My feedback - From Origins to Veilguard: The Fall of a Beloved Franchise

Let me make one thing clear. I don’t write this feedback with joy; it comes with deep sadness and disappointment.

 For someone who waited ten years, counting down the days and dreaming of a game as profound as Inquisition; a game I played through seven times and accumulated over 2,000 hours. It’s truly bitter to have to write these words.

BioWare, please understand that the fans of Dragon Age deserved a game worthy of the decade-long wait.

I’m sure the company would also have been delighted to add another Game of the Year award to its legacy, wouldn’t it? That, however, requires delivering something that stands above the rest, something truly exceptional.

Let’s ask some hard questions. If The Veilguard had sold the same number of copies as a debut game like Black Myth: Wukong, which surpassed 20 million copies sold in its first month, would that have been acceptable for a franchise as established as Dragon Age? It’s embarrassing for a long-standing IP to sell fewer copies than its production costs, isn’t it? Or perhaps if The Veilguard had achieved even half the sales or prestige of Baldur’s Gate 3, the results might have been satisfactory.

Dragon Age had the potential for this. It had the fanbase for it. I think we can all agree on that.

The Dragon Age fanbase is old and fiercely loyal. However, only the right leadership and direction from BioWare can get this train back on track. For now, I'm in mourning—not for myself, but for a franchise that I have loved and invested so much of my life into.

I started Dragon Age with Inquisition only 4 years ago. Since then, I played Origins. So I can’t say I’m a long-term fan or even have quite the depth of emotions tied to this franchise as other players. However, Veilguard being a sequel to Inquisition feels like anything but, and I think that is alienating to players that have played any of the games that preceded it. 

This one feels too much like it’s aimed for a brand new audience — someone that hasn’t played any of the other games. To me, it begs the question: who was this game really for? A new generation of DA players or players that are familiar with the world? A mix of both, most likely, but why not encourage new players to pick up old games?

I like Veilguard for what it is, but I can see that it could have been so much more. My fear is that there won’t be another game forthcoming. There are signs that point to this game being the conclusion to the series IMO (namely, all the answers to longstanding lore questions getting resolved). And if that’s the case, then, wow, yes, really sad.

There came a point while playing The Veilguard where frustration turned into outright disbelief. The so-called "puzzles" feel like they were designed for children, yet this is a game rated for a 16+ audience. The dialogues are shallow, the themes simplistic, and the gameplay panders to the player with no sense of challenge or consequence. The game seems terrified of hurting anyone’s feelings, and if I had children, I wouldn’t let them play it. Why? Because in the real world, actions have consequences. Dragon Age used to embody this philosophy. This? It’s a poor imitation.

Do you remember Dragon Age: Inquisition? The puzzles were engaging, and every decision you made carried weight. The game respected its audience and trusted players to rise to the occasion. By contrast, The Veilguard is an insult to fans who have invested years into this franchise. Yes, to answer the lingering question—it does close the open threads left by Inquisition. But that’s about the only thing it managed to do. If they had left those threads unresolved, I wouldn’t even consider buying the next installment.

Until BioWare places competent leadership in charge—someone aligned with the values and quality standards of the previous titles—I will not purchase another game.

If they want to change a franchise so drastically, they should start a new one, targeted specifically at their intended audience. But to alter a beloved, long-established series with a dedicated fanbase? That’s reckless. To put it plainly: it’s foolish. Building a loyal community takes years, but destroying it can happen in an instant. And the destruction is inevitable when someone is chosen to lead based on ideological alignment rather than their actual competence to create a high-quality product.

At first, The Veilguard might seem passable. But give it time. Soon, you’ll start noticing things that feel “off.” Like locked doors with answers practically spoon-fed to you. Or realizing that no matter what dialogue option you choose, every character agrees with you and pats you on the back. Or the repetitive grind of smashing objects in the environment to collect materials, which quickly grows tiresome.

Even for those who aren’t long-time fans of the series, the decline in quality is glaringly obvious. For those of us who’ve been here since the beginning, it’s simply heartbreaking. If this was meant to be the series’ grand finale, they should’ve taken another 10 years to deliver a masterpiece worthy of their legacy—something to make both BioWare and its fanbase proud.

If I were BioWare, I’d follow CD Projekt Red’s example with Cyberpunk 2077. They acknowledged the game’s flaws, apologized, and committed to fixing it. That was a dignified approach. If The Veilguard is to recover from this disaster, BioWare’s only option is to take ownership of its failures, apologize to its loyal fans, and remake the game in the spirit of its predecessors. They could even rebrand The Veilguard as a new franchise, tailored for the specific audience they seemed to target. That might appease both sides, although I doubt the Veilguard audience would be large enough to sustain an entirely new series.

So, here’s my recommendation: if you haven’t played the earlier Dragon Age games, go back and experience them. They were extraordinary. A true testament to what RPGs can achieve when handled with care and respect for their audience.

My feedback is directed respectfully and sincerely to BioWare:

choose competent, experienced leadership to helm the next games,

ORRR prepare to say goodbye to the loyal Dragon Age fanbase—and to the Mass Effect community as well.

I think it's unfair to lay the blame solely at Corrine's feet. Patrick Weekes was the lead writer on this, and is responsible for some of the most egregious content we've been bludgeoned with. That is a writer who had the privilege to work under David Gaidar. I expected MUCH better of Weekes than what we saw in Taash. 

And then there's the report from Gaider back in 2016 before he left that said someone high up was walking around asking how they could have "less writing." Like it isn't Bioware's entire core business. 

The problem is cultural there, and Corrinne is only one cog in a very large machine that has changed from a studio that crafted experiences that happened to be popular and make money, to an entity whose sole purpose is generating revenue and who cares if we sacrifice a little bit or art\soul along the way?

But overall, I agree that this game really missed the mark. I was just logged into BG3 and I had forgotten how much I liked going to merchants and comparing pieces of armor. Even that nightmare of an inventory management system, there is something so RPG about min-maxing your build and gathering the best weapons and armor for your class. Veilguard took that from us, as if we're not capable of managing our own inventory. We have to kick open chests and we may or may not get something useful for a piece of equipment we're wearing. 

It's little things like that, that really get under my skin. The complexity of these systems is what keeps people hooked, what sparks creative theorycrafting. The best developers are the ones that keep secrets - I still have fond memories of ages past when we had serious discussions around days and directions for crafting equipment in FFXI. Folks would swear by facing a certain direction at a certain time of day when certain weather was present, I mean, it took up HOURS of folks' time trying to figure this stuff out. And then everyone would share notes and it would end up in a wiki somewhere. And maybe some of it was just in our imaginations, but the important thing was that the developers never held our hands on any of it. They let us experiment and figure it out for ourselves.

The wikis we have for Veilguard are about as braindead as the game is, mostly because there's nothing to really guide you through. I did all but one achievement without ever looking a thing up, and the last thing I needed was one of those three codex circle slips and I just hadn't gone quite far enough to pick up the circle around the corner. 

Not that the hidden ending was anything even worth watching. It didn't even get me a little excited that they might have had another idea for another DA game.