First the negative feedback to get it out of the way. I don't have much so don't be too concerned!
One of the peeves I've had with DA:I is pacing. After Haven I can basically do every zone and then do the main story quests that sit on the map once you get skyhold for quite some timeand the game is over. I feel like the game is sort of front loaded and a bit overwhleming with all there is available right at the get go. There's just too much available early on (and much of it fuff) with only little pockets of things that open up (again much of it fluff) as you do other things. I would have liked to see more significant main story centric content become available as main story quests were completed. I guess I feel torn between liking the freedom to go where I want and do what I want and missing the "on the rails" direction of a set sequence of events to follow. I wish there had been a sort of happier medium.
Outside of pacing, I was disheartened to have only 8 abilities available at any time which I felt was to cater to console players but I understand that wasn't the case. It just feels so limiting and/or wasteful when you take abilities that never get used or put on the bar just to get to other abilities. Maybe if the trees weren't so rigid in their structure I might not have minded so much. Not being able to change your specialization after gaining one was also a bit off putting when I was new to the game. Realizing the specialization I chose turned out to be unenjoyable and having to lose time and progress to go back and pick something new was disappointing. Having experienced the game and how the specs play that isn't as much of an issue now but still it would have been nice not to have to lose the progress I had made. I also wish specializations were available sooner. I particularly liked how unlocking them in one playthrough of DA:O made them immediately available in subsequent playthroughs. I like features like that.
No healing outside of potions (and certain armor/fade touch effects) was... a bit of unexpected culture shock tbh. I get the reasons... just wasn't a fan but I can see how the game was balanced with it in mind. Barrier and Guard mechanics were interesting and effective alternatives for sure so after getting over the initial shock I didn't mind as much.
Follower tactics took a nosedive since DA:O though. Back in Origins even without mods I had such detailed control over my allies tactics and with mods it was even MORE detailed and I really loved that.
No toolset really was a dampener on the whole experience since it makes modding way more difficult and much longer in the coming.
One last thing I miss from Origins was those super cool slow-mo deathblows! Those were awesome!
Now the positive feedback!
Outside of Blackwall, I found most of the characters interesting and engaging. I may not "like" Vivienne as a person but I love her (and love to hate her) as a character. She's just perfect. Poor Blackwall however was relegated to benchwarming except for the few quests where he has any significance. He was just bland... blah... boring. About the only interesting thing about him was his reveal etc. and then he went back to benchwarming. All the other characters were fun and well written. They felt organic, like they fit perfectly in the world in which they were living. I could go on and on about them all but the gist is they rocked.
The zones were visually stunning. I loved the look and feel of them all. I loved that it felt like I was basically playing a single player MMO. It was great having all those different huge areas to explore. I hate invisible walls though >.< but I loved the desert areas where sandstorms kicked up and you walked slowly when moving "out of bounds". That felt better than invisible walls or "zone in a bowl" syndrome (where zones are designed around having set ways in and out with mountains all around to prevent going out of bounds". While I get that swimming isn't necessary (and would often circumvent zone boundaries/unlockable areas), water is lovely in this game I wish we could actually swim.
I loved the crafting system. My only complaints with it were that the materials determined the colors with no way to customize and the I really wished the slottable pieces (arms/legs) had an option to hide. This often resulted in some pretty hideous color schemes and/or armor models depending on the stats I wanted. Using Cheat Engine to hide the slottables was a blessing but I still haven't figured out how to use it to customize colors... and even still using Cheat Engine for these things is tedious and can crash the game if done incorrectly. But overall the crafting system was a good start. Further expansion of it and options to control the look (models) and colors of specific items can only make it better.
As for future content/DLC:
I'd love to see the Black Emporium make a return in DA:I but I'd like it integrated as quest content not just a shop you can travel to as soon as you get the DLC. Making a questline that leads you to the emporium and then have a whole series of quests revolving around the emporium and its mysterious proprietor would be pretty cool. Even better would be to somehow tie it all in to main story. Ideally I'd like to see the initial quest to find the emporium as an early Haven questline since the "fix my face" mirror is usually desired early on. Any further questing would then be paced to coincide with other quests being completed, like say finishing the main line in a zone or completing a main story quest like going to the fade.
I also would absolutely love whole new stories that use the existing game assets and mechanics. There's something to be said about not fixing what isn't broken. I don't need a whole new game. There's plent of stories that could be told through THIS game via expansions. They don't have to be directly related to the breach or Cory. They could be events immediately after and they don't have to be world shaking events.
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