DA2 has a solid story and very well written companions. I can understand it is too different from the first game for the fans of DA:O. Full disclosure; I didn’t know there was a prior game and DA2 was my entry to the franchise and I love it to pieces.After playing DA:O, it made Hawke’s story even more meaningful to me, since Hawke was one of many refugees who just did everything in their power to keep their family alive and well. We played through seven years of that struggle. It’s a pretty special game to me.

Veilguard marked a new low in every game aspect of a DA game, so I now consider DA2 a masterpiece, considering it was developed in just 2 years. After the empty world of DA:I, I’ve come to realize, I’ll take reused assets with well written stories and characters any day.

DA:I companions were well written mostly, but there were so many of them and I guess I have a bandwidth of how many companions I’ll care about in a game and that’s not many (cue Iron Bull betrayal because I forgot to complete his companion quests)

da 2’s gameplay is not the best for sure, i think even inquistion might have been a bit more fun to play, but in terms of the story, look i may have just been really high, but i have never cried actual tears like that twice, like the end and then the dlc, idk but i really felt connected to my hawke more than any other character except well, my city elf from origins, origins is def the best of the three hands down, but da:kirkwall had an excellent story that i understand why people didn’t like twist there, but it just felt so right for the story i played, i loved it