Finally beat it. Took me just under 100 hours because I did as many side quests as I could (some of the side quests are boring wastes of time, so I skipped some of the "landmark" and didn't get all of the shards and skipped nearly everything in the Hissing Plains.
ARRGHH! THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
The final fight wasn't nearly as tough as I was expecting. I died once fighting "Coryphyfish" (not sure if everyone heard Sera call him that, lol) because Dorian glitched out and disappeared during the fight. Had to exit and restart. Also died twice fighting the dragon. However, I actually found the fight with Samson to be the toughest boss fight of the game. Even after destroying his armor with the rune Dagna crafted, he kept kicking my butt until I changed up the strategy (and finally figured out how to get my range fighters to hold position in the perimeter while fighting).
Did anyone else find the "Wedge of Destiny" shield on that hill top? Can't remember if it was in the Hinterlands or Storm Coast. It's a huge circle of cheese with a wedge cut out and a dagger sticking in it. LOL! Very funny to watch Cassandra fight with a big round of cheese attached to her arm. It only has something like 15 defense, though.
I hit several bugs/glitches. Nothing that broke the game for me, but there were a few conversation cut scenes during the Grey Warden mission where it wouldn't bring up my dialogue options and the scene was essentially stuck. No matter what buttons I mashed or how much I cussed at the screen, nothing helped. Finally, it started working but it cut out some of the dialogue lines from Hawke and Stroud, so I missed part of that conversation. Also, the game crashed a few times (I'm on a PS4) and I had to restart. For around 100 hours of game play, not a terrible amount of bugs, but the bugs were big enough to annoy me. Hope there are some more patches in the future to fix them.
And, btw, I was really glad to see Hawke in this, even if he did look and act like life had beaten the shit out of him (and what terrible hair they gave him if you use the stock face). It was also weird to not be in control of him. It was like he was a totally different character, almost, because he was no longer "mine." Kind of weird, but I was still glad to see him in the game. Also cool that I got to contact the Hero from DAO, even if there really wasn't much more to it than a war table mission or two (took something like 15 hours for that one mission to complete!). It'd be cool if they do something like that with Shepard in ME4 but I'm not gonna hold my breath.
Love me some Morrigan and I thought the subplot with Flemeth and the after-credits scene was cool.
I thought it was an interesting character arc how, from DA:O to DA:I, Leliana went from a naive girl to a scary, cold-blooded killer. Reminded me a bit of Wesley's arc from Buffy TVS to the end of the Angel series.
Romanced Cassandra. It was kind of cute and there's more to her character than I would've thought. But, honestly, I was disappointed with the romance options for male/hetero/human. Cassandra and Josephine. Cassandra, like I said, is kind of interesting once you talk to her, but Josephine is the most boring character in the game. Why the hell anyone would want to romance her is beyond me. I would've rather had Sera as an option, too because at least she's weird, which is much more interesting than Josephine. Hell, I actually wanted to romance scout Harding since you get to flirt with her so much at the beginning of each map, but it's actually not an option, unfortunately.
If I ever play a gay character, I'd probably go for Dorian. Loved his character and he reminds me of a cross between Freddy Mercury and John Barrowman! lol
I played as a Rogue. Got up to level 21 by the end of the game. Unfortunately, I didn't complete the Tempest specialization quest until near the end. Glad I finally did, though, because it basically makes your dagger Rogue a god on the battlefield. Wish I'd done it earlier so I could've leveled up on it a lot more. I probably will on a second play through, but I'm thinking I'll either be an archer Rogue or a Mage. I master crafted my daggers and was able to craft twin blades with 355 dps, one with a master cleansing rune and one with the dragon-slaying rune.
I'm not a big fan of "tank" characters (except for the Vanguard class in ME2 and ME3), so I doubt I'll ever do a warrior play through.
Now, to go dive into the multiplayer. I've played a few rounds of it so far. Not nearly as good as ME3's but maybe it'll grow on me. Too much weird background talking from the characters, though. I'm sure the designers are just trying something new, but it's a bit weird and off-putting.
Now, bring on some DLC! I'm not starting my second playthrough until after finals are over next week (back in grad school again...ugh).