I gave DAI a spin a few months ago, during a particularly bad open world RPG boner, while waiting for Warhorse to finally fucking finish Kingdom Come patching.
I tried to give the game a chance but it's painfully obvious it's a nuBioware product. The writing, characters and story oozes a soft, soyboy, estrogen-laden vibe. You could almost smell the vegan farts and hair dye. The main villain is straight outta some Sunday morning cartoon for retarded children. He could give Skeletor a run for his money. The overall plot is shockingly dumb.
Aight, some positives. First, the visuals. DAI came out in 2014 and to this day it remains one of the prettiest games on the market, which just shows the powah of the Frostbite engine. Bioware had been known for making ugly games with excellent writing. Now it's the exact opposite - their environmental design is jaw dropping (DAI, Andromeda, Anthem) but their writing is burning hospital refuse.
Second, there are pockets of greatness, even in writing. I guess a few talented writers still remained in Bioware after the founders left and it shows. (Andromeda is already a 100% pure turd tho.) I think I even laughed once or twice during the convos with your companions. The main quests are p. good. The "talky" quest in the Empress' castle is a great example. Children and retards could find it booooring I guess but as simulating court intrigue and high politics goes this part is great. There was a lot of moaning about the MMO collectible quests. I didn't mind those because due to my severe OCD I happen to like collecting useless shit and hoovering up question marks on the map. That's just me tho.
The combat is bearable. Parts of it are even done well. The different classes and specializations actually play very differently, some of the skills are fun to use and you can really feel the resistances and vulnerabilities of various enemies, I've always liked that. But it's still RTWP so overall it's shit.
Itemization and crafting is shit too of course but it's mainly because VERY few developers understand how to do itemization well and crafting is shit always and everywhere. That said I could list many RPGs with much worse itemization than DAI.
Dunno if anyone can call those positives but I tried.