Any sense of accomplishment is removed by the fact that I had to lower the difficulty for the archdemon. I have disgraced my name. 75 hours, to fall at the last hurdle.
I stand over my decisions, including the wrong ones. Killing Connor wasn't the best outcome, but it was rather implausible that the desire demon would just sit and do nothing while I cleared out the mage tower.
Spoiler: Landsmeet
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I still love Logain, and he finally got some scenes to justify it, voice actor aside. He has a very good speech in the Landsmeet, and it took several attempts to get the Landsmeet to my side (except for that one bald guy). Then we had a duel, and I tried to spare him but Alistair wouldn't go for it. Fair enough. There was a strange closeup of a random bird in the rafters that I thought would be relevant, but it never came up again.
Anora got locked in a tower, which meant she was probably slaughtered when the Darkspawn came, but may not be if they need her for sequels.
Spoiler: Endgame
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It was a bit strange, because the party keeps bouncing back from Redcliff to Denerrim and never notices where the Darkspawn are really going, despite having to make multiple journeys through their territory. Also, if the horde got all the way to Denerrim (a northern port) from the Korcari wilds in the south they have already crossed most of Ferelden anyway.
I turned down Morrigan's third option. She's not much of a liar, but I suspect she was holding back some important detail about her solution, and this was too important to leave to chance when we have a solution we know works. And, honestly, having the lead sacrifice themselves to stop the blight seems like the most appropriate ending anyway. Preumably there is some way to have Logain do it, but apart from that, I got the ending I wanted. Obviously Alistair couldn't be let do it, we'd just end up in another civil war, unless we crown that weaponsmith clerk who has his face and so is probably another of Maric's bastards. Losing my mainstay mage just before the final battle was a huge loss, Wynne is good but mostly a healer, and she goes through lyrium like a drunk Templar.
My 'no gifts' policy meant most of them didn't have quests, I only got Leliana's and Morrigans and didn't do either. (I did Lelianas but forgot to save after)
The battle was good, they make good use of Darkspawn grunts to make the numbers appropriate without being overwhelming. I ended up with 50 Daelish, Dwarves, Redcliff Knights and 12 mages. The Templars never showed up for some reason. Fighting my way across Deneriim was tough but compelling.
Final boss disappointing but possibly that's my incompetence. I was expecting some kind of dialogue but it just roars and attacks, just me, what's left of my armies, and some very jam prone ballistae. Seems like it could have just flown away or at least glided off the towertop out of our reach.
Interestingly, at least in the story options I chose, there was no grand plot apparent. Most of the random catastrophes we had to resolve every time we asked for help appeared to be genuine coincidences, Logain sent blood mages to Redcliff and the mage towers, but the subsequent demon invasions seemed unintended. If he was possessed by a demon or something I never saw it. The archdemon seems to have just got freakishly lucky that all the realm's defences were disabled at once. The cinematic in the menu screen opens with somebody with random glowing blue eyes, is that supposed to be (presumed human) me?
I enjoyed it overall, not very motivated to replay most of it at the moment, might try and marry Alistair and Anora just to see what happens. I imagine there is a Bioware perfect ending, but I think I probably prefer the one I got.