Recent reviews by Costan

NO DODGES, WE PARRY LIKE ADULTS AROUND EHRE

i wasnt expecting the twenty minute sloppy makeout scene between beat and clef in chapter 3 but i certainly welcomed it

this game has the audacity to go from genuine humor and lovely character dynamics to the most heart-wrenching depictions of mental health conditions at the drop of a hat. give this one a try. no, seriously, it's free, it only costs you your time

this is the kind of game where once you're done you just kinda stare at your hand for a little while. goodness that was a ride. short, insanely fun characters, cool little mysteries, and the ending even managed to stick the landing. Give it a try! you wont be normal ever again

wanna see how hard i can cry

this is normally the part where i'd make some joke about dwarf sex, but this game gets so much flak that i feel the need to actually talk about the things i liked and didnt like about it. and the former far outweighs the latter!

ive put a minimum 50 hours into each previous game, so looking at the game as a throughline of the series? I will admit, it's kind of weird. Origins has such a strong identity that people want to see replicated in 2, inquisition, and onwards. Veilguard, despite Dragon Age's genuinely interesting and interconnected world, seems a bit... distanced from its predecessors. factions like the crows seem sanitized compared to other incarnations. Zevran is really our only reference point, but we get the idea that they were brutal killers. Part of me wants to argue that since it's such a different location from southern thedas, it's allowed to be different, but that feels like a bit too much benefit of the doubt. so yeah, on that front the writing is a bit awkward and questionable from a perspective of a full series.

Furthermore, some character cameos seemed fully unnecessary. I genuinely have no idea what dorian and isabella were doing here, and they're so divorced from previous incarnations that i'd prefer they be different characters. dorian my boy what did they DO to your hair.

But it's really not all bad! The pacing of the narrative is tight, all the main story quests are super invigorating. going to my little meditation spot and having arguments with solas were so, so funny. siege of weisshaupt? ohohoh that archdemon was scary. even if some of the companions have awkward dialogue at times, i loved getting to know them and going through their personal arcs. My favorite was probably emmrich's! what a strange man.

And the combat? ohohohoh buddy let's talk about the combat.

I believe with my whole heart that the combat in Veilguard is the best it's ever been in the series. while you do sacrifice control of your companion's movements, the action is kinetic and encourages you to balance your party not just around classes, but combo potential. Yes, dragon age has combos now. with status conditions like weakened, sundered, and overwhelmed, you and your companions can either apply or detonate ailments with upgrades in the skill tree. It encourages you to play around with your own skill tree while considering who to bring at any outing. I personally had a rogue build that centered around getting parries and stacking necrotic damage on enemies. it made me consider my options in a far more intriguing way than the tactical loadout previous games had. To be fair, some people liked that kind of combat. And that's cool! But it was definitely the previous games' weakest point to me, and this game really prioritizes the schmovement.

Looking at all this, I want to weigh the excellent combat with the writing that's a sliding scale of "kind of awkward" to "good." Sure, the writing is a bit watered down at times, but the combat is the best it can be. Frankly, it's a miracle we got this game at all. Maybe from an outside perspective, a game taking 10 years to come out and then being kind of confusing in its place in the greater narrative looks odd, but with the corporate shenaniganry and laying off of many of the writers meant the dragon age team struggled to get anything at all.

look at it this way: this is the 3rd or 4th version of Veilguard. previous versions were scrapped or turned into live service games or other nonsense. The fact that we got a game as good as the one we got? Sure it's not Origins, but man do I appreciate what I have right now.

Given the disaster that is the videos game industry right now, I have no clue if we're going to get another dragon age anytime soon or even ever. Do I like this as a sendoff to the series? no, not really. there's a lot of unanswered questions about the rest of Thedas that this look into the northern half of the continent can't fully satisfy. On the other hand: was I glad to play this game at all? you bet.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go have sex with a dwarf for the first time in this franchise.

what?

im kinda terrible at rougelikes, so this was a much more accessible entry to the series for me. the charts are challenging and fun with a lot of versatility!

theres a fishing minigame

a lot of people in the reviews are critical of a lot of things in the game, but I'm having a great time. Story mode is fun, gameplay rules. I keep away from the store though, I'm not touching that DLC