Meet Allora! She’s my Dalish Elf Rogue in Dragon Age Inquisition.

I’ve managed to log several hours in DAI now and the size of this game is a bit overwhelming. I feel like the Bioware team spent the last few years playing through the Bethesda games after they were finished crying over all the ME3 hatemail and trying to figure out how to top themselves. At times, I worry the game is too big, that it took too many pages from the Oblivion/Skyrim gamer’s guide instead of just being a Dragon Age game. We will see how I feel once the story is over.

So far, I’m really enjoying the game. There are a few things I’m not quite sure they changed (um…being able to choose stats? wha?) and a few things I’m underwhelmed by (I can’t get excited about crafting items, feels too much like work) but overall I’m having fun. I’ve died a LOT but the world is so open that it’s easy to just walk away from an area for awhile and level up a bit before facing it all again.

***SPOILERS BELOW THIS LINE****

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the main story. Allora started out the story confused but after closing several Fade Rifts, I decided she should at least be sure of herself. She doesn’t claim to be the Herald but she also doesn’t doubt her power. She has sided with the mages (how could you not side with them after watching a Templar punch an old lady!) and she did the Back in Time missions. I had Varric and Blackwell as my two partners during that mission. I really feel like whichever characters you take with you on that mission, they will end up being your BFFs. I can’t really bring myself to change up the party now. How could anyone else understand what we’ve been through?

Had a little bit of a throwdown with Vivienne when she questioned me siding with the mages. I just cannot abide the self-hating mage. I think my approval rating with her must be all the way down (though I’m not sure how to SEE my rating…anyone?)

Tonight I ran around the marshes looking for my missing troops…and quickly got my ass handed to me by the fade rifts out there. Then I want back to the Hinterlands and did some of the easier quests to get some quick XP.

Has anyone ridden the Hart mount? It makes the most AWFUL noise when you tell it to gallop. I am going to stick with the Bog Unicorn. It’s creepy but at least it doesn’t sound like an elephant when it charges.

Not sure who I plan on romancing. Allora has flirted with Cullen (he was very embarrassed and stuttered all over himself), Dorian (he feels like the Zevran of this game), and Blackwell (I wasn’t going to but them he started cracking me up when talking to Sera so I initiated a flirt with him to see how it went). I’m not interested in Vivienne at all since she pissed me off with her mage hating. Sera creeps me out a bit. Solas is just so…dull. I was also told you can flirt with your head scout, the dwarf woman that greets you after you explore new territory. I haven’t had any real conversations with her though so it hasn’t been an option. And I haven’t even found the Qunari character yet, and he feels like he will probably be the Garrus of this game…but I might save a romance with him for another playthrough. Unless he surprises me and I can’t resist.

Only a couple little shout outs to my Dragon Age Keep state. The most obvious was finding Connor at Redcliffe. Oh and I guess the queen showing up after the mage mission, since I guess I killed off Alistair in my DAO play-through.

***END SPOILERS***