For those who liked and didn't like MEA, do you think DAI was better?

I think DAI was better. Story was better, replay value with different races/classes was better, variety of environments was better (storm coast to desert to woodland vs desert, desert with mountains, cold desert with mountains), and companions, loyalty, and choices were better.

For me it's playthroughs. Inquisition was too spread out to the point that traveling became very tedious. You can't fast travel until you've discovered a nearby outpost and holy cow... I am still trying to finish the second playthrough on this old rig with all the DLC from start to finish. Andromeda... it got better with each playthrough especially after 1.05. 1.09 was brilliance. For me, Andromeda lacked in story depth (still way better than any other title... sorry guys... BioWare is still the best.) but it kicked ass in game flow. Some of the quests are also too spaced out for any real dang incentive for doing it and that's an issue, but I will play Andromeda all damn day before I pick up another run with Far Cry 4, Fallout 4 or any other title.

Also, I know BioWare is capable of learning. Edmonton still has that talent that survived both Andromeda (those guys are amazing.) and built Inquisition. Andromeda "under performed" and EA overreacted. EA: bet low, recoup big or cut it loose. That's the lesson I learned. Am I wrong?

Pretty much. Actually a bit better in DAI since you can fast travel to any camp/stronghold from Skyhold. You still have to land on the planet first in MEA, then fast travel to a forward station.

MEA is the first Bioware game I've had absolutely no desire to ever replay after the first time, not even a little bit. The list of reasons for this is vast and various, it's not a flaming dumpster fire of a game...but there is just...something wrong about it, on several levels. DAI meanwhile, is imo the best DA so far, and I eagerly await the next installment, and am in fact replaying DAI yet again for what must be at least a 10th time.

*laughs really hard at the irony that is the question.*

Oh my goodness. Thank you. Dragon Age fan out.

My amusement was.... before MEA came out, tens of threads compared DAI to TW3 and any one of the Mass Effect Trilogy games with DAI implied to be the loser.

To see DAI implied as winning Against MEA is just... So .. exquisite to see. Like. Us fans are all running in circles comparing these games.

MEA is a solid game. Hated the Archon way more than I hated Coryphaeus. As a Dragon Age fan, will always love those games more.

I think both franchise are struggling with finding a protagonist that resonates with the player while maintaining RP freedom. The balance of linearity vs open world as well.

But I found more meaning in placing Qar's Receivers than I did in delivering a letter from a dead body to the only mail box in Thedas.

And if you've ever tried to use editing software you'd all know how difficult and skill heavy what they've created is and respect them for it. Lazy? Ha! Disorganized? Maybe!

That all said, I'm returning to Thedas soon and am very curious in comparing side quests next to each other

I loved crafting items for companions in Inquisition. Especially crossbows for Sera. Hidden blades everywhere. 

I like MEA and DAI and I must say overall DAI wins on most fronts.

Story is a bit odd to compare, DAI starts strong but kind of trails off in the last act, whereas MEA starts slow and builds somewhat abruptly at the end. Each has their great moments, each has their faults so it's kind of a draw here. MEA is more about exploring the unknown and going where no man has gone before. It's all very Star Trek and not as action heavy as previous ME titles or DAI for that matter, but it does do it well imo and I quite enjoyed the more ME1 exploration feel. Meanwhile DAI is better compared to ME3 as it's an impending apocalypse story, and in that light DAI does very well, it's ending is certainly favorable compared to ME3. But I guess it comes down to what kind of story do you want? A chosen one standing against the end of the world full of big set pieces and high action. Or a brave explorer scouring the unknown meeting new creatures and aliens at every turn. Both are good in their own ways imo.

Companions is DAI's win no contest. I love every single one of DAI's companions, even if I love to hate some of them. They're all wonderfully written and acted. MEA's cast on the other hand isn't nearly as gripping, a lot of the time it feels like Drack is the only really interesting one to talk to.

Combat is MEA's win. While I don't like all the tweaks it's had from its ME3 formula it's still a very very fun combat system. Meanwhile DAI continues the DA series' fumbling of wanting to be classic RPG combat but also make it more streamlined and flashy. The result is that it's neither as tactical and engaging as DAO nor as fluid and fun as something like Dark Souls.

Crafting is something I didn't think to include at first but both games have pretty in depth crafting. While I love all the augments and ways to customize guns and gear in MEA, the fact that you can't equip squadmates seriously detracts from the system. In the end DAI's crafting offers a lot of similar things to MEA but also gives you good incentive to use it as you can seriously deck out your whole team.

In the end I like both but DAI's cast of companions really does make the difference for me. BioWare games always rely heavily on the companion characters and DAI's cast is across the board one of, if not the, best companion crews they've ever made.

DAI, hands down.

1. Character creator - much more flexible, can make 4 different races of face types, literally hundreds of different faces can be made.

2. Characters are much better written, only Drack comes close to Varric, Cassandra and Dorian (imho) and Scout Harding! (And Leliana, and Hawke and . . .)
Frankly, Cora and Liam were fairly boring, only the aliens like PeeBee and Drack really stand out. Jaal was okay, but too bland.

3. DAI for story - more ways to go, choices. (For me) more interesting overall. Go with one faction or another, it gives you a new quest area when choosing Mages over Templars, and the choice is reflected throughout the game's dialogue with other characters. So much of MEA, while on the surface entertaining, felt like writing in the sand, really hard to remember much more than the first contact scene in MEA. That was very well done. The final bosses were about equal, Cory and Archon seem the same, so that's a draw.

4. DAI varied environments, more of them. MEA only has 3 enormous deserts, tiny jungle world, asteroid world and a variant of Val Royeax on Ara.

5. Follow up - DAI. I believe they put out eighteen patches over a full year, and 3 large DLC's . MEA - 5 patches, game ditched in 5 months no DLC. Remaining bugs (checkout EA support forums) that will not be addressed.

6. Overall experience. DAI. MEA had the chance to be made better, but it needed DLC in order for this to happen. As it stands, it's fun but ultimately forgettable, something I hardly believed possible with a Mass Effect game. I was able to play MEA for 100 hours, but could never get the huge 300 hours on a play through like I can get easily with DAI.

I consider them at the same level.
I gave both of them 7/10.