I’ve defended Veilguard a LOT on this subreddit, so let me be fair and talk about some of the stuff I actually disliked about it.
Veilguard has gotten a lot of hatred and, like… at least 80% of it is unfounded, so I kinda took it upon myself to defend what I consider to be a legitimately great game.
That said, no game is perfect and we can all stand to critically engage with media, even media we actually like.
So, without further ado…
I fully acknowledge the individual companion story-arcs in this game were a little more bare bones than previous games. That’s not to say they didn’t have any substance, just… not as much as I’d come to expect from a Dragon Age title. I still maintain that Veilguard is my favorite group of companions, though! While there have been individual companions from previous games that blow the Veilguard companions out of the water, there’s also not a single Veilguard companion I actively dislike. That’s more than I can say for pretty much any other game in the series.
As much as I liked the combat in this game, I fully admit that the ‘Attack My Enemy’ mechanic was very poorly thought out. It’s just so counter-intuitive and I genuinely forget it even exists most of the time. Which neuters certain companions whose toolkit revolves around the mechanic!
God, there needed to be a better mercy system for missable chests in missions and the store for the city you didn’t save. I know some of that stuff pops up in the Fade or at Xenon’s shop, but not all of them, and it’s a chore to try and find out which one has the specific equipment you’re hunting for, if you can even get it at all.
The different Factions giving you a passive bonus to damage against favored enemies is cool in concept, but how many mercenaries do we actually fight in the game to make the Lords of Fortune passive bonus against them worth a damn compared to other favored enemies?
I’ll admit it, Rook is a pretty homogenized PC. While I certainly enjoy Rook’s character, I fully acknowledge that one player’s Rook is not going to be that much different from another player’s Rook. Again, I like Rook! I think, purely on their merit as a well-written fictional character, they’re a great addition to BioWare’s massive roster of protagonists! But I do have to acknowledge that a lot of the role-playing potential for Rook does come down mostly to flavor.