#playing dai

It was muscle memory and I loved every bit of it.

Talk to Corporal Vale. Talk to the people around the Crossroads and rack up quests. Make a trip to Redcliffe to have the guard tell you she's been ordered to keep the gate closed. Cut through the Witchwood and the Gully to get to the river near Dennet's land to avoid some of the tediousness of the fights. Skirt around that ridiculously hard rift. Make camp. Talk to Dennet. Talk to Elena. Go defeat the demon and the possessed wolves. Talk to Bron. Talk to Senna. Place the markers for the watchtowers on the farm and then work my way back to the Crossroads via the West Road hitting a couple of the smaller templar camps along the way. Get the final watchtower near Fort Connor. Drop off mutton with the hunter and return to Haven to get Solas to shut up (for some reason it’s always him in my saves that pushes to go to Val Royeaux after I get enough power points). Next will be a short stint in Haven to tick off most of the quests there, and then Val Royeaux before the Hinterlands grind.

I've missed this game. I don't get all the hate for the Hinterlands. Yes, it's long and tedious at times, but it's the "coziest" portion of the game to me. Nostalgic. But it's also the only time where the Mage-Templar conflict takes center stage in the game and I love that. Plus, it's the time that "humanizes" everything (for lack of a better way to explain it). It breathes life into the story and sets the foundations for the rest of it. Helps to start give shape to the "why". I love it to pieces.

Also...why are all the Fereldan men so fine? The hunter, Corporal Vale, Recruit Whittle, Bron, even Dennet would’ve been back in his prime? And it goes without saying Cullen, Alistair, and even Carver. I get the feeling the Maker has a favorite nation as well...