[DAV SPOILERS ALL] we need to talk about Mass Effect

Dragon Age The Veilgaurd cribs much of its design and narrative design from Mass Effect. That’s just something that should be acknowledged now.

But here’s the problem: I don’t see anyone talking about it. And every time I do see it brought up, comments are pushed into the negative upvotes. Why? What are we doing?

Here are some ways they’re similar—

Companion interactions are presented almost identical to ME3. They have an intro cutscene then move around the home base giving new dialogue but not allowing a conversation until important moments in the story or their loyalty mission. Except DAV has more loyalty missions. Not just one, but multiple missions in the world.

Companions need to be loyal (or Heroes of the Veilgaurd) to survive a huge branching pathed finale. The suicide mission in ME2 or the finale of DAV. They even get cool outfits for being loyal! DAV gives you one of two depending on the final choice! Isn’t that neat.

Hell, remember when ME2 stripped out a lot of the granular RPG mechanics of the previous game to focus on spectacle and action combat? Does that sound familiar?

So why is it when Mass Effect does these things, Mass Effect 2 is ‘one of the greatest BioWare games ever made’ but when DAV does it, it’s shallow and soulless?

Now, if folks would have preferred DAV be more like previous entries and not Mass Effect, that’s fine. But I regularly see people praising one but hating the other! It’s wild to me.

Edit 3: y’all are wild, serves me right for trying to add some nuance here lol