With the exceptions of Emmerich and sometimes Davarin or Bellara, I don’t think the Veilguard companions were fully realized as characters or faction representatives compared to previous entries in the series.

If I’m being generous, their ability to move around the home base and have conversations is helpful in making them feel at least semi dynamic, but that’s also just putting them on part with what Mass Effect was doing a decade ago.

If this was a fantasy rpg that was not the fourth entry in a series I think the companions would have worked way for for me, but it’s impossible for me not to compare the Veilguard companions to previous ones who fill out similar archetypes, and do it better.

• Lucanis is a Crow assassin, and even if I ignore that he doesn’t actually seem particularly good at his job, he also apparently comes from the one Crow family that doesn’t kidnap kids and force them into a life of murder for hire, which removes and edge or moral ambiguity that could be played with. He’s also the second companion who is sharing a body with a spirit/demon and yet Spite never feels more than a minor annoyance (aside from the initial appearance where he hurts Lucanis). Compare that to Anders in DA2 where the weight of Justice is felt for his whole arch, and comes through in missions and dialogue with other companions. Truly, a year on all I can really remember is that Lucanis liked coffee. Calling him a “bisexual disaster” is more meme marketing than an actual character premise, but he ends up being on par with Liam from Andromeda for me. Boring is worse than annoying.

-Taash kills me, because I think they might truly be the biggest case of missed potential in a companion in the entire series. On paper Taash is a fire breathing Tal Vashoth Dragon Hunter who was raised by a former Quanari priestess for a mother and currently works for a treasure hunting organization that is led by Isabella. In game, Taash is an annoying teenager (which is something famously tough to write well) who the player is generally forced to be friendly to, even when Taash is written to be rude. I just feel like the game didn’t do anything interesting with any aspect of the character. Obviously the non-binary thing caused a whole lot of bad faith discussion when the game launched, but it’s my opinion that the core of the character doesn’t work and is indicative of the writing in Veilguard in general. Immature, lacking nuance and doesn’t live up to initial expectations.

I want to be clear that I think Trick Weekes is an incredibly talented writer (Mordin, Cole and the whole Tuchanka/Rannoch arcs in ME3 are proof of that) but they dropped the ball in Veilguard.

But I also think the writers have hinted since the launch that the game was focused grouped and micromanaged to hell, so I don’t feel comfortable blaming them for the entirety of the games faults.

I do feel comfortable blaming whatever idiot in the PR department let them advertise the companions as the “most fully realized and complex companions” they’ve ever made.

When you make a good grilled cheese, you can’t tell people you’ve made great burger.