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

My lovely Peebee aside, I prefer DAI.

DAI is a flawed game. And some of those flaws are quite serious. But for all that, I liked it better than MEA:

The companions were generally more interesting

Less baggage to run away from/deal with

The Inquisitor could emote in better and more varied ways than Ryder


Of course, they also share some of the same flaws: tired "chosen one" archetype. Limited selection of active powers. Bizarre twists in lore. The introduction of graphic nudity and tasteless sex scenes. Huge, empty zones. But the thing is, all the stuff I really didn't like in DAI, MEA, rather than work on improving them, went "Hold my beer!"

When it comes to story and characters it almost feels unfair to compare the two. DAI had the advantage of a already established rich setting while MEA had to basically rebuild everything from scratch on account of moving away from the Milky Way. Plus, DAI had three pretty decent DLCs to flesh out the story, characters, and set things up for the sequel. That said, deciding to move to Andromeda and marginalizing some of interesting conflicts from the original ME series (the Genophage, AI-Organic conflict, humanity's underdog status) is entirely Bioware's own fault, so I can't feel to sorry for them.

Also, when it comes to companions/squadmates I really think MEA suffers in not having a lot bit to them. With the exception of Drack and Peebee, none of the squadmates have a questionable morality that can create interesting conflict with the player. And even there is conflict (Peebee tricking you during her companion quest, Liam giving away security codes) its played for laughs and not taken seriously. In DAI, Sera can beat a man to death and you can seriously call her out on that. Blackwall can lie about his identity and you can seriously call him for for that. Leliana can plan on murdering a traitor and you can seriously call her out on that. Varric can lie about Hawke, and guess what, you can seriously call him out on that. Why MEA didn't let you do that and instead forces you to be best friends with all the squadmates is beyond me and to my mind seriously hurts replay value.

Of course Bioware would take the most reductionist approach to figuring out why ME3 got some much ire. 

Bioware: Shepard likely dying is totally the only reason why fans are mad about the ending. Make the next game not only have the protagonist survive, but also make them comedic besties with all the squadmates like in that Citadel DLC but do it throughout the main game.
Competent Writer: But sir, that DLC was only meaningful because ME3 was so dark. Making the entire game like that would make it farcical and completely contrast with the serious themes that we want to explore in regard to colonialism, cultural assimilation, xenophobia, and genocide.
Bioware: I said do it, pleb! And make sure that the squadmates constantly undercut serious moments with puns and millennial humor. Don't want anyone taking things too seriously. 
Competent Writer: (sigh) Wish I was working on Cyberpunk 2077. 

DA:I somehow managed to have a better character creator than ME:A despite releasing 2 and a half years earlier. It is less buggy, has a more well thought out crafting system, and a main story that despite its own problems work much better than what ME:A got. The fact it got 3 full DLC packs and ME:A got none doesn't hurt either.

DA:I is the better game, even if it's pretty poor in terms of combat as an ARPG.

I always figured that since some survivors are shown, the vaporization effect didn't kill off everyone.

You know, when you have very low EMS and pick the destroy ending.

Yes. How do you know Refuse didn't happen? Or Synthesis, for that matter, if you don't consider those glowing things to be human anymore.

DAI was a game I wish I skipped but I also played on last gen consoles. Story was meh, combat very repetitive and for fucks sake what is the appeal behind fetch quests?

MEA story lacked direction so DAI at least had the edge on that. I still dont feel like there were any memorable momets besides the last 30 minutes of the game which was very ME3-esk but in a good way, no red/green/blue silliness.

I didnt enjoy DAI but it was a better game than MEA which isnt saying a whole lot. MEA wasn't a horrible game, but I wouldnt recommend it to anyone.