can't access journal, inventory, or companion screens

This is bafflingly horrible game design. Like, we pick up items but can't look at them. We get approval but can't look at our companions. WHY. 

Because EA owns Frostbite, so, by god, they're going to force every single studio they've gobbled up to make their games in it, even when it was never designed for RPGs and works hideously terribly for them, with basic, standard, expected RPG features having to be kludged in.

Yeah but in Inquisition at least you could access your screens after, like... maybe half an hour. Once you had a party, once you started looting things, you could get to most of your stuff. This is such terrible game design to make you play through two full missions, have a BUNCH of approval/disapproval opportunities, even get you to the Lighthouse where you can look at your aesthetic equipment slots.... 

and not access inventory. It's stupid. 

Deeply, frustratingly, and inexplicably stupid. Which unfortunately describes a lot of choices they made on this game.

I'm having the same issue and still can't access the character screen, inventory, or companion menu even after joining up with Bellara. I've read elsewhere that the I starts working after the tutorial is over and you leave the lighthouse, but they were incorrect, evidently. Hopefully it will unlock after I've completed Bellara's quest. It's not critical yet, but at some point I will want to buy and sell things and see what I've actually picked up.

Companion screen IIRC takes the longest. I don't think you get it until one levels up their relationship and/or you have more than one piece of gear for a slot.

Buying and selling you don't need to look at the inventory for. You just talk to a vendor. Only faction vendors will buy your trash; everybody else only sells. Both are done by talking to a vendor and then, if needed, toggling in that menu between their buy and sell screens.

Your own character screen you should be able to view sometime around when you get gear to swap between. 

I recall the game being extremely bad at telling you when these things actually open up, so triple check what your controls are bound to and try those keys/buttons every so often.

This is an older post now, but if anyone is starting the game and runs into this issue, I can confirm that these features do unlock eventually. For me they all had unlocked by some point during or after Bellara's quest. It doesn't seem there is a set point in the game that triggers this, so maybe it's related to time played or something? I did get some tutorial information when it unlocked, finally.

I agree that better design would have opened these features earlier, or at a set point in the game for everyone at least.