Dragon Age: the Veilguard

a lot has been said about the new dragon age game. i haven't seen most of it, just gotten a sense of the scale of the discourse like someone on a boat watching the shadow of a blue whale pass beneath them. i've read a few posts on tumblr, but otherwise haven't delved in--nor do i intend to. in general, my enjoyment of a game is not affected by other people's opinions of it. and i did enjoy this game! i played it all the way through once and have already embarked on a second play-through. despite this list of grievances, there is a lot in it to recommend it. the character creator is wonderfully diverse (you can be fat!) and i loved that your options for rook's voice went beyond male vs female and american vs british. the clothing and armor is wonderful. i loved just about every single companion character. that said.

is it a GOOD game? no. the combat is fun, the level up system is fine, there's no laborious crafting to be done, and visually it's a treat! but narratively, it's not great. for perhaps the first time ever, a game is bad because of woke.

( spoilers for dragon age 2 and inquisition follow, very minor spoilers for veilguard )