After throwing more than 100 hours in this game i feel the need to put some thoughts into words, to clear at least a bit my mind. So i apologize for the following lot of babbling, whining and random crap, probably filled with grammatical mistakes.

I played it on PC on normal, as a melee assassin rogue (no KE in my party).

Exploration, questing and combat

It's clear that this game was designed with a reactionary design decision in mind, after the biggest criticism of the second game (small and re-used areas). The world is truly gorgeous, with well realized environments that beg to be explored, and enormous. Problem is, they didn't put enough interesting things to do in it. In most areas you'll end up traveling with not much to do, if not gathering the random herb or mineral that spawned on your path. If you happen to suffer from the Silent companions glitch, that is all the more worsened. The random generation design for spawning enemies doesn't help, since you might find yourself in everlasting fights, with more enemies that spawn as soon as you turn your camera, followed by 15 minutes of walking around without anything in sight. I can understand it for one area like the Western Approach, that is a desertic area, and still have a fortress to conquer (infiltrating through the well is a nice touch :)) and for better or worse a proper quest line that unlocks some parts of the area; but most of the regions aren't filled with enough stuff. The Fallow Mire, the Hinterlands, the Hissing Wastes, the Exalted Plains and especially the Storm Coast could have been a third of the size and it would have been ok. Also i'm fine with having random puzzles to find (like the astrariums) or have to collect some things (fragments from the Ocularums) but having in addition other types of collectibles feels redundant and ubisoft-y (bottles, bugged mosaic pieces, breaches to close, logging stands and quarries, coins and horse statuettes). And for god's sake; enough with those fucking "i found a thing on a corpse that lead me to another corpse and that's it, here's a random reward" sort of quests. Those are even worse than escorting the buffalo-snail, Druffy.

Combat is designed for consoles, so i understand the decision of having only 8 skills selectable and i'm fine with it, but two other decision left me a bit puzzled: i liked the way you could program party AI previously, and i don't know why is not present. The other is the health regeneration and healing one. Seems only a way to complicate one-self life to have to replace it with other mechanics like guard, barriers and placing of replenishing crates for your health potions. That said i truly enjoyed the fights against bigger enemies, like giants (those motherfuckers and their one-shotting fucking rocks :D) and especially dragons. The first few dragons feel properly epic with different sets of skills (this one flies away, that one calls dragonlings, another one spins and repositions herself constantly, this one electrifies the water with her lightning breath so careful with the positioning) to learn and adapt, and the limb damaging mechanic adds a layer of interaction that i truly enjoyed. The enemies in general felt meh, but these fights were truly an interesting highlight for me.

The Norman...emh, Skyhold!

Skyhold, the war table and crafting were probably my favourite parts of the game. I like Skyhold since the properly great reveal after Haven. I like that the repairs go on with the story steps, i love the customization, even only the aestetic one (actually i would have love way more of it: let me choose the toilet seat, the spoons in the kitchen, let me add new rooms, i don't know barracks or a telescope at the top of a tower). It's nice to see people you recruit appearing there, some actually having proper interactions like Bonny Sims, and i liked the "judge" part even if i would have loved to have more random bullshit to decide upon from the main room (like in Awakenings).

The war table was another high point. For the most part because it goes completely away from any sort of good/evil decisions that usually bioware reserve for their games (even tho, admittedly, this time it wasn't that polarized, being more of a conservative-reformative duo) instead substituting it with the three different approaches of your council member (more like legal, neutral, chaotic). Only minor criticsms are the power currency (i had 294 at the end of the game) which it's pretty useless and could have been implemented in something more intresting (boosting time or rewards from the war table missions, perhaps?), and some of the time requirements for the mission, especially in the later parts of the game (in both senses,19 hours or 8 minutes feel inappropriate).

The crafting system, especially as soon as you unlock the possibility of adding the masterwork element with special properties, was good for me. It could have used some unique recipes craftable like one-time only (i don't know, instead of a bunch of dragon skin to use in normal schematics give me a single item you can turn in a dragon armor with unique appearance and design), more variety in the way crafted items look (especially on your companions: haven't found a single bulky armor for Cassandra, she basically tanks in chainmail) and the late game crafts not being so powerful they beat almost any epic loot you might find (that ancent dagger crafted in times immemorial with ancient magic has nothing on this one i crafted two minutes ago with bear paws -_-'). But all said and done i liked spending time at the forge experimenting :)

Story and companions

Warning: this part is obviously extremely spoilery

I can't feel otherwise but to identify two different threads in the main storyline. The main is, of course, the Corypheus one. That wasn't good for me. They got an arch-enemy from a dlc i couldn't care less about, gave him a general and overused "bad guy" goal (poweeeeer!!!) and just thrown him there. If they really wanted to use someone from their past stories they could have gone with the Architect, at least he had an interesting mindset. I know you could have killed him, but the same was for Leliana, and Corypheus revives himself in different bodies (bar the dragon with a part of him destoyed leaving him killable for good, Nagini-Voldemort style). Plus Corypheus seems a villain from a children morning cartoon, complete with his plains foiled the first time by an 80something years old slapping his hand and a random guy opening a door. Evil mastermind plan ruined by a unlocked door...really? And then you have the comical "bad guy flying into a mirror and smashing it". I can't help but picture Corypheus sitting in his lair, one hand caressing a white cat and the other clenched in a fist while he threatens "i'll get you next time, Inquisitor!". Cut to the ending theme, see you next episode. Even Lord Seeker Lucius the few seconds i spoke with him in Cassandra personal quest seemed a more interesting villain.

And the red lyrium seems like randomly thrown in there just because they had it in 2; why they needed a second "corruption" element since they already have the darkspawn one?

Then you have the other thread. That may vary from person to person, since everybody played the first game in a different way. But for me, the payoff was so good it justified the purchase of the entire game on its own. To clarify: in Origins i pursued the romance with Morrigan. I had the son with her. I said that i wanted to go and search for her in the end-game celebrations. I loved the moment at the end of the Witch Hunt dlc when i finally reunited the Warden with her, and saw them go together through the eluvian. Come Inquisition, and here is Morrigan with Keiran. I was overjoyed. I went to the Temple of Mythal, and drank myself from the Well of Sorrows not because i didn't trust Morrigan (as some companions suggested) but because I didn't know what it did and didn't want to endanger her and Kieran as result. And guess what? Few minutes later, in the Fade, here is Flemeth with the Mythal reveal. GOD. FUCKING. YES!!!. That moment between Morrigan, Kieran, Flemeth and the Inquisitor was soo good for me, how i still felt connected to the characters of Origin, and what it promised for future stories. As stupid and silly as it may seem, my inquisitor was sorta like an adopted uncle for Kieran to me :), and i would have loved some more interactions with him at Skyhold.

The post credit reveal with the souls of Mythal, the Wolf and Urthemiel in one body makes me hope a lot for the future of the series; give me a story about ancient vengeful gods any time of the day over Corypheus.

The cast of companions and council members was overall nothing exceptional, but here are my thoughts on them.

Cullen: I enjoyed the evolution it went through, since the first time i met him in the Tower of Mages in Origins, where he was a scared guy who wanted to massacre all mages. This is a recurring character done right

Leliana: I didn't really feel strongly attached to her, but the final ending with her as new, reformist and peaceful Divine was rewarding. I guess it does matter wheter you let her kill the traitor in the first parts of the game

Josephine: pretty standard neutral-good character bioware style, loyal, honest and peaceful. Maybe pursuing a romance with her would have shown that there was something more but i have no particular problem

Cassandra: She is a character i like. As i said in another topic, i love that you can pursue a romance with her even if you don't share her beliefs (and she mentions this fact more than a few times). Her first impression is of someone almost fanatical, stubborn and enough close-minded, but she has a proper growth and evolution of character, and it shows also in her party banter. The way you get to the sex scene with the 3 gifts, or the ball at the end of the quest at the Winter Palace (by the way, that was a nice quest-line, very different from the rest of the game) exactly because are so cliche'd felt right. If you're a in a quest to save the world and slaughtering enemies non-stop, a few moments of silly romance seem appropriate to anchor yourself in something nice (from the characters point of view).

Varric: He is written without the same spark that he kinda of had in 2. I expected more from his party banter

Solas: He starts as the wise, comprehensive one, but i don't know why from like the middle of the game he appears as waaaay more angry. I should have taken him around with Cole to see their interactions, and feel like i missed something. The post-credit reveal is ok, if a little undeserved for the writers. I didn't take him through the Temple of Mythal so maybe there is some foreshadowing there

Iron Bull: I didn't really like him at the start, but he grew on me and ended up in my default party. He has some smart interactions, a good personal quest, nice party banter besides the masturbation jokes (he's kinda of fresh air, since so much of the party banter is permeated by hostility and passive-aggresive attitude), smart environment-triggered talks and he fucking loves to fight dragons! :D

Blackwall: He went the opposite way for me. Liked him a lot at first, kinda went downhill from there. What really ruined him for me was the Grey Wardens part of the story (which, by the way, is really badly written for my taste). His reveal had to come way earlier because it passed so much time until it that i still felt soured: for a long time i thought that either the writers had done a mistake, or he was an insane madman who went around in the countryside until he turned fully corrupted with the calling around (still, his reveal doesn't explain why my fucking king of Ferelden, Alistair, wasn't affected from it, since it's going around like nothing)

Dorian: another companion i liked a lot and stayed in my default party. Other characters speak of him like he's scandalous, but he seems a much more tame and smart man from the interactions i had with him. I like how he feels about his homeland. His personal quest might have used some more complexity and nuance, but that's ok. If i didn't go with Cassandra as romance choice i would have probably picked him. Plus the times he said "Darling Cassandra" with his particular tone in his party interactions he completely cracked me up :D

Sera: i understand why she's very divisive, but i fall on the camp that thinks of her as annoying. At best she acted like a child. Her humor fell flat on me. First party talk she had was, and i quote exactly,: "(Cough) Bitch" to Vivienne. Then some raspberries to Blackwall. I guess if i brought her and Varric together in my party she would have farted directly in his face. Only thing i liked is how she mis-pronounce Corypheus's name constantly

Vivienne: i disliked her even more. Seems like the kind of conservative/reactionary who rised through connections and manipulation, the kind of one who would burn the entire world if you suggested outlawing, i don't know, fox-hunting. Even talking about the one she loved she mentions "plus he had status and rank". The bitterness she shows at the end when Leliana is made Divine instead of her perfectly encapsulate her. Power, and the fact that she lost a lot of it with the mage rebellion, seems like her driving force.

Cole: I didn't have the chance to really know him, besides the interactions in skyhold and his personal quest (which i liked) because he was the same class as my main character (assassin). Don't really have much to say about him.

Special section: Bugs!

Bugs and glitches literally infested my game. The only consolation is that the silent companions glitch didn't affect me as much as it did with others, apparently, and no quest or dialogue was impossible to complete like it happened in 2 for me (that fucking drove me crazy). Still, i found an immense amount of them, and worse of all after skyhold many conversations made my game crash to desktop. I had to fight 3 different times Corypehus, the first time the game crashed while talking to Solas, the second after the fight it went on to load me in the same area after fight so without triggering the end, the third it finally went ok. Kinda ruined the momentum for many moments in the game

Also in rpgs i'm a completionist, and many little things seems bugged and impossible to complete (exalted plains 20/21 anyone?)

PS: Enchantments? :(

Give me back my freakin Sandal next time