2nd Playthrough DAV - thoughts, etc :)

I’m nearing the end of my second playthrough of DAV and wanted to share some thoughts—curious to hear what others think!

For context, my first run was as an Elven Mage with the Wardens, and my second/current playthrough is a Qunari Mage with the Shadow Dragons. I get horribly motion sick playing as anything else so am lucky the mage is still a fun option. I love that wlw relationships are available with all the amazing female companions! Played as a badass woman both times and romanced Neve in both runs to see if being in the same faction/class made a difference. While the changes were mostly subtle—extra dialogue, it did make me feel more in sync and connected to Neve when playing as a Shadow Dragon.

May try a 3rd playthrough with another romance, possibly Harding or Bellara. Tried being nice to Taash (literally only selected ONE flirty dialogue option) and Rook somehow ended up pressed up against the wall, with Taash spitting fire into a bucket and telling Rook she wants to smell her or something like that 😅 We settled for working through Taash's shit and being awesome buds instead - which helped secure the super cute Harding and Taash romance 🥰 so win/win.

Did anyone else find it tough to make an attractive Qunari? I spent hours creating my character, then had to just start the game, using cutscenes to see what needed tweaking and making changes via Mirror on the fly sts. Eventually got a look I loved, but wow—what a process! At least the ability to reuse a character across different playthroughs makes up for it.

The Inquisitor’s Inclusion was a great idea, but I would’ve preferred simply corresponding with her rather than seeing her in person. Even with the character builder, I couldn’t get her to resemble my actual Inquisitor from DAI, which hurt the immersion.

Varric oh Varric, agh!! It was super obvious that NO ONE looked at Varric when he spoke, yet they did look at everyone else. I knew there was something funky going on but didn’t realise he was actually dead as some of his dialogue throws you off just enough. Did anyone figure it out right away?

Cats in Minrathos = Spies? There are cats everywhere, and they always seem suspiciously well-placed during investigations and personal moments. Coincidence… or are they watching? Loved that you got extra points with Neve for petting the white cat during the beach scene, but that cat totally wrecked the mood and continuation of the kiss! Still, at least it helped with the investigation— good kitty.

Would’ve been cool if donating money actually removed gold. I liked that Neve sometimes offered beggars a safe place to go, but it would’ve been even better if helping them gave small bits of intel or gossip, or if you could build a network of informants—like Sherlock Holmes’ street spies.

With all the stray cats and dogs in Minrathos, I really wish we could’ve adopted one for Assan (our griffin) to have as a companion at the lighthouse. Something like what BG3 did with Scratch and the owlbear cub would’ve been perfect—imagine a scrappy doggo rough and tumbling with Assan, or a cat tripping up Manfred by winding about his ankles, haha, cuteness 😻

Overall, I had fun, but I’d love to hear what moments, details, or ideas stood out to you! What were your favorite (or frustrating) parts?