Should the companions keep their default armor look all the time?

No. I want to be able to change their combat attire. That really bugged me with the Mass Effect games and Dragon Age 2, since there were outfits not suited for missions.

Now I am fine with their casual attire remaining the same.

I also want the protagonist to have access to all those attires rather than being excluded thus our options limited.

One of the few things I unconditionally loved about DA:I was the way the companion armors worked. It was the best possible compromise.

I didn't like it as much for the Inquisitor however.

I prefer customizable armor with a distinct look, at least among those who can be trusted to dress themselves.

I thought DAI was the perfect compromise for allowing followers to have an iconic look, one that suited their personality, while also allowing some player control over appearance. It also didn't have them wearing the same thing over time, which seemed ridiculous with DA2. I quite liked the difference between causal (hanging around Haven/Skyhold) and battle armor as well.

That said, I would have liked for their casual armor/clothing to actually be casual. I can't imagine Dorian lounging around in that leather contraption all the time. Rather than causal clothing, the game treats it more as base armor, which is most obvious with the mages; if you don't equip hand or foot upgrades, Dorian's robe just drapes over the whole thing.

I liked DAI custom armor with tinting for companions. I think I disliked all armor options for male elf inky. I liked that they could have their own style in the casual, but that Varric wouldn't actually attempt battle with dragons in nothing but an V neck shirt and leather jacket pants combo (unless you wanted him to.)

While I agree that DAI is the best approach when it comes to companions armor, I was pretty pissed that Sera, Vivienne and even Cassandra all had great looking armor (with a bunch of variety too) that was way more stylish and elegant than what the female Inquisitor got.

Honestly, I think DAI's armor looks so damn ugly. That awful green-greyish default color and everything looks so "plastic", and the style? I agree with the person above me saying that it looked straight out of a western movie, but not in a "cool" way. It seems Bioware still doesn't understand that people want their characters to look great (including hair!). Here's hoping they will actually put more effort into the protagonist's armor like they seem to do with the companions, and give us a good selection full of variety and personality (every armor for the Inquisitor was just so plain and boring). Not to mention, stop with the class restricted crap, both for armor and weapons. Pretty ridiculous that a mage can't even hold a regular sword. Will their arm fall off or something?

pretty much just going to echo everyone here, I think DA:I handled it best, however I would also personally like the race restrictions on armour removed & I would like the choice to tint weapons too.

Just my thoughts on this.

I'm a person and I liked the default Inquisitor armor. Sorry you didn't, but you don't speak for everyone.

You'll notice that before I said that, I wrote "Honestly, I think DAI's armor looks so damn ugly." with "think" being a key word here. It's great that you liked it, but a lot of people didn't, and I never said I speak for everyone. Sorry if I don't put "in my opinion" or "I think" in every sentence I write.

Nightscrawl

Oh my gosh! I hope they do change hairstyles for Dorian that would be awesome. I thought Lel kept the bob but lost the little braid? it was actually a hairstyle option for the Warden too.

Yeah, braid was gone in DAI, but she had the same style in DA2. In DAI, aside from the missing braid, it's essentially the same hair. If this were real life, I would fully expect her to have a different look 10 years later.

The epilogue slides show Dorian with some different hair, but I put that down to artist vision, rather than a hint of what we're actually going to see.

I liked how we could change companion armor in DAI without changing them style-wise. I'd like to see that return in DA4, and I would like to see robes return. I wasn't fond of the mage armor in DAI for my Inquisitor.