Spoilers for Veilguard and all other Dragon Age media. (I’m a lore fiend.)

18 hours in, 16 playtime

Same disclaimer as the others, if you’ve already read it you can skip down.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It’s fantastic. I’m also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I’m on media blackout while I play this, so I’m only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Y’know? Every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking ‘have you Bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?’ My guess is nope.

Review 3 is here.

(Note that these reviews aren’t edited. They’re just my off the cuff writing. I don’t have the time, energy or heart to edit them properly.)

Okay. Got several more hours into the game last night. I’m finally getting story bits!

It really shouldn’t take 16 hours to get that far.

I utterly love Treviso. And to my surprise, most of the NPCs are brown. So they didn’t fuck that up.

I’ve so far met Lace (hate her), Neve (withholding judgment), Bellara (withholding judgment) and Lucanis (hilarious that I actually like him in game). Though what’s with the count Dracula look? Dude looks like he needs to find his coffin. That’s an… interesting design choice. Gotta admit I loved the coffee meeting. I may end up eating crow. (I said in a group that if I ended up romancing Lucanis in game, I’d happily eat crow, because I utterly loathed his intro story, The Wigmaker, in Tevinter Nights.) I still have to meet the rest of the companions. And yes, it’s a double entendre.

Again, the sets, backgrounds, and environments are fantastic and the best part of the game so far. It’s an interesting twist to me that they chose a negative coded demon for Lucanis. I was thinking it’d be Valor.

And I feel seen in a caring manner on the trans options. I do wish the CC would’ve given me the same freedom of design on that front as BG3 did. It doesn’t. Larian was far, far more brave and accommodating on that front. But I could make a representative character for me, so that’s important and good enough.

Larian also had the courage to allow polyamory too. Sooooo. My opinion of not being able to be polyam like me in DAV is pretty damned low. Only 30% of the dating population is monogamous. Get with the times, Bioware.

Arlathan turned out to be more beautiful than I originally expected. Not a city person so Minrathous doesn’t do much for me.

I had some pretty negative feelings about the game reveals, but that post is here if you want. Fair warning, I didn’t censor myself much and it’s both acidic and negative.

Reaction post to the Game Play Reveals

And I don’t like the non-open world thing. In fact, I hate it. I much preferred DAI on that aspect. I feel like the Devs are herding my rather contrary ass through the game and I just really don’t like it. You often can’t go back (say for potions you didn’t need before but could use?) It’s really just unpleasant. I don’t like being led around by the nose for the story the devs want to tell. I want to be able to explore. When I want to.

And I want both my third companion and my ability to play the other companions back, damnit. I really hate that too.

I’ve got a busy day, so I’m not sure if my weak ass will be able to play tonight. Though after 18 hours I’m feeling a very, very slight desire to play? Again, it shouldn’t take an 18 hour commitment to want to log in to a game.

Oh, and I’m playing a rogue. 16 hours in and I’ve yet had the opportunity to pick a damned lock or defuse a trap or any of the fun rogue bits I play rogues for. Did they really decide to get rid of an entire section of the stuff that makes rogues fun to play? That basically turns my rogue into a weak ass elf good with a bow and dual weild. They could be any Joe Blow with that. They removed everything that made rogues special? Really? Really really? Fucking hell, man.

I’m recovering from a Pulmonary Embolism (really do not recommend) so my energy levels have very finite limits.

If you have the wherewithal, money is tight, and if you’re enjoying these reviews, I could really use any financial aid people are willing to offer. My work of words is my only income, and I’m the only income in the house.

Fourth instalment is here.