Solas locked himself in the fade so he doesn't have to experience another "chase the blighted magister" story. He went "Nope. Here's my magical dagger. Wake me up in a thousand years when EAware is gone. In uthenera whatever. 🖖"

My feeling: The story was probably always going to be some sort of 'Solas as visible villain, the Elven gods as actual villains'. I think the difference is that back when it was about 'heists', you were hunting Solas and undoing his work all around the world, and the scene that we get in the prologue now was probably a midgame break. It feels like they did away with that part, starting the story right where Solas becomes an ally - I also imagine the Lighthouse was akin to Skyhold in that it was a second base of operations after this event. Long story short, to me it feels that they chopped off the first half of the story, and expanded the rest to the full game.

Inquisition was a bait and switch too with the Mage-Templar war plot line

The same thing happened with Inquisition, the story of the mage revolution was so interesting and it was such a minor thing in Inquisition. The beginning of DAV is incredibly similar to that of Inquisition as well. The plotline from what they've spoiled so far is incredibly similar to that of Inquisition too... the difference is the story in Inquisition makes some sense at least. "I am a mage!" I still can't get over that line in the gameplay trailer, this looks like "my face is tired" all over again... 😭

I think it's lazy writhing honestly. They don't know what to do with solas. so what do they do. Let's seal him the whole game until the end.

I have gone and rewatched the trailer. Soooo...Varric makes is very clear what he thinks Solas is doing... and Solas answers "The Veil must be torn down blah blah..." instead of telling him that it's not the case. That's just stupid. They have literally made the trailer the way we think Solas is fulfilling his promise. Just to pull the "actually" card and subvert the expectations in the dumbest way possible

I guess this could explain why the title is changed from Dreadwolf to The Veilguard. Solas isn’t even a villain anymore and I hate that. The trespasser DLC had me so hype for this game. But it continues to decrease with the more news we get

WTH? This sounds exactly like INQUISITION ... Also a random nobody called Rook interrupts an Elven God's decades/centuries long planned Ritual - by knocking off a few statues... Really? Wow... Great job Solas / Bioware ...

I cant believe Morrigan & Leliana are not in this. Morrigan is a great character, why toss her aside? i dont get it

If this is the entirety of the premise then yeah I definitely agree that it's a weak start to the story. It could be good if they use it well to build up Solas' development and possibly let him manipulate our character into furthering his plans rather than just making him a good guy all of a sudden when he was originally a conflicted antagonist who sees no other way. Also, if they're going to introduce the Evenuris like this, they need to give us more information on their past as well as give us more interactions with them as opposed to what happened with Corypheus who started very mysterious and intimidating in Legacy as an unknown entity like the Architect but then became a joke as Inquisition progressed... Honestly though, I would've prefered the story to be focused on Solas building up to his ritual to tear the Veil, learning more about the ancient world, the corruption/wars of the Evenuris, and how the Veil's destruction will destroy the current world. The failure of Solas' ritual to strengthen the Evenuris' prison might've been a good mid-story heel turn that we cause due to our shadow war with Solas but as the starting point it's a very odd decision when they had a strong premise already lined up. My best guess is that they knew it was somewhat predictable what the next game would be like due to how Trespasser ended so they decided to try subverting our expectations by going this route which I think is a huge mistake, but I guess we'll see where it ends up.

Ahhh the good old comedy of errors. "I thought you were doing x" "You don't even know what you did" Speak to each other already, for f***'s sake!

Just how does making our Rook able to enter the fade and be connected to it is special when we have veil jumpers in the game? 😅

So it was all just a wacky miscommunication that would have been solved in less than a minute if Solas simply told someone what he was doing? Let the hijinks ensue with some wacky sitcom music in the background. SMDH. 10 years for that?

There is so much plot convinience involved already: Solas conviniently not telling Varric what he is actually doing, he makes it even sound like he is indeed in the process of tearing down the veil Rook conviniently getting his blood mixed up in the veil We/Solas conviniently screwing up the ritual exactly in that way that solas switches places with the other evanuris. (Tbh that feels kind of like slapstick, you can even see Solas stumbling into the rift in the gameplay reveal) This really feels poorly written. And where are Solas' people? Why is he alone? We were told that he has a whole operation going and now at the finale of his plan he is chilling alone? And don't get me started on how that's not the story the ending of Inquisition/Trespasser promised us.

While I am interested on how they'll execute the shift away from Solas to the Evanuris, I don't see how this changes the premise at all. Solas was always planning on dealing with the Evanuris and tearing down the Veil, his plan is the same and pretty sure it's still the same even after he's been sealed. Solas told us in Trespasser that the Evanuris were evil and that they had to be dealt with when he tore down the veil, this was the ritual. Moving the Evanuris to a new prison and tearing down the veil seem linked and Solas was probably gonna tear down the veil right after if Rook didn't stop him. Solas' plans are still the same, stop the Evanuris, tear down the Veil, he is just now unable to do so. Since he can't tear down the veil being trapped in the fade, he is now going move forward in stopping the Evanuris and the best/only way to do so is to assist Rook, the only person he can speak to in the fade.

I'll go a step further. The fact that Solas can't communincate that he was trying to seal these Gods. To me is just... silly.. why would he blow up Bianca over this ? He isn't tearing down the veil ! He's trying to seal these threats ! It's just face palm worthy at this point... i don't know. The main antagonist getting side lined in his own game.. amazing writing.

Reeks of writers who couldnt handle focusing on the established villain, Solas, so they instead pivoted to their own new creations they can write however they want. Real shame

I would bet anything that Solas and the elves being the bad guys for trying to retake their world was deemed as problematic so Solas and his elves will be depicted as misunderstood heroes.

I knew it. I just knew those were the old elven gods coming out of the Fade at the end of the trailer. And I also guessed that this would force Solas to be an ally again to some extent. Concept itself isn't bad but I'm questioning the execution. Solas, just say something, for crying out loud! Varric did go there to talk, after all!

I really liked the buildup with Trespasser and Solas, but to end up with him becoming your "advisor" and getting shoved to the side is exactly what I had hoped NOT to happen. I guess now we know why the title got changed. :-|

I Feel Like this would have been a better mid game plot. 1. You start off fighting to stop Solas from tearing down the Veil 2. The Battle results in the release of the evlen gods 3.Then team with Solas to stop them Still Bland but better then hey I F**ked up another ritual and got power in the beginning

Why did they kick Solas out of the plot and immediately replace him with two elven gods no one gives a shit about?

This is them chickening out of the original premise. I had 0 expectation for this game after how bad the previous 2 bioware games were, and they still managed to find a way to disappoint me........

OK. This just confirmed for me all the fears about the potential of bad writing. This is NOT the way to introduce a plot in a game!

Whelp it looks like this game is going to be a flop. There's so many negative changes, less companions in party, less active abilities to use, less open world, and androgynous companions. I was really holding out hope for this game but at this point, it feels like all the franchises that I fell in love with as a child are getting destroyed before my eyes.

wait hold on... I'm 4:52 into the video. That's the Inquisition starting plot. Or very close to it. I finished, read some comments, apparently I'm not the only one thinking this.

Varric: Hey Solas, what you got there ? Solas: *Silence* Harding: He´s trying to tear down the veil. We´ve got to stop the ritual ! *Rook stops the ritual* Solas: What have you done ? You know, this is on Solas, not on Rook. If only he said what he was doing, none of this would have happenned.

It honestly sounds like a very DA-themed plot device to occur. It's often about unintended consequences and someone/something being misled from one life path to doing something else. Suspect that Solas still intended to do what was earlier spoken about, but that he needed to do this other thing before attempting that.

So the story of the forth game is the exact same story of the third game. Genius.

It's not a spoiler of you don't consider DAV cannon 😃

This is so awful, lol. "Oh you cocked it up!" So we got: Hawke - fucking up is their personality (and I didn't mind it back then) Inquisitor - wrong time wrong place and also in a way fucked up and now Rook, joining the list of protagonists who drive the plot by stumbling into it.

I don’t mind the chosen one narrative, if it’s done correctly. The problem i have is that, it’s basically a rehash of inquisition. They should’ve kept Solas as the big bad, he is a pretty interesting foil, considering his relationship to players. And in the potential sequel introduced some of the evanuris.

Solas will come out the Veil at the end.

Soo... Solas, who is an eons old primordial god that the previous game spent its entire runtime cooking up into the ultimate mastermind... gets his plan foiled by some random dude knocking over a few statues? Then better yet, that entire "psyke, it was all me!" reveal that Inquisition lead up to immediately gets overturned back to a "nah just kidding its all them, im not actually the big bad" plot ffs Was the Dread Wolf just a meme?

So if he isnt taking down the veil, but trying to strengthen the prison of the Evanuris, then why are there demons popping out of the fade everywhere? I mean, thats what made everyone think Solas is destroying the veil. Also, why didnt Solas explain what he is doing to Varric? This already looks like real bad writing to me. I feel its gonna be very mediocre compared to the previous games.

Honestly it sounds like a rework of Inquisition's story

So let me get this straight. They've decided to change the plot and rewamp the story several months ago just to retkon trespasser dlc and make solas look like a dumbass. Great job

You’ll need to remember that today’s bioware is not the same bioware that crafted the masterpieces of the past. It’s like some dei crazed ghoul wearing the skin of a dead biowares face.

This sounds like they wrote themselves into a corner with solas and now hes been stage hooked out of the plot. So even if rook stops the evanuris, the initial conflict remains unresolved. It's an absolute nothing plot. Something that mass effect 2 had. This does not bode well at all.

The problem is this isn't pushing the lore of the game world forward. DaO and da 2 pushed the lore forwards substantially. Why aren't we digging into the story of the old gods and andraste and the maker? They are conviniently keeping out the fundamental conflict between the tevinter version of the maker and the andraste worshippers version of the maker. Like the substory of the ashes of andraste, the intelligent darkspawn etc were so much more interesting

Maybe the “Trespasser” DLC was named that as a warning for the new writers and devs for the game instead of the Dreadwolf themselves.

Hmmmm spoilers time to get spoiled

This seems pretty lame. Having two generic bad guys take over for Solas isn't interesting. Solas was a good sympathetic villain, his actions are extreme enough to get most reasonable people to oppose him while also being completely understandable.

This sounds way too 'safe' a premise to me. May be Bioware thought they needed this not to flop and went back to the last game they didn't tank and made an Inquisition 2.0. Still hoping for the best!

As long as it finishes strong, I don't mind how it starts.

This seems like too much of a repeat of inquisition in premise

I don't think Rook is to blame to me just based off the opening scene from what Bioware showed us it's Varric & Harding's fault, even based off the comics/short stories Varric & Harding's kept alluding to Solas removing the veil. Granted yes that IS Solas's plan so I can see how they led us (Rook) to that conclusion, thus far the writers seem to know how to pull us in.

I've liked the franchise since Origins. Origins is by far my favorite, though I did appreciate DA2 and Inquisition for what they were. That said, I want to like this game, but the more information I find out about it, the less I want to play it.

So basically… it’s Varric and the inquisitors fault for making Rook butt in on Solas planned genocide? I can’t really fault them interfering on the veil being torn down… but it sounds stupid… this is a problem with involving legacy characters so much, eventually you silly them

Ugh. More reconning. I'm so sad. So, so sad. Honestly, I'm glad I know now. At this point I'll be buying it on sale in a year's time and playing on god mode to get closure for Solas and Varrick before I bid a permanent goodbye to the series I love. I just can't deal with the plot holes, constant genre changes, reconning and gaslighting. I'm just about done, and it breaks my fucking heart. I loved Origins so much. The way this is playing out, it feels very much like ME:3. Some poor writer saw the sticky notes and colours all over a bare-bones story board after the OG writers left, and essentially did a "telephone game" on the plot. And now they're desperately trying to convince us that this is how it was meant to be all along. I'm not convinced. Not even a little.

Yet another story that can only be possible because everyone thinks and acts like a bumbling idiot (that is the justification many fans are using to explain how Solas didn't think of those shaky statues that could easily disrupt his ritual), i was also very sure they would sideline Solas and probably make him an unlikely ally, not to mention how similar it all starts to feels like Inquisition, at that point just let us play as the Inquisitor again... maybe the premise sucks and the rest of the game doesn't, but so far this doesn't inspire confidence.

I’m still so mad that it seems characters like Morrigan and Sandel won’t be returning. Their stories aren’t finished and there’s so many questions that were supposed to be answered in this game. Morrigan was supposed to literally be the “inheritor” and her child is, depending on your choices, the soul of an old god. Like what happens to that plot line? Shit nothing?

Okay, after the name change and watching the gameplay trailer I made a story prediction to myself. That being, Varric and Solus are essentially killed off right after the trailer by a new big bad, and the rest of the game is us fighting against this new evil… Sounds like I wasn’t far off the mark… *sigh* I really do detest these modern day story “writers”. They can never just tell their own stories, instead they have to co-opt someone else’s story, twist it completely out of shape and brush aside everything better writers have created before them to so the world fits the story they want to tell. It’s going to be simplistic, black and white with no moral complexity, and absolutely stuffed full of modern day politics from only a single point of view. The complete antithesis of what a Dragon Age game should be… Yep, IMO the game is DOA. RIP Dragon Age, and very likely RIP BioWare as a company not long after. (Though to be fair, it’s been dead a while and this will just be the animated corpse finally running out of that “BioWare magic” and keeling over into an undignified lump)

I'm not the biggest fan of Solas being the ''good guy'' again. Kinda beats the Tresspasser build up into the dirt.

This is literally the same premise as the beginning to Inquisition

Solas should remain antagonist. Evanuris could still be villains as well. Solas is simply much more compelling from the character standpoint due to not being evil for evils sake. Hell he is a hero of his own story. Making him into a forced ally this way is just really meh. Rook place in the story could be the same, hell Solas could still be an advisor of sorts despite being antagonist faction....

It honestly sounds like the story was changed very recently, maybe within the last year or a couple of last years. Though I could be wrong The title they went with for years was "Dread Wolf". BioWare has kept development of this game hushed aside from developer departures and a few snippets. I would have liked for Solas to be the main villain but, not surprised with the change.

I kinda expected something like this when I saw the gameplay trailer but I'm not sure if I like this. It feels sitcom like and could have been avoided with 3 or 4 lines of proper dialogue/communications.

I never felt solas was very strong as an antagonist to begin with. I remember when I had my friend play the three games and they said "this is just Emet-Selch but bad"

Not impressed with what I'm hearing. I might have to wait for your review before I put my money down for this.

They wasted flemeth's build up

The entire article is written in such a tone that tells me that Dragon Age as a franchise is fucking dead. Not only was there no plan, but the frame idea for what Dreadwolf was gonna be has been tossed out the window for this strange "power of community" idea. Origins had a desperate mad dash to the finish line once you had all the allies assembled after dealing with their own crisis. DA2 was just a struggle to survive with the divide and paranoia. Inquisition even had a story of people recovering from a war between mages and templars, now an ancient evil has come back to rebuild the world of old. Veilguard has clear identity crisis that for some reason, the developers think that the core being the companions vs the entire storyline is gonna leave this game with a lukewarm story and either reconned lore or terrible additions added on. I'm done, if I get the itch. I'll just play Origins and watch Veilguard cutscenes on youtube.

they really should not made a 4th character! inquisitor should continue cause the end of the 3rd game really suggestad that! also would be phenomenal if you just the 3 heroes assemble! :S

I think baldy will still be a big bad at the end. He is not gonna stop his plans. We just gotta fight others gods first. He gets free then we should be strong enough to fight the dread wolf.

I am 95% sure I do not like the sounds of this plot; not the way that i would have written this story to go.

It was written by Dan and Dave

was already on the fence about playing this, but now I wont at least until reviewers i trust have a few months with the game. this now finally makees me believe that bioware is stupid enough to do what i feared with mass effect

It's the same thing they did with inquisition 🤦🏿‍♂️ inquisitor gets the mark by interrupting corypheus' ritual, then explosion, oh no you have the mark and have to fix things Now with the veilguard, you interrupt the wrong ritual because you didn't wait for varric, now you're fade-touched and need to put the Jack's back in their boxes 😑

Your video was incredibly relatable, and it made me feel understood and less alone in my experiences.

A few lore channels had this basic theory about the truth behind the ritual. The specifics of which elf gods are different. Not the most unpredictable writing. The Solas trapped part is a story place holder, so he can used later. IMO Morrigan is the most important character right now though.

I'm not a big fan of Solas not being the villain. Sometimes defying expectations, sucks.

Its fine. I dont see or have any issued with it. What matters more is the execution. Inquisition's base starting point is that this random person gets sent to spy on events of a mage, templar coming together, and stumbles instead upon a cataclysmic event and just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Causing them to get marked by an ancient magical device that literally rolls into the palm of their hand. So dont worry much about the starting point for Veilguard. Stay keyed in on its unfolding.

I would have loved a bit more of a chess match between Solas and rook. Maybe Solas is trapped but still pulling strings from the fade side of the veil. The Gods would actually be pawns in his plan even if they knew what he was up to. Then he could still be in the "lighthouse" but the interactions would be far more interesting as you can have conversations trying to convince eachother, taunt eachother, and decive eachother. There could have been a late game narrative branch where you win him over, maybe even begrudgingly by ruining his plans in someway, or where he becomes a final boss of some kind. Either way i like my idea a bit better 😂

This sounds like a modern day Disney movie, and look how their content is going, if I remember right all their movies flopped last year. Hollywood and the "West" in general have a massive lack in creativity and imagination

Bad trailer, bad gameplay, bad story . . . BioWare is fucked.

Can’t say i was too excited for this game before. Significantly less now that some contrived story hook was made that seems to be based on violating the player’s expectations above all other story concerns. Just because your audience knows what the plot is either through deduction or outright having been told so doesn’t mean that story is bad or a failure. I’m pretty sick of the “gotcha” style of story telling.

Expecting a good story after Inqusition and all you know about the team is very, very optimistic.

This premise is supremely dumb and really has me worried about the integrity of the writing for the rest of the game. There are so many other ways of starting a game off but this? Not a good start...

It's like inquisition, you enter the ritual and fuck it up. What I don't understand is why Solas tells you that the Veil has to be fixed in the intro if he is just trying to imprison the elven gods. I don't know, we shall wait to see more.

To me it feels like they have pivoted Solas's story, like they were too afraid to have him be the antagonist who does a truly awful thing and just sidelined him to the misunderstood good guy all along. I don't know. I am willing to look past some issues I don't like (the combat, the simplifies mechanics, the grindy fetch quests) but if the story is bungled and unsatisfactory I will ultimately fall out of love with dragon age for good.

The name was changed as it's not about the Dreadwolf it's about the Veilguard team your companions he is not the only antagonist top 2 and bottom 2 left and right

If I'm able to exist in the fade I be waiting for those sisters to start calling me the maker in human form lol.

By the sound of this. This game can potentially become the worst story in the franchise.

I knew that the elven gods would have been a major part of the plot at one point, but I still would have liked if they did not had to share let alone steal the antagonist position from Solas outright.

Ok, so i expected it to be bad. So why does it still hurt.

Fascinating! The more information they release, the less interested I am. I was trying to find anything positive about this entry-anything at all-but at this point, I think that getting over the obsession and love for the world-building of Thedas is the best path to take. Maybe once it's in sale for $5, I'll consider paying for it.

Ah, I love when the game establishes from the get go that my player character is a borderline moron. "We don't really know what he is doing, let's drop a statue on his head - it will surely stop the most powerful mage in existence and make him reconsider his ways!" And it worked.. in a weird way.

So it does look as if they've completely removed Flemmeth's, aka Mythal's, pivotal role in all this, as well as Morrigan's importance since she was supposed to play as the 'Inheritor'. As for this premise, they've effectively neutered Solas and confined him to a backseat. Our expectations have been subverted so that the DEI approved gaggle of representation cardboard characters can save the day. That and it's much easier to spin off Inquisition than follow through with the larger story... I really, really hope EA shuts down Bioware after this flops.

So let me get this right, we had a build up for this for the entire last game where Solas is big bad end of the world stuff, just so Solas become a joke and we could got different story? If it is true this really show that different people work on it than 10 years ago.

I would like to say Solas could still be a villain. In Trespasser Solas hints at needing to be in the Fade to tear down the Veil and he just wants Rook to take out the Evanuris so they can’t oppose him when he does tear it down but I could be completely wrong about this😂

Just like the last game, the major plot thread set up from the last game is handwaved away within the first hour or so. This does not bode well. A shame, I used to love this franchise, but I don't have very high hopes for this one. Bioware simply doesn't have the right people to create this kind of game any more.

The story sounds just fine. It is the limitation of companions (only two), and skills (only 3 per player or companion), and inability to jump into any companion and control them (as in DA Origins) or influence how you and companions act in combat when not directly controlled (with a preset list of instructions, also in Origins). If i want to play Tekken or Elden Ring, then I play THEM, not a game that increasingly tries to be them, like DA4, as it moves further and further away from its heralded beginning in Origins. Every DA game after Origins suggests a company that wants to use the quality of that first game to cash in on dreadful follow-ups (like DA2) or pretty looking but shallow games (like Inquisition) over-full of relatively pointless fetch quests to pad out playing time. I'm hoping that the writing quality will save this to some degree, but the way Bioware is headed, I think this will be another disappointment. After Baldur's Gate 3, which was done the right way, people expect more - this looks like the death-knell for the DA series. DA 4 looks pretty, but it is nice-looking wallpaper papered over rot, to disguise the problems underneath.

Guy's tbh this game could have been epic but its too unstable they are trying to play it safe unfortunately. Let's seeing the what finally product look like...

Um... I'm not sure it was stated in the article that Solas was only reinforcing the seals on the evanuris or moving them to different, more secure prisons. If that were the only thing Solas was doing, then yes he should have simply turned around and told Varric that's all he was doing. But in any case it is likely that Solas was going to tear down the veil at the end of this ritual anyway. So yes, we did have to stop him here. Other than that, I agree that the storyline is poorly written and makes no sense. It also goes against everything the Inquisitor said and did in Trespasser, which makes that DLC entirely pointless.

I wonder, if Solas was trying to strengthen the Veil, why would he not tell his allies about his plan to do so? Varic/Inquisitor would have helped Solas if they knew he was trying to save the world from evil elven gods.

This is just Inquisition with extra(or less) steps.

Bioware still can't pin down something in Dragon Age that was a given in Mass Effect. In ME, throughout all 3 games, you are the same character. You are standing up against the same ultimate baddies each game; you recruit, befriend, and romance mostly the same characters who you get to know very intimately across 3 games and you are ultimately building up your character's role in the narrative as the great decider of world shaping choices across the trilogy and justifying it (very well, I might add). In DA, you always play a new character every game, and that has some benefits, but in my opinion, it is detrimental to the overarching series narrative that they wanted to tell as a whole. It's a quantity over quality thing. If you introduce a new player character each game, with new friends and enemies and love interests, but still have the same connecting story or plot threads tied to the previous one, it begs the question, why continue that plot in the first place? I'm not nearly invested in stopping Solas playing as this rando picked up in a tavern as I would be as his best friend, or his lover, or his rival that regrets never stopping him when they had the chance. I think they know this, and that's why they are quickly doing away with him rather then keeping him as the big baddie they set him up to be 9 years ago. Either start from scratch with a completely seperate plot in this world, or let us continue as the previous hero where we left off. Trying to do both erodes the quality of both, rather than enhances it. I almost wish they had stuck to their original idea of making Hawke the DA Shepard, becoming the Inquisitor in DAI. Would feel less like it happens all the time in Thedas where powerful organizations are formed and they pick a random meathead to lead them whom neither they nor the player knows anything about because the last hero that the world was depending on to save them decided to go on vacation while all these terrible things are happening in the world.

Dragon Age has a problem continuing plot lines. Sounds like this game will follow that trend.

Rook is Cole 2.0 btw

Same simplification as Inquisition - but it's better than the trailer that left me thinking we were somewhere in the middle of the game. If this is what it's about it draws me to the game in a way that the trailer did nothing. I want that dagger!