It's been said that Inquisition has pacing issues. Indeed. Perhaps. But I myself noticed it, but I won't touch on the whole plot. In fact, I just want to talk about the beginning of the story. Refer to the diagram below; Inquisition is missing that first piece. You know, the opening (yes, I know Inquisition has an opening; hard to forget the first half-hour before you start the game proper).
In the other two DA games, we had that starting piece. We got exposition, some world setting, and a look of our protagonist's circumstances. In Origins, it's another day in the live of our Warden; in DA2, it's the Hawke family fleeing Lothering and setting their fate into motion. But still, we sort of had that calm before the plot kicked off. In Inquisition, we don't really have that. That inciting moment that kicks the plot into motion and gets things going? We're dropped in after the fact. It irks me in hindsight, if only just a little. It's a deviation from standard storytelling (not that I’m saying "STICK TO THE META", Maker no). But I think Inquisition could've benefited from having that inciting moment. I’m going to try to explain why and how.
Herein lies the wall of text; abandon all hope ye who read on.
The Inquisitor's Past
In Inquisition, our characters' backgrounds are delivered through text. From one standpoint, this is a mistake. In Origins, we weren't simply told who our characters were; we saw it for ourselves. Each of the eponymous origins laid down exposition, but we were given the reins as well. If the infamous writing advice of "Show, don't tell" was ever realized in video game format, the backstory of the Inquisitor would exemplify what not to do. But I don't mean that superciliously. I am not a good writer, and I make no claim of being otherwise. I say that as someone who has played Origins and can recognize basic storytelling elements.
Beyond Inquisition's introduction, after we gain access to the war table, the Inquisitor's past comes knocking. Whomever contacts them is dependent on whatever class and race the player chose. For dwarf Inquisitors, it's the Carta; for the elves, it's their clan; for martial humans, it's their family; etc. But they all share a commonality: past ties to the Inquisitor. What bothers me is that we, as the players, don't share these ties. We don't know anything about these distant personalities to be honest. We were given some groundwork, but only that. We were told why the Inquisitor was sent to the Conclave, but very little of whom. Because we never directly interacted with the characters of our Inquisitor's past, we don't know them at all. The Inquisitor might, but the audience does not. So when you make decisions regarding your past ties, they are done phlegmatically. It's just another operation, sadly, though I imagine making the right decision would be of great importance to the Inquisitor (not just us).
In the Circle Mage Origin, we see Jowan's character first-hand and that experience adds more to us meeting him later in the game. For all other origins, our first meeting with Jowan is postponed until then; before then we didn't know he existed, but why would we? You've never met him before if you aren't a mage. But imagine if Jowan was just as involved in the other Origins as he is in Circle Mage origin, except we never meet him, so later when he pops back up and recognizes us, we wouldn't recognize him back. The effect's lost this way. That is how I view the Inquisitor's past ties. An informed connection to someone isn't much of a connection at all.
What Could've Been
So depending on whatever class and race the player chose, the Inquisitor would be attending a different part of the Conclave and accordingly dealing with different people. To illustrate, imagine that each Inquisitor Origin played similarly to those in Origins, but instead of them happening in different places, they coincided with one another. This happened in Origins as well; no matter which Origin you chose, there were hints that implied the characters of the Origins still existed (but died without Duncan's intervention).
Trevelyan nobles would arrive with a retainer or two of their household ala Ser Gilmore, as they are of noble blood and were sent to aid their family in the proceedings. Perhaps an actual family member would accompany them, opening up the potential for the player to establish whether or not they like their family or wish to break away. The Trevelyan nobles would most likely linger in a lobby sort of area, discussing their political opinions and their now-relevant religious beliefs with other noble houses whilst waiting for the peace talks to begin. A Trevelyan mage could recognize their household even, but be too embroiled with the preparations for the peace talks to talk too deeply. Meanwhile, elf Inquisitors would converse with fellow clan members who are concerned for their safety before seeking in. Qunari Inquisitors would preside over the assembled Templar and Mage camps and maybe even persuade or intimidate some rowdy persons from butting heads and prematurely ruining the negotiations. Meanwhile, dwarf Inquisitors would be sneaking in through more-discrete entrances with a squad of fellow Carta; would your dwarf opt for listening the negotiations so that they know what'll affect the lyrium trade first-hand, or instead poke around for loot? Some people would pay good money for a genuine artifact from the Temple of Sacred Ashes, me thinks.
Those are all examples of what could've happened, but they would all need to share some things in common. First and foremost, they would interact with people of your origin. A player could establish their beliefs and opinions and connections about them well and early; whether you'd hate or respect or admire the people or single person accompanying you during the prologue, the Conclave's destruction and those characters deaths would mean something, even if it's satisfaction that someone you disliked did die. Second, the characters' paths would need to converge at some point; for the sake of this discussion, I'll make it "Investigate the Temple". Whilst your Inquisitor is walking about and talking and or sneaking, it becomes obvious that the negotiations are taking a while to get underway. Divine Justina is nowhere to be seen, and neither camp is willing to begin without her.
Whichever Inquisitor you chose decides to investigate; one of your associates from your Origin accompanies you, though perhaps berating you for putting your nose where it doesn't belong. At one of the stairwells upward, the Inquisitor's stopped by guards but hears a faint scream from above. The guards overlook it and insist that the Inquisitor return to wherever, saying that the Divine's quarters are a restricted area. But another scream brings the Inquisitor to bear. They incapacitate or knock side the guards and rush upstairs, their companion hollering now for what they just did. At this time, the screen pull shot a wide-shot of the title screen of the lagging Templars and Mages, mentioned by the assembled parties in the prologue, filing into the temple. A second passes before the blast goes off, leading into the rest of the game. You are not shown what happened, so that piece of the story remains intact. You know the rest (obviously, character creation would've been done beforehand, but you know what remains).
There's a few things that this opening would've done. I'll touch upon the questions of faith. Being the Inquisitor before they get the mark could actually help both cases of "refusing to be chosen by Andraste" and "saved by divine providence". In the former, you can assert you were just a normal person before the explosion; in the latter, you survived where many others did not. The difference being between this pipe-dream and what we have in actuality, is that we the players can believe it more readily having actually been there.
There were other things I wanted to discuss, but they've slipped my mind and this is a long enough post as it is. Enjoy.
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