The art is gorgeous. Likely they cut it since it didn't align with the game they produced. The art looks like an epic or dark fantasy. They probably funded these when they thought they would🍃 have the time and resources for the major rewritesꦓ that they desperately needed.

In the end that beautiful art didn't 🗹align with the kids action game that was their final product.

I𒀰t never ends the attempt to gentle the narrative of this game.𝐆.. al kidding aside it was a joint failure with 80% of the blaming falling on EA. Hard to believe that not a single writer or early tester didn't warn bioware or Weeks that the writing was horrible.

As a writer myself I already guessed and was clear in all my crജiticism that the fault w𝔍as likely the shift between multi-player cash cow and their attempt to bridge back to an RPG. [It failed and doesn't read as either part of the same world or even as an RPG].

The marketing device of action RPG is entirely ridiculous as either base of players has no common traits, likes, or audience expectations. Bioware invented the term [near as I can tell] when they created Mass Effect 2 and♛ the team cut almost all aspects o꧟f rpg from mass effect thereafter.

The reality is that acti🔜on games have a short shelf life. They spike on sales engage an audience briefly until the next action game appears (much like action movies). Good multi-player determines whether an action game persists or disappears from public mind. Mass effect persists [bearly] because of the 💮original game which was an RPG.

Good RPGs continue to be played൩ years after publication BG3 has more active p🔴layers now than at launch. I would be shocked if veilguard ever 'engaged' as many players on steam as there were active players of dragon age origins. <within the same time period>. Those would be stats only bioware or EA can see.

If they 🐻wanted more cash flow from an rpg then supporting dlc, skins, or weapon sets would be a better use of their resources. Continued sales and engagement means more than gross sales because your audience is then willing to try other products.

The reality here is that veilguard collapsed under EA's corporate greed. They bigger fun as a responsible player will 🍃be when government regulators catch up to the gambling, fleecing, and pedatory financial practices of MMOs and Esports companies.

Nope long term fan as well i𓂃t has been a downward spiral of quality since origins.

Veilguard is easily my most hated game, worst written game, worst battle system, and worst written💯 protagonist that I have ever played [yes I beat it with 60+ hours].

I am g▨lad that somebody actually enjoyed this game, but I find i𒆙t astounding.

Origins has the most playthroughs by far for me sitting at nearly a thousand hours according to steam/xbox. I aꦡctualꦜly bought the game twice so I could enjoy it during travel [it plays better on pc].

Origins was easily their best game often entire series. I made it less than 5 hours into inquisition before I called it. [Tried years later with MUCH lower expectations and 💝found it to be mediocre at best]. The positive side is that Inquisition is actually an RPG though a poorly designed one that couldn't decide if it is an action game, an mmo, or a kids puzzle game.

They got their footing with veilguard and made a kids action game. I forced myself to complete it since the ending was supposed to be worth it. Essentially the suicide mission from mass effect tw𒀰o... except I didn't care about rook (mos🌺t hated protagonist of all time actually someone finally dethroned Isabella from Twilight). Couldn't care less about my gaggle of children teammates and was disappointed when most survived. And I didn't really care about saving the world either since it wasn't even set within the same world as the other games, sure they used location names, groups, and other window dressing. But none of it was remotely recognizable as the world or organizations that I have read about or heard about for years.

EA is the to b🍃lame for everything... I think most of us worked that out ourselves. Bioware games have be💝en. A steady decline of quality since EA took over.

The degrading plots, game complexity, and character arcs can be seen in both dr🦩agon age and mass effect.

Rather ironic that mass effect team was supposed to save the day as both ME3 and Andromeda made headlines with how repetitive, pointless (as an RPG), and unrecognizable as bioware games. Every attempt to "return to form" Have been horrendous attempts to bridge the game mechanics and story back to when the company was profitable. As it is EA has killed Bioware's reputation since we have to go back to 1990s early 2000s to find a successful game. They have also run off or fired all their talent, so the odds of either dragon age or m💞ass effect getting a real game aren't likely.

Does that make veilguard inheren𝕴tly bad "no" but it failed to achieve ꦐthe ten year promise and hope of players that waited.

Unl♛ess the studio comes clean about who made the decisi🐼ons... we will likely never know.

EA itself seꦐems the most likely culprit. They want long term cash cows that they can use to milk players with paid seasons, skins, and other money sinks. The real pity is that they have bought and sunk good studios due to their mismanagement. Moreover, that EA has been allowed to milk players of their money using advertisements and tactics that have been banned within the world of regular marketing.

Success isn't based on whether one person likes the game🍬, but how many connect and enjoy or di﷽slike it.

Connecting veilguard to dragon age was a catastrophic mistake, the fans built from dragon age origins onward would measure it against past games. Weighed against origins veilguard was never going to thrive (inquisition had complaints from older fans as well). It isn't that fans are bigots (the strawman PR decided to focus on)🐷. Veilguard's story was worthy of a B rater movie at best, with a cast flatter than Isabella from Twilight.

To be clear: I doubt this is the writing teams fault, trained writers wouldn't intentionally write something this bad. This was a greed and marketing failure, had they pitched it as a new world ꦓand game it might have gotten more positive reviews. As it is only critics entirely uninvested in the world, story, characters, or even good story telling liked it. Or people entirely new to the world.

🍬I am glad somebody likes the game. As a lover of RPGs i thought it was one of the worst I'd ever played.🌺 As an action game I thought it was aimed at the average 8-9 year old given the complexity of combat, lack of any notable combat development, limited enemy types and constant handholding.

The trouble with comparing it to less choice driven RPGs is that they are better written. Final ꦺFantasy prides itself on well written complex stories.

Bioware is shifting from the old formula where you 𝓡get to make choices and complex characters to flat lead characters, and few choices that matter. It's a choice but they'll need to commit to either a tradional RPG or a more scripted action RPG.

I cared about Hawk by the end of aꦯct 1. I'm utterly indifferent to Rook (and most of the cast) by 80 hours.

This is a run of the mill feel good thriller story where the perfe▨ct good will defeat the ultimate evil.

As a non dragon age gam🦹e it would have done decently w♎ell. As a dragon age game with established expectations and an audience it barely has a pulse.

Is unplayable like some claim (NO)

But it is a game that ❀has no idea what it wants to be and it is ♐trying a bit of everything and pleasing few.

The better moments have action RPG roots. But by in large action RPGs have far better stories than this one. Veilg𒁏uard has the story complexity of an average sonic ga🐈me with some stunning visuals.