I agree with what people are saying. While I do have nice things to say about the game (the game is beautiful, the graphics are outstanding, combat was fun, and I truly think the character creation is the best I’ve ever seen. I’ve been so excited by the options there, the ability to be a non-binary character, and how that was done so it didn’t get reduced down to simply body parts etc.) it was a rough time.
I'm horribly disappointed in how far the game departed from what had always felt like it’s core strength, that your choices in the game mattered, the easy to dismiss little actions and people mattered, and they impacted the world beyond what you could even consider. I’ve played the game through both the “blank” state and with a built in Lavellan, as well as partial playthroughs to test other options etc, and was horrified by not only the extent of which nothing seems to matter but worse, especially for a game that has always felt so empowering, the way Lavellan truly felt reduced down from a character forced to make hard choices and sacrifices, to whether she loved the would-be-redeemed pseudo-villain, Solas. This is felt through the entirety of the game, feeling out of character as none of her other relationships mean anything and in the end she’s willing to leave the world she gave everything for a mess for a contrived ending to join him in his fade prison to “fix him” (a really gross feeling choice that feels toxic and against all the politics, empowerment etc. that it had felt like the series had previously affirmed). Regardless of the import, it was disheartening to see your Rook’s choices even have little to no impact, title cards at the end didn’t even give the main character mention, and the only real choices were you pushing the companion characters in a direction, which also made them feel less fully fleshed and less like autonomous characters, than previous games.
Additionally, the story itself felt rushed, the ending forced and contrived no matter what path you took, and the side stories felt disconnected and relied heavily on having engaged with outside-the-game media in order to make sense of it or give it weight. The romances were forced to the point of multiples having the potential to be hard ended without actually fully happening or getting the romance scene simply tacked on at the end like an afterthought, engagement felt minimal, and in the end you didn’t even really feel like you got to know the characters. Even the pre-existing relationship that ostensibly drives the game (Lavellan/Solas) feels hollow, with the focus so much being on Solas/Mythal that in the end I question if he even really likes Lavellan or if she really is just a “regret cherished more than [his] victories” like what appears to be one of the only, if not the only thing he’ll say about her.
This game felt rushed and slapdash in a similar way to DA2, but at least the story of DA2 felt compelling while the graphics etc were rushed, it’s harder to commiserate with the opposite, especially when it took 10yrs sitting on a cliff hanger to get what ends up feeling hollow and unfinished. I was happy to wait for the game we deserved for as long as it took and cheer on its creators, but in the end I was left feeling betrayed and (with the next game looking like a retcon from the post-scene) like I likely won’t get the next game, a heartbreaking thought given the way I have let the series consume me for decades.
