DAD's extended development cycle

The basic plot of DAO is "there is an evil dragon and it must slain" take out all of the world building, choices, and characters and that's not a bad or a good thing but it's basically 80s fantasy movie Dragonslayer with more fantasy elements and it's combat was already ancient when the game was brand new and hasn't aged well at all.

I've said it a long time ago and I will say it again if I could do a full remake of one BioWare game DA2 would be it. After replaying very recently what is so frustrating with it is that there is a truly a great game there if BioWare had more time and money to have done it right. I think the companions are the most memorable and the dialogue is great, if the combat of DAO is slow then the combat of DA2 is way too fast there is a certain "thinking on your feet" approach to it's combat system that I like and I love how it made playing a mage a lot more fun and visually exciting than DAO.

DA2 also feels like it's an easy entry point for fans to get into the series. There aren't any novels or comics you have to read to understand the characters, backstory, or history. I mean you can watch Dragon Age: Redemption but it's not  necessary to understand who Tallis is, where she's from or why she's doing the things she's doing, you can play Mark of the Assassin DLC and get all that info.

That is something that both DAO and DAI struggle and sometimes fail completely at. Too fully understand what is going and/or the backstory of characters like Cole, Celene, Briala, Gaspard, Fiona, the reasons why the Circle and Templars broke away from the Chantry, what the reasons of what the civil war in Orlais (and that is NEVER properly explained in game) for DAI. You have to read at least 6 novels, a lot of comics, and watch an anime movie and a live action web series plus play all of DAO it's DLC and DA2 and all of it's DLC. Which means a LOT of time. DAI sort of half asses it as much as I loathe Cole and Vivienne they both explain the events of Asunder and I get the gist of it. Meanwhile Leliana, Cullen, Josephine, Celene, Briala, Gaspard, and too a lesser extent Morrigan and Blackwall couldn't explain anything about what the events of The Masked Empire and that makes the whole "Wicked Eyes, Wicked Heart" quest line muddled and confusing and too top off it's boring as hell. I fucking hate that War Table in DAI the sheer amount of useless time wasting operations is extreme (and yes PC gamers can mod the damn thing I don't care because the damn thing should've never been in there to begin with) it sucks a lot of the fun out of the game. I would rather have more pointless fetch quests like the bottles, the tiles, and the shards that useless piece of shit War Table. Say what you want MEA used the War Table right and was a lot more fun to use than the War Table in DAI.

For me DA2 warts and all is overall the best game in the series, DAI is second best, and DAO is the weakest.