Now that I'm finished the game (90-ish hours playtime listed in the file, 50/52 achievos), I'll write a full review to start, here's a non-spoilery tl;dr version first while I write a long version of these thoughts. I cannot rate this lower than an 8/10, it's probably an 8.5/10 when I'm in a good mood.

The beginning of this game is not very strong at all; as it warms up and sinks into the plot, I feel it gets much better. The beginning is weirdly paced, the writing puts its worst foot forward, and it's not really epic at all - it doesn't set up a longer prologue section that blew my mind the way previous games did it. I think of especially Inquisition's three hour opening that had me breathless and in shivers, and this definitely isn't that. By the time the plot is taking us to the bigger setpieces and epic scale events and taking us through a tableau of battles and horrors, it's too late to make a first impression. But there are some very very good second and third and so on impressions. It's worth holding on to see those, because the middle and end game of Veilguard clear past Dragon Age games easily.

This game is beautiful, the characters are beautiful, the zones are beautiful, even the freaking hair and clothing textures are beautiful. I thought I would be more thrown by the "cartoonier" style but honestly, once I was playing the game, no, I was fully into it.

As for writing... Not every moment is the same quality, imo, that's for sure. There are some dialogue and plot choices I am not crazy about, some I eye-rolled at... And also as I warmed up to the game and stopped being so conscious of trying to judge whether this was "correct" Dragon Age, if they were landing this ineffable sense of DRAGON AGE... some parts also really got me. Some exchanges and lines I also laughed at, groaned, sighed, held my breath, blushed at... I cried near the end. I fully cried. I didn't think they would be able to achieve that. I gotta give it up.

And at some point in this game, I realized... I was having a really good time. After years and years of thinking I was over Dragon Age, this reminded me that um, actually, no this series still has me fully in its grip. I'm planning on replaying the whole series again this winter, and I can't wait.