lucanis then responds saying "In The Crows, you just must have style." This exchange is a lovely moment of connection between two of my favorite characters, it shows the characters growing together and bonding. I loved it and it made me smile. This is a constant thing in Veilguard, I frequently found myself smiling because of character interactions. It was lovely and heartwarming.
There was also a moment that doesn’t just show depth of character but actual history between characters. So close to the end of the second act you and Taash and Belarra go hang out with Isabela and she accidentally misgenders Taash and decides to "pull a Barve" which is custom in the Rivaini and Lords of Fortune where when you fucked up and you know it, you just do some pushups to acknowledge the fuck up so that everyone else can go on without there being a need for a direct and possibly drawn out apology. I get that some people who aren't trans can see this as awkward, but every time you get misgendered by someone that knows you is awkward. This is simply how Isabela chose to deal with it and show her apology because that's the custom. Later on in the conversation Belarra also ends up having to "pull a Barve" because she ate the last desert that Taash really wanted. Its just the custom. It's only awkward because misgendering is awkward in itself, not because it's bad writing.
Another moment showing depth of companion characters is how they will romance each other. In my first playthrough Lucanis romanced Neve and seeing them grow, Lucanis struggles with figuring out how to show Neve he's interested. So he makes pie for her which is so special and heartwarming. It's just so lovely. Bioware thrives with well written characters and one of my favorites was also Belarra.
She obviously suffers from ADHD and it leads to what some people have thought of as disconnected from the events of the game, but that's who she is on purpose. She dives into her Elven tech as a way to cope, not because she wasn't impacted by the death of everyone she knew in D'Meta. She was 100% impacted, she just doesn't know how to express it. Her character afterwards has very short answers to questions and that's just how someone with ADHD and is neurodiverse can react to such a traumatic event. It's not poorly written, it's accurate to who her character is. And when she develops more and you find out about her brother you continue to see her struggling with her trauma of losing those she loved. She is a beautifully written character that people with ADHD can see themselves in. This is something fundamentally amazing about Veilguard, it's filled with characters that people can see themselves in, often more than prior Bioware games. I adore the Mass Effect games but I dont think I saw myself in most of the characters. They still had similar quirks, but it was a different type of identifying with them. It was more shallow than here in Veilguard. I intend to replay the Mass Effect games later this year, likely after I'm done with my second play through of Veilguard, and it'll be interesting to compare them both (hint hints towards future article).
Next, there are interesting ramifications of different decisions in the game that I find really interesting. Some small, some larger. A small one for instance is if you refuse to save the Mayor in D'Meta’s Crossing, you will get a quest later on in the second act where it turns out the Mayor got blighted into a big demon and you have to fight him. It's a small thing but pretty cool. A big outcome of a big choice is when you have to choose between cities to save from the blighted Dragons in Act 1. If you choose to save Treviso then Neve will leave the team for a bit to deal with the ramifications of the destruction of some of Minrathus. And when you go back to Dock town you find that the Shadow Dragons hideout has been raided and you can no longer level up the faction and there is blood and bodies everywhere, hangings in almost every square. It's an amazing bit of environmental storytelling and allows you to see the ramifications of your actions as opposed to being just told them.
Plus when Neve comes back to the team she is "hardened" so it takes longer for you to level up her bond because she blames you for not saving Minrathus. Again, this shows depth of character.
The Ending/3rd Act
I loved the game, but what I don’t like is that one companion was always going to die in the assault on Tearstone island. I get why, a core theme of the game is actually accepting death and that sacrifice can be a worthy thing to choose to do, but I still wish I could have saved everyone like in Mass Effect 2.
Anyway. Surprise! Varric died at the start and he was just in your head! It made so much sense, considering no one had really talked to or acknowledged his presence and that the dude got stabbed in the fucking heart and him surviving wouldn't make any sense. It was an emotional moment for me. Especially after my recent replaying of the first three games.
I did all the quests in order to get the best ending. I made sure everyone was properly assigned. That Final Mission in Minrathus was fucking amazing and utterly brilliant storytelling, gameplay, and some fantastic cutscenes and environmental storytelling. Throughout the second half of the mission you frequently see Solas in Wolf form fighting the Archdemon and its fucking amazing and honestly made me think of the amazing setpieces that Destiny is often known for. Bioware did an amazing job with this mission blending both the Suicide Mission from Mass Effect 2 and the final mission from Mass Effect 3 into a masterpiece of gaming.
The final boss fight was probably the best final boss for a Dragon Age game as well, largely because of how much it meant and that it had such significant build up. It felt good to finally see Ghilan'nain pay not just for the events of the game but also for the events of Solas's past.
Being able to convince Solas to bind himself to the Veil in order to save the world was heartbreaking. I could feel the emotion he was going through. But once Mythal convinced him that was it. He was redeemed. It was definitely the best ending.
The ending was perfect. And the cutscene being able to see the people you've come to now talk about what's next was also wonderful.
I just can't say enough how much I loved the ending.
Conclusion
The game was amazing. Sure it had some faults but it hit all the right notes for me. The minor problems that existed were simply not that big. The depth I wanted in the story and the combat were there. There was a wonderful balance between dark moments and still having moments of heartwarming with your companions. It was just such a wonderful experience and is 100% the best Dragon Age game in my experience. The others were inconsistent. Origins had great story moments and middling combat, 2 had much better combat and a great story but had so much repetition, and Inquisition was significantly held back by its "open world" concept. But Veilguard doesn't have any of those problems.
If you like the Dragon Age games and aren’t too attached to the idea of what you think a Dragon Age game should be and aren’t someone who thinks lore can't change when you're literally fighting the Gods of one of the Races of the game, You should play this game. It hits so many of the right notes and I've just dove right back in for my second playthrough because I just can't get enough of it.
Well I'm gonna go back to my second playthrough.
Meow,
Cat